Work Text:
The third time he wakes up like this, he's pretty done with it.
Three nights in a row now. Three nights waking up with his shirt clinging to him, drenched in sweat. Three nights waking up shaking, trying to hold back sobs that wrack through his body.
It's on that third night that he just gives up. He doesn't try and go back to bed, just swings his legs over the side and stands up. His knees click as he stands, and he swings his arms out, stretching before sliding open the window in his room.
The cool air fills the air, and he fans out his shirt, taking a few deep breaths of cold air. The trails of tears have dried up a bit, and he wipes away any remaining dampness, sniffing away the snot that had gathered in his nose.
He brushes his hair off his sweat slicked forehead, and moves away from the window to get dressed. It's early, the sun is not even up yet, but he's done with sleep. There's no point just spending the rest of the night in his bed, staring at the ceiling, too scared to close his eyes again.
By the time the sun finally rises, his resource gathering is all done. His inventory is heavy with all the supplies he needs, and he immediately starts to empty it, working on a new building.
He gets through about half of it by the time night falls. The day had been filled with music blasting through headphones and different textures of blocks in his hands. His legs ache from walking around all day, so he lets himself sit for just a second, sitting on the wall of the current build.
From here, Joel can see the others heading to bed. The lights in Mumbo's city are going out, while the lights in Impulse's flick on, the cyber city lighting up the entire side of the mountain. Next to Mumbo, a train horn blasts through the silence of the mountain, Scar blowing it one more time.
Joel stands back up. If he strains his neck, he can somewhat see Gem and Grian's part of the mountain. He can see Gem's lighthouse on, the light rotating and filling that entire side of the mountain. He's sure Grian loves that, light probably blasting through the window every night. He hopes the man has good blinds on his window.
Alright, that break was long enough. He stretches, and goes right back to building.
The night passes. He barely realises day is there, but the sun shines too bright in his eyes, and he's forced to acknowledge it, scowling at it before gliding down from his build, searching through his chests for sunglasses.
Down there, he notices some people moving through his city. They stare at him, and he stares back.
"Why are you in my base" His voice sounds rough from hours of not using it. He finds his stupid sunglasses and puts them on, looking at Grian without needing to squint his tired eyes in the sun.
"Exploring" The way Grian says that gives away that nothing good can be happening.
"If I see anything exploded, stolen or changed you will find 30 lit tnt in your base" There's no joke in his voice, just pure annoyance. He turns away from Griam, still scowling.
When he's not busy building, his body is getting very aware of the fact it's exhausted. His eyes burn, every limb feeling heavy. He's sure he looks great too, eyes probably rimmed with shadows and hair all messy from him running hands through it every couple minutes.
He's sure it's his looks that cause that concerned tinge to Grian's voice. "You alright Joel?"
"Fine. Woke up early, didn't agree with me" He earns an amused hum from Grian, and relief fills his chest, pleased his lie works. He had learned how this server works already, if you aren't sleeping properly, then at least 6 hermits will show up and force you to. It was nice to feel loved like that, but extremely annoying in Joel's case.
Grian doesn't stay around for much longer, flying off in a blur of warm colours. It seems as if Joel had stopped the mischief before it even started, but he still takes a minute to walk around, checking through his chests and looking for anything that's been changed. After being reassured that everything still looks the same as it had earlier, he flies back up to the build he had been working on, putting himself right back to work.
Another 24 hours pass. Joel finishes one build and heads off to start another, ignoring how his body aches from hours of non-stop work. Nobody stops by during the second day, something he is relieved for, too exhausted to hold a proper conversation with anyone on this energetic server.
On the third night, he's reminded of the other reason people sleep. Phantoms come flying down, claws digging into his shoulder. He hisses out in pain, trying to swat them away. There's teeth and claws digging into his skin, drawing blood, screeches filling the air as they fly around, swooping down every seconds to attack him again.
He tries to move away, trying to pull his sword from his inventory. As his hand reaches into the void, he's too off balance, and a phantom comes swooping down, biting deep into his shoulder, sending him off the edge of the building.
He uses his hand to grab them, ripping them off his shoulder. He can feel the teeth still embedded in his skin, but he's more focused on getting his elytra out to catch him. It does catch him, for just a second, wings extending and his fall turning into a glide. Then the feathers of his elytra start to rip out, breaking apart way too fast. His glide turns back into a fall, and he hits the ground hard, his vision going red and black.
The void greets him, cold and empty. He lets himself stay there for a bit, staring into the darkness, before he wills himself back.
He wakes up in his bed. His shoulder aches from where the phantom had bitten. He stays there for a few minutes, just laying down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Suddenly he's reminded of his items, left on the ground after he died. He gets out of his bed fast, not bothering to even put on shoes as he goes to rush out the door to get his things.
He opens the door to the unimpressed face of Grian, a purple shulker box in his arms. He shoves the shulker box into Joel's arms, taking a few steps in and slamming the door shut behind him. He looks pissed. Great.
"Smallishbeans hit the ground too hard while trying to escape phantoms?" He had his chat pulled up, pointing at the message glowing on there. Joel's death message. Underneath the message is the messages of others who were still awake, expressing their concern.
"What's wrong with that, you've also died falling while trying to escape mobs." Joel looks in the shulker box, finding all his items, along with a very broken tattered elytra.
"I don't care about death, I care about the phantoms. Phantoms Joel! You've been awake for more than 3 days!" The feathers around his neck are all puffed up in anger, but underneath the anger in his eyes, Joel can see worry. It makes his stomach twist with guilt.
"I'm sorry" Why was he apologising? He shouldn't need to apologise to others for his own fucked up sleep schedule.
"Don't apologise" Grian responds, before he grabs Joel by his arm, dragging him up to where he knows Joel's bedroom is. Joel manages to set the shulker box down somewhere, knowing theres no escaping this pissed off avian.
They head up to Joel's bedroom, where Grian finally releases him, pointing at the bed, a silent order to get in and sleep. "I need to change first" Joel manages to get out, pulling apart lips that feel almost glued closed.
"Then get to it" Grian says, arms crossed. Joel gives a small nod, then moves to his closet. When he turns back, pjs in hands, he finds Grian rearranging his bed, making the bed for the first time in days.
He can't wait to go lay down and ruin that.
His rough work clothes are replaced with the soft clean fabric of pyjamas. He returns to the bedroom, finding Grian all comfortable on his bed. He doesn't wait very long before he joins him, throwing himself down on the next arrangement of the blankets, pulling them around them. There's a huff from Grian when he sees how the bed gets ruined, but he does not complain in any way, only running a gentle hand through Joel's hair.
Joel knows what the other is doing. They've done this before, too many times, usually in Grian's base. He always hated waking up Grian for his nightmares, but a couple months ago it was worse, he had been there pretty much every night dealing with nightmares. Grian would just run his hand through his hair, comforting the other until he fell asleep. He liked those times, finally getting good sleep for the first time in months of nightmares.
Just like then, he falls asleep fast, closing his eyes and drifting off into a dreamless sleep.