Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Impulse woke up to the sound of his alarm.

Today, season ten of Hermitcraft was starting.

Seven seasons ago, Skizz disappeared.

Trying not to think about that fact, he grabbed his communicator that was blowing up with messages from his fellow Hermits. Everyone was excited for the new season to start.

He answered a couple of the messages while walking to the bathroom to shower before heading to the kitchen to make breakfast.

It was a normal routine for him, but he couldn't keep his mind straight this morning. Either way, he sat down at the table with slightly burned eggs on toast as a result, and went over his to do list one more time. He had packed the last couple things the night before, but it didn't hurt to check one more time.

He decided, after washing the dishes he used while making breakfast, that he was going to do one more walk around the house, just incase. It always felled a bit bitter sweet to leave his private server cabin behind for the next year or so, but he knew he would have fun with the Hermits.

He walked around, checking all the windows and making sure he hadn't left anything important. He stopped in front of the closed door that used, is Skizz's room. He moved inside and sat down at the end of the bed.

Him and Skizz had shared the server he was currently still residing in between servers and had built the little cabin together. With their combined mediocre building skills, it had taken a while, but in the end they were both proud of the end result. Impulse laughed sadly at the memory.

He still remembered the day it had happened as if it happened yesterday. They were running some errands in the main hub and were just fooling around like usual. Honestly if anybody was watching them they would probably have thought they didn't like each other much with how much playful shoving was happening. But every so often Skizz would cover Impulse with his wings and make sure no harm was done.

That was Skizz. A bit reckless and wild, clumsy, extremely forgetful, but also in every way, an angel. He still didn't quite live up to the name the species had gotten over the last couple centuries, but he was probably the closest one could come.

He was the only one Impulse could tolerate physical touch from, which is quite ironic seeing he's a demon.

In that way, the two were polar opposites, angel and demon on someone's shoulders.

But that didn't matter now, 'cause Skizz was gone. Had been for a very long time.

That day in the hub, they had just been walking, messing around when they decided to split up, as it was getting late and they still had two stores to get to. It was fine, it should have been fine. But after two hours and no sign of Skizz, Impulse had gotten worried. He had searched for hours, but never found his buddy. The next day he reported a missing person report and a search party had been set out, but nothing. After weeks of no evidence found, the case had run cold.

As he looked around the angels room, sad as he may be, he couldn't help but smile at the photo's hung up around the walls. Almost all of them were of their friends. On all the pictures, people were smiling, and Impulse clearly remembered each and every story that came with them. Skizz had always loved reciting them to him, on long nights when they just talked and enjoyed each others company before falling asleep.

He grabbed his communicator and looked in his favorite contacts list. Tango, Zed and Xisuma were at the top, but at the bottom still sat Skizz's contact, patiently waiting for him. 

The demon had made it part of his routine to send the angel a text at least once a month, just incase he could somehow read them. He knew he couldn't, all the messages, which at this point were hundreds of them, were unread, but it was a nice thought. 

He typed out a message and clicked send.

Skizzy<3

<Impulse> Hey buddy! We are starting season ten of hermitcraft today, I'm kinda nervous not gonna lie. I have plans with Bdubs to build a cool city, so that will be a ton of work, but I am excidet. There is also a new hermit joining. His name's Joel, think you would like the guy. I still hope you are doing okay out there, I know you're somewhere. Stay strong Skizz, love you.

He locked the door behind him and wandered over to the world portal. He already had his headphones with music in his ears, and humming along to the tune, bracing himself for the busy hub.

As should have been expected, he wasn't even three steps out of the portal when he was pushed to the ground by a guy who clearly had haste as his priority and not the wellbeing of mankind. Begrudgingly he hoisted himself up again and started the walk to the new Hermitcraft portal. It was about an hour long walk, but Impulse didn't care much for the crowded trams that would bring him there in twenty minutes, so he didn't mind. Plus he had made plans with Tango to walk the last half of it together, so it wasn't all bad.

When he made it to Tango's portal the blaze hybrid was already waiting for him, greeting him with a fistbumb, knowing full well the demon didn't fancy hugs.

