Scar would never in a hundred years understand how someone had never built anything in their life, or only tried to at the very least. How could you not in a world where the magic of a crafting table could easily turn a freshly chopped tree into simple, easy to use building blocks? Where most people learned from childhood how to use them to their advantage? He didn't get it.

That being said, he didn't understand Impulse.

Well, it wasn't like the demon had never touched a block before, but he seemed clearly out of his element in the subject.

"It's eeeeasy, don't worry about it," Scar reassured Impulse on the matter. The two were walking through town, on their way to check out a plot of land that Impulse had picked out under the encouragement and persistence of the others. Scar was going to help him decide what to build there, and get started on it, maybe by picking out materials or laying out a foundation.

"Yeah... okay. I'm just worried- it's been a while," Impulse hummed, uncertain of himself. "I can't remember when the last time I properly built something was," he laughed to himself, like the statement wasn't concerning to Scar at all.

"Well, you're gonna build something now, mister!" Scar declared. He shifted the shulker he'd brought along under his arm. It had a collection of different blocks for them to peruse through. "Just out of curiosity, the last time you built something, were you in the Nether?" Scar wondered aloud, since he knew that's where Impulse was from.

"Uh... Yeah, I think so." The demon answered after a pause.

"In that case, you'll have a bunch of new overworld blocks to experiment with! The nether doesn't have as much, especially in terms of wood." Scar followed up excitedly. He was super happy to help Impulse find a style he liked for building. "Oh, yeah, that'll be fun I guess!" Impulse smiled back.

"Ugh, I can't imagine living in the Nether. Barely any variation for building! It would be terrible!" Scar complained. He was thankful he had never been forced into that by fate. On a whim, he decided to ask, "What is the Nether really like anyway?"

The netherborn next to him didn't answer right away, thinking of an answer with a laugh building in the back of his throat. "Void, it's terrible down there," he began, his tone still upbeat. "Every horrible thing you've heard about it? Imagine that, but even more horrible. And the third ring? The demon realm? Even worse."

"Oh, wow, I'm sorry..." Scar trailed off, eyes widening at Impulse's response. He knew the Nether was bad, but he guessed it was worse than he'd thought.

"No, don't be," Impulse reassured. "There's a reason myself- and Tango- left there anyways. It's not as bad as I make it out to be. I might be a little biased." He exaggerated his words more than normal, shrugging on the last sentence.

"Ah, okay. Seriously though, I haven't heard much about the third ring. What is it like? Other than terrible, of course." For some reason, Scar had to admit that his curiosity was piqued at the moment. Tango, the other resident netherborn, couldn't tell him about the third ring, since he was from the second and hadn't been there. But Impulse could.

"Well," Impulse held out a hand to tally things off on his fingers. "It's really hard to get to, as I'm sure you already know. You can only use transportation spells or demon-made portals. Our families down there are called clans, and are actually the farthest thing from familial. Then you've got the hot mess that's the government- aka, the Big Three! Tyrannical rulers with absolute power, blah blah blah. And there aren't any revolutionists brave enough to stand against them, and the ones that are are anarchists. There's a lot- and man, I didn't even mention the grocery stores, they're shitty!"

All five fingers ticked off, Impulse threw his hands up in the air with a huff of exasperation. He was both angry and laughing at the same time. Scar couldn't help but laugh with him a little bit too– if he tried to find it funny, he couldn't find it upsetting.

"Yeah, because grocery stores are top of the complaint list even when you've got a corrupt government," he joked. Impulse nodded. "Yes, definitely."

"I've never heard of the Big Three before," Scar noted curiously after a moment.

Prompted to tell him more, Impulse continued. "Oh yeah, they're the rulers of the demon realm. Three powerful demons that decided they were better than everyone else- and I'm pretty sure they're ageless or something. I dunno for certain. Most of us down there just call them and their posse of guards the 'Superiors.'"

"Hmm, ominous." Scar didn't like that nickname for them, the superiors, not a very good name at all, he thought. Quite uncreative, it was. "Well, I'm glad you're out of there at least– how did you get out anyways, actually?"

If Scar could add a narrative subtext to the next following moments, it would be something along the lines of 'ImpulseBraincell.exe has failed to operate'. It looked like the demon was trying to give him an answer, but he couldn't spit it out, his mouth moving but not speaking. When that didn't work, he tried using his hands to narrate his thoughts, but that didn't seem to convey anything either.

"Impulse?"

"Uhh," Impulse finally vocalized. "Uhm, I- ahhh– Magic! Yeah, magic, yeah." He shrugged, probably thinking it was a good explanation.

