Chapter Text
Doc was dying.
The corners of his vision had grown increasingly hazy and what he could see was cruel shades of crimson, on his shaking hands—hand—and dripping, dripping, dripping down his face and onto his heaving torso. What a joke, dying like this, Doc thought to himself. He was so sure that he’d find his way into immortality before he even got a close call and now, and now…
The creeper slumped against the destroyed wreckage left in the Creators' wake. How foolish he was to think he was better than the one who created him, created the dry soil that soaked up his blood like a deserted man.
His eyes—eye —were struggling to stay up, struggling to keep his heavy head conscious, struggling, struggling …
Doc took one last look towards the sky, littered with shiny lights that blurred and bled in the night. The moon watched down with judgement. The hybrid thought, his very last thought, please let this be over soon…
“There you go…” A distant noise lulled him back from his slumber.
Doc spluttered, slurred, and spitted out the putrid task of glowstone and glistening melon from his mouth before the rising feeling of vomit could overcome him. Oh Creator, he was- the pain - The creeper had to restrain himself from screaming as he lifted himself up but gentle hands tried and failed to push him back. He opened his eye, brain far too big for his skull that throbbed and pounded, and looked upon the sight before him.
A masked player knelt by his side, empty flasks and golden apple cores littered around them.
“Death…?” Doc slurred, a putrid line of drool having to be wiped from his chin.
“No, not yet.”
The pain faded away ever so softly, peppering away until the creeper could get his groundings. He was still lying on the battlefield, his blood seeping into all his clothes, forever staining underneath his nails. Doc is painfully aware of how cold his own gore is, a terrible shiver trailing down his bruised spine, and wonders how the nether he is alive. He should be dead. If his missing arm and eye had anything to say about it, he would be going rigid already, his skin rotting and his bones decaying, but he wasn’t. His body felt like slime, ooze and not solid, his breathing slow and laboured, but he was still breathing , something he didn’t realise he could take for granted.
He looked back towards the armoured figure, a growl growing at the back of his throat, “...Why?”
They have the nerve to tilt their head like a puppy, so coy and curious.
“Why save me?” Doc repeats, hating how wobbly it comes out, how desperate and frail he seems, “You did this on purpose, you would have had to be hunting me down to catch me in a moment like this- this world- you don’t just stumble on a planet like this…”
“No, you don’t.”
They pressed a button on the side of their helmet and the visor retracted, revealing a man, eyes of purple, kind eyes with smile wrinkles and a pinch to his eyebrows.
“I have been looking for you for quite some time, Doc…” He takes a stand, reaching to help the creeper do the same but is quickly met with a harsh growl, “I don’t mean you any harm. Not that it matters, if I don’t get you back to my world, you will die, those potions only have such a limited time limit on them and you’re too weak to get off the world by yourself.”
The hybrid huffed, a wave of exhaustion making him prey.
“Look, you don't have to trust me to let me help you,” Once again, he offers a hand. Doc doesn’t push it away instantly, “I’ll explain everything later, I promise but right now, I want you alive, I hope you feel the same.”
Doc glared, scowled, and barred his teeth which were coated red from the heavy hits he took. A part of him was curious how much worse than death this man could inflict upon him, scrawny and soft-featured.
So, he took his hand.
* * *
Doc couldn’t find the admin in his base and the message to his communicator was left unread, so he checked the one place he wished he wouldn’t be.
Ever since the avians have appeared in their life, and the runaway Watcher seemingly always being allusive to any scans or gossip they hear, Xisuma has been consumed by work, often spending restless nights just trying to find answers. Doc hated this. Everyone hated this. Time and time again they would remind him to take breaks, look after himself, to stop burning the candle at both sides but it would always be a fruitless battle. And low and behold, in the early hours of the morning, Doc found the admin sitting at his desk.
What he wasn’t expecting was a sleeping bird sleeping in a ball in the seat in the corner.
“I guess you found him.”
X jumped, having been resting his head on his hand for quite some time. A red mark was on his unmasked face, which was a strange sight, his eye bags now more obvious than ever.
“Oh- uh, yeah, yeah… please keep your voice down, I don’t want him to wake up, he’s had a rough… everything, really,” Xisuma whispered, Doc having to get close to hear.
“What happened?”
“I… shouldn’t really divulge, not my place, I haven’t had the chance to ask him if he wants everyone to know… There was a lot of crying and now, well… he’s going to be living here, permanently. Maybe we should try and increase the size of that room, maybe give him a desk-”
“What about his colony?” Doc had to interrupt as X was already back to typing on his tablet, “What will happen to them?”
“...There is no colony. It’s just… him.”
His sad eyes wandered over to the sleeping man, wings tucked over his body, face still blotchy from crying, eyebrows still furrowed in stress. The creeper couldn’t believe it. This entire time…
“Please be kind to him,” The admin snapped the hybrid out of his stare, realising that his fists were clenched so tightly his claws had dug into his palms, “It hasn’t been easy for him, he’s had a hard life.”
“And we haven’t?” Doc found himself snapping, “If he can lie about that for months, what else could he be lying about? Why aren’t you upset about this?”
“Because-” X brought his voice down even lower, inching towards his ears so that only they could be part of the conversation, “…You’re acting like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if you were given the chance.”
The goat stared at the avian once more. His wing seemed to be healing with great strides, though with his good eye, he could see mild stretching and disarray with the stitches and feathers… Captain looked peaceful, more peaceful than ever before, excluding the times he was knocked out on so many potions he didn’t know up from down. It was… nice.
