Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was this thing that was very wicked in this entire world, and it was hybrid selling facilities. Some people argued that it was just as bad as certain places like Auschwitz and Unit 731. As the name implies, they illegally sold people on the black market for sick and twisted people to keep them as either slaves or exotic pets. And judging by horrible stories he has heard from survivors, what they go through is anything but pretty. There are countless stories of starvation, torture, mutilation, executions, and so on. 

And Skeppy wishes he wasn't the one assigned to take a look at this place. Because so far, he's getting a really bad feeling about this place. Well, it was a terrible place anyways, but.. He must've been hearing things because 5 minutes ago he heard a drowned out scream far away from the hall he was currently trekking by. The salesman around him and other 13 buyers was going on about how they had really rare and valuable species. 

8 floors in total, armed guards in each one of them. They weren't wearing any netherite armor, which was probably a good sign in itself. He took mental note of everything he saw, as it would be useful later on. The entire reason of why he's in such wicked place as a hybrid selling facility is because George had assigned him to be the man who took information to scheme out a raid. Altough he didn't do any of the planning he still played a big part in this. Some other like Techno and Punz had a far more heroic and action-packed work but Skeppy doesn't think he can handle fighting a lot of people at once. 

A part of him shattered each time he stepped in these kind of places, staring at the broken hybrids like him was enough to make a strong person break and shatter. Sometimes the damage is really light, and sometimes it's.. Horrible. He does this to help people out, but yet this might not be very beneficial for his mental health on the long run. He kept walking nonetheless, he couldn't afford to raise any kind of suspicion. Otherwise he might get in a little bit of a pickle. And it's enough trouble to hide all his diamond behind oversized hoodies and pants and whatnot. 

He walked by another cell, and he heard a pained whimper coming from it. Skeppy stopped right in his tracks, turning around on his heel and finally getting a good look at the cell. Very first thing he noticed that it was really dimmed down, the metal bars were stained murky brown and vibrant red and the ground was... To put it bluntly, a bad finger painting where instead of using paint they used blood. In the middle of the cell, there stood a crucifix. Blood adorned it as if a layer of paint and leather straps were all around it. 

The worst part? A demon was crucified right there. Their wings were forcefully stretched out by a pair of chains, the color of the feathers might have been a glossy black at some point but now?.. It was more red than black at this point.  Flesh poked out from deep cuts and there were several patches of missing feathers, they also clearly were heavily dirty. Skeppy had to hold back a wince once he looked at the rest of the demon's body. Blood steadily dripped from multiple injuries and a small puddle of blood was forming on the floor. Small and heavily uneven horns poked out of the messy hair and the demon's tail was unmoving. It sometimes twitched, but that was all it did.

Right. This is the part where Skeppy had to step in. It was also kind of his job to immediately help out any hybrid that might look on the verge of dying. Or maybe that was just his inner angel, he doesn't really know. He stepped foward once again. The demon heavily flinched in return. Momentarily struggling agaisnt the restrains before going limp in them once again. The angle in itself was weird and definetly couldn't be comfortable. It was really worrying. 

He knocked on the metal bars to get the demon's attention. This earned yet another flinch and a sharp breath from the demon. The more he kept looking, the more concerned he got. A shock collar was wrapped around their neck and the once (probably) pearly white color was now stained deep red. This was really bad. How many horryfying things had this poor soul went through and lived to tell the tale? How long had they been here for?

Skeppy snapped himself out of it, that was a question for later. "Look at me." He tried his hardest and best to not make his voice waver and sound frightened altough it was mostly fruitless ; as for his voice broke by the end of his sentence. 

The demon ever so slowly raised their neck, giving Skeppy a wide-eyed and terrified stare. From how long he has been taking information on these kind of places, he knows that they're taught to not look at anyone in the eyes ; otherwise it would ensue a punishment. Their eyes were a pearly white color and almost softly glowed if you looked at them the right way. So many emotions were going through those eyes and Skeppy knows for a fact that one of them was determination. Altough yes, most of those emotions were fear and pain. But they just deliberately broke a rule. And now that was entirely his call. He must not let this small spark of whatever-it-may-be snuff out. It's so hard to get it back once it's gone. There's been so many cases of people who are so will-broken that they just become little more than a empty shell of who once they were.

He sheepishly turned around and faced the salesman, who quirked up a eyebrow and gave him a doubtful stare. Skeppy definetely didn't look like a rich fucker that would lurk in these kind of places. But yet, here he is. He mustered up enough strenght and probably god knows what else to speak and so he got straight to the point with a serious and firm tone. 

"I want this one." 

Chapter Text

As soon as Bad woke up, a wave of both nausea and pain hit him, and he couldn't feel his wings-

W-what had happened to his wings?.. 

In an instant, he opened his eyes and that sent him heaving for air.

He figured out that both his hands were unshackled, but.. He- he deserved to be, right?..

The rope that tied his hands together was overly tight, but it's not like he coul complain. He has to behave. He has to. 

E-even if the handlers in the cell  room were far too busy giving a cat hybrid a beating lesson, Bad felt like the walls were slowly closing in on him, and if somebody were to say a single word to him, he was sure he would start screaming and sobbing. 

No. It's not the time to be having those kind of memories again. Thing's arent so overwhelming when he doesn't think about that-

He sat up as fast as lightning, and yep, that triggered a series of sharp pain that only lasted a few seconds, well, to put it simply, his back felt like a truck had ran him over, it was worse than the time his handlers poured holy water on his back as a punishment and even worse than when they-\

Nope, nope nope nope nope. Dont think about that crap. Get your fudge together, Bad. Hammer your brain if you need to, but for god's sake dont go back there otherwise- Yeaaah no. 

The room didn't look like his.. Cell? room? home, if he dares to call it that? It was... Decently furnished, even though he could barely make out the shape of half of the things because of his stupid eyes, (and trust him, he wishes he could just see fudging properly, rather than know what the hell happened to his wings and why can't he move them, nor feel them-) and it looked... Almost homely? Is that what it's called? Look, he's no goddamn interior designer, cut him some slack!- 

His ears picked up the sound of... Talking?.. It was somewhat muffled, so it was probably wasn't all that important.. (Even if curiosity was killing him.)

There was no true cherry on top, but what kinda caught him off-guard was the rather unholy amount of bandages that littered his arms.... okay well scratch that- His back hurt like living hell, and it nearly made him cry, that was the cherry on top. Sorry, not sorry.

Why did everything feel so... Itchy out of a sudden?... His chest felt heavy and he couldn't breathe- Why can't he just fudging breathe-; Bad pulled his knees up to his chest, he wanted the itchy feeling to go away, and it just simply wouldn't go away, hell, he even tried to squeeze his eyes shut to test luck but.. Nope, that didn't help, nor did it do anything to stop the tears flowing out of his eyes, and there was this ringing in his ears that got louder and louder with each second that passed. 

The thought of being humilliated and berated for crying just made him cry even harder. Life is great!!!111... slash sarc.. 

He just wants it to stop, it wont stop, it just simply wouldn't, it never does, yet he wants it to stop, but it doesn't-

He kept staring at the ground, his beating punishment would hurt a bit less if he followed simple rules and didn't anger his handlers more... Another drop of holy water landed on his wrist, burning his skin in the process. Had it been minutes, hours, days?.. He doesn't know. He just wants it to stop. 

Get your fudging breathing under control, Bad! that's- Hyperventilating hasn't ever got you anywhere-

The moment Bad opened his eyes and looked up, he was met with the sight of 3 men in front of him, one was around... 5'9, he had somewhat fluffy brown hair, blue eyes and if it weren't for the fact that he's probably having a panic attack, he would be staring at those eyes for the rest of his life- The other two? nothing much interesting, a creeper hybrid and their.. friend?? question marks? 

Wait wait wait wait wait. NOPE. BAD, YOU JUST SAW HIM. GET YOUR STUPID BRAIN UNDER CONTROL. 

the blue-eyed person walked ever so slowly to where he was, and sat down next to him, yet it felt like they were acting as if he were a goddamn cornered scared kitten.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, and Bad being welll.. Himself, he flinched heavily the moment he felt it, no matter if they meant no harm. 

"Hey, psst. I- I know we've just met and all-" The creeper hybrid face-palmed. "-but.. Do you think you can take a deep breath?" To nobody's surprise, Bad was far too bottled up in his mind to even care, but his brain registered the order, and so with that.. He ignored the pain in his back and took a deep breath.

Chapter Text

"Okay, now, i'm gonna need for you to follow my breathing, m'kay?" It was somewhat easy to do it, since it was an in four, out four, and it kinda helped the itchy feeling go away. (Even if it was just a little bit, it's the thought that matters, right?) 

His thoughts weren't as jumbled after a few minutes of following the.. breathing excersice? He knows the meaning of the word, that's clear as day, but.. He's not too sure if it counts as one, (Spoiler alert Bad, it does.) and one thing he noticed now that he had kind of calmed down, is that, that person was a little  too close to him, do they know personal space exists? and while, sure, he's scared muffinless, but that isn't going to stop him from placing boundaries and his personal space. It never has. 

So.. He built up enough courage and it took him a few tries on his mind to get actually coherent words out of his throat, but he managed. He's just that good. (He's trying his best not to fall into yet another goddamn panic attack and end up dissociating altogether.) 

"U-um.. You're a little too c-close to me-" Bad stuttered, and the shake in his hands made the entire situation a lot more awkward, like it already wasn't. Seriously, how bad can this day get? What's next? His anxiety playing yet another mean trick on him? Try to shut up his mean brain and fail in the process, hating himself even more?

The person was a little surprised at first, before mouthing an 'oh' and scooting a few inches away from him, alright, good! Excellent! Breathable-Air his beloved!! (He's trying his hardest not become yet another victim of claustrophobia.) 

"..By the way, my name is Skeppy, i use he/him pronuns-" Oh thank the good heavens, no more pronun mayhem going off in his mind!- "-oh! and, the creeper hybrid's name is Sam, see that shortie next to him? Yup, that's Ponk. *Sam is his sidekick.*" Sam did an offended noise, before huffing and crossing his arms. 

Ponk had a deadpan stare, and they (?) ((Great, he's going to have to become god himself and see what kinda pronuns they both use.)) shared a glance with Sam that could easily be translated as "Why are we still here.." 

Okay hold up a minute, shouldn't he like- say his name? Wouldn't it be kind of impolite if he didn't do that?.. 

"My name is B-Bad.." Oh fudge you, he's going to internally beat himself up, and he's already screaming internally.  Skeppy hummed, but as in kinda confusiong, and so did Sam, and so did Ponk. Great!! He hates this stupid name more than his annoying personality!- 

Yeaaaaaahhh... Uhm no, not specific enough.. Gee, why has life gotta be so hard sometimes? Like, okay shut up Bad. No need to be hating himself when other people already hate him- 

oH fudge, it's always so awkward when he tells people his name, seriously. Who the hell came up with his name? Did he like, commit war crimes in the womb? 

"Uuu... Yeah, i know.. I-It's Badboyhalo.. Lame name, i know." He takes pride in a hell lot of stuff (like his wings, but why can't he feel them-), and one of those wasn't his name, it just simply wasn't. (Heh, it was far more better than 0228-) 

"Completely unrelated question but, did your parents hate you?" Sam tilted their ((????)) (((why are pronuns SO HARD TO GUESSS-))) head in confusion, okay! he gets it! I-it's a rather embarrasing name.. (He holds a deep grudge agaisnt it.) 

Bad wiped away a few ters from his eyes and shrugged, he didn't know much from his parents, aside from... Actually- No. Don't dwell on that now. 

"Sorry to interrupt this yapping, but, i still have to do a check-up on you-" Hold up a minute, hold his muffins, Ponk's a doctor? The hell? The flipping muffins?.. A little bit of anxiety welled up in his chest, n-not like he's had good experiences with all that!- And plus.. He's just met Ponk-.. A-And things are really confusing right now, cut him some slack! 

Okay well yeah no, it took a hell ton of coaxing from Skeppy, but.. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, it was like, your average check-up stuff, you know, nothing out of the norm. 

Sam had left under the excuse of quote unquote, he was going to get something and then he'd be back.

Bad found himself feeling absolutely exhausted after all that (Crying took a really hard hit on his energy nowadays.), and that's probably okay! How long had it been since he slept like any other normal person? Exactly, so he took it as an excuse to well yk.. Yawn and lay down in the bed (he just doesn't like sitting for far too long.), and oh holy muffins.. Was it.. soft. 

"Welp, there he goes." Ponk deadpanned. 

Skeppy shushed him, and grabbed a blanket that had been previously discarded on the floor, draping it over Bad. Tucking him... In?.. 

Okay wut? Did he just tuck him in?- (Not that he's complaining, he's been craving this for a really good while.) 

"I think it's better if we leave for now, demons get like- territorial as fuck when they sleep." Bad didn't have any energy or willpower in him to 'Language' him, not that he has any trauma with swearing or anything, he just doesn't like the way swear words sound. 

"Since when the hell are you a demon expert?"

"I actually paid attention in class." Eh, not like Bad heard the last part, he was already asleep. God, he was going to sleep like a log tonight. 

Chapter Text

It had been a couple days ever since he had bought Bad, and he had grown a littleee (little? that's the biggest understatement in history!!!!) close to him, not that he minds! and sure, things were a crazy up and down rollercoaster, but eh, they were working on that. 

He knocked on Bad's door, even if he knew he could just go inside without knowing, he wanted to give him privacy and all that. 

...Aside from the usual "Come in!" or literally anything else, Skeppy heard sobbing coming from the other side of the door, yep, bad sign-

"Uh.. Bad, you good?-" No response, yeeaaaaah no.. He's gonna have to go in-

Skeppy opened the door very gently.

Bad was sitting in a corner, curled up in a ball and he was visibly shaking. 

He slowly walked towards him, and made sure to keep some between he and Bad, because he tended to freak the living fuck out whenever he got too close to him- Well, he doesn't blame him! He'd also hate people going near him if somebody had fucking de-winged him-

"Hey, Bad?" Bad didn't answer, and his tail was flicking back and forth in a anxious manner. 

Skeppy placed a hand on the top of Bad's head, getting a heavy flinch in exchange. 

He gave him a little headpat just to get his attention, and he learned that Bad was severely touch-starved, yikes- Okay well uhm, shut up. He's having a fucking panic attack and that's literally all you're thinking about- Get back on track!- 

Bad looked up at him, milky white eyes full of fear and terror, (Well no shit Skeppy, he's fucking terrorized.) and he doesn't know what breaks his soul more, the fact that he struggles to keep his balance without his wings, or the fact that he had a mental breakdown over a soup. What you heard. Or maybe the fact that he's living scared shitless of literally everybody-

"I-i'm sorry- I-i'll st-stop being s-so loud.." Bad pulled on his own hair and gave him this pleading look that basically broke his heart into a million pieces. He's gonna bawl his eyes out later. 

"Bad, nobody's mad at you, take a deep breath, okay?" He instructed with the softest voice he could do.

It took a couple minutes of coaxing and reassurances for him to fully calm down, and well, he can't really blame him!- God knows what he's been through..

"You back with me?" Skeppy got an "ehhh..." as an aswer, yeah- If he were on Bad's place, he'd also answer the same thing-

That had been one of many interactions, oh! Did he mention it had been oficially been a week and a half since the whole "Getting info and taking home a demon with me” thingy? Yeah, he’ll fill you in with all the details later, but eh- anyways! And what better way to celebrate non-oficially than reading a book and drinking some hot chocolate? 

Well, not kinda celebrating it but rather bonding with Bad, who had shown a lot of interest in reading! And plus, the plot of the book they were reading was a 9/10, it would definitely be a 10/10 if it weren’t for the fact that Bad was very close to him, tail wrapped around him and everything!- 

Skeppy took another sip of his hot chocolate, which wasn’t very hot but rather mid-warm, he’d have to A : Reheat it B : Drink it in misery C : Leave it somewhere and forget it ever existed. 

Bad got even closer to him, like, how fucking close how he could get?- But eh, not like he’s complaining, he’s pretty warm! 

A few minutes passed, and not much had happened, the characters were going through a cheesy romance, blah blah blah, his hot chocolate had gone cold, great! and Bad was resting his head on Skeppy’s shoulder, okay, that’s lowkey cute! 

So you see, Bad was comically tall! (We love a 9’8 king) buuuut, that isn’t going to stop him from giving him head-scratches! (More specifically, scratches behind his ((stupidly tiny)) horns!) , and plus, it visibly helped him relax. 

..Not even 10 minutes later Bad was… Purring? Okay well yeah, he does know about his claws and toe-beans, but.. This was on another whole level!- 

He’s so going to tease him for that later but for now? He’s gonna enjoy the cuteness while it last, because trust him, Bad has 3 sides, one of those was “Scarily Obedient” (The name explains it), the second was “Sass And Spice” , and the last one was “Softie Mode” , and literally their names explains it all-

“Bro, Bad, you-” Skeppy was cut off by Bad snoring, yep, this dude was the embodiment of cuteness and trauma. Change his fucking mind. 

And in just a few minutes, he was holding him close to his chest, cudding as the book was literally on the ground. 

Chapter Text

Okay well yeah sure, sue him, he may or may not have gotten dangerously to Skeppy, but.. Ehe, he had been allowing him to get a little more close lately, so... Oh, yeah! He's also met a couple people lately (All of them overwhelmed him atleast a 5000%) Uhh.. George (He ruled over an entire nation, that's so cool!), Technoblade.. An uh... Piglin... Hybrid? Okay, that's a new word in his vocabulary, Dream (His mask intimidated him at first), and some other persons!- 

Alright, well, that's enough of himself, back on tra-

Something started scratching behind his horns, and sure, he did flinch at first and all but.. It felt... Like heaven on earth, he wouldn't ever say it out loud but.. the feeling made his brain go a bit fuzzy.

"Oh- Uhh- Sorry, i should have had asked first-" Bad didn't really mind, Skeppy hadn't hurt him at all- (Yet that could change, the kind handlers were the ones that always hurt him the most.), so.. Eh, he's gonna allow it this once, a-and it just because it feels nice!- Not because of any other reason at all.. Hahaha.. Awkward.. 

"It's okay! I-It's just a little new to me, that's all.." Half truth, half lie, it was something completely new, also, WILL HIS VOICE JUST STOP STUTTERING FOR A SINGLE MOMENT?- Sheesh, he knows it annoys other people, and it also annoys him! 

While, sure, he should be focusing on the book they were reading (considering the plot nearly had him hooked) buuuuut.. How the flipping muffins was he supposed to focus when Skeppy was making his brain scream (in the good way-) and his heart melt, even if just was a little bittt-- 

Bad laid his head on Skeppy's shoulder, it was getting increasingly harder and harder to both keep reading and stop himself from purring, his handlers never liked it when he did it, calling it "annoying" and "cat wannabe behavior", e-even if it's just part of his instincts!- 

..He eventually gave in, he- Okay, look, he just couldn't keep suppressing it- It was very counterproductive after a little while..

He became a victim to sleep after a couple minutes.

Bad was sitting perfectly, just like he had been taught to. Right on his knees, back straight, head bowed and hands on his knees. 

Maybe if he doesn't fudge up this time his handlers will end the punishment quickly, everything already hurts and he knows he's achy.. 

A hand grabbed one of his horns, and something started to scrape agaisnt it, and the pain that came along with it was nightmarish, like somebody was constantly stabbing his horn and twisting them even if it wasn't physically possible at all-

Bad didn't dare to move a single inch nor do a single sound, (He was probably biting down on his tongue so hard his fangs were digging themselves on it.) because he knows things would get so much worse if he misbehaved. 

His horn broke in half. Fucking half. His handlers hadn't ever tried to do it, so this was a complete change of pace and-

Same thing happened to his other horn, filing it down until snapped in half and-

~

Bad's head was being held underwater, sometimes when he was good enough his handlers would give him breaks to catch his breath, but even then, his breath would ever last so long, and he would be back at it at drowning.

He doesn't know exactly what he did, but it was probably deserved. Punishment don't come on their own. Yes they do, they always do- 

Bad wanted to scream, but he didn't ; precious oxygen would leave his lungs if he did, and plus, his handlers would only pull his head out of the goddamn cauldron and give him a electric shock, or just make the punishment last longer than it was supposed to and-

After what felt like an entire eternity, the grip in his hair vanished, and he was finally let go.

"Maybe you'll behave better next time, mutt." 

~

Hands were cupping his face, he was supposed to be enjoying it, but.. It's making him so uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to complain.

"You've been so good, Bad." His handler praised, maybe she meant it, but he doesn't know anymore, but he leaned just a little bit into the touch, not because he was enjoying it or something, but because he knew he wouldn't recieve this kind of treatment in a good while. It only happens when he's exceptionally well-behaved. 

Maybe if he behaves better, they'll treat him a little better.

Bad flinched awake. 

Chapter Text

What once was a warm home, was now empty.

Glass shards were all over the floor, furtniture was knocked over, and picture frames were also on the floor (That very same of picture of him and two random ladies was still there, it's there each time he ends up here.). The amounts of blood on literally everything was almost unholy and..

The floor vanished beneath his feet and he was somewhere completely different (It wasn't different, he knows this place.)

White walls painted red, not with paint (Redudant, but it does the job.), but with his own blood.

Bloodied chains were hanging from the ceiling, a couple weapons were on the ground, some blood had went brown from how dry it was. But he knows why all of these stains are here. It's his blood, after all. 

It was the very same place where somebody broke his horns in half, it was the very same place where he was punished hundreds (If not thousands) of times before. It was the very same place he had cried for hours on end in. There was days where he would sob and cry until there was no tears left to cry, sometimes he just stared at the ground and wrapped himself up in a place that was a bit less painful, even if always when he came back things hurt more, it was somewhat comforting to have a "place" (Put that in a million quotes, and then we're good) where to go when things were just far too much. (If he's not wrong, it's called Deez-O-Si-A-Tion, or something like that.)

It was the very same place where sometimes.. And JUST sometimes.. He wished to die. N-not that he was.. uHHH.. Sui-side-gal or.. Ugh. He gives up. There's no fucking point in trying to spell it if his vocabulary is already ruined from his STUPID stuttering.

In the blink of a eye, he was somewhere completely different. 

It smelled just like copper and hand sanitizer, some things in there overwhelmed him (Not to mention irritate), and there was a pair of wings on the floor.

He was about to throw up.

Realization struck him like lightning.

Those wings were HIS wings. 

He blinked again and-

Everything was dark.

There was nothing but his thoughts, the sound of his tears falling to the floor, and the floor.

Heh, poetic.

Chapter Text

Okay well uh... Skeppy's arms had oficially went numb, alright, okay well yeah sure, he may or may not have been holding Bad until his arms went fucking numb, but.. Alright, okay, he gives up. There's literally no fucking excuse around it. But can you really blame him? Bad's soft side was really cute, like- it was like having a little kitty in your arms.. Or- To put it simply, cuteness overload. 

Talking about cats, not like he could really pull away, Bad had fully wrapped his tail around him. A-and plus!- He was leaning so much into the touch it would feel a littleeee cruel if he pulled away.. Oh, and the cherry on top were his (cute, yet so fucking sharp) claws latching on him, like.. Awweee.. Okay, he wont lie, it's really heartwarming if you ignore the hell-and-back torture (There's literally no other way to put it) Bad went through-

Because oh surprise, those motherfuckers didn't have enough with beating Bad black and blue (Ironically his skin-tone was a very dark shade of gray), but they had to de-wing him for fucking extra "measures" (In a million quotes) 

There was a internal debate going off in his mind, wether those people were crazy batshit or just enjoyed seeing other people they consider "inferior" live in complete misery and pain or they were 100% sadistic, probably all of them, now that he thinks about it-

Bad flinched awake, and oh gods- Did he just chirp? Okay well yeah.. That's something new, he actually didn't know that demons could chirp- And something else Skeppy noticed, is that Bad was blushing (Okay well yeah- No shot- You're holding him in a very couple-y way-)

"Uhh.. How did we end up like this?.." Bad had this uh-is-this-gay expression plastered all over his face, and okay, he won't lie- He hadn't realized they were so fucking close until just now- 

One of Bad's legs was swung over Skeppy's waist, both arms wrapped around him and his head was tucked neatly under the other's chin. 

