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It took 7 seconds. 7 seconds. Why wouldn’t Mumbo text him back? He joked about acting like a clingy girlfriend, but was he actually being annoying? Was he...annoying?
He had been through a lot with Mumbo, a war and a build off and a whole franchise development! But, he did spend an awful lot of time with him, and maybe, Mumbo was tired of it. He wasn’t the new kid anymore, he hadn’t been for a while. But sometimes he still felt like it. Maybe it was time he let Mumbo have some room to breathe. He didn’t need to rely on other hermits anymore. He knew what he was doing.
He sent another message, just in case.
Hey Mumbo! Hope you’re okay.
He sighed as the minecart sped off. He stared at the track for a while, but when it was obvious that nothing was coming back, he flew off. Might as well see what Scar was up to.
---
“Maybe he’s just busy.” Scar shrugged, patching up a hole in his elytra. Grian hadn’t really meant to vent to Scar, but it just kind of happened.
“I don’t know man, he doesn’t seem busy. He set up this whole hermit challenges thing. You don’t do that kind of thing if you’re busy.” Grian shook up the bottle of enchanting in his hands, just to see the particles shift around.
“Why don’t you just ask him?” Scar asked, strapping his newly repaired wings onto his back.
“Because what if the reason why is something awful? What if I’m annoying him. I don’t want to hear him tell me that I’m annoying.”
“Come on man, you’re not annoying. He’s your best friend. You guys spend so much time together for a reason.” He reached down to help Grian up from the floor. “Anyways, I gotta head. Grab my stuff if I die, okay? I don’t know how well I did patching this hole.” And with that, he was gone. Grian sighed, grabbed a rocket, and flew off too. No use staying in Scar’s base if he wasn’t there.
---
Grian won the staring contest. He didn’t think that the villager knew they were having one. Villagers didn’t really speak English.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Mumbo’s always doing too many things at once. They probably just get lost in the noise.” Iskall scribbled something in the book he had, before handing it back to the villager. Trading with them was a nightmare. Trying to communicate what you need by only using crudely drawn symbols was difficult, Grian felt kind of bad for distracting him while he was trying to trade.
“You think he’d stop to notice it eventually, I mean, the minecarts are just stacked up in his base. I see them when I go over there. Like, he’d at least stop to get rid of them, right?” Grian added another tally mark to his notebook. The villager hadn’t won a single staring contest yet.
“Why don’t you just ask him?” Iskall handed some emeralds to the villager, and in turn, was handed a glowing book. Grian knew if he opened it, the pages would be filled with the enchanting language. He wondered how the villagers got their hands on these books.
“I don’t know, that’s what Scar said. I’m just afraid of the answer, I guess.” Iskall placed his sword onto the anvil into the room, placed the book and top of it, and slammed a nearby hammer onto it. The room glowed white for a second, and when the light went away, all that remained on the table was an enchanted sword.
“Even if the answer isn’t one you want, it’s better than not knowing, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Another point for Grian.
“Anyways, I just wrangled a really good deal for a mending book out of this guy, if you wanna buy one.”
“No thanks. I should get going. Thanks, man.” Grian stood up and began strapping on his elytra.
“Yeah! No problem dude.”
---
Good Morning Mumbo! My pumpkin farm was
Overflowing. So these are for you!
No response.
---
“-And everyone keeps saying that I should ask him but I really, really don’t want to!”
“Well, they’re probably saying that for a reason” Joe placed another block. “How long has this been bothering you?” He turned to Grian, who was helping him build.
“About a week. Maybe a week and a half.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but I think you’re never going to get over this unless you ask him. It’s probably nothing anyway. You’re probably just overreacting.”
“You think?” Grian grabbed another stack of concrete from the nearby chest.
“Yeah, I do. You won’t get any results unless you do something. It’s good to let your emotions out, but you can’t just vent forever. You can’t expect change without action.”
“You’re right. I’m just, scared, I guess. Where did you want the b lue?’
---
It was quiet. Hanging out with Mumbo never felt awkward, but it was. It was awkward. Horribly, horribly, awkward. Mumbo was building and tearing down and rebuilding the same circuit over and over again. Grian was sitting on top of the tower of his messages, the source of his turmoil. He swung his feet off the ledge. He was filling pages of his notebook with ink. Just scribbling. He wondered why Mumbo invited him over if they weren’t even going to talk. They were just...together. In silence. They weren’t even doing anything productive.
Grian filled more pages. As soon as the useless machine worked, Mumbo tore it down again. The sun was setting. Finally, finally, Mumbo spoke.
“Hey, Grian?”
Grian set down his notebook, careful not to smudge the ink. Not that it was anything important
“Yeah?”
“Can I...ask you a question?”
“Of course, anything.”
“It’s just” Mumbo hesitated for a moment. “Have you been avoiding me?”
“What! No, never? Why would you ever think that!”
“Well, it’s just, normally we hang out all the time, but these past two weeks, you’ve slowly been drifting away, and at first I thought you were just busy, but then I heard that you’ve been hanging out with Scar and Iskall and Joe! And...not me. Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no, no! Of course not!”
“Are you sure?” Mumbo asked.
“Of course.” He smiled at Mumbo. Mumbo hesitated, before smiling back.
Silence. Silence. Silence.
“Hey, Mumbo?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Anything.”
Grian took a deep breath in. Now or never. What was the point of asking for advice if he wasn’t going to take it?
“Why haven’t you been answering my messages?” Grian motioned to the stack he was sitting on?
“Honestly?” Mumbo giggled. “I keep meaning to, but it just totally slips my mind.”