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December. A month known for the cold. A month known to be full of snow. A month known the best for holiday cheer. December, a month that had made its presence known on the Hermitcraft server.
With the temperatures dropping and the first snowfall of the season underway, it definitely put the Hermits into the holiday mood. All the Hermits had begun decorating their different builds and shops across the server. Some were going all out like Jevin putting lights up everywhere, playing music every chance he got (even taking over Cub’s announcements) and dressing the part while others did the bare minimum like Ren just putting up a few lights on of his Gigacorp buildings.
So, it was no surprise that Grian was part of the excited crowd. There was a lot he loved about the holidays but one of his favorite pastimes was decorating with those dear to him. That’s why today of all days he was out braving the snowy cold day to walk over to Scar’s base. Now Grian knew flying would be a quicker way to travel but unfortunately his wings didn’t work the greatest when it got this cold. So the poor avian would have to stick to walking.
Grian continued to walk for about 30 minutes before he finally could see Scar’s base in the distance. The avian let out a sigh of relief as his pace quickened. The sooner he could get inside, the sooner Grian could get warm and begin decorating with Scar. The two of them had the whole day jammed packed with holiday plans. They would start off by decorating the base with lights, figurines, and different trinkets Scar had gathered over the years and seasons. Afterwards, they would move to the kitchen to begin baking cookies, breads, sweets, and other holiday goodies. Scar had even hinted he would make his infamous Elven Kiss cookies and Grian had a family recipe or two hidden away that he had been aching to whip up.
Once the baking was done, the two would move on to getting the tree set up and begin decorating that. Hopefully by that time, Mumbo would be able to join them to finish up decorating.
The mustache redstoner had something related to a video come up but still wanted to help out, so he agreed to aid with the tree. Then once everything was done the trio would dress in their warmest coats and with a large thermos of hot chocolate, they would go walk around the server to look at what the rest of the Hermits had done. It honestly sounded like the perfect day in Grian’s mind.
The avian let out a content sigh as he walked up the path to Scar’s base. However, getting closer, Grian was a bit confused on why all the lights were off. He shrugged it off thinking Scar was in a different part of the base and went to the door to knock on it. There was no immediate response. Grian shrugged and knocked once again.
Still no response.
“Odd, Scar should be up by now,” Grian commented as he tried but failed to get a look inside. With a huff, Grian went to pull out his communicator to message the missing vex-hybrid when a gust of wind hit him just right. A large shiver shot through Grian’s body, making his wings twitch and ache. He instead tried the door and was pleased to find it was unlocked. The avian thanked the stars that Hermitcraft was a safe server and the Hermits didn’t feel the need to lock their doors before he quickly entered the nice warm base.
“Ah, nice and warm,” Grian sighed as he shook the snow off him and looked around the room. It was pretty dark, as was most of the base and felt like no one had been up yet.
“Uh, sorry for barging in but you know me and the cold!” Grian called out as he removed his boots.
At first there was no response but soon the padding of tiny footsteps could be heard as Scar’s two kittens - Katy Bee and Mr. Finnegan came running. They immediately began mewing at Grian who just chuckled as he knelt down to give them pets. However, the two kittens were more interested in going into the kitchen than pets at the moment as they mewed more at Grian.
Grian tilted his head in confusion before following them. It didn’t take long for Grian to figure out what they truly wanted as the kittens sat next to their empty bowls and let out some desperate, demanding mews.
“Oh, Scar hasn’t fed you two yet? Odd….” Grian commented as he went to the food pantry to fill up their bowls. The whole time, both kittens were weaving in and out of Grian’s legs demanding their food. He had to watch his step to make sure he didn’t accidentally step or trip over them.
“Calm down, you two. You’re acting like Scar never feeds you,” teased Grian as he finally placed the bowls on the floor and the kittens quickly began to devour the food. Grian chuckled at their little ‘nom nom’ noises, “Aww, you two are so cute. Now that the two of you are fed, where’s Scar? Scar!? Scar, where are you!?”
