Chapter Text
That MCC party was one of the biggest ever. People who hadn't even participated in the championship were getting roped in to celebrate by friends and family! Like Lizzie, who was warmly welcomed with hugs as she appeared arm in arm with her grinning husband. Or Cherri, dragged along by Martyn and Ren, with Tibby trailing behind her with a grin. Following these two, more MCCR people began arriving: Squiddo chased Ashswag into the afterparty server, closely followed by Kaboodle and Clownpierce. The Hermits celebrated Impulse and Gem winning MCC Party 2, and friends of the other two winners joined in as well.
The Hermits pulled in friends from the Hermitcraft server, eager to celebrate with everyone. Skizz was the first to appear, closely followed by Doc, Hypno, Wels, and surprisingly, Hels, who'd been dragged here by his brother. Despite it, the dark knight was smiling ever so slightly, and that smile only widened when Evil Xisuma was dragged in by their twin.
Xisuma dragged the complaining voidwalker by the wrist, but Ex didn't really try to pull away, simply accepting their fate to being in the party. Yells of delight went up as the twins stepped through the portal, and X was instantly bombradred with high-fives and hugs. Gem and Impulse both raced forwards, crowns lopsided as they hugged their admin.
"You did it! You made it!" Gem cried heppily, antlers bonking against X's helmet. Impulse's horns were next, the demon laughing as X hugged them back. Ex walked off towards Helsknight, one of the friendlier faces in the crowd. The world melted around him, and soon enough, the party was in full swing, music blasting from somewhere, people drinking, couples making out. Lizzie and Joel in particular gave each other drunken starry-eyed glances that made some of the younger partygoers fake-gag and walk away towards other people.
Some of his hermits were on the dance floor, some where drinking their minds away, some were simply sitting and chatting. Xisuma currently had his helmet off, the MCC plugins helping all hybrids breathe properly. As a voidwalker, alcohol didn't affect him nearly as much as some of the others (namely Ren, who was half-passed out on an armchair beside Cherri and Martyn, both making sure the wolf was okay), so he brought the bottle of sweet wine up to his lips and took a long sip, the drink pleasently burning his throat as he swallowed.
"Hey X." Wels slid into the chair beside him. X smiled at the knight and offered the bottle.
"Hello, Wels. What's up?" He asked as the man took the bottle. Kaboodle ran past them so suddenly he almost dropped it, but Wels managed to get a grip the last second. Clownpierce burst out of the crowd and looked around wildly for a moment. Xisuma pointed over his shoulder wordlessly, and Clown shouted a 'thanks' before charging after the blue-haired bunny girl. He laughed and shook his head. Man, kids these days.
"I haven't seen Hels in a while. It's been..." He checked his communicator, taking a sip of wine. "Two and a half hours. I thought maybe you'd know where he is, since he and Ex apparently went off together at some point of the night." That caught Xisuma's attention. Ex wouldn't run off for any reason, even if it was with Helsknight. Come to think of it, he hasn't seen Ex around, either. His brow furrowed as he pulled up his comm.
"I'll send a message to Ex. Chances are, they're with Hels." Wels nodded greatfully and leaned back in his chair.
<xisumavoid> Ex are you okay? Haven't seen you in a while.
<xisumavoid> Is Hels with you? Wels is asking for him.
<EvilXisuma> I'M FINE
<EvilXisuma> LORD, YOU ADMINS. IM WITH ZEDAHP. HE KNOWS WORMMAN!!!1!!!1
<xisumavoid> Okay. Just checking. And Hels?
<EvilXisuma> I DONT FUCKING KNOW. HE WALKED AWAY A WHILE AGO BCS HE DIDN'T WANNA TALK ABOUT WORMMAN WITH ZEDAPH
<EvilXisuma> HOW CAN YOU NOT WANNA TALK ABOUT WORMMAN?????
<xisumavoid> Alright, thanks. Have fun, you two!
