Chapter Text
❝ Sticks and stones could break my bones.
But anything you say will only fuel my lungs. ❞
There was no way Ant hadn't made the perfect match: confidently strolling through the dirt paths, he double-checked on his communicator to make sure both of his friends had gotten the notice. He and Sam had known Bad for as long as they could remember and they would've never passed up the opportunity to meet him during one of the rare times he left the Nether to hang around in the Overworld.
So, when he had gotten the news of Bad’s arrival, he had agreed to catch up on a few things and let him meet the newest member of their friend group.
Skeppy had been wary of him and Sam at first, believing them to be thieves looking for trouble, it had taken a little longer than expected to convince him to leave the caves as well to see the light of day for once. Since then, taking in the real beauty nature had to offer – mobs excluded –, he had been a delightful and brightening presence in their otherwise pretty calm days.
Sam and Ant had always been pretty chill, still chaotic in their own way, but never went to huge lengths unless Bad joined them in the fun.
Ever since Skeppy had gotten comfortable around them, on the other hand, pranks and long-term jokes had taken over their free time. At the same time, they made an unstoppable trio against mobs at night. Plus, having someone used to navigate caves his whole life was a complete upside for their gems chase. It was like he knew them by heart and could sense any danger coming from whichever direction: Skeppy would supply information and the other two would protect the area as he worked on mining.
Ant thought that being with Bad felt very similar to being with Skeppy; it was as though they were on the same wavelength, but in microscopically different ways. It was the safety that their intelligence in their own fields gave, Bad's intimidating appearance that fended off hostile creatures and therefore protected them, Skeppy being ready to drop everything to push them away from a creeper about to blow up, at the cost of losing his own mining progress. The way both of them were funny in almost completely opposite spectrums.
That was why Ant really thought that their meeting ought to be a “love at first sight” type of thing.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
The first off detail he had noticed was how Skeppy had resumed the behaviour he had adapted when he had first gotten to know him and Sam. Closed off, defensive, a little cold and usually sarcastic; they had reached their meeting spot with Bad, a few feet away from the usual Nether portal he crossed when coming to the surface. The portal was eyed curiously, almost nervously even, especially when they had heard the sound of particles moving, the typical warning that someone was about to pass through.
When the dark purple figure made itself clearer, Ant noted that Bad had remembered to switch from his full demon form not to scare the new member away.
He wasn't sure whether or not it had worked, because when Bad stepped down from the portal, shaking his head a little to brush the particles out of his eyes, he heard Skeppy make a … disappointed noise?
Bad blinked twice at them, before his face burst into a smile and he raised his arm to wave at them.
« Ant! »
« Dude, » Antfrost half-ran towards him to give a quick hug before only resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. « It's been so long! »
« Yeah, I know! Should've visited sooner, I'm sorry. I got too caught up with Nether shenanigans, you know the whole ordeal … »
« True, true. Anyway! » he clasped his hands together, turning towards the only guy who hadn't moved an inch so far. « This is Skeppy! Sam and I befriended him a couple of months ago and he's now part of the team. I'm positive you'll like each other. » he guided Bad towards him, smiling and giving a small nod to Skeppy, who had been simply judging the demon.
Bad gave him a curious glance with a way too friendly aura that set off some kind of alarm in the other's head.
« Hi! Name's Bad- Oh! » he gasped and inspected his face closer, causing Skeppy to take a step back and furrow his brows. « You have little diamonds on your cheeks, you're so- »
« I would stop there if I were you. »
-pretty.
« Uhm, » Bad leaned away, biting the inside of his mouth: what was the deal with this guy and why had he just muttered that? He was about to compliment him! « I'm … sorry? »
Great, Skeppy thought, he doesn't even mean it. « Listen, I'll go straight to the point: I know what the likes of you do. You think you can just come here in the Overworld and steal like you don't already have gold and netherite in your own lands? What's the point? »
Ant had no idea where all that had come from, Skeppy had never been that aggressive towards them, not even during their first encounters. Yet there he was, spitting venom with every word he pronounced.
