Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Okay, so maybe Grian had been building no stop for a week straight, and maybe he was practically falling asleep on his feet, but he didn’t think that he was going that bad; he wasn’t the only Hermit to do this sort of stuff either! However, that did not change the fact that he was currently being locked in his bedroom, in his incomplete mega base, by Keralis, who was just staring at him with raised eyebrows.

“Keralis, I’m fine. Look, I ate as you told me to, I had water, and I even showered! Can I please go back to building now?”

Keralis only sighed, before pointing at Grian’s nest, causing the parrot hybrid’s wings to puff up in agitation. 

“Not until you get a proper night's rest.” He insisted, lowering his hand before crossing his arms.

“But I did as you asked!” Grian whined, a pout forming on his face as his desire to keep building while he had the inspiration to do so was still strong.

“And now I am telling you to get some sleep, a full night’s sleep in fact before you are allowed to go back to building.”

Grian huffed, his arms also crossing. “How would you know if I went back to building the moment you leave?”

Keralis smirked, “oh, trust me,” his eyes turned pitch black as he spoke his next few words, “I would know.” His eyes changed back, and he was forced to hold back his laughter at Grian’s face. “Now get a full night’s sleep and then you can go back to building.”
Grian groaned as he stalked over to his nest, dramatically flopping into it and curling up on his side, one wing stretched out behind him, the other draped over him like a blanket. “I hate this server!” He whined, causing Kerlais to roll his eyes at his dramatics.

“I’m sure you do Sweetface.” He hummed, moving over to press a kiss to the pouting parrot’s forehead. “Get some rest and this won’t have to happen again.”

With that, Keralis left the room, positive that Grian would be listening to his advice on getting some sleep, otherwise he would just be trapped there longer.

Chapter Text

Of course, Xisuma thought, it had to happen during a meeting. The Admin had found that instances like these always had to happen during a meeting, as he was now watching Mumbo and Scar trying their hardest to hold Grian back from killing Doc, while the rest of the Hermits watched on and were trying hard not to laugh. Was it Doc’s fault, yes, but Grian really should have seen it coming anyway.

The conversation that had started this was a simple question from Scar about things that the Hermits had done when they were younger. Of course, there were quite a few Hermits who had opted out of answering, not wanting to think back on their childhoods, but Grian had been up to answering Scar’s question and was just starting his story.

“When I was little-” he had started only to be cut off by Doc’s laughter, the creeper hybrid trying his hardest to stop laughing when he noticed everyone staring at him in confusion.

When he managed to get his laughter under control, he turned to look Grian dead in the eyes, having to look down since Grian was the shortest Hermits and he was the tallest, he deadpanned, “when? You’re still little now.”

Grian had stared up at Doc for a moment, before launching himself at the creeper hybrid, only being held back by Mumbo’s quick reflexes managing to grab hold of the back of Grian’s jumper and doing his best to hold on, despite the flapping wings that Grian had, while waiting for Scar to grab Grian as well to prevent him from trying to tear Doc's throat out for the comment.

As Xisuma watched on, the Admin could only sigh, burying his helmeted head in his hands. How had he managed to get stuck with the Hermits as the Players he has sworn to protect?

Chapter Text

It was game night on the Hermitcraft Server, and Zed had decided that it would be a good idea to play truth or dare. No one had argued, so the game was started, everyone gathering in a circle, and Zed going first.

Nothing had gone horrible, a shocking turn of events for the Hermits, and by the time Joe’s turn had arrived, with just about everyone else having had a go, everyone knew that this would be where something would go wrong; it had been too long without something going wrong, and judging by the look on Joe’s face as he scanned over the gathered Hermits, this would be it, and the tension was building.

“First, can I ask two people?” Joe questioned, having spotted two people that his truth or dare would be very effective on and wanting to get them both.

There was a brief moment of hesitation, surprisingly, the Hermits having never thought of playing that way, before an overly enthusiastic Scar, hyped up on the five boxes of chocolate he was dared to eat in two minutes, told Joe that it should be fine but the same rules applied.

Joe smirked as his eyes gained a mischievous look, his sights once again set on the two Hermits who had been severely overworking themselves in the past two and a half weeks. “Xisuma, Grian. Truth or dare.”
The pair who had been addressed turned to the other in shock, before a brief discussion was had over what to do. Once they were in agreement as to which option they would choose, Xisuma turned back to Joe. “Truth.”

“How many hours have you two slept over the past two and a half weeks?” Joe asked, his smirk widening at the panic that crossed the Admin and builder’s face.

A brief moment of spluttering later, Grian was calling out, “dare!”

Joe could only laugh. “Go to sleep, both of you.”
X just buried his face in his hands, a whine slipping past his lips no matter how hard he had tried to stifle it, and Grian flopped back dramatically, being careful of his wings. “I hate this game,” he muttered, resolutely ignoring the laughter that was sounding out around him.

Needless to say, the pair were forced to sleep by Keralis later that night, the very real threat of being locked in their rooms enough motivation to actually get some sleep.

Chapter Text

It was MCC and Grian had been placed on a team with Jimmy, Martyn, and Scar. All three were significantly taller than him, and Grian just knew that Scott had been laughing when he decided to make the four a group. Martyn was currently out on the battlefield, Scar had been taken down already, and Jimmy and Grian were currently hiding behind a wall, Jimmy easily being able to peak his head over the wall to see what was going on behind it, however Grian was just short enough that he was unable to see over it, even when he stood on his tiptoes; judging by the sounds of swords clashing, bow strings vibrating, and potions bottles shattering, the fighting was going strong, and Grian was desperate to see what was going on.

“What’s going on out there?” He hissed at Jimmy, who was readying his bow and arrows to hopefully get a hit on someone while Grian frantically looked through his inventory for something that he could use, having lost his sword a few minutes prior.

Glancing down at his older, yet shorted, brother, Jimmy smirked before speaking, “would you like me to describe it to you, or shall I find you a box?”

Grian glared at his younger brother, who was now doubled over in his, mostly silent, laughter, bow now laying forgotten in his amusement, and just knew that Scott had paired them together for laughs. He was so getting him back for this, just as soon as he knew what was happening behind the wall so he could hunt Scott down; he would get Jimmy back for that comment after the tournament was over, and he had so many ideas on what he could do to get his revenge.

Chapter Text

Scar and Grian had been messing around in Mumbo’s industrial district, having been looking for the man himself but ended up getting distracted on the way, their eyes darting around to look at each redstone contraption that the moustached redstoner had meticulously created. They were unable to stop themselves from pushing the various buttons, and pulling the levers that were scattered around the place; curiosity killed the cat after all, and both Grian and Scar were very curious people who had an affinity for messing with things that they really shouldn't be messing with. 

One of the machines happened to be incomplete however, and Grian would swear that the only reason it broke when he pressed the button, Scar hovering over his shoulder, was because Mumbo had placed a button on it in the first place. Now left staring at the ruined machine, Grian turned to Scar, a suggestion that they should flee before Mumbo finds out on the tip of his tongue when someone clears their throat behind them. 

Guiltily, Scar and Grian turn to face Mumbo, the vampire looking severely unimpressed by their presence and the broken machine.

“We can explain?” Scar squeaked, the elf tangling his fingers together harshly, causing Grian to reach over and pull them apart, Mumbo’s eyes following the movement and softening ever so slightly.

Despite Mumbo’s slightly softened mood, he raises an eyebrow, “can you really?” he asks, disbelief colouring his voice.

Grian grinned slyly, hand still holding one of Scar’s, his thumb soothing over Scar's knuckles. “If you give us 30 seconds to think up a lie we can!”

Mumbo could only sigh, “you really have nothing? Nothing at all?”

“I mean,” Grian started, letting go of Scar’s hand in favour of placing said hand on his hip and leveling Mumbo with an unimpressed look of his own, “if it was incomplete, why did it have a button on it in the first place? That was just asking for someone to come along and press the button and break it.”

Mumbo went to answer, but found that he had no actual response to that. Rolling his eyes instead, he let the pair go, warning them not to do it again, despite knowing that this wouldn’t be the last time something would break because it had a button on it; this was Scar and Grian after all, and while he loved them to bits, their curiosity was know to overshadow their sensibility.

Chapter Text

Scar had been showing Grian around his Elven Tree base, having just finished the massive structure, when he slipped and fell down the haphazardly constructed spiral staircase that he had made to get to the top of the tree if he ever wanted to walk up it rather than use the elytra he was soon to get. It was in that moment, while tumbling down the stairs, when he regretted the fact that he hadn’t actually taken the time to make sure that it was stable and easy to get up and down, especially with someone walking next to you; while Grian was able to just fly back down the the bottom, he had wanted to walk next to Scar on the way down, the pair having only recently become a couple.

He hit the ground a few moments after he fell, head pounding from how many time it hit the stairs, and body severely bruised, when he heard a very panicked Grian fly down next to him, kneeling beside his fallen body and doing a quick examination to see just how badly Scar had managed to injure himself.

“Are you okay? That was a lot of stairs to fall down.” Grian asked, panic lacing his voice, causing it to be an octave higher than normal, hands hovering over Scar's body as if scared to cause more damage with his touch.

Scar, trying to think with the concussion that he was sure to have, just stared up at Grian, who was haloed with the light filtering through the leaves above them causing him to look like an angel, eyes full of so much love, just said, “I appear to have fallen for you.”

Grian immediately turned a bright red, his communicator now half pulled out, as he spluttered and chirped over Scar’s comment, before he eventually composed himself enough to contact Doc, the resident medic on the server, to come and check up on Scar since he had fallen down the stairs of the massive tree that the elf had built, gaining a response from Doc only a few moments later, letting the parrot hybrid know that he was on his way.

Chapter Text

Grian had been sitting in Rowan’s office, waiting for his gym teacher to arrive so he could be informed on why he was sitting here, when he had plans to hang out with Taurtis, now that he was out of the hospital, before classes started; he hadn't really seen his best friend yet and this was just eating into the time he had to spend with him, so Grian wasn't happy that he was sitting here. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait very long, but still, he would have preferred not to have been here in the first place, especially since he had no idea why he was even here.

When the door eventually opened, Rowan stepped inside, apologising for taking so long. He took the seat across from Grian, and steepled his fingers together, looking at the young parrot hybrid.

“I know this school doesn’t have a guidance counsellor,” he started, pausing when Grian snorted before immediately turning red and stuttering out a small apology, “but I wanted to ask, what are your plans for the future?”

Grian stared at his gym teacher, mentally going over his plans. “You mean lunch?” Grian found himself asking, not knowing what else Rowan could be asking; what would he plan for the future anyway when the possibility that he was going to die was high.

“No,” Rowan sighed, mentally face palming, “I meant long term plans.”

“Dinner?” Grian couldn’t stop himself from asking, both to get on his gym teachers nerves and because that was as far as his plans for life typically went, getting a groan from Rowan as he dragged his hand down his face in exasperation.

Grian was given permission to leave soon after, Rowan having received nothing about what Grian had planned for when he, hopefully, left Akidemi, and Grian hurrying on his way to see Taurtis.

Chapter Text

Xisuma and Xander had been up all night, and the past three nights as well, working on Hermitcraft’s code. Xander may only be here for this season, but that didn’t mean that he got to escape his Admin work while he was here; Xisuma would take all the help he could get with Hermitcraft. Xisuma had started up the coffee machine that Cub had been so kind as to make him for Christmas the previous year, and now all he and Xander had to do was wait for the machine to make them their coffees and then add what they wanted into it. Sure, both were fully capable of making it on their own, and it probably took less time in the end as well, but the machine just meant that there was less work that they had to do to get the sacred caffeinated beverage.

Eventually, the little machine had brewed two cups of the dark, bitter liquid and now the twin Admins were able to add in their desired additives to make it more palatable. Xisuma always added in two teaspoons of sugar and a splash of milk and cream, while Xander only added in sugar. Today, however, it seemed that Xander was more exhausted than he was letting on as, while X was carefully measuring out his sugar, his twin had grabbed the salt and poured it in, not even bothering to measure anything out. 

It was only when he was stirring in the salt did Xander realise his mistake, but by then it was too late for him to change it, so he resigned himself to drinking salty coffee.

“You know you can just admit you made a mistake and make a new cup, right?” Xisuma asked, putting away the mink and cream and taking a long sip of his coffee.

Xander, still stirring in the salt, responded, doing his best to save his pride, “I happen to like it this way,” and proceeded to take a drink, only to spit it out in the sink, much to Xisuma’s amusement.

“I’ll get the machine going again, hmm?”

Chapter Text

It was an early morning on Hermitcraft, and Grian was curled up into Mumbo’s side, his lover’s arm holding him tight to his body. This had been the first night Grian had fallen asleep in the past week and a half, motivation having taken over his mind and forcing him to build lest the motivation to actually work on the back of his base leave him. He was sure he was in for a very long lecture when Mumbo woke up, but for now he would just bask in the warmth of his nest, his vampiric lover at his side.

He didn’t have much time to bask, as Mumbo stirred just moments after he resigned himself to his fate of being lectured. The soft hum that Mumbo had made while waking up clued him in on the fact that his time was up, however it seemed like he still had a bit of time as the fact that he had refused to sleep for the past week and a half didn’t get brought up until Mumbo had made some breakfast for the two, knowing that Grian had only eaten when he was starving rather that the two to three meals a day that he should have been eating.

Grian decided to see if he could escape the upcoming lecture with some flirting and flattery. “You know I love you so very much, you are the best thing I have in my life. I would do anything for you.” Grian said, fighting back a smirk when Mumbo flushed red.

“If that’s the case,” Mumbo started, once he had calmed down, and Grian knew that he had just messed up, “I want you to have three balanced meals a day and have a regular sleep schedule.”

“Okay, I love you, but not that much. Absolutely not.” Grian replied, eyes narrowing and wings fluffing up in distaste, getting a huff from Mumbo.

The lecture he got once they had finished eating, Grian stalling for as long as he could, ended up lasting well after they should have eaten lunch.

Chapter Text

Grian stumbled his way into his, Sam, and Taurtis’ shared dorm room, a hand pressing firmly against his side. Sam was currently out with Yuki, a small victory for Grian, so it was just Taurtis sitting on the couch, eyes glued on the game he was playing. Once Grian was positive that his friend was thoroughly distracted, Grian called out to his friend, asking where the first aid kit was.

“It should be under the bathroom sink,” Taurtis had called out distractedly, eyes not moving from the T.V. screen.

“Thanks,” Grian called out, making his way over to the bathroom and immediately beginning to rummage under the sink for said kit.

Once he found it, he pulled it out, and immediately started to work on his side; he had been stabbed while he was trying to do some shopping, and he knew better than to call an ambulance while he lived here. Thankfully, Rowan had taught him basic first aid recently, so he had a decent grasp on what he was doing. It was only when he was finishing up bandaging his stab wound, did he hear Taurtis yelp from the main room, before the hurried sound of feet hitting the ground could be heard, and Taurtis skidded to a halt in front of the bathroom.

“What did you need the kit for? How badly are you injured” Grian’s blue-clad friend asked, eyes immediately latching onto the bloody alcohol wipes and the bandages that Grian still held in his hand.

“I wasn’t injured, I was lightly stabbed,” Grian corrected him, gaining yet another yelp from Taurtis.

“You were stabbed?!”

“Lightly stabbed. See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you when I came in! I didn’t want to frighten you!”

Taurtis could only sigh as he knelt down next to Grian to help him finish bandaging up his wound. “You’re an idiot, but you are my idiot.” He huffed fondly, gaining an eye roll from Grian.

Chapter Text

Grian was working on Evo’s code, doing his best to fix as much of it as he could with the Watcher’s influence on the server, when he gave up, tossing his Admin panel to the side and flopping back on the ground, yelping in pain when he landed heavily on his wings. Shifting so he was no longer on them, he was approached by Martyn, who had been watching Grian struggle more and more with the code the longer he had been working on it; he knew better than to approach Grian while he was working on the code, not wanting to distract his Admin, so now that Grian was no longer working, he felt confident enough that he could talk with him.

“You okay over there, bud?” Martyn asked, moving so he could sit next to his Admin and friend.

Grian huffed. “I’m depressed, terrified that everyone will leave me one of these days, and now my server has been taken over by these deity-like beings. What do you think?”

“I think you need a break with your best friend.” Martyn told him, his worried gaze causing Grian to squirm.

“If you can tell me a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of being abandoned, and my depression, then I will go and hang out with you guys,” Grian conceded, sitting up and stretching his wings out.

“You and me.” Martyn answered without even hesitating, standing up and grabbing Grian’s hand to also pull him up.

Grian just stared at him for that answer, before tears filled his eyes and he threw himself at Martyn, wrapping the older man in a hug, tears slowly wetting his shoulder.

“Oh, okay.” Grian just whispered, holding Martyn as tight as he could, a small smile gracing his face when he felt Martyn hug him back.

“Come on, let’s go find Timmy and mess around with him.”

Chapter Text

Of course, Xisuma had to be dragged into this mess.

It had started when Grian, Scar, Zed, and Tango burst into his base, eyes wide and someone, it sounded like Doc, screaming out that he would be getting vengeance soon.

“What did you four do?” Xisuma sighed out, Xander sitting at his side, shaking with barely concealed laughter.

Grian, eyes wildly darting around the room, just said, “no one died!”
Xander was now full on laughing, his brother’s misery and the panic in Grian’s voice having been the tipping point.

“What kind of answer do you call that?!” Xisuma snapped, finally at the end of his rope, eye twitching as Doc’s voice only got louder as he slowly got closer.

“Hopefully an accurate one?” Scar tried, only for X to slam his head on the table, that held the Admin work he and his twin had previously been working on, as hard as he could.

“And you came to me, why?” Xisuma ground out, head now pounding from the sheer force of the hit.

Tango hummed, “because your base was the closest? I’m beginning to think that was a bad idea though.”

Xander, laughter having calmed down when his brother tried to give himself a concussion, nodded slowly, before jumping when the door slammed open once more, showing Doc, drenched in pink and magenta dye, standing there.

Xisuma wondered, in the back of his mind as he ignore the screams that could be heard, if there was a way he could leave the Hermits to fend for themselves and no longer have to worry about them, and then his comm pinged with the first of many death messages, and he knew that, no, there was no way they would be able to survive without him.

Chapter Text

Xisuma had been pulled aside for an interview during MCC, most Admins in attendance were, as many players wanted to know more about the Admins who did most of the work running a server, and what it was like being an Admin. There were, of course, the base questions, such as his name, what server he was the Admin of, how long he had been an Admin for, how many players inhabited said server, how many Moderators he had, why he became an Admin, that sort of thing. He answered them all, knowing that this might inspire some players to become Admins themselves, so he knew that he had to be professional during the interview.

He had managed to stay somewhat professional throughout the interview, until the questions that he had no idea why it was being asked, or how it had even been brought up, was asked.

“Do you have any children, and if so, how many children do you have?” The reporter asked, pen poised to record the answer.

Xisuma paused for a moment, actually having to think the question over, “biologically, legally, or emotionally. There is a difference.”

This caused the reporter to pause themself, confused by the offered question. “What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I asked, biological children, legally acquired children, or emotionally adopted children, because the answers are all different.”

The reporter just blinked before moving onto the next question, deciding against opening that particular can of worms which X was very grateful for as he didn't want to explain how he had managed to emotionally adopted each and every one of his Hermits.

Chapter Text

Grian was sitting on Bread Bridge, fingers tracing over the still counter that sat on his wrist, the numbers no longer moving for the break. He didn’t really understand why they were here, why they had been pulled into the death games, but the breaks in between the bloodlust and chaos were nice, even if the moments were short lived. He hummed, looking at the yellow numbers, when they flashed purple for a brief moment, and Grian was given the answer on why he, and everyone else, was here. With a sigh, he stood up, adopting a relaxed stance.

“You know, I know you are here now, why do you bother to hide yourself still?” Grian wondered, eyes flitting around the air surrounding him.

Nothing happened for a moment, and Grian was left to think that they really were cowards, when the air around him shimmered purple and a glowing purple eye appeared.

“Oh, so you can show yourself. I just thought you were a coward,” he taunted, a smirk on his face.

The eye narrowed at him. “You are in the presence of the Watchers, the ones who destroyed your server and took you captive. Cower before us. ”

“Nah, I don’t think I will. I’ve managed to escape how many times now? How many times have you failed to keep me with you?” Grian hummed, shifting to put his weight on his left leg rather than his right, his own eyes narrowing.

“ How many times are you capable of running though? We have captured you 17 times now. You will submit to us in the end, Xequla. You will return to us. ”

“I think it’s going to be at least 18 times before I even think to stop running, and, for the last time, that is not my name.” Grian muttered, smirking at the rage he could feel emanating from the eye.

“ You foolish mortal, you belong to us! You are one of us!”

“Do I really though, if I have only ever escaped you?” Grian taunted, feeling a slight burning in his timer wrist.

There was a huff of enraged air, before the eye disappeared, and Grian was left alone. When he glanced down at his wrist again, taking a seat once more, he pursed his lips at the missing hour, worry filling him at the orange tint to the yellow numbers; he was closing in on being red now, and he knew that that hour would be one that he would need back, and soon.

Oh well, no one would notice that he was missing time, especially when he gets his next kills.

Chapter Text

It was late, and Grian was stubbornly staying awake to work more on his mansion; he still had so much work left to do, and that work wouldn't do itself after all. Was he resolutely ignoring his two lovers as they tried to talk him into eating something, yes, but that's only because he didn't have time to eat no matter what Scar and Mumbo told him. Did he feel bad about it, also yes, he knew they were right after all, he just had to get this work finished. He couldn't stop for a break though, as he knew that if he did he would collapse into a heap on the ground, his exhaustion finally catching up with him and winning.

“I’m not tired or hungry, Darlings, I’m fine!” he insisted, resolutely ignoring the concern that filled their eyes every time they saw him working himself to the bone.

Scar’s eyes suddenly lit up, sparkling with an idea, and Grian knew that he should be worried by what idea his elven lover was concocting.

‘But Grian, we’ll both be so lonely without you, and while we will have each other, we don’t feel whole without you there in the nest as well.” Scar whined, a pout clear on his face, causing Grian to melt.

“O-oh, w-well, in that case, I guess- Wait, are you trying to seduce me into a healthy sleeping habit?” Grian asked, causing Scar and Mumbo to chuckle.

“Well, as healthy a sleeping habit as one can have on Hermitcraft,” Mumbo muttered quietly, while Scar nodded enthusiastically.

“Is it working?” The elf asked, eyes now batting innocently at the parrot hybrid, who sighed as he glided to his chest monster, depositing most of what he held into one of the mostly free boxes.

“Yeah. Yeah it is. Let’s get some sleep then.”

Chapter Text

Grian would have to admit that while he was capable of making crafting table food, he could not cook to save his life. There should be no reason for him to be staring down at a pan full of what appeared to be lumps of coal that was supposed to be pan fried chicken bites, but it was his turn to make sure that Xisuma, the hardworking Admin of Hermitcraft who rarely emerged from his Admin Code Room, actually ate, and Grian had forgotten to inform the rest of the server that he had no idea how to actually cook and it was finally his turn to make sure that X had a proper meal. 

He huffed somewhat bitterly as he removed the pan from the heat, somehow managing to forgo a fire, a shock all in of itself, and set it on the heat proof countertop, eyeing it with disdain. Before he could scrape out the pan and prepare himself to try again, Xisuma entered the kitchen, both wondering if the two would be eating tonight, considering that the sky had gone dark almost an hour ago, and drawn in by the smoke that he could smell from his Admin Code Room.

“May I ask what you are making for food tonight, Grian?” Xisuma asked, now leaning against the door frame.

Grian, eyes still locked on the pan full of burnt beyond a crisp chicken could only respond with the one thing that was running through his mind. “Regret, that’s what.”

Xisuma startled at the words before he made his way closer, only to huff out a laugh at the state of what was supposed to be dinner.

“Shall we call Scar or Keralis over to make something?” X couldn’t help but ask, and received a very slow and sad nod from Grian. “I’m sure someone could teach you how to cook later as well.” The Admin consoled, placing a hand on Grian’s back who groaned in response, burying his face in his hands.

Chapter Text

Grian stared at the hole he had just created. He knew that summoning a Wither in Boatem would be a bad idea, but he had been so exhausted that, at the time and for the prank, it was a good idea. Unfortunately for him, once the Wither was finally dead, he was stuck with cleanup duty, and while he didn’t like it he knew that it was only fair, but now he had run into the problem that some of Impulse’s redstone had been wired up underneath Boatem, and it had been partially blow up; he had to tell Impulse what had happened, and he could only hope that his friend was less vengeful than Doc.

Finding the candy man was easy enough, he just had to make a quick lap of the factory to find him, and when he finally did, he tapped his shoulder, watching as Impulse jumped a bit in shock, obviously having not been expecting company.

“Oh, Grian. Hi, what’s up?” Impulse asked, taking in Grian’s dishevelled appearance and pursing his lips in thought.

“I have both good news and bad news for you. Which would you like to hear first?” Grian asked, wings bristling a bit to match his frazzled nerves.

“The-the good news?” Impulse asked, now eyeing Grian with concern and suspicion.

“It will probably never happen again.” Grian said, trying desperately to flatten his wings down, which he failed to do.

“What did you do?” Impulse asked, arms crossing and an eyebrow raised.

Grian grimaced. “I may have released a Wither in Boatem and damaged some of your redstone?”

Impulse could only sigh. Yeah, that sounds like something Grian would do. “It’ll probably be fine, Gri. We can take a look at it tomorrow, alright?"

“That’s it?” Grian asked, confusion colouring his voice. He had not been expecting this conversation to go quite as smoothly as it just had.

“Oh, no. You have to sleep now.” Impulse said, grabbing Grian’s arm when he went to bolt to escape his 'punishment'. “I have a spare couch in the break room that is perfect for taking naps on, trust me I would know. That also means I can keep an eye on you and make sure that you actually sleep, because I know you haven't slept in weeks because of the whole Mooner's thing.

"What? You're just going to watch me sleep?" Grian cried out, trying to hold back sleep deprived giggles at the though, while he tried to escape Impulse's hold on him.

"Hmm? Oh, no. I'm going to design some more candies. Now, come on.”

Grian had no choice but to follow along, his hand still held tight in Impulse’s just so he wouldn’t be able to escape. Guess he deserved this for releasing a Wither.

Chapter Text

Xisuma hadn’t been expecting to be cornered, along with Doc and Mumbo, by Bdubs, Grian, Stress, Zed, and Gem, all wanting to know what it was like to be tall, those five being some of the shortest Hermits, and just throwing out so many questions that his brain was starting to spin and he couldn’t even begin to think of how to answer them all with how quickly they were talking.

“Is it nice?” False had asked head tilted to the side as she looked up at the three cornered Hermits.

“Can you comfortably reach the top shelf of the cupboard where you tall people like to hide the good snacks?” Zed asked, the accusation of hiding the good snack on the top shelf and away from everyone else being entirely true.

“Well,” Mumbo began, a mischievous light in his eye that didn’t bode well for anyone here, “we live in constant fear of the short people who will, and I have seen this happen, climb atop four chairs, two boxes, a small coffee table, and six oddly placed stools to get whatever it was that they were looking for.”

Grian flushed a bright red, “It was one time!” He cried, causing everyone to look over at him.

“Grian, mate. One, you have wings. Two, it's been at least seven times now.” Mumbo sighed, shaking his head fondly at his best friend.

Grian flushed a brighter red, wings puffing up and doubling in size, before looking at the ground and muttering that he can’t fly indoors just in case he hits something with his wings and breaks it. Mumbo only patted Grian on the head, before lifting the parrot hybrid out of the way, getting a startled chirp out of Grian from the sudden movement, before setting him back down once Mumbo had escaped the five Hermits who had cornered them, and went on his way, patting Grian once more on the head, leaving Doc and X alone to deal with the questions; if some of those questions ended up being directed at Grian for his choice of scaling his house to reach things, then no one except Grian would object.

Chapter Text

Grian had been exploring with Jimmy, Netty, and Martyn, heading out to go and find and explore the newest Watcher location; the newest clue had showed up overnight and Grian was always down for an adventure with his friends. It was a fair way out from both Spawn and the Grian Empire, so the quartet knew that they had a very long walk ahead of them. It was only when they had been walking for three hours without having found anything, Jimmy being the one leading them as he had claimed that he would be able to find it easily, did Grian demand to see the map, wanting to know just how much farther they had left to go as he was starting to get slightly tired and they still had to explore the location and get back.

A few moments after he looked down at the map, Grian buried his face in his hands. “This is the wrong way!” He cried, despair lacing his voice as they would now, not only have to make the three hour walk back home, but they would also have to walk however far it was to the next trial at a later date as there would be no way the four of them would be able to make it home and then go straight to the trial.

Jimmy flushed a bright red, stuttering that he thought that they were going the right way, and that he was sorry. Grian only huffed, keeping the map to himself this time and began to lead them back, planning to make the trip the next day, instead of continuing on with it today.

While on the way back, Grian started muttering to himself in Japanese, a language that the Evolutionists all knew that Grian spoke; Grian had told them that he used to go to high school in Japan, and that was how he had met Taurtis, but he never actually told them what high school in Japan was like when they asked, and eventually they all dropped the topic, allowing Grian to keep his secrets.

It was about 10 minutes into Grian’s Japanese rant, the other three just listening absentmindedly to Grian's quiet rant, when Jimmy suddenly replied, “I know, I know, I am sorry, Gri. I really didn't mean to do that.”

Martyn paused, turning to look at Jimmy in shock. “You speak Japanese, Tim?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. I just know the phrase ‘this is all your fault’ in every language that most people on this server speak.” Jimmy replied, gaining a snort of laughter from Netty.

“Of course you do,” she muttered to herself, sending a fond look over to Jimmy and Martyn while Martyn rolled his eyes.

Chapter Text

Grian was staring up at the Watchers who had taken him from Evo, taken him from his family. 

“Why am I here?” He demanded, only gaining cruel laughter from the Watchers who had taken him.

“Xequla, we need you. You will make the most perfect experiment. ” One of the Watchers, the one on his left, cooed, grabbing his chin in their hand and forcing him to look directly into their mask.

“I-I’m not going to be some experiment for you to mess around and play with!” Grian exclaimed, pulling at the chains that were binding his wrist together.

“How about this, if you behave then Evo gets to survive, and we won’t go back and kill everyone there, right in front of you.” The other Watcher, the one on his right, sneered, the magic pulsing through the chains heightening for a moment.

Grian stared in horror at the Watchers, before he felt his Admin powers, the ones that even the Admin Council were impressed with, pulse through him for a brief moment, before they disappeared once more, dampened by the chains binding him.

“You have no idea what I am capable of.” He ground out, deciding to push his luck.

He didn’t get anywhere with his threat though, as the Watcher that had forced him to look at them laughed, something mocking yet sweet at the same time.

“Oh, you sweet little thing. You hold no power. In fact you hold so little power, that threat was like being threatened by a cupcake.”

Grian growled again, his Admin powers threatening to strike, but before he could do anything to retaliate against the Watchers, he was forced forward and into the Watchers Domain.

Chapter Text

Grian had kidnapped Scar from building the Scarland Castle almost two hours ago now just so he could cuddle the elf since Mumbo had locked himself in his base to tinker with a small redstone project that he wanted to get done. Scar, despite knowing that he had the castle to finish, had decided to indulge his boyfriend with some cuddles, despite knowing how clingy Grian was, but now he really needed to get back to work if he wanted to get any work on his penthouse at the top of the castle finished.

“Grian, Dove, you know I love you right?” Scar asked, gaining a sleepy nod from Grian. Scar knew he had to hurry up if he wanted to escape Grian’s nest, even if his lover was cute. “Darling, you have been cuddling me for over an hour now, over two hours in fact. You know this right?”

“Mmhm!” Grian hummed, shifting so his wings stretched out, one covering Scar and trapping the warmth in.

Scar had work he had to get done, work that was important, but he couldn’t bring himself to be mad that Grian was trying to trap him here. “Oh, I know I should be mad at you Songbird, but I can’t bring myself to be mad at you no matter how much work I have to get done.”

Grian’s only response was cuddling closer to Scar, effectively trapping Scar in the nest until Grian woke up.

“Sometimes I wonder why I love you.” Scar mused quietly to himself, but he knew that there was no way he could have fallen in love with anyone else.

Chapter Text

Grian hadn’t heard anything from his parents since he had turned 18 and was finally free of them; not that he ever really saw them after they left him in Japan when he was five. The final thing that he and his father had fought about, his mother had been out with one of the men she was having an affair with, was about the fact that Grian would be moving in with Taurtis, his boyfriend. 

