Archive of Our Own

Trichotillomania (trik-o-til-o-MAY-nee-uh), also called hair-pulling disorder, is a mental health condition.
It involves frequent, repeated and irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body.

Flowtives

When it comes to Sharpness, he’s a weird guy. Flow had met him back then at the arena, both of them working on their ranks, trying to get the best possible score to reach the tier they wanted. And when he first went against him, he found out that Sharp talks a lot. He talks a lot. Like, he’s really fucking loud. When Flow finally managed to beat the blond to dust, he was already ticked the fuck off by Sharp talking his ear off, asking what kind of move he had just done and how Flow managed to kill him so easily in one fell swoop.

And of course, in natural Flowtives fashion, he lost his cool and told the kid to scram. Their first meeting basically ended with Flow shouting at poor ol’ little Sharpy, not knowing that years later, he’d be joining the same server as him, and even going as far as becoming his teammate.

Sharpness… Sharpness is not someone he really expected. Though, yes, he’s still loud as hell. He’s… interesting. Not in a bad way. Kind of. Well, there are some bad things, like how he can be overly egotistical about certain things and trusts himself a bit too much with everything. One thing you gotta learn with Sharp is that you cannot always fully trust him to have your back.

He’s a good fighter, but he’s not insanely consistent. And Flow has a feeling Sharp knows that too. He never bothered pointing it out, even when the two of them often had to retreat because of Sharp’s inability to make sure his back was actually watched over and that Flow wasn’t getting shit on. They work well—really well—but sometimes Sharp seems to forget that in this team, there are two of them. Not just himself. Flow is there too.

And Sharp has this tendency to just… completely disregard the fact that they have to work together. There are many times when he’d gone off the rails and done whatever he wanted, which ended with Flow and Sharpness getting heated with each other. 

The guy’s great, he’s amazing, but he seriously sucks at working with anyone who’s living, breathing, and has the ability to talk. It’s like he always wants to do things on his own. And it’s nice to know that Sharp is at least positive and confident in his own abilities, but does it really hurt him to give a heads-up?

But if you ask him if there’s something he finds… strange about Sharpness… Or maybe strange isn’t the right word. Maybe… concerning?

There is one thing that has been repeated throughout the time they’ve worked together. Back then, Flow didn’t care much for it. He and Sharpness hadn’t really known each other well, even though they worked closely together. Maybe that was also one of the reasons why the two of them couldn’t work together properly.

But Sharpness takes failure hard. More than Flow himself, who has always prided himself on being someone who takes failure and defeat hard and makes sure to learn from it. Sharp, on the other hand… He’s, uh… really different. He’s someone that Flow hasn’t even seen before.

“Dude! What the fuck was that! We could have gotten Dolphin, but you fucking blew it!” Flow rages as he throws his helmet straight toward the chest. His aim is a little off, though, and it hits the ball instead, bouncing off it and rolling across the floor.

Sharpness sits on a chair, his helmet gone along with his armored pants. His face is grave, scrapes littering his ripped gloves and chin.

Flow runs his hands through his hair, breathing heavily. His armor is beyond repair too. How could they let this happen to them? Aren’t they supposed to be the deadliest duo to ever team up on this server? So how the fuck were they defeated so easily?

He’s supposed to be Flowtives.

He’s unbeatable.

Sharp lets out a sharp breath, looking immensely guilty. “Look, I’m sorry, Flow.” He looks up, fidgeting with his hands as Flow runs a hand down his face, turning toward Sharpness with a glare that could definitely melt his face if he had lasers for eyes. Sharpness flinches at that, guilt reflecting in his eyes. For a moment, Flow feels a bit bad about what he’s about to say to the other.

“Sorry? Is that all you can say after going after Spongs and leaving me with not only one, but three people on my ass? What happened to that promise that you had my back, huh? Was that you just making a joke or something?” Flow asks, pissed off, as Sharp winces at that, his already pale face paling further.

“Flow...” he starts.

“Don’t!” Flow raises a finger at Sharp’s face, making Sharp flinch, his eyes widening. “Don’t talk to me right now. I’m fucking mad at you. Now we’re back at square one again.” He says it, and Sharp’s face folds at that, his head lowering.

Flow rushes off to his room, huffing to himself as he slides off his armor. He might as well take a bath right now; he smells like shit from all the fighting he just went through. He hears Sharpness walk outside, his boots thumping loudly, and by the sounds of it, he’s pacing.

Flow rolls his eyes. Sharp was dramatic. Really fucking dramatic. Of course he was going to show it to Flow and make sure to torture him because Flow had shouted at him. That was just so Sharp, being the one to throw a tantrum when he was always the one in the wrong. Fucking asshole.

When Flow finishes taking a bath, he slips on some loose clothes before exiting his room, drying his hair. “Sharp?” he calls. His head feels much lighter now that he’s had time to think about what happened and take a good-ass bath, which was definitely good for his slowly fracturing mental stability on this stupid fucking server. So, he does kind of feel a bit bad for ripping Sharp a new one.

But then again, he did kind of deserve it. It was very asshole-ish of him to leave Flow fighting three people at once, who, by the way, were all in full netherite gear, especially when Flow hadn’t even had the time to repair his armor. It really was a shit moment for both of them. If Flow hadn’t decided to back out, Sharp and him probably would’ve gotten their asses fully handed to them.

I mean, getting their asses slightly handed to them is better than getting them fully handed to them. That would be a complete disaster and an embarrassment to the whole server after literally showing off that they were one of the best duos on the server. Like, come on.

“What in the fuck?” Flow mutters to himself, pausing when he sees strands of hair littering the floor. Sharpness is sitting by the couch, his armor already shed, his hair taken out of the ponytail he likes to keep it in. His nose is buried in some kind of book, reading. Flow has no idea what it is and doesn’t care at all.

What he does care about right now is the hand buried in Sharpness’ hair. His own hand, scratching his scalp and pulling at his hair, then running it down before the strands fall loose, only for him to do it all over again. When Flow gets closer, he realizes that maybe Sharpness isn’t even reading. His eyes look glazed over, and he isn’t even focused on the words. He just looks like he’s stuck in whatever he’s thinking about instead of reading.

Sharpness doesn’t even look like he notices what he’s doing, or the fact that Flow is quite literally standing in front of him now. But Flow can’t help but wince when Sharpness tugs on a large handful of his hair and plucks it out, not even wincing before throwing the strands onto the floor and going at it again.

“Yo, bro, what the hell are you doing?” Flow asks, confused, brows furrowed as Sharp looks up, one brow raised. He lowers his hand, giving Flow a weird look. “What’s up?” He closes his book as Flow gives him a look, glancing at Sharp’s hair, then at the hairs scattered across the floor. It’s not even hair shedding anymore. By the looks of it, Sharpness just tugged all of them out.

“What are you—dude, are you okay? You’re pulling your hair and shit.” Flow points at Sharp’s hair and then the floor, and Sharp’s eyes widen in realization as he spots the strands on the floor, then looks at his hand, where a few are caught in his palm. “Oops.”

Flow gives him a confused sound.

Because what does “oops” exactly mean? Like, oops, I just quite literally plucked my hair off my scalp, or oops, I didn’t notice I was doing that, or oops, I got a shit ton of lice on my head, so I’ve been scratching it like crazy to the point that my hair is shedding?

“You okay?” Flow asks as Sharp stares at the fallen strands, clenching and unclenching his hands. Then he looks up at Flow and smiles. “I’m fine—you done bathing? I’m next.” Sharp grins as he stands up, stretching his arms over his head. Flow spots more blond strands on the couch, scattered all over the pillow.

By Notch… just how much hair did he pluck off his scalp? And why would he do that?

“Man, my hair is so greasy. This is your fault. You said you can fight twenty people at once.” Sharp pouts, sighing dramatically as Flow spots even more hair falling from Sharp’s head. He focuses back on Sharp’s face as the other turns toward him.

“Hey, don’t make me angry at you again.” Flow waves a finger in Sharpness’s face as Sharp grins at him, only to reach up to the top of his head again and scratch—

And scratch, and scratch.

Doing that god-awful scratching.

“And will you stop that?” Flow grabs Sharpness’s hand, slapping it away as Sharp drops it to his side, pouting at him. “You’re getting hair all over the place. You clean all that up after your bath.” Flow admonishes him as Sharp’s pout deepens.

“Ooookay….” Sharp sighs, dragging the word out sadly as Flow rolls his eyes. This dramatic queen.

Sharp eventually walks away to take a bath, muttering under his breath about Flow being so bossy and annoying, and how hard he’s always been to work with.

Flow rolls his eyes again, then focuses on the fallen strands scattered across the couch and floor, his face pinching with slight worry. Is this some kind of stress response to failure or something? It’s not a long stretch. Flow used to train himself until he passed out if he failed, but that seems different with Sharpness.

Hair pulling and scalp scratching? Really?

It almost feels more like some kind of habit than a punishment. Sharp’s a good guy, and Flow doesn’t hate him at all. He’d rather not see his teammate go bald, and if this is what happens whenever he fails at something, then Flow should probably consider toning down his anger toward the other.

And maybe help him out of this stupid habit.

God knows Flow would rather not listen to Sharp’s whining if he goes bald.

In the end, Flow never did get to help Sharpness out of his habit, because their time as teammates was cut short when they started hanging out less and less, mostly because Flow grew busy outside of the Strength server. Eventually, Flow forgot about the issue entirely.

Well, not really. It just became more of a passing thought than an actual worry.

Sharpness is a grown-ass man. He can handle his own habits and self-esteem. I mean, look at Flow; he’s doing pretty well for a kid who started out pimply and self-conscious.

Sharp can handle himself. And certainly failure as well. Besides, not everyone is perfect. Not even the best of the best can win every time. But that doesn’t mean Sharpness should go out and start developing a stress habit. Then again… it’s not like Sharpness is the only one dealing with his own problems, either.

Flow isn’t really a therapist, so Sharp can deal with that on his own. He’s already got a shit ton on his plate, and he’s not going to act as a therapist for someone he’s not even close with—hell, not even really friends with.

Sharp’s just his teammate, and most of Flow’s teammates come and go. It’s not permanent. He’s not going to.

