--:--: It has been 10 years since Grian had seen anyone from Hermitcraft, 10 years since they took him, 10 years since he lost everything he loved :--:--

Grian stood in front of the portal leading to the Hermitcraft server, hands shaking.

Memories flooded his mind, and he just stood there, letting them come at him in waves.

The weight of a hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his transe. To his side stood a young teenage boy, he had medium long red hair in a ponytail and a pair of violet eyes. The teen also wore a light blue hoodie and a pair of gray pants, and a pair of black fingerless gloves.

"It's time, I have added you back on the whitelist, so your free to go in" spoke the redhead, gently nudging Grian towards the portal.

He nodded and entered Hermitcraft for the first time in a decade.

Once through his emotions really caught up to him, freezing him to the spot. Everything looked the same, sure there were fewer trees, but it looked the same. Waiting for the teen to emerge from the portal, he remembered everything that happened on this server, the laughs and tears.

Just as the teen set foot out of the portal the sound of rockets filled the air, and soon two figures emerged from over the tree lines. A large smile spread across the teens face, "Dad, Pa!"

The two men, one who was a creeper hybrid with cybernetic enhancements and the other in a green and gray suit with a gray helmet with a purple visor, went over to the teen and brought him into a big hug, "Arlo! Did everything go smoothly?"

Arlo smiled at his dads and went on to talk about what he'd been doing of the server, the two newcomers almost didn't see that Grian was there. It was only when Grian backed into portal frame, making a thud sound, that they looked to him.

Both figures had their mouths agape, but one was blocked by a gray helmet.

The creeper hybrid was the one who spoke first, "Grian? Is that you?"

The sweatered man hesitantly raised his hand in a small wave, "Hi Doc, X"

Both of the aforementioned people were frozen, but Doc soon broke out of his trans and his face turned dark. He marched up to, the now slightly cowering, Grian and roughly grabbed him by the shoulders.

"How are you here? How are you alive? And why didn't you tell anyone! Mumbo, and everyone else, have been mourning you for years! And now you show up here all out of the blue? What is going on?!" Doc's tone was low at the start but it gradually got louder and louder until he was screaming in Grian's face.

Alto and X both stood back, the latter holding the other back. Doc needed to get this off his chest now, not later. So they just stood back as Grian was berated over and over. Soon the creeper hybrids shoulders slumped and he brought the smaller, and far too skinny for comfort, hermit into a bone crushing hug.

"Why did you leave, Grian? Why? Please just tell me why?" pleaded Doc, burying his face the dirty blondes hair.

"I- I didn't mean to! They gave me no choice! I'm so sorry!" sobbed Grian, letting all the emotions of the situation boil over. And he remained there, sobbing out his apologies. But I noticed something odd.

"Grian, where are your wings?"

Everything stopped. Doc took a step back, and sure enough, no wings rested on Grian's back. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was on his back. Except of course two pumps on Grian's shoulder blades.

Doc's eyes widened with shock, and after a few seconds of staring he asked the question, "Grian, did... did someone cut of your wings?"

The man didn't answer, but Doc could guess that that was the case judging from how Grian seemed to hug himself, tears gathering in the corners of the dirty blonds eyes.

It was now that Alto broke away from his dad and rushed to Grian, giving the saddent man a giant hug. Soon after Doc and X joined in too.

All four were so distracted that they didn't hear two more people arrived, it was only when one of them asked, "Hey Doc, X! I presume Alto's back?"

All three whirled around to see Mumbo and Joe standing there, both with smiles on their faces. It was Joe who had spoken, he was also the one standing closest to the group.

Grian tried to sneakily look out over Xisuam's arm (Which was quite hard for him to do, being as short as he was), his eyes widened as he spotted Mumbo. And before he could return to hiding behind the green armored Hermit, the mustached man spotted him.

Mumbo froze at the sight of Grian, and Grian did the same. After seconds of just staring at each other they both moved forward, compelled by an unseen force to reconnect.

