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Dirt, they have so much dirt in this chest. Avery rummages through it, separating the contents into neat columns of normal dirt, coarse dirt, and rooted dirt. If they're gonna have a dirt chest it's at least going to be organized! As he considers whether or not to combine this with their gravel stores he feels a heavy hand fall on to his shoulder from behind.
A shudder runs down his back at the sudden presence, a large, dark cloud of atmospheric danger hovering over him. The body behind him is bulky, threatening, inspiring pure instinctual dread deep into his gut.
“Oh! Hey D3r,” he grins, closing the chest and glancing up. His stalks droop to the side to make enough space for the head of his friend to sit between them.
It takes a moment for the fear to fizzle out, leaving his finger tips tingling as Derek lilts to the side and drops his head onto Avery's shoulder. The longer they spend together, the quicker the panic leaves, especially now that Derek seems more accustomed to living with the remnants of the King that still fester around in his head.
Before he can begin to ask what's up, Derek beats him to it, his voice tight with pain, “Just–let me…You–it,” his breath catches on a few deep inhales until he forces out, “Hurts. Less.”
Avery hums, looking at what he can see of Derek's helmet and plume where he's buried the hard edges of it into his shirt, arm laying heavy on the opposite shoulder and grasping at his floral button up. It's not common for Derek to lose his words like this, he's usually very good at conveying himself, but when he does it's almost always due to the same reason; a migraine. Over time it stopped being one consistent head shattering case, and instead now he gets clusters of them seemingly randomly. Well, to Avery it seems random but who knows if the genius has figured out a pattern to it.
With one hand raised to rest against the cool metal of Derek's helmet, Avery considers. He doesn't necessarily understand how this helps the headache hurt less but he doesn't understand a lot of things about the King situation, so who is he to stop this moment of respite? He lets his eyes fall closed, leaning further back into Derek before declaring happily, “Hug Time it is then!”
Derek let's out a large sigh of air–as if he'd been holding his breath, the psycho–and meets Avery in the middle by accepting his weight and leaning into him too. The hand that had been twisted into his shirt releases, sliding forward to let Avery's back rest against an armored chest. Derek folds himself further around Avery, burying his head into the meat of his shoulder and wrapping his free arm around his waist. It's an odd combination of feelings, the warmth of his breath against slightly gooey skin mixed with the coolness of his metal armor through both of Avery's shirts. Avery slides his hand up to bury it in the plume of Derek's helmet, gently brushing through the tough fibers.
“...Thanks, Avery.”
“No problem man! I was getting bored of all that organizing anyway. We should really set up automatic storage at some point. I think I've seen some cool designs in some of the Hermit's videos so we can look up a tutorial when you feel better,” Avery rocks slightly as he talks, feeling Derek's cape swish into his thighs with each backward motion.
Derek simply hums to show he's paying attention.
“I've been thinking, dangerous thing I know,” he feels Derek's mouth quirk up at the comment and smiles to himself, “I'm pretty good at everything else in Minecraft but I've never really learned all the complicated logic behind redstone. I’m sure you might know some though, it’d be cool if we could do some experimenting or something!”
The gladiator shaped koala clinging to him nods, humming once more in acknowledgment. They stay standing in their storage room for a while longer, easy silence falling as a record disc plays somewhere in the base above them. Torch light flickers in the sconces along the walls, small crackles as the fire eats away at the eternal wood. He absently watches the shadows they cast until his blinks slow and their breathing evens out into steady, calm, movements like a tide against the shore.
“Hey, Derek,” Avery says eventually, “You wanna go to bed?”
Derek doesn't stir until Avery repeats his name a few more times but when he does he tightens his grip around the slime with a deep breath, “You too?”
Avery laughs, “Yeah me too man, c’mon there's no point standing here when we could be taking a nap instead!”