Bad's face had already twisted into a frown, giving a quick glance to Ant before he focused again on the new acquaintance. He was still for a moment, before he spoke with vigor. « What? »
« Oh come on, really? First thing you point out about me is my diamond skin. It doesn't take a genius to make two plus two. »
He scoffed, incredulous. « Are you trying to imply I would've taken them? Are you out of your mind?! »
« Guys- »
« Well, it really sounded like that to me! »
« Why would I even do that? »
« Maybe because you're just as vile as all the other stupid evil people from that stupid fucking place you come from. »
And that was the last straw. First he had gotten called a thief before he could even explain himself, then he had to endure one of those stereotyped negative titles they always threw on Netherfolk. No matter how far Bad went to prove how much of a nice person he could be, it was all useless in the long run.
He opened his mouth to try and retort with literally anything that came up in his mind, but every single thought that crossed his head stated how worthless continuing such a conversation was.
He kept staring at those dark eyes that seemed to be still challenging him.
« Very well. » he didn't sound defeated, more annoyed, using that tone that said “You know what? Fine. Have it your way”. Bad stepped closer to Ant, turning his back on Skeppy completely. « Before I forget, I wanted to tell you I might prolong my stay compared to last time I was here. Also, I built a neater hub where our usual portal is on the other side, piglins shouldn't bother you in there. »
« Bad … »
« I might turn it into an actual secluded safe room in case of need. »
Antfrost took the hands he had been gesturing wildly with to catch his attention: Bad tended to ramble about other topics when he wanted to avoid pressing matters. « Thank you, Bad. »
The demon nodded, still leaving him with a bitter taste in his mouth before he turned into his full demon form so he could fly towards his base, leaving them with nothing else but an implicit farewell.
When Ant turned towards Skeppy, still bewildered by the conversation that had just taken place before his eyes, he noticed the boy's hands were shaking. Was it with rage or something else, he wouldn’t have known.
« What- »
« I don't want to talk about it. » he was still looking at the grass when he turned on his heels to head back to his own base. « Let's just leave. »
It took a few moments before Antfrost was able to follow up behind him.
How could it have escalated so badly? He had always known Bad to be the kindest being he'd ever met and Skeppy to be the friendliest he'd got along with by far, what could have clicked in their minds to totally overthrow the balance?
He had been explaining the situation to Sam over dinner that night, pointing out every small detail of the catastrophe so they could reason it out together.
« I don't know, Sam. I thought they would've liked each other and instead they just … » he gestured widely, making absolutely no sense. Despite that, the creeper hybrid understood.
« You have to admit, though, we still don't know a lot about Skeppy. It's not good that he lashed out like that on Bad, even worse that he called him “evil” - you know he gets antsy about that - , but Bad must have touched onto a sore spot we know nothing about. » Sam stirred his warm tea absentmindedly. « I think we should just give them a couple of days to settle and they'll get used to each other. Clear up misunderstandings and apologize. »
Ant's feelings didn't brighten up at the thought, part of him felt like their two friends had both opened a hardly treatable wound, with so many unsaid words beneath it, as though they had had a whole silent conversation Ant did not understand.
To be fair, he still knew next to nothing about both their cultures; surely he had asked Bad multiple times about little details that had confused him, but for the majority of time he had just brushed it off as “Netherfolk things”. If Skeppy had had any kind of difference in the way he talked or thought about things, he wouldn't have noticed at all.
So it had to be something that went deeper than that, either something that had been carried around since ancient times or something more on the surface, still buried deep.
Eventually, Ant's doubts did come true.
Weeks passed and neither had made any kind of contact with each other ever since, brushing off the subject everytime it had been brought up or simply cutting it off with a clear statement. Ant and Sam really didn't want to pry yet, so they just let the awkward air be, until they learnt to keep quiet about it and let things happen by themselves.
Which they did happen, tremendously.
As much as the duo seemed to avoid each other, which they thought to be easier in such vast plains, there had been countless times where they'd meet by accident or end up in the same spot by chance. It felt like either some higher deity had been trying to mock them, or their luck had decided to drop in that exact period.
