It was a nice day out, not crowded- hmm... still?-, the perfect temperature, and everything seemed normal, but Techno, Philza, and Fundy all wanted to get to the cold and dark ice biome fast for different reasons.

Fundy kept glancing around looking for Eret with his tail flicking around nervously. Techno wasn't nervous in the slightest for their safety, knowing he could take down Eret easily if he needed to, but he wanted to get back quickly too to check up on Ranboo. Philza sensed the tension in everyone and wanted to get back for both reasons. Since Ranboo was taking the night shift, Fundy could take his room, but he still wanted to ask Ranboo quickly for permission. Hopefully he would be awake, but not yet left yet by the time they got there.

They went through the portal nodding to the guards who honestly didn't care to check most people. Hardly anyone went through the gate other than Philza, Techno, and Ranboo, and most others were traveling with them so they could be trusted. The guards didn't look too thrilled with their jobs here. At least the Hell gate was a little more exciting, despite the chaos.

The three stepped through, letting the blue swirl surround them and pop them into a new dimension!

Fundy shook off the dizzy feeling he had when he was on the other side, and immediately got hit with the cold winds. "Oh jeez that's worse than I remember.." He thought to himself. Techno and Philza didn't seem fazed, but they were more used to it he assumed.

Despite the cold piercing through his fur, Fundy was more relaxed here than the Hub. At least Eret couldn't attack out from behind any building, and Fundy wasn't expected to be here in the first place.

"Home at last!" Philza said with a smile when their house came into view. It was pretty big for a cottage, but looked comforting and warm. Everyone felt safer when they saw it.

When they got inside, it felt empty. Thankfully it was much warmer than outside, but the fire was dying down, with Steve sleeping peacefully next to it. Techno walked up and threw in another log on the fire before petting Steve, who let out a happy grunt.

"Ranboo?" Philza called out to the house.

No answer.

"Where is he?" Fundy asked.

"He must've already gone to the prison for work." Philza reasoned.

"Hmm? But no note?" Techno asked, walking into the dining room.

"Maybe he was in a hurry?" Fundy guessed.

"Maybe, but we should still check in the morning, just in case." Philza said. They all nodded, hoping if another search were to happen, it would be like the first, where Ranboo found them pretty quick. All of them were too tired to go searching today, and it wasn't too safe for Fundy to be out until Eret was taken care of.

Philza showed Fundy to Ranboo's room.

"You can just chill in here until I make some dinner, and you can stay here tonight." Philza said.

"Thanks again Philza." Fundy said gratefully, with a relaxed sigh.

"You're welcome mate. Good thing you asked on a day Ranboo has work, otherwise you might have to sleep on the couch next to Steve." Philza laughed. Fundy's ears flattened and his fur stuck up with a little bit of fear.

"Relax mate, he's just a big hugger. You should be more afraid of getting hugged to death than anything."

Fundy had a nervous chuckle forcing his fur to relax by petting his tail down.

"I'll call you over when dinner is ready!" Philza said, turning around and walking out of the door.

Fundy nodded. Philza shut the door most of the way and Fundy collapsed onto Ranboo's bed. It was a normal sized bed, which didn't quite make sense for someone Ranboo's height.

"How does he fit in this bed?" He thought to himself half mumbling. Either way, it was perfectly sized for Fundy and he just laid there comfortably listening to his thoughts ramble on inside his head.

"Oh, I should text 5up to tell him I'm ok." He thought to himself quickly, sitting up and pulling out his phone from his inside jacket pocket.

Fundy: Hey 5up! Thanks for letting me stay last night at your place. Tonight I'm with some other friends but I'm safe.

5up: No problem! And I'm glad you're safe. Are you free to hang out tomorrow?

Fundy: Probably, but I have something to do for the first half of the day.

5up: Ok, no pressure if you can't. Just text me if you're free.

Fundy: Will do! Night 5up!

