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There's a boy that lives in the cave nearby. Jack's never seen him, but he's seen the evidence he leaves behind. He notices how trees around the entrance get cut down and replanted, he notices how every few weeks several of the local animals will disappear and babies replace them, he notices how the ground near the entrance is more treaded on. They don't tempt with the caves, as a group they're pleased with where they are, though maybe a larger house would be nice, but he did make a trip down once with Geoff. They'd come apart a section of the cave that was clearly the main house, even though it was all natural; there was a crafting table and torches lining the walls.
Jack considered himself a builder and he could see what renovations one might make to make it more homely, but if the boy couldn't or wouldn't he didn't know.
The only person who had seen the boy was Ray, who said he was rude, but clearly lonely, and described him as young, thin and pale from spending so much time underground. It was this that tugged at Jack's heartstrings. It was easy to garner his sympathy, but he trusted Ray's judgement of others more than anyone else's, though it'd only been a short meeting.
The group of them weren't living large, but they had enough of everything they needed and extra in some cases. That extra often found itself being tucked away just inside the cave by Jack. It wasn't anything they'd miss too much: an extra steak, a few spare logs, a piece of string. At first, he was scared that the boy wasn't retrieving the little gifts, but after the first handful of times he found that they'd be replaced with something else. The boy in the cave was fond of giving him pieces of coal, collections of stone, beautiful blue blocks of a material called lapis lazuli that were ultimately useless. He hadn't expected anything in return and appreciated it all greatly, and he could only hope that everything he was getting had a similar value to the boy as the value of what he gave had to him.
The group was content to not go underground themselves, but they were pleased when Jack brought back the rewards of it and didn't question him about it.
He'd almost thought that they hadn't noticed what he was taking and thought he was going to the mine himself until one day when he was cutting down trees with Michael who offered him a sapling. "You should take this to your cave boyfriend so you don't have to do the work all the time," he'd said, and Jack had sputtered, and then a creeper wandered up and they moved on.
He was almost foolish enough to think that'd be the last he heard of it until Geoff approached him some days later. "You should make him a bed," he started, with no preamble.
But Jack knew who he was and he knew why Geoff was saying it. When they'd went down there that time ago, there'd been no bed in sight and when the threat of monsters didn't increase at night there was no real reason to sleep. The boy probably thought it was a luxury. "I suppose I might; I have extra time today."
"I mean, you should take it to him, too. Gift it to him in person," Geoff clarified.
Jack stared a while, unintentionally tilting his head just enough to the side for it to be noticeable. "I've never talked with him, won't walking down there be strange?"
"It's just a late housewarming gift. Or it's no more strange than what you two have been doing already."
Jack nodded, mulling it over. He knew Geoff was right about that and a bed would be something useful. It was a bit large as well, if the boy was as thin as Ray said he was then he might not have been strong enough to carry it further down into the part of the cave he made his home. It was a good idea, a kind that Geoff didn't have as often as he thought. "Why are you helping me?" he asked, though he personally maintained that it was only a perceived problem that he hadn't conversed with the boy in the cave he knew that his friends thought it was a very real problem and he didn't care to argue over it.
"Need something new to happen around here," Geoff shrugged.
Jack found the fluffiest and softest sheep he could find to sheer and the trees that where the color he knew to be the boy's favorite and spent the rest of the day fashioning these things into a bed. He was proud of his skill at creating, at building, but he checked over the item moreso than usual, nervous that he would mess it up. He took so much care in making sure to do his best that it was two days later that he found himself cautiously making his way down into the cave.
He didn't know if anyone had told the boy that he would be coming or if it was sheer luck that he found him messing about at his own crafting table. He started staring at Jack the moment he entered view.
"Sorry for inviting myself in," Jack started. "I brought you a gift: a bed. I knew you didn't have one and thought it would do you to sleep one of these nights."
"You're fine. You're very kind." There was a long pause, neither of them sure what to do, but it wasn't awkward. "You can put it down over here if you'd like. Would you like some mushroom soup?"
Jack nodded and placed the bed in the area he was directed. Soon, his hands were holding a bowl instead, a similar ones in the boy's hands. Jack knew he was staring, but he wasn't embarrassed. The boy had nice blonde hair, somehow, after being down here all this time. Finally, he asked, "What's your name?"
"Gavin. What's yours?"
"Jack."