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The last thing the Codfather expected when he heard a knock on the door at during a rainstorm was fWhip.
He stood with pleading eyes as he looked up at Jimmy, broken wings in hand. His scarf was wrapped around one of the support beams trying to hold the clearly broken contraption in place. The skin that was exposed was covered in cuts and scrapes from a crash landing, and his goggles were missing the glass on the left side. And he was soaked, every inch of him dripping as the rain pelted him more each second he stood there.
“I, uh … can I maybe get out of the rain?” FWhip chuckled as he broke eye contact with Jimmy. Jimmy didn’t know what to say, just gestured the Count of the Grimlands inside. He was too stunned to speak even as the squeaking of fWhip’s boots echoed across his stone floors. He could feel the slight judgement of a better builder looking at his plain, sparsely decorated interior but he didn’t care. It did what he needed it to do.
“What are you doing here?” Jimmy asked, finally finding his voice as fWhip took a seat on the floor by his couch.
“I was testing a prototype for wings. Seeing if I could make one without having to beat the dragon and go to the end. Clearly didn’t work. Crashed in your empire. Came straight to you.” FWhip’s eyes remained locked on the wings on the table, not looking at Jimmy as he talked.
“But Sausage is right next door. You could have gone to him. Why me?” Jimmy wrapped a towel around his shoulders as fWhip remained unmoving. He looked over to his chests and barrels stacked against the wall. There had to be some stuff in there to repair the wings. And maybe he could find some cocoa beans lying around to make some hot chocolate.
“I … I don’t want to deal with him right now.”
“I get that, considering … well, Sausage.” Jimmy could have sworn he heard a small soft snicker come from fWhip, but he was too far away to hear over the sound of all the items in his chest. He really needed to organize these one day. “But me?? I don’t … I don’t understand? I’m your number 1 enemy.”
“I don’t want to talk about that, Jimmy.” FWhip sighed. “I just … I don’t exactly have control over where I crash land and I didn’t want to be out in the storm for very long, okay? Is that an acceptable answer for you, CodBoy?”
Jimmy paused to look back at him with a look of feigned hurt on his face. Not like fWhip saw it anyways under the mask. “How dARE YOU! Here I was looking to help you repair those wings and you DISRESPECT the codFATHER like that?!“
FWhip didn’t answer, just pulled the towel closer in to himself. Jimmy rolled his eyes and continued digging. It stayed in silence after that, tense awkward silence, that was only broken when Jimmy put everything he found on the table with the wings. Sewing kit, scrap fabric, sticks and tape. FWhip offered a small smile at the gesture, and for the first time Jimmy noticed just how quiet and out of everything he was. This was not the confident cocky engineer willing to sneak TnT traps under his nose in broad daylight. He was … Jimmy didn’t quite know. Whatever he was, yelling at him over a disrespectful nickname wasn’t helping the situation.
“Did you want anything to drink?” Jimmy asked, squatting down on fWhip’s right. “I mean, I know we’re enemies but …”
“Sausage is your enemy.” FWhip snapped. “I’m just Sausage’s ally who likes … I’m just Sausage’s ally.”
“What do you like, fWhip?” More silence. “FWhip, this is going to be a very long night if you keep whatever’s got you like this to yourself.”
“I don’t have to stay and bother you; I can go home.” FWhip began to get up but stopped as Jimmy grabbed his hand.
“Storm like this doesn’t pass quickly. I’d rather know you’re safe and leave when there’s at least some light.” Jimmy slowly brought fWhip back down to the floor, eyes never leaving his slightly stunned face. “Now, do you want to talk? Cause clearly there’s other things going on in your mind besides how to fix your wings.”
“They’re probably not worth the effort to repair them, in all honesty. It was a valiant effort but I don’t see it being a long term solution. One stray rocket is enough to rip through this fabric.”
“Is that was caused you to …” Jimmy whistled as his hand moved to indicate a nosedive into the ground. FWhip nodded. “I mean, you got all the way here with them, right? Assuming you started in the Grimlands? That’s still super impressive.”
“I, um, actually started at Spawn. Much less impressive.”
“Don’t downplay your own achievements. You’re much better at all this building and creating and inventing stuff than I could ever be.”
“You’re getting better. I mean look at this place!” FWhip used his free hand to gesture around the shack. “Nobody does homely cozy vibes like you do. And this is such a great build too.”
“You’re just saying that.” Jimmy blushed, turning away from fWhip. He closed his eyes as fWhip’s hand gently cupped his face and turned his back to face each other.
“Jimmy, look at me.” Jimmy slowly opened his eyes, soft brown meeting piercing blue. “Do not look down on yourself. No matter what me or anyone else has told you about your building skills. Your style is amazing, your skills only look to improve, and nobody has the power to take that away from you. Not Joel, not Sausage, and certainly not me.”
“Thank you.” Jimmy smiled. “Did you need anything, by the way? I was trying to say how bad of a host I was being before being so rudely interrupted.”
