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Tango had a new, fun redstone invention to show off to his buddy, Impulse. They were pretty close, and it was quite common for one to visit the other at random times. Not wanting to waste any time, he flew over to Impy's base in a hurry. The flight was long enough for Tango to fiddle around a bit — for him to get a little nervous about potentially annoying Impulse, but not quite long enough to make him second-guess himself fully.
Impulse meant a lot to him. And — yeah, sure. Maybe Tango was a little more interested in Impulse than he was his other friends. But who could blame him? The two of them had been friends for so many years at this point! It was only natural Tango would start catching feelings… Impulse had always been so kind and patient with him, going out of his way to help him or simply be there for him. How could he not develop a deeper level of love for the guy?
Especially considering Tango wasn't exactly a romantic. He didn't care much for all those stories about couples meeting and immediately falling head over heels in love. That wasn't how the world actually worked. Sure, meeting someone attractive, having your fun with them and then parting the next day was common — but that turning into romance of all things? Absurd.
Though he knew he was a little different from the rest, he never thought that to be a bad thing. Tango was just… picky. He didn't get crushes as a kid, thought everyone else was just picking and choosing at random.
It took him until his teenage years to get his first crush — to feel that affection and warmth everyone gushed about. It wasn't really as exciting as he expected it to be, however. No grandiose party in his chest, even the fluttery feeling of butterflies in his stomach was way more mellow than he anticipated. The crush was on a childhood friend of his, someone he would've trusted with his life at that point. Everything was easy with them, everything just made sense with them.
They grew apart a while after his crush had faded. It just wasn't the right time, or place, or… anything, really. Tango spent years building more friendships, finding people he enjoyed the company of, and friendly faces he knew he could rely on. None of them caused that same rush of feelings and overwhelm. None of them, until Impulse came along.
Even with him it wasn't right from the start, though. They spent a long time as just great friends, then one day Tango just… realized. Maybe he didn't quite want to believe it at first. Whenever he spent time around Impulse, he had felt that same warm, fuzzy feeling. New, slightly exciting, yet even more terrifying.
Tango loved him. Impulse. The handsome gargoyle with too much to give, who'd accept nothing in return if it was an option.
He wrestled with that idea for about twice as long as it took for him to even realize his feelings. Somehow having a grasp on what was going on only made it harder for him to know what to do. Telling Impulse how he felt was about as risky as not telling him was. He had a right to know. Maybe he felt the same. Maybe he didn't, and would shun Tango for leading him on with friendship as if he'd had ulterior motives from the start.
It was… a weird state for his mind to be in. Tango had tried to court Impy once before, about half a year ago. Back when he was even more awkward and naive. But, despite his worries, Impulse accepted his gift with the biggest smile. Tango wasn't sure, and still isn't, if Impulse understood what he had intended to ask with the handcrafted golden necklace… And maybe Tango liked it that way. Maybe things didn't need to be grandiose and spectacular, as long as Impulse was happy to stand by his side.
As long as he was allowed to stick around.
As long as they could continue their little charades — 'mi casa es tu casa', and all the other shenanigans they felt comfortable to share.
As long as Impulse would continue smiling at him like that.
The small, carved sun looked gorgeous whenever Tango caught a glimpse of it against Impy's chest. A symbol of how much light and joy Impulse brought into his life. Carving their initials into the back cost Tango a few attempts to get right, but he was all the more proud of what he had managed to achieve. Hours spent heating the gold, molding it, shaping it, then carving — only to do it all over again if he messed up. Every struggle was worth it, even if just to catch those little glimpses. Tango didn't know if Impulse only wore on some days of the week, if he ever took it off or not… but he liked to imagine Impy didn't. He imagined lots more about what went on under the gargoyle's regular clothes, however those thoughts were locked up for particularly lonely nights.
Tango landed and immediately took a big breath in. He could do this, he was big and brave and simply visiting! Visiting wasn't weird! Especially since he had a cool skadoodler to show off! With a bit more faux-pep in his step, he started searching throughout Impy's base for the big guy himself. Calling his name didn't seem to do much, and Tango had a sinking feeling he knew why. He gave up the yells, instead trying to search for any places Impulse might've been resting, or would've had to bend over. Maybe his bedroom? His storage room? The latter was closer, so Tango tried that first.