One would decide to go hunting and gather resources for the next extended period of time and he'd find the other venturing in the woods as well; the one time Skeppy finally managed to pass by a trading spot, he had found Bad already deep in conversation with some of the traders, making considerations and talking to himself every so often. He had groaned and changed directions immediately, ignoring the glare the demon had sent his way a second after Skeppy had turned around.
Ant and Sam had promptly stopped asking them to hang out at the same time, tired of the constant bickering and bantering they would do, without actually progressing in their tasks or even the simplest hangouts.
Sincerely, Sam had no idea why he'd agreed to let Ant invite them to their sparring training.
It had ended in the training turning into an actual competition, at least for the “anything you can do I can do better” duo: they had spent at least an hour between clangs of metal and some arrows flying at inches from their bodies – it was strange how Bad seemed to almost freeze until they were about to hit him - or straight in the middle of their shields, without an actual result or critical hit.
Sam had broken them out of the loop by jumping in with Antfrost, laughing and claiming they wanted to join in the battle themselves, turning it into a more lighthearted two versus two match.
Ant aimed his arrows with precision, to the point of breaking voluntarily Skeppy's shield.
« Dude, » Sam pretended to be offended by the move, while actually thanking Ant with his eyes for finding an excuse to stop fighting. « It won't be a fair match now. » he claimed, putting his weapons back in his inventory.
Ant chuckled, despite seeing Bad stiffen in the corner of his eye: his ears had twitched, as though he had picked up something. « That means I win and we can finally all go rest! »
Skeppy huffed. « I'd surely need some- »
The speed with which Bad moved sometimes made his friends ponder whether he actually had any teleportation powers akin to endermen; in a split second, he had been able to both move in front of the three and shove Skeppy behind him, causing him to stumble backwards and fall to the ground.
He was helped up by the other two. « What the hell?! »
Bad only responded by taking something off of himself and throwing it on the ground. He spread his wings and jumped up to fly towards higher grounds on the other side of the field: they watched as he landed and they caught the glimmer of his enchanted sword slash through what sounded like a skeleton hiding swiftly behind a tree.
When he rushed back to his friends, he only handed the fairly fixable bow to Ant. « For your collection. I'll be off now, thank you for inviting me. » he saluted them with two fingers to his forehead. « See you soon! »
And just like that, he was gone.
Ant was still staring at the spot where he had left when Sam picked up the object Bad had quite literally ripped from his body before leaping towards the skeleton: it was an arrow, painted with dribbles of dark fresh blood on the iron tip. A puzzled thought came to his mind, as Skeppy still tried to pull himself to his feet, cleaning the dirt off of his sleeves.
« Didn't even apologize. » he muttered, eyes still fixed on his shirt.
Sam rolled his eyes and handed him the arrow. « He did us a favor, dumbass. »
The other did hesitate upon the sight of blood, connecting the dots, but pulled up his usual defensive wall regardless. « Well he could've done it more gently, mayhaps. »
The creeper hybrid laughed softly, shaking his head: just when was he ever going to admit to himself that Bad was actually a really nice person?
Still, all three of them would have been lying if they said they didn't think about that small act for the rest of the day. Ant especially, having known Bad the longest, knowing how he had always been peculiar in regards to arrows: he had never had a problem shooting them, but had always been clumsy at dodging them. At first, he had thought that maybe being bigger than humans or alike in general made it more difficult for him, especially in full form. But then, after that afternoon especially, he had noticed how it looked like his body had been trained to automatically get hit instead.
And yeah, of course, he was aware he shouldn't have thought about it that much, because Bad was more used to Nether biomes, crazy places with even crazier hostile mobs where Ant wouldn't have lasted a week on his own without any guidance. He knew Bad could take care of himself just fine and that was probably just a small protective response towards his friends.
Yet, he couldn't shake off from his mind how wrong that still sounded in his head.
Skeppy wasn't really one to keep track of time, but he could've been sure something like a solid couple of weeks had passed from the arrow incident. Sadly not as many since he had last seen his absolute best friend forever, but, alas, if they really had to be in each other's general sight every single fucking day, so be it. He was just going to be the bigger person and completely ignore him.