Tai

“Woah, broski, what the fuck is all this hair doing lying around?” Tai asks as he steps inside the temporary base, where Sharp is bent over his sword, polishing it with a rag. Though every few minutes, he’d stop, reaching over his head to scratch it, then pluck, then scratch, then pluck. By the time Tai had come back from his little prank with Noob on Leek, he’d been planning on bothering Sharpness next.

Considering this was one of the rare instances where Sharpness actually decided to make a temporary base a hundred blocks off from spawn, that meant Tai had a chance to fuck around with Sharp. He just didn’t expect hair to be littering the place.

Like, a lot of hair.

Tai had always noticed Sharp had this weird habit of scratching his head and pulling on his strands unconsciously—or maybe consciously? Tai wasn’t sure if Sharpness was doing it on purpose, but he did it often enough that Tai himself had started noticing the problem.

It wasn’t really his business, but the hair littering the floor did get a bit annoying. Whenever Tai was around Sharp for at least a few hours, he’d always leave with hair in his mouth or strands of hair stuck to his pants that definitely belonged to Sharpness.

“Do you got lice or something? Stop scratching your head, bro.” Tai says, sweeping up the strands with his feet and sliding them to the side, only for a gust of wind to come through the open door and sweep the mess right back into the middle of the small hut.

Sharp raises his head, his face offended. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t have any lice.” He runs a hand through his hair, and a couple of strands fall out, hooking themselves around his fingers. Tai sees them and takes a small step back.

Ohh…

To be honest, he isn’t even surprised that Sharpness could get lice. The guy sleeps on branches, after all. He’s homeless as fuck. Lice would probably be the least surprising thing he could get. It’d be more surprising if he got ticks, considering how many wild wolves he pets in the forest and sleeps alongside.

No wonder he’s always scratching and itching his head.

“Oh, man, I mean, what else can explain you scratching your head? Dude, you’re getting hair everywhere. You’re like a dog—don’t tell me you are, because that just means you got ticks, and ticks are worse. Ugh, imagine the jumping ones! My God, get away from me.” Tai takes another large step back, and Sharp shoots him an offended look.

“Now you’re just dragging it—I don’t have lice or ticks, you dummy. I do it to think.” Sharp furrows his brow at Tai, who grins.

“Oh, so you need to think now, huh?” He tilts his head, and Sharp flushes at that, pouting up at Tai before looking away with a huff. “Be glad that I’m still polishing my sword, or I would have killed you right now,” Sharp says with the most non-threatening glare ever.

Tai stares at him, then snorts. “You don’t think I could listen to that and take it seriously? You gotta work on your mean face, Sharpy—”

Sharp groans again. “Why are you here, Tai?” he huffs, and Tai perks up at that.

“Fight me.” He grins, bringing up his hands and clenching them into fists as he excitedly hops in place. Sharp gives him a tired look.

“Does it have to be now?” he whines, breathing out as Tai pouts at the blond male.

“Pleeaaaaase, Sharpy. Let me have this, pleaseeeee.” Tai clasps his hands together, trying to look as adorable as possible.

He knows Sharpness won’t be able to resist his voidling charm and will say yes. That’s literally Sharp’s weakness. He can’t handle anything moe or adorable.

Sharp’s expression weakens at that, looking up at Tai with a wince. “But I just polished my sword…” He trails off.

“You can always polish it after the fight. Come on, Sharpness, are you really able to say no to this cute face?” Tai asks, smiling at Sharp, who gives him a tired look.

Then Sharpness sighs, and Tai grins. Bingo.

“Fine,” Sharp says with a roll of his eyes.

“Yes!” Tai cheers loudly, whooping as he pumps a fist in the air. Sharpness stands up, tying his hair back as even more strands fall loose. “Jeez.” Tai stops, staring at him. “Are you going bald or something?”

Sharpness pauses at that, looking a bit off before shaking his head and continuing to tie his hair back. He pulls at it a little, letting the loose strands get caught and pulled free from the tie, then tosses them to the side, letting them drift away.

“No, that would be you,” Sharp says.

Tai rolls his eyes. “I’m not going bald.” He may not have luscious, long blond hair like Sharp, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to start going bald in his early twenties, bro. That’s just plain offensive.

[...]

In the end, Tai won. Which naturally would have given Tai a reason to smear the win in Sharp’s face, if it weren’t for the fact that Sharp seemed so distracted. It was like his mind wasn’t even in the fight at all, and Tai was the only one actually putting effort into it. Of course, that was a pretty big mood killer.

Just because he forced Sharp to fight him didn’t mean Sharpness actually had to say yes. It’s not like Tai would turn into creative mode and slime him out if he said no. It was just a really big mood killer that Sharpness wasn’t taking him as seriously as Tai wanted him to.

He’d always been that young admin that no one took seriously, after all, and Sharpness was different from the others because he was genuinely a fucking monster when it came to fighting people. He didn’t care if you were a child or even a god; he’d just go straight into a fight without any plan at all.

So, yeah. This was a really big mood killer.

“You know,” Tai starts, stabbing his sword into the soil as Sharpness sits on a fallen log, his face drenched in sweat. His eyes have that glazed-over look as sweat drips from his nose. Sharp reaches over, wiping it away with the back of his hand before breathing softly and glancing at Tai. “You could have just said no.”

Sharp makes a face. “What? Why?” he asks, raising a brow in confusion.

Tai sighs, gesturing at Sharpness, who only looks more confused. “You’re not even focused, bro. I’m hurt. I thought you would take me seriously,” Tai mutters bitterly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sharpness’ eyes widen. “What? I do take you seriously. What the fuck are you talking about?” he asks.

Tai scoffs, rolling his eyes. “No way, bruh. You were, like—fuckin’ distracted through the whole session. I’m hurt. It’s like you’re thinking about something else instead of focusing on the fight! You know I hate that,” Tai grumbles.

And there it is again. Sharp’s hand moves toward his hair, fingers catching the side bangs he usually lets hang loose. He twirls and tugs at them as he seems to think about what he wants to say.

“That’s not…” Tug. Tug. Pull. Pull. “I’m plenty focused… my mind’s just a mess these days. It’s not you, Tai, I swear.” Sharpness continues tugging and pulling at his hair before eventually focusing on plucking out one strand at a time.

Tai doesn’t notice it, too pissed off to care about Sharp’s stupid habit of pulling his hair.

He just turns away. “Well, you could have said no! Point still stands, man. You’re hurting my feelings. I would’ve understood if you just turned me down. I mean, a simple no won’t make me angry at you,” he says.

He hears Sharp let out a noise behind him, his hand still tugging at his hair repeatedly, pulling out strands one by one as he listens to Tai.

“I just want some us time, you know? I mean, technically, all we do is kill each other and stuff, but you know. It’s pretty fun to just hang out,” Tai mutters.

Sharp flinches at that, eyes widening. “What? We are hanging out—I—I’m sorry, Tai. I didn’t mean to make you feel like that. I was just distracted. These days, it’s really hard to focus on things,” Sharp says with a breath.

Tai glances at him. “You could have just told me that, bro. I would’ve understood, I swear.”

Sharp winces. “It’s pretty hard to explain, though,” he mutters under his breath.

Tai sighs, dropping his crossed arms. “Whatever it is, I do hope you remember we’re bros, man.”

Sharp drops his hand down and nods. “We are bros… It’s just… my brain gets scattered, and it makes me really distracted.” Sharp frowns, shaking his head, and for a moment, Tai thinks he’s speaking bullshit.

It’s not against Sharp to speak bullshit, really. He does it a lot. He lies a lot too, but you can usually tell if he’s lying, right? Right now, though, he seems serious.

Aaaaand there he goes again with the scratching.

Tai watches Sharp as he reaches toward his head, scratching his scalp before tugging at his hair. He seems lost in thought right away, going as far as taking off his hair tie and tugging a few strands along with it.

“Alright, alright, fine. I accept that—dude, you gotta stop that. Won’t that make you bald?” Tai points at Sharp.

Sharp stops scratching and pulling at his hair, finally realizing what he’s doing as he reties it. His face flushes. “Sorry—it’s a habit that came back again. I can’t stop it,” Sharp mumbles, sounding embarrassed. Tai tilts his head. “What’s the cause of it?”

Sharp shrugs. “I don’t know. Sometimes I can’t stop myself,” he admits weakly.

Tai watches his face for a moment as Sharp reaches over to twirl a strand around his finger, as if he can’t help himself. “So… like boredom, then?” Tai asks.

Sharp shrugs. “I don’t know… I mean—it’s not that serious, right?” he mumbles under his breath, his face looking flushed for some reason.

“I mean, I guess I do that too? I do pick and bite my nails a lot, but… I mean, I don’t leave nails around, though, so… I mean, you gotta check that shit out. What if you got one of those things?” Tai asks, tilting his head.

Sharp’s face turns confused at that, also tilting his head. “One of what things?” he asks, as Tai shrugs.

“I think they call it alopecia—bro, you might genuinely go bald.” He snorts, and Sharp’s face seems to fold at that, looking a little sick to his stomach.

“I don’t have alopecia, dude. That’s just—I’m not going bald. It’s just—just a stupid habit…” Sharp’s face folds, and his voice gets weak as he looks down. He looks ashamed, like he doesn’t want Tai to see it, but he already has.

For a moment, Tai doesn’t know why Sharp’s acting like that. If it’s just a stupid hair-pulling habit, why does he look so ashamed to admit it?

I mean, he said it already, man. It’s just a stupid habit that he can probably easily stop doing. Though this isn’t really something Tai would’ve expected Sharp to have a habit of doing. Out of everyone on the server, he’s got the longest and most luscious-looking hair. It looks incredibly well taken care of, in fact. So it’s kind of surprising that Sharp would have this strange, almost destructive habit of ruining his hair.

I mean, didn’t he tell everyone he loves his hair so much?

“Well, since it’s just a habit, I mean, you can easily get over it, right?” Tai asks.

Sharp’s head snaps up, surprised. “What?” he asks, almost a bit stupidly to Tai’s liking. He sounds like he can’t believe what Tai just said.

“I said get over it. It’s not hard, right? I had a nail-biting habit too back then, but my mom literally slapped it out of me, bro.” Tai snorts to himself, giggling as Sharp’s face folds a bit for a moment before he nods, letting out a shaky breath.