Well, it was a good enough explanation for Scar. "Oh, right, right- you probably just used a spell or something," he assumed, thinking about demon magic. "Demons have such cool magic abilities," he noted.

"Yeah," Impulse agreed. "Which- which I used to get out! Yeah!" he explained a bit too enthusiastically. It didn't matter to Scar, he got pretty excited about these types of things as well.

"Mhmm, man, I wish I had magic like yours," he gushed. "You know, I hear you demons can do crazy things, like stealing souls! Can you really take souls?"

A beat of silence passed. Impulse twitched. "Yep!" he forced. "I could steal yours if you want!" He twisted around to face Scar better, his head cocked to the side. Scar laughed at his joke loudly. "Noooo! I need my soul!"

"Do you though?" Impulse's voice was higher, taking on a creepy tone that made Scar laugh even harder. The demon walked a circle around him, studying with a calculated gaze. "Maybe I could borrow it? Just for a little while?"

"Why, Impulse," Scar acted aghast. "Why would I let you do such a thing?! I'd prefer to keep my soul, thank you." He held his hands over his chest protectively.

"Oh, come on," the demon argued back, "what if I asked really nicely?" Impulse's eyes bored into him. They seemed to glow a harsher shade of yellow, his pupils wide and taking up all the space that the yellow didn't. And then, in a more serious tone- "I need that soul, Scar," he said.

"No!" Scar laughed nervously. He- he knew that Impulse was only joking, but he couldn't help but be a little scared. He was joking, right? There wasn't actually going to be any soul stealage. "I'll never let you!"

Impulse laughed, unstable and fiery. He grabbed Scar by the shoulders and looked up into the vex hyrbid's eyes, suddenly ten times more intimidating than he'd been a second before.

"And why should I let you keep it?" he growled.

Impulse's tail swung back and forth hungrily. Scar's thin wings tightened, pulling closer to his back.

This was- he didn't think he liked this game anymore. A concerned whisper of the demon's name sat on his lips, but before he could say it, he was interrupted.

There was a soft splat, followed by a loud "BOOOO!" and Impulse's hands left his shoulders. Scar twisted around towards the sound.

"That was some terrible acting Impulse," Cleo criticized. She and Gem stood behind the two of them situated next to one of the many 'Stop the monologue' barrels, Gem tossing a ripe tomato up and down in her hand.

"Oh, come on," Impulse whined, glaring down the two redheads, and attempting to wipe off the squashed tomato that was now on his shirt from where one of them had already thrown one at him.  "You only ever use those on Ren!"

Cleo gave him a look. "Sometimes it's necessary to use them on other hermits." The demon huffed and rolled his wide eyes, staring at her with them.

"Cleo!" Gem interrupted the demon-zombie stare-off. "There's leeks in here too!" She put down the tomato she was holding in favor of a couple of the leafy vegetables.

"Oh yeah, tomatoes are going out of season, so we had to find a substitute," Cleo explained. "You can throw those at them too."

"Sweet!" Gem explained, and within seconds, the leeks she had been holding were airborne.

"Hey!" Scar yelled, as a leek smacked into his nose. It was fair to say that the vegetable had knocked him out of his stupor. They were just having good fun, Impulse was bad at acting, and he was fine. It was a joke. Another leek bounced off his arm.

"Alright, that's it!" The vex leaned down and swiped a leek off the ground before chucking it back to Cleo and Gem. It hit Cleo in the stomach and they gave him an offended look before throwing another one.

Subsequently, Gem shouted out, "LEEK WAR!" an armful of leeks at the ready, and Impulse grabbed his own, whilst nearly dying from laughter.

Scar, now suddenly caught in a rain of vegetables, squeaked and jumped behind Impulse to use him as a shield. "Cover me, Impulse!" he shouted, picking up the leeks the other two were throwing and sending them back with as much force as he could. Impulse threw his own vegetables with equal enthusiasm, before Gem got her hands on another tomato. She aimed carefully, and it flew with promise, striking him right in the chest.

The demon made an act of staggering backwards. "Oh- Agh! Scar! I've been struck!" He clutched a hand over his stained shirt, before making a show of collapsing to his knees.

"Noooooo! Impulse!" Scar wailed, dropping down next to the other, one arm held out to shield the continuing attack from Gem and Cleo.

"This is- this is it– the end for me," Impulse coughed out, drooping to the ground. He reached a hand out wistfully, and Scar took it. "No- no, no, no, don't die on me," Scar breathed out. "Don't die on me! Please, you can't die!"

For a moment, Impulse's eyes dropped their act, covered with a sheen of guilt. But it was only a moment, only a split second.

