Archive of Our Own

0.

8 weeks ago

<conexion> juuuudeeeeee

<conexion> were are yuo?

<conexion> where* 

<conexion> you*

<conexion> judeyyyy i know ur online, i see you in the players list and ur talking to other people, but not me. whyyyyy??????

<conexion> jude 

<conexion> jude 

<conexion> jude 

<conexion> jude 

<conexion> ?

<conexion> are you still anyur?

<conexion> angry*

<conexion> it wasnt serious btw, i was kidding, i didnt mean it

<conexion> jude?

<conexion> judeyyyy lkasjdasdnnnndnnsdk, pls respond, i feel rlly guilty :(( 

<conexion> can we talk?

<conexion> pls?

7 weeks ago

<conexion> judeyyy can we talk?

<conexion> are you cooled down? are you calm now?

<conexion> tai said i should give you time first because you told him you want to punch me

<conexion> :(((

<conexion> if you want u can punch me so we can finally tak

<conexion> talk*

<conexion> can we talk?

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> judeyyy

<conexion> do yuo want me to apologise?

<conexion> you*

<conexion> plsssssss judey, talk to me

<conexion> i wasnt thinking straight

<conexion> judey?

6 weeks ago

<conexion> i fix some of ur traps btw :D 

<conexion> cow n twirps helped me fix some of them

<conexion> can we meet?

<conexion> im not gonna do anything bad

<conexion> judeyyyy

<conexion> jude

<conexion> :(((

6 weeks ago

<conexion> pls stop leaving the server when i get in

<conexion> :((( 

<conexion> can we please talk?

<conexion> what do you want me to do?

<conexion> :(((( 

6 weeks ago

<conexion> jude

<conexion> :(( 

<conexion> judey

<conexion> judey judey

<conexion> im by your base

<conexion> where are you?

<conexion> judey please

5 weeks ago

<conexion> jude

<conexion> are you asleep?

<conexion> can i visit your base tomorrow?

<conexion> im not gonna wear any armor

5 weeks ago

<conexion> WTF JUDE, WHY IS TEHRE A TRAP ON THE STAIRS???????

<conexion> …

<conexion> im srry for sending a capslocked message

<conexion> sorry

5 weeks ago

<conexion> was the trap on purpose?

<conexion> was it for me?

<conexion> dio yuo hate me?

<conexion> jude answer

<conexion> i dont wanna apologize on message

<conexion> ill really say sorry

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

5 weeks ago

<conexion> judee can we pls talk?

<conexion> pls?

<conexion> i dont want to keep begging

5 weeks ago

<conexion> jude

<conexion> i saw you in your base

<conexion> why did you block the entrance???

<conexion> judeyyy pleaseeee, talk to me

<conexion> it wasnt suppose to be serious like that, i didnt know it was a test

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

3 weeks ago

<conexion> you haven’t logged in the server for a while now

<conexion> parker said you’ve been hopping servers

<conexion> come back to strength :(((((( 

<conexion> please

2 weeks ago

<conexion> im still waiting O___O 

1 week ago

<conexion> iimmmm still standing

<conexion> …

<conexion> jude

<conexion>  jude

<conexion>  judey

<conexion>  jude

<conexion>  jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> i will apologize

<conexion> i will come to you, pls just tell me which server you are on

Now

<conexion> YOUR BACK!??!?

<conexion> you’re**

<conexion> CAN WE PLEASE TALK?!?!?!

<conexion> JUDE JUDE

<conexion> PKEASE JUHDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> JUDE

<conexion> LETS TALK

<conexion> PLEASE

This user has blocked you.

[...]

Twirps almost dropped the potion he was working on when he heard a loud shriek from upstairs. It was Sharp. The guy had been squatting in his place for a while now—by "a while," almost two months since the idiot had decided to betray his last teammate, who Twirps was pretty sure had been JudeLow himself.

Who, unfortunately, definitely hated Sharp's guts.

"He blocked me?!" Sharp yelled as he came barreling downstairs, his feet pounding against the wooden steps. His hair was a complete mess. Considering Twirps was pretty sure the guy hadn't left his room ever since he started squatting here—aside from occasionally trying to "catch" a bunny—it wasn't exactly surprising.

Which, unsurprisingly, hadn't been successful.

Sharpness was acting like some kind of crazed lunatic of a toxic ex-boyfriend, to the point that even Twirps was getting a little uncomfortable with how crazy and obsessed he'd become over Jude, constantly trying to earn his "forgiveness" after doing the unthinkable.

Couldn't the guy just accept that Jude didn't want him to apologize? That he didn't want his apology at all? God... he was really weird. But what could Twirps do? He probably shouldn't have invited Sharp in, but, well... regret always comes last.

"Who blocked you?" Twirps asked, sliding the bottle back into the brewing stand and feeding it blaze powder to get it going before sprinkling in some powdered rabbit's foot.

He heard more thumping and turned just in time to see Sharp rushing down the remaining steps, clutching his communicator tightly to his chest, breathing hard.

"Jude! Jude blocked me, Twirps!" Sharp shrieked, pressing a hand to his head and ruffling his already messy hair even more. His eyes were wide with panic—borderline crazed—when Twirps looked back at him with a raised brow.

Damn. What took Jude so long?

Twirps had already gotten a small sneak peek at the messages Sharp had been sending him, and by golly... he'd been sending Jude a lot of crap. Constantly spamming his DMs, too. Twirps had only seen it by accident. Sharp had fallen asleep curled up on the living room sofa while waiting for Jude to respond, leaving his communicator unlocked.

And Twirps had the... luck? The unfortunate luck of seeing the whole thing. And damn, Sharp really was acting like some crazed, obsessed toxic ex.

"Wow... what happened?" Twirps asked as he fully turned toward him.

Sharp swayed back and forth, staring down at his communicator as he breathed hard. His hand kept running through his hair over and over again, pushing it back before dragging down to the nape of his neck.

"I—I don't know? Flow messaged me that Jude came back, and I messaged Jude asking if we could talk," Sharp explained. Twirps highly doubted it had been just a simple message. Sharp had most definitely spammed Jude's DMs until the rabbit finally had enough and blocked him.

Honestly, the surprising part was that it had taken this long. Almost two months... or was it already two? Twirps wasn't really keeping track of all this drama.

"I'm sorry about that," he said instead, forcing a small smile. Sharp looked more panicked with every passing second, and Twirps had no idea how to calm the taller man, who looked ready to wear a groove into the floor with how much he kept swaying.

"Does this mean we aren't friends anymore? I can't talk to him?" Sharp continued. Then he started pacing back and forth. Twirps watched him with a blink, watching the other steadily wear a hole into the floor now instead, still refusing to stop.

"Uhm..." Twirps muttered, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and awkward. What was he even supposed to say? Sharpness was acting way too weird about all this. If anything, getting blocked seemed like exactly the right thing for Jude to do.

“Twirps, tell me, what does this mean? Does Jude hate me?” Sharp blurts, grabbing Twirps by the shoulders and shaking him roughly. Twirps lets out a confused noise, quickly grabbing Sharp's elbows. “Woah, calm down, will you? Maybe he's just overwhelmed?” Twirps tries.

That does it. Sharp stops shaking him and stares him down with those frightening green eyes.

“Overwhelmed how?” Sharp asks.

Twirps nearly chokes on his own saliva. Sharp's grip tightens on his shoulders, and only now does he realize it's actually starting to hurt. “Uh—I—I mean, you've been messaging Jude a lot. If anything, you should try talking to him,” Twirps says.

“But I can't! He's always running away from me. If I try again... he might leave the server for real!” Sharp finally lets him go, thankfully, and goes back to pacing, running both hands through his hair in frustration. It's starting to look like a bird's nest at this point as Twirps watches, blinking rapidly.

“I mean—he's never been like this! He shouldn't have been—he got me, he killed me before I could kill him, technically.” Sharp shrugs, though he looks more anxious than ever, biting at his fingernails as he struggles to breathe evenly.

“Well... you did betray him,” Twirps mutters under his breath.

Sharp swallows, trying to let out a sharp breath, only to end up coughing. “I—I know, but... he didn't use to run away from me. Now he's doing everything he can not to be in the same room—or even the same place—as me! I mean, he never liked being in Money! But look at him, he's hanging out with all those people I don't even know—and it's been so long since I was trapped,” Sharp continues.

Wow. He really sounds like an desperate obsessive ex. “Wow... that must have sucked,” Twirps says.

“Yes!” Sharp spins toward him. “You get me, right? I mean—I-imagine getting used to something and then having it suddenly taken away. It sucks! It sucks so hard! It's so fucking hard! You get me, right?” Twirps nods, blinking furiously as he carefully picks up another bottle, fills it with water, and corks it.

“So you agree! What should I do then? I mean—I really tried my best to fix it, but he just doesn't want to!” Sharp sounds so desperate that Twirps almost feels bad. Actually, scratch that. He doesn't even know who to feel bad for—Sharp or Jude. Because right now, it sounds like Jude has some crazy obsessed guy after him, and Twirps doesn't know which is scarier: being friends with someone who sounds this obsessive...

...or being in Jude's position.

No wonder he blocked Sharp. Twirps would've switched servers by now. He doesn't even know why Jude came back to Strength in the first place. “What should I do, Twirps?” Sharp asks, suddenly grabbing Twirps' shoulders again and shaking him.

Twirps stares back into Sharp's crazed eyes. Uh-oh. He's got that manic look again. This is going to suck if Sharp ends up in one of those weird crying funks again. Twirps needs to distract him somehow... at least give him something to focus on.

“Get his attention,” Twirps blurts out, saying the first thing that comes to mind. Sharp immediately stops shaking him, his eyes widening. “Get his attention? How?” Sharp asks, leaning closer. “Uh...” Twirps swallows, backing into the table behind him as Sharp looms even closer. Gosh darn it, why does this guy have to be taller than him? It's unfair.

And... kind of terrifying. He still can't believe he's basically babysitting this guy. Well, they're technically temporary teammates (official name is temporary babysitter of course), but whatever.

“Like... do something crazy or cool enough that Jude can't help but pay attention to you?” Twirps says. He sounds unsure, his words coming out more like a question than a statement. Somehow, though, they light up Sharp's eyes. Sharp lets go of him and steps back with a huge grin. “Yes! Right! You're right, Twirps! I have to get his attention! Shit! Oh my God, I didn't even think of that!”

Sharp starts giggling excitedly while Twirps rubs his sore shoulders, feeling a little lightheaded. He genuinely thought Sharp was one step away from choking the answer out of him. God, this guy is crazy. “Well, you don't exactly think through everything,” Twirps mutters under his breath.

Sharp doesn't even hear him. He's already rushing around, pulling on his armor.

“What are you doing?” Twirps asks as Sharp kneels in front of the ender chest, pulling out his shulker boxes and gearing up. “I'm gonna get Jude's attention!” Sharp says with a grin, not even looking back.

“What? Now?” Twirps startles, glancing around. “Yes, now. It has to be now. The sooner I get to talk to Jude, the better! I should ask him for a fight. Maybe he'll accept it,” Sharp says, thinking out loud as he stands and taps his chin.

Twirps lets out a long, awkward, “Uhhhhhh...” That doesn't sound like a good idea. As in, it doesn't sound like a good idea at all.

“Sharp? That doesn't sound...” Twirps trails off as Sharp rushes out of the house, practically vibrating with excitement. “...like a good idea,” Twirps finishes to the empty room, slumping against the table behind him and facepalming. Should he have said that?

Ugh. Why did he have to open his big fat mouth? Maybe he should've just been grateful Sharp had been rotting in bed instead of going out and causing chaos. God... Twirps, you stupid dumbass.

1. 

<conexion> jude pvp

<conexion> 1v1 bro, best out of 5

<conexion> or best out of 2 if u want

<conexion> jude comeon

<conexion> whoever wins gets to glaze the other guy

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<Nufuli> ????

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<DoomedCow> …

<honeydewmelen> can someone shut this asshole up?

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<conexion> jude

<Bitzel> daym bro, one is enufffff

<Dol9hin> bro this sounds like a dm thing, stop spamming general chat

<conexion> im just asking jude for 1v1

<Dol9hin> yeah but he isn’t responding, this is for dms sharp, pls stop flooding chat or you’ll get rate limited

<_Tai> yeah dolphin’s right, sorry sharp but you gotta bring that to the dms, we cant have anyone flooding main chat, it’ll be really hard to backread chat for other people

<conexion> sorry

<Dol9hin> just dont do it again and you won’t get limited

<conexion> wont do it again

<LeoExists_> does someone have sugarcanes? My elytra broke so i can’t fly to spawn, i need help

<godispasen> i have some, drop your coords?

<LeoExists_> !!!

<LeoExists_> ty brooo

<godispasen> np :))

Sharp bit his lip as he ran toward spawn, glancing at his communicator obsessively, hoping Jude would at least rise to the bait. It usually worked. Sometimes Sharp didn't even have to ask—Jude would willingly chase after him, and Sharp would always turn back to fight the bunny and beat him just to remind him who was boss. Jude would always end up leaving annoyed and angry.

Or sometimes, if Jude got lucky, Sharp would end up leaving the server entirely to cool off, because how in the hell was this bunny getting a win over the best swordmaster in the entire world?! Anyways, Sharp was getting distracted. He should just go to Jude's base and ask him himself. He couldn't DM him, of course, since Jude had decided to block him for being so insistent.

So PvP it was. Everyone on the server knew by now that Jude also had a seriously high ego, so asking him for a fight would almost always result in him saying yes just to prove he wasn't just some dirty little trapper who relied on traps and that he could, in fact, fucking fight.

"Jude, can we 1v1?" Sharp muttered to himself as he neared spawn, weaving through the cluster of builds while practicing his question. He didn't want to sound like an asshole, but he needed to make it seem like this fight actually mattered to his dignity and pride. Jude always seemed more willing to agree whenever everyone's honor was supposedly on the line.

It was always like he wanted to prove he was better than everyone else, like he always needed the upper hand. "Judey, can I have the honor of 1v1ing you?" Sharp stopped beside the pillar leading down to Jude's burrow, rubbing his hands together as he prepared himself. If Jude said no... what should he offer?

Hm... Whoever won got Sharp's mace? Surely that would make Jude agree to fight him, right? Sharp cleared his throat and peered down the stairs into Jude's base, trying to spot him before carefully making his way down.

"Jude?" he called as he descended the steps.

"Judey? Jude? Jude?" Sharp called again, finally spotting Jude at a crafting table, busy making something. The bunny flinched the moment he noticed Sharp. His perked ears flattened against his head as he turned with a sneer.

For a moment, Sharp froze. He'd never seen Jude look this angry before. Sharp was sure Jude's eyes were always pink—not red. They were always that beautiful shade of pink that looked almost like flower petals.

Was he really that angry at Sharp? The thought almost made Sharp wilt. Then Jude spoke. "Sharp? What the fuck are you doing here?" Sharp immediately perked up.

Jude was talking to him!

This was a first. Jude hadn't spoken to him in so long that Sharp almost wanted to admit he'd missed Jude's stupid but beautiful voice. It had been so long... he almost wanted to tear up. Maybe he still had a chance to fix his stupid mistakes.

"Jude! I want to ask you for—" Sharp started excitedly, clasping his hands together. But Jude simply walked past him. "Did you not see the sign that says no one should enter my base?" Jude asked harshly.

Sharp pouted as he hurried after him, following Jude up the stairs and out of the burrow. His shoulders slowly crept up toward his ears. "Uh... no? I just wanted to ask you to fight me!" Sharp said, nervously rubbing his hands together.

Jude stopped at the entrance to the base, right beside one of the dirt pillars where a sign had been hammered into the ground. Sharp stopped too, nearly walking into Jude's back. Without looking him in the eye, Jude grabbed the top of the sign and turned it around.

Sharp squinted down to read it. "No visitors allowed... wait—Especially Sharpness?!"

"Huh?! Judey! Why?" Sharp whined, turning to Jude.

Jude turned the sign back to its proper position before walking away, pulling out his elytra and taking off before Sharp could chase after him. "Hey! Wait! I just wanted to ask you for a 1v1!" Sharp called, raising a hand as though he could somehow stop Jude from flying away. Jude didn't even look back. "What the hell?!" Sharp whined.

Grumbling to himself, he stomped back into Jude's base and deliberately stepped over the sign—because there was no way in hell he was listening to Jude's stupid rules. He was going to enter Jude's base no matter what Jude did.

Just then, Parker joined the server. Sharp's communicator pinged loudly, and he immediately scrambled to pull it out so he could DM Parker.

Parker would know where Jude is! Most likely, he joined for Jude. They're definitely together right now, right? Sharp has always been annoyed that Parker became Jude's new teammate right after Sharp betrayed him, though he shouldn't be surprised. Parker was technically Jude's friend first, even before Sharp joined the server.

It isn't really fair for Sharp to dislike Parker this much since Parker doesn't deserve any of his ire. Parker was Jude's best friend, so in a way, Sharp knows he's being a huge asshole about it. But even though Sharp has been talking down to him from time to time, Parker isn't the type to ignore DMs from people—especially not from the strongest player on the server.

<conexion> parker

<conexion> parker

<conexion> parker

<conexion> parker

<conexion> parker

<ParkerGameBrain> ?

<conexion> wheres jude?

<ParkerGameBrain> idk his base?

<ParkerGameBrain> u do know jude doesnt want to talk to you right?

<conexion> im at jude’s base, he left,do you know where jude went????

<ParkerGameBrain> …

<ParkerGameBrain> idk if i should tell you

<conexion> pls?

<ParkerGameBrain> he’s gonna kill me if i do

<ParkerGameBrain> he’s really mad at you

<conexion> please?

<ParkerGameBrain> …

<ParkerGameBrain> colosseum, he joined the event that tai is hosting rn

<conexion> YES, thank you! this is good!!!!

<ParkerGameBrain> why???

<conexion> im gonna ask jude to 1v1 me

<ParkerGameBrain> …

<ParkerGameBrain> ok

Sharp let out an excited whoop and bolted out of there. The colosseum was just nearby—he didn't even need to fly there, he could just walk... well, run to it. He did remember Tai posting an announcement about the tournament he was hosting, and Twirps had asked if he wanted to join since the winner would get a single mace and two elytras. But Sharp could barely get out of bed at the time, so he never signed his name up.

But Jude did! Surely Sharp could ask Tai to add his name to the roster so he could fight Jude, right?

By the time Sharp reached the colosseum, almost everyone on the server was already there. Some watched from the walls while most crowded the stands inside, waiting for their turn. There were so many people... then again, the prize was a mace and two elytras. You didn't see rewards like that every day, especially not from Tai, who was pretty fucking stingy.

"Sharp? I thought you weren't going to join?" Tai asked the moment he spotted Sharp peering through the entrance, looking around for the familiar purple head and perked-up ears.

"I wasn't, but I figured it'd be alright to join late," Sharp said as he walked over.

Tai grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "I definitely saw this coming. Seeing you active in general was a relief, honestly. You've been gone for a while! I thought you'd quit the server or switched to a different one. Didn't someone offer you a spot on another server?"

"Uhhh, I did! It's Bliss!" Sharp grinned. Tai groaned and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, Bliss. Of course they'd want to take you in. But you didn't say yes, right?"

Sharp shook his head. Why the hell would he switch to Bliss when he was perfectly happy here in Strength? He loved it here, even. And he didn't plan on leaving at all.

"Oh yeah, hold on. Let me write your name down. Anyone you want to go against? The bracket's uneven anyway," Tai asked, pulling out a book and quill.

Sharp perked up immediately. At the same time, he spotted Jude walking along the side with Parker and Cow beside him, the three of them chatting together.

"Jude!" Sharp blurted.

Tai raised a brow but wrote Jude's name down anyway. "Alright, Jude it is. He's supposed to go up against Luigi in a bit, as far as I know."

Sharp turned to him. "Can I take Luigi's place first? Please? Pretty please with blueberries on top?" He clasped his hands together and leaned toward Tai.

"I'm pretty sure it's cherries on top," Tai said, leaning back with a laugh. "But yeah, sure. Luigi flew off to grab some cobwebs since he forgot them. He can move to the back—I doubt he'll mind. Just go sit with Jude. After Nufuli and Salem, you two are up next."

Tai patted Sharp on the shoulder before walking off.

Sharp excitedly weaved through the crowd, dodging feet and elbows as he went. Eventually, he spotted Jude sitting off to the side by himself, ears flopped over part of his face, wearing a deep frown. Parker and Cow were nowhere to be seen.

Sharp couldn't help grinning. "Jude!" Jude stiffened. His head slowly turned toward Sharp, one eye twitching as Sharp hurried over and dropped into the chair beside him.

"Hi, Judey. I asked Tai if we could fight next round." Sharp beamed.

"What... the... fuck..." Jude muttered, staring at him with visible annoyance. "What do you fucking want, man?"

"We should PvP!" Sharp said brightly. "I want to fight you, like old times!"

“It hasn’t even been six fucking months since we last fought, you dumb fuck, but you wouldn’t know that, would you? You can’t even count to twenty.” Jude hisses, and Sharp makes a face at that—he’s not that stupid, what the heck!? “I can count to twenty. Why are you being such a meanie?” Sharp asks, but Jude only glares at him, crossing his arms protectively over his chest.

Sharp can see his ears trembling, folding back against his head. “Fuck this. I’m not doing this. I’m pulling out.” Jude stands up, but Sharp quickly grabs his wrist.

“What? Why? Don’t you want to fight me? I promise I won’t cheat! If you win against me, I’ll give you my mace!” he offers, but Jude refuses to look at him.

“Do you think…” Jude starts, slowly turning toward him. “...I’m that cheap? You think you can buy me with a fucking mace? Are you serious right now? Is that why you’re here?” he hisses right into Sharp’s face.

Sharp flinches back as Jude leans closer, giving him the meanest glare he’s ever seen. If Jude’s eyes were lasers, Sharp is pretty sure he’d lose his face by now with how intensely they burn into him.

Sharp blinks in surprise. “What? That’s not it! I just want to fight you. It’s been so long, and—and it’d be cool if we did a 1v1 again! It’ll feel right.” He forces a grin, though he’s not really sure anymore. Jude had already yanked his hand free, wiping the wrist Sharp had grabbed against his chest as if Sharp was full of shit.

Which... okay, maybe he kind of was. But it still hurt seeing Jude do that. It felt excessive. Really mean.

“What the fuck are you talking about, man?” Jude mutters, his voice dripping with annoyance.

Sharp flinches again when he hears that tone. He’s never really heard Jude sound like this before. Every word feels like being spat on over and over, and Sharp isn’t really sure if he’s okay with it. He can actually feel the hostility radiating off him...

Which... He’s never felt from Jude before. It terrifies him a little. But maybe if they fought again, things would get better?

“Uhm... I thought it would be nice if we could fight our problems out? I mean—it worked back then, right?” Sharp says uncertainly. For some reason he’s stammering, something he’s never done before. But what Jude thinks matters.

Sharp tries to ignore the strange coldness settling in his stomach and chest when Jude scoffs, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Usually, that gesture is teasing. Right now, it’s just anger. It’s painfully obvious. Sharp isn’t that dumb—

“God, you are so fucking dumb. I can’t believe I even managed to put up with you.” Jude says before turning away and walking off. Sharp gapes as he watches Jude leave, feeling like he’s been slapped across the face and spat on.

Jude’s always called him dumb, but it was always teasing. Sharp always knew he didn’t actually mean it. But this time... Sharp has a horrible feeling Jude was telling the truth. His face grows hot as his eyes begin to sting. A lump forms in his throat, and he tries to swallow it down.

“Woah, what was that? You guys fighting again?” Sharp startles, whipping his head toward the rows of seats behind him. Sitting there is Spongs… Fucking Spongs. Instantly, the lump in Sharp’s throat disappears, replaced by irritation, and he shoots him a glare. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asks.

Spongs grins. "Hey, I was supposed to be after Jude and Toan, but I guess I'm next. If you want, we can fight. I'm sure I can take you." He winks, and Sharp grumbles, immediately getting up from his seat to get away from him.

"What— Hey! Don't you want to fight me and see how good I've gotten at PvP?" Spongs calls after him, but Sharp just plugs his ears and pushes through the crowd gathered at the entrance of the colosseum, trying to get the hell out of there.

"Hey, Sharp." Just as he was about to leave, Parker catches him by the shoulder. "Parker?" Sharp pauses, turning to see the enderman hybrid. "Hey, I saw Jude pass by earlier. You following him?" Parker asks, tilting his head. "Yeah..." Sharp slowly nods. "I was planning to."