"How you doing Impy?" he asked while they started walking again.

"I'm good, just a bit nervous for having to start from scratch again." Impulse replied while turning his music off and storing the earbuds back in his bag.

"Yeah same, but I'm really excited to see everyone again, it feels like it's been ages." 

They talked about anything and everything for the rest of the walk until they reached the portal, greeting the other Hermits and waiting for Xisuma to start talking.

"Hello everybody! I'm pretty sure we're complete now so we can enter the new world. As you guys know, please go in pairs or it will have a chance to damage the world because it's the first time we're entering it." The void walkers words were met with cheers from the group and slowly they all entered their new server.

They ended up in a plains biome, and started looking around the place a little bit. As usual they would all meet up tomorrow to formally start the new season, so for now they could just wander around and explore.

Impulse started chopping down some trees and making basic tools. Obviously he chatted with all his friends, and ended up going mining with Gem, Pearl and Grian. It was chaos, but they got a few starter things before going back up to the service. That's when they first noticed the commotion that was happening.

A couple of the hermits were gathered around something, Keralis shouting towards the general direction that Xisuma was standing that they had found someone.

Curious, the little group moved towards the rest, Grian flying over quicker to ask what was going on. When Impulse Gem and Pearl had arrived they just caught the tail end of what Mumbo was explaining to Grian.

"-found them just like this, it looks like they somehow crashed through the fire walls onto the server."

"Hey what's going on he-" Impulse started asking before he saw the figure lying on the ground.

That was Skizz.

He knew it for sure.

The same black hair, the same face shape, the same big white wings.

He was severely injured though, almost his entire body covered in blood and scars. His wings were crumpled on top of his body.

But it wasn't like that was going to stop Impulse.

He sprinted forward ignoring the worried calls of the others to stay back. He fell to his knees and cradled his friend.

And, he cried. But he also laughed. Weird that those two emotions always seemed to co-exist when it came to Skizz nowadays.

But right now, they were tears of joy, and laughter of relieve.

He finally, found his friend.

Chapter Text

Impulse knew people were yelling at him, but he couldn't find it in himself to care about it.

He had finally found Skizz. Or maybe the angel had found him. either way he was here in his arms and that was all that mattered as of now.

"Impulse I'm going to need you to get away from the angel, we don't know if he's dangerous. He did break the firewalls." he heard someone say, probably Xisuma as he was the admin and mostly took responsibility over the group. That said he did ignore the request. He knew Skizz wasn't dangerous, so it was fine.

He did in fact forget that the other hermits, excluding Zed and Tango, who weren't around at the moment, didn't know Skizz. For them he was just a random angel who just appeared on the server out of no where.

With the reputation angels had, no one would later blame them for this.

Either way, Impulse didn't appreciate the comments on his best friend, and his instincts were starting to kick into gears. Skizz, in that moment, belonged to him.

"Impulse, I don't know exactly what's going on, but I'm going to have to move you."

The demon once again tried to ignore the comment, but when he was grabbed by the arm to be pulled away, he couldn't really do that anymore.

He let out a warning growl, but when that didn't seem to deliver the message, he puffed out some smoke. It wasn't a lot, since he couldn't breath fire like most demons, but it was still lightly toxic for most people to breath in.

Whoever had tried to pull him away let go of his arm and ran out of the little cloud of smoke that had surrounded them, coughing up a storm and shouting something at the other Hermits.

Impulse just turned around to fuss more over Skizz, now that immediate danger of losing him again was gone. The angel was obviously very injured, wings crumpled up and cuts and gashes on every bit of skin that could see the sun. But his face didn't have an expression of pain and agony like one might expect, but one of peace. This made Impulse quickly feel for the man's pulse, which was luckily present, even if it was slow.

He was still alive.

But if he didn't do something about those injuries, the angel would bleed to death or die of an infection.

Impulse had to get him out of here.

So, that's what he decided to do. He carefully picked the man up, thanking the fact demons had natural strength, and got up to move to a safer spot.

