Chapter Text
There was something surreal about this place. The unnatural biome he found himself in seemed like a mix between a mangrove swamp and a flower forest. Red and orange tulips littered the ground by the gate.
I mean, all the places Derek had passed through so far weren’t the typical terrain you’d find courtesy of Minecraft’s world generation, but when compared with the others, this one stood out a bit more. It was the first one with any speck of life—excluding the one zombie he ran into at one point.
To be more specific, it was a land grazed only by baby slimes. They couldn’t attack him, just bounced around, huddled around his feet. With the slimes nearby approaching him, they’d formed a small clearing, allowing Derek to notice a path that winded deeper into the swamp.
They reminded him of the events that occurred several worlds back, the towering mountains that disappeared in accordance to the rules of Conway’s Game of Life. There, he saw a glimpse of Avery, but not the true Avery he knew he’d cross paths with in the future. Unfortunately, when that time did finally come, their long awaited meeting was cut devastatingly short.
He side-stepped around the little guys, seeing as there was no reason to harm them, and went about following the path laid before him. He could hear the noises of bouncing slowly fade away into a nice ambient silence.
Before long, the path ended as a towering palace came into view. Derek craned his neck upwards. It looked ethereal, with tall stained glass windows, a tall spire with an epic wizard-hat shaped roof, and what seems to be a large greenhouse in the palace’s grounds. If he had to guess, the slime blocks deliberately used as the build’s colour palette indicated that the leader of the slimes resided within its walls.
Avery. I mean, the signs were practically there. Slimes everywhere, and a suspiciously slimy palace. It wouldn’t surprise anyone that the slime guy himself was here. The chances of another one sent out to trick him felt especially high here. Unfortunately, in his trek, he’d noticed nothing too particularly interesting about this world. No weird things had occurred. Therefore, any potential clue to finding the exit gateway of this realm was inside the palace.
Between the castle gate and Derek, laid a lake. Not too far away was a boat with a chest, leashed to a fence. He got in, and crossed the gap.
Derek welcomed himself inside the grandiose palace. The interior was very well kept, but the halls were dead silent. Maybe if one were to focus hard enough, you could hear the faint crackling of the candles on the walls.
He explored halls, made a mental map of the interior should he need to flee, and navigated further until he reached what seemed to be the quarters of the slime leader. He figured the silly oak sign on the door with the words “avery’s cool ROOM!!” was a sure sign he had reached the very location of interest.
He knocked thrice.
“Come in,” a voice he recognized commanded from beyond the wooden door.
Derek listened to the voice, welcoming himself deeper into the palace, closer to—
“Avery?”
“At last, the knight has finally dropped the formalities with his prince, hm?”
Turning his chair, a familiar face emerged. A familiar face in unfamiliar attire. A gold crown shined atop the slime’s head, adorned with emeralds. It sat a bit crooked on his head, yet remained in place, probably due to the slightly sticky nature of slime.
“...Prince?” Derek questioned, silently deducing something was up with this particular realm.
Instead of the usual flower-patterned over-shirt Avery usually had on, a deep red velvety uniform was what had itself over the prince’s body. Derek couldn’t deny that the red complimented the slime quite well.
Avery sighed, face slightly disappointed, “Put your gear away and come here, my knight.”
Derek did not put anything down, instead, he just warily approached Avery. Once within arms reach, Avery pulled Derek into his lap. Derek felt his cheeks warming up at the sudden, yet not unwarranted action.
“You’ve been gone for a while, you know? I’ve missed you,” the prince said, with the knight’s back against his chest.
This… This is new. Derek felt his cheeks flushing deeper at how intimate he was getting treated.
“…How long have you been waiting?” Derek felt that it was an appropriate thing to ask, considering that a few hours ago, he had just axed Avery to his demise after falling through the floor of the library.
“Oh, you didn’t keep track? That’s rare for you,” the prince replied with genuine surprise, before scratching the side of his head.
“If I had to guess, I think nearly a week had passed since you embraced me last,” Avery gave his best attempt at recalling the amount of times the day cycled into night.
One week? He’s just making this up. Things aren’t adding up—
Avery interlocked his fingers with Derek’s left hand. “Tell me, how has your journey beyond the swamp been?”
“Did you find out what’s been causing some of my cute slimy subjects to leave the swamp?” Avery nuzzles into the crook of Derek’s neck.
What is going on, Derek questioned to no one in particular but himself.
“...No, I haven’t,” Derek replied, slight confusion laced in his voice.
“Hm, did you at least manage to see which horizons they were headed towards…?” Avery crept his free hand a bit higher on Derek's torso, and hugged him.