“Yeah… yeah—get over it. I got it.” Sharp nods. “It’ll be easy,” he adds, and Tai grins.

“I know it will be. Just get over it, bro. I can’t believe this is the only problem, bruh. Is this why you were getting all weird earlier? I mean, are you just shy about the hair habit thing? It’s easy to get over it. Just stop doing it.” Tai motions at Sharp, who’s reaching for his hair again, though he only twirls it a bit, giving it a few light tugs.

“Uhm, it’s not that… I just… well—” Sharp shrugs, his face turning a little red with embarrassment as Tai rolls his eyes.

Man, Sharpness is so dramatic, isn’t he?

“I swear it’s not that big of a deal, Sharpy. It’s like… just a habit. You gotta have a hobby, bro. I mean, you’re always just around doing nothin’ and shit. Maybe that’s why you’re like that.” Tai sighs, crossing his arms over his chest as Sharpness gives him a strange look, letting out a small sound in his throat before nodding shakily.

“Yeah, I guess…” He trails off. “I’ll try to get over it,” he says, his voice lowering into a strange tone.

Flankee 

Flankee doesn’t like calling people stupid—well, he kind of does. He’s probably called a bunch of people in Strength stupid and braindead a couple of times in a fit of rage. But that’s kind of his personality, all in all. He’s usually really patient and kind. But what does get him a lot is…

Well—you know it—Sharpness fucking Conexion.

The same guy who calls himself the best swordsman, even going as far as calling himself a swordsmaster. He’s almost narcissistic about it. He’s very confident, yes, and he’s not actually lying about it. Flankee’s seen Sharp go against multiple people and still come out alive, even in uneven fights.

But the thing that gets him is the moments where Sharp just turns into a… how do you call it? A brainless, braindead chud who makes every single mistake known to mankind. As in—he fucks things up, BIG TIME! Flankee isn’t even being dramatic about it. This guy can be really fucking inconsistent at the most important times.

And of fucking course, Flankee has the luck to work alongside him and Cow.

Sharp might be the person Flankee can’t fully trust, even if they were teammates. Not because he has a penchant for leaving and betraying his teammates—kudos to Jude and all—but because he’s ridiculously inconsistent with his abilities. He can fail at things he’s always preaching that he’s very good at, things he supposedly excels in.

Like, by Notch! What’s up with that?

Flowtives isn’t even like that. In fact, between Sharp and Flow, Flankee could say that Flow has more right to be stupidly narcissistic about himself because he genuinely knows how to be consistent and keep it up. Sharpness? Yeah, no.

Well, at first, Flankee was actually kind of excited to be working with the blond. He’d heard a lot of both good and bad things about him. But mostly, the bad was equal to the good, because most of the bad things Flankee had heard were that he’s a killing machine who kills everything in his way.

And that’s pretty fucking cool.

And the good things are… well, the bad things.

Yes, Flankee found the bad things good, because finallyyyyy, he got a good teammate who could actually watch his back. Now, don’t get him wrong, Cow is a really good teammate. He’s calm, cool, and collected. He’s super duper smart, and he doesn’t panic at all. He’s a good trapper as well and a decent fighter in terms of hand-to-hand combat. But he isn’t in the same league as the sweaty players, of course.

And Flankee does like having teammates who could actually watch his back—not that he’s saying Cow doesn’t. But clearly, Cow is more focused on other things than holding a sword and swinging it. His intellect and strength lie somewhere else, of course.

So it was nice to have Sharpness on their team. Or at least, that’s what Flankee thought…

“You lost my mace—Sharp—that wasn’t even mine!” Flankee yells, throwing his hand up in exasperation as he lets out a sharp groan. Behind him, Sharp looks down, while Cow is just shaking his head, sighing softly as if he already foresaw this.

“Look, I’m sorry—I missed and stuff. I can probably get it back—” Sharp mutters, looking over Flankee’s shoulder as Flankee turns back to him, angry.

He isn’t sure if Sharp can see his glare under his mask, but he hopes he can. Or maybe he can, because Sharp flinches hard when he faces him.

“You better get that fricking mace back, Sharpness. I can’t believe I trusted you with my mace—fuck—that was Jude’s! And let me remind you that guy is my homeboy. You just lost his mace that he gave to me!” Flankee pokes a finger into Sharp’s chest as Sharp frowns, his lips turned down so low that he looks like he’s about to cry.

In fact, if he were a hybrid with ears, they’d probably be drooping right now. Sharp’s shoulders lowered at that, his hands twitching as they moved together, fidgeting while Cow stood beside him.

“Alright, calm down. It’s just a mace,” Cow says, placing a hand on Flankee’s forearm as Flankee glares at him.

“Just a mace? That wasn’t just a mace, Cow. Come on, that was Jude’s sign of trust in me!” Flankee snaps, before glancing at Sharp and motioning toward him with an annoyed scoff. “And I decided to trust this idiot.”

That made Sharp’s expression harden. He looked almost like he had earlier, lost in a haze, but now he snapped back to reality, glaring at Flankee.

“What do you mean, idiot? I’m not an idiot!” Sharp growls.

“Clearly you are. You missed an easy shot like that.” Flankee sasses him, and Sharp’s eye twitches.

“Well, if it was so easy, why didn’t you do it?” Sharp argues.

“You offered, duh! And of course I trusted you because you’re my teammate, but clearly I shouldn’t trust you for shit.” Flankee gestures toward Sharpness, who growls under his breath.

“Just because I made one single mistake doesn’t mean you can talk to me like that, Flankee. You’re fucking shit too. What makes you think your duo with Cow is always successful? If it wasn’t for me, you two would’ve been easy drops for days.” Sharp glares at Flankee, then at Cow, who looks surprised.

“Why are you including me?” Cow asks.

“Clearly you both are going against me. Just because of one simple mistake,” Sharp grouches.

Flankee rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on, Sharp. We both know it isn’t one simple mistake. This is one of the reasons most of your teammates never last with you. You’re crazily inconsistent. One moment, you can hit incredibly difficult, practically impossible shots, and the next, you’re choking an easy one. What the hell, man? We need someone we can depend on, not…” Flankee motions at Sharpness with both hands.

Sharp gives him a hurt look, but it’s quickly wiped away and replaced with annoyance. “What the fuck does that even mean?” Sharp asks sharply, almost hissing.

“I think that means he’s gesturing to you,” Cow mutters under his breath, glancing between Flankee and Sharp while pointedly refusing to meet either of their eyes. Clearly, he wants no part in the argument.

“He just gestured to all of me,” Sharp says, his expression completely offended.

“Yeah, I am.” Flankee nods. “I did.”

Sharp turns back toward him, eyes narrowed, teeth gritted as the two stare each other down. For a moment, Cow genuinely thinks they’re about to fight.

Sure, Sharpness is inconsistent when it comes to fighting, but Flankee going against him isn’t going to work. He’d just be a free pick for Sharpness—and free Strength.

But then Sharpness slumps. All the fight seems to leave his body as he shakes his head, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“Fine. Whatever,” Sharp mutters. He passes Flankee, deliberately knocking his shoulder against him as he walks away without looking back.

“Asshole,” Flankee mutters, glaring at the back of Sharp’s head as Sharp walks off with his head lowered and shoulders slumped.

Cow turns back to Flankee. “Did you really have to say all that? He definitely didn’t mean to miss that shot.” Cow frowns.

“And so? Just let him get off scot-free?” Flankee sighs. “Look, you have to tell Sharp what he’s done wrong, or he’ll never know. That guy’s a fucking dense brick. In fact, he’s denser than a fucking brick. Fucking hell, man.” Flankee shakes his head, running a hand through his hair in annoyance.

“Still… that was kind of a bit too much. Not that I’m saying you’re in the wrong, but you aren’t exactly in the right either,” Cow replies.

Flankee rolls his eyes. “Look me in the eyes and tell me: do I really look like a forgive-and-forget kind of guy?” he asks, giving Cow a pointed look. He shrugs. “Not really.”

Cow then lowers his head and sighs. “This isn’t going to work.” Flankee claps his hands together. “Well, that’s your answer.”

Cow lets out another small, sharp sigh. There isn’t really anything he can do when Flankee’s being an asshole about it.

[...]

It was probably 2 AM when Flankee woke up to the sound of a door carefully being opened but still creaking, followed by soft footsteps and another door being opened and closed. For a moment, Flankee blinked his eyes at the darkness, forgetting where he was before eventually remembering he was in his room—it was ass dark, and the candle on his lamp had finally died out.

He did sleep pretty early, so it wasn’t surprising at all. Though after checking his communicator and seeing the time, he was just plain confused as to why someone was awake at 2 AM. It could be Cow, which wouldn’t be a surprise because there really were times when he didn’t bother to sleep just because he could and because he wanted to work on his blueprints, but that was basically all.

Then there was Sharp. As far as Flankee was concerned, he didn’t really stay awake much during the night and was usually the one to sleep first and lock himself in his room in the shared base. So naturally, Flankee stood up, wiping his face, preparing to rip another one on Cow for keeping himself awake at shit-ass o’clock in the morning for no apparent reason, just for the love of the game.

He didn’t bother to wear his mask—it’s not like no one hadn’t seen his face yet. He just used it because it covered his expressions more. He’d always had a problem with his facial expressions; he couldn’t even lie or be in a fight without his face giving everything away.

Flankee yawned, stretching his arm over his head, cracking his back, shoulders, and neck. Then he headed toward his door, unlocking it softly and yawning once more before noticing Cow’s door was shut, but Sharp’s door was open. Flankee walked over to it, only to find his room empty, his bed haphazard and a mess.

Oh, so it was Sharp then—well, at least Flankee knew it was him and not Cow. At least he wouldn’t be ripping Cow another one. Flankee sighed as he scratched his cheek lightly. His mouth felt a bit dry, so before heading back to his room, he went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

By the time he was gulping down a glass of water, the bathroom door opened, with Sharpness peering out. The two of them met eyes.

For a moment, they just stood there, staring at each other. Sharp seemed to freeze at seeing him, while Flankee just poured himself another glass of water and drank it down. “What’s up?” Flankee asked as Sharp blinked at him, looking away for a moment before nodding at him.

