Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With one last hit of his sword, Tom mows down the final foe from a horde of wither skeletons. “I DID IT!” He yells triumphantly, holding up the skull of the withered corpse. “That makes three, don’it, Jordan?” The captain exits one of the adjacent rooms. “Yup, we got all three. Well done!” Both men put their swords away as they make their way to the portal.

“Was a wild event today, don’t you think?” Jordan asks the other man as he pulls him up a higher ledge. “Quite the goose chase.” Tom answers him, “If it wasn’t for Karl’s lucky find of that final key we’d still be stuck there, I swear. That one was absolutely mental.” They continue the discussion of their item hunt as they cross the bridge over the lava lake to the portal. Tom breaks out into a sprint, “Last one at the portal owes to other 5 diamonds!” Jordan sprints at him, yelling “Make that 10!” Neither of them knows who enters the portal first.

*insert portal noises*

As the duo emerges from the portal, they are greeted by an unexpected sight. They find themselves in Tom’s basement which is currently in the process of being flooded.

“Oh fuck, run!”

Tom pushes Jordan towards his stairs. The zombie man had turned around and sees a massive wave of water storming towards them and the portal. They make for the stairs as fast as they can, but they cannot outrun the powerful flood as it crashes through the portal and into them. The force drags them back to the bottom of the cave. While trying to regain his sense of direction, Tom feels a hand grab onto his wrist that pulls at him. Panicked, he looks in the direction he thinks the hand is coming from and he sees Jordan trying to pull him up. Tom swims towards the captain, or at least he tries. The swirling water dragging him in the opposite direction is not helping him at all. The two struggle against the currents and the icy cold temperature of the salty water. Jordan manages to pull Tom up to his chest, holding onto him as he drags them to the surface. Tom is about to pass out from lack of oxygen as they breach the surface.

Jordan pulls them onto the damp wooden floor, “Tom, Tom can you hear me?” The zombie starts coughing up water. “I’m so bloody -cough- cold -cough” He shivers as he pushes himself up into a sitting position, Jordan’s hand is still on his back. Before either can say anything, Tom’s communicator goes off.

“You wanker, why didn’t you answer earlier?” Karl yells at Tom through the communicator. “We’ve been tryna reach you two for an hour now! What were you up to?”

“We were -cough- getting skulls and then we nearly drowned.” Shivering, Tom answers Karl’s question. “Wha- how? Have you even looked outside yet?” The captain looks around and out the windows of Tom’s house. Well, he can’t look out of them as all he can see is a thick blanket of- “We’ve all been snowed in while the two of you were grinding!” Jordan gets up and helps up Tom as well as they check around the house, Karl still yelling at them through the communicator about the snow and the cold.

Jordan is the first one to start asking intelligent questions. “Karl, do you know how it happened?” On the other side of the line, Jordan can hear Karl dropping something. “Oh bloody- Well no, but Dec said he’s looking into it. He thinks he might know but he wanted to check it first. Something like that. Also, how did you guys nearly drown?” Karl asks back at Jordan, not having forgotten Tom’s mention of it. “No idea dude,” Jordan is instantly caught up with reality again as Karl mentions the drowning. “There was a flood in Tom’s basement, took the portal with it as well. I think we gotta hang up though, we’re soaking wet and need to warm up. Just call us when Dec knows more, ok?” And with that, they end the call.

Jordan immediately addresses Tom. “We need to get out of these wet clothes, do you have spare dry clothing?” Tom shakes his head. “Had a creeper incident yesterday, took my clothing chest with it. I -cough- only have maybe a handful of shirts, that’s it.” Shaking, Tom sits down on one of the chairs at his dining table. “We’ll worry about that later, take off the wet clothing first.” Jordan takes off his diamond armour pieces and starts tugging at his leather leggings.

Tom is still feeling a bit woozy from the lack of oxygen, trying to come to terms with the whole situation. He just nearly drowned, got saved by his best friend and secret crush, and now that same guy is undressing in front of him. What did he do to deserve this?

Jordan is now just naked. He grabs all his wet clothes and walks to the fireplace in the kitchen, hanging his leggings and undershirt to dry and putting his underwear on the floor in an attempt to have that dry as fast as possible. “D’you need any help, Tom?” He asks, seeing Tom struggle to get his leggings off. “Oh no, I got t-this.” One leg has now been freed from the cold wet leggings. “I ha-have a lot of spare torches in o-one of my chests, might help with the c-cold. If you can, can you a-also look for t-the shirts?” The zombie man continues his struggle with his pants as Jordan makes his way to the storage room.

It doesn’t take long to find the torches and the clothing. Jordan places the clothing on the table next to Tom, who’s still fighting with his pants. “Are you sure you don’t need hel-” Before Jordan can finish his question, Tom is shooing him away. “I’m fine! The torches are more important, it’s freezing in here!” Jordan knows Tom is right about that, but still, he hesitates for a second before he walks back to the fireplace. He uses the fire to light the torches and hangs them around the room before he checks if any of his clothing has dried. His leggings and shirt are still soaked, but his underwear has luckily dried up enough to be comfortable to wear again, so he puts that back on before walking back into the kitchen to put up more torches there.

Tom hears the other man approach but he doesn’t dare to look in his direction. “I’ve hung my shirt and leggings above the fireplace, luckily my underwear dried fast enough.” Jordan remarks as he places an extra torch on the table next to Tom. Hearing that Jordan is at least no longer butt-naked, he regains some strength to actually take his leggings off. “See, I could do it myself!” He quips at Jordan as he grabs his wet shirt from the table and makes for the fireplace. “Oh, by the way, Jordan, the black shirt is slightly bigger so you should be able to fit that one.” It isn’t until he reaches the fireplace that Tom takes off his underwear and hangs it to dry. From his toolbox, Tom grabs his one spare pair of underpants, relieved he thought of putting a pair in there.