Okay, this is not my Avery— not the Avery I just met, at the very least. There’s no way the real Avery is this handsy, right?
Despite all the knowledge he had acquired, this world sat at the edge of what he knew. There was nothing for him to draw from. All he was able to affirm was that nothing about this made sense.
“...No. I… I didn’t notice. I’m sorry… Your highness,” Derek, thought that that was a suitable response to whatever alternate reality this Avery seemed to be from.
“How many times do I have to say this, Der? When will you finally get it…” Avery said in a resigned tone, flipped Derek around and stared him in the eye.
“What do you mea—” Avery pushed Derek against his study and smiled sheepishly at him.
Derek’s face was caged by Avery’s arms, forcing his gaze forward.
“Y-your highness...?”
“Not my naaaame,” Avery sing-songed.
“Avery…? Avery, just what are we doing?”
“You had gotten struck by a rock to the head, hadn’t you? It’s like you’ve forgotten all about what we have going on,” Avery’s hands moved, opting to try removing Derek’s gloves and cape.
“Tell me, Der, did something else happen on your expedition?” Before long, the helmet had been finagled off as well. It was placed nicely on the desk.
“I… don’t know,” Derek broke the eye contact he had with Avery.
“So it seems something did,” with his helmet out of the way, Avery tilted his knight’s head back towards him and made the choice to attack Derek’s face with kisses.
Derek figured that he should probably do something, I mean, he’s not complaining, but he should do something… To put a stop to whatever is happening—
Wait, this is a trap, isn’t it? This Avery is the trap.
“Did you meet someone else out there?” This princely version of Avery, rather unprincely slid his thigh between Derek’s legs.
“Wha— no, ngh,” Derek could only groan. God, this was hot but he should really get back on track, and focus—
“Did you know how badly it hurt, not knowing how you were doing for so long? Okay, I mean, in the grand scheme of things a week isn’t that long but still, I think the last time we were apart, it was only for 3 days? So maybe we both go crazy if we’re separated for too long,” Avery half joked and chuckled, while the position of his leg was still eliciting a clear positive reaction from the knight.
“...Sooo, what’s with you going back to calling me Your Highness, hm? You thought really hard about the social status gap we have during your little trip, huh?” Derek let out a small whine while Avery moved his thigh back and forth.
“The prince, and his loyal, dutiful, personal knight.”
“Avery– There’s something you– Ah, should know—” Avery had moved onto kissing Derek’s neck. Oh dear, he seems to really know where to get a reaction from.
“Hm? Do enlighten me,” Avery struck again.
“You’re not– not, the Avery I know,” Derek managed to say.
“Ooh, am I not satisfying you enough? Feeling bratty today, aren’t you?”
“N-no– I mean I’m not who you think I am— and there’s something wrong about thi—”
The assault on Derek’s upper torso paused, Avery straightened his back and loosened his grip on Derek.
“…What are you saying? Are you…like, not into this, anymore?”
“I— I think you’re real,” Derek breathed out.
“I mean, I’m pretty sure I always was but I don’t get your point—”
“I think we’re both real, Avery, but we’re not the versions of each other we’ve come to know.”
A moment of confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“You really remembered when I left to go beyond this… swamp?”
“Yeah, you had me tied up the night before cause you wanted to leave me with something to keep my mind busy while you were gone on your silly expedition, which for your information, worked wonderfully,“ Derek flared red at Avery’s explanation, “and insisted I didn’t come along.”
“Uh,” Derek cleared his throat, “The thing is, uh, I don’t recall any of that,” he managed, his head-wings pointed downwards.
"The narrative I know is that I just killed you a few hours ago after we fell through a hole in a library, and that this is my first time being here in this swamp and this palace.”
“So, you’re not my knight…?”
“I don’t think so.”
Prince Avery pulled out a chair, and nudged for Derek to take a seat. They were in the palace’s courtyard, a wider variety of flowers littered the garden, but most abundant of all were yellow dandelions.
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“Need I remind you how you kept interpreting my confusion as roleplay?” Derek glared at the prince, laughing away, while his own face was still blushing red.
“Still, you didn’t press further. If anything I’d believe you enjoyed what you were experiencing,” Prince Avery giggled, a teasing tone all too intentional.
Derek still had questions.
“Uh, is the kissing stuff all normal between you and this, personal knight of yours?”
“Is it not between you and the version of me you know?”
“…No.” Derek looked away, pretty sure the air had warmed further.
“You two are missing out.”
“Hey, I’ve only met the guy once! We’re in no way… At whatever level you two are at,” Derek bored a hole straight into this so-called prince’s goopy eyes.
