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A little known fact about Pete was that he liked waking up before the sun, there's always something refreshing about it. There was something magical about being able to do stuff and just get a breath of the morning air, being completely undisturbed by other people who were yet to leave their beds.
Even during MCC he still kept up this sleep schedule, sure he often went to bed way earlier than most others and lost a bit of social interaction. But even if he wasn’t with others all the time, he was still more than satisfied with the amount he just hung out with his friends, so it really wasn’t an issue. Plus he wouldn’t miss watching the sunrise for the world.
If the silence was magical, then the sunrise was something straight out of a fantasy novel.
Pete's favorite thing was the sunrise, the morning colors slowly melting away the darkness which had swept everywhere just a few moments prior.
Today was the first day of MCC, and Pete, as usual, was up earlier than anyone else. At least he assumed them to be asleep, considering how quiet the night was. And yet he got dressed in his outfit that he would wear for the event. It was nothing really fancy, but it was comfortable and he was easily able to move around freely in it, which was nice.
And so he left his room, a water bottle in one hand and his shoes in the other. As he quietly turned the door knob, hearing it open with a soft click, he peeked out into the common room, and to no one's surprise he found it completely empty. All the doors that led to the other contestants' rooms were closed too, which meant they were most likely asleep.
He made his way to the door that led out into the hotel hallways as quietly as possible. The walls weren’t exactly thin, however if too much noise was made, you would still be able to hear through it. And Pete didn’t want to risk waking anyone up, especially not when it was a few hours before MCC and people needed as much rest as they could get.
He stepped out into the hallway and immediately noticed it was slightly colder than the hotel room he had just been in just a few moments prior. He shivered a small bit as his body adjusted to the temperature.
It wasn’t like it was bad at all, Pete had done this plenty of times before, so he put his water down and his shoes on, before as quietly as possible making his way down the hallway. Curse Scott for putting him in one of the last 5 teams, which meant he was also towards the end of the hall.
Normally he was on the Orange Ocelots, but no, he just had to have been placed on the Blue Bats. In all honesty, Pete didn’t care too much, it was only a few meters further where he had to walk quietly and he was one of the lucky people who were able to participate in such a wonderful event, so he had no room to complain about what team color he was on.
Anyway, he made his way down the hall, not worrying about being too quiet, everyone was already asleep and normally wouldn't be woken up by someone walking a couple of rooms over.
There were a couple of Noxcrew members he passed by on his way to the door of the hotel, all of them looking like they had just been woken up. Except Aeltumn, otherwise known as Danny, who seemed like he hadn’t slept yet.
He gave them a short greeting, but otherwise didn’t want to disturb their work, so he left them to their own devices.
Soon he made it to the front door of the hotel and out into the morning air, where dew clung to the grass around the entrance.
Pete walked past the garden and went straight for the training area. It wasn’t a far walk, a couple of minutes at most. It was to the left of the hotel and if you followed the path to the right, it would take you to the boarding station, where you could take an airship up to the now floating island where the event itself would take place.
Once he had made it to the training area, he paused for a moment as he considered his options. Ace Race? Sure, Pete loved the game, it was one of his favorites! But he wasn’t particularly fussed about getting onto the leaderboard where everyone was competitive.
Rocket Spleef was another option, but he had already mastered the dolphin dive and it wasn’t as fun alone as it was with other people. He grinned at the memory of watching Grian slam head first into the ground while trying to learn the dive that Pete was so well known for.
He looked towards the parkour course at the very end of the training area. That could definitely be fun, he always enjoyed a good challenge. And sure, he would never beat the time Dream had set for the leaderboard, but it was still good to get at least a little practice in before the event, as a warm up. Especially if parkour tag was picked, or any other movement game for that matter.
And so the slime hybrid made up his mind before walking towards the parkour course.
The first part of the course he cleared with ease, the tricky part was really the later stages of it, such as the ladder neos. If he had practiced them a lot, he would be able to do it. However, he hadn’t done a single ladder neo in months, making them much harder than he remembered.
