Big Book Of Sjips One Shots

Of Explosions and Apologies (S)

TW: Explosions, Voltz episode 5

After everyone's laughter calms down and they all return to their usual business, Sips and Sjin begin trying to find a way inside what is left of their base.

The red stone for their front door had broken because of one of the restoration missiles, so they try to dig through the sides to get in.

It's a mess. Blocks litter the floor, their paintings lay broken amidst the wreckage, and one of their beds is snapped in half. Sjin's face falls as he thinks of how he was the one to place down and activate the red matter explosive.

He tells Sips to get some make-do tools and go mining to try and recover what they lost.

Once his friend is gone, he creates a chest to put the blocks in and begins picking them up one by one. It's tedious work, but he's done worse, so he doesn't complain. Just goes around filling in holes in the floor and picking up the debris caused by the- his explosion.

It's nearly nightfall by the time Sips returns, and the base is spotless, except for the fact that it's ten times smaller than it was before. Torches are placed around, but he didn't have the time to make another bed.

"I'm sorry, Sips," is the first thing he says when his boss walks in.

"What for, Sjin? The place looks great from my angle."

Sjin shakes his head, his eyes downcast. "This was all my fault. If I hadn't messed with the stupid thing, none of this would have happened. We'd be well on our way to making copper wire by now and our base wouldn't be a mess and-" he stops and digs the heels of his palms into his eyes.

Sips steps up into Sjin's space. "It wasn't your fault. Heck, if anything, it was my fault, too."

"But it wasn't, Sips! I'm supposed to be this...this master architect, and then I go and do something like this!"

He shakes his head again and steps past Sips to slip out the door. Sips reaches out to grab his arm, but Sjin evades him and then disappears into the night.

Sips curses and takes after him, but Sjin is gone.

He tries to call after him, but he doesn't get an answer. Instead, he goes back inside and shuts their new wooden door, hoping Sjin will be okay. In the meantime, he expands their bedroom and tries to get it to some form of normalcy until they leave in the morning.

When the door creaks open, Sips is half-passed out on the singular bed, only really partially on it. Sjin pauses at the sight of Sips with his head pillowed on his arms and puts his tools away.

"Sips..." he starts softly. "Sips, get up. You can't sleep halfway on the floor."

Sips grumbles something about moving, but lets Sjin get him on the bed fully.

He's passed out soon enough, so Sjin changes out of his clothes and makes him scoot over.

In the middle of the night, Sjin jolts awake from a nightmare where Sips fell into the giant hole created by the explosion. Around his waist are Sips' arms, holding him close.

"Shhhh," Sips yawns. "It's fine. No one's hurt. Go back to sleep."

After a long pause, he does, curled up safely next to Sips until morning.

Credit to StardustDragon on Ao3