“And, does the shirt fit?” He walks back into the kitchen and grabs the other shirt on the table to put it on. It’s a white, long-sleeved shirt. Jordan enters the kitchen from Tom’s bedroom, carrying one single unlit torch. “It fits mostly, do you have spare blankets or wool we can make blankets from?” The final torch ends up above the stove. “I have some wool and two blankets.”

A ringtone sounds from the kitchen table, this time it’s Jordan’s communicator. Dec is calling. “Hello, Dec! You got any news?” The priest sighs before he answers the captain’s question. “My theory was correct, there has been a surge of magic seeping through from the original Niflheim. This surge has caused a great shift in the weather which resulted in this snowstorm. The storm is still raging, my tower is now completely snowed in as well and-” Dec is interrupted by a shout from Karl as he joins the call. “MY TREE IS COMPLETELY COVERED!” Dec snickers. “So has my tower, Karlyle, and I have also managed to reach Mianite. Well, sort of. I told him about our situation and he could barely answer my prayer. The gods’ powers are exhausted after today’s hunt for artefacts, so they cannot help us yet. It will take about a week for them to get their strength back. So until the… -re… -in…” The call loses connection. The layer of snow above them has become too thick for the communicators’ signal to pass through.

Jordan looks at Tom with a face of defeat. “Comms are down.” Then Jordan receives a text from the priest. “Oh, wait! We can still text the other, thank the gods!”

            CommunityMC: What I wanted to say is that we are snowed in until the snow melts or the gods have power again.

            CaptainSparklez: Ok thanks! Looks like texting still works, so we’ll stay in touch.

Jordan puts the device down again and turns around to face Tom. “You’re shivering, come on, you need to warm up.” Jordan puts an arm around the zombie’s shoulders and leads him to sit down on his own couch. “I’m gonna get you a blanket so you can warm up.” Jordan hurries to Tom’s bed and grabs one of the warm woollen blankets. “Here ya go.” Jordan puts the blanket around Tom, who tries to protest. “I can do it myself, cap.” But even though he says that Tom makes no effort to stop Jordan, who just smiles kindly at him. “Better?” Tom nods, getting cosy and letting himself warm up. “Aren’t you cold?” Tom notices Jordan is still walking around in just the black shirt and his underwear. “Adrenaline is one hell of a hormone, but I am getting cold now. I’m grabbing myself a blanket as well, don’t worry.”

As Jordan leaves to get himself a blanket, Tom grabs his communicator and panic-texts Karl.

            Syndicate: Karl. I’m gonna die

            Syndicate: Help

            Lrakanidas: Why are you dying this time?

            Syndicate: Remember that crush I told you about?

            Lrakanidas: Yeah?

            Syndicate: I never mentioned who, right?

            Lrakanidas: Are you fucking kidding me mate

            Lrakanidas: It’s Jordan?

            Syndicate: Maybe? Yes?

            Lrakanidas: You wanker, you should’ve just mentioned that earlier!

            Lrakanidas: I’m your best friend and you don’t tell me you got the hots for captain sparklypants?

            Syndicate: Do you not see my big gigantic issue here?

            Lrakanidas: You see an issue, I see a perfect opportunity!

            Syndicate: You’re NOT helping, I might as well text Dec at this point…

Meanwhile, Jordan is in Tom’s bedroom grabbing a blanket and putting wool in the crafting bench to have it weave another blanket.

            CaptainSparklez: Hey dec?

            CommunityMC: hmm

            CaptainSparklez: I’m gonna be stuck with Tom in his house for a week, aren’t I?

            CommunityMC: oh absolutely

            CaptainSparklez: Dude I can’t…

            CaptainSparklez: How am I supposed to do this?

            CommunityMC: hes just a bit hyper thats all

            CaptainSparklez: You know I’m not talking about his personality, you asshole.

            CommunityMC: is this not a perfect opportunity

            CommunityMC: tom is a dumvass he wont know anyway

Jordan wraps the blanket around his shoulders as he walks back to the living room, seeing tom has made himself cosy on the couch. “You hungry?” Jordan asks. Tom looks up from his communicator, not having heard Jordan enter the room. “I could do for some food, there should be plenty in the chests in the kitchen.” Tom gestures at the chests above the stove. Jordan opens them up to look for some ingredients before he settles on throwing some chicken and veggies in the oven; easy but fulfilling.

            Syndicate: Bro he’s cooking h e l p

            Lrakanidas: Lol

            Syndicate: I hate you

Dinner goes as smoothly as one might expect. Tom nearly chokes on his food when Jordan stretches and his abs are visible, but besides that, all goes well. “You know you do actually have to swallow the food, right?” Jordan jokes and Tom scowls at him.

After all that has happened that evening, Tom is exhausted and Jordan can see that he’s started falling asleep on the couch. The captain gets up from his chair and puts all their dirty dishes on the dinner table before he walks to the couch and lifts Tom, blanket and all. “Hrmn? Whatcha doin’?” Tom sleepily slurs. “Sssh, you need to go to bed, sleepyhead.” Jordan carries Tom to the bed, and by the time he tucks the younger in, he’s already fallen asleep. As he looks at the sleeping man, Jordan is overcome by feelings of adoration. In a rush of emotions, Jordan softly kisses Tom’s forehead before he returns to the living room to clean the dishes and overthink about what he just did.

The kitchen is a mess, the floor is damp and there are chunks of snow scattered around. Jordan sighs at the sight and grabs a broom. He sweeps the snow into the water in the basement. The water has since reached the top step of the staircase and Jordan hopes it won’t get any higher. With the snow and slipping hazard out of the way, Jordan fetches the dishes from the living room and starts cleaning them, the quiet lets him think about everything that had happened that day. First, they all went on a wild adventure in an old nether ruin to look for some artefacts that can help them break Dianite out of the Darkness’s prison. That on its own was dangerous enough, as there were wither skeletons crawling all over the place. Then when they got back Tom nearly died. Jordan shakes his head at himself. Why did he have to go and catch feelings all over again?