Parker's expression immediately grows serious. "Look, uh... it's probably not a good idea to do that today. Maybe tomorrow or the day after, but right now he's really pissed."

The at you goes unspoken, but Sharp might as well have heard the whole sentence with how Parker winces when Sharp gives him a look. "I swear, you've never seen him actually angry yet, but..." Parker makes that pained face again. "He gets really bad when he's angry. He says a lot of shit he doesn't mean."

Sharp perks up immediately.

Of course Jude doesn't really mean that he's dumb! Sharp should've known that. After all, every time Jude calls him dumb, stupid, or an idiot, he always makes sure Sharp knows he's not actually serious. Of course Jude didn't mean it! What was Sharp thinking?

"That's fine! If he really doesn't mean it, then I don't care!" Sharp grins. Parker makes a face at that, pulling a weird little side pout as he scratches the side of his head. "Yeah, well... Jude's a demon."

"I also know that," Sharp nods. Jude's always been kind of a demon, he's known that since the bunny hybrid had started trapping him on a daily basis

Parker hums. "Okay, right. I can't stop you if you want to do it, so... sure, go ahead. But don't say I didn't try." The hybrid sighs, shoulders slumping as he shakes his head and drags a hand down his face.

2.

Sharp did listen to Parker about not bothering Jude. In fact, he didn't bother Jude that day, or the next, or the day after that. Then, after giving it a few days, he paid a small visit to Parker's... er—caca kingdom? Sharp has no fucking clue. It's not even his build as far as Sharp's concerned. Parker definitely stole the building from someone, and frankly, Sharp doesn't really fucking care who it originally belonged to.

"Uh... sorry, what?" Parker asks, blinking furiously as he looks back at Sharp, whose hands are clasped together nervously. Sharp shifts on his feet unconsciously while Parker looks down at him from where he's perched. By the looks of it, he's doing some minor upgrades to the building, adding a few pillars as Sharp awkwardly shuffles in place.

"I was wondering if you know a way for me to get Jude's attention." Sharp twiddles his thumbs as he looks up at Parker with a nervous grin.

Parker blinks rapidly, then jumps off his perch, landing neatly in a water bucket before giving Sharp the most dubious, confused look imaginable. "And that is for...?" Parker asks. "Are you planning on dropping him or something? A trap? An ambush?"

Sharp's eyes go wide.

Trap Jude? No, of course not. Why the fuck would he trap or drop him? The hybrid's already fucking pissed at him. He doesn't want to add fuel to the fire and completely destroy the tiny chance they still have of fixing whatever this mess between them is.

He just wants things to go back to how they were.

It used to feel right to kill Jude. It was almost like a secret conversation between them, an understanding only the two of them shared. Sharp would kill Jude, Jude would trap him in return, and sometimes they'd just naked kill each other for the hell of it.

Yeah... from an outside perspective, their relationship is probably kind of strange. Then again, it is a very strange, unlabeled relationship. They weren't really friends before they teamed up, so...

"No, of course not. I wouldn't do that... not unless we're fine with each other," Sharp says.

Parker lets out a relieved sigh. "Look, I'm fine with you guys killing each other, but right now isn't the right time."

"I know... Jude'll probably just get angrier at me if I tried." Sharp pauses before tilting his head. "But, um... can you answer my question?"

Parker goes quiet for a moment.

"What do I get from it?" he suddenly asks, as if he'd just realized he could probably get Sharp to do something for him—or hand over something for free. After all, this clearly seemed important enough that Sharp had willingly walked into Parker's domain without a care in the world that he might be standing on top of a trap.

Parker crosses his arms over his chest.

Sharp's eyes widen, his brows lifting in surprise, as though he's genuinely shocked Parker would try to bargain over something as simple as helping him get Jude's attention.

"What?" Sharp asks.

"What's in it for me?" Parker repeats with a nod.

Sharp opens his mouth, then closes it again. "I—I don't know? What do you even want? I don't think I have anything you'd want," Sharp mutters. He's only got his kit and little else. Nothing important besides his weapons, and that's about it. What could Parker possibly want from him?

"Well, I do have a few things in mind." Parker tilts his head. "How important is this to you? This information, I mean."

Sharp blinks.

How important is it for him to find a way to get Jude's attention? Uhhhhhh... A lot, actually. Like... one hundred percent a lot. Maybe even more than one hundred percent. He really just wants to find a way to fix whatever's left of his relationship with Jude.

Ever since he'd made that grave mistake of betraying Jude with his trap, and Jude refused to meet up or even talk to him long enough for an apology, something had felt wrong with him—or well, more like something started feeling wrong with his mind and body. It's just weird, really.

It's like his body is mourning a missing limb that was never actually there. He still has his head, his hands and feet, his arms, his legs, and everything else.

It just felt wrong—and Sharp just wants to feel right again. He's been feeling like shit ever since Jude stopped replying to his messages. It's gotten hard to move, to think, or even find the motivation to do anything. It really messed him up, probably scrambled all the chemicals in his brain too. He'd always been so used to Jude replying almost immediately and rising to whatever bait Sharp threw out.

It's always been a push and pull between them, and it always has been. Ever since that stopped—ever since Sharp became the only one pulling—it all started to feel strange... and, most of all, really boring. Like Sharp had nothing left to do with his life except lie in bed and wait for Jude to answer him. He couldn't even look at his sword the same way anymore, couldn't feel that familiar excitement or the urge to fight anyone.

Well... it's not like he'd never felt like this before, but meeting Jude and coming to Strength had done wonders for his state of mind. More than that, the day Jude started teaching him how to trap people... the first time Sharp successfully trapped someone had felt exhilarating, like the first time he'd picked up a sword as a kid.

"It's really important. Name your price." Sharp nodded at Parker before snapping back to reality, rubbing his chin.

Parker's eyes narrowed slightly as he studied Sharp before eventually looking away, clearly uncomfortable holding eye contact. "You mine materials for my build, and I'll give you some ideas on how to get Jude's attention."

It was a test. Parker knew everyone knew Sharp was a lazy bum who would never willingly spend hours grinding materials for someone else. Parker knew that, which was exactly why he'd asked.

"Sure. List everything out and send it to me in DMs." Sharp agreed without hesitation, stepping closer. "Now tell me how I can get Jude's attention," he said, lowering his voice as he stared directly into Parker's eyes.

Parker visibly startled. "I—what?" Parker blinked. "You'd mine stone, redstone, and wood for hours just to find out how to get Jude's attention?" He frowned. "Why?"

His brows furrowed even deeper, and Sharp let out a quiet sigh. Might as well explain it to Jude's best friend. Besides, what else could he do except tell the truth? It's not like he wanted to hide it anymore. He just wanted to fix this—wanted everything to feel normal again.

"Look... I really want to apologize to Jude for what I did." Sharp swallowed.

Parker gave him a flat look. "You did it first. Jude was testing you."

Sharp wilted a little at that.

Did Jude tell Parker? Or did everyone already know? That would be embarrassing—knowing everyone had heard Sharp betrayed his own teammate over something as stupid as being unable to ignore that itch to one-up Jude, then expecting Jude to take it well just because they were partners.

"I know," Sharp admitted quietly. "And I still want to apologize. He deserves that much." He crossed his arms protectively over his chest. "But he isn't exactly making it easy for me. He refuses to talk to me, so now I have to resort to... extreme measures just to find a way."

Parker hummed, lowering his head as he thought it over. His boot tapped lightly against the floor, the sound echoing through the room. "Like I said..." He looked back up to meet Sharp's eyes. "He's really mad at you."

Sharp nodded. "I know. I just really need a way to get his attention. Please, Parker. I really want to fix this." Sharp clasped his hands together again while Parker silently watched him.

"Are you sure?" Parker asked. "Look, it's really hard to trust you, Sharp, especially after what you did to my friend. But I don't see you the way Jude does, so I don't really care as much. That also means I don't trust you."

Sharp perked up immediately. "And that's fine! No one trusts each other on Strength anyway!" he said quickly. "Please, just help me out. I'll fix this, I swear. I just want things back... the way they used to be."

Sharp swallowed hard, biting his lip as Parker sighed before finally nodding, raising a hand to stop Sharp from pleading any further.

“Alright, fine, fine, I’ll help you, but you’re going to have to grind my materials for me. That’s your payment, and make sure you actually do it, or else I’m tipping Jude off and he’ll definitely go out of his way to dodge you.” Parker threatens, and Sharp nods with a grin.

Yes! Thank God he got Parker on his side. They may not be close or know each other well, but Parker definitely wants to help him too! This is good! Well—of course it isn’t really for Sharp. Sharp knows that. It’s definitely for Jude. Parker just wants Sharp to apologize and finally give Jude the apology he deserves.

And so, that is how Sharp ended up farming both Parker’s materials and his own for a trap while reading through a thick-ass notebook Parker had lent him. Apparently, it originally belonged to Jude, who had written down notes on every trap he knew ever since he was a baby trapper studying under the amazing Shadow himself.

And God, it really is thick. Thick enough to cave someone’s skull in, probably. At the same time, though, Sharp is so glad Parker trusted him enough to hand it over, even at the risk of Jude getting mad if he ever found out Sharp was using his notebook to build a trap just to get Jude’s attention. He’s gotta make sure his clipping mods are ready too! He’s so excited to trap people. No one’s going to see this coming.

Of course, he can’t build traps at spawn. By now it’s obvious that almost all of Jude’s traps are there, and spawn is basically Jude’s domain. Even if Sharp made one there, people would probably just assume Jude built it instead.

Maybe he should try one of the really hard ones. It’s not like Sharp’s dumb! He might be a little slow, and redstone is really, really hard for him, but with Jude’s notebook covering every trap imaginable, there’s no way he’s going to fail!

[...]

It took Sharp three days to grind Parker's materials before finally focusing on his own, constantly scanning through every page to find the perfect trap he could both understand and pull off. He'd seen Jude make the flat ground trap plenty of times, so that immediately made it onto his list. There were a lot of traps that were just way too confusing, and Sharp knew he didn't have the time or inventory space to build them anyway. Jude had even written notes explaining that some traps were strictly two-man jobs.

But Sharp was basically solo right now—Twirps was off the server—so he had to stick to traps he could self-pull. The next easiest one was the carpet trap, though it was kind of useless since anyone could just wind charge their way out. He'd have to shelve that idea unless he figured out a way to stop people from wind charging.

He could do this! Jude would definitely be amazed! Sharp still remembered the first time he'd successfully trapped someone and excitedly showed Jude. Jude had looked so genuinely surprised, so impressed that Sharp had actually managed to pull it off. The thrill of trapping someone had been exciting on its own, but that wasn't what stayed with him.

It was the praise. Sharp had never really felt proud of anything he'd done until Jude started praising him. He hadn't even realized what he'd been missing before then. No one had ever praised him the way Jude did that day.

And if he managed to catch people with these traps, then Jude would definitely notice him again. He'd definitely praise him again.

So Sharp quickly got to work, grinding blocks, banners, pistons, and a dozen other materials he couldn't even list off the top of his head anymore from how many times he'd looked back at his notes to make sure he was doing everything right. By the time he finished mining and climbed back up to the surface, it was already night.

Which was probably the best time to build traps anyway. Everyone would be fast asleep, and no one would accidentally stumble across what he was making.

Even so, he chugged an invisibility potion before starting on the flat ground trap. He already knew this one. Jude had taught him how to build it, and Sharp had watched him make it so many times that it was practically muscle memory by now.

Next came the kill chamber and the funnel. He wanted to impress Jude with his funneling too, so he made sure to build that as carefully as he could, testing every piston along the walls to make sure they worked. He even tested the trap himself, despite clearly remembering Jude warning him that he should never ethically test a trap alone.

But it didn't matter! He did this all the time. Without the dripstone at the bottom, of course. He tested one side over and over until he got it perfect before recreating it on the other.

Then he dug deeper, crafted nearly a hundred armor stands for the kill chamber, prepared the chests, built a ladder back up to the surface, and patched everything up. Finally, he marked the trap on his waypoint mod before placing down the trapdoor over the correct block.

The floor snapped open beneath him. Dirt shot upward with the piston before settling neatly back into place as soon as Sharp stepped off. "Yes!" Sharp cheered, bouncing excitedly on his heels. This was a good start! He could work on the next one now, though...

Sharp stopped mid-hop and glanced down at his hand, which had been bleeding for the past few hours. As smoothly as the build had gone—well, not as smoothly as Jude would've done it—the pistons had been acting up earlier, and there had been plenty of times his hands got caught between them while they opened and closed. Sharp may or may not have gotten his fingers crushed by a few pistons in the process.

He'd also fallen into the unfinished kill chamber, so his legs hurt a little. But he'd landed on his feet, only lost about two hearts, scarfed down a couple of golden apples to heal, and immediately got back to work.

For a build with a few failures and a handful of injuries... He'd done good.

He goes to make the next trap, which is very, very easy. It's just a carpet trap. Now this one has to be at spawn—mostly because there are a lot of moss designs and carpets scattered around that Sharp can use without tipping everyone off.

Of course, he picks a half-built house covered in red carpets and quickly digs a hole beneath one of them, sticking a slime block into the corner before attaching all the signs. He lays the carpet back down, then digs underneath it, creating a funneling system in the corner and a water stream leading back to the surface, patching everything up before heading down again to finish the funnel and the kill chamber.

By the time he's done, his hands are aching from all the mining. The patchwork bandages he'd wrapped around them are barely holding together with how roughly he's been handling his tools, though it doesn't really matter. Jude definitely goes through worse whenever he builds traps. Actually, Sharp doesn't even think Jude gets hurt while making them, especially the redstone ones. Earlier, while Sharp was building his flat ground trap, he'd been sneezing nonstop because of the redstone dust.

Jude's a bunny with an absurdly sensitive sense of smell, so how the hell is he not sneezing at the sight of redstone?

Hold on, that's right. Sharp can definitely ask Jude that question once they're on speaking terms again. Which! Will definitely happen after this. It definitely will.

Hell yeah.

He builds four more flat ground traps, then makes a moss carpet trap close to Jude's base because, for some reason, someone had planted a single moss block and bonemealed it until the moss spread everywhere. Which meant Sharp could absolutely use it to his advantage.

Before he knows it, the sun has already risen. He drags himself back to Twirps' house looking like a zombie that had just crawled out of the ground. He feels dead—yet somehow strangely excited and alive at the same time. Since he doesn't really have time to rest his aching body, or even sleep, he heads straight for a bath so he doesn't smell like redstone and suspiciousness. Hybrids on the server have wicked senses of smell. The moment they catch even a hint of redstone or slime on him, they'll immediately know he's been building traps.

By the time he's finished bathing, Twirps has come back and is rearranging the chests in the storage area, humming under his breath before flinching when he spots Sharp.

"Dude, I didn't know you were here," Twirps comments. Sharp gives him a look. Why wouldn't he be? "I thought I live here now," Sharp says. Twirps makes a sheepish wince. "Yeah, well... I thought you were out bothering Jude. You guys alright now?" he asks.

Sharp sighs, his face falling. "No, not really. But last night I made some traps. Parker helped me come up with an idea on how to get Jude's attention."

Twirps' brows shoot up. "You made... traps?" he asks. Sharp grins and nods.

"On your own?" Twirps tilts his head sideways.

Sharp nodded excitedly. "Yes!"

Twirps blinks. "And they work?" he asks slowly.

"They do. I tried one on myself. It works really well. It's painful too," Sharp says excitedly.

Twirps' expression immediately turns strange as he stares at Sharp. "You do know that's not the ethical way to test a trap, right? You could've just dressed a zombie in armor and shoved it in?" he says, sounding more than a little worried.

Sharp rolls his eyes. Does it really matter if he gets hurt testing it? It's his decision anyway. Besides, catching a zombie would take longer than just using his own body.

"It's fine. Even if I die, I'll just respawn anyway. Do you want to see it? We should start trapping people—oh! Oh! You should redownload your recording mod. I want to save every single video we get of trapping somebody!" Sharp says, grabbing Twirps by the shoulders and shaking him excitedly as he bounces on his feet.

Which doesn't really fit a six-foot man, but whatever. Sharp doesn't care at all. He wants to catch people with his trap—is this what Jude always feels? Oh man... He's so fucking excited to see Jude gush over his work! Especially the funneling system. He worked really hard on that. Jude's notebook was a huge help through all of this, though, so he wasn't going to take all the credit.

Twirps' face fell. "Oh—uh." He scratched the back of his neck. "I fear I won't be able to help you with this. Leek needs me for some stuff."

Sharp perked up at that. Did Twirps need help? He could probably help him first, then trap people.

"Do you need help?" Sharp asked.

Twirps let out a long, "Uhhhh," before shaking his head. "It's not that crazy. It's simple. We're just going to be talking about some pretty important stuff. It's not fighting, so it's okay."

He shot Sharp a small smile as Sharp pouted.

"Okay, sure. Well, I'm going to go now. I gotta trap people! Then Jude is going to be amazed at what I did!" He clapped his hands together and laughed maniacally, making Twirps instinctively take a step back, his eyes widening in mild surprise.

"Uh... right..." Twirps nodded slowly, brows slightly furrowed as he tilted his head and gave Sharp a wary side-eye.

"Okay, I go now. Bye-bye."

Sharp skipped out of the house to start his day, which really just meant rage-baiting a bunch of people in general chat until they tried to kill him, which should be pretty easy.

Everyone on the server had some serious anger issues, Sharp included from time to time. But he was mostly really chill, and his anger never really lasted. Still, yeah, he'd rage-quit the server plenty of times and often thought about switching to Bliss before immediately forgetting about it, because why the hell would he leave Strength? He loved it here!

So that's exactly what he did. He tossed out a little bait in general chat, showed everyone where he was going—a spot just a few blocks away from spawn that he'd turned into his personal domain of flat-ground traps. Maybe he should've also built the tree four-by-four trap where he just had to knock people into the hole...

Ugh, it's fine. That one seemed really cool too, but it didn't matter.

"What did you say about my hair?" Nufuli suddenly said, landing behind Sharp, who was pretending to craft—which was technically complete bullshit because he had cobwebs and golden apples sitting on the crafting table, and neither of those actually did anything.

"What's that? Oh, Nufuli!" Sharp grinned as he turned around.

Nufuli's face was bright red with anger. If it were possible, steam would've been pouring out of his ears. He glared at Sharp, sword already drawn like he'd genuinely come here to kill him.

"You said something about my hair."

"I did?" Sharp tilted his head.

Nufuli's glare darkened. "You said my hair looks like a sundae made out of cow poop. What the fuck, dude?!"

Sharp gave an exaggerated pout, pretending to think about it. "I said that? I don't remember..." Then he broke into a grin. "But whoever said that is right. Your hair does look like cow poop."

And that did it.

Nufuli didn't waste a single second. He dashed straight at Sharp, who easily dodged, rolling across the grass before wind charging over the trees to avoid another slash aimed at his head.

"Don't run away when you started the fight!" Nufuli growled behind him.

Sharp laughed. "I wasn't starting a fight, Nufuliiiii." He dragged the last word out obnoxiously.

Then he spun, parrying Nufuli's sword over and over. Nufuli glared as Sharp blocked another axe swing with his shield, rendering it useless before ducking low and landing a clean slash across Nufuli's knees, right between the joints of his armor.

"I was just telling the truth! You always said I've been really honest." Sharp winked.

"You're such a fucking asshole, I swear to God! What do you want, man?! You're rage-baiting me for what? To get dropped?" Nufuli snapped.

Sharp only grinned, wind charging onto another tree before leaping off a branch, landing on the ground, and sprinting toward the first flat-ground trap. "Get dropped? I think you're the one getting dropped."

To sell it, Sharp stopped a few blocks short of the trap and continued parrying Nufuli's attacks. Nufuli managed to land a solid hit across Sharp's arm. Sharp's hands were still aching from last night's grinding session for all the traps, which meant some of his parries were just a little weaker than usual, letting a few attacks slip through.

On any other day, he'd punch himself for letting that happen. Right now, though, he was just having fun, because Nufuli was about to get trapped.

He already had the pressure plate ready in his hotbar.

Sharp kicked Nufuli square in the chest, sending him skidding backward before taking off again with a wind charge. Nufuli immediately did the same, chasing after him with pure fury.

Then—

Sharp whipped out the pressure plate and placed it on the ground. The earth behind him suddenly sprang open.

Nufuli dropped out of his wind charge at exactly the wrong moment, just one block away. He jumped the instant the ground shot upward beneath him, launching himself straight onto the disguised trap instead.

"What the fu—" His confused yell was cut short as he crashed into the hole.

The ground slid shut again the moment Sharp stepped off the mechanism.

Nufuli was impaled on a stalagmite

<honeydewmelen> ????

<Nufuli> bro….

<loppezz> what happened?

<Nufuli> sharp just trapped me

<honeydewmelen> sharp? holy shit

<Flowtives> sharp and jude teamed up again????

<Nufuli> idk i think so???

“Yes!” Sharp yells, mining the pressure plate before rushing toward the blocked-off hole leading to the kill chamber, where Nufuli’s belongings had fallen after his death. God, that felt exhilarating. His heart was pounding so fast. He really hopes the recording caught all of that.

Sharp quickly loots Nufuli’s stuff, tossing everything into a chest as he gathers what he needs, then stores it all inside a shulker box. He slips Nufuli’s Strength into his ender chest for the time being before getting the fuck out of there and climbing back up the ladders to find his next victims.

Jude is going to love all of this.

leekleek was impaled on a stalagmite        

Falconu was impaled on a stalagmite

Jepexx was impaled on a stalagmite

<Jepexx> YOOOOO WHAT THE FUCK????

<leekleek> holy shit i sold

<leekleek> i sold

<Falconu> how’d that happen, he got us three, im sobbing

<Jepexx> thats it im leaving this server, i just got my shit back after flow fucked me over

<leekleek> you and me both bro

 

Sharp quickly rushes toward Parker’s caca kingdom, excitedly skipping as he spots Parker shuffling through a shulker box, completely absorbed in his work. Parker looks up the moment he hears Sharp enter through the entrance, and Sharp grins from ear to ear.

“I heard you got some people,” Parker says.

“I did! Look, I even got the recording. Here, I’m gonna send it to you—hold on.” Sharp skips over to him, pulling out his communicator to send all the videos.

“Uh, actually…” Parker says, taking out his own communicator.

Sharp pauses as Parker turns the screen toward him. Sharp leans in to read it.

It’s from Jude.

—Wait.

<JudeLow> PARKER WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT FUCKING IDIOT DOING?

<JudeLow> FLOW REFUSED TO GIVE ME MY SHIT BACK BECAUSE OF HIM

<JudeLow> HE THINKS WERE TEAMED UP

<JudeLow> WHAT THE FUCK??!??!? IM SO FUCKING PISSED 

<JudeLow> FUCK ME IM HOPPING TO HOPLITE, SHIT, IM SO PISSED OFF

Sharp blinks as he looks at Parker, his heart slowly sinking as Parker lowers his communicator and gives him a pained look.

“I didn’t know!” Sharp says, confused.

“Me neither—but apparently, just a day ago, Flow dropped Jude, and Jude wanted his stuff back. He was supposed to get it today.”

“But—but…” Sharp stammers, grabbing his communicator where the recording is saved. “I trapped people!” he says, while Parker only winces. “It was just really bad timing.”

Sharp tugs at his hair, biting his lower lip. Would the recording even help get back on Jude’s good side now? He was already upset about it.

“Should we send it?” Sharp asks quietly, his voice small. Parker sighs, giving Sharp a look that answers the question before he even speaks. It was definitely a no.

Sharp lets out a sad sigh. All that hard work, for nothing? Jude was just going to be angry about the trap kills… It wasn’t Sharp’s fault Flow thought they were teamed up! He’d killed plenty of players with his own traps. Surely Jude would appreciate it once he saw the recording.

“Can you at least try?” Sharp asks.

Parker’s brows shoot up. “You still want me to send it to him?”

Sharp nods. “Please?”

Parker gives him a long look. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He glances down at his communicator, taps a few buttons, then closes it. “I’ll check his response later. He’s probably busy playing.”

“Okay…” Sharp says solemnly.

Parker’s expression softens. He reaches over and pats Sharp on the shoulder. “You’ll get there. Just give Jude time to think about it.”

“It’s been months!” Sharp protests with a frown.

“When Jude's really mad at someone, it usually takes years,” Parker says. “Sometimes he just cuts people off completely. But if you keep trying and keep doing the right thing, he'll come around eventually and let you apologize properly.”

