Ship: GEX (Grian x EX)
Ship Type: Platonic
Category: Angsty as hell
Setting: Sometime in season 7
Warnings: some blood

I honestly don't know why I'm writing this ship, just got an idea last night and decided to take it. this is going to be a 2 part oneshot btw. The ship will change in part 2, but the story remains the same.

Headcannons for the chapter:

- EX and X are brothers, X is the older one
- EX's real name is Xavier in this story, but he forgot it
- EX has a tragic backstory in this story
*+*+/|\+*+*×*+*+/|\+*+*

/-+* Third Person POV *+-\

The evil brother in the red helmet sighed sadly as he watched the sunset from across the shopping district while sitting on a tree. 

All the time EX spent in the void really has given him time to think about his actions. He has changed, but now that he's been brought back on the server, he's reconsidering the change he went through.

Last Sunday, X has let EX back on the server, since he promised X he had changed. But of course, almost none of the other hermits believed this, and almost none accepted him. Most of the hermits didn't trust him or didn't even talked to him, some even pretended he didn't exist. But there are also hermits who were willing to be friends with him, most notably the newest hermit, Grian, and his older brother, Xisuma. Some other hermits are cool with him as well, but most stay away from him, and it makes EX feel lonely at most times.

The sun setting quickly turned into the sun dawning as the message BdoubleO100 went to sleep  appeared in the chat. With another sigh, EX stood up and jumped down from the tree. And then, he heard a familiar voice call his name, and he turns to sees the gremlin in the dark red sweater that everyone loves, Grian.

"Hey, EX! why the long face?" Grian asked, waving at him while approaching.

"It's nothing much." EX stated.

"You look sad though, is something wrong?" 

"I told you, it's nothing much."

"Is it really nothing much though? It sounds like a lot much more." Grian persistently kept asking.

EX knew Grian isn't going to give up anytime soon, "fine, maybe I'm just feeling a bit... under the weather. It's nothing for you to worry about." EX sighed.

"Why though? Did something happen?"

"..."

"aw come on, EXy, you can tell me. Besides, I'm pretty good with dealing with this type of stuff." Grian huffed with his arms crossed.

EX rolled his eyes, "oh fine, fine." he gave up.

"That's great! now follow me." Grian said dragging EX's arm.

"wha-"

They went to the Barge, or more precisely, Grian dragged Ex to the Barge. After they were inside. Grian turned to him, "so, what's up? What's wrong?".

EX thought about it, "well... ever since I came to the server last week, everyone's been avoiding me. Almost nobody talks to me... and I sometimes feel... really lonely. It almost feels like the entire world is against me sometimes... Everyone hates me for what I've done, I'm always alone now... I don't deserve to exist."

Tears started forming near EX's eyes as he spoke, Grian realized this and comforted him, "It's okay, EX, I'll always be your friend if you need me. The others don't hate you, they just don't trust you yet, you know why. they'll eventually warm up to you. I promise. Now, breathe." He said with a sad smile.

They stayed silent for a while, then EX started to calm down and control his breathe, "... Grian, do you see me as a friend, do you even trust me?"

"of course I do!"

"... Why?"

"I always believe in second chances, EX. You changed, you're no longer who you are seasons ago. The others will get that eventually." Grian smiled at him.

"but... you weren't there when I did the things I did." EX responded looking away.

"I wasn't there, but you know I don't care. I already told you, you've changed, you're a better person now. Your brother, X I sumaVoid, has also forgiven you right?"

EX didn't respond, Grian stood up, "It's alright to be sad, EX! I know everything will get better in the end." He hands EX a hand help to him get up, "I promise everything will get better."

EX finally looked up, and took the hand, "thanks, Gri, I feel a lot better now." he smiled and wiped the tears away.

Grian smiled back, "Anytime, bud! That's what friends are for."

They walked out of the barge and parted ways, waving and saying bye to each other.

-_{Timeskip}_-

-*-[Author/Rachel: congrats, you made it through half of the chapter! Now may I ask a question? what's your favorite hermitcraft ship, Platonically/Romantically]-*-

EX was flying in the nether, looking for the portal to the shopping district. Things were looking up ever since he talked with Grian. First thing that happened was that Grian dragged him to the MR base and introduced him as a new member a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶s̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l. Day by Day, he started opening up to the other members, which in turn also started to trust him. Grian also pushed him to talk more to his brother, X, so there's more trust between them. EX started to feel more confident and relaxed, even though the majority of the hermits still didn't trust him that much. EX also didn't have a base yet, so Grian let him stay in his. He was planning on building his own soon though. 