“Hey…” He trailed off.

“Water?” Flankee offered as Sharp made a face for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Yeah, I guess,” he said after a few moments and walked up to Flankee, who got himself an empty glass, poured in some water, and offered it to Sharp.

It was then that he finally saw Sharp’s face. He looked a bit pale, the skin under his eyes slightly red and rubbed raw—though it was hard to see because of how dim the lights were. The yellow under-lights had been left on by Cow so none of them would have a hard time walking around at night with nothing to see.

“What’s wrong with you?” Flankee asked as he handed the glass to Sharp, who took it and easily drank it down as he met Flankee’s eyes.

“What do you mean?” His voice cracked a bit, and Flankee gave him a strange look at that.

“I mean… you look weird, man—” Flankee motioned at Sharp again, then at his face, to which Sharp’s eyes widened as he wiped his eyes repeatedly and roughly. Flankee watched him with a confused look.

What’s going on with him?

“Nothing… It’s nothing—I’m just tired.” Sharp swallowed, shaking his head as he now refused to meet Flankee’s eyes.

Flankee just gave him a strange look. Well, it’s not like he could force Sharpness to stay up anyway, and he wasn’t really interested in having a conversation at fuck-ass o’clock in the morning.

“Alright, well—okay. Good night, I guess,” Flankee says.

Sharp gives him a weird, stiff nod before turning and walking off, rubbing his arms lightly as he heads back to his room. Flankee watches his door shut softly, followed by the faint sound of it locking, before sighing and rolling his eyes.

Man, whether he’s pissed about their fight—not really a fight—or just tired as fuck, Flankee doesn’t know. Hm… Oh well. He doesn’t really fucking care much about what Sharpness does with his day-to-day life. Or night-to-night life, for that matter.

Flankee carries the two empty glasses over to the sink before heading to the bathroom, where he washes his face and hands, humming softly to himself. He doesn’t bother turning on the lights, instead letting the faucet run as he splashes his face with thankfully warm water, rubbing his eyes to clear away the gunk. He then gargles some water to clear his mouth before spitting it back into the sink.

For a moment, Flankee stops when he notices the water rising.

He lets out a sharp sigh. Oh, come on. Fur again? Cow seriously needs his own sink at this point.

Flankee reaches behind him and flicks on the light, only to see a large clump of blond hair, tinted with red, staring back at him from the sink. The basin is clogged with water, with strands of hair stuck all around the drain.

The water is slightly tinted red.

Flankee makes a small, confused noise as he moves his tongue around his mouth, expecting to taste the familiar metallic tang of blood. But there’s nothing. So that just means the blood isn’t his—and good Notch! Whose hair even is this? It’s clogging the entire fucking sink.

Unfortunately, Flankee has to clean it himself because he’s actually a trustworthy adult, and by the end of it, he’s got a handful of wet blond hair in his hands, which he promptly throws into the bin.

Yeah, that’s definitely Sharp’s hair.

Did he cut his hair or something? But earlier, his hair didn’t seem short, or at least it didn’t look any different from before. It was still pretty long and thick. So whose hair is it if it isn’t Sharp’s? Hair couldn’t have just spawned out of nowhere for no reason, right?

I mean, out of the three of them, Cow has brown hair and brown fur. Flankee is also blond, but his shade is much more yellow and brighter than this. His own hair is almost platinum and pale, while this color is much closer to Sharp’s.

Why is there so much of his hair in the sink, though? And why was the water tinted red?

Goodness…

Jude 

“Juuuude, please help me get to plus five. Please, please?” Sharp lunges behind Jude, running after the bunny hybrid, who stops and glances back at him.

“Let me think about it,” he says with a teasing hum before skipping off again. He hums under his breath, juggling two redstone blocks in his hands as Sharp continues following behind him.

“Jude, Jude, pretty please—I need it! Pleeeeease, I’ll give it back when I kill Flow.” Sharp manages to chase after him, eventually walking beside Jude, who pauses at that.

He doesn’t usually have his strength on him. He normally takes it off and hides it in his ender chest, and as of right now, he’s pretty sure he’s on plus five. He could… essentially lend Sharpness one strength if he felt like it. But when is he ever up to lending Sharpness a helping hand? Sharpness can handle himself just fine.

Jude has no part in this.

“Eh,” Jude shrugs again, earning another loud, dramatic whine from Sharp.

“Pleaseeee, Jude. I swear I’ll give it back—okay, what about this? I do something for you, and you give me one strength. I just need one more, please, please. No one’s been getting on for the past few weeks, I can’t quick-drop anyone at all!” Sharp argues.

Jude sighs, stopping in his tracks and glancing back at Sharpness, who almost runs straight into him before skidding to a stop.

“And when did that become my problem?” Jude asks with a teasing smile.

Sharp gives him a pout, slumping over. “You’re such a meanie, Jude. You promised me the last time I lent you my strength that you’d do the same for me!” Sharp whines, waving his hands in the air as Jude rolls his eyes.

That was his strength, mind you. Completely Jude’s. He was only taking back what belonged to him because Sharp had cheated and taken his strength by killing him while he wasn’t ready, then ran off with it. Like, come on. Did Sharp really think Jude was going to lend him strength after he pulled that?

“That was my strength, by the way,” Jude comments, pointing it out as he flicks Sharp on the nose.

Sharp lets out a mock-offended gasp, wiping his nose like Jude had somehow placed something disgusting on him. He pouts deeply at Jude, as if he’s trying to intimidate him.

But overall, he kind of just looks like a frazzled kitten trying to scare something much bigger than him.

“That was noooot,” Sharp drags out, and Jude rolls his eyes.

He already knows what Sharp is trying to do. He’s always baiting him into some useless argument. That’s Sharp for you. Of course, Sharp actually knows the strength was Jude’s, so Jude isn’t going to argue with this brick wall, even if Sharp somehow manages to convince himself that his words are right.

“Alright, bro, whatever you say,” Jude says flatly as he starts walking in the other direction, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Wait, wait, Judey, please, come on. Spare me a single strength?” Sharp stops him again, placing one hand on his shoulder as he runs in front of Jude and clasps his hands together, pouting at the bunny hybrid.

“Pleasee.” Sharp continues waving his clasped hands toward Jude, who gives him a tired look.

“Dude—” he starts.

“I’ll do anything! What do you want me to do?” Sharp says loudly.

Jude’s ears perk up, startled a bit by the sudden volume. Well, he guesses Sharpness has to be that desperate if he’s asking that.

“Damn, dude, is it really that fucking serious?” Jude asks, raising a brow.

Sharp groans, dropping his hands. “You don’t know how serious it is. Flow’s fucking with me! If I’m not on plus five, he’s going to kill me again and again.”

“Bro, a plus five shouldn’t matter. I thought you were this cool swordsman.” Jude raises a brow, cocking his head as Sharp pouts at that.

“Who says I’m not?” he asks, almost whining, making Jude snicker.

Jude rolls his eyes at the blond. “Whatever, dude—fine. I’ll give you one since I don’t really care much about it, but since you offered so kindly with your assistance…” Jude trails off, smirking slightly as he looks toward the direction of spawn.

His base had been recently griefed—well, not really griefed, but someone had set some TNT at the side, close to his base, and blown up the ground where it was buried underneath. His roof was basically missing, giving him a free view of the sky for the past few days, along with mobs wandering into his base by accident.

He basically had free access to the outside now, so for the past few days, he’d been living with Parker in his… uh… caca kingdom or whatever.

He hadn’t made it a super important priority to fix his base yet because it wasn’t really that important, and he had Parker anyway.

But since Sharpness was offering…

“What is it? Please don’t tell me you want me to grind materials again. Oh, Notch.” Sharp hangs his head tiredly as Jude smirks.

“Something better, actually,” he says.

Sharp raises his head to meet his eyes, narrowing them slightly as if he’s suspicious of what Jude is thinking. “Tell me first before I say yes,” Sharpness says.

“How far are you willing to go for a single strength?” Jude asks, smirking at Sharpness. One hand rests on his waist as he cocks his head at him. Sharp’s eyes narrow further, turning into a small glare. “Should I be scared?”

Jude grins before shrugging. “Maybe. If you’re willing to be my slave for a whole week for a single strength.” Sharp’s face drops at that.

He groans, hanging his head as he shakes it. Jude’s grin only widens as Sharp presses a palm against his face before looking back up at him. With a forced smile, Sharp nods.

[...]

One thing about having your own servant is that everything becomes a hundred times easier for Jude, and that includes rebuilding his base back to how it was—or, actually, rebuilding it with better blocks and cleaning it up with the help—well, not help, more like being forced to help since that was the deal—from Sharpness.

“Are we done yet?” Sharp whines, holding a broom. The roof above them is still wide open, and right now Jude has him focused on sweeping up the place.

It was something Jude never got around to doing because there was just so much surface area in his base that needed cleaning. Godis and Bitzel also haven’t been on the server for a while to offer any help, which was one of the main reasons he hadn’t fixed a single block in his base.

But thank goodness Sharp’s just desperate, huh?

“Bro, we just started. What do you mean, are we done yet?” Jude glances behind him, giving Sharp a small glare. Sharp is leaning on his broom, pouting at Jude, who is busy sifting through the items in his chests and moving them into a few shulker boxes just to get them out of the way so he can clean the dirtied marble floor.

He doesn’t have any more quartz stocked up either, so it’s possible he and Sharp are going to have to take a short trip to the Nether to get some nether quartz for the burrow, which Jude doesn’t really mind at all.

Sharp probably does, though. “Ugh, I don’t sweep floors! I’m not supposed to be doing this! I’m supposed to be out there killing Flow already!” Sharpness huffs.

Jude turns away again, rolling his eyes so hard his eyeballs practically start hurting before letting out a loud scoff. “Well, lucky you that you’re stuck here,” he says dryly. “Flow would’ve killed you, and then you’d need one more strength to ‘beat him.’” Jude gestures with his fingers in mocking air quotes, making Sharp grumble.

“He wouldn’t beat me again,” Sharp growls.

Jude scoffs. “Alright, bro, whatever you say. Continue to sweep the leaves off or you won’t be getting any strength from me.” And when he says that, Sharp goes back to work while Jude busies himself with his chests. Eventually, he uses up the rest of his quartz for the walls.

