Chapter Text
Derek is not bad with money- or at the very least he used to be pretty good with money, but like all things in his current life, that changed after he encountered the king.
Or, more precisely, it changed after he saved Avery- who in turn saved him.
While the endless knowledge left Derek slowly over time, the armored man held onto everything that had to do with the slime, wanting to hold that knowledge close- wanting to CHOOSE to know all of that, even as he lay dying on that platform.
He… still didn’t know HOW exactly he had survived- maybe… it’s because Avery had managed to drag him out of those mines- away from where the king’s powers had been at their strongest.
Maybe that had saved him.
It… wasn’t important- he owed Avery his life, and the slime insisted that it was really him who owed Derek for everything.
So they were, technically speaking, even…. which neither one really accepted, but as a result, Derek got significantly worse with money- to the point that even Avery commented on it. Which was… incredibly funny, since he was the reason Derek spend so much in the first place.
Today was a good example of that, actually. Derek had just gone out to get himself a new notebook- his old one had gotten full- and he had just casually gone right for a plain red one when he noticed something green out of the corner of his eye.
A green notebook, with white flowers.
It… had the same number of pages as the red ones Derek always got, and was roughly the same size. It was just a little more expensive, because it had flowers on it.
Avery likes flowers- he likes all plants, actually.
So Derek put the red notebook down, and took the green floral notebook, planning to head straight to the register with it. It only cost a little more than the one he had originally intended to buy, but did that really matter when he just needed a notebook?
Though, when Derek walked past the pens, he paused again, seeing one that was designed to look like a flower- the pen part being in the stem, and the actual flower being made of rubber, causing it to bounce around a little whenever it was being used to write stuff.
It was… all right. Probably didn’t write as good as the pens Derek already had, but-
But Avery would think it was fun.
…So Derek grabbed one of the flower pens- which was still reasonable! Pens are the most stolen object in the world, so it was completely fine to have a few extra, right?
….He should get one for Avery.
So Derek left the store with two pens and the notebook he had originally come for, feeling… well… it was fine. This was a reasonable and normal thing to do.
Avery would appreciate it, right?
Derek just had to head home now- he had gotten what he came here for so he should really just-
But then his brain did the thing where it noticed things.
Derek had walked by a stall that sold cracklings, pausing for just a little.
The slime had never said it, but Derek knew he really liked cracklings- they were his favourite savoury snack, actually! Especially if they were just a little spicy- and judging by the admittedly mouth-watering smell coming from the stall.
…It was fine- he’d just get Avery a snack. It was fine, that’s a normal thing to do.
Though after buying it, the deer hybrid’s brain just refused to shut up- wondering if maybe, by the time Derek got back, Avery wouldn’t really feel like eating anything savoury-
The slime would never say no to anything Derek brought home with him, but… maybe he could check out that bakery he’d heard about before- apparently they had some pretty great lemon cheesecake, and Avery LOVED lemon cheesecake!
So Derek headed over to the bakery, fully aware of the fact his wallet was already weeping.
Avery knew Derek didn’t have a full set of netherite tools yet- he was painfully aware the other was still using iron, so he had taken it upon himself to go mining that day, to get some diamonds to make the deer hybrid some diamond tools-
And maybe, if he had time, he’d go to the nether to upgrade them to netherite- or he could go to a village to get them enchanted.
…He’d have to actually FIND the diamonds first, obviously, but Avery knew where to look- this cave system was massive, and unlike the place that should not be mentioned because it was tied to evil, there were plenty of ores to mine.
It didn’t take long for Avery to get enough diamonds- and some extra for other things.
So really, he should’ve begun to head back, but then he saw the glow of redstone-
Derek had said something about wanting to automate their storage system a while ago, and the slime knew you needed quite a bit of redstone for it, so maybe… he could spend just a little more time down there to just… get some redstone dust? It wouldn’t add too much time to the slime’s mining trip.
So he set out to mine as much of it as he could, feeling satisfied when the slime’s inventory was about a quarter full with redstone blocks- he should really head back up now.
On the way up, he noticed copper- and had to pause.
Derek liked to decorate with copper- something about how it would slowly change had the deer hybrid fascinated, and while Avery himself preferred other materials, he knew Derek was always low on copper- so… really, it would only be fair if he mined some of it to bring back to him.
Derek would appreciate it.
The few bits of copper turned out to be connected to a large vein of the stuff, which took a lot longer to mine than the slime expected, and by the end of it Avery’s inventory was almost completely full with diamonds, redstone blocks and raw copper blocks.
Avery… really wished the two of them had gone to the end already so the slime would’ve had access to shulker boxes- that would make it so much easier to get more things!.
But they hadn’t, so Avery was limited in his carrying capacity.
Still, with his inventory mostly full, there really was no reason to stick around now- Avery should really head back and show Derek everything-
But when the slime broke that final block of copper ore, he realized he had found a lush cave-
Derek loved glowberries, both as food and as decoration.
…He should get some of those- and maybe he could find an axolotl for the two of them to raise.
Avery broke through another block, setting out to get Derek a few stacks of glowberries- fully aware of the fact that he was going to have to carry all of this back, and not caring in the slightest.
Derek would love it!
It was evening when the duo finally made it back to their shared home, both carrying much more than they had planned to bring home.
“...I thought you were only gonna go out to get a notebook” Avery spoke, eyeing the many bags Derek had.
“...I messed up.” The deer hybrid admitted. “But… I got you cheesecake and cracklings?”
“Oh, awesome!” Avery replied. “I found a lush cave and I got you glowberries- and I found a large copper vein and-”
“I thought you were only gonna mine a few diamonds?” Derek teased, smiling at his partner.
“I did great in the diamond department.” Avery spoke. “ And I can’t help the fact that I found a bunch of other things you could use, too.”
“I guess not.” Derek chuckled, opening the door so they could both head inside.