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Grian’s knees were somehow still shaky as he stepped through the portal.
They must have looked shaky too, considering how Pearl lightly kept her hands on his arm as they made their way back into Hermitcraft. Feeling the misty breeze of the ocean gently run across his face caused him to exhale lethargically. Gods, he wasn’t aware just how tired that whole thing made him.
Grian rubbed the back of his neck with the arm Pearl wasn’t holding, “What a day today has been.”
Pearl grinned, happy to see her friend still in high spirits, “For real. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a sword.”
The two took a few steps forward before Grian shook his head and abruptly moved out of Pearl’s grasp to sit on a nearby barrel, leaning back and placing his palms downward behind him. He groaned as he rotated his head up at the night sky. Pearl could only stand in place, clenching and unclenching her fingers nervously with a worried look on her face.
“I know I’m a broken record at this point,” Pearl began carefully. “But are you sure you’re good? You did get really pale back there.”
Grian let out another sigh, this one much shorter. He turned his head back to stare at Pearl but kept his arms where they were, “I really am. I’m just… very exhausted. Wasn’t expecting the pressure to hit as hard as it did.”
Pearl walked over to sit down on the barrel next to Grian, the two of them now halfway off of it because its size couldn’t fully fit both of them. She was quick to place a hand on his shoulder, shaking it a little in a comforting motion, “Well, at least you’re getting better. I was worried you were trying to create the first white MCC team with the complexion you started sporting.”
Grian chuckled, “I guess that’s not too far off the mark.”
The cheers were loud in his ears. But not so loud they could drown out his heartbeat thumping so hard he felt it in his teeth.
He was jumping and twisting and dodging like normal, his teammates conversing in his ear about who to go for and strategizing who should get the arrows when Fruit was nailed right next to him. The sparkles practically filled his entire line of sight, and the Hermit was barely able to get his vision clear when he heard Joel get blasted immediately after.
Hooooo-kay, a 1v3… not great.
Did it get really hot on the field? Grian felt really thirsty all of a sudden.
He fired the arrows in a dissociative sort of state, the first missing the mark entirely while the second was at least able to get Dream. Good, nice, at least that was taken care of. Back to jumping around like a frog. Hippity hoppity hippity hoppity-
The Parrot’s attempt to hit him failed, but not without trying its hardest. Grian could practically feel the second arrow split the air next to his lower back in half. He needed to get his act together. This was the finale, his chance to get a Win and reward his teammates for their dedication. He couldn’t screw it up. He absolutely could not under any circumstance-
“Grian, buddy, are you good?”
“Dude, are you okay?”
“GRIAN!”
Blinking, Grian was suddenly aware of three translucent beings in front of him. Oh, they were his teammates. Joel and Fruit were off to the opposite sides of Scott, who was floating in front of Grian with a hand on his shoulder. All of them had a concerned furrow to their brows. Blinking a few more times, Grian tilted his head slightly as he attempted to look past and through his team to figure out what was happening with the other.
Finn and Seepeekay were both standing completely still, their worry so large Grian could see it on the opposite side of the field. Above them floated Bad who was pressing his pointer fingers together as he watched the remaining Panda have a sort of semi-breakdown. Dream was floating over them too, but he was further out in front of them above the field’s middle line. Like he wanted to rush over and personally ask Grian if he was alright.
It was at this moment Grian noticed the stadium was almost still as well. The crowd chattered amongst themselves, some of them seeming to talk about the way the game had come to a pause while the rest were still in cheer mode. Still, they too eventually noticed that things had slowed down, and their rambunctious whispers about which team would win slowly turned into murmurs of unease.
“Grian?” an Admin of the server spoke through the speakers. “Do you need the event to go on a momentary break?”
With determination gripping his chest in the blink of an eye, Grian loaded an arrow and started aiming toward the last two Parrots. All the ghost spectators immediately got out of the players’ way, and the audience was once again getting pumped. Grian took a deep breath, feeling a noticeable trail of sweat fall from the back of his head and into his shirt, “No, I got this.”
“Aaagghh, I’m so embarrassed!” Grian finally snapped, placing his face into his hands. “I froze in the heat of the moment and made everyone freeze as well! And then to top it off we didn’t even win! It’s just so… ugh.”
Pearl had jutted back a little bit in surprise when Grian suddenly blurted out how he had been feeling. The shock was mainly from the volume of the act, however. Deep down she knew Grian had to have been feeling this way. At least he was finally at a point in life where he felt safe enough to admit it himself.
