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Wels
I’m not staying.
Wels had been pretty damn determined of that. Or at least, he’d thought he was. Then again, standing here, looking around the cave that had been home for the past few months, that didn’t exactly make a ton of sense either.
I’m not staying.
And yet here he was, and Cleo was yelling at him.
Not like that was new. It wasn’t new, because he’d been here. Been here for months.
“Wels! Water’s hot, not for long though!”
“Bdubs got washed up?”
“A’course he did, he was the first one in. I dunno how long the flow is gonna hold though, so if you want a hot rinse, do it fast.”
Hot water was a luxury in the Depths, but not so much as you’d think. Hot springs dotted the tunnels here or there, and they could be routed with enough fiddling to service homes.
Home?
This wasn’t home. This was a dingy-ass cave with three separate redstone barricade-style doors and a front false wall, all meant to keep them hidden. They had to wait for Doc to give the go-ahead to so much as leave, to make sure no one ever spotted their hiding place.
Hiding place.
Yeah, that was better. Hiding place.
“Alright, alright, I’ll take it,” Wels said, and he let out a disgruntled huff when Cleo chucked a towel into his face at that.
“Cleanest one we’ve got.”
“Yeah, and who was laundry duty this week?”
“Laundry!? HA!” Cleo let out a dry cackle, and meanwhile, Bdubs was scurrying around toward one corner of the cave.
If there was anyone in this stars forsaken shit hole that Wels actually cared about, it was that kid. Only because of how bright he was.
Figuratively and literally.
Bdubs was in his night cycle phase, meaning his hair was glowing silver and his eyes had shifted colors to beam brightly from his face. He was playing with a little redstone spinning top that Etho had cobbled together for him out of scraps they’d collected.
Wels wandered past him on his way toward the rocky tunnel he’d blown through the rock himself. Between his destructive glamor abilities and Doc reinforcing things, they’d been able to figure out a way to give at least a little privacy to the large cave they all called home.
Old mattresses and reclaimed sheets, ratty blankets, were against the furthest wall from the door. Doc and Etho were at the table with the short leg that ‘thunked’ once in a while if one of them shifted their weight.
“Did you try to get in contact with Dogwarts on the mid-levels?”
“Mmm…I passed by, they seem like they’ve clammed up tight.”
“What about the Cottontails?”
“Same, I think they’ve burrowed.”
“Ugh…and what did the depot look like today?”
“Locked down.”
“Dammit.”
Wels wasn’t sure exactly what they were discussing half the time. He was in on the ‘plan’ …if you wanted to call it that. He’d consider it more of an outline himself.
Not like I’m planning to participate long…
He wasn’t going to stay with this ridiculous outfit. As if the five of them, one of whom was like ten, would be of any real use. He was only here because they fed him and weren’t actively trying to get him involved in organized crime.
Y’know, actively.
We did throw down with the Feather Foots last week…blasted Hawks…
Wels pressed his lips into a thin line as he stared at the archway that led into what they were functionally calling a bathroom.
An old shipping barrel we found and rolled in here, under a pipe hooked up to a hot spring we were able to connect into…but that feeds most of this side of the Depths, so actually getting hot water is a coin flip.
He raked a hand back over pale brown hair, greasy and tangled. His skin was like fractured glass, pale-toned, glued together with matte black lines that looked like they’d been broken apart and put back together.
“Wels! You gonna go fer bathtime?”
Bdubs had noticed Wels loitering at the arch toward the ‘bathroom’ and gazed up at him with those huge glowing eyes.
“Erm…y-yeah. You having fun with that thing, bud? Is it really that entertaining to just watch it spin all by itself?”
He asked as he took a couple of steps, then dropped onto his heels to watch the little redstone top whirling.
“Uh-huh! It’s uh-very…very fun times! Etho made it for me! I like it!” Bdubs declared, and Wels felt the edges of his lips tugging upward.
Not with any sort of frustration, not with, at least, any severe lack of grace. Which was really quite a concept when it came to Wels.
This kid is finding fun while the worlds on fire.
And if Bdubs could do that…what was stopping Wels?
Wels, who had always been moving through life feeling as if his smile was in itself a jab toward the city of fangs that had raised him.
Yet here he was, watching a kid play with a redstone top made from scraps, and this kid was smiling.
“Here…”
He reached out, and planted his palm flat to the ground between himself and Bdubs. The little glare mutant scooped up his top and hugged it to his chest, large eyes widening further as Wels allowed glamor to flood through the cracks over his skin.
Black matte cracks, like someone had painted him with a thickly coated fractal brush in a pattern resembling shattered pot pieces coming back together.
And Wels wouldn’t claim he’d been pieced back together. At least not yet.
But the glamor sparked, and in a burst of outward energy that made a dull boom of a sound, he caved a circular half-sphere depressed into the stone. Cleo jumped at the noise, and Bdubs squeaked.
“W-Why’d ya…!?”
“It’s a little arena for your top to go spinning in. Way more fun than a flat floor.”
Cleo, who had taken a breath to probably yell at Wels for damaging their already shabby abode, held their tongue.
Bdubs made a comically loud gasp and eagerly switched his top on and set it down again. He nudged it toward the edge of the ‘bowl’ in the ground, and watched as it took the plunge and started to spin in wild patterns as if it were dancing along the curved surface.
“Ah! L-Look at it go! It goes so good! Ha-ha!” Bdubs exclaimed, cheer radiating from his face as he dropped to his knees and elbows to watch his top perform. Wels found that smile, against all the odds, encouraging his own.
“Good. Have fun with it, let me know if you ever want another.”
“Don’t go caving to many holes in our floor! Stars above know me and Doc aren’t exactly graceful on our feet!” Cleo warned him, but her tone was fond.
“Hey!” Doc seemed to pick up on the fact that he was being lumped in, and called out with a huff.
Wels felt the rumble in his chest of a chuckle. One that wasn’t sarcastic, or cynical, or mean. Not a response to the cruelty he expected, but to the spark of light he never thought he’d find.
He ruffled Bdubs’ hair a bit and then stood up and stretched.
“I’m gonna get my bath in.”
And maybe…he’d stick around a little longer than he planned.