Chapter Text
Alex had been told numerous times to stay away from this particular nether fortress and the lack of a reason why had always intrigued her. She was never one to take ‘no’ for an answer, so the fact that no one could give her a single valid reason as to why she shouldn’t go into the mysteriously off-limits fortress, well, that was a red flag in her book.
And in her book red flags meant adventure, so—
So far she had been disappointed in her exploration. The fortress was deserted. No signs of life, undead, on fire, or otherwise.
Until she came across a room that definitely didn’t occur in other nether fortresses.
A grand room fit for royalty, with a throne and all.
...Except for the general chaos of the room. Broken tables along the sides, shattered glass covering the floor, ripped paintings and tapestries on the walls.
And way more alcohol bottles than was healthy littering the floor.
And, the person sitting on the throne.
At first she had thought she was seeing things, but no, there was definitely someone in the room with her.
And, actually, sitting was a loose term. He was sprawled sideways on the throne, head tipped over one arm of it and legs dangling over the other. In his hand was a nearly empty bottle of alcohol, dragging along the floor.
For a moment she debated whether she should leave or say something. But her Momma didn’t raise no coward.
“Hello?” She called out. Her instincts weren’t telling her she was in any particular danger, though she was always wary in the Nether. And meeting a stranger in such an unusual circumstance was cause for wariness, to say the least.
With a groan, the strange man lifted his head and squinted at her. She didn’t dare get close to him in case he turned out to be some kind of crazy axe murderer, but as soon as he looked at her, she felt frozen from shock. Because no human had a gaze that bright, squinting or otherwise.
Why didn’t anyone just tell her?
Luckily, whether the stories were true or not, Herobrine just lowered his head again and said, “What do you want.”
She winced at the state of his voice. It was almost like he hadn’t spoken in years.
“S-Sorry,” she stuttered, then mentally smacked herself. Okay yeah this was Herobrine but she was cool. She had looked death in the face before and smirked. She wasn’t some blushing damsel in distress who couldn’t hold her own in a fight. And Herobrine wasn’t even doing anything except making a very convincing case of being a drunkard. “I didn’t know you would be here.”
He made a vague sound of acknowledgement and brought the bottle of alcohol up. Without righting himself he tipped the bottle upside down. Alex grimaced at the drunken display. Most of the alcohol missed its target and spilled to the floor instead. Herobrine didn’t seem to notice or care as he dropped the now empty bottle. Then Alex watched in amazement as a new, completely filled bottle of alcohol appeared in a flash of purple sparks directly into his hand. Well, if she had had any doubts of his identity...
This time he did lift his head up to uncap the bottle and take a hearty swig. When he was done—bottle nearly half empty—he noticed her still standing there, gawking, and frowned.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” He said, half slurring his words and gesturing vaguely with the bottle to...Alex couldn’t quite tell, actually. “Scram.”
“What—just like that?” She really should turn around and leave and never come back. And never tell anyone that she did exactly what they all said not to do. But his cavalier attitude and frankly off putting state of drunkenness was weird enough that she didn’t do any of those things. Instead, she took a glance around the room, observing its state of chaos, and said, “Do you...live here?”
Herobrine’s gaze narrowed again though the effect was lessened by how drunkenly he looked around the room, barely able to keep his head up. He turned his gaze back to her after not too long. “Isn’t tha’ obvious?”
“Er...” She didn’t particularly like being rude, so she decided not to comment directly on the...let’s say, interesting style choices.
Herobrine let out a rough sigh and hung his head back over the arm of the throne. “Jus’ get out of here,” he said, and waved his arm in her direction.
The next thing she knew, she was outside the fortress and her stomach was threatening to crawl out of her throat.
Wow. Rude.
She returned to the Overworld and had to hold herself back from running to Steve’s house and telling him everything. Steve was barely willing to travel to the Nether and only ever did so from the portal in the village half a day’s walk away, so there was no way he’d be thrilled to hear about her discovery. As much as she loved Steve, he could be such a stick in the mud sometimes.
Herobrine’s clear dismissal only kept her away for a few days before she returned, beelining to the throne room and sure enough, Herobrine was there. He was sitting properly on the throne this time, so that was a plus, but he also appeared to be asleep.
Well, Alex would feel bad about waking someone from their—clearly—much needed sleep. So, she silently made her way over to get a better look at him.