"W-well- You kinda uh.." Skeppy tried to explain it, trust him bro, but literally all that came out was a rather intellegible string of "uhhh"s and "ehhh"s, yup. Definetly awkward.. 

"O-oh! Well.. Uhm.." Skeppy was also blushing at this point, alright, he wont lie. The entire thing was kinda fruity, but.. Eh, he's pretty much a walking pride flag. (There's a fucking reason he has a T-Shirt that says "Sorry ladies, i suck DICKS.") And to top it all off,they were both interrupted by a knock on the door, and by that very same door opening-

"Skeppy, where the hell have you-..." Techno trailed off, and welp, he's not gonna blame him- What would you do if you saw your homie cuddling with his demon, but in a very gay way? Exactly. "Were you guys making out, or?.." Bad blushed even harder at that, and Skeppy nearly died on the spot, AINTNOWAY.. 

"Techno, are you fucking crazy?!-" Skeppy scooted away from Bad a good 10 inches before accidentally falling off the bed.

"Language.." Bad pouted, and yup- his face was 3x redder than the color red. If you get what he means?- 

"You know what- Imma just head out-" Techno walked away, not even bothering to close the door.

"Does he always do that?" Bad giggled, and oh goodness fucking lord- It was ADORABLE.

"Kinda-"

Chapter Text

Alright, he's not doing anything interesting. It's boutta hit winter, and plus, the raid went according to plan, so yeah.. He's bored as fuck. So.. He's gonna go hang with Bad, see what his homie is doing, you know, the usual! 

So, look, he'd normally be locking himself in his own room. But socializing is highly important - Says everybody,  LiKE- It's pretty good to talk to people, and no, he's not saying this just because he is a social butterfly or something among the lines, but rather because life tends to go down the drain when you basically don't talk to anybody and you spend day and night just reading- He's speaking from experience, because believe it or not; he used to be a bit of a bookworm, but eh, he found new hobbies, blah blah blah, he put his life together, yada yada, you know the drill. 

Yup, that was philosophical and deep. Somebody give him an award for that. r/deep in itself. 

So to put it simply, he's gonna basically go and see what Bad is doing and just chit chat with him, but like literally always, and just like Murphy's law- Anything that can go wrong will definetly go wrong. 

"Hey, Bad?" Skeppy approached him, and he seemed to be kinda both reading and asleep- If you get what he means?

Upon a closer look, he realized that yup, Bad was definetly not there, atleast like- mentally not present. 

Skeppy waved a hand in front of the other's eyes, yup, theory confirmed. He was zoning out. More like dissociating but eh, you get the point. Alright, time for I-Dont-Know-How-To-Do-This-Yet-I-Will-Do-It gamer skills to kick in, he's only done this once or twice, but eh.. He shifted Bad (who was sitting in the floor) to a more somewhat comfortable position, because oh Prime- Bad has a terrible reading posture- He wracked his brain just to remember how the actual loving fuck you get somebody out of a dissociative state, and nothing really came to mind until a few seconds later when he actually remembered the fuck he was supposed to do. Alright, set to work it is. And sure, his methods are questionable, but the results.. Okay nevermind, the results are also fucking questionable. 

He kneeled right in front of Bad, while he's definetly gonna regret doing this, but.. Does he really have a choice? Nope.

And so, he gave Bad's tail a little pinch, and sure- Skeppy knows well fucking damn to never do that because for one- It's kinda rude to do that, you know? (It's just common sense.) and for second- He nearly got bitten when he was helping Ponk patch up Bad's tail, but yet again- What do you really expect him to do? He's fucking terrible at doing this!-

"E-Eh? Bad (metaphorically) snapped awake, and oh goodness- Skeppy is having a cuteness overload by just looking at his face, it was like looking at a little confused kitten- Like.. Oh.Em.Gee.  

"Sorry.. I just kinda zoned out.." Bad chuckled awkwardly,  he won't really blame him- Skeppy is both a social butterfly and a introvert, like- He can't tell how many fucking times he's been quiet as a mouse when he's meeting people, and the moment he was kinda fmiliar with them, he'd cling to them like glue and play a bunch of pranks on them-

Alright, back on track!

"It's okay! It tends to happen to me-" Ehh.. That's true, sometimes he just zoned out and just kinda stared off into space? Also, note to self ; search for a spare hairbrush, because oh goodness fucking lord. Bad's hair looks beyond matted. 

"Well.. Watcha' been up to?" Bad shrugged, fair- Not like he's been up to much- Like, he was bored out of his mind. 

"Uh, Geppy.. There's been something that has been bothering me for a little while, and uhh.." Second note to self ; Bad tends to fidget when nervous. (Not that there is anything wrong with it! It's just a little something he noticed), and even if Bad's eyes  didn't really have pupils, Skeppy could basically feel him looking away in embarrassment. 

And hold his diamonds- Did Bad just call him "Geppy"????? Oh.My.Prime. CUTENESS OVERLOAD!!!11 

"I was wondering if you could uhm.. Wouldyouhelpmedetanglemyhairbecauseit'ssupermattedanditsfrustratingtoaratherunsanedegree?!- Oh!- Okay, that took him like, 14.9 seconds to understand but.. Jinx. Oh well, he's got mind-reading powers!- Alright, alright, all jokes aside- He kinda agrees with him in the whole "matted" part, like.. He'd rip himself to shreds if he had to deal with that, and it would be even more torture if he were to be chained to a fucking crucifix with no goddamn way to untangle his handsome hair- (Totally not him praising himself..)

Skeppy, will you please stop internally fucking rambling?-

"Oh! Yeah! I don't see why not!" 

Bad breathed out a little sigh of relief. 

"Since we're gonna be doing that.. I think we'll gonna have to go to my room, i have a hairbrush in there- And plus, it's on the eastern wing so it shouldn't take too much time to get there." He thanks every god out there for the rather godly place his room is in, (And he also thanks George, it's his castle after all-) because oh Prime does he love having an amazing view of the gardens, and plus- He can't stress how fucking beautiful the sunrises look when he's in the eastern wing. 

"Jackpot!" Skeppy finally found his trusty hairbrush, it was a cute Hello Kitty design and it had some Monster High stickers on the handle. (It was a birthday gift he got from Kristen, and even though it's not really his style he's proud of it like it's his son.) 

"..No offense, but it looks a little.. Silly." 

Chapter Text

Bad wasn't really sure wether Skeppy is being awfully gentle when brushing his hair to drag this out as long as possible, or he's just being awfully gentle to not cause him any pain, he's pretty sure it's.. Alright, he gives up, he doesn't know. Because, oh goodness lord, he has been sitting for HOURS, it's been like.. 3 hours, maybe?.. And don't get him wrong, it's just way less painful than basically everything he had to go through every single day, but.. Eh, his patience is pretty high, he can bear it. (No he can't, he's resisting the urge to get up and say "Fuck.It."), but YET AGAIN- He dragged himself into this hellhole, as for the previous place he was in?.. Eh, not too sure wether he dragged himself into that or not. 

Skeppy ran a hand through Bad's hair for what felt like the 500th time. And just always, he leaned into the touch. Alright- just look- Right now he's getting the most (non-painful) physical touch, he has recieved in probably years maybe decades (The last part is.. Highly.. Unlikely?..), but yet again, it's highly easy to lose track of time when all you wanna do is become one with the floor or just become thin air, or maybe just dissolve. You get the point. 

He felt a little tug on his hair, just a little painful but it's okay, it's bearable because after all- He's used to much,MUCH worse. 

"Just me or this is getting more and more puffed up? Like.. It went from straight to somewhat-wavy to fully-wavy and then just fully fucking puffed up-" Skeppy's patience was probably being put to the test, oh well, welcome to the club!

..A beat passed, then another. 

And Skeppy spoke up again.

"Ever had your hair braided?" Oh god. 

Bad has never had his hair braided, nor does he know how to, alright, look. He's used to having enough tangles (He's going to cuss out whoever thought chaining him to a goddamn crucifix would be a great idea.) to not even think about running a hand through it, when he was able to, of couse. 

And as if it weren't enough with the loads of stress piled up on him, a bunch of rather stressful memories started flashing in his mind.

Bad was being held down, his mind was fuzzy and he could barely think-

whatdidhedowrongwhatdidhedowrongwhatdidhedowrongwhatdidhedowrongwhatdidhedowrong-

A hand yanked his head back, forcing it still via gripping one of his horns to the point it hurt nightmarishly. He felt like he was drowning, like there was no air in his lungs to scream and he couldn't hear a single thing other than the awfully loud ringing in his ears.

Bad.Just.Couldn't.Think.

Air wasn't really entering his lungs from how hard he was hyperventilating, and that just worsened his lightheadness (?) ((Creator's note here ; Please correct me if that's wrote incorrectly))

Bad doesn't know when or how, but when he could somewhat think, he was kind of strewn on the floor. His hands were chained to the ceiling and ankles tightly bound together. 

There was probably a cut in his neck, because something warm was running down it and he nearly screamed when he moved his head just a little bit. 

..And something else he noticed is that the familiar small tug of his hair, there's not really a way to explain it but it's kinda like- a little extra pressure on the back of his head? It's something that cant really be put into words.

But that wasn't the point, point is. His handlers left and they didn't even care to patch up his neck. 

..And as sad as it may be, that's just the way things are. His handlers never really bothered to give him bandages unless he was bleeding out or his injuries were far too bad to ignore. 

Everything hurt, and he had to fight the urge to pull his wrists from his handler.

SNAP!

Another jolt of pain was sent to his wrists. But yet he had to count how many hits it had been so far. Otherwise?..

Bad doesn't even want to know.

"T-thirty." Bad's voice cracked, none of the other demons dared to speak up, in fear of taking his place. He shouldn't have broke the rules. He shouldn't have dared to talk back to his handlers.

He should have known better.

SNAP!

"Thi-Thirty o-one." He felt like every cell on his body was on fire.

It felt like a whole eternity, like his handlers were purposefully dragging his punishment out to make him suffer more.

SNAP!

Bad couldn't handle it anymore. His knees gave out on him and he promptly passed out.

Nothing was making sense anymore, he was fully tied to a bed, his shock collar was overly tight and the beeping of the machines around him was driving him insane. Yet none of the handlers passing by dared to spare a single glance at him. Eh, he's used to this. But.. Eh, he might aswell.. Aswell what?.. He can't really feel anything.

The leather restrains holding him down were probably cutting off the bloodflow in his arms, yup. It's concerning- 

A part of him wanted to just fall asleep and never wake up again, and another part of him wanted to just keep staring at the ceiling lights that were nearly blinding him. 

"-ou okay? Bad, hey." Skeppy was kneeling beside him, and Bad was kinda grateful he was keeping a little distance from him. 

"...Y-yeah- Just.. had some f-flashbacks." Bad was over the edge of a panic attack, and oh Prime- does he not want to have one right now. 

"You sure?.. Anything bothering you?-" Get your damned breathing under control, Bad. Skeppy wont scream at you if you don't answer right away. right?

In. One,two,three,four. Out,four,three,two,one.

"Mhm, there isn't anything bothering me, don't worry about it!" Half truth, half lie, if Skeppy dared to raise his voice atleast half a decivel Bad was 100% sure he would start hyperventilating and have a panic attack. Welcome to his life. 

In. One,two,three,four. Out,four,three,two,one.

"If you say so- Also, sorry if the braid is kinda messy, i'm still learning to do this-" Skeppy was fidgeting with the strings of his blue hoodie, and his cheecks had a bit of red on them.

Bad hummed in acknowledgement, he's not really gonna complain. N-not like he knows how to braid his hair, for god's sake!-

A strand of hair was brushed away from his face  and was tucked neatly behind one of his ears. 

"That's better! I mean, the braid fits you perfectly!" A little bit of warmth bloomed in his chest at that, it's very new to him to complimented, n-not like he's complaining!- He's just.. A little.. Flustered?.. 

"Hol' up a moment, i think i have something cute you'll love once you see it." Skeppy got up from his previous spot on the floor, and started to go through what seemed to be.. Drawers?.. Alright, look, he wont lie. His eyesight is probably the one of a old man!- Which is why reading sometimes is counterproductive!-

A beat passed, then another. And not much happened. Okay, sure, Skeppy's room might be a bit of what he'd call... Uhhh.. Organized chaos?.. There was just so many things strewn on literally everything he felt suffocated. 

Skeppy muttered a couple "fuck where is this shit at", and "cant put something in one place without it dissapearing.." before he found what he was looking for. 

It looked like a blue splotch at first, but once Skeppy walked over to where he was, it looked a lot more clear than just a blue circle-

It was a blue flower, uhh.. What for, exactly?.. Bad has no idea.

Skeppy put the flower in Bad's hair, next to his broken horn. Because to literally nobody's surprise- If it wasn't enough with his horns having a rather concerning small size, one of them was missing half of it. 

"Perfect quite much?" Skeppy had this goofy grin and he was bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet. Alright, he wont  lie. The sight is pretty cute and silly.. He couldn't help but smile a bit. Skeppy somehow always found a way to make him smile, knowing well damn he was probably emotionally numb.

 But just like always,Bad didn't really have anything to say, literally everything that came up to mind was rather destructive.. And probably self-destructive.. 

Chapter Text

Bad is seriously NOT having it today, he's tired. He feels burnt out. And he feels like the entire world might aswell be caving in along with his life and all he's gonna do is lay there in bed. Mhm. Life is great.

And in case you haven't noticed, he has no plans for today, he's finished that one book he was reading (It took him ages to finish, but it's not his fault sometimes the words kinda merge together and he had to re-read the entire goddamn paragraph just to understand *that* one word that's bothering him!) 

So yeahh... All he's gonna do is just.. Lay there and.. Maybe.. Disso.. Diss.. Dis... Dizo.. Ugh. He gives up. You get him. 

"Wakey wakey! Eggs and bakey!" Skeppy sing-sang while aggresively tapping his shoulder, mhm. He's going to kill this dude the moment he turns his back. Can't he just have atleast 3 minutes of peace and quiet without somebody talking his ears off to the point he might aswell have a silent mental breakdown from just how much he has to process and answer. Like, can't they just leave him alone for a little bit, just like his handlers used to do almost all the time? No? Is that too much to ask for?.. And don't get him wrong, he loves Skeppy's company but.. Sometimes he can be too much.. A little too much, in fact...

Bad didn't even feel like he had the energy to do something as basic as answering him, like.. No thank you he'd rather have his horns filed down again. It has already happened 5 times, how bad could a 6th time possibly be? Not to mention the fact that all this shoulder tapping thing is making him extremely annoyed, can't he just.. he dunno.. Go bother his mom?.. Actually, that's quite rude. 

"Bad, are you dead? Did somebody give you a poisoned apple and you died Snow White syle?" Skeppy kept tapping his shoulder, Bad.Was.Losing.It. While, sure, his patience is pretty high (He's been able to stay in the sitting pose his handlers wanted him to learn  for hours on end. He was always patient and waited for them to tell him he could move again.)  but.. Can you really blame him? He feels like he might aswell have a breakdown, a panic attack, a anxiety attack, and god knows what else all together if somebody dares to push him over the edge just a little bit. HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUDGE THIS SNOW WHITE GIRL IS- WILL ANYBODY JUST GIVE HIM CONTEXT?-

"If I get up, will you just leave me the fuck alone?" Bad's words were slurred. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. BRO. CAN'T HE JUST- There's no use in it anymore. He's basically hating himself for every single thing he does, and that's sadly how things have been for a little while. Mhm. 

"Maybe i will!" DUDE. He DOES NOT WANT TO G-

Skeppy picked him up in one swift motion, alright. Welp. 07. Or whatever it means.

Bad liked to not be noticed, because most of the times being noticed meant being hurt , or just straight up insults. It always depended on his handler's mood. And he knows for a fact that moody handlers are the worst. He can't even pick himself up when they're done punishing him. Which is why he always tries to learn other people's mood patterns, he doesn't want to get their attention (The bad type of attention) and end up hurt because of it. But it has always happened before. He's somehow always managed to anger his already-angry handlers and.... He'd rather not think about it.

But right now he was being dragged by the wrist across the hallways of George's castle or whatever, he's not really very.. Uhm.. In touch with this place?.. If you get what he means?.. What for, exactly? No idea. But he knows for a fact that he might aswell be tripping every 10 freaking seconds because Skeppy doesn't know the words "slow down" , like.. Alright, sure, he may or may not have a bit of a hard time saying certain words (Or sometimes reading) but.. Can't this maniac just not manage to make him lose his balance all the time? No? Let a man know, atleast!- 

"Uhhh... Skeppy... Where are we gooIING-" Bad tripped for what felt like the 500th time, only to have to basically rush getting back on his feet not to trip yet another fudging time and this time actually fall fudging over. Mhm. He loves this. This is life. Slash sarc. Seriously, why couldn't just Skeppy let him.. He dunno.. Rot in bed atleast for a little bit?.. But yet again, the world doesn't adapt to what you want. And sometimes you can't get what you want, even if its something as simple as just staying in bed atleast 5 more minutes. 5.Fudging.Minutes.

"Oh! Well, i figured since you already finished that one book- What was the name?... Dick Of Markiplier? Oh! Hold up, i got it! Alliums! Sorry, for a moment i confused it for another book and well you know me- A-anyways!-" Skeppy was rambling, something they had in common is that they tended to get carried away when they're talking about something that's interesting- Or something that gets Skeppy's mind off his "Hyperactive Thinking Skills" or whatever it's called... Sometimes he doesn't understand at all what he's saying, but.. Hey! He's a sweet person, you know? A-and he totally doesn't consider his rambling endearing o-or anything! Not at all! 

"Language! I cried with that book.." Truth to be told, it was so emotional, like.. Oh-Em-Gee. And sure, reading in the dark isn't very.. Optimal.. But.. Alright, he has no excuse around this. But, can you really blame him? The trama went from "cheesy romance" to "Religious Trauma" and then to "Pain At It's Finest", he.. Uhh.. What did Skeppy label it?.. "Devoured" it?.. He has no idea what he means with that but.. Okay? A-Anyways! 

"-We should perhaps go to the library, i mean, you do look like a bit of a bookworm- N-no offense!" Skeppy kept dragging him, and yup, he was going fast. And also, do these freaking hallways just go on forever?!- Like, the eastern wasn't that big, from what he knows! A-and plus, not like he's used at all to this much basically-running! Give him a break! 

Some maids were giving them weird looks, and okay yeah sure, he won't lie. He'd also be giving weird looks if some people were bolting down the halls of his workplace- Because alright sure, seeing people running down the halls is common, but seeing them basically bolting them down 'em?.. Yeah.. Those weird looks are justified, ya know?

THUD!

Skeppy managed to successfully trip over some random people, and since he was basically being dragged, he also took him down. He's hating gravity with all his soul. Seriously hating it. And sure, wasn't like.. Gravity an important thing?.. Alright, cut him some slack! He struggles to say that.. Uhh.. Dis-Io-Side-A-Thion word! W-what did you expect from him?!- (Not to mention he also struggles to say the word "Ass-Tron-On-Mic-All" , like.. Ugh..) ((And reading sometimes is just straight up counterproductive, so he just drops the book and takes a nap that doesn't even let him sleep at night, so the cycle repeats every single day and-)) Alright, stop rambling. You're on the floor- 

Also, what he's about to say is gonna sound like the most poetic thing known to man, but.. 

Alright, the hallways were a little prettier now that he's on the floor.. Ahhahahaha... That sounded so awkward... Like, alright, sure.. But.. The golden trims of the windows, the sparkling beauty of all the greenery in the hallways made it seem like whoever was in charge of the aesthetics clearly went all in for a "Visually pleasing" style and sure, his eyesight (It's growing annoying having to get up-close to literally everything because they look highly blurred out) isn't really helping out, but.. 

"OI! Watch where you goin', prick!" A boy with blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and what seemed to be raccoon ears hissed sharply in pain, which ultimately made Bad flinch. Alright, look. He's just got this.. Bad history with... Sharp-sounding (Is that how you say it?..) sounds.. Ughhh.. Redudant.. He knows... But, can like.. You really blame him?? Not really... Hopefully.

"Ack- Sorry, Tommy- I was just-" Skeppy was interrupted by yet another person.

"Who's your boyfriend, Big S?" Turns out, that another-person was also on the floor, he had brown hair and.. Bee.. Wings?.. Alright, that's.. Sorta new to him?.. His social anxiety is already shooting through the roof, somebody please get these people away from him. Pretty please? Alright, look. He's never really spoke to people his age, and yet you expect him to be socializing like he's went crazy or something? Nope. Not happening. His plate is already full with having to speak all the time with Skeppy (Not that he's complaining, he felt dearly lonely before.) and basically holding back a hell ton of chirps each time Ponk accidentally pokes his tail when they're changing the bandages of it. (He doesn't really like the feeling of having bandages wrapped around his tail, it's sorta itchy..)

"Tubbo... I don't think that's Skeppy's boyfriend-" A hand was offered to him, which belonged to a Enderman hybrid (And oh boy, does he loves their split black-and-white hair.), their eyes were.. Uhh.. What was it called?.. Interesting?.. Endearing?.. He thinks it's that one. Because alright, all jokes aside. Having green and red-colored eyes is pretty cool! 

Skeppy groaned, muttering something he couldn't decipher, seriously, that man is mysterious. Creepy quite much. 

Alright, now that he's thinking about it.. He should really get up, you know? The floor isn't really somewhere comfortable to be laying on.. E-even if there's carpets everywhere! Alright, look. He knows how uncomfortable the floor can get. And he knows how bad back pains can get after laying down on the floor for a little too long. 

Bad took the hand that was offered to him, getting up in just a matter of seconds. 

"WoAh- Tall innit?-" Tommy- Apparently that's his name- -Sorta wondered out loud, alright, he won't lie. He sometimes does that, so he's not really anybody to judge, you know?.. It would be just like judging somebody because they chew a little too loudly when you also do that! It's just contradictional and hypocritical!

Bad knows his own height, and alright, sure, he's..... Uhm.... "Intimidatingly tall"?.. That's what Sam labeled it.. E-even if he has no real idea of what that means! He's.. He's not that intimidating!- 

"I dunno, Boo. He does look like Skeppy's boyfriend." The bee hybrid next to Tommy- -Apparently Tubbo- -Twitched his wings, they all looked like normal teenagers, but they were giving off this.. Uhh.. How does he explain this?.. Like, it's not the.. You get the point. Most likely. But yet again, no one has ever truly understood what he means. They've all berated him for the smallest of things, even when they are clearly misquoting him. He seriously can't remember the last time somebody didn't misquote him or use his words agaisnt him. 