            CaptainSparklez: Dec this is impossible

            CaptainSparklez: I thought I was over him, but apparently not.

            CommunityMC: i dont think you ever were, you just thougt you were

            CaptainSparklez: I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

            CommunityMC: correction, you dont want tom to get hurt

            CaptainSparklez: What do I do, Dec?

Jordan sighs, putting the final plate back where it belongs. He looks around the room once more before he decides to go to bed as well. Jordan gets into bed, next to Tom, trying his best not to wake the other up and he succeeds. As Jordan is lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, Tom stirs in his sleep. Jordan looks at him as Tom snuggles up to him, shivering slightly. Jordan decides to just pull Tom closer, convincing himself it’s just because they are both cold.

Chapter Text

Jordan slowly opens his eyes, blinking as he stares into the darkness. It takes him a good minute to adjust to the lack of light in Tom’s room. Oh, right, he’s in Tom’s bed. Tom is in his arms. So it wasn’t a dream. He can feel Tom’s breath on his skin with every breath the other takes and it’s a calm, grounding presence for Jordan as he tries to come to terms with the fact that yesterday actually happened and he really is in here with Tom for a week.

The small clock above the backdoor sounds 8 times. 8 am feels way too early to get up, but Jordan is already wide awake. Absentmindedly he starts threading his fingers through Tom’s hair as he tries to get his thoughts sorted out. Ever since he washed up on shore in the original Realm of Mianite he’s hidden his feelings for the other man. It took him most of his time there, as it turns out, to suppress his feelings until Tom ended up having to kill Dianite and they took the leap together. The realm they visited after that is a blur, there was weird technology and the gods were different as well.

Tom stirs in his sleep, but he doesn’t wake up yet. He must be exhausted after what happened yesterday, Jordan thinks. Tom isn’t known for his swimming skills. Looking around the room once more, Jordan notices the frozen waterfall. They’re going to have to take care of that once Tom wakes up, it’s going to keep the room way too cold if they don’t board it up. The same goes for the snow-covered front- and backdoor to Tom’s living room, as well as the many windows that take up most of the surface of the walls. Jordan figures that with banners they should be able to isolate those. Tom stirs again, but this time he does wake up, just as the clock sounds 9 times. “Hello there.” Jordan softly whispers. “Hey.” Tom answers back, barely awake.

Tom moves his arms to rub at his eyes, only to realise how close he is to Jordan. Slightly panicked, Tom decides to sit up, trying to run from the cosy feeling he had, afraid he might like it too much and say something stupid. “What time is it even?” Jordan sits up too now. “The clock says it’s 9 in the morning.”

Jordan fully gets up now, stepping out of the bed and stretching his arms to shake off the slight stiffness. He quickly retracts his arms again when his brain registers the sheer cold of the room. “It’s even colder now.” The captain pulls his blanket up around his shoulders in an attempted to stay as warm as possible. “I’m gonna boil some water for coffee, you want some?” Jordan asks as calmly as he can, trying to ignore how adorable Tom looks with his bed hair. Tom nods yes as he lies back down. “B-but it’s cold so I’m gonna stay here.” He mumbles, looking over the covers at the other man. Jordan chuckles, “I’ll come back with coffee then.”

As Jordan leaves to make the two of them coffee, Tom grabs his communicator from the nightstand, pulling his arm back under the covers as fast as he can, the cold atmosphere of the room cutting at his skin.

            Syndicate: You up?

            Lrakanidas: Barely, ‘sup?

            Syndicate: I’m suffering.

            Syndicate: I don’t know if I want this to end NOW or to never end…

            Syndicate: I think he carried me to the bed yesterday, after I fell asleep on the couch…

            Lrakanidas: Such a gentleman!

            Lrakanidas: You got a whole week man, make it count or something.

            Syndicate: A week and then he’s gone.

            Lrakanidas: You dumbass.

            Lrakanidas: You’re literally neighbours bro, he can’t leave.

While the water is heating up on the stove, Jordan takes a minute to let himself fully wake up. Tom got away from him so quickly when he woke up, making Jordan think he might’ve crossed a line. Was it too much? Did he go too far? The kettle starts whistling as the water starts boiling and Jordan nearly jumps at the sound. The takes the kettle off the fire and moves on to make the coffee.  

While the two oblivious men are dealing with their coffee and breakfast, Dec and Karl are having an absolute stellar time. Unlike the others, they found out that they can still call each other.

“Good morning, Karlyle. Got any news?” Dec asks the other Mianitee as he works on isolating the top floor of his tower. “I have a whole meal worth of news.” Karl answers him, “You’re not even ready for this, you’d better sit down.” Dec jumps down from the windowsill he was standing on, the thud audible on the other end of the call. “I haven’t said shit yet and you’ve already fallen? Damn.” The priest sighs. “Karl I was- nevermind, you troll. Spill it, what’d you hear?” He asks Karl as he does indeed sit down on a now snow-free chair. “So I got a text from Tom, a bloody mess as usual, about dying. Turns out, the man’s got a crush on the Captain! How’s that for news, huh!” Upon hearing that Tom has a crush on Jordan, Dec bursts out into laugher. “You’re not gonna believe what I heard. Cap texted me about his crush on Tom!” Now it’s Karl’s turn to have a laugh. “So neither of them knows the other is into them?” A devious plan begins to form in Dec’s mind. “So that means we can play matchmaker since we do know.” And so the scheming starts.

Back at Tom’s house, the two men just finished their breakfast, with neither of them able to start up a conversation they drink their coffee in awkward silence. Tom ends up breaking through the quiet. “We should try to isolate the place, it’s gotten colder overnight.” Jordan nods in agreement, finishing his coffee. “I’ve thought about it already. Before you woke up, I mean.” He points at the frozen waterfall. “First order of business is getting rid of that thing.” Tom looks at the pillar of ice, somehow he hadn’t noticed it. He now also sees the snow that’s slowly being pushed into the house through his front- and backdoor. “Yeah, good idea. W-we should also board up the doors, the snow is just rolling in now.” Jordan slowly nods at Tom’s words, looking around the room but avoiding Tom.