It takes a moment of coaxing to fully separate them, both stumbling a little as they step away. He must’ve been organizing for way longer than he thought, because Avery’s stalks droop as he pulls Derek out of the storage area and over to the stairs that lead to the rest of the base. When they reach the main floor it's actually Derek who guides them to their shared room and closes the door behind them. Their room is small but decorated to the best of their combined builder skills. (Which means Avery did most of it while teaching Derek about block palates and silhouettes. How a man can be so smart and not understand these things he'll never know) There’s two desks and one large work bench against the wall, a window hanging open above it to let in the mid day light. A few book shelves hold Derek's new journal and a few messy sketch books Avery uses to plan their builds. In the far corner sits their beds, a bunk bed arrangement Avery insisted on, for the whimsy of course!
Considering their current states though, it’s probably not wise for either of them to climb up to the top bunk. Derek seems to agree because he drags them both over and pulls Avery into the bottom bunk with him. They land awkwardly, bouncing off the mattress and laughing as they fix themselves.
“Wanna take off your gear?” Avery asks as he tosses his slides to the floor and shrugs off his button up. He doesn't usually wear much armor around the base, but Derek is always fully geared in his regalia.
Derek pauses before nodding, “Not th–”
“Not the helmet, yes I know,” he cuts Derek off, nodding back at him. Of course he knows that, Derek never takes off the helmet, it's honestly kinda cute how attached to it he is. It’s humanizing, it reminds Avery that despite how smart the other man is, he is still just a man. One cursed with too much knowledge to hold in, one who needed a friend as desperately as he did.
Either way, Derek turns and let's Avery undo the buckles to one of his forearm guard thingies as he uses the other hand to unclasp his cape in one fluid motion. Systematically they get all of Derek’s armor off and placed safely on the floor to be stored for later. They're left sitting on the bed staring at each other for a moment.
“Head hurt still?”
“It’s…slightly better now,” Derek decides.
Avery nods, usually the migraines ease up after enough time spent not doing anything, holed away somewhere Derek doesn't have to focus on keeping the unending swell of information back. He’s glad he’s somehow been able to help expedite the process, even though he doesn't understand why. He’s actually grateful Derek came and found him when he did, if he had spent much longer down in storage he might have passed out in one of the chests himself.
As if to prove his point to himself, Avery yawns, eyes squeezing tight with the force of it.
“Tired?” Derek asks.
“Mmm yeah.”
“Let’s lay down.”
“M'kay.”
Avery falls down on to his back, head hitting the pillow as he scootches around on top of the covers. He could lift them up and get under them, but that sounds like a lot of work to be honest. Instead, he drops both of his arms beside his head and kicks his legs out, nudging Derek in the process. His feet skip off of the knight’s hip and thighs until falling down to the mattress with a buoyant landing.
“Avery, c’mon give me some space dude.”
He grumbles something along the lines of ‘you do it’, perfectly happy sprawled out as he is. Derek is the one who wanted to share the bottom bunk, he can use his big clever brain to figure them out a solution to this ‘space’ issue.
And, to his credit, solve the issue Derek does. He pushes at Avery’s chest until he manages to physically scoot him over, leaving a tiny slice of mattress open that's exposed to the wider room. He climbs over Avery’s various limbs and lays himself down there as best he can, still ending up half on top of the slime despite his efforts. With his back turned to the room he rests his head on one of Avery’s arms seeing as it's taking up the pillow and sighs. One of his legs lays heavy tossed over one of Avery’s, his arms pulled in close to his chest as he curls himself up to fit his tall frame in the minimal space. His breath is again warm against Avery's skin, his weight dipping the mattress under them. He's steady, nearby, and alive. Avery can't think of a single thing he'd wish for right now that he doesn't already have just by lying next to his friend.
“Hey, Avery,” Derek mumbles, sleepiness clouding his voice at the edges.
“Sup D3r,” Avery says back, eyes lidded and resting unfocused on the bunk above them.
“Goodnight, dude.”
“It’s the middle of the day, Mr.Knows-a-lot.”
“Well good noon then man, shut up and take a nap.”
“Yessir m'lord.”
Even though they're laying on top of the blanket, and the sun is casting the room in light, it's one of the best sleeps of his life.