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“Okay, so what are you doing?” Leo raised an eyebrow, leaning against the doorframe. Nufuli jumped at his voice.
“Oh, uh, hey Leo!” he looked over his shoulder sheepishly. Leo stepped forward and the sound of his heels prompted Nufuli to quickly put down his tools and turn around.
“Hey, Nufuli. Why are you at the netherite upgrade table?” he tilted his head. The other pursed his lips and looked past Leo’s shoulder at the door, then around the room. Leo frowned and squinted his eyes. “Did your armour break? Did someone attack you and you haven’t told me?”
“No! No, nothing happened.”
“So why are you here? And why aren’t you letting me see the workbench?”
Leo easily could’ve looked over Nufuli’s shoulder due to his height advantage, but it was fun making his friend nervous. Nufuli chewed his lip, obviously debating on whether he should tell him, and Leo could’ve made him spit out the truth or just pushed him to the side. Except, he wanted Nufuli to trust him.
“Fine. Don’t get mad…” Nufuli stepped to the side. “I’m trimming my armour–” Leo opened his mouth to scold him when he held up a hand. “–There’s no need to tell me it’ll make me an easier target. I already know that. I just… really wanted to give it a personal touch.”
The diamonds glowed from their positions embedded in the netherite, twinkling like dwarf stars in the night sky. Leo could see the solder around the diamonds cooling the longer he stared. He carefully brushed his hands over the trims, an obvious frown on his face.
“Okay… Still, you know it makes you a really obvious target, right?” Leo turned to Nufuli, who was placing the soldering iron on the workbench.
“No, I didn't know,” Nufuli deadpanned. Leo lightly punched him in the shoulder for the attitude, making the other laugh.
Nufuli shuffled back into place, pushing the chestplate out of the way and taking his helmet. He picked up a Tide helmet trim template, following the blueprint to correctly engrave the pattern into his helmet. When he held up his spare hand, Leo didn’t stop himself from taking a diamond from his shulker and placing it in his palm.
“The trims really complement my horns,” Nufuli said offhandedly. The solder melted and dripped into the engraving, allowing Nufuli to place the first diamond in the centre of the piece.
“Yeah…” Leo paused before the words slipped from his mouth. “I don’t like how your horns glow.”
“Well, sorry buddy, I can’t change them,” Nufuli chuckled, held out his hand for another diamond and soldered it into place.
“No no, it means you… stand out.” Leo found his eyes wandering over those spiralling horns. The base was an unsuspecting dark grey that changed into cyan, ending with glowing, pale blue tips. It was easy for him to spot Nufuli while they were caving or during night missions, but that meant it was easy for their opponents to spot Nufuli too. The realisation never failed to scare Leo.
Nufuli was silent in the way Leo couldn’t understand his thoughts.
“Not in a bad way! Your horns are really cool, don’t get me wrong bro. I just… I don't want you to be targeted and killed and me being unable to do anything about it ,” Leo added the last half in a quiet whisper.
Nufuli still heard it, though, as he immediately dropped the soldering iron and straightened upright. He took Leo’s cold hands and held them tightly, rubbing his thumb in circles over his knuckles.
“Leo, you’re not going to lose me,” he stated firmly. He dropped a hand to hold Leo’s cheek, making him look back at Nufuli. “Look? I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere.”
You don’t have any control over that, Leo wanted to say. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and neither do I. What if I can’t keep you by my side? Except, he smiled back reassuringly as if he trusted Nufuli’s words.
Nufuli wasn’t convinced, though. He scrutinised Leo for a moment before sighing.
“I know, we don’t know what’ll happen in the future, but I know that I won’t let anyone kill me.” Leo stared into those sincere, grey eyes, and held on tightly to Nufuli’s hands.
“You don’t have any control over that,” he whispered. His voice shook, quiet and afraid.
“And neither do you. So, why worry about it?” Nufuli’s thumb resumed its pattern of rubbing circles into the back of Leo’s hand. “We’ll find our footing wherever this server takes us.”
Leo wanted to trust him. He wanted to believe that life was as easy as that, but deep down he knew that one day, either of them was going to be alone. And how do you find your footing after everything in your life has been ripped away from you? Nufuli was his everything, his constant, his best friend. If Leo lost him, there would be no more ground to stand on.
He was most afraid of the possibility of his own failure in protecting Nufuli.
Nufuli’s warmth disappeared as he went back to soldering the diamonds into place for all of his armour pieces. Leo could only watch and shut his thoughts out, distracting himself by sorting through the bounty papers he had brought along with him. He was asking Nufuli about the pricing of one of the more expensive bounties when Nufuli finished, wiping his forehead with the back of his gloved hand and holding up the helmet with pride.
“Do you think this trim will fit my horns?” he asked, turning around and raising the armour piece in front of his face. Leo tilted his head to the side, squinting and trying to imagine Nufuli in the trimmed helmet. The image still didn’t make him feel happy.
“I don’t know. It’s not like you can go back after trimming it,” Leo shrugged, to which Nufuli made a sound of agreement.
“Wait.” Leo turned back at Nufuli’s voice to find him staring at the pile of diamonds on the workbench. “I counted the amount of diamonds I needed, why are there spares?”
“Oh, I was meant to give you those?”
Nufuli glanced between the pile of diamonds and Leo’s open valuables shulker, stalking over to scrutinise the inside of the box. Suddenly, the dots connected and he stared at Leo with abject horror.
“No… you did not ,” Nufuli grabbed Leo’s shoulders and shook him. “Tell me you did not!”
“Haha, so I might have…” Leo rubbed his nape sheepishly, then laughed at Nufuli’s face. “Sorry! I didn’t see the pile of diamonds so I just gave you some of mine.”
“Oh my void, LeoWook,” Nufuli dragged a hand down his face then went to scoop the diamonds into his arms. He offered them as compensation for his ‘unclear instructions’, to which Leo had to decline. “I don’t like it when you selflessly spend your stuff on me.”
Leo smiled bitterly, remembering his old habits. His gift-giving had become a small joke among his team as when he first got them into B.A.T., he didn’t understand the meaning of a friendship without attaching material value, constantly bribing them to do things. It initially worked because Leo was richer than all of them, but it had quickly become unnecessary and all of them (Nufuli especially) had to rework Leo’s habits. Understanding each other was what brought them together.
“I’m not going to wear this armour outside of the base,” Nufuli reassured him when he caught Leo’s concerned look. He easily slipped on the boots then had a bit more struggle with the leggings and chestplate before reaching for the helmet.
Leo felt his stomach drop as the devilish grin on Nufuli’s face.
“It’d be funny if you put this on me the way you put on my first netherite helmet, right?” Nufuli held out the diamond-trimmed netherite helmet, raising his eyebrow. Leo cringed at the memory of how he fumbled putting the original netherite helmet on Nufuli’s head when he first joined B.A.T.
“At least I know better now,” Leo remarked, taking the helmet and carefully sliding the horns into their designated holes. It fit snugly on Nufuli’s head, tufts of brown hair sticking out over his eyes which Leo fixed.
“Uh uh, you forgot something!” Nufuli grabbed his arm once Leo tried to step back. He groaned.
“‘Welcome to B.A.T.’ Are you happy?” he patted down on the helmet. The sheer look of giddiness on Nufuli’s face made Leo himself tear up and start laughing.
“Yep, I’m so happy to be in B.A.T.!” Nufuli answered between fits of laughter, earning another playful punch in the shoulder.
—
Welcome to B.A.T. Leo thought as he held back tears, holding the diamond trimmed helmet and hanging it up on the obsidian wall.