He offers Sharp a small, uncertain smile, and Sharp can't help but feel a little better.

That felt—at least—a little reassuring.

[...]

Sharp wakes up the next day after nearly a full day of sleep. He's been trying to catch up after staying awake for several days grinding materials for both himself and Parker, then building the traps. As soon as he wakes up, he gets a message from Parker.

<ParkerGameBrain> dont go to spawn today

<ParkerGameBrain> i told you that we should have not sent it to jude

<ParkerGameBrain> he got really pissed

<ParkerGameBrain> becuz he thinks ur the one who griefed his other traps and used it for the new ones

<ParkerGameBrain> also he thinks that ur doing this to fuck him over, flow didn’t give his shit back

<ParkerGameBrain> he’s really mad

<conexion> what????

<ParkerGamBrain> just dont go to spawn

<ParkerGameBrain> please

<ParkerGameBrain> i know you did this out of good heart, but jude doesnt believe me and stuff, he’s a bit mad at me for helping you even though i didnt and you did all the hard work

<conexion> i made the traps

<ParkerGameBrain> yeah jude thinks i made it for you

<conexion> watttt??

<conexion> im gonna talk to him.

<ParkerGameBrain> what??? no bro, i told you no

<ParkerGameBrain> what is so hard to understand dude, i said dont go to spawn and dont show ur face to jude

<ParkerGameBrain> atleast for a few days

<ParkerGameBrain> sharp?

<ParkerGameBrain> oh no….

Sharp quickly washed his face and gathered his things. He wasn't sure if he should bring his kit with him, so he settled on carrying only a little: a bad pair of armor from Twirp's armory and a sword. He wasn't planning to fight, and if someone tried to drop him, he'd just chug an invisibility potion and hide. His body still ached from overworking himself for almost a week, and he was exhausted.

He just really wanted to talk to Jude. Maybe explain himself. Surely Jude would listen, right?

Sharp rushed out of Twirp's house, only then noticing Twirp was out—probably off the server. As he ran toward spawn, an overwhelming wave of nerves hit him. He'd been feeling weird ever since Jude got angry with him, and he didn't know why the thought of Jude's anger made him so strangely nervous and afraid.

There were plenty of people who wanted Sharp's head. He knew that feeling well, but he'd never cared. In fact, he fucking loved it. Of course, it also meant Sharp didn't have many friends.

But for some reason, it was different with Jude.

His stomach kept doing weird flips, and just thinking about Jude's anger left him short of breath. It made him feel... weird.

By the time he reached spawn, it was mostly empty. Most people were probably off exploring or simply offline to relax. It was Sunday, after all. They were probably playing on other servers to unwind. Not that Sharp had that kind of hobby. He mostly stayed on Strength since it was the only server that seemed to accept him, aside from Bliss. He still hadn't opened Puqi's invitation, though. He was still "thinking about it." (Of course he wasn't, but he had to at least pretend he was before rejecting Puqi's offer.)

He headed toward Jude's base, and it didn't take long to spot him. Jude was standing outside with Parker, and they looked to be in the middle of a heated argument. Sharp paused for a moment, watching them, unsure if he should interrupt before slowly making his way over.

Parker looked up first. His eyes widened the moment he spotted Sharp, and he immediately shook his head. Jude turned as well, saw Sharp, and instantly glared.

Parker gestured frantically, dragging a finger across his neck in a slicing motion to tell Sharp to stop. Sharp ignored him and kept walking. "Judey!" he greeted with a grin.

"You fucker," Jude snapped as he marches over with intent to probably kill him. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?" Sharp smiled, but it vanished the second Jude shoved him. Sharp stumbled back, blinking in confusion. "Wha—?"

"The trap, you dumbass!" Jude hissed. "You did it on purpose! You even got Parker to help you? What the fuck is wrong with you? Can't you do anything right? Flow and everyone else thought I was teamed up with you again!"

Sharp winced at the sheer hostility in Jude's voice, trying his best to ignore it. "I didn't! I made the trap myself! I just wanted to show you that I could build one and actually use it on my own!" Sharp hurriedly explained.

Jude wasn't buying it. He gritted his teeth, his ears pinning back. "Yeah, no. Fuck you, Sharp. Fuck you and your dumb fucking head. You're so far up your own ass that you forget everyone else here is just trying to mind their own business."

"What? I didn't do anything, I swear! It wasn't planned or anything. I just really wanted to show you I could trap people too. Did you see the videos I sent Parker?" Sharp asked, sounding almost hopeful.

Jude only looked even more irritated. "And then you dragged Parker into your bullshit. My teammate is off-limits, Sharp. I don't know what kind of bullshit you're on or what you want from me, but keep Parker out of this."

His brows were furrowed in that silly, cute way Sharp normally would've teased him about. On any other day, he probably would have.

But this didn't feel like any other day. Right now, everything felt far too serious, and Sharp wasn't sure he could tease Jude at all.

“I wasn’t! I just asked him to send the videos to you since he’s closest to you, and because I can’t send them myself—you blocked me.” Sharp frowns, lowering his head. Seeing Jude this angry is starting to bring his mood down.

“I wonder why that happened,” Jude says with a sharp, sarcastic bite. Sharp bites his lower lip, swallowing around the lump that suddenly forms in his throat. It feels like a golden apple is lodged there, refusing to go down.

Jude glares at him.

“Hey, look, Sharp did nothing, Jude. He really just asked me to send you the video, and I honestly don't think he planned any of this. Flow dropped you at a random time, right? Sharp probably didn't even know.” Parker suddenly steps over, standing beside Sharp as he looks between the two of them. Sharp's shoulders have slowly crept up to his ears, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“Are you seriously backing this asshole up, Parker?” Jude shoots him a glare.

Parker immediately raises his hands and takes a small step back. “I'm not backing anyone up, Jude. I'm just saying, lay off a bit. No one should be this angry, and no one deserves to be shouted at like this.”

Jude huffs, throwing one last heated glare at Sharp before turning away. He stomps back toward his burrow and disappears down the stairs.

Parker lets out a heavy sigh. “I'm sorry, Sharp. I really tried to explain, but he's stubborn as hell. He genuinely believes you did all that shit on purpose just to fuck him over.”

He shakes his head, and Sharp looks up at him, his frown deep enough to cave someone's skull in.

“But I wouldn't do that. At least not right now!” Sharp argues. He hadn't meant to sound so desperate, but it's too late to take it back now that Parker has already heard it.

“I told you not to come to spawn.” Parker looks guilty.

Sharp only sighs, lowering his head and shaking it in disappointment. He isn't sure whether Parker is disappointed in him or just in the situation, but either way, it makes the pit in Sharp's stomach sink even deeper.

Jude sounded so angry at him... How is he supposed to fix that?                                                                                                                  

3.

“You know, after Jude ripped into you again, I would've expected you to give up,” Parker comments. He's sitting across from Cow, the two of them seemingly having a nice conversation—right until the roof suddenly caves in.

Sharp crashes through it with a huge grin, his hair sticking up in every direction with twigs and leaves tangled in it. Cow blinks down at the man sprawled on the floor. “Hi, Parker. Hi, Cow. Where's Jude?” Sharp asks.

Cow glances at Parker before looking back at Sharp. “He's off the server right now. I think he's with Shadow.”

Then Sharp furrows his brows, trying to look serious. But fails because of how he's looking at the moment. “I need your help—both of you.”

“Help with what?” Cow asks. “For Jude, of course. Jude's been ignoring Sharp for months now,” Parker comments without looking up from the book he's already opened.

Sharp pouts. “It's not just months! It's almost a year!”

“Dude, it's barely been three months,” Parker sighs. “It feels like almost a year,” Sharp huffs.

Parker rolls his eyes before giving Sharp a serious look. It isn't every day Parker willingly meets someone's gaze; everyone knows how uncomfortable eye contact makes him. “Sharp, aren't you tired of chasing after him?” Parker asks, tilting his head.

Sharp only pouts harder, crossing his arms over his chest. “I'm not tired. I need your help, guys. Give me another idea on how I can get Jude to talk to me. I'll explain the trap and then apologize for betraying him!”

Cow winces. “I think you've got that backwards. You should probably apologize for betraying him first, then explain the trap.” Sharp lets out a quiet, “Oh... oh!” before nodding enthusiastically. “You're right. Sorry first, then explain the amazing trap I made to make him proud!”

Parker buries his face in his palm with a muffled, “Oh my God.”

Which is how Sharp ends up invited over to Cow's house with Parker, forming a temporary, uneasy alliance with the enderman and cow hybrid. Cow is tidying up the place to accommodate Sharp while the latter has been forcibly sat down on the couch—though that only lasts a few seconds before Sharp springs back to his feet and starts pacing, already wearing a groove into the floor.

“So I was thinking... maybe you guys can come up with a plan where Jude has no choice but to talk to me. He can't run away anymore!” Sharp explains. “That sounds like a great idea,” Cow says flatly.

Sharp completely misses the sarcasm. “I know, right?!” Parker groans, throwing his head back against the couch. “Cow was being fucking sarcastic, Sharp.” Sharp's excited smile immediately falls.

“That's the worst plan I've ever heard,” Parker continues with a heavy sigh, sitting back up. “Don't you have anything else in your pockets or something?”

Sharp hums, trying to think.

Other than trapping Jude while he's naked so Sharp could force him to listen—which, admittedly, probably wasn't the best idea—he had thought about asking Jude out to dinner and cooking for him instead. Maybe that would get Jude's attention.

Sharp isn't exactly a master chef, but he can cook! He's made food for himself plenty of times while playing solo, and it's always been great. Sure, Tai and everyone else constantly complain about his cooking being terrible, but what do they know?

“Maybe I can ask Jude to dinner and cook for him!” Sharp says. Both Cow and Parker immediately pull identical faces. “Ugh...”

Sharp looks between them. “What? I can cook! Why do you both sound so disgusted? I'm offended!” Cow glances at Parker, silently waiting for him to answer, but Parker already looks slightly green at the mere thought of Sharp cooking for Jude—and probably giving him food poisoning by accident.

“Sharp... I don't know if anyone's told you this, but you genuinely can't cook even if your life depended on it,” Cow says. Sharp gasps in horror. He's not that bad! He can cook! He's never even made himself sick with his own food. “My food is great! Above average, even!” Sharp huffs.

Parker snorts. “You mean barely average? Look, dude, that won't work. First, Jude's definitely going to know something's up if he sees me and Cow working together. He's paranoid like that. And second... you might actually kill him with your cooking.”

Meanwhile, Cow rubs his chin, already trying to come up with a better way to help Sharp.

Sharp groans dramatically, glaring at Parker and resisting the urge to kick him. “Why are you so rude? You're such a meanie, Parker. No wonder Jude's your friend. Are all trappers this mean?” Parker simply rolls his eyes.

Then Cow suddenly slams a fist into his palm.

“Wait! I got an idea!” Cow says, making both Parker and Sharp turn to him. “What if, instead of trapping Jude and forcing him to talk to you... you just give him gifts? Like baking him a cake. Jude's actually got a sweet tooth. He really likes carrot cake, carrot cupcakes, and carrot cookies. No way he'll turn down free food.”

Cow's suggestion makes Parker nod. “He does, but we don't even know if Sharp can fucking bake. He's already shit with a furnace—imagine him with a stove and baking supplies.” He glances at Sharp, whose face lights up with excitement before immediately falling at Parker's comment.

“Okay, first of all, Cow—I really like that plan! I know that too! I remember him mentioning it once!” Sharp grins, and Cow seems smug as he rolls his eyes. “We should totally do it. And second of all, Parker, why are you being such a meanie?” Sharp pouts, making Parker shrug.

“Well... Parker isn't lying,” Cow snorts. “We've never seen you bake anything before. Have you at least crafted a cake?”

“Uhm...” Sharp hums, genuinely thinking. Has he? Probably not. He can make golden apples and golden carrots really well, but... “Not really.”

Cow and Parker glance at each other. “Yeah, that's not surprising,” they both say at the exact same time. “But you guys definitely have, right? Then help me! I'll grind materials for you both!” Sharp says.

Both hybrids visibly flinch. “What? Us?” they ask in unison once again, looking at each other before turning back to Sharp.

“Uh...” Cow starts, his eyes suddenly widening. “Wait, did I hear you say you'd grind for us?”

Sharp nods eagerly. He's done it before. He'll do it again. Just to get Jude to want to talk to him again, he'd do it as many times as necessary. It's not like he has much else going on anymore besides trying to find a way back into Jude's good graces. He can't even bring himself to think about PvP with anyone else.

“Is that true?” Cow asks, glancing at Parker. “He helped me gather materials for my kingdom,” Parker confirms. “It's legit.”

Cow's eyes immediately light up. “I need a ton of materials for a new trap I'm planning,” he says, and Sharp grins. Perfect. He could gather everything Cow needed, and in return, Cow would help him bake.

“Honestly, Cow's a much better baker than me. He can teach you,” Parker says. “Oh no, no.” Cow immediately grabs Parker by his shoulder “You're helping too. All of us are making everything I just listed—cake, cookies, and cupcakes. No one's getting out of this.” Parker visibly blanches when he said those words

“So what do you want as payback?” Sharp asks. “Anything for your... caca kingdom?” The moment Sharp mentions his caca kingdom, Parker's eyes light up too, a small grin spreading across his face. “I guess I do need a lot of leaf litter,” he admits. “I'm planning to spread it around spawn. I want you to help me with that too.”

Sharp nods without hesitation. “Alright, shake on it.” He holds out his hand, and both of them shake it at the same time.

“Pleasure doing business with you two,” Sharp says with a grin.

Even though, in the end, it feels like he's the one getting the shorter end of the deal. Aside from learning how to bake—and hopefully making something Jude would actually accept—he'd be the one grinding all the materials while the three of them baked together.

[...]

Unfortunately, fully gaining Cow's trust meant doing Sharp's part of the deal first before any of the baking shenanigans could happen. Which meant another few days—or rather, a full-blown week—of grinding materials for Cow, passing out in random caves just to get a few minutes of microsleep, and forgetting to eat. He's pretty sure he ended up eating Rotten Flesh a few times because he was too deep underground to bother climbing back up for food, and he hadn't brought his ender chest since he needed every bit of inventory space he could get.

Cow seems genuinely surprised when Sharp returns to his base with fifteen shulker boxes stuffed full of materials, looking like hell had rolled over him. His eyes are tired and dull, he keeps yawning between every other sentence, and it's been about two days since he'd properly cleaned his hair, leaving it dusty with loose strands poking out of the braid pinned behind his head.

"Wow... I didn't think you'd actually do it," Cow says.

"Part of my..." Sharp yawns. "Deal." His teeth clack together as Cow stares at him before opening every shulker box to make sure Sharp had actually completed his side of the bargain without cheating. Which he didn't, thank you very much. This was completely his hard work and hard work only.

After checking that everything was done properly, Cow promptly kicked Sharp out so he could prepare for the baking part of their deal, planning to hop off the server to buy baking tools and ingredients.

The next thing on Sharp's list was helping Parker with his, uh... caca kingdom.

Which meant spending three whole days gathering leaf litter for Parker, to the point that Sharp was pretty sure everything within three thousand blocks of spawn had been completely stripped clean. He'd picked up and mined every single piece he could find until his back ached from crouching over and stuffing it all into his inventory.

"This is going to be so good," Parker snickers.

The two of them scatter leaf litter across the grass around spawn under the cover of night. Everyone else is dead asleep, which means they can pretty much do whatever they want as long as they stay invisible and keep reasonably quiet. Sharp can't lie—this prank is kind of fucking hilarious, and the whole caca kingdom thing is honestly starting to grow on him.

Tai's reaction is going to be priceless. "Tai's going to be so mad. I want to see his reaction," Sharp giggles under his breath, and Parker does the same. "Me too. But I want to see everyone's reaction when they wake up and everything's covered in leaf litter."

Parker snickers, and Sharp joins in. "Man, I've always hated this shit, but now I finally see its true purpose." Parker has to bite back another laugh as they keep working.

They even go as far as hauling leaf litter into the colosseum and covering practically the entire place with it. Spending the whole night doing it is honestly pretty fun, though by the time morning rolls around Sharp has become so sluggish from exhaustion that Nufuli and Leekleek manage to get the drop on him.

It's kind of annoying. Sharp isn't really in the mood to fight—he hasn't been for a while now—and he's so fucking tired that it's painfully obvious. Leek even points it out... then still helps Nufuli drop him.

What a pair of third-party cross-teamers.

Bastards.

conexion was slain by Nufuli

<leekleek> ???????????????????

<Nufuli> ????????????

<conexion> bro that wasnt fucking fair

<conexion> what the fuck

<conexion> i was tired and shit bro why the fuck would you guys drop me????

<leekleek> bro is reasoning out the fact that he dropped from a simple 2v1

<conexion> im not, you asshole, im fucking tired as shit and i told you two i dont wanna fight

<Nufuli> nah man you're just a sore loser, you're washed as fuck

<conexion> oh fuck you two

Sharp groans as he lies on his bed. He doesn't even want to get his Strength and armor back. It's not like he's lacking Strength—he has more stored in his ender chest, and when he's feeling more energetic and motivated to fight, he can always take it back from Nufuli anytime, anywhere. But right now, he's just really tired. His eyes burn, his shoulders have been aching for weeks, and he hasn't really been sleeping well even before he started doing his part of the deal. In fact, the deal did help him make good use of all that sleepless free time at night.

But it's just...

Ever since Jude stopped talking to him and responding to his messages, Sharp's been having an even harder time sleeping. He must've gotten used to sharing the same bed with Jude ever since they teamed up. Since Jude was fucking stingy with him, the two of them always ended up sharing Jude's single bed whenever one of them got hurt or the other was too tired to make it home.

And without Jude beside him—breathing, snoring, and constantly moving around—Sharp can't seem to calm down. He's gotten used to the warmth of Jude's body, the weight of him flopped over Sharp's arm, and even the fact that Jude sometimes kicked in his sleep. Sharp has been kicked far too many times to count, and now that he's gotten used to it... he kind of misses waking up to a random kick in the middle of the night.

Ugh. The sooner he fixes their relationship—their friendship? Sharp doesn't even know what to call it. Jude never outright called Sharp his friend, so Sharp doesn't really know what to call himself. But one thing's for sure: Jude isn't really an enemy. More like... hmm... a playmate?

Out of everyone, Jude's the only one who doesn't really care about taking Sharp's Strength unless he specifically wants to fuck with him. That's why Sharp enjoys playing or fighting with Jude more than anyone else. He never has to take it seriously or worry about losing his Strength, because at the end of the day, Jude knows his own limits and everyone else's. He'd usually give people their stuff back just so he could keep messing with them twenty-four seven.

Sharp really, really, really wants to fix this.

He really does.

He just wishes Jude would make it a little easier. He's never seen Jude like this before, and it's... uncomfortable, seeing a side of him Sharp's never been introduced to. Parker seems fine with it, but then again, Parker's known Jude for a long time. Sharp's barely known him at all. He regrets that a little.

But then again... no one really knew Sharp either. It's only fair.

Sharp sighs, lying on his bed and staring up at the ceiling, feeling that same heavy, unmotivated pull in his bones that wants to swallow him whole and keep him from moving. He really hates this feeling. It feels like darkness is trying to drag him under. He doesn't even know how to explain it—hell, he couldn't even explain it to Twirps, who tried to motivate him to get out of bed last month. All Sharp could ever say was that he was just really tired.

But it isn't as bad as it used to be.

Not anymore. Now he has a chance to fix things with Jude.

Cow and Parker are helping him, too, which is really nice. He's going to sleep for today, then head over to Cow's base tomorrow for the baking session.

This is gonna go great. Definitely.

Suddenly, Sharp's communicator pings. A DM notification.

For one brief, hopeful moment, he thinks maybe Jude finally unblocked him. He scrambles to open it, only to find a message from Puqi instead. Sharp's face falls. He flops face-first into his pillow, his communicator hanging loosely in his hand.

...Well. He definitely got his hopes up a little too much.

<Puqi> hey sharpness!

<Puqi> you up? Is it morning there in Strength?

<Puqi> have you thought about my offer teehee

<conexion> yo puqi :D, yeah its afternoon here in Strength

<conexion> im still kinda thinking about it, ive been busy for the past few days

<Puqi> oooo

<Puqi> yeah its fine

<Puqi> what are you up to anyways? Is Strength as what they say?

<conexion> ?

<Puqi> that its just a bunch of people killing each other for no reason

<Puqi> i heard a lot, Bliss is like that too if thats what you're after

<conexion> it sounds like you're advertising lol

<Puqi> in a way I am…

<Puqi> i want to team up with strong people, you know that, that's why im asking you to join my server and stuff

<conexion> hmmm yea ik, ive heard a lot about you and your server, i really like the plugins with the crystals and other stuff

<Puqi> really? thanks!!! you'll enjoy it here, there's a lot of cool stuff here that me and my mods added

<conexion> thats really cool

<conexion> i want to try out the crystals

<Puqi> you can hop in the server, i actually alr got you listed since i want to show you around, a lot of people here wants to see you too

<Puqi> the amazing Sharpness Conexion

<conexion> omg really….???

<conexion> thats crazy….. omg…

<conexion> but im not good…. idk where you heard that

<Puqi> woah i thought you'd be showing off and agreeing

<Puqi> mugm told me lots about you and how much of a sword demon you are, and youre apparently really arrogant about it

<conexion> LOL

<conexion> he said that?

<conexion> :((( im not arrogant, thats rude, mugm's a meanie

<Puqi> XD

<Puqi> no lowk we're really excited to have you here, i swear, im pretty sure some of us alr thought you're gonna join and made banners to greet you and shit

<conexion> wow…

<conexion> uhmmmmmmmm

<Puqi> no rush!!!!

<conexion> yeah ikik

<conexion> i just got some issues atm and i cant decide yet if i can come, but when i fix this ill come there straight away and you can introduce me to your members :DDD

<Puqi> frickin awesome sauceeee, sure!!! I hope whatever problem you're experiencing get fixed. I do hear that its really stressful there

<conexion> a bit a bit

<Puqi> its also stressful here as well LOL

<Puqi> but the good kind ifykwim

<conexion> …. i dont (꒪▿꒪)

<Puqi> SKSJDALKDJSALDK im kidding, alr i gotta go now, war is coming again, its probably good youre not joining now LOL

<conexion> OH pffffff

<Puqi> byeee ttyl!!

<conexion> bye bye!

Not that Sharp is lying—well, he kind of is—but if he does manage to fix things with Jude, he does plan to look around Bliss and maybe offer Puqi a temporary guest spot instead of a permanent place on the server. He's not really interested in switching servers, not unless Tai bans him, which is impossible because, as bloodthirsty as Sharp is, he's never actually done anything that breaks the rules.

Sharp yawns again, drops the communicator beside him, then rolls onto his side, burrowing under his blankets as he closes his eyes. Tomorrow is a new day—hopefully it'll work out in his favor, and Jude will finally give him a chance to apologize... and maybe even forgive him.

[...]

It is kind of going well. In a way, Cow is carrying most of the weight while Parker backs him up, and Sharp... yeah, uh—he's trying his best. Somehow, reading Jude's notebook full of traps felt way easier than baking, because apparently baking is more confusing and has way more steps than connecting redstone to a sticky piston. Like, what the fuck?

Earlier, Sharp really did want to help, but the first batch of cookies was a complete failure because he'd mistaken the salt for the sugar and poured an entire cup of salt into the batter, which neither Cow nor Parker noticed because they were too busy bickering over the carrots. When they finally finished baking them, Parker had Cow taste-test one first. Cow immediately spat it out before promptly throwing up because it was too fucking salty.

It wasn't on purpose! It's not Sharp's fault that salt and sugar look exactly the same! So now he's basically banned from helping beyond passing things around or standing there watching Parker and Cow do all the work themselves.

"Look, okay, I say let's make it red," Parker says.

"Purple should work for Jude. I mean, he loves purple," Cow counters.

The two of them continue arguing for what feels like the fifth time, this time over the icing color, while Sharp leans against the kitchen island, staring down at the cooled cake in front of him.

It smells really nice—Cow did an amazing job. Sharp never even knew Cow was this good at baking. He'd managed to sneak one cupcake and one cookie earlier, and they both tasted fucking incredible. Sadly, he can't taste the cake since it's all for Jude, which is fine, of course.

"I say red. It's a typical cake, let's just use white and red, man," Parker insists.

