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Out like a light

Summary:

When put in a dark environment, such as having a blanket dropped over his head, Grian will fall asleep almost immediately. Fluff and pranks ensue.

Notes:

The first oneshot of the day! One more, three drabbles, and two chapters to go!

This was just some pure fluff that I had way to much fun writing. I was going to put it in my Trials and Tribulations of having an Avian as a Friend series, but decided against it, leaving it to just be a random oneshot lol.

Let me know if I have missed any tags please.

Hope you enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes and other works inspired by this one.)

Work Text:

Something that the server had learned after one very interesting interaction between Mumbo and Grian, was the fact that Grian, being a parrot hybrid, would fall asleep almost immediately if he was placed in a dark environment. The interaction that had informed the Hermits of this valuable information, information that would be great for pranks and to prevent Grian, known for working himself to the bone, from overworking, took place during Season Seven while Grian was working on his mega base. He had been working for a week straight, having lit up the area around his manor so he wouldn’t fall asleep, and Mumbo was trying to convince the exhausted hybrid to get some rest. Grian, the stubborn person that he was, refused, claiming that he still had work to do. Mumbo had then taken off his suit jacket, something that the Hermits rarely saw happen, and just placed it over top of Grian’s head. For a moment, nothing happened, and then Grian’s body went slack, Mumbo only just barely managing to catch him. There was chaos for a moment, before Xisuma managed to gain control of the situation, despite being shocked himself, and very calmly asked Mumbo for an explanation. When Mumbo explained that being in the dark caused Grian to fall asleep almost immediately as his birdbrain caused his body to shut down, the Hermits smirked, already making plans on how to use this.

Thankfully, Xisuma banned any excessive use of this new information, already noting it down in Grian’s file along with the rest of his important to know at a moment’s notice information, that none of the Hermits were allowed to abuse this knowledge and it should only be used in situations like this. That wouldn’t stop a few pranks to happen where a Hermit would just toss a blanket on top of Grian, or lock him in a dark room, making sure that no mobs would spawn with him, and while they were told off for it, it was all done in good fun, and no one actively tried to abuse this information, not wanting to break the trust that they had painstakingly build up with Grian during Season Six.

***

Season Seven had passed with very minimum use of the blanket over the head to put Grian to sleep that wasn’t for a prank; there were a few notable occasions where someone, usually Scar, Mumbo, Xisuma, and the Resistance Members, had to use it when Grian was refusing to sleep, but it had only been used legitimately about 11 times over the course of the year, not counting the first time it was used and any times that it had happened prior to the knowledge being shared. It had been decided, while Grian was running late for a serverwide meeting, that during the next season a chart would be kept to show who all had to use it and how many times it had been used; there was also a bet formed between several of the Hermits about who would use it the most to actually get Grian to sleep, who would use it the most for a prank, and who would do it the most by accident.

Grian was not informed of this, being completely ignorant to the fact that this even happened to him, sure he would occasionally be talking to someone and then be waking up in his nest hours to days later, but he had absolutely no idea that his body even functioned like that; it reminded Xisuma a bit of what was being referred to as the ‘Dairy Incidence’ where Grian had not known that he was unable to have dairy products and had drank a bucket of milk to remove the effects of a slowness potion that had been used on him as part of a prank and had been so sick that he had to stay at Doc’s base so the creeper hybrid could monitor his condition for three weeks after the incident had occurred.

It didn’t help that Season Eight had two new Hermits joining the server, and one of them, Pearl, knew Grian from before he joined and also knew about the blanket trick, having both heard the stories from the Evolutionists and having done it herself when she had joined the Grian Empire a few weeks before Grian was taken by the Watchers. When she and Gem, the other new Hermit, were told about the challenge, Pearl gladly told a few of the more notable times where it had been used during Evo, without disclosing anything important about Grian’s past, and it had gained many laughs from the Hermits, who gladly exchanged some of their own stories about using it.

***
Shockingly enough, the blanket trick had been used very little so far in the season, Grian actually working on taking somewhat better care of himself while also getting plenty of work done, and keeping his shop fully stocked to gain as many diamonds as he could, having entered some kind of competition between the the rest of the Boatem members. Most of the time, it was used when he was gathering materials to work on Midnight Alley, when he was working on the night sky, and restocking the G-Train, but even then it was only the members of Boatem who were using the trick; Scar did have a bad habit of taking his overcoat off and just tossing it in the general direction if someplace it could just exist for the night, and not seeing Grian there, either lounging on Scar’s sofa or waiting for the man himself, and just getting covered with the coat. Scar feels bad every time it happens, but he can’t really help it at this point. However, this all changed when the moon started to very slowly approach the Hermitcraft Server. 

At first, no one had noticed anything different with the moon, the increase in size being barely noticeable with how long it was tacking to approach during that time. It had been Mumbo who noticed the increase in size, probably a few months after the moon had started its approach on the server, and while the Hermits didn’t panic, there was definitely an air of unease surrounding the server. Nothing really changed that much with the acknowledgement, but Boatem had noticed that they were starting to use the blanket trick more often now; in fact, several of the other Hermits, Evil Xisuma included, had mentioned seeing Grian completely exhausted and using the blanket trick to get him to sleep just so he wouldn’t hurt himself.

