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A light breeze in the air, the morning sun slowly rising.
And… They're still asleep.
..The sun continues to rise, rays now glaring through the window. The two rest peacefully, coddled in each other's arms.
shuffle…shuffle…
Avery slowly peels open his translucent eyelids, being made of semi-transparent slime isn't exactly good for eyelids..
He stares forward at his partner, still sleeping soundly under his… obnoxiously shiny armor, cuddling Avery close.
“Jeez.. Does Derek really need to sleep fully clad in his armor?..” Avery ponders…
He thinks back to the last time he asked about it.
“Well, what if something were to break in?” Derek had said.
It's not like he has anything against his boyfriend keeping the armor on, and Derek’s reasoning sounded fine, until Avery remembered that he is classified as a ‘monster’ and there are no humans or iron golems around for at least 800 blocks. .. except for whatever Derek is.
Avery decides to do what he has to, regardless of how beautiful Derek is and how much he'd love to lay here getting blinded, they have important things to do today!
Avery wriggles around, trying to break loose from the Knight’s grasp..
Eventually resorting to placing his hands on Derek’s shoulders and lightly shaking to wake him up.
“Dereeek..! Wake uuup!”
After a moment..
“.....hm?” Derek mumbles, finally starting to wake up.
Until, he simply pulls Avery closer and immediately starts sleeping again.
“Derek I swear to.. Get up right now!!!” Avery pushes off of Derek..
..splat..
he fell onto the floor.
soft giggles can be heard from the bed, seems someone was ‘joking around’
“My misfortune is a joke to you is it now?” Avery says, muffled, having faceplanted into the floorboards.
Derek swings his legs over the edge of the bed and stands up, reaching down to peel Avery off the ground. “Sorry, sorry. I know we have things to do today, Aves.”
Avery shakes himself back into a humanoid shape, and slipping into a white top, some black pants, and black gloves.
Avery glances at Derek for a second.
“Aren't you gonna get dressed t- oh right.”
Derek is already dressed. He is always dressed. Avery is pretty sure that he IS the armor at this point, considering he doesn't seem to exist without it.
Derek is lucky Avery loves him all the same.
Deciding to put away the armor questions for another day, Avery plants a quick kiss onto Derek’s helmet and steps out into the living room.
-
Derek stood for a few more seconds, before finally following Avery out into their living room.
Avery looked beautiful, as always, Derek could stare at him for hours.
Unfortunately he doesn't have hours to, as Avery starts speaking.
“So, Der.. you remember what we're doing today, yes?”
He nods, “Obviously, something about a skywars duos round? I mean, you're even wearing your pvp outfit today.”
“Yep! And for the first time ever..” he fakes a drumroll with his tongue, it sounds awful. “You'll be coming as a duo!”
…what. WHAT.
Derek has NEVER shown interest in pvp before, and Avery definitely didn't mention this to him when he invited Derek to come watch today's match yesterday? Didn't Avery already have a duo to play with?
..Derek is concerned by the relief he felt that Avery didn't have someone else to play with.
“W-What?... Aves.. You know I'm horrible at pvp! What happened to the guy you were originally gonna play with?? Why not find someone else??”
Derek is rightfully concerned, he's sure to fall into the void and respawn on the losers bench while his boyfriend has to fight a bunch of 2v1s..
“Derek. I know. I beat you 22 to 1 while sparring last week. It's just–” He sighs.
“I literally have no one else to turn to, my old partner dipped cause he didn't wanna fight alongside a ‘cheater’ (he actually said quite a few…colorful.. words towards slimes that I would rather not repeat) and dipped out of the competition, so now I have to find a last minute duo that would actually want to play alongside me!”
“Oh.. that's.. a fair assessment.” Derek shrugs.
“So, are you in?” Avery puts his hand out, waiting for Derek's response, also throwing in his best attempt at puppy eyes.
Looking at this sad, sad display, Derek couldn't possibly resist the most adorable slime ever born.
“Fine.. I'm in.”
“YAHOO! YAY!” Avery jumps a few times, arms in the air.
Then he stops, caught with a realization.