“Just water.” FWhip replied, finally pulling his hand out of Jimmy’s. Jimmy missed the warmth it brought and almost reached out to grab it again. But his didn’t. “Thanks.”
“I can do food as well.” Jimmy suggested “Maybe avoiding fish cause of well … us. But I have chicken, steak, bread.”
“Just water. Thanks.” FWhip repeated. Jimmy nodded and silently got what his guest wanted before deciding to push him again.
“Is it something I did or am doing that’s making you like this?” He asked. “You’re not … you.”
“That obvious?”
“Considering it’s me of all people noticing it, yes.” He placed the water down in front of fWhip before sitting back down again. “You don’t have to tell me anything but … if it makes you feel better, whatever is said does not have to leave this room. It can stay between us.”
“Promise?” There was a slight pause from Jimmy at the immediate response, but he quickly nodded to fWhip. Frankly, he wasn’t going to tell ANYBODY that this encounter even happened. Who would believe him, anyways? “Say it.”
“I promise…” He began, as he took his mask off to show just how serious he was about what was happening. “…that nothing said tonight will leave this room.”
FWhip sighed as he grabbed Jimmy’s hand and brought him back down to the floor. “Can’t believe I’m willing to tell you any of this. I don’t even know where to start. I … You know what? You asked a lot of questions tonight. What do you want me to start?”
Jimmy threw fWhip a slight side eye at the deflection. “Why are you here, fWhip? Why not go to Mythland?”
“I … didn’t go to Sausage because I wanted to see you. I don’t like being your enemy. I like making you flustered with harmless pranks and seeing your face become all red. Like … right now, actually.” FWhip chuckled as Jimmy felt the blood rush to his face. He turned away.
“So what? You like me as a friend?”
“Uhhh, some could say more than that. But I definitely don’t want to be your enemy.”
“What are you proposing, fWhip? Cause whatever happens tonight doesn’t leave here. Our dynamic in the world can’t change.”
“But what if the dynamic between the two of us in private changed?” Jimmy turn back to look at fWhip in slight curiosity but mostly shock. “What if, and you can say no to this, we had a secret relationshiiip?” FWhip quickly closed his eyes and shifted away, as if expecting Jimmy to yell and scream at him for how bad an idea it was. But Jimmy didn’t. He sat there staring at fWhip trying to figure out where he felt about all this. Sure he was annoyed at all the teasing and pranks but fWhip never did anything to kill him or hurt him. Most of the antagonism came from Sausage. FWhip was even helpful when he needed, giving him food during his first week and helping him to decorate his river. Admittedly, the stones were the cover for TnT traps. But looking at fWhip, as he nervously peaked one eye open to see Jimmy’s reaction, he could tell that he meant it. He didn’t want to hate Jimmy and be on bad terms with him.
“How … do you even know I even think of you like that?” Jimmy teased, but fWhip smirked back as if he knew something Jimmy hadn’t picked up on.
“Well, you’re still holding my hand.” Jimmy felt his face blush up as he looked down. True to his word, fWhip’s hand was still intertwined with his. Jimmy very quickly pulled away, including standing up and walking away from fWhip.
“No no no no no I can’t, fWhip. There’s no way. There’s absolutely no way.”
“Why can’t you?” FWhip asked he stood up. “On the clock enemies, off the clock … whatever you want to call us.”
“tHERE’S an US?!” Jimmy could feel his voice cracking but he didn’t care. This was a lot to handle all at once as fWhip slowly approached him. “Listen, fWhip, this is a lot, you know? I didn’t expected to be confronted with any of this I just …”
“Hey, it’s okay. Breathe, Jimmy.” FWhip smiled as he grabbed Jimmy’s hand again. Jimmy felt his tenseness in his shoulders again. Maybe this idea of having something with fWhip wasn’t such a bad idea. “I’m not trying to push you. You asked for an answer and I gave a solution to a problem I wanted to solve. I get it if it’s selfish and again, I will do what you say. Ask me to leave and I will.” FWhip gently began to pull away but Jimmy grasped his hand tighter.
“Don’t.” Jimmy said softly. “Can I try something, just to you know see if this would work? It’s going to take a lot of work considering everything going on with our alliances and there will be times where I have to probably fake being mad at you and I’m not exactly the best actor…”
“Jimmy, if you want to kiss me just shut up and do it already!”
That statement, that consent, was enough for Jimmy’s body to start moving. FWhip’s kiss tasted like gunpowder and redstone but felt like the explosion of a firework in the night sky. He burned like fire that radiated from his whole body, lips no longer needed air the longer they stayed locked. And when they broke apart, Jimmy longed for more. He wanted fWhip to pin him against the wall and do not very PG things.
“You sure this isn’t going to work anymore, Codfather?” FWhip teased as his hand ran its way through Jimmy’s hair.
“On the clock enemies still though.”
“We can make it work. I heard enemies to lovers is pretty popular.”
“Shut up or I will stab you the next time we’re in public.”
“Make me.” FWhip shot back, sticking his tongue out for good measure. And for once, Jimmy knew exactly how to make that happen.