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You said we'd never part (Never part)
And then you broke my heart
Why, oh, why, why must you be
The boy that got away? (Hey, baby, baby, baby)
You told me
You would always love me
There was no one but me
I loved you so (Loved you so)
Never let you go
Why, oh, why, why must you be
The boy that got away? (Hey, baby, baby, baby)
Run away, love
From a heart that's true
Come back, love
To the one that needs you.
*****
Jude notices it before Tai ever says a word.
It’s not something that’s obvious at first sight. Nothing is obvious with Tai, who seems to carry a sharp shield of anger around him at all times.
It’s a small change at first.
Tai lingers around Jude and Sharpness a lot more than before.
Sure, Tai is allied with the both of them, but they aren’t teamed in any way, so why does Tai always seem to show up where Jude and Sharpness are?
He listens more than he talks, and when he does, it’s sharp, dry, his throat seeming to have just ceased existing.
Sharpness, being the bumbling idiot that Jude knows him as, doesn’t seem to notice a thing, so Jude tries to ignore it as well.
But after a while, it gets obvious.
Because Tai doesn’t leave when the conversation ends, preferring to just stand awkwardly near the two of them, as he busies his hands with sharpening his sword, mending his armor, or just typing furiously into his communicator.
He just stays.
Like he has nothing better to do then just observe the two of them.
*****
“You two are so obvious.”
Jude nearly chokes, propping his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath.
“What do you mean by that?” he asks, turning to look at Tai, who’s standing a few blocks away like he hadn’t just dropped something completely out of nowhere.
Tai shrugs, expression flat. “You heard me.”
Sharpness laughs immediately. “Oh, this is new. Do go on.”
Jude frowns. “Where did that come from?”
Tai looks between them, gaze lingering just a second too long before he looks away again.
“You’re always together,” he says. “You guys banter like a married couple. I feel like a permanent third wheel around you two.”
“What the fuck do you mean by married couple?” Jude shoots back.
Sharpness grins. “You don’t really have to be here.”
Tai hums, unconvinced. “Sure.”
Jude rolls his eyes, but something about the way Tai says it – too casual, too detached – sticks with him longer than it should.
Because Tai isn’t teasing the way he usually does, the fire that once fueled his ego and stroked his temper, has seemingly wilted into a pile of ash.
*****
It keeps happening.
Judelow can no longer keep track of the times he and Sharpness are just peacefully existing together, when a wild Tai just appears out of thin air.
And the “married couple” comments don’t stop.
“You went mining together again? Suspicious how Sharpness always needs you there when he is perfectly capable of getting the materials himself.”
“He built you a slime farm without asking? That’s basically an act of love on this server.”
“Should I plan your wedding now? I’m thinking of the theme ‘Dusty Redstone’.”
Sharp finds it hilarious.
Jude laughs along at first, brushing it off like it’s just Tai being Tai – dry, a little sarcastic, weirdly invested in things that shouldn’t concern him.
But one night, Tai says it again.
“Seriously,” he mutters under his breath. “You two should just date already.”
And this time he doesn’t look directly at them when he says it.
He looks past them.
Like he’s not talking about them at all.
His eyes seem to be searching the sky for answers, distant in a way that doesn't feel like a funny bit anymore.
That’s when Jude realizes what’s going on with him. Tai isn’t just teasing Jude about his relationship with Sharpness. No, Tai is using them to cope, as if he’s warning them not to make the same mistake he must have made before.
“This isn’t about us, is it?”
Tai freezes for half a second, expression indescribable as his entire body stiffens up.
Tai exhales slowly, like he’s deciding whether or not to deny it.
“No,” he says finally. “Not really.”
Sharpness breaks the silence, tilting his head in confusion. “Then what is it about?”
Tai doesn’t answer.
Instead, he turns and starts walking towards the forest that borders the edge of spawn.
And for some reason, whether out of curiosity or just pure confusion, Jude follows, and Sharpness trails along behind him.
*****
They don’t talk for a while. The sound of birds chirping, trees rustling, and the crunching of the leaves beneath their armoured boots fill the silence with noise as Tai walks ahead, seemingly knowing which tree stump to avoid, and which stream to cross. It’s as if he’s retracing his steps, like he has walked this wild path for thousands and thousands of times.
Jude stays a few steps behind, still slightly cautious for traps as Sharpness stays by his side..
Eventually, the terrain shifts.
Dark green explodes into yellow, sky exploding in a sea of blue as the warm sun enveloped them in its warm embrace.
A huge field stretches out in front of them, stuffed full of sunflowers – their tall, green stems supporting the large, yellow petals.
Tai doesn’t move, fingers stiffly brushing a petal as he remains silent.
“You’ve been here before,” Jude says gently, motioning for Sharpness to stand closer to him.
Tai nods.
“Yeah.”
There’s a pause.
“With him?”
Another nod.
Jude doesn’t need to ask who.
*****
Tai sits down, patting the ground beside him as Jude and Sharpness settle down beside him. Jude has a feeling that they will be here for a long time.