“Der.. uhm.. I have to say that.. I think the competition rules specifically state ‘No outside armor. No exceptions.’.. So you're gonna have to uhm..” he trails off.
“..” Derek remains silent for a moment.
He sighs, “Maybe they'll accept if I remove my body armor? …I'm unsure if I'll be able to remove my helmet..”
Avery has no idea what to make out of that, ‘can't remove it’ does he keep the helmet on with super glue???
“Okay, I'll see if they can work with that, especially since it is a golden helmet..”
Avery is glad to see his boyfriend's body, considering the armor is on him 98% of the time, he guesses he can let Derek keep his face a mystery a little longer… Derek starts unlatching the armor concealing his body, leaving him in just his helmet and a sleek black bodysuit. “Seems good?”
Avery was staring a little.
..
“Huh? Yeah of course!” He glances over at the clock they keep in an item frame. “Oh! We really should get going now so we can scope out the competition! And make sure you aren't breaking any rules..”
“Alright, Avery.”
And so, they set off on their journey! On the long road to the player hub, it's only a measly…
9000 blocks away from their house… but luckily minecarts exist! So they just need to make it to the nearest village, and use the minecart system that leads directly there..
The path is luckily not that difficult to traverse, with few trees bordering it and no caves too close!
They would definitely make it in a reasonable time! ..If Derek hadn't insisted on bringing his discarded armor pieces.. listing his reason as “I'm gonna put them on AFTER the match Aves! Just trust me!”
Avery wasn't buying it, maybe Derek is secretly dating the armor too and just never told him…
Or Derek is a ghost possessing the armor and needs it nearby to keep his form! Or–
The slime is pulled out of his thoughts by Derek stopping on the road, and putting his arm out to stop Avery too.
“Derek we're gonna be late come o–” “shhhh..!” Avery is shushed by him.
Avery tried to follow where Derek was looking, which is hard when you can't see his eyes.. but!
Up ahead on the path..
It's hard to spot at first, but there's a few skeletons hiding beneath a tree..
“We should remain calm and assess the situ–”
Derek is promptly cut off by Avery grabbing a stick off the ground and immediately rushing
“–or do whatever I guess..”
It takes a good few minutes of Avery whacking the skeletons with the stick, but dodging the arrows with ease. But eventually his plan prevails! And he returns triumphantly to Derek’s side.
Clearly that plan wasn't thought through as much as it should have, as now Derek has to pluck a few arrows from that idiot, he's lucky he's cute and made of gel.
“Okay Aves.. can you simply not do that again?” The knight knows exactly what Avery is gonna answer with–
“But it worked didn't it? And I only got hit by like 2 arrows out of 14! That's pretty good!” ….
“That's not– fine whatever, good job Aves.” Derek places his arm around Avery’s shoulders as they continue walking.
It's been maybe an hour since they left the house, and they've finally made it to the nearest village, filled with quaint wooden houses and villagers standing at market stalls trying to get any passerby to buy something. Avery stops walking and turns towards the other, almost tripping him,
“Wait a second… Der.. did we get anything to eat before we left??”
“....No…we didn't.”
“Maybe we should get something before we head off.. Did you bring any emeralds?”
“Gee Avery, I wonder if we brought any emeralds when you were rushing us out so fast!” Derek replies, harsher than intended.
“I'm sorry dude! Geez! Let's just go see if there are any other ways we could get something to eat!”
And..
“Derek, stop moving I almost have it!!”
Avery is making his best attempt to reach an apple hanging from a tree, stood atop his partner’s shoulders.
“Avery, is this even a good idea? There were plenty of other shorter trees to try and pick from!”
“Well you know what they say, something something.. the harder something is to get the sweeter it tastes!”
“I don't think 'they' say that.”
“Hah! Got it!” Avery says, finally plucking the apple off the tree.
Putting Avery down, Derek starts “Great, now we can go?”
Avery quickly splits the apple and gives Derek one of the halves. “Yeah let's hurry!”
Finally back on their original objective, eating a lackluster apple that definitely wasn't worth the effort, they make it to the minecart station. Luckily for them, whenever they come here the operator conveniently doesn't ask for a fare, definitely just a coincidence and not because one of them is a slime and the other is.. well ominous to say the least.
