Chapter Text
Saturn is done.
Not because he dislike's either of them.
Because he had to watch this trainwreck for MONTHS.
It’s always the same thing, too. Pika laughs at something Div says like it’s the funniest thing in the world, then immediately acts like he didn’t. Div looks at Pika like he’s trying not to smile too hard, then pretends he’s not doing that either. And Saturn is just… there. Witnessing it. Against his will.
At this point, it’s not even subtle anymore. It stopped being subtle a long time ago. It’s just two people circling each other like they don’t realize everyone else in the room can see exactly what’s happening.
And somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, neither of them are doing anything about it.
Which is why Saturn is considering violence.
Or intervention.
Same thing, really.
And now Valentine’s Day is coming up, which means things are about to get even worse.
Saturn decides he had enough on a Tuesday.
Pika is sitting near spawn doing nothing in particular, which somehow feels suspicious on its own. he walks up and stops right in front of him.
"what are you even doing?" he asks looking at him up and down with a glare of suspicion "Just thinking..." oh wow, who would have thought
Saturn doesn’t say anything for a second he Just looked at him
“What?" Pika said with a long sigh
“You’re thinking about him.”
“I’m mining,”
“You’re empty handed...”
“I’m planning the mining?”
Saturn nods slowly, not impressed. “Sure.” Pika looks away. “Why are you like this...”
“Because it’s obvious,” Saturn says. “That’s why,” There’s a pause.
“This has been going on for a while,” Saturn adds. Pika kicks at the ground. “What has.”
“You and Div.”
“There is no ‘me and Div’” the hesitation in his voice causes Saturn to raise an eyebrow.
Pika groans a little. “You’re reading too much into it,”
“I’m not reading. It’s just… there...”
That makes Pika go quiet for a moment. “…Where is he anyway,” he asks, like it doesn’t matter. Totally
“Recording,” Saturn says. “Being busy. Normal things,”
Pika nods once. “Right.”
“Come on,” Saturn says, the sudden change of topic startling pika “Where???”
“My place-”
“That’s ominous...”
“It’s a cottage, you practically live there half of time” Pika stares at them for a second like he’s trying to decide if that makes it better or worse. Our GOAT Saturn doesn’t wait for an answer. he just reaches down, grab him by the sleeve, and pull him up before he can argue more. “Hey— I was sitting.”
“You can sit later,” Saturn says.
Pika stumbles slightly but follows anyway, because resisting at this point would just make things take longer. The path away from spawn gets quieter pretty quickly. Less noise, less movement, just trees and open space and that calm feeling that always shows up too late on the server.
After a bit, he looks around again. “Is Div going to be there?”
“No,” Saturn says. “He’s recording. And being whatever he is to Q right now.” Pika hums like that’s fine. But he’s quieter after that.
They walk the rest of the way without much else said. Saturn’s cottage comes into view eventually small, warm looking, a little messy in a way that feels intentional. Flowers near the entrance. Lanterns even though its daytime.
The inside of Saturn's cottage is just as cozy as always.
Books are stacked in uneven piles on the shelves, potted plants have claimed every windowsill, and there's a kettle already hanging over the fireplace because Saturn somehow always has tea ready before anyone even asks.
"You've got an unhealthy number of plants."
"They're fake."
"...Seriously?"
"No,"
The cottage was quiet in a way spawn never was.
The only sounds came from the fire crackling in the corner and the kettle Saturn had hung over it the second they'd walked in. Pika wandered around while they waited, absentmindedly running a finger across the leaves of one of Saturn's plants.
"You know," he said, "I still don't get how you keep all of these alive."
Saturn glanced over from the kitchen counter. "I water them."
"I water mine."
"No, you forget they exist for two weeks and then drown them out of guilt."
"...That's one time."
"It was every time."
Pika laughed under his breath before settling onto the couch. The cushions sank beneath him with a familiar softness. He'd been here enough times that it almost felt routine.
Saturn set two mugs on the table between them and sat across from him.
For a minute, neither of them said anything. They just let the room settle around them.
It was Pika who broke the silence first.
