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The room still smelled like smoke.
Ash clung to the cracked stone walls, and somewhere in the corner, a redstone torch blinked weakly—on, off, on, off. Spoke leaned against the far wall, his arms crossed and jaw tight, while Planet paced. Again.
“You could’ve died,” Planet hissed, not looking at him.
“You say that every time,” Spoke muttered, eyes flicking toward the floor. His voice was low, too tired to argue, but too angry not to.
“Yeah? Maybe because you keep putting yourself in situations where that’s a possibility!” Planet stopped in front of him, hands clenching into fists. “Why are you always the one running back in when everyone else is running out?”
“Someone has to,” Spoke snapped, finally looking up. “If I don’t, who will?”
“I would,” Planet said, voice almost a whisper now, but laced with sharp hurt. “You just don’t trust me to.”
Spoke flinched.
Silence bloomed between them, sudden and suffocating.
A distant boom echoed outside—probably someone’s TNT trap going off in the ravine. Neither of them flinched. They were too used to the chaos. Too used to the noise that never left them.
But right now, it wasn’t the war that was loud. It was the tension between them.
“You keep doing this thing,” Planet finally said, stepping closer. “Like you’re trying to break yourself before anyone else gets the chance.”
Spoke looked at him. Really looked.
Planet was dirty, blood dried along his sleeve, communicator strapped crookedly to his hip. His chest was still rising too fast. Maybe from the fight. Maybe from something else.
“I’m not trying to break anything,” Spoke said quietly. “I’m trying to win.”
Planet let out a hollow laugh. “Right. Because that’s all this is to you. Another battle to win. Doesn’t matter if you burn in the process, right?”
Spoke shoved off the wall.
“You think I want this?” His voice shook, and not from fear. “You think I like being the one everyone looks to? Like I want to be the reason people get hurt when things go wrong?”
“You don’t let anyone in, Spoke,” Planet said, stepping into his space. “Not really. Not when it counts.”
Spoke’s hand twitched at his side. “Maybe that’s safer.”
“For who?” Planet’s voice broke, and this time, he didn’t hide it.
Spoke looked at him like he wanted to say something—like he needed to—but whatever it was crumbled before it reached his mouth. He turned, jaw set, like maybe walking away would be easier than standing here, facing the fallout.
But Planet grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t walk away from me. Not again.”
There was a pause.
The kind of pause that holds too much. The kind that hurts.
Spoke slowly turned back.
His voice was hoarse when he said, “You’re the reason I come back.”
Planet blinked.
Spoke stepped closer, something fraying at the edges in his chest, unraveling with every breath.
“You’re the only thing I hear when it all gets too loud,” Spoke said, eyes on Planet’s mouth now, like he was afraid to look higher. “Your voice—your goddamn voice—it cuts through the static like a siren. And I keep crashing.”
Planet inhaled sharply.
“Then stop,” he said. “If this is hurting you—if I’m hurting you—then stop.”
Spoke’s eyes flicked up, finally, locking with Planet’s.
“I can’t,” he breathed.
And then he kissed him.
Desperate, angry, painful.
Planet responded just as hard, grabbing Spoke’s shirt and yanking him closer like he was mad he needed this too. Their mouths collided like a warfront, hands in each other’s hair, on each other’s necks, pulling, pressing, bruising.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t careful.
It was everything they’d been trying to deny, poured out in one furious heartbeat.
But then Spoke pulled away, breathing hard, forehead pressed against Planet’s, eyes shut tight like he couldn’t stand the weight of it.
“We shouldn’t—” he said, voice raw.
Planet didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
Because they both knew he was right.
But Planet whispered anyway, “So then why does it feel like breathing?”
Spoke opened his eyes. The look in them made Planet’s chest cave in.
“You’re going to ruin me,” Spoke said.
Planet’s hand slid down to Spoke’s fingers.
“Then we’ll ruin each other.”
Another beat.
And then Spoke kissed him again—softer this time, like maybe if they stayed quiet, the world wouldn’t notice them slipping.
Outside, the sirens kept sounding.
But for once, Spoke didn’t run toward them.
He ran to Planet.