Work Text:
There was a knock at Joel's door.
He checked his clock pointedly, as if to beam into the visitor's head that it was two in the morning!
The knock came again, no more hurried.
"Coming!"
He sighed, sliding off his couch and slinking to the door.
Outside was-
"Nice city you have," xB commented casually.
Joel kept his hand on the doorknob, ready to slam it. "Why are you here? It's two fuckin' AM!"
"And I see you weren't sleeping."
Goddamnit. "Maybe you woke me up, what about that?"
"I wasn't knocking very loudly." Before Joel could fail to rebute that, xB started saying something… seemingly entirely unrelated? "Need to let any steam off?"
"… What?"
"Yes or no, Beans." Neither his expression nor his tone were getting any more readable. He didn't seem antagonistic, at least.
Joel looked around, as if the walls knew what was up. "I mean- yes? I'd be down to fight. But what prompted this?"
The visitor sighed. "And this is why I didn't want to ask Jevin for advice!" He stood up a little straighter, adjusting some feathers. "Do you want to go on a date?"
Joel tilted his head. "What would we be doing at tw-"
"Stargazing? I don't know, man, last relationship I entered was with someone I was already married to."
Seemed to be how Hermitcraft worked. "Honestly, fighting sounds like a good enough date to me. Full gear, or wooden?"
xB raised his eyebrows. "Wooden seems more fun. More of a fight. Any armor?"
The fire began coursing through Joel's veins again. "No." He calmed it- just for the moment, of course. "I'm sure you'll want to hunt me down, should we go to some natural terrain?"
xB smiled, his too-many teeth glinting in the dim light. "Sounds like a plan!"