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Tango sat up in his bed on Hermitcraft, the echoes of the creeper explosion still ringing in his ears. A bitter type of humor made him chuckle lowly as he ran his fingers through his firey hair.
He saved BigB, and died to the same monster he'd saved the Reject from. Tango's head sank back into the pillow.
The last time he'd died first, it had been Jimmy's death pulling him down with the canary.
This time, it had been due to his own stupidity. The failed Boogey attempts becoming more and more desperate until he was having a panic attack in his bed at the top level of the Gluten pyramid at the end of the week.
Tango traced the scars on his arms, remembering the morning after that night.
Dread coalesced sticky in his chest as he remembered suffocating under anvils, withering away, burning as electricity coursed through him while everyone watched.
Scars like lightning across the planes of skin on his arms. Discolored areas lingering longer than any aftereffects of withering he'd seen before.
Four deaths in one week. It was unheard of before. And the worst part was, he wouldn't get to see Jimmy or any of his friends for at least another couple of weeks.
God, he'd died so early on, hadn't he?
He buried himself in his work on Decked Out. He tried to ignore how slow it felt like time was passing, but the calender hanging up on his wall was a reminder that no, it had only been one day.
He spent his nights wondering what they were doing in the game. Who was going to die next. If anyone new was on red. How his teammates were doing.
Two weeks after his leaving Past Life, he got a visitor to the mountain. “Tango, dude! We left poor Impulse…” Ren continued on about something or the other, all while Tango blinked blankly at him.
He hadn't talked to anybody since the game. Ren had taken it upon himself to inform him of the goings-on of the Life server since he'd left.
“...and then Impulse blew both of us up at your funeral!”
Tango chuckled weakly. "That's nice, Ren, but…I was kind of in the middle of something?" He lied, gesturing at the various redstone parts and papers strewn on the floor around him.
Ren's ears flicked downwards. “Oh, sorry dude. Talk to you later?" He perked up.
Tango didn't have the heart to inform the dog hybrid that he wasn't going to be having willing conversations with anybody any time soon. So he forced a smile and nodded.
The gloomy darkness returned once Ren had left. At some point, when he caught himself staring at his scars and tracing them with his fingers again, his comm buzzed and broke him out of his trance.
PearlescentMoon joined the game
Wow, she was out early. The worst part was, he had no frame of reference for if Jimmy had final-died yet or not.
Tango briefly recalled a conversation the avian had had with Xisuma, something about setting Jimmy's home server to be Hermitcraft while the canary waited for an invite to another one of his silly servers.
He couldn't let his hopes up, though.
Impulse visited him a week and a half later, although he was less energetic than Ren had been.
“Your hair is burning lower than I've seen it since Double Life.” Impulse commented, breaking the somewhat peaceful silence between them.
Tango glanced up from the diagram he was analyzing. "Yeah?” He didn't offer any further response.
"You okay, man? Being out so early must have sucked.” Impulse sounded genuinely concerned.
Tango wanted to laugh, or maybe cry. He just sighed and shook his head. "I'm fine. How's Jimmy doing?”
Impulse didn’t look like he bought it, but he accepted the change in subject. "Surprisingly well, actually. I think he might have a chance at the final fight this time.”
Great. Even longer before Tango would get to see his secret boyfriend again.
He listened to the rest of what Impulse had to say, and then returned to the same mindless work he'd been doing for the past three weeks.
Tango was staring at the ceiling again, willing himself to fall asleep. His comm buzzed with a notification, and he tiredly reached over to see the message.
SolidarityGaming joined the game
A few seconds later, he thought he might have seen Gem join as well, but he was still staring at the first message.
Then, he was jumping out of bed and sprinting to spawn.
Jimmy was sitting there, typing on his comm.
The blonde made a startled sound when Tango's arms wrapped around him, but soon melted into the touch. “I did so well, Tango!" Jimmy told him excitedly. “4th place!"
Jimmy's comm buzzed with another notification, but neither of them glanced at the screen.
Tango was crying, but he pulled Jimmy's face toward him and kissed his Rancher with all the love that had been buzzing inside of him these past weeks. “You're home." He whispered, and something deep inside him clicked into place.
Tango was home again.