He checked his time, about 17 minutes in and he was on the last part. The tower you had to climb using the steel trapdoors.
Once Pete had been so familiar with the rhythm and how to climb it and although he was a little rusty with how to properly make the jumps now, he eventually managed to get to the top without hurting himself too badly.
There had been a lot of injuries from different contestants over the tower in the past. Either hitting their head on the trapdoors above them, or when they fell trying to catch themself so they didn’t have to start over, hurting their arms in the process.
There was a reason MCC had a medic team, despite there usually not being any permanent death or wounds.
And so he sat there, at the top of the tower, watching over the land and enjoying the feeling of wind. It always felt a little odd being the only one in the usually lively training area. But the silence was nice, it was relaxing. Sometimes the slime hybrid got overwhelmed, since he occasionally had problems with sensory overload.
- - -
Sapnap couldn’t sleep. Too many thoughts ran through his head at too fast of a speed for him to even properly know what he was thinking.
All of the thoughts he could make out however, were negative. About how he wasn’t good enough, he was a disgrace. Useless.
The digital clock next to his bed was the only thing illuminating the dark room, it read 4:07 in red numbers. The ravenette had managed to get around an hour of sleep at most, which definitely wasn’t ideal considering the event was starting in a couple of hours and being sleep deprived really wasn’t what would make you perform well.
Even from the other room, Sapnap could hear George's snores. They weren’t loud, he could only hear them because there was nothing else to listen to, or well, for a few minutes that was.
The last thing Sapnap expected to hear in the middle of the night was footsteps. They were coming from the hall and sounded like the noise was bouncing off the walls.
Who was awake at a time like this? Everyone knew how important it was to be well rested.
The best example was during MCC 7, where Techno had been awake all night studying for buildmart and while his team had won, he had been so tired that he had dropped the shopping list he had made multiple times and had almost lost it on various occasions. He had taken the shopping cart into too many walls and the other contestants collecting items had been able to slowly hear him getting more and more frustrated.
It peaked Sapnaps curiosity over who was awake, but he also really just did not want to get out of bed. It was warm and comfortable.
But the silence was deafening and too many negative thoughts rummaged through his brain.
So eventually he rolled over and out of bed, hitting the floor with a thud. The duvet wrapped around him, trapping him slightly.
After wrestling a bit with the inanimate item, as well as a couple of swears, Sapnap emerged victorious from his prison and walked over to his dresser, where the team outfit that had been picked was laying. It was really just a simple varsity jacket in the team color. After many events, Sapnap had come to the conclusion that he just liked those types of jackets the most, as they didn’t get in the way while fighting and didn’t restrict his movements in any way.
It only took a couple of minutes to get ready and it wasn’t before long that he was sneaking out of the hotel room. He just hoped his teammates wouldn’t worry too much if they woke up and he was gone.
But then again, MCC was one of the safest events there was, so really there was nothing to worry about.
Did it even matter if something happened to him? Would anyone notice?
The walk out of the hotel wasn’t long, there were a couple of other people awake and for a moment Sapnap contemplated that maybe it had just been Scott who had walked past to help with something. But that would be ridiculous, Scott was the event organizer, Noxcrew were the ones who made it. What would they need Scott for in the middle of the night?
He wasn’t sure what possessed him to go outside, much less towards the training area. Maybe it was the need for fresh air, a change in environment, or perhaps there was something else.
But whatever it was, it caused Sapnap to stand at the front of the parkour course. Well, parkour was a good distraction, so he started to run the course, getting through the first half with practiced ease. Sure there were a couple of falls, but he only really started to struggle properly when he reached the last area.
Even then, it took a little bit to reach the dreaded tower. Sapnap despised it with every fiber of his being. He didn’t understand why anyone would subject themselves to even attempting that.
The hate ran so deep that for a moment he considered just skipping it entirely. However in the end, his stubbornness won and he started the ascend. It took a couple of tries for him to reach the top. As he dragged his body up towards the edge, was when he noticed he wasn’t alone.
