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It was a beautiful day on the farm, golden sunbeams sneaking into the farmhouse windows, revealing to those inside a perfect sunrise. Well...almost perfect. Clodhopper woke up with the sun, yawning and stretching. He looked over to Joe, who was sleeping next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“G’mornin, darlin’...” Clod nudged Joe, trying to get him to wake up, but was only greeted by light shifting and sleepy mumbles. He tried again, “Joe…? Y’alright?”, which did manage to wake Joe up. He shifted to look up at Clod, and yawned,
“I’m….I’m fine, I just had trouble sleeping last night…”
“...oh dear-” Clod’s expression turned worried. This was the third day in a row Joe had been acting this strangely, and it just seemed to get worse as the days went on. Joe noticed Clod’s drop in mood, and interrupted his worried thoughts,
“I should ask you the same thing... You seem worried.”
Clod sighed, and took a second to recollect himself,
“...I...It’s nothin’, really, but… it’s just that I’ve been real worried about ‘ya recently…”
“There’s nothing to be worried about, Clod. I’m...I’m fine…”
Joe's voice was shaky, and he’d gotten out of bed to prepare for the day after saying that, leaving Clod alone with his thoughts. Clod could tell something was wrong, Joe never acted this cold, but he decided to respect Joe’s want to keep it secret. He grabbed his hat off of his bedside table and got up, although he was still worried about Joe.
As the day went on, that worry got worse and worse. Joe had barely eaten anything, and during his practice, he couldn’t seem to hit anything. His rhythm was off, horribly off, and it was throwing off Clod as well. Mid-way through the day, Clod just couldn’t watch his boyfriend be this desolate anymore, he had to do something.
Conveniently for him, Joe happened to barely miss one of the pots, causing it to hurt his hand, so he was taking a break for his hand to recover. Seeing this, Clod went up to Joe,
“Darlin’?”
“H-Huh-? Is- ow… Is something wrong, Clod…?”
Clod paused for a second, and sighed,
“...We need to talk.”
Joe absolutely panicked. He tried to hide it but...couldn’t. Did he do something wrong? Did he break something??
“Wh- what-?!”
“It’s about how you’ve been actin’ as of late, you… you seem real out of it. Please, can ya just tell me what’s wrong…?”
Joe visibly hesitated… He was going to answer with his usual ‘I’m fine’, but something was stopping him. Eventually, he replied,
“...Can we please discuss this inside…? I’d rather not risk anyone listening in…”
Clod nodded and led Joe back inside. Clod took off his basket and hung it up on a nearby hook, then he and Joe sat next to each other on a couch. There was a long moment of silence, only interrupted by the quiet noise of Joe bouncing his leg out of nervousness.
Joe, trying to find anything to focus on, looked over at Clod’s basket, noticing it was a lot emptier than it usually is at this time of day, and his bouncing and other fidgets got worse and worse, and he just so happened to forget that repeated movements like that tended to trigger his powers.
A small flame appeared under Joe's foot, which he tried to stomp out before Clod could notice. But he, of course, noticed.
“D-Darlin’-
“I’m so, so sorry, I...I don’t know what’s gotten into me as of late-”
“...Whatever it is, it’s really botherin’ ya…”
Joe nodded, he could already feel himself starting to cry, but blinked back the tears.
“...If I’m going to be honest, it….it’s been bothering me for a long time, but... It’s never been this bad before…”
“Well...what’s wrong…?”
“I...I’ve been having a lot of nightmares recently, most of which are...based...off of…”
He stopped himself. He couldn’t bring himself to finish that sentence. This was going to be a lot harder for him than he first thought. But then Clod moved closer to Joe, putting a hand on his. That was enough to calm Joe down…
“...Most of the nightmares are…are based on horrible memories. And...n-nearly all those memories involve my...my father…”
He couldn’t hold himself together anymore. Joe burst into tears, but as soon as he did Clod pulled him into a hug. He could tell Joe needed the comfort, and he was gonna get it. Joe hugged him back, letting his crying get worse. After the hug, Clod held Joe’s hand in his and stayed silent.
“...I...I don’t even know where to start, there’s just...so, so much that I should tell you about but…”
Clod moved closer to Joe and held Joe’s hand close to his heart.
“You can tell me anythin’, darlin’.”
“...It’s almost silly how it all started, back when I was just a little kid… When my father stole my soccer ball and yelled at me, saying I’d never become a soccer player and...it just got worse from there…”
Joe was trying to calm himself down, with forced smiles and such, but it didn’t really work. Clod, meanwhile, was listening carefully, he’d never heard Joe mention his father until now...
“...and then there was all the training he had me do, out in the cold, sometimes in the middle of blizzards, sometimes until I passed out. It was daily training, too… I never got a break, not even on holidays, and yet I just...I never felt like I was improving, it was just day after day of the same thing, while my father just stood back and wondered why I wasn’t getting better-!”
Clod was getting more and more concerned the longer Joe went on, but it came to a point with…
“And the first time he did teach me something new, he- he used actual bombs in my training, and didn’t even tell me! I didn’t find out until one EXPLODED! I...I could’ve...I....”
That was it. Clod was absolutely furious. He couldn’t help but get mad at Joe’s poor excuse for a father. Who treats their own son like that?! It wasn’t until a second later he’d noticed Joe sobbing, even worse than before.
“...Joe, I… I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that… if I ever find that old man, I swear, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind-!”
“P-please, don’t...I don’t...I can’t risk him finding me…”
That was enough to snap Clod out of his anger. He nodded, pulling Joe into another hug.
“Heh...sorry ‘bout that, darlin’...I’m just glad you’re okay…”
But Joe only started crying more and hugged Clod tighter
“...I-I’m sorry, I… I didn’t want you to worry about me…”
“No, no, don’t be sorry… I shoulda asked you sooner, I didn’t know… I just want you to know that I’m always here for you, no matter what…”
“...T-Thank you, Clod…”
With that, Clod separated from the hug for just a second, and kissed Joe’s forehead softly, which led to Joe finally smiling again, for real this time.
“I love you, Clod. I...I can’t thank you enough…”
“I love ya too, darlin’.”
The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon cuddling on that couch, before eventually falling asleep in each others arms.