“We might have to do a quick trip to the Nether, by the way,” Jude comments. Sharp, who is busy patching up the roof with dirt, looks at him with a look of disbelief. “I thought this was fine already.”

Jude gives him a look before glancing at the temporary dirt roof. “Does that look fine to you?” Jude asks.

Sharp lets out a sigh at that, slumping over as he nods tiredly. “Whatever. Sure,” he sighs, patching up the remaining holes as Jude empties a few shulker boxes to prepare them for filling with quartz.

“By the way, you’re also going to patch up the ground outside,” Jude says distractedly.

Sharp quickly glances at him, eyes widening. “What? But I thought I’d only help you with your base,” he says with a whine.

Jude glances at him. “Bro, there’s a large crater outside my base. I need it patched or people can dig through it and get onto my roof.”

Sharp lets out a noise at that. “Does it matter?” he asks, looking pained. “I mean—” He gestures toward the roof. “It’s not like patching it up would stop them from digging through your roof and getting inside,” he says weakly.

Jude only turns toward him and crosses his arms. “Sharp, do you want the strength or not?” He cocks his head. Sharp immediately folds at that, pouting. “I do, but I feel like you’re making this hard for no reason at all.” He crosses his arms too, pouting like a kid.

Jude rolls his eyes, Sharp isn’t wrong though, but he’s not going to admit that of course! “No, you’re the only one thinking that. You’re just really fucking lazy, bro.”

Sharp’s face darkens at that, looking mildly annoyed. “No the fuck I’m not.”

Jude scoffs. “Yeah, right. Tell yourself that. You can barely grind for your own armor. Anyways, you can’t say shit about what I want done with my OWN base, by the way. This is my base, and you offered to help me in exchange for a single Strength. If you continue to whine, I’m not giving you my Strength.”

That gets Sharp’s attention, and he immediately falls quiet. “...Fine,” he huffs, his voice low.

Jude hides a smirk at that.

Later, Jude finds himself standing in front of the Nether portal, communicator in hand. Behind him, Sharp is the one responsible for storing all the shulker boxes in his inventory, where they’ll keep all the quartz they collect.

For the time being, Jude is waiting for Parker to get here, since he also offered to join and help him gather quartz for his base.

He’s probably excited to kick Jude out of his place, which Jude can’t even blame him for. He’s not really the best roommate ever, considering he tends to stay up at fuckass hours of the night, and Parker apparently values his beauty sleep more than putting effort into some of his traps.

Jude mindlessly scrolls through his communicator, waiting for the enderman hybrid to arrive.

“Yo!” Parker calls out as both Jude and Sharpness raise their heads to look over, only to see the Enderman hybrid landing a few blocks away from them. He switches his elytra back to his chestplate before grinning at the two and waving a hand at them. Jude does the same, while Sharpness just pouts. Like the kid he is—he’s still probably not agreeing to go to the Nether for some quartz.

“Yooo,” Jude says, offering a fist to Parker, who easily bumps it with his own.

“Finally fixing your base, huh? I’m proud of you.” Parker pats Jude on the back as Jude rolls his eyes.

“I would not have done it if Sharp didn’t offer something very, very nice for me to accept.” He glances at Sharpness, who perks up at the mention of his name before glaring at Jude and Parker when he realizes why he was brought up in the first place.

“I have no choice. I need that strength,” Sharp glowers.

“Oh?” Parker says. “So you’re helping Jude fix the thingy in his house for how much Strength?” He tilts his head as Sharp looks away, refusing to meet Parker’s eyes.

“One…” he trails off. Parker lets out a small snort before quickly covering it with his fist to hide his smile. “That little?” Parker whispers beside Jude.

Jude snickers loudly and nods. “I know, right? He’s such a fucking dumbass, bro.” He whispers back. “He’d do anything for a fucking Strength. What an idiot.”

“Hey! I can hear you both!” Sharp snaps, glaring at them heatedly.

Jude giggles, as does Parker, as they both enter the Nether portal, followed by Sharpness, who immediately starts groaning and whining when the windy place suddenly turns hot enough to cook a person alive just by standing there.

“Home sweet home,” Parker says, planting his hands on his hips as Jude rolls his eyes. “You weren’t even born ni the nether, bro. Shut up,” he says as Parker snickers.

Jude walks past him before continuing, “Anyways, Sharpness, go forth and get every quartz you see.”

He motions for Sharp to move, but Sharp just gives him a look. “What? You aren’t going to help me? What do you mean? I’m the only one doing this?” he asks, annoyed and angry.

Jude shrugs, smirking at him. “Why the fuck not? Do you want the strength or not?”

Sharpness palms his face and groans loudly. “Yes, yes, I do need the strength, but is this really necessary? Can’t we just steal shit from other people?” Sharp asks, glaring at Jude with a deep pout on his lips.

Jude simply smirks as he mines out an area around himself, building a wall around himself and Parker before placing down two ice blocks at the side to at least keep them from overheating. Parker doesn’t waste any time sitting down as Sharpness peers in at them, glaring.

“No can do. It just wouldn’t be fair, you know? You said you’d do anything for strength, so… go.” Jude smirks, motioning for Sharpness to move.

Sharp just growls under his breath, looking between him and Parker with pure anger and annoyance.

“You brought this guy for no reason, then?” Sharp points at Parker, who is sitting there with one leg crossed over the other, looking completely relaxed. Jude sits on his own chair, grinning at Sharpness and giving him a small shrug.

“He came here to supervise, duh,” he says. If looks could kill, Jude would probably be dead where he sat. Sharpness’ glare only grows deeper and more heated the longer he talks. “You are such a bitch,” Sharp hisses.

“Now, now, children, calm down. No need to fight,” Parker quips. Sharp’s glare shifts from Jude to Parker as he growls at him. “You too—bitch.”

“Hey! You can’t call him bitch, or I won’t give you my strength.” Jude raises a finger and wags it at him. Sharp groans, looking one step away from either crying or killing whoever happens to be within arm’s reach.

“Fucking fine,” Sharp mutters darkly. Parker snorts to himself, leaning toward Jude to whisper as Sharp steps away, grumbling angrily under his breath.

“This is fun. Now I know why you were insisting I come,” Parker whispers.

Jude snickers at that. “Hey! Don’t forget to come back here and show me that you filled all the shulker boxes, alright?” Jude cups his hands over his mouth and yells toward Sharp.

Sharp just yells a faint, “Fuck you!” from far away. Jude snickers again, turning toward Parker with a grin. “I didn’t think I’d see Sharpness turning into your slave or something,” Parker comments.

Jude’s shoulders shake as he chuckles. “Me neither, but he’s really desperate for that plus five and offered his services, so naturally, I gotta use that to my own advantage. He’s just fucking stupid, bro,” Jude says.

“So what do we do here now? Do we just wait for Sharpness to get back?” Parker asks, moving his seat to face Jude.

Jude does the same, placing a log between them before taking out the cards he brought with them. “Yeah, man. I don’t trust that little shit to actually do his work.” Jude shuffles his cards as Parker drags his seat closer.

“You don’t really trust anyone, though,” he points out, and Jude gives him a glinting-eyed look.

“That’s right,” he says. “I don’t.”

Parker rolls his eyes as Jude throws him his cards, flipping them face down so Parker can’t see them. “But I do trust you,” Jude adds as he places the spare cards to the side. He checks his own hand, lifting the corners just enough to peek at them before smiling to himself. Parker does the same.

“Should I feel thankful for that, or are you going to beat my ass at this as well?” Parker asks, finally looking at his cards properly, his eyes scanning over them as Jude does the same.

“Well—it’s not like I’m good at card games,” Jude says with a shrug.

Parker gives him a look, clearly not believing him. “Yeah, right,” he says, and Jude snickers.

In the end, Jude did kind of kick Parker’s ass five times back to back. Eventually, they stopped playing cards and just opted to talk about their plans for the upcoming weeks with the other trappers, and what they wanted to try doing the next time they hopped onto Hoplite.

Which probably just meant trapping some kids and nothing else anymore. Just the same old, same old—bullying other players with traps and having fun.

“You think he died?” Parker asks.

“What? Who?” Jude asks distractedly, paging through another page in his book. The book isn’t particularly interesting; it’s just about some guy who met a dragon, but it’s what Parker has on him, and Jude’s too fucking lazy to go back to the Overworld and his base just to find some fuckass book that he probably doesn’t even have lying around there.

“Sharpness. It’s been a while since he went to get some quartz. It’s not like it’s hard to find that stuff,” Parker says.

“Bro, why do you care, though?” Jude lowers his book to his chest, looking lazily over at the other hybrid as Parker scratches the back of his head.

“It’s not that, but I mean—what if he had a heatstroke? He’s wearing full netherite and stuff. Those things trap a lot of heat inside,” Parker explains.

Jude blinks at him.

Well, he does make a fair point. Jude wore diamond for a reason when he went to the Nether, so the heat wouldn’t suffocate him as much and he wouldn’t sweat nearly as badly. Sharpness, on the other hand, didn’t, and Jude hadn’t really bothered to tell him because surely the guy knew that much, right? I mean, netherite is notorious for keeping heat inside, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that if you decided to stay in the Nether for more than a few hours, you were bound to get heatstroke.

But that didn’t mean Jude should care if that happened to Sharpness. He was already grown, and he should’ve known that wearing netherite armor would trap heat inside his armor and against his skin.

“Whatever—I mean, besides, I gave him six shulkers to fill. He’s gonna take a long time with that.” Jude looks back down at his book, flipping it open again and turning to another page, already forgetting what the ever-living fuck is going on in this chapter.

All he knows is that the dragon got hurt or whatever and shit. Jude doesn’t care.

“Are you sure? I mean—Sharp’s kind of a jerk from time to time, but he isn’t that bad that you would let him get heatstroke.” Parker rubs his elbow, looking worried.

Jude sighs, lowering his book onto his chest again and glancing at Parker with a flat expression. He gives him an are you serious right now? look as Parker simply frowns at him.

Curse Parker and his bleeding heart, seriously. How did Jude even get friends like him and Godis? Bunch of pussies and wussies, honestly.