Cow groans, leaning back with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "Parker, this is for Jude. Can't we at least make the effort to make it purple?"

"Jude isn't even purple—he's bluish-purple, at least. Have you properly looked at his hair and fur?"

Cow grumbles under his breath while Sharp watches the two of them, his head turning back and forth like he's watching a tennis match.

Why are they even fighting over the color?

"Just make it purple-blue, then. Why are you guys arguing about this so hard?" Sharp finally says.

Both Parker and Cow immediately fall silent, glancing over at Sharp as though they'd completely forgotten he was even there. They each take an awkward step back from one another.

Cow pats himself on the shoulder, brushing off nonexistent dust. "Purple-blue it is," he says before turning right back to work.

Sharp and Parker exchange a look. Sharp simply shrugs, while Parker pulls an exaggerated face and gestures toward Cow with an annoyed expression.

After they finish icing the cake and stick it in the fridge, the three of them move into Cow's living room to do some arts and crafts, making gift boxes for the cake, cookies, and cupcakes. Sharp works on the cake box, drawing little stars and hearts across it, along with a rabbit doodle and a stick-figure version of himself standing beside it. Meanwhile, Parker and Cow work on the larger boxes for the cookies and cupcakes.

"You should consider writing a letter," Cow says as he folds one of the boxes, slicing the cardboard cleanly with a knife.

Sharp looks up from his doodles. "A letter?"

Cow nods. "Yeah. A sorry letter to go with everything. Here." He grabs a sheet of paper from the table beside him and hands it over. "Write whatever you need. You'll be leaving this in front of his base anyway."

"Why can't I just give it to him outright?" Sharp asks.

"The chances of Jude not taking it and embarrassing you by throwing it right back in your face are... about eighty-nine percent, my guy," Parker comments.

Sharp glances over at him with a frown. Was it really that high? "I guess..." he mutters, taking the paper from Cow before picking up a quill, trying to think of what to write.

He could write an apology... but he'd never really been the type to say things through paper or text. He'd much rather apologize face-to-face. Still, Parker and Cow had a point. He couldn't exactly hand the gifts to Jude himself when there was a pretty good chance Jude wouldn't even accept them.

Maybe he doesn't need to write an apology. Maybe something funny would soften Jude's anger instead. "I don't want to apologize through paper. I want to do it face-to-face. What if I write a joke instead?" Sharp asks, looking back up at Cow.

"I guess you can." Cow shrugs. Sharp grins immediately, already having the perfect joke in mind.

hi judeyy :DDD, i got some rabbit jokes for you! i hope you like it :)

1. how does rabbits gets tantrum? he gets hopping mad!

2. what did the rabbit say to his wife when she got mad? no bunny compares to you

3. where do sick rabbits go? to the hopspital

4. what do rabbits use to dry their hair/fur? duh a hare dryer

5. what is a bunny's motto? dont be mad, be hoppy :D

thats all i got judey, sorry >o<, i hope you like the food! i know you got a sweet tooth and you really love carrots

"What the fuck is this?" Parker snorts as he reads the paper Sharp stuck on top of the box while Cow finishes boxing up the cake.

"It's rabbit jokes. I searched them up earlier," Sharp says.

"That is so corny." Cow leans over to look as well, and Sharp flushes a little. Is it really? Does that mean Jude won't like it?

"Is it not good? I can change it." Sharp reaches for the paper, but Parker immediately slaps his hand away.

"No, it's okay. Don't listen to Cow. Jude will like this," Parker says, and Sharp lets out a sigh of relief as Cow raises a brow.

"It is corny, but... yeah, I guess Jude would dig it," Cow sighs with a shrug.

Sharp grins at that, his heart soaring as they all get back to work. Parker even brings over a bow—though it's red, earning a glare from Cow—but they tie it around the box anyway. Once everything is ready, the three of them sneak back toward spawn. They could've traveled through the Nether, but that would've melted the icing on the cake, and if that happened, their whole plan would fall apart.

So boating across the water and walking it is.

The long trip also gives Sharp plenty of time to learn more about Cow and Parker. Cow tells him how he and Jude met through Shadow—the same person who taught Jude how to trap. Parker, meanwhile, met Cow through Jude.

Then Cow starts talking about how the four of them would often hop onto random servers in disguise just to trap people and practice their skills.

Sharp didn't think trapping ran that deep, but apparently it did, because they literally went out of their way to practice multiple times a day. They even kept tallies of who the best trapper was.

So far, Shadow is in first place. Parker and Jude are tied for second, while Cow sits in third since he hasn't joined their games much lately. Apparently Bitzel sometimes joins them too, along with Fruit and Godis, adding their names to the tally.

It's like a whole family of trappers. It's interesting finding out Jude has that many friends outside of Strength. For a while, Sharp honestly thought Parker was the only one.

"What about you?" Cow asks, glancing over at Sharp, who's absentmindedly dragging the tip of his sword across the grass, leaving a thin trail of dirt behind him.

"Huh? What about me?" Sharp asks, looking up.

"You got anything you do outside the server? Aside from staying here?" Cow asks.

"Uhm..." Sharp trails off, looking away.

"He stays here. Like, twenty-four seven," Parker answers for him and Sharp flushes at that. "I don't have much to do outside," he admits, and Cow hums thoughtfully. "No one to practice PvP with besides the people here on Strength?"

Sharp slides his sword back into its sheath. "Not really."

Cow gives him a look, while Parker just wears the expression of someone who already knew the answer. "No friends to hang out with on other servers?" Cow asks.

Sharp shrugs. Sometimes he and Tai would hop onto another server to spar, but they could just as easily do that on Strength, so it barely ever happened. Maybe once or twice. He can't even remember the details since it was just fighting, except this time there wasn't any Strength drama involved.

"Eh." Sharp shrugs again. Cow blinks at him before stopping in place. Parker and Sharp stop as well. "That's just sad, man," Cow comments. Sharp flushes under his gaze. So what if he doesn't have friends to play with like Jude? It's not like it matters...

Though, now that Cow pointed it out, it did open Sharp's eyes a little to just how alone he actually was.

Almost everyone on the server came in pairs, and if they didn't, they at least knew each other from another server. Sharp barely knew anyone. As far as he was concerned, he'd probably crossed paths with a few of them years ago but never actually talked to them. Then he joined Strength and finally got the chance to fight them and get to know them.

He was probably the only person on the server who'd joined without already knowing someone. That was... actually kind of depressing. "It's not that bad. I just don't know anyone outside of here," Sharp says with a pout as they start walking again.

"Bro, you really are a friendless chud," Parker snorts. Sharp juts out his bottom lip at that.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, at least you've got friends here in Strength," Cow says with a shrug. Sharp glances over at him. He does? "Uh... really? That's kind of hard to believe..." Sharp says, narrowing his eyes.

Cow snorts, shaking his head. "Yeah, I know it doesn't seem like it. But you're part of Strength. Everyone here cares about each other. You know how it is."

Sharp simply hums in response.

"You should consider joining us," Cow says. Parker immediately slaps him on the arm, giving him a bewildered look at the offer, while Sharp swivels toward Cow in surprise. "What? Really?" Sharp asks with a grin.

"Really, Cow?" Parker echoes, raising a brow. Cow shrugs. "What? Can't I ask the poor guy to join us? Clearly he's never played a single battle royale in Hoplite. Come on, that's just pure depressing." He glances back at Sharp. "Have you even played in teams yet?"

Sharp shrugs. "I don't really trust anyone easily. It's hard to join teams," he admits softly. Cow gives Parker a pointed look and a slight tilt of his head. Parker just rolls his eyes before finally nodding. "Yeah, okay. If you finally get on Jude's good side, then you can join us," Parker groans. Sharp beams. "Yes! Okay! Sure, of course, let's go!" He skips ahead of both Cow and Parker.

Cow laughs under his breath while Parker only sighs, glancing at Cow again. Cow simply returns a neutral smile.

By the time they make it back to spawn and reach Jude's base, thankfully Jude is still off the server. That means they can leave the boxes inside his house and wait for him to log back in to see his reaction.

"Where should we hide?" Cow asks, scanning the walls.

Sharp spots the roof pillars and immediately starts towering up with dirt. Parker and Cow quickly follow after him, cleaning up the dirt behind them as they break through the pillars and the wall before replacing the opening with stairs. The three of them duck into the cramped space above the ceiling, squeezed together in a strange tangle of limbs inside a tiny two-by-two room.

For a moment, they simply kneel there, sharing a single peephole. Then Sharp starts giggling. Cow and Parker both turn to him. "What the hell are you laughing at?" Cow asks.

"Sorry," Sharp snorts. "This reminds me of when Jude was stalking Tai, and Tai caught him because apparently his nose was too big and it was super noticeable from the ceiling." Sharp wipes away a tear as Parker cracks a grin.

Cow raises a brow, looking thoroughly confused by the implication that Jude was stalking Tai for no reason. "Yeah, that happened," Parker confirms after catching Cow's questioning glance, nodding with a loud snort.

Sharp covers his mouth as another fit of laughter escapes him. "This is also kind of killing me because we're all sharing one peephole for absolutely no reason." Anyone outside could probably hear them. Thank Notch Jude was off the server, or their cover would've already been blown. "Resource saving. It's a thing, you should consider trying it sometimes." Parker deadpans.

At that exact moment, all three communicators ping. They scramble to check them, but Cow gets his out first. Jude had finally joined.

"Holy shi—" Sharp barely gets the words out before both Parker and Cow clap hands over his mouth. Footsteps. Jude comes down the stairs, humming quietly to himself. The three of them instantly duck back toward the peephole as Jude pauses upon seeing the boxes sitting on the table. He backtracks just as he was about to head into his room.

"What in the world?" Jude mutters. Sharp practically beams at the normal tone in Jude's voice. It's been so long since he'd heard Jude sound like... well, Jude. Not angry. Not cold. Just normal. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed hearing that voice. He just wishes Jude would use that tone with him instead of the angry one.

Unfortunately, the table sits directly beneath the spot Sharp chose, meaning all they can see is Jude's back. "Oh, bro, why did you pick this angle?" Cow mutters.

The three of them crane their necks, trying to catch a glimpse of Jude's face as he slides the ribbon off the box. A second later, he notices the letter Sharp stuck to the top and begins reading it.

"He's reading it..." Sharp whispers, nearly breathless. "Does he like it?" Eager to see Jude's reaction, Sharp unintentionally shoves both Parker and Cow aside. "Wait, I can't see. Dude—your fur is in my mouth" Parker complains, sputtering as Cow's ear gets shoved into his face. His mouth fills with fur while Sharp greedily hogs the entire peephole.

Jude opens the cake box. Inside is the icing decoration—a very wobbly bunny that Sharp had proudly drawn himself. They'd added it at the last second because the cake had looked too empty.

"I think he likes it," Parker mumbles beside him. Sharp grins. Then the smile disappears. Jude lifts the cake box... and drops it onto the floor. He stomps on it. Again and againn and again.

The three of them flinch. Jude does the same to the cookies. Then the cupcakes. Finally, he dumps a bucket of lava over the ruined desserts, watches them burn, scoops the lava back into the bucket, and walks away as though he hadn't just destroyed everything.

"He... burned it," Cow says quietly once he finally manages to squeeze a look through the hole.

Sharp slowly sits back on his heels, too stunned to move. Beside him, Parker and Cow fall completely silent. "I think we should've seen it coming," Parker whispers, mostly to Cow who shoves him off to shut him up.

Sharp only blinks. Disappointment curls painfully in his chest. Jude burned it.

4.

A real swordsman, even when beaten down repeatedly, does not give up. In fact, they should never give up. Ever. Sharp himself has gone through countless trials and tribulations, meeting swordsmen far better than him who refused to train him directly, choosing instead to impart their knowledge through a single fight—one where Sharp almost always ended up eating dirt, of course.

But he learned to pick himself back up, accept every lesson they were willing to give, and keep coming back for more.

And look at where he is now—

conexion was slain by Flowtives

<Flowtives> bro you are so washed

<conexion> FUCK

<conexion> I WAS HAVING A NICE DAY YOU BITCH

<itsN00b> holy shit that was the quickest drop ive ever seen

<itsN00b> sharp what the hell was that LOL

<conexion> that doesnt count, give me my strength back

Sharp rushed back to spawn, stomping loudly as he passed by Dolphin, who seemed to be talking with Godis. The two of them glanced over at him before turning back to each other and resuming their conversation. When Sharp spotted Flow laughing with Noob while Seo was off to the side picking up all of Sharp's things from the floor, looting them up like the big assholes the three of them were, Sharp's face heated with an anger he'd thought he'd lost in the middle of his crazy, unmotivated streak.

"Flow! Give me my Strength back!" Sharp yelled. Flow turned and grinned at him, leaning casually against his sword. "Hey, Sharpy." He winked.

Sharp grit his teeth and shoved a hand against Flow's chest. "That was unfair! You said it was a 1v1! Noob helped you!" He shot Noob an accusing glare, making the other player's brows shoot up. "I didn't," Noob said, raising both hands.

Sharp could quite literally smell the Invisibility potion on Noob's hands and breath. This fucker. Did they think he was that stupid? "He didn't," Flow echoed.

Sharp glared at the both of them. "No, I saw the invis particles. Don't gaslight me, you motherfuckers. Give me back my Strength, and we can fight again to see who's actually better!" He stomped a foot.

Flow only grinned wider. "I won fair and square, Sharp. No one helped me. You're just really fucking washed." He leaned over and blew a raspberry right into Sharp's face.

Sharp recoiled, his face twisting with irritation, tempted to sock Flow in the face before forcing himself to stop.

He was technically naked. He'd set his spawn here because Flow wanted to 1v1 him—hell, Flow had even DM'd him last night to set it up. Of course Sharp had accepted. Twirps had been nagging him to get out of bed and stop rotting in it, which was exactly what he'd been doing for the past four days after watching Jude stomp on the cake and burn everything Cow and Parker had helped make.

It was hard to admit, but... It had been really disheartening.

That food had been Jude's favorite, yet Sharp had tied it so closely to himself that Jude had been petty enough to reject it outright and even trash it. Cow and Parker hadn't said anything to him afterward, but Sharp already knew what was running through their heads.

Jude definitely wasn't going to forgive him. And Sharp knew he wasn't supposed to give up. A good swordsman never gave up.

But he was... He was scared, okay?

He was scared of forcing things. Knowing Jude, he'd definitely blow up, maybe even leave the server entirely, and Sharp didn't want that. He didn't want to lose the chance to ever see Jude again. He just needed a better plan.

The problem was he'd been so unbelievably unmotivated these past few days that he could barely find the energy to get out of bed, sometimes even to eat.

Everything that required him to simply... live... It all felt like such a drag.

"That was an unfair fight. You had outside help, and I didn't," Sharp argued. "Yeah, you're tripping balls, bro. I had no outside help at all." Flow rolled his eyes while Noob giggled beside him.

Sharp huffed. "Can't you just give me my Strength back? Forget my stuff—I need my Strength back. I already got dropped by Nufuli. Come on, man, I'm on three." He clasped his hands together pleadingly.

Normally, he wouldn't beg—he still have spare Strength in his ender chest, but how long can that last him if he's easily getting dropped left and right? He really needed that Strength. Flow was kind of right. He had been dropping way too easily lately and was looking a little washed...

Well, maybe more than a little. But the point still stood. He needed his Strength back so he could at least stay strong while he figured out what to do about Jude. Flow seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. He actually took a step back as Sharp held his clasped hands out toward him.

"Woah, woah. Pleading already? Come on, Sharp. That seems pretty low for you." He smirked.

Sharp tried not to sneer—or throw a punch—because Flow was really starting to piss him off. On a normal day, he'd probably just mess with Flow until he got his Strength back, but right now...

Right now he felt so many strange emotions all at once. Like someone had grabbed him by the ankles, flipped him upside down, and shaken everything loose inside him. He hated that feeling. It felt wrong.

Jude would've made him feel right again.

"Oh my God, desperation has never looked good on you, bro." Noob hid a snicker behind his fist. Sharp swallowed down the embarrassment climbing up his throat. "Please, Flow... just give me my Strength back. I really need it. Please, dude."

Flow grins. "Hey, I need it too, and I won against you, so…" He shrugs. "I don't think I'd easily give it back—not unless you've got something much better on you. But when I looked through your loot? God, your armor's already low on durability, you've got shit enchantments on all of it, weapons included, not even a full stack of golden apples, no healing either! What did you expect when you walked into that fight, Sharp?" He tilts his head with a grin as Sharp closes his eyes, swallowing hard.

Yeah, he has been kind of disorganized with his gear, and it's not really a surprise since he's been so busy with the Jude issue and feeling unmotivated afterward. His ender chest is practically empty of supplies. Cow had even offered him access to his villagers a while ago because, apparently, when Sharp had visited his place and dumped all his shit into Cow's storage, Cow had taken one look at his gear and assumed he was fucking poor as hell. Which is kind of true, but whatever.

But it just makes him look really... stupid and washed up—which Sharp absolutely hates having pointed out to his face and branded onto his forehead, because he isn't washed up! He's just... unmotivated. And trust him, being unmotivated as a good swordsman is the worst kind of evil you have to go through.

It's always that invisible barrier holding him back.

"Fuck you, man," Sharp says, glaring straight at Flow. If looks could kill, he wishes lasers would shoot out of his eyes and cave Flow's skull in.

"Hey—I got your Strength. You can't say that to me. Fine, deal's off." Flow starts to walk away, only for Sharp to grab his wrist tightly.

"Wait! Wait—okay, fine! I'll do anything you want, anything! Just please promise you'll give me my Strength back. Flow, please, come on. I gave you yours when you needed it," Sharp says, and Flow looks back at him.

For a moment, he actually seems to be thinking about it. Then his eyes light up. "I know something you might like. I heard from a little bird about your little predicament," he says, and Sharp just lets out a confused noise.

"Wha—?" he says dumbly. Flow only grins, glancing over at Noob and then Seo, both of whom have been quietly watching the conversation unfold.

"Look, we caught a little something earlier since he's also really desperate for something—just like you, of course. It's a surprise, though, but I think you'll like it since we're helping you." Flow's eyes glint, and Sharp tilts his head.

What?

[…]

Flow threw him into some kind of dark room that Sharp can only assume is made of obsidian from how slightly cold and smooth the walls feel beneath his fingertips. He can't see a single damn thing. He runs a hand along the wall—there's no Mining Fatigue, so at least that means Flow is planning to let him out eventually. If not, Sharp can always kill himself and respawn. He didn't set his spawn anywhere near this weird dark box.

"Flow?" Sharp calls out again, mostly confused about why he's here. A gasp suddenly echoes from the corner of the room.

Sharp flinches, squinting through the darkness until he catches the faint outline of someone sitting there, knees drawn up. Their ears are perked up... familiar ears. And beneath the stale scent of stone is the unmistakable smell of redstone and slime.

"Jude?" Sharp asks, unable to keep the excitement from bleeding into his voice as he blindly heads toward where he thinks Jude is.

A snarl cuts him off. "Take one more step and I'm biting your hand off." It is Jude. But, as always, he sounds really fucking mad.

"Ju-Jude." Sharp's voice cracks as he stops in his tracks. He still can't see Jude clearly, but as his eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, more details come into view. The furious expression fixed on him. The flattened ears. The lips pulled back into a snarl.

Sharp lowers himself against the opposite wall instead, leaving two blocks of space between them. "How'd you get trapped here?" he finally asks.

Jude scoffs. "I didn't get trapped here. I got thrown here too when—" He cuts himself off with a hiss. "Why am I even talking to an idiot like you? You can't understand shit. You're just stupid like that."

The words hit Sharp like a sword straight through the chest. He winces, a lump slowly forming in his throat.

Jude doesn't mean it. Parker said so himself—Jude says a lot of awful things when he's angry, things he doesn't really mean.

But that doesn't make them hurt any less.

Jude's just doing this to get back at me, Sharp tells himself. Nothing serious. Nothing personal. Jude doesn't actually think he's stupid... even if Sharp has done enough braindead things for people to think that.

Sharp bites the inside of his lip, trying to ignore the ache in his chest and the tightness in his throat. Across the room, Jude shifts farther into the corner, pulling his knees tighter against his chest, like he wants to be as far away from Sharp as physically possible.

"Jude—"

"Just shut the fuck up, Sharp." Jude groans. "I don't want to be here any more than you do, so for the love of Notch, will you just shut the fuck up? Because apparently you can't even do something that simple."

Sharp immediately bites his tongue. He hunches over, fidgeting nervously with his hands. He just wants to talk to Jude. Is that really so bad?

Sharp glances over again. Jude has gone still now, his breathing a little rough, as though Sharp's mere presence has somehow made an already terrible day even worse. Sharp is scared to keep talking, scared he'll push Jude over the edge—that he'll do something reckless like blowing the room apart with TNT, or worse, leave permanently just to get away from him.

But he's supposed to stop being afraid. If he really wants to fix whatever this is between him and Jude, he can't keep backing down. "Jude," Sharp tries again.

Jude lets out a sharp breath. "What did I say?"

"Can you please... just let me talk?" Sharp asks, the desperation creeping into his voice. Jude scoffs. "And you think you have the right to ask me that? After the bullshit you just pulled on me?" Sharp winces.

"That's the point, I want to apologize. That's why I've been trying my best to talk to you, but you always leave!" Sharp argues.

Jude just scoffs again, shaking his head. "Oh god, you really don't get it, do you? Do you really think I blocked you because I wanted to be chased by you? Oh, for fuck's sake, you are so fucking stupid. You really are the dumbest piece of shit in the entire universe."

Jude laughs as Sharp bites his lower lip, feeling his face and eyes heat up.

Jude doesn't mean any of that.

"Don't be such a bitch, Jude. I just want to apologize to you for real." Sharp huffs, a little grateful that the room is dark. Otherwise, Jude would see how his eyes are slowly starting to tear up.

He's never cried over something like this before—not from getting hurt physically or even getting stabbed by multiple swords—but he's always been weak against trash talk like this, the kind that pokes at his skills or his intelligence. He's always been a little self-conscious, especially about how smart he is. He knows he's slow sometimes. Sometimes he can't understand people's tone and ends up getting fooled by them.

Sometimes he just acts stupid because of some weird impulse that makes him want to do it, and before he knows it, he's already done it. It's gotten him into trouble more times than he can count, Jude included. When he'd been given a chance to prove he was trustworthy, he'd somehow thought one-upping Jude would be better, and the impulse that made him pull that lever won over his common sense.

It had been a completely brain-dead decision, and he'd even found it funny at the time, right up until he got himself killed. It wasn't until days later, when Jude completely stopped talking to him, that he realized how serious it actually was.

He can't always read the room either, and almost everyone on this damn server has called him a bot at some point. So yes, he's a little self-conscious whenever people joke about him being stupid. He can never really tell whether they're messing around or if they genuinely think he's an idiot.

Yes, sometimes his logic disappears. Yes, he's really gullible. And yes, there are plenty of moments that still haunt him late at night, the kind that make him want to slam his head into a wall and curse himself out for being so fucking stupid.

It's not just everyone else who thinks he's stupid. He thinks he's stupid too. But that doesn't mean he needs to be reminded every time.

"Now you're just being a dick," Sharp says, trying to ignore the slight shake in his voice.

"It takes one to know one, dumbfuck. I would greatly appreciate it if you'd just shut the fuck up so I can wait until Flow gets me out of this fucking box. Thank fucking you," Jude spits.

Sharp's shoulders hunch even further. He lowers his chin onto his knees, pulled tightly against his chest, and pouts. His lower lip wobbles, but he bites down on it before it can get any worse.

"Fucking bitch putting me in this stupid fucking box with a fucker like you," Jude mutters under his breath.

Sharp hears it perfectly clearly. He swallows around another lump in his throat, feeling the ice in his stomach spread. Instead, he just holds his breath as the two of them fall quiet again.

Sharp doesn't even know what to say anymore. He could probably hurl insults right back at Jude as payback, but for some reason, he just can't find it in himself to do it. Besides, now isn't exactly the best time. If he did, Jude would only get angrier, and Sharp really can't handle Jude's sharp tongue.

Parker did warn him. But, well... Sharp has always been stupid. Always fucking stupid.

Later, when the two of them finally get out, Jude doesn't hesitate. The moment he gets his gear and his strength back, he wind charges out of there, swaps his chestplate for an elytra, and flies away without so much as a glance back.

Flow snickers as he hands Sharp his own gear. "Trouble in paradise, I see. Guess my plan didn't work, huh? No talking?" Flow asks.