The silence surrounds them once more. Jordan can’t take it and decides to at least get out of bed, hoping he gets an idea on what to do or say. Luckily, he does. “I’m gonna check on our clothes first, they should be dry.” As he leaves the room, Tom calls after him. “I’ll check my storage for boarding materials.” Jordan stops in his tracks and turns around. “No, you’re not. Clothing first or you’ll catch a cold.” Tom huffs as Jordan continues on his way to the fireplace. Is Jordan not gonna catch a cold too, then?

Tom thinks back to what Jordan said. He had been awake before Tom. Long enough to think about isolating. What if he made Jordan uncomfortable? I was so close to him, like, too close. Was I the one who got too close? Jordan wouldn’t, it had to have been me.

“Everything’s dry! Here are yours.” Jordan enters the room and throws Tom’s shirt and leggings at him. Jordan has already put his on. Tom catches his clothes and gets out of the bed to put them on. “How are we gonna do this? The isolating, I mean.” Tom asks as he takes off his shirt to replace it with the warmer woollen undershirt. He can hear Jordan walk across the room to the icy pillar. “I think it’d be best if one of us takes care of this thing-” Jordan knocks on the pillar, “while the other boards up the doors.”

Tom steps back from the now boarded up front door to look at his handy work. It’s not as handy as he’d have liked, but it does what it’s supposed to do. There is still the rhythmic sound of a pickaxe hitting ice coming from his bedroom, so he figures he shouldn’t disturb Jordan and instead just move on to boarding up the backdoor. As he grabs the broom to sweep away some snow, he gets a text.

            Lrakanidas: So, still having troubles in paradise?

            Syndicate: First of all, fuck you

            Syndicate: Second of all, f u c k y o u

            Syndicate: You know bloody well I am not doing ok here, you slug

            Lrakanidas: Calm down bro

            Lrakanidas: Why are you so worried, just be yourself man!

            Syndicate: Oh wow, hadn’t thought of that one yet!

Tom puts the communicator back in his pocket and starts aggressively sweeping at the snow, muttering to himself. “Groundbreaking advice there, Karl. Truly earth-shattering.”

Jordan wipes away some of the sweat on his forehead as he takes a small break from his task. He’s well over halfway down the pillar, surrounded by chunks of ice in various sizes. He looks at Tom through the open bedroom door to see what he’s up to. The other man just put down the broom next to him. Jordan thinks about getting it to sweep away some ice, but he’s dreading having to talk to Tom. Not because of Tom, Tom’s innocent in all of this. Jordan picks up his pickaxe and gets back to chopping, using his frustration to fuel his swings. Stupid. Why. Do. I. Ruin. Everything?

The pillar of ice has been chopped down and the doors are all boarded up. The only issue now, Jordan thinks, is the cold coming in through Tom’s many windows. His empty stomach is also an issue. As he sweeps the final few ice chunks into the water-filled basement, Jordan speaks up. “I’m kinda starving, and I’m pretty sure you are too.” He looks at Tom, waiting for a reaction. “Yeah, I could do fo-” Tom sneezes. “- for some food too. I’ll make something.” Tom hurries to the kitchen to make some food, leaving Jordan in the living room.

The captain decides to check Tom’s storage for supplies to board up the windows. He finds a chest filled with wool. This blows life into his idea to use banners. “Hey Tom, we can use banners to board up the windows, since a lot of cold is coming in through those.” Jordan can hear Tom answer him from the kitchen. “Sounds -cough- good!” Not long after, the crafting bench is working its magic and making them a stack of banners. Jordan walks back to the living room just as Tom finishes making lunch.

Lunch is less awkward than breakfast. Fortunately, they found something to talk about: a lore book they found during the artefact hunt. Jordan picks it up to inspect it. It’s a heavy leather-bound tome, adorned with gems and golden buckles. It‘s been locked with a small padlock of which they haven’t found the key. The crafting bench in the other room finishes making the banners, creating the opportunity for one of them to start putting them up. Tom is the first to notice and he seizes this opportunity, having gotten bored with staring at a closed book. “I’ll go put up the banners while you keep fi -cough- fiddling with the lock.” Tom sniffles before he sneezes. Jordan opens his mouth to say something about Tom’s apparent cold, but he decides against it. He doesn’t want to annoy Tom with his worrying.

It takes Jordan longer than he’d like to admit to pick the lock. By the times he’s managed to open it, Tom returns. “All the windows are now -cough- co…” Tom’s sentence is lost in a coughing fit. Jordan looks at Tom with worry on his face. “I’m fine, just caught a bit of a cold, I think.” The zombie man sits down on the couch, across Jordan. “Let’s see what’s in here, shall we?” With that, Jordan finally opens the book. It’s a little damp, but the ink is fine. The duo spends the remainder of their afternoon reading the old stories, all about the Light and the Darkness.

Tom’s cold gets worse as the evening rolls in. He’s constantly sniffling and Jordan suspects he might have a fever. “Are you doing okay?” The younger looks up at Jordan with tired eyes. “Just a little chilly, that’s it.” Jordan shakes his head as he closes the book and stands up. He walks to the couch and sits down next to Tom before putting the back of his hand against Tom’s forehead. “You’ve got a fever, Tom.” A blush creeps onto Tom’s face as Jordan expresses his worry over him. All Tom can manage is a stutter as Jordan’s hand has moved from his forehead to rest it on his shoulder. “N-no need to w-worry.” But Jordan is worrying and he will not stop. “Let me at least get you a blanket. I’ll make us some food, too.” Jordan is back within a few seconds with a blanket which he gives to Tom before he walks to the stove.

Tom watches Jordan cook for a few a bit before he decides to text Karl.

            Syndicate: Im making him worry.

            Lrakanidas: What is there to worry about?