He heard some people yell, probably demanding he do something. He couldn't really understand them. He was to caught up in his instincts to comprehend common at the moment. He just continued walking.

"Impulse, I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to have to move you."

Xisuma walked up to the demon in question, who was still huddled over the angel, and grabbed one of his arms.

He heard something that might have been a growl, when he was developed in a cloud of smoke. Keralis, who had been close behind him, ran away coughing, struggling to breath the now toxic air. Xisuma himself could breath fine due to his mask already filtering air, but that didn't mean he was particularly safe. Impulse was clearly not thinking straight.

He released the demon from his grip and yelled out a distress call to the Hermits who were gathered, and send a message in chat for the once who weren't.

Main chat

 <Xisuma> Hello everyone, an angel was found laying severely injured on the ground. We don't know if they are safe, even as injured as they are since they broke through the fire walls of the server. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect Impulse has something to do with the angel, as he was very protective of them. We tried to separate them, but Impulse was far in an instinct headspace and hit us with his smoke. He ran off with the angel, so if you see him, don't go near but please let me know.

"What are we going to do now?" Keralis asked, who had calmed down from his coughing fit.

"Well, in all the commotion he managed to get away without being seen, so we need to find them first. That angel clearly means something to him, but we still don't know if they're safe." Xisuma sighed and looked around. Impulse couldn't be that far out, it only had been 5 minutes or something close to that. Yet the demon was no where to be seen.

"Suma!" The man in question turned around to see a very winded Tango and a just as bad Zed running towards him.

"What's wrong guys?"

"Can you describe the angel?" Tango asked. The admen noticed his flames were more noticeable then they usually should be. 

"Uh, he had black hair, he had quite a broad physique if he wasn't malnourished to a certain degree. He had really large wings, way bigger than Grian or False." Xisuma described to the best of his ability.

"Fuck, that's him." Tango muttered and ran away.

"Wait, who's 'him'?" The voidwalker asked Zed.

"The angel, his name is Skizzle Man." Zed started explaining. "We called, or I guess call, him Skizz. Uhm, he is an old friend of our group, but Impulse knows him the longest. They have known each other since the beginning of highschool and lived on a private world together. It was always Imp and Skizz, they were inseparable. Then, one day they had been walking in the main hub, and Skizz disappeared. We had searched for weeks before the case ran cold. We were all devastated of course, but Impulse definitely had the hardest time grieving. I don't think he ever stopped texting Skizz, just to not lose a single memory of him."

When Zed was done talking, Xisuma was left speechless. What does one say after being told a story like that?

"Wow, that's horrible. His reaction makes a lot of sense now." Of course the demon was going to be protective of the angel, of Skizz.

"I'm going to try and find his coordinates, but it will take a bit longer seeing as the comms aren't fully connected to the server code yet." Xisuma pondered,"In the meanwhile, we are going to search for them. Skizz was badly injured and Impulse is not in the right mindset to help either of them if something happens."

As quick as possible all the hermits were gathered and a search party was set up. Tango suggested the idea that they would probably be undergrounds, as demons often feel safest there when it comes to the overworld, so more groups were send to any open caves they could find. Another two groups were going to search in the sky just incase Impulse was still walking. Most of the ground around spawn was flat with little trees, so that made searching easier.

Now, they all could only hope they would find them soon.

Impulse had found a cave that he deemed suitable enough for now.

He lowered Skizz to the ground and started examining his body. Luckily he could only see a couple of deep wounds, the rest all being shallow cuts or jabs. The angel was badly bruised up in a couple spots, but besides his wings, nothing seemed broken.

But his wings.

The once magnificent white appendages were now a half plucked broken mess. A bunch of the feathers had either been plucked or had fallen out and they looked like he hadn't preened properly in at least a year, if not more. Impulse couldn't guess if the wings were broken from the probably rough spawn or because of whoever had hurt Skizz, but whatever had happened must have been horrible.

Impulse grabbed a bucket of water he had made earlier and some wool he had collected. He started gently cleaning his friend's wounds.

