"Oh, c'mon, Grian, don't be such a closed door!"

"I'm not being one!" The blond retorted, a level of annoyance in his voice. "Just- stop dragging me, I get it, I get it!"

Dream let go of his arm as commanded, before running into the place, only giving a brief gesture for Grian to follow him. Promptly rolling his eyes, the dirty blond eventually did, though a bit reluctantly.

He walked on the avenue alongside his adoptive brother, only showing little interest in the things the stores and stalls sold.

"What's wrong?" the other blond asked after Grian sharply rejected his offer of buying what was called 'Choruslade' from one of the smaller mod joints. "Are you feeling a bit under the weather? You're usually more talkative than this."

The shorter grumbled under his breath. "I would rather be spending my time at home..."

And that was the truth. Grian was never really interested in going outside that much, especially going to somewhere as populated and crowded as what was called the 'main world'. He never understood much about what it was, and was only told about it a few times, but from what he recalls, it's the world that hosted all the portals and gates to other worlds - of which he wasn't sure of, since he had always only seen one portal in the hub corridor, alongside another one a little besides it which wasn't even lit. It was also the place where most people met up in, and now they were currently at the shops side of the world, which sold all sorts of 'datapacks', worlds, and other things Grian didn't really understand.

Dream rolled his eyes. "Oh come on! It's about time you opened yourself up to the world more, instead of just hiding in your room all day, reading books and whatnot - the others already agreed that we could go out anyways, so come on, let's just look around a little more, don't be so grumpy!"

"Fine, fine!" Grian replied reluctantly. "Whatever."

And so, they did take their time to look around the area a little longer. Grian remained mostly quiet for the most of it, despite Dream's attempts to introduce him more to the realm and drag him into stores, up until they reached one of the area's bookstores. Dream was hesitant to go in at first, but seeing that Grian was finally actually interested in something other than leaving, he agreed to check it out.

"Hey- look!" He said as they scanned through the bookcases and books on display. "There's a whole aisle on building, you said you're interested in that stuff, right?"

Grian didn't respond, but headed immediately to the area Dream pointed to. He walked between the bookcases, and found that they had noticeably less books than bookcases on other topics. He frowned a little at this, but stayed silent as he looked around to read the titles of the books.

Most of them didn't seem that appealing to him, if he was being honest, and he already owned most of the ones that were interesting. But he did eventually pick a book or three, which Dream agreed to pay for, albeit a bit reluctantly.

After that, they settled with getting a drink at one of the mini restaurants, one of the smaller ones that don't have as many people in them. After ordering some snacks and drinks, a small chat eventually initiated.

"By the way, Grian," The taller started while they were waiting for their orders. "Are you planning on joining any servers in the future, or whatnot?"

Grian thought about it for a bit, while quietly reading through the new books 'he' bought. "Don't really have anything planned at the moment, I suppose."

"Well, maybe you should make some plans on what you want to do," Dream said. "You aren't planning to stay in the Watcher Realms forever, right?"

Grian only hummed a reply, though he did think about it. He liked the Watchers Realm, and he considered it a home, but he did think there was truth to what Dream said - he can't just stay there forever.

"I remember you saying something about starting your own server." Grian randomly said after their orders arrived at their table.

"Oh- yeah, I do want to do that sometime in the future," The other nodded, stopping to take a sip of his orange juice before continuing. "Though admittedly there's a lot of things I'll need to do if I do end up doing it, but I've already started taking some coding courses alongside some admin classes."

"Yeah, you talked about it before." Grian mumbled, his attention still stuck on the book he's reading.

"So, are you also planning on starting your own server?"

Grian went quiet for a moment, seeming to consider it.

"No," He finally replied. "It seems like a pain to administrator."

Dream snickered. Though, before he could reply, his gaze suddenly reverted to the window.

"Oh- there's Sapnap and George!" He exclaimed. He seemed like he wanted to just jump out of his seat to greet his friends, but then stopped. "Grian, are you alright with me leaving you here for a bit?" He asked.

"Sure, whatever." The smaller shrugged. "I'll just stay here, I guess." He silently gestured to the books he's reading.

"Alright- thanks!" Dream stood up from his seat, he reached into his bag to grab his circular mask, but didn't put it on just yet. He glanced at Grian again. "I'll be back in about a half an hour or two, okay?"

Grian nodded briefly. Dream sent a faint smile, before turning around and putting his mask on, rushing out the cafe.

The tranquil and quiet mood of the cafe was pretty comforting to Grian. It wasn't that he didn't like talking or loud places, he just wasn't really used to being in crowded places with strangers, which the world of the main realm was filled with, road to road. He much rather just sit down and read than going out with friends to stalls or whatnot.

He didn't really have many friends anyways, though he can't tell whether that's just because he chooses to not have any or that he didn't really fit with the people Dream introduced him to. In reality, he doesn't mind talking or spending time with people, it's just that currently, there's not many people he can do all those things with, and if he was being honest, he didn't really mind that much.

This did make him recall what Dream said about how he should join a server, though. He realized he's never really been anywhere else besides the Watcher realm. In his server hub, the only portal he sees besides the portal to the realm was the broken portal. And though he and a lot of his watcher peers have theorized what the other broken portal that Grian could see in his hub meant, there weren't many of them that made sense. Grian also didn't remember what it meant himself, so it was mainly just a thing they accepted to be 'unsolved', and Grian didn't really stress about it too much either.

