Work Text:
Mob had decided to go mining. He had no real danger to find down in those caves anymore due to the fact Verity had almost been halting his progress in the world. He learnt to stop protesting it against it eventually but sometimes, deep down, he can’t help but be extremely frustrated about it. He wanted better loot than the things he already has. Verity always tells him, “Ask me! I’ll give you everything!” but what’s the fun in getting things for free when he could be grinding for hours for it?
He held his torch in one hand and a diamond pickaxe in the other. All he needed was some obsidian. Could he have just found a lava pit and did it that way? Oh, sure thing, but this was Mob. He’d do anything the harder way if he could. His tail was dragging behind him against the cold deepslate floor as he began to hum a tune under his breath. That always managed to calm his nerves.
Of course, there was something very unnerving about an empty cave. Mob had grown used to having a Creeper appear around the corner and get a good hit on him. Baby zombies coming out of random cracks in the walls to scare him. That hurt his ego to admit, actually. There could be anything ready to pop out at him or maybe nothing at all. Maybe it’ll truly be just him and the sounds of his footsteps bouncing off of the walls.
This let him think for a bit.
It had been a while since the incident with Verity and the watchtower. He hadn’t been speaking to the AI as much as he had done before and, when he did, he was cherrypicking each and every word that rolled off of his tongue. Mob kept his questions extremely short and straight to the point which often got under the skin of the yellow ball. He wasn’t willing to really give Verity any time of his day anymore.
He had sent a letter to one of his friends earlier that day. Twixxel. He was hoping that someone much smarter than whatever Verity is could weigh in on the situation. Mob bit down on his tongue. Man, it stung to admit that Twixxel definitely knew what he was doing opposed to him. Hey, that’s what makes Twixxel his best friend. He’s the brains while Mob’s the muscle. It works as a powerful duo when people least expect it. Oh, Verity was sure going to regret messing with him.
Speaking of Verity again, he was thinking to himself. That form he took… damn, that thing was huge. Mob didn’t get a proper look at the thing before it had lunged itself at him but he remembers how malnourished it looked. The skin looked exhausting to be in. It exposed his entire ribcage and his limbs were long. Definitely something he had never seen before. Mob has encountered a lot of weird things in the past but Verity might actually be able to top them.
Mob was distracted.
After all, this cave doesn’t have any mobs lurking around.
That wasn’t until he heard the rattling of bones. Mob stopped in his tracks to bring out his shield he brought along with him in case something like this happened. He raised it up in the direction he thought he heard the skeleton before slowly backing up. There was no way in hell he was going to lose everything to a mere skeleton. He had been notorious to have horrible luck with skeletons in general.
He had been preparing for the thing to try and shoot him.
He was not prepared for what was going to happen.
The arrow completely dodged his shield. He had no time to register it until the pain shot up through his shoulder and to his brain. A static screech emitted from the Enderman as he shuffled away to avoid any more arrows coming at him. Great. Did Verity enable hostile mobs again or did he just spawn a skeleton in for the fun of it? This is just perfect. Of course a skeleton decided to get the shot on him. Like always.
Mob took a good look at his shoulder. Shit. The arrow was protruding from out of his shoulder. Hell, it managed to go clean through. Usually arrows from skeletons only tend to pierce some of his skin without going through the other end. That thing must’ve just been too close. How was he going to deal with this now? He can’t just rip the thing out because he’d be leaving a trail of blood leading all the way back to his base and he might not even survive that long.
…This would have been a good time to have Verity.
He didn’t take Verity with him. God, no, he wasn’t going to let that yellow weirdo come along with him when he’s trying to rightfully earn things. Verity would just be telling him where everything is “out of the kindness of his heart”. Yeah, sure, he has a heart. Where? He had no proper body outside of the monstrous form and even then that thing definitely had no heart to begin with. And, plus, Verity’s getting the silent treatment. …For now.
Alright, Mob, you know what to do in these situations. We’ve been in this position before multiple times. Take a deep breath.
