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Yungy hates feeling weak.
He hates feeling like he needs someone. Like he's not enough on his own. It's because of that feeling that, for the longest time, he's made it a point to not need anyone. He's strong. He's capable. If he gets knocked down by failure, he will just get back on his feet all on his own. He regears, he makes whatever alliances he needs to achieve his revenge, and he hits back so hard that his enemies will think twice about trying him again.
He doesn't need anyone.
He isn't weak. He's fucking strong; he's the strongest person on the team. He makes it a point to always be the strongest person on any team he's a part of. Pentar is reliable and useful, and Yungy can admit that he likes having him around, if only for the fact that Pentar is basically Yungy's little goon. And he matches with Yungy: they're a Steve duo, and Yungy is Steve 1 and Pentar is Steve 2.
Now, that being said, he really likes having Jumper and Zam on his team. Jumper is strategic and clever, and when she locks in, she's a dependable teammate to fight alongside. And Zam is just incredible. She's a force to be reckoned with— driven and strong and smart and a quick thinker and absolutely gorgeous and—
And right now, she's leaning over Yungy, carefully peeling away the burnt scraps of his pants from the bleeding mess of his leg. She's so fucking gentle about it too, picking blackened pieces of fabric away from the burn that looks so fucking bad that Yungy actually is having a hard time accepting that it's his own leg.
Stupid. He's so goddamn stupid. He was so caught up in chasing Minute across Spawn that he didn't even think that Apocalypse might have set up a trap so close. And of all things, it was a fucking gravel trap. In the damn Nether. Yungy wasn't even looking at the ground, and he fell straight in— right into the pit of lava. His netherite armor is pretty much the only reason he still has his leg.
Fucking Minute. He couldn't even stay and jump Yungy in the gravel trap— just kept running through the Nether without bothering to put up a fight. And the worst part is how both Zam and Pentar stopped chasing Minute to get Yungy out. Zam had jumped down into the pit with fire res and Pentar kept watch for any other Apocalypse members who might be lurking around to get the jump on them even after Minute had vanished.
They had missed out on such a good opportunity to kill Minute. Because of him. Because Yungy couldn't spot the trap before he triggered it, like a complete idiot.
"We should go back to the base," Yungy says, trying to move and immediately going still as his whole body floods with a fresh agonizing wave of pain. His mind actually blanks out at the intensity of it, and he immediately drops back to where he had been lying down, which only serves to send a whole new jolt of suffering through every inch of his body.
Fuck. This is pathetic. He needs to stop being such a bitch about a stupid little burn.
"We'll be fine," Zam says, carefully peeing another piece of fabric away from Yungy's leg. "Pili's keeping an eye out for anyone else at Spawn."
"And you've got me too, buddy!" Pentar says, entirely too enthusiastic about it.
Yungy shoots him a glare. Pentar just waves at him and bounces out of sight, back to the outside balcony of the Tower.
They're set up at the top level of the Tower of Friendship, something that Pentar and Zam had decided on fairly quickly while hauling Yungy's useless body between them. Their reasoning was that it offered a little bit of protection, and it wasn't too far from the trapped portal. Carrying him all the way to the top level meant they had a little bit of advance warning if someone tried to take advantage of their moment of weakness.
A moment of weakness that is taking way too long to handle. Yungy has had just about enough of this.
He takes another golden apple out of his inventory. Zam grabs it away from him before he can take a bite, scowling at him.
"Stop that," she says. "It's not going to heal right if you do it like that."
"It's faster," Yungy protests.
"Your leg is going to heal all wrong," she says. "Let me finish."
"And stop arguing with her," Pentar says, poking back into the top room and walking up to lean down to look at Zam's work.
"You can fucking shut up," Yungy snaps back. "Why don't you make yourself useful and go after Minute?"
"Minute is gone," Zam says, sounding exhausted. She drops a particularly large piece of Yungy's ruined pants on the ground and leans closer for a second, squinting at Yungy's leg. "And that wouldn't be a very good idea, him going after them on his own."
"You could go too," Yungy says. "I'll fix myself up."
"I'm not leaving you," Zam says. "And neither is Pentar. Stop arguing about that. Sit still and let me fix you up."
Yeah, there's really no reason for all of this. Yungy doesn't need anyone to take care of him, not even Zam. He's put up with this for the past few minutes so that she would calm down after how she was panicking when she pulled him out of the gravel trap all on her own, but this has gone on long enough. He takes another golden apple out, but Zam snatches it away again.
"Stop," she says.
"Come on," Yungy says.
"Stop it!" she says. The apple disappears into her inventory, and she takes out a splash potion instead. Regen. She pops the cork off and positions it over the worst part of the burn on his leg.
Yungy is still tense, but he doesn't try for another apple. He forces himself to sit still as Zam carefully pours the regen over the mess that is his leg. He grimaces at the prickling feeling of the skin healing back, and the weird momentary numbness as the regen starts to ease the throbbing pain throughout his body. She pours slowly, taking care to cover every bit of the burn with the potion. And it heals, and maybe the resulting scar is a lot better than it would have been with a couple of golden apples.
But it's still leaving a scar. It genuinely seems like a waste of a regen potion. And she's taking a second one out, which is going to be even more of a waste.
"An apple would have done the same thing," he says. The healing from the first potion is enough for him to be able to move his leg without much pain, so he attempts to pull it away from her, maybe get his armor back on.
