"...Fuzzy did it," Impulse repeated, knowing full well that he must sound crazy. He pressed his back further into the small couch, not taking his eyes off the moth. Could he even call it a moth at this point?

"Impulse, Fuzzy's just a moth though..." Scar said skeptically before trailing off, glancing between the thing on his shoulder and Jellie, who was still growling, hackles up and ears flat against her head.

"I'm not lying," Impulse's voice raised an octave higher than before. "It's not just a moth I- I... gods my head hurts, It was w-watching me..." he devolved into incoherent mumblings, shaking hands still holding Scar's sleeve in a death grip.

"Watching you?!" Scar echoed in sudden panic, twisting his head to stare at the moth in terror. "Oh- oh my goodness, I... B-Bdubs, go get Xisuma, go get X like I said to before."

"Oh- yes Scar, on it," Bdubs scurried around for a moment behind them, there was a rustle and then the slam of a door. Impulse wondered for a split second if everyone here's panic response was just to find Xisuma.

"Scar?" he whispered. The worried look in the vex's gaze revealed that he knew something that Impulse didn't. Scar pulled himself away from Impulse and up to his feet, a tremor in his hands.

"Okay, just, don't panic," he said in a crazed tone, and Impulse couldn't tell who it was directed at. "It's, it'll be fine I'll be right back Impulse just give me a moment,"

Scar quickly grabbed a still angry Jellie off the floor and plunked her into Impulse's lap before whirling around and racing into his kitchen area. He threw open his cabinets searching for something, and eventually came out with what looked like a small plastic container with a mesh top. He looked back to Fuzzy, who was still sat atop his shoulder grooming her antennae, with a death glare.  Scar positioned his container overtop her and in one swift move, trapped her inside.

Scar stalked back to his living area and dropped the container on his coffee table. Inside, an upset Fuzzy was flying into the walls rapidly, trying to get out. "Okay," Scar let out a sigh of relief, "She's trapped for now."

Impulse, however, was not relieved in the slightest. He pulled Jellie in closer to him, running a hand through her fur, and started rocking back and forth a little where he sat. He stared at the moth with eyes wide as saucers, and flicked his tail back and forth, feeling it thunk against the leg of the couch.

"Impulse, Impulse calm down its okay. It's gonna be fine," Scar let out a nervous laugh, and sat down on the couch next to Impulse. "You were right, that is most definitely not just a moth."

Impulse didn't take his eyes off of Fuzzy. "Then what is she?"

"Well," Scar's voice shook a little, "based on your description, and the magic coming off her, I'm at least 99 percent sure she's connected to a watcher."

Oh. Fuzzy was a watcher's eye, that made sense, Impulse concluded. Of course he felt like he was being stared at, it was a watcher. He nodded slowly in understanding, ruffling Jellie's fur with a fidgety hand.

"Wait," Impulse furrowed his face together in confusion, "Watchers aren't that dangerous or anything..." He had friends who were watchers, why was Scar showing such concern at even the mention of them?

Scar let out a shaky sigh, looking down at his lap. "In theory, they aren't. But we have to be careful with them... X, he's not super fond of them for... reasons." He reached over to give Jellie some scritches, mumbling under his breath. "Why would one of them want to watch you?"

Scar made a good point, what made Impulse interesting to a watcher? He wondered if maybe Fuzzy had been like, hired by the demons back in the nether to check up on his mission progress. Though, in fairness, Impulse assumed they'd be more discreet than a moth pet, and the likelihood that they would do something like this seemed pretty low.

Fuzzy had stopped ramming herself into the container walls, and was walking in slow circles at the bottom. Where had he seen those wings before?

Oh. OH.

Impulse laughed. "Oh stars, Scar I'm an idiot. That's Pearl!"

Scar looked at him in confusion, obviously, since he didn't know Pearl. "Wha—"

He was interrupted by the door slamming open, whacking into the inside wall with a loud bang. Impulse and Scar swiveled around to see a very out of breath Bdubs and Xisuma, as if they'd ran the whole way to Scar's house. "Bdubs said you found a watcher. Where is it?"

Quick as a flash, Scar jumped from the couch and grabbed Fuzzy's, or rather, Pearl's eye's, container. "Yes, yes, here it is, I caught it," Scar pressed the container into Xisuma's hands. Xisuma lifted Fuzzy up to eye level and seemed to scowl at the container. "I'll get rid of it right away," he snarled, voice filled with disgust.

No, no no no no, that was Pearl! Okay well not her per say but it was part of her!