Until he couldn't, because of course they had to accidentally spend another entire afternoon together, of course Bad had to be there doing the exact same thing as him and of course he still was so maddening and so- just himself, so unpleasantly himself.
Skeppy had agreed to watch over George whilst Sam went mining, not trusting the kid to not sleep away the day or care for himself alone. He had also absentmindedly agreed with George to go to his and Dream's usual playing spot, where he would have gotten time to catch up with Puffy after a good month of not seeing her.
But no, because as soon as they reached the place, as soon as George called for Dream and ran towards the other giggling boy, waving his arms widely at him, all he found was Bad turning towards him, surprise painting his face.
He almost didn't find it in himself to even approach him.
« What are you doing here? » both their voices echoed each other, which gained a deep sigh from one and an eye roll from the other.
« I'm watching over George for Sam. He went mining. »
« Huh. » he could already hear Bad's sarcastic tone, making him loathe the interaction already so, so much. « Aren't you afraid he might be stealing diamonds? »
Skeppy just scoffed, knowing he wasn't worth an actual explanation. « Shut the fuck up, dude. » that made him earn one of Bad's usual “language” and, that time, he actually grinned.
He was thinking he should've sworn more around him.
« Ant was supposed to babysit Dream for Puffy, but he had a date with Velvet, so I covered for him. » Bad then explained curtly, crossing his arms as he carefully stared at the kids so he could step in in case anything dangerous happened.
« Aw, a true knight in shining armor, mh? » Skeppy mocked him, only grinning wider.
« What, » Bad raised his brows, but his eyes were narrowed, now set on him. « You need me to save your butt like last time? »
Skeppy's voice grew lower. « I wouldn't let you get within an inch of my space. »
« Is that so? » The demon turned to him, gears turning in his head, stepping closer to the half-diamond man.
Not thinking he would strike this early in their conversation, Skeppy took the enchanted sword out of his inventory, pointing it at him, but moving way too slow for it was simply pointed upwards, closer to him than he thought it'd be, the tip just barely brushing Bad's chin.
« Oh please, » Bad pushed the sword down with ease, fingers pressing on the blade nonchalantly, leaning in his personal space ever so slightly. « It would take you a lot more than a stick to keep me at bay. »
« Why? » Skeppy tilted his head to the side, deciding that cockiness was going to be his way out of that situation. « Am I that impossible to stay away from? »
He saw him laugh, more at him than at his joke. « I'm saying you're more … » before he knew it, Skeppy was being pushed against a tree, his own sword at his throat and a knife pointed at him as well. « … Very easy to distract. »
His thoughts spiraled, from the panic of the sudden movement, of the closeness he hated so much, the surprise of just how swift this very probable killing machine was, to Bad’s eyes set on his neck, still careful not to actually injure him. To the stupid smirk he wanted to punch away so ardently. And, at last, to the fact that there was no sound of giggling children, nor small footsteps, nothing running around in the grass.
He looked to the side, eyes widened with worry. « Bad? Where are the kids? »
« Okay, yeah. Like I'm falling for that. »
He put more urgency in his tone, trying to squirm away from the hold the other had on him. « I mean it. Where- where did- » and this time, Bad believed him.
The demon turned around, scanning the place rapidly, confirming Skeppy hadn't been lying. He gave him back his sword without a second thought, both hurrying over the plain, a single repeated thought in both their minds.
Oh prime, oh prime, oh prime, oh prime.
They followed a small path where the grass looked like it had been stepped on not too long earlier, which led to …
Bad's eyes widened. They did not cross a Nether portal without their consent.
« I'm not going in there. » Skeppy put his hands before his chest, taking a step backwards.
Bad just shook his head, looking for golden armour through his inventory, until he took out a chestplate and shoved it towards his now travelling partner. « You will put it on. » he ordered, taking his wrist right after and pulling him along in the portal.
Skeppy really didn't have the time to react to how horrible it felt to be there already, how it made his fight or flight reflexes act up, that he had to comply with the previous demand, not being able to bear Bad's annoying glare.
He really didn't have a choice in anything today, did he?