"EX!"

EX looked beside him to see Grian flying by, "oh, hey Gri, where are you going?".

"To the upside down, visiting. where are you heading?"

"The Shopping district." EX shrugged.

"Oh, I'll also be heading there next, see ya later if we meet again- oh hi Etho!" Grian waved to Etho, which was zooming by, and he waved back. Grian turned back to EX, "see you later!" he said before flying away.

EX reached the shopping district, and to his surprise, he sees smoke rising in the distance, "what's going on here-?"

"Evil Xisuma."

He jumped at the extremely cold tone, and turns to see Cub, which looked at him with pure disgust, "you better follow me."

EX didn't know what was going on, and was both panicking and confused, but he tried his best to hide it as he followed Cub to the source of the smoke. When they came closer, EX's eyes widen. A shop, which was now unrecognizable, in shambles, flames everywhere. more than half of the hermits were there.

"Explain this."

All eyes were directed at him, he felt the disappointment and anger in the glares, "W-what's going on-"

"EX, I can't express how disappointed I am in you." Xisuma stated, arms crossed.

EX realized he was getting blamed. For something he didn't do. 

"Wait- y-you're not saying you think I did this-" EX panicked.

"Who else would do this? You're the only one on the server considered evil." Scoffed on of the hermits in the crowd.

"Yeah, you tried to destroy the server once!"

"You obviously did it!"

Death stares were shot at him from every direction, EX didn't know what to do. He didn't do this. EX started to back away, "I didn't do this! I s-swear!"

No one believed him. Everyone was yelling at him. Everyone officially hated him. Even X looked at him disbelieved. He wanted to say something to proof he didn't do this, but he couldn't say anything.

As the crowd has yelling at him, his mind suddenly went blank. And his panic, sadness, and confusion left. Leaving only one emotion, Anger.

Everyone hated him. Everyone Blamed him for no reason.

He could no longer hear the loud yelling.

No one would believe him. He tried changing. He tried.

He gripped his hand.

He tried to change. He tried. He tried his best.

He could see out of the corner of his eyes that one of the Hermits started walking up to him from behind.

But apparently...

The hermit was behind him. And without any hesitation, he grabbed his axe, and stabbed them with pure rage. Not hearing what they said. Not caring who it was. Not caring why.

It wasn't enough to them.

IJevin was slain by Evil Xisuma using [The Netheraxe]

Everyone backed off as EX's eyes widen, realizing what he did, hands bloodied. Xisuma looked at him with shock. But then, the surprised look on EX's face was replaced, with a blank look.

"EX listen-" Xisuma started, but before he could even say anything, EX pulls out his crossbow, loaded it with a firework and shot it towards the crowd. No one was hit, and the firework exploded into a red and white explosion. He loads another one in and pointed it around, threatening to shoot, pure rage in his eyes.

"Exy listen-"

"DON'T YOU "EXY" ME, XISUMA-VOID!" EX screamed, on the verge of tears.

Xisuma backed away from the harsh tone EX shouted. The expression on his brother's face was pure rage, anger, madness, and sadness all mixed in, "Brother listen-".

EX cut him off, bursted with tears, still holding the crossbow, and spilled all his feelings out, "nO! YOU LISTEN TO ME, BROTHER! WEEKS- WEEKS! I'VE BEEN TRYING MY BEST TO SMILE, EVEN WHEN EVERYONE HATED ME! MONTHS- MONTHS! I'VE BEEN TRYING MY BEST TO CHANGE, TRYING MY BEST TO BE NICE! AND THEN YOU ALL GO BLAMING ME FOR SOMETHING I DIDN'T DO, SOMETHING I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH! I'M DONE WITH THIS SHIT! I'M DONE!" 

"EX please listen-"

"YOU ALWAYS GET THE SPOTLIGHT! YOU GET EVERYTHING! MEANWHILE EVERYONE CALLS ME EVIL JUST BECAUSE I LIKED RED! JUST BECAUSE I EXPRESSED MY EMOTIONS! I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER MY REAL NAME BECAUSE OF THAT!" EVEN NOW, DO YOU THINK ANYTHING HAS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS!? NO! EVERYONE HATES ME! MEANWHILE EVERYONE LOVES YOU! JUST BECAUSE "I'm different"!? SO AM I CONSIDERED HUMAN OR NOT?! DO YOU EVEN CONSIDER ME YOUR BROTHER!? IS IT BETTER IF I'VE JUST NEVER EXISTED!? THAT'S WHAT EVERYONE THINKS ANYWAYS, RIGHT!?"