“Okay, fine, god! Okay, I’m gonna go find him. Jeez.” Jude groans and stuffs the book back into his inventory before sitting up properly. He brings out his communicator as Parker lets out a relieved sigh, nodding at him.

Jude quickly types out a message to Sharpness.

<JudeLow> yo sharp

<JudeLow> where are you right now?

<JudeLow> unfortunately parker here has a bleeding heart and he felt bad that im making you mine for hours for quartz in netherite

<JudeLow> come back and change into diamond bro

“There, done. I already messaged him.” Jude snaps his communicator shut as Parker just frowns at him. “You said you were gonna find him.” His brows furrow as Jude rolls his eyes.

“I already messaged him, and that’s enough, bro. He’s gonna come back anyway.” He waves a hand at Parker, who still looks a bit worried but nods anyway, letting out a sigh.

“I guess you’re right, but next time you should just tell him to switch armors. It’s gonna be on you if he passes out.” Parker frowns at him, looking like a mother scolding her child for doing something stupid, while Jude just rolls his eyes annoyedly.

“Whatever, dude,” Jude mutters as Parker sighs again, looking tired of his bullshit.

“I’m still going to make him mine, though.” Jude adds with a clear of his throat. Parker lets out a sharp sigh. “Jude, come on. You’re never this heartless.” He glances back at him as Jude sighs dramatically.

“Fiiiine. I’ll give him a rest then he continues getting me my shit and fixing my base. Dude, I just want to make this fair for me. I’m giving him my strength, by the way.” Jude shrugs as Parker rolls his eyes at that.

“You don’t even need it. That’s the thing,” Parker says.

Jude shrugs. “I do now. Besides, do you really want me to keep rooming with you?”

That gets Parker quiet. He just pouts as Jude smirks to himself—only for his thoughts to be cut off by heavy footsteps and labored breathing.

Sharpness enters through the open entrance, his hair plastered to his forehead, his face pale with slight splashes of red across his cheeks. He’s still wearing his netherite armor.

Parker immediately stands up, surprised. “Sharp! Are you okay?” he asks, walking over to the other male, who just pants as he tries to catch his breath. He looks really pale. Even his lips are almost white.

Jude follows as well—and damn, Sharpness looks like shit.

Maybe Parker does have a point—

“F-Fine… It’s just hot,” Sharp says, still catching his breath as he bends at the waist, placing his hands on his knees. He dry-heaves by Parker’s feet, making Parker immediately step back in surprise.

“Woah, dude, are you okay?” Jude asks, now finally worried.

Okay, maybe he was being an asshole.

“Fine—I got what you need already.” Sharp stands back up again, still breathing heavily, his eyes opening and closing rapidly as he opens his inventory and shows it to Jude, who’s still focused on his pale face. Sharp hands him the full shulker box.

“Holy shit, you managed to fill all of them?” Jude accepts it, a bit surprised that Sharp actually did his job.

“Y-Yeah—I mean, it wasn’t—it wasn’t that hard,” Sharp says with a smirk.

Then his face pales even further, turning green as he brings a fist over his mouth and gags.

Jude and Parker both flinch again as Sharp bends over to dry-heave once more.

“Holy shit—come on, let’s bring him back to your base. I told you.” Parker gives Jude a small glare as Jude’s eyes go wide.

Sharp dry-heaves again on the floor, losing his footing as Parker quickly grabs his elbow to stop him from falling flat on his face. “I’m fine—I’m fine,” Sharp slurs as Jude quickly grabs his other arm and helps him out of the small box and toward the portal.

“Yeah, no, bro,” Jude says with a wince as Sharp lets out another shaky breath, paling further and looking sick to his stomach.

As they quickly hobble through the Nether toward the portal, Sharp gags again when everything turns purple and starts twisting around him.

It might have been a bad idea bringing him to the portal without letting him settle first, because the moment they step out of it and onto spawn, Sharp breaks away from Parker and Jude and collapses onto the ground, slipping off his helmet as he loudly vomits all over the grass.

“Oh shi—” Jude starts, a fist over his mouth, only for Parker to quickly slap his arm and glare at him for saying that. Jude just gives him a wincing shrug as Sharp continues vomiting in front of them, all over the grass.

“Poor grass,” Jude mutters to himself. He earns another glare from Parker.

Sharp wipes the back of his hand across his mouth, trying to clean his lips as he breathes heavily, shaking all over. Parker sighs.

“Alright, get up. We’ll get you back on track,” he says, walking over to Sharp, who looks up at him with a wince. He still looks sick, though the pale pallor isn’t nearly as bad anymore.

Jude comes closer as well while Parker helps Sharp back onto his feet, murmuring calm words to him about taking it easy, knowing what he can and can’t do, and trying not to push his body.

Just a bunch of hippie shit, basically.

Though that’s not what catches Jude’s attention, because he looks down at the spot where Sharp vomited—which is disgusting, but he can’t help but look. It looks like Sharp ate carrots and golden apples, but mixed in with it is some weird, clumped-up-looking… hair?

It’s hard to say because it’s fucking disgusting to look at, but what’s even more disgusting is the fact that the weird, thread-like thing really does look like hair.

“What the fuck?” Jude mutters to himself, causing Sharpness and Parker to look over at what he’s staring at. “What’s happening?” Parker asks, helping Sharp stand up fully as they both walk over to where Jude is standing. Jude lets out a small “uh” under his breath.

“What the hell is that?” Parker asks, looking madly confused and a little disgusted at the puke as Sharpness makes a sound at that as well.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. What the fuck did you even eat, Sharp? What’s all this? I mean—damn, that can’t be good for your stomach.” Jude crouches beside the puke as Sharp lets out another sound.

“Don’t be fucking disgusting,” he says as he brandishes a stick and pokes at the hair-looking thing.

It almost looks like what happens when cats keep licking their fur and end up with a huge hairball in their throat that they eventually puke out. Except this time, it’s a whole ball of hair clumped together—which somehow came out of Sharp’s mouth, as disgusting as it is to think about.

Did he eat hair or something? Hold on, what?

“What is it?” Parker asks as Jude finally stands up, throwing the stick aside as he glances at Sharpness with a strange look.

“Did you, uh… Did you eat hair or something, or am I not seeing this right?” Jude asks, motioning toward the clumpy hair with bits of broken-down apples and carrots littered around it.

Sharp looks at it, and his nose scrunches.

“So?” Jude asks, crowding the other.

Sharp just looks ashamed, his face turning slightly red as he lowers his head to avoid looking at him. He lets out a small sound, mumbling something under his breath that neither Jude nor Parker can hear.

“What was that?” Parker asks, brows furrowed as he looks mighty worried.

Well, it’s not like Jude isn’t worried too. I mean—it’s not every day you see someone puke out hair. That’s usually something you’d expect from hybrids like him with fur, but Sharp’s human. He isn’t even a hybrid with anything at all, so Jude doesn’t even know where the hair came from.

“Sometimes I eat my hair when I’m… uhm… stressed and busy—I don’t know.”

Sharp’s face turns much redder as Jude and Parker glance at each other at the same time, as if what they just heard completely blindsided them.

“You what?” Parker asks. Sharp’s face turns even redder, completely embarrassed. “I eat my hair.”

“Why?” Jude asks, his voice raising a bit, mostly out of confusion and pure what the fuck, dude? Are you fucking mad?

Hair isn’t edible. It could seriously clog your stomach and make you sick. For Sharp to have that much hair in his vomit can only mean one thing: he’s been doing it for days, and since he’d gotten himself sick from the heat, it was only now that his stomach finally forced it back out.

It’s a disgusting thought, but at the same time, it’s pretty fucking terrifying, because no normal or sane person would do that.

Sharp shrugs. “Habit,” he says.

“Habit…” Jude echoes, turning toward Parker, who’s wearing the exact same expression. Somewhere between confusion and pure horror. “What,” Jude says again.

Sharp’s shoulders hitch up, his face red with embarrassment as he pushes Parker away, trying to walk off. He stumbles a bit as he goes. “Leave me alone. It’s just some stupid shit,” Sharp mumbles.

Parker steps back, blinking repeatedly before glancing at Jude again. Jude gives him a look and blinks back at him.

What the fuck?

“Did he just eat his hair?” Parker asks once Sharp has gotten farther away. Sharp takes a seat on a random bench, folding over himself and holding his stomach as Jude winces. “Bro, I think he did. What the fuck?” he says.

Parker looks over at Sharp again, then back at Jude. “What the hell was that?” He just repeats what Jude said, and Jude blinks before looking over at Sharp, who’s already staring at them. The moment their eyes meet, Sharp hastily looks away.

Jude bites his lower lip at that.

Is Sharpness okay at all?

Sharpness 

When Sharp was younger, he didn’t remember much about his early childhood. He remembered most of his teenage years, mainly the endless hours spent practicing and honing his skills, but what stuck with him most was the stress and pressure that had been placed on him from a young age. Even as a grown man, that pressure had never really left his system.

He had never been particularly good at handling stress, and pressure was even worse. As a child, he would often do whatever he could to distract himself from it. He saw other people who were smarter, stronger, and more capable than him, and the more he compared himself to them, the more he began to wonder if he was doing all of this for nothing.

Sharpness never really had anyone supporting him back then, though it wasn’t as if he wanted anyone’s support, either. Having friends was a nice distraction, sure, but having a family—people who might only hold him back—was something he had never really wanted. That didn’t mean he never thought about it.

He remembered all the times he’d gotten his ass beaten black and blue by some kid much taller, older, and bigger than him. The same kid would sneer down at him and call him weak and flimsy. Always that blond kid who couldn’t even properly raise a wooden sword because his arms were nothing but skin and bone.

Whenever the pressure became too much, Sharp would bite his tongue and force himself to keep everything inside. Sometimes he’d bite the inside of his cheek just to stop himself from crying, telling himself that everyone was right. He was shit. The shittiest of them all. And there was nothing he could do about it.

God must have hated him. Why else would he have given Sharp this body and mind, barely capable of doing anything?

He remembered how often he was hungry, too. He’d bite his nails and pick at the skin around his fingers while watching other children his age, or older kids in his class, talking with their parents. Meanwhile, he was the runt of the litter—the orphan that the owner of the dojo had taken pity on. The man had taken Sharp in as a student, trying to teach him how to fight back against the “bullies” in the streets who always seemed to gang up on him simply because he was small.

