Work Text:
“I wanna be small but I’m scared to be out in public and stuff.” Grian had confessed one day to Xisuma.
“You’re pretty open about being small in front of the hermits though, at least I thought you were.”
“Well yeah…” He takes a deep breath. “But off server and stuff.”
Xisuma hums in agreement. It made sense. “People’s reactions can be scary.”
“But it would also be a lot of fun, to be able to go see things not here on hermitcraft.”
“Where would you want to go? Like if you went out on a day trip?”
“Well… I- well it’s stupid X, cause well I know it’s silly and probably a waste of time and well but... maybe to go see some animals? Like a zoo or and aquarium. With big fishies!”
Xisuma smiles fondly. “Sounds like an aquarium trip then yeah?”
Grian nods rapidly.
“We’ll have to do that someday.”
Grian sighed. “Yeah, someday.” And Xisuma files that information away for later.
~~~
It’s about a week later when X decides to do something about that little piece of saved mental information. Therefore why he was out of his regular armor and carried a small backpack. In it head some money, goldfish snacks, a water bottle, a pacifier and two tickets. He made his way over to Grian’s base.
“Hello.” He called out. “Anyone home?”
He heard a faint response coming from a back part of the base. Moments later Grian arrived.
“What can I do for ya X?”
He held up the bag. Grian looked confused, which was understandable, it’s not like X had told the other hermit of his intentions, in fear of him making up some excuse as to why he wouldn’t be able to go. Best to just spring this upon him.
“Day out remember?” He still looked confused, but a small flash of recognition flitted across his features if for a moment.
“You were saying you wanted to go to an aquarium.” He reached into the bag and removed the tickets. “I made it happen.”
“Bu- X, you didn’t have to.”
“Yes I did.” He countered.
“I’ll be a pain.”
“You’re not gonna be a pain. You’re going to be adorable like always, and we’re going to be late if we don’t head off soon.” It’s not like the tickets had time details on them, but, shh, minor, unnecessary details.
~~~
Xisuma held Grian’s hand, not wanting him to wonder off. He had slipped a short while ago, Xisuma could tell just by his body language, besides the fact that his speech was a dead give away. They had gotten a few strange looks but Grian didn’t seem to notice so X shrugged them off. Nothing he needed to worry about.
“Wook! Wook X!” Grian pointed to a tank containing cod.
Xisuma couldn’t help but being amused. Of course in a place full of all types of unique fish the first one Grian would be drawn to would be the cod.
“Timmy would wike dos.”
“I bet he would.” X agrees.
“Otay, let’s go dis way.” He tugs on Xisuma’s hand and the two make their way down the hallway.
~~~
There were so many pretty fish that Grian hadn’t ever seen before. He points them all out to his caregiver. There were ones he knew. Axolotls and turtles. Of course tropical fish and dolphins, but there were so many others.
Like there were otters! Which Xisuma had to point out that, ‘no, Grian, those aren’t fish’ which hadn’t stopped Grian from calling them fish.
“Fuzzy fish.”
“No.”
“Fuzzy fish?”
“Again, no.”
“Hmm, yes. Fuzzy fish.”
“Let’s just move on from the ‘fuzzy fish.’”
~~~
“It’s a chicken in a suit.”
“Well, kind of. It’s a peingiun.”
Grian ignores this little bit of information. “I t’ought you said dis was an aq-u-i-um, chickens aren’t fishes.” Grian starts to laugh then gasps suddenly. “Chickens are fishes!”
“No Grian, no they’re not.”
It’s too late. “Fish chickens!”
Xisuma was beginning to regret his life choices leading up to this moment.
~~~
“Sea flap flaps!” Grian pointed to a tank labeled, ‘sting ray.’
“I’m pretty sure you are reading that wrong, it’s pronounced ‘sea pancake’.” Xisuma had given up trying to correct the age regressor at this point on what the names of all the creatures were, seeing as it was only egging him on, and at this moment was just going along with it.