He still had nightmares about the screaming match that had gone on, and his ears hadn’t stopped ringing for three days straight, but once he was able to escape when Taurtis arrived to pick him up, Grian was free. However, despite being free, his communicator was currently ringing, in the middle of a Hermitcraft meeting no less, and the contact display was his father’s number, a number that he had hoped he would never have to see again.

While he wanted to ignore it, wanted to just hang up and never see that number ever again, Grian knew that he should probably answer it, just in case his father had changed numbers and this was someone who wasn’t his father calling, or something had happened and he, despise no longer having any sort of contact with his parents, should know about.

With a sigh, he stood up, shooting an apologetic look at Xisuma, before stepping into one of the side rooms to take the call, knowing that a few of the Hermits would be eavesdropping just outside the door.

As expected, the moment that he answered the call, his father’s voice filtered in through the speaker, making Grian’s blood boil.

“Hello, Father. Is there any particular reason you have decided to call me after I haven’t spoken to you or Mother since I turned 18?” Grian spat out, venom lacing his voice.

“That is no way to speak to me, son. I was just calling to know how your gay phase was going and if you had finally figured out that it was a phase and have given us an heir yet.”

Grian hesitated for a moment, a scathing remark sitting on his tongue. While he may no longer be with Taurtis any more, the headphone wearing man who had stolen Grian’s heart having been killed by the Watchers back on Evo, Grian had been able to find love once again, this time with Mumbo and Scar who he was very happily married to. A smirk appeared on his face as he figured out exactly what he would say before hanging up, knowing that it would not only piss his father off more than anything, but it would also allow him to be done with that part of his life.

“Better than your marriage, but, considering that Mother is out with a new guy every night and you are drinking the bank account dry, that’s not really much of an accomplishment, is it?” Grian asked, before hanging up and blocking the number he should have blocked the moment he moved out. Oh well, he got the last word in this time around, and now he really was free of the past and could be happy.

Chapter Text

Become an Admin, Xisuma’s parents had told him. It will be the most fulfilling thing you can do. Xisuma wished that he had ignored what his parents told him and had done what Xander had done and just gone off on his own to do whatever he wanted. However, he had gone ahead and became an Admin, just as his parents had told him, and now he was stuck taking care of children masquerading as adults who he called his Hermits and he was regretting having ever opened a server.

He remembered being approached by Joe, about a week ago, asking if he ever wanted to start a family, genuinely curious to know if Xisuma would ever move on from being an Admin and start a family on a small, private server where he didn't have to worry about the code of an entire world and the players that inhabited it. X had just stared at him for a long moment before turning to look over at Grian, Mumbo, and Scar, who were messing around with something that he really didn’t want to know what it was, but knew that it would become his problem soon rather than later, before turning back to look at Joe.

“Does looking after you and the rest of the Hermits not seem like I do already? Because I promise you, being the Admin of you lot makes me feel like I am the father of-” he broke off when he heard Grian scream, frantically looking over to see Grian holding a wooden pickaxe that was currently on fire, Mumbo and Scar having taken several rapid steps back so they weren't in the range of getting burnt.

“GRIAN! PUT THE FIRE DOWN RIGHT NOW!” Xisuma called over, startling Grian so bad that he dropped the pickaxe in his fright, almost lighting the ground on fire when Mumbo splashed a bucket of water over the flames, extinguishing them but drenching Grian in the process.

“Sorry Dad! Won’t do it again.” Grian called back, after shaking off as much of the water as he could, and X could only sigh, knowing that they would, in fact, do it again, and probably do it again tomorrow because that was how the Hermits worked. 

He looked back over at Joe who had his mouth hanging open in shock. “See what I mean?”

Joe only nodded, before heading back to his base, silently praying for Xisuma’s continued sanity all the way.

Chapter Text

Mumbo was preparing to leave for a small vacation, and was very worried that his lovable, yet extraordinarily chaotic, fiance, Grian, would snap and go crazy and cause so much chaos while he was gone, that he was hesitant to even leave. However, he did want to go and see what some other servers had to offer, not that he would be leaving Hermitcraft permanently anytime soon, and do some more redstone projects that he didn’t want to make for the first time on Hermitcraft just in case something went wrong and caused Xisuma to fix it and work even more than he already was.

He was currently standing in front of the portal that would take him off server, most of the Hermits having come to see him off, and he was holding Grian tight in his arms, the parrot hybrid holding back tears at the fact that his mate, his fiance, was leaving for an unknown period of time and calls between them would be difficult to make.

“You know I’m coming back, and when I do we are finishing up planning the wedding, right?” Mumbo asked, gaining a small nod from Grian. “Then you have nothing to worry about. The nest has enough of my clothing, and I’ve been staying in it with you for the entirety of the season so far, that my scent should remain for well over a year.”

“I know,” Grian sighed, “but I will still miss you.”

“I’ll miss you as well Grian, but I need you to do something for me before I go.”

Grian cocked his head to the side, curiosity filling his eyes, as Mumbo took note of the Hermits paying just a bit too much attention to their conversation, not that Mumbo had actually expected anything different with the Hermits.

“I need you to say those three magic words for me please.”

“I love you!” Grian immediately responded, causing Mumbo to chuckle.

“I love you too sweetheart, but you know the three words I mean.”

Grian huffed, “I will behave.” He muttered.

“Thank you darling. I have to go now, but I will be back soon. I love you so much.”

Grian muttered back an ‘I love you too’ being forced to step back so Mumbo could leave. 

As Mumbo stepped through the portal, he knew that Grian wouldn’t actually be able to refrain himself from causing more chaos than normal, but at least he couldn’t say that he didn’t try to prevent it.

Chapter Text

Keralis and Joe were looking for Grian and Xisuma as no one had heard anything from them in days, and X had called for Grian to stop by his base to help him out with something, and that had been the last that anyone had heard from the two, and what worried everyone was the fact that Grian used to be a very competent Admin who could easily navigate the code, and Hermitcraft’s code was always littered with bugs and glitches from everything that the Hermits created and from all of the pranks that were pulled.

Stepping into X’s base, the pair started to look for the two Admins, worried about their physical and mental state if they haven’t been taking care of themselves as expected. The initial search of the base had revealed nothing except dust, confirming that, wherever Grian and Xisuma had holed themselves up in, they had not moved from it since taking up refuge there. The only place that they had yet to check was Xisuma’s Admin Control Room, but Keralis and Joe always hated checking it, as it was where everything that had to do with Hermitcraft, from the code to the players, was kept, but it was the last place where the two missing Admins could be.

Taking a deep breath, Keralis knocked on the door, and shuffling could immediately be heard coming from behind it, before there was a crash, a thump, yelp, and then, finally, the door was opening, revealing Xisuma, who had dark shadows under his eyes, and just behind him was Grian, sprawled on the ground with his wings bent at an odd angle and feathers in complete disarray, who looked no better than Hermitcraft’s Admin.

Joe, not one to beat around the bush, especially with the condition he had found his friends in, asked “How long has it been since either of you slept?”

Xisuma thought for a moment, head tilted to the side and eyes glazing over, while Grian struggled to his feet. “Three or four,” was the answer that X came up with, leaving more questions than answers.

“Three of four what? Days? Weeks?” Keralis found himself asking, trying to get any form of clarification, and only got a nod from Grian, who repeated “three or four.”

Deciding that it was well past the time that they should have gone to sleep, Keralis grabbed X, effortlessly picking the Admin up bridal style, and Joe snagged Grian, who was swaying dangerously now that he was standing once more, and bought them both to Xisuma’s room, placing them both on the bed, despite knowing that Grian would sleep better in his nest, and left the pair to sleep, after Keralis warned them both of what would happen if they didn’t.

Chapter Text

The Hermits had gathered round to bonfire for the End of Season party, and someone, probably Ren, had suggested a game of truth or dare, which Xisuma had opted out of, just so he could make sure that no one would do anything too dangerous while the game was being played. So far, nothing had happened, most of the dares being mild and easy enough to complete, and the truths had been simple questions as the night, and the game, was still young. Eventually Scar had finally been picked, and had chosen a truth, answering the question of what his most embarrassing scar was and how he had gotten it. With a sheepish chuckle, he had admitted that a gash on his inner right arm, just above the elbow, was his most embarrassing, having received it when he had tripped in the shower and pulled the glass door down with him, having grabbed the towel bar on instinct, and cut himself with the glass shards that had clung to said towel bar and required seven stitches. 

There was some good-natured laughter that had occurred when that story had been told, before it was Scar turn to ask someone a truth or dare, and he set his sights on Grian, a smirk clear on his face.

“Alright Grian, truth or-” he was interrupted by Xisuma, surprisingly enough considering the man had remained silent for the entirety of the game so far.

“Grian isn’t allowed to accept dares.” X commented, sipping on his drink idly as the Hermits turned to Grian in shock; this was the first time they had been hearing about Grian’s apparent ban on answering dares, and they wanted to know why that was.

Grian sighed at the attention, rolling his eyes as he answered. “Apparently I have ‘no regard for my personal safety’,” he told them, putting quotes around his words, and could only stick his tongue out at Mumbo when the man chuckled.

“I mean, you did jump off of a cliff with your wings bound to see if you could break the binds in a panic, mate.”

“You were the one to dare me to do it! What was I supposed to say? No?!” Grian cried out, much to the amusement of the Hermits.

Chapter Text

Scar had been fiddling with something in his pocket when Grian stopped to see what had his boyfriend so distracted; calling out to him didn’t yield any reaction, so Grian turned to what he did best, and scare the living daylights out of his elven lover, eliciting a shocked yelp from the elf who, once calmed down, attempted to shoot a scathing glare at Grian, that was really just a mildly annoyed, yet very soft, look at the parrot hybrid.

“Grian! What was that for?” Scar had asked, finally drawing his hand out of his pocket to prevent himself from thinking about the ring that was sitting there as he tried to find the perfect moment to ask Grian to marry him.

“You weren’t answering me. What’s got you all lost in the clouds?” Grian asked, a teasing lilt in his voice that turned soft and curious, though he made sure that his tone wasn't probing either.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just thinking up base designs, you know,” Scar replied, internally cursing himself for backing out of proposing once more. 

“Ah, yeah, I get that. Though, I do have a question I wanted to ask,” Grian said, voice slightly hesitant.

“Sure, what’s up?” Scar wondered, tilting his head a bit like a puppy at Grian.

“On the off chance that we broke up and you got with someone else, would you invite me to the wedding?” Grian questioned, despite hoping that this would be the relationship that would last.

Scar, in a moment of brilliance, decided that he could use this to propose. “Why would I do that?” He asked, watching as Grian’s face fell. “The groom doesn’t need an invitation after all.”

Grian stared at Scar in shock, the words slowly processing in his mind, when a bright red blush took over his face. “Scar, are you-” Grian started, only to break off when Scar pulled the ring out of his pocket and held it out to Grian.

“Marry me?” He asked, despite knowing the answer as Grain nodded frantically, tears gathering in his eyes despite the wide smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Grian was going to make dinner for Scar and Mumbo if it was the last thing he did. Sure, he had been told not to burn down the house, but he didn’t think that his cooking skills were that bad, so, finding one of the cookbooks that his vampiric lover liked to reference, Grian set to work, doing his best to follow the recipe exactly as it was written, and be patient. Unfortunately, patience wasn’t his strong suit, and he lost focus about halfway through cooking the meal, deciding that it would be safe for him to leave the room momentarily so he could grab something to keep him entertained while he cooked so he wouldn't decide to try and cook the meal at a much higher temperature than it should be cooked at.

The moment he stepped back into the kitchen, he back right back out of there, the flames that had erupted from the pan in the five minutes that he was gone, having caught the cupboards on fire as well, forcing Grian to try and find something to put the flames out with, or to evacuate the house. Deciding that the latter would probably be his best bet, seeing how fast the flames were spreading, reminding him eerily of Evo, Grian made his way out of the house as the fire spread. 

Now standing outside, he knew that he was in big trouble when his two lovers returned; he had a feeling that Xisuma would also be having some words with him.

He didn’t even get a chance to prepare himself for the lectures that he was going to get when he heard a short gasp behind him, and, upon turning around, was faced with Scar and Mumbo, both with arms crossed, and very unimpressed looks on their faces.

“Grian, light of our lives, what was the one thing we asked you not to do while we were gone?’ Scar asked, the elf cocking an eyebrow as he uncrossed his arms to place a hand on his hip.

“To… not burn the house down?” Grian squeaked out, only gaining a huff from Mumbo.

“And what did you do?” The vampire asked.

“I made dinner!” Grian said, before he withered under the unimpressed stares he received. “...and burned the house down.”

Scar sighed, stepping forward to wrap Grian in a hug, “what are we going to do with you, hmm?”

“Ban him from the kitchen when we rebuild the base.” Mumbo replied, laughing at Grian’s affronted, yet fond, look.

Chapter Text

Grian and Scar were sitting in the desert, just overlooking the land that they had claimed. Scar had only just turned red, but he was determined to ignore the fact that he was now allowed to kill people, and set his sights on stealing the cookie that sat atop BigB’s base. 

“I don’t know why you want me to commit murder Grian.” Scar commented, leaning back on his hands, while Grian wrapped a wing around Scar to prevent him from falling back.

“Why wouldn’t you want to commit murder now that you have free reign too?” Grian shot right back, rolling his eyes at Scar’s antics.

“Perhaps because murder is not on today’s agenda?” Scar said, before he furrowed his eyebrows. “Actually, come to think of it, murder shouldn’t be on anyone’s agenda.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? First off, you know I made this game so we could all blow off some steam and commit murder without having to think of any backlash, and secondly I’ll have you know that murder just so happens to be on my agenda, just not until Tuesday.” Grian informed Scar, laughing at the shocked noise that Scar made.

“And how do you, a green life, propose to commit murder when you are not allowed to?” Scar found himself asking, immediately regretting it when Grian smirked.

“I just so happen to have to do anything you tell me, and, well, you happen to be red now…” Grian said, trailing off at the end to let Scar fill in the blanks, gaining a sigh from the elf. How had he managed to get himself in this situation, Scar would never know, but the prospect of causing chaos was never one that he would turn down, especially when there really would be no backlash.

Chapter Text

Jimmy and Scott stared at Grian and Scar who just looked right back at them.

“Wait, hold on, so what you’re telling me is that you two are dating now?” Jimmy asked, hands gesturing wildly.

“I don’t think you’re one to talk, Tim,” Grian told his twin, rolling his eyes fondly yet exasperatedly, “you literally got married to Scott like the moment we got here!”

Jimmy turned a bright red at the reminder, hand going to twist the ring that adorned his left hand, something he found himself doing whenever he needed to fidget with something. “Alright, fair point,” he grumbled.

“I do have a question though,” Scott started, a small yet sly look on his face, “who’s the big spoon and who’s the little spoon?”
“Wha- why do you want to know?” Grian spluttered, cheeks tinting red and wings fluffing up.

“Well, you know that Jimmy’s the little spoon, and I was wondering if you were as well since you are twins.” Scot replied, sly smirk only growing larger as the twins started heavily protesting his words.

Scar smiled, pulling Grian against his side, “well, Grian is the little spoon,, especially considering just how short he is” he started, ignoring Grian’s yelps and chirps of protest, “but we like to think of ourselves more like chopsticks.”

Jimmy’s eyebrows furrowed, “because you nestle together perfectly?”

Grian was the one who smirked this time, leaning back into Scar’s embrace, embarrassment now forgotten. “Nope, because when one goes missing, the only thing the other is good for-” Grian broke off and pulled out his sword- “is stabbing!”

Jimmy could only look at Grian with a mixture of fear, disappointment, and respect. How this was his twin, he didn’t know, but he did have to admit that the analogy fit the chaotic couple very well.

Chapter Text

Xisuma was working on trying to find the next world for the Hermits to move to, but each time he had found a world that looked perfect, it always cost three times the amount of Admin Credits that he would not only be willing to pay for the world, but also it was twice the amount that he currently had. He had never once encountered this problem when finding the next world, so he did the only thing he could think to do, bury his face in his hands, and, in his despair, mutter out, “nothing in life is free, and I hate it.”

Keralis, Grian, Scar, Mumbo, and Etho had all been keeping the Admin company while he worked on finding the new world, so Keralis, upon hearing X’s despair, spoke up, hoping to improve his mood just a bit. “Love is free.”

Scar, chimed in as well, knowing that this was one of the most stressful times for Xisuma, having watched the Admin stress over this time since he had joined in Season Four and it was time to switch to Season Five, “adventure is free!”

Mumbo, not really paying attention as he was fiddling with a small redstone contraption, but paying enough attention to know the basics of what is going on, “knowledge is free.”

Grian exchanged a feral look with Etho who he knew was always up for some chaos, and he was planning on starting some. He had been in Xisuma’s position back when he was searching for the world to host Evo on, so he knew that a little bit of chaos to spice things up probably wouldn't go amiss to get X away from the pain of finding a new world for the Hermits to inhabit. “Anything is free if you take it without paying.”

Xisuma actually stopped his hunting to look up at Grian when he said that, an unreadable look in his eyes. “Grian. Please, for the love of Xequla,” Xisuma started, and Grian files that little tidbit that X worshipped his Watcher form away for later use, “please tell me that you have not been stealing from the Shopping District. We already had claims that Scar was stealing diamonds from the Diamond Throne!”

Grian only laughs, ignoring how Scar spluttered at the backhanded accusation, before bolting out of the room. He couldn’t hear anyone following him, but he could hear Etho's laughter, so hopefully X would abandon his hunt for a new world for the time being to deal with him rather than stress himself out in trying to find the perfect world.

Chapter Text

Grian had been ill for the past week, and while he was now physically better, his voice was still gone, from how harshly his fever had strained his vocal chords, so he was stuck making weak chirps and trills until his voice returned. Many of the Hermits have taken it upon themselves to tease Grian as much as they could during this time, because Grian hated to let anyone hear his chirps and trills, and Grian was getting ready to start a war over it; he was going to be starting a war at this point, with or without his voice, and no one would be able to stop him now that Scar had gotten in on the teasing.

“He sounds like a dog toy,” Scar narrated, having paused work on Scarland to watch Grian work on his base. His words caused Grian to chirp as angrily as he could at his best friend.

“But actually, this-” Scar had to pause for yet another angry chirp- “is the sonorous war cry-” yet another enraged chirp- “of a very angry bird.”

Drawing out his sword, Grian stabbed Scar who was quick to retreat, running for his life now, his laughter sounding out. Grian, trilling angrily, pulled out his communicator.

Grian: this means war!

XisumaVoid: Please, please, not another war. I can’t do this!

Grian: Sorry X, but they brought it upon themselves!

GoodTimesWithScar: Worth it!

Docm77: Is this declaration of war against all of us?

Grian: Everyone who was making some kind of joke about my lost voice.

Docm77: Ah, so most of us then.

XisumaVoid: Can I quit as an Admin?

Grian: Nope! I tried once but I was stuck with mine, so you are stuck with us! And that means you have to deal with the wars!

XisumaVoid: I hate it here.

Chapter Text

Xisuma knew he should have banned game night a long time ago, but it was too late now. There was currently a game of ‘the floor is lava’ going on, but with modified rules, because of course the rules had to be modified, this was the Hermits playing it after all. Someone would call out that the floor is lava, and then everyone has five seconds to get off of the floor. People were allowed to push others off of the surface that they were on, or help them onto it, but once you were out, you were free to ignore the game and keep playing whatever game there was currently going on. The other game that was being played, ignoring the fact that there were only six people remaining in ‘the floor is lava’ was Jenga, a risky game to play considering who all Hermitcraft housed, when Impulse, one of the six remaining, the other five being Grian, Scar, Mumbo, Keralis, and himself, called out that the floor was lava while sitting up on the counter. 

Impulse decided to show some mercy to Keralis and help him up onto the counter with him, earning him a “thank you, Sweetface”. Scar had shoved Mumbo onto the ground, earring many calls of “betrayal” from the watching Hermits, voices filled with glee at said betrayal. He had just pulled his legs up onto his chair, half hoping that someone would shove him off of it so he could be done with this game, while Grian just laid on the ground, closing his eyes in acceptance.

It was silent for a moment considering that Grian hadn't tried to 'save' himself, before Keralis, voice full of concern, asked, “are you okay Grian?”

Grian huffed out a breath, “nope,” he said, and Xisuma, taking inspiration from Grian, slid off of his own chair, walked over to Grian, and laid down next to him, causing Grian to look over at his Admin, and just smile, a soft “mood” slipping from his lips.

“Not you too, Sheshwammy!” Keralis cried, despair filling his voice.

“Yes, let me die and finally be free of the torment of being you guy’s Admin.” X said, voice completely deadpan, gaining half hysterical laughter from Grain.

It was safe to say, ‘the floor is lava’ became a banned game after that, though, somehow, game nights still went on.

Chapter Text

During the Hermits time on the Empires server, Scar had come up with a very elaborate plan that he dragged Xisuma, Keralis, Pearl, and Grian into, for no reason other than to cause chaos However the plan was not working the way he wanted it too; that was okay though, he had an entire alphabet of back up plans that had to work.

“Okay, so that didn’t work, so I guess it is time for plan G!” Scar exclaimed, gaining looks of confusion from the gathered group.

“Plan G? Don’t you mean plan B Sweetface? Keralis asked, worried that, somewhere along the way, Scar had managed to hit his head and had managed to get a concussion.

“Hmm? Oh, no we tried plan B a long time ago, like a long time ago, and we had to skip over plan C due to technical issues, that were in no way my fault.” Scar said, muttering the last part.

“Okay, then what happened to plan D?” Xisuma asked, despite not really wanting to know, while also wondering how he had managed to get dragged into this mess in the first place.

“That would be the desperate disguises we tried back in Tumble Town,” Scar sheepishly admitted, causing Grian to smirk at the remembrance of being able to dawn his Ariana Griande costume once more.

"I wouldn't call that desperate, Scar," Grian hummed, causing Scar to roll his eyes in feigned annoyance, before Pearl cut in, confusion lacing her voice.

“Then, if we are moving onto plan G, that means that the plan that just failed was plan F, right?” Pearl questioned, gaining a nod from Scar. “Then what happened to plan E?”

“Well, I don’t want to have to use plan E, as Grian dies in it, so it's a last resort kind of plan, you know?” Scar said, gaining some shocked and slightly outraged noises from X, Keralis, and Pearl. 

They all stopped short, Scar included, when Grian piped up, “I like plan E!”

“Grian no!” Xisuma cried, having turned around to look at Grian. 

“We really need to get you some therapy, Sweetface.” Keralis said, gaining an indignant squawk from Grian, who claimed he was fine, though considering that he had just admitted that he liked the plan that would get him killed- y eah, X was definitely going to have to schedule a therapy appointment for Grian once they make it back to Hermitcraft.

Chapter Text

Grian was currently sitting in a therapist’s office, Keralis by his side, to make sure that he actually attended his appointments, and the therapist sitting in front of him, a clipboard in their hands as they looked at Grian, a smile on their face.

“Hello, Grian. It’s a pleasure to meet you. How have you been,” they asked, having glanced down to scan through Grian’s info before speaking.

Grian rolled his eyes, only just managing to hold back a sigh, “horrible, but that’s normal.”

Looking back down at the clipboard, the therapist spoke once more, “and do you know what you are here for?”

“Nope,” Grian said, popping the p in nope, causing Keralis to speak up.

“From what we have gathered, he has trauma from the first 20 odd years of his life. He mentioned wanting to die recently, but we don’t think that this is a new thing."

The therapist went silent, looking from Keralis to Grian, then back to Keralis.

Grian, upon hearing Keralis’ words, turned to look at him, offence clear on his face.

“Nope, I’m fine,” Grian chirped, not even bothering to try and not roll his eyes.

“Grian, you literally wanted to die when we were in Empires, and from what we have gathered from Mumbo, when we called him about it, this isn’t a new thing. You have trauma that needs to be addressed!” Keralis said, exasperation lacing his voice.

Before Grian could come up with some kind of retort, the therapist very slowly put the clipboard down, and stood up. 

“I-I can’t do this. I’m so sorry,” they said, before leaving.

Grian and Keralis stared after then long after the door had closed, before Grian snorted, “that makes 37.”

“37 what Sweetface?” Keralis asked, hesitance clear in his voice.

“This hasn’t been the first therapist I have seen. I’ve seen 37 now, and all 37 have quit by the end of the first session.”

Keralis was silent for a long, long moment, before he buried his face in his hands, a muffled “maybe Impulse can be your therapist,” could be heard, causing Grian to cackle.

Chapter Text

Joe was beginning to believe that there was no normal day in the Hermitcraft server, but, if he had to pick something that was a decently regular occurrence, it would be Xisuma, their hardworking Admin, yelling at Grian, Scar, and Mumbo for doing something that had gone wrong; Joe had to admit, those three lived up to the name that had been given to them by Impulse- the chaos trio.

To be honest, Joe didn’t remember what those three had managed to do now, he just knew that it had involved fire and the Meeting Hall, and Xisuma was not very happy with them, however, he had yet to actually yell, which was a record; it was, until Scar decided to ask the one question that had been nagging many of the Hermit’s but none of them ever had the courage to ask.

“Why do you treat us like three year olds, X?” Scar had asked when Xisuma had paused to take a breath before continuing his rant.

“Why? WHY?!” Xisuma exploded, exasperation fueling his every move now.

Pointing at Mumbo, he started, “you tried to hijack a car when you were 13, and yes, I know about that! It is in your file after you were nearly arrested for that!”

He then pointed at Grian, “you nearly jumped off of a 20 story car garage, which we will be talking about after we have finished this, because there should have been no way that you could have been up there when you were 16, even with your wings!” X continued, getting a shaky nod for a slightly pale Grian.

Then Xisuma finally turned his attention to Scar. “You have, multiple times in both the past and now, have eaten DRIED LEAVE AND ROCKS OFF OF THE GROUND!?! Why do I treat you lot like kids? It’s because you act like it most of the time, and I can not trust you to keep yourselves out of danger! It’s why I have yet to go on a vacation, because while some of the Hermits are responsible, and that list only has like three Hermits on it, is because you lot would be dead by the second day I am away!”

With that said, X turned on his heel and walked off, probably to cool off in his base and work on the code to forget that he actually had players to take care of.

Joe just nodded silently to himself, never a normal day on Hermitcraft, but if there was, this would be pretty close to one

Chapter Text

Impulse was sitting across from Grian, having been roped into trying to get Grian to talk about his past after a therapist had yet to be found for Grian. He could only sigh internally as he looked at his friend; he knew why Grian needed therapy, having been filled in on what had happened, but that didn’t mean he was all that happy about being a therapist for his friend, considering just how much information a therapist ended up getting about one person, however, he had agreed to do it because Keralis had been really concerned about Grian, and Grian was his friend.

“Alright, G- you don’t want to be here, but you have to be because of everything that you have said, and been through, here we are. Now, I have to ask, because I know you are, just how depressed would you say you are?”

“Alright, so you know how there are supposedly monsters that hide under beds and eat anyone who has a limb hanging off the edge of the bed?” Grian started, causing Impulse to raise an eyebrow, wondering just where Grian was going with this. “Well, I no longer care if my foot is hanging off the bed where the monster can get it.”

Impulse didn’t exactly know how to process that. He guess, in a roundabout way, that was Grian admitting to being passively suicidal while working it in a way where one wouldn’t realise it was an admittance to being passively suicidal.

“Wow, okay then. I see why Keralis begged me to be your therapist then. Let’s see what we can build from that.”

Chapter Text

Season Seven was ending in two days, so the Hermits had all gathered in the Shopping District, just outside of the Barge, to celebrate and just have fun. Xisuma was supervising, trying to make sure that nothing too bad ended up happening, and, in the off chance that anyone got drunk, that there would be people able to look after them as it was a well established fact that they would all end up crashing inside of the Barge; Grian had even gone through the trouble of making a nest in his precious shop for the sleepover.

Currently, X was sitting on one of the chests, just watching over what was happening, and wondering what deity he must have pissed off in a previous life to make him suffer like this, when Grian took a seat next to him, snuggling up into his side, and draping a wing over them both.

“Hello, Grian. I would have thought you would still be with the others,” Xisuma commented, wrapping his arm around Grian to hold him to his side.

“Mmmmm, saw you over here and thought you might be lonely.” Grian hummed, half asleep already. “What you thinking about?”

“Just thinking about how one day I might be famous, however I’m stuck looking after you lot. While I love you all, none of you are the brightest.” X replied, shifting his hold on Grian to fluff up his hair, gaining a sleep whine of complaint.

“You’re already famous though. You’re the Admin of Hermitcraft, after all.” Grian mumbled, not hearing the soft gasp that his Admin let out. “I was famous once too, probably still am if I’m being honest. I was the Admin of Evolution, or Evo, after all.” Grian mused, blinking slowly to look up at X.

“You’re still famous, alright,’ Xisuma agreed, having read all about Evo and everything that it managed to accomplish.

“Heard about Hermitcraft while learning to become an Admin. Looked up to you in fact. I wanted to be an Admin just like you- dedicated, kind, brave, and all of that.” Grian murmured, now turning to bury his face in the little space between Xisuma’s neck and shoulder, completely oblivious to the emotional war that he had just set off in his Admin.

Xisuma could only choke on a mixture of a laugh and a sob at Grian’s words, getting completely overwhelmed by the fact that he had inspired Grian as much as he had to create one of the most impressive servers to date. He only managed to get his emotions somewhat under control when he realised that Grian had fallen asleep holding onto him, so, with a very fond sigh, X scooped Grian up into his arms and brought him over to the nest, curling around him once they were lying down, the rest of the Hermits quieting down when they realised that the nest was now being used.

Eventually, hours after Grian had fallen asleep, Xisuma following shortly after, the rest of the Hermits piled into the nest, waking X while everyone settled in. With a fond, yet sleepy smile on his face, Xisuma had to agree with what Grian had said earlier about him being famous for being the Admin of Hermitcraft. He may be the caretaker for a bunch of morons that called themselves Hermits, but he was the one doing it, and doing it well.

Chapter Text

Grian could only sigh as he watched Scar pull around a bee on a lead, a bee that Scar had decided would be his new pet and would be named Mr. Bubbles, as if Scar wasn’t on his red life and should be killing people. Sure, the games were all for fun, but they were also so people could let out some pent up energy and release their murderous thoughts in an environment where friendships meant nothing, and any alliance you had, bar the one that Grian and Scar had, could break in a single second, without worrying about how that would affect your friendship once returning home. 

With a sigh, Grian went to go meet up with the person who he owed his first life to, just so he could see what Scar was doing, and what his plans were for the day.

“Scar!” He called out, causing said man to look back over at him, a blindingly bright smile appearing on his face.

“Grian! What can I do for you, my love?” Scar replied, walking over to his boyfriend, Mr. Bubbles trailing along behind him.

Grian sighed, running a hand down his face. “Scar, you know that technically here we aren’t together, right?”

“Mmhm, then why do you insist on forcing me to share your nest with you then?” Scar responded, a cocky smirk on his face as Grian felt his face start to go pink.

“The desert is cold at night, alright! That’s the only reason why.” Grian shot back, face now shifting to be a cherry red.

“Are you sure it’s not because your instincts insist on having your mate in your nest?” Scar purred, attaching the lead holding Mr. Bubbles on a nearby fence post.

Now a vibrant red, Grian buried his face in his hands, his words coming out muffled, but understandable nonetheless. “Watchers give me patience.”

Scar tilted his head to the side a bit in confusion, before his face lit up in understanding. “I think you mean, ‘give me strength’, Gri.” Scar chuckled, before Grian sent him a deadpan look.

“If the Watchers gave me strength, you would be dead.”

There was a choked off laugh from behind the bickering pair, and when they turned to look at the sound, they saw a shell shocked Scott, clutching a choking Jimmy’s hand, the latter laughing so hard no sound could be heard.

“I-I don’t-don’t think you-you’ve said that since-since Evo, and-and Martyn messed some-something up so bad it took-took you a week and-and a half to fi-fix it!” Jimmy managed to get out through his laughter and choking, causing Grian to send his older brother a deadpan look of his own.

“Why do I put up with you guys?”

Chapter Text

Most things, the Hermits were slowly starting to realise, happened during a lull in the bi-weekly meetings, and this week was no different. It had started when Keralis had asked a seemingly innocent question, but with a group as mentally unstable as the Hermits, no question could really be innocent.

“Hey, guys,” Keralis had started, having grown bored of the silence that had fallen when Xisuma had gone to check the code to help him explain what had gone wrong this time, “imagine if someone handed you a box full of all the items you’ve lost throughout your life. What all would be there?”

Everyone thought for a moment, but it was Grian who spoke up first, joyfully exclaiming, “my self-esteem! I haven’t seen this in years!”

Before anyone could comment on that, Scar piped up, "Oh! My childhood innocence! I thought I lost that during the apocalypse!”