With his eyes closed he didn’t seem all that special. Despite having heard numerous stories about Herobrine, she had never pictured what he looked like beyond the glowing white eyes.
She was intrigued to realize he looked like a normal human. Dark brown hair, an unkempt beard, pale skin that reminded her of Steve’s if he spent way too much time underground, and an unfortunately ragged wardrobe of a simple black shirt, blue jeans, and worn boots.
This close, she could see how tired he looked. Considering the sheer number of alcohol bottles on the floor, he must pass out like this often. It clearly wasn’t doing anything for him.
“Can I help you?” He said without opening his eyes and she shrieked in surprise, jumping away. When he did look at her, his expression was curiously blank. She was probably reading too much into it, but he looked vaguely pleased. Probably enjoyed scaring her like that, jerk.
“Yeah, you can not do that again!” She held a hand over her racing heart. “By the Gods, that scared the fuck out of me!”
He shifted on the throne, sighing and leaning his head against his hand. “Didn’t I tell you to leave?”
She rolled her eyes. “You would be surprised how many times I’ve heard that before.”
Herobrine didn’t say anything. There was an incredibly awkward silence before Alex cleared her throat and prompted, “So...”
He raised a brow and looked supremely unimpressed while doing it. “So?”
“What’s, you know, your deal?”
For a moment she was sure he was going to just teleport her away again, but then his face cleared of emotion and he lazily leaned back in the throne.
“Sorry, but you haven’t unlocked my tragic backstory,” he said sardonically.
Alex gaped for a few moments before a wicked smile crossed her lips. “Oh, this is going to be fun. You’re not getting rid of me now, buddy.”
“Great.” He couldn’t have sounded less pleased.
And that’s how Alex befriended a legend.
Well, it wasn’t that easy, but it was definitely the start.
Herobrine did in fact end up teleporting her out, shortly after that. And the next time, and the time after that. The only time he didn’t teleport her out was when he was too drunk to pinpoint her location and would instead get rid of random objects around the room.
Alex didn’t mind though. Herobrine was an interesting character who was nothing at all like she’d imagined. For one, he was drunk a lot of the time.
A lot of the time.
And for two, he wasn’t even a fun drunk. All he did was sit there and mope, very pathetic like. Just based on the stories about him alone she would have assumed he’d be a mean drunk. But instead he was a sad boy.
No amount of cajoling would get him to open up either. He entertained her ‘menial human whims’ if he was in the mood, but he often wasn’t in the mood, so most of the time he either ignored her or booted her out. But she was nothing if not persistent.
And it paid off because suddenly, a month later, they were ‘friends.’
Well, she liked to think of them as friends. Honestly, visting Herobrine was a routine she’d worked into her day just like she did with her human friends. She was already in the Nether to mine gold, quartz, and ancient debris(if she was lucky), so it wasn’t too far out of her way to pop in and say hello. And though Herobrine was drunk 95% of the time, the abrupt teleports away had ceased unless she asked for it and the general coldness had thawed into something like hesitant allowance. She was under no impression that they were besties but she felt like she could talk to him in a way she couldn’t with her Overworld friends, even if he rarely responded or reciprocated.
She did end up finding out a lot about Herobrine that she wondered if anyone else knew, like his favorite color being purple and his least favorite mob to fight being cave spiders. He wasn’t going to get into his reason for being in the Nether—had glared at her for even asking—but she felt like he would eventually.
In the mean time, if he was too drunk to hold a conversation with her, she busied herself with tidying up the room. She’d taken to leaving cleaning supplies in the Nether for ease of access and to avoid questions from anyone wondering why she was bringing a broom into the Nether. Not exactly something people who had nothing to hide did.
She swept up the broken glass and pushed the empty bottles into one corner. She righted any tables not smashed and stacked the broken wood from the unsalvageable tables along one of the walls. Maybe once she told Steve about Herobrine and her daily visits—and once he was done chewing her out for putting herself in danger, like she knew he was going to—he could help her repair the tables and get the room looking nice again. Because it was a shame for such a grand room to be in shambles. The walls were a rich red with dark oak trim and quartz accents. The tables were dark oak as well and there was a faded old red strip of a rug leading from the door to the throne. And the throne itself was an impossibility—it was made from obsidian and gold, and something she was pretty sure was bedrock. There was also a chandelier, not as broken as the rest of the room but missing some bits to it and turned off. She could only imagine what it looked like in its prime.