And… bingo. Right in front of the large wall of chests, too. Impulse's body was oddly positioned, looking quite uncomfortable and stiff — as if he'd simply turned into a statue.
Which, well, wasn't wrong. A relatively large, yellow gemstone laid on the floor in front of the stone body. It glimmered in the light, shiny and carrying almost the same sparkle as enchanted items did. Tango sighed affectionately as he walked closer, carefully picking up the gemstone to make sure it would be out of the way. Holding it in both hands for a moment, just to admire it, he couldn't stop a little smile from forming on his face. It felt subtly warm, and shone in only the most beautiful colors. He pocketed it to be sure it would stay intact, being very careful about having it padded in his inventory.
Heaving the rock body up was a whole workout. Even if he was used to carrying heavy loads of items from one place to the next, another player's body was a whole other caliber. It wasn't every day he had to try and balance a statue, though it was becoming oddly more common in his life.
Once he had the Impy-statue stood up right, Tango finally got out the gemstone and inserted it back into his chest. The shiny rock seemed to almost tumble before it locked into place, and shot little zaps of yellow light throughout the gargoyle's statue-like body. Tango kept his hands on Impy's arms, holding him steady as life returned to his form. His eyes filled with their regular yellow-amber colors, blinking and softly flexing his fingers. Impy's eyes flicked to Tango, his smile a bit embarrassed.
"Thank you—" he giggled, slightly loopy directly after his body and core were reunited again with such a long pause in between. The feeling in his limbs came back after a moment, his fingertips being the last to truly return to him. He gently touched Tango's arm to test, feeling the soft, squishy body and smiling gratefully.
"Geez, how'd you manage that?" Tango teased subsequently, quite used to finding Impulse in pieces at this point. Tango continued to hold Impulse steady, waiting for him to stop wobbling around so much. The difference in texture while Impy came back to himself was always such an interesting experience. To feel Impy going from hard, solid rock to a slightly softer, malleable form. More akin to meat and skin, like himself.
"I just— stumbled!" Impy tried to defend himself, though only earned an amused eyebrow raise.
"You stumbled, huh. Sometimes I really wonder how you got this far without me to help you out," Tango giggled softly, letting off on Impy as he dusted himself off.
"Sometimes I wonder that too," he sighed, stemming his hands on his sides. Impy took a deep breath, feeling what should be lungs expand in response.
"Well! That dealt with, how have you been doing?"
"Ah, the usual. Nothing too exciting," Tango waved off, turning the attention back to his gargoyle, "do you need any help with your chests? If it was bad enough to make you stumble, I'd rather be here to catch you next time." Despite himself, Tango winked at Impulse. If he was good at one thing, then it was being awkwardly, yet endearingly flirty.
Impulse blinked a little confused, until the meaning settled in. Blushing, he tried to laugh away how charmed he was to not be too obvious.
"Hey, I can handle myself most of the time!"
"Mmmhm, but not right now it seems. So? I asked you a question," Tango grinned, tilted his head and got a step closer.
"I— I mean, it would go faster if you helped…?" Impulse offered, having a really hard time declining Tango of all people. It could be an excuse to spend more time with him, too… he couldn't have said no, even if he tried. At least, that's the excuse Impy settled on.
Tango was more than eager to help chuck items and blocks from his old, temporary storage into the new and shiny self-sorter. They had a bit of banter going throughout the process, managing to still get everything transferred in record time. Without Impulse falling apart. The reason for why Tango came by was long forgotten as they sat and listened to the contraption do its sorting. Everything seemed fine and dandy, meaning Tango wasn't really needed anymore.
"Wait—" Impulse called out, grabbing Tango's wrist before he could move too far away towards the portal. He spooked for a small moment regardless, but chuckled as he turned back around. Tango slid his wrist through Impy's fingers, moving to hold his hand instead. A bold move.
"Could you stay? For a little longer?" Impy asked, a light blush on his cheeks as he held Tango's hand. He was actually… holding his hand… it took everything inside him and more to not freak out. To save himself the embarrassment of falling over from shaky knees. He gently pulled Tango along to a few chests nearby. They sat back down together.
"Only because it's you," Tango giggled, easily following along and keeping his attention on his Impulse. The flirting came almost too easy, like it was second nature.