Xisuma, still searching through the code and only half listening, spoke before Mumbo could voice his concerns for his two boyfriends, “I knew I lost that potential somewhere.”

Xander followed soon after his twin, leaning back in his chair, eyes half lidded, as he easily commented, “my moral code? Is that you? I thought you abandoned me when 'Suma and I left the Void.”

Keralis could only stare at the four of them in shock, before, very quietly, peaking back up. “Do-do you all need a hug? Are you guys okay?”

Grian shrugged, seemingly not seeing what was wrong with what he had said, Scar eagerly leaned into the hug that Mumbo had pulled him into, Xisuma looked up from the code, confusion visible in his eyes through the visor, and Xander only laughed, the sounds breaking slightly.

“Keralis, by this point, you know that most of us need therapy. I don’t know what answer you were expecting from that question.” Xander said, and Keralis could only nod, before he got up and wrapped the twins in a hug, watching as Mumbo pulled Grian into his arms as well.

The meeting was postponed for the day, everyone just deciding to turn the meeting into a group cuddle session; they all needed it

Chapter Text

Boatem was having a meeting in the room carved out just above the Void in the Boatem Hole, and they had gathered together to come up with some marketing ideas to help bring more sales to Boatem; Grian resolutely didn’t mention the fact that the G-Train was still selling perfectly fine and it was everyone else’s shops that needed more advertisement, deciding to just keep trying to figure out how to improve the advertisement that they had going on.

All five of them each had a book and quill to note down anything that might get some more sales, and they were writing and drawing out ideas, some more quickly than others. Eventually, a book closed silently, Pearl leaning back on her hands as she appraised the four men sitting around her, books still open but quills staying relatively still, all four lost in thought as they tried to think up of more ideas.

“Hey guys,” she started, gaining eyes flicking up to glance at her before they darted back to their books, “are any of you d-”

She was cut off by Mumbo huffing and muttering something under his breath, her ears straining to hear what he had said. “Depressed?”

Now that she was listening as intently as she was due to how quietly Mumbo had spoken, heart slowly sinking to her feet, she could hear the other three muttering as well, and she didn’t like what she was hearing.

“Drained?” Came Impulse’s muttered word, a soft sigh following after it.

“Dumb?” Scar whispered, dropping his quill in favour of pressing the palm of his hands into his eyes, wishing that he had brought Jellie with him.

“Disliked?” Grian mumbled, having not intended for anyone to hear him, considering his voice had been the quietest of the bunch and Pearl had only managed to hear him since he was right next to her, as he doodled on the page, a rough idea for a sign taking shape.

“-done with the advertisement ideas. Are-are you guys okay?” Pearl finished, startling the rest of Boatem.

The sight of their fake smiles broke her heart, and she silently promised that she would talk to all of them and give them as much love and help as she could possibly give them, no matter how long it would take for them to see just how much they did for the server and how much they were loved; they were her boys after all, and she wasn't about to let them down.

Chapter Text

Scott and Jimmy were hanging out in the Hobbit Hole, having a moment of quiet now that Jimmy was on his last life and filled with bloodlust. 

It was silent for a while, Jimmy leaning against Scott, before he broke the silence.

“Oh, did I ever tell you that Grian was my brother? I think I forgot to mention it when we got married,” Jimmy idly commented, leaning into Scott’s hold, and closing his eyes.

Scott just blinked, processing that for a moment, before he shifted his hold on Jimmy to give him an incredulous look.

“He killed three people while on green, Petal, and one of them was you,” Scott said, “and you’re only now telling me he’s your brother?”

Jimmy thought that over for a second, before turning to look up at Scott. 

“He’s adopted?” Jimmy tried, only for a call of, “we’re TWINS!” to permeate the air, Scar and Grian having come to the Hobbit Hole to see if they could form an alliance with Jimmy and Scott.

Jimmy just sighed, turning to look at his, mildly upset, twin.

“Alright, fine, you’re not adopted, but you are younger and shorter,” Jimmy called out, shoving himself to his feet the moment he started talking, and taking off, not even risking glancing over his shoulder as, judging by the laughter coming from Scott and Scar, Grian was now chasing him. He could only hope that he wouldn’t lose his last life by teasing Grian, but if he did, it would have been so worth it.

Chapter Text

Winter was fast approaching, and Grian didn’t have any winter coats lying around in his base or his private world, so he had talked with Xisuma about making a trip off world so he could get some things for the fast approaching cold weather. 

Xisuma had agreed, but he had told Grian that he needed to take someone with him, and, unfortunately for Grian, the only person available to go with him that day was Doc; normally, Grian would have waited until someone else was available, but he needed to be prepped for winter as soon as possible considering he was a tropical bird hybrid, so he begrudgingly brought Doc with him to the Main Hub to get some winter clothing.

It was when he was trying to find a coat in his size, one that would also accommodate his wings, when he ran into a problem as all of the coats were too big for him, and when he had muttered about the too large size, Doc had spoken up, a mischievous light in his eye.

“You’ll probably have better luck in the child sizes.”

Grian stared at Doc, before he slowly pulled his communicator out, a soft, “how dare you,” slipping past his lips as he sent a message off to the Hermitcraft main chat.

Grian: X, I’m starting another war!

XisumaVoid: What?

XisumaVoid: But you’re not even on the server!

XisumaVoid: Wait-

XisumaVoid: Who are you out shopping with?

Docm77: Bring it on short stack!

XisumaVoid: …

XisumaVoid: Keralis.

Keralis: Yes, Sheswammy?

XisumaVoid: You’re the Admin now.

XisumaVoid: I quit.

***

Chapter Text

If there was one thing the Hermits had learned about Grian was that he would steal any article of clothing that had been left unattended, and there was a high likelihood that said article of clothing would never be seen again. This cloth thievery had only increased, for Scar that is, when Scar eventually got the courage to ask Grian out on a date and later to be his boyfriend. It had become rare to see Grian in anything that didn’t have something that used to belong to Scar, and Scar could only sigh each time something went missing.

It probably didn’t help that Scar loved to buy new clothing, whether it be new to him from a charity shop, or just new in general, Scar loved to have a variety of outfits to choose from so he could be prepared for any situation, just like Grian was. However, as Scar was quickly finding out, his closet of clothes was quickly becoming their closet of clothes, and there was nothing he could do to prevent this from happening.

Scar had attempted to hide his clothing from Grian, but somehow, Grian always managed to find it, so Scar had just taken to letting Grian know whenever he would get something new, in hopes that, one day it would be something that Grian wouldn’t want to steal, but, this time around, Grian looked far too cute to get upset at, in the hoodie that Scar had just bought.

“I just got a new hoodie,” Scar said, holding up the emerald green hoodie, very happy with his new purchase.

“I think you mean, we got a new hoodie, and one that looks very comfy as well,” Grian corrected, making grabby hands at the hoodie, causing Scar to huff out a small sigh.

“It is, and I would like to be able to wear it at some point.” Scar muttered, but handed over the hoodie anyway.

Grian, now slipping it on and being completely dwarfed by the sheer size of it, but smiled happily at his boyfriend. “Of course you can. You do know that just because I steal the clothing doesn’t mean you can’t wear it. It’s only if the clothing ends up in the nest, or I truly claim it, and you will know when that happens, is it fully mine.”

Scar hummed, a soft smile on his face as he looked at Grian bundled up in the hoodie. Sure, his wings may be a bit squished, but he looked adorable, and Scar realised that he didn’t actually mind that he had lost that hoodie, even if he did still, technically, have access to it

Chapter Text

Xisuma and Grian were determined to actually cook a meal that was edible after all of the Hermits had commented on the fact that they were incapable of cooking; it wasn’t because they didn’t try, they had tried to learn how to cook multiple times, but it never seemed to work out. Today, they were determined to change that, and were armed with communicators opened with different cooking tips and an open cookbook, showing one of the easiest recipes it held.

“Alright, this shouldn't be too difficult as long as we stick to the recipe.” Xisuma muttered, eyes scanning over the page.

“Now we just have to hope that you didn’t just jinx it.” Grian snarked, scrolling through the cooking tips as X sighed.

“Let’s hope, indeed. Anyway, we should probably start now.” X said, moving over to the vegetables that were sitting out and were waiting to be chopped.

Grian nodded, and headed over to the other side of the room where the pork was sitting and was waiting to be pan fried; Grian was slightly concerned that pan frying pork was one of the simplest recipes in the cookbook, but he wasn’t about to argue.

He should have been very concerned because not even five minutes after the pork had been set in the pan, following the instructions to a T, the pork managed to catch on fire, how, they didn’t know, but the fire was trying to spread, and neither knew how to put out a grease fire, the only thing they did know about is was not to throw water on it, so they needed help.

“We need an adult, why did we try to do this without adult supervision?” Xisuma cried, frantically trying to grab his comm so he could see if he could find what the heck they were supposed to do in this situation.

“‘Suma, I hate to tell you this, but we are adults!” Grian replied, stepping away from the flames so they wouldn’t catch his wings on fire.

“We need an adultier adult then! Call Keralis or Xander! They should know what to do!”

Grian nodded, snagging his comm and switching over to the contacts, sending off a frantic message that only vaguely read ‘fire’ to the two mentioned, who, once they arrived, doused the fire with some salt and slowly covering the pan with a lid, before permanently banning Grian and Xisuma from the kitchen, not needing to deal with another fire.

Chapter Text

“I want to do an experiment!” Zed announced the moment he sat down for the server wide meeting.

“Hello to you too, Zed. I’m doing fine, thank you for asking. What is this experiment?” Impulse asked, glancing over at his sheep hybrid friend.

“I want to know everyone’s reactions to being told ‘I love you’,” Zed explained, looking over the gathered Hermits, having been the last one to arrive.

“How do you plan on doing this?” Tango asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just go around and randomly tell a Hermit that I love them.” Zed hummed, before turning to look at Xisuma and Xander to wait for them to start the meeting.

The moment the meeting ended, Zed easily followed Scar out of the Meeting Hall, falling into step with the elf vex hybrid, and falling happily into conversation with him. When he finally turned to leave, he smiled at Scar, a fond “I love you” falling from his lips.

Scar, having not been expecting the three little words, responded with “thanks fam,” before turning pink with embarrassment, stuttering out what sounded to be some form of an apology mixed with ‘I love you too’ before bolting, causing Zed to chuckle.

His next target was Mumbo, who just so happened to have called for some redstone assistance, which Zed was happy to help with. Sure, the project was a bit out of his depth when it came to redstone, but the problem was eventually found and fixed, meaning that Zed was free to go on his way.

Turning to make his way back to his base, Zed called over his shoulder, “love you Mumbo!”

Mumbo, unsure of what the heck he was supposed to say, panicked, and replied with “oh no,” before turning back to his redstone, too panicked and embarrassed to figure out what he was actually supposed to say.

Keralis was next, having run into the man while in the shopping district and he got some tears and a very soft, “I love you too, sweetface,” in response to his “I love you.”

Xisuma had been difficult to track down, but Zed finally managed to track the Admin down, finding him wandering around the ‘Evil Emporium’ and practically forcing the Admin into taking a break and hanging out with him. His heart broke with X’s response to being told that he was loved, eyes glazing over slightly, the words, “sounds fake, but okay,” falling from his lips, before he made his exit, locking himself into his Admin room to work.

Grian, after blue screening for a moment to process what he has been told, became incredibly flustered, like he had never actually been told that he was loved, also breaking Zed’s heart, despite the very cute reaction.

Xander had been the last person who he had tracked down, having managed to hit up all of the Hermits, getting a variety of responses, none as heartbreaking as Grain and Xisuma had been which he had plans to bring up with the rest of the server at some point. He had managed to find Xander trying to distribute out more Derp Coin, and practically begged him to hang out with him, pulling out the puppy eyes for it. 

He had actually been expecting the response that Xander gave him, the playful eye roll, paired with the words, “can I get a refund?” Xander’s usual response to the three words of affection, gaining a laugh from Zed. At least some things never change.

Chapter Text

Scar was one of the knights that Ren, the King of Hermitcraft for some reason, had working for him, and he had been tasked with finding Grian and claiming his head for the King, Ren fed up with Grian trying to make quests himself. Scar was happy to oblige, always happy for an excuse to see Grian, the one who had stolen his heart back in the desert of Third Life, and even if he was tasked with killing Grian, he still got to see him, and that was enough for him.

With his HotGuy bow out and ready to have an arrow loaded into it, Scar started the hunt for Grian, finding him working on the bridge that connected his and Mumbo’s bases,wings fluttering happily as he worked, the soft, mossy blocks and the bright, warm sun keeping the parrot hybrid energised and happy. Scar, seeing how Grian was practically glowing in the sunlight, forgot about his mission to kill Grian and bring his head to Ren, instead deciding that his new mission would be to see if he could find the courage to ask Grian to go out on a date with him.

Determination flowing through him, he landed near Grian, startling the hybrid, with his bow drawn and ready as if he was going to shoot. Grian, taking one look at the bow, fluffed his wings in preparation for a quick takeoff, and smiled at Scar, the picture of perfect innocence.

“Scar! What can I do for you today?” Grian asked, returning the moss he was building with to his inventory.

Taking a deep breath, Scar steeled his nerves, held his bow out, nocked with an arrow, and demanded, in the strongest voice he could muster, “freeze! You’re under arrest for robbery!”

Grian, having been ready to fly, did freeze, confusion washing over his face, having been expecting Scar to say something about treason against the King. “What? What have I stolen?”

Well, this was it. “My heart.” Scar replied, lowering the bow and eyes now looking everywhere except for Grian.

Grian had turned red at Scar’s words, taking a hesitant step forward after a long moment of silence. “You mean it? I-I really stole your heart?”

Scar nodded, voice caught in his throat.

“Well, I guess that means I should probably arrest you as well, considering you stole my heart just before the moon crashed into last season.” Grian said, stepping even closer now.

“Hmm, perhaps so.” Scar murmured, finding his voice now that he knew that Grian loved him back.

He may have failed at King Ren’s command, but now, holding Grian in his arms, he had a feeling that the King, and the rest of the server, wouldn’t mind one bit.

Chapter Text

It had been a challenge set by Stress, who was curious to see which of the guys could actually walk around in heels, so she had gathered Doc, Etho, Grian, Scar, Mumbo, Xisuma, Keralis, Ren, and Xander, while also calling Pearl and Gem in for extra help. 

When everyone was gathered around, Stress, who had recently been in the Main Hub just to shop for these heels, pulled them out and handed them over. “Right, so the challenge is to walk in these heels, properly mind you, and then we will go from there.”

She got many disgruntled looks from the gathered men, and some snickering from Pearl and Gem, but the nine other Hermits put their heels on, standing up and wobbling some; Grian didn’t wobble, but the rest of them did, some more than others.

“There we go, now just walk, and if you break one of the heels, I will hunt you down and kill you.” Stress said, narrowing her eyes at the assorted Hermits.

Now very concerned for their lives, a few shaky steps were taken, Doc nearly falling flat on his face as he stepped just a bit too heavily while walking. “Yeah, I don’t really think these are for me-” he starts, wobbling some more, and calls of agreement can be heard coming from the twin Admins, Mumbo, Etho, and Keralis. Ren had figured out how to stay perfectly upright and could talk semi straight steps, but a laugh could be heard coming from Grian.

Pointing at Doc, Grian effortlessly sauntered past the creeper hybrid in his six inch red heels. “Weak,” was all the parrot hybrid had to say, before turning on his heel and sashaying back over to Stress.

“How?” She asked when he was standing in front of her again.

“Honey, if you don’t think I wore heels when I was Ariana Griande then you are sorely mistaken.” Grian commented. “I own stilettos, and I can kill in them as well.”

Chapter Text

Scar was away from his base for the day, hanging out with Bdubs and Cub for the day leaving his base unattended, so Grian was slinking his way into the Swaggon to lay a trap for Scar to discover shortly after he finally returned, when he spotted Xisuma also sneaking into the Swaggon, a lead held tight in his hand.

“What are you doing, ‘Suma?” Grian asked, startling Xisuma so bad that it took the Admin a moment to regain his composure before he could actually respond.

“I’m stealing Jellie.” X replied, his hand falling from where it had been clutching his chest from the scare.

“Why?” Grian couldn’t help but ask.

“Xander has managed to annoy me so bad with this Derpcoin thing that I’m causing chaos so he has to be the responsible one for once.” X hummed, eyes now scanning the room to see if he could spot the grey and white cat that Scar owned.

“Scandalous, can I help? I was here to prank Scar anyway, and what better prank would there be than stealing Jellie?”

Xisuma laughed, tossing Grian his spare lead, causing Grain to raise an eyebrow at him. “Just in case she won’t let us pick her up.”

“Smart.” Grian agreed, sharp eyes spotting Jellie lounging on one of the dining room tables. “Hey there sweet girl,” he cooed at her, walking forward to pet her. She purred happily at the touch, allowing Grian to easily scoop her into his arms and walk back over to Xisuma, “you wanna go on an adventure with us?”

Jellie meowed in response, gaining a laugh from the two catnappers as they left the Swaggon, Jellie happily lounging in Grian’s hold.

“What now?” The parrot hybrid asked, looking over at his Admin.

“Now we let the chaos unfold. However, we should probably find a place to hang out first where we won’t be discovered immediately.”

“Want to actually go on an adventure with Jellie?”

“Sure, why not.”

Needless to say, the ensuing chaos that occurred once Scar returned to find that Jellie wasn’t there, not panic inducing as she had free reign to explore and would always return to Scar, was well worth the scolding that the pair got from Xander, who absolutely hated having to be responsible for one, so it was well worth it in the end, even if Xander gave up being responsible about half way through the scolding and gave the responsibility card over to Keralis and Joe, the two Moderators of Hermitcraft, despite the fact that he was one of the two Admins.

Chapter Text

A 24-hour prank war had been going on on the Hermitcraft server. It was decided that midnight to midnight, any pranks would be free reign to pull, however the rules of the Hermitcraft server still stood, so there would be no major damage and no friendships were to be tampered with. There was also a point system set up, and, to no one’s surprise, Grian, self proclaimed King of Pranks, which no one could actually argue with him about his title, was holding the lead by a long shot, and no one had a chance of catching up to him; Scar, who was in second place, was currently 75 points behind Grian, but Grian was gaining points every few minutes, putting him further and further in the lead.

However, throughout the prank war, in which Mumbo had only been throwing out the occasional prank, the moustached man had been thinking about the winged gremlin who currently, essentially, had control over the server with how powerful his pranks were. For Mumbo, there was just something so charming about the way Grian moved when he had his eyes on his next target for a prank, how his face contorted as he planned the next prank, how it lit up when the idea was eventually found, how elated he looked when a prank succeeded, how disappointed his body language turned, even if he tried to hide it, when a prank failed. It was all so charming to Mumbo, so it should come to no shock that Mumbo had fallen in love with his best friend.

Deciding that he had to do something about it, had to say something to Grian lest he ends up endlessly pinning and watching as Grian falls in love with someone who wasn’t him (and while Mumbo would support Grian through everything that he decided to do, it would hurt so bad), Mumbo decided that he would say something the morning after the prank war ended.

That time came much faster than Mumbo had been anticipating, and Mumbo was standing in front of Grian’s manor door, the parrot hybrid having crashed there the moment the prank war ended. He knew that knocking would seal his fate, so, taking a deep breath, Mumbo knocked on the door, preparing himself for the worse.

Grian opened the door a moment later, obviously only having just woken up, and Mumbo couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of Grian’s rumpled appearance, causing Grian to shoot him a light hearted glare.

“And what are you doing here so early in the morning, Mr. Jumbo?” Grian asked, head tilted to the side as he ran a hand through his hair.

While Mumbo had intended to start with some small talk before telling Grian that he was in love with him, it appeared that his brain to mouth filter was broken as he blurted out, “I’m in love with you,” instead of “just wanted to hang out for a bit.”

Grian turned a light shade of pink, a shocked look on his face, but he was quick to school it into something neutral. “We called off the prank war at Midnight, dork,” Grian forced himself to say.

“I know.” Mumbo nodded, watching as Grian turned a very bright red.

“Ah, um. Okay. Uh, cool. Neat. Very cool. Yeah. Cool. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool. Date?” Grian stuttered out, mind blanking on what he was supposed to do in this situation.

“That sounds lovely. I could probably bribe X to let us off server tomorrow night for a date night.” Mumbo offered, gaining a dazed nod from Grian who was still trying to process what had just happened. “In that case, I should probably get going before something has Xisuma locking himself away.” Mumbo hummed, and with a quick kiss to Grian’s vibrant red cheek, Mumbo was off, glancing back to see the stunned look on Grian’s face as one of his hands hovered over the spot where Mumbo had just kissed him

Chapter Text

It had been a somewhat quiet day on the Hermitcraft server, probably because Xander had dragged Grian to the Main Hub for reasons that Xisuma had decided against asking, not wanting to know what was going on in his younger brother’s mind for once. He hadn’t been expecting a call from Xander, as he had been relaxing for once in his life and drinking tea while the server was quiet, but he only sighed and picked up the call, placing his communicator on speaker so he could stay in his lounging position.

“Xander, and to what do I owe the pleasure of getting a call from you right now?” Xisuma asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“I lost Grian.” Xander admitted, at least having the knowledge to sound ashamed of himself.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that for me please?” Xisuma practically demanded, praying to Xequla that he had heard wrong.

“I lost Grian,” Xander repeated, sounding even more ashamed of himself now that he was repeating himself.

“How, and I want you to really think about this, did you LOSE Grian?!?” Xisuma exploded, slamming his cup onto the coffee table (cracking it in the process), and forcing himself to sit up; there went his relaxing day!

“To be fair-” Xander started, only hesitating for a moment when he heard his older brother growl- “he is very small.”

With another, louder, growl, X forced himself to push himself off of the couch, and stalked over to his door, only pausing in his trip to grab his comm and take it off speaker. The door slammed behind him as he forced out between gritted teeth, “I am on my way to come and find you both, and then you and I are going to be having a very, very long talk about this.”

A very meek, “of course ‘Suma,” was the last thing Xisuma heard before he ended the call, glaring at the portal when he saw it; he was never relaxing again.

Chapter Text

It had seemed like an innocent enough question when Tango asked it during a server wide sleepover, night settling in fully and the stars and moon being the only things lighting up the sky.

“If you had to take a shot for every bad decision that you have ever made, how drunk would you be?” Had been the question, prompting a long moment of silence as everyone thought over the question, thought about their alcohol tolerance levels, and how many decisions they would consider a bad decision.

“Maybe a bit tipsy,” came Impulse’s response, the first one to respond to the question.

There were calls of agreement from several of the Hermits, deciding that they would probably only be tipsy as well.

“Oh, definitely drunk,” was Scar’s response, gaining quite a bit of laughter along with agreements as well, Scar deciding to ignore those who called out that he would probably be more than just drunk.

Xander hummed a bit, “probably wasted if I had to take a guess. I have made numerous bad decisions in my life, so I'll have to go with being wasted.” 

There was some concern there, but there were also a few scattered agreements as one or two others called out that they would also be completely wasted with how many shots they would have to take.

“Dead.” Grian said, completely deadpan, with Xisuma nodding next to him.

“You don’t get to be an Admin without making so many bad decisions first, and that first one is deciding that you want to be an Admin.” Xisuma said, gaining a snort of laughter from Grian.

“Yeah, that’s a mood.” Grian muttered, leaning into Xisuma’s side, both decisively ignoring the concerned looks and noises that the rest of the gathered Hermits were giving them.

Chapter Text

Grian had been nonstop building for the past few days, energy thrumming under his skin that he needed to remove somehow. He had tried flying, and he had flown until it felt like his wings were going to fall off; that was how long he had been flying, but the energy was still there and present, begging to be used. Without the use of his wings, Grian had turned to building, a go to of his, but he was slowly but surely starting to burn out, his inspiration for his builds dying despite the energy’s continued existence. 

Deciding that he needed to ask for help by this point, he pulled out his comm, bouncing in place just to keep in motion, and sent off a simple question, hoping that he would get an answer rather than questions in return.

Grian: Does anyone know how to relax? Asking for a friend.

Docm77: What? Does the bird really not know what relaxation is? I’m shocked.

XisumaVoid: I don’t think there is anyone on the server who knows the answer to that question, Gri. Well, I don’t anyway.

Keralis: You both are a disaster, I hope you guys know that.

Grian: We are well aware of this fact Keralis, no need to remind us.

MumboJumbo: I’m taking it, the friend is you, G?

Grian: Well… yeah. You know that old saying that you are your closest friend. What the saying doesn’t add is that this apparently applies even if you hate yourself.

XisumaVoid: Mood

JoeHills: Keralis is right, you two really are disasters.

XisumaVoid: Thanks for the repeat Joe. Really helpful.

Grian: I take it no one has an answer?

StressMonster: You know what, I’m calling a serverwide meeting just so we can relax.

XisumaVoid: I have Admin work to do, Stress.

Keralis: You are coming with us Sheswammy, even if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming.

XisumaVoid: Why do I put up with you all?

Grian: I asked myself that every day when I was an Admin, X. You never actually figure out why.

XisumaVoid: Lovely. I’ll never be rid of you lot then.

Grian could only laugh at Xisuma’s response, putting his comm away and turning back to his build. He may have never received an answer to his question, but based on how serious Stress had seemed in her message, he was going to be finding out soon anyway

Chapter Text

It was time for the Hermit’s seasonal checkup. Everyone was currently waiting in Doc’s base, Doc actually having a medical licence, for their turn; it was currently Xisuma’s turn, and the Admin hated the fact that he had to go first for some reason.

“Remind me why I have to be first?” He grumbled, arms crossed now that he had taken his helmet off.

“Because you are the Admin,” was the answer that Doc always provided, and the answer that he was once again repeating, causing X to huff.

“Now, just like we go over at the start of every exam, how much sleep have you been getting, and don’t think to lie to me, because I’ve seen the shadows under your eyes,” Doc said, arms also crossing.

“If you’ve seen the shadows then you know,” Xisuma responded, and Doc was ready to throw hands with his Admin for his lack of self care, but before he could, he decided that he wasn’t going to be doing this conversation twice; Grian was just as bad when it came to sleeping, and Doc had to go through the same song and dance that he had to go through with X about sleeping that he did with Grian, so he decided that he was going to only do it once and just call Grian in for the moment.

“Hold on, I’m getting Grian in here so I can lecture you both because I can't do this twice again. We do this every time, and then some,” Doc informed X, already hedging for the door.

“Grian, I need to borrow you for a moment,” Doc called, causing many confused looks to be sent Doc's way, as Grian slowly made his way over.

Entering the room, Grian asked, “yeah? What’s up?”

“Question for you both, when do you usually go to sleep?” Doc asked, arms crossed once more as he looked at the pair with his most deadpan look.

“Whenever I collapse is entirely up to the gods,” came the eerily in sync answer, startling Doc for a moment, before he huffed out a sigh.

“Why are you both like this?” Doc muttered, closing his eyes as he ran a hand down his face.

“Admins, we’re just built like that,” Grian chirped, causing Doc to look at him in confusion.

“You’re an Admin?”

“Uh, yeah? The Life Games are my worlds, plus there was Evo that I ran before coming to Hermitcraft, but that’s an entirely different story for another time,” Grian replied, rolling his eyes.

“Huh, alright then. However, you both need sleep no matter if you are Admins or not. I will prescribe you both with something if I need to.” 

“And if we don’t take it?” X questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“I can and will force you to take it. Do not test me.” Was the ominous response that Doc gave before dismissing Grian, who left with a huff, and a new found fear of Doc that he shared with Xisuma.

Chapter Text

Tango and Grian had just gotten married and had left for their honeymoon. The world that they had ended up on was one of Grian’s private worlds, as Grian really didn’t feel like going out anywhere fancy, and Tango was all too happy to spend some time alone with Grian now that they were actually married.

It was the second night of them being married, and Tango had managed to get his hands on a bottle of wine, much to Grian’s confusion as he no longer drank after he managed to leave Akademi High, but Grian wasn’t about to say anything, confident that his new husband had the capability of drinking responsibly, so he grabbed one of his books that he had been meaning to read for months now, and curled up in the bed, ready to read the rest of the evening away.

When he started to smell smoke though, Grian sighed, believing that Tango, being a blaze hybrid, had just gotten upset at something, before he got up to go see what he was up to.

Seeing his husband holding their marriage certificate in one hand, with his other hand on fire, was not what Grian had been expecting, neither was, upon noticing the parrot hybrid, Tango screaming out “good luck trying to return me without the receipt!” while trying to burn the certificate, before promptly passing out.

The next morning, when Grian had casually mentioned just how drunk Tango had managed to get on just one bottle of wine, promptly relayed this story to his husband when said blaze hybrid tried to deny just how drunk he was.

Chapter Text

The Hermits were celebrating the end of yet another MCC and the victory of False and Ren who had been on the winning team. Since they were celebrating a win, there was a vast quantity of alcohol, not as much alcohol as there had been when Grian and Tango finally got married after years of dating (and pining) but enough that most of the gathered Hermits were completely wasted.

There were a few Hermits who didn’t drink though, both because they didn’t like drinking, and so there would be enough to take care of the hungover Hermits the next morning. This didn’t always work though, as the only Hermits who were sober as the party started to draw to a close was Grian (because he hated alcohol after high school), Xisuma (who was both one of the chosen to stay sober and not a huge fan of alcohol), and Impulse (one of the others who had been chosen to stay sober); Mumbo, Zed, and Cub were all also supposed to be sober, however Scar had spiked Cub and Mumbo’s drinks, and Zed had decided that he wasn’t going to stay sober and took part in one of the various drinking games that had happened throughout the night.

Currently, Impulse was watching over a sobbing Tango, shaking his head lightly in disappointment at his friend, completely done with his antics, when Xisuma made his way over, hoping that the night would be over, but knowing that it wouldn’t be over until the last drunk Hermit blacked out when he caught sight of Tango.

“Uh, Impulse? Why is Tango crying on the floor?”

Impulse looked up from where he had been staring at Tango, and sighed, “he’s drunk.”

“Everyone except for you, me, and Grian are drunk, Impulse. What does him being drunk have to do with it?”

“Well, he saw a picture of Grian’s husband,” Impulse stated, the disappointment clear in his voice.

Xisuma visibly blue screened as he processed that, before he managed to get out- “but-but he’s Grian’s husband!” 

Impulse held back a laugh, looking back down at the still sobbing Tango, “oh, I know.”

It was then that Grian made his way over.

“It is safe to report that the majority of everyone has blacked out. I’ve also removed the last of the alcohol from the building and put it back in your base Xisuma- what’s Tango crying about?”

Impulse actually laughed this time. “He’s so drunk he’s forgotten that he’s married to you and saw a picture of our husband, not knowing that it’s him.”

Grian could only bury his face in his hands with a half laugh half sigh. “At least it’s not as bad as him trying to burn our marriage certificate like he did when we had just gotten married,” Grian grumbled, causing both Impulse and Xisuma to break down into laughter at the memory.

Chapter Text

Scar and Grian were sitting in Grian’s manor, Scar having just lent Grian a hand with the interior decoration. It was now time for lunch, and, since Grian wasn’t allowed to cook anymore, not after he somehow managed to burn down the kitchen he had been working in three times, Scar figured that, if Grian couldn’t actually make anything, he could at least be the one to figure out what they would eat for lunch, as he didn’t have the mental capability at the moment to come up with an idea of what to eat right at that moment; he had used his time for the brain cell up with creating the designs for the interior.

“So, what are we doing now?” Scar asked, assuming that Grian would understand that he was talking about what they were going to eat as it was time for lunch.

“Wasting our lives. I mean, what are we actually accomplishing with our lives anyway. All we are really doing is making worlds for others to see and for us to leave behind once we get bored of them or something new and exciting comes around that causes us to abandon the world. Is there really any point in creating when it will just be left behind in the end? Is there really a point in continuing on with living?”

“I-I meant for lunch, Gri. Are you okay? That was not what I was expecting,” Scar said after a moment of shocked silence.

“Hmm? Oh, uh- yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I was just… thinking about the past, that’s all.”

“If you’re sure.” Scar muttered, before forcing himself up. “However it is lunchtime, so why don’t we go and see if we can crash whatever Mr. Mumbo Jumbolio is doing and have lunch with him.”

“Ooooh, that sounds fun!” Grian said, wings already spreading so he could fly off to Mumbo’s industrial district where the moustached man would more than likely be, Scar following close behind, Grian’s words never once fading from his mind.

Chapter Text

It was quiet on the Hermitcraft server, too quiet, and Xisuma was apprehensive as for what was going to come. He was suddenly approached by Pearl, and he knew that whatever was going on was about to become his problem, just like everything else that happened on the server; he really regretted becoming an Admin when things like this happened.

