Work Text:
It wasn't ever unusual for Jack to go out and sit below the stars. In the nether, they had stars of their own, so close they overlapped. You could see them through cracks and holes in the bedrock, beautiful, but deadly. Could kill you instantly if you touched it, no matter how fire resistant you were.
Now, sitting under the stars in the overworld, it vaguely reminded him of home. He hasn't been back to the nether in a long while, and he only sees his parents when they feel like taking a journey to the overworld. He'd been living here for just over 10 years. But the magical aspect of the stars in the overworld, were the different colors, sizes, names, and the very special factor of only being able to see them at night. In the nether, you could see them anytime you wanted, but it wasn't like that here.
Another thing was the fact it was scary, almost. The void of nothing in between them. Schlatt had told him, that if Jack were in that blank space, he'd still be thousands upon thousands of light-years away from any star. The closest star they have is the sun, which Jack had felt very connected to, due to the heat and color and brightness. He shared a lot in common with fire, warmth and other things too. The very few things in the overworld that reminded him of home.
A familiar, tall figure made its presence known beside him, stepping out of the dark behind them, only lit by the moon. Jack turned his head to look at him, standing there like he was trying to be nonchalant or something stupid. Jack laughed to himself. So stupid.
"You just gonna stand there acting all high and mighty? Or are you gonna sit with me?" Jack joked, maybe even jested. Joshed, even.
Schlatt laughed, and Jack was unsure if it was real laughter, so he just settled for believing his joke was utterly hilarious.
Schlatt sat beside him, well, tried. Having goat legs, Jack just assumed it was difficult to sit at all. But Schlatt made it work, struggling profusely before getting comfortable. Jack almost clapped with how proud of himself he looked. It was quite a silly sight.
"The big dipper is out tonight. Sick." He said flatly, tone unreadable. Jack turned to look at him, an attempt to read how he felt. Futile, it was. Schlatt was not a man that wore his heart on his sleeve, he was always quite mysterious. (In a really annoying way.)
"Yup. Why'd they even name it that? Does it mean something to people in the overworld?" Jack asked, genuinely curious. After being in the overworld for years, he'd thought he'd have learned all there was to learn about the people that inhabited it. They still had words in their funny language Jack didn't understand.
Blazeborn had their own language, and Jack, out of everyone in the overworld, was the only one who spoke it. Blazeborn were naturally excellent at learning, especially with languages, so he learned English fairly easily and quickly. (And as it would turn out, being taught by British people how to speak British English, will give you a British accent.)
"I dont know. It's probably because it looks like it could scoop something?" Schlatt said, shrugging his shoulders, sounding very unsure of himself. "Yeah. That makes sense." Jack said, and it did make a lot of sense.
"You look weird." Schlatt said, turning to look at him, smiling. Jack frowned, and glared at him, only jokingly, though. "Cheers, mate, real funny. I'm laughing sooooo hard right now, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard." Jack said, unamused.
Schlatt laughed, really laughed. He hummed for a bit, trying to hold back more laughter, just to fail and laugh again. Jack was breathing real hard trying not to laugh with him.
"Are you done?" Jack asked, arms crossed. And Schlatt looked at him for a second and laughed, and then Jack laughed with him. Stupid thing, it was. How contagious laughter and joy was. There was never a dull moment with Schlatt, was there?
They stopped laughing after a bit, Schlatt sniffled and wiped tears from his eyes, chuckling to himself and sighing.
"That wasn't even funny." Jack said, and Schlatt shoved him lightly. "Shut up." Was all Schlatt said in response.
Schlatt was always fun to hang out with. Just a joy, really. Gothic looks, insults and all. Even if he did piss Jack off sometimes, Jack still enjoyed hanging around him.
Jack leaned back, laying flat on his back to look up at the stars. Feeling his chest grow tight, his heart race and stomach drop. It was hard to ignore the fear of falling into space, he had to grip the gras behind himself and push himself firmly against it to steady himself, trying to loose the vertigo.
Schlatt just stared at him. "I'm not doing that. It took too long to sit like this, man." He said, Jack laughed, moving down to sit a bit closer to him, so he wouldn't have to turn back to look at him. "That's alright." Jack said.
And they sat in silence for a while, just looking up.
"You're scared of the stars here, right?" Schlatt asked, very suddenly. "No, that's stupid. I'm scared of the space between them. Just looks too, well, I don't know. too much of something. It's very different from what we have in the nether." Jack said, looking up at the stars.
After a while, Schlatt started pointing towards different constellations, and Jack just listened, occasionally commenting or asking a question.
Then they sat in silence again. Jack felt like sleeping here, it was nice, the sound of the crickets out in this feild. There were lots of lightning bugs, and just bugs in general, which they didn't really have in the nether. Jack hated bugs. A lot.
"Huh. I haven't seen a lightning bug in forever." Schlatt said, smiling as he looked away from the stars and towards the glowing bugs. Jack didn't get what was so special about the bugs, but to each their own, he thought.
"Do you have anything like this is the nether?" Schlatt asked, looking down at him. Jack thought. They didn't have much, just animals. But..
"Yeah. We do. Not sure how you'd translate it, but they're quite small, like, really small. They're not concidered a bug in the nether, because they're not a pest or nothin' but they're these really small little glowing thingies, and they just float around and sit on trees n' shit." Jack ranted, making hand gestures whilst he talked.
"What's it called in your language?" Schlat asked, and Jack only had to think for a second before speaking, the language was a lot more complex than English, having lots of words that didn't have a translation. That's why Jack thought very lowly of their language, it watered down such beautiful words and made it sound so silly. Schlatt made a poor attempt to repeat what jack said, brows furrowed in confusion. Jack found it to be utterly hilarious.
Eventually, Jack yawned and sat up, trying to dust the dirt and grass off his back. He talked with Schlatt for only a little while more before heading back home and heading to bed. He dreamt of the floating little bugs near home, the stars. He missed it dearly. Maybe he could visit tomorrow.