And it was that thought that lead her down the rabbit hole.
What was this room used for? Why was it built in the first place? How did it fall to such disrepair? Why didn’t anyone tell her what was here? And how did everyone seem to already know? Why was Herobrine here and why did he never seem to leave? Could he leave? Why was he always drunk? What could be the connection between Herobrine’s presence, the room itself, and the excessive drinking?
Too many questions with zero answers.
Herobrine was no help in that regard either. He was always tight lipped about anything pertaining to that particular part of his past. Which made sense, Alex didn’t fault him for that. Hell, she didn’t like talking about the time in her life when she dyed her hair black and wore way too much eyeliner, so she understood.
Eventually she no longer had anything to clean in the throne room. Everything was as clean as she was going to be able to get it, and though it wasn’t much, the room did look better. She no longer felt like she was walking through slums when she visited.
Herobrine didn’t seem to notice or care, but that was fine. When he wasn’t passed out, he would watch her with a blank stare. It was kinda creepy, but on the flip side, she was the one who was asserting herself in his life, so how much could she really complain. And it was also funny how she was acting like a typical housewife when any sort of cleaning anyone tried to get her to do was met with disdain and excuses. But here she didn’t mind it.
One day, while she was reading up on ancient debris because fuck that stuff and how hard it was to find, Herobrine actually initiated conversation.
Unprompted.
She was so proud.
“Why do you still come here?”
She looked up from her book, blinking at him. “Hm?”
“Why do you keep visiting me?”
She slowly closed her book, unsure of what to say. It had been, what now, three months? Three and a half months? And he was asking this now?
“Uh, well, I...like to?” He had never said anything, except that first time. And he wasn’t drunk every time she was here, so he could have spoken up sooner.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I already come to the Nether to mine and stuff, what’s the harm in visiting for a bit? You do realize who you are, right? Why wouldn’t I?”
“I—I guess I don’t know.” And left the conversation at that.
Alex read for a bit more before saying goodbye and taking her leave. Truthfully she didn’t know why she stayed around, other than the mystery of it all. She was probably just hoping he’d open up to her. But at this point it was just a part of her day so it was almost automatic to stop by the fortress. She had never really wondered if Herobrine was bothered by her presence. She couldn’t imagine drinking alone for as long as Herobrine had been doing was all too exciting anyway, and Alex had it on good authority that she was a life-of-the-party kinda girl.
After that, every time she visited, Herobrine made a noticeable effort to be less drunk. She imagined it would be hard for him to stop drinking so heavily altogether, but the bottles were emptied slower and slower until, some months later, Alex noticed that he only had about one a day.
Progress.
He also talked more. He answered her questions with more than one word and sometimes even started the conversation himself. Alex was talkative by nature and had been holding herself back the entire six or so months it had been since they met, but she was glad to fill the silence of the room with chatter.
Though he was still uncomfortable sharing his past, Alex had no such qualms. She told him about her life in the Overworld, her life growing up, her family and friendships and hobbies. Her likes and dislikes, her favorite—well, everything, and her least favorite everything. She left nothing but the most embarrassing stories out of their conversations.
“How can you be so forthcoming with a stranger?” He asked one day. Every so often he got up and walked around the room, but never for very long. Usually it was because he was drunk enough to sway heavily and lose his balance. Now, though, there was a mostly filled bottle of alcohol on the throne that she hadn’t seen him even glance at. Her visits weren’t incredibly long—usually just an hour or two, depending on what she brought with her—but in those couple hours he would always have the bottle on him or stare at it silently for long stretches of time. But today he seemed to be in a good enough mind set to forego that, which made her happy. There was clearly something bothering him, if he felt the need to drink so heavily in what she assumed was an effort to forget it, and the fact that he was drinking less and less just meant that her presence around him was having some good effects.
In response to his question, she shrugged. She was reading a journal about a newly discovered mob deep underground that apparently hunted by sound alone. It was fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.
“It’s just how I’ve always been.”
“You don’t think sharing so much about yourself is dangerous?”
She raised a brow. “What, are you going to come to the Overworld and use my passion for baking against me?”
He turned his head to give her A Look and she just gave him a winning smile. Then his face twitched and he turned away, but Alex was sure he was smiling, at least a little.
“I suppose not.” And when he looked at her again he did have a small smile on his face and his tone was a little teasing. “Except maybe to lure you to your demise using a tart.”