Impulse almost vaulted himself over the back of the couch, reaching out towards Xisuma in desperation. "No, wait!" His eyes widened and his wings flared out behind him to keep balance. It barely registered in his mind that he'd forgotten to put his cloaking spell back on, until he realized everyone in the room was frozen stock still. "damnit," he whispered, heart stopping in his chest. He'd been so distracted that he'd just shown Xisuma that he was a demon...

Scar was first to react, moving to step between Xisuma and Impulse, spreading his arms out in defense. "It's, uhm, not what it looks like!" he lied terribly, "I swear!"

Impulse swallowed thickly, putting his fake aura back up in a puff of purple sparkles.

"Uhh, you saw nothing!" Bdubs added in, far too confidently.

Xisuma let out an irritated sigh. "I already knew you three. Now can we please get rid of this watcher?" Impulse, Scar, and Bdubs all stared at him, mouths agape. What did he mean he already knew?! "Yes yes, I knew he wasn't human. Nice demon wings Impulse, they're very lovely, now can we please get to the pressing matter at hand?"

A moment of awkward silence later, Xisuma huffed, turning on his heel. "I'll just go get rid of it myself—"

"Stop! That's my friend!" Impulse interrupted before fully jumping off the back of the couch and onto his feet, the demon problem sinking to the back of his mind.

"I'm sOrRY?" Bdubs exclaimed in confusion, "That thing tried to HURT YOU?! Watchers are not friends!"

"No no no, she just scared me, she didn't mean to!" Impulse took a step forward, "It took me a sec to figure it out but that's one of Pearl's eyes, she's my friend, I know her. She's a watcher and she can be a bit stupid sometimes and she's not the best at her spells so she just startled me a bit, okay? Please don't hurt her!"

He hoped the pleading tone in his voice came across, because for a watcher, loosing an eye was incredibly painful, and he didn't want to make Pearl have to go through that. Xisuma gripped the container a little tighter, looking at it with confliction for a moment before sighing. He walked past the other three and settled onto one of Scar's couches, placing Pearl's eye on the coffee table. "Come you three, sit, let's talk."

They all quickly shuffled over to the couch across from Xisuma and sat together. Xisuma let out another long sigh and swallowed.

"I have to be very careful with watchers in this town," he didn't take his eyes off Pearl as he talked. "As you know, Watchers are in a gray space when it comes to being good or bad. They'll work for anyone who offers them enough, whether the job is morally correct or not. That being said, I can't trust them, nobody can. There are a lot of people in Hermit Village that came here to escape a bad past or a bad person that's out to get them. I can't put them in danger by having... watchers."

Xisuma dropped his head into his hands as he finished.

Impulse let out a shaky breath, his case wasn't looking so good. "Okay... but I trust Pearl. I can promise you she wouldn't do anything bad on purpose. Here, here here here," Impulse leaned forward and tapped on the container, "Pearl, flap twice if you promise to not do anything to the other hermits!"

The moth flapped her little wings, once, twice. "See!" Impulse exclaimed, "She'll be good!"

Xisuma gave him a skeptical look. "I dunno..."

Next to Impulse, Scar let out a gasp. "I've got it! You wanna keep her with you, right?" Impulse nodded, wondering where this was going. "I can hold her in a vex deal! That way, if she breaks her promise, X can destroy the eye, and she'll be in for a heck of a lot of trouble."

"That's not... dangerous or anything is it?" Impulse questioned. He didn't want Pearl to get hurt doing this. Scar shook his head though, and Impulse looked to Xisuma for a go ahead. "Can he do it, please?"

Xisuma thought for a moment before answering. "I can't say I'm happy about it, but as long as the hermits are safe, I don't mind."

Impulse let out a breath of relief. "Pearl? Flap twice again if you're a good with that." The moth flapped it's wings twice. "Alright Scar, do your thing."

"What's her full name?" Scar asked quickly.

"Pearl Scent Moon."

Scar made a strange, echoey giggle, rubbing his hands together, and a cloud of blue-gray smoke started to fill the room. "You, Pearl Scent Moon, are going to be given a deal. In exchange for getting to keep your eye here with Impulse, you must promise to not harm any of the hermits. That means no watching them, no influencing them, no hurting them whatsoever. While you are in our village, you must stay at Impulse's side at all times. If you agree to this deal you have to... spin around in a circle six times!"

Pearl seemed to contemplate the deal for a moment, but she agreed to it. After her sixth spin, a flash of blue light filled the room, and for a moment, a small white chain connected her to Scar, before it faded away. "Thank you! You can break off the deal at any time, for just a small fee."

Scar reached over and took the lid off the container, smiling a little creepily. "I like making deals, I don't get to do it nearly enough." The little moth crawled out cautiously, before fluttering up to sit on Impulse's shoulder.

"I'm sorry for calling you stupid earlier," he whispered so the others wouldn't hear. Bdubs still heard him anyways, and stifled a laugh.