"What do you need, Impy?"
"I… well, you've found me tilted over quite a few times by now. Sometimes even hours after so, uhm—" Impulse danced around the topic like a professional ballerina, doing all sorts of twirls and hops and spins just because he'd been worried about the reaction. Tango looked over at him patiently, kicking his legs slightly while he waited for Impy to find his words. Impulse gulped. Oh he'd really done himself in now.
"I wanted to ask if you'd like… to know if I'm in distress? As a magical, uh, ping, of sorts?"
"Yes," Tango replied immediately, squeezing Impy's hand softly.
"Absolutely I do."
Spluttering a few noises, Impy was immediately overwhelmed. He didn't even get to explain what that fully meant, yet Tango agreed right away. Impulse felt like he could explode any second now. This had to be a joke or maybe a prank on him, right? Did Tango seriously just agree??
"Oh! Well, uhm, great!"
They wandered out of the storage area and outside of Impy's base, somewhere that was a little more open. Impy brought along a whole shulker of items — like candles, a lighter, a stick and a book that looked like it was older than him. Tango wasn't sure what Impulse intended on doing, but that was more than fine with him. He was happy to be dragged along into some sort of adventure. Tango didn't really have anything else to do today, anyway.
All of the items Impulse grabbed out of the shulker seemed to be for some sort of haphazard enchanting… something. Setup required a kind of brain-cell that Tango had never had ownership over, so he decidedly sat this one out and simply watched Impy work. Though seriously trying to understand what was happening, Tango's attention lingered on those quick fingers. The gargoyle had a secret, insanely attractive grasp on the arcane. Something he could've assumed, maybe, based on the oddly magical gem that seemed to be Impulse's main source of… fuel? Life essence? Tango had never really asked before. Even if he didn't think Impy was paying that much attention to him, Tango still did his best to hide his blushing.
Eventually, Impulse stood up straight. He dusted off his hands with a huff, stemming fists into his sides and turning back around to face Tango with a proud smile.
Tango, who had definitely been paying attention, and didn't suddenly come back to reality to a whole shrine of runes in front of him. Standard Galactic, he assumed. The same language and symbols he'd seen used within books of enchanting, or carved into enchanted items. Was… he going to be carved into? Somehow that thought unsettled him less than it should.
"I didn't know you spoke Galactic," Tango commented, almost absentmindedly as he hopped to Impy's side to inspect what he'd made further. A big circle in the dirt, with the symbols he poked into the grass filled up by melted candle-wax. The stick he was still holding had been used as a multi-tool, both to dig up the grass, as well as to draw the symbols. And, well, right now Impy held it like a cane to support himself.
"Ah, well, I read and write it better than I speak it," Impulse hummed, gently poking one of the wax-filled runes with his stick to make the letter look a little neater. Tango couldn't really tell a difference either way.
"Can you translate, then?" The netherborn looked over at Impy, suddenly sparking another bit of nervous, crushing heart-flutter within the Gargoyle. Big, yellow eyes stared at Tango as if he'd just told Impulse the worst joke of the century. With how his cheeks grew warm, maybe the theoretical joke wasn't that bad, though…
"Uhm, sure! It's mostly just communication enchantments. Nothing too special," he started, "the one closest to us basically means connection. It's more so used in communicators, not item enchanting. The one to the right is just regular unbreaking, and the last is just the cost. I'm… unsure about what that word would be directly translated, but I'll make sure it won't affect you much."
"Where'd you learn all this?" Tango asked with a sparkle in his eyes, a little confused but incredibly intrigued. Somehow he kept managing to find more reasons to find Impy attractive, huh.
"My parents, mostly." Impulse smiled, then softly tried to coax Tango into the middle of the circle with him. At least Tango wasn't the only one being sacrificed.
"Oh, before I forget — do you have any levels on you?"
"Mhmm… 3 whole levels," Tango responded, a little cheeky as he stepped after his crush.
Impulse scrunched his face, going over the math in his head quietly then nodded to himself.
"That's fine, I should have enough for the both of us," he hummed. Looking around the two of them one more time, Impy seemed to have gotten everything in position. Grabbing some lapiz from his pockets, he held it between them. With the lapiz in one hand, Impulse used his other hand to gently touch Tango's chest. Keeping it there for a moment, he mumbled a few words under his breath and waited a moment or so. The lapiz turned to dust in his hand, and the wax runes seemed to almost glow with a faint light.