“It’s quite the prideful month of the year, you know.”
“What, do you want us to like, have a gay talk or something? What.“
Prince Avery could only chuckle.
Before they had gone outside, Prince Avery stopped by the kitchen to grab a kettle with pre-steeped tea. Derek observed the prince pouring some into a teacup, then nudging for him to drink it.
“It’s your favourite,” the prince fondly smiled.
Derek took a sip. A hint of grape. He was right, it was his favourite kind, even if he didn’t drink tea as often as he did his energy drinks.
This was nice. A bit too nice, Derek still couldn’t shake off the doubt that the prince had less than kind intentions for him. Still, he took another sip of the tea, enjoying the comforting taste it provided.
Derek looked around, “As a prince, don’t you have servants who could’ve helped prepare this?”
“Hm, not quite. Out here, it’s just me, my knight, and these little slimes,” Prince Avery gestured to the green cubes bouncing outside the palace’s walls. “Ahh, I really wish he’ll come back soon. The fact that it’s just me around here, means that I’ve had to finish all the perishables we had! I’m going to lose my body definition,” he jokingly pouted.
Derek noticed the way his tone deflated slightly midway. Regardless, he chose not to press on that, and kept sipping away at his cup of grape tea.
Ponder, ponder. If it’s really true that the prince has lived out an entire lifetime in this realm, and it seemed that alternate versions of oneself were all extremely similar, he figured that this may be the best chance he’ll have at learning more about Avery. The ideal goal would be to work out how his mind worked, and perhaps he’ll be able to hatch a plan to protect the real Avery. Less probable, but perhaps a way to save himself as well.
Time flowed, conversations mainly about the logistics of the established relationship Prince Avery had with Knight Derek were made. He couldn’t help but blush on multiple occasions because of the prince’s ability to explain in great detail about how a usual day of theirs would pan out.
Additionally, the extremely forward nature of the prince was also not helping. In the midst of the prince’s giddy laughter and Derek’s inquisition, they found themselves in the boat Derek had once used to reach the palace. The chest was left behind so that they could both fit, and the Prince took control of the oars.
“Here’s another fun fact, I’m really good at using fishing rods, for anything but actually fishing, because there’s no fish in this moat.”
Derek internally questioned how the concept of fishing rods came to be if fish didn’t exist in this world, but he didn’t actually voice that thought out.
The sun was beginning to set, and the prince had stopped rowing. He couldn’t lie, this realm was a really nice place to be in. If time permissed, he’d love to stay here for as long as he was able, but he knew that it wasn’t his place to go through with that.
He had to find a way out of here, and he wasn’t sure if this Avery was even aware of the golden gateways, nor whether it was in the universe’s best interest for him to know. So, he stalled by asking an indirect question, a question he wasn’t sure if he could answer if he were to be asked the very same thing.
“Why aren’t you more scared of me?”
Prince Avery stopped his giggling, paused to meet Derek’s gaze and tilted his head, “What?”
“Sorry, maybe wary is a better word. I mean, I’ve made it clear, I’m not your knight, and I know you’re fine with that but… You still barely know me. Why do you let me in?”
“Would you rather I didn’t?”
“Please don’t avoid my question, Avery.”
Prince Avery’s gaze drifted away.
Shit. What was he doing throwing demands to a prince?
Derek tried to apologize, frantically telling him he didn’t actually have to answer, but the prince cut him off. He requested for a moment to properly collect his thoughts, and he did so staring at the ripples atop the lake’s surface.
The moment of silence passed, and Prince Avery took one of Derek’s armored hands.
“You can keep saying that. Keep saying you’re not him but all I can see and hear and feel, is the same man I’ve fallen in love with,” Prince Avery had pulled the gauntlet off, and had interlocked their fingers. Slime against skin. Unbeknownst to each other, they both at the same time thought that the feeling felt all too familiar and comforting.
“For as long as this world has existed, for as long as I have been here, it’s always been the two of us and I guess, I can’t imagine being in a world without him,” Prince Avery said, his other hand cupping Derek’s helmet, “so instead of fighting his splitting image, I choose to let you in.”
“For better or for worse, I can’t envision a version of him that wouldn’t be doing the right thing. Call me gullible and smitten, but I trust you,” Prince Avery hugged him, his head in the crook of his neck, before he pulled back and looked deep into Derek’s eyes. If anything, Derek felt that he was the gullible and smitten one for feeling himself begin to accept the trust the prince had for him.
“…and I want to help you find your way back to your Avery,” the prince placed his hands on Derek’s chest.