“What are you doing here, Pearl?” X asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

“Just came to talk, why?” Pearl was the picture of perfect innocence and the apprehension he was feeling doubled. 

“It’s quiet, a bit too- where’s Grian?” He suddenly asked, narrowing his eyes at Pearl when she shifted uncomfortably.

“Doing stuff,” she said, shifting constantly now.

“Mmhm, then where is Mumbo?” Where Grian went, Mumbo was probably close behind.

“Trying to stop Grian from doing the stuff.” Pearl muttered, looking down.

“And Scar?” Scar was also never far from Grian, and he loved to join in on the chaos that the parrot hybrid caused; X chalked it up to the fact that he was a vex hybrid.

“Trying to stop Mumbo from stopping Grian.” It was when Pearl said this that X realised what was going on.

“Then, if all of that is going on, why are you here with me?” His voice was stern and left no wiggle room for the moth hybrid to try and avoid his question.

“I’m supposed to stop you from stopping Scar from stopping Mumbo from stopping Grian from doing the stuff.” Pearl muttered, eyes now locked on the ground.

“Mmhm, just as I thought. Where are they?”

“By the Boatem Hole.”

“Thank you.” X said before taking off towards Boatem. He already had to keep his brother in line, he didn’t need to deal with whatever it was that Grian was trying to do as well.

Chapter Text

While the fire was very pretty, it had not been the intended result. All Grian had wanted to do was make a batch of cookies, and he had a feeling that he would have succeeded in baking for the first time if he didn’t manage to set them on fire…again. He sighed as he extinguished the flames, eyes looking disparagingly upon the lumps of charcoal that had once been his cookies. He did have to wonder what he had done wrong, as he had followed the instructions the best that he could, and there should have been no way for a fire to start, so he pulled out his comm to look it up, eyes widening slightly as he looked over to the wax paper that he had used instead of parchment paper; he didn’t have any parchment paper, but he had always believed that the two were interchangeable. Apparently not.

With a sigh, he pulled open his messages with Xisuma, the two trying to learn how to cook as they were apparently incapable of doing so, and the sheer number of fires that they have started only proves that, and sends off a quick message to the Admin, eyes straying back over to the charred remains of his cookies and his now unusable oven.

Grian to XisumaVoid: Guess who just found out the difference between parchment paper and wax paper the hard way?

XisumaVoid to Grian: Wait, there’s a difference?! What’s the difference? I didn’t know there was a difference!

Grian to XisumaVoid: One you can use in the oven safely, the parchment paper, and the wax paper you can also use in the oven… if what you are trying to make is fire.

XisumaVoid to Grian: Is the oven unusable again?

Grian to XisumaVoid: I burned it to a crisp along with the cookies! They would have turned out fine this time!

XisumaVoid to Grian: Maybe we really should be banned from cooking, huh?

Grian to XisumaVoid: Probably lol

Chapter Text

It had been a long day of pop quiz after pop quiz, and Grian, fWhip, Scott, and Xisuma had finally arrived back at their dorm. Grian had immediately flopped onto the sofa, groaning when he was instructed by X to unbind his wings, Scott had booked it to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine, fWhip followed behind Scott to grab a package of sandwich cookies as a treat for making it through the day, and Xisuma shoved Grian into a sitting position so he could claim a spot on the sofa as well.

A few moments later and the pair were joined by the other two, Scott holding a bottle of wine in one hand and two wine glasses (knowing that neither Grian nor Xisuma liked his wine) in the other hand, while fWhip was carrying the package of sandwich cookies with him, rolling his eyes when Grian hissed at the cookie package.

It was silent for several minutes (something that rarely happened in their dorm) as they decompressed from their day, before Scot spoke up.

“You know- the best part of a sandwich cookie is the cookie part, not the frosting. Deal with it.”

This was immediately met with Xisuma shifting to look over at Scott, and exclaiming, “darkness without light is an abyss. Light without darkness is blinding. You cannot have a coin with one side.”

fWhip decided to get in on the chaos as well, seeing that a fight was probably brewing, claimed, “the cream’s the best bit, what are you talking about?”

As fWhip had expected, the three started arguing over this, destroying the silence that had fallen over the dorm, before Grian got fed up with them, having a headache from how loud everyone was being during lunch, and shoved himself to his feat, yelling “YO SOCRATES! IT'S A COOKIE! ENOUGH!”

“What would you know? You can’t eat them since they’re chocolate!” Scott shot back, getting a half hysterical giggle from Grian.

“I can eat the vanilla ones, Mom!” Grian replied, before storming out of the living space and slamming the door to his room shut, hiding there for the rest of the day.

Chapter Text

“Alright everyone, normally I wouldn’t be doing this, but we’re getting a new person on the server, and no, you guys don’t get to vote this time,” Xisuma said as soon as silence had fallen.

“Wait- why? You never just invite someone to the server. Why now?” Doc called out, organic eye narrowing in suspicion.

Before Xisuma could answer that question, Scar decided to break some of the tension that had started to fill the room by calling out a question, “how are we getting them? Are we stealing them?”

Ren, biting back a laugh at Scar’s words, decided to add onto the attempts to break the tension- “new or used?”

Xisuma groaned, burying his face in his hands at his two players' words.

“Wonderful responses, both of you,” Xisuma started, sarcasm lacing his voice, “but no, he’s an old friend of mine from when I was attending Admin School so I could become the Admin of Hermitcraft who has run into some trouble with an unsavoury group of people. Before you say anything Doc- no it wasn’t his fault he got mixed in with those people, and he’s only just managed to escape, and as we are moving season in just a few days I thought that since he needs a place to go and we haven’t has anyone new in a season, he would make a good addition.”

There was silence for a moment, before Scar smiled, “well, even if we aren’t stealing him I think it would be fun to have someone new!”

“Used then?” Ren repeated, causing laughter to ripple around the room. 

With a weary sigh, Xisuma just said, “yes, Ren, used.”

Chapter Text

It was the end of the year, and somehow most of the class had made it through the year, even if several of their classmates and teachers were killed. Besides that though, it was time for everyone to receive their yearbook, and find out who all was voted to receive the title of holding the prettiest smile, class clown, and all of that. 

It didn’t take long, once the yearbooks had been passed out, for Taurtis to be leaning against Grian’s back, his own yearbook having been discarded in his bag while he looked at Grian’s yearbook, for the question to finally be asked.

“What all did you guys get in the yearbook?” Taurtis found himself asking, and it didn’t take long for Silly to be the first one to respond.

“Prettiest smile,” she said, a smile gracing her face as she flipped to the yearbook superlatives page.

“Nicest personality,” J commented, having glanced at the page before flipping back to where he had been previously so he could keep looking at the happier memories.

Sam scowled as he looked at the page. “Most likely to start a bar fight,” he grumbled.

“Wait, why are you upset at that? You are the most likely to pull that off.” Taurtis questioned, but he only got his answer when Grian spoke, leaning back against Taurtis.

“Least likely to start a bar fight, but most likely to win one,” Grian smugly called out, a smirk on his face while he tugged one of Taurtis’ hands up to wrap around his shoulders.

Taurtis could only sigh as Sam shot a death glare at Grian, but he had to admit, if only to himself, that Grian really would be the one to not start the fight, but he would be the one to win it.

Chapter Text

Look, it hadn’t been Xander and Xisuma’s intention to get arrested while they were out in the Main Hub, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got mixed up with a group of people who were fighting over something , and now the siblings were sitting in a jail cell together, trying to figure out who they could call to bail them out despite the fact that they had insisted, along with several of the other people who had also been arrested, that they had no part in whatever it was that was going on.

“So… who should we call?” Xander eventually asked, looking over at his twin.

With a sigh, Xisuma buried his face in his hands, “I’d call Keralis, but I feel safer in here than incurring his wrath.”

The blunt response got a startled laugh out of Xander, but his twin was right, calling Keralis would only bring more trouble. “We could call Grian? He probably wouldn’t rat us out.”

“Hmm, that just might work.” X mused, thinking it over. “I can’t think of anything that we have done that has upset him recently, and I’m fairly confident that he hasn’t given Keralis an IOU, so Grian is probably our best bet. I would have said Joe, but Joe totally would have ratted us out.”

“Oh totally. So, Grian?”

“Let’s call Grian.”

A phone call and another hour later, and Xander and Xisuma were walking next to the parrot hybrid, both looking very sheepish at the situation that Grian had just gotten them out of.

“I would lecture you, or rat you both out to Keralis, because I know if he finds out I’m going to be in the dog house with you both, but I’ve been in the same situation before, so I have no room to say anything. However, we should probably get back to Hermitcraft as soon as we can before Keralis figures out why I left with most of my diamonds, which I expect to be paid back, by the way.”

“Of course, Grian. However, hurrying up is probably a very good idea.” Xisuma agreed, quickening his pace just a bit, knowing that this would be a secret to, hopefully, take to the grave… it would be going to the grave if Keralis ever found out anyway, so best to try and avoid that.

Chapter Text

It had been a calm day on Evo so far, so Grian was taking advantage of the calm to work through some of the more stubborn bugs in the code when Martyn, followed by Jimmy, Netty, BigB, and Salem, rushed up to him, a bottle clutched in Martyn’s hold.

“Hey, Grian!” Martyn called out, skidding to a halt, followed shortly by the four following him, next to his Admin, “do you think you could tell us if this is perfume or whisky? I found it in the bottom of a chest in Netty’s treehouse and none of us can tell what it is. We can't pick up any particular scent from it, but Netty is positive that it's perfume, though with the colour, I don't believe her.”

Grian stared at the five, before taking the bottle in his hands, popping the cap off of it, and chugging the entire thing, much to the horror of his friends. A moment later, once the bottle had been drained, Grian looked up at Martyn, before saying “it’s perfume,” and passing out, just barely being caught by Martyn while the others freaked out.

When he eventually came to, Grian was heavily scolded by Netty, who had just spent the past three days making sure that he wouldn’t die because of his little stunt, before he was eventually released to return to his empire, his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs after the lecture, not that he actually made it there.

The moment he stepped foot out of Netty’s medical tent (that she had constructed just for that situation, though Grian had a feeling that it might end up getting even more use), his wrist was seized by Jimmy, the canary hybrid dragging him into his nest and forcing him to stay with him; Grian didn’t mind though, always happy to stay with one of his flock mates, especially after the scare he must have given them.

Chapter Text

Grian had just returned to Hermitcraft after spending some time on Evo. He was currently with Xisuma when he got a call from Jimmy. When he answered it, apologising to Xisuma beforehand, he got a frantic message about how there was something wrong on Evo and as Grian was the Admin he had to fix it.

Taking a deep breath, Grian asked for clarification on what had happened, and, once Jimmy relayed the information over, Grian could only sigh, as he told Jimmy that the blocks that seemed to be appearing and disappearing were just blocks that the world hadn’t registered fully yet, and that, if he gave it a few more minutes, it would fix itself.

Jimmy thanked him, promised to let him know what ended up happening, and then hung up.

“They’re like kids. We’re just taking care of kids! How did we let this happen! We’re smarter than that!” Grian cried out, collapsing back in his seat next to Xisuma.

Xisuma could only sigh, “apparently we’re not,” before he got a call from Mumbo about there being an unusual amount of lag; the lag ended up being caused by there sheer number of redstone devices all running at once, despite it being the start of the season, so a message was sent out to let the others know that all redstone devices had to be turned off for an hour minimum today.

“We became Admins because we were smart. What happened to our smarts?” Grian moaned, collapsing dramatically onto Xisuma.

“I would say I lost mine from rooming with you in Admin school, but I think the truth is that Admin school stole it all so we would be stuck taking care of kids in adult bodies.”

“You wound me so, but you’re probably right,” Grian sighed.

Chapter Text

Everyone was staring at Grian in shock who was currently standing in front of a Watcher corpse, the mask shattered, and purple blood spilling out onto the ground. A dagger stained in the same purple blood was on the ground next to Grian’s feet, obviously having been dropped once the Watcher was dead, but what no one could figure out was why Grian had stabbed it in the first place; Xisuma wanted to know how it managed to get onto his server, but that could come after answers from Grian.

Grian turned to face them, apparently having only just heard them, a small smile on his face, “oh, hey guys.”

Before anyone could reply to Grian’s greeting, Doc, pointing at the corpse that lay just a few blocks from Grian’s feet, exclaimed, “how did this happen? How?!?”

Grian looked confused, looking from the dead Watcher to Doc and then back. “Well, I stabbed it.” Grian calmly replied, as if he hadn’t just admitted to essentially committing murder.

“How?!? Watchers have very powerful magic! Why would you stab one anyway?!?”

“Yeah, they were boasting about it (and about how they were going to take me back) but I was like, ‘I don’t need magic to stab you!’ So yeah, I stabbed them, and they died! ”

“Wait, what was that about being taken back?” Xisuma asked, watching as Grian, only now noticing the flecks of blood that stained his hands, wiped the blood away, staining his pants a light purple and causing him to grumble about how hard blood was to wash out of clothing, before turning to look at his Admin.

“Hmm? Oh! You don’t need to worry about that.” Grian hummed, turning away from the group. “Now, I have to get back to work on my base. Don’t want it to blow up if I don’t finish the back.” Grian chirped, spreading his wings out and taking off, leaving a group of very terrified, and slightly concerned, Hermits in his wake.

Chapter Text

Xisuma was going to start banning hypothetical questions from Hermitcraft meetings at this point; they were starting to get out of hand, and Xisuma was at his wits end with these questions starting even more chaos. 

The meeting had started off well, as they always did, but, of course, when the Hermits got bored things had to happen; this was why all of the important things had to be gone through first, otherwise Hermitcraft would have fallen by Season Three. This time around it was Mumbo who asked the hypothetical question that caused all of today's problems- “ you’re offered $500,000, but, if you accept it, the person you hate the most in the world gets $1,000,000. Would you take it?”

There was silence for a moment, everyone pausing so they could think it over, before Grian barked out a small laugh, clearly having come to his conclusion and leaned back in his chair. “Of course I would. Who wouldn’t want $1,500,000?”

There was silence once more as everyone processed what Grian had just said, slowly figuring out the meaning behind it, before the chaos broke out, everyone concerned about Grian’s mental health, and Xisuma was two steps off from quitting being an Admin just so he wouldn’t have to deal with things like this anymore… even if Grian had a point with his answer- who wouldn’t want $1,500,000?

Chapter Text

Mumbo and Grian had been hanging out while Grian was working on his base; he had dragged Mumbo over when he spotted the moustached redstoner, as Grian knew that he wouldn’t be able to get any of the work he wanted done today without having someone to talk to.

“So, what exactly are you building?” Mumbo asked, leaning back so he could get a better look at the structure that Grian was currently constructing around the back of his floating rocks.

“I-I’m not entirely sure! I’m just doing what my brain is telling me! At least the back is getting built!” Grian replied, pausing to see what he had built so far.

“I see, I see. And you needed me, why?”

“Well, my brain is going in all directions today, so I need someone to help keep my thoughts going in one direction, plus we haven’t talked in days! Sue me for wanting to talk with yo-” Grian started, turning to glance at Mumbo over his shoulder, before he felt the ground disappear out from under him, sending him careening to the ground.

“Grian! Are you okay?” Mumbo called out, looking at the now crumpled form of his best friend.

Grian didn’t say anything for a moment, opting to stay on the ground, before he huffed out a breath and forced himself back up to his feet. He could feel a shooting pain in his leg, but he brushed it off, making his way back up to where he had been working before.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. It doesn’t even hurt that much.”

“Grian, you just fell off of scaffolding! Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yep!”

“Your pain tolerance is both impressive and terrifying.”

“Thanks!” Grian chirped, “it’s the trauma.”

Mumbo blinked at Grian, before he sighed and grabbed his friend by the arm. “And that’s how I know you need to see Doc to make sure you’re okay. C’mon.”

“Wha- Mumbo! I’m fine!” Grian tried to refute, only to fail at escaping from Mumbo’s grip.

Chapter Text

Grian had been lounging on the sofa with Mumbo and Scar. The three had been dating for a few months now, and the topic of how they should tell the rest of the Hermits they were together (the entire server having been watching them pinning for one another since the end of Season Six and it was now Season Nine), but none of them had been able to come up with anything so far, when Grian sat bold upright, dislodging Jellie from loafing on his lap causing her to glare at him while she went to go find a new place to loaf, and pulled out his communicator, a devilish look in his eyes.

“Grian? What are you doing, Love?” Mumbo asked, eyeing Grian warily.

“I just figured out how to tell the others we're together!” Grian exclaimed, his fingers now dancing across the keys on his comm.

“And how would that be?” Scar asked, a smirk forming on his face at the thought of causing chaos, his own comm now in his hand.

Mumbo could only sigh in acceptance, having known what he was getting into when he asked if Scar and Grian wanted to go on a date with him, so he just pulled out his own communicator, curious as to what Grian was planning.

Grian: My boyfriends are too tall for me to kiss them on the lips. What am I supposed to do then?

Doc: …

Doc: Punch them in the stomach, that way, when they double over, you can reach, shorty.

Grian: I’ll be getting my revenge for that one Doc, mark my words.

Zedaph: Tackle them! That's what I do when I want a hug from Impulse or Tango!

BdoubleO100: Why would you date people that much taller than you? Just dump them.

Cleo: Kicking them in the shins should work.

GoodTimesWithScar: You know you could just as Mumbo and I to lean down, Songbird.

MumboJumbo: You also have wings, Gri. You can fly.

Several people are typing…

Grian and Scar burst into laughter as the Hermits started blowing up their comms, demanding answers as to if they had finally finished their pinning and had actually gotten together, and Mumbo could only sigh in fond annoyance at the antics to his two lovers, questioning how he managed to fall in love with those goofballs, despite knowing that there was no one he would rather love than them.

Chapter Text

Xisuma had decided that it was time to take a break from working on his little village and check up on his older brother and do a checkup on the code just to make sure that there weren’t any bugs that needed to be fixed; not to mention that they hadn't actually done any work on the code for a week and a half because they were taking a break so they could do some of their own projects that they had to put off so they could focus on the code.

However, when he made his way into the Evil Emporium and made his way to his brother’s ‘office’ he found him standing on one of the chairs there, eyes darting around the room somewhat frantically, and it only took Xisuma three seconds of seeing his older brother standing on the chair for him to figure out what had happened.

Leaning against the door frame, a smirk clear on his face, X inquired, “Xander, what are you doing standing on the chair?”

“This is my base! I can stand wherever I like!” Xander shot out, eyes now settled on his younger brother, glaring at him.

“Mmhm, sure. Where’s the spider?”

Xander seemed to shrink under himself at Xisuma’s words. “It’s under the desk, could you get it for me?”

Trying not to laugh at his brother, X easily made his way over to the desk and got rid of the spider, watching as his brother, his proclaimed evil older brother, relax once the spider had been killed.

“There, the evil spider is gone. Now, we have code to go over,” Xisuma said, rolling his eyes as Xander hopped off the chair.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” grumbled Xander, following his younger brother out of the room.

If, later on, their coding work was interrupted by yet another spider that put them behind on their work because Xander freaked out, then no one had to know.

Chapter Text

“So, wait, you’re scared of spiders?” Keralis asked, turning to look at Xander.

“I don’t see what this has to do with the meeting, but yes.” Xander snarked back, glaring at Keralis.

“Well, when we’re behind on the code because you saw a spider and freaked out, I think it is important to note,” Xisuma hummed, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes; he had been expecting the meeting to become derailed the moment he voiced his older brother's fear (because that's what younger siblings do), so he was prepared to let the chaos unfold and just listen in.

“But spiders are cute!” Zedaph called out, gaining a glare from Xander.

“They are demons from the Nether, is what they are!”

“Come on now, I’m sure if you just treated spiders the way you want to be treated then everything will be fine,” Keralis tried, only for Grian to sit bolt upright, slam his hands on the table and call out- “killed without hesitation!”

Yes!” Xisuma called back, now also sitting up.

“NO!” Keralis shouted, eyes now darting between Grian and Xisuma.

“But you said-” Grian started, only for Cub to sigh.

“Does anyone have a therapist licence, or something like that? I don’t think those two would go to an off-world therapist even if we dragged them.”

Grian hissed at Cub while Xisuma glared, before Impulse hesitantly raised his hand.

“I mean, it’s not a licence, but-”

"Absolutely not,” Grian growled.

“We could sedate them and tie them to chairs,” Doc offered, but before anyone could think about the offer, Grian and Xisuma had bolted, making their way to the Admin Control room as fast as they could and locked the door.

Chapter Text

It was the Hermits annual Christmas Party, and it was chaotic, not that anyone was expecting anything different; it was being held two weeks before the actual holiday, mostly because most of the Hermits returned to their homes to celebrate with their family and other friends, with a few who didn’t have a family to go to remaining on Hermitcraft and celebrating there.

Xander was currently hiding in the corner, despite this being his third holiday party with the Hermits, and he remembered why he tended to only show up on Hermitcraft every few years- they were too loud and chaotic for him to deal with, and he preferred to stay with his and Xisuma’s dad and help him out with whatever job he had taken on.

A few moments later, after Scar had managed to rip over his own two feet and run into one of the tables, accidentally toppling it and causing the presents that had been stacked upon it to go crashing to the ground, Xander could only roll his eyes as he saw his brother make his way over to him.

“You know,” Xander started, the moment his twin was within hearing distance, “every year I spend with you people just gets more and more absurd!”

Xisuma could only smile at his brother, a mischievous light shining in his eyes, one that put his twin on edge.

“You say ‘you people’ like you’re not part of the family,” X started, only for Xander to cut him off.

“That’s because I’m not. I’m only here to try and destroy the server,” he snarked back.

“Be that as it may be,” Xisuma continued, rolling his eyes at his brother’s words, “I have news for you. You’re already on the Christmas card, and you have been for every season that you are here.”

“What?”

“You know? The annual Christmas card that I send out to my Admin friends, some of the Hermits send to their family and friends, that I send to Dad?”

There was silence for a long moment, before Xander closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “Right. I’m going to go and find a way to die now.”

Before Xisuma could say anything in response, Grian bounded up, as he somehow always managed to do whenever someone wanted to die, and asked, “can I die, too?”

Xander looked at the parrot hybrid gremlin, before nodding, “yeah, yeah you can. Let’s go!”

Chapter Text

No one was quite sure how it had happened, but there were currently two Grians on the Hermitcraft server, and the one thing that the Hermits knew was that they had to figure out who the imposter was and they had to get rid of them.

“Wait, so how are we going to figure this out?” Scar asked, fingers twisting harshly together.

“Well, we could ask them both questions?” Gem suggested, only for Pearl to shake her head.

“No, that won’t work. Even if we did ask questions, our Grian would either take this seriously and respond properly, the impostor will respond just like Grian, or they will just refuse to answer.”

“I know how to do this,” Mumbo said, walking over to grab the gun that Xisuma had provided just in case the impostor was a demon of some kind.

Walking over to the two Grians, Mumbo tilted his head slightly to the side as he examined both of them before asking, “who’s the clone?”

The Grian on the left immediately pointed to the Grian on the right, exclaiming- “It’s them! They’re the fake!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Mumbo shot the Grian who had just spoken, causing all of the Hermits to freak out for a moment, before the Grian that had been shot turned into a puddle of goop.

Once everyone had managed to calm down, and Grian had been given many hugs, Xisuma turned to look at Mumbo.

“How did you know that was the impostor?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Grian would never give up the opportunity to die.”

Hearing this, Grian pouted, mumbling a near silent- “my plans never work. I was so close that time.”

Mumbo, having heard this, only patted Grian, condescending, on the head, “not even close buddy.”

Chapter Text

After the whole clone incident, the Hermits realised that Grian had been coming up with insane schemes that would end in his death for years now; Mumbo could only sigh in exasperation as he watched the rest of the Hermits realise this, but then again, he was one of Grian’s oldest friends, if not his oldest friend, so he was used to Grian’s plans, even if they still concerned him to this day.

While no one knew exactly why Grian was so set on dying, they knew that he had had a bad life before he arrived at Hermitcraft but they didn’t know any of the details, they knew that they had to start keeping a closer eye on him, which was why Grian’s plans had to become harder to detect, so when Mumbo walked in on Grian sitting on one of the counters in Scar’s base, watching the elf bake, he was immediately on edge.

“Hey Scar! What are you baking?” Mumbo asked, moving so he could lean on the counter next to Grian.

“Oh! Grian asked if I could make a batch of chocolate chip cookies! And who am I to deny a request from one of my best friends?”

Mumbo blinked as he processed Scar’s words, before he grabbed onto Grian’s wrist to prevent his friend from making a run for it and said, quite calmly, “you do know that chocolate will kill him, right?”

Scar paused, the spoon he was using to mix the batter falling from his hand, “he said it was his favourite though.”

Mumbo could only sigh once more, tightening his hold on Grian’s wrist, a soft, “dang it Grian,” Falling from his lips, while Grian muttered, “foiled again!”

“Alright, that’s it G,” Mumbo stated, straightening up and picking Grian up, throwing him over his shoulder, “you’re stuck with me now. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Wha- Oh come on, Mumbo!”

“Nope! This is the second time this week! Come on!”

Chapter Text

The Hermits were gathered around a campfire to celebrate the end of Season Eight before the moon crashed into the world, and they were currently going around and asking each other questions before they started sharing scary stories to try and freak the others out without the stories being called out for being fake.

“Okay, so, I think I’m going to chose Grian for my question,” Xander mused, having looked around at the gathered Hermits; his gaze had initially lingered on his brother, wanting to ask him about some of the questionable things he had done while growing up, bet decided that he could do that later, instead focusing on the resident prankster.

“Go for it then, I don’t have anything to hide,” Grian hummed, leaning against Mumbo.

“What would you say your favourite mythical story is?” Xander asked, fully expecting something about some chaotic prankster.

“Oh, it’s called The Story of my Will to Live,” Grian replied, confusing everyone.

“I, uh, I don’t think I’ve heard of that one,” Xander eventually admitted, before wincing slightly as Mumbo hit Grian over the back of the head.

“Grian, how many times do we have to talk about this?”

“We technically don’t have to talk about it, especially since it hasn’t stuck yet and it’s been, what, over five years now?”

“I’m signing you up for therapy.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Push a button on one of my redstone devices and you’ll see,” Mumbo threatened, causing Grian to fall silent and just pout at his friend.

Chapter Text

The entirety of the Evo server was worried. At first the Watchers had seemed like a fun addition to the server, even if their origins were unknown, but now, with people being judged, deadly tests, and wild goose chases. The only person who didn’t seem worried about what was happening was Grian, Evo’s Admin, and Martyn was determined to find out why.

Finding Grian was a test all on its own, especially considering Grian had two bases now- Downtown Evo and the Grian Empire, so he was glad when he encountered him while walking back to the Property Police Station to talk with Jimmy.

With a small smile, Martyn called out to his friend and Admin, beckoning the other over, causing Grian to make his way over to Martyn, a smile on his own face.

“What’s up Martyn?” Grian asked, once he was close enough to be heard.

“I was just wondering how you manage to stay so positive, and believe everything’s going to work out, even with everything that’s going on. How do you do it?” Martyn questioned, watching as Grian’s face flickered, smile becoming strained before it straightened out as Grian giggled.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Grian asked once he had calmed down from his giggling a bit, continuing when Martyn nodded, “I lie to myself.”

Before Martyn could say anything, not that he would have with the shock that he just received, Grian continued speaking, “every morning either when I wake up or the sun has risen and I didn’t get a chance to sleep, I always make sure to tell myself- ’everything’s going to be okay!’, but,” and here his voice dropped to a whisper, the pained smile that had flickered on his face earlier reappearing, “I know I’m lying, I always have been when I have to tell myself that, and with how long I have been telling myself that everything is going to be okay, but it never is. I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”

Martyn was frozen in place, not knowing what he was supposed to do with the information he had been given, nor did he know any way he could help Grian.

Unfortunately, Grian put his happy mask back on (because that was what it was, Martyn realised) before he could break out of his shock, and Grian was speaking once more, moving to step away from Martyn. 

“Have a good day, Martyn!” 

With that, Grian was gone, and Martyn was left reeling, a new project on his mind, and that was finding a way to help Grian.

Chapter Text

Grian was staring at his failed redstone contraption, self hatred flowing through his body the longer he looked at it. He knew that he and Ren needed to see if they could get a redstoner to join their hippie camp, but he hadn’t gotten around to making the signup sheet just yet, so he was stuck doing it himself for the time being.

“Void, if I can’t even do something as simple as breaking and bonemeal-ing flowers, then I really am just a piece of trash, Sam was right,” Grian muttered bitterly to himself, tossing the redstone parts he had in his inventory haphazardly into his redstone shulker, not noticing Ren’s presence behind him, until the wolf hybrid in question hummed, pulling Grian carefully into his side, slowly both so Grian could pull away if he wanted to, and so he didn’t damage the parrot wings on his back.

“You know, as someone who cares deeply about the environment-” Ren started, pausing when Grian snorted, fully aware of how that statement sounded considering they were both hippies, before finishing- “I am obligated to take you out. Does seven tomorrow evening work?”

Grian froze, the words slowly processing in his mind, before he turned a bright red, a few flustered chirps escaping from his lips, before he nodded shyly, causing Ren to give him a quick squeeze before letting him go.

“I’ll see you later then,” he called, pulling his communicator out, and shooting Grian a wink before retreating to his RV, Doc’s contact now pulled up.

RenDog to Docm77: You know that IOU you owe me?

Docm77 to RenDog: You can’t cash it in to get the engine thing back.

RenDog to Docm77: No, I’m cashing it in so you have to be the one to tell Xisuma that Grian and I are heading off world tomorrow at seven.

Docm77 to RenDog: Where are you two going? We literally have a war going on?

RenDog to Docm77: I am taking him out on a date

Docm77 to RenDog: …you’re WHAT?!?

RenDog to Docm77: Thanks for telling X!

With that, Ren shut off his comm, knowing that he would be seeing Doc sooner rather than later but having no care in the world about it, already planning his date with Grian the following day.

Chapter Text

Grian had been given a challenge from Impulse- he had to win Scar’s heart in just a day or he would have to build the back of his base. In his panic, Grian had run to Mumbo to ask for advice, not wanting to have to construct the back of the Griangots bank, and the back of a mountain.

“Mumbo!” Grian called out the moment he spotted his friend conversing with Xisuma, Keralis, and Cleo. “I need your help!”

Mumbo sighed, but turned to look at the parrot hybrid. “What do you need Gri?”

“I need to somehow win Scar’s heart in just one day! What am I supposed to do?!” Grian bit out, gasping for breath now that he was no longer flying as fast as he could.

“You could try being yourself. That should work,” Mumbo suggested, only for Grian to choke on a laugh.

“That won’t work, Mumbo,” Grian claimed, once he had managed to stop laughing.

“How do you know this?” Mumbo inquired, only for Grian to turn his attention to the three that Mumbo had previously been talking with, gesturing at them.

Realising what it was that Grian wanted, Xisuma was the first to speak, “it took a few days.”

Keralis was next, humming as he tilted his head to the side in thought. “A few months at the most.”

Cleo snorted, “jury’s still out on whether or not I like you, G.”

“See Mumbo! Be myself, what kind of advice is that?” Grian snarked

“Do you have anything better, then?” Mumbo shot back at Grian.

Before Grian could say anything, Scar’s voice rang out, causing Grian to turn white.

“You could always just tell me you like me,” Scar hummed, having been listening in on the conversation, once he had accidentally stumbled upon it, for the past few minutes.

“O-oh, could I now?” Grian choked out, back still to Scar.

“Mmhm. After all, you won me over during our time in the desert.”

Chapter Text

Xisuma had been lecturing Xander, Scar, and Grian after they had managed to burn down an entire forest supposedly by accident, for the past three hours now.

“Do you all understand?” Xisuma finally finished, his gaze sweeping over the three sitting in front of him.

Grian blinked, his head tilting to the side, “what?”

Scar startled at his voice, eyes darting around before landing back on his Admin, “uh, sorry?”

Xander just rolled his eyes, not even bothering to say anything.

“Did-did you three- how did none of you listen to what I was saying?!?!” Xisuma shot out, realising what had just happened, dropping his arms to his side to prevent himself from digging his nails into his arms in frustration.

“I’ve been zoned out for the past… two-three hours? I, uh, didn’t get much sleep last night… or uh, the past five nights. Sorry,” Grian admitted, eyes finding the ground so he wouldn't have to look at his frustrated Admin.

“There was a sound that started up about halfway through what you were saying, I think anyway, and I was trying to figure out what it was. I still don’t know what it was,” Scar chirped, leaving only Xander left to answer.

“Oh, come on brother, I think you know what I’m going to say.”