Regardless, they hop in and continue onwards! To the player hub!
...
…It takes AGES.. minecarts aren't the fastest mode of transportation, even if convenient.
“Can't these things go any fasterrrrruhhhhh….!!” Avery groans, slumping over the front of his cart.
Derek, sitting backwards in his cart to be able to face Avery, gives him a glare, “Well, at least we're not walking? I know you'd turn into a sad green puddle by the time we got there.”
Derek certainly has a point, but Avery found it funny.
“Heh, so you'd have to carry me in a bucket?” he jokes,
“Sure. But I'm not dating a bucket of green goo, sorry man.” Derek shrugs.
Avery droops.
“Aves I was joking! I'd put the bucket of you into the freezer and make an Avery popsicle.”
The slime perks back up
“Because of course, as we already knew, that's my true dream. To become a strange popsicle.” Avery giggles.
After a lot of back and forth, joking about the various things they could do if Avery was reduced to a green fluid, they finally arrive.
Stepping out of their carts, Avery grabs Derek’s hand and begins dragging him somewhere.
“Avery, we literally just got here shouldn't we find a map or something??” He questions.
“Nahh don't worry I know the route to the skywars arena up here!” He says, pointing a finger into his head.
“Uh-huh..sure..”
Well..
Actually yes, Avery did know the way! Derek was dumbfounded by him actually remembering it by heart, considering it's been a while since his last match.
Derek stares up at the incredibly tall arena, while Avery gets them signed in.
“Sign here, here.. and you'll need your partner’s signature here, and make sure to write down appropriate ‘stage’ names that'll be called out during the match.” The receptionist hands Avery the sign-in form, specifically for contestants.
Avery looks over at his knight, “Der! You gotta come sign this!”
Derek ceases his viewing of the building, stepping up to the reception counter and picking up the pen, writing down his signature,
Then skimming the page, and writing ‘D3rlord3’ in the stage name box, right next to what Avery wrote, ‘TheMostMayo’
“Also, sir, I must mention that in the rules section it states that you may not bring your own armor to the match, so I must request that you take off your helmet and place it into one of our many ender-chests for safe keeping.” The receptionist adds.
Derek stands there for a second.
Then slumps, “Well..” He sighs. "This isn't a helmet."
“What.” Avery chimes in at the same time as the receptionist
“This is my head. It's not removable.”
“That– ..That makes a lot of sense actually.” Avery puts a hand on his chin.
"Well, I guess you're all set then? Technically having biological armor isn't against any rules, as long as your species is predominantly humanoid and sentient." The receptionist writes something down on a seperate page.
"Aves we should probably go join the match then..”
“That would probably be best."
And so, they finally do what they left home for! After many, many, setbacks!
The arena is huge, floating islands scattered around.
Currently, Avery and Derek are hanging out in their starting pod, awaiting the floor to drop and the match to begin.
After a few seconds, the countdown starts..
5..
4..
3..
2..
1!
The floor drops! Equipped with iron tools, Avery begins mining the nearest ores for gear, Derek takes a few seconds to get his bearings before copying Avery and mining too, they have about 20-ish seconds to get gear before the island barriers let up and it's a free for all!
Avery quickly gathers a couple diamond armor pieces, an iron sword, and other random items.
Derek..had obtained a pair of iron boots and almost got blown up by tnt twice. He keeps mining..
Well now it's too late for that, the barriers are up and Avery is already bridging to another island.
Avery keeps up mining, Derek follows far behind.
Avery is, as he would put it ‘Locked in’ he tosses Derek some snowballs he got and mines another ore, finding exactly what he was seeking, a fishing rod!
“Yess!”
“A fishing rod?” Derek tilts his head in confusion. "Avery there's no water up here.."
“Exactly!”
"Wh–"
Avery quickly rushes off, bridging to another island to go unleash his wrath upon other players.
Whipping out the rod, he hooks someone else bridging and yanks them into the void.
Derek follows behind Avery, feeling like he's been less than useful so far. He may be smart, but it's moreso in how this world works, he has no experience with pvp like this..
Avery is busy trying to fire a bow at a player unnecessarily far away, when..
