Hermitcraft Stuff I Guess

One to Deny (oneshot)

Main Pairing: Romantic Beetho
Cw: Alcohol, mildly dubious consent, swearing, vomit mention
Au: Human
Around 8100 words

Wow I haven't updated since last year! Haha!! Isn't that such a funny joke for April Fool's Day that totally isn't based in any truth whatsoever? Anyway, if you would prefer it I also posted this on AO3 under the same name incase you like that format better :)
(Beef and Etho are headcannoned to be autistic in this one just letting you know also happy Autism Awareness Month)

Beef has been kissed by his friends many times before. That’s just how his friends were, and he would be lying if he said it wasn’t a mutual behaviour. It was never serious, and most of the time it was either a joke or a dare, so he had no issue with the matter. The same couldn’t be said about everyone he knows, though. Some were significantly younger than the majority, others thought that it was too unsanitary, and one person wore a mask in a group of more than two for an unexplained reason. So no, Beef has never kissed anyone in that selection of friends, and he was not going to deny another’s boundaries. Silly jokes would never be more important than a friend’s comfort, and that’s why Beef likes to include them in other ways.

Ways like sitting one on one, on their phones, completely silent. Personally, he would have loved to go out and visit a cool tourist trap or museum, but that would have required Etho to place his sleek mask over the lower half of his face. Beef knows that Etho wouldn’t have cared, but there was always something eating at him that said that he should maximize his time with the unaltered genuine Etho, mouth and all. So there they were, sitting on the gray couch inside of Etho’s apartment, with two empty frozen meal containers on the coffee table that also rested their feet. Beef was currently rocking back and forth to the tempo of a random song and scrolling through the horrors of social media platforms. He assumed that Etho was doing something similar with how focused he looked. It was nice. Relaxing. Familiar. That’s what this whole thing was. It was familiar. His stomach was partially full from the microwaved TV dinner, the music was right, and he had not yet been spoiled for a game he had planned to buy. It reminded him of when he was a young child. The bliss of spending perfect time with a close friend was known and expected, which was everything he loved. He was so wonderfully blissful that he hardly registered that Etho had leaned over close to him and laid a kiss on his cheekbone that erupted the spot in heat that quickly spread all across his face. Etho hummed like nothing was out of the ordinary and continued to scroll on his phone, opening and closing the same few apps repeatedly. 

“Are you good, Beefers?” No. He was not good. Beef had never felt weirder. It was not like he was upset or disgusted, it was just out of the norm. He was a bit freaked out, in all honesty. Nothing had provoked it, nothing had implied that it was going to happen, it just happened. His best friend just kissed him and he wasn’t ready. After remembering that staring at people for over ten seconds is frowned upon, he decided to play it off as a joke like all the other times. This was a joke, after all.

“What has gotten into you? First you have actual food in your house, then you sit like a normal person, and then you kiss me?” Etho looked a bit too offended at that comment, but he can always bite back. 

“Felt like it. It’s not like that’s your first friend kiss, right?” No bite back, but that’s fine.

“I mean yeah, I’ve been friends with Pause since forever. It was more a shock that it was coming from you than anything. I don’t care, in case you were worried.” Etho’s shoulders slumped back down and Beef felt himself lighten a bit, too. “Was it your first friend kiss?”

“First one I initiated. I’m friends with Pause too, y’know.” That was a win in Beef’s book. Smooth conversation, relaxation returned. Things were back to normal.