Zam's hand closes around Yungy's ankle, her grip unmoveable. "If you take out another apple, I'm killing you and letting respawn fix the rest," she says.
Yungy actually considers that. But he would spawn back in the base, and that would leave both Zam and Pentar together here to talk mad shit about him. Well, he can see Pentar doing that. He doesn't think Zam would, but he also doesn't like Pentar putting the idea that Yungy is weak into Zam's head. She trusts him, she relies on him, and he can't lose that.
Damn it. It's a losing situation no matter what he does. He grits his teeth and leans back against the wall of the Tower as Zam finishes pouring the second potion and the skin mends itself. It works, he supposes. And it's already been done, so there's nothing to be done about it now.
Unfortunately, potion healing also makes players hungry. And with two potions forcing his body to mend a traumatic burn in a very short period of time, the pain in Yungy's body is very quickly replaced by a yawning hunger in his stomach. Of course, Yungy could easily ignore this until Zam and Pentar get up and he can devour a few steaks as nonchalantly as possible— but his stomach makes a very loud and obvious sound right as Zam is throwing the second empty bottle out the open door at the other side of the tower.
"Aww, is Yungy hungy?" Pentar coos.
Yungy takes out another golden apple and chucks it straight at Pentar's head. Annoyingly, he catches it.
"Wow, thank you for the apple, Yungy!" Pentar says. "Zam, isn't he the sweetest? Giving us both golden apples. He really does care."
"I'm betraying you both, I fucking swear," Zam grumbles, shaking herself off and getting up from where she had been sitting on the floor with Yungy.
Alarm immediately grips Yungy's chest. They joke about this a lot but— but Zam is literally patching Yungy up after he failed miserably in a fight in front of her. Would she actually leave them? Leave him? He's screwed around with her patience, with her trust, and now he might have lost her confidence too. Would that be enough for her to decide this isn't worth it?
She's incredible, she's special, she's so goddamn precious, and Yungy has spent this entire time believing that he can be something important to her. He doesn't need anyone, but he wants her. He wants her to want him. He wants to believe that he and Pentar and Jumper can be the one team in a long history of broken promises and betrayals and heartbreak. He doesn't need a team, but he needs to be her team. He wants to be the one team that can love her back as much as she can love them. The one team she can trust with all of her heart.
He wants it. He wants her.
"I'm sorry," Yungy says. He gets up and follows after Zam, but leaves a respectable amount of distance between them. "Please don't betray us, Zam. We'll do better."
"Zam—" Pentar whines, hurrying in to join Zam and Yungy inside the Tower. "Please, don't leave us. We need you. We're Team Bing, we can't break up. You're our Zam."
Zam stops walking. She turns and smiles, and the weight eases off of Yungy's chest. He breathes a sigh of relief as Zam jumps up on her tiptoes and throws her arms around Pentar's neck, pulling him down to plant a kiss on his cheek. Pentar squeaks in delight, kissing her back on the forehead and Zam's smile is more beautiful than the sunrise. More beautiful than anything.
It's okay. They're going to be okay.
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, Yungy," Zam says. She turns back to Yungy and places her hands on either side of his head, tilting his face down to kiss him on the cheek as well.
Yungy hugs her, relieved. Happy. She still likes him. She'll move on past this weakness. He's never going to be anything but powerful and strong and reliable in front of her from now on. It's what she deserves. Nothing but his best, because he is the best.
"Oh," Zam says. "Here." She pulls out a few cooked steaks and pushes them in between herself and Yungy.
Yungy eyes the steaks for a moment. These are not even close to being as appealing as hugging Zam, and he does actually have food in his inventory, but it's a sweet gesture. He takes them and starts eating quickly, willing his stomach not to make any more embarrassing noises now that he's filling it. Can't let himself look like more of an idiot in front of Zam. And Pentar.
"It's okay, buddy, we'll track them down," Pentar says, wandering further into the Tower, but wisely remaining just out of hitting range. Yungy throws a second golden apple at him, and this one actually hits Pentar in the shoulder. Pentar shouts and throws an apple right back, but misses.
"Stop that," Zam says. "You guys are so stupid, oh my god."
"How do you think we can lure them out again?" Yungy says, working on finishing the second steak. "I don't even want to kill them for the bounty anymore, I just want to kill somebody. Somebody besides Pentar."
"Aw, buddy," Pentar says, his voice pitching up annoyingly. "You don't like killing me?"
"I'm going to kill you both," Zam says.
The conversation drops after that and they remain there, close enough to the large open door at the top of the Tower to watch the sun sink below the horizon. Yungy feels a whole lot better, especially as he's now able to put his damn armor back on without his whole body protesting in pain. He's full, he's healed up, he's with his teammates, and he's going to track down Minute another day. It's going to be okay.
He looks out over the landscape past the Tower. Spawn is ugly during the day— even with all the builds and decorations they've been putting into it— but it's even worse at night as it swarms with mobs. The three of them will be safe enough in the tower, but Yungy still doesn't like the fact that he's just hanging out here while there are mobs and other players running around outside.
"Pili's still out there?" he says.
"Yes," Zam says. She brings up her communicator and shows a private message from Pili from a few minutes ago.
Dtowncat whispers to you: if you need some special alone time, I can go further away…
Yungy blanches. "Did he hear our entire conversation?" he says.
Zam's eyes go wide. "Oh my god…" she says.
A moment later, another private message comes.
Dtowncat whispers to you: no…