<EvilXisuma> WE MIGHT
"If that's not ominous, then I dunno what is..." Wels finished off the bottle that they'd been passing between the two as X checked up on Ex. He'd shown the hermit the converstion, and that last message really was odd, even for Ex.
"True." Xisuma sighed and tilted his head back, crossing his ankles. "But Ex is a grown player, they can handle themselves. You should go find hels before he challanges Gem to a fight or something and ruins her day." Wels laughed and got up, dusting himnself off.
"I realy should. Thanks, X. See you." And with that, X was alone once more. Not for long, though. Keralis dragged him towards where a drunken, blondfolded drawing competition was taking place. Cherri and Squiddo were competing, but Cherri had a blindfold only over one eye, the pink flames of the other clearly burning through the former fabric, from the ashes at her feet. The giant papers in front of the two women were a mess of scribbles, but people were chanting for the two competitors like it was Bedwars. Ashswag in particular yelled and cheered for his girlfriend.
"SQUIDDO! CHERRI! SQUIDDO! CHERRI!" The crowd around the two screamed as the timer ran out and blared through the voices and music. The blindfolds were yanked off, and Squiddo put her glasses back on at the speed of light while Cherri blinked at the sudden onslaught of light around her. Then they looked down at their drawings and held them up for everyone to see. It looked like a rat had rolled over ink and then died on the papers. But the totally non-biased judge of Tibby proclaimed Cherri as the winner of the rat drawing competition, making Ashswag run forwards and punch the demon man.
Which quickly escalated into an all-out brawl which X absolutely did not want to participate in. Instead, he backed off until he found Tango, then stuck with his fellow Hermitcraft admin as Cleo and Joe joined them, a still-smiling Gem sitting on top of the zombie's shoulders, MCC crown hanging off one shoulder. Both redheads looked thoroughly sloshed, while Joe looked... like Joe. A bit red around the ears, glasses crooked on his nose, but otherwise the same.
"Xisuma, have you seen Zedaph?" Tango suddenly asked, flaming hair flaring up once more. X blinked at the sudden question, and switched the arm which was holding his helmet before running a hand through his dark brown locks.
"Nope, but I asked Ex a while ago where they were and apparently Zed was with them." Tango sighed in relief.
"Alright. I was wondering where that man had gone." Cackles from Cleo, making Gem scramble to hold onto the zombie's jaw to avoid being tipped over. Scott could be heard laughing somewhere from behind the four, and Tango brightly before running towards the fourth winner. When X turned to look, Jimmy was with Scott, and both men welcomed the netherborne with open arms before walking off around a corner. X smiled and turned back to the remaining three hermits, only to see Gem scream with laughter as Cleo toppled over backwards. Joe rushed forwards to grab them both, but succeeded only in falling alongside them.
"Cleo!" Gem shrieked, copper curls in a dissaray, grinning widely, she crawled backwards with a drunken giggle. Cleo was laughing so much she was doubled over on the floor, and it was infectious. X and Joe shared a look before bursting into giggles.
Man, maybe that wine was a bit stronger than he'd thought.
...
Several long hours and fights over who'd try X's helmet on later, the party had finally ended, and everyone was sore and hungover. The few that were still sober enough to walk were going around with water and snacks and buckets (which proved to be a good idea when Owen threw up into one instead of onto Antfrost) for the hungover players. These sober players included: Oli OrionSound, Fwhip, Shubble, Cherri Fire, Xisuma Void, Cubfan (which X was not convinced was not just pretending to be sober), Kaboodle, Pearlescent Moon and Squiddo. If anyone else was up and sober, they weren't around the main area.
There were plenty of other areas, too: Long hallways with bedrooms and bathrooms, living rooms, pantries, yards and most importantly, kitchens. Joel and Lizzie were a few of the first hungover people to wake up, Lizzie's hair a mess of pink which she quickly tried to tame. Xisuma silently handed her two water bottles, and she nodded greatfully as he walked away again.