“Oh my Gods, I could so go for an apple tart right now.”
So it was slow going, getting him to open up, but it was going.
Until, finally...
Alex was feeling pretty good today, mostly because she’d had a lucky day and found a record four ancient debris. Her complete netherite set of armor and a sword still had a long way to go, but just finding those four ancient debris was enough to lift her spirits for the rest of the day.
When she entered the room, Herobrine was sitting on the throne like normal, but all of the empty alcohol bottles were gone, and there was no sign of a new one anywhere she could see. Herobrine himself was staring intensely at something in his hand.
For some reason, the lack of bottles made her wary. Had something happened? He had never cared for the cleanliness of the room, that was all her.
She approached slowly, for the first time seriously considering if she should just leave. It felt like she was intruding on a moment.
“Herobrine? Are you okay?”
He didn’t answer immediately, still staring down at something. Alex couldn’t quite make it out but she could see whatever it was had a chain attached to it. A necklace?
“I’ve been thinking, lately,” he answered softly. Oh, she was definitely intruding on a moment. “I’ve spent the last three years wallowing in self pity and trying my best to drink myself to death, but it hasn’t helped. All this time later and it still hurts.”
“What hurts? What happened?” She might as well try. If he didn’t want to talk about it, he wouldn’t have brought it up, right?
For a moment it looked like he wasn’t going to share, but he gripped whatever he was holding and looked up at her.
“I met a human. He was exploring the Nether and was frustrated. I remember watching him struggle to fight off the piglins. I normally wouldn’t help humans but I was bored that day and threw caution to the wind.” There was a sad smile on his face. “It was the best decision of my life. We became friends after that, and then more than friends, and then...” He closed his eyes and looked pained. “I ruined it. I drove him away with my selfishness and hubris.”
A broken heart. Alex never would have guessed that.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said empathically, hesitating a bit to step closer. When he didn’t react negatively, she reached out and squeezed his arm, offering whatever comfort she could.
He looked at her tiredly. “Thank you. You know, you being here helped a lot.”
“Oh yeah?” She smiled, withdrawing her hand to give him some space. That was the first time she had touched him and she didn’t want to push it. “It’s to be expected.” She whipped her hair over her shoulder, really laying on the pomp. “That’s just my natural charm at work.”
He let out a quiet, amused breath. “I’m sure that’s it.”
“So...what are you gonna do now?”
His amusement faded. “What do you mean?”
“Are you gonna, like, try to see him again? Or something?”
He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything, then looked down at his hand again. She could see what it was now—two simple gold rings threaded through a thin chain.
Holy shit. No wonder he was drunk for so long.
“I—I don’t—“ He faltered, looking lost. He had been drunk for most of the time they’d spent together and not once had he seemed this down.
“Well—maybe I could help?” She offered before she could think twice about it. She didn’t know the circumstances of his situation but he seemed genuinely remorseful. Drinking for apparently three years straight wasn’t a great coping mechanism but it at least showed that what had happened bothered him. He surely wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
He was caught off guard by her suggestion, if his expression was any indication. “Help...?”
“Well, yeah! I could find him for you!” Now that she was thinking about it, what a turn of events! Befriending a legend like Herobrine and then helping him reunite with his lost love. What a story to tell!
Surprisingly, he didn’t look too put off by the idea. She did wonder why he didn’t just go to the Overworld to look for this mysterious love himself but then she really thought about it and...yeah, she didn’t think he would have much luck talking to people in the Overworld. He wasn’t exactly stealthy with the whole, glowing eyes thing. And no one would be willing to hear him out, she’d bet money on it.
“I don’t know...he’s probably already moved on.”
“Well, at the very least I could give you some closure? Find out exactly what his situation is? Maybe it could help you let go, if it turns out he did move on.”
He frowned. “That...” He paused, then said slowly. “I suppose, if anything, knowing how he is would be...a good start.”
She smiled widely. “Alright! So, what’s his name? Where can I find him?”
He sighed, putting the rings in his pocket and then crossing his arms. “I don’t know if he’s still there, but he used to live in Harbor.” Huh. Not too far from her own village of Lilac, and she knew for a fact some of Lilac’s villagers used to live in Harbor. “And his name is Steve.”
...What!?
She stood frozen, mouth agape. It...it couldn’t be.
Steve? With Herobrine!?
Oh, that boy had some explaining to do.