“Xander, I swear-”

“Ignoring you was a conscious decision.”

“Fine then, all three of you are on base arrest. If I find out you have broken this, then you can expect the punishment to be worse than this. And Grian, get some sleep once you're back at your base. Please,” Xisuma eventually said, before he turned on his heel and walked off, needing to cool off and work on the code.

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning on Hermitcraft, and Grian knew that he had to get up, however, he was warm and cosy in his nest.

“You have to get up,” he grumbled to himself, trying to find some way to motivate himself to get up- there was an early morning Hermitcraft meeting that day, Xisuma’s attempt to try and reduce the chaos that normally spawned during their meeting, so he really did have to get up so he would be on time.

“The shower is warm,” he mused, and he did have to shower before the meeting as well, having spent the entirety of yesterday building before collapsing in an exhausted heap in his nest.

“My nest is also warm,” he countered, before blinking as he realised he was arguing out loud to himself.

“Okay, well, if this is how today is going to start, then I might as well roll with it. My nest is warm, and the shower is warm. The space between them is not warm though. I will die a slow and painful death if I’m late to the meeting, and ‘Suma won’t believe me if I call in sick, and I can’t exactly show up in the state I’m in now. Uggghhhhh, I’m killing ‘Suma for this.”

Forcing himself out of his nest, fueled by his murderous thoughts, he whined at the cold that washed over him, being a parrot hybrid meant that he didn’t do well in cold temperatures, and bolted for the bathroom, turning on the shower and waiting impatiently for it to warm up; yeah, he would definitely be killing Xisuma for making him get up this early.

Chapter Text

By this point in time, it was normal to see Grian and Doc arguing with one another; they were forced to put most of their arguments on hold during meetings, but today seemed to be one of the exceptions to that, as Grian and Doc had been arguing for the past half hour about either Grian’s height or redstone capabilities (no one really knew what it was about this time, and none of them wanted to ask just in case they got pulled into the argument as well- it had happened to Scar once, and he had sworn never again.)

Everyone could tell that Grian was getting more and more agitated with each point Doc was bringing up, and they could tell that it wouldn’t take long for Grian to snap and come up with some kind of rebuttal that would either be completely normal, would be one of the most ridiculous things that they had heard, or it would only cause concern.

It didn’t take too much longer for Grian to reach that point as he stood up, wings flaring out, and snapped, “ if you disrespect me again, I’ll eat your shower curtains.”

This gave everyone pause, as it was the most wild statement Grian had spouted to date, before Doc shook his head slightly and replied with, “I have-I have glass doors though.”

Grian only smirked, pulling his wings back against his body and replied, “well crunchity munchity, you think that’ll stop me? I’ve eaten plastic and lived! Glass will be no match for me!” turning the statement from wild to concerning.

“Love, you’ve done what?” Stress called out, concern filling her voice as everyone turned their attention to Grian.

“I mean, it was a choice between eating the plastic or being stabbed- I think I made the right decision.”

“Yeah, no. You’re stopping by my base once the meeting concludes for a full check up,” Stress deadpanned, causing Grian to try and complain, only to wilt in submission when she glared at him.

Chapter Text

Grian and Scar had been on a date, lounging on a picnic blanket while the sun set, when Grian spoke, eyes locked on the sky. 

“You know, sometimes it feels like I never fit anywhere,” he muttered, and while Scar knew where he was coming from, having asked the parrot hybrid on a date to help make up for the mess of a day Grian had gone through- everything from his builds not working right to small minor inconveniences that just kept adding up- and knew that he had to say something to help remind his amazing boyfriend that even if it felt like nothing was going right and he didn’t fit in anywhere, there was one place he would always fit.

“What do you mean by that? You always fit right into my arms!” Scar refuted, pulling Grian into his arms to prove his point.

It was very hard for Scar not to laugh when Grian turned as bright red as his wings, but he somehow managed it, even as Grian managed to stutter out a very flustered “s-shut up!” before snuggling closer in Scar's hold.

Chapter Text

It was quiet on Hermitcraft, much too quiet for Xisuma’s taste, especially with his chaotic younger brother, Xander, and Grian on the server. As much as he didn’t want to go and look for them, he knew that if he didn’t know where they were, and things were quiet, then something was going on, and it would only end in him having to get involved to fix whatever it was they had done, plus the work after he had save them that he would also have to do.

Taking a deep, calming breath, he got up from his sofa, having been lounging there when he realised that something was going to happen due to the silence, and started to make his way to the front door of his base, when his communicator rang.

Looking down at it, he noticed that it was his brother calling, so, with a sigh, he answered the call, but before he could say anything, Xander’s voice sounded out, uncertainty clear in it.

“Hey, uh, quick legal question for you-” Xander started, and that was all X needed to know to exclaim, “for the love of Xequla, what have you done?!?”

“Oh, no, it’s not for me this time,” Xander tried to soothe, not wanting to stress his older brother out more than this situation already would.

Taking another deep breath, X ground out “then what has Grian done?”

“Well, you see, there may have been this group of guys who were catcalling women in the shopping district, and one of them may have tried to grab at one of the younger women, so Grian attacked him?”

Xisuma was silent for a moment, before he let out a deep sigh. 

“How much trouble is he in?”

“Well, he’s been detained but not arrested.” Xander claimed, and Xisuma could only nod.

“I’m assuming I’ll be called in to deal with you both?” X said, regretting becoming an Admin even more.

“Probably!” Xander chirped.

“Right. You’re both grounded once you get back. And neither of you will be allowed to go to the Main Hub together anymore without a chaperone. I’ll be right there.” 

With that, Xisuma hung up the call, mentally debated slamming his head against the wall before deciding against it, and then made his way to the portal that would bring him to the Main Hub, the route to the police department already memorised for how many times he had to make this trip.

Chapter Text

It was a standoff between Doc and Grian at the latest Hermitcraft monthly meeting. Doc had made a quip about Grian’s height, and Grian had shot back with the fact that Doc was apparently incapable of making redstone safe for people other than him to use.

The two were currently glaring at one another, Doc hissing at Grian in warning, and Grian was mimicking that hissing noise perfectly, thanks to his parrot hybrid genes, when Mumbo spoke up, hoping to cut the tension some.

“H-How about this- you both tell each other a joke, and if the other doesn’t laugh then they have to back down?” Mumbo offered, not wanting there to be another war on the server after the last one just ended.

“Why would we do that?” Doc asked, eyes never leaving Grian, causing Grian to smirk.

“What? Scared you can’t make a joke?” Grian taunted, causing Doc to hiss in anger.

“Oh, I have a joke for you- your life,” Doc shot back, causing everyone to fall silent for a moment, worried about how Grian would react.

Grian just stared at Doc for a long moment, before he sighed. “Doc, my life isn’t a joke. It can’t be a joke because jokes have to have meaning.”

The silence stretched on for another moment, before a very soft, “Grian, no. We’ve talked about this buddy,” could be heard coming from Mumbo.

Chapter Text

Scar and Grian were sitting a fair distance away from where Xisuma was yelling at Doc, who had somehow managed to not only temporarily glitch the server so bad that everyone had to be evacuated so X could fix it, but it had been intentional as well, so it was safe to say that Xisuma wasn’t happy with Doc right then.

Scar had grabbed a bucket of popcorn from Scarland while he watched, and while he had offered some to Grian as well, who was very happily watching the show go down, he had denied wanting any popcorn, but Scar had just watched him snag some out of his bucket, causing him to huff, but roll his eyes fondly at the antics of the parrot hybrid.

“You know,” Scar started, gaining Grian’s attention, “it’s nice that X isn’t yelling at us for once.”

Grian hummed, “we do typically deserve it, but it is rare to see him go off on someone like he does on us when we do something dumb. It’s a nice change.”

“It does make you wonder why Doc would try to pull that off, on purpose, when he has seen X yelling at us for something just as dumb, but not as effective as that trick was.”

Grian huffed out a laugh. “This is Doc we are talking about, who knows what goes through that man’s mind.”

“Fair point, fair point.” Scar muttered, chucking yet another handful of popcorn into his mouth. It really did make for a good show though.

Chapter Text

It was closing in on midnight, and Xisuma was still awake, working on one of the homework packets that had been assigned for Coding class; this was the fourth day that he was awake working on one of the packets that he and the rest of his roommates had been assigned, so he was more than a bit sleep deprived. 

He heard his communicator ping with an incoming message, and, when he glanced down at it, he noticed it was Scott complaining about the galactic translating packet that they had been assigned, causing him to smirk when he thought of something that would irritate his friend.

Roomies

Xisuma: Common is a difficult language, it can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.

Scott: You need to stop.

Xisuma: Where would the fun in that be?

Scott: Do you enjoy messing with my head?

Xisuma: Perhaps, why?

Scott: Because I have a feeling that you are doing that on purpose.

Xisuma: And?

Scott: …When did you last sleep?

Xisuma: I could ask you the same question.

Scott: Fair.

Scott: If I get some sleep, will you?

Xisuma: Fine.

Xisuma sighed, but he turned off his comm, and closed the packet, figuring he could finish it the next day. He really did need to get some sleep anyway.

Chapter Text

The dorm was silent, something unusual for the dorm that currently housed Scott, Xisuma, fWhip, and Grian, especially considering the only people in the room were Scott, Xisuma, and Grian. 

Scott was working on some of the homework that had been assigned, wanting to get it done before he had to pull an all-nighter just so he wouldn’t fail, Xisuma was reading, taking a well earned break from the stress of Admin school, and Grian was busy writing something down in a notebook, a notebook that typically housed his prank ideas.

It was then that fWhip entered the living space, having been out to buy some more groceries for the four of them, and he froze when he entered, eyes darting between his three roommates in silent panic, knowing that it was impossible for them to be together in a room without something happening; that something could be suicidal jokes, the dorm being burned down, an argument over something ridiculous, trauma dumping, or something that would cause a mess and force them to have to get a new dorm.

However, the longer he stood there, he realised that nothing was happening, causing him to tiptoe to the kitchen to put everything away. He kept glancing out of the door though, keeping a close eye on the other three as calmness was never something that they experienced, and it was scaring him.

Chapter Text

Taurtis could only watch as Grian fluttered around the Grian Empire, muttering quietly to himself. If he got close enough, he could hear that Grian was muttering something about the pranks he could play in this version, which ones wouldn’t work now, and who best to play these pranks on. Taurtis could only sigh as he approached his best friend, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him, wings coming to droop down and assume a relaxed position, despite the fact that Grian was anything but relaxed.

When Grian finally looked at him, Taurtis could only sigh fondly at the slightly confused, yet inquisitive look Grian had on his face. “Grian, you are my best friend, you know this, but I have to ask, why are you doing this? Why are you planning to prank everyone in the most elaborate way possible?”

“Same reason I do everything, ‘Ris. To finally get someone to like me.” Grian replied earnestly, blinking up at his friend.

Taurtis could only sigh once more before messing with Grian’s hair, earning him a disgruntled chirp and hands batting his own away from Grian’s fluffy blond locks.

“Leave the hair alone! You know when you mess with it you mess with my ear wings, and then I have to spend my precious time that I could be spending building or pranking to fix them.” Grian scowled at him, drawing a laugh from his friend.

“Mmhm, sure Gri,” Taurtis hummed, “but you know that you don’t need an elaborate prank to make people like you. Heck, they would probably like you more if you didn’t prank them!”

“The Evolutionists know that pranking is my love language, so they have come to expect it and know that the more elaborate the prank, the more I love them.” Grian said, voice leaving no room for argument.

“Ah, I see.” Taurtis murmured, shifting so he could use his friend as an armrest, causing Grian to shove him off and fall into the water that made up the walls.

The moment Taurtis emerged from the water, he could hear Grian’s laughter, causing him to roll his eyes, before he thought of something. “If your love language is pranks, is that why you were always pranking me back in high school, but you refused to prank Sam?”

Grian flushed a bright red at the question, before stammering that he had Admin work to do, and bolting, leaving Taurtis to huff fondly at the antics of his friend.

Chapter Text

Grian had decided that he was going to prank the Perimeter by ‘vandalising’ it; he wasn’t going to do anything too bad, or too difficult to clean up, but he was going to be a pest to Doc with his prank.

He knew he had to go at night, the best time for him to be hidden and hopefully not run into Doc, so, when the sun had set and the full moon (thankfully the right size) was casing a silver light over the silent world, Grian silently flew into the Perimeter, something easily done as he was a barn owl hybrid, landing on the ground and looking around, trying to find the best wall to write ‘live, laugh, love’ on, only to spot a small, glowing red pinprick not too far from where he was currently standing, making the feathers on his wings stand on end.

He stayed completely still, holding his breath and hoping that Doc hadn’t seen him, only for his eyes to narrow a moment later when he registered the very faint tremble in Doc’s form; it was a faint tremble that he knew well as it only happen when one hadn’t slept in a while, and Grian could only mentally thank the gods that there were no phantoms out that night, despite how obviously sleep deprived Doc was.

Letting out a sharp sigh, Grian decided that he needed to intervene, knowing that Doc, while a chronic overworker, wasn’t as adept at staying up for days, if not weeks, on end like he and Xisuma were.

Making himself known as he got closer, he called out to the creeper hybrid once Doc had spotted him- “when was the last time you slept, Doc?”

Doc looked back down at whatever redstone device he was creating before looking back up at Grian, “uh, well, you see, we’re at war, and, I, uh-”

Grian only nodded, “okay, despite sounding like a hypocrite here, you need sleep, like, now.”

Confusion covered Doc’s face at the words, Grian unable to tell if the other was confused by the prospect of sleep or the fact that Grian was the one telling him to sleep, but when he tried to question the barn owl hybrid, a yawn interrupted him, causing Grian to huff out a laugh, “alright, that’s it, come on,” and proceed to drag the other to the small area in the Perimeter that Doc had sectioned off for whenever he didn’t feel like making it back up to the surface to crash for the night.

If, the next morning, Grian sent out a message calling for a pause on the war, the only person who called him out for it was Keralis because Keralis always knew when people hadn’t slept, and while Keralis was grateful that Grian had managed to get Doc to sleep, he also told Grian to get some sleep of his own, otherwise he would have to get involved, and as he had already had to force Xisuma to get some sleep, he wouldn’t be nice about it; safe to say Grian got some sleep as well.

Chapter Text

It was an instinct day for Grian, a day where his parrot hybrid instincts had completely taken over, so he was, essentially, just a bird in a human body. Scar had been the one tasked with watching over him for the day, worried that he might hurt himself (it had happened before, before the Hermits knew that this happened with Grian). 

Currently Scar was chilling in the living room, half his attention on the book, Landscaping Your Mind, that he had brought with him, the other half on Grian who was on the ground in a sunbeam, his wings spread comfortably around him to help him soak up all of the warmth; it reminded him a bit of Jellie, but he knew that if Grian knew that then he would be pranked.

However, it was time for Scar to make something for him and Grian to eat, knowing that the parrot hybrid typically never ate a few days before he was stuck in a bout of instincts, so he pushed himself to his feet, and started to make his way over to the kitchen. 

Unfortunately for him though, Grian was stationed by the window in front of the hall that lead to the kitchen, so Scar sighed, knowing better than to step over his friend, and nudged his wing very carefully with his foot, murmuring out a gentle, “Grian, move out of the way so I don’t trip on you, please.”

Grian, on the other hand, didn’t understand a word that Scar has said, being as deep in his instincts as he was, causing his feathers to fluff up as he turned to look up at Scar, eyes wide, and started chirping; his chirps roughly translated into “You kick Grian? You kick their body like the football? Oh! Oh! Jail for Scar! Jail for Scar for one thousand years!” not that Scar knew that.

Thankfully, Scar did manage to get to the kitchen and make them both something to eat, even successfully coaxing Grian into eating it, even if Grian was upset with him.

Chapter Text

It was a well known fact amongst the Hermits that Keralis was someone that you didn’t want to mess with, especially if you haven’t been sleeping, No one was entirely sure how he could tell if you hadn’t slept in a week or more, but he knew, and he would force you to get some sleep under pain of his ire. 

Currently, Keralis was with Xisuma, the Admin running on coffee as he hadn’t slept in over two weeks by that point.

“Come on, time for bed Sheshwammy,” Keralis hummed, dragging Xisuma behind him to the Admin’s lacklustre room; the room only had the bare necessities of a bed, light, and somewhere for him to store his clothes as he rarely used it.

“How can you always tell?” Xisuma asked, voice just shy of being a whine.

“I just can.”

“Wait, how long has it been since you last slept?”

“What?”

“How long has it been since you last slept?”

“Not that long ago.”

Not trusting the other, X was quick to pull up Keralis’ code, and scanned through it to find how long it had been since he had last slept, his jaw dropping when he found the number.

“Keralis, this says you haven’t slept in 785 days!”

“And?”

“Not only are you a hypocrite, but how can you- what- I don’t-” Xisuma cut himself off, mind short circuiting at the information.

Keralis only giggled, “Sweetface, you know I’m not human. I’m not even a hybrid technically! It’s just how I am. 785 days isn’t a long time for me. In terms of my lifespan, that’s only about three days give or take.”

“You- what?” X questioned, voice now sounding helpless.

“I’m an eldritch being from the darkest pits of the Void, one of the first being created. It’s how I always know if you or Grian, or anyone else for that matter, haven’t been sleeping.”

Xisuma only blinked at his friend, before flopping face first on his bed in an attempt to smother himself, something that Keralis quickly put a stop to.

“Now, how about you get some sleep. You won’t be able to handle the chaos of the server if you’re sleep deprived after all,” Keralis instructed X, tucking him in properly and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“Fine,” X grumbled, though he was already half asleep, so it wasn’t as disgruntled as he wanted it to be.

Leaving the room so his friend could get some sleep, intent on heading to Grian’s base to get the parrot hybrid to sleep next (Grian having neglected to sleep for just under two weeks), he smiled, closing the door behind him, a soft, “sleep well, ‘Suma,” Falling from his lips before he vanished.

Chapter Text

Xisuma had been walking past Boatem when he heard slightly manic giggling coming from the Boatem Hole. Knowing that if he didn’t see what was going on it would become his problem in the near future, and it would probably be a worse problem for him to deal with, X quickly checked that his elytra was flight ready, and flew down into the Boatem Hole where he found Scar, Pearl, and Grian sitting crossed legged on the floor, a book open in front of them that Grian was currently writing in.

Clearing his throat, X revealed in the way the three jumped, before they turned to look at him, a guilty shine in their eyes.

“And just what do you three think you are doing?” At the stern tone and raised eyebrow, that was just barely visible under the visor of his helmet, the three scheming Hermits, all looked down at the ground, muttering out that they were planning pranks to play, before Grian looked up at him, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“What, how did you know we were even planning something?”

“You were giggling for longer than 15 seconds. You are always planning something if you are giggling for longer than 15 seconds.” Xisuma replied, rolling his eyes.

“Wha- that’s not true!” Scar cried out indignantly, placing a hand over his chest dramatically.

Pearl pursed her lips together before she spoke. “Actually, X has a point. Back on Evo we would count for how long Grian would giggle for, depending on the circumstance, to know what he was planning.”

Grian squawked, wings puffing up to show his indignation at the statement, causing Pearl and Scar to laugh, X just shaking his head fondly at the three.

“Right, well, I have a new rule for you three, that I will be implementing officially during the next meeting, but you three get to hear it now so I don’t have to deal with this again.” Xisuma said once the giggling had died down. “If the thought of doing something, such as a prank, makes you giggle for longer than 15 seconds, you are to assume that you are not allowed to do it.”

“What? But that means I can’t pull most of my pranks!” Grian cried out, looking up at X with wide eyes. “How could you do this to me?”

“Easily, if it means that I don’t have to get mixed up in it.” Xisuma replied, booping Grian’s nose lightly before turning to leave. “You can still pull pranks, but do try to keep them somewhat tame, alright?” With that now said, Xisuma left the Boatem Hole, heading back to the Evil Emporium where he knew he would have a mess to clean up; at least it would only be the one mess rather than two.

Chapter Text

Grian had found himself standing in front of Scar’s base on Last Life, bloodlust flowing through his veins now that Joel had killed him while he had been with Mumbo in the Nether. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was there, but he was hoping that he would be able to get a life from Scar so he could, hopefully, be welcomed back into the Southlands; he had a feeling that, even if he was let back in, the Southlanders wouldn’t last for much longer.

Pulling out his sword, he slunk into the base, hoping to be able to catch Scar unawares and threaten him to get a life.

Unfortunately, Scar was standing in the room when he entered, sending a bright smile to the new red name.

“Grian! What brings you here?” Scar asked, despite already knowing exactly what the other wanted.

“I think you know exactly what I am here for Scar, and I would suggest giving it to me if you want to keep your life.”

“Would you really be able to do it though, Gri?”

Narrowing his eyes, Grian lunged, managing to shove Scar against the wall, pinning him there with his sword, “I’ll cut your throat open if that will both get you to be quiet and give me a life,” he growled.

Scar stared at Grian, eyes wide and breath shallow. He had had a crush on Grian since their days in the desert during 3rd Life, and now he was able to see just about every little detail of Grian’s face, causing a faint blush to form on his face.

“You’re beautiful,” Scar breathed out, before his eyes widened as he realised what he had just said; he could only hope that Grian hadn’t heard him.

Grian had indeed heard him, and his own eyes had widened at Scar’s words. He stumbled back from the taller, scarred man, and whispered out, “what?”

Despite his words having been said without his consent, Scar decided to push his luck, repeating that he thought Grian was beautiful, and smirked when he saw the pink that was now staining the smaller’s face.

“I should have slit your throat,” Grian grumbled, but before Scar could think about his words, Grian had pulled him down by the front of his robes so they were eye-level. “Can I?”

It took Scar a moment to realise what he was asking, but nodded when he did, causing Grian to press their lips together.

When they finally split, Grian glared at him despite his panting, “you better give me a life.

Scar smirked, “only if I can call you my boyfriend.”

Grian turned pink once more, but nodded, saying, “as long as you are mine, too.”

Chapter Text

The war between the Buttercups and the Perimeter was finally over, and Grian was talking with Ren while Doc was conversing with Mumbo and Scar.

“You guys did well, even with the dragon eggs,” Ren commented, making Grian smile.

“Yeah, the eggs did cause me some trouble with my code being wacky, but we pulled it off and came out on top.”

“Yeah, yeah. I probably should have known better than to go against you again, considering you seem to be able to win any war you find yourself in.”

“Seems like it! From the Prank Civil War to now, I think I’ve come out on top-” 

Before Grian could finish his sentence, there was a yelp from Scar, who was currently being tackled by Mumbo for doing… something that had Doc laughing and Mumbo bright red.

Both Ren and Grian stared at the scene for a moment, before Ren turned to Grian. “Those two are dorks.”

Grian hummed in agreement, “yes, but they are my dorks.”

“Oh, did one of you three finally get the guts to ask the other two out?”

Grian flushed a bright red, before grumbling that Scar had asked both him and Mumbo out the week they were covering the Perimeter.

Ren turned back to the scene, before humming himself, knowing that the three would be good for one another.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Grian hated about running Evo, it was the fact that they were so far back in time that he was stuck wearing his glasses rather than his preferred contacts. Sure, he was able to see and wasn’t stuck being blind until enough time and updates had passed that he could use his contacts once more, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it, especially as the only other time he had ever worn his glasses had been when he was in high school, and he hated to be reminded of everything that happened back then.

If there was one saving grace, it was that everyone who was on Evo had seen him with his glasses before, so it wasn’t coming as a shock to his friends. Though, not everyone had seen him without his glasses, and that person was Taurtis who had gone to high school with Grian, so he had never gotten the chance to see Grian in contacts rather than his plane black frames.

That was, until the pair had been hanging out together in the Grian Empire, shortly after Taurtis had arrived on the server, and Grian had to clean his glasses off, having fallen in the water that made up part of the walls of his empire and now needed to clean the water off of his glasses so he could actually see.

This caught Taurtis off guard, as this was officially the first time that he was seeing Grian without his glasses, causing him to blurt out, “y’know, you look hotter without your glasses.”

Grian blinked, before he finished cleaning his glasses off and set them back where they belonged, rolling his eyes at his friend’s statement.

“Trust me, you look better without my glasses, too. The blurrier the better,” he teased, causing Taurtis to pout and collapse dramatically against him.

“You love me and you know it.”

“I question that decision every day.”

“Wha- Hey!”

Grian laughed before he darted off, not wanting to get shoved back into the water now that his glasses were clean.

Chapter Text

Grian had been working on expanding the Barge, having decided that he had more than enough diamonds to give 10 to the Town Hall so he could add more to his precious shop. 

However, he hadn’t been expecting to get company while he was working, but he currently had an audience of Ren, Doc, Etho, and Jevin, all members of the Mycelium Resistance, currently watching him work.

“Uh, you guys just going to chill there, or do you have a reason for watching me?” Grian asked, pausing for a moment to glance down at his audience.

“Well, we were just wondering something, G-Man,” Ren started, before hesitating, seemingly unsure of how to bring up the question he had.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Grian wondered, hopping down to the ground, his vibrant red wings spread, allowing him to soften his landing so he didn’t hurt himself.

“You’re constantly working. You’re either restocking or expanding the Barge, working on the Resistance base, working on your manor, or pulling some kind of prank. What exactly do you do for self care?” Etho asked, head tilted to the side.

“Self care? Self care is just suppressing your trauma until it comes back and hits you in the face with the force of 7 very large trucks,” Grian stated, very matter of factly.

The gathered group blinked for a moment, processing what Grian just said, before Ren sighed and pulled out his comm.

“What are you doing, Ren?” Grian asked, narrowing his eyes at the wolf hybrid.

“I’m calling Mumbo. He’s been your friend for the longest, so I’m hoping he’ll know what to do. If he doesn't then I’m calling Stress. She seems to know how to deal with things like this.”

Chapter Text

Third Life had just ended, and Scar was on his way to go find Grian. He had fun while playing the game the Grian had created, but during the course of the game he had found himself falling in love with Grian; he had already been in love with Grian before Third Life even happened, but all of his time spend with Gran by his side in the desert had only served to help him fall even more in love with the parrot hybrid. 

He eventually found Grian working on his alleyway, working on building up the front of the mountain and part of the side so he could start building the actual interior, and smirked as he realised that Grian hadn’t noticed him yet, so this would be a prime opportunity to scare Grian, just like Grian always scares him. However, before Scar could try to scare Grian, Grian spun around, a smirk visible on his face, causing Scar to yelp and jump back in shock. 

When he managed to calm his now racing heart, he could hear Grian’s laughter, not the manic laughter that Grian had laughed after he managed to get a triple kill in Third Life, but a softer, more joyful laugh at Scar’s reaction.

“Nooo, I was going to scare you !” Scar cried out, causing Grian to double over in his laughter once more.

When he calmed down, he spoke, mirth still clear in his voice. “Scar, you should know you can’t scare me! What brings you over here though? I would have thought you would still be working on the Swaggon.”

“Well-” here Scar hesitates, but he knows that Grian shared the same feelings as him after the shared time in the desert with the amount of time the pair spent cuddling and giving the other forehead kisses, “-I want to wake up with you every day for the rest of our lives,” Scar settles on, hoping that Grian will understand what he is trying to say.

Grian stares at him for a moment, before a light pink colour starts to spread across his face. “Well, I tend to wake up at half four in the morning, if I even go to sleep, and most of the time I don’t go to sleep.” 

Scar paused for a second, processing this information, information that he really should have known after Third Life, before smiling, and altering what he originally said, “I want to see you at some point every day for the rest of our lives!”

Grian laughed, before stepping closer to scar, shifting to stand on his tiptoes, and pressing a soft kiss to Scar’s cheek. “Well then, consider it done, love.”

Scar smiled, face now a light red, before shifting so he could cup Grian’s face, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, a kiss that Grian was happy to reciprocate, and the two got lost in pressing kisses all over the other’s face, mega bases and horrible sleeping habits forgotten for the time being.

Chapter Text

Hermitcraft Season Nine was ending in just a few days, and Xander had arrived to the world to get a tour before the end; while he could just wait for the world to be open to the public like he had before, he didn’t feel like waiting this time around, so he had asked his brother if he could see it early (he was also going to force Xisuma to get some sleep, as he knew that his brother probably hadn’t slept in days).

Currently, Xander was in Scarland with Xisuma, Grian, Mumbo, and Scar, being shown around, when they came to the Queen Jellie statue, when Scar mentioned that there had been instances where Jellie had been seen smirking at people despite being a statue.

“Wait, but why isn’t she smirking at me then?” Grian asked, looking between the group and the statue, and then back.

Xander rolled his eyes, having just been reminded that everyone on Hermitcraft tended to share one singular brain cell. “It isn’t smirking at anyone. They all just imagine it.”

“But three out of the five of us have seen Jellie smirking at us. How do you explain that?” Mumbo refuted, causing Xander to roll his eyes once more, before he pointed at Xisuma and said, “sleep deprivation,” shifted so he was pointing at Mumbo, “paranoia from all the pranks Grian pulls on you,” and then points to Scar, “delusional personality disorder.”

“Wait, but if we’re going with sleep deprivation, then shouldn’t Grian see the statue smirking as well? He’s been helping me with the code for the past week and a half with no sleep,” Xisuma pointed out, causing Grian to let out a scandalised gasp.

“I’ll have you know that I’ve gone longer than a week and a half with no sleep! A week and a half is nothing!”

“Mmhm, sure it isn’t. You’re getting some sleep with Xisuma,” Xander stated, before the tour was finally able to continue.

Chapter Text

It was late at night on the newest season of Hermitcraft, and Grian was still wide awake, a fishing rod clutched in his hands, while his eyes were glued to the bobber in the water, waiting for a fish (or something else) to latch on.

Grian had been sitting at his dock for days now, refusing to sleep, or move, or do anything, in favour of fishing; he was looking for a mending book as he wanted to limit his use of villagers that season, but, even after 5,000+ fish, he was still mending book-less; Scar and Impulse had both pulled one up, so he knew it was possible, he was just unlucky it seemed.

The Hermits were worried about Grian though, stopping by his dock every now and then to see if he was still fishing and trying to insist on him taking a break, but Grian held firm and refused to leave- he had everything he needed right where he was after all, so he had no need to leave.

Currently Skizz was trying to get Grian to take a break. It wasn’t going so well.

“Listen,” Grian sighed, turning his eyes away from his bobber and onto Skizz, “I have 100 things to do, and, unfortunately, not 100 years to complete them all. If I don’t get this mending book then I can’t get any of it done either, so I need to get this stupid book,” Grian explained, not for the first time.

“I have more than enough reason for you to stop working, G-Force,” Skizz said, causing Grian to raise an eyebrow at him.

“Oh really? And what would that be?”

With a smirk that rivalled his own when he was in the mood for causing mischief, Skizz swiftly stole the fishing line from Grian, reeled it in, tossed it carefully into the barrel that was closest to Grian, before scooping his friend up.

“Alright! Let’s get you to sleep, hmm?”

“Skizz! Put me down!”

“Mmmm, nah, I don’t think I will. You’re stuck with me until you sleep, G-Man.”

Grian struggled, but it was no use, Skizz was significantly stronger than he was, and just as stubborn when determined, causing him to sigh and give in, knowing it would be worse if he kept fighting.

Chapter Text

A month had passed since the Hermits had been out in the Main Hub and had found a child abandoned there and had taken them back to Hermitcraft with them. 

In that time, they had learned that their name was Grian, they had been abandoned by their parents because they were an avian, though what kind was unclear as they had only just gotten their wings, and they were five years old. The Hermits had also gotten permission to keep Grian on Hermitcraft from the Admin Council, mostly because the Admin Council didn’t have the time to deal with the child and find them a (hopefully) permanent residence.

They had also learned that Grian definitely favoured several of the Hermits over the others, not that Grian didn’t love any of them, he was just more attached to Mumbo, Scar, Doc, Keralis, Ren, Pearl, Impulse, Doc, and Xisuma.

It was because of Grian’s tighter attachment to Xisuma that, one day when the Hermits were meeting to go over everything that had happened in the past two weeks, Xisuma sat down in his seat, looked each Hermit in the eye, scooped Grian up from where they had been hopping at the side of his chair wanting to be picked up, and said, voice completely deadpan, “I'm adopting Grian and you cowards can't tell me no!”

It was silent for a long moment, Grian happily cuddling against Xisuma, content to ignore the world around them, before the rest of the Hermits all started talking over one another, Xisuma smirking at the chaos he had caused; he really was going to adopt Grian though, he hadn’t spent the past three days refusing to do anything other than fill out the paperwork for nothing after all.

Chapter Text

It was a well known fact on the Hermitcraft server that Doc was a creeper goat cyborg. While none of the Hermits knew how Doc had received his cybernetic enhancements, they did know that they needed constant maintenance, and that they were to leave Doc alone when he was doing said maintenance.