It was then that he heard someone outside the cave. He growled, letting out little puffs of smoke.

"Imp and Skizz! Are you two in here?" a familiar voice echoed through the small cave.

Tango had found him.

The demon quickly thought things through, but ended up deciding that Tango wasn't much of a threat. The blaze already knew Skizz and he was in his pack after all.

He found that he still couldn't communicate in common very well, so he growled again, although this time it sounded closer to the purring of a cat than a warning growl it had been earlier.

"Impulse! Oh buddy we are all worried sick about you two." Tango appeared in the opening of the cave and quickly moved to sit with them. 

"Why did you run off Impy?" the blaze asked.

Impulse put the now bloody wool down to grab his comm. He opened a new note and started typing. Once he was done, he showed it to Tango.

'They said Skizz could be a threat. They wanted to take me away from him. I don't want to leave him again, so if they think he's a threat or whatever, then so am I.'

"Oh, Impy they don't know your history with Skizz. If the Hermits would have known, they wouldn't have said those things." Tango put an arm around Impulse, who started to lean into the touch, "Zed told Xisuma who Skizz is, and he immediately put up a server wide search to find you guys. You can't help Skizz on your own, his condition is to severe. Let us help."

Impulse felt a bit alarmed by Tango's words. He had just gotten his angel back, and now he has to give him over to people who don't know a single thing about him?

But then again the blaze was correct, he had to acknowledge he didn't have the skill set to help his friend. So, he nodded, and observed as Tango send a message in the main chat.

Main chat

<Tango> I found Imp and Skizz!! I'll attach our coordinates. Please don't all come over and crowd us. The cave isn't that big and Skizz is in rough shape and Impy is Still on edge. If you don't follow this request, I think the chance of you inhaling toxic smoke today will rapidly increase:)

<Current coordinates of Tango>

After about 5 or so minutes a group walked up to the cave entrance.

"We're down here!" Tango yelled, causing a loud echo.

"Hello, good hiding place you've got here Impulse." Doc greeted.

"Yeah, but it isn't the best place to help our friend, is it okay if we move him to one of the tents we have set up at spawn?" Cub asked.

Impulse carefully nodded. When Doc moved forward however, he growled. He didn't know if they were lying. It wasn't safe to let them take the angel. But he also saw the fact he wouldn't be able to carry him anymore, as he felt exhausted from his instinct high. Tango clearly took notice of his dilemma.

"Do you want to walk next to Doc and hold Skizz's hand? Then you will know exactly where they are going."

Impulse agreed and let Doc come closer. When Cub also tried, another growl was heard echoing through the cave. 

"Think we hit the max amount of people Cub, sorry." Tango giggled, standing up to follow Doc, who was now carrying the angel. Impulse was next to them, holding onto Skizz's arm.

It wasn't a very long walk to the spawn area, but Impulse was completely zoned out the entire time. He was tired, stressed and worried about Skizz.

When they arrived at the temporary medic tent that was set up, Impulse was running on adrenalin and nothing more. 

Doc carefully lowered Skizz onto one of the beds and started gathering the stuff they would need to heal him. 

"Impulse, I know you're worried, but I do need you to leave us until we have the angel fixed up." Doc mentioned as he poured some potion onto a peace of cloth.

"Skizz" Impulse said, not moving from his place next to Skizz's bed.

"What buddy?" Doc put the cloth down and moved to stand in front of Impulse. He was taller than the demon, looking down at him.

"His name is Skizz." Impulse knew his voice sounded annoyed, but he didn't care. 

"Thank you Impulse, but I do still need you to leave. I promise we won't hurt Skizz." Doc explained, but it clearly didn't do much. Impulse puffed out more smoke and pushed Doc to the side. The hybrid hadn't expected the push and staggered backwards. He was also to slow to hold his breath without inhaling the toxic fumes, Cub being forced to do the same. Once both the medics were gone, Impulse relaxed again. 

No one was doing anything that included Skizz without him being in the same room. He couldn't risk loosing him again.

"We can't help Skizz if Impulse keeps making it impossible for us to work in there!" Doc said in between coughs. 