With a sigh, Doc uttered, “I want to check his wing soon, check to see how it’s healing. And if it’s looking okay, he should be fit for surgery soon. It’ll be easier the second time around.”
Xisuma’s face softened into a smile, “Thank you, I know it isn’t easy for you to trust. How long did it take for you to trust us? One year? Two?”
“Who says that I have,” The hybrid muttered but a smile had grown on his scarred face, “Get some sleep, you look like a corpse.”
And with that, he left, a million thoughts drifting through his head.
* * *
Xisuma fell asleep for ten minutes.
TEN MINUTES!
And yet that was all it took for things to go wrong.
He was awoken by a scream. And in an instant, he’s up, head pulled up from his desk and noticing immediately that the avian isn’t on the couch anymore. X runs outside, going to grab his sword when he nearly falls over three figures outside the door.
Mumbo, Scar, and Xelqua were sitting on the stairs by the entrance, all in the aftermath of a laughing fit, still trying to catch their breath, arms wrapped around their stomachs all twisted into stitches.
The brunet beams, “Oh hey, X!”
“I heard a scream, what happened?” His voice was a lot more panicked than the trio’s.
They blink. And then Xelqua is laughing again, getting so loud that it… sounded like a scream, almost like a cackle. Xisuma let out a sigh of relief and put his sword back into its holster. He doesn’t think about how this is the first time he has heard the avian laugh and instead decides to sit down next to the three, exhaustion taking hold, “What are you guys even doing out here?”
“Well, we came over to actually see you but when we saw you were asleep and G awake, we decided to just start telling him some of the Hermit hijinx he’s missed,” As he spoke, Scar bumped his elbow into the man.
“Oh no, what have you told him?” The admin found himself saying, hand running over his mask. And then something catches his attention, “Wait… G?”
The duo look at each other.
“Hey, could you go inside for a second?” Scar spoke softly, talking to Xelqua with a smile, “Just need a word with the big guy.”
All the laughter and joy that used to be on the man’s face drained quickly, hesitance and worry replacing its reins, “Yeah… okay…”
Slowly, he slinked inside, closing the door behind him.
“His name is Grian,” Mumbo suddenly blurted out, all his words jumbled up into one mess but X got the gist.
“Oh… okay, and did he tell you that?”
“Yeah! Just after you left!” The man was frantic, Scar a lot more chill, “Is that- Does that mean he’s… you know?”
“Xelqua?”
The two carefully nod.
“Yeah, he is. Didn’t know he preferred that name though,” The admin muttered, thinking about whether he should check with the avian what he preferred as he had just assumed.
“So… what now?” Scar hummed, seemingly more curious than anything, with not an ounce of surprise in him.
“I’m not sure, but keep this to yourselves until I can get a meeting organised and get the chance to talk to him about what he wants to do, okay?”
Mumbo wrung his hands together, his eyebrows furrowed together, “Okay, okay, yeah… we can do that.”
“Thank you…”
Sensing the tight spring that Xisuma was, they fled the scene. But before Scar could follow his friend in the sky, X exclaimed, “You already knew, didn’t you?”
The man stalled, “Uh… yeah, I did. I had my doubts just as much as you did. And well… he might have told me his name a while ago.”
“He did? When?”
“Like, right at the beginning-”
The admin pinched the bridge of his nose, “Scar-”
“Hey, I know I should have known better and told you immediately, I don’t know, maybe if I had none of this would have happened but… he told me he wasn’t Xelqua when I asked and well…” He rubbed the nape of his neck, “I trusted him.”
Xisuma let out a long sigh. The trees rustled with distant winds.
“Are you mad at him for lying…?” He whispered, exhaustion weighing down his shoulders.
But Scar simply let out a chuckle, “No. That would make me and you quite the hypocrites, wouldn’t it?”
The man extended his wings and got ready for take-off, one finger on the rocket button.
“Take care of yourself, X.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving the admin alone.
With a tired and ragged exhale, Xisuma retreated into the building. Sulking into his office he found the avian sitting cross-legged in the loveseat he slept on, mindless preening his feathers, now that he was able to, giving the gift of time to tend and recover.
He raised his head at the admin’s arrival, “What was that about?”
“Oh, nothing…” The armoured man fiddled with the controls of his communicator, not really doing anything, just something to do with his shaking hands, for how long they had been slightly trembling he wasn’t sure, “I was wondering if… you wanted to tell everybody about… you being…”
Despite his never-ending trailing, Xequla— Grian —knew what he meant, “I… I should. I don’t want to hide anymore. I can’t keep living like this…”
“Okay…” Xisuma tried to keep the wobble out of his voice, “Okay, I’ll… I’ll set up a meeting soon. But- But maybe for now, we talk to Doc about getting those pins out, he mentioned it should go more smoothly…”
The avian only hummed, a thick tense silence etching its way between them. The admin couldn’t take it anymore and slumped back into his office chair, unable to keep his eye away from the bird for very long, sneaking glances in his direction. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He had an entire script laid out, even written out as he had done for others, but never could he have expected all this. How could anyone predict the mess of webs and lies that they found themselves in? Perhaps it was too late to tell him without it becoming one large mess…
He’ll… He’ll do it eventually. Definitely. He’ll tell him at some point and it’ll be fine. It’ll have to be fine.