#or not really

Summary: Grian has had the same recurring dream for two weeks now.

Relationship: Mumbo & Grian, platonic? (This part is, but I can’t guarantee the next part would be.)

Character: Mumbo Jumbo, Grian (Also mentioned the Boatem Crew.) 

Note: This is strictly about their MC personas, DO NOT take this seriously!

-

The wind whizzes past his face. He is plummeting down into an obscure fog, his conscious getting more and more distant. There are screams, far from where he is and- and it’s getting closer.

He tries to open his eyes. 

Nothing. 

Blackness.

The screams are louder and clearer now. They sounds like…

He can’t recognize the voices, but they are very very familiar.

A sly and crooked smile, a broad shoulder, a pair of blue eyes. Suit. A tie. A pair of leather shoes. They are screaming, so loud, so loud so loud he feels like he’s losing his hearing. He screams, too, but no sound comes out. Why is there no- why can’t he- what is going on?

Now the people in front of him are in a space suit.

He watches his own visor cracks open and suddenly he couldn’t breath. The wind is still wizzing past him.

He is in tears, he can’t see them now- they are blobs in his vision. He raises his hand to wipe the tear, and realize he couldn’t move.

“Guys-” He wheezes out. “Guys! I am here! I am-”

He loses his voice again. Don’t go! Please, guys, someone, grab me, I-

The person with the broad shoulder visors cracks, and he suddenly plummet into the void underneath them, then the sly smile, and the blue eyes- he feels like his heart gets ripped out from his chest, torn apart and pieced back then ripped out and torn apart again. He wants to shout and wail, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t shout, couldn’t do anything-

The one in the suit is staring at him- where’s is his helmet? He looks at the man desperately and the man smile. An apologetic smile. He has a bad feeling.

“Sorry.”

The man also falls into the void.

“-Mumbo!”

Giran sits up, gasping for air. He stares at the chest he placed around the bed last night, and he sigh.

Well. Surrounds himself with things doesn’t seem to work. He checked the clock. It’s only 4 in the morning. He doesn’t feel like going back to sleep (it’s the same anyway), so he get out of the bed, gets his gear on and starts the day.

Four in the morning. It’s not getting better.

It’s not getting better.

-

Clank!

Mumbo’s hands stop at the buttons of his shirt. There’s someone in his base. “Is anyone there?”

The sound of closing chest can be heard. Not long after that, sound of more things that get dropped on the floor can also be heard.

Mumbo sigh. He gets around the corner that he hides, “Grian-”

And he stops. For a second, he thought Grian was a ghost. The pale face in front of him looks too lifeless to be Grian’s.

“Mum-Mumbo! What a coincidence! I didn’t expect to see you here wow! Weird isn’t it!” Grian blurts out. He tries to hide the things behind his back and fails miserably.

“Dude, you looks awful! It’s- it’s six-thirty in the morning, why are you stealing my things at six-thirty in the morning?!”

“What? Pffffft noooo- I am just here to admire your vault, you know, what a beautiful, beautiful vault-”

“I can see you holding my iron!”

“These can be my iron, you never know.”

“Gosh, it’s too early for this.”Mumbo drags a hand over his face but he is chuckling, “Grian, it’s so early, did you stay up all night doing project again?”

Grian not-so-subtly puts the items into his inventory and mutters, “Yeah, that would have bean the wise thing to do.” He picks up the gold on the ground, stares at it for a second before opening the chest to put it back.

Mumbo opens his mouth to say something, but he doesn’t know what to say. Grian is strangely quiet today, something doesn’t feel right.

“I think you should go back to sleep, Grian, you looks like you might collapse.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine.”

“ Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

“…Okay. If you say so. Just, don’t overwork yourself.”

“Will do, thanks Mom.”

“GRIAN!”

Grian smiles then takes off. Mumbo huffs, a little bit too fondly, though he notices he has yet to button up his shirt. Well that’s embarrassing. He quickly does the buttons.

-

The next day, Mumbo is working on his new slime farm when his communicator goes off.

<Grian fell from a high place>

<Grian: mumbo can you come to xb’s dropper thing now>

<Grian: ?>

<Mumbo: okay>

He flies there and lands on the top of XB’s Octodrop. Grian is nowhere to be seen. “Grian?”

“I am here, in the middle!”

Grian’s voice comes from somewhere below. Mumbo see his name tag showing in the middle of the dropper, so he glides down to the bottom and gets in the bubble-vator.

“Hi, Mumbo. I didn’t interrupt something, did I?”

“I was just building a new slime farm, it’s fine.”

“You haven’t had one?”

“I have. It’s not as efficient as I would like, so I am building a new one.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Mumbo waits for Grian to talk. Grian doesn’t.