"Well, you told him to be somewhere he can't see Skizz, that's going to be a problem for him at this point in time." Tango explained, getting a bit fed up with everyone.

"Well, why is it such a problem then? It's not like we'll hurt the guy even more." Doc had turned to Tango specifically now, towering over the short blaze hybrid.

"Maybe, you need to think about this whole situation from Impulse's perspective for a second." Tango had to use a lot of energy and focus on keeping his flames at bay, but he was doing an okay job at it.

"He lost, someone so close to him they were basically brothers. They were attached to the hip, where Skizz went Impulse followed and vise versa. Now, he has that person, back in his live after so many years, and the first thing he hears people say is that Skizz is dangerous and he shouldn't be near him. Of course he's going to be protective over him! But you wouldn't know that, because you haven't considered this at all. Also, he's a demon, his instincts are going wild right now. Because, even if it's commonly believed that demons live alone, they don't, they form packs and clans for survival. He's just trying to protect his closest pack member, he hasn't seen in ten years! It isn't rocket science!"

It was fair to say, Tango was pissed. He had almost fully lost control of his flames and was debating if the consequences to setting Doc on fire would be worth it.

"Tangs, breath bud." Zed said, having moved to stand in between the angry blaze hybrid and the now silent Doc.

"Hard, he s'ill here." Tango was struggling to pronounce the words he wanted to say, still only being able to focus on the creeper hybrid.

Zed looked over at Doc who was to stunned to speak. He walked off, leaving Tango's field of vision. Slowly the blaze calmed down while Xisuma called Gem over.

"Since Impulse is closer to Gem than to Doc and Cub, do you think she could help Skizz?" the admin asked Zed, who nodded.

"Pretty sure after last season her and Pearl are also part of his pack, so she should be fine."

"Great, I'll help Skizz then. Can either you or Tango come with me, just incase?" Gem asked.

"Yeah, I'll come with you. I can inhale his smoke, so if he lashes out again I can at least stay with him." Tango replied and they entered the tent.

Impulse was still sitting next to the bed when Tango and Gem entered. He stood up to confront the two when Tango started talking.

"Hey, Gem will take care of Skizz, and we can stay in the tent if we stay out of her way alright." Tango explained, while Gem started looking Skizz's injuries over.

Impulse, to tired to fight and satisfied with the current solution, sat down on the floor in the corner of the tent. Tango sat next to him as they watched Gem work.

"If you're tired you can take a nap Impy, this is going to take a while." Gem suggested, and with a quiet grunt, the demon agreed and fell asleep within that same minute.

Chapter Text

When Impulse woke up, he had been transferred to one of the medical beds. He noticed a few things as he took in his surroundings.

First the most noticeable one, was a splitting headache, that had him shielding his eyes from the little to no light that was in the tent. Second was that Skizz was laying on a bed next to him. The third was that no one else was in the tent with them to stop him.

He stood up, wincing at the pounding in his head, and moved over to his friend.

He looked better, at least to some degree. He was covered in bandages and his wings were supported with splints to keep the bones in their natural position. It looked uncomfortable, but it got the job done.

The demon sat at the angels side and started scratching at his head, underneath his halo. The thing was extremely hot, but that didn't matter for Impulse, and he remembered Skizz calming whenever they had done this in the past. 

That all seemed so far away, so long ago.

He didn't know how long he had sat there, but it had slowly started getting lighter in the tent, hinting that the sun had come up. It was then that Skizz started to stir.

It was small at first, just his fingers curling up, but Impulse immediately took notice of the small change.

"Skizz? Are you waking up?" Impulse was forced to whisper with how dry his throat felt. He hated the side effect of his smoke.

The demon kept talking to his friend, until he stirred fully awake, blinking his eyes open.

"Impy?" His voice sounded so small and broken, but Impulse didn't care.

He hadn't heard that voice in so long.

He almost started crying again.

"Yes, it's me buddy, you're save, I'll make sure of that." He hugged the angel, careful of his injuries. 

