Ren: hey skall u wanna hang?

Iskall: of course! Your in hermitville?

Ren: ye

Iskall stepped out of the portal, breathing in the fresh air in Hermitville. The hermits had agreed to not build big farms in the area to preserve nature, and Iskall was living for it. He could smell the fresh piney smell of the woods surrounding the town, and foxes darted between houses like common squirrels. It was hard to pull away from the whirlwind of hermitcraft, but this place sure helped. Glancing around, he spotted Ren sitting on a log under a small awning. "Ren!" He glided down and sat next to Ren happily, but his smile wasn't reciprocated. Ren's eyes were locked on the ground, and they were clearly red from crying. "What's wrong?"

Ren dug his fingernails into his pants, avoiding Iskall's gaze. "I just need a distraction right now."

Iskall nodded reassuringly. "Gotcha. Do you want to go shopping? Maybe go bother Mumbo?"

Ren considered it for a moment. "Let's go shopping."

"Sounds great." Iskall stood and offered Ren a hand up. He didn't know what had Ren so down in the dumps today, but as his best friend, taking him shopping was the least Iskall could do. Ren wasn't easily bothered most of the time, but ever since Doc had stopped talking to him, he had been having bigger mood swings, which concerned Iskall. He hoped Ren knew that he would do anything for his best friend, because he would. As soon as Iskall found out where Doc was hiding, he was going to hunt that coward of a creeper man down and give him a piece of his mind.

Iskall glanced back, realizing Ren had fallen behind. Ren snapped to attention when Iskall looked at him, but Iskall saw the pained expression on his face for a fraction of a second. "You feeling okay?"

"Never better!" Ren offered a wide smile, but Iskall didn't miss the way he favored his foot as he caught up.

"Is your foot still hurting?"

Ren widened his eyes guiltily, but shook his head regardless. "I'm fine, I promise." Iskall simply stared him down, until the poor man let out a sigh. "So maybe I took my boot off sooner than I should have. I still wanna go out with you!" He plead.

"Ren, let's hang out here. I miss you, but I don't want to be the one responsible if you break your ankle again." Iskall offered his arm to Ren, who after hesitating for a moment, accepted gratefully. They quietly walked back to the house Ren had been staying in recently, and plopped down on the edge of the bed.

"It feels like we haven't hung out in forever, how are you doing?" Ren asked quietly.

Iskall shrugged. "Nothing too mega; just fixing up Sahara and stocking Sahara Now."

"That's nice."

An awkward silence fell between them. Iskall was tempted to ask what Ren had been up to, but he had already been chewed out for sticking his nose where it didn't belong once. Luckily for him, he didn't care. "What's been going on with you?"

Ren fiddled with his fingers, his face flushing and tears growing in his eyes again. "I'm not supposed to say. Can we talk about something else?"

Iskall was shellshocked, but recovered quickly. "Yeah, sure." He wasn't supposed to say? What secret was Ren keeping? Presumably it had to do with Doc, right? Ohh, Iskall was going to pry this secret out of Ren somehow- but for now, his friend was upset, and he should focus on supporting him.

"Can you get my guitar?"

Iskall snapped out of his thoughts, and mindlessly passed Ren the guitar from where it rested against the night stand. Ren smiled slightly as the worn guitar entered his grasp, running his fingers across the well-worn fretboard. "Do you remember where I got this guitar?"

Iskall smiled. "How could I forget? I made it for you for Christmas our first year on hermitcraft."

"It's the best gift I've even gotten, man. How did you even learn how to make this thing?" Ren laughed slightly.

"It wasn't easy, dude. I don't play guitar so I was just glad it was playable when I gave it to you!"

Ren began strumming gently, some simple chords that even Iskall could identify thanks to his lessons from Ren. Slowly, it morphed into a familiar quirky tune that sent a smile to his face. "This was the first song I wrote with this guitar."

"Hermitron Go..." Iskall smiled at the memory. "We should bring that back some day."

"Ha, yeah, that would be awesome!" Ren laughed. "Do you think it would be possible to play hermitron with real animals? We've added turtles and bees since season four, so we probably have enough passive mobs to do it."

"How would that even work? You could trap animals in boxes but you'd only have enough for one set!"

"I guess you're right, but I still like the idea of it."

"That's what she said," Iskall muttered with a smirk, instantly gratified when Ren exploded with laughter. Ren's laugh was super contagious to Iskall, and he couldn't help but burst into laughter as well.

As their giggles died off, Iskall was happy to see that Ren seemed to have forgotten his worries for the time being. He hugged his guitar, the crows feet around his eyes prominent from laughter. It always made Iskall nostalgic seeing Ren laugh so hard; they spent nearly every waking moment together in season four, and then lived together in season five. It had been hard to leave each other's sides at the start of this season, but they knew it would be good to have some space. As much as Iskall had appreciated bouncing ideas off new people, he missed Ren desperately.

"I love you dude, I hope you know that."

Ren looked at Iskall in surprise. "Where's this coming from?"

Iskall shrugged, suddenly embarrassed. "I don't know, I just feel like we're soulmates, if soulmates were best friends, ya know?"

Ren considered him for a moment before cracking a heartwarming smile. "Me too man, me too. Ya know what we haven't done in forever?"

Iskall lit up, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "Absolutely."

Before long a nest of blankets and pillows had formed on the floor, the pair curled up back to back under the covers (with a small cushion for Ren's ankle to rest on). They drifted to sleep easily, just like those warm summer nights all those years ago. They both needed this break.

These two have the most honest bromance and I love them

Love you, my little stars!
-RaeTheStar