Sharp quietly slips his armor back on, noticing that Flow had somehow decided to repair it for him. That, at least, is a little surprising.

"That was your plan?" Sharp asks, turning to Flow with a glare.

Flow just shrugs. "I thought it would help, you know, forced proximity and stuff. I guess it didn't... So, is this a divorce for Sharplow or...?" He tilts his head.

Sharp groans. Sharplow, Sharplow, Sharplow. God, fucking Sharplow. What does that even mean?!

It's always getting brought up. At first, Sharp thought it might've been his and Jude's duo name, but it already existed before they ever teamed up, so that couldn't be it. He likes how it sounds, but Jude always gets all weird—flustered and pissed off—every time the word Sharplow gets mentioned.

And Sharp can't even admit he thinks it sounds nice because it feels like it means something, but he just feels too stupid to understand. Jude had refused to answer when he'd asked before, only calling him a massive idiot for not knowing something "so obvious." It had embarrassed Sharp enough that he'd stopped asking altogether.

He really wanted everyone to stop calling him stupid. "What does that even mean?" Sharp finally asks as he fits his helmet back on.

Flow hums distractedly, trying to balance his spear on a single finger. Sharp watches for a second before snatching it out of his hand. "Hey—"

"Sharplow," Sharp repeats. "What the fuck does that mean? And yes, I'm fucking stupid, just explain it. Simple and short so I can get out of here."

Flow's brows shoot up. "I didn't say anything."

"You were about to anyway." Sharp rolls his eyes. "Just tell me. What is Sharplow?"

Flow bursts into laughter. Sharp's narrowed stare hardens into a glare.

"Are you serious?" Flow asks once he's finally stopped laughing, wiping at the corner of his eye. Sharp shot him a dirty look at that. "Do I look like I'm joking at this time and age?" Flow grins, leaning back against the wall. "Damn, you really don't know." He crosses his arms. "It's your ship name, duh. Sharpness x JudeLow. Sharplow." He lifts both fists, bumps them together, then spreads them apart dramatically. "Boom."

"A... ship?" Sharp blinks. "Like... a boat?"

"Dude." Flow deadpans

Sharp groans tiredly, throwing his head back, why can't Flow just be straight with him? "What the fuck is a ship? I don't understand shit!"

Flow groans, rubbing a hand over his face.

"You cannot be real, Sharp. Holy fuck. A ship is like... an OTP. One True Pair. Pairing. It's basically romantic—people wanting two characters, or people, together."

Sharp slowly gapes at him. Sharplow was... a romantic pairing? He genuinely hadn't known. Was that why Jude always got flustered whenever someone said it? Was that why Tai kept using it to distract him?

"It's... like that?" Sharp trails off. "I... didn't know."

Flow snorts. "Wait, that's actually weird because I was for real sure you guys were dating." Sharp lifts his head. Dating? Him and Jude? No, that would be...

Strange?

Weird?

Sharp doesn't really know. He's never thought of Jude as anything more than... Jude. Ever since they met, Jude had simply been Jude.

Sure, Jude might be the prettiest bunny hybrid Sharp had ever seen, with the nicest fur colors imaginable, but that was just an honest observation.

Jude had the prettiest dark pink eyes Sharp had ever looked into. His voice had been annoying at first, but once you got used to it, it became strangely calming. Especially when he was explaining something—there was always this patient tone to it that made Sharp want to keep listening.

Then there were Jude's ears. They always looked impossibly fluffy. Sharp had wanted to touch them ever since they'd met. Jude had only let him once, and later let him brush them too. Sharp had never touched anything softer in his life. Not even sheep's wool came close.

So of course he wouldn't—

...

Wait a second. Aren't those thoughts... kind of romantic? Sharp had never really stopped to think about it before because... Jude might actually be the first person he'd ever thought about like this.

It's not like he goes around thinking everyone has pretty eyes or a nice voice. It's not like everyone makes his stomach flutter whenever they praise him.

Jude does. Only Jude. Whenever Jude complimented him, Sharp always felt lighter, like he could soar.

...

That was romantic, wasn't it?

"Whoa-hoh!" Flow suddenly laughs. "Looks like lover boy just had a realization!" Sharp's head snaps toward him. "In my head, you guys were either secretly dating or just mutually pining after each other." Flow grins. "But by the looks of it, you're only figuring it out now."

Sharp stares. "...Jude likes me?"

Flow gives him the most incredulous look imaginable. "Bro." He snorts. "That's the most obvious thing about Jude. He's literally had a crush on you since you guys met. Like, come on. No way you didn't notice."

Sharp instinctively tries to remember the first time he'd met Jude. It isn't difficult. He'd been one of Jude's victims, caught by one of his traps. Nothing about that encounter had seemed particularly strange... Well. Aside from the fact that, before the server had officially opened and the world border dropped, Jude had spent an awful lot of time quietly staring at him from across the lobby.

"I don't…" Sharp says slowly, biting his lower lip—which is starting to chap from how much he's been worrying at it.

"Yeah, I get you. You can be really oblivious to what's happening around you, bro. But Jude does like you, which is why I kinda expected that to work. He really must be fucking pissed at you for what you did… You do know it's not just about the betrayal, right?" Flow tilts his head slightly, peering at Sharp through the strands of his hair.

Sharp blinks. His mouth opens and closes uselessly. "I-I… no? Is it… because he likes me… and…?" he asks uncertainly, swallowing hard as Flow claps his hands together. "Yeah. That. You probably don't know how excited he'd been when you guys teamed up."

Sharp perks up at that. Jude was excited to team up with him? He thought he was the only one. Jude had always acted so cool, calm, and collected around him.

"I thought Jude didn't care! He didn't act weird!" Sharp gasps.

Flow snickers. "Come on, Jude is literally a fake I don't give a fuck-er. He's good at lying and shit. He could probably convince anyone that a pufferfish is your kid or something. Like, come on, this is Jude we're talking about." He waves the thought away.

Is this why Jude is so angry at him? He likes Sharp? That means it wasn't just Sharp having those weird thoughts about him. They'd both been feeling the same thing this whole time. So Sharp wasn't weird for thinking those totally-not-platonic thoughts about his bunny teammate.

"I—I didn't know," Sharp mutters, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Flow snorts. "Well, what do you know? You should've tried harder. Jude likes you, man, and what you did was a real asshole move. I don't usually care much about what other people do, but Jude's my homeboy and all. Him liking you was a really big step for him. I always thought he was aroace, you know? Never had any relationships or anything, and he's always been obsessed with trapping. It's like nobody could ever get through to him." Flow twirls a strand of his hair as he speaks, and Sharp unknowingly leans back against the wall, wanting to hear more about Jude.

He'd always wanted to hear anything that had to do with Jude. Back then, he never thought that was strange. But now he'd realized—far too late—that he might actually like his ex-teammate. The same teammate he'd betrayed for no reason other than his own impulsiveness and desperate need to beat him.

"But then you came along, and suddenly he's obsessed with you—and trapping you. You know what he calls you every time he sees you?" Flow asks. "It's his code word with his friends. I'm pretty sure Parker and Cow know about it too."

Sharp leans forward. "What is it?" Flow leans in as well, grinning like he's been waiting for this moment. "Gold Scar. And you know what that means?"

Sharp mentally flips through every minigame from other servers he'd ever heard of. The only thing that came to mind was that stupid battle royale server with the flying bus where everyone got dropped into a giant map and fought using modded weapons—basically just guns.

He never really liked those kinds of games. As a swordsman, Sharp rarely touched those servers. It wasn't surprising that Jude did, though. He played Hoplite, after all. Sharp shakes his head. "No, not really. I think I've heard people mention it before, but I never cared."

Flow's grin widens. "It's the rarest weapon in the game, and if you've got it, you're basically guaranteed to win. That's his code word for you, man." Flow punches Sharp lightly on the shoulder.

Sharp stumbles back, his face instantly flushing red all the way to the tips of his ears. Am I really that important to Jude? The thought fills his chest with a warm, dizzy excitement, and a shaky smile slips onto his face.

Jude really cared about him. He really did. And Sharp cared about Jude too. He'd just been too stupid to realize it. Which meant... Maybe he still had a chance to fix everything.

"It literally means you're like, the best weapon ever, man. When I first heard it, Jude must've thought I didn't get his dumb kid reference—but I did. I called him out on it so fucking fast." Flow laughs. "Then he trapped me afterward and made me promise not to tell anyone." Flow shrugs. "But I didn't, obviously. So now you know." He gives Sharp a wink.

"Oh my god," Sharp breathes.

"So I'd say..." Flow snaps his fingers with a grin. "Go get your man."

Sharp can't stop smiling. He has a chance. He really has a chance to fix things with Jude. Maybe they could even become something more than just Sharp and Jude. Maybe this whole ridiculous situation had been fate throwing him one last lifeline.

Jude liked him. Jude didn't think he was useless, or just some random nobody. He felt the same way Sharp had been feeling about him all this time.

5. 

<Puqi> hey sharpness how are you?

<conexion> hey puqi, im doing good hbu?

<Puqi> not dead yet

<conexion> loool thats good

<Puqi> think about it yet?

<conexion> uhmmmmmm

<Puqi> you do know its fine if you say no right? its okay i swear, i really just wanted to try since i saw you on the way :))))

<conexion> its not that, im really thinking about it, i swear on my good sword and my life!

<Puqi> LOL you dont have to swear on your good sword and ur life HAHAHA, i trust ya

<conexion> you do? that fast?

<Puqi> well…. why would you have to lie? besides u arent even in Bliss yet, id say the paranoia hits in two to three months

<conexion> thats so specific lolll

<Puqi> ikik but i swear im legit

<conexion> ok lol i understand that, its hard to trust people here on strength too

<Puqi> i can imagine

<Puqi> i heard Tai's a shit admit

<Puqi> kidding~

<conexion> no no run it back, i agree, tai is shit

<Puqi> LOLLLLL

<Puqi> well good news, im a really good admin and we all have safe words when things gets too heated

<conexion> safe words? for what?

<Puqi> like to stop if they want things to stop or pause. It's usually just Yellow, Green, or Red. We just base on colors mostly.

<Puqi> besides its not like everyone here came for bloodshed only, but ofc its not like its not welcomed yk, fighting and stuff

<Puqi> but sometimes it just gets too much, doesnt it happen there at Strenght?

<Puqi> it just gets too much that its overwhelming?

<conexion> um well i think so, sometimes a few players here leave to relax off server because they said it kind of messes with their head a bit

<Puqi> thats what im talking about, we do weekly round circle talks here actually, like the open panels and stuff, just so we all know we wont end up hating eachother and all that jazz

<Puqi> im telling you this because it might weird you out if you do come to check what were up to, cuz i know tai defo dont do that shit, he's lazy

<conexion> ur right, he doesnt, but that sounds really nice, it would probably work a lot better here if we had that

<Puqi> yea, but tai's pretty young and i get that he wants an anarchy server

<Puqi> like Money (?) didnt Tai grew up in that server before? its not really anarchy but you know how the crazy toll it gave to its players

<conexion> i think so

<Puqi> its not surprising he wants a server similar to that LOL

<conexion> you been invited to money before?

<Puqi> nah im not, but even if im invited, i dont want to, that's gonna ruin my mental and physical health, as much as possible i stick on one server which is here on Bliss

<conexion> yeah good call

<Puqi> you can be a perm member here even if you chose to stay on Strength if you want

<conexion> really?

<Puqi> yeahhh

<Puqi> so wanna sign your name and get a tour in a few weeks?

<conexion> hmmm

<conexion> ykw, fuck it

<conexion> sign my name pls

<Puqi> thats the spirit!!

<Puqi> alright! im sure you're going to love it here! if things gets troubling there on Strength, just hop on Bliss and I can give you access to a really nice place to look around and just relax.

<conexion> tysmmmmm

<conexion> i definitely will

<Puqi> spawn is kinda griefed though but thats basically normal in most servers

<conexion> yeah XD

[…]

It was like every single nerve in Sharp's body had come back to life and repossessed him. Flow had really activated something inside him, awakening the determination buried in his heart. Now he was completely motivated to grind for his gear again and had even made a third set just in case he got dropped again. But right now, more than anything, he was so fucking pumped to talk to Jude again. This time, maybe he could even approach it... romantically.

It was a stupid thought, since Sharp was anything but romantic. He didn't even know the names of most flowers aside from poppies, because they're what iron golems drop when they're killed and probably the only flower Sharp had ever held since he was a kid. But giving up so easily just wasn't who he was.

So that meant getting help again. Unfortunately, Parker and Cow weren't on the server, and neither was Jude—so he could only assume the three of them were out somewhere playing together. The thought sent a small pang through his chest because he wanted to join them, just like Cow had offered. Maybe if he managed to make this right, Jude would ask him to come along, and for the first time, he'd actually get to work with a good team that didn't want him to die.

That thought—getting Jude back—made him feel giddy, almost crazed. It was slightly pathetic, but at the same time, he couldn't even be bothered to care. Anyway, neither Parker nor Cow were around to help him, even though they were two of Jude's closest friends. But Sharp did have another idea. Jude had another best friend who was almost always on the server.

Godis, who, as far as Sharp was concerned, was also a fellow trapper like Jude. So of course they were friends.

Godis was a neutral member of Strength, which meant he almost always welcomed anyone to his doorstep no matter what crazy crimes they'd committed. Almost no one would touch a single strand of fur on him. Nobody was actually crazy enough to hurt Godis, and Godis himself never even raised a sword or an axe at anyone.

He was probably on Jude's best-friends list too—which meant Godis could help him.

Sharp didn't even waste time eating breakfast. He quite literally sprinted out of Twirps' base and toward Godis' before anyone could spot him crossing spawn. By the time he reached Godis' base—which had way too many fucking stairs—he was already panting, sitting on the front steps like an idiot while fanning himself with one hand.

A moment later, he heard the door open behind him followed by a curious, "Hmm?" Sharp turned to see Godis looking down at him, the dog player tilting his head, his floppy ears drooping to one side. Sharp grinned.

"Godis!" He quickly stood up, nearly losing his balance before Godis caught him by the wrist, stopping him from tumbling backward and rolling all the way down the stairs.

"I need your help," Sharp said once he'd regained his footing, clasping his hands together. Godis' brows furrowed, and he tilted his head the other way this time, his tail wagging lightly.

"I know I don't do this much, but it's about Jude—"

Before Sharp could continue, Godis clapped his paws together to get his attention, then motioned toward the open door, silently inviting him inside.

"You want me to come in?" Sharp asked.

Godis nodded eagerly.

Sharp followed him inside as Godis shut the door behind them and led him to the dining area. A plate of steak and some bread already sat on the table. Godis grabbed another plate, added more steak and bread, along with a bottle of water, and placed it in front of Sharp, who let out a confused noise.

"Wha—I don't need to eat. Thank you, but—"

Godis simply raised a paw and wagged a finger at him before sitting beside him. He motioned for Sharp to eat while he continued talking, then started digging into his own food.

"Uh... well, okay."

Sharp poked at his steak. It was cooked extremely well done, exactly how he liked it. It reminded him of how Jude would always look disgusted whenever Sharp ate meat and instead made him survive on carrot soup and mushroom stew during the time they'd been teamed up. He supposed that was one of the downsides of being partnered with an herbivore.

"You remember when me and Jude used to team up, right?" Sharp asked. Godis took a bite of his bread and nodded. "I betrayed him," Sharp admitted.

Godis let out a small huff and sighed, his ears drooping a little, but he nodded anyway to show he was still listening.

"He's really angry at me. He hasn't been talking to me at all, and he gets really mad whenever I try. Like..." Sharp sighed, absentmindedly poking at his food. "Really, really angry."

“I know it's my fault and all, so I really want to apologize to him—but everything I try just so I can talk to him always fails!” Sharp sighs heavily, banging a fist on the table. Godis frowns, letting out a small whine at that. “He's really angry at me, Godis.” Sharp sighs again, lowering his head.

Then—

“Look... I need your help, but I also have to tell you about my secret.” Sharp swallows, clasping his hands together on his lap. He knows he can trust Godis, especially with secrets. Godis is a literal neutral party, after all. Godis nods, leaning closer over the table.

“I really like Jude—and... and I think he likes me too,” Sharp whispers.

Godis' eyes widen, his ears perking up instantly. From across the table, Sharp can see his tail wagging furiously as Godis nods, repeatedly banging a paw on the table as if he wholeheartedly agrees. “You agree?” Sharp asks with an excited grin. "Yes? Yeah?!"

Godis nods again, clapping his paws together enthusiastically. “Yes! I need your help, Godis. I really want this to work. I was hoping you could help me bait him into having a date with me! Then I can finally apologize to him properly and tell him how I feel, and everything will be okay!” Sharp says.

Godis eagerly gives him two thumbs up, his tail wagging even faster behind him.

“Great! We should start now!” Sharp jumps to his feet, only for Godis to grab his wrist again and point firmly at the table, telling him to sit down and eat first. Sharp drops back into his seat with a sigh and finally digs into his food.

...Wow, he hadn't realized just how hungry he was.

He must've been so focused on Jude that he'd completely ignored it. He hadn't even eaten dinner the night before, spending the entire night wandering a thousand blocks away from spawn, pacing through the woods while trying to figure out how he was supposed to win Jude back.

After finishing breakfast, he and Godis headed out to gather everything they needed for the trap. Most of the work fell to Sharp while Godis cleared out the funneling area where Jude would be dropped, making the room look as nice as possible. Meanwhile, Sharp practically picked every flower he came across—even the wild ones—for the bouquet he wanted to give Jude. He was practically floating off the ground from excitement as he gathered everything.

“Hey, whatchu doin'?”

Sharp startles. He'd been too busy chopping down spruce after spruce to notice someone approaching. Turning around, he finds Spongs leaning against one of the trees with a grin stretched from ear to ear. He looks like he's trying to appear calm and nonchalant, but he's anything but.

Sharp lowers his axe and raises a brow. “What do you want, Spongs?” he asks. “I'm busy, so go away.” He turns back around and continues chopping as he hears Spongs push himself off the tree, snow crunching beneath his boots.

“It's not like you to willingly gather materials,” Spongs comments.

Sharp pays him no mind, cutting down more trees and grabbing sweet berries along the way. Jude will definitely like these. He can add them to the fruit basket he and Godis are planning to make. He also wants to help Godis cook the steak, but then again, like Cow and Parker always say, he's kind of shit at anything involving food.

“So?” Sharp asks when Spongs ends up standing directly behind him, practically breathing down his neck. Sharp turns around again and presses the blade of his axe against Spongs' neck, thoroughly annoyed. Instead of looking scared, Spongs only grins. “That means you're doing this for someone you really want to impress,” he says, slowly raising both hands.

Sharp steps closer, forcing Spongs backward until his back bumps against a tree trunk. A quiet oof escapes him as Sharp leans in. “That would be none of your business,” Sharp whispers beside Spongs' ear before pulling away and returning to his work.

Spongs giggles like the crazy bastard he is. God, are all Lifesteal players this fucking insane? Remind Sharp to never join that server—not even as a temporary guest. What the hell made Tai think bringing Spongs over here was a good idea?

The guy was born to ragebait and annoy everyone, and he seemed to live for those two things alone. There wasn't a single redeeming quality about him besides having an incredibly punchable face—one Sharp desperately wanted to punch as hard as he possibly could.

“Jeez, you're so cagey. I thought we were still teammates,” Spongs says.

“We aren't. You got me fucked over last time. Leave me alone, you bitch,” Sharp replies, continuing to chop down trees without missing a beat.

Spongs falls silent. A moment later, Sharp glances over his shoulder. Nothing but empty air. Thank goodness.

He gathered a few more logs and flowers, then mined stone from a nearby mountain with his Silk Touch pickaxe before making his way back to the fake trap. Dropping down the hole, he was caught by the stream of water below, landing in a surprisingly spacious room. Godis was already replacing the floor with the spruce planks Sharp had gathered during his first material run.

"I got more stuff," Sharp says, setting down his shulker box. Godis immediately perks up, bounding over to inspect the contents. He lets out an appreciative little "Hmm!" and gives Sharp a thumbs-up before happily returning to work.

With nothing else to do for the moment, Sharp busied himself arranging a bouquet. Godis had lent him a flower guide so he could easily match flowers with the meanings he wanted to convey to Jude, and it had been a huge help—even if Sharp still couldn't understand how a single flower could symbolize royalty when it was really just a flower with a nice color and a pleasant smell.

So that was that.

"This is so beautiful, Godis," Sharp murmurs softly from his chair, looking up at the little hanging lantern above the table. Across from him, sitting where Jude would be, was Godis, directly beneath the funnel that led to the trap overhead. His furry head bobbed proudly as he admired his own handiwork.

"Do you think Jude will like this?" Sharp asks, almost in a whisper as he glances over at Godis. His hands are clasped together tightly, trembling with nerves. The bouquet rests safely inside his inventory, tied together with Sharp's own hair ribbon to keep the flowers from spilling apart.

Suddenly, Sharp's communicator buzzes.

He startles, noticing Godis focused on typing into his own communicator. Quickly, Sharp pulls out his communicator as well.

<godispasen> he will like it

<godispasen> you worked hard on getting the materials for this beautiful room

<godispasen> believe it or not, Jude really cares about you a lot

<godispasen> he can pretend otherwise, but because he cares about you a lot, your betrayal hurt him more than you’ve expected it to

<godispasen> thats why he’s angry

<godispasen> because he cares

Sharp blinks away the heat in his eyes and face as he reads Godis' message, then looks up at him. Godis gives him an eager blink, his tail wagging behind him. "You really think so?" Sharp asks, his voice small.

It's not that he's doubting Jude—if anything, he's doubting himself and how he's handling all of this. He's never been this terrified before. His heart is pounding so hard he feels like he might pass out, and his earlier breakfast threatens to come right back up.

He feels like he's about to throw up and faint all at once. Godis nods in front of him before reaching over to place a paw on Sharp's wrist, patting it gently as if telling him to calm down. Sharp hadn't even realized his hands were shaking until then, nearly dropping his communicator as he forces himself to take a few slow, steady breaths.

<godispasen> ive never seen you so nervous before

<godispasen> im just glad you’re taking this really seriously

<godispasen> Jude is a dear friend of mine, and i care about him a lot, i admit, i was angry at you for being a jerk to him

<godispasen> but after seeing your hardwork and your willingness, i knew you really mean it

<godispasen> and you really truly care for Jude

<godispasen> im relieved that you finally noticed Jude’s feelings about you, ive been so worried about Jude ever since he grew to like you

<godispasen> ive kept it a secret for a very long time, so you don’t know how surprised I am when you broached the topic

Sharp laughs a little at that and shrugs. “I didn’t really realize... I’ve never been like this before, you know?” He rubs the back of his neck as Godis watches him intently with those little beady eyes. “I never really had friends or people who'd hang out with me, so before Strength I was mostly alone, jumping from server to server because I never wanted to stay in one place. I was never a permanent member of any of them.” Sharp admits quietly.

“And when I got here, everyone already knew each other, and it made me really nervous. I mostly avoided everyone and only showed up for fights to fix my social standing. I had teammates, but even then I barely talked to them at all. It was really hard to rely on any of them because I wasn't sure what they were capable of, and they were just as wary of me. Mostly Evo, anyway. Spongs is more of a dumbass, really—I think he's just like that with everyone.” Sharp shrugs, and Godis lets out a quiet giggle.

“Then I teamed up with Jude... I've never really had a solid opinion of him. Jude's a really nice guy for someone who's trapped and killed me multiple times. As much as he likes to say he doesn't care about Tai's rules, he actually follows them to a T, and he brings them up all the time—especially to me.” Sharp rubs at his nose, feeling heat creep into his face and ears as he keeps thinking about Jude's face, his ears, his smile, his stupid little giggles, how he was always so excited, or how he could never sit still for more than a few moments.

He's so beautiful. So ridiculously endearing. Sharp still can't believe he missed it. How had his feelings for Jude gone completely over his own head?

“Anyways... I think I've always liked Jude. I respected him even before I ever formed a proper opinion of him, because he's always changing. Then we got teamed up, and I always thought my feelings about him were strange, but not unusual. I figured I just appreciated him a lot because he proved I could trust him to watch my back.” Sharp smiles to himself, almost giddy, while Godis tilts his head, paws clasped together as he listens quietly, looking impossibly soft while Sharp talks about Jude.

