Chapter Text
Herobrine's eyes flickered up to Tommy as he stood in the entrance to the room, dressed in more Nether fitting clothes, he put down the potions he was working on, raising an eyebrow. "You can enter the room, I don't care.''
Tommy cautiously took a few steps into the room, "What do you want in return for me staying here?"
Oh prime, it's this again.
"Listen, kid, I don't want anything from you other than you to recover. I've got piglins to tend to the crops here, and I can easily forage in the overworld. Everything's covered."
The boy just looked at him, it made Herobrine uncomfortable, what do you even do in a situation like this? He looked around the room as Tommy kept staring at him until he finally broke the silence, "Fine, I'll show you how to tend to the crops and what mobs can be eaten, will that be good?" Someone kill me already.
Tommy's eyes beamed, "I promise to do a good job."
Herobrine started walking, motioning for the boy to follow him, he had a farm for Nether crops at the bottom of the fortress, it held all sorts of things from vines to nether warts and even mushrooms from the forests. It was too annoying to grow overworld crops in the Nether, so he made do with the abundance of Nether crops that others saw as gross or inedible.
He pressed the button on the wall, the doors opening with a cold breeze, the temperature a bit cooler in the farm than the rest of the fortress.
"In the chest over in the corner there are garden shears and hand trowels, grab two of each.” Herobrine watched as Tommy quickly scurried over to the chest, doing exactly as told almost robotic-like, running back over and holding out the items like he'd just done some majestic task.
"Good, uh, good job?" Those must have been the right words because Tommy instantly preened at the phrase, waiting expectantly for his next instructions.
"First, we'll start off with the vines, they've gotten to the length where they need to be trimmed." He started with the weeping vines, positioning the shears three notches down from the top of the vine, "Count three notches on the vine down, and then use the shears to cut the excess off. Pile it up in the front."
Tommy nodded, doing as he was told, looking at Herobrine for confirmation before cutting the vine, "Try a little higher, even if you cut off too much the vine will still grow back."
The vine was added to the pile and they went along with that for a while, count, chop, throw. Count, chop, throw. A simple rhythm was established as they dealt with the vines in silence, the sound of the shears and the bubbling of lava filled the silence.
He looked back at the pile of vines and at the amount in front of them, "That's enough, I'll use most for potions and the rest for tonight's dinner. We'll harvest the mushrooms and then I'll show you which mobs to eat."
For the most part, Herobrine was human, so the things he could eat would mostly be similar to the boys, but looking at him he was skin and bones. He'd make a simple meal tonight, vines, mushrooms, and meat.
"Use the trowel to dig up the roots of the mushroom to dislodge it and then pull. Get a mix between the red and blue mushrooms, the red holds more protein and starch, the blue holds more liquids and nutrients." He kneeled down to the mushrooms, carefully picking them from the ground.
"So uh, why were you sleeping in the Nether?" Herobrine spoke awkwardly, he might be a god, but he never claimed to be good at talking to other people.
Tommy's movements stilled, keeping his gaze focused on the ground, "I'm a big man! I was just a little cold is all, the mobs of the Nether fear me!" He had a grin plastered on his face, too big to be real. Herobrine smiled back, "Guess I'll have to watch out for my position as the strongest in the Nether, huh?"
The boy's smile became a smaller more genuine one, obviously appreciative of Herobrine dropping the subject. He looked back at the pile of mushrooms, "We have enough, more than enough actually, you're pretty good at this."
"I'm sorry if I picked too many-"
"No, it's fine. I have to go to the piglin's lower tribe soon to trade, I'll just save some of the excess for them." He waved his hand, standing up to brush off the dirt from his legs, waiting for Tommy to follow in suit.
"I'll take the vines, you take the mushrooms." I doubt the kid's body could handle anything heavier.
He slung the vines over his shoulder, watching in amusement as Tommy fumbled to balance all the mushrooms in his arms, "I can carry some as well."
Tommy shook his head, managing to precariously stack all the mushrooms, "Nope! I can do it all by myself!"
"Don't blame me if you trip." He shrugged, walking out to the kitchen, listening as the boy slowly trailed behind him, eventually arriving in the room. "Place the mushrooms on the soul sand there, it'll keep them fresh for at least another few days."
The boy slowly moved over to the soul sand, marveling at the cold air coming off of the block, "How'd you do that?"
"Hm?" He looked over, laughing at the amazement from the boy, "Packed ice is put under the soul sand, the soul sand itself is cold so a mix of them acts as a cooler."
"Awesome.." Tommy put the mushrooms down, he'd never thought of doing something like that in the Nether, but then again he hadn't done much in the Nether in the first place. "What do you need me to do now?"