However, despite the cybernetics needing constant maintenance, Doc wasn’t the best at keeping up with said maintenance, meaning his cybernetic enhancements were prone to malfunction. When that happened, Doc was unable to fix them himself, mostly due to the fact that when one thing malfunctioned, the others were typically quick to malfunction shortly after; the only other person who had permission to do maintenance on Doc’s cybernetics was Xisuma, and all of the Hermits knew to get the Admin if they came across a Doc with malfunctioning cybernetics.

Grian was currently seeking out Doc, wanting to talk to him about the rules for the Buttercups vs Perimeter war that they had managed to find themself in, not wanting to cross any boundaries; despite going to war with Doc (both against him and with the other standing by his side) it was best to lay down the rules each time a new war started.

Landing in the Perimeter and spotting the creeper goat cyborg, he called out, “hey Doc! How’s it going?”

Doc turned at the sound of his voice, and tried to call back, “how do you think?” only for his voice to glitch, the words stuttering and shifting in pitch, immediately cluing Grian in on the fact that he hadn’t been keeping up with his cybernetic maintenance.

“Oh, um, shoot, okay, hang on, do you need me to get Xisuma for you?” Grian asked, despite knowing that he would be getting the Admin whether Doc wanted him to or not.

Doc’s only response was a scathing glare (as his voice had completely died on him despite having only spoken three times that day), and nodded, causing Grian to nod back and shoot off into the sky, off to go and find Xisuma so he could fix Doc’s cybernetic enhancements.

Chapter Text

Ren couldn’t help but smirk when he saw Grian sprawled on the ground by the floating rocks that the parrot hybrid had created, sauntering his way over and looking down at him, causing Grian to blink when he registered that he was no longer alone.

“Oh! Hey, Ren! What’s up?” Grian asked, remaining where he was.

“Did it hurt when you fell?” Ren asked, injecting a flirty tone into his voice.

Grian blinked once more, before an emotion flickered in his eyes too fast for Ren to identify, before Grian questioned, “what? From where?”

Knowing that he was going to get to see Grian as a blushing mess (something that happened whenever someone flirted with Grian, joking or otherwise, or just complimented him), Ren felt his smirk grow just a bit, “heaven.”

Unfortunately, Ren’s words didn’t have the desired effect, but before he could pout at the lack of fluster his words had received, Grian spoke up, “it was actually only the lower stratosphere, so no, not really. I’ve fallen from higher and lived.”

Those words cause Ren to be the one to blink, before he actually took in Grian’s position on the ground, and felt an ounce panic well up inside of him, “that’s not something you’re supposed to be so casual about! Are you okay?”

“Like I said, it was only the lower stratosphere, so I’m just fine.”

Knowing that was a lie, Ren just pushed his panic down and scooped Grian up in a bridal carry, “I’ll believe that when you’re not lying on the ground and don’t have an incredibly high pain tolerance. I’m taking you to Gem- she can decide if you’re really fine.”

Grian pouted, but relented, going limp in Ren’s hold, knowing that he didn’t have a choice at this point; he really should learn to keep his mouth shut in situations like this.

Chapter Text

It was a well known fact around the Hermitcraft server that Grian was a favourite amongst the rest of the Hermits- he was small, cuddly, his wings made for great hugs, and while he could be a chaotic little menace, he could also be sweet and gentle, which made him perfect for cuddle sessions.

Now, all of the Hermits loved to be able to cuddle with Grian, which tended to cause tensions to rise when someone was cuddling Grian but then he was stolen from them; Grian never really minded, as long as he was able to work on his base and other projects when he needed to, but he would have to admit that the tension between some of the Hermits would stress him out sometimes, leading him to go to his Dad to hide and cuddle with him.

Currently though, Grian was snuggled up with Doc, having been stolen from his Dad by the creeper hybrid, and was half asleep, not even processing what was happening around him as Doc and Xisuma argued quietly, not wanting to wake him.

“Why are you all like this?” Xisuma hissed, having just wanted to spend some time with his son.

Doc just smirked, before he glanced down at Grian, and said, “baby boy. Baby,” before turning his gaze back to Xisuma and hissing, “evil.”

“He’s my son! What? Am I no longer allowed to spend time with my son?”

“You got to raise him.”

“Be that as it may be, that doesn’t mean that I got to see him every day. I adopted him when he was 12, and rescued him from a bad situation. He was afraid of me for months. So I’ll reiterate- why are you all like this?”

“I already answered that. Now, you can go.”

Rolling his eyes, X did leave, needing to get back to the code, silently questioning why he had invited everyone here, despite knowing that (even if he didn’t get to see Grian as often as he would like) he wouldn’t have it any other way- well, being able to cuddle his son more would be nice.

He wasn’t paid enough for this.

Chapter Text

It was a well known fact around the Hermitcraft world that certain Hermits should not be allowed to cook, or should even be let into a kitchen in the first place. It was why Mumbo was currently panicking, having just told Keralis that he could make something for dinner, as the wide eyed man had been helping him with some work around his base that day, despite having no idea how to cook.

Not knowing what to do, Mumbo makes his way to Grian’s base, hoping that one of his oldest friends would have the answer to his dilemma.

Entering Grian base, not needing to knock, the moustached redstoner is quick to find his friend lounging in the kitchen, a mostly empty bag of cereal in one hand and a glass of milk in the other.

“Grian! I need your help! I told Keralis I would cook dinner as he has been helping me all day, but I don’t know how to cook!” He exclaims, before he freezes as he takes in exactly what Grian is doing.

“Mumbo, I shouldn’t be allowed in a kitchen,” Grian starts, pouring the glass of milk he had been holding into the bag of cereal, “the only reason I have a kitchen in the first place in my base is for decoration- nothing works in here! What made you think I would be able to help?”

“Dumb hope. I’m screwed, aren’t I?” Mumbo asked, causing Grian to shrug.

“Scar may be able to help you, though I think he’s better at baking than cooking. Couldn’t hurt to try!”

“Well, I’ll go see Scar then. I don’t have long anyways, so hopefully he’ll be able to help,” Mumbo says, turning to exit Grian’s base, before turning back around, “also, make sure to eat something other than just cereal and milk.”

"No promises!"

Chapter Text

Due to how many Hermits there were on Hermitcraft, and the fact that they all loved to cuddle with Grian, Grian had been forced to make a schedule so that there would be no fighting or overlap over cuddles, while also allowing him time that he could spend on his own projects and shops. 

If anyone wanted to cuddle with him, they had to schedule a cuddle session, and he would mark them down for the earliest unclaimed cuddle day, which was why he was now faced with Skizz, one of the newest Hermits on Hermitcraft, wanting to schedule a cuddle session as the pair had previously only been able to see one another when they were playing games with Scar, Impulse, and/or Gem.

“So, can I book a cuddle session, please, Grian?” Skizz asked, and Grian nodded, pulling out his cuddle session calendar.

“Of course you can. Does Friday of next week sound good?”

Skizz was silent, causing Grian to glance up at him, seeing the conflicted look on the angel hybrid’s face, making Grian sigh softly.

“It’s Doc’s turn today, tomorrow is one of my free days so I can get work done, Stress has booked Friday, Mumbo and Scar came to an agreement for this weekend, Monday and Tuesday are set aside for me to work on my base, and then Team ZIT have Wednesday and Thursday.”

Skizz was still silent, though he was processing the information that he just got, causing Grian to ask if he wanted the next Friday slot.

A very soft, “yes please”, came from Skizz, getting a nod from Grian as he pencilled in Skizz’s name, and then sighed as he stood. 

“Alright, I’ll see you next Friday then! I’ve got to go find Doc before he gets upset that I’m not there to cuddle him on his day. Bye Skizz!”

“See you later, G-Train!”

Chapter Text

Grian had spent the last three days working on weaving friendship bracelets for all for the Hermits; while they all had a feather from him to mark them as part of his flock, he wanted them to have the bracelets he had spent so long on, just because.

He was planning on handing them out at the meeting later that day, which was why he had spent all of his time working on the bracelets rather than his base; he had to wait for the meeting to end before he could hand them out, but he could wait!

Eventually, the meeting time arrived, and, a few hours after the meeting started (Xisuma needing to go over some changes in the code that he had to make due to the lag that the redstoners had caused the past few weeks) Grian was finally able to hand out the bracelets he had made, his wings fluttering in excitement, as a bright smile covered his face.

Most of the Hermits thanked him with a tight hug, or stuttered thanks having not been expecting the gift, but when Grian went to give Doc a bracelet (despite being rivals for most of the wars they found themselves in, they were really close friends, even if it didn’t seem like it most of the time), Doc just smiled at him and said, “ah, thanks, but I’m not really the jewellery type. Don’t want it to get caught in my redstone.”

Grian just smiled, even if he was a bit sad, and replied with a chirped, “you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to-” moving to put the bracelet back in his inventory, when Doc snagged it right out of his hands.

“No, I’m keeping this forever, screw off. Just because I won’t wear it doesn’t mean I don’t want it!”

Grian just smiled, his grin a bit brighter than it had been, gave Doc a quick hug, and then moved over to Stress to give her her bracelet.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Grian was good at, it was managing his Hermit Cuddle Schedule. However, just because he was good at it, didn’t mean that he was perfect with his scheduling.

Case in point, the situation he was in right then- he had accidentally double booked his day, and he was seconds away from tearing his hair and feathers out in stress and frustration; he loved the Hermits, he really, really did, but he had to admit that when they fought over him, they got on his nerves like there was no tomorrow!

He was currently facing both Tango and Impulse, two people who were very close friends when it came to anything except for him it seemed, and neither was happy to see the other during their allotted Grain time; he was going to need something strong at the end of the day at this rate, just so he wouldn’t snap and commit murder.

Scarily in sync, with identical glares, both Tango and Impulse hissed out, “Grian, why is he here, intruding on our cuddle time?”

Grian really didn’t have the patience for this, and it was beginning to show as his stress levels only built at their words.

He managed, in his distress, to force out, “please you two, I have two hands, and two sides. I know you both want to cuddle me alone, but I accidentally double booked, so you’ll have to put up with it today. I can’t do it otherwise, alright?”

Seeming to take pity on the stressed parrot hybrid, or just deciding that putting up with the other for the time being (before they would go back to being friends) was worth it for cuddles, so Grian got to cuddle both of them, the stress slowly but surely draining out of him as he relaxed with the two.

Chapter Text

Season Eight of Hermitcraft had begun just over a month ago, and the Hermits were gathering for a serverwide sleepover, both to check in on everyone with how far some people lived for one another, and to get to know the two new Hermits- Pearl and Gem- better.

Currently, there was a game of truth or dare going on, and Ren turned his attention to Pearl, blinking as he registered just what she was wearing.

“Pearl, truth or dare?” Ren asked, silently hoping that she would choose truth, and he wasn’t disappointed.

“Let’s go with truth, I think, this time. I’ve seen what the dares you guys do are, and I’m not going to risk it this round,” Pearl hummed, having gotten lucky with the dare she chose last round, but had seen the horrors of the other dares that had been doled out.

“Okay, why do you have one of Grian’s sweaters on?”

“Oh, because it’s comfy! Gri can’t wear wool, so he gets all these really soft sweaters, and they also have holes cut for wings, so my moth wings can sit comfortably as well.”

“Wait- wait- hang on, Grian actually let you wear one of his sweaters? How did you manage that?”

“I asked?”

“And he said yes? He never lets any of us wear one when we ask!”

“Well, I am his older sister,” Pearl replied, completely oblivious to the chaos that this statement caused as Grian had never said that he had an older sister, or any siblings for that matter.

Grian and Xisuma were losing their minds laughing though, as Grian had been hoping for something like this to play out, and Xisuma knew due to being the Admin and the fact that Pearl was listed as Grian’s emergency contact just in case anything happened to him, and the chaos that was going on around them at Pearl’s words was more entertaining than anything else that had happened that night.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Grian didn’t want Pearl to know, it was that he had recently gotten married and had forgot to invite her; he knew that when she found out, he would be murdered slowly and painfully for not inviting his sister, but he had been so caught up in it all (not to mention that he didn’t exactly know she was alive until a few weeks ago) that he hadn’t even thought of it.

However, he had been cornered by an unusually calm looking Pearl, causing him to start to sweat, asking “hey, Pearl. What-what’s up?”

“I heard you got married recently. Who are the lucky guys?” Pearl questioned, voice deadly calm.

“How did you know I married two guys?”

The deadpan look that she sent him made him curl up into himself, his wings coming to surround him in an attempt to hide.

“I know you. Now, I’ll ask again, who is it?”

“Mumbo and Scar. Everyone likes to flirt with me though, however they all know my boundaries, and I know that it’s just for fun!” His voice had started out as a murmur, but it had quickly risen as he assured his sister that all of the flirting didn’t mean anything.

A bright smile formed on her face at his words, and she was quick to pull out her sword and elytra (her moth wings were too delicate to allow her to fly without the assistance of an elytra), chirping out a happy, “okay!”

Realising just what was about to happen, Grian took off after his sister, begging her to stop and think this over, not wanting to have to watch her murder his two new husbands; while he knew they would respawn, they didn’t deserve to be killed by his sister for marrying him.

Chapter Text

Hermitcraft Season Eight brought two new Hermits to the Hermitcraft roster, much to the excitement of everyone who was there. 

“And we have two new Hermits here, sitting in the bottom of this crater,” Mumbo started, allowing the gathered Hermits to crowd around the hole, “PearlescentMoon, who has asked to be called Pearl, and GeminiTay, who has asked to be called Gem! Welcome you two to Hermitcraft!”

Cheers sounded out, but Grian couldn’t help the elated giggle that bubbled up when he heard his twin sister’s name being called out; he knew that she was joining, despite Xisuma being the only one who was supposed to know the identities of the arriving Hermits, and he was very excited to cause chaos with his twin by his side, and the first order of chaos was actually reuniting with his twin after not seeing her in person for five years.

The pair did wait for most of the Hermits to disperse before they reunited, not wanting to cause too much chaos within the first 10 minutes of being on the world, so when the pair finally launched themselves at one another, wings splaying out in tandem to prevent themselves from falling to the ground, their voices melding as they called out the other’s name, the only person to witness their reunion was one very confused RenDog, who politely waited for them to detach from one another and wipe away the few stray tears that had fallen, to question, “soooooo, what was that about? Do you two know each other, my dudes?”

In perfect sync, something that they had perfected in Evo (along with base answers for any twin telepathy question that may be thrown their way), the twins turned and asked, “what was what?” absolutely revelling in the way Ren’s eyes widened in both shock and fear as he stumbled over his tongue, eventually managing to stutter out, “um, uh, nothing!” and bolting, leaving Grian and Pearl to cackle and plan out their next chaos attack.

Chapter Text

If there was chaos happening on Hermitcraft, it was a safe bet that Grian or Scar were the cause of it; sure, there were a handful of other Hermits that caused chaos, but Grian and Scar were the main offenders.

Currently, there was a forest fire, one that had been started by Scar accidentally, leaving Mumbo, Xisuma, Scar, Etho, and Grian (the only Hermits who had been nearby at the time) to scramble to put it out before the entire forest burned.

“You’re a loose cannon, Scar, you know that?” Mumbo said, tone clipped, to the vex hybrid, splashing another bucket filled with water at the fire.

Scar scoffed, “no, I’m not. A cannon maybe, but a loose cannon? Is that what you really think of me?”

“Well, I tend to think that you play by your own rules, even if you probably shouldn’t,” Xisuma sighed, grabbing out another bucket of water.

Etho huffed out a laugh, “no way. He definitely thinks that rules are made to be broken. I mean, they are, but my point still stands.”

“Those are all attributes of a loose cannon you know,” Mumbo pointed out, getting a chuckle from Scar.

“No, no. I’m just a reckless renegade. If anyone is a loose cannon, it’s Grian.”

This had them all pausing to look at the aforementioned man, who had somehow found a chair, and was currently smashing it against a burning tree, causing them all to blink.

“Grian, we said to use water! We want to put the fire out! Not give it more fuel!” Xisuma exclaimed, deciding to throw the bucket of water he was holding at both the burning tree that Grian was beating with the chair and at Grian himself, causing him to splutter in shock when the water hit him.

Chapter Text

Xisuma was currently sitting in a room with Grian and Doc, as Grian had almost started yet another war due to Doc insulting his height; X was thankful that he had managed to put a stop to it before any wars could actually start (not having the time or energy to deal with it), but now he had to make Grian apologise to Doc, which was why he had locked them in the room together, with him there to keep an eye on them.

With an exasperated sigh, Grian turned to look up at Doc, really not wanting to apologise, but knowing that he had no choice, said, “look, I know we don’t see eye to eye on everything, bu-”

He was cut off by Doc huffing out a laugh, a smirk forming on his face as he cut in saying, “we can’t see eye to eye because you’re too short.”

Grian blinked for a moment, just staring at Doc, mouth slightly parted in shock, before, quicker than the other two in the room could comprehend, Grian whipped out his sword and easily killed Doc with it, sending him to a quick respawn.

However, when Xisuma had forced the pair into the room, he had them set their spawn points there, just so they wouldn’t die to get out of the apology, meaning that Doc spawned right back in the room, allowing Grian to throw himself at Doc, killing him once more.

This went on for a while, X losing track of the time, before he muttered to himself, “how can someone so small and cute be so deadly?”

Unfortunately for the Admin though, Grian’s head whipped over to him, eyes narrowed in a glare, before he hissed out, “you’re next,” turning his attention back on Doc to kill him three more times, before turning his attention on Xisuma.

Chapter Text

Grian was wandering around the Shopping District, trying to find something to do- he had caught his mending book, so he didn’t need to fish as often anymore, it wasn’t a day that the Permit office was open (not that he would be of any help to those who needed it), and he didn’t feel like grinding for any of the materials that he was going to be selling (he already had a few farms for that, so he was good for the moment).

He didn’t know why he was in the Shopping District to start with, if he was being honest, he didn’t need to buy anything after all, but he did enjoy seeing what everyone had built, plus there was a chance that he would run into someone who would want to cause chaos with him, and run into someone he did.

As he had been muttering “what to do, what to do,” to himself, eyes scanning over the builds, admiring all the work his friends had put in, he was scooped up from behind, causing him to squeak, and his wings to attempt to flare out, before he fully registered what had happened.

As soon as he was in the other’s arms, he was able to recognise the texture of Xisuma’s armour, plus, once he was settled in a princess carry, X spoke as he started walking back to his base, “you’re coming with me, I think.”

Before Grian to either agree or just submit to going with his Admin (he would have submitted, as he knew he would be getting cuddles), the sound of heavy footsteps, belonging to one Docm77, could be heard approaching the duo rather quickly, causing X to tighten his hold on Grian just a bit.

“Gimme,” Doc demanded, once he had made it to them.

“No. You all get to cuddle with him more often than not, so it’s my turn now. I have to put up with all of the things you guys do, so cuddling with Grian is the least I deserve for it.”

Doc grumbled, but seemed to agree, especially as the season had only just started, and there was already so much chaos happening.

Chapter Text

Just under a year ago, Xisuma had adopted Grian, and it was one of the best decisions that he had made, even if he was currently trying to get Grian to bed, as it was an hour and a half past his bedtime due to errands that he had to run earlier taking longer than he had been expecting.

He knew that Grian was hiding somewhere, not wanting to go to bed, so he was wandering around the house, humming quietly, and occasionally calling out “Where arrreeee yooooooouuuuuuu? I just wanna hug,” in an attempt to try and coax his son out of hiding so he could finally go to bed.

Childish giggles could be heard coming from his own bedroom, before Grian replied with, “I’ll have to put you on hold,” before humming one of the songs that the pair had heard while out on their errand trip, causing Xisuma to smile and follow the music.

“I’m coming for you, you can’t escape now!” He called out, entering his room and spotting Grian hiding behind the curtains.

When Grian realised that he had been spotted, he tried to bolt, but X was quicker than he was, easily scooping him up in his arms, “alright, little one. Let’s get you to bed, hmm? It’s been a long day, and it’s already past your bedtime.”

Grian whined a bit, but, once he had been tucked in and had a story read to him, he was out like a light.

With a soft smile, Xisuma brushed back some of his son’s hair before pressing a kiss to his forehead, and then left for his own room, ready to retire for the night himself.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Xisuma had learned in the four years it had been since he had found and adopted Grian, it was that Grian liked to talk to himself sometimes. Most of the time it happened while X was busy, making him think that he was talking to an imaginary friend, so he wasn’t worried about it, especially as Grian had a hard time making friends and did online school, but he had to admit that he was curious as to who he was talking to.

One day, while he was working on some more coursework for his Admin courses, he finally managed to get his answer, as Grian was sitting on the ground, putting together a puzzle when he started talking quietly to himself.

“Hi Pearl,” X heard Grian whisper, head tilting to the side slightly when he spoke.

Taking this as the time to finally find out who Pearl was, Xisuma asked, “Grian? Can I ask who Pearl is?”

“Hmm? Oh! She’s my older sister!”

Xisuma was now thoroughly confused, as he had been told when he adopted Grian that he was an only child.

“But you don’t have siblings…”

Grian pouted, sending him a glare, “liar! I do have a sister! My parents just liked her more than me.”

X was quick to hold his hands out in a placating gesture, “alright, I’m sorry. I was just told that you didn’t have siblings, that’s all.”

Seemingly placated by this, Grian turned back to both his puzzle and conversation with Pearl, allowing Xisuma to turn back to his coursework.

However, in a cold house, one devoid of love, one Pearlescent Moon sneezed, chalking it up to someone either talking about her or the cold. She had a feeling that it was someone talking about her though, as her younger brother was out there somewhere, hopefully safe, and he would probably talk about her a lot.

Chapter Text

When Xisuma had adopted Grian, he hadn’t known that Grian had an older sister, but he had recently received a call from the case worker who had helped him adopt Grian, letting him know that Pearlescent Moon, better known as Pearl, was in need of a home, and as he had adopted Grian, they were hoping that he could also take in Pearl as they were siblings. 

He was quick to agree, after making sure that Grian would be happy with having Pearl live with them, so he had been working on making sure that the spare guest room was ready for her to have, when Grian wandered into the room, hopping up on the bed (with some help from Xisuma as the bed was still the guest bed) and blinking up at his Dad.

“Pearl comes tomorrow?” Grian asked, making X hum and nod.

“That’s right, Gri. Do you remember anything about her?”

“She’s my older sibling, and her wings are different and more delicate than mine are. Oh! And she’s taller than me. I’ll be tall too, one day, right Dad?”

“Well, considering you’re 11 right now-” X started, only to be cut off by a giggling Grian.

“I’m 12 Dad! I turned 12 last week!”

Xisuma lightly hit himself on the forehead, commenting that he was a derp, despite having already known that his son was 12; he had wanted to make Grian laugh, as he had been a bit tense about having Pearl come and live with them, as it had been five years since he had last seen his sister.

However, since Grian was 12, X knew that, since he was a scarlet macaw hybrid, he wouldn’t be growing much bigger, as bird hybrid tended to remain small and slim to allow them to fly easily, but Xisuma wasn’t about to tell Grian that, not with how bright his eyes were at the thought of being tall.

“Uh, um, y-yeah! Of course you’ll get taller,” he stuttered out, making Grian let out a happy chirp as he, carefully, flopped back on the bed, making Xisuma chuckle, before he turned back to the task at hand- making sure the room would be ready for Pearl’s arrival the next day.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Pearl noticed about her younger brother Grian, it was that his wings were different from hers, despite them being blood related siblings. 

She had been thinking it over, trying to figure out how he could be an avian, a scarlet macaw she thinks she heard her Dad call him, while she was a moth, a luna moth to be precise, so she decided to ask Grian, just to make sure that he really was an avian and not some weird feathered moth.

She was quick to locate Grian in the living room with their Dad, the two of them sitting on the floor, Grian watching a cartoon, while Xisuma worked on some Admin course work to finally become an Admin and take the reins of Hermitcraft, now that GenerikB was talking about leaving Hermitcraft and giving ownership of it to Xisuma.

“Gri, you’re an avian right? A scarlet macaw?” Pearl asked, sitting down next to her brother.

Grian let out a small chirp, and shifted to hide behind X, making Pearl frown a bit.

“Grian? You are one, right?” She found herself asking again, scooching a bit closer to her Dad so she could lean against him as well.

When Grian started to coo sadly, the sound soft and broken, Pearl realised that something was wrong, and was quick to try and fix it, “it’s okay Gri! I didn’t mean to make you upset. Even if you are an avian, you’re still my little brother, and I love you!”

Pearl’s declaration managed to make Grian crawl out from where he had been hiding, though he stayed close enough that he could go back to hiding.

“You’re my little brother and I love you no matter what,” Pearl whispered, and Grian threw himself into her arms, his feathered wings trying to curl around the pair, and a moment later, the two were being lifted up and settled in their Dad’s lap, where they ended up falling asleep only minutes later, safe, and warm, and happy with the family that they were.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Grian hated, it was school.

Sure, he wasn’t in traditional school after what had happened when he was seven and lost in Japan, but he was currently doing both online school for his general education, as well as Admin school so he could become an Admin just like his Dad; he was doing really well in all of his classes, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t hate it and it wasn’t overwhelming.

When things got to be a bit too overwhelming for him, he always retreated into his nest, burying himself in a pile of blankets and pillows (with the hope that his Dad will notice and come cuddle with him because positive human interaction is always a great help), and just hide there until he could face the world once more.

Luckily, once he was buried in the nest, Xisuma did seem to notice that he had a hard day and, having blanket permission to enter the nest being Grian’s adoptive Dad, carefully made his way in, one hand finding the Grian shaped lump and petting over it gently to try and soothe the overwhelmed mess that was Grian.

Later on, Pearl showed up (she went to traditional school as she preferred to learn things in person rather than online), and needed some help with her homework, and, while she may be the older sibling, she knew she could always rely on her brother to lend her a hand, as he tended to understand the topics that she was learning at school.

“Hey Dad, where’s Griba? I could use some help,” she called out, entering the living room where Grian’s main nest was kept; he tended to sleep in a smaller nest in his room, but the main nest was nice to snuggle up in during movie nights and when sleep just didn’t want to come.

Still petting the Grian shaped mound gently, Xisuma hummed, “no where,” not wanting his eldest child to tease him for coddling his youngest, however, when Grian let out a muffled chirp, X let his head droop, though he didn’t stop petting the blankets, “...in the nest.”

Pearl could only sigh fondly, knowing how much their Dad loved to coddle them both, especially when they had a long and tiring day.

“You’re coddling him again, aren’t you?” She questioned, though all three knew that it was a rhetorical question.

Deciding to poke his head out of the blankets long enough to glare at his sister, Grian stated, “I had seven tests today. Excuse me if I want to be a puddle of overwhelmed, exhausted, coddled, Grian!” 

With that, he vanished back under the blankets, and Pearl huffed once more, before she made her way over to the nest as well- her homework could wait for a bit, for now, she wanted to be coddled too.

Chapter Text

Evo was finally over, and Grian was free of his Admin duties for the time being; his ending had been planned since before he was going to move to Hermitcraft, along with the change in Adminship of Evolution (going to Mini), so he was currently back where he had grown up, hiding away from the world, curled up with his Dad instead of packing.

Sure the one odd thing about where he was curled up was the fact that he was curled up in his Dad’s suit, against his chest, but, while he may be a scarlet macaw hybrid, he did have cat like habits and abilities, and becoming liquid was one of those abilities; he could also purr, which he was currently doing, as his hiding spot was the perfect place for him to destress from fighting the Ender Dragon and the Wither within the span of a week.

Sure, Xisuma may be silently dying as he hadn’t done this since he was younger, and his Dad always thought that it was the cutest thing (Pearl used to do it as well, but she never did it as often, not wanting to damage her wings), but Grian was happy and comfy, so he wasn’t going to be moving for a while.

However, that didn’t mean that he was safe from interacting with people, as Pearl had arrived home a few hours after he had, and was currently looking for him, wanting to find out more about his plans for Hermitcraft, as he had been curious about what he would build now that he wasn’t fighting with the blocks of the early updates.

“Dad, where’s Grian? I just wanna talk with him,” Pearl asked, having scoured the entire house before turning to her Dad.

“He’s in hiding to destress,” X replied, giving his daughter a smile before turning his attention back to the paperwork he was filling out.

Pearl was silent for a moment, thinking over what had just been said, before she sighed, “he’s curled up in your suit again, isn’t he?”

Xisuma didn’t bother to answer, as the sound of Grian’s purrs could be heard a second later, causing Pearl to huff, “fine, I’ll talk with him later I guess. Are you going to be making dinner tonight, Dad?”

“Nah, I thought we could order in to celebrate Grian finishing off his first world.”

“Well, it’s technically not finished, you know.”

“It’s finished for him, and he’s not the one in charge of it anymore, well, unless an emergency comes up, then he’ll have to take charge again, as he is the owner of the world.”

“So, where are we ordering in from?”

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Xisuma knew about his kids, it was that the two were either best friends or at each other’s throats all the time, and it seems like today was one of the days that they were at one another’s throats. 

He had been relaxing on the couch, having just finished the final bit of coursework for his Admin course, when Grian bounded up to him, a feral glint in his eyes, one that X knew could only spell trouble.

“What’s up, Grian?” He asked anyway, knowing better than to ignore his children.

“Dad, where’s Pearl? I can’t find her,” Grian replied, a slight whine in his voice.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he asked, “why?”

“She stole my juice! I was saving that for later! I just wanna talk with her about it.”

Just as Xisuma was about to try and find some kind of solution to the problem that wouldn’t end in his kids fighting, there was a small squeak from down the hall, causing Grian’s head to snap over to where the sound came from, before he bolted, shouting out “I just wanna talk!”

Taking a deep breath, X shoved himself off of the couch, before he chased after his son, knowing that if he didn’t intervene soon, then he would have to bandage up the small scrapes and soothe the hurt feeling and tears, so, with a desperate cry after his son for him to stop, he knew that his relaxing day was over.

Chapter Text

Grian wasn’t entirely sure how the topic of family had come up in this weeks Hermitcraft Meeting, but somehow it had, and all eyes were on him, curious about his family; he knew that he didn’t have to talk about it if he didn’t want to, but he also knew that the complicated nature of his family would be funny to discuss.

“So, my family tree is… complicated,” he started, “my parents didn’t really want me, so I was abandoned and then adopted by another family, who actually loved me and my younger sibling, who was also abandoned with me.”

“Wait, so how many siblings do you actually have then?” Scar found himself asking, head tilted to the side a bit.

Grian pursed his lips in thought, his own head tilting as he thought about it, “biologically, legally, or emotionally? The answer is different for all three, so take your pick!”

“Could we get an answer for all three?” Mumbo wondered, and Grian nodded, though remained silent for another minute as he thought it over.

“So, Pearl is my only blood related sibling, and she’s younger than me. Then you have the couple who adopted us also had three kids- Jimmy, Martyn, and Lizzie. Both Martyn and Lizzie are older than me, but I’m older than Jimmy; I’m not sure if Pearl is older than him off the top of my head, which I really should know, but eh. Then there’s Joel who is married to Lizzie making him my brother-in-law, so I see him as my brother, and the same goes for Scott who is married to Jimmy, and Martyn married Netty, so she’s my sister-in-law and basically my sister. Emotional siblings would be most of you guys actually. We may not always get along, and I may pull a few pranks, but, when you think about it, that’s how siblings act, by being minor inconveniences who love you no matter what.”

There was silence for a long moment once Grian finished talking, before chaos broke out- tears, calls of love, and people moving to stand to give Grian a hug.

If he had known that this would be the reaction to him telling the Hermits that they were his family, he would have done it sooner; he really loved them after all, and they should know it.

Chapter Text

If Grian hadn’t been fishing for weeks on end, not to mention not sleeping for multiple days at a time to increase his fishing odds of catching a mending book, then he probably wouldn’t have reacted so harshly to Scar fishing up a mending book, but, once he knew exactly what Scar had just fished up, Grian had to admit that his anger got the best of him and he killed Scar; Scar was also banned from the dock, just so Grian wouldn’t have to face the man who stole the mending book that he had been looking for for a while.

However, despite being banned, three days after Scar had caught the mending book, he made his way over to the dock where Grian was, unsurprisingly, fishing; Grian was going to get the mending book if it was the last thing he did.

“Grian! How have you been lately?” Scar called out, already knowing the response he was going to get.

Grian said nothing, having been giving Scar the silent treatment from the moment the book was pulled out of the water, and only turned to shoot Scar a scathing glare, causing the scarred man to chuckle.

“You know,” Scar purred, causing Grian to glare at him once more, “you’re so cute when you’re irritated.”

