Archive of Our Own ^beta

Branzy is a responsible adult. Yes, responsible. This, of course, means that he always thinks all of his decisions through and doesn’t just make them purely out of compulsive ideas and the estimated direct consequences. 

Another point, which is partially brought forward by the previous one, is that, as a responsible adult, Branzy has very good time management and plans out his work in a way where he doesn’t overwork himself and doesn’t fixate on said work as if his life depends on finishing it. Well— sometimes , it does, but even then, he can responsible adult his way out of pushing his body any further than he realistically should. 

That being said, this current project, the Merry-Go-Round for his DEADLY theme park, was a hell of a lot more work than he had initially planned and Branzy can’t even remember the last time he took a break. Which, Branzy can understand how that might seem contradictory to his established responsible adultness, however. Well, it is. Kind of. But he really wants to finish this as soon as possible. And that for a variety of reasons. 

Number one: he doesn’t want to accidentally get too bored of the project and end up leaving it unfinished forever. 

Number two: he doesn’t want the participants to have to wait too long for the next attraction and the final battle, partially because

Number three: this season has been active for quite a while now and that, together with how much chaos and finalist wars have been going on recently, he wouldn’t be surprised if the end of the season would be just around the corner and he wants to finish the entire theme park and its events before that can happen. Next season, he won’t have all the hearts and building resources as well as the IOUs he’ll need for the events. Next season, everything might be completely different.

So Branzy throws himself into his work, spends weeks on end on test servers and at the building site. He does call in his, ahem, indentured servants (what a step up, from indentured servant to indentured servant haver) a few times, but he does the majority of the work himself. Besides, he can’t just leave Mid and 4C unsupervised now, can he?

So maybe, when Branzy finishes the Merry-Go-Round, he hasn’t gotten a full night of sleep in weeks, maybe a month and a half, hasn’t eaten anything but plain (and probably stale) bread and showered as much as he maybe should have. 

But like, an hour or so after he finishes the build and a few days before the agreed date for the participants, Clown joins the server, something that doesn’t happen all that often anymore, nowadays, so Branzy decides all that stuff can wait in favour of his Clown Time™️ and invites the guy to come over and be shown around the theme park’s new attractions. 

He’s worried for the few seconds it takes Clown to respond that he might’ve joined for something in particular, maybe some secret mission or something the PMC might be involved in, and doesn’t have time for a tour around the theme park. 

That worry seems to be unfounded, though, as Clown pretty much immediately replies that he’ll be there in ten minutes max. Branzy is excited, of course, both for getting to see his favourite little clown (they really don’t see each other enough. Maybe Branzy should plan a full vacation for both of them soon…) and for getting to show off his builds to someone who knows how to appreciate that kind of stuff properly . On the other hand, though, a glance at his inventory confirms that he looks like absolute shit and he can only do so much about it within ten minutes. But he’s not going to let Clown even wait for even a minute, so a splash of water for his face, some dry shampoo and deodorant will have to suffice for now. Surely Clown loves him enough to not suddenly lose all attraction to him because he’s not looking (and smelling…) his best once . 

When he gets to the entrance, Clown is already waiting there. So much for not letting him wait for even a minute. Then again, it hasn’t been ten minutes yet. Well, whatever, Branzy’s here now and so is Clown, so he’ll make the best of it. 

“Clown!” he greets happily, though his voice cracks a little and sounds more tired than he would have hoped, “You’re here!”

Branzy can practically feel Clown’s expression brightening beneath his mask as he turns to look at him. “I am!” Clown says, audibly smiling as he matches Branzy’s (attempted) energy, “God, it’s been too long.”

Branzy nods wildly as a grin spreads across his face, a natural reaction to Clown’s presence. “It has!” he agrees, laughing slightly, and practically throws himself against Clown as he engulfs the other in a hug. 

“I really missed you, babe,” he murmurs into Clown’s neck — or, well, Clown’s cravat, a lot more calmly. Clown gently pats his shoulder, wraps his arms around Branzy’s shoulders. 