            Lrakanidas: besides the snow

            Syndicate: Bro I am so sick so cold

            Lrakanidas: You actually doing ok though?

            Lrakanidas: I could text Jordan if you need.

            Syndicate: I aint dyinf yet

            Syndicate: NO!1!!

            Lrakanidas: Let him take care of you, you’ll be fine dude

            Syndicate: Wasnt fine to begin with…

            Lrakanidas: Just know that if I could actually get to you I’d be knocking some sense into ya

            Syndicate: Dont knock me!

            Lrakanidas: If I hear that you’re not taking care I will tunnel through this snow like a hamster on speed

            Lrakanidas: Get well soon bro

            Syndicate: thankd

Tom’s attention is pulled away from his communicator when he hears Jordan put down plates on the table. During dinner, they talk about the things they learned from the lore book, which was not much.

As Tom goes on a small rant about an inaccurate skeleton drawing, Jordan takes his time to look at how Tom is doing. He looks tired and Tom’s sentences barely make sense. As Tom stops his rant to catch his breath, Jordan interferes. “Tom, you need to rest. Calm down before you pass out.” Tom wants to protest but he’s still trying to catch his breath. Besides, he knows Jordan is right, but he doesn’t want to admit it. He shouldn’t be needlessly worrying Jordan. “Come one, you need to lay down.” Jordan gets up and offers Tom his hand. The younger tries to just stand up on his own, but his legs betray him. Fortunately, Jordan’s reflexes are fast enough to catch Tom before he hits something on his way down. “S-sorry.” Tom mumbles. “It’s ok, you just need to lay down. Come on.” Jordan holds Tom up as he walks to his bedroom, one arm holding on tight to younger’s back.

Once they reach the bed, Jordan helps Tom get comfortable, the other too tired to protest the captain’s gentle actions. Tom wants to say something but is prevented from doing so as he instead ends up coughing. Jordan sits down on the edge of the bed and puts his hand on Tom’s forehead again, feeling that Tom’s fever has gotten worse. He moves his hand away from Tom’s forehead, stroking his hair. “I’ll take care of the last bits of mess, do you need anything?” Tom shakes his head. “No.” He manages to whisper before coughing again. “Try to relax and sleep, okay?” Jordan gets up and leaves the room, looking back at Tom before he walks through the door.

As he’s doing the dishes, Jordan can hear Tom coughing. It hurts to see Tom suffer. If only he could help. Tom doesn’t want help, or at least not his help. Tom doesn’t want him around, does he? What if he knows and now he doesn’t want me close again? Jordan’s thoughts are racing, jumping from conclusion to conclusion as he tries to distract himself with the dirty dishes. It doesn’t work. Jordan decides to just text Dec.

            CaptainSparklez: Tom’s ill.

            CommunityMC: wait what

            CaptainSparklez: He’s coughing and he has a fever and I can’t do anything about it.

            CommunityMC: youre looking after him

            CommunityMC: that’s doing something

            CaptainSparklez: He doesn’t want my help, he’s being distant.

            CaptainSparklez: What if that’s my fault?

            CommunityMC: how is that your fault

            CommunityMC: tom isn’t great with affection

            CaptainSparklez: Oh yeah, who doesn’t want their friend to have a crush on him?

            CommunityMC: I doupt he knows

            CommunityMC: that man is even more oblivious than you sometimes

            CaptainSparklez: Dec, I really don’t know what to do anymore.

            CaptainSparklez: It hurts.

            CaptainSparklez: I want to tell him but I can’t risk it.

            CommunityMC: cant or wont

            CommunityMC: you have more controlt han you think

            CaptainSparklez: What control do I have? I can’t decide things for myself, let alone decide things for Tom.

            CommunityMC: i think you need to sleep on this some more

            CommunityMC: the week has barely started

            CaptainSparklez: Thanks for the reminder, dickhead.

            CommunityMC: gasp

            CommunityMC: you cursed

            CommunityMC: youve changed already

            CommunityMC: goodnight Jordan

            CaptainSparklez: Goodnight Dec

Chapter Text

Tom wakes up from a long but restless sleep, his muscles are aching and his nose feels stuffy. He sits up, keeping the heavy woollen blankets wrapped around him. One by one, Tom stretches out his limbs. Despite his attempts, one of the blankets shifts and exposes his ankle. Quickly he pulls his leg back under the blanket, the freezing air hurting his overheated skin.

The small clock beside his bed informs Tom that it’s 11 am, but his sense of time has been messed up by the lack of natural light and his fever. He decides that 11 am is the perfect time to get out of bed, not like he’d get any more sleep anyway. As he tries to stand up and get out of bed, Tom is overcome by an overwhelming feeling of vertigo. The room starts spinning as he falls back onto the bed. It is at this moment that he realises that Jordan is not in the room with him.

Breathing slowly, the zombie tries to relax and regain his posture. He feels a throbbing pain radiating from the back of his head. He closes his eyes to make the world stop spinning. After a few minutes, Tom is able to make sense of the world around him again. He slowly opens his eyes and takes a deep breath before he sits up, still afraid the room will start spinning. His next coherent thought has him wondering where Jordan could be. Why isn’t he here? Where could he even be?

From the storage room, Tom can hear the sound of breaking glass followed by Jordan’s inaudible irritated muttering. Curious to find out what the other man is up to, Tom takes the risk again and stands up. He stumbles out of the bedroom with all the blankets still draped around him. “G’morning Jordan.” He mumbles sleepily. The captain looks up from the brewing stand he was tinkering with. “Good morning Tom. How are you feeling?” Jordan puts down the jar with pufferfish he was holding and walks up to the other man. Tom doesn't answer the question. Instead, he looks at the array of ingredients on the table. "Tom?" The younger's attention is pulled back to Jordan. "I'm a little dizzy." The captain looks at him with worry. "It's been a while since you've eaten, same for me, so how about some lunch?"

