Chapter Text
"I've never done this before," Derek admitted. The dim glow of the lamplight made the room feel infinitely small in the night, like a suburban cave; a survival bunker holding the last people on earth. "Not with—" A friend.
He abruptly bit off the rest of the sentence before he could finish it.
Avery doesn't need to be aware of his solitude. However, (this thought made Derek wrinkle his nose in distaste) that's not to say he isn't aware of it, considering that Avery evidently knows Derek. To an extent. Someone knowing all of this personal information about him feels… uncomfortable. But surely there is a difference between knowing him and knowing about him. But that's because Avery knew these things about Derek because he's learning to know him, because they met today, and that is a thing that happened. No matter however much Avery knew about him before, he's certainly speedrunning the whole get to know me part what with the whole… um… literally everything in the past twelve hours or so.
It's an odd thing, being—being known. Much more difficult than it was in youth, even if Derek wasn't the most social butterfly back then either. Certainly he was steps further than being the recluse he was in the present day. So, yes, it is all very sudden, and Derek is not used to it, and with all the colors Avery has brought into his life so suddenly, he can't help but think he might be a little bit of a loser.
Derek isn't sure anymore, what Avery does and doesn't know about him, and that's a little annoying. Doesn't he have a right to know how he should act around him? Then again, Avery's met his mother now, which is—a lot. He's never had a friend meet his mother, before. This is new, this is exciting, this is—the first day he's spent with Avery, and so much has already happened.
At a few realizations, there's a thrumming in his chest, the racing of a pulse that he can clutch in the palm of his fist.
The first is this: Avery has saved Derek, has seen his home and his family, has stood before the place where he rests his head. Any pretenses he'd have with anyone else are defenestrated, completely flung out the window: with Avery, Derek doesn't have to pretend to be someone he's not.
Then, the second: this is the most fascinating thing that's happened to Derek in years, in quite possibly ever. Derek is actually, genuinely, really looking forward to tomorrow.
What a concept. Being excited for the next day, and not just seeing it as an extension of today, where he'll get the work he can't squeeze in done.
After tossing all the pillows and blankets on the floor, Derek has to take a moment to face the wall, his hand pressed to his mouth because he's smiling. God, he must be tired. He's smiling! A different sort of smile from puzzle-solving satisfaction, this one is an indication of the thrum of adventure humming in his veins.
"I mean, I don't think everyone can say they're housing a galatic anomaly, so—" Avery shoots him a grin from where he's seated upside down from Derek's pathetic, cramped sofa. His hair—which reaches just above his shoulders, normally—is brushing the floor. "Don't worry about it."
Avery's reply is so easy that it made Derek realize two additional things. One, he got stuck thinking in his head again; two, he momentarily forgot that Avery was in fact some sort of magical warrior and not a friend he made in middle school science class that was sleeping over at his house so they could work on their lab project together. Wow, that was weirdly specific. Derek shoos himself out of his thoughts before he can properly run down the train tracks of his brain. All it took was one stray piece of Avery dialogue for him to run a lap—jeez, how was he going to function here? Can he stop realizing things for one second? In what way can he be a normal person around quite possibly the strangest person he's ever met?
"Are you making a weird face right now?" asked Avery.
Derek froze with sudden self-consciousness. "No."
"You're, like—hunching your shoulders and wringing your hands at the wall, scheming supervillain style."
"…"
Derek quickly smoothed over his features with impassivity before turning around, dropping his hands to his side. "I am fine."
Avery cackled. He kicked his legs out so hard that he fell over and flung himself onto the floor. Derek made a vaguely annoyed sound.
"It is not THAT funny," said Derek.
"It's THAT funny."
"I didn't even do anything!!"
"Still hilarious!!"
"Dear god," Derek sighed as he went to take a seat at the sofa where Avery was curled up into a ball of barely contained mirth—he just couldn't stop giggling. Derek waved a hand over Avery's form. "Look at my divine fool of a savior. I'm… cooked."