"Shashwammy?" Keralis asked hoarsely from one of the living rooms. Xisuma rushed over, grinning slightly.
"Hey, Keralis." Keralis' dazed eyes brightened as he made grabby hands for his admin, who just laughed and pulled him up into a sitting position before plopping down beside him on the sofa. They were the only two people in this particular room. Keralis practically chugged the water X handed over before letting his head fall on the admin's shoulder, smiling tiredly. Pulling himself closer, Keralis buried his face in the crook of his neck, taking advantage of the fact that X's helmet was off for now. Where the helmet was, X didn't know. It would eventually be returned to him, it always was.
Anyways, he had a spare one just in case.
The peaceful air was shattered by someone rushing down the hallway at full speed, boots thumping as a blur of red passed outside the door. X blinked, then narrowed his eyes.
"Was that Ex?"
Keralis hummed, not having seen. Xisuma sighed, but ultimately decided to leave Ex alone. Though, he still worried.
They'll be fine. He'll check up on them later.
Ex had left their helmet with Zedaph and was currently sprinting down the hallway towards a bathroom at top speed, feeling sick. One gloved hand covered their mouth as they stumbled inside and shut and locked the door. Then they fell to their knees beside the toilet and threw up. Gagging and coughing, Ex sat back a few moments later and pressed their disheveled, white hair ahainst the cool tiles that made up the bathroom wall for a few moments, waiting until the nausea passed.
While he sat there, he thought. It made no sense, why was he sick? Voidwalkers barely ever got drunk, it took much, much more than what they'd had to drink last night. Hell, he didn't think he'd even drunk at all! So why did he feel like absolute shit?!
They scrambled forwards again, hand over their mouth as they retched into the toilet again, body hacking with coughs. Pushing his long hair from their face, Ex sat there on the floor, heaving the contents of their stomach out. Their throat burned with pins and needles, and a ragged laugh tore itself out of them at the irony. Danm, the guy who couldn't get drunk is the one throwing up the most? Wow.
A knock on the door. Ex's black eyes flicked towards the door. "Occupied." They managed to rasp. The person stopped knocking, but didn't walk away.
"Xisuma?" Oh, it's that blonde hermitgal. False? Right now, he couldn't remember.
"No."
"Evil Xisuma?" She tried again. Ex sighed, trying to stand up. Dizziness hit hard enough to make them fall to their knees, and False's alarmed sqwak at the noise only made the headache even worse.
"Yeah. Go away." A huff. But footsteps were heard, and they were walking away, so instead Ex turned back to the wall and rested their sweaty forehead agaonst the cool material, feeling it heat up under his skin. Finally, it felt like the dizziness had left, and so had the nausea. Leaving Ex unsteady, weary, but finally clear-headed. So they huffed and put the toulet seat down before flushing and walking over to the sink, leaning on the marble and looking into the mirror. They looked like a right mess.
They opened one of the drawers and pulled out a hairtie, pulling their hair off their face as they tied it into a low ponytail. Too loose, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. Yanking his gloves off, they shoved them into their pockets and splashing cold water on their face a couple of times until their flushed face looked as pale as ever. Not like he'd just spent the last 15 minutes throwing up.
Out of instinct, he found himself with his own code open, running a few health tests. Because this was not normal.
...
Their hands shook so badly they almost dropped their comm. No way. No fucking way. 10 minutes of waiting for all the tests to finish, and everything came back normal. Except for one. For that little danmed double line on the pregnancy test. What the fuck.
How was Xisuma going to react?!
How was Ex going to react?!
How could they break the news to their brother?! Fuck no, not yet! This... this must be a mistake, right? Yeah... Yeah, he'd run it again.
...
Same result. Two more times, they ran the test. All positive. They threw the third test into the bin, burying their head in their hands. Fuck, it was real. He was pregnant.
.
.
.
Xisuma was either gonna be so pissed or so shocked that he couldn't speak.