She placed a hand on his back and started to gently rub it, “Hey, that’s okay. You’ve made it to Dodgebolt like, what, twice? In a total of ten championships? It’s understandable that the pressure would get to your head. Besides, at the end of the day, your team technically did win. You guys got the most coins! That’s amazing!”
“Yeah, that is pretty cool,” Grian grinned at Pearl's attempt to cheer him up. He believed her, he really did, but… He let out another sigh, “I don’t know, I just feel so tired.”
Pearl took her hand off his back and stood up, “You did have a panic attack in the middle of one of the most stressful games after hours of working your butt off in other just-as stressful games. Not being tired would worry me.”
Grian stood up as well with a laugh, “The amount of caffeine I consumed to keep me awake probably didn’t help either, huh?”
Pearl lightly smacked him on the shoulder, “Grian! What have we been telling you about that?!”
Grian held his hands up in front of him in a surrender pose, “Hey! I have been way better. One day out of the whole month where stakes are high isn’t going to make me nose dive into an addiction or anything.”
She sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose, “Fine. That’s fine. It’s just…” she brought her hands up to brush off Grian’s shoulders free of residue dust and dirt, “We just wanna make sure you never get back to that point, you know? Call us overbearing all you want, but you deserve to know that no matter how ‘little’ the problem is, you can ask for help.”
A long time ago, Grian would have brushed off the dozenth time Pearl asked him if he was okay. He would have rolled his eyes, turned the topic off himself, done anything to not have to acknowledge what was wrong with him. Concern about him made his chest feel funny and his gut twist into knots. They were his friends, sure, but they didn’t need to worry about him.
Here today, despite hearing it so often from the entirety of Hermitcraft, it still made his chest feel funny, but there’s no twisting of his gut or inane feeling of low self-worth. It made him feel warm, like a flower bloomed in him every time someone said or implied we’re here for you no matter what.
“I know, Pearl, I know,” Grian reached a hand up to grasp one of hers still on his shoulder. “Trust me when I say it’s not like that. It was a long day that accumulated into a big blowup, nothing more, nothing less. All we need is to sleep, and don’t say you don’t. I can see it in your eyes, you’re just as tired as I am.
Pearl stuck her tongue out indignantly, yanking her hands back to cross her arms like a small child, “Well, Mr. Panic Attack, I suppose you would be the expert on this.”
Grian pushed her forward with a hand on her back, laughing as they finally made a move to get back to Boatem, “You know it!”
Eventually and somehow, they came up over the hill leading into their bases and squinted at how bright the area was. They both held their hands over their eyes even to quell some of the light attempting to blind them. Grian was confused the entire time, but Pearl was able to connect the dots with a gasp before grabbing Grian’s wrist and dragging him into a run.
“Woah!” Grian said, unable to say anything else. He was too busy trying to keep up with the lady halfway to pulling his arm out of its socket. It wasn’t long before they made it to the center of Boatem where most of the light was located. What was-
Cheers rang out in the area.
Grian blinked, realizing that most if not all the server was there, hands up in the air with proud looks on their faces. Before anything else could be said, a tiny dragon sprung its way out between the crowd’s legs and made its way over to Grian. “Gaile!” the Hermit exclaimed, bending over to pick up his beloved baby.
The dragon curled up in his arms, turning on its back so its stomach laid upward. It was a prime scritching position, which Grian gladly indulged in. Gaile chirped and purred at the affection, continuing to do so even when Grian’s hand stilled at the sound of footsteps as he looked up into the eyes- both real and cybernetic- of Doc.
He was grinning at how much Grian seemed to relax with the little girl in his presence, “Thanks for letting me look after her. The only thing I’d suggest is to keep her away from turtle farms. She doesn’t hurt anything but will gladly steal the eggs if you’re not watching.”
Grian nervously chuckled, prodding the dragon to move to sit on his shoulders, “Hah, duly noted. And no problem, thanks for offering in the first place.”
Doc nodded, but before he could say something else, a different voice yelled out, “Yo, G!”
The two turned to watch as Ren decided to be the second person to approach Grian, going so far as to wrap his arms around Grian’s waist, trapping the shorter Hermit’s arms there as he picked the man up, spinning him around in joy.
He still held Grian even when the twirling stopped, “Dude, you were wicked out there! The way you owned everyone and scored all those points, great work!”
Grian could only barely twist his wrist to pat Ren on the arm, “Thanks, Ren, but I’m not the only one here that took part in the championship today.”
Ren blinked before setting his friend down and turning to Pearl with a grin, placing his elbow on Grian’s shoulder to lean suavely. He finger gunned in her direction, “Hey, you did amazing too. That tagging game you were on was spectacular.”
