written by vestigially

quick notes!! this takes place at the end of season 7, whenever you imagine that to be! so picture what you will! also all shipping here is intended platonic, but can be seen as romantic if you'd like

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Hermitcraft Seven was winding to a close. The Hermits had had their fun in the world, but had agreed it was time to move on. Of course it was always a little sad, but the group thought it better to make it a day of celebration, not of misery.

And thus, they'd all gathered in the town hall for one final fling before their fresh new world began.

Tables were lined with snacks, upbeat music played from the jukebox in the corner, and Hermits stood and sat scattered about the room lost in conversation with one another. It was a bit funny how while some of them talked about the future and plans for the season ahead, others talked and reminisced about the past and the beginning of the season.

The Boomers had gathered back and were laughing with Ren about the time they'd partially exploded his base, and expressed their hopes to make a return the following season. Cleo, Joe, and Stress were reminding each other of their head games antics, and Iskall and Mumbo were practically rolling on the floor laughing as they recalled upon the early days of Hermit Challenges.

But for Grian? He just felt... weird.

He could only think about the past. And when he thought of his early season, one name came to mind immediately: Scar.

He and Scar had never stopped talking persay, more that their conversations had changed. They'd found themselves on opposing sides time and time again, even after their first of the season days of fun.

Grian sighed inwardly and glanced in Scar's direction. He didn't seem to be too deep into anything either, kind of just hanging on the outskirts of a conversation with a few others. Grian wondered if Scar was feeling the same he was.

Maybe Scar wasn't even thinking about him at all. That in itself was a painful thought after everything they'd done together at the beginning of the season.

Scar suddenly turned his head towards him, and for a split second the two made eye contact. Grian quickly averted his gaze, and neither made a move toward each other.

So maybe Scar was thinking about him. But if that were the case, there seemed to be some kind of unspoken thought between them. That made Grian feel even worse.

Grian shook his head and decided to make a round around the town hall. See what there was to see perhaps.

He squeezed past a few tables he noticed were full of food and was about to squeeze past another that Wels and Jevin were leaned over, when he noticed that one wasn't full of food at all. Pausing, he took a pace back and leaned over to see the contents of the surface from the other side.

The table was full of photos. Hundreds of them.

The images were arranged in rows by the month they were taken. There were photos of every Hermit and seemingly every picture that had been taken throughout the entire course of the server. Grian wasn't sure who had managed to dig them up, but he found on the table quite a few of himself which he had forgotten all about.

To his delight, there were over a dozen of him and Scar in the first row. He didn't look too hard at them before hastily sweeping them up into one hand. From the ones he caught a glimpse of, he could see they were mostly pictures or selfies of the two of them. Grian held the camera for some, and Scar for others.

I can't believe we took this many pictures of us, Grian mused.

He thought he should show Scar, but then again, was he really ready for a conversation like that with him after all these months? He'd begun to argue with himself again, but that little internal debate was halted when Grian glanced in Scar's direction and saw him walking right towards the table where he stood.

This time, when Grian made eye contact with him, Scar smiled.

He no longer had to make a decision. His answer was right in front of him.

"What do you have there, Grian?"

"Hey, Scar." Grian smiled too and looked down at his stack of pages. "I found some pictures of us on the table over there. But I don't know where they came from." He fanned them out for Scar to take a look at them.

"Actually, I brought them here."

"You did?" Grian's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Scar nodded brightly and slipped one of the pictures out of the small pile. He admired it for a moment before flipping it back around for Grian to see. "Remember this one?" He asked.

Grian leaned in a bit closer to get a good look at it. I was one of their selfies of himself and Scar. Behind them was an expanse of empty jungle that looked familiar. The page was marked 'February 29th' in the top left corner.

"Was this..."

"Day one of the server." Scar beamed and ran his thumb over the edge of the page.

Grian's face lit up with recognition. "It was right before we started building our starter bases!"

Scar nodded eagerly and pulled out another. This picture showed the two of them in the same place as the previous one, only the lighting was changed and they both looked significantly more exhausted. Scar's face was streaked with dirt, and Grian's hair had been pulled back out of his face with what looked like a makeshift headband. Behind them was Scar's very own Larry the Snail.

"This was at the end of the day!" Grian exclaimed. The memories were coming back to him clearly as he pulled another picture out. This one was from a few days later, and pictured the two of them in front of an End city.

"Oh! Our End busting trip!" Scar laughed. "Wait that reminds me-" He turned to the photo table and shuffled through the contents of it for a second, murmuring to himself about how he swore he'd brought more pictures with him. He turned back to Grian once he'd found the one he was looking for, and held it out to him.

Grian laughed in disbelief. "My first flight?" The picture showed him soaring on his brand new elytra and was marked with the same date as the End bust.

"Well one of your first at least."

"I didn't know you had a picture of this!"

"I've got a lot of pictures of you, Grian." Scar smiled. "I took them early in the season and hoped you'd want to look back on them with me."

Grian sighed softly. "It's only taken us this long to look back on everything together."

Scar could sense what Grian wasn't saying. They'd talked, sure, but they hadn't talked.

"Everyone falls out of touch sometimes."

"Yeah I just mean..." Grian trailed off and glanced away for a moment.

Maybe it's too soon, he thought to himself. Or maybe it's too late.

Scar gently placed a hand on Grian's shoulder and shifted in just a bit closer to him. "Sometimes you just need a reason to get together again."

"So is that why you brought all the pictures with you today?"

"I needed something to start talking to you again."

Grian let out a breath. It's not too soon. And it's not too late either.

"Now I wish I'd approached you first." When Grian looked back up at him, he was smiling. "Pictures or no pictures."

Scar smiled back. "Well we're talking now. And that's what matters to me."

"I think we've got more memories to look back on though!" Feeling lighter than ever Grian looked back down at the pictures in his hand. "Shall we?"

Smile widening further, Scar nodded. "I'd love to look back on those with you."

Grian eagerly began shuffling through the pictures. But before he could pull one out for a closer look, he was stopped by Scar's hand placed on top of his.

"Oh, and Grian-?"

Time seemed to stop if only for a moment as their eyes met again.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too, Scar."

And the unspoken thought between them was finally spoken.