Avery's sprung up. His eyes widened and lit up simultaneously. "Divine? S-seriously?! Oh man, that is so cute—" His grin only grew sharper as he burst into another crackling fit of laughter. "That's such a fancy word, oh my god!! I knew you were a smart guy, but this is—this is just too good—! And, what, you said you were cooked—?"
Derek grit his teeth and felt his face warm (VAGUELY). "I'd like to move onto the interview portion of the day. Please. Avery."
In a way he could already feel becoming familiar, Derek found that he didn't even need to look at Avery to know that his eyes were gleefully bogged out in anticipation of his next joyful collapse. Avery's smile, dear god, his smile—dastardly and mischievous for no reason aside from just to be, accompanied by the high rise and twist of his brow.
"—INTERVIEW PORTION??????" he choked out.
The amusement in Avery's voice made the glee-bitten phrase sound quite horribly pitchy by the end.
It was then, Derek realized—dammit, another realization, he was doing a lot of that, wasn't he? Cue the mumbling to self. Ahem. Yes. He realized that, in spite of the day he had, the exhaustion had been miraculously dispelled from his bones. The casual fog of depression had sort of cleared itself for a star to come into focus, a sun that shone so strongly it broke through thick, grey haze. Derek was no longer tired, and this was quite the breakaway of his routine.
It was that feeling—that I'm onto something and there's no way I'm going to sleep until I figure it out and get it done feeling, but so much more radiant and manic and light. The burning desire to know was there, of course, but punched with an Avery-infected levity. It was a lot of things, and Derek didn't just want to know, he wanted to ask, just to ask, regardless of answers.
Right! Questions.
…Questions, right after Avery was done with… this.
Derek decided to finish setting up the bedding on the floor as Avery was doing. That.
"You can't stop smiling," Derek observed.
"Yup," Avery agreed, his gaze fixed on Derek. "Sorry?"
"Uh, it's fine. Probably."
"Probably," Avery mocked.
"…Probably," said Derek. "I don't know."
"Haha! Right. Well, I'm just so happy to see you! I don't know what to do with myself other than be happy about it!!"
Avery said this as if it made sense. Derek wondered if it should make sense to him, too. He desperately wanted to know why he apparently mattered so much.
His gaze strayed from Avery as he contemplated. Looking directly at Avery gets distracting, Derek had learned. He invoked too many questions. Derek just… needed to focus on thinking right now.
"…It's so strange." Derek studied the stitching of his socks; he and Avery sat by each other on the blanketed floor, their backs pressed against the sofa, where the pillows were peeled off the actual thing and placed out for them to use. "You're strange."
"Really? No way. Thanks!"
Derek rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."
"Do I??"
"Do you??? I just—well—" Derek hesitated.
"Oh, come on, spit it out!" Avery slapped a hearty hand on Derek's back, causing him to recoil. Avery winced before quickly reaching out to fix Derek's crooked glasses. "Oops. Sorry—sorry! I'm sorry, my bad!"
"It's fine," Derek replied in his disoriented state. He shook his head in hopes of refocusing. "Um. I was just saying. You were so, so—tired earlier, I mean—more than just tired!! You were totally out of it, and you—now you're okay? I want to say more than okay, you, you're—happy? It feels like? I don't know, but, um, you uh—yeah. Uh. Yeah."
Avery blinked. "…Wow. Er, holy filler words."
Derek gave him a flat stare. "Thanks man."
"Sorry, sorry, I'm acting like I'm not breaking the space-time continuum to be here—"
"You what—?!"
"It's perfectly reasonable to be confused! Yes! Very!!" Avery gave Derek a cheerful (considerably more gentle) pat on the shoulder. "Okay, where do I start? Ummm. Oh!! Oh, wait, I can make this cool—"
"Uhhh whatareyoudoing—"
In a flash, the lights were out, and Derek was pulled forward into the center of the floor blankets. Avery tossed a blanket in the air like a dough-flinging pizza chef, and as it slowly fluttered down, the pillows were arranged around them in a sprawl. Like, a nest.
"There is no way that wasn't magically assisted," said a wide-eyed Derek. He knew for sure there was no way he was sleeping now.