"Don't die," Scar repeated.

Impulse didn't listen. He continued the act, head falling back. "Bleh!" His eyes fell closed, his tongue sticking out.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Scar threw his head up and cried into the sky. Behind him, he could hear Cleo and Gem cackling their heads off. Impulse, held carefully in his arms, peeked his eyes open, giggling a little bit. It was just a game.

"You've killed him!" Scar whipped his head around to the girls, feigning anger and grief. When he did, Cleo let another leek fly, and it smacked him right in the center of the forehead.

"Ah!" The vex squeaked, before flopping to the ground next to Impulse. He reached a hand up towards the sky slowly and shakily, before dropping it dramatically. "Bleh..."

And so he and Impulse lay there, casualties of their fake war.

Cleo burst into laughter, and Gem followed suit. So did Scar and Impulse, chuckling on the ground. Impulse in particular laughed until there were tears in his eyes, like it was his last opportunity to, like the shenanigans had been the funniest he'd ever seen. When it finally died down, Scar pulled himself to his feet, and offered his hand to Impulse. The demon took it, standing with a wide grin.

"You two are still terrible actors," Cleo teased. Scar gasped and stuck his tongue out at them, but the zombie just rolled their eyes in response. "Come on, Gem. We'll leave you guys to it. See ya later, yeah?"

Gem, who'd collected up all the intact leeks and dumped them back into the barrel, skipped over to Cleo with a smile. "Yeah! That was fun!" she exclaimed.

"Mhmm!" Scar agreed. "Later you two, we're off to do some building!" Impulse nodded in confirmation, bouncing on his toes a little.

"Nice, we're gonna go hang out with Stress and Falsie," Gem explained happily.

After Gem's words, the four exchanged their goodbyes, and went on their own- Scar and Impulse towards the build site, Gem and Cleo towards wherever they were meeting up with the other two hermit gals.

Scar and Impulse walked in silence for a few minutes, Scar cradling his shulker box of build stuff in his arms, and Impulse doing his best to wipe the tomato mess off his shirt.

"I hope this comes out," Impulse muttered to himself, breaking the silence.

"If it doesn't, then that's just your punishment for bad acting!" Scar giggled out. Though, if Scar was to be honest, he didn't feel like Impulse was a bad actor at all. It hadn't felt like the demon had been acting... it felt like Impulse actually wanted to steal his soul– no, that was just paranoia talking. It was fine.

Impulse sighed. "It'll probably be fine," he hummed, letting go of his shirt and shrugging.

Yeah, it would be fine, Scar said to himself. It was all fine, all just a game. Impulse looked up at Scar, their eyes meeting. The demon's gaze was innocent, but in the back of his mind, Scar saw them wide and hungry, scleras glowing yellow. hA, HA! What a silly, silly and overactive imagination!

"Scar?" Impulse asked softly. "You alright there?"

The vex tried to shake off his unease. He couldn't be scared of Impulse- the demon had been so worried about revealing himself to them for this exact reason. Impulse had told them all about how he was terrified people would see him differently if they knew what he was back at the Demon Protection Squad meetings. Scar couldn't be the hermit who was afraid.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered confidently, faking an air of confusion, as if he didn't know why Impulse had asked.

The demon saw through his ruse. "Something's wrong. Is it- is it because of earlier, the 'acting' stuff?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"No- no no, it's fine," Scar found himself blurting out. "I know you didn't mean any of it– I don't know why I got so worried, honest, everything's– you didn't mean it."

Impulse stared at him for a moment, eyes wide and unreadable. "I'm sorry." He fidgeted with the edge of his shirt. "I'm sorry, I- I don't know what got into me earlier. I shouldn't joke about that kind of thing. Stealing souls. Ha." The demon's voice was sad. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"No, don't say sorry," Scar impulsively reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't mean it, it was just a joke, you don't have to be sorry, it's fine." He gave his best reassuring smile. Impulse seemed to shrink under it.

"Still. I made you upset," The demon answered, sighing. "I'm not– I wouldn't ever steal your soul, I promise. I've never used that power and I never will. I promise," he said genuinely.

"Thank you," Scar smiled. He didn't know why he'd ever been scared of Impulse in the first place. The man meant no harm to anyone. He was safe.

Impulse took a couple of deep breaths with his eyes closed, and when he opened them again, he suddenly came to a stop.

"Oh. We're here." He remarked.

"This is the build spot?" Scar asked, placing his shulker box on the ground.

"Mhm!" Impulse turned around, holding out his arms. "Pretty good, right? Not too big, not too small, I think I could build something decent here."