“It was stupid,” Tai says after a moment, voice quieter than Jude has ever heard it. “He dragged me all the way out here for a ‘treasure hunt’ and ended up bringing me here as a surprise.'"
Jude smiles faintly. “That sounds a lot like him.”
Tai lets out a small breath. “I told him it was just a field.”
His eyes scan the endless rows of sunflowers.
“He said it was different.”
“He wouldn’t stop talking,” Tai continues, voice softer now, like he’s slipping into a distant memory. “About the sky. About the colors. About how I never appreciated these things enough.”
There’s a pause.
“I think he taught me,” he says, almost to himself. “He taught me to appreciate these.”
Jude glances at him, worry creasing his brow as he looks back at Tai.
Tai’s expression is distant, trapped somewhere between the past and the present.
Like he’s somewhere in the past, sitting in this very exact field but with someone else beside him.
“You liked him,” Jude says gently. “We all knew you did.”
Tai doesn’t answer right away.
“…Yeah,” he says. “I think I always knew I did.”
And it sounds like he’s already accepted the fact that that someone is gone.
*****
FLASHBACK (ONE SEASON AGO)
“Why are we even here?” Tai asks, squinting against the overwhelming yellow stretching endlessly around them as his hands fiddle with the ‘treasure’ map.
Rejoice spins in a slow, careless circle, hair whipping in the breeze as he runs his finger over the sunflowers surrounding him.
“Because it’s pretty,” he says, like that’s reason enough.
“It’s a field.”
“It’s a sunflower field,” Rejoice corrects, grinning like Tai is being the dumbest idiot alive. “There’s a difference.”
“You dragged me across half the map for flowers.” Tai crosses his arms. “We could be in our base right now, grinding gear for the end fight!”
“This is very important,” Rejoice grins, plucking a sunflower and tossing it at Tai. “You wouldn’t get it.”
Tai rolls his eyes, but tucks the sunflower behind his ear as he watches Rejoice continue to twirl in the sea of yellow.
They walk between tall stems, brushing past petals that glow like fragments of the sun. Rejoice keeps talking – about everything, about nothing, jumping from topic to topic like his thoughts refuse to stay still.
Tai listens.
He always listened.
*****
Jude sees them first.
Two figures at the far edge of the field, moving slowly through the gold, two heads of blond.
He stills instinctively, nudging at the man beside him with his elbow.
“Tai,” he murmurs. “Look over there.”
Tai follows his gaze.
And Jude watches as something in Tai quietly breaks.
There’s no visible reaction, no sharp intake of breath or sudden movement.
It’s worse than that.
Tai just goes still.
Completely, mind-numbingly, still.
*****
Rejoice is laughing.
Jude recognizes the sound immediately, even from this distance.
And beside him is Spongs.
They walk close, shoulders brushing occasionally, laughter floating in the air as they carve a path through the fauna.
Spongs says something and Rejoice giggles again, like he’s having the best fucking time of his life.
And Jude sees it–
the way Tai’s chest rises just a little too sharply.
The way his hands tighten at his sides.
And at the way he refuses to look away.
“Spongs beat you to it, didn’t he,” Jude says, voice unusually soft as he looks back at Tai.
He doesn’t mean for it to sound blunt.
But there isn’t really any softer way to say it.
Tai exhales slowly.
“I was always too late.”
They sound like acceptance.
Tai had given up a long time ago.
And then–
Rejoice stops.
A hesitation. A pause. Something pulling his attention away from the conversation.
He turns.
And looks directly across the field at them.
At Tai.
Jude glances at Tai, expecting something – anything!
But Tai doesn’t move.
He doesn’t dare to breathe or even blink.
Rejoice looks at him.
Squints his eyes against the glaring sun as he stares directly into Tai’s eyes.
And then–
he smiles.
It’s small, mournful, and so unbelievably soft.
Not the loud, chaotic grin Jude has seen that man wear hundreds of times before.
Like Rejoice is sharing a familiar moment with Tai. And for one terrible second, Jude understands exactly why Tai can’t look away.
Because it looks like something that once belonged to him, and only him alone.
As quickly as it happens, it disappears.
Rejoice turns back, his hand reaches out and finds Spongs’s.
Their fingers slip together easily, hand against hand, palm pressed against palm, like it’s always been this way.
And this time, he doesn’t look back.
*****
Jude feels it before Tai dares to utter a word.
Tai stands there, staring at the place where they disappeared, like if he looks long enough, something might change.
It doesn’t.
Jude knows it won’t ever change again.
There’s nothing to say.
Because some things don’t need comfort.
They just need time.
And it looks like Tai ran out of it.
After a while, Tai turns.
“Let’s get out of here.” he says quietly, already turning around to leave.
Jude nods, fingers grasping around Sharpness’s as he tugs him along after Tai.
And for once, Tai has nothing to say about it.
*****
Later, Jude thinks about it.
About the way Tai talked about the field.
About the way he looked at Rejoice.
About the way he said it was always too late.
And Jude understands something he hadn’t before.
Some feelings don’t end with a confession.
Some don’t even get that far.
They just exist.
Quietly.
Until they fizzle out.
And sometimes by the time you realize what they meant–
someone else is already holding their hand.