"EX I promise that's not the case-"

"JUST. SHUT. THE. FUCK .UP! DON'T TALK! I'M DONE! I'M DONE WITH EVERYTHING! I'M DONE WITH EVERYONE! YOU ONLY LET ME BACK ON THE SERVER BECAUSE YOU PITIED ME! I. DON'T. WANT. YOUR. PITY! YOU THREW ME INTO THE VOID WITH NO HESITATION! I WAS LEFT- NO, YOU LEFT ME FEELING BAD ABOUT EVERYTHING I DID! I'M NOT SORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING I DID ANYMORE! I'M DONE! JUST SHUT UP! I'M DONE! I'M. FUCKING. DONE! I'M LEAVING!" 

"EX please wait, that's not t-"

And with that, he put down the crossbow and flew away with the elytra, Ignoring Xisuma's words. 

/-+* Evil X's POV *+-\

I flew. Not caring where. Not caring what everyone said. I'm just done. Done with everything. I was still crying. No one cared about me anyways. I flew and flew, very far away, hundreds of blocks away.

My elytra just broke as I was landing, great. Just great.

I was now in a strange and dark forest, and it was nighttime. JUST GREAT!

Suddenly, I heard footsteps from behind. I instantly turned around, "W-whos's ther-?"

Cold, Red eyes stared back from the darkness, "So I assume you must be the admin, XisumaVoid?"

I backed off, fear took over, "N-no. Xisuma is my brother. Who are YOU?"

"Xisuma is your brother? so you must be Evil Xisuma. I've heard a lot about you."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Oh, my name? well how rude of me to forget. allow me to introduce myself."

Meanwhile...

/-+* Third Person POV *+-\

"... What's going on here?" Etho asked the Hermits who were still at the torn up shop. He and Grian had just arrived at the area, both were at the upside-down by the time everything happened.

"We assume EX did this, he then turned into an emotional mess, killing Jevin and threatening everyone with a crossbow-" XB was cut off by a disbelieved Grian.

"Wait, EX did this!? When!?"

"...we assumed this morning b-" Cub said.

"Wait- Grian didn't you say EX was with you this morning?" Etho cut him off.

"Yeah! I was! We went grinding sand together!" Grian said.

"wait... so-"

"-there was no way EX did this. We were blaming him for no reason." Xisuma said, still shaken by everything EX said.

Silence. Waves of guilt washed over the hermits that were yelling at him.

"W-wait, so where's EX!?" Grian asked worried.

"... He flew away while shouting "I'M LEAVING!" at everyone..."

"Why didn't anyone go after him!?" Grian asked, sounding mad.

Another wave of silence.

"We need to find him right now!"

"Grian we understand you're mad-"

"You're right, Grian." Xisuma sighed sadly, "We do need to find him."

"but wait- if EX didn't do this...."

"...who did?"

Another wave of silence hit as everyone looked at each other. Moments after, It was broke by Wels, which was running to the crowd with a panicked face, "guys! GUYS!".

"What's wrong, Wels!?" Jevin (who respawned if anyone's confused, I know, misopportunity to put permadeath in) asked.

"This." Wels said, holding up a grey knight helm that has golden edges.

"I-isn't that-" Beef's eyes widen.

"Helsknight's Helmet," Wels nodded, "I found it nearby the destroyed shop. He's probably the one who actually did it."

*+*+/|\+*+*×*+*+/|\+*+*
Word Count: 2,143 words (without most of the A/Ns), 2474 (with A/Ns)

Welllll the Hermittpad Community's going to kill me for this-

Don't worry- EX is fine- physically, not sure mentally. Part 2 is going to come out later, and like it's mentioned in the top A/N, it's going to have a different ship. 

Originally I was just going to just make it into one big oneshot story, and just put GEX as a little ship on the side, and the main one was going to be the other one, but It gives me too much second-hand pain just by writing this long shot, so 2 parts it is. Also yes, I switch between using X and Xisuma a lot, don't jugde me-

Also have this drawing of my design of EX I drew this morning as a sorry for making him suffer.

I had no reference when I drew it, so the design is very off to the real EX skin, but I'm still low-key proud-

also, A/N: most of the names I picked, that were not Grian EX or X, were mostly just me picking random hermits that were to my opinion the most valid for the situation. Same for the destroyed shop, I couldn't pick a shop to destroy, so I just made it unrecognizable to save myself the trouble. So people, sorry if your favorite hermit is very out-of-character, I don't really know every hermit that well-