Grian gasps. “Sea pancake!” He giggles. “I wove it! Dos are my new favorites!”
“I thought you liked the octopus.”
“Well yeah, it was so cute! An tiny.” Grian cups his hands together. “It was dis big, and I wove it as well.”
“X? Can I eat the sea flap flap?”
“No, Grian you can’t.”
“Just one chimp?”
“No, Grian.”
“But you said it was a pancake? I’m confused.”
“Come on, let’s find somewhere and go eat a snack.”
~~~
They stopped to eat a snack and go look at the gift store. Xisuma could already predict how this was going to end up.
Can I get a plushie?”
“Gri, don’t you have like, ten at home?”
Grian stands looking appalled. “You can never have too many plushies! Besides, look at this one!” He picks up a shark plush. “Rawr!” Grian giggled setting it down again in favor of running off to a different part of the gift shop.
He return not even a full two minutes later with his arms full.
“Wan all these!” Grian chirps, face hidden behind plushes.
“There must be 15 toys there, one little boy can’t possible want all of these.” Xisuma removes an otter that Grian’s face was hiding behind.
The little hums. “Actually I think you meant to say ‘Grian yes! Get all of dem!’”
Xisuma sighs. “One. You can chose, one.”
“Three?”
“How do you think I’m going to agree to three if I just said you can have one?”
“Umm... two?”
Xisuma doesn’t give in. “One.” He tries to say it with authority, but it’s extremely hard when Grian’s looking at him with the saddest puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen as he’s slowly putting back stuffed animals. “Bu- bu I wove dem already.”
“Fine you can have two, no more though.”
“Yes!”
And Xisuma knows he’s just been manipulated by a mentally 5 year old, he doesn’t need any reminders on that.
“Thank you X.” Grian grins, sorting through toys to find the two he wants.
Yeah, it was totally worth it. “No problem.”
Grian then has the hard decision of picking two new stuffed friends. He final choices comes down to three. The first is a small, red color octopus with a little mustache and a monocle that Grian instantly has fallen in love with it. The next one is a stuffed sting ray toy, or as Grian calls it, ‘sea pancake’ but it actually looks like a pancake, tan in color with ‘maples syrup’ and ‘butter’ on top. And last but not least is a pink axolotl that reminds Grian of Lizzie.
And if course Xisuma caves and buys him all three. But in his defense he’s making it up to Grian for any missed opportunities to get plushies when he was actually a child. It isn’t because he couldn’t say no to puppy dog eyes or has a major soft spot for his hermits. No, of course not. That would be ridiculous.
“Are you sure you got everything?” Xisuma asks playfully while the two are checking out, grabbing Grian’s arm before he can run off and find something else.
“Yes, t’ank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
~~~
“But I wanna keep wooking at da fishes.” They’ve spent another half hour going back to Grian’s favorite exhibits before Xisuma mentions that they need to start heading back to their home server.
“I know Gri, but we’ve got to start heading back. It’s getting late.”
Grian stomped his foot. “No.”
“Grian.”
“No!” He shouted, starting to sniffle. “No. Wanna look at da fishies more.”
Xisuma sighed, he really didn’t want to make a scene here. “I promise that we can come back another day, but it’s getting late, and a certain little guy needs to go get some food.” And probably a nap.
“Had goldfishies.”
“No, you need proper food, so you can grow all big and strong.”
He hides behind his plushes. “No wanna.”
“Sorry little one, but this isn’t really an option.” Xisuma not going to sit and argue about this with Grian. He bends down to pick the little one up, just in case he gets any wild ideas about trying to run away. “We had a fun day out though, right?”
Grian nods.
“So I promise I’ll take you back here again some time, okay?”
“Otays.”
Grian says, resting his head against X’s shoulder.
“Ready to return then bubs?”
He clutches his toys tightly to his chest. “Ready.”