Once again there was no response. Grian frowned as he exited the kitchen to look in the different rooms for Scar. The vex-hybrid’s gear was still hung up by the door so he wasn’t out mining for materials. His communicator was laying on an end table charging away, so he hadn’t left to visit someone. With Scar’s supplies still here, this only increased Grian's concern for him. Grian continued to search the first floor but turned up with nothing.
After not getting results, Grian began to debate on dipping into other means of finding Scar when a faint noise caught his attention. Because he dealt with the mewing from the kittens and his own panicked thoughts, Grian had completely missed the noise but now he was able to pick up on it. Slowly, Grian followed the noise to a set of stairs he had missed and began to ascend them. He continued to follow the noise until he came to a closed door where the noise was loudest. Grian was able to discern what the noise actually was, someone was crying and that someone sounded like Scar.
Alarm bells went off in Grian’s head as he quickly pushed the door open to a cozy bedroom filled with posters, figurines, and trinkets. Grian realized this was probably Scar’s bedroom and scanned the room until he located the vex-hybrid on his bed.
Scar was curled up in a ball with his blankets thrown aside and he was still in his sleeping shorts. Grian let out a little sigh as he shook his head.
‘
Of course he wouldn’t wear a shirt to bed,
’ Grian thought to himself as he walked inside.
“Scar? Is everything okay?” Grian asked as he walked to the bed and sat near the vex-hybrid.
“G-Grian?” gasped Scar as he tried to look behind himself, “What are you doing here?”
“Um, we had our holiday plans today,” answered Grian, “But I don’t….”
“That was today!?” remarked Scar trying to sit up suddenly before wincing in pain, “I forgot…”
“It’s okay Scar,” commented Grian, concerned, “We can reschedule and…”
“No!” interrupted Scar trying to sit up again but grimaced in pain, “I want to decorate with you…”
“Scar, you’re in pain! We can reschedule!” Grian remarked.
“No! I-I can power through. I just need my medication and my attachments and…” Scar argued as he shakenly tried to get up before Grian sighed at the vex-hybrid stubbornness.
“Scar, stop! You know you need to rest when you have a flare up like this! We can always resch…” started Grian as he met Scar’s tearful gaze and the avian sighed. “How about you rest until lunch then we can go from there?”
Scar went silent as a shaky breath escaped from his lips. He looked deep in thought for a moment before he sighed.
“Fine…”
“Okay. I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yet?” asked Grian as Scar shook his head, “I can make you something to eat then you can rest.”
“Alright,” Scar replied as he slowly laid back down.
“Do you want the blanket now? Is there anything I can get you or do before I head downstairs?” Grian asked.
“Can you move my meds closer?” asked Scar quietly, “Oh! Uh…Katy Bee and Mr. Finnegan need to eat!”
“Don’t worry, I already fed them,” remarked Grian with a chuckle. “Trust me they made their hunger known as soon as I got inside.”
“Ah, thank you Grian,” Scar muttered as Grian grabbed the medication off the dresser and moved it to the nightstand. He gave Scar one last smile before he left the bedroom.
Once back downstairs, Grian beelined to the kitchen where he was greeted by the kittens who now were demanding attention. The avian shook his head as he chuckled before he knelt down to give them some pets.
After a bit, Grian stood back up and cracked his back as the kittens went off to do their own thing. Grian quickly washed up before he began looking through Scar’s pantry for something to eat.
He searched around and found some ingredients for the baking they had planned. Grian knew those were off limits until hopefully later but soon he found some supplies to be able to make waffles with. Grian quickly got to work as he began mixing the ingredients together to create a batter and prepped the waffle iron. Once the waffle iron was hot enough, Grian poured the batter and left the waffles to cook.
As he waited, Grian cleaned up and made sure the supplies for their baking session later on.
‘
If we get to it today,
’ thought Grian, flipping the waffle iron over, ‘
I just know he’s pretty upset about the circumstances right now.
’ Grian let out a sigh as he finished the first batch of waffles.
