Mumbo was half-correct. Xisuma did help...sort of.

At least he knew that Grian was okay. Even if Grian didn't want his help.

Mumbo flew through the air with his elytra, thinking about what X had told him.

Grian doesn't want help. No no, he doesn't want my help. He wants Xisuma's help.

"Which makes sense-" Mumbo stopped thinking in his head and started talking outloud to himself as he flew through the icy, piercing rain.

"Xisuma is much more qualified, right? He's the admin, he knows best. Besides, it seems like him and Grian have history or something. X is the one who brought Gri to the server."

Mumbo paused for a moment to look where he was going. He was near his mayoral building.

He had no reason to go back to his base. It would be best if he worked on Grumbot or something. He just needed to do something, anything, to get his mind off of Grian.

Mumbo couldn't help but feel jealous of Xisuma. Wasn't Grian supposed to be his best friend?

The tall Englishman made a semi-graceful landing on the platform, only slipping a little from the rain, which didn't look like it would let up anytime soon.

Grumbot's screen lit up as Mumbo approached.

The robot played a little tune and gave a happy expression. Mumbo expected his son to print out a message of greetings, but that didn't happen.

Instead, Grumbot made more noise, but this time, it sounded almost like words.

Mumbo could make out a bit of it.

"Hello Dad!"

He stepped back in surprise. He didn't program Grumbot to be able to speak. Was his AI evolving?

No, no. There's no possible way that could be happening. Mumbo made sure that that wouldn't be a possibility.

At least, he thought he did.

Mumbo thought back to when they were building the boy, and realized his mistake.

"Well, crap." Mumbo facepalmed.

More beeps and tones came from the big robot.

It sounded like, "What's wrong, Dad?"

"I-...er, nothing. It's nothing!" Mumbo lied. He couldn't tell Grumbot that he had forgotten to evolve-proof his AI. If Grumbot knew that Mumbo intended to do that, it could be detrimental to the server.

Mumbo told himself it would be fine.

I mean, what are the odds that a robot would cause the downfall of Hermitcraft?

"Where's other Dad?" Grumbot seemed to say through digital tones.

"Other Dad...? OH! Grian!" Mumbo ran his hand through his sopping wet hair.  "He's...well,...He's hiding. He's not doing too well, so he's hiding out at Xisuma's base...hiding out from me..."

Grumbot extended his hand to his sad father and set it next to him, as if waiting for Mumbo to step onto it like a platform.

The Architech was compliant and stepped onto the big metal hand. Grumbot brought his hand up to his boxy head and held Mumbo close. It was the closest thing to a real hug that Grumbot could give.

Mumbo understood what his boy was trying to do, and his heart was warmed by the gesture.

The man stepped closer to the mayoral bot's head, and hugged the corner of it, best he could.

He could hear the whirring of his cooling fans inside, and the screen gave off a warm glow.

Grumbot whistled a tune, and made some noise that sounded like "I love you very much, Dad!"

Mumbo stepped away from the screen and put his hands on his cheeks. He felt a little embarrassed for some reason.

It was strange for Mumbo to be shy in any way. The sparkly, 6'5 Englishman was known for building big structures and making many Redstone contraptions. But for some reason, whenever Grumbot called him "Dad", Mumbo would be at a loss for words.

Mr. Jumbo looked up at his roboson's happy expression and felt proud.

He thought for a moment, and looked behind him. There was a cube building, partly unfinished, that caught his attention.

I forgot all about the shop Gri was building for me-

Mumbo decided at that moment that would do something about it

"Grumbot-" He spoke up

The beeps sounded like, "Yes, Dad?"

"How would you like a little brother?"

Grumbot's expression went from happy to extremely elated. He moved his head from side to side and sang a joyous tune.

Mumbo couldn't help but smile. "I will take that as a yes!"

Grumbot set his father down and continued to sing happily. Mumbo laughed and wiped the rain from his eyes.

He grabbed his tools from his inventory and dashed over to the shop. Building would take his mind off of Grian.

The shop was in the shape of a sitting robot, complete with little sandals.

Grian built this on the first day, but they hadn't done anything with it.

"Alrighty, well, I think it would just be easier to make the shop inside the structure, and then make a little robot to be the shop attendant." Mumbo discussed his plans with himself.