"...He's not my boyfriend!- Not every singl-" Skeppy's face was a deep shade of red, and it made Bad's heart flutter a bit. J-just a little!-

"Excuse us? Literally you're holding hands with this random dude, and you expect us not to even thinking about them being your boyfriend? Or whatever?" Tommy drew circles in the air with his hands as he explained. Alright, he's not gonna lie. He does agree with him, because uhh.. Are we speaking the same language? What is the first thing you'll think when you see one of your friends bolting down the halls of this random place, while also holding hands? They're a couple. It kinda makes sense, a-atleast to him!- But yet again, a lot of things just don't click in his mind. He doesn't understand why Skeppy treats him so kindly, he doesn't understand at all why Ponk always has this guilty look each time she changes his bandages. It just doesn't click. A-and he also doesn't understand at all why Skeppy hasn't punished him not even once!- It's just.. He doesn't understand. 

B-but he's only holding hands with Skeppy because his stupid balance isn't helping out at all! Like, who told him walking without.. His.. "Source of balance" or something like that.. Would be that freaking difficult? Because  oh noooo! The moment he tries to get up he's inevitably trip and probably even fall over, it's worse when he's just sitting. He keeps wobbling from side to side and it's the most frustrating thing in the world! 

"U-Uhh..." He blurted out, only to recieve one of Skeppy's crazy hand gestures, it was almost like he was saying a "see??!?!" or something like that... He's had to literally guess what he's trying to say a couple times, because uhh.. Hands do not quite talk?.. Not from what he knows of?.. It's clear as day, atleast!- And sure, don't get him wrong, it's a little stressing having to go through every single word known to man just to try and guess what the hell is Skeppy trying to say, but.. Hey! It's.. Far better than the methaporical pirouettes he had to do around his handlers just to avoid a punishment!-

"See?! He agrees with me!" Bad isn't uhh.. Very clear of what's going on, because Tommy and Skeppy were right now having this full on argument about wether he was his boyfriend or not, t-they were just friends, okay?!- And the fact that he doesn't really know how to socialize with people just makes it ten times worse, because oh noooo! He's trying to be serious and his voice will just decide it just does not want to do it's only job properly and it will proceed to start stuttering like crazy!-

"Uhh.. How about this one?" Skeppy gave him a death stare, what was so wrong with the name? (20 Shades Of Gray. it sounds quite interesting, ya know?..)

"...Nope." 

Alright, he's trying his hardest not to cry at the book Skeppy had suggested instead. It was just so freaking emotional. (Flowers from 1974)

Skeppy was crying his heart out, and he had this.. Heartbroken expression all over his face. H-he wont lie, it was.. There's quite no words to describe it. It's just magnificently angsty and sad. 

Chapter Text

This day couldn't get any more fucking stressful. He feels like if somebody were to say a single word to him ; he might aswell lose it. 

He already had a headache, his back aches a bit, he didn't get good rest, and it's 5 in the fudging morning.

Not to mention that the weather was playing specifically playing agaisnt him. Oh, and yup. He loves living. Life is great.

Spoiler alert, it's not. He's still getting used to wearing glasses (He sucks at being discreet when it comes to poor eyesight..) and oh goodness.. It's nauseating.. And sure, they might be a pretty shade of red, but.. Yeah no.. He feels dizzy because of them  sometimes. Boohoo... This is life.. 

Bad stared out the window of the carriage.. Not much outside. Other than a bunch of trees, plants and the occasional birds that passed by. The sun still hadn't rose and the air was sort of chilly, (Not the good king of cold..) he's already wearing a thick black sweater and there was a fluffy white blanket wrapped around him. Sheesh. How cold can it get? 

Skeppy wasn't awake, he was wearing a white hoodie and baggy black pants.

And you might be asking- "how in the living hell is that stressful" aha.. Being woke up at.. God knows what hour... The rest is quite a bit of a blur but damn.. Just let him sleep... And the silence that was almost unnerving was putting him on edge. Oh.Goodness.Fucking.Lord. 

Sure.. One might say "oh yeah, i'll just go back to sleep" but.. 

...

There's no excuse around it. He's feeling utterly exhausted and it's not like he has anything better to do, ya know?.. 

Bad huddled close to Skeppy, and silently hoped it wouldn't bother him. H-he's only doing it to be a little more warm!- N-not because he wants to cuddle, or anything... And no, he's not that quite insane to freaking wake somebody up at 5 in the morning just to ask "hey do you wanna cuddle" 

He slowly drifted away to sleep, his head resting on the other's shoulder. He didn't really care if he had to be in a sorta awkward angle because uh.. Duh.. His height.. 

"-st, Bad." A hand was gently shaking him awake.

"Five more minutes..." Bad slurred out, his tail gently smacking the hand, and sadly he didn't succeed in stopping.. Whoever.. Hold up.. Skeppy?.. From waking him up. 

"Come on, man. Y'gotta get up."

Bad didn't even bother trying to stay awake, instead?.. He slowly fell asleep again, take that, Skeppy.

Only to be fucking picked up in one go. He's seriously gonna give in to his intrusive thoughts and start biting people. Not like he has already biten Ponk..

Chapter Text

Bad wasn't certainly taking this change of enviroment very well, it seems-

Like, he's been sitting on the couch and he's been staring at a wall for hours. Concern is shooting through the roof.

"Do you have any allergies?" Skeppy was currently making lunch and frick you but accidentally triggering a allergic reaction is not in his to-do list. (He still has to clean the fucking bathroom-)

...

No response.

...

Okay, hint taken-

"Nope." Bad's voice sounded oddly.. dead- 

And that was marked as "the world's most awkward lunch ever" 

Hoy volvi a dormir en nuestra cama.

A million thoughts were going on Skeppy's mind.

Todo sigue igual

Going from his childhood, to.. Bad. 

El aire, nuestros gatos,

He feels like his self-esteem is going down the drain and his coping method isn't quite working right now.

nada va a cambiar

He skipped the song.

When i'm away from you,

Sometimes Skeppy feels like total shit, but yet he keeps a smile etched on his face.

Im happier than ever

There's days where he can't look at himself in the mirror.

Wish i could explain it better

He barely got any sleep that night.

I wish it wasn't true

Chapter Text

Skeppy is definetly gonna get diabetes from just looking at Bad. 

Serious diabetes type 2. 

Alright, look. He's not going to say no to a person like Bad. (who looks like he nearly fucking needs some affection-)

And welp.. Look where he ended up. Being crushed by his friend. He's going to make it to the news as the person who got crushed by the person that he literally owned. This is life. 

Mental issues can go eat ass for all he cares, it's cuddling moment. 

Skeppy personally enjoys rain and thunder storms because uhhh.. Cold weathers tend to make him sleepy so he just naps all day... And Rocco is the best doggy when it comes to napping with him. (Other than that he's a handful of chaotic fluff that loves to fuck his duck plushie.) 

Bad, in the other hand? He looked... A thousand blocks away  right now. 

"Bad, you okay?" Bad's tail was fully wrapped around him and oh goodness fucking lord. That boy was not letting go. 

"...'m fine..." Skeppy had to hold back the biggest "awww" known to man. He's trying his hardest to resist but it's clear that Bad is pushing all his buttons in a good order just to make him fall head over heels for him. I-in the good way or whatever!-

But even then, Skeppy can't help but stare at one of Bad's ears (it looked like it had been clipped in half, they were already sort of pointy and droopy so it was even more noticeable.)  longer than needed. Sometimes he can't help but stare at the spade-shaped tip of his tail and notice that there's oddly precise scars on it.. Not to mention the fact that Bad froze up when asked about it.

The sound of rain and the occasional thunders was soothing for Skeppy. Bad was probably far too lost in the sauce to even notice that so he didn't even bother giving an opinion on that- And plus, the sound of purring and rain mixed well. 10/10. Would give Bad headpats again. 

Hold his diamonds a moment. He's going to test the ultimate way of basically putting somebody to sleep. (More specifically, putting Bad to sleep like a little kid.)

Skeppy cradled a hand through Bad's hair. Giving him a little scratch behind his broken horn. 

That had Bad out like a light. Deep asleep in his friend's arms, and with a blanket draped over him. 

Chapter Text

Skeppy was busy doing absolutely nothing, well, other than a little replacement for Bad's broken horn, he had to get up from his bed to avoid another episode of bed-rotting. And plus, it's 10AM so yeah.. Far too much free time in his hands. (He hopes the fact that the little prosthesis is made out of fuckind diamonds won't bother him too much-), oh yeah. While re-watching The Owl House. 

At first he had been planning to use Nether ruby but... Eh, it's pretty damn hard to give it a specific shape.  

Thud! 

Uhh.. That's.. 

Okay, two simple possibilities here, either Bad accidentally off of his bed, or somebody broke into his fucking house.

Ping!

Oh fucking gee-sus christ. 

Skeppy gave his communicator a spare glance, only to see 20 missing texts from the group chat Dream had created at like 5 in the fucking morning, adding everyone in it and he had to CONTINOUSLY mute his comm to avoid getting mass-pinged every single hour. This is fine. 

Dream : Will somebody tell Tommy to stop throwing his discs at me like they're fucking boomerangs

Oldza : Can't you just tell him yourself, mate?

Dream : If only it were that easy 

Sam : Just keep him entertained with a redstone computer, that's what i always do. 

Dream : You think i have the time to build one of those fucking huge things? DX

Sam : Considering you're always playing Valorant, i think you do. 

Tommy : fuck yo u a,; 

PunzPunkPingPong : tommy, seriously, im going to steal your phone and enable spellcheck on. 

Bee_Boi : tmmy si currntly being strangled by dream nda a pillow 

Ran-boo : Oh, yeah. Dream is currently trying to kill him with a pillow.

Skeppyz : will yall stop sending like 300 messages every minute?????? i'm trynna make my Bad a horn prosthesis or whatever

Ponk : I HEARD THE WORD PROSTHESIS???

Skeppyz : oh goodness fucking lord i've never been more scared of seeing the "Ponk is typing..." thing 

As fun as it may be, he's got better things to do, ya know?

Skeppy heard a door being opened, then closed. 

No,no,no,no! You're just Belos!

Bad walked into the living room, his blanket wrapped loosely around him and not even 3 fucking seconds later, he made friends with the floor.

Skeppy immediatly paused the show, Luz's mental breakdown or whatever wiiiill have to wait a couple minutes, because fuck you but he's not going to ignore his friend that's on the floor. Not happening .

"Yo, you okay?" Bad's tail smacked the floor in what probably was frustration. 

"I'll take that as a no."

Long story short, Bad isn't feeling well at all. 

"Your immune system has truly went to shit, eh?" Bad gave him the hugest glare known to man before literally... growling. Okay- That's... New..

Okay, well gee. Bad is obviously a handful- (Not that he minds, he's got far too much free time nowadays-) 

"...I'm just going to go get you a bowl of chicken soup." 

Bad's head was resting on the diner table (Excuse my grammar), and he looked like he had no intentions of eating the damned chicken soup, and that's a huge hit to Skeppy's cooking ego, ouch. 

"Bad, eat the soup." Skeppy pushed the bowl a little closer to Bad, who just wagged his tail in the air and flicked his ears. 

"Bad." No response other than the other flicking his ears again. Exhasperated inhale.

"Badboy fucking Halo." 

"Eat.The.Soup." Bad flicked his ears a couple times, settling on drawing imaginary circles in the air with his tail. 

"Fine then, guess i'll have to spoon-feed you this thing like a little kid." 

First lesson of the day, Bad is both a sweetheart and a fucking rabious cat when it comes to spoon-feeding. (He came out with atleast a couple scratches on his hands and with a slight cuteness overload.) 

Second lesson of the day, said rabious cat seems to be reevaluatingg all his life choices, while being completely wrapped in a blanket burrito. 

Skeppy, in the other hand?.. He's finishing said diamond-made horn. While sitting next to Bad in his bed. (He had to carry him to his bedroom, because of both safety reasons and the fact that he's not going to leave alone a sick person  for a couple hours.)

"'s that your mom?" Bad slurred out, he was staring directly at a picture of Skeppy and a woman with curly salmon-colored hair. 

Ah, he knows the story behind that picture. 

Skeppy had won 1st place in the violin competition or whatever the fuck it was called. Neither his mother or father had shown up. His nanny was the only one that had bothered to show up. 

"She was... My nanny." 

Bad seemed to be processing those words for a couple seconds, before speaking again. 

"That... Reminds me of my parents.."  Skeppy does not know a shit about Bad's past, he froze up  the time he asked about that. It's probably... Something.. Traumatizing. 

"Oh? Your parents?" 

"It's... Complicated.. I think they died. O-or well.. I think i saw them die."  I- 

"I... I think your fever has finally catched up to you." 

Welp. He's oficially got nothing to do.

He checked the time, 12AM. Huh, time really flies by- 

As for Bad?.. He was still awake. Well, half asleep half awake- 50/50 really- 

"Gee, it took me like 30 years to finish this, and you're still awake? Damn. 

Potato Man : DONDE ESTA LA BIBLIOTECAAAAAA?

Georgia (George) : AAAAAAA

Chapter Text

"Stars shining bright above you, night breeze seems to whisper "I love you". Bird singing in the sycamore trees, dream a little dream of me." Bad feels like he's heard that somewhere. But eh, he's probably going crazy. It's pitch dark and he can't see a single thing other than the slight moonlight peeking from the window curtains. Who would even be singing at this hour, anyways? Skeppy doesnt quite seem like the guy that sings in his sleep, he'd go crazy otherwise. (And he's already had enough maniac episodes back in his cell, his handlers always had to restrain him when that happened.)

He couldn't fall asleep. Well, sure. His body was on the constant verge of passing out, but his throat felt far too sore (And no, he's not going to take another spoonful of that awful-tasting medicine Skeppy gave him.) and breathing in itself felt far more difficult than usual. (Far more difficult than it is with broken ribs, a bruised chest and-)  His blanket felt comfortably warm and he was hugging a teddy bear that Skeppy chucked at him (It's pretty damn soft... And it looks like a polar bear..) , overall.. 6/10. He does not reccomend the sore throat. 

"Ah ah, no crying. 'Cause if you cry, i'm gonna cry too. Then what will happen to my mascara?" Bad is definetly developing esqui-so-phreen-y-a or however the frick you spell it. Welp. Oh well, not like anybody would care anyways. (He can't count how many times his handlers told him to kill himself because that's probably the only thing he could do without fucking up.)

...

Being alive sometimes feels like a curse. Sometimes he just wishes he had never been born. God, he doesn't remember his parents quite at all! Is his life some sort of fucking divine smite from whatever god is out there just for existing?! Sometimes he just wants to bang his head agaisnt a wall until it all fucking clicks, because things just aren't making any sense and he's 100% sure Skeppy's dad jokes are gonna drive him crazy and over the edge of a meltdown. (Spoiler alert, he's already over the edge of that, a panic attack, a mental breakdown and possibly GOD KNOWS WHAT ELSE! AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA-)

. . .

He's definetly okay. 

"Atleast i'm not dead." Bad whispered to nobody, he was just there. Existing. He hated life before, so why does he still hate it? Tears welled up in my eyes for no reason, he always felt freaking awful for crying. Nobody in the past had bothered to comfort him when he cried, if anything;  they made things worse.  Now he feels like everybody's eyes look right at him the moment he starts crying. Everyone's eyes look right at him when he does the slightest thing. Is he really the problem? He probably is.

"Atleast i'm not dead." If he says that enough times, maybe things magically will be better. But when have they, anyways? Hah, he'd rather have the worst fever known to man than experience this... Hurricane of emotions. He's terrible at feelings, he can barely understand what he's feeling half of the time. So what do you even expect from him? Grape juice?

He got up from his bed in what probably would be another maniac episode. Or well, a rather violent intrusive thought. He feels like he's going to combust and explode in tears and anger. He hates it. He hates it. Why can't it just go away? He wants to rip himself to shreds. 'til there's nothing left. But he'd rather aggresively punch the wall.

Bad punched the nearest wall, pain exploding on his hand and tears of frustration rolling down his face. He had been somewhat half-expecting to hear Skeppy appear out of fucking nowhere and start yelling at him for punching the wall. Nothing happened. 

He totally did just not punch a wall.

He feels like the wall has personally offended him. Well, it really hasn't. The cream color doesn't bother him at all, it's just... Bottled up anger. He doesn't tend to have outbursts, trust him. His shock collar stopped those from happening, the feeling of a thousand pins and needles pricking him all at once stopped those kind of.. "Meltdowns" 

He gave the wall another punch just for good measure.

His downwards spiral didn't stop. 

He can still hear his handlers spitting insults at him. He can still feel the aftershocks of having his head held underwater. And well, it really is a feeling. Most of the time it felt like he was floating away or something like that. Probably the lack of oxygen getting to his brain. Coherent thoughts be damned. 

"Mutt."

"Freak."

"Monster."

"Vile."

"Heartless."

"Disgusting."

Bad put his back agaisnt the wall, sliding down it and sitting on the floor. It was cold. But not overly so, ironically he still hasn't gotten used to the somewhat-warm enviroment of Skeppy's home. He was.. Used to the bone-chilling cold that made him shiver most of the time. 

He feels like shit. 

. . .

Not to mention the fact that the coffee Skeppy makes tastes like piss. 

He loves living.

Where had his damned-

Hold up a moment.

His eyes must be decieving him.

He has found that bracelet making shit he had been looking for a year ago. 

...

His pair of elytras can go eat ass for all he cares, IT'S BRACELET TIME. 

Oh, and he found a pretty cool necklace.

...

He's definetly gonna give it to Bad. 

"You're telling me you don't know the meaning of fucking friendship bracelets and you haven't ever done one?" Bad shook his head and gave him a deadpan stare. Exasperated inhale. Okay well yeah on second thought, how in the living fuck would have Bad made friendship bracelets if he was CRUCIFIED. 

"...Anywho. You wanna make friendship bracelets?"  Bad's eyes had a slight bit of interest. He'll take that as a yes. 

--

Bad seemed like he was trying his hardest not to laugh. He- He had been trying for the past 20 fucking minutes to tie the damned bracelet up and it just wasn't. But hey! Atleast it seemed like he was having fun. (The slightly chaotic bracelet Bad had made for him was very much appreciated. He's going to cherish it forever.) 

"Pfft- Skeppy, you seem to be struggling a little-" A little smile seeped on Bad's face, and his tail was gently swishing in the air.

"I had truly forgotten how much of a pain in the ass tying this shit can be. Also, red looks nice on you." Bad blushed a little, Skeppy had managed to tie his hair in a somewhat-high ponytail, and he had added a little red hair ribbon. (Somehow Bad looked gorgeous with his cute bangs, he's a little jealous..) Oh yeah, he looked really cute but.. It took him some good 15 minutes to tie his hair, and Bad seemed pretty happy with the result, so it was def worth it! 

"T-Thanks, I love red." Skeppy hummed in acknowledgment. The task at hand was tying this goddamn stubborn bracelet. And it just wasn't quite willing to. Also, note to self ; Get Bad some new clothes, most of them were hand-me-downs from Foolish- (How come that dude is 10'7???)

...

"Alright, I think that should do it." He carefully pried his hands away from the now fully-tied bracelet in Bad's left wrist. (Turns out, he's left handed! That's really neat!) And internally prayed that it just wouldn't fall apart within the next 0,5 seconds; Otherwise, he might pull a L'manburg's 1974 massacre and blow something up. 

Bad carefully inspected the bracelet, it had blue beads and it said "SKEPPY" in bold mismatched letters. Skeppy's bracelet said "BADBOYHALO", along with red beads and some silver details. Even though some colors didn't get along well, the thought is what matters.

"I love it." AHHHHHHH. CUTENESS OVERLOAD. 

--

"Goodnight, Bad."

"Goodnight, Geppy." 

Skeppy turned off the light, and then closed the door. 

He'd be the greatest father if he ever got a son. 

Chapter Text

His comm started buzzing angrily, and this time it wasn't Dream's crazy groupchat.

Naimuri : Skep

Naimuri : You got the netherite scraps?

Naimuri : Also, i need to talk with you about some things.

Cryptic. Classic Naimuri. She was always the sort of cryptic type of person, so he picked up his communicator and typed back a response, god knows how angry that woman can get if he doesn't immediatly answer. He's learned his lessons. Thanks.

Skeppyz : Yes, ma'am.

Skeppyz : Oh? Can't we just call?

Naimuri : No. Too "risky" as you young people call it. You have free time to go over to my house?

Skeppyz : Ehhh... Yes, I do. But it's a little more complex than that.

Naimuri : You got a son or something?

Naimuri : If so, then consider yourself replaced.

Skeppyz : No, ma'am. I have not. Let's just say..

Skeppyz : I bought a demon.

Alright, welp. Naimuri had been spamming his comm for the past 10 minutes, and he's starting to get actually scared to pick it up to see what kinda insults had she thrown at him. (There's plenty of angry texts he had never even bothered to answer just for proof.)

And alright, sure, Naimuri mayyy or mayyyy not be technically his boss, but.. He's already scared of her, god, just one single look at her when she's angry and you're definetly NOT making it out alive. Like, you know not to ever talk to an angry mother. But when it comes to Naimuri?... Hell fucking no. Stay atleast 60 feet away from her, otherwise... Yeah, you might be making friends with her claws. 

Okay, he has one simple choice out here. Either he checks his communicator to see what death threats he had gotten in the past 10 minutes, or he dies like a cattle and ghosts her. But knowing that damned fucking lady, she will probably run to his house and start spitting facts at him, he's not even exxagerating. 

So yeah, he's got to answer. For the sake of his ears.

Naimuri : Skeppy fucking answer me rn.

Skeppyz : OKAY GEEZ FINE

Naimuri : what the FUCK do you mean by "i bought a demon" ??????

Naimuri : I'm dropping the "cool bossgirl" act rn to ask you a gen question.

Skeppyz : Alright just let me explain, 

Skeppyz : you know how there's hybrid selling facilities and everything rlly in the in-betweens? 

Naimuri : ...I could drop the hugest bomb but that'd just make you feel pity and i don't need pity. 

Skeppyz : Whatever you say, bossgirl. Okay well yeah, i was the one in charge of taking info on one of those, and i saw this uhhh

Skeppyz : How do i tell you this without sounding like a psycho

Naimuri : You're already a psycho, don't think i haven't seen your 2017 facebook posts ;)

Skeppyz : STOPPPP

Skeppyz : --I saw this demon, poor thing looked badly hurt, and so i made a big choice

Naimuri : Let me finish that sentence for ya, you bought it?

Skeppyz : Yeah-

Naimuri : wtf

Naimuri : That's so hypocritical , did you just go insane or something like that

Skeppyz : Ehhh- Not quite insane but something among the lines, also, yeah fair enough 

Naimuri : I'm going to punch your face as hard as i can if i ever see you again <3<3 

Skeppyz : well anyways, do you still need the netherite scraps or have i been officially replaced by some dumbass?

Naimuri : ...Considering you're the only one that actually gets my shit fast enough, no. You haven't been replaced. 

Skeppyz : Does the face-punching thing still stand?

Naimuri : No. But the face-fucking thing still stands ;) 

Skeppyz : Yeah sure, am i gonna gargle your non-existent dick? 

Naimuri : ..Demons are creative creatures - Said everybody ever

Skeppyz : ...I'm seriously gonna block you. 

Bad feels like his brain is being set on fire and slowly turning into mush. And no, Skeppy's horn-scratches aren't really helping out. Quite the opposite, it's making his brain and probably god-knows how many parts of his instincts start screaming the most out-of-pocket thoughts.

Not to mention the pure exhaust of the mental breakdown he had around... 30 Minutes ago. Whiiiichhh... Mayyy or mayyy not have ended with him melting in the arms of the person that literally owns him. But who really cares? He's going to be a little selfish this once and enjoy the warmth and affection. 