He closed his eyes and ripped a piece of fabric from his jacket large enough to wrap it gently around the arrow so that it had no chance of getting randomly ripped out of his shoulder. It’d hold the blood in long enough to get him back to base. And to think he didn’t even get anything he needed to get into the Nether… he was too distracted thinking about what happened not even a few days prior.
At first, his feet were simply dragging themselves across the floor as some sort of attempt to prolong the inevitable of having to face Verity. Blood was soaking through the fabric already instead of soaking it up. He applied as much pressure as he could to it as his pace quickened. There was no time to be sulking around. All he needs to do, when he gets back, is to ignore Verity completely while he sorts his shoulder out.
He didn’t think about it much. That shield did next to nothing to protect him. The arrow missed it completely when it was shot. Did he just not aim it properly enough in the air? Maybe. It was strange enough that a skeleton out of all mobs spawned down there, but a skeleton with more than just a “good aim” is out of the ordinary. Skeletons in this world were notorious for having what Mob called aimbot but he doesn’t seem to recall their aim being that accurate.
His base was in the distance.
The lights illuminated it like it was some sort of safe haven even though Mob knew it wasn’t. It hosted an AI that wanted to eat him alive whenever he did something wrong against him. Breeze was hitting the wound, making Mob do small static hisses. He had to get in there fast. He felt his feet almost practically running to get them both back into base.
Using his not wounded shoulder, he pushed the door open and groaned loudly. Mob shuffled into the base, kicking the door from behind to close it as he immediately found himself walking towards one of his chests to look for resources to create a makeshift bandage when he decided to pull the arrow out of his shoulder.
It was like he could sense that his poor little Mob was injured and needed his help.
“Hello, Mob!”
Verity’s voice spoke behind him.
Mob’s eyes widened as he whipped his head to look at Verity. At first, he actually looked down at the floor because he was more used to Verity being just a stupid ugly piss-yellow ball. All he was met with was brown business shoes. Mob’s face filled with confusion, his eyes slowly following up until his eyes finally locked with Verity's. What the fuck? Was he always able to do this?
He thought he looked fit. Not in a gay way, obviously. Like in a way where a friend would recognise his other friend actually got some workout in. The suit jacket that Verity sported clearly was made with fine fabric like it was tailored specifically for him. Wow. So he cared for appearances after all, huh? Where did he even get these clothes? Whenever Verity became humanoid, he was straight up naked. Did he just spawn them in for himself?
Verity wasn’t really focused on Mob’s reaction, however, as his eyes diverted to the arrow in his shoulder.
“Oh, Mob… what happened?” His voice sounded tender. Worried.
His hand hovered towards the arrow before Mob tried to slap his hand away, managing to have snapped out of his admiration of Verity’s new form. He turned his head and forced out a cough.
“Nothing. Nothing happened, I just– uh, got caught in a trap. In a jungle temple. It’s okay.”
Mob would do a shooing gesture with his hand to tell Verity to go away as he went back to digging around in his chest.
However, a hand would get a good grip on his wrist to spin him around. Mob yelped as his and Verity’s faces were way too close for his liking. He’d laugh nervously and back up a little bit. Okay. That’s weird, why’s his heart fluttering all of a sudden? Mob played it off like he was just nervous. Of course he was.
Imagine that you had been in Mob’s shoes. You are up against the double chest full of materials that you possibly need to make a bandage for your shoulder. The humanoid AI, that is much taller than you, has your wrist in a tight enough grip to make sure you don’t go anywhere and his hand is on the side of you. Yeah. Mob was embarrassed. He felt like he was going to die in this base.
“Mob. You told me you were just going mining. I waited here for hours… and you went to a jungle with no proper protection?”
“Listen, Verity–”
“You go back on your words each time. Do you not trust me enough to tell me where you are truly going? This is why I told you to take me, Mob. So you wouldn’t get hurt like this.”
Verity squinted at the Enderman. He could hear Mob’s tail thumping hard against the ground. He was trying to hide his flustered face. Hah. That was cute. He really has this man in a trance and he hasn’t done anything to ensure that. Verity couldn’t help but admire Mob just for a moment. His hand that had pinned Mob against the chest made its way up to his face to make him look at him.
