I'm honestly so tempted to start watching Hermitcraft and blog about it, knowing it will piss of dre*m smp fans that follow me. Justice for the Hermits, simmers, builders and old Xlifers
Ahahaha XDDD do it!!
You know, at this point I feel like those toxic DSMP fans (not all fans are toxic obviously) are jealous of how successful and wholesome the hermits are... they’ve been around for ~10 years, they have a bunch of loyal fans, it’s relatively drama-less, they’re recognised and even sponsored by Mojang, they’ve never stopped growing in popularity lmao....
And I do feel there is builders + Simmers solidarity. May I interest you in MCC 10 Dodgebolt, if you don’t know about it already? Six out of the eight finalists are builders (Cub and False from Hermitcraft, Lizzie Joel Shubble Scott from X Life), and there were also Pete and Quig, two of the best five players in the event. The Red team (Dream George Puffy Jimmy) were salty as fuccc because they got third, all of them except Jimmy were calling the final duel “slow” and “boring” and they didn’t know anyone on the teams (sans Scott), which was OBVIOUSLY looking down on the six builders. It was a show of poor sportsmanship, and the rudest behaviour I’ve ever seen in MCC. But I mean, it happened half a year ago, I personally try not to hold it against them, but I know many others are still pissed.
So. Extra incentive mayhaps lmao.
Feel free to refer to beacon-lamp’s genuinely helpful Hermitcraft propaganda masterlist to help you get started :D we welcome you with open arms!
Shion knew it was a matter of time before Nezumi made good on his word and left No. 6 to embark on his travels. Luckily for him, that time was in the distant future as Nezumi resolved to heal his body from the various gunshot wounds before he dared venture out.
Shion hummed softly to himself, watching Nezumi fix them both a coffee early in the morning. The two of them had become quite the morning birds, even beating his mom to the kitchen. Nezumi had his hair tied down rather than his usual high ponytail, a hairstyle that Shion had done this morning while the other boy had been struggling to wake up.
Shion was surprised the other boy had even let him touch his hair when he had no experience tying hair. He had been even more surprised that Nezumi had elected to keep wearing his hair in the style Shion had done for him.
“Here you go, darling prince,” Nezumi said, his teasing voice dripping with mirth.
Shion smiled earnestly, “What an honor that you keep making me coffee in the mornings. I thought you said you’d stop.”
“I won’t do it tomorrow,” Nezumi answered lightly, sitting down in the chair across from Shion and sipping from his mug.
What a liar, Shion almost barked out with a laugh, considering that Nezumi had been using that line since last week. He must have truly wormed his way past all of Nezumi’s sharp defenses for him to no longer mind making Shion coffee in the morning without complaints. It was that or he had become used to their domestic schedule.
The two of them settled into a comfortable silence, drinking their coffee, and eating from the cookies Shion had been able to save from his mom’s batch from last night. They had become Nezumi’s favorites, so he and his mom had baked a lot of them so there had been plenty of leftovers after the shop closed.
“Do you think they’ll let us go all the way back to the house today?” Nezumi asked.
Shion shook his head, looking up from his cup, “I seriously doubt it. Mom says that area is still being cleaned up and Inukashi sent message from their dogs that it is very messy out there. We’ll have to wait until things are clearer.”
Nezumi pouted and let out an exaggerated sigh that had become very familiar since these past three days. Shion suppressed a sigh of his own as he already knew what was coming.
“Nezu-.”
“What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed?” Nezumi recited loudly, spreading one of his arms out as if he were back performing on stage, “A beast, no more!”
Shion was both amused and miffed as Nezumi stood up to continue his performance. Apparently, he had not grown tired of repeating the same lines from Hamlet to express his dissatisfaction of being kept away from his books during his recovery.
“Sure he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and godlike reason to fust in us unused!”
“Nezumi,” Shion chided softly, “The doctor said that your leg is still injured enough where walking that distance can hurt you. Not to mention, again, that the area is still being cleaned up so, even if we left the house, we would have a hard time reaching home.”
“I’m bored,” Nezumi answered, sitting down back on his chair with a small huff, “I haven’t read any of my books in days and I can feel myself stagnate.”