Derek sees someone behind them, rushing forward, sword in hand.
Derek on instinct decides to..
A) Pull out a sword and attempt to fight
B) Sacrifice himself for the greater good again
C) Tell Avery and have him handle it
Well whatever you answered was wrong! It's:
D) he pulls out a snowball and throws one at the player, which confuses them.
Honestly those other options sucked anyways, as the player stops for a second to process the snow blinding them, Derek swipes them off their feet and off the bridge with a sweep of his sword.
‘No wonder Avery loves this game, it's exhilarating..’
His heart is beating faster than ever it has before.
Avery finally stops shooting and finishes the bridge, now heading to the center island.
There's a bunch of players already there duking it out, Avery looks around, before spotting a player alone still mining ores, and he pulls out an ender pearl.
“I'll be back.” Avery whispers to Derek, before tossing the pearl and disappearing.
Oh dear. Derek does not fare well when Avery isn't right next to him, and it's probably worsened by the current situation.
“It's fine, Avery's got this, I'll just wait til he gets back.” He says to himself.
Well, sitting around doing nothing isn't gonna help, so Derek sneaks off to go mine ores, maybe he'll get better gear than last time?
Derek.. still has obtained nothing, based on past experiences his luck has never really been uhh.. great.
He can fortunately see that Avery is making his way back now, so that's a good thing! He starts making his way to where he can meet back up with him, it's probably best they fight together anyway considering it is a duos match..
Avery and Derek reunite, and see that their last 2 opponents are right there..
Avery pulls out his sword and nods at Derek.
Derek nods back, slightly more unsure.
…
Well, you probably could guess what happened.
They..
Wo–
lost. They lost. Derek got immediately tossed off with a knockback sword and Avery couldn't clutch the 2v1.
Thankfully, Avery is a good sport and took it in stride. Wishing a hefty gg to all the other contestants, while Derek waited outside.
Derek was already back in the rest of his armor, presumably having grabbed it from an ender-chest before heading outside, he turned his head to Avery as he came out.
“Aves.. I- I'm sorry I died right at the end there and we–” he's cut off by Avery putting a hand on his cheek.
“It's okay Der, it was fun! And I hope you had fun too. Really.”
The minecart ride seemed shorter than it did this morning, with the sky turned a calming shade of orange as it sets. The two sit facing each other in comfortable silence, Derek couldn't help himself to staring, Avery’s slime shimmered in the lower lighting.
After a bit… The minecarts finally come to a stop. Back at the village, Derek hops out of his cart and helps Avery out of his own.
They walk together, down the path home.
The Light also shines on the metal of Derek's head.
Avery loves the sight of him, His knight. His Derek.
A beauty all for him.
“You look beautiful.” Avery states the obvious.
“I think you look great too.”
Avery reaches for Derek’s hand, taking it in his.
They walk peacefully until they make it to the house, their house.
“Ughh..” Avery lets go of Derek's hand and flops down onto the grass, staring up at the stars.
He quickly reaches up and drags Derek down with him.
“Can we stay here a bit?” Avery looks toward him, pleading face in tow.
“Of course, Aves.”
They stay there for a bit, staring up at the stars. The sun is basically gone by now, as the moon rises in the sky, tonight it's waning.
“I think.. the only thing that could possibly rival your beauty, is this sky.” Derek states.
“Awwww Der, you're getting all sappy now?” Avery teases.
“It's one of my best qualities.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” … “It's true.”
..
Ten minutes pass, Avery lays absorbed in the moment.
Then..!
“Der! A shooting star! Let's make wishes!” He points at it as it quickly disappears.
…a second passes
“Okay, I made my wish. What was yours Aves?”
…
He turns to the other.
“I wished that this moment could last forever.”
_______________________________________________________
Avery wakes up.
The dream quickly slips from his grasp.
He shivers, it's cold. He's cold, his bed is cold, his life is cold.
He clutches the helmet in his grasp tighter. His helmet.
He so desperately wishes that someone would be here, to wear it, to bring warmth to this life that has a gaping wound.
He's nothing without him, he was nothing before and now nothing after.
Maybe if he goes back to sleep, he'll get to see him again.