“He's really good, Godis. I really like him. I want him to like me back again. I-I really regret what I did to him...” Sharp's smile fades into a sigh as he shakes his head. “I've always been really impulsive, and I thought Jude was going to do it to me first. I didn't want him to, so... I did it first.”

He lowers his head, a small frown settling on his face.

“I really wish I hadn't done any of that... Losing Jude felt like I lost an important limb. Maybe that's why I've been so unbelievably unmotivated ever since he started ignoring me.” Sharp sighs again, and Godis lets out a small huff before gently patting his hand once more.

<godispasen> you’re showing your regret, and that's enough

<godispasen> Jude will forgive you

<godispasen> i promise

Sharp's eyes sting with warmth as he looks up at Godis. Really? If Godis is saying that... then of course he wouldn't lie to him.

“Thank you so much, Godis.” Sharp says with a small, grateful smile. Godis tilts his head in response, letting out a soft little yip as his tail wags happily behind him.

<godispasen> now lets get Jude on here and you two can finally romance each other!

<godispasen> ive never been excited like this before 

<godispasen> this is what ive been hoping for so long!

Sharp laughs at that, giggling as he nods. The two of them stand up, and Sharp offers Godis a fist bump. Godis gently taps it with his paw. “Thank you so much, Godis. Let’s do this.” Sharp grins, and Godis nods in return.

The two of them finish the remaining touch-ups on the room before heading back up to make sure the trap is completely hidden.

It was a simple pitfall hidden beneath a patch of flat ground. Godis would lure Jude over under the guise of showing him something important, and because Jude would never expect something like this from Godis, he wouldn't be prepared for the ground to suddenly give way beneath him. Waiting below, Sharp would already be seated on his side of the table, rehearsing his apology while the meal Godis had cooked for their date sat ready.

After cleaning up the surface, they spent some time practicing what Sharp was going to say. He just couldn't seem to stop stammering or stumbling over his words, so Godis patiently listened as Sharp rehearsed his speech again and again until he felt at least a little more confident.

<godispasen> calm down, breathe, it doesn’t hurt to breathe before talking

<godispasen> and dont be embarrassed this is normal

<godispasen> when you’re really nervous, sometimes you’ll stutter and stammer, it happens to a lot of people i know

<godispasen> even the good ones who can speak to loads of people at once

Godis patted Sharp's shoulder as Sharp crouched down in the grass, trying to catch his breath. His heart was pounding so hard and so loudly that it felt like it was about to burst from his chest and leap out of his throat. He nodded shakily. "Sorry—fuck—I'm so fucking nervous. Holy shit, I feel like I'm gonna puke," he muttered, and Godis let out an amused snort.

"Okay—okay, try again." Sharp stood up, thumping a fist against his chest to steady himself. Come on, Sharpness, you can do this. You're the man. You're the biggest bird. You can do this. Jude will forgive you, and you'll do your best to romance him the way you're supposed to—the way Jude deserves.

"Jude... please hear me out first. I know this is sudden, and I don't want you to blame Godis or get angry at him either. But I really just want to apologize to you." Sharp began, staring at Godis and imagining that it was Jude standing there instead. The moment he did, his knees started shaking so badly that Godis had to grab him by the shoulders and guide him onto a fallen log before he could collapse.

<godispasen> how about lets do it sitting down?

<godispasen> its not like you’re going to be talking to him while standing up anyways

<godispasen> its okay Sharp, its normal to be nervous

<godispasen> i believe in you

Sharp nodded, chuckling nervously. "Sorry. Okay, take sixteen." He clapped his hands together. "Jude, hear me out first before you leave or yell at me. I know this is sudden... and I don't want you to blame Godis for helping me. I did all of this because I wanted to apologize to you. Properly."

Sharp swallowed, somehow grateful that Godis had made him sit down, or else he probably would've tipped backward and passed out.

"I'm sorry for what I did, and I know I was stupid. I really know I was stupid as hell for pulling that stunt. It wasn't out of hate for you—I didn't even realize what I'd done was wrong. I thought maybe it was just harmless fun..." He shook his head. "But I am so, so sorry for doing it. You were the best teammate I've had in a long time."

"I've never really been someone who likes teaming up with people because I never really knew anyone here the way everyone else does. I don't have any close friends on this server, so I never really had a basis for trusting anyone's skills. But when I teamed up with you... I never felt like I was in danger at all. It felt like I could really trust you to watch my back, and I—I really loved that."

"And then, of course, I had to ruin it. I swear I never meant to... but I really loved partnering up with you. You're smart, you're prepared, and I trust you with my life. In fact, I trust you enough to turn my back on you, knowing you wouldn't hurt me—you'd protect me instead."

"I'm really sorry for what I've done. I really am. I just want to fix it..." Sharp took a slow breath. Okay... now it was time for his confession.

"I really like you, Jude." His voice came out quieter. "I'm sorry it took me so long to understand what I was feeling, but... I think I've liked you ever since we first met. You were interesting, after all. Then the trapping started, and it was hard to figure out what I actually thought about you because I never really hated you or anything. Instead... I admired you. I really did." He laughed nervously under his breath. "I—I just wanted to tell you that I really like you, Jude. And I hope that when you forgive me, I can finally give you what you deserve. And if you don't want that... that's okay too. At least I finally got to tell you how I feel."

Sharp let out a shaky breath, clasping his hands together. Then he heard someone sniffle. He glanced over at Godis, only to find him wiping away a few tears with his paws. Sharp blinked in surprise. "Wh-What the fuck?" he asked, letting out a nervous giggle. "Why are you crying?"

<godispasen> that was beautiful Sharp

<godispasen> you worded it perfectly

<godispasen> im really touched, i can’t really help but tear up a bit

<godispasen> i can really feel your emotions, have you ever tried spoken poetry?

<godispasen> its really beautiful

Sharp flushed at that and laughed. “What the hell, man? That's crazy. I wasn't trying to make you cry.” He chuckled, and Godis pulled him into a tight hug, patting his back a little too roughly. Sharp returned it a bit awkwardly, mostly out of confusion, before Godis finally leaned back.

Now Godis looked genuinely determined, his brows furrowed as he stared at Sharp.

<godispasen> let’s do this!

<godispasen> i believe in you Shar <godispasen> you can do it!

Sharp blushes a bit at that, and right on time, Jude, Parker, and Cow joined the server. Both of their communicators ping loudly, making them both startle as they glance at each other.

"He's here!" Sharp whispers, quickly standing up. Godis does the same, looking equally panicked as he glances around.

They're about seven hundred blocks away from spawn to avoid being found by other players, giving Sharp and Jude some privacy so no one can overhear—or worse, interrupt—while Sharp apologizes and admits his feelings.

Godis eventually flies off while Sharp jumps into the entrance leading to the chamber beneath the trap, sealing it above him before nervously sitting down at his chair. Every few minutes he swallows, his leg bouncing relentlessly as he tries to hold onto whatever ability he has left to speak.

He can do this, he can do this, he can do this.

He's the man, he's the GOAT, he's the biggest bird. He isn't washed up as hell. He's going to apologize, then woo Jude into becoming his lover. He can do this!

"Godis, where the hell are you even trying to take me?"

Sharp flinches when he hears Jude's faint, muffled voice from above. It's barely audible, but he can still make out the slight squeak in Jude's voice from down below. God, he really misses hearing Jude's voice when it isn't angry. He wants that back. He can't believe he took advantage of Jude's goodwill.

God damn it.

"A surprise? What surprise is it? Dude, come on, tell me. Why can't I bring Parker or Cow? Is the surprise really that fucking crazy? Is it a new armor set? If so, aw shucks, you didn't have—" Jude laughs, and suddenly a loud piston fires.

Sharp flinches.

It's time.

Jude's scream grows louder and louder until, with a thud, the cushioned chair catches him. Jude blinks in confusion, his hair a mess from the fall, then blinks again as he finally notices Sharp sitting across from him. Sharp smiles nervously, clawing at his own wrist beneath the table in a desperate attempt to calm himself.

Jude immediately glares. "For the love of God—" He stands up, pulling out his pickaxe.

Sharp freezes. He tries to speak—or at least stop Jude from leaving—as Jude begins mining into the wall, muttering curses under his breath. "Fucking Godis. Of course he'd get Godis involved. For fuck's sake, I'm gonna fucking kill everyone at this point." He keeps breaking blocks, carving out a staircase back to the surface.

"Wait!" Sharp finally manages to force the word out after freezing in place. The mining stops, but then it continues Sharp jumps to his feet and rushes over to where Jude is digging his way out. "Wait—Jude, please, don't leave." He reaches toward him but stops short of grabbing him.

Jude finally stops mining, lowering his pickaxe as he glances back at Sharp. "And why should I do that? After you fooled Godis into helping you? God, you're such a bastard. You're dragging a neutral player—my friend by the way, into this?" His brows furrow as Sharp swallows. "Please... just hear me out first, Jude. Godis only helped me, but it was mostly my idea, don't blame him. I just—I just wanted to apologize to you. Please, Jude... stop running away. Let's just talk... please. I can kneel in front of you if you want."

Jude scoffs, staring at him for a long moment before walking over and shoving Sharp aside on his way to the table. Sharp quickly follows and sits back down, his heart pounding wildly. This is the first time Jude has actually listened to him.

This is his chance. He can't fuck this up. "Are you listening?" Sharp finally asks.

Jude crosses his arms over his chest. "Do I even have a choice? You're just going to kill me." Sharp immediately shakes his head. "What? No—no! No way. I won't touch a single strand of hair on your head."

Jude narrows his eyes before rolling them. "Whatever," he mutters.

"G-Godis helped me make a fruit platter for you since you can't really... eat steak." Sharp nervously gestures toward Jude's plate, piled with sliced fruit. His own plate holds nothing more than a piece of steak and a handful of berries. Jude studies his plate for a moment before picking up an apple slice and taking a bite. "So what is it? I'm busy as hell, Sharp. Make it quick." The edge in Jude's voice still hasn't disappeared, but it's calmer now.

It gives Sharp just a little reassurance that Jude isn't about to explode at him anymore.

“Okay... uhm, I—” Sharp stammers as Jude raises a brow at him. “I just—I just want to say I want to apologize to you,” Sharp says.

Jude meets his eyes. “Okay.” Then he stands, making his way toward the hole in the wall to leave.

“Wait! I’m not done yet! Please, Jude, please just... just sit down, please.” Sharp calls desperately, his voice shaking.

Jude pauses again and lets out a sharp sigh, tipping his head back with a groan before returning to his seat and sitting down heavily.

Sharp swallows as Jude stares back at him, impatient as ever—which didn't feel like Jude at all. Out of everyone, Jude might be the most patient person Sharp knows. He was a trapper, after all, and trapping someone meant waiting for the right moment and the right opportunity.

“I’m sorry, Jude. I’m really so fucking sorry. I don’t even know why I pulled that stunt on you. Maybe it's because I've always been impulsive,” Sharp admits.

Jude scoffs. “Now you just noticed?” he mutters under his breath.

Sharp winces, blinking furiously as he tries to gather his thoughts.

“You were the best teammate I've ever had, Jude. I really trusted you... I've never really been able to trust anyone at all. Not Evo, and certainly not Spongs or anyone else on this server...” Sharp continues.

Jude doesn't reply, remaining completely silent.

“I’m sure you know by now that I didn't really know anyone when I first joined the server. I mostly came because of Tai—we met through a public server after fighting each other in the arena, and I guess he liked me enough to invite me...”

“When I joined, I had no one. I didn't really know what to do except make sure my social standing stayed high so no one would fuck with me. Then, of course, I met you, who always seemed to be out for my ass. I can't even remember how many times you've trapped me...” Sharp rubs the back of his neck, too scared to meet Jude's eyes, so he lowers his gaze to the stupid steak on the table instead, trying to calm his racing heart.

“But it's not like I hated you for it, even if some days it really pissed me off.”

“You know, when I met you, I was really amazed by your trapping plays, and I really admired your art and your work. You were really cool, even if almost everyone thought you were just a dirty little trapper. I thought that too sometimes, but I couldn't help admiring how you did it. It's not easy to trap someone—it takes more than just being good at PvP.” Sharp pauses to catch his breath.

“And I never really had a bad—or even particularly good—opinion of you at first. You were just... Jude. JudeLow, the guy who likes trapping people all over the server. But somehow, you're still fair with almost everyone. You like pretending you hate Tai's rules, but you still follow them anyway. You're a really swell guy, Jude.”

“And when I got teamed up with you, I was nervous it'd be the same as it was with Evo and Spongs, since I'd be forced to stay close to you all the time. Honestly, I thought you were just going to trap me over and over again.” Sharp lets out a weak laugh. “But you proved me wrong so many times. And more than that... you gave me a front-row seat to just how good of a player you really are.”

Sharp grows a little more animated as he talks. “You're smart. You're really fucking paranoid, and I actually love that about you. I admired you before, but after teaming up with you, I admired you even more. You made great callouts during the tournament too... even if we kinda ate dirt because I kinda fucked up.” He rubs his hands together nervously.

“We really proved we were the best duo on the server. Even now, I still think we're the best duo, even if we aren't teammates anymore.” He finally lifts his head to meet Jude's eyes. “I want to prove to you, Jude... that I can be your duo again. That you can trust me.”

Yet somehow, he can't read Jude's expression at all. “And to prove that...” Sharp swallows. “I—I want to tell you that I really like you, Jude. Like... romantically.” His voice wavers. “It doesn't matter if you don't feel the same. It really doesn't. But... it makes me feel better finally telling you.”

For the briefest moment, he sees Jude's eyes widen.

“It took me a while to realize it, but I think I've always had those feelings for you. I just never recognized them because I'd never really liked someone before. And we were always so busy and distracted that I never let myself think about it.” He takes a shaky breath.

“But I really wanted to tell you. It's the first proof I can give you that I'll be truthful with you... and that you can trust me, if you ever decide to take me back as your teammate.”

Sharp lets out a long breath before finally falling silent.

For a moment, Jude is quiet. Then he stands up.

Sharp startles as Jude looks down at him. "So you think this is going to make me feel better?" he asks.

Sharp flinches, eyes widening. "H-Huh?" he stammers as Jude lets out a dry laugh, rolling his eyes.

"So you think complimenting me, saying sorry, and telling me you want to fuck me is going to make all of this okay?" he asks sarcastically, and Sharp can only stare.

What?

What?

"What?" Sharp says shakily. "That's not... that's not the point! I was—I just wanted to apologize and finally be truthful with you!"

He quickly stands as well, but Jude only scoffs, shaking his head. "And what makes you think I'll accept that? Do you ever stop and think about what the ever-living fuck you're doing with your life, Sharp? God... for fuck's sake—fuck. I'm so fucking tired of this. Holy shit." Jude mutters the last part under his breath as Sharp sputters helplessly.

"F-Flow told me you like me! Godis too!" Sharp suddenly blurts out.

Jude's eyes widen—not in surprise, but in anger.

Sharp doesn't notice. Too desperate to reach him, he rushes around the table and grabs Jude's hands before pulling out the bouquet he'd made. His own hands tremble so violently he nearly drops it.

"I-I even made this bouquet! Godis lent me his flower book and—and I thought... I thought you'd want flowers! I-I know you don't really like cheesy stuff like this, but these flowers are edible too! You can eat them!" Sharp says with a nervous, hopeful grin, fumbling over his words.

Jude stares at the bouquet, then slowly lifts his eyes to Sharp's face. "Are you fucking serious right now? Flow and Godis actually said that?" Jude whispers, his voice dangerously quiet.

Sharp nods uncertainly. "They said you liked me... and it made me realize it wasn't just me. I like you too, Jude. A lot. I really like you. And... you deserve so much better than me. I know that. But I want to give you everything you deserve. And I think—actually..." He swallows. "I believe I can do it."

Jude glares at him. "You're right. I do deserve better." His hand jerks forward. "And that isn't you." He throws the bouquet onto the floor. The ribbon snaps on impact, flowers scattering across the room. Sharp immediately drops to his knees, scrambling to gather them. His fingers shake as he desperately tries to retie the ribbon.

Fuck... he should've tied it tighter. He just wanted it to look cute. Jude may always act the opposite but Sharp knows Jude likes cute and adorable things.

"What makes you think I fucking like you, huh?" Jude asks, his voice dropping into something cold and razor-sharp. "Not only are you an idiot and a dumb motherfucker, you're a raging narcissist too. What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you seriously think I'd like you?"

Sharp's face crumples. What...? But Flow said... Godis too...

"Oh, this is great." Jude scoffs, rolling his eyes. "I can't believe you actually believed them."

Sharp remains frozen on the floor, staring up at him while trying to ignore the growing black pit in his stomach, the one making him feel like he was about to throw up. "But... Godis said..." Sharp mutters weakly.

"Godis is lying to you, Sharp. I can't believe this. What makes you think I like you? For fuck's sake, I hate you! And you're supposed to hate me!" Jude slaps a hand to his forehead as he scoffs loudly, shaking his head at Sharp.

Sharp slowly stands, clutching the crushed bouquet tightly against his chest. "I don't hate you," he whispers.

Jude only glares harder. "Well, funny, because I fucking hate you. And now I hate you even more for making me look like a fucking joke in front of everyone else! You played me! You built this duo team with me, then turned around and played me right to my face! Dude, what the fuck did you think my reaction was going to be? Are you fucking stupid?"

He shoves Sharp hard in the chest. Sharp stumbles backward. "N-No! Please stop calling me that," Sharp pleads desperately. "I'm not stupid! I didn't—I didn't really mean it! I swear! It wasn't serious!"

That only makes Jude angrier. "Wasn't serious? Wasn't serious?!" Jude snaps. "Are you a fucking nitwit? Are you fucking with me? First you blow up my base, then you try to kill me in my own base! Do you even hear yourself, Sharp? Holy fucking shit! No sane person would do that to someone else! You're fucking crazy! Why the fuck wouldn't I hate you? Almost everyone in this fucking place hates you for being so braindead! Shit!"

He jabs a finger hard against Sharp's chest. Sharp just stares at him in shock. That's not... true... Right? Everyone doesn't hate him... Right? "That's not true!" Sharp blurts, biting his tongue as Jude simply shakes his head. "God, I can't even argue with you anymore."

"Fine!" Sharp snaps, his face burning with embarrassment and humiliation after being screamed at like this. It feels like Jude is stripping him bare and laughing at every flaw he has. "If you hate me so much, then tell me! What do you hate about me?"

Jude scoffs, letting out a mocking laugh. “Fine, you want it so bad? I can list a hundred shitty things about you that I'm sure isn't just me hating. Almost the whole server does.”

Sharp falters at that—does he even want to hear it? He doesn't—

But Jude is already listing them off.

“You're stupid, you're brain-dead, you're fucking washed. You think you're so much better than everyone else, but you aren't. Your ego's taller than you. That stupid fucking hair of yours that you keep showing off to everyone who doesn't even fucking care how long you've grown it. You think you can handle everything, but in reality, you can't. You talk to everyone like they're beneath you. You can't even read the room. Do you want me to keep going?” Jude asks.

Sharp lets out a shaky breath, clutching the flowers tightly in his hands, wishing he could just disappear into thin air and never come back to this humiliating moment.

“Face it, Sharp. You're not better than anyone else here. Everyone's pissed off and out for your head for a reason, so don't be a fucking dumbass,” Jude says. “And will you stop bothering me? You're making me uncomfortable, for fuck's sake. You really can't read the room. I already blocked you, yet you still keep pushing. Man, is it not obvious I really don't want to talk to you? Leave me alone, capiche?” Jude asks, leaning in close.

On a good day, Sharp would've been amazed by the color of Jude's eyes, but right now they slowly blur through the tears gathering in his own. Jude continues glaring at him before his expression flickers with something that almost looks like guilt. Then he turns away, walks toward the hole he'd made, and begins climbing out, mining upward before sealing the tunnel behind him.

The moment he's gone, the dam breaks.

Sharp crumples where he stands, sobbing loudly as he desperately wipes at his eyes, only for more tears to spill down his face.

He's so stupid. Jude's right.

Man... maybe he should just leave the server. Jude would never lie about something this serious. What was he expecting, really? Maybe he should've thought this through instead of charging in headfirst without a single plan, without letting himself entertain even the slightest doubt.

Of course Jude doesn't like him. Flow was lying, and maybe Godis had just gotten confused. Sharp really is gullible.

What made him think he was worth loving in the first place? He's not even anyone's first choice. Jude never cared about him.

[...]

When Twirps gets home, the house is dark, but he can hear the familiar dinging of Sharp’s communicator. He’s probably playing that stupid Tetris jailbreak Tai gave him. “Sharp? I got dinner! I bought it off-server, don’t tell Tai,” Twirps calls as he heads into the kitchen, switching on the lights, grabbing plates, and setting the table with the food.

The beeping music is still loud upstairs.

“Sharp! Food!” Twirps calls again, but there’s no response. He sighs, rolling his eyes. That idiot definitely fell asleep playing Tetris. Oh well. He’ll eat first, then bring Sharp his food and leave it on the nightstand so he can eat when he wakes up. The guy has the shittiest sleep schedule, after all. He’ll probably be awake again by midnight. If not, he can eat it for breakfast.By the time Twirps finishes eating, he cleans the table and washes his plate, then puts Sharp’s meal on a tray and heads upstairs.

Sharp’s bedroom door isn’t just unlocked—it’s wide open. The room is pitch-black, the blinds drawn shut, and Sharp is lying on his bed, his face illuminated by his communicator. His eyes stare blankly at the screen as he keeps playing.

Oh. He’s awake. “You’re awake. Why aren’t you answering?” Twirps asks, walking over and setting the tray on the nightstand. Sharp doesn’t respond. His fingers continue moving rapidly across the screen.

Twirps narrows his eyes. Sharp’s hair—it’s dark in the room, so maybe it’s just bunched up beneath him—but it looks... uneven. “Sharp? What happened to your hair?” Twirps asks, leaning over.

Still nothing. Groaning, Twirps yanks flicks the lamp open with a flint. Sharp winces at the sudden light, and Twirps finally gets a clear look. The blond’s long hair has been hacked off unevenly. It used to reach the backs of his knees. Now one side barely grazes his shoulders while the other ends just below his ear. “What the fuck happened to your hair?!” Twirps shrieks.

Believe it or not, he actually really likes Sharp’s hair. Sure, the motherfucker is too lazy to take care of it himself, which means Twirps has to comb it for him half the time, braid it, or tie it into a bun because Sharp insists on wearing it in a ponytail, even though it gets in the way whenever they fight.

“Mm. I don’t like it anymore,” Sharp says flatly, already refocusing on his game.

Twirps gapes at him before kneeling beside the bed and gently lifting the butchered strands. Then he glances at the screen. Highest Score: 134,567... Good God, what the hell has he been doing beside play this game? “What the fuck? How long have you been playing?” Twirps asks. “Dunno,” Sharp mumbles. Before he can keep playing, Twirps snatches the communicator from his hands and tosses it onto the bed.

“Okay, game time's over. Let’s fix your hair. Oh, for Notch’s sake, what the fuck…” Sharp lazily sits up, scratching his chin, giving Twirps a full view of the massacre that used to be his hair. What the hell happened? Was it from a fight? Twirps hasn’t really been paying attention to what Sharp’s been up to these past few weeks. But... he looks wrong. Like he’s slipped back into that bed-rotting phase again.

Sharp simply yawns as Twirps drags him into the bathroom and starts evening everything out with a pair of shears. Unfortunately, by the time he's done, the best he can manage is hair that sits just below Sharp’s ears. It looks strange. Twirps doesn’t think he’s ever seen Sharp with short hair before.

“I wanna play again. Are we done?” Sharp asks, sounding utterly bored. He barely even looks at the haircut, only staring blankly at his own reflection. Twirps gives him a long look. “What happened to your hair?” he asks again.

Sharp glances at him. “I cut it.” Twirps stares. He cut it?

Sharp cared about his hair. Sure, he was terrible at maintaining it, but he still treasured it. He’d freak out if even a single strand came out in his brush. “What? I don’t get it. You said your hair was important to you.” Sharp meets his eyes with that same empty stare and hums, as though pretending to think about it. “Uuuuuhm... eh. Not really. I’m bored. It’s boring. I hate it. It’s hot.”

He stands. “I’m gonna head to bed. I wanna reach two hundred thousand points by tonight.” Twirps can only let out a confused noise as he watches Sharp shuffle toward the stairs, moving sluggishly, almost like he doesn’t even know what he’s doing anymore.