Reeling in his line, Grian swapped out his trusty fishing rod for his, just as trusty, diamond sword, holding it out at Scar’s throat.

Breaking his vow of silence, Grian growled out, “I’m going to slit your throat.”

Scar just laughed, pushing the sword to the side and stepping closer to Grian, “are you sure about that?”

With one swift movement, Grian had pulled his sword back to him, and managed to slice it across Scar’s throat, just like he had threatened to, killing Scar once more.

Respawning back at his train, Scar could only let out a breathless laugh- that was so worth it.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Grian loved, it was attention. This was probably due to his childhood and how he was abandoned, and then went through a lot of things that he never thought back on lest he have a panic attack, but that didn’t matter to him, what did matter was attention, and preferably good attention.

Currently, he was sitting in Doc’s lap, having been hanging out with his…well, they weren’t lovers, but they weren’t just friends either; they weren’t friends with benefits, that title belongs to Taurtis and Taurtis only, even if Grian never saw him anymore, so his relationship with Doc was unlabeled, and, if he was being honest, he preferred it that way- they both did.

It didn’t take long for Grian to start whining softly though, not happy with the lack of attention he was getting, considering the two were hanging out so they could be with one another and not worry about working on anything.

“Pay attention to meee,” he whined, causing Doc to huff out an exasperated laugh.

“Grian, Pesky Bird, we were literally just making out like, two seconds ago.”

Grian blinked up at Doc, head cocked to the side, “I don’t see your point!”

Doc just laughed again, before pulling Grian closer to himself, with a fond, “you’re never satisfied with how much attention you get, are you?”

“Nope! Attention is what keeps me alive!”

“Mmhm, I’m sure it is.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing. Just agreeing with you is all, Pesky Bird.”

Chapter Text

Grian wasn’t entirely sure what he had done to hurt his neck, whether he had slept on it wrong, turned his head too fast, or it was just hurting to spite him for being alive, whatever it was, it hurt and Grian wasn’t happy.

However, if there was one thing that could make him happy, it was messing with his friends, and his good friend Joel happened to now be on Hermitcraft, and after the whole neck kissing thing that happened when Joel, Skizz, Jimmy, Lizzie, Martyn, and HBomb had visited Season Nine to play Decked Out 2, Grian knew that there was no way he would be passing up on the opportunity to mess with Joel and bring that moment back up.

Wandering over to Joel’s Japanese inspired area, he called out for him, a slight whine in his voice, eventually finding his friend a few minutes later, working on one of his builds.

“There you are!” Grian called out, making Joel startle.

“Grian! Warn a guy perhaps!” Joel exclaimed, playfully glaring at the shorter.

“I was calling your name! I think that counts as enough warning. It’s not my fault that you just didn’t hear me!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now, what is it that you’re here for?”

Grian paused for a moment, the pain in his neck sharpening briefly, causing him to wince, before he sighed, “my neck is sore, and I don’t know what I did to deserve that.”

“Oh. That’s not good. Is there anything you want or that I can-” Joel started, only to be cut off by Grian.

“Please kiss it.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Joel’s exasperated voice cut through it, “you guys are never going to let me live that down, are you?” 

Grian smirked, “nope!”

Chapter Text

It wasn’t a common occurrence for Grian to be able to meet up with Mumbo, what with them both being in high school, and Grian dealing with everything that was going on at Akademi High (Mumbo still wasn’t sure what was happening over there, what with the rumours of the Yakuza and murders, but Grian didn’t wish to speak about it, so he wouldn’t push), so it was always a nice treat whenever the two friends were able to meet up.

Currently the two were sitting in a park, both with teas that they had picked up form a local cafe, and were talking about what they wanted to do when they finally graduated and could leave the world and head to somewhere new.

“I think I want to do more with redstone. I can’t really do much here, but I know I can do so much more, you know?” Mumbo asked, causing Grian to smile at him.

“Yeah, you really are good with redstone. I’m sure you’ll be even better when you’re no longer here.”

“What about you? You could definitely do something with building! You’re an incredible builder!”

“I guess.”

“No guesses about it. However, there is one thing that I want more than becoming a redstoner.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“I-I want to see us grow old together. I don’t want to know what life without you is like.”

Grian barked out a sharp laugh, his eyes finding his lap for a moment, before he turned to look back at his friend, “are you assuming I want to live?”

A heavy silence fell over the two, before Mumbo’s soft, “are you okay?” broke it, eyes soft as he looked at his friend.

“I-I don’t know, anymore,” Grian admitted quietly, before the silence fell once more, only this time it wasn’t heavy or oppressive, it was just silence.

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since Grian had last slept, having been working on his base on Hermitcraft whenever he wasn’t being clung to by one of the others, but he knew that he couldn’t fall asleep now, not when he was on a ghost hunting mission with Skizz, Scar, and Impulse, with the ghost (that Grian was positive was an Oni from the evidence that they had), hunting them.

He had crammed himself in a closet, and Impulse had followed him, the two having been in the same room when the hunt had started. 

However, no matter how much Grian tried to stay awake and focus on the mission at hand, he couldn’t deny just how exhausted he was, forcing him to constantly shake himself awake every few seconds.

Impulse, taking notice of Grian’s state, questioned quietly, not wanting to draw the attention of the still hunting ghost, “Hey, G, you look really tired. Are you okay?”

It took Grian a moment to process the words, but once he did, he nodded sleepily, clicking his radio on for a brief moment, only to be met with the heavy static that indicated that a hunt was still going on.

Not believing his smaller friend for one moment, Impulse huffed softly, “alright, okay, here-” he opened his arms so Grian could collapse into them if he so wished- “you can get some sleep, Gri. I’ll protect you.”

Moving forward, and nestling himself against Impulse, burying his face in the taller’s chest, Grian managed to yawn out, “okay,” before his eyes slipped closed and the darkness of sleep overtook him.

A minute later, Skizz's voice sounded out from the radios, loudly proclaiming, “hunt’s over! Who’s still alive?”

Twitching slightly at the sound of his friend's voice, Impulse pulled his radio up to his mouth, making sure that Grian hadn’t been disturbed by the announcement, and hissed out, “shh! Grian’s asleep, and if you wake him up, then I swear to the Void and Nether that I’ll make sure you’re the ghost that haunts this house.”

With an audible gulp of fear, Skizz stuttered out, “yep, yep, shutting up now! Oh, and also Scar is dead. We calling Oni and leaving?”

“That’s the second best call we’ve had all night. Yes.”

Chapter Text

It was lunch at Akademi high, and, so far, the day had been fairly normal- no one had been threatened to be stabbed, everyone was still alive, and no one had been too badly traumatised! 

Since the day had been so normal, someone had to say something that would add some chaos to spice up the strangeness of the normality, and that someone, that day at least, was Sam.

Everything had been quiet at the table where Sam, Grian, Taurtis, Dom, J, and Silly were sitting (though the lunchroom as a whole wasn’t quiet), when Sam finally spoke- “would you guys be there for me if I was going through something?”

With zero hesitation, Grian, without looking up from his half finished lunch (that he had hastened to buy that morning so he wouldn’t go hungry) replied, completely deadpan, “nope, absolutely not.”

Dom, seeing the opportunity to bully Sam, chimed in, “I hope it sucks, whatever you’re going through.”

J couldn’t help but laugh at Dom’s words, before getting out, “I hope it emotionally scars you for the rest of your life,” as he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to bully Sam as well.

Silly, who was only sitting at the table because Grian was there and they were friends (plus she really knew that he needed someone rational to help him survive the chaos that was Japan) added, “I hope you reach out to me so I can ignore you.”

Sam, gaping at all four of them, turned to look at Taurtis, his best friend, hoping that he would come to his aid and say that he would help, however, without looking up from the manga he was reading to help pass the time before their next class (instead of doing the homework that was due that he hadn’t finished), said, “I can’t wait to go to your funeral, knowing I could’ve changed that outcome.”

With that said, silence fell over the table once more, Sam glowering at the table, mentally going over everything that he could to to the five sitting with him, Grian finishing his lunch, Taurtis still reading his mange, Dom and J making faces at one another before falling into a quiet conversation, and Silly deciding that she had had enough of the other five boys and heading to the Gym to talk with her Dad.

Chapter Text

The last time Pearl had seen Grian, her best friend and former Admin, it was right before jumping into the End Portal that would take them to the End in Evo to fight the dragon, three and a half years prior to the day that she was joining Hermitcraft in Season Eight.

She had spawned in a crater next to the other Player who was joining with her, GeminiTay, and the sound of people talking immediately greeted her, indicating that she and Gem were more than likely the last two people to arrive. 

Now that they had arrived, the talking grew quiet, before someone seemed to take charge (she could tell that it wasn’t Xisuma speaking as she had spoken with him plenty before arriving) and started to introduce both the new season and the two new Players who were joining them.

When their names were called out, the Hermits gathered around the crater, peeking down at her and Gem, when she spotted a familiar face, a very familiar face, and it was clear to her that he had spotted her, too.

Sending a glare at her former Admin, upset that he had vanished without a trace and didn’t think to contact any of the former Evolutionists, demanded, “how? Where? Why?”

This caught the Hermits off guard, making them look around at the others, before their eyes followed her glare and landed on Grian, who was looking rather sheepish, and shrinking slightly under her glare.

When he registered that the rest of the Hermits were looking at him as well, his wings curled around him slightly, as he hesitantly said, “surprise?”

It was all Pearl could to to just let out a deep sigh of disappointment and not yell at her friend for vanishing (though she was totally going to be lecturing him later when there weren’t so many watching eyes and listening ears), and just commented, “we’re talking about this later, we have a world to explore after all, I think.”

This seemed to remind the gathered Hermits that, yes, the Season had just begun, and yes, the sun was climbing higher in the sky, so they had to get a start on exploring and gathering materials if they didn’t want to have to spend the night awake to work, so they all scattered to officially start Season Eight, even if the reason why Grian bolted was so he didn’t have to sit through one of Pearl’s lectures.

Chapter Text

Being dramatic was part of being a Hermit, so it wasn’t a surprise that the smallest of things could set them off, especially when cold and flu season had started, and none of the Hermits took to being sick well.

It happened during a meeting, as most things in the Hermitcraft world tended to do. Grian had been sitting in his seat, wings resting behind him instead of being curled around so he could absentmindedly preen them while waiting for the meeting to start, as he listened to Scar ramble on about his latest project, a small smile on his face.

Of course, that calm couldn’t last, as Ren and Bdubs entered the Meeting Hall, Ren gesturing grandly and Bdubs nodding along with whatever it was that was being said. 

However, with Ren’s grand entrance, paired with the cape that he had taken to wearing now that he was the ‘King’ (everyone knew that they still answered to Xisuma as he was the Admin, even if Ren being King gave him a break from dealing with the shenanigans of the Hermits), dust was swept into the room, dust that Grian just so happened to inhale, causing him to fall into a coughing fit.

Unfortunately for him though, paired with how overdramatic his servermates were, plus the fact that all of them were slightly paranoid about getting sick (none of them liked having to rest to recover from a sickness), they all started freaking out, calls for getting him to Doc ringing through the air, for a few brief moments, before he slammed his head on the table, already done with everything.

Chapter Text

One thing that Grian liked about having a cuddle schedule was that, when one of the Hermits that were scheduled for a cuddle session annoyed him, or did something that ticked him off, he could always remove them from their scheduled time slot and just give himself a free day. 

Now, he didn’t do this whenever he was annoyed by something that the Hermits did, if he did then he would have constant free days, no, he only did it when he was completely done with them and just needed some time alone, which rarely happened, as cuddle sessions were some of Grian favourite times of the day (not that he would ever admit to that, but he was incredibly touch starved, even after all of the cuddles he had received since he had been able to allow himself to be touched back in Season Six).

However, that didn’t mean that he didn’t ban someone from cuddling with him for a week, and the latest victim of being banned from Grian cuddles was Doc.

The two had been fighting, not that that was anything new with how the pair were constantly at one another’s throat with pranks and snide comments, but this time, Grian was running on negative hours of sleep, and that, paired with the fact that he wasn’t allowed to have caffeine because it could kill him (Xisuma didn’t need a repeat of the coffee incident from Season Eight where Grian had actually almost poisoned himself bad enough that he wouldn’t have respawned) Grian found that he had no patience for this, and, with Doc having a cuddle session scheduled two days from then, Grian felt a smirk forming on his face, one that only came from a sleep deprived Grian scheme.

“I’m removing you from my cuddle schedule book for the next week. You’ll have to reschedule your session once your ban is up,” Grian said, voice calmer than he actually felt, before he turned on his heel and started to make his way back to his base, planning on having a nap in his nest, alone.

Doc went silent for a moment, Grian’s words slowly processing in his mind, before his eyes went wide, and he called out to Grian’s retreating figure, “PLEASE! WAIT! I’M SORRY! WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS!” 

However, by that time, Grian was too far to hear him, if he wasn’t being actively ignored, and Doc knew that going after Grian right then would only solidify his punishment (if he was lucky, and he apologised once Grian was in a better mood, then he may be able to keep his scheduled slot), so he sighed and turned to slink back to his own base, silently praying to whatever deity there was that he wouldn’t be banned from cuddles for over a week.

Chapter Text

The Hermits had been in Empires for a two and a half weeks, and Grian had already pranked most of the Empires members in that time; he did his best to not bother them when they were doing Lore, and didn’t mess with any of the Lore related items that he had found in his time (the Jimmy shrine being the main one), so it wasn’t a surprise when, about a week after the game of Interdimensional Tag began and he had tagged Lizzie, that he was corner by her.

“You know, I’m still mad about last week. I fell in the hole again! I thought you were going to cover that up!” Lizzie said, making Grian blink in confusion.

“What happened last week?” Grian asked, hoping for some clarification.

“What do you mean ‘what happened last week?’ You know, the whole tea party in the Void so you could tag me that ended in my death, so now there is a hole in my house that leads straight to the void!”

“Ohhhh! Yeah, now I remember! I forgot I did that. I’ll go cover the hole now. Sorry that I forgot to!” Turning on his heel, he made a beeline towards Animalia to cover the hole that he had made to tag Lizzie, having completely forgotten about it in his quest to bug Timmy after he had tagged Lizzie, leaving Lizzie to stare in shock at the place where Grian had just been standing.

A few moments later, Scar was passing by, pausing when he noticed Lizzie.

“You okay there?” Scar asked, causing Lizzie to startle before turning to look at Scar.

“Is it normal for Grian to forget that he pranked you?”

“Oh, yeah, most of the time he’ll go on a pranking spree so he’ll forget who he pranked and what prank he pulled on each person, so whenever we confront him about it then we make sure to tell him what the prank was, unless it was something really memorable.”

“And none of you mind?”

“Not really. The pranks tend to be harmless, and if it does cause damage then he’ll always help fix it and replace anything that was destroyed as well. Not to mention they bring more life to Hermitcraft, and bring us together, like with the Civil War in Season Six.”

Lizzie just hummed, and said goodbye to Scar, letting him get back on his way to wherever he was going.

Guess that was how the Hermits functioned! Not like she had much room to talk, not with everything that she had done for the Lore.

Chapter Text

Going to the Main Hub was always a nightmare, and one that Doc could really live without. However, it was his turn to go to the Main Hub, with Grian this time around, to get the materials that the Hermits needed that they were unable to make themselves on Hermitcraft.

He and Grian had split off from one another, wanting to get through the list as fast as possible so they could make it back to the safety and relative quiet of Hermitcraft, but now that Doc had finished his part of the list (and grabbed a few extra things for himself), he was on the hunt for Grian, knowing that the parrot hybrid hated trips to the Main Hub more than any of the other Hermits. 

Before he could message Grian to see if he knew where he was, the sound of shouting caught his attention, and the attention, so he decided to put off the hunt for Grian for a brief moment, even if he wanted to find Grian so they could leave, so he could check out what was going on, just in case someone was in danger.

The scene he ended up coming across, when he found who was yelling, was Grian, curled into himself with tears glistening in his eyes and his wings curled around him to try and hide him, being yelled at by someone who was twice his height, glaring down at him, and yelling about something that Doc couldn’t actually figure out with the anger that was now thrumming through his veins.

Wishing he had his sword with him, as weapons weren’t allowed on the Main Hub to try and prevent anything from happening in what was supposed to be neutral territory where everyone was allowed to be who they are, Doc quickly made his way over and stepped in front of Grian, drawn up to his full height, holding back a smirk as he realised that he was a head taller than the person who had been yelling at Grian.

Glaring down at them and hissing quietly in warning, Doc growled out “wer glaubst du, wer du bist? Schreien Sie diesen unschuldigen Vogel an? Wie kannst du es wagen. Du lässt ihn jetzt in Ruhe oder ich schiebe dir mein Schwert in den Kopf, verstanden?”

The person was quick to nod, fear clear in their eyes as they looked up at Doc, before they bolted, vanishing around a corner in a singular second.

Once they had vanished, he was quick to take a deep breath, knowing that he needed to be calm before he spoke to Grian, not wanting to frighten the parrot hybrid more than he already was.

When he felt calm enough, he turned to look at Grian, who was still cowering behind his wings, and asked gently, “you okay? They didn’t hurt you, right?”

Grian only nodded, eyes having shifted to be looking at the ground, making Doc sigh softly. He knew that Grian tended to go mute in situations like that one, but he needed verbal confirmation from Grian that he was alright, so, kneeling down so he was closer to eye level with the smaller hybrid, Doc carefully supped his cheek and tilted his head up so Grian was looking him in the eye.

“I need you to tell me with words, buddy. I know you hate talking after something like this, but you’re going to have to push through for just a moment, alright?”

With a shaky breath, Grian managed to force out, “they didn’t hurt me, ‘m just tired,” before he fell silent once more, which was to be expected.

“Alright then, let’s head back to Hermitcraft and get you in your nest, alright?” In one swift moment, Doc had Grian in a princess carry, carefully cradling the smaller hybrid against his chest and starting to make his way to the Portal Hall, not even bothering to find out if Grian had finished all of his shopping; the Hermits would understand if they didn’t have everything, after all.

Chapter Text

All of the Hermits knew that Doc had been to jail at least five times before he found his way onto Hermitcraft; none of them knew what he had done to get himself arrested, they just knew that he had been to jail at several points in his life, and it was better to live in ignorant bliss as to why, than to ask questions (not to mention, asking questions would violate the ‘no backstory talk’ rule that Xisuma had implemented).

What none of them had been expecting, when Grian and Doc were face to face on what would soon become the Prank Civil War battlefield (this moment being the very first time the two were properly meeting), was for Doc’s head to tilt to the side as he stared intently at Grian, before saying, “you look familiar.”

Grian, having had a similar reaction to Doc, replied, “so do you. Where do I know you from?”

Silence fell over the field, none of the gathered Hermits wanting to break the concentration that the two had, even if it was slightly terrifying, before both Grian and Doc’s eyes lit up, and, at the exact same movement, exclaimed, “jail!”

Those who were standing directly next to Grian and Doc took a half step away from them, as Grian laughed, asking “how have you been? I haven’t seen you since you got released for blowing that building up!”

“Well, I haven’t blown anything up too badly since then, so I could be better, but I could certainly be worse. How about you?”

“Ah, you know, they couldn’t keep me in there for long, even if I was back in only a month after I was released, though I’ve been getting better. Haven’t been arrested in years now, though that might have something to do with the fact that I may or may not have been kidnapped, but that’s a story for another day.”

Silence fell once more, before a smirk formed on Doc’s face, one that had all of the Hermits scrambling away from the large creeper hybrid, “after this prank stuff is over and done with, you want to see if we can break out of jail?”

A similarly terrifying smirk formed on Grian’s face at Doc’s words, “yeah I do!”

It was at that moment that the Hermits knew that if Grian and Doc were ever on the same side of a fight, there wouldn’t be a world left to live on.

Chapter Text

All Hermits were a victim of overworking, though Xisuma was the one who did it the most; as the Admin, he had to make sure that nothing went wrong with the world, and that his Players were safe and weren’t currently trying to destroy everything.

Of course, there were ways to make an overworking Hermit get some sleep, Keralis was the one who tended to enforce it the most with his ability to sense if someone hadn’t slept in over a week, not to mention the phantoms that swarmed a sleep deprived Hermit tended to be a good reason to sleep, if only to rid themselves of the flying mobs, though getting Grian cuddles was probably the most effective way; that wasn’t to say that Keralis’ method wasn’t effective, with his eldritch powers and everything, it was just that Grian cuddles were quicker and easier.

This was why, when Xisuma was actively forcing himself awake at the latest Hermitcraft meeting, the Hermits knew that they needed to get X to sleep; they waited for the meeting to conclude, not wanting to miss out on any important information that could cause problems later down the line if it wasn’t known about now to do so, though.

“Hey, X? When was the last time you slept?” Wels asked, deciding to be the one to take the lead this time.

“Not too long ago, why?” Xisuma replied, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“You were actively falling asleep during the meeting. Please, for the sake of the world and keeping us all in line, go to sleep.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Xisuma said, standing up to get ready to leave and do some more work on the code.

This, of course, was where Grian always came in, letting his wings fluff up a bit (not that hard considering he hadn’t preened them in just under a week), and asked, “cuddles? I haven’t seen you in weeks now, X.”

Xisuma, despite knowing this was a trap, one that he had fallen in many, many time before, as had just about every other Hermit, couldn’t bring himself to say no when Grian had his head tilted to the side, a sad and slightly pathetic look in his eyes, and his wings as fluffed up as they were, sighed heavily, and relented, agreeing to the cuddles, and, just like everyone had been expecting, falling asleep mere minutes after settling in Grian’s nest.

Chapter Text

When it came to Grian, a lot of the Hermits tended to argue about what was best for him. This wasn’t too surprising, considering Grian was only four and a half years old and most of the Hermits were some kind of hybrid so their instincts wanted to teach the kid in the only way they knew how, which was in the ways their instincts were telling them; this was why Doc and Zed were currently arguing.

“Kids should be able to climb!” Zed exclaimed, arms flailed wildly as he gestured between Doc and Grian, who was sitting on the ground and watching the two argue.

Doc just crossed his arms. Sure he may be part goat, but he was also part creeper, and the creeper part of him overrode most of his goat traits, unlike Zed who was a pure goat hybrid.

“No, kids should stay on the ground.”

Zed huffed in annoyance, his stance shifting slightly, “climb!”

Doc mimicked Zed’s stance, as he hissed, “ground!”

Of course, when you had two goats fighting, it typically ended in a headbutting contest to figure out who was stronger, and, in their minds at the very least, correct.

This was the scene that Hypno walked up to, having been looking for Grian, knowing that the kid liked to get into trouble, only to find him watching the headbutting contest, which he had to admit, was a bit impressive, even if he knew that it would only end with the pairs horns tangled and in need of help untangling them.

Not wanting to be around when that time inevitably came, he looked between the fighting pair and Grian, before scooping the child into his arms, holding him tight to his chest.

“Alright Gri, you’re mine now, so let’s get you somewhere safer than here. I’m sure I have some snacks at my base that you’ll like.”

With that, he turned on his heel, and left Doc and Zed to their argument, excited to be able to spend time with Grian, as he tended to only be out at night when Grian was asleep, being a phantom hybrid and all, so this would be one of the first times he got to spend time with him, so he was going to make every second count.

Chapter Text

Ren was in trouble. He had gotten caught up in a project he was doing, and had lost track of the time, so now he had seven homework assignments, one for each of the classes he was in, that he had to get finished before midnight that night, so he did the only thing he could do- reach out to his friends via text and hope that they would get back to him with the answers for he homework; boy did he hate high school.

Besties group chat

Gem: I still think we should change the name of the chat.

Scar: But it’s such a good name!

Ren: Hate to interrupt this weekly fight, but can I copy the homework from someone?

Mumbo: I can help you with it, but you know I won’t let you copy my answers.

Scar: Yeah, sure, but you know I’ve probably failed that. Mumbo’s going to be looking it over in an hour though, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it to you in time.

Gem: Bold of you to assume I’m doing the homework. I already know the material, why should I do it at home?

Pearl: Wait, you haven’t done it?

Pearl: You know I’m not going to let you copy my answers lol

Grian: Wait, we have homework?!?

Grian: What classes is it for?

Ren: Uhh, I have it for all of my classes, but you’re not in some of them, so good luck!

Grian: You know, I was going to let you copy mine once I had it done, but just for that, I’m not going to.

Ren: Dang. 

With a huff, Ren tossed his phone aside, before he pulled it back over to him, realising that Xisuma hadn’t said anything, only to see that he had been left on read by the other, making him huff once more, rolling his eyes in fond annoyance.

Guess he was doing his homework alone…with Mumbo’s help, he wasn’t about to pass up on assistance, after all.

Chapter Text

Mumbo had to admit, he had no idea how he had gotten into this situation, but he would very much like to be out of it. 

He had been on his break, exploring the worlds outside of Hermitcraft, when someone had grabbed him and brought him…wherever he was; he knew it was a building, and that he had more than likely been kidnapped, but still, he both wanted to know where he was and how to get out. He was very thankful that they had forgotten to take his communicator away from him (a rookie mistake if he was being honest), but regardless of how basic the mistake was, he had immediately reached out to Grian, knowing that his friend would be able to get him out of his stick situation, so he was just waiting; he really hoped that he wasn’t disturbing Grian with his request though, he was fine after all, and could wait to be rescued.

However, not even an hour after he sent a message to Grian, hurriedly followed by a request to take all the time he needed, there was a crash from deeper in whatever building Mumbo was in, shouting, and then, seconds after, a door that he hadn’t even noticed, exploded open as a car of all things drove through the wall, taking the door down with it.

“Uhhhh? Hello?” Mumbo questioned, staring in shock at the car.

“Mumbo!” Grian cried out, leaping out of the driver’s side of the car and bolting over to his friend.

“Grian? I thought I said you could take your time?” Mumbo replied, confusion clear in his voice.

“Oh, you did, but did you really think we would let a serverwide even stop us from saving you?” Pearl, who was climbing out of the passenger’s seat, asked, eyebrows raised.

“Wait, you guys really put aside a serverwide event to come and get me? How did you even get here so fast? I messaged you not even an hour ago!”

“Oh, that’s easy, since Grian was the one driving, there were several traffic violations,” Pearl claimed, making Grian grin.

“You know it!”

Xander, who Mumbo hadn’t even realised was on Season Nine of Hermitcraft, carefully climbed out of the backseat on the driver’s side, eyes darting around for a moment before relaxing, “there were no less than three counts of resisted arrest, though as they didn’t get to see us, we should be free of wanted posters.”

“What?!”

“Grian was driving, what did you expect?” Pearl snarked, and Grian’s grin only grew wider.

“There may or may not have been somewhere around thirteen cans of energy drinks, though that was mostly to stave off sleep deprivation,” Xisuma called out, refusing to move from the car where he was clinging to the handle that was on the side of the door.

“Oh, that’s also not our car! Who knew that high school could be useful!” Grian cheered, getting a few side eyes from his friends.

“Wait, Grian, do you even have a licence?” Xisuma wondered, and Grian’s grin, somehow, got even wider.

“A licence? No I don’t. Why?”

Over Xisuma’s comm, Keralis could be heard shouting in frustration at the four, having been the one to direct them to where Mumbo was being held, Grian having found the location when Mumbo had texted him.

“Then how did you know how to drive?!” Xander exclaimed, and Grian laughed.

“Like I said- high school! Turns out having to pretend to be the head of a Yakuza group and need to drive around, and maybe run away from a few sticky situations by hijacking a car, taught me to drive!”

“Please tell me we have some other way to get back to Hermitcraft!” Mumbo begged, to which Xisuma nodded, relief clear in the Admin’s eyes.

“Yes, yes we do. Now that we have you, we can teleport back to the Main Hub, escape this place, and get back to Hermitcraft, where we don’t have to deal with Grian’s driving ever again.”

Chapter Text

Xisuma had woken up in a happier mood than he had ever remembered waking up, something that shocked him a bit, before he shook off his brief moment of confusion and made his way to his kitchen, humming a small tune.

When he arrived at his destination, he danced around the kitchen, his humming evolving into singing, as he got started on making breakfast, deciding that pancakes would be a good choice for that morning.

When he glanced in the living room, having finished mixing that batter and was getting ready to actually fry them, his eyes landed on a small form sitting on his couch, legs swinging gently as they were too short to reach the ground, causing him to freeze as he tried to work out just who was sitting on his couch and why they were there.

The person looked over at him, eyes widening a bit when they locked eyes, and then they were locked in a staring contest, trying to figure out just who the other was, when it finally clicked, and Xisuma remembered why he was quite so happy; he had finally managed to finish the adoption process the previous day, and his son, Grian, was finally living with him as his son and not a kid he was trying to adopt from an orphanage that didn’t care for him.

Once he remembered that, he put the mixing bowl with the batter down on the counter, and made his way into the living room, cooing at his son softly as he did so, “oh, hey baby, how are you? Did you sleep well last night?”

Grian nodded to his question, happily leaning into the embrace he found himself in, humming happily as the events of the previous day also caught up with him, and he knew he was finally safe with his Dad, where no one would hurt him again.

Chapter Text

It was an average day on the Hermitcraft server- people were building, doing redstone, playing pranks, and Mumbo and Scar were annoying Doc, hoping to make him explode… for SCIENCE!

It only took a few minutes of them messing around, for Doc to snap, turning on his heel to glare at the two, doing his best to hold himself together, despite the fact that he was hissing subconsciously.

He smirked when the pair shrank back from him a bit at his glare, but, when they did something else to annoy him, Scar making a light hearted jab about something that he had done that had gone wrong, he shouted out, “SHUT UP! I AM GOING TO KILL THE NEXT PERSON I SEE I SWEAR TO G-” his mechanical eye flashing red to indicate that he was close to exploding, when he was cut off by Grian, Xisuma’s son, skipping into the room, having been sent by his Dad to go and play with the Hermits, having Admin work that he had to get done, that he couldn’t be interrupted while doing.

“HELLO!” Grian called out, wanting to make sure his presence was known so he didn’t scare anyone, before his voice lowered as he made his way further into Doc’s base, “Hi!! I’m so happy to see you! Can I stay here for a bit? Dad’s busy, and he asked me to go and hang out with you all, because I can’t be bothering him with today’s work that he’s doing.”

Mumbo and Scar, upon the appearance of Grian, collapsed to the floor, they were laughing so hard, watching as Doc tried to save himself from what he had just been yelling, hoping that Grian hadn’t heard any of it.

“Hey! What’s going on? Of course you can stay! Do you want to help me with one of the rooms I have to build today, or would you like to watch me do redstone?” Doc asked, his eyes darting around the room as he tried to find things that could be used to distract Grian, and keep him entertained.

“Redstone?”

“You got it. Let me just get these two out of here, as I’m sure they have very important business to take care of elsewhere, and then you can watch me do redstone!”

Chapter Text

Xisuma was running late to meet with Keralis at their favourite cafe, though Keralis had had known that his platonic partner would be late, knowing just how hard it could be to get Grian, Xisuma’s three and a half year old son, ready and out of the door.

When the Voidwalker eventually arrived, Keralis could tell that his platonic partner hadn’t been sleeping properly, especially as he had Grian settled on top of his head, Grian’s tiny hands batting at the helmet that helped X breathe the Overworld air, though Grian’s eyes were threatening to fall shut.

“Sheshwammy? Is everything alright?” Keralis asked, getting up so he could gather Grian into his own arms.

“I spent the entire night awake by Grian’s bedside because I saw an opened chocolate wrapper in the living room,” Xisuma explained, sitting down and grabbing the mug of tea that Keralis had ordered for him, removing his helmet so he could drink it, despite the heavy discomfort it caused him

Keralis felt fear course through his body at those words, holding Grian slightly closer as he fully processed them. “Is he-”

“He’s fine,” X quickly cut in, sensing his partner’s rising panic, “I was the one that ate the chocolate…I just forgot to throw away the wrapper when I had to do something.”

Keralis felt the panic melt from him, a fond sigh escaping his lips, “you know, the offer of me moving in with you is still on the table. We are technically married after all.”

“Yeah, for tax benefits,” X grumbled, though his eyes held nothing but fondness as he looked at Keralis.

“Hmmm, and yet you’re still my partner, so what do you say? Can I finally move in?”

“Yeah, yeah you can. I have a feeling Grian will like to have you there as well.”

“Well then, I’ll be all moved in by the end of the week.”

Chapter Text

Xisuma had been thrilled when Asulla, the Head Watcher and his best friend, got permission to fulfil his request of creating him a child using his DNA (after years of failed adoption attempts due to the prejudice that surrounded Voidwalkers), and he had been given Grian, his precious son, and while that hadn’t changed since Grian had grown up, there was a fair amount of exasperation mixed in with the elation that he had a son of his own.