"So..." He looked over the rim of his mug. "You're definitely about to lecture me, aren't you?"
"I wasn't planning on lecturing you," Saturn said as they settled into the armchair across from him. "If I wanted to lecture you, I would've done it at spawn in front of everyone."
Pika looked up over the rim of his mug. "So dragging me all the way out here was the nicer option?"
"I walked you five minutes away from spawn."
"Against my will."
"You complained because there were too many trees."
"There were too many trees."
"Pika. It's a freaking forest."
"I know what a forest is. Doesn't mean I have to like walking through one."
Saturn laughed quietly, shaking their head. "See? This is exactly why I brought you here."
"What does me hating nature have to do with anything?"
"Nothing. You just get distracted really easily."
"I don't get distracted."
"You got distracted from the conversation before we even started."
Pika opened his mouth to argue, thought about it for a second, then pointed at Saturn instead.
"That doesn't count."
"It absolutely counts."
"Agree to disagree,"
Saturn let the conversation settle for a moment before leaning back, "...You've been weird lately." Pika looked genuinely confused, "What kind of weird?" he asked sipping the contents of the liquid before grimacing at it's bitterness.
Saturn rested an elbow on the arm of the chair, watching Pika blow across his mug before taking another cautious sip.
"...Still too hot?"
"No." Pika grimaced anyway. "Just tastes like leaves."
"It is leaves."
"Yeah, but yours always taste like... expensive leaves."
"They were on sale."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to,"
Pika snorted, shaking his head before setting the mug back down. His fingers lingered around it for a moment, almost absentmindedly tracing the rim, Saturn had caught onto his habit long ago, Pika always needed something to do with his hands whenever he was thinking.
"So," Pika said eventually, looking around the cottage instead of at Saturn. "You moved the bookshelf."
"I did."
"I liked it better over there."
"You say that every time I move anything."
"Because you always move it back."
"I know." A comfortable silence settled between them. It wasn't awkward. Saturn had never minded quiet, and Pika had never felt the need to fill every second of it, after another sip of tea, Saturn spoke again.
"...You've been different."
Pika looked up.
"What, because I don't like your interior decorating?"
"No."
"My tea opinions?"
"No."
"My hatred of forests?"
"You've made that everyone else's problem for years. I'm used to it."
That earned a laugh.
"I'm serious."
The smile stayed on Pika's face, but it softened around the edges.
"I know you are."
Saturn leaned back, "You've been quieter."
"I don't think I have."
"You have."
"I've still been around."
"You've been around," Saturn agreed. "You just haven't really been... there."
Pika frowned.
"I don't know what that's supposed to mean."
"It means you'll show up, make a few jokes, wander around spawn for a bit, then disappear. Half the time I don't even know where you've gone."
"I've got stuff to do."
"You've got plenty of stuff to do."
"And?"
"And somehow it always happens on the days Div says he's busy."
Pika didn't answer straight away.
Instead, he picked his mug back up, stared into it for a second, then took another drink despite the fact he'd already complained about it.
Saturn waited.
"I think you're reading too much into that."
"Maybe."
"I mean it."
"I know you do."
Pika sighed through his nose.
"He's recording. Editing. Doing whatever he does. It's not exactly weird."
"I didn't say it was."
"So why are we talking about it?"
"Because every time someone mentions he's busy, you pretend it doesn't bother you."
"It doesn't."
"Pika."
"It doesn't."
Saturn held his gaze for a second longer than usual, "...Then why did you ask where he was?" The question hung in the room it wasnt accusing but more of a fact.
Pika looked away first. "I was making conversation."
"You don't usually ask where Q is."
"...Q's annoying."
Saturn smiled into his mug "You're doing it again,"
"What?"
"Dodging the question" Pika let out a tired laugh, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.
"I'm not trying to dodge anything."
"I know."
"I just..." He searched for the words, then gave up halfway through with a shrug, "I don't know. Things have been different lately,"
"Different how?"
Pika hesitated a tad bit before answering, "We used to hang out more." There wasn't any bitterness in his voice and If anything, that made it worse.