~ meanwhile, in the aether ~

"Skizz, I think I just made a vex deal... I really need to get better at galactic."

"Haha, good for you."

"Impulse called me ϟᒣ⚍i!╎↸... that means 'rad' I think."

"Well I for one, think you are very ϟᒣ⚍i!╎↸, Pearl."

~ back in Hermit Village ~

"Xisuma? Before you leave, how in the overworld did you already know that he was a demon?" Bdubs interrupted X as he started getting up from the couch, motioning towards Impulse.

"Oh, right," Xisuma sat back down, "I didn't know. I just knew he wasn't human, not the demon thing, which is neat by the way. Aura sensing, remember?" He added on when Scar gave him a confused look. "It's a voidwalker thing, I can basically see the magic signature that someone leaves behind. Humans don't leave one, well, they have a very small one, but still."

Impulse made a small hum of understanding. "How come you never asked me about it?" He wondered out loud.

"I figured you had a reason for keeping it from us. Please, you're not the only one with secrets in this town." Xisuma shrugged, before pointing at Scar and Bdubs, "How come these two knew?"

"Oh uhm... Bdubs already knew because of... stuffthathappenedinLamplythatIdidn'ttellyouabout and Scar just found out on accident." Impulse shared a look with Bdubs, trying to keep his gaze off Xisuma.

"Okayyyy," X narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Goodness me, you know what, I don't care at this point. You guys aren't being dangerous so just..." he waved his hand in circles, "it's fine."

"Everything alright X?" Scar asked after a pause, putting on his town therapist voice. Xisuma let out a dramatic sigh and flopped backwards into the couch. "Yes... It's just been a very busy day and a busy busy week and I'd really love to go to sleep."

"...It's not even noon yet... also it's only Tuesday..."

Xisuma looked Scar dead in the eyes. "Exactly."

~ several Xisuma naps and three days and a thorough explanation of the Lamply incident later. ~

"Feelin' better today X?"

"Oh, loads. Nearly all of those town renovation chores are finished, so I got plenty of rest!"

Impulse and Xisuma chatted casually with each other as they made their way over to Keralis's coffee shop for a little breakfast. Bdubs had recently joined in Keralis' business venture, and they were selling mini sandwiches as the coffee shop too.

"You know, I do have to say that Fuzzy's growing on me. She's rather cute." Xisuma motioned towards where the moth was perched on Impulse's head. Impulse had confirmed with Pearl that it was okay to still call her eye 'Fuzzy' because it was a rather cute name.

"Wanna hold her?" Fuzzy crawled down into Impulse's palm and he held her towards Xisuma.

"Yeah that's a hard no." X laughed. Impulse shrugged, and moved to let Fuzzy back onto his head.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask," there was a shift in tone, and X sounded serious, "Are you every going to tell the other hermits about you know, that you're..."

Impulse caught onto the implication. X was asking if he'd tell the others that he was a demon. "I'm not sure, honestly. Judging by how you and Bdubs and Scar reacted, I'm sure the others would be okay with it..." he trailed off, having a gut feeling that the other hermits wouldn't really like it. "But I might wait a bit, I'm sure the right time will present itself."

Impulse rubbed at his arm a bit. If just one of the hermits felt frightened by his presence as a demon, he wouldn't want to stay here. He didn't want to risk being hurt either, or full on kicked out. A small part of his brain told him to tell them, live a little, he only had two more months to do so anyways. But on the flip side, he really should value that time, and not risk doing something potentially stupid.

"I'm sure it will," Xisuma replied, pulling Impulse out of his head. "No pressure to do so. I myself didn't fully tell anyone what I was for a quite a while, so take your time."

Impulse nodded, and noticed they were approaching the shop and waved to Keralis, who was wiping down the bar-like counter.

"Hello there, sweetfaces!" Keralis exclaimed as they came into earshot and approached the counter. "Hello!" Xisuma returned the greeting.

Keralis leaned over the counter on his elbows, smiling wide. "What can I get you today—"

"XISUMA!!!"

All three whipped around towards the sound that had interrupted Keralis. The hermit who'd called for X was Beef, running towards the coffee shop at top speed. He stumbled to a stop, leaning over and panting with exertion. Clearly he'd ran the whole way here from wherever he was before.

"Beef? Oh my goodness, what's wrong?!" Xisuma stepped forward, concerned voice an octave higher than usual.

"Xisuma," Beef let out a whistling breath. "We have a problem!!!"

~ end chapter 18 ~

A/N: totally didn't rush this chapter or write it solely for X's completely done with it 'yes I already knew' line. But oh no wonder what the problem is, guess you'll have to FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EPISODE.

:I