"Where- how am I? It worked?" Skizz tried to push himself up, but failed when his arms gave out on him. Impulse caught him and helped him sit upright.

"I don't know what happened, but we are on season ten of Hermitcraft. You were crashed on the ground around spawn. Apparently you broke the firewalls and everything." Impulse explained his side of the story, not expecting Skizz to tell his. The angel looked at him with this far away expression in his eyes.

"I- Dippledop, they- they said I would never see you again, any of you! They said they had eyes on you and that all of you had forgotten me. I- I didn't. Why do you still care!" Skizz cried, tears flowing freely from his eyes. Impulse suddenly had to keep good focus on not going up in fury.

"Of course I still care about you Skizz! I never stopped caring, I've never stopped sending you messages, every time I see an angel somewhere I think of you, hoping it would be you. I never stopped caring about you, and neither did Zed and Tango. We were all so worried! You had disappeared and I- I didn't know what to do with myself." Impulse was full on crying now, hugging his best friend close.

"I, missed you too Dop, even when they convinced me you hated me, I still kept hope. I had almost lost it, almost gave up, but, they- they had left the cage open, and left. They thought I was to weak to escape." Skizz grinned sadly, looking Impulse in the eyes.

"They were wrong, of course, but only by a little. They tried to stop me before the portal, but I was faster."

"Skizzy, who- what happened, that day in the hub." Impulse asked carefully, knowing that Skizz knew the angel didn't have to answer if he didn't feel ready.

Skizz was quiet for a while, both of them leaning onto the other, keeping each other close.

"I, don't think I'll ever be ready to tell that, but I will, I want you to know. Just, not now, not yet." the angle whispered, and Impulse nodded. 

They had all the time in the world after all.

The sun was even further in the sky when they got company.

Gem, Tango and Zed entered the tent, Rushing to their side when they saw Skizz awake.

"Omg, hi! I'm Gem, I patched you up, It's so good to see you awake!" the fox hybrid started checking Skizz's vitals, the man looking up at Impulse with a worried look.

"She's pack, she's good, promise." Impulse reassured and Skizz visibly calmed down, even more so when Gem told them he was all good and Tango and Zed could come closer.

"Skizz!"

Both of them devoured the angel in a hug, Impulse moving back a little to give the two space.

"I almost can't believe you are here, after so long. We missed you so much." Zed said, Tango nodding along.

"Yeah, it was no fun with you being gone!" the blaze spoke loudly, obviously excited. Both Skizz and Impulse groaned at the louder tone, Gem coming back to check on them.

"Okay, I understand that you both have a headache, but I can't give you pain killers before you eat something. I can get you both some yoghurt, that should be light enough for you to digest." she suggested and both of them nodded.

When she came back with two bowls, Impulse ate all of his while Skizz only ate three bites before stopping.

"You not hungry buddy?" Impulse questioned, worried that his friend wasn't eating.

"No, it's- I think," the angel sighed, having difficulty getting the right words. "I, didn't get a lot of food. This was probably about a weeks worth, maybe? I don't know, I just, I want to eat more, but my brain is so wired to space things out now, I just can't." He looked down at the bowl in his lap.

"Can you try to finish at least half? I promise we have more food that you'll be getting. We need to get you on a healthy weight again if you're wounds are going to heal." Gem tried, but Skizz still didn't look convinced. 

"Hey, can you take one more bite?" Impulse asked. That the angel could get behind after some thinking. He scooped up another spoonful of the yoghurt and put it in his mouth. 

"Good job! Can you do another one?" 

Taking it bite for bite like this seemed to work. Skizz ate the entire bowl as Impulse guided him through it. When the bowl was finished, he seemed to panic a bit, but Gem fixed that by filling the bowl back up and placing it on the bedside table. When Skizz saw there was more food for him, he calmed.

They were all sitting in comfortable silence when Xisuma walked in.

Impulse growled, not having much controle over it. He loved Xisuma as much as any other member of Hermitcraft, but he wasn't part of his pack, and right now not being part of that was the equivalent of walking on thin ice with the demon.