“Oh!” Sharp suddenly stops. For a split second, Twirps thinks he’s finally acting like himself again. “I’m gonna go off-server tomorrow, okay? I’ll leave early. I’m gonna get my stuff outta here,” Sharp says with a lazy smile.

Twirps’ expression falls. What? Why? He’s leaving already? Did he and Jude finally work things out? Well... that’s great, he guesses. “You going to Jude’s?” Twirps asks.

Sharp’s face twitches for the briefest moment before settling back into that same bored expression. “Not really. I’m leaving Strength, okay? That’s all. Good night. Don’t worry about cleaning my stuff. I’ll do it myself. When you wake up, I’ll be gone. Thanks for keeping me here, man. You really did me a solid.”

The shears slip from Twirps’ hand, clattering loudly against the bathroom floor.

Sharp is leaving Strength?!

+1

“Sharp is leaving Strength? Since when?”

Jude’s ears perk up at the sound of Flow’s voice coming from the stage, where Noob, Tai, and Seo are hanging out.

“Since last week, bro! It was such a shock. I was so confused—he told me he wasn't going to Puqi's! I swear! I even told him not to go!” Tai grumbles dramatically.

“It must've been Mugm's fault. Dude, tell your brother off, he's such a bitch. Sharp's a Strength member, not a Bliss one. He ain't gonna fit in with those crystal duds.” Noob rolls his eyes.

“Dude, it's probably your fault. You bullied him into leaving,” Seo jokes, glancing at Flow who startles at that. Flow immediately pouts. “I didn't!”

“What's going on?” Jude asks as he jogs up onto the stage. The four of them turn toward him. “You! Did you know?” Tai demands, pointing an accusing finger. Jude lets out a confused noise. “Know what?”

“Does he know?” Seo whispers to Noob, and the two immediately start giggling, earning a glare from Flow.

“Sharp left for Bliss, dude! He's been gone for almost two weeks! How did you not know? You guys are always stuck at the hip! What the fuck, man?” Tai whines before dramatically dropping to his knees, fake crying.

Jude's eyes widen, and he looks over at Flow, who simply shrugs while Tai continues his theatrical breakdown until Noob finally hauls him back onto his feet.

“Another soldier down!” Tai wails. “Okay, man, that's enough,” Noob sighs. “I don't know if you've heard, but Puqi's been trying to recruit Sharp for months,” Flow explains with a shrug. “Sharp kept ignoring him, but recently he finally agreed to switch over as a permanent member.”

Jude blinks, then slowly nods. Why should he care that Sharp switched servers? It's better this way. At least Sharp won't bother him anymore, and maybe he can finally stop dealing with these stupid feelings.

“Alright, why are you all so sad? He's a grown-ass man. He can make his own decisions.” Jude gestures toward Tai, who's still clinging dramatically to both Noob and Seo while the two wear exhausted expressions.

“Why wouldn't we be?” Flow asks, giving Jude a strange look. His brows knit together. “I thought you'd be sad.” Jude gives him an equally confused look. “Why would I be?”

“Because he's your boyfriend!” Tai cries.

Jude rolls his eyes. “Whatever.” He turns and walks away from the group. Honestly, he shouldn't have come over at all.

He eventually makes his way back to his base. As he heads down the stairs, he spots Parker and Godis talking nearby. Cow is standing beside the trading hall with the villagers. “What's going on here?” Jude asks. The moment he speaks, all three of them flinch in surprise.

“Jude? Since when did you get back?” Parker asks. “How was the game with Shadow?” Jude gives him a strange look before shrugging. “It was alright. Playing with him's always kinda fun.”

His gaze drifts to Godis, who seems unusually nervous, rubbing his paws together while his tail wags just a little too much. “That was fast,” Cow says, walking over. “Usually you're gone the whole day whenever you're with Shadow.”

“Well, Fruit and Bitzel needed help coming up with trapping ideas, so we had to cut it short.” Jude raises a brow. “What are you three doing here?”

The three of them go quiet. They exchange uneasy glances. “Have you already heard?” Parker finally asks. Godis nudges Cow, silently urging him to continue. “Sharp left Strength,” Cow says.

Jude scoffs, rolling his eyes. “This again? Do you really think I should care? He can switch to whatever server he wants for all I care. It's not like we're friends. He's been bothering me for weeks.”

He brushes past Cow, who winces before exchanging another look with Parker. Suddenly, Jude's communicator pings. With a sigh, he reaches down to his hip, pulls it out, and glances at the message. It's from Godis.

<godispase> what you did that day was very much of a jerk move Jude

<godispase>  you know i always pick your side, even if you do a lot of stupid stuff

<godispase>  do you even know that it was your fault why he left?

Both Parker and Cow gasp, immediately looking toward Godis' communicator while Jude stares down at his own. His hands shake as he grips it tightly, his jaw clenching. This again. Why the fuck should he care about how Sharp feels?

Sharp never cared about his feelings in the first place. He's stupid. He's reckless. He doesn't think about anyone but himself. He played Jude. He's impulsive—he's always been impulsive, and even Sharp admitted that himself. Jude used to let him get away with it. Hell, at first he even found it endearing.

But how could he love—or even trust—someone who never stopped acting on impulse?

Jude has always been the kind of rabbit who wears his heart on his sleeve. He genuinely believed that, for a while, the two of them had something. Whenever they fought side by side, it felt like they shared the same body, moving together without needing words.

It wasn't just Sharp who loved teaming up with him. Jude did too. He really... did enjoy fighting alongside Sharp. That's what he doesn't understand. How could Sharp do something like that... and honestly think Jude wouldn't take it personally?

“Mind your own business, would you?” Jude mutters, shoving the communicator back onto his belt. “I've had enough of this bullshit.”

He glances at the other three. They only look back at him with quiet, sympathetic expressions.

<godispase> you still have time to fix it

<godispase> i know you regretted saying those words

<godispase> i heard you crying when you went home

<godispase> Sharp really cares about you a lot, just the same as you care for him

<godispase> he really wants you to forgive him Jude

<godispase> please, you’ll regret it if you don't do anything, i know you

<godispase> Jude, you have—

“Godis—” Jude says through gritted teeth, and Godis stops typing. “Please… just stop.” The words come out in a strained gasp. Godis lowers his communicator into his lap, his ears drooping. Cow’s ears twitch as he glances over at Parker.

“Look, I know you're all just trying to help—but it’s not working, okay? You’re all fucking stressing me out. I just want some peace and quiet! For Notch’s sake, mind your own damn business! Please,” Jude pleads.

Parker lets out a quiet sigh.

“We just wanted to help. We’ve always known you’re shit at the whole feelings thing, Jude,” Parker says, gesturing toward him. Jude lowers his head, shaking it. “We’ve all been friends since we were kids. Shadow took us under his wing and raised us together, and you’re like a brother to me—all of you are. I care about you a lot, Jude. There’s a reason almost all of us followed you to this server. You know that, right?”

Jude only bites his lower lip.

Cow finally steps forward, resting a hand on Jude’s shoulder. “Look, Jude, Strength isn’t just another server. It’s a place that carves away at your sanity. We’ve always worried about you ever since you accepted the invitation. You would’ve done the same for any of us if you thought we were in danger. We care about you, and we want what’s best for you.”

“I know what’s best for me, Cow. Don’t you all remember?” Jude spits, shoving Cow’s hand away. “Don’t you remember what you said about Sharp, Parker?” He looks over at him, and Parker flinches. “You said he was going to be bad for me. That I was going to regret chasing after him. Well, Parker…” Jude lets out a hollow laugh. “You were fucking right.”

“That was before I really got to know Sharp,” Parker replies, his brows knitting together. “He’s not really that bad, Jude. He’s a good man. You know that too, because you never listened to me when I kept telling you to stop trying to hang out with him.”

Jude scoffs and leans back against the wall, sinking onto a chest as the strength leaves his legs.

“I still think you two would be good for each other.” Cow kneels in front of Jude, gently placing a hand on his knee. Jude meets his gaze, his ears folding back. “You love him enough that you’d consider burning the world for him. Your obsession with him knows no bounds—you know I know that. And he loves you too. He just needed someone to stand beside him. He’s a sad, lonely man. He doesn’t have any friends outside this server.”

<godispase> thats why i think letting Sharp go to Bliss is a bad idea

<godispase> he doesnt know anyone there

<godispase> he’ll have a hard time connecting with people especially that he’s freshly joined

“You don’t know that. It looks like Puqi’s been all goody-goody with him anyway,” Jude says, unable to hide the jealousy in his voice.

He really did regret it. Godis was right. Everything he'd thrown at Sharp had been the result of a lapse in judgment, a complete loss of control. Sharp had been winning the argument, and Jude had been far too furious to actually listen, even though Sharp had made plenty of good points that a level-headed version of Jude would've understood.

As a kid, he'd always had lapses of anger that had thankfully been beaten out of him through Shadow's careful guidance. Being a rabbit meant he had a temper he couldn't always control, and as a trapper, he knew that was a weakness. Anger made him easy to bait. Parker had seen him go through all of it, had been on the receiving end of more than a few shouting matches whenever one of Jude's traps failed.

It had been years since he'd felt this angry, and now it had all come rushing back. But the truth was, he hadn't just been angry at Sharp. Well... kind of. He was angry at Sharp.

Mostly, though, he was angry at himself.

At the sick, aching pain in his chest. At the hope he'd let himself feel during those quiet nights he and Sharp had spent together. He was angry for believing they could've been something more, for letting his heart hope when he knew better than anyone how fragile it was when it came to things like this.

“Puqi wanted a teammate who can back him up in a fight,” Cow says, standing up. “He wants Sharp because he can fight, and that's basically it. Are you really going to let Sharp join a place where he's only going to be used as a weapon?”

Jude clenches his fist, a fresh wave of anger tightening in his chest. No. Of course he doesn't want that. Sharp deserves to make his own decisions, even if most of them are fucking stupid. But that doesn't mean he deserves to be tied down to a server that only wants to use him as a weapon.

"...No," Jude murmurs, refusing to meet Cow's eyes.

“Then get him back. A Strength player stays a Strength player,” Cow says with a small smile.

Jude finally looks up to meet his gaze. Cow simply shrugs.

Ah... Always the calm, cool, and collected one out of all of them. For a moment, Jude says nothing. Then his communicator pings again.

<godispase> what are you waiting for Jude? Find Sharp!!!

<godispase> Bliss is opening fifteen slots for temporary guest to try check out their server! You should apply! Everyone knows you and they would definitely want you to join

Jude bites his lip at that. “I said a lot of shit to him that day.” He says, glancing at everyone, “Will he even forgive me?” He asks as Godis lets out a small giggle at that.

<godispase> what kind of question is that?

<godispase> do you even think he even blame you in the first place?

“More like you have to tell him to forgive himself. Just go get your man, Jude, so you'll stop moping around,” Parker says. Jude's face flushes at that, his ears perking up for a moment before flopping back down in mild embarrassment.

[...]

Jude had a mission now: get Sharp back to Strength and apologize.

Godis had been right. Jude applied for a temporary guest pass and was accepted almost immediately by Wyll—which honestly surprised him. He knew Wyll a little... kind of. They weren't exactly friends, but they'd played together during a handful of private events over the years, usually the KarlJacobs ones Jude never really cared about. He only joined those because he was bored enough to do it for the hell of it.

"Hey, man, I didn't actually think you'd want to guest here at Bliss," Wyll greets him.

Jude shrugs, looking around spawn. Buildings were scattered everywhere, patches of freshly replaced grass broke up the terrain, an ice track cut through the area, and in his hand sat a strange, colorful crystal. He turned it over thoughtfully. "Well, there's something I want to see for myself in this place."

"A flux gem, huh? What do you know." Wyll grins when he notices it. "It's a pretty strong gem if you know how to use it."

"I see..." Jude studies it for another second before slipping it away. "So, what can I do around here? Am I safe from getting quick-dropped? I'm not really in a rush to grind materials or anything."

"Are you planning to trap anyone on the server?" Wyll snorts, raising a brow. Jude rolls his eyes. "Maybe." Which really meant no. He just wanted Wyll—and everyone else—to stay on their guard. "Spawn looks good," Jude says with a smirk.

Wyll's eyes widen. "You serious?"

"When am I not?" Jude flashes him a lazy smile. That only seems to make Wyll even more suspicious.

Jude plants his hands on his hips and surveys the area again. Looks like he'd have to gaslight someone into giving him armor and an elytra so he could cover more ground while looking for Sharp. He'd originally planned to bring Godis or Parker along, but apparently Bliss was still wary of Strength members because of whatever the hell Tai had done when he visited.

Jude had no fucking clue what the fucking hell Tai did. Hopefully it had been spectacular. First things first—gear. Whiiiiich ended up taking no time at all. Some group in enchanted diamond gear showed up, handed him a shulker box packed with free equipment, then immediately started giving him a tour of spawn.

"We're trying to make everyone friends here," Rylan says. Jude hums and nods along, pretending to listen. Yeah. As if that would ever happen on a server where everyone had crystal powers. It's like giving trigger happy babies a bow and arrow. "That's great. Super great," Jude says.

"If you want, you can come with us. We can keep an eye on you while you're staying here," Quakitus offers. Jude waves a hand dismissively. "Ah... I don't think I can. I mean, I want to explore the server and try out my crystal first!" he says. "Though seriously, thanks for all the gear. I was honestly worried I'd get quick-dropped the moment I logged in."

Rylan furrows his brows. "That usually doesn't happen around here unless you do something really crazy," Dabby says, his ears flicking as a bee buzzes past. "Oh, cool." Jude grins. "I'll think about your offer. But I want to look around first, then maybe I'll come back later!"

Rylan's eyes light up as he clasps his hands together. "Yes! Okay, sure! If you want, Quakitus can give you a proper tour." Jude's eyes widen at the sudden offer. "Oh, I can do that. I don't mind," Quakitus says.

Jude winces internally. Should he say no?

...Actually waiiiiit, this might work out. Having a local guide would make finding Puqi a whole lot easier. He could pretend he wanted to see every landmark on the server, then eventually ask Quakitus to take him to Puqi's place.

Maybe that would work. "Oh! Thank you so much. I'd love that," Jude says. Soon the two of them are flying across the sky.

Jude scans every stretch of land below, searching for a familiar blond with that annoying ponytail while Quakitus flies beside him, enthusiastically explaining each stage of the server's progression. Jude barely listens. Apparently there was all kinds of serious stuff happening around Bliss, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

His mind was already crowded enough—with familiar green eyes, a thick accent, and long blond hair. All he wanted was to find Sharp. And apologize for being such a bitch. And such a jerk.

“What about Puqi? Do you know where he'd be?” Jude finally asks, breaking the million-dollar question as they land on an island.

“Puqi? Uh... let me think. I don't think he's on right now.” Quakitus hums, checking his communicator. Jude isn't really connected to the server yet, especially not with his communicator, so he can't see who's online. It makes him a pretty easy target for the trigger-happy kids running around the server.

“Is he teamed with anyone?” Jude asks. Quakitus shakes his head. “Not that I know of.”

“What about new players?” Jude presses. “Uh...” Quakitus thinks for a moment. “I don't know, I've been pretty busy these days, but a Conexion joined a few weeks ago. And Puqi was the first one to greet him.”

Jude perks up immediately. “Yeah, Conexion! I know that guy. Do you know where I can find him?” he asks, snapping his fingers.

Quakitus hums before his eyes light up. “Oh yeah! I heard he's a Strength member, right? You are too! Of course you'd know him. I haven't seen him around, though. I heard he had beef with a shit ton of people during his first week.” He laughs, and Jude's brows furrow.

“He's crazy, right?” Quakitus says. Jude blinks. “Yeah... I mean—yeah.”

“Where do you think he'll be?” he asks. “I'd say Mugm or Wyll might know, but I think they've got beef with him too. They're probably hunting him down,” Quakitus says. Of course Sharp would have beef with Mugm and Wyll—out of everyone. Jude suppresses a groan as he slows to a walk, rubbing a hand over his face before Quakitus notices. So now he has to go back to spawn and find Wyll—or Mugm. Though Quakitus did warn him that Mugm barely ever goes to spawn anymore to avoid getting ambushed.

So Wyll it is, who may or may not be greeting the temporary guests at spawn. “How's your first day here at Bliss? Not too overwhelming, I hope?” Wyll greets him as Jude lands beside him. “Oh yeah, totally,” Jude says. “I got a question, though.”

Wyll steps back. “Alright, what is it? Shoot.”

“About Sharp—I mean, Conexion. Have you seen him around?” Jude asks, tilting his head.

“Sharpness?” Wyll asks. Jude nods. “Yeah, him. Have you seen him anywhere?”

“Ah...” Wyll winces, rubbing the back of his neck. “You do know what he did, right?” Jude tilts his head. “No?”

“Yeah, man. He killed Mugm and me. Everyone's out for his head now. He's crazy, man.” Jude snorts. Of course Sharp would pull something like that. “Oh great. That's a normal Monday. Where is he, though?” Jude asks, crossing his arms as Wyll scratches his head.

“Now I'm not really sure, but last I checked, he hasn't logged onto the server for almost a week. Not since he killed Mugm and me,” Wyll says.

Jude slumps. What? Sharp hasn't even been here for almost a week? So what is Jude even doing here? And when the hell is Sharp coming back? Fuck... “Right... okay, thanks,” Jude says, stifling a groan as he rubs his face in disappointment.

Did he really come all the way here for nothing? Did he just waste almost half a day searching for someone who wasn't even online?

<JudeLow> he isnt at Bliss

<DoomedCow> srsly????

<ParkerGameBrain> damn, but ive heard he switched there as a perm member

<godispasen> maybe he’s just off server atm?

<JudeLow> no, wyll told me sharp’s been gone for a whole week now, apparently whole server after his head after he manage to drop mugm and wyll

<DoomedCow> ah…

<DoomedCow> thats not a surprise

<ParkerGameBrain> well that is sharp

<DoomedCow> funny i expected him to drop to mugm

<ParkerGameBrain> he cooked

<godispasen> are you coming back to Strength?

<JudeLow> idk, should i wait at Bliss at least for a day? rylan offered me to join them temporarily, i think i can wait, maybe he’ll come back 

<godispasen> its your choice

<JudeLow> parker? cow?

<ParkerGameBrain> stay there maybe

<DoomedCow> stay

<JudeLow> ok, ill just update you guys if i found him

<godispasen> stay safe

<ParkerGameBrain> dont hesitate to call for us for help if so

<DoomedCow> what parker and godis said

<JudeLow> thanks guys

Jude sighs, shaking his head lightly as he sits on a lone dirt block in the middle of an open plain. He’s been walking for a while now, and the sun is already beginning to set. He doesn’t really know what to do besides contact Quakitus or Rylan to come pick him up.

And then what? Wait for Sharp until tomorrow? He can do that, but what if Sharp still doesn’t show up? Where is he even supposed to find him?

Jude bites his lower lip before shaking his head again. Why is he so stupid?

“Why can’t I just shut my stupid mouth?” Jude buries his face in his hands, letting out a loud groan. He’s supposed to be better than some short-tempered rabbit who gets annoyed at every little thing. He’s supposed to be better. He’s supposed to be calm and cool.

Well, to be fair, that’s more Cow’s thing, but whatever.

With another sigh, Jude pulls out his communicator. He might as well find himself somewhere to sleep. Surely Rylan would let him crash at his base for the night, right?

<JudeLow> hey rylan

<Rylanets> Oh hey jude! How's the tour all around? Quakitus said you broke away pretty early on to talk to Wyll

<Rylanets> He didn’t do anything crazy right?

<JudeLow> im doing good, and nah wyll didnt do shit at all, dont worry

<JudeLow> just wondering if i can stay there in your base, i dont really have a place to stay yet and sun is setting

<Rylanets> OMG, of course! I can get Dabby to get you

<JudeLow> or you can just drop coords?

<Rylanets> It’ll make me feel better if Dabby gets you instead, he’ll be able to watch your back

<JudeLow> aight, thanks bro

Dabby doesn’t take long to come get him. Before long, he arrives in a small boat to pick Jude up, rowing for nearly an hour toward a mountain that Jude can only assume is where Rylan and his teammates have their base. It's a simple place tucked away inside the mountains, with livestock wandering around and supplies scattered throughout the area.

"Nice place you've got here," Jude comments the moment he spots Rylan waiting outside.

Rylan beams when he sees him and gives a wave. "Hey, Jude. Glad you made it here in one piece. I was starting to worry you guys got ambushed," he says with a wince.

"Does that happen a lot around here?" Jude asks with a snort. "I heard a lot of PvP kits are banned, and I can't really use any of the weapons I'm used to."

"Yeah, it does," Rylan admits, rubbing the back of his head. "I could explain how everything works around here, but it'd probably bore you. You should come inside first. We're about to have dinner."

"Yeah, sure," Jude replies with a nod.

There isn't much else that happens afterward besides dinner, which is unfortunately kind of awful. Jude is the only hybrid there who doesn't eat meat, so Dabby has to head back out and gather some carrots and bread for him while everyone else digs into their meal and chats around the table.

"I heard you're looking for Conexion," Dabby says, making Jude perk up. "Yeah, I am. Do you know where he is?"

"Oh, you must be his friend, right?" Rylan asks between bites. Jude shrugs. "Hard to say. You can't really call anyone your friend back in Strength." The words leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Even saying them makes him feel a little guilty.

"That's depressing," Quakitus comments. "Eh." Jude shrugs again. "It is what it is."

"Do you even know what he did?" Dabby asks. Jude shakes his head. "Not really. Wyll said Sharp killed both him and Mugm."

"Add Puqi to that list," Quakitus says. Jude's brows shoot up. "Whoa—I thought Puqi was the one who invited him to help them?"

"Well, yeah, he did." Rylan grins. "It's interesting that you know that much." Jude simply shrugs. "Looking out for an ex-member, I guess. So... what exactly did he do?"

"What didn't he do?" Dabby replies. "He betrayed Puqi's team. Killed Puqi, Mugm, Wyll—almost everyone, actually. All because he was..." He raises both paws in air quotes. "'Really bored.'"

Jude raises an eyebrow before letting out an amused snort. The other three immediately stare at him. "Was that funny to you?" Dabby asks. Jude quickly shakes his head, hiding the smile behind his fist "No, not really. Sorry. That's... actually pretty sad."

"It is," Quakitus agrees. "Betraying people because you're bored? That's just insane."

Jude only shakes his head. Of course Sharp would do something like that. It sounds exactly like him—reckless, impulsive, acting before thinking. But it also feels... intentional somehow. Like he wanted everyone to hate him.

"He's still cool with most of us, though," Rylan says. "We've run into him a couple of times. He's gone solo ever since pulling that stunt, but nobody's managed to kill him yet. His base is probably hidden somewhere no one knows about."

"That's probably because Sharp doesn't have a base," Jude hums. The other three all turn toward him. "What makes you think that?" Quakitus asks.

"Oh, uh..." Jude scratches the back of his neck. "He keeps everything on him. He knows he won't die easily, so all his important gear stays in his inventory. He doesn't really settle down anywhere. He's probably just... wandering."

"Whoa. Is that how you guys usually operate?" Rylan asks. "I guess he really is that good at PvP. I heard his crystal's the Strength Gem, so that explains why he's so good with a sword."

Jude can't help the small swell of pride in his chest. Yeah...

Sharp really is good with a sword.

Later that night, Jude lies on a borrowed bed, staring up at the damp ceiling as cold droplets of water fall onto his forehead. The room is silent, filled only with the slow, steady dripping overhead.

Eventually, he pulls out his communicator and opens his old conversation with Sharp—then scrolling to the desperate attempts from Sharp to get his attention, a pang of guilt eating him out as he reads through all of it, he can feel the desperation through each one of Sharp's messages. It's been a while since he'd unblocked him, but he still hasn't figured out what to say. Sharp probably hasn't even noticed—unblocking someone doesn't send a notification, after all.

So the first message has to come from him. But... what? "What do I even tell you?" Jude sighs, letting the communicator fall onto his chest. "Like... ugh..." He drags a hand over his face. "Fuck. I'm so fucking stupid..."

He throws an arm over his eyes before letting it slide onto his forehead, staring back up at the ceiling. His eyes burn with exhaustion, but sleep refuses to come. Sharp is still out there. Alone. Probably thinking everyone hates him, probably thinking Jude never cared about him at all. He shouldn't have said those things. He never should have.

Why does he have to be like this? Why can't he just be... normal? Like the other rabbit hybrid he knows. God... Maybe he and Sharp really do belong together. Jude with his anger issues. Sharp with his complete inability to stop acting on impulse. Somehow, against all odds, they'd made it work.