"Ohoho, I haven't even done the cool part yet!" Avery snickered. Now, he couldn't see him in the darkness—but again, in an act of the sort of of course he would do that familiarity, Derek had a hunch of the sort of smile Avery was making. "Dear Carcosa, I damn your eternal soul, bend the bars of your cage with leaf-trodden light, pray at the altar of your lost—"
"What," Derek said before belatedly realizing Avery wasn't talking to him. He pointedly glanced around in embarrassment, despite the fact they were in blanket-made darkness. It was eeriely similar to the feeling of realizing someone was talking to the phone when you thought they were talking to you-—or like, when you thought someone was waving to you, but it was actually to the person behind you, and the very act of making that mistake (even though nobody was paying attention or could tell) was embarrassing as hell.
Derek's attention was suddenly pulled back to Avery when a faint light began to emit from his clasped hands. It was as if his whispers fed the glow, because it grew stronger and stronger the more he fed it, until…
The glow had formed a brilliant shape that reflected in Derek's glasses. He was so awed that he couldn't bring himself to cover his mouth with his hand, so his jaw was just sort of hanging out stupidly.
"Boom!" The initial brilliance of the glow was tamped down a bit, leaving a jar in its place. In the jar were a multitude of shiny little stars. "Light source in 4k!"
"…What is this?" The urge to question the semantics of what "light source in 4k" could possibly mean was squashed down by sheer fascination. As if in a trance, Derek reached out to touch the glass of the jar, but not before shooting a glance at Avery. Avery nodded, his encouraging smile illuminated by the glow that enveloped the underbelly of the blanket in a lovely warmth.
"Oh, I have no idea," Avery shrugged.
"What do you mean you have no idea…." Derek muttered as he turned the jar over in his hands.
"It means I have no idea! This is just kinda a thing I have."
"I have so many questions."
"See, I knew you were the perfect guy to figure this out!" Derek turned around after Avery elbowed him playfully, just in time to catch the wink Avery aimed at him. Derek resisted the sudden clamminess of his hands and urge to go um um uh umm um. "Alright, 20 questions, let's go!"
Derek chuckled softly. "You sound like a Minecraft YouTuber…"
Avery gasped, placing a hand on his chest in an exagerrated, flattered manner. "How'd you know?!"
"…Wait, seriously?" The implication that his savior of light could be on Minecraft forgot to occur to Derek, because in his mind everyone just automatically knew what Minecraft was. I mean, is that… not true…? Derek furrowed his brow. This was weird to think about. Even his mom knew what Minecraft was, because of him. Hm. "You have. Videos?"
"I have one video—"
"Oh, yeah, right—I, I mean I used to do that too, I used to pretend I was in a YouTube videos as a kid and talk to the camera without actually recording—punching the camera in the, the front facing camera…"
"You stutter a lot."
"No I don't," Derek responded automatically.
"Hmmm." With his elbow propped up on the floor, Avery tipped his head forward to rest his chin on his knuckles. He gave Derek a look. "Do I make you nervous?"
"No," was his reply, which slipped out at a completely normal speed and tone that was not defensive at all. "I—you—what kind of videos did you even make?"
"Video."
"What?"
"Just one video," Avery said. "Singular."
"Oh," said Derek. "Wow."
"Look up GODLY GAME OF SKYWARS. First result."
"Godly game of—that was you?!"
"Oh?? You know it??"
"I mean, y-yeah, it's—one of those videos that randomly go viral years after it was posted. The kind that pops up in your reccommended and just, compels you to watch it."
"Huh!" Avery appeared to be surprised and pleased with this information. He was very expressive—Derek suspected most of his mannerisms were unconscious. Natural, as opposed to himself who had to mentally check in to remind himself to make eye contact with people lest they be unsettled.
"I can't believe that on top of being a magical time-breaking superhero, you're also a Minecraft YouTuber with one viral video," Derek said in a vaguely dry tone, as if he himself couldn't believe what he was saying, even if he knew it was true, because he had witnessed both things with his own eyes.
"Right," Avery snickered. "Oh, yeah, weren't we supposed to be talking about that?"