Scar studied the spot– Impulse was right, it was a nice size. It was slightly behind and a bit to the right of where Zedaph's house was, towards the back of the village with a wall of trees at the end. Scar thought it was great, bordering the forest and full of lots of natural greens and flowers. "I love it!" He said in approval. "We can definitely build something nice here."

Scar sat down, using his shulker as a makeshift chair, putting a hand to his chin. Impulse sat in the grass next to him.

"Now, what do you propose we build...?"

. . .

Scar enjoyed the rest of that day quite a lot.

He and Impulse spent some time spitballing ideas with each other, figuring out what sort of a house Impulse wanted to build. Most of the day was spent picking out blocks to use. Impulse liked the modern look of concrete, as well as the warm tones of the spruce and dark oak that Scar had offered him.

Impulse was pretty indecisive about the whole thing, so Scar ended up having to pick out a lot of the blocks for him, but the demon loved his choices, so it was okay.

Other than the blocks, Impulse also made it clear that he really wanted his build to look neat, with nice angular roofs and a good bit of symmetry. Scar told him they could do that, but had convinced him to add just a touch of asymmetry for some interest.

The last thing they ended up doing that day was lay out a quick floor plan for the house with the blocks they had on hand. It was pretty small, but Impulse said he liked it that way. It meant it would take little time to build, after all.

In Scar's observation, it seemed like Impulse was nervous about going too big with the house, and he really wanted it as small as possible. It made sense though, since he was inexperienced. It could be hard to go big. But the cottage they'd designed was cute, and Scar was convinced it would turn out great.

Throughout the following week, the two of them were able to recruit some more hermits to help them build the house. With all the extra help, it went up quick, the roof on after a mere four days spent building. They then worked on setting up the interior, designating rooms and adding furniture, as well as adding detail to the outside of the house.

Impulse had gotten the idea to add moss to the roof, inspired by some of Bdubs' builds around the village, and the others thought it was an excellent idea. They'd brought by so much moss and plants to pitch in to the project that it ended up being too much for the living roof (which turned out lovely.) The demon decided to use the extra plants to create gardens out front.

In fact, he was working on the gardens now.

Scar stepped out from the house- Impulse's house, which was furnished enough at this point for him to be able to live in. The rest of the hermits had left for the day, but would no doubt come back again tomorrow to pitch in more detailing ideas. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, colors blooming over the house's clean white walls and the soft greens on the roof. Impulse was kneeled down in the front garden, planting flowers.

Spotting the shulker box that Impulse was taking plants from, Scar headed over, grabbing a spade and carefully taking a flower from the box. It was a red poppy; he placed it down and started digging out a spot for it to live.

Impulse planted his flowers. Scar planted his own.

They gardened quietly, enjoying the peacefulness of just being together.

After Scar planted another flower, he gazed over the sea of green already planted by Impulse. There were colorful tulips and daisies and so many other kinds of flowers, all from the other hermits. Scar knew that Stress had donated a bunch of the pink ones. There were azaleas from Bdubs, and leafy bushes from Keralis. Some plants were in large planters, some in singular pots dotted around the house, others in plant beds.

It looked beautiful, Scar decided.

Next to him, Impulse let out a shaky breath. Scar turned to look at him in time to see a tear fall into the flowers he was planting. Another fell. And another.

Scar pushed himself closer, reaching out and placing a hand on Impulse's and stretching the other out, wordlessly offering him a hug. Impulse didn't look up at him, but leaned in anyways, his quiet tears streaming down his cheeks.

Arms wrapped their way around Scar's torso, hugging gently. Scar returned the embrace, holding Impulse firmly and gently as the demon's body hitched in a silent sob. He rubbed circles into Impulse's back between his wings.

Scar didn't need to ask if Impulse was okay, didn't need to ask what he needed or what was wrong. He just needed to be there, with his arms over Impulse's shoulders and his cheek resting in his hair, holding the demon as he slumped into his lap. Scar talked a lot, but this time he used his actions to show Impulse that he was loved.

It could've been an hour. It could've been a minute. Impulse received the message.

"I love you guys," he whispered, not lifting his head from Scar's embrace. "So much."

"And we love you in return," Scar murmured into his ear.

"Thank you."

~ end chapter twenty nine ~

A/N: Platonic love time with our bestest boiyos everybody! Yay, houses! Yay, worldbuilding thirty chapters in! I may have gotten a bit too excited about building with blocks and made Impulse's whole house in minecraft (minus interior because uck) I'm not the most skilled builder, but I try my best! Here's a nice screenshot from the back too.