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“So I’ve heard you’ve decided to fall on the sword this time?” Bdubs raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the railing of Gem’s bridge as the sun tracked overhead. They’d been catching up for the past half-hour when he’d finally spotted the labels on the row of chests at the end of the bridge. The eyebrow slowly fell back down at the blank look that Gem gave him in response. “You know, the thankless job? The ghastless grind? Trying to make a directory for a server that refuses to read?”
“Oh! You mean the–Well, yes, but you’re making it sound like it’s a death sentence.” She giggled lightly. “It’s just a Nether Hub, Bdubs! And what do you mean, thankless? We told you how amazing it was all the time once you finally started building it!”
Bdubs harrumphed and crossed his arms. “I mean there’s no amount of thanks that makes it not have been a big ol’ mess in the first place! Just saying you’ve got big shoes to fill after Tango raised the bar on what it’s supposed to be. I barely kept up myself!”
“Well, if you’re so concerned about it, then you must have some advice to share on the subject, don’t you? Since you did the last one? Which was gorgeous, by the way, very high standard to set, thanks for that.”
Recognizing his ego was being appealed to and thus exploited, Bdubs nonetheless puffed his chest up proudly. “Iiiiii thought you’d never ask!” From a back pocket, he pulled out a notebook filled with tabs, flipping back several pages and clearing his throat. “Bdubs Tip Number One for building a Hermitcraft nether hub: Start very quickly after picking up the job, because otherwise everyone is going to spend ten percent of every interaction with you asking when you’ll be done with building it, and it’ll get annoying very fast! Tip number two; you can have your pride of gathering everything yourself, or you can have the time saved by having people donate, not both. Tip number thr–”
Gem held up a hand to cut him off. “Hold on, hold on, hold on! Exactly how many tips do you have prepared for this scenario?”
The sound of several pages flipping.
“Looks like I wrote down…..about sixty? But don’t worry, I have more in my head if that’s not enough to get you started–”
“Not ENOUGH?” Gem laughed breathlessly. “Bdubs, those aren’t tips, that’s a dissertation!” A mote of mischief danced in her eyes, quickly covered by a theatrical pout. “You really think I’m that unprepared?”
Bdubs blanched. “No, I-”
“You have so little faith in me, Bdubs?”
“I didn’t-”
A dramatic sigh. “If even you don’t think I’m ready for it, maybe I should just give it to someone else, who can do it better.”
“That’s NOT what I said!” Bdubs yelled, the beginning of a half-offended-half-mortified rant winding in his face. “I would never–”
Gem kissed Bdubs on the cheek, cutting him off. She grinned as he turned six different shades of red in as many seconds.
“I know, Bdubs. I’m teasing you.” Another kiss, to the other side. “You make it too easy! I can’t help myself!”
Bdubs finally closed his mouth, grumbling, “Oh, yeah? See if I help you anymore, then, if you can help yourself.”
Gem grinned. “You will.”
A beat.
Bdubs sighed. “Yeah, I probably will. I really don’t have any doubts about you making it amazing, you know.” He huffed faintly, even as a smile pulled at his lips. “It’s you, Gem; it’s gonna be great because you’re great at everything. I just also want it to suck less as a process than it did for me, that’s all.”
“I know.” Gem wrapped her arms over Bdubs’ shoulders, and smiled as his hand came up to hold hers. “It’s very sweet of you, letting me learn from your mistakes.”
“They weren’t mistakes! They were–”
Gem’s cackle rang out over the bluster, down to the river below.