“I’ve missed you, too, darling,” he replies, “Maybe we should go on vacation together once the season’s over…”

Branzy gasps, suddenly excited again, and pulls away from the hug to shake Clown by his shoulders. “That’s literally what I was thinking!” he exclaims. “We’re such soulmates.”

Clown chuckles and pats Branzy’s hand, gently signalling him to stop shaking his shoulders that much. 

“I guess we are,” he says, “Now… Wasn’t there a theme park you wanted to give me a tour on?”

“Of course, right,” Branzy says and backs away, takes Clown’s hand instead, “Come along, come along and witness the magic of Branzy’s super cool and deadly theme park!”

His heart flips as Clown chuckles and lets Branzy drag him around. As they walk past the ferris wheel, Clown hums. 

“Right, I forgot to sue you for copyright infringement,” he says casually, as if he didn’t just confess to planning to sue his boyfriend. 

“What?” Branzy asks, neck kind of hurting from how fast he turned his head to Clown, causing Clown to chuckle. 

“The evil clown face is copyrighted,” he says, “And as far as I am aware, you aren’t licensed to use it, especially not for commercial purposes.”

Branzy frowns. “I guess that’s true,” he says, “But you love me. There’s no way you’ll sue me for using your pretty second face for my theme park.”

Clown tilts his head. “Hm. I guess not,” he says, “Not when you call it pretty.”

Branzy grins. “I’ll do you one better,” he says, “ You ’re pretty.”

Clown’s shoulders shake in silent laughter and Branzy’s head is spinning. He’s not sure whether it’s Clown or the lack of sleep and balanced diet.

“Well then,” Clown says, “I guess I’ll allow it this once.”

Branzy grins and leads Clown past the ferris wheel. “Great,” he says, “Now let me show you what I’ve built in your absense, pretty boy. Just checking, though, you didn’t trademark the black, red and purple colour scheme, right?”

“I didn’t,” Clown says, “Hm, maybe I should do that.”

“No,” Branzy says, “You couldn’t pry that colour scheme from my cold, dead hands.”

Clown tilts his head. “I’m sure I could,” he says, “But you’d have my permission to use it either way. I love your builds.”

“Aweee, Clown!” Branzy says and tries to disguise him almost tripping and falling as throwing himself at Clown, “You’re so sweet!”

Clown catches him with gentle hands and helps him stand upright. “Careful there, Branzy,” he says, clearly and undortunately seeing right through Branzy’s act, and Branzy feels his cheeks heat up brightly.

“Whatever do you mean?” he asks and continues walking. “I definitely did that one hundred percent on purpose.”

“Uh-huh,” Clown says, but, weirdly enough, doesn’t dig deeper than that, instead following Branzy and letting him tell him all about the builds. At this point, Branzy is pretty sure that most of what he’s saying is pure bullshit because he’s struggling to scrape together the concentration to listen to himself talk, much less actively decide what to say, especially when Clown’s hand is in his and the other laughs softly, says things Branzy can’t make out. (Speaking of making out, Branzy would really like to—) Clown’s voice is soft and quiet and light, but there is something below that Branzy can’t make out (speaking of making out, Branzy—).

Branzy distantly registers that they’ve reached the end of the tour, but he’s so dizzy and all he really wants is to curl up and cuddle with Clown. But he’s still got stuff to do and Clown only just came. Even more distantly, he hears Clown talking to him, but it sounds like he’s underwater. 

“Branzy,” Clown says again and suddenly his voice is clear as day. Branzy looks up at him questioningly. 

“Huh?” he asks dumbly, his head still spinning. 

Clown’s eyebrows furrow slightly and the man holds his freezing cold hand against Branzy’s forehead, then tilts Branzy’s face with his other hand to inspect it. 

“How long has it been since you’ve last slept?” he asks and Branzy tries to think through all the fog in his head. 

“Uh, last night,” he says, “Why?”

Clown raises an eyebrow. Branzy hadn’t even noticed him taking off his mask. “Are you sure?” he asks and it sounds a tiny bit accusatory. Branzy frowns. 