It had been a peaceful day on Hermitcraft, the fourth season to be precise, when X got a call from his son, making him smile.

“Grian! What has you calling me today? I thought you were going to be calling me this weekend, unless I’ve lost track of time again and it is the weekend?” It has happened a few times before, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it had happened again.

“I’m starting another war on Evo,” Grian replied, completely deadpan.

“You shouldn’t be starting wars. You’re Voidkin! You’re supposed to be a peacekeeper!”

Grian didn’t even hesitate for one second before refuting, “I’m also Overworldian,” making X sigh.

It wasn’t hard to forget that Grian’s other parent was Keralis, Xisuma’s platonic husband, who, despite being an eldritch being, came from the Overworld, meaning that Grian was, in fact, part Voidkin and part Overworldian. It didn’t help that he got most of his personality from Keralis, with a bit of Asulla’s own mischievousness thrown into the mix, meaning that Grian was one of the most chaotic beings around, and he knew the Hermits and how chaotic they could be.

“So you won’t be calling this weekend then?” X asked, just to make sure.

“Probably not. Taurtis has declared war over my pranks, so who am I to say no to that?”

“Someone less chaotic, that’s who.”

“Being you and Papa’s kid? That’s impossible.”

“Yeah, yeah, just have fun and try not to cause too much destruction.”

“Alright! Oh, and Fimos and Viean say hi, by the way!”

“Fimos and Viean are there?”

“Yeah, something about Asulla being curious as to how much my powers have developed.”

“Well, let them know I say hi back, and to inform Asulla that if they don’t call me about tea, I’m breaking into the Watchers’ Domain.”

“I would pay to see that, but I’ll let them know.”

“Alright, I love you, Grian.”

“Love you too, Dad. And let Papa know I love him as well!”

Chapter Text

If Grian was being honest, after the last four games, he was fully expecting Jimmy to be the first one to die…again.

Because of this, and because he tended to make a grave for his brother whenever he inevitably died in the games, he decided that, this time, he would be prepared and have funeral plans, and a eulogy, prepared for when he did die.

However, in a shocking twist of events, Secret Life seemed to be the game to break the Canary Curse that seemed to haunt Jimmy, a mocking of the hybrid he was, as it was Lizzie who died first, and, while Grian knew that he had to help Etho with the wrangling of the Warden, Grian wanted to go and visit his brother to both congratulate him on not dying first, and ask what he wasn't done with the funeral plans that he had made for him, considering they would be no good now that Jimmy hasn’t died first.

He was glad that Etho let him go, the kitsune hybrid waving him off, claiming that he would be just fine for a few minutes while Grian took care of what he needed to, so he made his way back to the surface and hunted down his brother, finding him with Martyn like he expected.

“Jimmy!” He called out, once he knew he would be heard. “Congrats on not dying first!”

“Thanks, Grian,” Jimmy replied, rolling his eyes at his older brother. “What do you want?”

“Wow, so I can’t just congratulate you on breaking your curse without wanting something, I see? Well, it’s a good thing I do need something then. Shall I burn the funeral plans I made for you?”

Jimmy seemed to choke on his breath at Grian’s words, while Martyn just doubled over in laughter, prompting Grian to continue. “See, they won’t work now that Lizzie died before you, so should I burn them, or keep them for the next game, just in case?”

“You made funeral plans for me?”

“Yeah! What? Did you think that I didn’t mourn you when you died, even if I know you’re coming back?”

“No! I knew you did, even if these games are of your creation, but I didn’t think you planned it out!”

“I normally don’t, but I figured that I would get the jump on the plans so they aren’t haphazardly put together. Seems like that will be the way once more.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too!”

Chapter Text

Xisuma had not been happy when he called a serverwide meeting, and all of the Hermits were on edge because of it; X didn’t get angry often, and when he did then everyone was always cautious, as an angry Xisuma was an unpredictable Xisuma.

“Grian is a parrot hybrid, right?” X questioned the group of gathered Hermits, getting many confused nods.

“Grian mimics people, correct?” More confused nods, though a few of the Hermits seemed to have realised just what was going on.

“So, now that we have established that, which one of you cussed in front of him?”

There was silence from the Hermits, all of them glancing at each other nervously, making the Voidwalker sigh.

“Alright, if no one wants to confess- Grian?”

“Yes, Dad?” Grian asked, the eight year old looking up at his Dad, brightly coloured parrot wings fluttering behind him.

“Do you think you could tell me who taught you that word?”

“Oh! It was Uncle Doc! He was messing with his redstone, so I didn’t want to bother him, and it sparked, causing him to say it!”

“I see, I see. Well, thank you, Grian. Why don’t you go with Papa for the time being, and I’ll be back for dinner, alright?”

“Okay, Dad!”

Turning back to the Hermits, while letting Grian tug Keralis away, his platonic partner sending a slightly concerned glance to the cowering creeper hybrid, Xisuma smiled, his eyes glinting dangerously.

“So, Doc. Want to explain?”

“Listen man, I didn’t know he was there! I swear! Wait, no, I promise!”

“Good save, dude,” Ren snarked, earning an elbow in the side from Doc.

“Oh, don’t worry, I believe you. Just- keep an eye out for a while. You never know what might be lurking in the corners of your base.”

With that ominous warning, Xisuma took his leave, making the Hermits wonder just what he was planning to do as revenge for Doc teaching Grian to swear, inadvertently or not.

Chapter Text

“Doc, ‘Suma and I are trusting you with our son. He wants to fly, so if you do take him out to fly, keep a close eye on him, alright?” Keralis instructed, hovering in the doorway to his and Xisuma’s shared house, the pair going out on a date, just so no one will try to claim that their marriage is for anything other than tax benefits (it is, as they don’t love one another in that specific way, but they are in love).

“Of course. You know I won’t lose him. I’ve watched over him how many times now?” Doc snarked back, getting an eye roll from Xisuma.

“Yeah, yeah, we know. Just don’t lose him, and we’ll be fine.”

“Alright, you two have fun on your not a date date thing. Grian and I will be just fine.”

“Okay. Bye Grian! You be good for Uncle Doc now, alright?” Keralis said, looking back at his son.

“Okay, Papa. Love you!” Grian called out, waving at his Dads

“We love you too, Grian. We’ll be back in a few hours,” Xisuma said, before the pair vanished, leaving Doc and Grian alone.

“Alright, little bird, you want to go out for a quick fly?” Doc offered, getting a very excited chirp from Grian, “alright then, outside we go!”

Once the pair were outside, Grian went through the wing stretches that he had been taught by X, and then, once he was ready, took a running leap, and shot up into the air, quickly vanishing into the clouds.

After a few minutes of Grian being gone, Doc called out for him, worried that he may have gotten lost, “Grian?”

A few more minutes of Grian being gone, had Doc calling out once more, tone slightly more frantic, “Grian?!”

After half an hour had elapsed, Doc was seconds away from calling Xisuma and Keralis, despite knowing that they would murder him for losing their son, he called out one final time, his ears straining to hear anything in return, “GRIAN?!?!”

Just as he had his communicator out, already scrolling through it to find Keralis’ contact, a very faint chirp could be heard from high up in the sky, causing him to drop his comm in relieved shock.
“Grian? That you?” Doc hollered, getting another chirp in response.

“Do you think you could come back down now?”

There was a disgruntled chirp as his reply, and Doc knew that Grian wouldn’t be coming back down any time soon, causing him to sigh, “just come back down soon. Your Dads will be back, and they’ll be upset if you’re not down here to see them.”

Yet another chirp, though this one seemed to be one of agreement, so Doc would take that as a win, and just hope that he wouldn’t get in trouble for losing Grian.

Chapter Text

When Doc had adopted Grian, he knew that his little menace would only speak in chirps and trills for the first few years of his life, considering he was a scarlet macaw hybrid, and while there was absolutely nothing wrong with that, there were so many ways for the creeper goat cyborg hybrid to mess with his son, and he wasn’t going to be passing up on that opportunity, especially as Grian was currently squeaking as he tried to figure out how to chirp properly.

“Squeaking viral sensation,” Doc narrated, eyeing his squeaking son, making sure to record the interaction.

In response to his Papa’s voice, Grian let out a long and angry squeak, tugging on the lab coat that Doc always wore.

“Eleven million hits and counting.”

Now pouting, Grian squeaked once more, glaring up at his Papa.

“He sounds like a dog toy,” Doc teased, ignoring the enraged squeaks as he picked Grian up by the scruff of his sweater, “but actually this-” Grian squeaked once more- “is the sonorous war cry, of a very angry bird.”

Still squeaking, but now with tears of anger pricking his eyes, Grian glared harder, finally being released from being held, and moving to sit on the ground, pouting once more.

“Ferocious,” Doc finished, getting one more enraged squeak from Grian, before the tiny scarlet macaw hybrid bolted, heading to hide in their nest.

“Oh, Baby Bird, you know I was teasing. Would some seed clusters make up for it?” Doc called out, getting one more squeak from Grian, making him smile as he went to go and grab some seed clusters for his son. 

Chapter Text

It was a well known fact around the Hermitcraft server that Grian was Xisuma and Keralis’ kid, even if Xisuma and Keralis were only married for tax benefits.

“So, wait,” Scar called out, during one of the Hermitcraft meetings shortly after the vex hybrid had joined, “if Grian is you and Keralis’ kid, then I’m assuming you have someone picked out who would take care of him if something happened to you both? I mean, not that anything would, but with the news about Admins going missing lately, it would be better safe than sorry, right?”

“Admins going missing?” Ren muttered, glancing at the vex hybrid.

“Yeah, there was an article the other day about it. I think three servers have lost their Admins, and no one knows why.”

“Shishwam and I decided that if, Watchers forbid, anything should happen to us, Ren and Doc would be Grian’s guardians, but that’s a big if. We have safety precautions in place for just about every situation, and the missing Admin situation has only caused us to up security.”

Ren’s eyes lit up at the news, moving to scoop Grian (who had been wandering around the table for the past five minutes because he was bored and wanted attention) up and into his arms, “that’s great news, Gri-pup! When something horrible happens, you’re going to be all mine.”

“Ren, it really is an if situation, you know. Also, don’t say things like that to Gri, we really don’t need him getting nightmares.”

Ren just huffed, though he nuzzled Grian’s hair as an apology for potentially scaring him, before making his way to the makeshift nest that lived in the corner of the meeting room, “all mine.”

Doc rolled his eyes, “we’ll make sure nothing happens to you two, but if it does, we’ll take good care of him.”

“We know. But, like we said, this is an if situation. Hopefully nothing bad will happen,” Keralis muttered, glancing between his partner and his son.

Chapter Text

Jimmy was pouting as he looked at the bowl of cereal that he had just been handed, before he turned to glare at Taurtis, the one who had just handed him his bowl; the Evolutionists had been gathered at Downtown Evo for the last night before they were going to fight the Ender Dragon, and Taurtis had insisted that he had breakfast covered.

“I can’t believe that carbonated milk with cocoa puffs is going to be my last meal…” Jimmy huffed, still glaring at Taurtis.

“I thought it would taste good!” Taurtis shot back, sending Jimmy his own glare, before he was cuffed over the head by Grian.

“IT WAS MOUNTAIN DEW AND POWDERED MILK, TAURTIS! IN WHAT WORLD IS THAT GOOD???” Grian shouted, making the others cower away from him slightly.

“HEY! We ate weirder things back in high school!” Taurtis refuted, only to get hit over the head once again.

“That’s because it was either eat whatever we could scrounge up or starve to death,” Grian snarled, and Taurtis submitted.

“Alright, I get your point.”

“What are we doing about breakfast though?” BigB piped up, and Grian sighed.

“Let me make something for you all. Just- throw that abomination away.”

Chapter Text

Grian had decided that on his trip to the Main Hub, he would break out his old Ariana Griande costume, considering it was summer, and his Ariana Griande costume was short enough that it would be cooler for him to wear it than his normal outfit, but long enough that it wasn’t too revealing or anything.

However, some people don’t seem to understand that people can wear whatever they want, and don’t want to be called out on it, as, half an hour into his trip, he was walking past a guy, who looked him up and down when he had passed, and commented, “ew, why are you wearing such revealing clothing. Women these days have no respect for their bodies.”

Grian froze, before he turned around to glare at the guy who had decided to comment on his outfit, took off his pink heart shaped glasses (that came from his cute guy outfit), and asked, voice brimming with anger, “I beg your pardon?”

The guy proceeds to scoff as he takes in Grian’s full appearance with the roll of his eyes, “of course you’re a guy.”

“I am going to get in so much trouble for this but it is so going to be worth it,” Grian breathes out, before he shifts his stance, and proceeds to kick the guy directly in the face, dislocating his jaw and knocking him clean out on the ground.

He did end up getting detained for that act, and was given a temporary ban from the Main Hub spanning six months, not to mention Xisuma was called in to bail him out, which then lead to X putting him on base arrest with the Admin himself.

It was so worth it.

Chapter Text

Grian had been begging to learn how to fly for weeks, and Xisuma had finally caved and had called False, Hermitcraft’s only other avian (a golden eagle hybrid) to help him with teaching Grian how to fly, considering he had no idea how one would teach a fledgling how to fly.

“Thanks for offering to each Grian how to fly,” X said, walking with False to the cliff that she said they had to meet at.

“He’s been asking to fly for days now, haven’t you?” False asked, her eyes on Grian as she poked his nose.

Grian just blew a raspberry at her for her actions, before responding with a chirped, “ye!”

Turning her attention back to her Admin, she responded to his previous statement, “no problem!” As she scooped Grian out of Xisuma’s arms, and walked towards the edge of the cliff. “Ready Green Bean?”

Nodding rapidly, Grian responded with “ye, Ye, YE!” his chirping getting even more excited as he bounced in her arms.

“So, how do you actually teach chicks to fly- FALSE!!” Xisuma cried out, as he watched as False threw his child off of the cliff and just watched as he plummeted.

“What? This is how it’s done! I’ll catch him if he falls too far, don’t worry,” False, hummed, way to calm for having just thrown a five year old off of a cliff.

“I just- You- He- What? ”

“Oh, he’ll be fine! Besides, look! He’s getting the hang of it!”

Pointing down at the ground below the cliff, Xisuma cautiously peeked over the edge, and let out a small sigh of relief as he could see Grian flapping his wings and slowing his descent.

“Oh thank the Void.”

Chapter Text

It was the end of the season celebration, and the Hermits were gathered around a campfire, reminiscing on the chaos that they had caused over the past season.

“So, who would you say caused the most chaos?” Ren called out, leaning back to watch the chaos that he knew was about to go down at this question.

“Well, I’ve done a lot of dumb stuff this season,” Grian hummed, elbowing Mumbo in the side when the moustached man snarked that he was always doing something dumb.

“I’ve witnessed that dumb stuff,” Xisuma huffed, rolling his eyes when Wels called out that he didn’t do anything about it.

Pearl smirked as she commented, “I’ve recorded the dumb stuff. I’ve recorded all of the dumb things that Grian’s done.”

“Of course you have,” Grian snarked, sticking his tongue out at Pearl when she did.

“I’ve joined in on the dumb stuff!” Scar proudly stated, getting scattered laughter from the gathered Hermits.

Keralis, at the end of his rope from trying to wrangle all of the Hermits for his platonic partner so he could focus on the code, shouted, “I’VE TRIED TO STOP YOU FROM DOING THE DUMB STUFF!!!” 

“Yeah, and yet it never works,” Grian teased, before he yelped as he got tackled by Keralis, before he erupted into giggles as he was pinned to the ground, Keralis being careful of his wings, and had finger immediately digging into his side in retaliation for his comment.

Chapter Text

Grian and Xisuma were lounging in Grian’s base, the pair having just gotten off of a call with fWhip and Scott, just so they could catch up without having to type everything out.

Once the call had ended, Grian suggested they watch a movie, considering the sun had started to set, and the phantoms were out at full force, considering neither of the two had slept in over a week.

“Alright fine, we can watch a movie, Xisuma huffed, causing Grian to cheer, as he ran to connect his comm to his television as he rapidly scrolled through the movies he had saved to find one that the two could agree on.

However, about halfway through the movie, Xisuma’s communicator rang, making the pair groan, but X had to answer it, and, judging by the face he made (his helmet sitting on the coffee table as Grian had asked X to code the air of his base so he could breathe it without his helmet), the call was about some kind of glitch that one of the other Hermits had caused that he had to fix.

“I’ll be back soon. You can keep watching the movie, but if there’s going to be a big dramatic scene, wait until I get back.”

“Of course,” Grian scoffed, “I can’t flip this table by myself after all.

That drew a laugh out of the Admin, as he went to go and fight off the phantoms so he could fix whatever problem the Hermits had caused this time , so he could get back to the movie with Grian.

Chapter Text

Mumbo, Grian, and Scar had been trapped in the Main Hub for two and a half days as Hybrid Hunters had managed to take control of the Main Hub, so those who had been in the Main Hub who were hybrids were all in hiding, not wanting to be found and either taken or killed.

“We need to get back to Hermitcraft,” Mumbo hissed, his crimson eyes darting around the room they were hiding in.

“Yes, but how do we do that? Cause some kind of distraction?” Scar hissed back, getting an excited gasp from Grian at the suggestion.

“Yes! That is exactly what we can do! I’ll be back!” Grian declared, before the parrot hybrid bolted out of the room, leaving Mumbo and Scar alone to hope that Grian wouldn’t get caught.

After a few minutes had passed though, with no sign of Grian, Mumbo asked, “what do you think Grian will do as a distraction?”

“I mean, he’ll probably, like, make a noise, or throw a rock, or something like that, right? That’s what I would have done, after all.”

Just as Scar had finished talking, the ground shook, as an explosion rocked the building they were in, security alarms for some of the nearby shops being set off from the sheer force of the explosion.

“...Or he could do that!” Scar exclaimed, as he and Mumbo glanced at the other before they bolted out of the building, knowing that this was their chance to escape the hybrid hunters that had taken over the Main Hub and get back to Hermitcraft.

Chapter Text

The holiday season was approaching once more on the Hermitcraft server, and Grian was using his last brain cell to figure out the gifts that he was getting everyone- the Hermits, the Empires members, his former Evolutionists, and the few friends he had gathered from MCC.

Currently, he was sitting in a room with Mumbo, Cub, Keralis, and Xisuma (the Admin working on finalising some code changes for the holidays), when he blurted out, “here’s a fun Christmas idea- we hang mistletoe, but instead of kissing whoever is under it, you have to fight them instead!”

Mumbo just sighed, immune to his platonic partner’s antics, and said, completely deadpan, “Grian. No.”

Cub however, was running on negative hours of sleep, and lit up at the suggestion, immediately calling out, “mistlefoe!”

Keralis sighed, glancing over at X to make sure that he was doing alright with the code, before commenting, “please stop encouraging him, Cub. We don’t need anything else happening that will start a war.”

“A Christmas War!” Both Cub and Grian cried out at the same time, getting horrified, “NO!”’s from Keralis and Mumbo, causing X to look up from the code in shock at the loud exclamations, before he shook his head as he realised that it was just his Hermits being Hermits.

Chapter Text

Doc and Ren had been wandering around the server, Doc wanting to see if he could find anyone else who had any wood permits, and Ren just tagging along for the fun of it, when screaming could be heard in the distance.

Hurrying over to see what was going on, they could make out the forms of Gem and Grian standing on their respective side of the river, screaming at one another.

It had been Gem who had screamed first, and, if Doc and Ren were reading the situation right, Grian had screamed back louder than Gem had to assert his dominance over the river, and the title of best fisher, causing Gem to scream louder once again.

The pair watched this for a moment, before Ren turned to look at Doc, asking, “should we do something about this? G-man looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks.”

“No, I want to see who will win this. Also, he hasn’t slept. He’s been too caught up in trying to fish up that book or whatever.”

“...I’m going to force him to sleep,” Ren decided, ignoring the indignant splutters from the creeper hybrid at the fact that doing so would ruin his data gathering.

Chapter Text

Cub had been wandering around the Shopping District, and had come across the forest that housed the Permit Office, when two figures sitting on a bench caught his attention, causing him to make his way over to see who it was.

When he was close enough, he couldn’t help but snicker at the dejected faces of Joel and Scar; he should have expected the two, honestly, considering the fact that they were the only ones who were really having to deal with Grian and his Permit Office shenanigans.

“What are you two doing?” Cub called out, making his presence known to the two who were sitting on a bench just outside of the front door, clearly having been hastily constructed.

“Waiting for the Permit Office to open,” Joel huffed, glaring at the vex hybrid.

Cub did his best to hold back his laughter as he looked at the two, “but it’s Saturday, isn’t it?”

Silence fell at his words, before two horrified shouts of, “WHAT?? NOOOOOO!!” rang out, causing Cub to double over in his own laughter.

He wasn’t the only one laughing though, as Grian had arrived to do some work on the Permit Office building, wanting to add some more to it before he got back to tormenting the Hermits, and had also doubled over in his laughter at the horrified reaction of the two.

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning, and Grian was still awake; inspiration had struck just before he was going to curl up in his nest with Tango, his mate, and his two familiars, Pearl and Maui, so he had spent the night hunched over his desk and working on designs for builds that he wanted to create- there were also one or two aborted redstone designs thrown into the mix, but Grian wasn’t going to think about those.

When the sun was starting to shine through the curtains, a thin sliver of sunlight spilling into the room, Tango started to stir, and his eyes cracked open, but instead of their normal fiery red, they had an icy white tint to them, and they glowed, making Grian furrow his brows as he took in the state of his mate, before Tango spoke…in a heavy Australian accent?

“Don’t worry, it’s getting better.”

Grian, deciding that he wasn’t going to let this stand, and wanted answers, asked, “why are you Australian. Pearl is the Australian one!”

This time in a stereotypical posh British accent, one that Grian tended to link to either Xisuma or Mumbo, replied with, “sorry, it’s getting better.”

“Why are you English now? What is going on?”

“What is he normally?” Tango asked, and that was all Grian needed to finally key him in on what was going on.

“He? You’re not anyone else, you’re you!” Grian snapped, done with these shenanigans already- it was far too early for this.

“Ugh, me,” Tango grumbled, before the icy white tint and the glow vanished from Tango’s eyes and he fell back asleep.

Maui, having been disturbed by the voices, looked over at Grian, and said, “you just thwarted a ghost possession by judging his accent!”

“Yes, thank you, Maui, I did realise that. I really need to make sure that no ghosts follow me from Phasmo when I go with Impulse, Skizz, Scar, and Gem now, don’t I?”

“Don’t look at me! I’m just your familiar! This doesn’t fall under my jurisdiction!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m going to head out for now though, I’ve got some work to do at the docks. If Tango asks- I slept.”

“Of course, Grian,” Maui replied, watching as the parrot hybrid vacated the house; he would tell Tango that Grian slept, but only this once.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that the Hermits quickly found out after Grian joined Hermitcraft, it was that he knew a lot of languages; when they asked him about it, he would reply with the fact that he would get bored and want to learn a new language to help pass the time, and no one wanted to ask further than that, knowing just how long it took to learn a new language.

However, while Grian knew a lot of languages, most of the Hermits don't understand the languages that Grian spoke; of course there were a few who understood one or two, but most of the Hermits only knew Common.

One of the perks of knowing so many languages, Grian had found, was that he could threaten or cuss someone out in a language that he knew they wouldn’t know, and he wouldn’t get in trouble for it; he didn’t do this to the Hermits- they were his family after all- but he did go off on people in the Main Hub at least once a month.

He would threaten people in French, his voice dripping in arson laced honey, making it seem like he was being kind, and it never failed to make Scar weak in the knees whenever he heard Grian speak in French, wishing that Grian would speak to him like that, even if he didn’t know that he was threatening to murder the person and their entire family.

Mumbo always found it cute when Grian was passionate, and Grian was always very passionate when he was cussing up a storm in Japanese, his eyes narrowed as his hands waved wildly around.

Grian was so glad that most of the languages he spoke were unknown to most of the Hermits, and that Mumbo and Scar, the two he hung out with the most, never got suspicions that his words may not be as sweet as they seemed on the surface- he knew a few of the Hermits were suspicious that he may be using his language knowledge to make pranking plans right in front of them- but he might tell them one day, maybe when one of the three gets the courage to ask the other two out on a date: they were all very clearly smitten with one another, after all.

Chapter Text

Grian was the eldest of his siblings, and with their parents out of the equation most of the time (their father working all day and then heading to a bar to drink, only returning home when he was on the brink of a drunken blackout and had been kicked out of the bar, and their mother going out with a new guy every day, paying no mind to her kids), Grian was the one who raised Martyn, Jimmy, and Pearl.

Now, this didn’t mean that he didn’t tease them or act like their older brother when he wasn’t playing the role of parent, and all three of his siblings knew this, and could pick up the shifts in his tone that indicated when he wasn’t taking charge as their guardian, so when Pearl came up to him one day, after being bullied relentlessly for her moth wings, and asked, “Grian? Am I ugly?” Grian knew that it was time for him to be a parent now, and an older brother later (as there was no way he would leave the kids who thought that bullying his baby sister was a good idea, alone).

“What nonsense, I'm looking at you right now, you're the most beautiful girl in the world!” Grian cried out, brushing a lock of Pearl's chocolate brown hair out of her face. “Anyone who says otherwise is clearly blind.”

Pearl had giggled at his response and went to head to her room, needing to get her homework done.

Martyn, who had been watching the entire interaction, a soft smile on his face (as he was the second oldest of the family), smirked slightly to himself, and called out, “Gri, am I ugly?”

Grian, not missing a single beat as he switched back to being their older brother, sent a playful smirk at his younger brother, and replied, “very much so. However, you want to help me plan out some pranks to play on those who hurt Pearl?”

Despite having been pouting at Grian’s response, Martyn immediately perked up and made his way to his brother’s side, eager to help get revenge for his sister.

Chapter Text

It was late at night when there was a banging on the front door, and Grian, who had been asleep for the first time in the past three days, growled as he was awakened by the sound. He dragged himself out of bed and towards the front door, knowing that his three siblings were supposed to have been out the entire night, having planned with friends to hang out and head to a bar for some drinks before crashing at one of their houses, so he had to admit, he was very shocked when he saw a soaking we Jimmy on the other side of the door, hand raised to knock once again.

“Grian! Thank the Void! I was hoping you would be awake,” Jimmy said, relief palpable in his voice when he saw his eldest brother.

“Jimmy? What are you doing here? I thought you were hanging out with Pearl, Martyn, and you three’s friends?” Grian asked, stifling a yawn.

“Well- we were, but my friends all bailed, and Martyn and Pearl were hanging out with their friends, but some of their friend’s aren’t all that fond of me considering I’m the youngest, and don’t really like alcohol, so I left, and then I had to walk because we didn’t drive, and then it started raining, and I thought at one point I was being followed-and-and-” Jimmy was cut off by Grian pulling him into a hug, despite the fact that he was going to get himself wet.

“Alright. Do Pearl and Martyn know you’re home?”

Jimmy nodded, getting a sigh from Grian.

“Alright, good. Come on in then. Let’s get you dried off so you don’t get sick.”

With that, Grian led Jimmy inside and to his own room, knowing that the younger would probably want him to stay with him for a bit after the night that he had.

However, as soon as Jimmy was dry and in fresh clothes, Grian was ready to get back to sleep, so he was quick to try to kick Jimmy out of his room so they could both get some sleep.

“There we go. Dry and safe, so out you go, to your own room for sleep.”

“I’m hungry tho!” Jimmy whined, making Grian roll his eyes.

“You know how to cook.”

“Grilled cheese.”

“What?”

“Grill me a cheese. Please.”

“Jimmy, I’m not going to make you a grilled cheese. I already haven’t slept in three days, and you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself.”

What Grian hadn’t been expecting though, was for Jimmy to burst into tears- clearly his night had had more of an impact on the young canary hybrid than he had let on.

“Wha- Jimmy. Please, I just want some sleep. Please.”

Unfortunately, Grian’s pleas went unheard as Jimmy’s tears didn’t slow, so, admitting defeat, Grian scooped his brother into his arms, like he would when they were younger, and brought him to the kitchen, muttering swears to the Void for running the one night he was going to sleep, and made Jimmy a grilled cheese; even if he was annoyed, he wouldn’t deny his sibling one of his comfort foods, especially with how his night of what was supposed to be fun panned out.

Chapter Text

Doc had been wandering around his world in the pouring rain, looking for his son; he had told Grian to stay inside, but Grian was just as stubborn as he was, so it was no surprise that the moment he had turned his back, the small parrot hybrid had bolted.

“Grian! Come on baby bird! Where are you?” Doc called out, only to stumble slightly when he looked down and saw Grian, nearly tripping over him.

“There you are,” Doc mumbled while picking Grian up, “what have i told you about stay out in the rain, you’ll get si-”

Doc broke off when Grian’s parrot features vanished, melding back into his body, only to be replaced moments later with cod hybrid features.

“What the?” Doc silently questioned, before shaking his head and bringing Grian back home, knowing that he had to get him home.

However, as soon as the newly discovered cod hybrid was all dry, the cod features melded back into Grian’s body, being replaced by his parrot features once more.

Grian chirped a moment later, and it was all Doc could do to stop him from shouting in shock at the change, however, the more the thought about it, it did make a bit of sense- after all, he had found Grian in the same lab that had been experimenting on him after all.

…He should probably upgrade his mechanical eye just in case something like this happens again.

Chapter Text

Grian was taking a break from their building, sitting down and listening to music for the first time in 17 hours. 

The Hermits’ all knew that they were taking a break, considering they had sent a message in the main chat asking to not be disturbed while they actually sat down, not wishing to be scared while recovering from all of the work; they weren’t done building of course, no, Grian was only taking a half hour break, but they would still rather not be disturbed while doing so.

This was why, when Scar showed up, Grian didn’t even notice his presence, their eyes closed as they got lost in their music.

They could feel the vibrations as Scar got closer though, so they cracked open an eye to stare at the elf hybrid as he approached, only to blink in shock as Scar set a bottle of electrolyte water down next to him, called out “Merry Christmas!” and bolted back to his own base, leaving Grian to take longer than their expected half hour break to try and figure out what the heck just happened.

Chapter Text

The message Grian suffered a caffeine overdose appearing on everyone’s comms, was not something that anyone had been expecting, three weeks into Grian joining Hermitcraft, the 14 year old having been recently adopted by Keralis and Xisuma, after they found him in a permadeath world where he was mixed up with some unsavoury characters.

Of course, Hermitcraft had the respawn mechanic, so Grian respawned, but, as his last world had been a permadeath world, he hadn’t been expecting to wake up in his bed, promptly panicking and backing himself up in a corner.

Xisuma, having been there with Grian, was curled up on the couch, also panicking, as he stared at the place where Grian had just been, a spilled mug of tea covering the other couch.

Keralis had swiftly arrived home after the death message appeared, and managed to get the story of what had happened from his platonic husband, and then wrangled both Grian and Xisuma to his and X’s shared room, and bundled them both up in a blanket, staving off his own panic over what had happened.

Before he could descend into a panic of his own, though, he knew he had to let the others know what happened, so he pulled out his comm, and sent a message to the Hermits.

Keralis1: SO Grian just experienced his first death with us 

Keralis1: Shishwam's inconsolable 

Keralis1: Grian's inconsolable 

Keralis1: I'm about to be inconsolable 

Keralis1: NEW RULE 

Keralis1: DO NOT LET GRIAN DRINK CAFFEINE 

Keralis1: THIS INCLUDES TEA

Keralis1: CAFFEINE IS POISONOUS TO BIRDS

Keralis1: Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to join my husband and son in their panic

Docm77: I’ll be over in a minute to make sure Grian’s alright.

GoodtimeswithScar: Do you think cookies would help?

Goodtimeswithscar: I have a batch of sugar cookies fresh out of the oven, completely avian safe.

Cubfan135: Wouldn’t hurt to give them over to Doc to hand them to the three. Best to not crowd them for now.

Goodtimeswithscar: Alright!

Chapter Text

Grian had been called to Keralis’ base by his Papa himself, and Grian knew that he was going to be in big trouble; how he knew this was that his Dad had been called to Papa’s base the day prior because he hadn’t been sleeping, and Grian had also been neglecting his sleep schedule.

He was currently sitting across from Keralis, his Papa’s wide eyes staring straight into his soul, making Grian squeak out, “am I in trouble?” despite knowing that he definitely was.

“Go ahead and take a guess,” Keralis responded, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“No?”

“You are definitely your Dad’s child. Take another guess.”

Hanging his head in shame, Grian grumbled out, “I am.”

“Very good! Do you know why?”

“Because I haven’t been sleeping.”

“Exactly. Now, are you going to get some sleep, or am I going to have to force you to get some sleep?”

“I’ll sleep.”

“Hmm, smarter than you Dad in that respect.”