"Grrrrriiiiiaaaannnn!" Solidarity called.
Grian sighed, turned on his heel, and ran to find his younger brother.
He found him at the bottom of a steel ladder.

He innocently batted his eyes and held out aerial ribbons.
"Can you-" Soli asked.
"Ugh, fiiiine!" Grian grumbled taking the ribbons off his brother's hands.
"Go help Martyn set up the maze," Grian waved him off, throwing the ribbons over his shoulder.
Solidarity nodded and ran off to help their older brother while Grian climbed up the ladder.

••••

"Ready?" Grian called down to Pearl.
"Yep!" She called back.
Grian dropped the flag. It fell like a rock, a loud vrloop sound accompanying it.
Grian cringed as a loud slap could be heard from below.
"Ooo, that's gotta hurt-" Grian cringed.
Regardless, Pearl hung the bottom of the flag up.

••••

Grian yelped as the box he was holding slipped in his grip.
He darted to try and catch it but apparently, he didn't need to.

Grian looked up and met eyes with Ren Dog Hermitcraft. He hadn't seen him in a while. And by a while he means at least 5 years. He was pretty sure he had moved away.

"You alright there, hondjie?" Ren asked, lifting the box back up easily with one hand.
"Uh..." Grian stared at the man, brown hair fallen into his face.
"Hondjie? Hello? Are you alright?" Ren asked.

He shifted, hoisting the box to his hip, before pressing a hand to Grian's forehead.
"When was the last time you ate- oh, holy GIGA Pies! You're burning up!" Ren fussed.

Oh, this is weird.

"Sit! Sit, pup!" Ren ushered setting the box on the ground.
"You shouldn't be out here! Hold still!" Ren fussed and pulled out his phone.
"I'm fine-" Grian began to offer.
"Bullsh*t!" Ren shot back.

"Gosh, you Evos and never asking for help- never asking for anything. You do realize it's ok not to be ok, right? You don't have to do everything! No matter how much is expected of you," Ren grumbled a hand gently on Grian's shoulder to keep him in place.

Ren kept up his soft grumbling for a bit before moving his hand.
He sat beside Grian and sighed.
"I messaged Doc, we can go to his apartment, try to get your fever down," Ren explained.
Grian shrunk and Ren gave a soft smile to the boy.

••••

Grian awoke to singing. A soft singing that almost lulled him back to sleep.
"Feeling any better?" A deep voice rumbled, the singing continued behind the voice.

Grian whined and buried himself back into the pillow beneath his head.
"That's alright. You can sleep," the voice assured.

Grian let out a soft huff, like a deep soothing voice can tell him what to do, before letting the song lull him back into his slumber. Not because he was listening to the voice but because it would be rude not to when someone was singing a lullaby for him.

••••

Grian awoke in a hotel room, Doc Hermitcraft sitting on the second bed.
Grian stared in fear at the man before him. Said man looked up and gave a soft smile.

"Good morning," Doc greeted.
"Morning?!" Grian nearly shouted, his voice cracking in fear.
"Er- technically night but-" Doc was cut off by Ren entering the hotel room.

"Ah! Afternoon Grian! You want something to eat? I'm buying pizza!" Ren announced dropping himself beside Grian.
"Glad you let us take care of ya by the way! You were konked out pretty quick the moment you sat down," Ren explained scrolling through his phone.

He held his phone out to Grian, an offering.
"Here, you can get one yourself!" Ren offered, "don't worry, pup, I'm paying."
Hesitantly Grian took the phone and picked just a plain cheese pizza, scared to get anything else.

"Where's my phone?" Grian asked quietly.
Doc reached over and picked up a red and purple phone from the bedside table.
Grian snatched it from him and quickly turned it on.

"I charged it while you were out," Doc huffed.
There was a moment of silence as Grian went through his phone.
"Thanks."

You are now texting MJ

MJ: yo u ok?

MJ: G?

MJ: Doc said you passed out and he'd be back later

MJ: call me when you wake up will ya?

MJ: sorry I'm spamming

MJ: rest well love

G: thank you Mumby

MJ: ur up?

MJ: well no duh

MJ: r u ok?!

G: I'm good

MJ: thank goodness

Grain gave a soft smile and dropped backward on the bed.

••••

"Pizza!" Ren declared entering the room with 2 pizza boxes.
The boxes were deposited on a table in the hotel room and they all settled down.

••••

"Hey, Doc?" Grian spoke up his eyes darting to the metal mass the man had for an arm.
"Yeah?"
"What happened to your-" Grian gestured to his arm and he chuckled.

"I uh- I fell off a cliff and the rock I had been on crushed it," Doc explained quietly.
"Oh..."
"Hey, that was like- what? 20-25 years ago?" Ren waved it off.
Doc gave a half-hearted smile and nodded.

"If it helps, I couldn't feel it while I was waiting," Doc offered quietly.
"How long were you waiting?" Grian asked.
"53 hours? Maybe," Doc answered.

"Ren was 2 at the time," Doc snickered.
"Wha- okay you a-" Ren snarled.
"Ah! Nooo. Bad boy," Doc teased.
Red covered the brunette's cheeks and he snatched the box of pizza the brothers were sharing.

"You've lost privileges!" Ren declared a moment later Doc was pulling Ren to his chest with a laugh.
"You can't take Ren privileges away! You just got back today!" Doc whined with a wheeze.

"You should have thought of that before treating me like a dog!" Ren shot back, if he had a tail Grian was sure it would have been puffed up slightly behind him; though still wagging.

"Your middle name is literally Dog, you call everyone around you Pup it Puppy! Hond, veer dom!" Doc scoffed.
Ren scrunched his nose at the older man and moved to sit with Grian.
"Jerk," Ren joked.
"Hey, you let me know when you wanna go home, yeah?" Ren offered softly to Grian a soft smile gracing his face.

Grian nodded awkwardly.

••••

"YOU KNOW WHAT? Every time you hurt me I'm going to tell Doc Hermitcraft," Grian threatened.
There was a long pause.
Of all the Hermitcrafts in this town, there were only a few of which their dad was afraid of.

They learned very quickly who those few were.
Their dad, Doc, Tango, Ren, and False Hermitcraft.
The only ones who would stand up to them.

And their parents would learn very quickly that Grian wasn't bluffing....

(A/N: THIS KEEPS UNPUBLISHING?!)