No One gets Left Behind (Adopted from ZecoriTheWeirdOne)

Chapter 3 (38) - im not fixing the chapter numbers.

Hahah remember that time I said I'd try update monthly-

I lied.

Grian hesitantly opened his eyes, pleasantly surprised when there was no blinding light to drag him out of his tired haze. He reached vaguely to his right, groping for his communicator. After about a minute of groping, he turned it on and checked the clock.

Through blurry eyes, he managed to make out that it was 3:21. If Grian was being honest, he probably could've worked out that it was early morning if his brain was working properly. As it was, his singular braincell was pushing itself to the absolute limit.

He held back a groan as he pushed himself up, squinting in the dim light. 2 lines of beds were cramped up next to each other, with a thin strip of grass separating them. At one end, there was a wooden door from which the only source of light stemmed from. Even so, it was just a torch.

Walking softly to avoid waking the others, Grian made his way towards the aforementioned door. The soft whistling of a breeze crept through the gap at the bottom of the door, increasing as it swung open. The grass outside was cold on his feet, enough to make him shiver. Dew clung to the blades as he stepped tentatively forward, glancing around in the dim light.

"Looking for something?"

Grian visibly jumped, taking a deep breath before turning around to glare at what was almost certainly Xeno.

True to form, he was tucked away in the corner, shrouded in shadows, a small grin on his face.

"I swear to God, Xeno!" Grian cursed. He realised too late how loud he was, hastily quietening as he next spoke. "Why are you even awake?" Xeno simply raised an eyebrow.

"Grian, I'm the server insomniac." He paused before next speaking, internally debating something. "I'm also way too tired for this shit, so could you please not argue this with me right now?" Grian sighed, slumping down next to him in his position on the floor.

"We will be talking about this," Grian mumbled, rubbing some sleep out of his eyes. "You need to sleep at some point."

"Debatable." He groaned loudly and flopped back, resting his head on the dirt wall, letting bits of gravel to mix in with his hair.

"I don't have the energy for this tonight."

"Maybe that's because you should be asleep?" Grian scoffed loudly at his words.

"Says you!"

Xeno's only response was an innocent shrug. "I am nothing if not a hypocrite, my dear Grian."

"...Dear?"

"I'm tired, okay," Xeno grumbled, leaning slightly into Grian. His breath was warm, especially in comparison to the bitter damp of the night. It was... nice. Surprisingly so.

"Y'know what I'm going to say to that, right?" He eventually replied, a teasing smile creeping onto his face. It only grew larger when Xeno let out a groan, burying his face in Grian's shoulder.

"I swear, this won't work," he muttered. "Let it go and make your way back to bed." He paused before adding, "Why are you up, anyways?"

"Wish I knew," Grian snorted. "Probably got my 8 hours anyway, I basically collapsed upon arriving." Xeno's only response was to sit up straight and pull away from the blond, checking his communicator.

"It is also 3am, Grian." He sighed, dragging a hand over his forehead. "Besides, if I were in your position, I'd be exhausted. It's a wonder you can stand upright, the way you've been pushing yourself."

Grian didn't deem a verbal response to be worth the effort, instead choosing to make a 'blegh' noise and shrug. However, he notable avoided Xeno's gaze, instead choosing to study the grass.

To be fair, the grass was pretty, Xeno had to admit. Even in the dim light, it shone with dew and glistened. Though, this surely wasn't the reason it had drawn Grian's attention so.

"The grass makes a break from the sand, huh?" He teased lightly, jabbing an elbow into Grian's side. A small smile twitched across his face, finally dragging his attention back to Xeno.

"Honestly, deserts are the absolute worst," Grian grumbled, returning to his position on Xeno's shoulder. "You just wake up and the sand is all in your clothes, and it's just gotten into everything. Grass superiority."

"Never thought I'd hear the day," the ravenette laughed. "Thought you were all about mycelium."

"I mean, grass does look and feel better..." he trailed off. "But it's about the principle of the matter, y'know?"

Instead of answering, Xeno opted to stay silent, and enjoy the moment. It was quiet moments like these he yearned for, for all the simple reasons. Just the soft whistle of the wind, and the warmth of skin near his. Soft comfort, the type he rarely allowed himself to indulge in.

Well, given they were running from death, maybe it was time to start letting himself enjoy things like these.

Despite coming to this conclusion, it was still him who broke the silence.

"Are you ever scared that they might actually win?" His voice was so quiet, and Grian took long enough to respond that Xeno was beginning to question if he'd heard them. He almost hoped he hadn't, allowing his stupid admittance to be lost to the wind.

"Of course I'm scared. They killed my best friend."

Despite this really not being the time, a stab of jealously shot through Xeno's heart. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been called someone's best friend, and part of him thought that maybe-

He pushed it aside. It was a stupid thought anyway.

"Are you ever scared they might kill... you?" This was an even more dangerous admission, that part of him wanted to immediately take back. But still, it was almost relieving to hear it aloud. Like a weight was lifted from his chest.

It was then, a few moments after, that an even softer admission was made.

"Yeah."

Xeno wasn't sure how much longer they remained in silence, but it surely couldn't have been very long before Grian was snoring softly against his shoulder. And it couldn't have been much longer after that, that Xeno felt himself begin to drift off into oblivion. 

AN

This took 6 months to write, I'm sure it's absolutely nowhere near that standard but eehhhhh, I got a chapter out and I'm proud of that much lmao

please spam me to update constantly, otherwise I probably won't-

But I updated :DDDD I'm way too proud of that achievement lmao