Bad wrapped his tail around Skeppy's waist, impossibly pressing himself closer to his chest. I-It just made him feel.... Safe. And that probably was what was causing his bird-like instincts start screaming flock flock flock safe warm flock flock safe safe loved flock. Skeppy isn't his flock, by any means. Nor would he ever be. Well, Bad can't... He can't quite.. Be a part of a flock, now that he's wingless. And trust him, it still feels weird not to feel the extra weight on his back, it feels even weirder not be able to wrap his wings around anybody, even if it hurt a lot when he did it.

Gosh, sometimes he feels like Skeppy is far too sweet. It's quite nauseating, in the good way. 

"Bad, sunshine?" His purring stuttered. D-Did Skeppy just?- Oh goodness- Oh goodness- What in the living fudge is he supposed to do in a situation like this.. Does he just hit the panic button and pray for the best???? H-He's never been called "sunshine" out of freaking sudden!-

"You know what- nevermind." ...Okay fair enough. That saved him from probably spamming the panic button.  

Note to self ; Throw his hoodie in the goddamn laundry basket, and probably along with a fuck ton of T-shirts that had been waiting for that very thing (His room's floor is a organized chaotic mess of clothes strewn here and there because of that-). And yeah sure, it had been completely clean a couple hours ago, but now?.. Yeeeahhh... Nope. Bad was freaking drooling on it- But oh well, he dragged himself into this. He's paying the ultimate price for that, sadly. 

PING!

Oh freaking come on, he's got better things to do right now. (Like.. Staring at Bad?..) But yet again, he's not the type of person that enjoys leaving anybody on read, quite the opposite! He's the type of friend that answers as soon as you send them a message. Considering sometimes he's got far too much free time on his hands- 

"Welp- Up we go!" It took a little bit of maneuvering around, but he managed to fully lift Bad up bridal-style. And just somehow he didn't even stir; Heavy sleeper quite much?- Okay, he can't really blame him. 2 months of normal sleeping (And he highly doubts that Bad sleeps like any other normal person, judging by his constantly-moody behaviour-) is NOT going to fix god-know-how-long of probably getting 2 hours of sleep. Yet another reason of why he's constantly concerned for him.  Also, completely unrelated but carrying him feels.. Oddly light. Well, he knows for a fact that he's unhealthily thin, but they're working on that. 

"You usually don't look this.. Tired. God, have you been even getting sleep?" Skeppy whispered, even while knowing fully that his friend was completely asleep, he couldn't help but wonder out loud. H-He's allowed to be worried, ya know?!- And sure, his sleep schedule was slightly ruined, but.. It probably wasn't as ruined as Bad's-

A part of him was cooing at the sight of Bad dead asleep, and another part of him felt puzzled. Each time he gave him a hug, Bad would tense up for a split moment before melting into the touch desperatly. It was like he hadn't recieved one in years. And each time he gave him headpats, Bad would happily purr and Skeppy nearly had a cuteness-overload induced convulsion internally every single time. It felt sort of contradictory.

He gently opened Bad's bedroom door, and placed his friend in his bed. He didn't really want to wake him up so he made sure to not make any sound. The silence felt somewhat comforting, and the sun peeking through his blinds made the room feel like one of those vintage and cozy bedrooms you see all over Pinterest. Even if it was somewhat plain and somewhat-empty. 

Skeppy grabbed the teddy bear that was quite rudely thrown on the floor, placing it besides Bad. And taking note of how the plushie had claw marks, it was like Bad had probably dug his claws onto it and let go a couple minutes later. That was probably what happened, but oh well. Skeppy can be quite destructive sometimes-

Skeppy picked up his comm, Techno had sent him a couple texts at midnight, Tubbo had managed to successfully set Phil's kitchen on fire while doing spaghetti with Ranboo... And Naimuri had sent him a image 3 minutes ago. Well, GC notifications aside, of course. 

He'd answer those later, probably. Hopefully. He doesn't quite talk in there, he just lurks there waiting for a funny meme or just really anything of his interest. And yes, that means Ranboo's ungodly cake that nearly made him gag, he hadn't even tried it out but.. The whole thing looked.. Oddly suspicious.

Naimuri : [Image Attachment]

Naimuri : In the 30 minutes you left for milk, I went out to get some boba with my friends 😙😙

Skeppyz : Damnnn

Skeppyz : That lowkey looks yummy

Naimuri : Completely unrelated but one of Mei's friends just started a fight with some random dude.

Skeppyz : Fight in a local boba store - This is the shit that is going to come up in the news tomorrow

Naimuri : And that's reason 30 of why i barely go out to the Overworld, it's just far better in the Nether. 

Skeppyz : You mean having to shower in the most humid biomes you can find on the Nether and eating indian street food-looking salads? Sorry but the heat is just a NO for me.

Naimuri : Skill issue 💀💀

Skeppyz : Whatever you say, desert mom.

Naimuri : BITE ME.

Naimuri : Also, you got the day free to come over to my house?? Yk, to finish up the whole business thing so i can finally ditch you and live in a Bastion as a hermit or whatever. 

Skeppyz : Yeah, i think i can in a bit. I gotta clean up some shit 

Naimuri : Bro istg you dont ever clean, what's gotten into you???

Skeppyz : ;)

Naimuri : Last time i went to your house it looked like a whole cozy vintage dump pinterest house but oddly decorated. 

Skeppyz : Says the one that they're house looks like one of those 1963 houses. 

Naimuri : I STILL USE VINYL PLAYERS. SO WHAT????? YOU USE FUCKING SPOTIFY.

Skeppyz : smh why would i buy vinyls when i can just search my music up in spotify

Naimuri : dont care + didnt ask + L + bozo + ratio

Skeppyz : 😭😭THAT'S NOT HOW YOU SAY ITTTT 

Okay, enough fucking texting. He still has to clean his room up.

...It should be fairly easy but somehow he always manages to drag things out for better or worse. One time he just stared at a pill he had to take for 30 minutes before realizing he had to take it. ...Blame him for that. 

Okay, triple checking time. 

Bed made? Check. He almost wanted to lay down on it and take a big nap but he just couldn't ruin 20 minutes of perfecting the way it looked. He's an extreme perfectionist sometimes, can you really blame him, though? 

Clean rug and completely-free-of-Rocco's-fur? Check. Somehow that shit took ages to clean up and it'd always get dirty in like, 2 days. Even if he took all precautions known to fucking man ever. He doesn't even know why he keeps it there. 

Clean floor? Check. The whole room smelled just like lavender, and god knows how many other cleaning products. He knows how to clean a floor very damn well. 

Clean cabinets? Check. There had been a couple empty candy wrappers that had probably been sitting there for a couple months had already been taken care of. Most of them had been kit-kat wrappers or skittle wrappers. ....He's got no excuse around it. And probably there isn't any.

Organized stuff? Check. Normally his room was really fucking messy, so.. He made sure to organize everything in a visually pleasing way. Even if it wasn't really all that optimal. ...He'd probably sort that out later. Hopefully.

Okay, he's probably not forgetting anything, so he's going to call his ultimate cleaning episode a day, and take a very well deserved bath, ya know? He'd probably end up munching on peanuts other than anything else, but who cares.

...

Oh, yeah. He has to go to Naimuri's house.  That is in the middle of the Nether. The Nether. Okay, welp.. Today is gonna be a really long day. 

... Did he forget to put away his glitter bombs?.. Where did he even leave them, now that he's thinking about it?.. Yeaaaaaahhh.. God fucking dammit. He's going to have to search in every damned corner of his now-organized chests to look where they are. He doesn't want to-

Forget it. He's got to do this. 

Skeppy gritted his teeth and walked over to one of the many chests in his room, quickly opening one. Not much in there. A somewhat-empty bottle of black nail polish, some mascara he stole from Naimuri just to tease her, his pair of elytras.. (That's where they ended up, somehow?.. He swore he had seen them downstairs last week.) And his trusty sunglasses. Along with a can of god-knows-what. ...It's probably a glitter bomb.

Oh well, he'll never know if he doesn't test it out.

Skeppy carefully opened the mysterious can.

The damned fucking blue glitter bomb exploded right in his face. You've.Got.To.Be.Kidding. He's got to clean this shit up. Again. 

What kinda sins did he commit to have to clean his room up, for the 2nd time today?.. That's probably a question he should ask Bad. Well, anyways. Back to his frustration arc. Okay, there's pretty much glitter all over his face and the floor... And he's going to change out of his hoodie. Again. Fucking again. Eh, life is pretty much the unfairest thing ever. - He reminded himself. Welp, he's going to get the broom. He'll be back in 5. 

Chapter Text

“Kid, can you just-” The child shook it’s head, still clinging to him and wrapping his tail around his leg like a tourniquet. And yup, it was getting increasingly annoying having to wobble around like a penguin while a child clung to him like a lifeline. 

TECHNOSOFT

CHILD!!

E

Guys if this chapter isnt about skephalo imma shoot myself

DONT BREAK THE 4TH WALL!!

Ah, yes. Good ol' Chat ruining the somewhat cuteness of this moment. Not so surprising, to be honest. 

“Tech, I highly doubt that kid is going to let go anytime soon.” Phil chuckled and patted the child’s head. Okay well yeah, fair enough.

“What could have possibly this little kid went through that has him clinging to me like glue?” …

Phil just shrugged light-heartedly and lightly sipped his coffee. He silently hopes it goes sour and bitter. And also cold, cold as the tundra literally outside his window. 

“I don't know, mate. Those fuckers are known for traumatizing everyone in the most fucked-up ways.” You might be wondering, what in the living world does Phil mean with "those" people? Yeah.. So like.. Hybrid selling facilities.. Blah blah blah.. He went there, raided that place.. Blah blah blah.. The voices called for blood. Blah blah blah.. He took a child home.. Blah blah blah.. He's now a goddamn parent, just like Phil. 

–

“Don’t stretch your wings for now, it’ll only hurt worse if you do..” Sapnap nodded. His caretaker knew best. But he couldn’t help but to slightly stretch his wings to relieve some of the icky feeling on his back.

It hurt.

A lot.

“It hurts..” His caretaker clicked her tongue reassuringly and cradled a hand through his hair. 

Lana is the best caretaker he’s had in a good while. 

--

“Well, anyways. Kid, you wanna cling to Phil while i go feed Carl?” The kid didn’t seem to agree with him. Okay, welp. What would Phil usually do in this case?

. . .

He doesn’t have the brains to be a father.

– 

Over the span of 30 minutes, Techno has tried every single way he knows of  to get the child off his leg, going from slight blackmail to emotional blackmail and probably the kind of things parents tell you when you don’t eat your veggies. 

Nothing worked.

“Do you think he’s mute?” The child looked thoughtful for a moment, before huffing and smacking him a couple times with his tail. 

“‘M not mute!” Phil looked a little doubtful at first, and then he looked like he had just finished whatever internal puzzle was going off in his mind.

“Welp. The child is not mute.”

“Heh-” 

–

“PHIIIIIL!” ..The house smelled like burnt plastic.

He fell asleep only for 5 minutes. Can’t he just get a nap anymore? It’s almost like when Techno and Wilbur were teens..

“THE CHILD IS ON FIRE!!”

“THE CHILD IS ON WHAT?!” 

–

Long story short, over the course of 5 minutes. Phil had made a big discovery.

The child was a blaze hybrid, so… Agitation could just easily make him get set on fire. And most of things, in general-

He kneeled next to kid, offering him warm eyes and a slight smile.

“What’s your name, kiddo?” Phil softly asked, gently stretching out his giant wings.

“Ssapnap!” The “s” seemed a little dragged out, that was fine! Kid couldn’t be older than 7 years old. 

“His name is Sapnap.” Phil said as if matter-of-factly.

“That’s actually the worst name ever.” 

– 

“Come on kid, ain’t this yummy-lookin’?” Techno pushed the spoon a little closer to the kid’s mouth. Nothing happened.

THE TECHNOBLADE CANT SPOONFEED A CHILD?!?!?!

LE CHILD!!

SAPPPP!

Fuck you imma shoot myself, I DONT WANT TO LIVE IF I DONT GET TO SEE SKEPHALO.

SHUT UP WE AINT THAT FAR INTO THE STORY YET 

YOU'RE ALL TALKING LIKE WE'RE OMNIPRESENT!!!!

It was a chicken soup, is he really that bad of a cook? He’ll have to ask Phil about that.

“Phiiil! How do you manage to raise a child?!” 

“Just use your brains!” 

"How do you- Okay. I call it freaking quits." He set the spoon down and walked away. Not today. Not ever. And sure, Chat might have went roaring loud enough for a split second to give him a faint headache when he did that, but who really cares?... He doesn't have the brains to parent a child. He could teach the child how to wield a sword, that's for sure. But as for math?.. Well yeah nah. 

–-

“ You don’t own me. I’m not just one of your many toys .” Lana tended to sing when he was feeling down. Or just.. Slightly burnt out. 

“Actually- Sap, your wings feeling better now?” Sapnap shook his head. They still hurt quite the lot.

They had been tightly bound together a couple hours ago. And that just probably made it hurt worse. … He probably deserves it. 

Chapter Text

The day was just about normal, the birds were singing, and Bad wasnt having a mental breakdown while sitting in a corner.... Its far more usual than you think. 

It wasnt a sunny day outside, quite the opposite- It was raining like living hell. Not that he deslikes rain, its just that it had been sunny outside a couple hours ago. 

Oh well.

Skeppy just took another sip of his hot chocolate, lazily answering some missing texts, and just enjoying his breakfast. 

One of those texts was from Naimuri, something about not feeling good, eh. It was thoughtful of her to let him know so that she wouldn't get him sick otherwise. 

Maybe she finally she woke up and had a change of heart. 

Anygays.

The weather was far too bad to even think about going anywhere, so he'd just have to stay inside all day.

Bad walked down the stairs with a shy look on his face, like he wanted to say something but he just couldn't. 

Then, he walked over to him and started fidgeting with his hands.

"U-Uh-" Bad's tail drooped on the ground, and the shy look on his face had been intensified in a 500%.

"C-Couldiborrowoneofyoursweatersbecausetheweatherisfartoocoldrightnoeandifeellikeimgonnaturnintoaicecube?!-" 

...

Skeppy did not understand that one bit.

-- 

"Okay, so.. Let me get this straight-" Skeppy softly spoke, because he's having a now-that-he-thinks-about-it moment. 

"You want me to lend you one of my sweaters, right?" Bad nodded. 

...

"Oki. I think i have some oversized sweaters i can let you borrow. " Skeppy rummaged through his closet to find said oversized sweaters. 

Bad ended up picking the blue one, and by some convenient reason, it was a perfect fit. 

"Thanks.." Skeppy waved him off light-heartedly. 

A thunder interrupted them, Bad heavily flinched at the sound and tripped over his own feet, effectively landing on top of Skeppy. 

"Hey there, hot stuff~" Skeppy winked, a smug smirk creeped on his face. 

Bad just rolled his eyes and got off of him. 

"Anywayyyys... You look cute with that sweater." Bad blushed and looked away, muttering something about not being cute at all. 

-- 

"I really like the rain." Bad had been pretending to listen to Skeppy's tirade about the weather and Prime knows how many other things. Eh, it was a reasonable price for a lap pillow. 

"And did you know that-" By that point all the information was going through one demonic ear and out the other. 

"Mhm.. That sounds great.." Bad sleepily muttered, Skeppy just kept talking (not that he minded much.) and playing with his hair. 

He may have fallen asleep mid-rant. 

"Aaaand he's out." Skeppy deadpanned, rolling his eyes and getting up from the couch.

Not like i can really blame him, the weather isnt really a interesting topic to talk about for a entire hour.

...

Atleast not as boring as learning how to do a on-ettiquete tea party. 

Why was he thinking about that anyway?... 

"Righto. Iiiii have nothing to do.. Back to the couch." Skeppy plopped back down on the couch, carefully avoiding waking up his best friend. 

And so he promptly spent a entire hour just scrolling down the deepest pit of hell. Twitter. Or, X. 

Some new controversy about Claire's, and people actively hating on other people for the most stupid reasons. 

Sounds like another day being a chronically online person. 

Though something he had not been expecting at all was for Bad to sluggishly move his head so it was now resting on Skeppy's lap. -Again.- (N-Not that he minds!-)

He knows well damn about the unspoken rules about how one must stay completely still if a cat chooses your lap as a nap spot, and he feels like that is the case right now. 

Though with a slightly bigger cat. 

-- 

Bad woke up by the sound of yet another thunder. 

He barely suppressed the urge to sigh. 

But, probably the thing he had been expecting the least was to be fully huddled with Skeppy, and a strange sense of deja-vu settled in.

Both of his arms were wrapped around his best friend, along with his tail. He had somehow managed to swing a leg over his waist, ending up with the both of them impossibly close to each other, in a literal way. 

And it would've been a somewhat normal thing, if it werent for the fact that their lips were dangerously close. 

...Almost as if they were about to kiss. 

And before he had any chance of reaction, Skeppy moved closer, and oh boy. ..Their lips touched. And he momentarily leaned into the kiss. 

Bad backed away immediately as soon as realization struck him like lightning, falling off the couch in a very loud way. 

Skeppy stirred at the commotion and loss of his cuddling partner. 

"Hm?.." 

Let it be said that Bad was at a complete loss of words, his brain was still processing what had just happened, and so he did what any not-normal person would do; Stutter like a idiot and run up the stairs, heading straight to the bathroom, and locking the door. 

He didn't know what to say. Nor what to do. 

Skeppy had just kissed him. And he kissed him back. 

A warm feeling burst on his chest, along with his face. 

Oh goodness freaking lord. What did he just do.. 

...It felt a little strange to have done that, but... At the same time it felt like a little ball of feelings he had for Skeppy had just imploded on his face. 

Realization struck him again for the second time that day. He may have a crush on Skeppy. 

Chapter Text

Bad's mind has been racing ever.. You know. 

Don't get him wrong, the mere thought of having kissed Skeppy made him smile like a girl madly in love. 

But.. He and Skeppy are just friends. Nothing else. 

And how do you exactly expect him to just... Tell Skeppy that he may or may not have kissed him?... 

So he's just stayed in bed, going through a thousand scenarios that could happen if he were to say such thing. 

Bad ignored the warmth on his chest from just thinking about Skeppy. 

And if he were to per say, say that to him without tripping over his words like a dumbass.. Skeppy would probably be concerned. 

-- 

Bad has been acting off since a coulple days ago. 

He's been oddly quiet, and he's been shooting him weird glances. And that only increased as the hours ticked by. 

What could have he possibly done to trigger that?- He hasn't really done anything to him.. Unless.. 

Nah, scratch that. 

Bad started to act off after he fell off of the couch when they were cuddling. And he really doubts that's what is causing all this. 

Which only leaves him with one option, ask him what is up. It can't possibly be that bad, right? 

Speak of the devil. 

Bad walked down the stairs, avoiding any type of eye contact wih his best friend. 

Which was extremely heavily suspicious. 

Skeppy just pretended not to be doing anything other than fiddling with the strings of his hoodie.

Bad gave him the stare. Like, that stare you give someone when you're in love with them? Yeah. That one. 

His train of thoughts was cut short by the doorbell ringing, along with loud knocking. 

"Coming!" He sprinted to the door, opening it and being greeted by some girl scouts. 

He closed the door immediately. He does not want thin mints or whatever. 

--

"Bad, you've been staring at me like you have something really important to say, what's got you this quiet?.." Skeppy carefully worded all that. A simple sentence could easily make Bad get even quieter. 

"W-Well.. It's just that.." Bad looked away, he stammered and it was almost impossible for him to get his words out. 

They sat in silence for a couple seconds, and then Bad finally spoke up. 

"If i tell you what it is.. Promise not to get mad?.. Or concerned?.." Skeppy got even more confused, and he swears that Bad was struggling with coming up with a way to word what he was about to say. 

"I promise?.." 

Bad took a deep breath. 

"Okay so.. When we were cuddling a couple days ago.. You may have.. Sort of uhm.. Kissed me?.." Skeppy just stared at him with wide eyes, blush spreading on his cheeks. 

"And i may have.. Kissed you back?.." Bad's already racing thoughts started to make a hundred different outcomes. 

"I- I shouldn't really have- Because I'm sure you dont even like me- Not that way- And i just-" Bad rambled and his hands were getting sweaty. 

"Woah- Slow down- I mean- I DO like you.. Like- I like you in the crush type of way.. And uhm- I.." Skeppy looked away, debating whether he just ruined his friendship with Bad, because for Prime's sake, he kissed his crush best friend!- Not to mention he just basically confessed!- 

"I.. I also like you.. I-In that sort of way.." Bad blushed. His tail started to wag in a clear sign of happiness. 

"So does this mean we're uhm.. Boyfriends?.." Bad's voice was thick with emotion but somehow it was barely above a whisper. 

"I guess.." Skeppy shyly spoke. He couldnt stop himself from grinning like a idiot. 

"Wait.. Does this mean I'm gay?!-" Bad stared at him for a couple seconds, before letting the realization sink in.

Skeppy chuckled and cupped Bad's cheek with his hand. 

"You're such a cutie, you know?" Bad smiled and leaned into the touch. He wrapped his tail around his waist and scooted closer. 

"But hey, I'm your cutie~" Skeppy wrapped his arms around him, muttering something about him being so cute and cuddly. 

..Maybe he is, but he's sort of made peace with that. And plus, how could he ever refuse cuddling with Skeppy? 

Anyways.

"I love you, Bad." Skeppy whispered, playing with his boyfriend's hair. 

"I love you too, S'Geppy.." Bad buried his face on the crook of Skeppy's neck, unable to contain his purring and happy little chirps. 

They stayed like that foor a good while, just enjoying each other's presence. 

At some point Bad pulled back. Admiring the beauty of his boyfriend's face. 

"You're so handsome.." He whispered. 

"And you're so pretty~" 

They pressed their foreheads together, seemingly preparing for a kiss. 

They leaned closer. And closer. Until their lips met. 

And they actually kissed. Skeppy was the one that took the lead, deepening their fairytale-like kiss. 

And Bad reciprocated, cupping his boyfriend's face in such a loving way one might think they had known each other for their entire lives. 

They pulled back, staring at each other in a daydreamy way. 

They immediately kissed again, but this time it was a open-mouth kiss, quickly transitioning into a make-out session. 

Bad finished their kiss, his glasses were fogged up and on the tip of his nose. 

But yet he's the prettiest person Skeppy has ever laid his eyes on.

Chapter Text

Life has became more than just black and white after everything that has happened between him and Skeppy. Its as if he had been missing a crucial piece of a puzzle and Skeppy was the one holding it. Its as if they had been made for one each other. But maybe that's the poet in his mind speaking, maybe things really aren't the color of roses but atleast a little more bearable. Point is, everything seems so much more than just a scale of greys and whites with Skeppy around. In other words, he's Bad's entire world.

But that's not really the point here, the point right now is that Skeppy is just sitting there, playing some weird game called 'Doki Doki Literature Club'. Meanwhile he's just sitting there reading a book named 'Farenheit 451'

From what little he has actually paid attention to, it's about the main character trying to make 4 cute girls fall in love with him. Weirdo. Why would you want 4 girls in the first place?

Probably some er, *dating simulator.* Ironic.

He went back at reading, probably it wasn't anything all that important or shocking, most likely he'd up getting the girls and ending right there or something. He had better things to do anyway. -not really.- Now, what chapter was he in?...

--

...Alright, he should really have seen this coming, since it's a fudging dystopia but uhh.. Things have suddenly taken a dark turn, darker than they already were. He looked up from his book, staring at his -cough- hot, adorable, gorgeous boyfriend for a split second and then at the screen with no real interest.

*"I gently open the door.."*

Oh. What. The. Fuck.