In a higher and drier place, Dec is trying out a new brownie recipe. Now that the others can't bother him and interrupt his quest for the best kelp brownies, he can finally try out a recipe he got from Ianite. "4 grams for one basic box brownie? Damn Lady, that's quite nice." He mumbles to himself as he weighs out the kelp leaves. His peaceful baking is soon interrupted, however, by his communicator going off. Karl has decided he wants attention. 

"Hello, Declan! How're you this fine morning?" Karl chimes as soon as Dec answers the call. "Well it's noon and I was trying to bake in peace but it seems I can’t find any." The priest sighs as he sets a 40-minute timer for the leaves to activate in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius. "I didn't see you as the baking type. What you making?" The younger Mianitee asks. Dec considers lying, but at this point, he might as well tell. "I'm making kelp brownies, sucks for you that I can't share." The priest hears some indistinguishable shuffling noises from the other end of the call before Karl reacts. "You're just using this absolute disaster of a time to get high? Bro, how dare you do this without me?! Am I supposed to just get through the whole thing sober? Kinda rude." The priest snickers at Karl's exaggerated hurt tone. "I'd share the recipe, but I doubt you have any kelp. Or do you, mister?" Even though kelp isn't illegal, it's not the most accepted plant to keep at home. "Dec if I had any I'd be accidentally burning some cake right now. Sadly, I am cursed with lack of leaf." 

As Dec continues his baking, Karl gets to the topic he really wants to talk about. "So, how are we going to make the two dumbasses down there confess their love? Because I'm just annoyed at Tom's lack of eyes." The priest brushes one hand through his ginger hair while he continues to sauté the kelp in 100g of melted butter. This step is also gonna take him another 40 minutes of listening to Karl. "Dec, did you hear me? Tom was being a dumbass in my DMs again yesterday." At this rate, he's gonna accidentally overcook it, but hey, he's got plenty of leaves in store. "Jordan also texted me, something about Tom being sick and decisions. I think they're just too scared to ruin their friendship. Which is kinda funny but mostly sad." Dec sighs, his friends deserve each other but just texting them that the other is into him is not gonna work. "So, do we just keep encouraging them until one of them just whips it out?" Karl's top-tier suggestion breaks Dec's line of thought. "That, my dear partner in crime, sounds perfect." The two keep chatting about this idea until Dec says he needs to hang up and concentrate on his brownies. Now, all that's left is substituting the regular butter for the strained kelp butter in the brownie mix and just baking the brownie according to the instructions Ianite left. 

Back under the snow, the tension is rising. Jordan is doing his best to take care of Tom while brewing some potions. All Jordan wants is for Tom to feel better, considering the circumstances. The captain had woken up way earlier than the other man had and came up with a plan on how to easily heat up the house. Easy was a big word here since the plan entailed diving into the frigid water in the basement through the cave system to fetch some of the magma blocks he knew Tom had left there. The heat from the magma should be enough to keep the whole place heated up. However, Jordan had yet to inform Tom of his plan, and the other had been suspiciously eyeing the brewing stand since he'd first seen Jordan tinkering with it. 

"Why are you making potions?" Tom breaks the silence after a good few minutes of staring. He doesn't trust Jordan to be up to anything good. Why would they need potions? "I have a plan on how we're gonna actually have this place warm up." The captain starts, anticipating Tom interrupting him. "You used magma blocks to decorate your old Dianite temple. Now hear me out, I'm gonna fetch them so we can use them to warm things up in here, but I'll need some water-breathing potions for it. Just-" Like predicted, Tom doesn’t agree and interrupts. "Are you bloody mental? In what world would that ever be a good idea! You can barely see down there, the water is freezing!" He won't let Jordan put his life on the line for some magma blocks. "The caves run under the volcano, the temperature will be fine. Trust me." But Tom won't have it.

"Don't you dare go down there!" He shouts at Jordan, afraid the captain will be in danger while he himself is just sitting safely on the couch. Jordan shakes his head, clipping one of the potions to his belt while grabbing the other one. "You're sick and you won't get any better with this cold." He throws his heavy overcoat on one of the chairs as he walks away from Tom to the basement's entrance. All he wants is to help, but Tom can't see this. Jordan blames it on the fever, but something about that just doesn't feel right.

The younger jumps up from the couch and stumbles after him, trying desperately to catch up. "Jordan, don't. I'll be fine." He grabs for the captain's arm but the man just shakes him off. "Come on, don't go!" Jordan stops walking and turns around to face Tom. "Are you hearing yourself!" He raises his voice, his mind is made up. "If you hadn't noticed, it's only getting colder. Whatever risk you think there is, it’s worth it." Tom isn't sure if he's mad at Jordan or himself as he yells back: "Stop risking your life for something so trivial!" Something inside Jordan snaps as he hears Tom say that his own health isn't important. "You know what, Thomas? You can just pretend I'm doing this for me, then." He says coldly before he downs the potion he's holding and takes the dive into the pitch-black water.

Tom stumbles backwards onto the couch, falling back on it. Why did he let that happen? How could he let it happen? Panic rises in his chest as his brain runs through all kinds of horror scenarios. Jordan is down there all alone in the dark with no possible way to reach out to him. What if he gets lost? Breathing faster and faster, Tom can't think rationally anymore. From the caves below, he hears a loud rumbling as part of the cave collapses. It echoes through the house, waves of water spill from the basement onto the kitchen floor. Tom gets up stumbles around in a panic. What if-

“I am no homie to you.” Dianite answers Tom as he greets his god. “Think you’d get away with helping save Ianite?” Tom is taking aback by his God telling him off. What did he do wrong? “I have a greater plan!” The zombie yells at his god, unsure of what is happening. “I don’t care.” Dianite cuts him off, his voice booming through the forest. “I’m fed up with your lies. If you want to get the key,” Tom’s heart breaks at his god’s rejection. “You’ll have to get through me.”