Pearl rolled her eyes before walking off to find Impulse and Gem, “Don’t worry, I get it. Just know that I expect to be given the same treatment when I get first place.”
Ren snapped the fingers on both his hands, “Of course! Nothing less for our Hermits!”
Pearl giggled before getting so far away they couldn’t hear her anymore. At some point in that exchange, Doc left too, probably to find someone like Cub or Iskall. Grian felt an arm snake its way around his shoulders, and as he turned to look at Ren in the eyes, Gaile shuffled around on him to be sitting so her front claws were holding onto the top of his head.
Ren’s grin was suddenly a lot softer, “You’re gonna get that coin before you know it. Take it from me, all this is doing is building up the utter excitement you’ll feel when you finally nail that final hit.”
Ren lifted one of his clenched fists, to which Grian bumped back without hesitation, “Thanks, it better.”
Ren finished the conversation off by flashing a toothy grin before quickly taking his arm back and then using both to shove Grian. He stumbled forward into two people, feeling their arms catch him before looking up to see Mumbo and Scar. Gaile slithered her way down Grian’s arms to place herself on Mumbo.
Grian readjusted his sleeves because of the ruffling they got from the baby dragon, “Hey guys.”
The two were grinning just as much as everyone before them. Mumbo was the first to speak, “Wonderful job out there, mate. Your skills keep growing every single day. Now, only if you can apply that endurance while I’m trying to teach you redstone every once in a while...” Grian rolled his eyes, but couldn’t retort before Mumbo let out a little yelp.
Both Scar and Grian began laughing when they noticed the cause was Gaile. She let her displeasure at her owner being dissed known when she lightly bit Mumbo’s ear before jumping off and landing on Scar. The second man held onto his hat’s rim so it wouldn't fall off as she found a position she liked, “Like Mumbo said, you were absolutely fantastic out there. Here’s hoping I get teamed with you sooner rather than later.”
Grian’s eyebrows raised, “Wait, you got…”
Scar nodded with a grin when his friend’s words trailed off, “Got the letter this morning, I’m on the waiting list!”
Grian cheered, throwing his arms around Scar in pure excitement, “Oh Scar, that’s amazing! I was worried they were never going to accept you at this rate.”
“I know, right?” Scar responded. “I was starting to think they would accept someone like Mumbo before they did me.”
“Hey!” Mumbo playfully cried out over their laughter. “Maybe I’m not the greatest at PvP, but certainly there’s some other category I could fit!”
Scar tilted his eyebrow, “Mmmm.”
Grian shook his head, “Hopefully they add a game involving redstone before then, otherwise…”
Mumbo lightly slapped his friends upside the head before bringing them close, Gaile moving back to his shoulders when they all stood in the group hug for a good few seconds. Yep, Grian wouldn’t trade this server for any other in the entire system.
He would stay at the celebration for a few more minutes, long enough to at least get one word in with everyone that was there. But eventually, that bone-deep exhaustion he was feeling earlier caught up to him and he needed to call it a night.
As he stood up, he picked up Gaile in his arms and held her close as he tried silently making his way back to his base. He didn’t want everyone to stop their conversations to give him a big hurrah of a goodbye. He would be getting plenty of those for the rest of the week anyway.
He was almost out of the clear when he felt a hand on his shoulder, making him turn around quickly to look at Xisuma. The Admin took his hand back even quicker, “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to freak you out, I just wanted to check-in. It looks like you’re heading to bed, if I may assume?”
Grian blew air out through his mouth with his lips in a small O-shape, “I’m just so tired. I think if I stay and party for any longer someone will end up dragging a corpse back to my place.”
Xisuma nodded with a chuckle, “I get that. Don’t worry, I’ll let everyone know where you’re at.”
Grian also nodded, but before his brain could get him leaving again, it told him to say one last thing, “Hey, X?”
Xisuma replied immediately, “Yes?”
A ball of anxiety welled up in Grian’s gut, “... Thank you. For everything, really.”
The Admin was silent for a few seconds, processing what Grian just said. Despite the blurriness of his helmet, Grian could see the pride radiating in his eyes, “Of course, Grian. Thank you as well. Half this server wouldn’t be the way it is if it weren’t for you.”
Letting out one last tiny sigh, Grian waved goodbye to X before finally turning around and heading to his base. The whole way there he was sure to pet and scratch the top of Gaile’s head, letting her know just how much of a good girl she was. When he got inside he set her down, only bothering to take off his shoes and pants for the night. He’ll probably regret not showering after such a long day in the morning, but his feet were killing him and his blinks were getting longer and longer the more he stayed awake.
He went to sleep that night with his dragon curled up on his chest and a heart full of love.