"Now he's always working on something. Recording, editing, planning another video..." Pika shrugged again. "Which is fine. I'm happy for him. It's not like I expect him to drop everything because I asked if he wanted to hop on."
Saturn stayed quiet.
Pika gave a small laugh that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"I sound clingy."
"You sound like you miss your friend."
"...Yeah."
The answer came so easily that it almost caught him off guard.
He stared down into his tea again.
"I do."
The room was quiet after that. Not because either of them had run out of things to say, because sometimes the truth was small enough that speaking over it felt wrong.
Saturn let the quiet settle between them again. Outside, the leaves shifted gently with the breeze, brushing against the windows every so often. Neither of them seemed in any hurry to break the silence.
Eventually, Saturn did. "When was the last time you two actually hung out?" Pika looked up from his mug. "What, like... just us?"
Saturn nodded. "Without half the server wandering in every five minutes." Pika leaned back into the couch, thinking.
"I don't know."
"You don't know, or you don't remember?"
"I genuinely don't remember."
He frowned, almost as if the answer bothered him.
"I mean, we've been on together. We've talked, It's not like we've disappeared off the face of the earth."
"But?"
Pika sighed.
"I don't know... I guess we just haven't really hung out..." Saturn stayed quiet, letting him keep talking, "He'll be editing, or recording, or planning something." Pika shrugged. "Then I'll go do my own thing because I don't want to bother him."
"You think you'd be bothering him?"
"I mean..." He rolled the mug between his hands "Not bothering bothering. Just..." He searched for the words. "If someone's in the middle of recording, I'm not gonna be the guy who keeps asking, 'Hey, wanna hop on?' every ten minutes."
"So you stopped asking."
"I didn't stop."
Saturn raised an eyebrow.
"I just..." Pika laughed awkwardly. "Ask less."
Another pause.
"I keep thinking we'll play after he's done. Then recording turns into editing, editing turns into him disappearing for dinner or something, and by the time he's free it's midnight." He smiled to himself, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Then we both go, 'We'll do it tomorrow,' and tomorrow never really happens."
He let out a small breath through his nose.
"It's whatever."
Saturn knew that phrase, "It's whatever" almost never meant it was whatever, "You've said his name a lot today,"
Pika blinked
"Have I?"
Saturn nodded
"I think so."
"I don't think I have."
"You asked where he was at spawn."
"Once."
"You almost asked again halfway here."
Pika frowned.
"I didn't."
"You looked at your tab list."
"I was checking who was online."
"Mhm."
"I was."
Saturn smiled into their tea. "I'm not saying you weren't." Pika narrowed his eyes in suspicion "You're impossible."
"I've been told."
"You enjoy this way too much."
"I really don't."
"No?" Saturn shook his head, "I'd actually rather be wrong..." that caught Pika off guard as his joking expression faded just a little, "I don't know why we're making this into a thing?"
"I'm not."
"You kind of are."
"I asked when you last spent time with your friend."
"Exactly."
"And?"
"And..." Pika looked down at the mug in his hands again. "I miss hanging out with him." There it was again.
Simple just a matter of fact its like saying he missed a TV show that hadn't uploaded in a while. Saturn wondered if Pika heard himself, "I miss everyone when they're gone."
"I know."
"So it's normal."
"It is." Pika nodded once, relieved enough by the agreement that his shoulders loosened, Saturn watched him for another moment before asking, almost absentmindedly, "Do you miss everyone like this?"
Pika was already halfway through lifting his mug.
He stopped.
The question itself wasn't complicated at all It should've had an easy answer, Instead, he found himself staring through the window, watching the afternoon light stretch across the flower boxes outside.
"...No." The word slipped out before he'd really thought about it causing a froawn accros his face,
"No?"
Saturn echoed gently.
Pika rubbed at the sleeve of his hoodie. "I don't know." He laughed once under his breath, embarrassed more than anything. "That sounded worse than I meant it."
"Worse?"
"I just mean..." He sighed. "If someone else is busy, I don't really think about it."
His fingers tightened slightly around the mug.
