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A certain End guardian was cooking up in the kitchen, as he does that he hears a screech from the floor caused by the moving chair, and then he hears a huff, and then a groan, and then a whine.
That made MinuteTech look over his shoulder to look at the certain purple end demon boy that is slouching on the dining table with his head on the cold flat surface. "Are you okay?" He asked as he put food on the plate and slide it in front of the boy.
The boy slowly lifts up his head to look at the guardian, "Can I skip training today?" He responded as he grab a fork and stab the food with it.
That made MinuteTech a little worried about the boy, since Wemmbu usually seem to be always get excited on training, whether it's because he always trolls his mentor or just simply like fighting, "Why? Is something wrong?" He then moved the chair that is at the other side of the table and sat on it, he put his own plate of food on the table.
Wemmbu chews on his food as he swallows it, he was quiet for a beat, "... I think I strained my muscle.. My legs and arms hurts.." The boy sigh. "And for some reason I've been getting more tired." He played his food with the fork in his hand.
Minute unconsciously soften, "That's okay, we can put an ice pack so it wouldn't hurt as much, and you need to make sure to get proper rest after training with Conexion. I always see you train on your own even after the training." He then has a stern look on his face which made Wemmbu shivers and avert his eyes away, "I always tells you—"
"Yeah, yeah, Sorry, I should've listened." The boy said sheepishly, he then look down at his plate, seeing his own reflection on the almost emptied plate of food, "I just don't want to let Sharpness down since he seem actually serious on training me and wanting me to get better at sword, I realized that a few days ago maybe I should take it more seriously as him too.." He seem a bit embarrassed to tell his feelings to the man in front of him.
Minute let out a breath, "Wemmbu, everyone have their limits. I'm sure Conexion wouldn't like seeing you overworking yourself until you're like this, you're still a kid. You need to take things easy, improvement needs progress and progress needs time." He then put a hand on top of the end demon's dark purple hair, "And it hurts me seeing you in pain like this—"
"It's not that painful—"
"You were whining about it, and listen to me first. Take a break for me, and for yourself. And after you recovered, promise me to not overstrain yourself ever again."
Wemmbu looks at the End guardian with a beat of silence.
".. Fine, okay, but i'm not sure about the promise—"
"Wemmbu."
The boy shivered at the tone from the man, "O—okay, I promise, whatever."
Minute put on a soft smile on his face at that, "Good, you can continue eating, we can take care of the pain later and I'll make sure to send a message to Conexion."
"How are you so scary yet so caring..?" Wemmbu mumbled.
"What did you say?" Minute tilted his head, not managed to hear what the end demon was mumbling.
".. Nothing."
A few days after Wemmbu recovers he was back at the training ground with Sharpness.
"You're doing great! You've improved so much!" The blonde haired man said with much pride in his chest as he finished off and spins his sword before stabbing it into the dirt.
Wemmbu pants as he wiped a sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his blouse, "T—thanks.." He grins, happy at the compliment he got from his mentor.
"I didn't expect you to get this good so.. fast. But i'm not complaining! That means you're a fast learner." Sharpness said with a bright smile. "Or maybe you've been forcing your body to the limit?" All of the sudden his bright smile became dark.
Wemmbu frozed at that, "Uh—" Then he felt his one of his ears getting pinched between two fingers by the blonde man, which made him hiss.
"Wemmbu, don't ever do that again! That's bad!" Sharpness scolded his student with a hand on his hip. "I know you like to annoy me but not like that! You can stick with your stupid hacks!"
"Ow, ow, ow, okay! You're just like my dad!"
________
"Achoo—!"
"Ew, Spoke! Don't sneeze on me!"
Wemmbu exclaimed which made Minute to look at the two boys. Spoke pulls away from Wemmbu as he rubs his nose with the sleeve of his hoodie, sniffling, and then started sneezing again. Away from Wemmbu this time.
Minute walked up at the brothers, kneeling and lift up a hand towards Spoke's forehead and neck. It's very warm. "You're sick."
"No i'm not!" The little voidling denies.
"You're totally is!" Wemmbu commented on his little brother.
Spoke gave a punch on Wemmbu's arm, Minute watched with a worried expression for the voidling, "Don't start a fight. Spoke, you're clearly sick, your face is almost flushed blue. [1]
Spoke then tried to cover his face, "Nope!" As he sneezed once again.
Minute let out a tired sigh, "Come on, let's go to your room and I'll get the other stuff."
Spoke lay on his bed while hugging his fox plush that he got from Wemmbu and a pout on his face, "I'm fine! Can me and Wemmbu play?" He look at the stern man sitting next to his bed while holding a medicine.
"You guys can play together after you're not sick again."
Spoke whined at that as Minute pours the liquid on the tea spoon, "C'mon, sit up and drink this." Minute said to Spoke as he obliged and sits up on the bed, the voidling gave one look at the liquid medicine and immediately stuck out his tongue almost as if in disgust. [2]
"I'm not doing that! It's gonna taste bitter."
"It's not. Just try it first."
"No!" Spoke huffed as he crossed his arms.
