TW: None

Lalna didn't believe in fate. Nope, not one bit.

Xephos, however, couldn't believe that anything happened that wasn't fate. He found it hard to believe that landing on Minecraftia out of all the planets was just a coincidence, that meeting Honeydew was not fate.

Lalna would just smile and shake his head. "It's not fate," he would say, trailing a hand down Xephos' stomach. "You could have crashed into any of those planets and met someone else, that wouldn't make it fate."

Xephos would roll his eyes and drop the subject. He wouldn't argue that being with Lalna felt too right to not be fate, that there was no way that he would love someone else like this.

"I'm so glad I met you," Lalna would whisper on a cold winter night as they huddled under the covers for warmth. "I love you so much."

Xephos would smile and tangle his hand in Lalna's hair. "It feels like we were meant to be." he would whisper, almost not wanting to be heard. "It has to be fate to have met you."

The same conversations happened for years, with each of them unrelenting in their views. Xephos was adamant that fate was real and brought them together while Lalna wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of such thing.

That all changed.

"You nearly died!" Lalna yelled, pushing down on Xephos' shoulder as he tried to sit up on the bed. "I nearly lost you!"

Xephos smiled and pulled Lalna closer to the bed. "Stop worrying, I'm fine." He grinned and tugged Lalna next to him. "You could say it's fate," Xephos teased, trying to get Lalna to smile.

"Fate isn't real," Lalna muttered though his heart wasn't into it. "It's something invented by people who can't accept coincidences."

Xephos cupped Lalna's face with his uninjured hand. "Tell me what's wrong. You can't still be upset about the accident?"

"I nearly lost you, Xeph'," Lalna sighed, closing his eyes and leaning into Xephos' touch. "You would have died and I wouldn't have been able to do anything."

"Well it's just-"

Lalna quickly cut off Xephos by placing a hand over his moving lips. "Please don't say it would have been fate."

Xephos frowned and kissed Lalna's cheek. "Why not? It would have been."

"Because that's exactly why I hate the thought of fate," Lalna muttered, eyes till screwed shut. "I hate the thought of things being set in stone and being unable to change them. If you were in trouble then I want to be able to help you. If fate was real then I wouldn't be able to."

Xephos shook his head. "No, that's not what fate is. If I was in trouble then it would be fate but that doesn't mean you would be unable to help me. It just means it was fate that you had to try to save me."

Lalna sighed and opened his eyes to glance at the bandaged wound on Xephos' abdomen. "Why do you like fate so much?"

"Because it doesn't make sense otherwise," he replied, tracing small patterns on Lalna's cheek. "I find it hard to believe that I met you guys by coincidence. I find it hard to believe that you loving me and me loving you is a coincidence. It has to be fate, there's no other explanation."

Lalna's eyes flickered back up to Xephos' smiling face and he leaned in closer to place a small kiss to Xephos' lips.

"If fate was real," Lalna started, ignoring the grin Xephos was giving him, "and I'm not saying it is, then I would be glad it paired me up with you."

Xephos let out a joyous laugh and tugged Lalna closer. "I'm glad too. I mean, fate could have stuck me with an ugly caveman who smells like cheese but instead it set me up with you," he teased and gently poked Lalna's side. "You only smell like cheese occasionally."

Lalna laughed and closed his eyes, feeling content to just be in Xephos' presence.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it wasn't, but Lalna wouldn't have it any other way, no matter how cliché it sounded.

Credit to Xephin on Ao3