The Walls of L'Manburg (AU)

2

Chris woke up to a door slamming. Peaking open an eye, he spotted his two friends, Lily and Pete, barrelling through the door covered in a grey powder. He was too drowsy to care too much about what happened to them so Chris closed his eyes, desperately trying to cling to the last strands of sleep, but his friends had other plans.

"That was awful." Lily huffed while sitting down on her bunk across from Chris'. Pete started stomping his boots on the floor, shaking grey dust everywhere.

"Will you two shut it." Chris rolled over angrily. "Some of us didn't get any sleep last night."

"Oh wow, it must suck to be the favorite." Pete scoffed. "We just had the absolute worst morning shift possible." He moved to sit on the end of Chris' bed but Chris waved him off.

"Hey! Don't get your gross dust on my bed."

Pete raised his hands in defense and moved towards his bed to start taking off his uniform. Lily seemed to realise that she was still covered in the powder and quickly got up and wiped it off of her bed sheets. She moved into the nearby bathroom to change. At this point, sleep was getting further and further out of his reach, so Chris sat up against his bed frame.

"What happened to you guys anyways? What'd your dad make you do?" He said with a yawn.

"It was his fantastic idea to make us go hunt down a loose creeper near the community house."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that the other day. Why'd they send you guys though? That's a job for younger recruits, not graduates..."

"Well you know my father, he never seems to think I'm good enough to handle real guard duties."
"Hey, Punz isn't that bad. He probably just wants to keep you safe."

"Whatever." Pete grumbled. "But anyways, we followed the stupid creeper all the way towards the forest when we lost it for a second. It was tucked away beside a couple of rocks and we didn't notice it until it started to hiss."

"No way..."

"Yeah, it exploded."

"It was insane Chris, you should've seen it!" Lily walked out of the bathroom to join in. "I'd never seen a creeper explosion in person but the gunpowder flew everywhere."

"Uh- Lily..." Pete said, shading his eyes and growing red. Lily had rushed out of the bathroom in just a black bra and clean cargo pants. She rolled her eyes and threw on a t-shirt.

"Piss off Petey, I've known you since you were in diapers. You can't handle seeing my stomach? Chris, are you uncomfortable seeing my stomach?"

"Nope. Although it is a very nice stomach." Added Chris jokingly.

"Thank you Chris!" Lily laughed.

"No. It's not that-" Started Pete

"Is it my shoulders? I know they can be very sexual but please try to contain yourself next time I wear a tank-top."

Chris dissolved into laughter at his flustered friend. Lily giggled too and she walked over to pat him softly on the cheek before going to sit on Chris' bed.

"Okay, c'mon tell us how the solo patrol was?"

"It was good."

Lily sighed. "Well, tell us a little more than that please."

"Okay, okay." Chris paused for a moment. "Well, it was dark. Like really dark."

"And..." Pete had gotten over his embarrassment to join the conversation.

"And the wall seems a lot taller and more intimidating at night. To be honest, it was really spooky out there alone."

Chris didn't hold back much with Lily and Pete. They may joke around and harp on eachother, but no matter what, they were always there for eachother. There wasn't much that Chris didn't tell his bestfriends.

"Did you end up seeing anything?"

Chris didn't want to lie to them, and he trusted them more than anything, so why not tell them?

"Yeah, I did actually. There was a girl sitting on the top of the wall."

"No way." Exclaimed Pete.

"Was she from L'Manburg?" Asked Lily.

"Yeah she was. She was just sitting there watching the sunset and singing."

"Holy shit. What did you do?" Said Pete with a hand clapped over his mouth.

"Well, I don't know, I just told her to go home. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Fuck." Said Lily, "I didn't really think you'd actually see anyone outside the walls."

"Yeah, me neither." Replied Chris.

"Well, c'mon tell us." Urged Lily

"What?"

"What was she like?"

Chris laughed. "Well, she didn't seem like she was from L'Manburg. She wasn't a savage or crazy or anything like our parents always said."

"You talked to her?" Asked Pete, his eyes were wide.

"Yeah, for a minute before she left. But she was funny and mysterious and pretty and kind."

"Pretty?" Asked Pete, his eyebrows disappearing underneath his blond floppy hair.

Chris paused, as if realising what he said. "Yes... pretty."

"Hmm. Okay." Said Lily.

Chris huffed. "What now?"

"Oh, nothing much, you just said a L'Manburgian was pretty."

"Yeah, sounded a little weird to me too." Pete remarked, looking over at his friend.

"Listen, I can find someone pretty and still hate their stupid, little, boxed-in 'country'." He said the last word with air quotations.

"Whatever you say man, whatever you say." Chris could tell when Pete's Punz side came out and this was it. He definitely got pretty suspicious at times and was quite annoying whenever he had the slightest inkling something was wrong. It was one of the things Chris always hated about Pete, especially when he was younger and Lily and Chris wanted to pull pranks on their parents.

Chris rolled his eyes. Lily, wanting to diffuse the tension, checked the gold clock on the wall.

"Hey, I have tower duty at 2, so do you guys want to hit up my mom's bakery before that for lunch?"

Both boys agreed, because... food, and the three of them started to make their way out of the barracks, onto the path and back into central DreamSMP.