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“Hey Skeppy,” Bad said.
“Yeah?”
“Why do you always keep that mask on?”
Skeppy stopped. The boxy mask bumped into the back of his head.
“What do you mean, Bad?” He chewed his lip. How would he answer this?
“I mean, you used to not wear it, but then one day you just put it on and you’ve been wearing it ever since.”
“I, well,” he fiddled with his fingers, hoping Bad wouldn’t notice. Surely he could tell him, right? After all, Bad was a literal demon—horns and all. It’s not like a few gems growing out of Skeppy’s literal flesh would change anything. Bad flicked his tail, waiting for his response. Fuck. What was he supposed to say?
“Geppy? Is something wrong?” Skeppy’s heart fluttered at the nickname, but he blamed that on the tension he felt. Besides, it was barely a nickname. It was just some weird pronunciation—
“Geppy, you in there?” He could hear him smiling. Bad playfully tapped the side of Skeppy’s mask, careful not to knock it off. He peered through the eye holes at his friend. He was a literal fucking demon. Besides, there were weirder people on the SMP. A few diamonds here and there never changed anything.
Before he could stop himself, he ripped off his mask.
Sunlight bounced off the gems in his skin. He could see their light reflect in Bad’s eyes. He blew a strand of hair out of his face, but the gems encrusting it weighed it down. For what felt like forever, he and Bad just stared at each other.
Oh shit. What did he just do? What if someone else saw him? Diamonds were worth a lot on the server, and some people would stop at nothing to obtain them.
“Shit, Bad, I’m sorry. I fucked up. I’m so-“
“Skeppy.” Bad grabbed his hand, stopping him from getting his mask. “First of all, language, you muffinhead. Second, you look amazing!”
Wait, what?
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” He traced the gems around his eye. Skeppy shivered at the contact. “When did this happen?” When did Bad get so close?
“I, uh,” he racked his brain for memories. It was a bit hard to think when your brain was malfunctioning, but he tried anyways. “I think it was when we fought that witch. The one we found when we were mining.”
“Which one? We’ve fought a lot of witches together,” he giggled.
“The one we found when we were singing that stupid song. The one about searching for diamonds or something.”
“Ohh, that one! Hey! That wasn’t stupid!”
“Whatever,” Skeppy said, smiling.
“How’d it go again?”
“Uhh, it was like ‘Diamonds I’m searching for you,’ and that just repeats 50 thousand times.”
“Yeah!” Bad laughed. “Oh, that’s funny.”
“What is?”
“We were singing about looking for diamonds, and then you became a diamond!” Skeppy laughed. It really wasn’t that funny, but seeing Bad happy did some weird shit to his brain. “Geppy, you’re my diamond, and I found you!”
Well shit. If just seeing Bad happy made his brain do flips, that completely fucking fried it.
“Come on, Skeppy, let’s go home,” Bad said, not noticing that Skeppy’s brain had stopped functioning. He took his hand and they made their way to their house.
The boxy mask lay forgotten in the grass behind them.