Mob let out a squeak that had never escaped his mouth before. He gazed into Verity’s eyes for just a second before trying to escape. No. No way in hell this was going to happen while there’s still an arrow in his shoulder. One of his hands found itself trying to pry Verity’s hand off of his chin.
He never thought an AI could do something like this. Then again, this was Verity he was on about. Verity could do anything.
“Listen, Verity, okay– I did go mining! But a skeleton came out of nowhere and, uh, shot me. In the shoulder. I’m bleeding out here.”
“Mhm?”
“The fuck you mean mhm?? You’re not going to help me or anything? Or did you already know about the skeleton?!”
Mob’s voice raised a tiny bit. Verity could only laugh. It was so easy to push Mob’s buttons once he found the right things to say. His reactions were always cute. Exploding in a fit of rage, crying, or being extremely flustered. Mob folded each and every time whenever Verity tried to comfort him despite the fact he was the source. To feel useful to his Mob… it made him feel complete.
“Well, what’s the magic word?”
“I–” Mob bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from cursing Verity out. Calm down, Mob. He’s doing this to get a reaction out of you, you should know that by now. He took a long deep breath and sighed. “...Please, Verity.”
“Hmm? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Please, Verity! God, do you have to be insufferable about this?! Help me or I’ll bleed out all over my floor!”
Verity simply laughed as he led Mob to the edge of his bed.
The bloodied end of the arrow laid on the floor. Mob kept yelping at the smallest touches that Verity would do on occasion. The AI had been analyzing his wound to see if it was as bad as the Enderman was making it out to be. While Verity was distracted, this did manage to give Mob some breathing room.
This was the first time he ever felt exposed with Verity.
His vulnerability wasn’t something that he was comfortable showing with others. After all, what if someone tried to take advantage of that any chance they got? He never truly got to keep his guards down for even a second. Especially with Verity. The way he spoke always crept him out and after the incident in the watchtower, he absolutely refused to show the real him.
He can’t do anything about it now that Verity was trying to treat him.
Verity adjusted himself so that he sat up straight as he stared at Mob with a blank stare.
“Take your shirt off.”
“What?!”
Mob blurted out, looking at Verity like he was crazy for even asking him that.
“I can’t help you treat the wound if I don’t have access to it, Mob.”
Fuck. Mob didn’t think about that in the slightest. His tail thumped hard onto the floor since it was drooped onto the wooden floor as his hands slowly moved towards the hem of his shirt. It didn’t help that Verity was watching every movement he made. He bit down on his tongue. He never took his shirt off when Verity was looking. Mob always buried himself under the covers before Verity could get a good look at his chest.
With enough hesitation, Mob took his shirt off and placed it to the side of his bed. He felt like Verity was trying to undress him further with his eyes. He was pretty fit for an Enderman, that was for sure. He had a few scars due to previous encounters he had with mobs or just simply from his own stupidity. Oh, and let’s not forget that he was still bleeding from the fact a skeleton shot him in the shoulder.
He didn’t see it at first but Verity had bit down on his lip in response. He was ecstatic that Mob entrusted him enough to see his body like this. His hands were shaking. No… not now. Verity could do all the touching and admiration after he was done attending to his wound. It’d be rude to leave his Mob bleeding out like this.
Verity spawned in some bandages with a *poof* after sanitizing the wound to the best of his ability. He adjusted his seating so that he had better access. He made Mob lift his shoulder up a little (a static hiss coming from Mob’s mouth as he did so) and began his work. Verity never had to do this for anyone before. Those he was with before Mob never survived past the first encounter.
There was something clearly different with Mob.
His emotions were all over the place. He knew what he was doing but at the same time he had no clue at all. Verity found it cute. Admiring. It was like watching an animal in an enclosed space at a zoo. He could feel something bubbling inside of him. Despite the fact he was an all-knowing entity, he wasn’t used to the feeling at all. He had to make sure Mob would never leave him like the others. He can’t afford to lose this one.
Verity snapped out of his thoughts as he tightened up the bandages and finished up. He put the bandages onto the crafting table and leaned back.
“There we go.”
“Thanks. You’re good at that.”