After another 10 minutes, Grian was carrying a tray of waffles that were covered in fruit and whipped cream with some juice up the stairs. Slowly, Grian opened the bedroom door and reentered the bedroom. Scar had managed to uncurl from the ball he was in earlier and had made it halfway to sitting up.
“Breakfast is ready! Hope you like waffles,” Grian said, trying to be cheerful as Scar just glanced over to the avian.
“Thanks,” Scar muttered.
“Uh, do you want to sit up a bit more?” Grian asked.
“I tried to but was in too much pain.” Scar just sighed.
“Do you want some help?” Grian offered as he put the tray down on the dresser.
Scar started to shake his head and attempted to sit up once again. However, the grimace in the vex-hybrid’s face showed the pain was too much for him. Scar attempted a few more times before he let out a resigned sigh.
Grian gave Scar a look of understanding as he walked over to the bed. Once positioned, Grian helped the taller man shift upwards until Scar was fully sitting up. Grian then reached over to grab the blanket but Scar just shook his head. So instead, Grian grabbed a shirt to give to Scar which earned him a glare.
“What? I just want to make sure you’re warm enough,” Grian commented.
“You just hate it when I’m shirtless. It distracts you,” Scar teased with a pained smirk as Grian huffed in annoyance.
“No! It’s December and it's snowing outside, there’s no reason for you to be shirtless!” Grian argued which earned a chuckle from Scar.
“Fine, I think I can handle a shirt,” Scar commented while taking the shirt and putting it on slowly though he was grimacing the whole time.
“You’re still in a lot of pain?” asked Grian, moving the tray over to Scar who nodded, “You didn’t take your meds?”
“I need food with them,” sighed Scar looking at the tray of food, “Wow! Is that all for me?”
“Yeah, I thought you could use pick-me-up,” Grian said as Scar began to eat the waffles and a small genuine smile appeared on his face.
“Thank Grian! This tastes really good,” beamed Scar as he continued to stuff his mouth with food. “So, what are you going to do?”
“Hmm, I could move the Holiday boxes up,” offered Grian. “That way after you rest we could…”
“I already did that last night,” Scar commented before taking his medication.
“Oh…” Grian remarked awkwardly.
Scar let out a sigh as he sipped his juice and ate more waffles. Grian stayed silent as he watched Scar eat. He was trying to figure out what he could do instead when Scar finally spoke.
“Grian, why don’t you start decoring…..I mean decorating,” Scar said quietly.
“What? Why? It can wait until this afternoon or we can reschedule!” Grian argued but Scar just shook his head.
“We had everything planned so we could fit it all in today.. And you know trying to get us to schedule anything is hard enough. I mean Mumbo is going to be late today because of conflicting schedules,” remarked Scar with a defeated sigh. “Please Gri, can you do the decorating?”
“Alright, I’ll just get the small stuff put up first. Just rest and I’ll come check on you in a bit,” Grian said, hugging Scar gently before he made his way back downstairs but as he left the room, he could hear a defeated sigh come from Scar.
Grian quickly made his way back to the living room where he was able to locate several boxes full of holiday supplies. The avian began opening and shifting through the boxes to figure out what would go up first and where the items would go. Once sorted, Grian decided he should go check on Scar to see if he had finished eating and was resting yet.
Entering the bedroom, Grian was greeted by Scar who gave him a small smile showing he had finished eating. Grian returned the smile as he helped Scar lay back down to fully rest. The avian then pulled the blanket closer just in case before grabbing the tray, dimmed the lights and went back to the first floor. Grian could tell by Scar’s expression when he left that the vex-hybrid was pretty upset about having to miss the decorating.
With a sigh, Grian began to decorate the different rooms. He started by putting aside a few things so Scar had a chance to put a few things himself before Grian went fully to town. The avian was untangling the lights when Mr. Finnegan appeared and began to play with the cords. Grian just chuckled as he tried to shoo the kitten away before he had to fully tug them out of the kitten’s claws.