God, Avery is going to be the death of him. Both this extremely touchy alternate one, and hopefully the also relatively touchy real one out there.
He tried as he might to pretend he didn’t think of that, but his face had flushed red anyway. Regardless, he couldn’t dwell on that for too long because it seemed that for once, the prince had initiated the act of getting back on track.
“So, what can I do to help you?”
Good question, Derek thought to himself. He still wasn’t sure if the prince could’ve or should’ve known about the gateway, so it was probably best to search for clues from someone who did.
“Can you tell me more about him? My alternate self?”
The row back to main palace grounds consisted of the prince bringing the poor, fortunate man who stumbled into this world, to the brink of overheating on multiple occasions. Facts of himself he really had no importance to know, but was still open to learning about. The way Prince Avery described him made him realize that he would also highly likely be very pliant, if he managed to survive this whole ordeal with the slime guy himself.
As mentioned, his infinite knowledge powers seemed to have been put on the far away bench, for he couldn’t get any visions about what would happen after he’d leave this realm. All the knowledge he could access was anything that he had focused on prior to stepping through this realm’s entrance gateway.
“His residence is within the outdoor grounds of this palace. I’m sure all versions of my knight know what to do with that information,” Prince Avery smiled politely, hands behind his back as he uttered that, probably thinking he was the cutest guy ever.
He was.
Derek looked around, he always liked the idea of a treehouse as a base, having an awesome balcony to peer from, figured his alternate self would be like-minded, so he looked at the trees nearby. Sure enough, there it was. In fact, he might’ve been stupid for not noticing the string connecting the prince’s quarters and the treehouse any sooner.
“You mentioned him not allowing you to follow along on this expedition, right? Do you know why?”
“He mentioned that it would be a long and arduous journey, far more complicated than any we’d been on before, so I was to stay, to be there for my slimy subjects that still remain.”
“Did he go alone?” Derek asked, climbing the ladder up the treehouse.
“Unfortunately for all three of us, he was really adamant about going alone,” the prince sighed.
They made it inside actually-a-knight Derek’s treehouse. Derek looked around, the space felt so familiar. It was as if he had decorated the space himself because everything was exactly where he would’ve placed it. Even his alternate self had a paper pinned to the wall above his desk, reminding him of his daily chores.
Prince Avery lingered at the access trapdoor. “You know, I’ve never really looked around his space without him around.”
“Are you asking for my permission to come inside?”
“It would be an invasion of privacy otherwise.”
Derek’s heart fluttered at just how much respect he had for his… boyfriend? Knight with benefits? He forgot to ask what label they had, but figured that didn’t really matter at the moment. He offered his hand.
“You may come inside.” The prince accepted the offer and pulled himself up.
Derek found his way to the bed, sat down, and unsuspiciously felt around under his pillow while Prince Avery was looking a different way. As cheesy as both the place he stashed it in and the concept of keeping one itself was, there he felt it, his diary. His journal, for a more mature-sounding term.
Derek spoke up, speaking mainly to himself, hands now beside him, “My alternate self really exists.”
He was about to consider opening his diary, but the prince laughed in surprise as a drawer was opened.
“Ooh, so that’s where he keeps all his ropes.” Derek stared at the drawer he usually reserved for his mob drops, and supposed it made sense it was used for something else in a world grazed by harmless slimes. He also guessed it made sense that it’s become used to place ropes since you could thread spider string into leads.
It took a moment more for Derek to recall something the prince said earlier and remember exactly what purpose was attached to the ropes.
“Whuh— Why do I have so many!?” Derek spluttered, absolutely embarrassed, flopping his head straight into the pillow. “And can’t you slip through them?”
Prince Avery giggled, offering a different method of answering. “Wouldn’t you like to test them out?”
Derek spluttered some more.
“Here, a map, with a little trail!” Prince Avery pointed out. A weathered map, showing up until the edges of the swamp, and had a faint dotted line drawn in red. At the end of it, was a crude attempt at redrawing the gateway.
He’s got it. A lead out of here.
Derek figured his alternate self had set off to venture through the gate. He worries. Nothing but confusion lies beyond the gates. He knows that he’s been granted the curse of infinite knowledge upon stepping through the gateway, based on the entries of his diary. And that the reason this whole palace was built, was that it’d provide full comfort so that his Avery wouldn’t have a reason to even approach the gateway.
He noticed that they were both similar in that aspect of knowing their Averys didn’t deserve to face any of the horrors beyond the doors.
Sigh, if only his Avery heeded his warning to never turn left. Everything would be so much less complicated. But regardless of the flow of events that did transpire, he had to keep searching.