At the top of the tower, near the edge sat PeteZahHutt himself. The slime hybrid was sitting with his legs crossed, staring at Sapnap. The older's eyes were completely black and yet they still seemed to hold some confusion. But also something close to pride.
The latter of those was definitely confusing to Sapnap. What was there to be proud of?
Before the blaze hybrid could voice his confusion Pete spoke up. “That was really impressive. Way better than how I did.”
Sapnaps confusion only grew by that. What was there to be proud of? Dreams' times were all much better than his and Pete was literally known as the first person to ever complete the parkour.
In the end, the silence stretched on long enough to make it a little awkward, so Sapnap cleared his throat and changed the topic. “So uh, why are you awake?”
Dumb question, but Pete didn’t seem too bothered by it. “I like waking up before the sun, it feels empowering. And you?”
Huh, out of all the answers Sapnap had expected, that was the last one on his list. And yet it felt oddly in character. Of course the strongest competitor would like to wake up before the sun.
He once again forgot to reply, however this time the silence wasn’t nearly as long before he remembered and cleared his throat. “I couldn’t sleep.” The answer was short, but it seemed to satisfy the slime hybrid who hummed. “Getting proper rest is important for this event. You of all people should know this, is everything alright?”
Sapnap almost got whiplash with how fast Pete went from sounding like a scolding parent, to someone worried about his health.
For a moment, Sapnap wasn’t sure how to respond. He could be honest and talk to someone who probably wouldn’t judge him and even if they did he wasn’t close enough to them for him to care. He could just get everything off his chest. But on the other hand, what if Pete was a big gossiper and suddenly the entire event knew? It wasn’t likely at all, but that didn’t stop his anxiety from saying it was going to happen.
After a lot of internal debate Sapnap spoke up.
“Do you ever get weighed down by others' expectations?”
That seemed to take Pete by surprise. Even if he didn’t have any iris, the slime's eyes widened slightly. He was very expressive, Sapnap noted.
It seemed to take a while for Pete to properly be able to put his thoughts into words, although eventually he spoke up.
“No one can have higher expectations for you than yourself. Sure, sometimes I set my expectations for myself too high. But I surround myself with good people who can help pick me back up again.”
Pete tried to look Sapnap in the eyes, as if staring right into his soul. Sapnaps gaze however, was fixated on the ground. His friends were all competitive, someone who would make light hearted jabs if he didn’t perform is best. Which only served to put down his self confidence even more. They didn’t mean to of course! Sapnap never told them, it was his own fault.
Despite all that, he wasn’t sure how to word that properly, so he settled with a small, “Thank you.” Which sounded weak even to the blaze hybrid.
Pete hummed and steered his gaze towards the training area, just watching the empty streets. And Sapnap followed his lead, although he wasn’t sure what they were looking for.
“Why?”
Sapnap looked at Pete, surprised the conversation was continuing. “What?” Was all he could ask before Pete elaborated. “Why do you feel like you aren’t enough? I mean you’re probably one of the best players in the event.”
Sapnap scoffed at that sentiment which only prompted the other to continue. “You’re a top placer at every event and a fan favorite. People always predict your teams high, solely because you’re in them.”
Pete mostly kept his face neutral, mostly because he wasn’t sure how Sapnap would react if the slime would smile. Mostly because it seemed like there were stars in his eyes because of a simple compliment.
He couldn’t help but wonder. “What did they do to you kid?” But he didn’t dare think his thoughts out loud.
While Pete was in his own mind, Sapnap finally found the proper words to answer Petes question.
“It’s just-” Sapnap already cut himself off, great start. “-You guys all know what you’re doing, you seem to just have everything planned out. You all have things to be remembered for. And me? Nothing. There’s not a single accomplishment I have that compares to you.”
Sapnaps eyes began to light up slightly with unshed tears. Pete didn’t even know he had lava tears until this very moment.
