A Life above the earth but below the clouds

Thinking about past scars

Etho was pacing around the bedroom. He kept trying to text Iskall since it was unlike him to be gone this long. Little that he knew Iskall's phone was turned off because of Grian and Scar calling them a bunch for no reason. Luckily, after a few hours Iskall called him. Etho was relieved to hear that they were safe and just staying the night with Mumbo. At the end of the call Etho wished them both a good night and accidentally said "love you" to Iskall before hanging up. The realization hit him as soon as he hung up.
"Why did I say that to them?" he said to  his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He tried to think rationally, maybe it just felt weird since he hasn't said something like that to a friend for a while.
"Yeah, that has to be it." He took down his mask and looked at his scar. Only a few hermits had seen his whole face. Him being insecure of the scar wasn't the main reason why he covered his face. He mostly wore the mask because it completed his cosplay and kept dirt and bugs out of his face when he was riding horses with bdubs. But he would be lying if he said that he wasn't even a little insecure of the scar, especially what his mouth and lip. Half of his lip was burned and scared by the incident. He thought it looked like how the ender dragon's mouth looked, dry and bumpy. He remembered the first time Iskall saw Etho's full face. It was just before the accident in the mines with the zombies. Etho's mask was ripped when he was working on a redstone project and it got stuck in a piece of stone. Etho didn't really think that the rip was as big as it was. Later in that day, he went back to the base to get more things for the project. As he was looking for diamonds to go on a redstone shopping spree he heard a fake cough from behind him. Iskall towered over the ninja that was sitting on the floor while looking through a chest.
"What are you doing in there, Ethos?"
"I was just trying to organize our stuff."
"Sure you were."
Etho stood up, now towering over the swede and tried to play off the fact he was caught red handed. As he and Iskall were joking around the mask fell. Etho tried to ignore it but he felt ashamed of his face. Iskall wasn't helping by just staring at him.
"You never told me that you were so charming looking", Iskall said after noticing that Etho looked uncomfortable. "Don't get why you don't share your awesome face with the world dude", they said as they picked up Etho's mask from the floor.
"Aw you're just saying that bro", Etho said trying not to blush.
"Nah I'm being serious, but if it's that important to you I could fix it up for you!"
"That would be very nice of you but you don't have to"
"It's no problem, we can talk while I fix it", they said as they went to look for his sewing kit. When they found it they sat on the duo's bed. Etho sat down beside them. Iskall showed a couple of their scars trying to make Etho more comfortable. His biggest one was on their leg where a creeper blew up next to him. Etho wished that he was there to help them but Iskall told him not to worry about it.
After about 10 minutes Iskall was done. "By the way I think your scar makes you look badass dude", they before leaving to go see what Joe was doing. Etho couldn't stop smiling. When he tried to go to sleep he couldn't stop thinking about what Iskall said. After that day Etho felt like he could take off his mask when he was around Iskall.

Present day

Here he was, laying in bed hoping that Iskall didn't hear him say "love you" to them.