TW: Pre-Slash

Though he had only known him a few weeks, Xephos felt a myriad of complex and intriguing emotions towards Honeydew. Before crash landing on Minecraftia, an event that his memories of were somewhat blurry, Xephos had never - to his knowledge - met a dwarf. Let alone one as gruff yet bubbly, hardened yet soft, stone cold yet as warm as a hard-drive, as the mass of coarse ginger hair that is Honeydew. Every thing that the ball of booming laughter did was fascinating and endearing to Xephos; from the way that Honeydew never hid his emotions - rage to love and everything in between - to the way that despite being only waist height on Xephos he seemed to speed along at a rate of knots.

No doubt his companion found him to be just as strange, with his blue blood and bioluminescence and head full of techno-babble, but Xephos could not grasp the idea that Honeydew would find him to be anywhere near as interesting as the spaceman found the dwarf to be. Xephos could stay up night upon night if it meant listening to the dwarf's rough voice telling the well-worn stories and legends passed down through generations of dwarves; he would give up space travel altogether if it meant being stuck on Minecraftia with this fantastic, brilliant, excitable universe trapped inside of four and a half feet of vermillion beard and beetle black eyes.

"Tell me about your home," Honeydew nudges a hard, armored shoulder against Xephos' own skinny arm whilst sat around a steadily burning campfire. The two of them had built a rough stone shelter, a mere three by three cube to see them through the treacherous night, and when unable to sleep due to the groans and rattles of the mobs outside of the crude walls Xephos had requested more tales of Khaz Modan. Xephos blinks, momentarily dulling the dim blue glow around them, and looks at Honeydew in amazement for a few seconds before smiling and shaking his head and looking away.

"You don't want to hear about my home; it's no-where near as fascinatingas yours, friend." Xephos waves a dismissive hand in Honeydew's direction, and when the dwarf doesn't respond and Xephos feels eyes on him he glances back at the stocky figure sat crossed legged on the dirt floor. Honeydew's expression is somewhat unreadable, as though he both doesn't understand Xephos and also pities him. The thought of being pitied makes Xephos squirm and make a visible attempt at sitting up straighter than he had been in his relaxed state. "What?" Xephos' tone is sharp, defensive, but Honeydew doesn't seem perturbed; his whiskers moving in a way that Xephos has come to recognise as the dwarf smiling.

"You come from space, and you're calling us dwarves fascinating?" Honeydew's eyes bore into Xephos' for a few moments, and the spaceman feels his skin prickling hotly as his bioluminescence flares in a blush when the dwarf finally looks away. There is a far-off look in his eyes and Xephos finds himself entranced by it a beat before Honeydew speaks again, rumbling voice softer than usual. "I'd love to go up into space some day..."

Xephos stares for a moment, genuinely taken aback by the mountain man's confessed wish, before gently fading into a fond smile. Casting his gaze into the vibrant embers of the still burning campfire that makes shadows dance across the uneven flooring, Xephos throws another stick onto the fire as he speaks in an easy tone.

"Maybe you will, friend. Maybe you will."

Credit to jayfaace on tumblr