"…Right." Derek squinted at Avery, suspecting that he was somehow infecting him with some sort of tendency to get easily distracted.
"Go on! Ask away, nerd boy!" Avery tilted his head upon seeing Derek's unimpressed face. "…My knight? My savior?" Avery made a dismissing motion with his hand. "We can workshop that later."
"We," said Derek. "Okay. Wouldn't you be my savior if anything?"
"Nope!" Avery chirped. "You're my savior!"
"I hardly find that sensible, considering what happened today—"
"Nooooope!! Not having it! It's you!"
"Okay, then let's start there. Why am I—why is the Derek you know a savior?"
"Because you saved the world."
"Because he saved the world," Derek corrected. "I'm not—I'm not really doing anything here. Is your world… different? Is magic so common?" The rational part of Derek's brain felt strange asking such a question; it would've been ridiculous, had he not experienced what he had today. The concept of his mom meeting a friend of his and liking them. And also the whole evil shadow monsters thing, and maybe almost dying, and his mom letting his supposed engagement slide. See?! All of this just sounds crazy!!
"Oh, it's about the same as here," Avery said with an air of nonchalance, the tone in which one would go eh.
Derek gave him an odd look. "…Are you sure? You… don't come from a family of superpowered space heros or anything?"
"No, dude. I'm pretty normal. We were literally just talking about me playing Skywars. Which, I mean, yeah, heh—I'm pretty crazy at. But like, I'm normal."
"Oh," said Derek plainly. Then he furrowed his brow. "—hey, wait, nonono hold on—you're doing it again!!" Derek sputtered.
"I'm doing what??"
"You—" Derek prodded a finger at Avery's shoulder. "You—you're using your extrovert powers to make me think I'm the weird one for asking perfectly reasonable questions!!"
It was Avery's turn to give him a weird look. "Ummm. No I'm not."
"See!! You're doing it again!!" Derek hissed.
"I have no idea what you m—okay I kinda see what you mean now. My bad," Avery chuckled, lightly nervous as he ran a hand through his hair. "I've just, gotten used to it? I guess? Weird stuff is normal to me now. Honestly, finding you was the most remarkable thing I've done recently. Have I mentioned how happy and grateful I am to have found you? I'm super stoked about that. By the way."
Derek's jaw dropped. "You're kidding. There is no way that meeting me is more interesting than literally anything else you do." Derek didn't even know how to unpack the last bit of what Avery said.
"Nuh uh uh." Avery stuck his hand in Derek's face to wag his finger at him. Derek just scrunched his nose. "Buddy, trust me, you are the root of it all. You are why I'm here."
"That's…" Derek took in a shaky breath, deliberately and slowly letting it out. This was a fact Avery made obvious from the beginning, yet it was one he did not understand at all. "What do you mean by that?"
"It means," and oh, Avery is taking his hands now, grinning quite fondly, and the way the starlight glow washes over his proud expression makes it all look quite hazy, "my desire to save you broke the universe."
"Your desire," repeated Derek.
"My desire," Avery nodded.
"To save me."
"To save you, yes."
"…Okay, how?"
"You saved me, you sacrificed yourself to save the world—so, I wanted—I needed to change everything. So you could live. Because, because you saved everyone, you saved me, and I owe everything to you, and—you saved me—"
"—you keep saying that!" Derek burst out. He shook his head—then huffed, then tried to calm himself as he pulled away from Avery and ran his hands over his arms. "You keep saying another me saved you, and I still don't have any answers, or context, or reason—"
"But that's the truth—that's the real answer. That's what you did for me, for everyone—"
"AVERY, that is—THAT IS SO VAGUE. Anyone could've done that, any old sod could just throw away their life in the name of self-sacrifice—mmph!"
"Don't say that," Avery snapped, and Derek (who had been caught up moving his hands along with hypotheticals) was forced to acknowledge that the heat in Avery's gaze burned.