Due to the silence, Sapnap just continued. “Like, you and Techno had games changed because of you. Then there’s Dream who got Parkour Warrior removed. People like Seepeekay who try harder than anyone else.” Sapnap cut himself off with a sob, a couple of tears now free falling down his cheeks. “I wasn’t even the first back-to-back winner, both of my closest friends got that title before me- and I even failed at being the first 5 time winner-”
Sapnap seemed like he was able to keep going, but he was already distressed enough, so Pete cut him off by pulling him into a hug. It was a little awkward at first, clearly Sapnap didn’t know that many slime hybrids, so the cold of the jelly-like skin was unexpected.
Eventually Sapnap got used to the odd texture and buried his face in Pete's shoulder. Sob raked through his body and tears streamed down his face. Right now, the tears and the fire of the torches were the only thing illuminating the area.
His tears.
He tried to move away from Pete, but the slime only held him tighter. “It’s okay.” He reassured, but Sapnap wasn’t convinced. “Burning.” The blaze managed to choke out in between sobs.
Pete's cold hand came up to slowly massage Sapnaps scalp. “Don’t worry about me, the slime will melt slightly, but it’ll come back. I’ll be okay.”
It helped him calm down a little bit, but every time he felt he was about to relax enough to stop crying, another thought put himself down.
Useless, weak, burden.
“Why can't I ever be good enough?” Sapnap practically wailed. And Pete began rocking them back and forth slightly. “You are. You’re more than enough. You don’t have to be perfect.” The reassurances were simple enough that Sapnap could understand them, even through his half clouded mind.
If they had been more complicated, Sapnap probably wouldn’t have been able to understand it. It was almost like he had done this before.
After what felt like forever Sapnaps sobs finally calmed down to sniffles and he pulled back to wipe his own tears, god he really was a pitiful sight right now. But Pete just looked at him with worry and understanding, something the blaze didn’t feel like he deserved.
“Sorry about that.” Sapnap said, wiping more tears and Pete gave him a gentle smile. “It seemed like you needed it.”
“Yeah but it’s stupid. ”
Pete stared blankly at him for a moment, to Sapnap it seemed to stretch on forever. Had he messed up? Was Pete mad at him? God why did he open his mouth- “Not at all. I know you may feel alone in this, but trust me, a lot of people compare themselves and feel bad. Or like they let other people down. But you should know that an individual placement doesn’t define you.”
Sapnap scoffed not quite believing Pete, but also the idea that he wasn’t alone warmed his heart. He spoke extremely quietly. “Who?”
This time the slime hybrid seemed a little hesitant to speak, as if he was unsure if he should mention anyway. In the end however, he did speak up. “Grian.”
“Huh? But why? He’s the best buildmart player, everyone loves him!” Pete shrugged. “I don’t know how his brain works. But when his team lost dodgebolt in MCC 16 he felt as if it was his fault and he had let everyone down. It took both Fruit and I over an hour to get him to calm down.”
Now that Sapnap could relate to, feeling as if you let your entire team down. No one deserved that feeling, especially not someone as nice as Grian.
The blaze wasn’t sure what to respond to the reveal and Pete didn’t seem to mind the silence too much. The ravenette was simply in his own head when Pete eventually broke the silence.
“Look, the sun is rising.”
Perhaps it was a symbol of a new day, that things had changed. But Sapnap didn’t care, instead he let out a yawn, everything suddenly felt heavy and he let his head rest on Pete’s shoulder who in turn wrapped an arm around him.
And so Sapnap fell asleep there.
Pete's plans of training had been thoroughly derailed, but with Sapnap asleep on his shoulder he couldn’t be upset in the slightest. And so he enjoyed the sunrise, soft snores and the birds being the only noises in the air.
- - -
MCC was over and Sapnaps team hadn’t won. But unlike usual, he hadn’t even checked his individual score. After his conversation with Pete, he had tried not to worry too much about where he placed, but rather on having fun.
And this was probably one of the MCCs where he had the most fun for a long time. It was different, nice. He felt relaxed walking along the beach, everyone was chatting about the event. But he was content to just be himself.
There were some footsteps in the sand and Sapnap came face to face with the very person who had brought him to this moment, Pete, he was smiling brightly.
“Did you have fun?” He asked and Sapnap couldn’t remember the last time someone had asked that over where he placed individually. It almost made him tear up again, but this time he was in public, so he quickly composed himself, but he still couldn’t stop himself from the smile on his face. “Yeah. I did. And you?”