He remembered the metallic taste on his fingers, whether it came from the hilt of the wooden swords he held or the blood that welled from his nails after he’d bitten them too short. Sometimes there was nothing left to bite, and he’d still find himself doing it anyway, as if chewing on the skin around his fingers could somehow fill the emptiness in his stomach.

The pain helped him focus, too. In a strange way, it made him feel better. The stress, the pressure, the constant looks people gave him—it all became easier to ignore when there was something else to concentrate on. The pain gave him something to focus on, and when he was hungry, chewing on his nails or the skin around his fingers at least gave him something to put in his mouth.

Eventually, he moved on to his hair.

His hair had grown out surprisingly long, mostly because the other masters at the dojo enjoyed treating him like their own little plaything. They would dress him up, mess with his hair, and generally have their fun with him because he let them. He didn’t think he could really say no, even if he claimed he didn’t need support or a family. They were the only family he had.

They had encouraged him to grow his hair out because it looked good on him. They said it made him look like a true, up-and-coming swordmaster.

So naturally, he moved from biting his nails and picking at his skin to pulling at his hair.

Whenever he felt stressed, sad, or angry with himself, he would pull and pull and pull until strands came loose, tangling around his fingers. Sometimes he’d tear up from the sharp sting of it, but even that pain felt strangely comforting.

And when he was hungry, he would chew and suck on his hair.

He didn’t know why he did it. Somehow, it helped him focus. In fact, it made him feel safe.

Sharpness never really understood why he was like this. The strange thing was that he had been taken care of. He’d been treated well as a child and continued to be cared for into his teenage years, right up until he was old enough to finally go his own way.

The Strength server and its members have been nothing but kind to him. In fact, after leaving the dojo and escaping the stress and pressure of constantly being surrounded by so many good people, he actually stopped this… strange habit of his. For once, he could hide inside his own head and simply do things without second-guessing himself. 

He didn’t have to wonder whether what he was doing was right or wrong, whether someone would hate the way he handled something, or whether someone would get angry at him for something as simple as sloppy footwork during an easy fight.

Then it came back.

It started with Flow, something Sharpness never really expected. Then again, the server was chaotic. Sharpness actually kind of liked that about it. Everyone was out for blood, and he was too. He liked how competitive everyone was, how nobody seemed afraid to throw themselves into a fight. He just never realized that it was that serious. At least, not at first.

He knew the stakes were high, but it was just a server, right? It wasn’t supposed to be that serious…

Sharpness never really knew how to deal with stress and pressure. Instead, he always chose the one thing that soothed him—the one thing that reminded him of the past.

[...]

“Sharp?”

A hand nudges Sharpness. It’s soft and warm as he lets out a soft groan, blinking his eyes open blearily. His body feels hot all over, like he’s about to keel over and die. Which might be marginally better than experiencing all of this. He’d rather fucking die right now than feel like the room is turning and spinning around him, even though his eyes are closed.

“Sharpness. You gotta wake up, man.” The hand shakes him slightly, still resting on his shoulder as Sharpness lets out a quiet “hm?” under his breath. He slowly opens and closes his eyes, only to realize he’s looking straight at a wall. The room around him is dark, slightly bathed in yellow light.

He turns his head and comes face-to-face with Jude, who’s standing beside the bed he’s lying on. The door behind him is slightly cracked open, and he can hear voices outside the room.

Where the hell is he—? Wait… did he pass out? Hold on, Sharpness barely remembers what the fuck happened before ending up in this bed. He doesn’t think he’d forget something as simple as laying down in a bed.

“Jude?” Sharp asks. His voice feels slightly tongue-tied and heavy.

He’s slurring, but he doesn’t know why…

Wait, is it because he was basically cooking alive in the Nether? Yeah, he kind of remembers that happening. It was a stupid decision on his part to keep wearing his netherite armor, knowing that it’s a very good heat conductor. That meant his own body heat, along with the heat surrounding him in the dimension, would cling to the armor and eventually cook him slowly but surely, like a fucking steak.

“Yeah, it’s me, buddy. You feeling any better yet?” Jude tilts his head as Sharp blinks at him.

Sharpness slowly sits up, letting out a surprised sound when Jude helps him upright. Jude gives him a small, unsure smile, and Sharp gives him a dumb look in return.

“What’s wrong?” Sharp finally asks.

Jude brings out a bottle of water from his inventory—the cold kind—and hands it to Sharpness, who eagerly drinks it down like it’s the best thing in the world.

“I should probably apologize for making you go to the Nether,” Jude says.

Sharp licks the remaining water from the rim of the bottle, lowering his head as he looks over at Jude, whose ears are tilted down, practically flopped against his head. Sharp gives him a weird look.

“…Okay?” he says, though it comes out more like a question. It isn’t like Jude to be the one apologizing first.

I mean, the other had basically killed him in so many different, painful ways that a heatstroke was technically fine. It wasn’t really on the list of Jude’s more heartless ways to kill him. Granted, it was kind of an asshole move, but Sharp could give him a pass for it—as long as Jude gave him three strength.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Sharpness asks as he hands the bottle back to Jude, who stores it in his inventory.

Jude bites his lower lip, scratching his head before running his hands over his ears for a moment. “We probably gotta talk about your habit,” he says.

Sharpness blinks. “What habit?” Jude sighs, cocking his head slightly as he looks at Sharpness.

Sharpness startles. It doesn’t really look like pity. It’s more like a gotcha moment, as if Jude is saying, I finally see you.

“Your hair habit. I kinda went around asking if they noticed anything weird about you,” Jude says. As always, Jude is straightforward about it.

Sharpness startles again, sitting up much straighter. “What? You what?!” Jude immediately raises both hands. “Let me explain first.”

Sharp’s breathing grows heavier. He blinks furiously as he thinks back on his past interactions with everyone, wondering if he’d shown them that stupid, useless self-soothing habit of his. No should have known about it, or even paid any attention to it. They don’t care. They don’t care. So why would they even notice something as stupid as a small habit like his’?

He doesn’t even realize his breathing is picking up until he sounds like he’s on the verge of a panic attack. His hands fidget together, pulling and tugging at the shirt he’s wearing. Then they move toward his hair. He grabs a few strands, curling his fingers around them before pulling.

It makes him feel better. But the muddled panic and stress are still sitting in the back of his mind. Sharp pulls harder.

“Sharpness.” One of Jude’s hands settles on his shoulder, while the other grabs his wrist and stops him from pulling. Sharpness looks up and realizes Jude is staring straight at him, his face serious—and Jude is never that serious.

“Stop it. Don’t do that. It’s not good for your scalp, and most definitely not good for your health,” Jude says. He gently lowers Sharp’s hand back into his lap, rubbing his shoulder.

It’s weird.

Jude never did this—never does this at all. He’s not the feel-y type of guy, at least as far as Sharpness is concerned. Hell, he’s never seen this jerk shed a fucking tear, even when he’s blown Jude’s base to bits multiple times in the past.

It’s like his heart is made out of ice and bedrock. Cold as shit, impossible to crack, impossible to break.

“Relax,” Jude says.

“I am—you stopped me.” Sharp lets out a shaky breath.

Jude gives him a look. “Not like that. There are countless ways to calm down, and it’s definitely not by pulling your hair and going as far as eating it.”

Sharpness flinches. He doesn’t think he remembers anyone pointing out his habits that straightforwardly. Maybe people had asked him about it before, and he’d answered truthfully, but no one had ever truly cared enough to point it out the way Jude did.

“Me, Parker, Godis, and Bitz—”

“You told them?!” Sharpness cuts him off.

Jude simply pushes him back down when he tries to stand, only for his world to spin again and leave him sitting beside Jude. Jude gives him the most heated glare he’s ever seen.

“Yes, I told them. Parker already knew beforehand when you vomited in front of us. God—you had a large clump of hair in your vomit, Sharp. Do you know how bad that is for your health? It’s incredible that you’re still moving.”

Jude’s brows furrow as Sharpness fidgets with his hands, resisting the urge to pull at his hair. Instead, he nips at his nails, picking at the edges and skin around them. Jude immediately grabs his hands, stopping him. Sharpness freezes.

“Why did you eat your hair, Sharp?” Jude asks.

“I—I…” For once, Sharpness finds himself completely freezing. His mouth opens, but no words come out. It feels like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over his head.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to explain,” Jude continues, “but this habit of yours has gotta be stopped. It’s a pretty self-destructive habit. Tai told me you like to scratch your head a lot and pull your hair. Granted, I noticed it too, but I thought you just had lice or something.” Jude shakes his head.

Sharp looks down, blinking furiously as he feels the heat building behind his eyes.

Jude falls quiet as Sharp swallows. He’s definitely waiting for an answer.

“It’s fine if you don’t answer,” Jude says after a moment. “And I know this is beyond us, and we have no right to make this decision for you, but Godis told me it’s probably best if we cut your hair short and make you wear a hat for the time being. At least until you get used to not picking at your hair.”

Sharp stays silent.

“You know, when you were asleep, I found a really large bald spot at the back of your head. It’s not noticeable because your hair is really thick, but it’s there.” Jude’s face winces slightly.

Sharp glances at him, swallowing hard, wishing he could do something with his hands. Anything. But Jude is still holding them, keeping him from fidgeting.

“That is, if it’s fine by you,” Jude says. “The hair thing. You really need to do it, but it’s still your decision.”

Sharp blinks furiously, looking down once more as he bites his lower lip.

Should he cut his hair to stop this?

He’d promised himself he would stop the moment it came back, but he’d kept pushing it off because he didn’t think it was as bad as it had been when he was a child. Back then, he’d pick at his scalp until it bled, sometimes tearing at the skin itself. Washing his hair had been difficult because it always hurt, especially whenever he used soap.

Sharp must have taken too long to respond because Jude finally lets go of his hands. He looks at him with an expression Sharp can’t quite read.

“I—okay…” Sharp mutters. Jude’s face lights up. “Okay? You’re agreeing with me about cutting your hair short? I’m not forcing you, right?” he asks, tilting his head to get a better look at Sharp’s face.