“Yeah,” he says, “I went to sleep last night.”

Clown considers him for a few more seconds before sighing. “How long did you sleep last night?” he asks. 

“Um.” Branzy swallows thickly. “Not sure. Doesn’t really matter, though.”

Clown stares at him. “Yeah, we’re going home right about now,” he says and lightly pulls Branzy with him, “You’re going to sleep.”

“What?” Branzy asks and digs his heels in the ground to stop the movement. “No. I’m fine, Clown, we can just stay here. No one’s ever died of a little tiredness.”

“Branzy, you look like you haven’t had a proper night full of sleep in weeks ,” Clown says, “Or showered or eaten, actually.”

Branzy opens his mouth to speak, but Clown shakes his head. 

“We’re going home right now,” he says, “And you’re going to take a shower, eat something and then you’re going to sleep. In a proper bed for a healthy amount of time.”

Before Branzy can even think to object, the ground falls and he’s in Clown’s arms, bridal style. The movement makes him a little dizzy and nauseous, but at the same time, being held by Clown like this is extremely comforting so much so he doesn’t even really want to object anymore. He’s really, really tired. 

He tries to reach for Clown’s face, but the mask is back in place. They’re travelling, so it’s probably better that way.

A good while and a bunch of blurry places later, Branzy is put down in their bedroom in his base. He frowns, but Clown lightly pats his head. 

“We can cuddle after you’ve took a shower and ate,” he says, “Here, let me get out some fresh clothes for you.”

Branzy nods slowly and blinks, trying to clear his sight and get past the dizziness. A few seconds later, Clown hands him a small stack of clothes. Branzy recognises his favourite comfy hoodie and sweatpants as he takes it. 

Clown leads him to the bathroom as though Branzy doesn’t literally live here. To be fair, he hasn’t been here in a bit, but he still knows where what is. 

As he walks into the bathroom, Clown puts out some towels for him. Then, he leaves Branzy and the shower to themselves. 

“Yell if you need anything,” he says right before leaving, “I’ll be just in the kitchen.”

Branzy nods and closes the door. He’s still pretty dizzy and very tired, but he can manage a shower. 

The warm water feels amazing on his skin, washes away all the built up sweat, dust and redstone stains. 

Branzy takes a bit longer to get to washing his hair, simply because of how nice the water feels, but when he does, he feels so nice. His hair genuinely starts feeling fully clean and the itch on his scalp gets better with each layer of dirt and grease being scrapped away. 

Mid-shower, after he gets done washing his hair, he decides that he wants to shave. He doesn’t mind having a bit of facial hair, but not having shaved at all in one and a half months kind of makes it uncomfortable and just a tad bit too much. 

So he gets out his shaving stuff. At first he thinks of fully shaving it clean off, but as he eyes the trimmer length guards, he kind of wants to keep a little stubble, so he goes with that instead. 

He starts grinning like an idiot as he imagines how Clown will “complain” about it being prickly when they kiss and how he’ll keep on tracing over it. It’s a little silly and maybe even dumb, but he’s a simple man, really. 

He stops grinning, though, when he almost cuts himself with the razor despite the length guards and channels his remaining concentration on that. 

Afterwards, he washes his face and body again, relishing in the warm water and the foam from the body gel. Clown was right, taking a nice shower really helped make him feel better. 

Eventually he does have to get out of the shower and dry himself off, but at least he’s not smelly and itchy anymore and Clown promised to cuddle. 

He gets into the soft clothes Clown had readied for him, throws the body towel in the clothing bin, puts his piercings back in and washes his hands before leaving the bathroom and going to the kitchen. 

Inside, Clown is playing tricky towers with burger parts. Actually, he’s just building a few burgers but places some on top of each other because there’s only so much place on a plate, but phrasing it like Branzy originally did is just a lot funnier and Branzy kinda needs some entertainment. It’s like,, a core need. It’s why he’s so funny. 

Anyhow, Branzy walks up behind Clown and hugs him, lays his head on his shoulder. 

“Oh, hey Branzy,” Clown says and finishes building the last burger. 