With the lights untangled, Grian started to hang them up around the room before braving the cold outside to hang them in the window and around some trees. He took a small step back to admire his work before some snowflakes landed on his arm.
They were a bit bigger than the ones from earlier in the morning and Grian grew a little concerned the trio might now be able to look at the lights later on.
Once he felt proud about the outside area, Grian went back inside to finish up. He continued to put up more lights, different figurines and trinkets on the shelves, tables and window sills. He might have severely underestimated just how much decor Scar actually had, even with setting stuff aside for the vex-hybrid to put around the base. Placing the rest of the smaller decor took the rest of the morning and even went past Grian’s usual lunchtime but eventually it was done. The last bit of decor he hung up was a cheeky little mistletoe, high enough away from the cats but still noticeable before taking a step back to admire his handiwork.
“Not bad for one person,” Grian said proudly. His stomach growled a response and Grian just sighed. If he was hungry, Scar probably was getting hungry as well.
Grian made his way back to the kitchen to rummage around. With it still being cold and snowing, Grian decided to make some stew. He quickly grabbed some supplies to whip up a delicious pot of rabbit stew. Once the stew was ready, he ladle up two bowls full and grabbed a couple water bottles. Carefully, he took everything with him as he ascended the stairs towards Scar’s bedroom once again.
“Scar? Are you awake?” Grian asked quietly as he peeked inside the dimly lit bedroom. At first he received no response so Grian started to assume Scar was still asleep and turned to head back downstairs when Scar let out a groan.
“Grian?” Scar asked in a groggy tone as he shifted to look back at the avian.
“Hey Scar, didn’t mean to wake you. How are you feeling?” asked Grian as he put the bowls on the dresser and went to check on Scar, “Rest well?”
“Y…Yeah,” yawned Scar before looking at the bowls. “What’s that for? I just had breakfast.”
“Oh that’s some stew for lunch,” Grian answered as grabbed a bowl to give to Scar.
“Lunch? What do you mean lunch!? I just finished breakfast a half hour ago!” Scar exclaimed in shock.
“Huh, must have been a deep sleep,” teased Grian as he handed the bowl to Scar who reluctantly accepted it. “But no, it’s been at least 4 hours since then?”
“Oh I see,” muttered Scar as he blew on the stew. “I’ll take it, you finished all the decorating then?”
“Only the ‘smaller’ stuff and some of the outside stuff. I did leave you some stuff to put out as well,” answered Grian grabbing his own bowl and before pulling over a chair near the bed. “I wanted to check on how you are feeling before I continued on. I wanted to see if you could still help out.”
“Ah, thanks I guess, ” Scar mumbled as he slowly started to eat his stew. Grain gave him a small smile before he also started to eat his own stew.
A silence fell between the two Hermits as they continued to eat their stews. Occasionally Katy Bee and/or Mr. Finnegan would enter the bedroom either due to being enticed by the smell of food or due to the zoomies. Grian watched as they chased each other around the bedroom before zooming out. He chuckled at the kittens’ adorableness before he looked back at Scar and Grian’s smile disappeared.
Scar had only eaten a third of his stew before he began to poke at it with his spoon. He had a blank stare as his gaze was towards nothing in particular and an occasional sigh escaped his lips.
“Scar?” began Grian finally breaking the silence. “Is everything okay? Are you still in pain? Was the stew bad?”
“Huh? Oh, no, the stew was fine,” answered Scar, not looking at Grian. “And the pain's ....tolerable.”
“So what’s bothering you then?” Grian asked, sounding concerned. Scar just let out a heavy sigh as he stared down at his legs.
“I…I was really looking forward to decorating today, just the two of us with Mumbo joining later on. I know how hard it is for us to sync our schedules up. So when we finally got something planned, I wanted it to be a perfect day. I thought since it’s been months since my legs had a bad flare up, I would be fine,” started Scar as he picked at the bed sheet. “But of course the Universe had to prove me wrong and now I ruined our day.”