5up: Goodnight Fundy <3

Fundy's phone died before he read the full message, but assumed it was just a "bye"

He set his phone on the nightstand next to him, and as he leaned forwards, he noticed a crumpled note behind him on the bed.

"Hmm? Must've crushed it when I fell backwards, oops."

He picked up to read it, but there was only a simple smile on it, so he flipped it around to see if there was any writing. Nope!

"Well that's odd?" He mumbled to himself, putting the note onto the bed stand. "Just a smile? Maybe a friend sent it." He guessed, brushing it off. It wasn't his business anyway.

He fell backwards onto the bed after making sure there wasn't anything else he would accidentally crush. The smell of dinner wafted from the other room and his stomach growled from whatever Philza was making. That was probably the only thing keeping him awake like this, cozy and exhausted on a bed in a safe place.

Sure a probably-possessed and out-for-his-blood friend was on the loose, probably looking for him right now, but even in this ice biome with a polar bear in the next room, he felt warm and safe.

-------------

Wilbur wandered the streets of the Hub, surprisingly relaxed. There was an insane person on the loose that had to do with void demons or something, definitely evil, but even with his confusion, he wasn't all that worried about it. He promised not to tell anyone about anything during the meeting, and he would stay true to that, but he kept thinking about it all while he walked.

"Is that what I have, one of those void demon things? Maybe I could ask him next time."

Wilbur sipped his coffee as he walked slowly looking through the stores and shops display. Bunch of trinkets and food shops for tourists, but nothing he needed or wanted, so he didn't stop in any of them.

"Aren't there any music stores around here? I swore I saw one a few months ago."

He wandered around for a while, finding nothing to buy and no one to talk to.

"I'll just have Philza or Techno come along and help me tomorrow. They know this place better than me anyway." He decided, walking back to his place for the rest of the day. The topic of void demons still wandered in the back of his mind, like it wouldn't let go. He shrugged it off, but didn't try to forcefully forget either.

-------------

Tubbo and George walked away from the group towards Tubbo's house silently. Tubbo couldn't stand the silence and desperately wanted to start a conversation, but had no idea how. They had never really talked before. To his huge relief, George spoke first.

"How did you hack into those files so easily and quickly?" George asked with curiosity.

"Oh uhm, it actually took about a half a day the first time, and it wasn't easy. This time was much faster since I already knew what to do." Tubbo answered humbly.

"It's still very impressive."

"Thanks!" Tubbo said cheerfully. "And thanks for letting me use your computer by the way."

George nodded, "No problem."

There was a moment of silence as Tubbo built up the courage to ask his own question.

"How did you get that tracker done so quickly while still paying attention to the meeting?" Tubbo asked, "I could never do both of those at the same time!"

"Well like you, it took me much longer the first time, but this one was sort of just the same thing with an upgrade. Plus if I couldn't multitask between listening to others and wiring things, I'd never get anything done! Sapnap and Dream never shut up!" George laughed. Tubbo smiled at the positive response.

"I just had to learn to tune Tommy out sometimes since he's always yelling about something new," Tubbo laughed. "Wilburs an asshole, this, or Techno stole my stuff, that. He's usually the one stealing from Techno though."

"Techno's the pig guy, right?" George asked. He had heard the name being thrown around a few times but didn't really pay much attention to who it was.

"Mhm!" Tubbo nodded.

"First time I met him he was a pink haired anime boy. Shifting really doesn't make any sense does it?"

"Eh not really. I'm a science kid, not a magic expert. Plus I never expected Bad to look like that as a human, I just thought he was possessed when he ran."

"Yeah I think he's just shy. I don't get why though, being human isn't all bad."

"Wait, you're a human?" Tubbo asked, really curious. "Wait- wait sorry that sounded rude!" He apologized quickly.

"Nah, it's fine. Yeah, I'm human. Sometimes it sucks being the weakest in the group since I can't use magic other than potions and the occasional bag of holding when I have to, but other times I get to use it as an excuse to make Dream and Sapnap do stuff for me." He chuckled slightly sadly. He missed Dream too, and let out a quiet sigh. It would all be normal soon, and they didn't have to worry about him again since he was securely in prison. The scientist on the case was standing right next to him after all.