“Hi,” Branzy mumbles and squeezes Clown a little, holds him a bit tighter. Clown chuckles. 

“Burgers are finished,” he says. “Why don’t you sit down?”

Branzy hums. “Can’t we eat in bed?” he asks, burying his face in the niche of Clown’s neck. “I want to cuddle.”

“Branzy, really? Burgers in bed?” Clown asks, sounding like he is just about ready to give up on life, “That has got to be literally the worst idea you have ever had.”

“Nope,” Branzy says, “That was eating your testosterone gel.”

“What?” Clown asks and turns to Branzy in his tight hold. 

“Nothing,” Branzy says with wide eyes and shakes his head. “Anyways, I wanna cuddle right now. How can you say no to that?”

“Um, by caring about hygiene?” Clown asks and Branzy scoffs. 

“You didn’t care about hygiene when you bled all over our bed because you, and I quote, ‘didn’t feel like treating your stab wound’,” Branzy says, raising an eyebrow. Clown scrunches his lips together and stares at him. 

“I hate it when you hold me to my own standards,” he says, “Fine. We can eat burgers in bed, just don’t complain when the bed gets all disgusting.”

Branzy grins. “Okay!” he says and finally frees Clown from his tight hold, “Let’s go, then!”

Clown rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling, so Branzy knows it’s fine. They go to their bedroom with the burgers and Branzy dramatically throws himself onto the bed. 

Clown much more carefully sits down on the bed and hands Branzy one of the plates before gracefully curling his body around Branzy’s like a human cat. 

Branzy readjusts the way he’s sitting to be more comfortable before taking a bite from the burger Clown made for him. It is very delicious and a very very very nice and welcome change in pace from his stale villager bread. 

“So…” Branzy says in between bites to get a conversation going. “Why burgers?”

Clown finishes chewing the bite he took from his burger. “What do you mean?” he asks and Branzy tilts his head to the side slightly. 

“I mean,” he says, “There must have been a thought process when you decided to make burgers. I just want to talk.”

Clown hums and nods slowly. “Well,” he says, “It’s the quickest food I came up with that has as many types of nutrients and tastes fresh-ish.” He points at the different parts of the burger. “High value proteins, some vitamins and minerals here and there, fats, fiber. What the body needs, you know, especially after not eating properly for a month .”

Branzy grimaces, stares at Clown for a few seconds before taking another bite of his burger. 

“Sorry,” he says awkwardly and Clown lays his head on his shoulder for a few seconds before putting it upright again. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, “Just… take care of yourself, yeah? Or at least reach out when you can’t do it yourself. I’m always free for you.”

Branzy feels his expression soften and he stares at his burger, feeling tears pricking at the back of his eyes, threatening to fall. It only gets worse when he feels Clown’s hand in his hair, gently massaging his scalp. 

“Thanks,” he says quietly, “That, um— Me too, alright?”

“You too?” Clown asks, lightly fiddling with a small strand of Branzy’s hair. Branzy turns his head to look at Clown, whose expression is soft and warm, but a little confused. 

“I’m always free for you, too,” Branzy explains, “And I want you to reach out when you need help, too.”

Clown smiles. “Alright,” he says, “I will.”

Branzy smiles, too, and leans against Clown as he continues eating his burger. By the time he’s almost done with his burger, his eyes are drooping and have already fallen shut a few times with how tired and sleepy he is. 

It’s a kind of nice feeling, especially with Clown’s arms wrapped around him and Clown’s face in his shoulder. 

Branzy eats the last bite of his burger and snuggles against Clown as the other raises his head again and places Branzy’s now empty plate on the bedside table. 

Branzy yawns and leans up to press a small kiss to Clown’s lips before laying his head against Clown’s chest and closing his eyes. 

“G’night, Clown,” he mumbles, “Love you”

He feels Clown chuckle more than he hears it. “Love you too, Branzy,” Clown murmurs, running his fingers through Branzy’s curls, “Sleep well.”

Warm fills Branzy as his consciousness drifts away, leaving only the comfort of Clown’s hand in his hair.