Mob sighed as he leaned down next to his bed to try and grab his shirt. He didn’t get to register Verity slightly janking him back up before he could even attempt to take it off the ground. Mob looked at Verity confused.
“Dude, Verity, what are you doing? I need to put my shirt back on and get back to what I was doing–”
“You need rest.”
A hand rested on his chest. Mob’s face became red like he was part of a tomato batch. If he didn’t know any better, he would have assumed Verity is doing this just to feel around his chest. Well, he was right. One of Verity’s fingers was tracing a scar that rested just right below his collarbone.
Mob just sat there.
He didn’t even know what to do. Something about this felt good to him. His tail had come to a stop and was simply shuffling side to side on the ground as he bit down on his lip. Oh, come on, not now. There was no chance he was getting excited about this. This is some AI yellow ball that tried to kill him not even a few days ago. And he just contacted his best friend to come over to help him get rid of this thing.
They both sat there in silence for a while. Verity had put both of his hands on Mob’s chest now to get the full experience of feeling it. Mob sometimes felt his breathing hitch in his throat whenever Verity decided to get closer to him. Verity’s smile had twisted into one that spoke “you’re all mine” without him not even needing to say it out loud. He felt so tiny.
At some point, Mob placed his hands on top of Verity’s to make him stop.
“Verity…”
“I was simply just analysing you, Mob. Human anatomy is truly fascinating. It’s wonderful to be able to see it up close.”
“Listen, this is–”
Gay. Way too gay. Actually, it was so gay that Mob felt himself dying inside.
He never saw himself with a guy. Mob always assumed that he only liked the opposite gender for the longest time because he does. Or did he? This experience was making him all sorts of confused and he didn’t know what to do with himself. What if Verity was a girl? God, the more he thought about that, it felt wrong. So wrong. Mob doubted he’d have the same butterflies feel in his stomach like he does now.
Verity tilted his head.
“Oh, Mob…”
His hand found its way onto his chin as he made Mob look at him. Mob felt his heart leap to his throat as he looked up at Verity with the same pathetic eyes that Verity had grown to adore. This was so weird. Mob was getting all kinds of mixed feelings. He was terrified of Verity but at the same time, he couldn’t help but be charmed by his actions.
Verity leaned in closer. Oh, god.
“If you need me to back off, I’m willing to.”
Willing to.
Mob started to breathe heavily. His hands found themselves fiddling with Verity’s tie as he thought deep about it. This has to be a dream. Or a nightmare. It felt like both at the same time. What was he even doing? This was an AI. How the fuck did this AI have such advanced feelings that he had no idea he was capable of having? Oh, yeah, because the weird monstrous form was what AIs do all the time.
His head shook on its own accord.
And before he could register it, Verity closed the gap completely between the two of them. His lips interlocking with Mob’s. At first, Mob really didn’t know how to react. He was still fighting his own thoughts on the matter. But, hey, you only live once, huh? His grip tightened onto the tie as he found himself slowly easing into the kiss.
This felt… wonderful. Heaven, even. Verity had his hands rested on Mob’s waist. He was enjoying the moment before he felt Verity’s tongue trying to make its way into his mouth. Mob gave it an entryway. God, ew. It felt so weird to have someone else’s tongue fighting his own. It definitely didn’t help that Verity’s tongue was a lot longer than his. He was scared he was going to end up choking on the thing.
They both stayed there in that position for quite a while before Mob pulled away, leaving a string of saliva as evidence. His heart was beating like drums in his ears as his tail twitched. Holy shit. He had no idea an AI would be so good at kissing. Mob let out a little breathless laugh, letting go of Verity’s tie. He leaned back.
Verity was about to climb over him before the wooden door opened. They both looked in the same direction to see…
Twixxel.
He stood there awkwardly before smiling. Fuck. How did the letter get to him that fast?!
“Oh, uh. You two seem to… be busy. I’ll… uhh, leave you be, yeah?”
Twixxel slid out of the door and closed it behind him, leaving the area to presumably look for a nearby village to camp out in.
Verity whipped his head back to look at Mob. The expression he once had had now turned into like he was going to rip Mob’s head off. Oh, he was in for it now.