"I'm sorta the weakest too. Wilbur creates music, Techno's a fighting god, Philza practically knows everything and can fly, and Tommy's always rushing into battle with no fear. I wish I could do any of those things."

"Dude you literally hacked into a top secret lab conspiracy-theory file in half a day, and then even quicker the second time just from memory! I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty cool." George said. Tubbo was smiling from ear to ear.

"Thanks!"

They had reached Tubbo's house and were standing by the doorway. Tubbo felt much better walking and talking than he did at the meeting and was really glad he had asked George to come in the first place.

"Thanks for walking me here." Tubbo said as he turned to the door.

"No problem. And hey, Tubbo?"

Tubbo his head around so George would continue.

"You owe me a lesson in hacking someday."

"I'll trade you for a lesson in making a tracker-pad thing!" Tubbo said with a raised eyebrow and a smile, turning fully around.

"Deal." George said. They shook on it, and laughed a little, like this was some sort of really important and official agreement.

See you around Tubbo!" George said, turning on his heel to walk in the opposite direction.

"Bye George!" Tubbo waved, as he walked into his house. Tubbo felt safe and relaxed walking deeper into his house to get some food. Tomorrow he was going to get live data first hand and he was super excited, plus now he had a friend to talk about tech stuff with. Tommy just didn't get that kinda stuff. Speaking of Tommy, Tubbo grabbed out his phone to see a missed call from Tommy, he would text him after he ate. Right now, he was starving!

-------------

Velvet and Ant walked away from the group hand in hand. They knew Skeppy had declined their invitation so they could be alone, but felt better about it when they saw him run off to hang out with Sapnap in the distance.

"Hmm, Ice Cream shop?" Ant asked, looking around the shops.

"Sounds delicious!" Velvet smiled. Once this whole thing was over, he would get to keep traveling everywhere, with his favorite person in all of the worlds. Even if it meant he had to eat fish almost every place they went.

They walked in and happily found there to be no line. The people at the counter looked happy to finally see customers that day.

"I'll take uhm uh-" Velvet paused to think, "Cinnamon vanilla please?"

"Could I have chocolate?" Ant asked, handing over the money.

"Coming right up!" The cashier said. He was another cat man, wearing a sweater with a superman symbol on it. Wasn't that an Earth comic or something? His name tag said: "Zelk". He elbowed the person next to him sleeping to get up and do his job while he got out the change.

"Alright alright jeesh." The guy he elbowed said, getting up and scooping the ice cream. His name tag read: "Vurb".

"Thanks!" Ant said, grabbing the ice creams and handing one to Velvet.

"Thank you!"

They sat at a table near the window so they could see outside. It was actually a really nice day outside.

"Heh, too bad Skeppy didn't come. He missed out on this great ice cream!" Velvet said.

"Yeah, but he's having fun with Sapnap, probably causing chaos."

"Wait, you two know Skeppy?" Zelk asked. The guy next to him in the blue onesie suddenly seemed interested.

"Uhm yeah," Ant said. "You guys know him?"

Zelk and the other guy walked over so they didn't have to shout.

"Yeah! But we haven't seen him in awhile. He's so busy with his "guard duties" that he forgets to visit sometimes." Zelk said, rolling his eyes.

"Well next time we see him, we'll send him this way." Velvet said. "Sure he'd love to take Bad on a date here." He mumbled.

"Thanks," Zelk laughed a bit. "My name's Zelk, and this idiot is Vurb." He said, pointing to the other guy with his thumb.

"That's idot to you!" Vurb argued back.

Ant and Velvet gave confused looks to the both of them.

"Our group is called the idots, so is the ice cream shop." Zelk explained.

"Oh cool!" Ant said. "I'm Antfrost! you can call me Ant." Antfrost introduced. He would've held out his hand to shake but he was still holding his ice cream in one hand and Velvet's hand in the other, and it wasn't worth it to let either of them go.