“Grian? Why do you call me here?”

“Oh, I just…I can’t get out.”

“Do you not have your elytra?”

“I have.” Grian looks uncomfortable.

“I can give you some rockets,”

“It’s not that. I just. I can’t. It’s too high.” Grian says, almost troubled, “There’s no other way to get out either.”

“…You are afraid of height? Since when?”

“I don’t know! I am not- I am not scared, of height, I just-! It’s- I fell. You saw it in the chat, right?”

“You fell from the dropper? But what about the feather-falling potion?”

“I- forgot about the potion and jumped.”

Mumbo laughs. Grian is so reckless sometimes, and Mumbo is loving this. After a second or two, he notices Grian’s silence, and he stops laughing immediately. Is Grian mad?

“Are you…” He watches Grian shifting on his feet, and he decides to ask another question. “…Grian, are you okay?”

“I am fine.”

That’s- that didn’t sound like Grian at all. Grian brushing off concerns is a normal thing, sure, everybody does that. Grian being visibly dejected is a whole different thing, still, everyone has bad days. This time though, Grian sounded strangely defensive and at the same time, very tired and restless.

Mumbo knows Grian. Maybe not very well, or he does know Grian very well…? Those don’t matter, because sometimes Grian is just hard to communicate with words, like how Grian uses pranks as a way of showing he cares- that’s Grian, somehow both affectionate and shy, also complicated and simple all at the same time. He stands next to Grian and gives him a side hug, hoping that it would help.

Grian doesn’t protest or back away. They just stand there.  After a little while, Grian’s shoulder starts shaking slightly, so Mumbo looks away. “Do you want to talk about it?” He asks quietly.

Grian buries his head in Mumbo’s shoulder. Mumbo is a little bit surprised; he was about to back away but caught himself at the last second. Grian needs this, and he can give him that.

After a moment of silence, “Is this a bird thing?”

Grian snorts. “I dunno know what you’re talking about.”

Mumbo is feeling rebellious today, so he ventures, “The burying.”

Grian was silent for a while before he speaks. “That’s ostrich. I am not an ostrich-hybrid, Mumbo. Is all the Redstone circuits finally drive you crazy? ”

Mumbo pretends to be offended and huff angrily, but he is relief. Grian can crack jokes- that’s a good sign. “I mean ostriches are big birds, and you are also a big bird, Grian. Ostrich Grian?”

Grian slaps one of Mumbo’s upper arm without lifting his head. “I can’t believe you.” Mumbo laughs.

Yet a moment of silence.

“Grian, can you tell me what happened?”

Grian sighs into Mumbo’s suit before he backs away. He hangs his head, seeming reluctant to raise his gaze, “I…the fall, it’s messing with my head.”

“Oh. That must have been awful.” Sometimes respawn doesn’t really fix all the pain, that Mumbo knows. But Grian shakes his head.

“It’s the fall from season eight, Mumbo. I have been stuck with the same nightmare for two weeks, I- when I looked down on the dropper tower I panicked and I just jumped without thinking and everything went dark after that and I- I-”

“Wait, the fall from season eight?” 

Grian shuts his mouth tight. He nods, sit down on the bed. He looks exhausted just like yesterday, his pale face almost ghost-like. The fall that made Grian panic so much that he called Mumbo here. The fall from season eight…ah. Must be the ‘rocket’ they took to get to season nine.

“Did…did you sleep yesterday, Grian?”

“I didn’t.” Grian sighs.

“The nightmare’s that bad, huh?” Mumbo says. “I mean Scar’s traveling method did feel like a nightmare, if I am being completely honest.”

Grian lets out a weak laugh, but doesn’t say anything.

“Can I- can I help?

Grian shrugs. Mumbo deflates. “Maybe- do you want me to be there when you sleep? Would that help? I mean it doesn’t have to be me! Uh- who do you- like maybe Scar? Or Pearl? I know you and Pearl has known each other for a very long time-”

Grian actually laughs this time. Mumbo would take that as a win.

“No, just you would be fine, Mumbo. Maybe it would actually help.”

Mumbo wonders why the way his name rolls off Grian’s tongue always feels deliberate.

-

Falling, p2 (not out yet) (This is another chapter that you guys have to wait forever tbh)

My rant:

I have been working on this for three or four days now, but I just realize this is getting out of hand. This was meant to be a one-shot gosh darn it. But the way Grian reacts to the fall is not something I can deal with in a one-shot, I am not at that level yet, so bear with me, folks!

Thank you for reading this. And just like every time, this fic probably has way too much spelling mistakes or whatever. If you see one, SHOUT THEM OUT and I would really appreciate it! Thank you! Though please shout gently