“I did. Oh! And congratulations on your first place!” Sapnap was confused at that, his team hadn’t won. “What?”
Pete gave a small chuckle. “Individual placement of course.”
Oh. Wait- “I placed first individually?” Pete hummed. “Yep, you beat me by around 230 coins. Good job!”
That was definitely surprising, Sapnap didn’t feel like he had done well, but maybe he had been too harsh on himself. Yet he remembered something that Pete had said to him. “Didn’t you say that individual standings doesn’t define you?”
Pete nodded. “They don’t, you can have off days where you don’t do as well. But just because you shouldn’t put yourself down if you don’t place as high as usual, doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your victories.”
The other couldn’t do anything but nod, it would take a while to finally understand and change his brain to think that anything less than first was okay, but he felt ready.
- - -
A little known fact about the Dream Team is that once a month, they would write their MCC applications together. They didn’t need to, but it was nice and Sapnap enjoyed their banter.
They would make predictions for where they placed, or talk about what games they wanted to be played. It was relaxing and it was one of the few times that Sapnap felt there was less pressure on him in regards to MCC.
That led to now, each of them just filling out information that Scott already knew, just how to get into contact with them, where the coin should be sent to if they won. Stuff like that.
The last question however, is “Who do you want to be teamed with?” It was never a guarantee that your wish could be granted. But Scott tried his hardest.
The Dream team always wrote each other's names in the hope that maybe one day, they could be teamed again. It was unlikely, but not impossible. The day those 3 all got back together on a team again, is the day that Pete and HBomb get teamed once more.
Today however, Sapnap hesitated when answering that question. Dream and George always brought the most competitive side out of him, the one who couldn’t fail no matter what.
And there were other people in the event who felt like him and Sapnap could help them, he could be the support player they needed.
“Sapnap?” Dreams' voice brought him back to reality as he looked up from the paper. “Yes?” He was met with the sight of his best friends looking rather worried. “Are you okay? You just kind of zoned out.”
The blaze looked over his friends papers, they had already filled out all the information needed. Sapnap still hadn’t answered the last question.
“Oh yeah, sorry I’m fine.” He turned back to his paper and wrote down the name of someone he wanted to be teamed with. Dream stood up, first taking his own and George's paper before moving on, walking over to where Sapnap was sitting and picking his up too.
His green eyes scanned the page. “Grian? Really?”
George spoke up before Sapnap could respond. “Wait, what about Grian?”
Dream laughed as he clutched the papers. “Sapnap wrote down that he wanted to be teamed with Grian of all people.”
Sapnap was getting annoyed. How dared they talk like it was a bad thing. “What about it? Grian’s a good player.” Sapnap wanted to say more, but he knew that individual placement was all Dream cared about.
“I never said that, he’s a good buildmart player.” Dream back tracked, clearly surprised that Sapnap was so defensive in regards to who he wanted to be teamed with.
“He also did a 3v1 against Fruit and Illumina.” Sapnap was quick to shoot back. It simply made Dream roll his eyes. “So what, you’re teaming with him just because he can be good at some things?”
Sapnap took a step forward until he was face to face with Dream. “No, I wrote his name down because sometimes you need someone who can help you see that you’re good enough even if you aren’t always a top 10 player.”
Before anyone could say anything, Sapnap turned around and walked away. He could hear George call out his name, but he ignored it.
Sapnap loved his friends more than anything and he would apologize soon, but in this moment it wasn’t good for his mental state to be around someone who put people down because they weren’t as good as others, the very thing which had caused Sapnap to struggle with his self worth.
Sapnap deserved someone who could help pick him up when he was low. And right now he wasn’t 100% sure the Dream Team would do that.
Maybe it was selfish, maybe it was the idea that Sapnap had something to gain from leaving the conversation, that he could change how Dream saw things. It was a stupid thing, knowing how stubborn the blonde was, especially when it came to his views.
But Sapnap could hope.
Because he loved his family.