Oof this was a. Completely unplanned and b. Written during an all-nighter, so I'm terribly sorry if it's absolutely horrible :) anyways, this chapter features X with Trichotillomania which is where you pull your hair out, so if you don't really like that, maybe skip to the next chapter <3

     Quick side note, thanks for 400 reads! That means a lot to me! And the 25 votes! Thank you all!

Xisuma was pulling his second all-nighter this week. All of these tasks just kept on popping up and X hadn't gotten a break, so he tried pushing through it. Clearly, that was not the right idea, as X was currently laying at the bottom of his base, looking up at the sky, still with a growing list of things he had to do.

     X was surprised he hadn't passed out yet to be blatantly honest. Maybe that would be a good thing though. That would shut down his body and give it a restart. Of course, he knew it is not a good thing to pass out, but X does it more often than most people so he was getting used to it, once again, probably not a good thing.

     He took his helmet off to get a few fresh breaths of air. It tended to calm him down a little even though it wasn't healthy for him, something about the fresh sea breeze he got in his base. You see, since X is originally from the end, his lungs were made for breathing the thinner atmosphere there which is why he wore that helmet. The suit just came along with it and better adjusted him to the few minor differences. His helmet also helpfully didn't let him reach his hair, which when X was put under stress, he tended to rip out.

     It's not like he would grab a first full and yank it all out at once. It's more like X would twirl a few strands around his finger then pull it out, then repeat that process across his scalp. It didn't hurt anymore, it just released locked up stress.

     Xisuma recently found himself needing to pull his hair again after being able to stop for a while. He hadn't been getting much sleep and added on to the double nighter he just pulled, it was getting worse. 'Insomnia, hair pulling, stress, this isn't good X, you know what this is leading up to' X though you himself. If he wasn't careful he might spiral. Perhaps he just needed to visit the end, maybe that would help. Being able to move freely and all. Plus, it's a great excuse as it is easy to get lost and communication is shoty, hey, that's another thing I need to fix'.

     'Maybe looking out at the ocean would calm me?'  X thought, soon following this idea up to the top of his base where he had a pretty gold view of the water just below him. He slowly scooted down to the edge, careful not to fall in without his helmet. X was pretty sure he had never been under the water without it, and he wasn't quite sure he would know what to do if he fell. None the less, Xisuma continued to scoot forward to where he could put his legs into the water.

     X sat on the edge of his base, watching as the cool colors of the night slipped over the horizon to be replaced by the warm pastels of sunrise. Xisuma decides he had enough sky gazing for one night- or day. Whatever. He shot himself up, stumbling a little before stepping away from the water. X grabbed his head as the world began to spin around him. He hated it when this happened. The world twisted around until his vision became completely engulfed in darkness. Xisuma fell onto his back, feeling a searing pain in the back of his head, before feeling nothing at all.

-- Time skip brought to you by- Sahara; an architect company-

As it turned out, Stress happened to be flying to check-in on X, being the mom friend she is. which was really a blessing at that moment more than usual.

When she was X, bleeding and unconscious, about to fall into the water beside him, she quickly found his helmet and alerted Iskall, who was traveling with her first e reason or another. To be honest, X was just glad they found him before the phantoms did.

It also turned out that as they were scanning him for other injuries and patch g up the laceration on the back of his head, Stress noted the small patched of hair missing and the smaller baby hairs that seemed to be littered across his scalp, along with how overall thin his hair was. Which, unsurprisingly, surprised them.

And now here X was, trying to justify why his hair is thin and why he was thin and passed out and how that was actually normal for him because, I don't know, oxygen hates him.

And here he was, sat between Stress and Iskall, twirling his hair around his finger, using all of his restraint to not yank it out right in front of them.

Stress clearly sensed his well, distress. She ran her cold hand through the top of his hair and placed it softly on his shoulder, "you don't have to say anything if you don't want to love"

Iskall nodded, "yeah dude. We just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you"

Xisuma shook his head, "no, you guys deserve to know" X insisted, more to himself than them. "though I've never been officially diagnosed, I have reason to believe I have Trichotillomania, which is basically where you have the urge to pull your own hair out. It can just happen when you get bored, but it usually happens when you're under stress." X explained to the duo of hermits.

"as for why I passed out, that was my own fault. I stood up too quickly and didn't have my helmet on" X continue explaining, unconsciously tapping on his helmet sitting in his lap as he mentioned it.

"well, then why don't you just stay over here with us for a while? There isn't too much traffic on this side of the server, so you could have a break" Iskall insisted.

X shrugged, rather unsure, " I don't know man, I don't want to disrupt your space over here"

They both laughed, "oh, come on man, you know your not a bother. Plus, you need someone to watch you, just to make sure your head injury is okay." Iskall continued.

"you know you want to! We make a pillow fort! And have hot chocolate! And watch movies! It'll be so much fun X!" Stress laughed.

Xisuma finally exhaled, he nodded politely and responded with a warm smile and a quick, "sure, I need the fresh air." followed by cheering from his two friends.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I swear I gotta stop putting these children through so much angst lol as for the topic of Trichotillomania in this chapter, I think it is something that I actually struggle with, as I have had problems with it in the past, and as school has been rough recently, I've noticed me pulling my hair again :/ but it's not as bad as before and I'm working on de-stressing, so don't fear! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and until next time!

-Signing out <3

~word count; 1235