"And I'm RedVelvet, but you can call me Red or Velvet."

"Nice to meet you both!" Zelk said.

"Do you guys know Badboyhalo too?" Vurb asked.

"Yep," Ant said.

"Are he and Skeppy dating yet?" Vurb asked, very straightforward.

"Wait-what?" Ant asked.

"Sadly no," Velvet started, ignoring his boyfriend's confusion. "But they totally should be." He said with a knowing smile.

Antfrost and Zelk just gave similar confused and annoyed looks.

"Skeppy was practically fawning over him while you and Bad were on Earth, Ant." Velvet said.

"Ooh separating the lovers across dimensions I see?" Vurb said, "How did you get them to leave each other's sides? Last time I checked they were joined at the hip."

"Well they had to-" Velvet started.

"-Plan! For a picnic surprise!" Ant lied, trying to cover up what Red said. He squeezed Velvet's hand, making him realize what he was about to say.

"Uhm yeah-" Velvet said.

"Why is it so crowded over there?" Ant asked, diverting the topic. It seemed to be the only busy place in the hub actually, which was weird because the weather was so nice.

Zelk ignored the weird vibe of the sudden change of topic, "That's the Kawaii Cafe, our competition. They sell cupcakes and steal all of our customers." He said with a frown.

"Oh, sorry about that. Honestly I think this ice cream is way better than any cupcakes I've had!" Velvet said.

"Thanks," Zelk nodded. "Hopefully when the Earth gate opens back up, the initial rush of people over will see this place and it might attract more attention."

"Wait, doesn't Skeppy guard that portal?" Vurb asked.

"Yeah he and Bad do." Zelk said like he just remembered it. "Do either of you know why they closed it? I haven't seen them around it for a while either."

"Nope!" Velvet said quickly.

"We haven't been around that gate for a while." Antfrost said as a more clear lie. "Uhm- after Bad and Skeppy and picnic planning and stuff. Yeah that was a while ago." He struggled to cover up. Thankfully, the idots seemed to buy it.

"Well if you hear anything come over and tell us, and maybe buy more ice cream if you feel like it," Zelk said very slyly.

Antfrost nodded. He definitely wanted to bring Velvet here more often.

Velvet took the last bite of his cone and then remembered something.

"Oh shoot we still gotta prepare!" He exclaimed, before clamping his now-free hand over his mouth. Ant was about to glare before releasing that would be even more suspicious.

"Prepare?" Zelk asked.

"For uhm- the picnic!" Antfrost quickly lied. He was a little surprised the excuse was still working, but the more he thought about it the more he actually did want to go on a picnic with Velvet.

"Well we'll leave you two to it then. Have fun and enjoy the nice Hub weather. I don't get why everon;es been staying inside recently so much." Zelk said, confirming that Ant hadn't been just imagininging things. He shook off the thought, deciding he could think about it more later.

"Thanks for the great ice cream, and it was nice to meet you." Ant said after he took the last bite of his cone too. "We should probably get going." He said, letting go of Velvet's hand and standing up.

"Thanks for coming to our shop instead of the cupcake one!" Zelk said.

"And call us if Skeppy and Bad ever makeout!" Vurb added.

Velvet gave him a thumbs up, "Will do!"

Antfrost dramatically opened the door for Velvet, bowing as he did it. Velvet rolled his eyes going through, but had a slight smile that Ant saw from the corner of his eye.

"Let's grab some potions from my shop for tomorrow, before we head home?" Ant offered. Velvet nodded and grabbed Ant's hand again, making his cat eyes go all dilated for a second. Velvet chucked, and they made their way over hand in hand.

----------- 

Some wholesome moments before-.... SOMe wholesome moments for fun I mean! I think I've dragged out this chapter or like 4 chapters more than my original outline, buts it's just fun to write hundreds of more details than I need to! Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are having a good night or night, bye!