Skeppy stared with a straight face, skipping through dialogue without a single hint of concern. He swears he must be soulless.

To say that he was horrified was a utter understatement, but in reality he wasn't all that freaked out by just looking at it. It was because some memories he had buried deep down in his mind reared it's ugly head.

Bad's hands began to tremble and a familiar itchy feeling ran all over his skin, overwhelming him to the core and breathing felt shallow and as if he were underwater. The book slipped out of his shaking hands and landed in the floor with a dull *thud*. The spine cracked and the sound was oddly similar to the cracking of a whip. It only managed to make Bad spiral even more.

There was probably no air left in his lungs to breathe. He felt as if he were hyperventilating yet at the same time simply not breathing. The burning sensation all over his body only made him struggle more agaisnt the rope keeping him half-hanging. His dull and broken claws did little to no damage to the rope and if he somehow managed to survive this then he'd have severe friction burns and nasty bruises all over his throat and neck. Thats only if.

His handler seemed to have enough of this and call it a day. Cutting the rope off and allowing him to breathe precious oxygen. He coughed and sputtered once his airway was no longer being cut off and he could actually breathe again. Broken pleas and thank yous spilled from his lips as if second nature. Maybe it truly was at this point. The burning sensation still lingered and pain was the only thing he could feel on his neck. Reality and consciousness was falling through his fingers like thin sand and all he manage to vocalize before passing out was a barely audible 'im sorry'.

Bad got snapped back to reality by a gentle voice and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Yet there was a burning pain on his throat that made tears swell up in his eyes. "Bad? Hey, you good?" The gentle voice hushed yet it felt like too much. Everything was blurry and loud and *itchy* and-

He swiped his claws to a hand that approached, earning a hiss of pain from the gentle voice, Bad had half-mindedly braced himself for a backhand or a hit in return but that never came. Just a eery silence that stretched on for a few seconds.

Bad growled and hissed nonetheless, baring his fangs and making himself appear dangerous and threatening. But why does he, in the first place? No matter how tall and dangerous he might be, his handlers always crushed him like old plastic. -They always stepped on him and treated him as if he were a broken plaything. Something that was no longer useful.-

"Hey- Dude, calm down. It's just me, sunshine. Just good ol' Skeppy." Oh. Bad momentarily stopped to think about that. He backed away into a corner and met his warm, piercing blue eyes with teary, milky white eyes.

"Think you can take a deep breath for me?" Skeppy prompted in a soft tone, keeping a little bit of distance between him and his boyfriend. Bad shook his head. Breathing feels impossible right now, even more so with the pain on his neck.

"H-Hurts.." His neck hurt *so* much, it hurted to the point where tears were freely cascading down his face. Or maybe he's that much of a crybaby. His handlers used to always say he was no more than a tall child or a stupid crybaby.

This raised concern for Skeppy, a couple moments ago he had been a-okay and now he was having a severe panic attack. What could have possibly caused this, though? No, that's for later. The important thing right here is getting his sweetheart to calm down.

"What hurts, sweetheart? Are you injured?"

Bad choked out a incoherent string of words that made little to no sense at all before pointing at his neck with a trembling hand.

He ignored the warm liquid running down his arm to focus entirely on calming Bad down. It was the most important task at hand anyways, he could always patch himself up later, he won't bleed out because of some scratch.

"Can i take a look at it? If- If you want me to, of course." Bad chirped in distress yet begrudgingly allowed him to come closer without hissing or growling at him. Demons were *very* vocal when expressing their warnings to not come any closer.

He took Bad's hand in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze and intertwining their fingers together. Skeppy had always been one that showed affection and love through actions rather than words. Another hand reached up to softly and gently cup his face, tilting his chin up and allowing him a better look at his neck.

Needless to say, there were a bunch of scars on the area, some were faded and some looked atleast a couple months old. But there was no visible signs of injury, which was weird in itself.

"Hey, sweetheart? Does it-" Skeppy was cut off by Bad chirping in distress and collapsing into his arms, sobs and stressed warbles ringing across the room. At first he was taken by surprise but his Traumatized Smoll Bean (Protecc At All Costs 🥺) Caretaker instincts ™ kicked in. So he started rubbing soothing circles on his back and wrapping him up in a warm, tight embrace.

"It's okay, Bad. Just take a deep breath, 'kay?" He quivered and took a agonizingly slow, deep breath. It eased some of the itchy feeling and the burning pain on his neck. He repeated this a couple times until his breathing had evened out and it was no longer ragged gasps or hyperventilation. Skeppy was still holding him, now petting his head in a soothing back and forth motion. Yet he noticed the vibrant red stain on his teal blue hoodie, he noticed the ripped bit of it and the ugly scratch underneath it, four slash marks and all of them were bleeding. Oh. He must've caused that when he accidentally attacked him in the middle of his panic attack.

"S'geppy?.. Your arm-" Bad's previous confused expression melted into something more akin to concern and a hell ton of frikkin' guilt.

"Ah- It doesn't hurt that much, don't worry your pretty little head off." Skeppy waved it away, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that his arm was bleeding.

"Skeppy, it doesn't look like 'it doesn't hurt that much.', it looks like it must hurt a hell ton- Your wellbeing is very important, ya know?" Bad questioned but Skeppy didn't budge, saying something about 'youre more important right now' and 'I'll be just fine' He grabbed Skeppy's wrist and pulled it towards him, a stern deadpan stare taking place at seeing the injury up close.

"Yup. This sure looks fine as hell, S'geppy."

--

"Baaaad.. Have mercy on meeee... You don't know how much i hate isopropyl alcohol, do you?.." Skeppy whined, putting the back of his hand against his forehead as if to make the entire thing more dramatic than it already was.

"I'm gonna try to be gentle, 'kay? I can't promise it won't hurt but.." He swope the cotton agaisnt the wound once and Skeppy hissed in pain. It took some good 15 minutes of trying and failing but he managed to patch Skeppy's wound up. Sure, Skeppy put up a bit of a fuss and said enough swears to make a sailor flush, but it's really understandable, he wasn't quite known for sitting still when his handlers sometimes cleaned up his wounds.

"Ouch, warn a man next time." Skeppy pouted and crossed his arms, huffing and looking away. Purposefully ignoring him for the most hellish 5 minutes.

"Skeppppyyyy.. I'm sorryyy!.. I know it nust've hurt but pleeeaseee.. Dont ignore meee! I'm *so* sorry!" Skeppy didn't budge, he kept his gaze fixated strictly on the wall as if it was the most interesting wall he's ever seen in his entire life and just *not* looking at him. He was ignoring him, choosing the wall over his *boyfriend*. "S'geppy.." Bad drawed out the 'y' and his eyes became puppy eyes, his tail was drooping on the bed with sadness and tears were welling up in his eyes. If he's going to play dirty, then so be it.

 Skeppy only stopped ignoring him when he heard sniffles and whines coming from his boyfriend, he was met with a big, sad frown and watery eyes. His faux bored expression melted into concern and guilt.

Bad sniffled and refused to look at him in the eyes, internally waiting for what Skeppy was going to say.

"Ohh.. I was just kidding, sweetheart! Don't cry!" Bad whined, looking away from the -awfully hot boyfriend- monster in front of him. Skeppy immediately noticed this, and chose a much more softer approach.

"Please? I'm so sorry! Dude, i was just trolling you- I wasn't-" Skeppy was interrupted by Bad opening his mouth to speak with a wavery voice.

"You're a meanie! You don't love me, do you? You hate meeee...." Bad rolled onto his side and covered himself with the blankets, internally grinning from giving Skeppy a taste of his own medicine. Altough maybe the dramatic tone on his voice was a bit too much, but eh. He's doing what he can.

"Baaaaad! Of course i love you! I really do! I don't hate you at all! Please? Dude, i was just messing with you-" Skeppy's tone was clearly a mix of worry and a little bit of sadness from just recieving the cold shoulder from his own boyfriend. In his defense, he was just trolling him, okay?!-

Bad suddenly leapt from the blankets, a very mischievous idea had popped up in his mind and it was just tickling Skeppy as a way to get karma, per say. It was a bit of a genius idea and also a bit of a gremlin idea, but hey! He's sure Skeppy isn't nearly as ticklish as *he* is.

But what he didn't expect was for Skeppy to intercept his wrists, catching him in the process and rendering his weapons useless. And instead, Skeppy pinned his hands above his head, a smirk creeping on his face and a smug look in his eyes already there. A hint of blush appeared on his cheeks from the *implications* this could have.

"Well, how the tables have turned~" Skeppy cooed, and he's sure he's a mind-reader or something, because next thing he knew *he* was the one being tickled. Bad burst out laughing, even though his hands were now free he was utterly at Skeppy's mercy, either he would tickle him to death or he would tickle him until he's satisfied.

"Not so high and mighty now, are you, BadBoy?" Bad kept giggling and kicking his feet in a attempt to stop the delicious torture Skeppy was dishing out for him. This continued on for several minutes until Bad's voice was high-pitched and squeaky and Skeppy finally stopped tickling him.

He pinned his hands at both sides of his head and stared into his eyes with a bright grin.

"Gosh, you're so fucking pretty." His voice was barely above a whisper and yet, it spoke louder than a thousand words and actions. Bad giggled and kind-of leaned closer to Skeppy's face, aiming for a very specific place. His lips.

Skeppy leaned closer, pressing their lips together and breathing ever so close to him. He gently nibbled on Bad's lower lip, encouraging him to open his mouth. And he did, silently allowing Skeppy's tongue to enter his mouth, it was clear who was the one taking the lead, but they were both happy with it.

The entire world had faded for the both of them and all that remained was one each other.

Bad was the first one that broke the kiss, gasping for breath and staring hazily at his boyfriend.

"I love you *so* much.." Skeppy sweetly whispered.

"I love you too, 'Geppy." Bad breathed out.

--

Skeppy checked the time, 11:14. He was trying to get a 100% on DDLC+ and right now he's on the verge of calling it quits. He averted his gaze instead to his bed, a warm smile appearing on his face once he saw Bad peacefully sleeping there, wrapped in a fluffy white blanket and wearing his favorite red sweater, he was also holding his plushie. The sight was so cute he couldn't help but take of a picture of it and keep it as his communicator's wallpaper. It was for the greater good.

Maybe he should join him, now that he thinks about it. He's feeling really sleepy and pulling a all nighter might have some interesting consequences.

He shut off his PC, staring at the black screen for a second and getting up, making himself comfortable in his bed, next to his cute, adorable, cuddly boyfriend.

Maybe this is the spice he's been missing in his life for a while now.

Chapter Text

Naimuri is a proud woman, never forgiving and always keeping her chin high up. Sure, she's also warm and kind and nurturing but the aforementioned traits are her most prominent ones. Her bones might be old and sometimes creaky but she kept her looks, even if just the smallest bit. 

But that's not really all that important here anyways, she's got some errands and rounds to run. And one of them is finally getting her business with her stupid gay ass subordinate. Alternatively known as, Skeppy Jewels Diamond. Last time she had texted him she was utterly bedridden and horribly sick. Anyways, better not go into a 3 hour internal rant about her subordinate. She has some hunting to do, and some cleaning to do. It's currently Hoglin season and no way in the living Nether she's going to let some yummy prey get away. 

She put on her black cloak and stored her Nether Ruby sword in her belt's sword pocket. Her hair was curled up perfectly and her purple hair pin was in the same place as ever, it was a rare occurrence if she wasn't wearing it. It was one of Mei's old hairpins anyways.  She hummed quietly a old tune and packed her stuff. 

By the end of packing up her things, there was only one thing left to do, and it was picking up her communicator. Main part of the reason she owned one was Kai's insistence orientating herself in the vast wastelands of the Nether. It was a death sentence if you didn't have atleast a coordinator on you in there. A ghast would blow you up, a Jungle skeleton would most likely shoot you down, a Naga would make a feast out of you, or a Whiter Skeleton would kill you. And if the Nether was feeling up for it, you'd get brutally assassinated by a Warped Wendigo. It really depended on how unlucky you really were. She had almost gotten killed by one of those before, and luckily her only severed "limb" was her robotic arm. It had taken weeks to fix it to it's previous state. 

She sent her subordinate a quick message. 

Naimuri : 8AM. Semi-Cycle for the Nether. Today. Visceral Heaps. X : -724 Z : -16943 

Skeppy would most likely not answer until 7:59 or something, does he rarely check his communicator? Hell no. Either he's out there making out with random people all day, or he's chronically busy. Either of those were ridiculous. 

Skeppyz : Excuse my wording but uh, why tf would you choose VISCERAL HEAPS OUT OF ALL PLACES??? 

She turned off her communicator and put it in her bag. Naimuri wondered if she would catch a Hoglin or a pack of Piglins. Either sounded finger-licking good. 

It's about time for breakfast anyways.

-- 

"Dude, 6 AM and this is what she texts, fucking great. And I don't think you're gonna be letting me go anytime soon. Great. Guess this is what my personal hell must look like." Skeppy shifted in the bed and Bad ever so slightly stirred, sleepily murmuring something and holding him tighter. Any more and he would actually be crushing him. Their comical size difference between them gave him a advantage at that. 

"Is she actually serious about the visceral heaps thing? That biome has no reason to exist yet it does. It's worse than those stupid jungles with poisonous eggs and Warped Wendigos. I swear to Prime if she is-" A ring cut him off fully interrupting his very justified complaint about Naimuri's stupid choice of a biome. 

Naimuri : Take it or leave it. The next best choice is a nether jungle. And literally that place has far too many Warped Wendigos to count. Something about hunting season for them.

Great. This is great. He's died overnight and this is his personal hell. Either way, the pay is really good but.. The price of having to stomach the nauseous smell of the biome in itself for about 10 minutes will certainly be the actual death of him. Hell, Nether experts even have done research on the biome and have found highly toxic substances and other questionable toxic elements in the already questionable air of there. And ironically enough, Netherborns are quite literally almost immune to most of them. Their bodies are built basically to be resistant to the Nether's extreme temperature and all the questionable biological life surrounding them. The logic behind it is almost headache inducing. So he'd rather not dwell into that. 

"I actually don't know how i'm going to get out of this situation. Guess you really *do* enjoy cuddling with me." Now the real question here was on how in the ever actual loving world was he going to get out of Bad's crushing grip. He'd gladly stay here all morning if he didn't have to do a important business with Naimuri Saint herself. So he's probably going to have to bend over backwards and do a flip just to do something as simple as get out of bed. 

Skeppy spent the next 15 minutes trying to ease his boyfriend out of his crushing hug. It was extremely complicated to do so, and the risk of waking him up was certainly not in his to-do list. But anyways, he tried different approaches and most of them were almost fruitless, so he had to resort to actually maneuvering him around and not just gently try to coax him out of his arms. It took 20 full minutes to do it but it was worth it.

Bad was now tightly gripping a pillow, mistaking it for his lover in his state of deep sleep. It was really cute, he looked so peaceful and at ease every time. Almost as if his racing mind was at ease when he slept. Perhaps it was one of the little times he wasn't stressed or anything like that. 

Either way, he only had like 1 hour to get everything done and  travel the rather unholy amount of distance between the village's local nether portal and the coordinates Naimuri had sent him. Guess he would truly be late today. And sure, the nether highways were made of ice and gave explorers an easy way of travelling, but to travel from Z : 2493 to Z : -16943 would take longer than 20 minutes, and last time he checked ; The longest nether highway was from Y : 0 to Y : 10500 and Z : 0 to Z : 12500 on Nether coords. And that was the longest highway in the entirery of Kinoko kingdom. The nearest highway next to the local portal would probably not even get there. Or maybe it would, it really all depended. It's not like he calculates exactly how long Cacophony Village's nearest nether highway truly is on a daily basis, it would take him hours upon hours of truly how long it is on both the overworld and the nether.

He made some tasty-looking mac & cheese and left a bowl of it inside the microwave. He also made sure to stick a post-it on the fridge letting Bad know that there was mac & cheese on the microwave in case he got hungry or something. And luckily he knows how to make some damn good mac & cheese, mostly because at some point he lived off of it but who cares? 

He checked the time, 6:59AM. Holy fuck. At this point he doesn't know which fate is worse. Get killed by a Warped Wendigo, or get chewed out by Naimuri because he was late. Probably the latter. He has seen her immaculate and unmatched hunting skills, and he does not want to be in the recieving end of that stick. Hell, he was sure she would chop him into little pieces and turn him into Strider snacks. Looks like he has a good excuse to speedrun travelling the nether and not die in the process. 

Either way, it's time to ball. 

--

Naimuri strolled through the visceral heaps without a single care about the blood pits and the fleshy ground under her feet. The nether is her home, she knows all the tricks in survival anyways. No she doesn't. She lost her arm, she lost Kai and Mei and ■■■ due to her nonexistent knowledge in survival. Her subordinate should be here any moment now. If her calculations are correct, its 7:20AM for overworlders. Somehow cycles are harder to understand than days. Since there was no sun or moon, "days" were labeled with the name "cycles" and worked way more differently than overworld days. But either way, he better show up soon. Otherwise he's going to get an earful coming from her.

Far away in the distance she noticed a Warped Wendigo staring at her through the dense nether jungle, pitch black eyes staring at white ones for a spare moment before continuing with it's hunting goal. As for Naimuri? No luck yet. The most she had managed to catch was some Nether fishes and a pesky Naga. And sure, those things had no yummy factors other than pitch black bones which provided no nutritional value at all, but their fiery orange and red scales and fins on their "tails" were perfectly delicious, even when raw. 

She saw a short tan boy in the jungle, confusedly staring at his communicator and barely even registering his dangerous ambient around him. He wore a blue hoodie, black cargo pants and a stupid blue beanie. The only armor he was wearing was a mildly-looking enchanted diamond armor and a worn down shield. A Warped Wendigo trekked through the jungle, locking eyes with the tan boy and promptly shooting forward. Pinning him to a nearby Netherrack wall with it's huge claws and antlers. More Wendigos approached, rumbling growls could be heard even if it was quite far.

That boy happened to be Skeppy, her gayass subordinate that was about to get killed if she didn't help out soon. Naimuri groaned and took a ender pearl out of her pocket, throwing it to the jungle. In the blink of an eye she was there, she stumbled to her feet and grabbed one of the yellow vines that hung around. She had to climb up there, and locate Skeppy, and quick . Unexpectedly a stray Wendigo caught her netherite boot when she was starting to climb, crushing it with just sheer force and digging deep into her skin. She hissed through gritted teeth, delivering a kick to the beast's snout and getting back her now injured foot. Luckily her boot didn't fall off so she atleast had some protection. Even if it was halfway crushed. 

She traveled through the vines like a acrobat, hot air zipped by her face from just how fast she was swinging back and forth. Pesky thorns were surely getting dug into her hands over and over again, but that wouldn't stop her from -being useful for once- trying to save her subordinate. Damn her years pulling her down! She was going to do this, even if she gets killed. It would only be retribution to all the damage she has caused. Both to her partners and ■■■. 

She caught glimpse of Skeppy, who seemed to have broke free out of the Warped Wendigo's beastly grip and was currently blocking hit after hit coming from the boney beast. His shield would surely not handle much more and if it broke it, he would end up winding up as a perfectly cooked lunch. Naimuri let go of the vines and landed on the green-ish moss of ter ground, scuttling and deploying both her natural and mechanical claws. She took out her sword and marched towards the danger zone. The Wendigo broke the shield, finally getting a good hit on Skeppy's soft and malleable armor. Naimuri dug her sword into the beast's neck and twisted it. The Wendigo let out a howl of pain and swung it's body around, flinging her across a good distance from just sheer brute force in itself, her left leg got the worst of it. Getting multiple twigs and loose thorns dug into the flesh and hitting a bunch of netherrack. 

She shot forward out again, throwing her last ender pearl and swinging her sword once more. This time it slashed a ugly mark across the Wendigo's chest, and thank Prime she enchanted her sword with Fire Aspect II, because the flesh was now burnt and thick and tar-like blood splattered all over the duo and on the ground. 

The Wendigo writhed in pain for a couple seconds and fell limp on the ground. Naimuri shot a glare to the remaining Wendigos, a glare so hard and so cold it could have sent anyone running, and she growled . It wasn't a warning growl or a playful growl. It was a low, rattling and demonic growl. Her tail puffed up and her ears were pinned to her skull,  posture threatening and implying no funny business. "No one kills my subordinate but me ." The Wendigos whimpered in fear and marched away. She stood there menacingly for atleast two minutes or so, and turned around, facing her subordinate. 

Skeppy looked breathless, the bad kind though. His armor had dents and cracks all over it, and his pupils were shrunk to an almost unreal level. His breathing was uneven and he remained as still as a statue, the only sign of him not having turned into stone was the rise and fall of his chest. And for a moment Naimuri was actually worried that he might have went into a deep state of shock.

" Holy -"

"You're hurt."  Naimuri pointed out, because now that she was getting a good look at him, his side had a nasty injury and there was atleast a couple slashes on his arms, her scowl vanished and morphed into pure concern, there were bruises already blossoming on his cheek, his collarbone and on his right leg. Several spots of his hoodie were now ripped and overall, he looked like a mess. 

"Think you can handle running across a highway?" Skeppy took his sweet time processing the information, his heart was racing and he does not think he can run across a entire highway. He wordlessly shook his head. And Naimuri sighed, rubbing her temples for a quick moment and then scooping him up with her tail . He let out a little squeak of surprise and yelped when Naimuri tossed him like a sack of potatoes and started localizing their coords with enviable speed. She then started running in the direction of a highway. 

"Which.. Highway...?" He panted out, he doesn't know how Naimuri can have so much strength being well in her 40's. And neither does he know how her tail could scoop up a full grown ass man, although he should have expected it coming from someone like Naimuri. But still.

"Southern Highway." Naimuri kept running, her boots clicked and clacked against the ground and crushing the moss of the jungle. She took out her pickaxe and started mining a path going straight to the Southern Highway. Her house on the basalt deltas should be halfway through the highway. And hopefully by then he wouldn't fucking bleed out. Otherwise she's going to bring him back and strangle him to death. 

--

Bad sluggishly kicked the blanket off, hugging the soft thing in his arms and blearily opening his eyes. The curtains of Skeppy's room were still closed and it kept the rays of sun from peeking through. Last night at some point in the middle of the night he woke up and found himself comfortably nested in Skeppy's arms, but now that wasn't the case. He was now hugging a pillow and there was no signs of his boyfriend hanging around. 

He yawned, sleepily sitting up and grabbing his dark red glasses and putting them on. He dragged a hand through his hair and fidgeted ever so slightly with the fluffy white blanket. It was comfortably warm to the touch. He noticed his book was sitting on Skeppy's desk, closed and laying face-down. 

But that's not important. His sensitive hearing didn't pick up not even the smallest of sounds coming from downstairs. And it was strange, almost suspiciously so. Normally he'd be hearing Skeppy do whatever upstairs or downstairs, even if it just was the sound of his footsteps. So it was really strange to not be hearing any noise at all. 

He made his way downstairs, and his gaze fell on the sticky note posted on the fridge, upon closer inspection there was a message written onto it, it had Skeppy's exact handwriting. It said ; 

'by the time u see this ill probs not be home, i had an important thing to do. theres mac n cheese in the microwave if u get hungry. plz feed rocco for me <3<3 ily!! - skeppy!' He softly smiled upon seeing the note, Rocco was sleeping on the couch as of now. He wasn't really all that hungry right now, so he decided to just go back to bed. 

Bad laid back on bed, pulling the blanket up and picking up his plushie, he snuggled close to it and curled up fetal position. If he was lucky enough, he'd fall asleep and wake up again by the time that Skeppy came back. Or he wouldn't. 