Then he hears Dianite’s voice rumble through his head. “It’s okay baby, it’s for the greater good of Dianite.” A wave of confusion and fear overtakes Tom. He answers his god with a thought of his own. “I have to fight you!?” The only answer he gets is silence before he and his friends are teleported into the arena. Tucker questions Dianite, asking about Furia but Dianite dismisses him. “You took care of that problem already though.” The heroes walk around the arena, unsure of what is about to go down. “Come on then.” Dianite taunts.

Before any of them dares to make a move, Tom asks one final question. “Do we fight you?” He never gets an answer before he makes the first attack. It’s futile, all attacks negated by a powerful regeneration crystal. That is until Tucker breaks it with a well-aimed arrow. Dianite groans in pain now that he’s no longer invulnerable. That breaks open the fight as they are suddenly able to take down this god. While his friends try to chase Dianite down, Tom draws his bow to take a few half-hearted shots at his god. That ends when Dianite halts his sprint right in Tom’s line of fire. With one well-placed shot, Tom hits his god in the chest. Instantly, the god’s life drains from his body, the empty shell of what was once a powerful god slumps to the ground. Tom drops his bow in disbelief as he falls to his knees, hands clasped over his mouth in shock. He just killed him. Dianite is dead and he killed him.

Jordan is swimming back as fast as he can. Somewhere behind him, one of the smaller caverns just collapsed and he knows Tom must have heard this. His arms are heavy and sore as he lifts himself out of the inky blackness onto the damp kitchen floor, only dry because of the water-breathing potion. The first thing he sees is Tom sitting against the wall with his knees pulled up to his chest, facing the entry to the basement. Tears are streaming down his face and he is hyperventilating. Jordan nearly trips over his own feet as he stumbles up and runs to Tom. "Hey, I'm here. It's okay." He kneels in front of him, but Tom doesn't react. "I- I'm so s-sorry" Tom whispers through his tears, his words barely audible. "It's okay. Just focus on my voice, okay?" Jordan puts his arms around him as he tries to calm Tom down. "I- I killed h-him." He mutters, still not realising Jordan is back. Concerned, the captain strokes his cheek with one hand. "Hey, Tom, I’m okay. I'm here, I’m not going anywhere." Jordan continues to talk to Tom to get him to snap back to reality. “Hey, I’m gonna help you get up, okay?” Jordan lifts Tom onto his feet, holding him close. He doesn’t move, Jordan just holds Tom, softly whispering words of reassurance. "I'm safe, you're safe."

Chapter Text

Tom wakes up after a long night’s rest with heavy eyes. As he tries to shift his legs, he realises that he’s tangled up within Jordan’s warm embrace, the other man is still sound asleep. He’s unsure of what happened yesterday or how he ended up in bed like this. He tries to remember the events of the day before but his memory feels blurry and distant. The last thing he can remember clearly is Jordan diving into the dark basement.

The water was cold, he thinks he felt it but he doesn’t know how. He feels his heart starting to beat in his throat as he tries to get a grip on his memories. A feeling of panic starts in his chest, slowly spreading through his body, and Tom knows this feeling all too well. As soon as he catches the feeling he gives up on his distant memories. Remembering is not that important, at least not right now. If he panics now he’ll wake up Jordan, and he doesn’t want Jordan to wake up and leave him.

Once the snow melts, Jordan will leave him again. Tom can’t help but think about what will happen then. His mind starts racing through worries he tries to push away. All he wants for now is for this week to never end, for Jordan to stay close to him and more. Tom wants to let them all out, his worries and his feelings, but he can’t. He’ll just ruin whatever it is that they have. Who would want their friend to have a crush on them? He hates this. He hates feeling like this. It makes his bones hurt when he thinks about it. It’s always his fault.

Jordan wakes up and opens his eyes. He is greeted by the pleasant view of Tom, already awake, in his arms. Tom is lost in his own thoughts and he doesn’t seem to notice that Jordan’s awake yet. The captain cherishes the moment. He takes his time to study the other’s face, taking in the sight. Tom is still just sleepily staring ahead at Jordan’s chest.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

Tom’s rampant overthinking is interrupted by Jordan’s soft voice. He looks up at the Ianitee’s face to see Jordan smiling at him. If he’s smiling, that means Tom didn’t fuck things up too badly, right? “G’ morning.” He mumbles, not sure if he should move away or not. He gets interrupted by his stomach growling. “Sounds like you could use something to eat,” Jordan says with a chuckle. “I’ll make us some breakfast for in bed. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he’s out of the room, Jordan grabs his communicator from his pocket.

CaptainSparklez: Dec

CaptainSparklez: You up?

CommunityMC: its nearly noon ofc

CommunityMC: wassup

CaptainSparklez: Something happened with Tom yesterday, I think it might have been my fault?

CaptainSparklez: I went into the basement for magma blocks and such and a part collapsed and when I got back Tom was having a panic attack saying he killed me.

CommunityMC: that sounds rough

CommunityMC: yall ok?

CaptainSparklez: I’m fine but I’m not sure how Tom is doing, I’m making breakfast now. I don’t want to scare him.

CommunityMC: i think you should bring it up

CommunityMC: its healthy to talk about stuff like that

CommunityMC: i don’t think youre the problem btw its something else

CaptainSparklez: How do you know that?

CommunityMC: tom is very fond of you

CommunityMC: and since youre very fond of him too i think youll figure this out

CaptainSparklez: That’s two different kinds of fond.

CommunityMC: if you say so

Frustrated, Jordan puts his communicator back in his pocket. Dec is not being the most helpful with this talk of fondness. Still, he’s got a point and they should probably talk about what happened. That is if Tom wants to.

Karl is just minding his own business, reorganising his storage system now that he’s got nothing better to do. He gets a notification on his communicator. It’s from Tom and it’s quite the message.

