Grumbo - Falling for You

Chapter 2 (part 2/2)

Mumbo's living room was an architect's dream. The large flatscreen TV sat in the middle of the back wall with a couch in front of it and a coffee table filling the space between the two. The left of the living room had a corridor that continued to what must have been Mumbo's room and office while the right side had an identical couch to the one in the middle that lined the wall beneath the window. Grian was impressed but something about the room was oddly off-putting, and with a gesture to sit down from Mumbo later, the hermit knew why.

Both of the couches were love seats. This meant that in order for all three of them to be comfortable, one person would have to sit on the side couch, alone. Seeing as Grian was the single person in the room, he headed for the side couch to give Mumbo and his girlfriend some well-needed time together, especially because Grian didn't know how much longer he could take being in such a close distance to shirtless Mumbo.

However, Grian's unexpected journey ended in the next breath when the engineer's strong arm wrapped itself around his shoulders and pushed Grian into the cushion where Mumbo's girlfriend was supposed to sit.

Grian looked up, about to question his friend why he did that, when he heard the bathroom door click open from the same hall they had walked down to reach the living room.

"Finally you two are ready to watch Lord of the Rings! If the both of you took any longer I'd have to start calling you hobbits." Her voice rang from behind the two men.

The red-shirted hermit turned his head back to look at her, still unable to fully move his body due to Mumbo's lingering arm, and put on the best friendly smile he could in hope that she was blind to her boyfriend's intrusion of Grian's space.

Maybe his smile was screaming "please don't notice" a little too much because the instant he flashed his teeth, her eyes darted to Mumbo's arm.

After staring for a second, her eyes found Grian's and he felt a chill run down his spine. A shadow seemed to have cast itself over her face as her darkened eyes glared at the hermit, reminding him why he was about to leave earlier.

Realizing his girlfriend was right behind them, Mumbo turned around to greet her, his arm leaving Grian's shoulders in the process.

Grian blinked and was shocked to find that her usual, pleasant smile had returned.

She walked over to the side couch and grabbed an unopened bag of crisps from the table.

This caused Mumbo to burst into laughter. "We already have a bag open you know?" he chuckled, holding the bowl of Grian's crisps into the air.

"I know," she said, the bag in her hands opened with a loud pop. She gazed into it for a moment before turning her attention to the television.

"So, are we watching the movie, or what?" Her voice was flat and contained a small amount of toxicity that was directed at Grian, something he knew Mumbo wouldn't pick up, but the architect would be lying if he said that he wasn't afraid.

Mumbo just shrugged and reached for the remote on the table. He plopped next to Grian and clicked play, ending the DVD's dramatic menu orchestra in a single, silent movement as if he read the mood.

What told the light-haired hermit that Mumbo had no awareness of the tension in the air was the fact that as soon as the movie started playing he was already leaning over Grian again.

"If we were, in fact, both hobbits, which ones would we be?" the moustashed-man whispered into Grian's ear. "I think you would be either Merry or Pippin personally." Mumbo laughed, still very close to the smaller hermit's ear.

"What makes you say that?" While Grian loved the movie, he couldn't remember every detail, so even with Mumbo's girlfriend crunching viciously on the other side of the room, he had to know why Mumbo was laughing.

A loud "A-hem" came from the side couch as Mumbo took in a breath to start speaking.

Instead of an explanation, Grian got a finger pressed against his lips. "SHhhh! You'll see, just watch, it's pretty near the beginning of the movie."

Grian's eyes widened at the series of events as he felt his brain crash from the overload. To make up for the unresponsive Grian, his body unconsciously pushed Mumbo's hand away and nodded. He grabbed a handful of crisps and turned back to the movie but his mind was still thinking about how Mumbo's finger had felt against his lips.

It turns out that shoving a bunch of crisps in your mouth wasn't enough to get Mumbo off his mind, as the architect felt his face heat up. Grian then remembered that he had to look out for a certain scene that was supposedly coming up soon, this allowed for him to have something else to distract him while he waited for the red on his cheeks to fade.

Sure enough, only a few minutes passed and two young hobbits lit Gandalf's fireworks and caused a massive explosion. A moment later Mumbo nudged Grian with his shoulder.

"See, Grian! They're you, both of 'em go messing around in other people's Redstone and cause chaos. You should've been cast for one of their parts," Mumbo teased as he ruffled Grian's hair, completely releasing it from the gel.

This would have caused Grian to faint from happiness but the lack of crunching caused him to look past Mumbo and he was ready to faint for a different reason. His girlfriend stared at the two of them. Rather than looking angry, her face was emotionless as if she had decided to stop caring about anything. The guilt that Grian had been feeling since the beginning finally bubbled over.

"Mumbo, I have to go."

"Wait, what?"

"I'm sorry but," Grian stood up and turned to face his friend, "I just remembered that I forgot to feed Pearl and Maui before I left. Thanks for having me over, both of you, but I really should be going."

Mumbo's eyebrows arched in concern, his mouth still agape when Grian turned away and headed to the front door. The architect didn't want to hurt either of them any more than he already had.

In the front room, he desperately filled his head with different ideas for Minecraft builds in an attempt to tune out the hushed voices as he put on his shoes. Pleased with an idea for an elaborate mansion that popped into his head just as he finished slipping on his shoes, Grian began to open the door when Mumbo's "WAIT!" snapped him back to the present situation. The hermit turned around but it was too late, Mumbo barreled into him, apparently not expecting Grian to still be inside the house, and both of them hit the floor.

Grian winced, half from how much the floor hurt, and half from expecting the back of his head to feel the same. Instead of pain, he felt something warm and opened his eyes to see Mumbo kneeling over him with his arm stretched out, his hand holding Grian's head.

Their faces were centimeters apart and Grian had to see the same, hurt face that he saw in the living room.

"Thank goodness I caught you."

Grian switched to autopilot once more.

Mumbo felt Grian's smaller hands press against his shoulders, prompting him to move away. The two of them stood up together, but everything about Grian's face seemed off.

"Thanks, but I really should be going," the smaller man's eyes shifted down as he spoke, "Enjoy the rest of the movie with your girlfriend. Goodnight, Mumbo." With that he left the house, gently closing the door behind him.

The engineer stood there for a moment longer before returning to the living room. He'd have to apologize for such a weird night. To his surprise, when he re-entered the living room, the television was turned off and his girlfriend sat in the same spot that Grian had only a few minutes ago.

Seeing that everything looked normal, he joined her and reached for the remote when his hand was stopped by her own. He turned to ask why but was met with words he never thought he would hear.

"We need to talk."