“What? No you didn’t!” remarked Grian reaching forward to grab Scar’s hand, “Yeah I did end up doing the smaller and outdoor decorations first but like I said I left some of them for you to do. Plus we still have the holiday baking to do, putting up the tree, and looking at the lights! So if you’re feeling up to it, we could get you dressed, get your leg braces on, and…”
“No…the pain’s just tolerable right now while I stay seated. The braces would only escalate the pain again,” interrupted Scar with a sigh. “Trust me, I’ve tried it in the past. And the pain afterwards wasn’t worth it nor was the lecture from Cub or Cleo or Xisuma.”
“Oh, well why don’t you sit for the rest of the activities. You really don’t need to stand for baking, I can grab the supplies,” Grian commented trying to be encouraging but Scar just gave him a look.
“What about the tree? The decorating? The lights?” Scar countered.
“You can still decorate, just not the higher up decorations and we’ll figure out the lighting situation,” replied Grian with a smile. “Besides, even if you had your braces on, I wouldn’t let you put the tree up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Scar asked, annoyed as Grian’s smile turned into a smirk.
“Scar, you’re one of the most accident prone Hermits I know of, even on a good day,” Grian teased.
“Shuddup…” Scar pouted as he crossed his arms and Grian just let out a laugh.
“Besides we’ll make Mumbo do the heavy labor and put the tree up,” remarked Grian happily. “He deserves that for having a video to work on. What do you say?”
“....I don’t know,” Scar just sighed, poking his stew again.
“How about this? You can order me around if there’s something you can’t do?” suggested Grian with a playful bow. “But just for today.”
That managed a small chuckle out of Scar at Grian’s little bow before he nodded. Grian’s smirk returned to a smile. Scar smiled back as he ate a bit more of his stew before handing it back to Grian who put them on the dresser. He made a motion to Scar about getting dressed who nodded.
After aiding Scar in getting into a more festive outfit, Grian moved Scar’s wheelchair closer to the bed and aided in getting Scar to move over to the chair. Once Scar was secured in his chair, he wheeled himself out to the elevator in the hallway. Grian followed after and the two of them rode their way downstairs.
The two of them made their way to the kitchen and quickly got to work gathering the different ingredients/supplies needed. Grian began to preheat the oven as Scar wheeled over to the drawers. He pulled out a book of recipes in search of Holiday themed sweets. After spending about 20 minutes gathering everything, the duo got to work.
Grian turned on the holiday music as he began to mix up the dry and wet ingredients. He hummed happily along with one of his favorite songs as he glanced over to Scar. Scar was working on scooping the cookie dough but Grian see it in his eyes that the vex-hybid’s mood was still sour from having to readjust their plans because of his health.
For the next hour, Grian tried what he could to bring up Scar’s mood by asking about different holiday memories or traditions he did when he was younger. Scar would just give short answers seemingly being stuck in a rut of negative emotions. Grian would just sigh and try again but still struck out.
Even though Scar’s mood wasn’t festive the kitchen was as some cookies baked, filling the area with the smell of brown sugar and molasses. Scar was mixing the next batch when he realized he needed more flour so reluctantly he asked Grian to grab it for him. Grian nodded as he grabbed a stool for the avian to stand on to reach the higher shelf.
“Uh, Grian, why are you using a stool?” Scar asked, confused.
“It’s a bit of a tight fit in the kitchen to use my wings. I don’t want to knock something over,” Grian answered as he tried to grab the flour bag.
He unfortunately underestimated how far back the bag was, so Grian stood on his tip-toes as he reached further back. Scar watched as Grian grumbled to himself while he kept struggling to grab the bag. After what seemed like forever, Grian managed to reach the bag of the flour. He quickly dragged the bag out of the cabinet.
“See! I got it perfectly fi…” Grian said proudly holding the bag up only for a tear that had accord earlier fully split open the bag. Flour flew all over the kitchen and even covered the two Hermits.