"Impulse, it's alright buddy, I'm not here to separate you guys, I just wanted to talk for a bit. I can leave if you guys aren't ready yet." The admin did in fact not move from the door, waiting on a sign he was allowed in or not. That calmed Impulse somewhat, and with Skizz nodding, he decided it would be fine.

"Thank you, let me introduce myself." He faced Skizz directly. "I'm Xisuma Void, but you can also call me X. I'm the admin of Hermitcraft. You can stay here for however long you want. If you would want to, and everyone here is okay with it, you can become an official member if you want to. But that is for a later date. Can I check your code? Just to make sure nothings glitching." As the admin talked Impulse got excited. Having Skizz on the server permanently would be a dream come true. Skizz on the other hand looked a bit overwhelmed at all the new information given to him. He did allow X to check his code.

Tango, Zed and Gem left the tent to give them some more room. Impulse was thankful no one asked him to leave.

"Your code is all good Skizz!" Xisuma announced. "How about you two get some more rest, yeah? Here Impulse help me move your bed over." 

Together they pushed the second bed next to Skizz's forming one big bed, and when Impulse lay down, Skizz happily snuggled up against him.

It took about a month for Skizz injuries to heal, and another before he could take short flights again. It took three months before he officially joined as a player. It took a little over four months for his eating habits to go back to normal and about five before he was on a healthy weight again.

It had now been half a year.

Skizz and Impulse were watching a movie in the demon's base, but neither of them was paying close attention. They sat there cuddled up on the couch, chatting away.

Till Skizz turned down the volume of the tv, and went quiet for a moment.

"I- I think I'm ready to tell you." he whispered. He looked down at Impulse, who was lying down with his head on the angels chest. The demon looked up, knowing exactly what the other was talking about.

"Only if you think you're ready." he said, "And you better stop if it gets to much."

Skizz nodded and started talking.

"That day in the hub, I didn't mean to go to that alleyway. I was meant to go to a store, but something caught my attention. I went to check it out, and got jumped on. I don't remember what happened, but the next thing I do remember is being locked up in what basically was a large bird cage." He stopped, taking a deep breath, remembering the feeling of sitting there, day in day out, just waiting. Impulse snuggled up closer, and Skizz continued.

"They were hybrid hunters, but me being an angel was special, I think. I got my own cage, while I could see some other hybrids that were stuck in cages way smaller then mine with three or four. It was awful. The first time they took me out, I resisted, and got cut with a knife in return. That was their favorite punishment with me. You don't see a lot of angels covered in scars after all." He begrudgingly looked down at his arms, which were littered with the things.

"I found out they were testing on hybrids, then, when I resisted some more, I found out the hard way it was run by Watchers." He shuddered. Impulse held one of his hands and started rubbing circles in his palm, which helped to ground him.

"It, was hard, even if the tests they did on me were mild. They mostly tested endurance. How long I could go without sleep, or food. Once they forbade me to preen my wings, till almost all the feathers had fallen out. It wasn't fun, but I could survive. What was the most painful was the stories they told me. They were always about my friends. You for the most part, but also Tango and Zed. Sometimes they would just tell me what you guys were doing, telling me you were living normal life without me. Other times they told me you guys just, simply forgot about me. That, hurt, a lot." Skizz stopped talking again, holding back tears.

"We love you Skizz, always have, never stopped." Impulse reassured him. "You want to tell more?"

"No, not really. I already told you how I escaped right?" Skizz sighed.

"Yeah, they left the cage open and you jumped through a portal, landing on Hermitcraft." Impulse smiled.

"Best life threatening decision I've ever made." Skizz smiled back.

He mite not be fully healed mentally just yet, but that was okay. It would take time, and he knew that.

What he also knew, was that his friends would be there for him, and that was reassuring enough.

The duo moved over to Impulse's room, climbing in bed and maneuvering the covers so that Skizz wings wouldn't get caught.

"I love you Skizz, and thank you for telling me what happened." Impulse whispered.

"Love you too buddy." the angel whispered back, knowing full well that everything would turn out okay.