“Thank you kindly, Your Highness,” Derek said, moving to thoroughly study the information gathered by his knight-ier self, before getting interrupted by a—
“Hey now, even if you’re not really him, you don’t get to call me that,” Prince Avery pressed Derek up against the desk from behind.
Oh, this freak. He supposed it was his fault for poking at the water. Plus, the whole leaving thing could be put on hold for just a while longer, if it meant he could indulge himself in a pleasure he can’t guarantee he’ll get once he leaves.
“I think we’ve established enough to know that we’re both yearning for this.” He wasn’t wrong.
“You’re not wrong, Prince,” Derek smiled, more prepared than last time for the events he could foresee taking place, and he embraced it all.
“Ah, so you do truly enjoy the social status gap, hm?” Prince Avery goes to remove Derek’s helmet once again. Gently setting it on the desk.
“What if I do?”
“Then I pray you’ll accept your position beneath me, both literally and figuratively, and heed my demands, knight,” Prince Avery smiled, and caged Derek’s head once more.
“What if I… don’t want to?”
“Both you and my knight ask way too many questions.” The displacement of their mouths reached a net value of zero.
Derek briefly wondered why his brain had chosen to use physics terminology at a time like this. Maybe he did like physics more than he realized.
Either way, Prince Avery had placed his hands on Derek’s chest. Derek knowing his armorpiece was in the way, went to rid himself of the garment. The prince hummed in delight as he now had access to his undershirt, and fisted his hands in the soft cotton.
Derek groaned as the handsy prince brushed his fingers against his nipple. “I’ll speak for your Avery out there and let you know that your voice is extremely hot,” the prince attacked Derek’s neck, intending to leave a reminder.
“Please don’t hide, and let loose for me, okay?”
His lips were cold enough to shock Derek’s skin. He felt heat under every graze of the prince’s touch. A low whine escaped him, enough restraint to not embarrass himself—not that he hadn’t already. Prince Avery’s petulant hands pinched Derek’s side, angry at the muffled sound.
“Disobedient. What did I just say about not hiding? I ought to do something about that.” The prince resumed his attack elsewhere, his tongue accompanied his teeth against Derek’s earlobe. Derek gasped, chest expanding too fast as the air around them grew heated.
Prince Avery peppered kisses down his jawline and back up his mouth. He claimed Derek’s lips with the same vigour if not more fervent. He tilted Derek’s head with one hand, the other holding himself to hover. The prince found his spot right between Derek’s thighs, and nudged them apart with his knee.
“Avery,” Derek whined between swallows of saliva. “Avery.” His eyes closed from the overwhelming pleasure, his hands tensed unsure of where it would be appropriate to touch.
“Just touch me, Der,” the prince tugged one hesitant hand to rest on his waist.
They panted, ending up in a position where Derek was straddling Prince Avery. Utterly disheveled. Yet the prince’s crown still sat atop his head.
Derek internally chuckled at that.
“You’re a great prince, Avery,” Derek looked into the prince’s eyes. Hoping one day, he’ll get to reenact these actions to a similar degree with his Avery.
“And you’re a great knight as well, Derek. Thank you for your company." The prince looked right back at him. "Know that I’ll miss you,” Prince Avery wraps his arms around the man on top, hugging him tightly. The hug is returned.
“I’ll miss you too, and thank you once more, for everything you’ve shown me in this brief time we’ve spent together, it means a lot to me,” Derek loosened the hug.
“It means more to me that I’m able to help you and my other self, as I’ve not much left to do in this world but pray and wait,” the prince’s eyes darted off to the side.
Derek wished he could grant this Avery happiness, the fulfilling life he deserves, but as he neared the gateway, he felt the knowledge of the future where that happens, begin to plague his mind. It was gross, in a really bad and horrifying way. It’s a future he wished no one could even comprehend.
The vision he got as he considered walking through the gateway alone, was nicer, yet it didn’t stop the guilt in his heart from dooming this poor Avery. Why was he being so soft, he wondered. He doesn’t deserve to feel bad when he’s trying to save the world from the wrath of the King. An alternate Avery sacrificed is necessary if it means the original Avery gets saved, right? Agh, his head space is so messy right now.
Prince Avery seemed to notice, and placed a kiss on Derek’s forehead, before sliding his helmet on, and tussled his plume till he thought it looked nice. That broke Derek out of his existential spiral, and it made him focus on the present.
“Take care of yourself, Derek,” the prince outstretched his arms to the knight. Offering one last hug.
The offer was accepted.
“Until you meet your knight again.”
“Until you meet your slime as well.”