Sharp has already tilted his head down, avoiding Jude’s eyes. For some reason, he feels embarrassed letting Jude see this side of him. He’s not supposed to know about this. It’s just a stupid habit, after all. It’s not that big of a deal.

Give Sharpness a few months and it’ll disappear on its own because he won’t need it anymore. It’s that easy.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Sharp mutters. He swallows and looks away from Jude, whose expression makes Sharp want to pull at his hair and forget this ever fucking happened.

It almost feels like he’s being told off after getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It feels embarrassing, almost humiliating in a way. Sharp feels ashamed to even show his face to Jude.

“It is,” Jude says. “It’s a big deal, Sharp. You’re hurting yourself, and look—I know I can be a massive ass, but… but—”

The hybrid lets out a sharp sigh and hangs his head for a moment, like he’s preparing himself to say something, trying to force the words out. Sharp watches him quietly.

“Look, believe it or not, you’re one of my homies, okay?” Jude finally says, lifting his head and sitting up straight as he meets Sharp’s eyes. “I’m an asshole to you, but that’s just how I am with everyone. But you’re my friend. And it’s been a while since you passed out. It gave me time to… understand, ask questions, realize… what you might be going through. And what I might’ve noticed back then but never really thought much about.”

Jude trails off, his expression softening. “I’m not really that good of a friend, now that I think about it…”

Sharp blinks at him, genuinely shocked.

They’re… friends?

Sharp never knew that. In fact, he never even considered the possibility that anyone on this server could be his friend. All this time, he’d thought of them as colleagues, in a way. They all lived on the same server, talked to each other every day, fought each other, messed around together. But never really got close. Not like friends. Not like family.

Sharp likes this server, but he also knows it isn’t going to last forever. He’s not stupid. In a few months, the server will restart, new members will be brought in, and Sharpness isn’t even sure if Tai will let him back in. For all he knows, he’ll end up back on the road, joining random servers again.

“Oh,” Sharp murmurs. He feels heat gathering behind his eyes as he lowers his head, staring down at his lap.

For some reason, he feels shocked. Almost like he’s been electrocuted. And considering who’s saying it, that only makes it stranger. If Godis had said this, it probably would’ve been much more believable.

“Yeah, oh. I mean, we’re all friends on this server, so I don’t know why you’re so shocked,” Jude says, taking a peek at Sharp’s face.

Sharp sniffles quietly and shrugs. “I don’t know. Sorry, but, um… yeah. It’s… okay. I still don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Sharp says, his voice weakening slightly.

Jude just watches him, his lips pressed into a thin line. For a moment, neither of them says anything. Then Jude pats Sharp on the shoulder and smiles. “Rest for now, okay? I’ll get you your lunch. Then after that, we’ll cut that hair of yours. If you manage to break the habit, you can always grow it back again.”

He stands, and Sharp looks up at him, eyes wide. Jude gives him a small, faint smile—one that’s rare to see from him. A smile that isn’t mocking, teasing, or smug.

“Oh… yeah. Okay… okay,” Sharp says, stammering in surprise.

Jude sighs. “Good, ’cause you’ve got no choice. Whether I shave your head bald or not.” He grins. Sharp rolls his eyes. Yeah. I guess he’s still the same old Jude.

Sharp never really thought about cutting his hair. He’d never wanted to, either, even when it got in the way during a fight. But right now, all he can say is that it feels like a small part of him is being cut away as he watches Jude snip the hair along one side of his head. On the other side, Parker is making sure his bangs look straight and normal, rather than uneven like Jude’s side probably will.

It feels like he’s losing an important limb. And yet, at the same time, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from his shoulders as he watches the two of them snip away at his hair, the long strands getting shorter and shorter. Sharp knows he won’t be able to twirl those strands between his fingers anymore, won’t be able to pull on them when he needs something to focus on. It’ll be months before he can even get a proper grip on them again.

“Looking good, am I right?” Parker asks with a smile, looking at him through the mirror. Sharp gives him a small smile and shrugs. It could look better, honestly, but it doesn’t look half bad.

Behind him, Jude snips a few more strands, probably trying to cover the slight bald spot at the back of his head. He swipes a hand through Sharp’s hair, shaking off the loose strands that have been cut away.

“There. Better.” Jude grins. “See? You can’t even pull on it anymore, and it definitely won’t be causing you stomach issues.”

He runs a hand through Sharp’s hair, and Sharp does the same, touching the short strands with his fingertips.

This is his hair now.

Jude was actually pretty smart for this. In fact, this probably should have been Sharp’s idea from the beginning. He never really thought the habit was that bad. Well—he knew it was bad. He just never thought it would get this far.

But it helped him. It really did. And he’d always believed it would be easy to quit. Just like being an alcoholic, right? He could just put down the bottle, put down the glass, and refuse to take another drink. Well, look where he is now.

“Looks alright,” Sharp murmurs softly.

Parker smiles at him and pats his shoulder before taking the towel from around Sharp’s shoulders. He shakes it lightly, sending blond strands of hair drifting onto the floor.

Sharp simply sits there, still taking in the new style while Jude and Parker clean up around him. Eventually, Parker leaves the bathroom to get him some clean clothes, while Jude runs a brush along the back of Sharp’s neck, dusting away any loose hairs that might irritate his skin.

It’s probably time Sharp explains himself, huh? He doesn’t know why, but he feels strangely compelled to. Maybe because he’s afraid the others will think he’s doing this for attention. Maybe they’ll think he’s weird and start singling him out. Sharp doesn’t know.

But he wants to explain. In fact, he feels almost itchy at the thought of going back to bed without saying anything.

“Sometimes I can’t control my emotions very well,” Sharp suddenly blurts out.

Jude stops behind him, pausing as he stuffs their things into a cabinet. Sharp watches Jude’s reflection in the mirror as the hybrid turns his head slightly, though he doesn’t quite meet Sharp’s eyes.

“I can’t handle stress well. Or pressure. And sometimes—I don’t know where to put all that energy. Sometimes fighting isn’t enough to burn it off, and instead I started using this way to calm myself down.”

Sharp swallows and lowers his head, staring at his lap. There are a few strands of hair stuck to his pants. He picks them off one by one and tosses them over the side of the chair.

“It’s an on-and-off thing, but… I never really had anyone to talk to when I was younger. Sometimes I’d get mad. I’d get so angry that I’d break multiple swords, and I never knew where to put all that anger without hurting anyone. So instead, I put it on myself.”

His fingers curl against his knees. “It helps sometimes. Actually, it helps a lot. It makes me focus. Not just when I’m angry, either. Sometimes when I’m sad. Stressed.”

Sharp sighs. “Even good emotions, too. When I’m too excited or too happy. A lot of people don’t really like it, so instead I just…” He hesitates. “I don’t know. My hair is the easiest thing for me to reach, and doing it this way doesn’t affect my fighting as much as when I used to do it with my hands.”

Sharp bites his lower lip, his face growing hot as embarrassment and shame slowly creep in.

Was this a good idea?

Was it really a good idea to spill his heart out to Jude, of all people? Jude was notorious for using other people’s weaknesses against them. Would he use this to blackmail Sharp? Would he—

“Alright.”

Sharp's head snaps up. He stares at Jude through the mirror. Jude is looking back at him with a small smile.

“I can work with that,” Jude says with an easy and lazy shrug. Sharp just blinks at him stupidly.

“What?” Sharp asks, finally turning his head to look at Jude, who only gives him a small smile.

“Secret’s safe with me if you’re worried. My lips are sealed.” Jude makes a sealing motion over his lips with his fingers, and Sharp feels his eyes heat up at that. He blinks furiously, reaching over his head before suddenly remembering there’s no hair left for him to pull on to stop himself from crying.

“It’s alright, man. You know…” Jude pauses, then gestures toward his right ear. “Do you want me to explain why my other ear is like this?”

He flicks at his right ear, which droops slightly lower than the other. Sharp had never really known why Jude’s ear was always lowered like that.

Sharp nods.

“I used to pull it a lot when I was younger,” Jude says with a shrug. “I had major anger issues. Whenever things didn’t go my way, I’d throw these crazy temper tantrums. I’d break everything around me and hurt people. Then it got to the point where I started pulling on this ear over and over as part of it.”

Jude sighs, his ears flicking slightly.

“My parents never corrected me, and it eventually got to the point where the hearing in my right ear got worse because of that habit. You know, Shadow actually helped me fix it. I just needed someone to talk to so I could get my anger out, vent about it and shit.”

He shrugs again, his voice remaining surprisingly calm.

“As a kid, I had a lot of siblings. I was basically the runt of the litter, so everything was more or less first come, first serve. I wasn’t exactly better than any of my siblings when it came to being the favorite, either. So it was hard for me to open up. No one really listened to me when I was younger.”

Sharp blinks at him.

Oh…

Oh. Jude was just like him.

Except Jude had no one to listen to him, while Sharp had always been too scared to open up because, deep down, he never believed he deserved anyone’s attention.

In a way, they were almost like two sides of the same coin.

“That’s that. I mean, the summarized version of it,” Jude continues. “I don’t think I could talk about everything in just one day. There’s a lot of shit I went through that made me who I am now. And I can’t exactly say I’m completely over that habit, either, because sometimes I still catch myself doing it a lot. But that’s why Parker’s here. He helps me talk about it and stuff.”

Sharp nods weakly.

Jude looks at him for a moment before sighing.

“I’m just saying, it’s not an easy thing to heal from. But at least you got us, right?” He shrugs with one shoulder.

Sharp raises his head, realizing only now that he’d lowered it without even noticing. He meets Jude’s eyes.

Jude would really do that for him? “You’d… do that for me?” Sharp asks quietly. Jude shrugs. “Why the fuck not? You’re my homie. Homeboy. Whatever the hell you wanna call me or some shit.”

Oh.

Oh…

Okay.

“Okay…” Sharp trails off, looking away before turning his attention back to his reflection. Jude looks at the mirror too, watching him through it.

For a moment, neither of them says anything. “Alright, bro.” Jude shrugs before going back to work.

Sharp smiles faintly at himself. For once, his hands aren’t fidgeting, and his legs aren’t bouncing restlessly. That’s never really happened before…