“So, what are you up to right now?”

“I’m picking out some materials for Mia’s treehouse, I really need to get it going before it rains later.” Ulysses was knelt on the floor of the underground portion of his base, rummaging through a chest of assorted wood, his entire torso reaching for the bottom of it. He briefly lifted his head out, and whacked the back of it on the curved lid of the chest, sucking in breath and holding a swear in the back of his throat.

Wilheim snorted with laughter, and quickly disguised it as a cough, absently turning to the side to pretend that he hadn’t seen anything. “Uh… so what like, things do you have in mind for it?” He asked, following up his previous question. “Is there anything you need gathered?”

“No, its more so just-” Ulysses stood a little too fast, catching his knee on the side of the chest, the metal frame leaving a bruise to be formed. “Gr- Finding it in my storage.” He chuckled, more so out of pain and embarrassment than humour, and shook his injured leg, slightly limping. “Oh, I- I saw the things you put by the enchanting wall, by the way.” Wilheim turned, after looking around the low shelves and locking eyes with a stray wither skull, turned back to Uly. “Oh yeah, I thought you’d want that, I just, you know, picked it up.” he responded. “Didn’t see any lying around that you were going to use, so I thought I’d save you the trouble.” There was a moment of silence, before he continued. “You know, if you need to use an enchanting table, I have one, at uh… at my place-” His voice sort of trailed off as he saw how Ulysses was looking more at the ground between them rather than making eye contact.

Wilheim cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t want to disturb you any more, I’m sure you’re very busy, and you have my number if you need anything.” He finished up awkwardly. Ulysses nodded, clearing his own throat as Wilheim said this, agreeing “Yeah, definitely, I’ll- yeah, will absolutely-” They kept on speaking over each other, before Wilheim took the elevator with a muttered “Bye,” And Ulysses leaned against a wall, with an enormous sigh, and slid down to the floor. Never had he been so clumsy, and never had he forgotten so badly how to speak English.

Not 30 seconds later, his phone buzzed with two texts immediately after one another. Uly help

Ulysses rushed to the elevator, sword in hand, flying up it, to be greeted by Wilheim being chased by a comical horde of powerful creatures, furiously typing on his phone whilst trying to fend them off. Between the two of them, it didn’t take long to dispatch them all. Exhausted, Wilheim flopped onto Uly’s lawn of podzol, giggling deliriously, and sighed, watching as Uly did the same.

“We need to light this place up.”