“We’ll get you books as soon as we’re able to,” Shion comforted Nezumi, “I know that you don’t like just staying home after spending years working consistently, but recovery is crucial. You have to focus on healing those gunshot wounds.”
“I know that. I’m not an idiot,” Nezumi answered, drinking his coffee, “I just know that things would be easier if I could read something to pass the time. As much as I love your company, you’re no Shakespeare.”
Shion grumbled, “You’ve read those books at least three times since we’ve lived together. I think you can survive a week without them.”
“A week?” Nezumi frowned, “I will leave this place on my own to get my books, wounds be damned, in order to get good reading material to cure my boredom.”
“You will not.”
“Try to stop me.”
Shion knew it would be very easy to stop Nezumi in his condition but figured Nezumi would hate his answer. While Nezumi smugly drank his coffee, thinking he still had some sort of advantage, Shion racked his head with what he could do to solve this recent headache for him. He knew Nezumi would not give up unless he got what he wanted. Once he made up his mind on something, it was hard to get it out.
Things had been going so well, too. Nezumi had been listening to the doctor’s orders to spend his days in bed resting, eating, and sleeping. He had been incredibly good about taking his medication to deal with his pain. He had even been sweeter on Shion, a development that still left his heart racing in a pleasant way.
Nezumi was sweet but he was also quite sour when boredom set in. Shion liked Nezumi’s sweet and tender moments when he wasn’t bored. He would be singing up a storm for Shion or cooking some recipe his mom had given him. He would even be sweet enough to sleep holding Shion’s hand, despite his teasing that only children slept holding hands.
What could he do to cheer him up? He really couldn’t get Nezumi’s books, although he had asked Inukashi if they were able to retrieve at least one book with the help of the dogs. They were working on it, but that book wouldn’t be able to make it in time before Nezumi’s boredom kicked in.
That left only one option.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question,” Shion started, watching Nezumi as recognition kicked in at the famous monologue from Hamlet. He coughed, continuing, “whether it’s-.”
“Tis.”
“Tis nobler in the mind to suffer the swings-.”
“Slings.”
“Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die – to sleep, no more,” Shion shook his head, “I don’t really remember the rest. I haven’t read it is as often as you.”
Nezumi looked delighted, “And by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. When did you memorize part of Hamlet’s great soliloquy? I didn’t think you’d have theater skills at all.”
Shion shrugged, smiling softly despite himself, “You recite Hamlet so much that I remembered parts of it.”
Nezumi stirred his mug, “Is that so? You continue to impress, Shion, even if your Hamlet is lackluster.”
“What a stunning compliment.”
“Ha.”
The two of them continued their coffee drinking while reciting Hamlet. Well, Nezumi did most of the reciting while Shion tried his best to keep up. He hadn’t read the play as often as Nezumi had but he remembered enough because he remembered how precious a book it was to the boy he loved dearly. How could he not remember something so beloved by his loved one?
The reciting of Hamlet left Nezumi in an upbeat mood the whole morning. That allowed them to eat more cookies and even a few pastries they had missed yesterday. They did Nezumi’s stretches that the doctor had ordered together while talking about Nezumi’s books. Well, more like Nezumi did most of the talking while Shion gave his thoughts between the pauses.
They helped his mom baking her famous bread and cookies with Nezumi passing them ingredients mixing the batches while Shion shaped them and putting them in the oven with his mom.
When the shop opened, Nezumi watched them start passing bread, often giving his thoughts about the person that had entered once the person left. Those comments were rude most of the times so Shion eventually had to take Nezumi out for a walk around the street.
Nezumi’s leg sometimes dragged during their small walk, still recovering from the gunshot wound, so Shion doubled as the other’s cane to help him get around. When Nezumi needed to stop for a break, they found a spot to sit and look up. Together, they watched the beautiful sky dotted by lazy clouds that slowly drifted in the vastness of the world above them.
“I’m tired,” Nezumi sighed, always hating to be weak.
Shion smiled, “I was getting tired too.”
“No you weren’t,” Nezumi grumbled, standing, “You’re trying to be nice again.”
