Hour of Mercy || Hermitcraft AU

~• Nine •~

The air was getting colder by the time Tango walked into the clearing of his cabin. He looked up at the sky.

He'd taken a little longer than an hour, because he'd climbed into the branches of a tree and spent a while, laying within the thick branches of the biggest one, staring up at the dark green leaves that were dangling all around him. He reached up, picking one of them and twirling it around between two fingers.

–

"Torchy, why don't any of the other kids like me?" Young Tango asked, kicking a pebble into a nearby lava pool and watching it slowly sink. They'd ventured out of the village, as they often did.

Torchy blinked, a hint of sadness in his dark maroon eyes. "Well, Tango, you're special. And people don't like special. It scares them.

"Is special a bad thing?" Tango looked up at his friend's narrow face as it pinched with anger, and the ends of his hair began to lick with flame.

"Absolutely not!" He crouched to Tango's level, "Being special makes you who you are. It's that spark in your eye. It's the way you see the world from a completely different perspective from everyone else in the Clan."

"Then- then why are they scared of special blazes?" Tango asked.

"Because- because when they're around you, they see just how boring they truly are, and just how amazing they'll never be able to be. They're jealous, that's why." Torchy explained.

"But, I don't want them to be jealous, I want them to play with me, and be special too. To be my friends." Tango sniffled, tearing up.

"Me too. B-but you know what, they are missing out on being friends with the most clever, most mischievous, most brilliant blaze hybrid in the nether."

"Okay..." He said disappointedly, wiping his nose.

"Hey, hey-" Torchy rested his hands on Tango's shoulders, "Guess who didn't miss out on that?"

"Who?" Tango asked.

"Me, you doofus!" He laughed exasperatedly.

Tango finally grinned.

"There's that cheeky little smile I've been waiting for! Say, how about we go use that redstone we bartered from those piglins? You could try to teach me some more of that insane genius-ification you've got, yeah?"

Tango's red eyes grew wide with excitement, "Really?"

"Of course." Torchy's expression softened, "But seriously, Tango, don't ever let anyone make you feel worthless, just because you're not the same as them, alright?"

"Alright."

-

Scrunching his brows, present Tango fought to keep the flood of memories away. The faces of people he thought he could trust. The faces of people he'd believed actually cared about him.

He'd thought.

But he'd been wrong.

He wiped tears from his eyes, not even caring about the prickly sensation the water evoked. He bit his lip, tracing the veins in the delicate little leaf.

Of course he'd been dumb enough to believe them. That was who he was. A gullible little no one who fit in nowhere.

Tango's gaze left the leaf, and he peered through the leaves, up unto the sky. The bright blue was turning to a softer purple-ish evening color.

He shot up, realizing he'd spent longer than he'd planned to. Quickly he scrambled down the tree, and slid down a steep slope. He tried to be fast, but he'd walked quite a ways away and it took him about twenty minutes just to get back.