He can wait an entire hour for Skeppy to come back anyways. -A hint of anxiousness swelled in his gut, and doubt went together in that mix. What if he didn't come back?- 

--

"Fuck- Naimuri- Go slower- Please!" Naimuri kept running, dodging stray Magma Cubes and shooting down any Jungle Skeleton that thought that the duo was a perfect target. She rounded a pretty harsh corner, boots making a awful screeching and Skeppy nearly fell face first into a bunch of ice, if it weren't for the tight grip Naimuri had on him. He admires her determination, really. 

"I thought you hated me, what's the... Sudden change in- ACK!-" Skeppy promptly received a smack on the head, followed by his former boss rounding another corner, her face had a expression of heavy focus, soon growing into one of sourness and guilt upon looking at the highway now go down instead of straight like it had for these past 30 minutes. 

"I really hope you didn't have anything heavy for breakfast this morning." Naimuri whispered and then slid down the inclined path, and Skeppy realized he hated this. Because this both  went on for a unholy amount of blocks, and the sheer speed they were going at was making him nauseous. Overall this just sucked a hell ton.

By the time they were at flat land yet again, Naimuri stopped abruptly in her tracks, finally slowing down and opening the door of her house. She set Skeppy down in one of the living room's armchairs and sighed. Beads of sweat clung to her hair and forehead and she was so out of breath. 

"Im going to get the first-aid kit. You stay here and for Prime’s sake please don't die." Her voice kept the usual corporate tone it always had, and pulled out a first-aid kit from a kitchen cabinet and walked right over to where Skeppy miserably sat in. 

"Please just make it quick."

--

Bad shifted again, the anxiety in his gut and chest only grew bigger the more the minutes ticked by, and it was starting to make him more and more nauseous. There was too many questions in his head and all of them only contributed to his never-ending nerves. Had Skeppy decided to leave him? Did he grow bored of him? Did he just view him as a plaything from day 1? Did he do something wrong? Had he been a little too clingy for his liking? Did he- 

Bad forced himself out of his downwards spiral, he was just being a little paranoid over Skeppy leaving for a little while. It's no big deal! M-Mostly.. But he's damn sure he can handle being alone with his thoughts for a little while, hell, he used to spend entire days in isolation when he misbehaved badly enough. What damage could do a hour or two of being all on his own? Surely he wouldn't have a mental breakdown in that amount of time. right ? 

He began subconsciously flicking the spaded tip of his tail and started picking his claws. Honestly this was the first time ever his claws had been this sharp without getting them forcefully filed down. It always hurt a lot when his handlers did, they used a weird thing that made the entire process hurt a lot more and last longer than intended. But now they were long and sharp. Clearly something a demon of his own kind should have. They clearly relied on them to hunt and self-defense. Every nerve on his body felt like it was on fire and his anxiety was most likely shooting through the roof. But that's okay! It wasn't anything that the breathing exercise Skeppy had taught him  couldn't fix. Or maybe he could just focus on something that wouldn't feed his ever growing anxiety and nerves. 

Yup, that's what he had to do. Think about something positive. Easy as pie. That would help him calm down. Mhm. That's entirely the solution to his never ending nerves. 

Skeppy better come back soon otherwise he's soon going to lose it and have a anxiety attack. Since when does he cling to him that much? A lot of years ago he had swore to himself that he wouldn’t ever cling to anybody like this. And yet the moment Skeppy appeared in his life, he glued himself to Skeppy with the strongest metaphorical super glue he could get his grubby claws on. Proof of how many times he had betrayed his own promises.

--

"Naimuri- Hah - For god's sake- This is all your damn- Oof -" Naimuri rolled her eyes and kept working on bandaging up his wounds. His luck seemed to be on netherite ore levels, because Bad had scratched him yesterday and now he had almost gotten killed by a Warped Wendigo, and surely this was only a minor part of it, considering the almost concerning amount of health potions sitting casually on Naimuri's coffee table. 

"Will you stop complaining for a damned second? Thank you. Also, I suggest you don't go around doing anything physically demanding for the next couple weeks. Because those injuries are sure going to leave a mark and there's a lot of bruises on you. Hell, you look like a badly done finger painting where the only colors they had were black, red and purple." Skeppy had to bite down on the urge of barking back a equally snarky comment. But he's not in the mood of getting killed by Naimuri because he accidentally poked her a bit too much.

"Ouchies, that hurt my feelings. And you really aren't helping out with- AgH-" Naimuri suddenly cleaned a wound he didn't know he had. It was a bit of a wonder how he hadn't noticed it but *Naimuri* had. She must have really inspected him up close. Her gaze was clearly focused on patching him up and taking care of him.  

"Yes, I know. But you were the one that almost got killed by the wendigos back there. Hell, i'm sure you'd have bled out by now if it weren't for me." The tone of Naimuri's voice was the one of a mother scolding her children, and it made Skeppy feel sort of guilty. After all, it had maybe been his fault that Naimuri was tending to his wounds instead of hers.  

Naimuri seemed to have taken notice of this, as she sighed and spoke in a soft tone. 

"Hey, i'm not entirely blaming you. It's kinda my fault in the first place. Although please be more careful when wandering around jungles or any other bushy biomes. I may look like i hate you, but i don't want you to wind up dead. Plus, your oh so called demon you talked to me about would be pretty sad if one day you vanished into thin air." That... That was entirely true, Bad would take more than just a emotional hit if Skeppy vanished and never came back. He's already attached at the hip to him, but the pure doubt and anxiety of not knowing what happened to his boyfriend would shatter him. He ducked his head and looked away, Naimuri was somehow managing to hit close home with each thing she said. It's almost like she knew him intimately and knew all about his relationship with Bad. 

"I.. I'm sorry." The pure guilt on Skeppy's voice was enough to make Naimuri also want to apologize. She had made the poor boy feel guilty for what she had somewhat caused. She was the one that had to feel guilty, not Skeppy. 

"Accidents happen, Skeppy. You don't have to be sorry, I should be the one that feels sorry. Here, have a health potion to heal you up a little bit." Skeppy tried to grab the potion but it seemed like his hands were shaking (Strange, he hadn't noticed his hands were shaking this much.) too much to do such a simple task, and so it almost slipped out of his hands. But Naimuri ever so kindly took it, holding it for him so it was atleast a little more easier to grab it. 

"Use both of your hands, dummy. Otherwise it might slip."  He ever so slowly grabbed the potion and gulped it down. The taste of health potions was horrendously sweet and it almost made him want to gag. But to be honest, instant health potions were way worse. Another fact is, it wouldn't help him regain the blood he lost from the attack, but rather it would heal some of his minor injuries. 

"Thanks for like, patching me up and all that stuff." Naimuri waved him off and said it was just basic morality. Maybe what she was saying is true, but he can't be bothered right now to think about 'morality'. He's probably still running on nothing but pure adrenaline. 

"All right, now that that is done, I think we need to have a little talk. " Naimuri's body language suddenly changed into something more serious and her voice was stern and firm. 

"First of all, why in the world would you buy a demon. Whatever you do in the privacy of your house is not my business, but considering all you've told me.. I don't have a valid reason to not question you." Ohhh. Well, yeah, he may have summed up the entirety of what really happened between him and Bad, but it's also something really hard to explain, ya know? 

"Okay, so.. A couple months ago, maybe 6 or 7? I got assigned with taking information on a hybrid selling facility-" Naimuri flinched at the use of the name. "-And as I previously told you, i saw a demon literally crucified and on the verge of bleeding the fuck out. Sooo.. I made a not-so smart decision, I bought the demon." 

"Guess this is where Kinoko Kingdom's taxes are ending up, hm?"  Naimuri chuckled humorlessly, she was clearly not buying it even though what Skeppy had just said was the pure, raw truth. And to be honest, if he were in Naimuri's place ; He'd also not believe what he had just said. But yet again, what had happened was entirely true. Even if it didn't seem like it.

"And then what? Do you just not realize the hypocrisy of it all? You're a hybrid yourself, mister." She poked one of his diamonds with one of her mechanical claws. "Even if what you're saying is true, how did you manage to get away from it all?" Skeppy didn't have a solid answer to that. Maybe it had just been sheer luck in itself, maybe horrible enough lightning, or maybe just the jackasses not bothering to look at him twice. Naimuri quirked an eyebrow up, she was giving him that familiar deadpan stare.

"Well? Looks like you don't have a clear answer." Naimuri trailed off, and Skeppy was starting to get a bad feeling about this, he focused his gaze entirely on her claws, trying to figure out if she was going to swing them at him, or if she just had her suspicions. 

And so this went on for atleast half an hour, they did this back and forth between Skeppy's explanation and Naimuri questioning every single little detail that looked off to her. And honestly Skeppy had to stop in his tracks atleast five times just to explain the smallest little thing to her.

"Alright, I know you don't believe me, but i can show you pro-" Naimuri put a finger in front of his face, shushing him and effectively shutting him up. 

"Alright, I believe you. I would have found out earlier if you were just spewing lies. Don't worry your head off." Skeppy internally sighed in relief, looks like he wouldn't get murdered by Naimuri. And it was a great thing, because otherwise she might have shredded him into little pieces. 

"And before I forget, you got what I wanted?" Skeppy scrambled to search the insides of his messenger bag, pulling out 10 netherite scraps. Luckily they were still in pristine condition. Naimuri nodded in approval, giving him a generous amount of diamonds in exchange for the scraps. 

"You know, it's not entirely my business to ask about this- But if you live here, isn't it easier to just, i don't know. Mine them instead of paying someone to do the job? No offense or anything." Naimuri scoffed and crossed her arms. She just merely stared at him for all of five seconds before speaking. 

"I have also thought of that, but the risk of burning myself to death with the lava pits is non-ideal . And plus, i'm not entirely sure I can handle over an hour of mining for netherite." That was entirely a valid reason, not gunna lie. Lava pits are a pain in the ass and they are one of the most annoying things ever. 

"By the way, have this as a tip for all the trouble." She handed him 5 emeralds and he gratefully stored them in his bag. Luckily it wasn't that heavy so it wouldn't be a problem heading back home. Naimuri may be a bit of a trouble sometimes, but the tips were *real* good. 

Shortly after that, they bid goodbye and Skeppy took the shortest route that led to the north highway. Although this time, he made sure to be extra careful and to avoid any other fight with a Warped Wendigo. This had been a hell of a day. And honestly as soon as he gets home, he's sure he will face-plant against his bed and sleep for the remainder of the day. Hell, he might as well pass out on his house for a day and a half. 

He hopes that Bad is handling well being home alone. He knows how anxious he can get, and honestly he hopes he isn't breaking down or anything. 

--

Bad is effectively nauseous as living hell. He had lost track of time and all he's doing right now is sit in the bathroom waiting for the unavoidable. His anxiety had long since reached unholy levels and he was probably overthinking the entire situation. But yet one question (or probably many, who knows) lingered in his racing mind.

Had Skeppy left him? Was this a way of punishment? Had he done something wrong that made Skeppy leave? Or was it his panic attack from yesterday? Was it all just some sick and twisted joke?

Too many questions and no answers at all. It made his nausea *so* much worse and a familiar itchy feeling soon spread all over his body. He had dealt with way worse before, why is he overreacting this much? He's taken beatings, sessions of training, isolation, shackling, crucification- And somehow he's crying (When did he start crying?) over his boyfriend leaving for a little while. He's probably being.. Ir.. Irra.. Irrational. Hell, he's probably being possessive. 

He shouldn't be making a huge deal out of this, it's only been 3 hours, maybe? He's just being a crybaby. But yet that didn't make it any less worse. He laid down on the cold and dirty bathroom floor and uselessly wiped away his tears. The buzzing of the light above him and the sound of his own sobs was almost deafening. 

Bad eventually ran out of tears left to cry and got up from the floor. Instead heading downstairs once more and flopping down onto the couch. Rocco was probably sleeping in his doggy bed or playing with his chew toys, but that was the least of his concerns. He would just stay here and wait until Skeppy came back. -If he ever did.-

But as for now, he'll be hating and repulsing himself for growing emotionally dependent on Skeppy. And it was funny, he understood how he had grown that way, but not why. He also understood why he glued himself to the very first person that gave him a shred of love and affection, but not how . But yet a deep, dark and ugly part inside of him knew that this what he had wanted since forever ago. It knew that he enjoyed every hug and kind words that Skeppy said to him. It knew every dark and twisted thought that went through his mind. It knew how Bad chased after the affection like a lovesick puppy and made up innocent little fantasies when he went too long without it. It knew what the real BadBoyHalo looked like. It knew the miserable feeling of loneliness that he went through everyday.

He hates himself for having done such immature things. Granted, Skeppy had been nothing but kind e and affectionate ever since they met. But.. How had he allowed himself to forget about everything and only focus on the cuddles and affection and kind words? And now that he's all alone with his thoughts yet again, he can't bear it. Every second that ticks by is making him want to magically dissolve into thin air and never be seen again. How selfish of him, to cling to one person and pray things would stay that way forever. 

Without noticing, Bad had already begun tugging at his own hair. 

--

Skeppy took his sweet to walk back home. He was back at the Overworld and it was still sunny outside, clearly a good sign. The wind was chilly but it was sunny, which was probably a good thing. He could hear the birds chirping and it was *so* peaceful. There was a lake by the village he lived in, and the crystal clear water was in utter peace. The smell of flowers was ever so pleasant and it made him almost forget about the fact that he had almost gotten killed by a Warped Wendigo just an hour or two ago, and that he had been saved by his feral cat, caffeine addict of a boss. It made things now less sunshine and rainbows. But womp womp, I guess. 

The village was not so far away, judging by the sounds of children playing together and a iron golem wandering around. Sometimes he feels lucky to have chosen this place. It was a place where hybrids (And Bad) could live without the constant threat of being discriminated or judged. And honestly, at first he had been nervous about the village, but he quickly warmed up to everyone. 

He kept walking until he was in the village, the sounds of children playing and villagers talking about winter approaching was familiar to his ears, and honestly-

His comm ringed, and there was only one person he had the ringtone on for.

Naimuri.

Naimuri : Yo, next time you get attacked by a Warped Wendigo let me know so i can atleast have another pair of boots in hand, look at this shit.

Naimuri : [img attachment] smh

Skeppy : aaaaaa a a a a im so sorry bossgirl D: 

Skeppy : tho it wasnt really my choice to get attacked by a warped wendigo

Naimuri : I miss when you feared me enough to use capitals and call me 'ma'am'

Skeppy : dw, i still fear you :D

He pocketed his communicator and waved at a iron golem that passed by, it stopped to pat his head and give him a rose before continuing it's duty. This was sometimes a common occurrence for iron golems to notice him. The rose was a vibrant red, clearly fresh. He was sure that Bad would love to have it. After all, it was his favorite color. Followed by black, of course. A while ago he had given a small blue flower and he was almost starstruck.

By the time he was by the front door of his house, he already had his keys out. He took a moment to admire his Serial Designation N keychain and opened the door ever so slowly.

-- 

Bad was once more back in his room, he had been anxiously pacing  back and forth trying to make all his nonsensical thoughts go away. His tail anxiously flicked back and forth and one might think he was in the middle of a anxious crisis. He probably was, though. 

His anxiety shifted to self-hatred, to acceptance and becoming once more anxiety. He'd rather die than believe that Skeppy had gotten fed up and decided to indirectly ditch him. He'd rather be punished with the whip than believe- All these nerves and anxiety was really going to make him suffocate. This is probably the most overthinking he's had in a good while. 

Before he could spiral any further, Bad heard the telltale sound of the door opening. His train of thoughts finally stopped and the very first thing he did was poke his head out the hallway. 

"Bad? I'm home! Jesus christ, is he really still asleep- " Skeppy was cut off by the sound of a door being slammed open, being slammed closed, thundering footsteps- And Bad rushing down the stairs, effectively managing to slip and roll down the stairs and yet somehow get up in probably half a second and lunging at Skeppy. Who got ungracefully knocked down to the floor and was met face-to-face with his boyfriend's teary eyes.

"Good god-. What happened in all the time i was gone-" Bad was personally offended to hear that. Skeppy had the audacity- no, the motherfucking balls- to ask 'What happened' when he was probably on the verge of a anxiety attack because of him and then-

Bad blanked for a second, while yes, he was freaking out and crying his delicate and big heart out- Skeppy probably, and he means probably - didn't mean for this to happen. 

"S'geps.." He immediately clung to Skeppy's hoodie without a second thought. He tightly wrapped his tail around his chest and wrapped his legs around his waist. Koala bear'ing and not budging.

"..Bad?- I understand that you missed me a lot and that you want to cling to me like chewing gum- But love, I almost got killed two hours ago and I-" Skeppy uselessly tried to get Bad off of him, but Bad clung even harder to him and just refused to let go.

"I don't care." Bad would have been ashamed to hear his own possessive growls and warbles, but right now he was too caught up on clinging to Skeppy and relishing in getting to hold him and- 

Skeppy seemed to have taken the hint, as he just sighed and stopped trying to untangle his boyfriend from him. This was going to be a long day. 

--

Skeppy was making something simple for lunch, just classic spaghetti. On any other occasion he would have done one of his cursed food combos, but he doesn't really know if Bad is a picky eater when it comes to weird food combos. And somehow, Bad was still clinging to him. Mental note to leave more than just a mediocre sticky note on the fridge. He had tried bargaining, negotiation, and a lot of other things which only resulted in possessive growls and a tighter grip on him. Bad seemed to be determinated. He had heard multiple times about demons doing something similar with their mates back when he was in highschool, but he had forgotten what to do.

"Bad, last chance. If you don't get off of me this instant, i'm not gunna cuddle with you for the rest of the week and i'm definitely not going to kiss you goodnight. " Bad whined but it seemed like his trick had worked, because in a matter of a moments Bad was sitting on the table. 

"Criss cross applesauce. Am i not wanted, S'geppy?" One of Bad's hands was propping up his chin and the other rested limply at his side, and his voice was monotone. 

Right. A cyn reference. They had watched Murder Drones a while ago and Bad was clearly referencing the silly goob named Cyn. And it was most likely his favorite character. As for Skeppy? His favorite character was Tessa. 

"Yes, yes you are wanted but that trick is not going to work on me, sunshine. I'm too much of a ripping royal stud to fall for that." Skeppy quipped back. Bad grumbled and crossed his arms.Well, atleast he tried. 

"So.. Did ya do anything interesting while i was gone?" Oh. Bad had almost pushed his previous anxious crisis to the back of his mind. And Skeppy had just made the anxiety spark back once more. And it was hard to explain, since he had been freaking out over something so small. It's not like he can just tell his boyfriend what had really happened. 

Skeppy turned off the stove, taking a fork and rolling the pointed ends around in the now cooked pasta and turning around. Bad was a little confused. "I need your opinion on if it's cooked enough or not." He pushed the fork to Bad's mouth, and he hesitantly accepted the pasta. The taste was good, although it probably needed more time on the stove.

"...Almost cooked, by the way, how much salt did you put in this? " Skeppy should have known Bad would most likely notice the salt. He was a nether demon, after all. A while ago he had heard about fatal and mortal consequences if any kind of demon consumed enough salt. -But then how in the world is Naimuri not 6 feet underground? She's so salty he swears her mother must've given her an entire bag of salt at birth. 

"...Probably a little too much salt for you, does it taste awful?" If a thing had too much salt for Bad, then it would most likely taste terrible and like death. Bad shook his head, saying that yes, it did taste a little off but not terrible. Otherwise it might have been extremely worrying. 

"Okay, that's good. Though that doesn't answer my question at all. Did ya do something or did you just sleep until i came back-" Skeppy received no answer other than a sheepish shrug. And that raised some suspicions inside of him. And he's starting to connect the dots between Bad clinging to him the moment he walked through the door and his sheepish shrug and thinly veiled anxiety. 

"Uh huh, can you get off of the table, please? I need to serve this." Skeppy served two portions of spaghetti on the table Bad had been previously sitting on. The smell was pleasant although Bad didn't seem appealed. He only picked at his food with a fork and made a face. 

"I... I think i'm not hungry." Bad shamefully admitted. His entire crisis had taken away his entire appetite. And the idea of eating lunch made him nauseous. Granted, it looked delicious but he didn't feel hungry at all. 

Skepoy narrowed his eyes at him. Whatever cheap excuse he was going to make up he was definitely not going to buy it. He had noticed the still full macaroni and cheese bowl still in the microwave, and what would be the chances out there that Bad wasn't hungry? It may be half true, but there had been atleast a reason as to why. It most likely couldn't be something out of the blue. 

"Are you not hungry or is your appetite gone?" The words were in such a casual tone yet Bad still flinched. He opened and closed his mouth but yet no sound came out. It was a hard thing to explain. And he couldn't even begin to bother about how he would phrase it. 

Bad kept picking at the spaghetti until at some point he took a almost forced bite out of it. But how would it even be forced if he did it on his own will? Skeppy certainly didn't hold him gunpoint and threatened to shoot him if he didn't take a bite out of the spaghetti. 

He barely even chewed, he ignored the off taste and weird seasoning and just swallowed. It felt like lead on his stomach. He kept taking almost insanely small bites, and Skeppy watched him with watchful eyes. He couldn't pinpoint if it was concern or suspicions, maybe a mix of both. Only he could tell what it truly was. And this continued until his plate was empty. He had to swallow down the urge to gag atleast a couple dozen times. And Skeppy didn't take his eyes off of him for even a split second. It was almost unnerving. 

By the time the dishes were clean, Bad was clinging yet again to Skeppy with all his might and willpower. His nausea had been forgotten and his only mission at hand was to not let Skeppy out of his sight. He didn't ever want Skeppy to leave his side ever again. 

He purred contently as Skeppy petted him and didn't try to coax him out of his arms yet again. He heard him mutter something about them officially becoming a package deal. And he pretended not to hear any of it. Bad kept his tail wrapped around his chest at all times. 

And everything was almost normal yet again. There was an almost awkward silence, but they would break it via small chatter.

It brought him a good sense of comfort to finally be in Skeppy's arms once more. -And ever so selfishly he wanted this to last forever. He wanted to bathe in his warmth for the rest of his days. They decided to just spend the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing. Even if Skeppy *did* try to ask why he was clinging this much to him, he received no answers. Bad didn't really want to explain nor elaborate. He would only warble and nuzzle into his neck when he insisted too much.

--

Skeppy had been staring at the ceiling for atleast 3 hours now. He didn't think he would fall asleep anytime soon. His insomnia must be shooting through the roof. Bad was still clinging to him, and he had long since stopped trying to get answers out of him. It was almost useless. So he just decided to keep silent and not try to do any small talk. It was most likely for the best.

Bad's snores drawed out into white noise and sometimes he sleepily mumbled something and clung tighter onto him. It was almost unbearably cute. How could he have the right to be this cute? 

His hand reached out to pet his head as he usually did. Bad always liked petting and head scratchies, after all. It was almost a ritual between them. Skeppy would usually scratch or pet his head and Bad would contently purr as he received physical affection to his heart's desire. Sometimes he would chirp, sometimes he would purr ; it all depended on how he was feeling. And each time he wanted to coo and cup his cute little face with his hands and just never let go. 

"Mnn... Geppy..." Bad murmured, scooting closer. Skeppy continued patting his head, and it seemed to ease him back into deep slumber. Or atleast that's what he thought. Because a few minutes later he noticed the tears flowing from his closed eyes. He caught a few slurred pleas and something that sounded suspiciously like 'don't leave, please.'  Oh. Something wet touched his hoodie and it was his cute partner. Who had now buried his face in his chest and crying. It seemed like his previous statement of Bad only being at peace when asleep was proven wrong. Poor thing was always stressed out, even in this state of slumber.  