It was during this time, as the moon steadily, and more noticeably, that Mumbo had the bright idea to start a cult that banned sleeping to appease the Moon; when Xisuma heard about this, he swore that he could have strangled the moustached man, questioning what had made him think that making a cult that banned sleeping, on a server that needed to be getting more sleep because there was only one person who had an actual sleep schedule, that making a cult banning sleep was a good idea. Grian had joined the cult, the Mooners, in support of his best friend, and had burned a hastily made bed to show that he really was now a part of the Mooners, not risking his precious nest to the flames, and gave up sleep entirely, spending all of his time now on his alleyway and his shop, never stopping his work; his shop was now constantly fully stocked, and there was always something new having been completed in the alleyway.

***
By week three, the Hermits were getting concerned, all of them seeing the dark shadows growing on Grian’s face during the weekly meetings. Mumbo had tried to convince Grian that he was allowed to sleep, and that, while the point of Mooners was about not sleeping so the moon was appeased, that didn’t mean that he had to stop taking care of himself. While the Hermits knew that they could just toss a blanket over the exhausted parrot hybrid, they also wanted to see if they could convince Grian to sleep without having to force him to sleep; they were all ready to use the blanket trick if they had to, but with how exhausted Grian was, they hoped that it wouldn't have to be used. However, after trying to coax him to sleep for a week, doing just about everything that they knew how to do, without covering Grian in a blanket, nothing worked and the concern for the resident prankster was rising.

In the end it was Mumbo who broke first and tossed his suit jacket over Grian just like he had done when the rest of the Hermits learned that Grian fell asleep when placed in dark conditions. Just like that first time, Grian froze, body swaying dangerously for a moment, before collapsing, this time being caught by Xisuma instead of Mumbo. Grian was carefully lowered to the ground, Mumbo’s suit jacket never once moving just in case any light would wake Grian up, and then there was a very quiet argument over who would be the one to take Grian back to his nest and keep watch over him to make sure that, once all of the lights were removed from the room, Grian would be safe.

In the end it was decided that a group sleepover would be held, the Hermits having blanket permission to enter Grian’s nest as they were all a part of his flock, so, Xisuma carrying Grian, the Hermits all made it to Boatem, fighting the lag a bit, and found Grian’s nest, tucked away in the side alleyway that Scar had designed while being careful not to disturb Grian’s precious nest, and settled down for a few days, removing all of the light sources that they could before X carefully pulled the suit jacket off of Grian’s head, everyone holding their breaths to see if the pesky bird would stay asleep. Thankfully, he did, and everyone released the breath they were holding, many of them settling in for the night. 

Xisuma, Impulse, Joe, and Keralis were the only ones still awake by the end of the hour, those four keeping watch over the ones who were sleeping. Grian shifted, causing the four to tense, but he settled back down a moment later, one hand now clutching Xisuma’s arm, the one he was leaning back on, and X just chuckled fondly, having heard from anyone who had ever had a sleepover with the small parrot hybrid that he was incredibly clingy. Not bothered by the Hermit now clinging to him, Xisuma just shifted so he could be more comfortable, Grian moving as a result and clinging to his side now, and, after checking to see if he was being watched, X pressed a gentle kiss to Grian’s forehead. Looking back up once the action had been completed, he saw Keralis watching him, a gentle smile on his face. Xisuma felt his face heat up just a bit, but Keralis just chuckled silently, before going back to watch over the rest of the group with Impulse and Joe. Xisuma wanted to go back to his watch as well, but the light weight of Grian pressed to his side, the warmth and comfort of the nest, and the exhaustion from trying to figure out what was going on with the moon for the last couple of days was making that increasingly more difficult to achieve.

Keralis seemed to notice his struggle, very softly telling him that the three of them could keep watch and that he was free to get some sleep, but Xisuma tried his best to fight it, not wanting to potentially leave his players in danger, causing Keralis to huff. He moved so he could be sitting next to his Admin, reaching out a careful hand and running his fingers through the soft chocolate coloured strands of Xisuma’s hair, and that was when X knew that this would be a losing battle. A few minutes later and he was out like a light, Grian held tight to his side, and Keralis still running his hand through his hair. It was the safest that Xisuma had felt in a long time, so he allowed the darkness to wash over him willingly for once, and fell asleep, not worried about the server for the first time since he had started Hermitcraft in the first place just so he could keep as many people safe as he could.

Notes:

And that is one down, six more to go! I hope you stick around to see what else I post today, but if you are just here for the fic, then I hope you enjoyed it!

If you are sticking around for the rest, then keep an eye out for the drabble that's either about to be posted or has already been posted lol.

I hope you all enjoyed! Have a wonderful day! Love you all <3 /p

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