As the flour settled, Grian’s eyes shot to Scar with a worried expression. Scar just stared at the flour covered kitchen in shock. The silence started to cause Grian to panic as he tried to figure out what to say or do. He opened his mouth to apologize when Scar just began laughing.
“Oh my stars Grian! And you call me accident prone!! How did you manage to rip the bag open!?” Scar laughed as Grian’s panic slowly turned to laughter as well. The kitchen quickly filled with laughter before the duo began to clean up the mess.
Twenty minutes later, both the kitchen and the Hermits were free of their flour coating. Thankfully they found another bag in another cabinet, one that was lower much to Grian’s dismay. Scar’s mood seemed to have finally brightened up after the accident. Grian was shamefully proud that something made Scar feel better even if it caused a mess.
The rest of the afternoon continued on without any other issues. Sweets soon covered the counters and the table as the oven worked its magic. With Scar in a better mood, he made sure to make a couple of batches of his Elven Kiss cookies much to Grian’s delight. Grian also pulled out an old family recipe for some Holiday breads to bake as well.
They were finishing up the last batch when Mumbo showed up. The poor Redstoner was shivering due to the cold and had been covered in snow as he entered. After Mumbo shook the snow off, he joined the other two Hermits in the kitchen. Grian quickly offered the vampire some hot chocolate while Scar held up some cookies.
The trio enjoyed their treats as they caught up with each other. Mambo rambled on about his recent Redstone project for the upcoming video he had worked on while Grian and Scar tried to understand what he was saying. Scar and Grian then went on about how their morning and afternoon plans had changed a bit due to Scar’s health. Mumbo gave a sympathetic smile but was delighted to hear they felt they managed to catch up.
The delight was short-lived when the trio went into the living and Mumbo was in charge of putting the tree together. He grumbled under his breath as he pulled out the tree pieces as he began to figure out how he was going to figure out the tree. Grian, however, gave Scar the figures and trinkets he left out for the vex-hybrid. Scar looked around before he would roll over to an area and put a few trinkets in places he felt they would fit. He did move a few others that Grian had placed because he didn’t like them there. They then began to unbox the ornaments as Mumbo seemed to have figured out the tree.
Grian and Scar were nearly done when Mumbo began laughing. The two Hermits were confused at first, when Mumbo pointed above them. Looking up, Grian let out a groan when he saw the cheeky mistletoe he hung up earlier. Scar gave Grian a look while the avian just sighed. Mumbo began to tease the two until Grian got up and gave Scar a kiss on the cheek which Scar returned back.
Mumbo’s teasing turned to laughter until Grian dragged him over under the mistletoe. The vampire’s pale face grew in color a bit as both Grian and Scar gave a kiss on his cheeks. Once Mumbo managed to calm down, he planted soft kisses on each of their foreheads. The trio looked at each other before laughing out loud.
For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, they worked hard on decorating the tree. Ornaments were placed on all the branches. Colorful lights glitter throughout the tree. Garland was added for a bit of sparkle and led up toward the tree top. Up on the top was a gorgeous star that, with the help of Mumbo and Grian, Scar was able to put in its proper place.
The trio moved back to admire their handiwork and proud smiles littered their faces. It seemed despite the hiccups with Scar’s health, the trio were able to get the base decorated. All that was left was to get some hot chocolate and to look at the lights around the server.
Unfortunately, Mumbo confirmed the snowfall had increased which would cause problems for Scar’s wheelchair. The vex-hybrid’s smile faltered for a moment before he suggested they stay inside to watch some holiday specials instead. Grian was shocked at first but quickly agreed to the idea as did Mumbo.
Ten minutes later, the trio set up the couch as a cuddle nest filled with pillows and blankets. They refilled their mugs with fresh hot chocolate and a few plates of treats littered the end tables. They turned off all the lights so the tree and windows could show off their splendor.
On the screen was an older holiday claymation special that played on in the background. The trio were watching while under the blankets with Katy Bee and Mr. Finnegan laying each on Scar’s legs. While things didn’t work out as planned, the trio would agree it couldn’t have ended any better.
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