Mumbo skipped on over to Grian's base, ready to finish the mayor bot they had started the day before.

I hope that he's feeling better, he thought to himself as he made his way up the stairs of the mansion.

In each hand, he was holding a cookie in a napkin. He had made a batch earlier that morning and he thought Grian would appreciate one.

He reached the doors, but his hands were full and he was unable to ring the doorbell. Instead, he stepped back, raised up his leg, and pressed the doorbell with his shoe.

DING DONG

The bell echoed through the empty mansion.

Mumbo didn't have to wait nearly as long this time. The door opened a minute or two after he rang the bell.

On the other side was Grian, who was looking much more awake than he was yesterday. His hair was actually brushed (somewhat). He also seemed to be wearing one of his bigger sweaters, which Mumbo would be concerned about since it was going to get hot today, but he couldn't really say anything since he wore the same exact suit everyday, no matter the temperature.

Mumbo smiled. "Good morning!"

Grian looked up at his friend, who was holding baked goods. "Morning Mumbo"

"I made you a cookie!" Mumbo held the cookie out for Grian to take.

Grian hesitated for a moment, shifted uncomfortably, and took the cookie. "Th-thank you."

"Oh c'mon, it can't be that bad." Mumbo chuckled about Grian's reaction.

"No, it's not you. It's-" Grian hesitated again, and pulled at the back of his sweater. "Er-, uh, nevermind, it's nothing"

Mumbo took a bite of his own cookie (which wasn't bad at all, why did Grian react like that?), and gave G a suspicious look. "Are you sure?"

Grian gave him a nod, but Mumbo kept giving him this look. G looked away, but Mumbo didn't.

After a few very uncomfortable moments, Mumbo finally spoke. "...Alright." He relaxed his posture and stopped giving Grian the look.

"Great, okay, let's get goin! We've got, uh, a lotta work to do if we want you to become mayor!" Grian put the cookie away (he didn't even try it) and started to walk away from the mansion.

Mumbo turned and put a hand on Grian's shoulder, causing the shorter hermit to freeze in his tracks. "Hey."

Grian slowly turned around to face his taller companion.

"If you ever need to talk about stuff, or if something's bothering you, even if it's like...an annoying bird or whatever, I'm always here." Mumbo gave his buddy a reassuring smile. "And I'll take care of that annoying bird or whatever that's bothering you"

Grian forced a chuckle, but he felt very uncomfortable from the wording of what Mumbo said. "Thanks dude"

Mumbo released his grip (he didn't realize how tightly he had been holding G's shoulder) and smiled.

"Alright! Now that that's out of the way!" Mumbo started walking down the steps, and Grian followed right next to him.

Well, scratch that. Grian followed ever so slightly behind him.

The rest of the day was a lot like the day before.

Mumbo and Grian worked on this robot that they dubbed "Grumbot". He was being built in hopes that he could help Mumbo become mayor of the shopping district.

In fact, the robot was just about finished!

Mumbo was inside, finishing up the redstone.

Grian stood in front of the build, feeling rather proud, and rather sore.

He kept arching his back and shifting in his spot, which Mumbo noticed from inside of the bot.

Grian was unaware that Mumbo could see him through Grumbot's eyes. Thinking that he was out of Mumbo's sight, he took the opportunity to quickly take off his sweater and shirt and stretch his wings.

Mumbo had been watching Grian for the past moment or two, and was glad that he had been watching at that moment.

On Grian's back were a pair of medium-sized, shimmery purple wings. They were quite lovely, but he also noticed that his friend was covered in long scars. Mumbo stepped back in surprise and accidentally dropped his wrench. It made a loud clang on the inside of Grumbot's head, causing Grian to quickly throw back on his shirt and sweater in a panic.

Mumbo picked up the wrench and looked around Grumbot for a moment before deciding that it was complete.

The redstone-dusted man stepped out of the robot's head and closed up the hole. He hopped on down from Grumbot's shoulder and landed a few feet away from Grian.

Mumbo had taken off his suit jacket and tie, and he had his sleeves rolled up. His dress shirt was stained with the sparkly red dust, and it was even in his hair.

He tried his best to not give Grian a suspicious look. If Grian wanted to share his secret, he would do so. But he hadn't yet, so Mumbo stayed silent for now about it.

Grian couldn't help but feel like Mumbo knew. There was this look in his eyes that sent chills down G's spine. His heart was beating fast and he was breathing erratically. The sweater suddenly felt so hot and it became even more uncomfortable as his wings kept trying to push against it.

Mumbo knows, oh my gosh he definitely knows. He knows and I'm gonna have to talk about it and oh my gosh-

Grian's thoughts were stopped as Mumbo stepped forwards and ran a dusty hand though his dusty hair.