He didn’t have a retort to that since he was trying to be considerate of Nezumi’s feelings. Nezumi was used to being the stronger one between the two of them. Unfortunately, due to his injuries, he was now the “weak” one and Shion was the “strong” one.
It was a childish thought process, but it was endearing to Shion that Nezumi still had it in him to be childish.
They walked back to the bakery where Nezumi swiped a couple of breads as they went back to their shared room. If Nezumi was as exhausted as he thought, Shion figured that he was going to take a long rest until it was lunchtime.
Nezumi laid down in bed, removing his hair tie so his hair splayed all around him. Shion quietly joined him as Nezumi squirmed around to find a comfortable spot. They stared up at the ceiling like they had the sky, caught in another comfortable silence. Shion’s hand reached out to hold Nezumi’s hand and he felt the other immediately grab it. No words needed to be spoken. They had gone through so much that asking for something as simple as holding hands was unnecessary.
Shion closed his eyes, “Nezumi?”
“Hm?”
“Do you still have any songs you haven’t sung to me?”
Nezumi shifted and Shion opened his eyes, turning his head, to see Nezumi looking at him with a soft expression. It was one of Shion’s favorite expression to see, and it had become one the most common ways that Nezumi looked at him.
“I have a new one for you.”
“For me?”
Nezumi playfully flicked his finger at Shion, an action that held no real weight because Nezumi was smiling. He was really smiling, a smile that didn’t have any snark or edge. It was warm and sweet, beautifully soft and tender. He could almost lose himself staring into the depths of affection Nezumi had for him.
“Yes, for you. I thought of a song for you.”
Nezumi scooted closer and Shion did the same until their foreheads touched. His wonderful Nezumi’s warmth was an inferno, enveloping Shion and leaving him breathless. How long had he waited outside the surgery room hoping that this warmth wouldn’t leave Nezumi? How long had he waited, hoping that he wouldn’t feel the cold and lifeless body of his beloved Nezumi who had changed his life forever?
Wasn’t he lucky?
His Nezumi was alive. He was not completely healed, yet but he was alive. Nezumi was alive and he loved Shion just as much as he loved Nezumi.
“Me, together with you,” Nezumi sang to him, reaching out to tuck his hair behind his ear gently, “We head to the distant star below. To eternity, or perhaps even beyond. You and me, or ‘we’.”
The two of them had resolved to die together. . . it was easier to resolve to live together. Whether that meant physically together or far apart didn’t matter. At least it was the two of them doing something together.
Shion tightened his grip on Nezumi’s hand, closing his eyes again as Nezumi continued his song. Could he hear his heart that was beating thanks to him? He had saved Nezumi’s life and Nezumi had saved his. Their joined hearts were only able to beat thanks to each other.
It was the two of them together, no matter what.
“When twilight falls and gently embraces us. . . Our hearts burst into joyful bloom. We ride the wind to a place beyond time.”
Shion let Nezumi’s voice lull him into a place between wake and sleep, listening as Nezumi’s voice grew even softer like he was singing a lullaby. Shion listened to his song, to his heartbeat, to his breath and felt himself drifting slowly towards sleep.
“If I’m with you, this love. . .”
If he woke up later with his fingers tangled in Nezumi’s hair, their legs tangled, Nezumi’s face buried in his shoulder and his arm draped over Shion’s waist with their song still ringing in Shion’s ear, that was something between him and Nezumi.
Happy holidays! I’ll admit, I didn’t have a great December as I was filled with a lot of work stuff that sapped at me, so I actually started this gift with only 5 days left. I started writing for 2 days a concept . . . then hated it and started all over again. The “no angst” was a challenge and some peeks out in the text itself. The biggest challenge was the soft and comforting things, so I hope that I was able to convey their softness. I really tried on keeping them soft but in-character, especially when it takes place before Nezumi leaves.
My bed had No. 6 volumes and Hamlet on my bedside for two days straight as I made sense of my timeline and characterization. Nezumi and Shion, you two deserve a slice of life and I cannot give you all that.
The title of this fic comes from the song Nezumi sings. It is Karma by Rubyeye and C!nah. The version that most sounds like Nezumi is Karma by AKUGETSU so check it out!
I really hope you enjoyed because I had a blast writing this. It was a fun challenge!