Minute sigh, "Okay, how about this; You can play with Wemmbu again after you take your medicine." That caught Spoke's attention as he then squints his eyes at the man, making sure he's not lying,
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Pinky promise?"
".. Pinky promise."
Spoke let out an skeptical hum, "Okay, just do a pinky promise first!" He then held up his pinky at MinuteTech, the end guardian then hold up his pinky and wrap it around the little one.
"Don't break the promise!"
Minute can't help but soften at the boy, "I won't."
MinuteTech watched as Spoke's body sways ever so slightly and trying to keep his eyelids open, "Spoke, are you sleepy?" He hears the end demon questioning his brother. Spoke let out a hum of confirmation, "Okay, let's go to bed." Wemmbu said as he put away the toys.
"You both go to bed, I still need to patrol just a bit." Minute said as he pat their heads. Wemmbu gave a nod and okay as he watched the man walked out.
As Wemmbu holds Spoke's unfamiliar warm hand, Spoke looks at the end demon, "Sleep together..?" He ask his brother as he rubs his eyes tiredly. Wemmbu became hesitant on the request,
"Um, i'm not sure Spoke, I don't wanna be sick too—"
Before Wemmbu was able to finish he saw the bottom lip of his little brother wobbling, he groans at that, "Ugh, fine..." And in an instant Spoke has a big smile on his face.
"Yay!"
________
"Dad, when can I able to hold the mace?"
"When you're strong enough."
Wemmbu huffed at that and crossed his arms, "Am I not strong enough, though?"
"The last time you hold one you literally eat the endstone dirt face first."
Wemmbu become flustered at the memory as his arms immediatly falls limp, "You didn't need to remind me.. and that was before Sharpness trained me!" He then back to being serious again, "I really want to learn the mace. I want to get stronger."
Minute finally looks at him, "You will in due time. I know you will get strong."
"I just wanna be like you."
Minute perked up at that before a certain voidling butts in, "Me too! I wanna be like dad! I want to be able to protect my friends!" He said with joy. "Jamato teached me how to do exploits yesterday, we learned how to dupe totems!"
"Wha—?" Minute was surprised at the sudden fact that Spoke is doing exploits. What's up with his kids and breaking the system?
"No exploits!" Wemmbu exclaimed as if he hasn't done them for years.
"Don't you do those kind of things too?"
"Uh— well, I don't do them anymore."
"Sure you do." Spoke said with skepticism.
"Whatever."
Wemmbu then put his attention back to MinuteTech, "Come on, just teach me a little or at least the basics!" Minute stare at him for a few seconds before exhaling,
"If you can properly hold my mace, I'll consider." He then hold out his own mace; Knightfall. Wemmbu look at the mace and then back at him before slowly reaching out to hold it.
The second Wemmbu's hand wrapped around the handle of the mace Minute lets go of it as the boy quickly tries to find his balance and strength to hold it as still and comfortably as possible.
After the end demon managed to stand on his ground and hold the mace with both hands he looks back at the man again, "Is this good?" He asked with an smile.
MinuteTech examine the boy, "We can do it tomorrow or whenever you want." He stoically responded. Wemmbu's eyes widen, totally not expecting that,
"Wait, really? Bet! We can do it tomorrow!" He's now grinning ear to ear.
"Can I watch?" Spoke commented.
"Sure, just stay in a safe distance." Minute replied.
"Yay!" Spoke cheers as he look at his big brother who's currently wielding the mace, "You look cool with the mace! I think it suits you."
The compliment from Spoke feeds into Wemmbu's ego, "Yeah? I'll look more cooler when I finally know how to use them."
Minute watched as the two boys interact with each other with such familiarity. Minute didn't expect his life to have a little family like this. He thought he would just be living his life guarding the End dimension, not finding two children in the most random places in the End dimension and then decide to take them in under his wings.
He's not complaining.
He's quite greatful for the eventful life his two kids gave him. Even though they always gave him a headache and possibly white hair from the stress.
He, as a guardian, promise to protect and care for them.
Minute smiles at the sight of the two boys.
They've grown so much...
"Uh— dad, are you crying?"
The image of his two sons slowly dissapears, revealing the current reality. His— their home— destroyed by Spoke, his own son.
He couldn't believe it. Spoke wasn't someone he used to know. A child of his he's not used to know anymore.
Minute tighten his grip on the handle of Knightfall.
How's Wemmbu? He hopes he's doing fine and not like his little brother. The last time he seen him, he seem a bit tired. But as usual he was stubborn after stating his worries, but Eggchan, his best friend was with him at that time. He trust that he understands and tries to help his oldest son to help him from the burden.
Minute stare at the End "sky" as it flashes purple, watching as the ender dragon that was spawned flies above, he watched as Spoke's stasis got pulled before he got the chance what he wanted to tell him.
He saw that Spoke was spiraling, a purple glitch kept appearing every few seconds on the left side of his face. When he witnessed that the first time, it nearly made his heart stops.
As he stands near the now-recovered end portal,
Hand holding tightly on the mace as purple light flashes in the "sky",
A flash memory of a young voidling with rainbow accents,
and with one goal in mind,
He jumps in.