Slowly, carefully, Avery lifted his hand off Derek's mouth, and Derek was confronted with something much more broken in his eyes. "Don't say that." His voice was vulnerable. Small. Hurt. "Don't say that," Avery repeated, more certain now— "It was you, and only you who could've done it. You—" A weary chuckle. "You told me that, actually. And—it was brave."
"Sounds stupid," Derek blurted out, unsure of what else to say.
But Avery seemed to understand that. "Brave," he said, squeezing Derek's shoulder. "But yeah, I was mad too. I get it. It's—funny. We only knew each other for a day, you know?"
"…That can't be right." Derek shook his head in disbelief. "Are you—you're serious. A, a day?"
Avery smirked like he'd gotten one up on Derek. "A day," he confirmed.
"That's impossible," muttered Derek. He stared at the gentle glow that painted the tented blanket above them. "You ran to me like we were already lovers."
"Well, I do."
"Do what?"
"Love you, that is."
"???"
Avery rolled his eyes. "It's not weird."
"—That's not my problem here," Derek managed to choke out. "You can't love me. You don't even know me."
"So the fact that I desperately wanted to find you again to the point that my will transformed into a method of magic isn't gay enough for you? I kinda thought it was. You can only focus on one guy so much until you start thinking, huh, what if I'm in love with him? Is it weird if—well, it's gotta be a bit deeper than a crush if I'm going magical for you, right??"
"I-I don't know, b-but I'm not saying that—"
"Wait." Avery's head perked up as a realization dawned upon his features. "Are you shy?"
"No, I'm not sh—"
"Oh my god. You're shy."
"Do not start with that."
"Derek," Avery's grin only grew, and it was horrible, and not enchanting at all. "Derek. Guess what."
"I'm not doing this," Derek buried his face in in the sleeves of his hoodie. "I'm not."
"I loooove you."
"Noooo," Derek whined, his voice muffled by the fabric.
"I really, reaaaally love you," teased Avery, "and I can cite my sources, because I have evidence, and I knoooow the scientific method turns you on."
Derek looked up; it's important to note that Derek Hutchins has broken his record for pouting in a day. "Okay, you're just making stuff up now."
"Derek, I yearned for you so hard that it literally gave me magical powers. What else do you want me to say here?"
"—Do we have to call it love?!" pleaded Derek. "Why not—duty or loyalty or guilt something."
"Bro is acting like my love for him is a burden…"
"Forgive me for being perplexed!!" Derek cried out. "Every piece of information you gave me somehow makes everything even more confusing. You are so confusing!!"
Avery laughed. It sounded like twinkling stars and jingling bells.
"Stop laughing," Derek demanded to no avail. "I am in a crisis."
"I guess it's complicated," admitted Avery. "I think about you a lot, and I just, I dunno. I think about things. And I wondered about you, and the life you lived—and now I'm finally getting to see what you're like, and I just—I feel… excited? I feel really excited that I get to know you. That I get to be here, and protect you, and maybe—be your friend. If you'll have me."
"You saved my life," said Derek. "Do you even have to ask?"
"Well, clearly, yes. Look, I know this is all—sudden and weird and crazy and new."
"And confusing," added Derek.
"Yeah, yeah, confusing for your sexuality, I'm sure—"
"Don't flatter yourself."
"I'm joking. But what I'm saying is—this is your life, and…" Avery cleared his throat. "It doesn't—it doesn't take magic powers or the will of the worlds for this to be—be what it is. Because you deserve to live. Live well, I mean. See the beauty of the universe. I'm not entitled to your time, I just—really want to be here for you. With you. But it's your life, and you should… live it," Avery finished lamely. "Whatever you do at the crossroads, keep going forward or whatever," Avery tacked on in a mumble.
"Man, I don't even know what the crossroads are," said Derek.
Avery lit up. "Good! That's good!!"
Who even gets excited at that??
Avery, Derek's brain supplied. Avery does.
"You know I still barely understand anything," reasoned Derek. "I know you, um, tried? But—I still don't… get it."
"Maybe, I-I mean, maybe you could—"
Derek stared at Avery, whose determination sheepishly wavered underneath his gaze.
"Y-you could, um—you know. Maybe it's so bad not having everything figured out right now. Maybe you could just… enjoy… not knowing."