God... They're both so unbelievably weird.

Unfortunately, Sharp still wasn't in the server the next day.

Jude spent almost the entire day getting to know the other members of Bliss, asking around for any information about where Sharp might have gone. It wasn't much help. Sharp barely talked to anyone outside of Puqi, Wyll, Mugm, and a handful of other people Jude couldn't even ask because they were off the server for reasons nobody seemed to know. Then again, maybe it was just his luck being complete shit right now.

"I can't do this anymore. He isn't anywhere." Jude sighs as he collapses onto his bed.

Across the room, Parker sits at his work desk, focused on a blueprint Jude can't bring himself to care about. Instead, Jude stares at the ceiling, utterly exhausted. It isn't surprising. He'd spent the entire day walking, flying, walking some more, and introducing himself to countless strangers. His social battery was completely drained.

He can't even remember how many times he'd introduced himself. All he knows is that he's tired, he feels guilty... and he misses Sharp.

He misses Sharp's stupid laugh. His stupid, goofy smile. His bright green eyes. His hair...

Sharp...

Jude opens his eyes, only now realizing he'd closed them. He stares blankly at the ceiling again before Parker's face suddenly fills his vision. "Hoplite?" Parker asks.

Jude lets out a long sigh and throws an arm over his face. Did he even have a choice? "Yeah..." Jude mutters.

"Want me to ask Godis and Cow to come? Maybe Shadow can join us too." Parker takes out his communicator, already typing something down. Jude sits up with another weary sigh. "Sure. I mean... I guess. What can I even say anymore? I can't find Sharp. It's stupid. Even if I do find him, he won't forgive me."

"It's not stupid. And of course he'll forgive you," Parker says. "Right now, what you need is a reset. You won't be able to focus if your head isn't in the game, and if you can't focus, you won't find Sharp." He gestures toward Jude. "Not while you're like... this."

Jude answers with nothing more than a tired glare. After a long moment, he sighs and nods. Parker is kind of right.

He's losing his patience. Waiting is exhausting, and finding Sharp shouldn't have been this hard. If anything, Jude had always seemed to run into him without even trying. Sharp was always around. Always somewhere nearby. Every time Jude looked in a different direction, he'd either find Sharp or something that reminded him of him.

Sharp was supposed to be there. He couldn't just... disappear.

"So what am I hearing about you getting into a fight with a friend?" Jude flinches as soon as he steps into the Hoplite server, looking up to see Shadow adjusting his glasses and giving him a serious look. Behind Jude, Parker, Godis, and Cow trail in after him.

"It's nothing. It's stupid," Jude mutters. Shadow pats him on the shoulder before glancing at Parker, who simply shrugs. "Alright. Maybe a few games will cheer you up. Godis said you needed it." Jude shoots Godis a dirty look. The canine immediately looks away, pretending to be fascinated by something else while Shadow queues them into a lobby.

"What're you naming yourself?" Cow asks.

Parker is already typing on his communicator, deciding on a disguise. It was something they always did. They were well-known trappers in Hoplite, and if anyone recognized their names, people usually ran the other way. A full team of trappers was practically a death sentence.

"I don't know yet. What if you pick mine and I pick yours?" Parker suggests. Cow hands over his communicator without hesitation, and the two swap devices.

Meanwhile, Jude lazily throws together a random combination of words for his own name. He isn't in the mood to think of anything clever, and moments later, the lobby throws all of them into the match.

The beginning of the game isn't particularly exciting. Most of it is spent gathering resources during the grace period, scouting a location, and digging out the foundation for whatever trap Parker and Cow decide to build.

Fortunately for them, Parker and Cow are the stars of today's strategy, so they take charge of designing the trap while everyone else gathers materials and helps build it.

Unfortunately for Jude, that means he's stuck underground with Shadow, digging tunnels while Godis and Cow collect supplies aboveground and Parker rushes to finish the trap before the grace period ends.

"You thinking of telling me what happened, Jude?" Shadow finally asks, breaking stone beside him. Jude sighs through his nose. "Nothing happened," he mumbles, continuing to mine as he places down several chests, an obsidian block, and dripstone around the funnel.

"You know I've listened to just about every crappy thing you've done over the years, and I never judged you once, right?" Shadow says without looking, breaking a few more blocks.

Jude grumbles under his breath. "I know... I just don't really want to talk about it yet. Parker, Cow, and Godis already ganged up on me, so I didn't exactly have much of a choice with them." That earns a chuckle from Shadow. "That just means they care about you."

"I never thought otherwise." Jude shrugs. Shadow smiles. "Good. You shouldn't. You've got us. Whatever you're going through, I know you'll figure it out." Before Jude can answer, Parker's voice crackles through their communicators. "Guys, two minutes."

Both Jude and Shadow immediately look up. "Game time," Shadow says with a grin. "Game time," Jude echoes, though with considerably less enthusiasm.

The two quickly swim back up the tunnel to the surface, where Parker and Cow are putting the finishing touches on the trap while Godis finishes crafting a few sets of iron armor. He tosses one to Jude and another to Shadow, and both of them slip the armor on just as the match is about to begin.

“Whose bait?” Shadow asks.

“I can bait.” Jude raises his hand, and Godis does the same.

“Alright, you two bait. Shadow, stay down there and watch the trap. Me and Cow can probably bait too,” Parker says.

Jude just hums, and off he goes to bait some stupid kids.

It doesn't take long before almost an entire team is on his ass. He manages to lure four of them into the trap, the floor beneath them opening as Cow and Parker knock every last one of them down the funnel. Jude climbs back out of the hole and immediately goes looking for more victims.

“I got three!” Parker laughs. Shadow screams at the top of his lungs while Cow cheers as three consecutive bolts of lightning streak across the sky. Jude watches it all happen with a small grin hidden beneath his helmet.

Then he hears footsteps behind him. He turns to find another player. They're mostly alone, no teammates in sight, so Jude immediately books it. He stops every so often to trade a few blows before sprinting straight toward the trap.

The player stops a few blocks away ...Aaaand refuses to follow. Ugh. Of course they knew it was a trap. It wasn't exactly uncommon for players on hoplite to suddenly discover a few brain cells and realize they were being baited. It was just annoying that they always seemed to gain that clarity right before reaching the trap.

Jude briefly wishes they'd built a backup trap for situations like this. Instead, he decides to just fight them. Mostly because the player is carrying an Excalibur sword, and it'd be really nice to steal that if they wanted to win this game.

“You a new player around here?” Jude asks, mostly just trying to start a conversation.

The player seems confused—almost shocked—by some of the mechanics, especially when Jude starts firing pufferfish at them as they weave between the trees. They don't answer. They simply dodge another volley, tilt their sword—

—and in a flash, they're already in front of him. One clean slash across Jude's neck. Dead. For some reason, that attack gives Jude a strange sense of déjà vu. It's... really familiar.

“Jude's out!” Cow calls.

“Oh shit, I'm gonna switch with him then—” Before Parker can finish, the dirt beside him explodes upward. The same player bursts from underground, kills Parker just as effortlessly, then turns toward Cow.

Cow manages to dodge a few swings, but Jude can only watch as a spectator, humming thoughtfully as he narrows his eyes.

Something about this person's fighting style feels incredibly familiar. And they seem oddly accustomed to dealing with traps. Maybe another fellow trapper? Jude wouldn't be surprised if this was Fruit in disguise... though Fruit's fighting style is a little different.

“Shadow, I'm out. Shit—fuck,” Cow groans. He gets knocked straight into the funnel system and dies. Godis rushes in next, only for the player to sidestep him with ease before tossing him into the funnel chamber too.

Unfortunately, Shadow tries to save the day... But as far as Jude's concerned, Shadow still hasn't polished his PvP in a while. So the entire team gets wiped by a single player. Wow, this is a brand new kind of low, they don't usually come up against good players like this, it's rare as shit even.

“Oh my god, that was really fast. What the heck, guys?” Shadow says.

Parker chuckles as the five of them float around in spectator mode, watching the remaining teams fight—and watching that strange player kill everyone else just as quickly as they killed them.

“That guy must be hacking,” Jude says. “I wouldn't be surprised if he is,” Cow comments. “I have been running into multiple hackers lately,” Shadow hums. "You guys think it's my luck that I brought them in our game?"

"Maybe," Parker shrugs. "Oh, most definitely." Cow nodded, hand on his chin in thought. Before Jude can say anything else, Godis pokes him in the side and points toward the player again. Jude turns to him. "What is it?” Godis keeps gesturing wildly, waving his paws around before repeatedly pointing at the disguised player.

“What's up?” Shadow asks, floating closer as Godis grabs Jude's wrist again and again, insisting they keep watching. “You mean we got our asses kicked by that player? Hell yeah we did,” Parker says.

Cow gives him a dirty look. “I don't think that's what Godis meant.”

Godis lets out an exasperated groan before barking once. Shadow immediately perks up. “Familiar person?” he asks. Godis nods then lets out another bark, Shadow lets out a long 'ahhhh' and nodded. “Godis says he knows who that disguised player is. He says that this person is sharp. Wait, no. Their name is Sharp.”

The other three immediately perk up. Jude's eyes widen.

The game shifts into a deathmatch, and all five of them drift closer to watch as Sharp effortlessly cuts through the remaining teams. Then, after the final kill, the player casually does that signature sword twirl Sharpness always loved showing off with—a flourish only someone completely insane would attempt with a blade sharp enough to take their own hand off.

“Holy shit... it is him.” The match ends, and they're pulled back into the lobby. Jude breaks away from the group almost immediately, pushing through the sea of players as he searches desperately for a familiar head of long blond hair and a black cape.

Sharp.

Sharp.

Sharp.

The name echoes through his mind over and over again. His stomach twists as he shoves past players, bumping shoulders, accidentally stepping on feet, barely noticing the complaints thrown his way. Where is he? Where's Sharp?

Jude turns around, spinning on the spot as he bounces on his feet, trying to find the familiar blond in a sea of different-colored hair. He tugs lightly at his own ears, desperate for even a little more focus. Where is he? He couldn't have joined another game that fast... right?

Suddenly, Jude crashes into someone. He lets out a loud oof, nearly stumbling backward, only to realize someone has caught his wrist. He looks up, coming face-to-face with Sharp.

The same bright—no... dull green eyes. And his hair... It's short.

What happened?

"Sharp?" Jude gasps, staring up at him. Sharp's eyes widen. He quickly lets go of Jude's wrist, blinking rapidly as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing. "Sharp, I—" Jude starts.

"Jude!"

Jude's ears perk up at Parker calling his name. Sharp's eyes go even wider as he instinctively steps back, his shoulders rising to his ears in obvious unease.

Jude immediately turns back to him. "Wait! No—Sharp, let me explain." He reaches out and catches Sharp's wrist. Sharp freezes, staring down at him just as Parker and Cow push through the crowd and come to an abrupt stop when they finally spot the two of them.

A second later, Shadow and Godis crash into Parker and Cow from behind, sending all four of them tumbling into a tangled heap. A few nearby players shoot them confused looks before quickly giving them space.

Jude winces. "Yeah... okay," he mutters, glancing back at Sharp, whose eyes still haven't left him. "Can we talk?" Sharp blinks while the other four scramble to their feet, brushing themselves off.

"Damn, bro, what happened to your hair?" Cow asks. Jude shuts his eyes and groans internally.

[...]

Jude’s not used to Sharp being this quiet.

Unfortunately, Sharp didn’t want to go back to Strength. Instead, he wanted to talk to Jude in the lobby. The others, meanwhile, refused to log off Hoplite and waited a few blocks away while Jude and Sharp stood face to face with each other.

For a while, Jude just... looked at him.

Sharp looked exhausted. His eyes were dull, his lips pulled into a perpetual frown Jude had never seen on him before, and his hair...

His hair was so short.

Jude felt a lump rise in his throat as he stared at it. He knew Sharp loved his hair.

Why did he cut it?

“I’m sorry, Sharp, for everything I’ve said... And I know saying sorry will never take any of it back, ever, but I still want to apologize and tell you that I’ll do anything you want as payback for every painful and hurtful thing I said to you.” Jude says.

Sharp refuses to meet his eyes, staring at the ground instead, his hands clenching and unclenching over and over.

“I said a lot of horrible shit to you that day, and I regret it. That doesn’t erase what I said, but I want you to know I didn’t mean any of it.” Jude sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “And look... I was angry. Really fucking angry.”

Sharp seems to flinch.

“Not at you—well... mostly at myself for trusting you. But I guess most of that anger ended up directed at you.” Jude lets out a bitter laugh. “And I was a massive asshole for pulling that shit when all you wanted was to fix things and finally apologize for what you did. I could've just accepted it, and maybe everything would've gotten better... but I didn't. I was just being petty.”

Sharp swallows. “It’s fine.” His voice is quiet as he finally glances at Jude. “I deserve it. And... you were right anyway. You didn’t lie. You just spoke the truth. Guess I should have seen it coming, not a good swordsman aren't I?” The words are delivered in such a flat, exhausted tone that Jude startles.

"Wha—no. I was talking complete bullshit. Every single thing I said was bullshit. I just wanted to get back at you.” Jude argues.

Sharp bites his lower lip, visibly uncomfortable. “No... I—” He pauses. "It’s okay, Jude. I forgive you.” He forces a smile.

Jude stares at him, noticing how Sharp still refuses to meet his eyes, and quickly blinks away the heat building behind his own. “Sharp, shout at me for being an asshole. What are you doing? You’re not supposed to forgive me straight away.” He gestures helplessly toward him.

Sharp only shrugs. “Why shouldn’t I? I don’t think I have the energy to shout at you. Besides... it’s fine. I don’t really care about it anymore.” He says it with another heavy shrug.

“Sharp.” Jude says his name again. “Just be an asshole and yell at me. Punch me. Slap me. Anything! I said a lot of fucked up shit to you!”

Sharp only gives another lazy shrug, looking down instead of at him. “I don’t really want to.”

Jude blinks. “What happened to you?" What did Jude do? Was this his fault? Is this why Sharp's acting like this? Sharp presses his lips into a thin line before shrugging again. “I don’t know... I don’t really care about much of anything anymore. Everything I do just bores me.”

Jude grits his teeth. “That’s not true.” Sharp glances at him, meeting his eyes for only a second before scratching his cheek. “Yeah... it kinda is. Hoplite is kinda fun, I guess. I like the sword.” He says it so blandly that Jude feels himself blanch. This isn’t Sharp. It’s like he’s an entirely different person.

Sharp doesn’t act like this.

He'd be shouting in excitement over the sword alone, rambling about how badly he wanted to take it home with him. He'd be ranting about how stupid the other players were, how they were beneath his rank, how he deserved tougher opponents.

The real Sharp would've been furious at Jude for treating him like shit. He would've screamed at him, held every awful thing Jude said over his head, and honestly...

Jude would've preferred that. Anything was better than this. Because this version of Sharp... He was different. Like he'd become someone who had nothing left to do except exist. “This isn’t you, man. What’s wrong with you?” Jude asks, his voice growing desperate as he steps closer.

Sharp simply stares back at him with blank eyes, shoulders slumped. That isn't right. Sharp always stood tall because he genuinely believed he was better than everyone else here. He shouldn't be standing like the effort of simply holding himself upright was exhausting.

“Sharp!” Jude grabs him by the arms and shakes him. “What the fuck are you doing, man? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sharp says nothing at all, letting Jude shake him as he bonelessly just looks away from him. “Why are you acting like this? Is it because of what I said? Is it? Is it? Sharp, tell me or I’ll fucking punch you across the face.”

Sharp only looks down and gives another weak shrug. “I don’t know...” A pause. “It’s the truth anyway.” Another shrug. “Why should I be angry at you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Sharp. I swear to fucking God, what the fuck are you talking about? Don’t you get it? It was all bullshit. None of it was real. I was lying out of my ass because I just wanted to get into your head and hurt you.” Jude shakes him again before Sharp steps back, prying Jude’s hands off him.

“I’m gonna go,” Sharp says quietly.

“No!” Jude grabs his wrist again before he can leave. “You aren’t leaving until we fix this. You’re fixing your attitude right now, and we’re going back to Strength. You’re going to be a permanent member there again.” He tugs Sharp toward where the others are waiting, already intending to tell them they were heading straight back to Strength.

“I don’t think I deserve to be there anymore,” Sharp says, letting Jude drag him along.

“What makes you fucking think that?” Jude demands.

“I’m washed. I’m not good. You’re right—I am shit. I’ve failed almost everyone on that server. I’m stupid. I’m slow. I can’t seem to follow anyone’s instructions, even when they’re easy. Everyone hates me. And they think the same thing as you do. You’re kinda right, Jude... I don’t know, man.”

Sharp keeps listing off every flaw he believes he has until Jude suddenly stops walking, making Sharp bump into his back and cutting himself off.

Jude doesn’t want to admit it, but his eyes burn at the sound of Sharp talking about himself like that. He’s... he’s never heard Sharp sound so defeated before. Yet here he is, staring at Jude with that expression. It isn’t boredom.

It’s defeat.

It’s the slow, miserable acceptance that this is all he is, and that there’s nothing he can do to change it.

“You’re right, Jude,” Sharp sighs. “I really am a nobody.”

The slap lands before either of them can think.

Sharp’s head snaps to the side, eyes widening, while Jude’s hand remains frozen in the air. Jude breathes heavily through gritted teeth.

“Don’t fucking talk about yourself like that.” His voice shakes with anger. “Sharp, if I hear one more word of you talking shit about yourself, you’re getting this again.” He gestures with his raised hand.

Sharp slowly presses a palm to his stinging cheek, still too stunned to react.

“What...?” he whispers.

“You aren’t washed. You’re not shit. And you aren’t a failure,” Jude says. “You’re not stupid either. Yeah, you’re slow sometimes, but that’s because nobody cares enough to explain things to you properly. So what if it takes you longer to understand certain instructions? That’s on them for not teaching you in a way you can actually understand—not on you.” He jabs a finger against Sharp’s chest, making Sharp let out a shaky breath.

“God damn it, Sharp, we all care about you. Sure, it’s not obvious, but Tai was literally crying because you left. And Flow—he’d never admit it—but I know damn well he was sad to see you go. People want you there. They don’t hate you, Sharp.”

Sharp instinctively takes a step back, refusing to meet Jude’s eyes, but Jude catches his wrist before he can pull away completely.

“But you hate me,” Sharp says quietly.

The words make Jude’s heart crack.

Sharp’s shoulders are drawn up to his ears, making himself as small as possible, as though he’s trying to disappear before Jude can hurt him again.

“I don’t hate you, Sharp.” Jude gently pulls him closer, even as Sharp weakly resists. “Please, just listen to me. I was an asshole, okay? I said a lot of things I didn’t mean.” He lets out a tired sigh.

“Do you know why I was so angry at myself?” Jude finally asks.

Sharp hesitantly looks up. He looks terrified to answer, and that alone makes Jude’s chest ache all over again.

“It’s okay to say you don’t know, Sharp. It doesn’t mean anything bad.”

Sharp swallows and slowly shakes his head.

“It’s because even after you betrayed me... I still cared about you.” Jude’s voice drops. “I still fucking loved you. And I hated myself for it. I hated that I was willing to love someone who could hurt me so easily.” He exhales shakily. “I was mad that you failed my test. But like I said... I was mostly mad at myself for hoping so much.”

Jude slumps, rubbing a hand over his face.

“So I tried to put distance between us. And you just... wouldn’t stop. You kept coming back, so I had to make sure you’d actually leave me alone. But for some reason, you were always so... determined to earn my forgiveness.” He laughs bitterly. “And I just couldn’t do it, because forgiving you meant loving you again... and I didn’t want to get hurt anymore.”

A quiet sniffle interrupts him.

Jude looks up.

Sharp’s head is lowered, his hair just long enough to hide most of his face as tears spill freely down his cheeks. His shoulders tremble with every shaky breath.

“I’m so sorry, Jude,” Sharp chokes out. “I’m so stupid.”

Jude sighs and gently places a hand on Sharp’s shoulder before pulling him into a hug.

“I’m sorry too... for being stupid.”

Sharp buries his face into Jude’s shoulder, sobbing openly now. His whole body shakes as Jude quietly hushes him, rocking him from side to side. A few tears slip down Jude’s own face as he runs a hand through Sharp’s hair, wishing he had never said any of those things.

Maybe then Sharp wouldn’t have lost something he cared about so much.

“I’m really fucking sorry, Sharp,” Jude whispers.

“Me too,” Sharp whispers back, turning his head until his tear-soaked face presses against Jude’s neck. Jude hated the feeling of wet skin.

But it was fine.

It was Sharp.

“I’m so sorry, Judey,” Sharp sobs. “I... I didn’t want to believe you’d actually say those things, but... but it was really hard. A-And I believed you. I really believed you.” His voice breaks. “It felt like I was drowning.”

“I know. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry,” Jude says, holding him tighter. “It was so hard to care about anything else anymore... I didn't know what to do. I felt really lost, so I just did what I do best. I swung my sword at anything I could see and stopped thinking—because that's the problem, isn't it? My brain?” Sharp continues.

“That's not true. Don't listen to me. My mouth is full of shit—you know that, Sharp.” Jude says, pinching Sharp's side. Sharp lets out a small hitch of breath, breathing heavily as he clings to Jude. He falls silent, only the occasional sniffle and uneven breaths breaking the quiet.

“I still love you, by the way... I still think you're the most beautiful and smartest man I've ever met,” Sharp whispers, as if he's telling Jude a secret.

Jude freezes.

Then he lets out a small snort. “I don't know about beautiful, but I sure as hell know I'm fucking smart,” he jokes.

Sharp giggles, holding him tighter before finally leaning back from the hug. His eyes are red and droopy—but God, he still looks so pretty in Jude's eyes. Jude reaches up and gently wipes the tears from his face with his hands.

“I still want you, Jude... I want you to want me,” Sharp whispers.

“Even after everything I said?” Jude asks.

Sharp nods, biting his lower lip into a small pout.

“Even if you said worse than that... I like you a lot, Jude. I really want you to have me... forever.”

Sharp fidgets nervously with his hands until Jude reaches over and laces their fingers together.

“If you didn't hear what I said earlier,” Jude sighs, “I said I still love you. And no matter what bullshit you put me through, I still can't help but love you.”

Sharp meets his eyes.

The emptiness is still there, dull around the edges, but there's life in them again—and Jude has never been happier to see that light return. He really needs to stop taking for granted the things he could lose at any moment. He never thought he'd lose Sharp, not when he'd always been there.

“I don't think I can quit loving you, Sharp,” Jude murmurs.

Suddenly, Sharp cups his face and crashes their lips together.

Jude startles, his hands hovering awkwardly for a second before he melts into the kiss and kisses him back. Sharp's lips are clumsy and hesitant, like someone who's never kissed anyone before. Jude slides his hands to Sharp's waist and leans in, wanting to deepen it—

But Sharp pulls away first. He steals one more quick peck before wrapping his arms tightly around Jude again, burying his face in the crook of his neck. “Me too,” Sharp whispers. Jude holds him back, smiling so hard his cheeks ache.

“I want everything you want to do to be with me first. If you want to trap someone, I want it to only be me. I want to share your bed and your base again, and you won't kick me out ever again. And I don't want to see you letting anyone touch your ears,” Sharp continues to mumble.

Jude rolls his eyes with a snort. Of course the first thing Sharp does is start making demands and staking his claim. Stupid, silly Sharpness...

Of course he would.

“Fine,” Jude says, rolling his eyes. Sharp lets out an excited giggle before grabbing Jude around the waist and lifting him clean off the ground. “Hey—!” Sharp spins him around as Jude yelps.

“Does that mean I'm your boyfriend?” he asks. Jude yelps, holding onto Sharp's shoulders tightly. “Oh, Notch—put me down—”

“Judey, answer my question first,” Sharp pouts. Jude squeezes his eyes shut. "Yes! Yes! You're my boyfriend!” Sharp beams. He sets Jude back on his feet before immediately peppering his face with excited kisses like an overjoyed puppy. “Oh my God,” Jude groans, squeezing his eyes shut against the relentless assault of kisses.

“Wow. Young love,” Shadow comments from the side, shaking his head. Parker, Cow, and Godis—who had all been tearing up while watching—slowly turn to stare at him with identical dirty looks.

“You're not even that old,” Parker says. Shadow gasps dramatically. “What? I am,” he argues. Cow just groans, shaking his head, while Godis sighs and rolls his eyes.