Bad suddenly jolted awake, eyes shooting wide open and sitting up as fast as lightning. He looked around frantically as if looking for someone or something, before looking eyes with Skeppy. The very first thing he did was let out a distressed warble and then tightly wrap his arms around him in a almost crushing bear hug. Skeppy almost had no real time to react before Bad was sobbing while crushing him. 

"Skeppy- I- Don't-" Bad doesn't even know what his nightmare was truly all about. The details were already starting to blur out in his mind, but it certainly had to do something about Skeppy leaving him. Maybe something about his emotionless expression boredly watching him as he begged for him not to leave? It was all too much to handle. Even more so for a person like him.

"Woah- Sweetheart, calm down- You're crushing me- " Bad didn't loosen his grip. In fact, he almost crushed him a little more. Bad didn't really want Skeppy to see him like this, in such vulnerable and weak state. But at the same time he wanted Skeppy to comfort him, as selfish and sensitive that may be. He needed to know his nightmare had just been an evil trick coming from his mind and not actually real. He needed to know that Skeppy was here . That he hadn't left him. That he hadn't abandoned him -just like everyone else he has ever loved in the past has-. 

"Please.. 'M so sorry- Please don't- Leave- I- Skeppy.." Skeppy was taken off guard by this, he had been strangely anxious and clingy when he first came back. And now what he had just said made little sense. But that's when he started to connect the blurry dots just a little bit. 

Could it have been possible be that he had a nightmare over Skeppy having left this morning? Was it just one of his strangely enough usual nightmares? Skeppy didn't have enough time to worry about all that. Hell, the task at hand should be comforting Bad, who was freaking out.

"Shh, It's okay.. I'm here, yeah? I'm not going anywhere. Im staying right here." Bad seemed to visibly relax just a tiny little bit once he ever so softly whispered to him. Although he did keep panicking and sobbing out words that honestly, broke his heart a little. 

Bad all of a sudden took a deep breath and released a wail, full of anguish and stress powerful enough to make someone like Bad snap . Not in a violent way or anything, but rather through tears and sobs. All that was left behind of his shy, and quiet facade was an uncontrollably shaking, sobbing mess. Skeppy was probably the only thing keeping him mildly sane. 

It took Skeppy 30 minutes to calm him down, shushing him and whispering reassurances. And that seemed to do the trick, as his sobs died down and his shaking became little more than just trembling. 

"It's okay, sunshine. You're okay, it was all just a bad dream. I'm right here and i'm not going anywhere, 'kay?" Bad clung to his hoodie, exhaustion finally catching up to him.

"...Do you want to talk about your nightmare? If you want to, of course." It was irrational. Possessive. Stupid. Selfish. Egoistical. Self-centered. Reckless. But yet Bad ever so slowly nodded. If it could be considered a nod anyways. His handlers would've punished him for messing up something so simple, they would've also punished him and beaten him for being so needy in the first place. -A deep part of him whispered that he knew better than this. But he pushed that thought down.-

"It was.. About- I-" He couldn't force the words out, no matter how hard he tried. All he was met with was subconscious chirps and perhaps badly worded ways of explaining his nightmare. He knew he needed to get it out of his system (and probably mind), but he just couldn't . Bad wanted to explain it all but yet at the same time he didn't want to look like a crybaby and worry Skeppy even more. And it was all so, but so stressful to deal with. 

It took a lot of willpower to try to build up enough courage to even speak up. He wanted to relax into the backrubs and fall asleep like this but he couldn't. A part of him wishes he still had his wings so Skeppy would be petting them instead of his back. But it was a stupid desire.

"Hey, I understand if you don't want to talk about-" Bad shook his head. He had to. - He had heard a while ago that nightmares became reality if you didn't tell someone about them. But it was from a much more innocent time.- 

"It was... About you .. Leaving- And- I- I know it's- I know i'm-" Bad stumbled over his own words. He shouldn't be overreacting over something so small. It had been just a nightmare, why was he making such a big deal out of this? It was stupid. But.. Maybe it had been fueled by Skeppy disappearing for a couple hours this morning. But he wasn't the one to blame. Bad, in the other hand?.. 

"And- When- When you l-left this morning.. I.. I thought you- I thought you had gotten bored of me- Or- Or that you were punishing me for freaking out yesterday- Or that you had... *Left me.*" Oh. That sent a pang of guilt to Skeppy's chest. Bad had thought that *he* had decided to leave him. It made him feel extra guilty of having taken his sweet time to walk back home. 

"Bad.. I'm so sorry for having disappeared this morning.. It was something that came up last minute. But I promise you, I would never get "bored" of you, I would never leave you alone for having a panic attack- And I would never leave you." Bad looked up at him with hopeful eyes/ Skeppy dutifully wiped away his tears with his thumb and Bad brokenly warbled. 

They continued this for a little while, silence stretching on and none of them dared to break it. Bad's tail coiled around his chest, squeezing and not letting go. And that was okay, Bad lately had been doing that. Skeppy used his free hand to pet his boyfriend's head in a back and forth motion. Bad's eyes fluttered shut, a low purr rumbling in his chest.

"Promise?" Bad's tone was a hushed whisper. His purring progressively got louder, and Skeppy felt inclined to coo but it was probably not the smartest choice. 

"I promise." Skeppy whispered back. Bad chirped in return, nuzzling his cheek onto the crook of his neck and purring to his heart's content. Promising to never leave was easier said than done. But it was the meaning behind it that counted. They linked their pinkies together in the universal sign of a promise, and that was more than enough for Bad. He would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying the headpats, because they brought a familiar sense of comfort he has experienced before.  It eased away all his worries and only left behind a string of fuzzy thoughts. 

Their shared warmth was enough to make Bad slip away into a boneless bundle in Skeppy's arms, but maybe not enough to help him fall asleep ; Even if he was probably beyond exhausted he couldn't fall back asleep. He was a little too tired to even speak but he was awake enough to slightly shift. Bad kept purring as Skeppy continued petting him. 

--------

The room was dark and the curtains were closed. Rocco luckily hadn't decided to start barking out of nowhere and Bad was still in his arms, purring in his sleep, even after Skeppy had stopped petting his head. He was still wide awake and was now currently answering texts in his communicator. And somehow, the group chat was still going at it with the never-ending yapping. 

Big Man : yall we turned tubbo into a pretty princess 

Big Man : [img attachment] 

Big Man : hes so slay right? 

Bee Boi : SOTPPPPPP I TGIOUHT Y WLDNTO SNNED TAHT 

Ran Boo : For quick context, Tubbo lost a bet. 

Bee Boi changed Ran Boo's name to Ran Snitch </3 

Ran Snitch </3 : Aw man, @PunzPunkPingPong, is this how being you feels like?

PunzPunkPingPong : Affirmative. These people keep adding random words to my nickname for some dumb reason smh.. 

Bee Boi : wahft fi i eddaed anthelr ot yrou nmea 

PunzPunkPingPong : Nah i actually love only having 4 words in my name ty very much but i think i'll pass <3<3 

Big Man : yo, @Skeppyz u prick we see u online. 

Skeppyz : ????? 

Skeppyz : tf u want tommy 

Big Man : u havent chatted in here as much as u normally do, big s. whats got u so quiet? 

Skeppyz : having a bf ;) 

Skeppy turned off his communicator before he could get 500 calls from Tommy and company. He set it down on the nightstand and for some convenient reason, Bad stirred and buried his face on his hoodie. "I can't sleep." His soft, but yet tired voice drawed out. Skeppy hadn't even realized that his sunshine wasn't asleep at all. Bad must be a great actor, then.

"Oh. Same here, not gonna lie. Guess we're both raging insomniacs then, hm?" Bad didn't giggle or smile at Skeppy's mediocre attempt at a joke, he only tiredly groaned and unwrapped his tail from where it was, giving the bed a little smack with it. He won't lie, sometimes Bad would repeatedly pat things with his tail unknowingly and it was one of the cutest things ever . 

"Alright, alright. Noted. I won't make dad jokes anymore, grumpyboyhalo. " Skeppy ever so slightly teased. He liked messing with Bad and poking him around just to troll him. But even with Bad's "annoyed" grumble, he could still tell that he was tiredly smiling. Which atleast was a small victory for him, getting Bad to smile and all that. 

"Can.. Can you help me fall.. Asleep?" Bad mumbled, and this time it was impossible for Skeppy to hold back a coo at such cuteness. He agreed to it without any type of doubt. He was more than glad to be able to help out anyways. 

"Do you want me to tell you a story? Or you want me to sing you something? Anything you want?" Bad thought for a hot minute about all the choices he had at hand. And the one that stood out the most to him was.. Skeppy singing him something. And maybe some scratchies behind his horns, too. 

"Can- Can you.. Sing to me?.. A-And like, give me scratchies behind my horns, please?" Bad whispered, a part of him expected Skeppy to shove him off of in disgust and call him a freak for daring to ask for such thing, but another part of him knew he wouldn't ever do that. His request was met with a nod and a bright smile. And Bad internally sighed in relief. 

"Anything in specific you want me to sing?" Bad fuzzily shook his head as best as he could with Skeppy scratching behind his tiny horns, the reason he liked that so much was mostly because they were such a sensitive spot ; so scratches felt like heaven on earth for him. He looked up at Skeppy, white eyes gone soft and half-lidded. 

"Anything you want.." He murmured, the bed was so warm along with Skeppy and it made his limbs feel like overcooked noodles. Honestly this was the first time in a loooong while he's let himself drift away this much. And plus, Skeppy was probably going to be the only person to ever see him like this. Fragile and vulnerable. 

"Alright. Fair warning, though. I'm not good at singing, like, at all. Ahem, you are my sunshine. " Bad was already starting to fall asleep, turns out counting in his mind didn't help at all but all it took to make him start to fall asleep was Skeppy scratching behind his horns. The way his body worked was certainly a wonder for himself. 

" My only sunshine.. You make me happy when skies are gray ." Bad yawned, wrapping his tail around Skeppy's waist but not squeezing, just keeping it there. 

" You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. " Skeppy noticed Bad's whimper when he stopped scratching his head for as long as a second, so he continued doing it. And judging by Bad's pleased purrs, he was really enjoying this. His cute half-lidded gaze, the patting of his tail, his adorable little warbles, they were all giving him away. And Skeppy was starting to think that he had just entirely broken Bad's brain and now the only part that worked correctly enough to make him atleast half-function were his animalistic instincts. 

" Please don't take my sunshine away. " By now, Bad had already dozed off. Finally falling into a really deep state of slumber and going fully limp in his boyfriend's arms. Skeppy quietly chuckled as he adjusted Bad so they were both more comfortable, fully wrapped up in each other's arms. Although this time, Bad didn't experience any other nightmares throughout the entire night. Instead, he had a peaceful dream from a much more innocent time. Skeppy, in the other hand? Soon fell asleep, enjoying his boyfriend's warmth and the coziness of his bed. And for the first time in a long while, he doesn't regret any of the decisions Skeppy made throughout the years that led to this very moment. 

Chapter Text

Hey everyone! AXD here, no, this sadly isn't a update for COF. BUT! I have news on that, plus some things ;P. The reason of why i really havent posted in a good while is because i went on break after writing chapter 21 (I seriously dont know what i was thinking when i decided to get so carried away with Naimuri's debut. I guess the slay bossgirl deserved 10 thousand words even if she only had like 15 dialogues? Whatever.), and chapter 22 has been REALLY hard for me to write. But it should be done either this weekend or somewhere next week! Pretty long chapter, if you ask me. Anyways, thank you guys SO MUCH for 2,1k hits and OVER a hundred kudos! I appreciate so much everyone that has left a kudo or just read this story <3<3 Anyways, i'll see you guys around once i update this and bring some more chaos to this insanely gay fic *coughs and looks at Bad and Skeppy*. Stay safe, be gay, and MOST IMPORTANTLY.. SKEPHALO 🔥🔥🔥

TL;DR : The author got too silly and had authors block and is struggling to write but they will get something out very soon. Live love laugh skephalo (peace and love kumbayah)

Chapter Text

Technoblade is many things, a warrior, a potato farmer, an anarchist, an English major. But one of those things definitely isn't a parent. He's been struggling to raise a child and it's honestly harder than learning how to skillfuly use a katana or a crossbow. And it gets even harder when said child can set themselves on fire. And so he's been trying to effectively raise a child without dying in the process. He doesn't know how Phil managed to raise all three of his sons, considering how chaotic they were back in the day. 

So here he was, a piglin hybrid and a blaze hybrid ; both snuggled together. The little gremlin earlier had decided to climb the walls and hang upside down for the ceiling and it took Phil an entire hour to get him down from there, because he just kept flying away and choosing yet another spot in the ceiling. And this caused Sapnap to now be basically falling asleep in the anarchist's arms. Some of the voices cooed at the cuteness and for once they were silent enough to give him some sort of peace. 

le child is tired awwww

E

Ooh lala he's raising a child

*LOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

Honestly i didnt expect an anarchist and a arson supporter to be raising this child. Life is full of surprises ig

Something that he had noticed earlier that the child had nesting instincts. And he noticed it due to all the pillows and blankets in the cabin going missing. And some items from the Nether had also dissapeared, but he found all them upstairs, inside a nest that wasn't there before. Turns out the kid had tried to nest but it was unssuccesful.  

"Aww, Tech! This is the first time in a long while since i've seen you act this soft. Has the blood god grown soft?~" Phil cooed. Technoblade loves his dad but he might murder him if he says that one more time. Mostly because Chat went roaring and started mocking him for being such a "softie". And because he does not want to accept the fact that he may or may not have grown soft. 

Sapnap squirmed in his arms, letting out a weak chirp. Techno chuffed at him like any good caretaker would. This seemed to do the trick as the kid purred out a little squeak and relaxed further in his arms. He petted his raven hair and Chat's mocking went to the very back of his head. His only job in mind was to protect the child. Okay, yeah. He may have gotten a little soft in the past couple months. But Techno is a little too prideful and stubborn to admit that. Like he ever would anyways, he had a reputation to keep.

"See? You've grown soft," Techno wanted to glare daggers at his father, but honestly he was right, and he knew that deep down. Even if he was in denial. Hours ticked by like this, with Sapnap taking a cozy nap in the arms of an arsonist, and said arsonist making small chat with Phil. But there wasn't really anything interesting to make small chat about, until they hit something that he should have seen coming.

"Completely unrelated but Tommy told me that Skeppy has now a boyfriend, you know him best ; Is that actually true or?..." Phil explained with a wave-like hand gesture. Huh. He hadn't talked with Skeppy in maybe a month or two, and last time they had spoken, Skeppy was high on monster energy drink and reciting the entire script of the Bee movie. But not once had he heard about him having a boyfriend or anything like that, Techno had thought at some point that he would stay single forever. But seems like he was proven wrong for the second time in that very same day. 

"Wait, what? He has a what now? He was actually gay all along?!* Phil only shrugged. Techno pulled out his comm and checked their chaotic group chat for any answer to this. And yup, Skeppy himself had said it. But he had to know that this wasn't some stupid troll of his and that this was the pure thruth. So he clicked on Skeppy's contact and pressed the call button. It was only a matter of seconds before Skeppy picked up. 

"Yo, Technoblade. 'sup?" Skeppy's groggy voice came from the other side, there was a soft sound on the background ; Oddly like the sound of a cat purring and something softly being scratched. 

"Hey, nerd. Is it true that you have a boyfriend now? Or was it just some dumb troll of yours to shut Tommy up for all of five minutes?" There was shuffling coming from the other side and then Skeppy spoke once again.

"Yup. He's literally sleeping next to me. You wanna meet him or something?" Techno stayed silent for an entire minute. A lot of things had happened today. Definitely too much for the kind potato farmer he is. Maybe a little too many things for the remainder of the week, but somehow he forced out a 'Yeah, sure. Why not' and then there was shuffling coming from the other end yet again. The sound of a cat purring stopped. 

"Hey, psst. A friend of mine wants to meet you, say hi." A tired groan came from the other side and Techno wasn't entirely sure if he had made the right choice. He wasn't even sure if this was a stupid troll or the truth. 

"Mn... Let me sleep.." A voice that definitely wasn't Skeppy came from the other side. It was a really gentle voice, Techno noted. Some more shuffling, and then silence. Phil raised a eyebrow at him, and Techno merely shrugged. 

"Just say something, then you can go back to sleep. 'kay?" This call was starting to sound more like the pure truth and not like any other stupid prank or troll Skeppy would pull on him. He still remembers vividly how Skeppy had put glitter bombs all over the cabin and set them all off. Sometimes Techno still finds glitter in random places he thought he had fully cleaned.

"..Something." Techno heard Skeppy quietly chuckle and the sound of something being scratched and a cat purring started once again. It was really confusing.

the fact that this is linear with chapter 21 makes it a lot more floofy

RARARARARAR WE WANT TECHNODAD CONTENT NOT SKEPHALO

E

The world may fall apart but ill be here just for this

"Well.. Yeah, that's.. My boyfriend." Awkward silence stretched on for atleast a couple seconds. Then for a minute. Nothing happened. Techno's finger hovered over the hang up button. 

. . . 

"Uhm.. You know? I- I think... I think I'll call you later." The tone in Skeppy's voice clearly showed that he was experiencing a very awkward moment. Phil kept one of his eyebrows raised and honestly Techno regrets calling the nerd in the first place. Guess the curiosity had really killed the cat. A few moments later Skeppy ended the call and Techno wordlessly stored his comm in his pocket. This would very difficult to explain to Phil. 

Sapnap snuggled closer to Techno, who chuffed at him and petted the child's head. Neither of them knew if Sapnap had any family at all, so they were willing to atleast try to raise the child. And Phil still recalls how Techno had at first said he wasn't going to "adopt a orphan" but soon he grew attached. Even if taking care of a blaze hybrid was a bit of a struggle (understatement of the year), Phil was 100% sure Techno wouldn't change it for anything in the Overworld. Or any other dimension. 

"Well? Was it true?" Phil inquiered, honestly they should have expected something like this coming from someone like Skeppy, the signs had been there for years and his ridiculous T-shirts were also a sign. Techno nodded. A doubt in Phil's head that had been sitting there for years had finally been answered. 

"I should have seen this coming, dad." Techno sighed. Fully focusing on the child happily resting in his arms once more, even though he wasn't a piglin hybrid like Techno, he still wanted to dress the child with jewelry made out of gold and raise him as if he were one. Though that's mostly his instincts' wishes. And it's entirely the reason as to why a singular shiny emerald earring hung from one of his runt's ears. 

"I mean, what can you expect, mate? Didn't he basically bomb the cabin with glitter last year? I can stil see glitter on the roof, by the way." Phil sincerely shrugged. Technoblade swears he's going to massacre Skeppy next time he looks at his stupid little "innocent" face. He literally spent hours cleaning the walls and the ceiling after his stupid troll (he swears his retinas died from looking at that Prime-forbidden ugly shade of glittery, vibrant cyan.) and somehow- and only somehow, there's still leftovers from that miserable day. 

"...Eh, it's true. Moving on.. Do you think that Sapnap will like Nether salad?" 

--

knock knock

Techno looked up, then to the front door. It was strange to be having visitors at such random time. And last time he had checked nor the FBI or the police were looking for him. And it makes things even stranger, because he lives in a really isolated part of Snowchester. And he literally had no neighbors at all. And he highly doubted Phil would come back after having left around 30 minutes ago. So who could possibly be knocking on his door? 

He set the fire on low, carefully putting away some of the cut vegetables his runt would most likely try to eat or steal (A while ago he had learned that he really liked things like spinach and potatoes), and reluctantly headed towards the front door. Whoever-it-was kept knocking on the door. Techno's steps were slow and full of suspicions. He grabbed his netherite axe and gripped the handle tightly, it was just in case he needed to murder someone today. Just in case. He slowly grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. The cold air of Snowchester hit him straight in the face, and instead of being greeted by the FBI, or the police. Or literally anyone else- 

He was greeted by Tommy, his little brother. And his friends, Tubbo and Ranboo. Both were dressed in winter appropiate outfits, while Tommy was severely underdressed for a weather like this. No wonder why he was violently shaking while giving him that usual mischevious, wide grin. Techno resisted the urge to groan and have also expected such outcome, but all he really did was just unamusedly stare at the three tenagers.

"Sup, Blade! Long time no see, big man! We took a train to Snowchester and so we decided to stop by and pay you a visit!" Techno could very clearly hear the shake in Tommy's voice as he spoke, and he could clearly see Ranboo's dissaproving and dissapointed look aimed towards Tubbo and Tommy. He spent no time getting them inside the cabin and shutting the door. He cannot imagine the living hell it may be for Tommy to be outside on the freezing cold, unforgiving weather of Snowchester. He put the axe down back in it's usual spot, hidden away in one of his chests.

"Tommy, what are you actually doing here? I can clearly tell that this wasn't some case of, err.. "Taking a train to Snowchester", mostly because there's no damn way you came here dressed like that, while your two friends are dressed up properly for the weather, and because you guys don't even have a backpack." Techno shook his head and tsked dissaprovingly. Tubbo elbowed Tommy and whispered something he couldn't grasp at all. So he just stood there, with a hand on his hip and waiting for a coherent explanation as to why three teenagers had shown up at his house in the middle of nowhere. 

"Tommy thought it'd be a great idea to run away for no reason at all and come here, he didn't bring anything because he forgot about it- And then we actually got here via train, and I had to pay the tickets because someone forgot to bring money for the tickets." Ranboo shot a really pointed look at Tubbo, who "innocently" batted his eyelashes and looked away. Techno rolled his eyes and walked back to the kitchen, continuing to cook a delicious Nether salad. Luckily there wasn't any missing pieces.of chopped vegetables, so that was nice. 

"Uh, excuse me ; Ranboob. I didn't run away for fun. I ran away simply because--" Ranboo shushed him, pulling out his communictor from his jacket's pocket and pulling up the text thingy. There was a quick moment of silence, Tommy was already about to break it, but alas. Ranboo cleared his throat and quoted one of Tommy's texts from earlier.

"Yo, Big R. How about we go to snowchester to bother and annoy the living crap out of my brother? I kinda wanna run away, mostly for fun." Ranboo imitated Tommy's voice when quoting him, and it only offended him more. Before any stupid shouting match could go off, Sapnap poked his head out through the hallway, a curious look was on his adorable little face, and then all eyes were on him. Great. Godly timing, Techno supposes. 

"Holy FUCK!" Techno grimaced and slightly furrowed his eyebrows. "Did you have a CHILD?! Techno, my man- I'm so glad you're now a father of a wonderful child but WHY DID YOU NEVER TELL ME?! How long ago did you have the child?! What's his name? Wait, forget all that- Who is the mother? You had a girlfriend and never told Big Man Tommyinnit?!" Before Tommy could continue speaking, Tubbo slapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him. And Techno just kept boiling some of the ingredients he'd need. The salad wasn't going to cook itself anyways.

"No, Tommy. I do not have a girlfriend. But yeah, I kinda have a child now. Or whatever." Sapnap stared at the three teenagers with a mix of curiosity and distrust. Then, he looked at Techno and nudged his head towards them for a brief moment, silently questioning this. Honestly he had expected somethung more calm and perhaps civil once his little brother met his runt, but honestly calm and civil would probably be on the bottom of the list. 