"Avery," said Derek. "Are you asking me to allow you to withhold severely life-changing information from me that directly concerns my being? Our beings?"
"Ummmm," Avery let out a few pitchy giggles. "Yeeeeees?"
"You want to keep me in the dark."
"Oh, heh, that's ironic, because my powers are all based around light—"
"Avery."
"I-I-I mean, it's not really—! Like, it doesn't count if you kinda—vaguely—kinda know? Like, if you were just… okay with it?"
Derek shook his head, his eyes wide and astonished. "God, what version of me did you know, that would let you ask me this?"
"Just one day?? Please?? One day of not being curious??? Come on, isn't it nice not knowing everything ever?? Isn't it nice having mysteries? Haha! You love mysteries!! Right?????"
"You can't be seriously asking—"
"Pleaaaase???"
"I—" The words caught in his throat. Oh no. Was Avery using a power of some sorts?
Derek didn't want to let him down. He didn't want to be the reason Avery's starry eyes looked so sad, despite knowing damn well he was the reason why. But he found himself wanting to let Avery have this, and he didn't know if that feeling was really stronger than his desire to know things, but that other Avery feeling was winning tug of war at the moment.
"Fine," Derek relented before he could think about it too hard.
"LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!!" Avery cheered, his arms popping up.
"Oh my god," Derek blushed, mortified at himself—mortified in particular at how he didn't regret it. "God, how are you—how are you not tired? You recall that you passed out from overexertion today, right? Does the pain go away if you just forget it? Can you—can you do that?!"
"Did I not tell you?" Avery nodded up slightly, gesturing to Derek's hand with his chin; Derek offered the hand in confusion. "Okay, if there's one takeaway from this—"
"Not my fault that you are incredibly vague."
"IF there is ONE takeaway from this," Avery insisted. "It's that my power is you."
Derek gave him a doubtful look, but said nothing—so Avery continued to explain.
"I made a wish," declared Avery. "My wish was to save you. That's where I get my power from. My abilities to summon and transform and everything? That's because of you. It's the hope I held onto that I would find you. It's me screaming in my brain that I'm gonna get you back, and—I did!"
"But it's not over," said Derek. "There are… things. Still after you."
Avery shook his head sadly. "No, they're after you. Uh, my focus on you—may. Have put a target on your back. Because of the anomaly. Like, the evil universe rule forces are lowkey mad at me, but I'm fighting back with the power of love. My own force."
"Hm. You know, I would've been miffed by that explanation, but I've found that your usual level of coherance is much more tolerable when it is expected."
"Uh, yeah, totally." Avery gave him a thumbs up.
"If I am understanding correctly, this means… I'm your…" Derek wrinkled his nose as he searched for the correct wording. "Energy source?"
"Pretty much! Just being around you makes me pumped! And that's not just magically speaking! You're my all-natural, bona fide magical motivator!" Avery's thumb ran over Derek's ring then, and Derek remembered they were technically holding hands. Derek concluded it was for scientific purposes. Much like the sparks he felt at the contact of their skin, which must be a byproduct of Avery's magical properties. "The ring channels your Derekness into a concentrated power that lets me fight with it."
"Uh huh," nodded Derek. Hmm. He mentally translated what Avery was saying into something more suited for a Wikipedia article. "The ring allows me to extract a weapon manifested from your essence; meaning your body can be considered a vessel of your hope and determination."
"Woah, woah, let's chill on the V word."
"The… V word."
"Yes."
"Okay."
Avery waved his hand. "You basically got it, though! I can manifest the big sword that's saved to finish off the real tough ones—the sword which can only exist because of my determination to save you, but also you're the only one who can actually give it to me."
"You can't get it out yourself?"
"My wish involves both of us, technically," said Avery. "So I guess that makes my powers a bit of a team thing. I know you're totally thinking about how you work alone right now. Sorry, but no flying solo for Mr. Hutchins!"
"I will admit to no such thing," mumbled Derek. "Ahem. As you were saying? The—monsters. How often of a threat will they be? Will they all be so difficult to handle?"