« I will be in my full form here, until we're sure we're safe. They'll be more likely to leave us alone that way, especially if you keep the chestplate okay? »
« Sure, whatever. »
« Listen here. » god he absolutely loathed his pedantic tone. « You're going to keep that thing on, alright? Because if we happen to part for whatever reason and you take it off to spite me, the piglins will not be so kind and ignore you, am I understood? »
Honestly, he did not care anymore. The longer he stayed in there, the hotter he felt, so he would've rather just complied if that made them leave faster.
He just nodded, watching as Bad's height increased, his fingers became pointier, more claw-like; his body looked misty, less clear and much much darker. He couldn't see the features of his face other than his bright white eyes; Bad signaled for him to follow right behind.
After spending neverending minutes in a deserted soulsand valley, they reached the nether waste, where a small tribe of piglins had made their outpost. Skeppy realized that it was true that wearing golden armour made you unthreatening in their eyes: a few of them glanced at his chestplate with curiosity, others with envy, but none of them would’ve attacked him unless he had attacked first.
Bad had stopped by, asking information in an ancient language Skeppy was surprisingly also fluent in, usually seen in enchanting books or practices. The questions were something about George and Dream, he asked them whether they had seen human kids run around and tried to give them fitting descriptions. Disappointment set in both of them when they denied ever seeing them, but one of them pointed to this peculiar kid not too far from them, sitting by himself on the netherrack, claiming that he could have probably helped them.
Skeppy could sense the puzzled expression on his face even without being able to see it clearly.
Instead of going up to the kid immediately, he asked them if they knew where his parents were: they shook their heads, pointing out that the kid’s place had probably been torn down by wither skeletons, or lost his people to ghasts. He had been wandering around for a while, usually coming back to the same places where he knew he could find food.
Bad had thanked them in a quieter voice, deciding to finally go check on the small boy: he had his back against some netherrack wall, looking down to his hands as though he had been counting.
« Hi. » Bad was the first to talk and get his immediate attention, sitting down in front of him. Skeppy didn’t mimic him but stood not too far away from his side.
Yeah, he was still lowkey scared that the piglins might have turned to him if he stayed too far away, sue him.
« My name is Bad. I wanted to ask you a very easy question if you have time. »
The kid hummed and went back to his fingers. « I do have sixty seconds! » he then nodded, looking up to the demon.
« That’s good! I’m glad you do. I just wanted to know if you had seen two kids around your height, one had a green shirt, blonde hair, the other a blue shirt and- »
« Huge black and white glasses?! Yeah, they’re my friends! »
Bad was taken aback by his excitement: for a boy who seemed to have it rough, he surely had eyes that glowed with happiness. He smiled, totally not because the kid had already melted his heart. « Yes, exactly! You’re very smart. Can you tell us where they are? »
« We’re playing hide and seek right now, so they shouldn’t be too far off. » the kid explained, sitting up and looking behind himself. « Why? »
« Well … they’re not used to being here alone, it could be very dangerous and they might get hurt. »
He gasped. « They’re from the other side?! »
Bad nodded. « Mhm, you understand why they have to get back? »
« Yeah … » the kid looked down, sadness setting in his voice. « I don’t want to hurt my friends. » he admitted, more determined to find them than before. « But, does this mean I won’t see them anymore? »
Bad bit the inside of his cheek: Skeppy thought he looked like someone who was struggling not to let his kid keep the first dog they found on the street.
« I think- » the demon tilted his head. « I think we can find a solution to that later. »
« Right! First, adventure: getting my friends back to you and your friend. »
« We’re not friends. » Skeppy didn’t know why he needed to clarify that, being also the only thing he told him, but he felt like it had come out of his mouth before he could think of stopping himself.
« Boyfriend, then? » the kid shrugged, confused as to why the two were together otherwise.
« I hope you’re kidding. »
Bad averted the topic by laying out a small scheme. « So, you two will stay together, I will be flying a little bit higher so I can scan the place quickly, okay? »
Right as they nodded, the kid secured in Skeppy’s arms, the other had taken off.