"But with Div..." He trailed off, Saturn didn't find the need to fill the silence. Pika eventually did, "I'll see something funny and think, 'He'd laugh at that.' Or I'll log on and wonder if he's around before I do anything else."
He smiled faintly.
"Half the time he's not," Another quiet laugh escaped him. "It's kind of stupid, actually,"
Saturn didn't laugh with him.
"It isn't."
Pika looked over whilst Saturn's voice stayed calm, "You've built him into your routine."
Pika frowned.
"What?"
"You don't notice he's there until he isn't." The room fell quiet again causing Pika to look back toward the window, the late afternoon sun catching on the glass. He'd never really thought about it like that...had he?
Somewhere along the way, checking if Div was online had become as automatic as opening his inventory. He didn't remember when it started, he wasn't sure when it became something he expected.
Or why the server always felt just a little quieter whenever Div wasn't around.
"Can I ask you something?" Saturn interrupts the quite after a while, Pika reluctantly nods.
"If Div logged on right now and said, 'Forget recording. Let's go mess around for a few hours,' would you say yes?" Without a single second or thought in his brain, Pika frantically nodded, "Obviously!"
Saturn raised an eyebrow, "You answered that pretty fast."
"...Well, yeah."
"What were you planning on doing today?" Pika blinks as he processes an answer,
"...I don't know."
"You had no...plans?"
"I mean... I was going to figure something out,"
"So if Div asked, you'd drop whatever you were doing."
"...Yeah?"
"Without thinking."
"...Yeah?"
Saturn just hums.
Pika still doesn't get it.
Div had absolutely no clue Saturn was currently trying to untangle whatever was going on in Pika's head.
He was too busy making Quakitus's recording experience miserable.
"This is good content." Q stared at the powdered snow block he'd just fallen through for the third time in ten minutes.
"No."
"It is."
"No."
"It'll be funny in the video."
"It'll be funny at your funeral."
Div laughed, already backing away before Quakitus could swing his axe.
"You've threatened to kill me, like- six times today!"
"And I'll make it seven-"
"You always say that-!"
"Because you keep giving me reasons?!" Div darted between the trees, laughing to himself while Q chased after him, muttering things that definitely weren't YouTube-friendly. Q still wasn't entirely sure why he kept agreeing to record with him.
Every single session went exactly the same.
Div would insist he had a "really funny idea!!" then the idea would somehow become Q's problem?!
Then the comments would call it the funniest video they'd uploaded in weeks.
It was infuriating... "Hold still!"
"No?"
"I'm asking nicely."
"You just threatened my life."
"I can do both."
Div ducked behind a tree, still grinning. For all the trouble he caused, he somehow never looked guilty about any of it.
That was probably the most annoying part. Eventually, Div stopped running long enough to grab his water bottle. "Timeout-" Q lowered his axe. "You've got thirty seconds,"
"I appreciate your generosity-"
"I wasn't being generous."
Div had already tabbed out before Q could continue arguing, a Discord notification blinked in the corner of his screen.
Pika
lmk when ur free :)
The smile was small, just barely there. But it was there and unfortunately Q had noticed immediately.
"...What..." Div looked back at the game. "What?"
"That."
"What?"
"Whatever your face just did?"
"My face didn't do anything."
"It smiled."
"I smile?"
"You don't smil,"
"I literally just smiled..."
"You grin when you're about to do something annoying!"
"...Fair..."
"This one was different." Div looked genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?" Q pointed toward the communicator in Div's hand
"You smiled at a Discord notification."
"It was a message,"
"I gathered."
"So?"
"So who was it?" Div hesitated for exactly half a second- "...Pika."
"Mhm."
"What does 'mhm' mean?"
"It means I knew it."
"You didn't know anything."
"I absolutely did."
Div rolled his eyes and typed a reply.
DIV
finishing recording rn. give me 20?
He hit send as Quakitus watched the entire exchange without saying a word, "...You answered fast."
"He messaged first."
"That wasn't my point."
Div looked up.
"What is your point?"
Q sighed.
"I don't know."
That wasn't entirely true.