Syndicate: Bro something happened yesterday but I don’t know anymore? I think I might have done or said something and now Jordan is acting weird? He’s being super nice and I’m not sure if it’s like pity or just being kind? You know/

Syndicate: What if I told him I like him and now he’s not sure about how to act or what if I said something stupid and he’s trying to be all nice about it

Lrakanidas: Well first of all calm the fuck down boy

Lrakanidas: If you really did something bad I’m sure Jordan would have texted me to make sure.

Lrakanidas: And if you don’t know what happened just ask Jordan, I’m sure he’ll tell you, like you said, he’s being kind.

Syndicate: I don’t trust shit here.

Lrakanidas: I wouldn’t trust you either so just ask Jordan, you ass <3

Syndicate: You bastard.

Lrakanidas: I’m gonna ignore your cussing and just tell you that the captain-

Tom stops reading halfway through the message. Even though he’s afraid of the answer, he knows he should ask Jordan about yesterday. Trying to remember it himself is too much.

Shortly thereafter, Jordan returns with breakfast for the both of them. He hands Tom the tray before he gets back in bed, sitting close to Tom. “So, how are you feeling now?” Jordan asks Tom, a tone of concern in his voice. Tom thinks for a second before he decides to just shoot his shot. “I’m feeling better than yesterday but I do still feel a bit weird and I don’t remember much from yesterday,” He pauses. “What happened?”

“Well, what do you remember?” The captain asks first, not wanting to flood Tom with information. “Uhm, I remember we had a discussion and you dove into the cellar and…” Tom zones out.

“Tom?” The sound of Jordan’s voice keeps Tom from drowning in his memories. He blinks and he tries to focus on the present. “That is all I remember, yeah.” He breathes out shakily and Jordan notices. The captain scoots closer to Tom and puts his arm around his shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Tom puts his head on Jordan’s shoulder and pulls his knees up to his chest. “I want to know what happened.”

Jordan cautiously starts talking about what happened the day before, constantly making sure he’s not overwhelming Tom. “Holding you seemed to calm you down a little, so I just made the decision to carry you to bed and held you until we both fell asleep. You were awake but you weren’t here, if that makes sense?” The younger man slowly nods, it kind of makes sense. “Sorry-” Jordan cuts him off. “You don’t have anything to say sorry for. Don’t you dare.” Tom shrugs. Jordan turns to face Tom, taking the other man’s hands in his own. “How little do you think I care for you if you think you have to apologize for this?”

The remainder of the day goes by quickly. Tom and Jordan talk a lot. They talk about what happened yesterday, their faith in the gods, and the friends they lost along the way. “The gods,” The captain starts, “They’re all so different every time.” He thinks back to when he first met Ianite. His memory might be shaky and has faded through time but not his memories of Ianite. How she felt so present yet was never actually there, just a soothing idea that kept him grounded. But now… “You’re right, I mean, Dianite isn’t even red here!” Tom exclaims.

“And don’t get me started on Mianite.” The captain adds, a salty tone in his voice. “First we never even see the guy, then he’s some evil bastard, and now he runs off with the Darkness! Like, I can’t even with this guy!” The other chuckles at Jordan’s annoyance. The mention of Mianite reminds him of their missing friends. “What do you think Tucker would have to say about this Mianite?” Silence falls over them. Tom thinks about his friends, wondering where they are now. Are they okay? Are they safe? Jordan breaks through the silence, hoping to lighten the mood. “Sonja and Karl would get along, imagine the sheer power of their pranks.”

They continue talking, but this time more light-heartedly. The afternoon flies by and soon their stomachs are the biggest reminder of this. Jordan is getting hangry. “I’m gonna make food, I need something to eat.” As he gets up, so does Tom. “Me too, and I’m helping!” The two make their way over to the kitchen, brainstorming about what to make. “Oh! I should still have a steak in my storage! How about a nice juicy steak, hmm?” The zombie suggests. “Well, I can’t say no to a good steak,”

Jordan walks over to Tom who’s searching through his chests. “Any veggies for on the side?” The zombie holds up a bag of onions. “Do these count?” He teases. Jordan stands next to him and looks into the same chest. “There’s plenty of veggies in here, you silly.” He grabs a few carrots, potatoes, and the bag of onions that Tom was holding up. “I’ll start with peeling the veggies, do you want to get started on the steak?”

Cooking together is a lot of fun, Jordan thinks. They just chat about the lighter stuff, mostly about Dec’s cooking skills and Karl’s lack thereof. “So, one time, Karl said he’d make me dinner,” Tom says as he cuts at the steak. “But like 10 minutes before I went over, he called, saying he fucked up and burned everything. I swear, he’s a disaster on legs!” Jordan shakes his head in disbelief. “I knew he was bad but damn. At least Dec is an actual god at cooking. He always has some freshly baked goods laying around.” Jordan drops the final handful of potato cubes in the pot on the stove and looks over at what Tom’s doing. “You have no idea what you’re doing, have you?” Tom grins innocently. “Whaaat? Pfft, I know what I’m doing. Yeah, I have no clue.” Jordan stands behind Tom. “Here, I’ll teach you.” He holds Tom’s wrists and moves the other’s hands. Tom blushes, Jordan being this close to him makes him unable to think straight. He doesn’t register Jordan’s words at all as the other man explains what he’s doing. All Tom can think about is how warm Jordan feels behind him.

Jordan notices Tom isn’t listening to him and then he sees the blush on the other man’s face. Finally, he manages to put two and two together. “Tom~ are you blushing?” He feels the younger man tensing up. “Whaaat? No…” Like usual, Tom is not very good at hiding the truth. “Thomas, I can see that you’re blushing,” Jordan whispers teasingly into Tom’s ear. The younger man shivers. Jordan grins as he puts down the knife and spins Tom around to face him, trapping the other between himself and the counter.  

Smugly, Jordan looks at Tom and he catches the younger’s eyes with his own. The younger man looks like a hot mess, his lips are slightly parted and there’s a sheen of sweat on his brow. “Tom, can I kiss you?” Instead of answering with words of his own, Tom grabs the front of Jordan’s shirt, pulls the other towards him and kisses him.