"I finished Grumbot!" Mumbo smiled, and his eyes sparkled in the setting sun like redstone dust.

Grian let out a sigh of relief. It didn't seem like he saw! That's good.

"Great!" Grian smiled in return. "Should we test him out?"

Mumbo nodded and walked on over to Grumbot's command centre.

The tall Englishman pulled out a diamond and a piece of paper.

On the paper he wrote, "Hello Grumbot! Welcome to the world!"

He inserted the paper into a slot and dropped the payment into the diamond deposit. Mumbo pressed four buttons, one after the other. He stepped back to see if his wiring was working.

After a moment, a tone played from inside Grumbot, and the robot's expression changed.

It looked like he was smiling.

A paper printed out of a slot in his command centre, which Grian stepped over to get.

Now that Mumbo could see the back of his friend, and now that he knew what he was hiding, it was obvious that the wings were the source of Grian's discomfort and pain.

Grian took the paper and read it out loud to his partner.

"Uh, Grumbot says, 'HELLO! THANK YOU FOR BRINGING ME INTO THE WORLD. I AM AT YOUR ETERNAL SERVICE, AS LONG AS THAT SERVICE WILL HELP MUMBO BECOME MAYOR.'"

Mumbo looked pleased at his work. "Well, look at that! I think we did a great job!"

Grian smiled and looked up at Grumbot, who's expression had returned to normal. "Yeah...me too..." He said, his mind not in the moment.

The next thing he knew, Mumbo was standing in front of him, slightly crouching, with his arms open. "Grian-"

Grian shook his head and looked over at Mumbo, who's face was now closer to his eye level. "Oh- sorry, what?"

Mumbo cocked his head to the side like an intrigued pup. "I've been saying your name for the past minute, you totally zoned out."

"Oh! Sorry! I was thinking about Grumbot's possibilities!" Grian lied with a chuckle. "What was it you wanted?"

"I wanted to give you a hug since we completed the project!" Mumbo said, ready to embrace his best friend (and hopefully get redstone all over him, since he hated that).

Grian's panic returned, but he agreed to the hug. If he hadn't, Mumbo would have been suspicious.

Grian threw his arms around his tall friend, who put his long arms around G in response. Through the sweater, Mumbo could feel the wings, but he was very careful not to put any pressure on them. He didn't want to cause his buddy anymore pain.

Mumbo let go of the hug, but Grian held on for a moment longer.

Finally, the shorter man let go and looked down at his red jumper, which was now covered in sparkles.

"C'mon man! This is the only reason you hug me, isn't it?" Grian joked with a laugh.

Mumbo knew that Grian was joking, but he couldn't help but feel like Grian actually felt this way. If Grian would be okay with it, Mumbo would hug him all the time. He loved giving hugs! But Grian always seemed so closed off to that form of comfort. He didn't seem against anything else. Only hugs.

Of course, Grian was fine with hugs when he allowed them.

But it seemed like he needed them more than he would admit.

"Well-" Mumbo started to say "If you'd let me hug you, I would do so, with or without the redstone!" He said this in a joking way, one that didn't prompt a serious response.

Grian laughed in return, and stuck his tongue out. "If I've lost my 'Trust Me' privileges, then you've lost your 'It's Okay, I'm Not Gonna Get Redstone All Over You If We Hug' privileges"

Mumbo jokingly gave G an offended look, but on the inside... ouch. That hurt.

"I'm gonna get going. I need to fix a few things back at my mansion." Grian spoke up. The sun had finished setting and the only light here was coming from Grumbot's illuminated display.

"Got it! I'm gonna stay here and run a few more tests on Grum." Mumbo replied, his back to Grian as he examined the command centre.

"Cool, cool. I'll see you tomorrow then?" Grian equipped his elytra and pulled some rockets out of his pocket. In doing so, the cookie that Mumbo had given him fell out, but he didn't notice.

"Mhm!" Mumbo nodded. He heard the sound of rockets shooting his friend off into the sky. He wondered why he would even need an elytra if he had wings.

Mumbo pulled out another diamond and paper. On this one, he wrote "Would I even make a good mayor?"

He inserted it into the slot, which took the paper like how a ticket machine would take your tickets at an arcade, and he dropped the diamond into the deposit. He once again pressed the buttons, and stepped backwards to see his creation's reaction.

As he stepped back, he felt something get crushed under his shoe.

He looked down to see the cookie he had given to Grian, crushed to pieces.

Mumbo squatted down and sadly looked at the now-broken gift.

The answer tone played from Grumbot and the paper came out of the slot. Mumbo sighed and turned around.

He equipped his elytra and shot himself off with his rockets without even reading the response his robot had given.

Was it something he had done?