After a couple of minutes of walking, the boy broke the silence. « Are you from the soul sand biome? »
« I’m from the Overworld. »
« Oh. » he seemed to be inspecting his face, then his fingers. It was something Skeppy hated but told himself he couldn’t hold it against a literal child to be interested in shiny stuff. « Your skin looks like soul fire in some places. »
« Soul fire? »
« It’s the light blue fire that lights up on soul sand. Have you ever had a blaze try to hit you? »
Skeppy had no idea what any of that meant. Actually, he had never wanted to know more than the basics. That … sounded terrifying, though. « I’ve never been here, really. »
« Are you scared of it? »
Skeppy stopped in his tracks and looked back at him: where exactly had this boy come from and why did he hit the exact spot he had been hiding for months? Could Netherfolk read others so easily?
« Something like that. »
« It’s okay. » the kid held onto him tighter, something that felt more like a hug. « I am sometimes, too. » he then fumbled with the laces on his chestplate. « Why are you two not friends? »
« You ask a lot of questions. »
« Yeah … » he admitted sheepishly. « I haven’t learnt standard galactic, so I can’t talk much with people here. »
« They don’t really seem like talkative people, to be fair. » he shuddered at the thought of potentially having to talk to some of those weird magma cubes or zoglins. When he looked up, he couldn’t see Bad anywhere near, for all he knew he could have already found the kids and left him there.
He would’ve had the guts to do that, now that he thought about it.
Another of his usual rushes of annoyance and anger at the demon pervaded him, mixing in with the warmth of the place that was sticking on his clothes. And you know what? Whatever. He decided to take the chestplate off, despite the confused noises of the child, because fuck that guy, he couldn’t boss him around like that and also he was a freaking Gemfolk who cares what a demon had to say? He could take care of himself just fine, right? Right.
Not right.
He hardly had any time to think, less to pick up the Nether kid again, that he spotted a crossbow being aimed at his direction.
And then one of the most impressive and incredible things he had ever witnessed appeared before his eyes: a second before, an arrow was about to stab him right through his heart, eyes squeezed shut. A second after, though, something dark set in front of him and the collision never came to be. As he opened them again, he saw Bad towering over him, one knee on the ground and the kid close to his chest, wings spread wide and protecting him from whatever had tried to threaten their lives.
Bad cast a glance that would’ve killed right behind his shoulders, to the horde of piglins that was quickly dispersing right as he broke in halves the arrows that had sunk into his back.
He let the kid go, who had been holding onto him for dear life, and then stepped closer to Skeppy, a menacing look in his eyes. He pushed the golden armour back on him, before leaning in so he could hear him better.
« Put. The chestplate. On. » he spat, voice edging onto the darker tone he usually had in his full form.
Skeppy complied, again, too lost in the fact that he had gotten way too close way too fast for the second time that day, and he hated it as much as he hated how much hotter the Nether had become in the past few minutes.
It was when his mouth ran dry that he realized he had kept it hung open ever since Bad had reached them again.
Just. How? What the fuck? Who even had those kinds of reflexes?
Why did he even protect him? He didn’t even care.
« Don’t get weird ideas. » There it was. « I only did this because of the kid. »
Promptly, the Nether child held onto Skeppy’s neck tighter. He didn’t even remember when he had climbed back into his arms.
That felt more like something Bad had said to convince himself. Honestly, Skeppy couldn’t not be reminded of a few weeks prior, during their training. That skeleton hidden in the forest and the arrow he had so easily gotten hit by after shoving him to the ground ...
What was wrong with this guy?
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running towards them, spotting two familiar small kids making their way towards them: the one boy he was holding in his arms squirmed free and ran towards Dream and George as well, yelling “Found you!” as he reached them.
They headed back towards the portal with ease, whilst getting scolded by the demon for running off without a single word of warning, having the Nether kid agree with everything he said. If nothing, the latter only made the mobs sound way more terrifying than they were.
He sounded pleased to have someone he could talk to that had any idea what happened in his birthplace.
Skeppy didn’t have any energy left to argue with the children as well, but felt a little comforted to find George taking his hand almost automatically. The kid always said he liked him more than Antfrost because he was blue.