Grian tried to form words, but his emotions where to overpowering and all he got out was incoherent blubbering. And soon his blubbering turned to sobbs, very loud, and very ugly sobbs.

The taller man instinctively brought the shorter into a tight hug, one hand petting Grian's tangled hair. After about five minutes Grian had calmed down and was now resting his head against Mumbo's chest, feeling being so similar to what they did on a regular basis ten years ago.

The ravenhead opened his eyes, which he didn't remember closing, when he felt a smaller hand take his hand. It wasn't the feeling of the hand that made him open his eyes, but the feeling of a bump on one of the fingers did.

Taking the hand and pulling it up so he could see what it was, Mumbo almost dropped the hand back down in shock. There on Grian's left ring finger was two rings, the first one was a rose gold engagement ring with a floral design. The second ring was a matching rose gold band, the same rose gold ring that Mumbo was wearing on his own left ring finger.

Grian moved his head from Mumbo's chest to see what he was looking at, seeing what the ravenhead was looking at. And once he saw his left hand being studied with shocked interest he basfully hid his head in Mumbo's chest once more.

"You kept them on?" whispered Mumbo, still looking at the rings.

"Of course, just because I may never see you again doesn't mean I still don't love you" responded Grian, voice just as quiet and slightly muffled.

Mumbo was quiet for a few seconds looking at something only he could see, "...Why didn't you come back earlier, Grian? Why did you wait ten years to come back?"

The builder clutched tighter onto the taller, "I was afraid they'd find me. And in extent, you all"

"Not to interrupt, but who are 'they'?" asked Joe, posture apologetic and face being a mix of that and curiosity.

Grian didn't answer, and Mumbo guessed by the drumming of fingers on his back that Grian was uncomfortable.

"How about we ask all our questions after he's had a good night's rest? I know I wouldn't be able to answer questions if I was tired, plus it's getting late so heading back to our bases might be the best option" proposed Mumbo, Grian still held tightly in his arms.

Doc looked like he wanted to protest, but chose instead to not say anything and simply took off with a goodbye, his family following close behind him.

Soon Joe left too, an encouraging smile on his face as he waved goodbye before taking off. That left Grian and Mumbo alone.

"You ready to go?" asked Mumbo, preparing rockets in his hand.

"Hey Mumbo?" said Redstoner turned to look at Grian, a confused and slightly concerned expression on his face, "You wouldn't happen to have a spare Elytra with you, would you?"

"I do, but why do you ne-" his speech slowed down as he finally saw the lack of wings on Grian's back, "-ed and Elytra. Dear lord, what happened?"

Mumbo's voice was less than a whisper when he finished talking, but in the silence of the empty night Grian could hear it clearly.

"They said I was to free, so they took it away"

As Grian spoke Mumbo's face grew more and more horrified, ha and everyone else knew how much Grian loved flying. And whoever 'they' were had taken that away from his love, and there was nothing he could do until Grian told him.

"Hey, Angel, look at me," Grian looked up at Mumbo, heart aching at the use of the nickname, "You'll make it through this, alright? We'll get your wings back one way or another, so don't you worry about that. And once we figure out who did this to you, they'll pay. So don't worry, everything will be alright"

The tears that had been gradually building up in the builder's eyes finally fell, and for once they were happy tears. A small smile grew on Grian as he tackled Mumbo in a tight hug, almost knocking the taller over.

Mumbo hugged back just as tightly, small tears of joy leaving his own eyes. This was real, Grian was back safe in his arms. Everything was going to be alright.

--:--: It had been 10 years since Mumbo lost Grian, and he now had him back, and Mumbo couldn't be happier to have his Angel safely back in his arms again :--:-- 

I don't know if any of you can tell, but I'm squealing in glee right now! This has been in the works since before Worth! So it's pretty old! Ahh! And this is part of the Dark Descent AU, but it's completely unrelated to the other fic of this AU.

So the fic count is now down to 7! And ...Singing in the rain, The battle, Entangled and So, here's the thing are all close to being finished! So look forward to that!

That's all for now!