"Techie? Who 'dis people?" Techno wanted to dissipate into thin air and never be seen again. Just now his runt had decided to call him 'Techie' (Which isn't a problem in itself, he has called him that plenty of times.) when the three annoying teenagers are in the same room as them, and Techno swears he's going to get teased and mocked for that for the rest of his life. The group of teenagers know him as a ruthless arsonist who would burn down a entire country if nedded, not as a person that wears his heart on his sleeve. But he still toned down his gruff voice to the usual volume he uses when speaking to Sapnap.

"Oh. See the blonde kid? That's your uncle, his name is Tommy." Sapnap carefully nodded and confusedly tilted his head at Tommy. Who puffed out his chest and smiled at him. Somehow Sapnap had a uncle and he hadn't found out until now? Does that really mean that Techie had brothers or something? Well, he does know about grandfather Philza,but he has a uncle now?.. Well, that's interesting. Altough he chose to ignore the mean look Tommy gave Techno when he said the words "blonde kid."

"See the boy with the bee wings right next to uncle Tommy?" Techno pointed at the boy with the bee wings with the wooden spoon he was using for whatever reason. He noted that he had brown hair, and green eyes. He looked really friendly and nice! "Mhm. That's Tubbo. He keeps threatening to nuke my house but he's not capable of such thing. But don't worry, he's really nice." Nukes?.. 

Tubbo gently smiled and waved at him. Sapnap made sure to keep a internal note to ask him later if he wants to play with him. He doesn't know any of them but he's sure they would be really fun to play with! His small little wings fluttered in excitement at just the mere thought. 

"See the kid with the dyed hair? Cool, right? Yeah, his name is Ranboo. Yeah, sure. His height may be a little intimidating but I can assure you he's a good kid. Not like the two gremlins over there. And one of them keeps making my precious golden apples dissapear." Techno shot a pointed look at uncle Tommy, who innocently batted his eyelashes and tried to look utterly innocent. Sapnap didn't really know what that last part must be about, but honestly it may be a brothers' thing. He doesn't know, though. He doesn't really have a brother in the first place. So that must be the case for Techno and uncle Tommy, then! 

He made his way to the group of teenagers with almost shy steps and them waved at them. They all cooed at him but it made him pout. What was so cute about him? Techno says he's fiery, threatening and very scary! He's not cute at all! He huffed in mild annoyance and looked away.

"So.... What's your name, buddy?" Ranboo awkwardly asked, and he won't lie ; his height was almost intimidating for Sapnap. Like, he had to crane his neck just to get a good look at his face. Ranboo had pretty eyes, red and green! He had never seen something like that before, and it made him curious. 

"Ssapnap!" He chirped out. For some silly and weird reason he had always liked dragging out the initial letter in his name, and the group of teenagers cooed. Sapnap's cuteness was excessive and Tommy was sure going to spoil this child, he would be the cool uncle! Hell, he was going to teach the literal kid the entire dictionary of swear words and slander. Tubbo, in the other hand would most likely teach the kid how to make bee-sized nukes, nuke-sized bees and nukes in general. It was easy as pie, after all! As for Ranboo?.. Eh, he could teach him about the meaning of flowers and maybe some Enderian. If he was old enough to speak, then perhaps Enderian wouldn't be really hard to understand.

"Uh.. Uhm. Okay. Cool name, I guess." Ranboo lamely shrugged and looked away. Eye contact sometimes made him really, really uncomfortable and right now was one of those cases. Even though Sapnap wasn't being threatening at all, making eye contact with him made him uncomfortable. Enderman genes, he supposes.

Sapnap tugged on Tubbo's pant to get his attention and his fiery little tail was swishing from side to side in excitement. He also sported a wide grin and the cutest puppy eyes. Tubbo noticed that, and looked down to where the child was. His wings twitched in confusion. 

"Yeah, buddy?" Tubbo asked. Sapnap quickly said that if he wanted to play with him. It would honestly feel a little cruel if he were to refuse or say no. So Tubbo agreed. The other two were quickly invited and beelined towards Sapnap's room. It was fairly small, to be honest. There were a couple of drawings taped to the walls, a box with toys under the bed, a wooden desk with crayons and papers spilled all over it. There was also a closet which was highly decorated with random stickers. 

"This is so pog! I wonder why Blade hadn't introduced us to you sooner. Did he kidnap you or something?" Sapnap shook his head. He gave them a small tour around his room and then asked if they knew how to play Monopoly. Tommy was crazy good at Monopoly, Tubbo could barely even comprehend the rules, and Ranboo always made the other two argue while he silently bought all the properties. 

It all went downhill sooner than they all expected. Sapnap was royally kicking Tommy's ass, Tubbo had already gone bankrupt. And Ranboo was getting a hell lot of profit from just taxes. The first few minutes were okay, when Tubbo was almost bankrupt he started going insane, Tommy nearly got into a verbal fight with the child over a train station (Ranboo had to put a stop to it.), then Ranboo just sort of did his own thing. Tubbo, after going insane for around 15 minutes was now reading the entire instruction manual. He had been struggling to read the first paragraph for the last 40 minutes. 

"Take that, Ranboob! No more paying you taxes!" 5 minutes later, Tommy was paying Ranboo a hefty amount of taxes. Sapnap won in the end. It was funny how a literal 7 year old kicked their ass at Monopoly. 

--

The salad had turned out real damn tasty, way more than what he had expected in the first place. The taste of the mushrooms was perfectly evened out by other things, the bittersweet taste of the shadow berries (a lot of years ago Phil had told him about Kristen had made regular nether salad and added shadow berries as a way to replace the magma cream watered down with ghast tears, in his words ; "It was like Gordom Ramsey himself had made me a plate of my mother's spaghetti, then Jesus cried on it. I know it sounds weird but it was the actual fucking best thing on earth.") gave it a nice touch and overall he'd give it a 10/10. Nether salad was a dish he used to eat a lot as a child, so he mostly knew what combinations went well, and which ones were downright disastrous and horrible. It was easy enough. You needed potatoes, carrots, crimson mushrooms, warped mushrooms, a mix made out of (a slight amount of) magma cream *SPECIFICALLY* diluted and watered down by ghast tears and water; Small bits of blaze powder and shadow berries if you wanted to give it a nice add-on. Of course there was multiple ways to do it, but the way Techno prepared it was just fine. Atleast in his opinion. 

The group of teenagers and his runt were back at the living room after doing whatever young people do nowadays. Tommy was glaring daggers at Ranboo and Tubbo looked like he'd been through atleast 30 different wars. Sapnap, in the other hand had a innocent look in his eyes. From what little he had been hearing for the past 40 minutes, they were playing Monopoly and Sapnap was beating them at it. Techno feels proud of having teached his runt how to play multiple board games. Unironically Quackity had visited maybe not too long ago and he had teached Sapnap how to cheat at poker and how to absolutely decimate everyone in Blackjack. 

Techno kept stirring and cooking. Meanwhile, he heard the ruffling of a plastic bag, then, the sound of a bag being opened. Something smelled like burnt wood, and Tubbo was obnoxiously chewing on something. All that wasn't normal by any means, so he simply turned around and saw the most random thing on the Overworld. 

Sapnap was casually sitting on the ground while being on fire, he was eating a marshmallow by the looks of it. Tommy was making a S'more and he was using Sapnap to heat it up, Tubbo was roasting a couple marshmallows while Ranboo was just there awkwardly warming up his hands. Which wasn’t very surprising. Even winter coats and stuff like that become pretty much useless in the cold of Snowchester. He cannot begin to imagine how hellish it must have been to travel from Kinoko to Esempii, then all the way to Snowchester. 

ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON ARSON

Yo they be making s'mores

WHO IS THIS DIVA?

I love how casually they are all just sitting there casually around a child that's literally on fire like it's a campfire meanwhile the cabin could easily get set on FIRE.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

Shut up this isn't the time

"Heh?! Okay, you know what- That's it." Techno hurriedly slammed the front door open, then he awkwardly picked Sapnap up and put him in the snow outside. The moment the cold air hit his face the fire died out. Okay, that's good. Now he only had to deal with the other three chaotic teenagers. And probably the risk of his precious carpet being burnt, but that can be replaced. There was just a slight spark of fire where Sapnap had been previously sitting on, so he promptly stomped that out. Sapnap came back walking through the front door, and he had an slightly angry look on his face.

"What were you guys doing making the child set himself on fire- Okay, you know what? Im not even going to bother. Why were you all freaking making roasted marshmallows with what essentially is a fire hazard." Ranboo had a guilty look on his face, and he scooted away a couple inches from Tommy and Tubbo as if to make himself appear truly innocent. Tubbo looked like a cat who had been caught eating the snacks, and slowly took a very small bite out of his s'more. Tommy merely scratched the back of his head like a innocent child (and not like he gremlin he is) and grinned. Techno sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"I'm honestly too busy making salad than dealing with this, so you- Runt, you're staying with me meanwhile so I can ensure that some people out there wont start a fire while there's literally a fireplace behind them. Also, Ranboo, don't try to act so innocent. While yes, your hands must be freezing and you are most likely still freezing from being out there for Prime knows how long, you are also a culprit of almost starting a fire." Sapnap stood behind him, while he finished up dishing out the finally cooked nether salad. It had a pleasant smell and a really nice taste. So that's a bonus. All the ingredients were mixed in nicely, so the appearance qas appealing and it definitely didn't look like a plate of weird-looking slop. (He vividly remembers that one restaurant he had visited as a child with Phil, they had both ordered a nether salad, it had resulted with them eating a horrible dish of that, it smelled odd, the ingredients were wrong, and *gods-* the appearance overall. He shuddered at the memory.) 

"Awh, come on. Big T. It wasn't a hazard at all! Well, atleast I think so. We were just chillin'! What could have been the worst that could have happened? We weren't commiting any crimes or robbing any wron'uns! Hell, we weren't doing drugs-* Techno tsked and set down two plates of the salad. Having his runt around them was a bad enough of a influence, but if they had continued what they were doing five minutes ago, it would have all surely ended with some type of disaster, or with a wildfire. And that would probably also end up in the news as the headline. He really isn't getting paid enough for this..

"That's... True, per say. You weren't committing any crimes or anything of the sort, but let's remember the fact that most of the things in here are flammable. And there was a child literally on fire. And the cabin is made out of wood. What could possibly happen in such scenario? Easy, the cabin gets set on fire and we all die. Or maybe the cabin just gets set on fire and nobody dies." His runt nodded in agreement as if he weren't also part of this whole deal. But he could probably deal with that later. For now, it was just serving out the food. And probably avoiding letting Tommy and friends set his humble cabin on fire. His concern about that was really rational, you know? 

--

"Then you just kinda put the two fuses together, and by mixing these two chemicals along side the redstone reaction it will create a explosion that is powerful enough to blow up.. A small radius of around maybe 5 blocks. Now, I can teach you about how to make explosions big enough to blow up a building, or how to make a nuke. But I highly doubt Techno has any of the materials we would need." Tubbo pointed at the small yet dangerous little "ingredients" Sapnap would need if he were to hypothetically try to build a small bomb. He didn't understand any of the logic or whatever Tubbo had been talking about, so he asked something that had been lingering on his mind for about half an hour. 

"Tubs, Can I do your hair?" Now that Sapnap stops to think about it, the question in itself was really random and probably even silly. Sapnap was used to having his hair done by Techie or grandpa Philza, considering the fact that it was a little long. His handlers had all refused to cut his hair. It was easier to drag him around that way. And Tubs' hair was long enough to do pigtails, so curiosity got the best of him! Tubbo himself was confused as to why the question in itself. Mostly given because he had met this child literally 3 hours ago. So it was very random to be hearing that. But wasn't he kind of teaching said child how to build a bomb that would blow up a small area? That's even more random and honestly even a little dangerous. 

"..Uh.. Sure?" In just a matter of seconds, Sapnap was opening a cabinet that he could reach with his tiny height and pulled out two small, black hair ties. A few minutes later, Tubbo found himself with two pigtails as a brand new hairstyle. As if it weren't enough with yesterday's absolute mockery of him all because he lost a bet, Tommy and Ranboo started taking pictures. Great. Those two dumbasses would have even more blackmail material of him. Per example, the twenty-something pictures of him in a pink princess outfit along with a tiara. And some others like a video of him petting a camel and said camel licking his face in return. 

Sapnap took a hot minute to fully admire Tubbo's new hairstyle as if he were Leonardo da Vinci and he had just painted the Monalissa. Then, his eyes brightened up and he let out a excited squeal. Tubbo soon came to the conclusion that he had really dragged himself onto this, so he quickly accepted his defeat and the most-likely whole gallery worth of photos of him with pigtails. But honestly they looked good on him. 

"Damn, Bee boi! You've got some swag! I never thought i'd see you fashioning that hairstyle! And of course props to the very talented gentleman and hairdresser that provided us such awesome, beautiful and marvelous sight!" Tommy and Ranboo clapped, and Sapnap proudly showed Techie his latest masterpiece. It ended up with 15 minutes with pure full blown-on wheezing and laughter. But it was nice. Because Sapnap had always longed for something just like this. He had been longing since forever a family where he would experience fun and silly moments just like these. And it was all a little boy just like him could have ever asked for. 

And Sapnap was so, but so grateful for that.

--

"TOMMYINNIT DANGER KRAKEN," Phil's voice boomed outside the cabin, and all color drained from Tommy's face, who had been previously playing Uno with Tubbo and Ranboo and was royally beating their ass at it. But the game was clearly interrupted by Phil. And probably the sound of a bunch of angry crows cawing and pecking the windows as if trying to get in. Sapnap, meanwhile, was just casually sitting in the fireplace enjoying such a intense warmth and he was also happily ruffling and shaking around his fiery little wings. It was something young blaze hybrids did as a small relaxation ritual or as a playful little thing. It was undoubtedly really cute and adorable, even to someone as tough-hearted as Techno. 

"...I'll go get the door and assess the angry bird man for you." Techno set his mid-day cup of coffee down and walked over to the door. He turned the doorknob and opened the door as if he weren't about to be greeted by Philza himself in a state of anger and raging instincts. 

"Oh my gosh Techno, is Tommy- Okay you know what nevermind he's clearly here. WHERE. IS. HE." Phil loudly hissed. Techno just blinked at him and ignored the crows cawing louder and louder. This wasn't the firdt time this had happened, and it would take little to no effort to calm his dad down once he saw Tommy. And of course, it was rational for Phil to be freaking the heck out if one of his sons suddenly went missing. Tommy shakingly stepped foward, with such nervousness that was fully palpable and hanging thick in the air. 

"Uhm.. Hi dad?.." Before Tommy could get even another word out, the big amount of crows that had been outside their window decided to start swarming Tommy and violently make a bunch of their feathers end up on both the floor and Tommy's hair. A very particular crow hopped up in Techno's shoulder and stared at him innocently ; Then, it opened it's beak and let out a sound suspiciously close to a 'E'. Techno patted the crow's head in fond approval and quickly shooed it off of him. Phil basically wrapped Tommy up in a bear hug and scolded him for running off without telling him or anything. 

 "You're *so* grounded for two weeks, mate." Phil helpfully reminded Tommy, who only groaned in slight frustration. The crows stopped trying to make a tornado out of their feathers and just settled on hopping around, and one of them nestled itself in Ranboo's hair. Some of them pecked the floor and one of them was so dumb that it slipped and fell on the sink. 

"Ugh. Welp, looks like this wonderful family and friends reunion has been cut short, so i think i'll be dipping, guys." Tommy sighed. They waved goodbyes and in just a matter of seconds all the crows were out of the house, and Phil and Tommy had took off and they were probably on their merry way back home. A important fact was that Techno hadn't really answered Tommy's question that if he had a wife or anything. Eh, whatever. Next time he comes around he'll tell him all about Sapnap and the very strange way he had became a parent one day. Though that's probably going to be a really, really long story. 

"Well, since Tommy's no longer here.. Can we go now, Beloved?" Tubbo tugged at Ranboo's sleeve and asked in a almost innocent tone. Ranboo merely rolled his eyes and gave him a deadpan stare. Sapnap was picking up some wrappers that had been left over from the chaotic roasting marshmallows moment that nearly caused a fire. But it just all sounded like another normal day for Techno. Since Sapnap was just a blaze hybrid, if his emotions got too strong he would get set on fire. 

"Seriously, Tubbo? I had to sit through endless agony for like, two hours with you and Tommy singing Chug Jug as loud as you both could, I had to pay the tickets to come all the way here, for Prime's sake, I even had to give Tommy five bucks just so he could buy himself two bags of chips because he was hungry. And now you wanna go as soon as Tommy's gone? For real? You really want me to do the whole 'cake that can kill god' thing again because there's no actual way you're being serious right now?" Ranboo sounded beyond exasperated, frustrated, stressed and probably on the verge of insanity. And honestly he would also be on the verge of insanity, if he were to be in Ranboo's shoes. Mostly because all he just described sounds like enough to make Techno perhaps recreate the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie in real life. Tubbo batted his eyelashes at him and simply nodded. Ranboo sighed with a palpable hint of frustration and mild annoyance.

"Okay, you know what? Fine. But next time either you or Tommy try or even dare to drag me all the way over here just to leave in two hours, I will make a cake so terrible that it will actually melt your taste buds off. And you both will have to eat it whether you like it or not. Mark. My. Words." Sapnap's ears perked up at the conversation Ranboo and Tubs were having. Techie had told him that eavesdropping was bad unless he was trying to get classified information or 700 ways to kill his worst enemy. But yet here he is. But to be honest he's probably overheard far too many conversations between Techie and grandpa Philza. They sometimes spoke about something called... The Syndicate?.. Eh, it was probably not that important. 

"Mhm. Like you sure would. Techno, we're leaving now! Thank you for letting us stay!" The smile on Tubbo's face was audible. And Techno would surely be getting 500 messages from Tommy saying that Tubbo and Ranboo were having a divorce and that he needed help. Or maybe they would start an argument in the groupchat that would last three hours with over a thousand messages of them just saying "Yuh huh" and "Nuh uh". Orrrr, they would spill insults at each other for three hours. All of them had a equally high chance. 

"Tubbo, you clearly DO know what i'm capable of, don't you even dare to try to- Agh, nevermind. Its completely useless anyways. You don't ever listen." Ranboo gave up. Within a few more minutes, Tubbo and Ranboo were finally out of his hair. 

Techno merely shook his head and set the table. Sapnap was still in the fireplace, though this time he was giving him a stink eye. Whiiiiich... Is pretty fair considering that Techno had hurriedly put him outside in the snow a couple minutes ago. He'd also be giving himself a stink eye. 

"Hey, Sap?" He gingerly called out. Sapnap ignored him- Or well, more accurately- tried to. From where he sat, Techno could see that just for a moment his eyes glanced at him, but his gaze was focused on the wall after that glance. 

Techno sighed, walking over to the fireplace and keeping a healthy distance away from the fire. The very last thing he wanted to do was make his runt feel threatened or accidentally catch himself on fire. ..which could easily happen, all things considered. But that was mildly irrelevant. Techno knows where the child has came from. ...a dreadful place. He didn't end up as badly traumatized but some people end up nothing like who they once were. 

"Look, I know you're mad at me. I'm really, really sorry I put you out in the cold outside, but I didn't want to cause a fire, you know? Basic precautions and all that." Sapnap kept a very poorly made facade of ignoring him. But Techno knew well damn he was just "pretending" not to hear him. 

The fire died down, just a little bit. Sapnap sighed and focused a "steely" glare at him. It was a annoyed pout more than anything, but he'll let him have that. 

"You're a big meanie, Techie." Techno's runt accusingly stated. ...he cant deny it. Techno sighed and accepted it. 

The fire surrounding Sapnap died down a little more. And that was a good sign, that meant atleast a little progress. 

"Sap, the food's going to get cold." Techno pointed at the bowls of nether salad still waiting to be eaten. "Can you come out?" Sapnap stared at the ground for a couple seconds. In one hand, the heat of the fireplace was pretty nice, all things considered. The crackling of the fire was also pretty comforting. ...for some reason. But, in the other hand, he was a bit hungry. And lunch didn't seem all that bad right now. 

...So there was one real option in his hands, then.

"Fine." Sapnap pouted, stepping out the fireplace, Techno kept a bit of a gap between them as to not get burnt. The fire surrounding Sapnap died down. Making it mildly safe to get near him. ...though not too much, considering that he had been sitting on a literal fireplace a couple moments prior. 

Lunch was spent in small chat with Techno and Sapnap. A part of Sapnap enjoyed the silence, but another part of him wanted the conversation to be a bit more interesting. Not just the sound of their silverware and Steve's latest shenanigan. Sapnap doesn't even know how in the Overworld a polar bear can get into so much trouble. For example, Steve once had gotten a bath and fifteen minutes later the bear had managed to find a mud puddle big enough to get dirty again. And then there was the time he caused a huge ruckus with Techno's dogs. 

"Techie?" Sapnap already had a idea in mind. Sure, he was still a little angry over the fact that Techno had put him outside in the unforgiving cold of the snow. But, the risk of the *wood* cabin burning down was a rational worry. So Sapnap couldn't be all that mad. 

"Yeah?" Techno finished his bowl of nether salad. It was pure perfection, or, well, as close as he can get to perfection in a simple dish. Whenever Phil cooked it it tasted *way* better than when *he* does. But that's okay. Experience and all that, Techno guesses. His crimson eyes locked with his runt's warm orange ones.

"I challenge you to play a game of Monopoly with me." 

Chapter Text

AAAAAAAAARGH. There's no pretending anymore. Yall remember the 34688903890348903483492037819283 times i said "NEW CHAPTER SOON"??? well, turns out i cannot keep a fucking promise. Life and school have been messing up my already non-existent posting schedule and have beaten my writing time to a pulp. I have been trying to write, but everything feels very half-assed and like a joke. I really need to start focusing on things IRL, and burnout decided to catch up. Which is why im going to be on hiatus for a little while. I want to give you guys something thats WORTH THE WAIT, but ideas simply have not been flowing on my little skephalo-infested brain. Don't worry, though! I will NOT be abandoning this fic, i'll simply go on hiatus until i can piece my life together and feel ready to write again. The backstory fic will also not be making a comeback anytime soon, writing for that has also been a herculean task. 

Anyways, i'll see you guys around once i have cooked up something. Stay safe, be silly, live life, and most importantly.... SKEPHALO!!!!!!

RELEASE DATE FOR COF CHAPTER 23 : 2099 /j  

Chapter Text

Hello gays- I mean guys!! Your (probably not) favorite demented and insane author is back from the grave!! Today marks the 1st birthday (??? can it be called that??) of this absolutely god awful, horrific, demented, traumatizing, badly-written fic!!! I actually hadn't thought i'd ever get this far, if im being completely honest. cause like, this fic was supposed to be a small thing now its whatever the fuck this is, but dont get me wrong! I love writing this fic!! It has been a outlet for me to express my feelings, and you guys have motivated me SO MUCH to keep writing!! 

So, to show my appreciation to every one of you, my awesome readers. I'LL BE DOING A QnA!!!! Ask me ANYTHING about this fic (No matter how random), or ask anything about your favorite characters!! 

And yes, i know what day it is. DONT REMIND ME. DONT RUB SALT IN THE WOUND FOR GODS SAKE 😭😭😭😭

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CUT-OFF FEATHERS!! MAY YOU KEEP TRAUMATIZING PEOPLE WITH HOMOSEXUAL MEN AND THE ONE CATGIRL THAT HAS EXACTLY ONE FAN!! (That fan is me, can u tell i like Naimuri) ((Its basically written all over this fic, poor skeppy has little to no relevance and yet im giving naimuri the biggest piece of the cake) 

SHOUTOUT TO MY PARTNER, Depressed_Racoon AS NAIMURI'S #1 HATER!!!!