And so off he went, building through the downpour. It wasn't ideal to be working with redstone in the rain, but it worked just fine.

By the time he was finished with the mini robot, it was already very early the next morning. The rain persisted, but just like the constant tug of sadness on his heart, he ignored it.

He had been working nonstop for the entire day, and he was covered in redstone and machine grease. He was tired too.

Mumbo studied the little robot he had just made. He was sitting on the floor of the shop, since it was dry in there, with his legs outstretched. The redstoner took the little bot's hands and felt a surge of happiness. The droid looked like a mini version of Grumbot, if Grumbot had legs.

All he had to do was turn him on.

Mumbo pressed a button on the front of the bot and watched as the small screen lit up.

"Hewwo!!" The little boy bot jumped up and down. Mumbo had decided to just give this one speaking rights in the first place so that he wouldn't have to learn how to talk like Grumbot was doing. (In fact, the whole time Mumbo was working on the little boy, Grumbot had been working on talking. Mumbo could hear beeps and whistles, tones and pings, as Grumbot worked on English. He was getting good.)

"Why hello there!" Mumbo smiled.

"I'm Jwrumbot!" The little robot danced around the sitting hermit.

"I know!" Mumbo laughed.

"You're my papa!" Jrumbot giggled and jumped into Mumbo's arms.

Mumbo didn't know why, but he liked being called that. He liked being a dad, especially to these robot boys. Much easier than real kids, he assumed.

"Yes, I am your papa." Mumbo smiled even wider. He stood up with his baby in his arms and gave him a tight hug.

"And I love you very very very much." Mr. Jumbo kissed Jrum's screen.

"Oh! What a coincidence!" Jrumbot spoke up, his voice very young and baby-ish "cuz I wuv you too!"

Mumbo's heart stopped at that. This little boy was far too wholesome. His face turned as red as redstone, and he laughed. He proceeded to give his little boy more kisses as he brought him into the rain. He had the foresight to waterproof both Grum and Jrum.

Mumbo brought his baby boy to meet his big brother.

"Grumbot, I want you to meet your new little brother! This is Jrumbot!"

Mumbo held Jrumbot up, Lion King style, so that Grumbot could see him better.

"Hewwo!!" Jrumbot waved his little arms about.

Grumbot's eyes got all sparkly as he met his little brother.

"Hi!" Grumbot's voice was now easy to make out, and sounded a lot like a mix of Grian and Mumbo's (which would make sense. They are his dads)

"Can I hold him, Dad?" Grum asked innocently.

"Of course, kiddo!" Mumbo beamed as Grumbot cupped his hand for Jrum to hop into. Jrumbot did just that.

Grum and Jrum started talking about their fathers and the mayoral race.

Mumbo started to space out. He started to think about Grian again. He started to think about Grian's decision to run away without telling him.

Mumbo started to get anxious. He started to get mad.

Xisuma said Grian loved him. Xisuma said Grian was Mumbo's best friend.

It didn't feel that way.

The friendship felt very one sided.

Mumbo felt so tired, but he didn't want to sleep.

He needed to make more.

He couldn't rest until he had made more robots.

They loved him.

He craved the feeling of being loved.

He wanted to build his family, quite literally .

He wanted-

"Papa?"

His thoughts were interrupted by his baby. He looked up.

"What is it, Jrum?"

"Are you alwight?" The little boy asked.

"I-...I'm just fine." He gave his son a smile. "Oh!" He clapped his hands together as an idea formulated in his head.

"How would you like another brother...and a sister?" Mumbo offered, pointing finger guns as he said it.

"Yeah!!" Jrumbot jumped up and down in his big brother's hand.

"I would like that too, but don't you think you should sleep, Dad?" Grumbot sounded more human, and he sounded more concerned.

"I don't need sleep! Sleep is for the weak!" Mumbo gave a playful grin as he took off his drenched suit jacket and set it next to Grumbot's command centre.

"I'll be back in a moment! I need to get the twins!"

Mumbo zipped off on his elytra towards his base.

Mumbo was going to be okay. All he needed was to just keep building. Sure he was tired, but that didn't matter. He promised himself that he wouldn't sleep until Grian returned.

Hopefully Grian would come back soon.