« Oh look, Dream! » George pointed towards the portal. « We found home! »
« We did it! »
Skeppy was pulled towards it as the two kids raced to it, leaving Bad and the Nether kid behind.
« Can I ask you something? »
The latter looked up curiously at the demon, nodding in response.
Bad bit the inside of his cheek. « Earlier I talked to some piglins about you. Is it true you don’t have a place to stay? »
« I do! » he protested. « The Nether is big, everywhere is a place to stay. »
« I know that. » Bad chuckled, then kneeled down to meet his eyes. « But do you have anything to call home? Something of your own? »
« Mh … » the boy didn’t seem pleased by the topic of the conversation. He could’ve just said “yes, the Nether in itself is my home”, but … he couldn’t say it was safe.
« You want to keep seeing your new friends, right? »
That caught his attention, he nodded.
« Then … have you ever wanted to get to the other side? Maybe with someone who knew both how the Nether and Overworld are? »
« I do! » he beamed, clasping his hands together, almost bouncing in place. « I want to see what it looks like! »
« You could stick with me, if you want. » Bad offered, smiling. « You could meet up with Dream and George whenever and I can teach you how to take care of yourself over there. And if you don’t like it, you can always go back here. » before he could add anything else, he was hugged by the boy, on the verge of tears of joy. « I take that as a yes. » he then said, picking him up in his arms so they could reach the portal and cross it with everyone else.
As they got to the Overworld, Bad realized this kid had been the first one to not hate or be afraid of him upon meeting him.
Once everyone had gotten back safely, they noticed the evening sky darkening, meaning they had to hurry back home before mobs spawned all around them; there were gasps and proclamations of joy once the two kids had realized their new friend had come alongside them.
Skeppy had stared at the boy in surprise as soon as they noticed, looking back at Bad the moment he changed back to his usual “human-friendly” form.
He quickly took off the armour, handing it back to him. « I thought you were going to leave him behind. »
Bad only glanced at him, furrowing his brows at the comment. « You really have no idea who I am. » he muttered, ignoring him right after to take Dream and the new kid’s hands in his and urge them both back home.
During their time back to Puffy’s, a realization dawned on Bad. « We didn’t even ask for your name. »
The nether kid shrugged, interrupting his conversation with Dream. « I don’t have one. »
« What? » Dream tilted his head, confused. « Not even a nickname? »
« No, not really. It was written in Standard Galactic but I was never able to read it, I lost the parchment. »
Dream hummed. « What’s your favorite Overworld thing so far? »
« Pandas! I want to see them! »
He then slapped his fist on his other hand. « That’s it! Your name can be Pandas. »
The kid laughed alongside his new dad. « It doesn’t sound cool enough. »
« Reversed then? Sad.. sadnap? »
« I’m not sad! »
Dream looked pensive again, before he had another epiphany. « What about Sapnap? »
The kid considered it, muttering the name under his breath. « I like it. Yeah, I like it! »
« You’re Sapnap! »
Bad giggled with them, before ruffling the kid’s hair. « Well done, Dream, you’re very smart. Thank you! »
Dream smiled proudly and ran towards his mother right after, starting to tell her all about his new friend and the adventure they had gone through: of course, she also earned a mortified expression by Bad once the Nether journey had been mentioned.
« It’s fine, Bad. If I ever trusted someone to find this boy and take him back without a single scratch from that place it’s definitely you. » she let her son down and shook her head at him, still amused by the event. She spoke again when the two kids had run inside to play a short game of tag. « Maybe make sure they’re not escaping before flirting with that Skeppy guy next time. »
« We were not- »
« Sure Bad, sure. » she laughed in between her own words. There was something way too entertaining in teasing him about that topic.
« You’re not funny, Puffy. »
« Mhm, well, how about I make it up to you by offering you and Sapnap dinner and you tell me all about your new boyfriend? »
He raised his hands to cover his face and groaned, way too tired to remark anything better than that. « I hate you. »
She looked delighted at his response, making way for him and holding the door. « Come in, you muffinhead. »