Hermitcraft Oneshots

Secrets - Grumbo (jealousy/fluff/Watchers I guess)

1811 words. Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹 are the Watchers that 'took' Grian and Pearl.

Mumbo stared up at the ceiling as the first smudges of light began to creep through the edges of the windows. He checked his communicator as his impatience had been steadily growing over the last however-long-it-had-been; five am. It had only been half an hour, but the time seemed to have been stretched out like an infinite elastic band, getting longer and longer even when you thought it had reached it's limit.

He was bored. He'd done the thing that everyone's done at some point in their life when they wake up and just can't get back to sleep. It wasn't like he wasn't tired or like he had too much energy or like he was too hot or too cold, he just couldn't. Sleep. He sighed and turned onto his other side, fidgeting for the mere fact it kept him occupied for a few seconds.

Whyyyyyyyy? He thought, huffing in his mind. He was so damn bored, why did this have to happen? No, he wasn't going down that path again; he'd spent ten minutes wondering about any possible evolutionary reason for this happening but had failed to come up with anything, and the topic really didn't appeal to him to think about again. He'd also spent at least forty minutes thinking about redstone, twenty thinking about what he'd do today, twenty five about whether he could prank someone today, fifteen about the possibility of leaving without waking anyone up or worrying them when they woke up and another twenty about his friends (definitely not Grian). And yet, only thirty minutes had passed in total.

He turned over again onto his other side because maybe if he found the Ultimate Position of Comfort he would be able to sleep. He was facing the rest of the room and all he felt was bitter jealousy for the peacefully sleeping hermits (Scar had invited Boatem to a sleepover at his swaggon on the basis of "why not?" which left him unable to get up and do things because it felt rude.)

He glanced at the calm, unconscious people, wishing and longing to be like them, when he noticed Grian seemed to be breathing too heavily to say he was asleep. He furrowed his eyebrows just as the blond suddenly sat up and his eyes ripped open. Mumbo was about to sit up and offer comfort when Pearl also woke up and made her way over to him as tears began to wander down his face.

How had she known he'd just woken up? Had she been awake this whole time? His mind was flooded with questions and he stayed still and quiet as Grian let her hug him.

Now, even more questions were drowning him.

He knew Grian sometimes had nightmares. He'd first found out at the beginning of season six, but whenever he tried to help he'd been pushed away. Grian would never tell him what was wrong, never lean into his touch - only sit there stiffly as he tried to help him. And yet, he seemed perfectly happy to let Pearl comfort him.

He heard her whisper a word quietly in a language he'd never heard before and watched as Grian nodded vaguely between silent tears. She began whispering more words into his ear - he could barely hear the sound, and even the odd ones he was sure he heard correctly were definitely not in English.

The redstoner watched in confusion as the new hermit kept whispering (what he assumed were) words of reassurance to the gremlin as he seemingly began to calm down. He wanted to help, he really, really did, but he knew he couldn't. He didn't know how to help Grian whenever this happened. Besides, he couldn't exactly reveal his wake-ness now that it had been a few minutes.

Grian looked up at Pearl once he'd stopped crying and asked her something in the foreign language. She nodded and gave a short reply, and he smiled.

"Thank you," Grian whispered in English about five minutes later.

"Any time, little empire." She replied, stroking his back where her hand was. "Now try and get some sleep." He nodded and she repositioned herself slightly to be more comfortable as he lay into her. She began stroking his hair, holding him close.