"Do you feel it?"
"Feel what?" Tango barely got the words out before he was overwhelmed by some sort of feeling. Goosebumps everywhere. His eyes widened — it felt like something was reaching into his body, enveloping his heart and soul, and then softly left them warmer than before. Impulse held him steady with a slight, curious smile. It took quite a moment for Tango to return to the real world, but for what it was worth? He felt… more connected to Impulse.
"…I assume that's a yes," Impy snickered, managing to get Tango to laugh along. He carefully brushed his thumb over his buddy's shoulder, giving Tango a small movement to focus on and to ground himself with.
"Everything good?"
"That was—" he struggled to find the words, gesturing a little wildly before just… stopping. Looking up at Impy, Tango tilted his head to the side a bit.
"Weird?"
"Yeah, I think that sums it up quite nicely," Impulse smiled brightly, immediately making Tango forget all about the small, sassy retorts that popped into his mind. With widened pupils, he simply enjoyed the pretty sight of a smiley, happy Impulse.
"So much preparation for such a small event," he joked around, placing blocks behind Tango and him, "let's test if it worked!"
The netherborn softly nodded, following Impy's example and sitting down on the block within the runic circle. He watched the gargoyle open up the cavity of his gem again, though he paused before yanking it out. Giving a small glance to Tango, grinning, he then grabbed the gemstone and managed to somehow not drop it in the second it took for his body to harden up and return to being a statue.
Tango had… conflicted feelings about seeing Impulse do that to himself. He sat and stared for a solid moment, unsure what to even categorize that as in his brain. Surely, yanking your own life-force out of your body wasn't… painless? Gulping, he took a deep breath. Almost as an interruption, there was a small ping he felt. As if he'd gotten a message on his communicator, but not located where he actually had his communicator in his pocket. Shaking the weirdness off, Tango gently picked up the gemstone from the rock hands to inspect it a bit more.
There was a soft pulse emanating from the core that wasn't there before. Like a heartbeat. Like his heartbeat, a quick check of his wrist revealed. Tango quietly stared at the gemstone in his hands. A warmth overtook him, like a realization of what this meant — for him, for Impy, for them as friends. Impulse trusted him with this. With the ability to help him in distress. He barely let anyone even see this thing, most other hermits didn't even know Impulse himself technically wasn't the gargoyle they see walking around. No one besides Skizz, and now Tango, had been allowed to touch the core as is. The amount of trust— this…
Fully losing himself in thought, Tango suddenly felt a few tugs at his heart. Ow?? Somehow he could tell it had to do with Impulse, and he quickly put the shiny gemstone back to where it belonged.
The stone gargoyle reanimated after a moment with a soft chuckle, wrapping Tango into a soft hug before he could even attempt to apologize for taking so long.
"Glad that communication works too!" Impy cheered, and Tango simply hugged him back without any comments to give. The warmth around his heart returned as their chests were this close together, helping soothe his frazzled mind a little. Impy gave him ample time to find his words again while he cleaned up, chucking everything back into the shulker he had brought along.
Tango stepped up to his side just as he was finishing up, just to test in what range those warming abilities were activating. Nothing happened. It seemed close contact like hugs were necessary.
"Thank you again," Impy suddenly spoke, ripping Tango out of the trance. Impulse earned a slightly shocked laugh as he responded.
"We're friends! Of course I'd—" Mere second after the first few words, a sharp, stinging pain shot through Tango, coming right from his heart. He grabbed at his chest, looking up at Impy all confused.
"Woah, ow—"
"OH— sorry, sorry that's— you're not supposed to feel that, uhm—" Impulse blushed brighter than activated redstone, suddenly all tense and embarrassed as he scratched at his neck. Tango's expression, though still amused, seemed to soften in… recognition? Impy didn't know if he read his face correctly, Impy also didn't know if he wanted to. Quickly trying to distract from whatever that was, he took a step back and forced his hands into his pockets.
"So uhm! Yeah, thank you! That's done— did you have a reason to come visit?" Totally not awkward.
Tango chuckled softly, a warm smile now on his face.
"I actually did, yeah."