"Ooh." Avery cringed, sucking a breath between his teeth. "While traveling the timeline, I had to deal with some shadow entities here and there—" He makes this sound so normal. I forgot this wasn't normal. Maybe I'm not crazy. Avery keeps making me forget that. I should do a sanity check ever so often. How has it only been one day again? "—and it was no problem, really, they weren't that big of a deal—way weaker compared to the one we fought today—" We???? I didn't fight shit??? "—and I think that's because I finished the first part of my wish. Finding you."
"Ah," Derek realized. "So the monsters will only get more difficult from here."
"I mean, come on. You disrupt the cosmic consistency of in everyone universe d3rlord3 finds the gates ONCE, and the King in Yellow sends his fear spawn after you in hopes of preventing us from meeting, except that doesn't actually work so now he's just trying to seperate us? Bruh."
Derek shuddered. "I forgot you knew my username, for some reason. Also, what on earth does horror literature have to do with any of this?"
"Uhhhh," Avery remarked intelligently. "I'm gonna call on that Derek stay innocent card."
"For now," Derek reminded him berudgingly. "Next time I am going to sit you down and we are going to make notes."
"Aw, what?! Homework??" Avery groaned. "Derek, I swear it's way more simple than you're making it out to be."
"You cannot be telling me this when the very matter of your existence is proof of magic."
"Aww, is that a compliment?"
"It's a fact."
"Heehee."
Even though Avery didn't really say anything after that, Derek still found himself wanting to bury his face in his sleeves again.
"Can you at least…" Derek mumbled.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I said, can you at least answer the Minecraft thing?"
"The—Minecraft thing?"
"Er. Yes," said Derek. "You… your behavior implies we've played Minecraft… together. Before. You know that I am d3rlord3. But you said we only knew each other a day? I, ah. Well. Simply put, I can't imagine what sort of timeline exists where we find time to play Minecraft in what must be extremely dire circumstances…."
"Oh," said Avery—then a grin split across his face, this one especially brilliant. "Oh."
"You did not just oh italicized oh me."
"Derek. My dear Derek."
"Uh???"
Derek blinked, wary of the warmth that suddenly settled on his shoulders due to Avery's firm grip. Avery's smile had to be part of his magical skillset or whatever, there's no way that his charm doesn't feed into his power…
But, ah, yes. He was close—and smiling ever-so-brightly.
"Derek," Avery repeated, giddiness spilling out over each syllable. "We—we met over Minecraft."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Should I say it again? For good measure. Ahem. We met over Minecraft." Avery added a bit more of a dramatic flair that time.
"…"
"Derek. Hey. You're still with me right. Hello."
"…"
"Oh my god."
"…"
Avery was giggling; he let go of Derek, who collapsed onto the floor, falling out from the blanket roof that had been draped over them. Derek thought that maybe he was tired, and that maybe his burning desire for knowledge could wait, because—everything Avery tells him manages to break his brain, somehow. In the best way possible? In a way that would make his brain wrinkles glow positively.
"We met over Minecraft," Derek echoes.
After letting out a sharp laugh, Avery exhales and flops onto the floor opposite of him. "That we did."
"Minecraft, Avery. Minecraft." Derek weakly threw up a hand to gesture towards him. "You—you became this. Because of Minecraft."
"Because of you," Avery corrected.
"Because I'm so obsessed with Minecraft," Derek deadpanned.
Avery laughed again, loud and high and free—in such a way that Derek mentally dared the neighbors to complain about it tomorrow, because this dull room had not heard such warm laughter in so long. Derek closed his eyes as the sound simmered down, but remained strong in consistent little bursts. It felt good to close his eyes; all right and restful. Bone-deep exhaustion found its way to him again, and properly settled once more. Nothing made sense. Everything made sense. He had his worldview shattered and his life turned upside down but he had also learned literally nothing from whatever the past hour's supposed 'exposition dump' was at the same time. That was fine, maybe. For now. Avery's laughter was like a sky-level gallop, the highest cloud in the sky: it was a strange lullaby, but it was perfect.