Despite that, he always had an odd memory of a random boy at the furthest backs of his mind, laughing brightly. They looked just about his age, and looked pretty much identical to him, having almost the same color of blond hair. The strange thing was, that he couldn't recognize who they were, or why he kept remembering them.

The memory confused him a lot the more he thought about it, so every time it randomly pops up, he just pushes it back down, thinking it wasn't significant. He's been gettin better at doing it, so eventually the memory no longer bothers him that much. A lot of people have blond hair anyways, even Dream does. Of course there are people that look like him, or maybe it's actually just him at a younger age. He couldn't tell, but he didn't really care anymore.

"Um- hello?"

He perked up from his second book. He had expected to see Dream when he looked up, probably saying that he was back from hanging out with his friends, but instead, there was a black haired stranger.

They wore a mildly formal attire, consisting of a black tuxedo accompanied by a dull red tie. They had dark brown eyes, and also had what appears to be a glorious mustache.

"Oh- hi." He greeted back, actually taking his eyes off his book. He just stared at the stranger for a bit, feeling like he's missing something. "...uh, sorry for asking this, but who are you?"

"Oh- right, uh," They chuckled nervously. "Erm- sorry, this is real awkward, but I just thought that I recognize you from somewhere. The name's Mumbo, Mumbo Jumbo."

Grian eyed him for a bit. He doesn't really remember everyone he's met in his life, especially his life before getting adopted, so it is possible that they've met before, but he's still a little shaken up by the fact that someone who seemed like a complete stranger just walked up to him to tell him that he thinks he recognizes him from somewhere. He was going to admire their confidence, before realizing that 'Mumbo' seemed to be increasingly regretting his life decisions by the seconds.

He feels like he had seen these mannerisms before somewhere, but made no real effort to say it out loud as he introduced himself back. "...Grian. Nice to meet you, I guess?"

Silence sat in for the next few seconds. Grian kept staring at the other, though a little unintentionally, while Mumbo looked more and more awkward as time passed without a word being said.

"...Uh- well, sorry for bothering you," Mumbo said, nervously, before mumbling (mostly to himself). "God this was really stupid of me."

"Oh, don't worry- it's fine, it's fine." Grian assured. "I do feel like I've seen you somewhere before as well, if I'm being honest. I'm not sure what or why I do, though."

"Well, maybe there's just a big chance you've heard of my name through the redstone community," He suggested, "Or something else, anyways."

But that certainly wasn't possible, since he had never even touched redstone before- well, he has, but the one time he remembers he did, it ended in an explosion. So he was careful to never mess with it again.

"Sir," Suddenly, one of the waitresses called Mumbo, ending the awkward silence, which both were silently grateful for. "Your order, packaged as usual."

"Er- Thank you," Mumbo said quickly. He took what seemed to be the box of food.

"What's in that?" Grian asked, for the sake of curiosity.

"Oh- it's just mashed potatoes." The taller chuckled. "Really, this is the only restaurant that seems to tolerate me ordering nothing but it."

"Can't you just make mashed potatoes by yourself - in your own world or server?"

"Well- I tried once, but it didn't end so well, so I gave up with cooking entirely." He sighed, before turning away. "Well, anyways, sorry for wasting your time, I'll be on my way now." And with that, he started walking away.

Wait a minute... mash potatoes-

"Oh wait!" Grian exclaimed suddenly, maybe a bit too loud. He was just struck by a realization. "You're the potato boy from my old neighborhood!"

" Potato boy -?" Mumbo repeated incredulously, stopping dead in his tracks and looking back at him.

"Yeah!" The shorter said again. "Aren't you the kid next door that had a whole potato farm in their backyard?"

The taller looked confused for a second, but then seemed to remember as well. "Oh! And you're one of the fish people that used to live next door!"

" Fish People -" Grian repeated, half offended, half amused. "Of all the things you would have remembered me as, Fish people-? "

"You're one to talk- Potato boy- goodness me-" Mumbo shook his head, but then smiled. "Well, nice to finally know your name after years of just referring to you as 'my old cod neighbor'!"

"Yeah- nice to finally know your name too," Grian replied, before muttering to himself. " Old cod neighbor- "

"Well, uh, nice to see you again after all those years, but I think I'm actually going to go now," He then said. "This was an unexpected thing that I didn't think would occur today, but once again, nice seeing you."

"Yeah, same here, I guess." The blond replied. "Would you like to exchange contacts? Just in case?"

"Sure, that sounds great." Mumbo replied, juggling the box of mashed potatoes to his other hand and getting his communicator out of his pocket. They quickly exchanged contacts, before Mumbo actually went.

And right as Mumbo turned around, a certain blond just walked back into the building.

"Who was that?" Dream asked as he sat back down, looking back at Mumbo, who just left through the door.

Grian just shrugged, once again flipping through the pages of his book. "A friend, I guess."

"A friend?" Dream made up a disbelieved gasp. "So small little Grian is finally out in the wild, making his own friends?" He said, in a teasing manner, before pretending to tear up. "Sniff... oh how they grow up so fast-"

"Oh shut up already! I'm not a child anymore!" The wafflehead groaned, afterwards sending a chilling death glare. "-and I'll have you know; I'm. not. Short."

The taller snickered. "Yeah, sure you aren't. What was your height the last time it was measured again? Oh right, a whooping 5'1. Very tall of you, very impr-"

He had to cut himself off and dodge the book the shorter threw at him, breaking out in a tea kettle wheeze as he did so.