"Now, I'll show you the mobs you can catch and eat. For instance, did you know there are fish in the Nether?" Herobrine continued to drape the vines over hooks, thanks to the Nethers heat they dried much quicker.
"What!? But wouldn't they just, y'know, burn?"
"Not all of them, these variants have evolved to withstand the heat. Come on, I'll show you and then we can cook them." He headed off, listening to Tommy run to catch up to him, "I have a lava pocket down here, I tend to the fish every few days. The mosshorn," He pointed to the large green fish, "The trumpet squid," He pointed to the long yellow squid, "And the crimson shell."
Tommy looked at all the fish in astonishment, he thought the only mobs in the Nether were skeletons, piglins, hoglins, and striders! Who knew the Nether had an entire ecosystem to it? His attention was brought to Herobrine as the other reached his hand into the lava, "What are you doing? Your gonna burn yourself!"
The only response he received was a trumpet squid being tossed to him, still hot from the lava but not hot enough to burn, he turned the squid over in his hands, examining it closely.
"I'm a god, specifically of the Nether, I don't burn."
Oh, well that's awkward, he'd embarrassed himself in front of a literal god, oh now he's done it-
"We'll use a squid and a few crimson shells for the meal. I can take care of all the cooking, I have a system, I hate using crafting tables to cook; the food always ends up bland." Herobrine grabbed the crimson shells, four should be good for the two of them, right? How much did kids eat?
He shrugged it off, grabbing an extra just in case, "Come on, I'll have food ready in a few minutes."
The kid followed behind him, retracing their steps back to the kitchen. Occasionally he slowed down to allow Tommy to catch up, humans could be amazingly slow, seriously did no one teach them to pace their movements?
Herobrine rolled his eyes, letting out a huff as they entered the kitchen, he tossed the shells to the counter, grabbing some of the vines, lifting an eyebrow at the one that moved. "Did you pick this one?"
Tommy looked over and nodded, jumping back in surprise when it moved, "What the fuck! I swear it wasn't on purpose-"
He put it on the counter and started cutting it into slices, "It's just a worm. I don't have any meat that's ready to eat yet so this is good for extra protein. Nice pick." He didn't get many worms mixing themselves in with the vines, most likely because of the artificial environment, so they weren't as comfortable. He'd have to fix that up at some point.
"You're not really going to eat that, right?" Tommy questioned, peering over at Herobrine chopping the vines and the worm, he had eaten questionable things during exile and Pogtopia, but worms were just gross. What if it somehow was a parasite and started living in him?
"I'll cook them separately from the rest of the food, so if you want to eat them you can, I'm not going to force you to eat them." He shrugged, he'd been eating them for centuries now, so it didn't bother him. "It's completely safe, if you're worried about that, don't you humans sometimes eat rotten flesh from zombies? Cause that's more dangerous than a fully cooked worm-"
The joke seemed simple to him but the boy's shoulders began to shake as he started crying. No noise was made; he just stood there.
"Hey- It was just a joke kid, I didn't mean anything by it." What had set him off? Was it the mention of eating something like that? Or was there something else? "Just- Just calm down, alright? You don't have to eat it, promise."
Tommy shook his head violently, rubbing his eyes as tears continued to flow, "I'll eat it! I will. I swear Dream-" Herobrine faltered, there he was again. Dream. As if realizing his mistake Tommy stopped, fidgeting with his hands, "Herobrine. I'll eat it, got it?"
He sighed, he wouldn't get any more information about the man if he pestered Tommy, no matter how much he wanted to. Instead, he shifted the subject, "You're all skin and bones, you need to bulk up and put some muscle on you." He poked the boy's cheek, grinning at the pout he received in return, awkward comforting avoided.
"I'm a big man! You watch your words, I'll get stronger than you!"
Herobrine laughed, turning back to the half-sliced vines, "I'd like to see you try."
Finishing off the food he went through the steps as Tommy listed off random things, about his many girlfriends and how he was the strongest in the Dream SMP (Had Dream named the lands after himself? That son of a-) and the more he spoke the more Herobrine grew accustomed to the noise. The last time he'd had someone around him like this was Notch, he was reminded of him in Tommy.
With the food together he served Tommy a smaller portion, basing it on the fact he was severely underweight, he didn't want the boy to vomit up his first real meal since getting out of whatever situation he was in. He slid it across the table, watching Tommy's curious expression.
"Have you never had noncrafting table food?"
Tommy shook his head, beginning to eat. He watched as the boy began to cry but continued to eat his food. "Do you like it?"
He nodded this time, finishing his food by the time Herobrine had grabbed his own plate.