He did know.
He just wasn't sure he wanted to say it out loud.
Over the past few weeks, he'd started noticing little things, nothing obvious. Just...Div checking his messages more often than he used to. and bringing up Pika in conversations where he really didn't need to or Randomly askiing if anyone had seen him online. At first, Q had assumed they were just friends.
Then he'd watched Div smile at a notification.
Now he wasn't so sure.
"...Can I ask you something?" Q said.
Div nodded.
"If Pika messaged you right now and asked you to ditch recording and go mess around for a couple hours..."
Div didn't even think.
"I'd tell him to wait twenty minutes."
Q blinked.
"...Then I'd go."
Another blink.
Div frowned.
"What?"
"You answered that really quickly."
"...Yeah?"
Q looked at him for a long moment.
Maybe Saturn wasn't the only one dealing with an idiot.
He wasn't actually planning on calling Saturn. It just... happened. Mostly because he'd spent the entire walk back to spawn listening to Div ramble, "...I think Pika wanted to build something."
"Hm."
"He asked if I was free tomorrow-"
"Hm."
"I said probably,"
"Hm."
Div glanced sideways once "...Are you even listening?"
"I'm trying not to."
"Rude..."
"It is." Div rolled his eyes, "You're just mad because you lost,"
"I didn't lose!"
"You screamed,"
"I raised my voice!!"
"You shrieked,"
"I'll raise my axe in a second." Div laughed again, there it was, that stupid laugh that somehow made it impossible to tell when he was joking and when he wasn't. Q had spent long enough recording with him to know the difference, unfortunately. Spawn came into view as players wandered around as usual. Somebody had started placing suspicious amounts of pink wool around the central path, and Q decided it was probably best not to ask.
Div slowed down. "...I'm gonna see if Pika's around, " The words slipped out so naturally that neither of them seemed to register them.
Well.
One of them.
Q stopped walking and Div took another few steps before realizing nobody was following him.
"What?"
"You just proved my point,"
"What point?"
"The one I wasn't going to make,"
"...That sounds made up."
"It wasn't."
Div frowned.
"I literally just wanted to say hi."
"Mhm."
"He's my friend."
"Mhm."
"I can say hi to my friends?"
"You can..."
"So what's the problem?"
Q opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
Because the annoying thing was...there wasn't a problem well not really. If anyone else had said that, he wouldn't have thought twice but It was just...Div never wandered around spawn looking for anyone else. Not really. He waited for people to find him.
Except Pika.
"...Never mind," Q muttered. "What?"
"Nothing."
"You're being weird."
"Says you."
Div snorted.
"Fair." He wandered off toward spawn anyway, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket and Q watched him go, halfway there, Div paused.
Opened the player list.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
"What?" Div called back.
"Nothing."
"...Okay?"
The idiot genuinely looked confused, Q just rubbed a hand over his face.
Maybe he'd been spending too much time around him.
Maybe he was overthinking things.
...
No.
No, he definitely wasn't.
"Q!"
He looked up.
Div was waving from the middle of spawn.
"Pika logged off."
"...Okay?"
"I think he had to eat."
"...Okay?" Div stood there for another second before giving a small shrug. "Guess I'll head off too..."
Q blinked.
"You were just recording for three hours."
"Yeah."
"...You're logging off because Pika logged off?"
"What?"
"No reason."
Div stared at him for a second.
"...You're actually being really weird today."
"I'm not the weird one."
"You literally keep staring at me."
"I'm observing."
"That's somehow worse."
Div laughed, shook his head, and disconnected, the familiar message flashed across the chat
Div left the game
Silence settled over spawn and he stood there for another few moments
"...Yeah." he murmured with a sigh, he opened Discord to be met with a message.
Saturn
you busy?
Q stared at it.
The timing was almost suspicious.
He typed back before he could talk himself out of it.
depends
The reply came almost instantly.
hypothetical question
has div been acting... weird lately
Q looked at the message.
Then at the now-empty spot where Div had been standing.
He let out one long, exhausted sigh.
...
Oh.
Oh, this was so much worse than he thought.