Grian POV-

Another boring rainy day. I lay in the hall that leads towards my storage system as I watch the heavy grey clouds dump the thick rain droplets on the ground. Puddles had begun to form as the ground lost its ability to absorb more. I watch as the small stream flowed down the small pipe I had put in the concrete and wood floor for this exact reason. It emptied out into an underground pool that I had found earlier in the season. It had become the starts of my robotics lab.

Yes, I do robotic stuff. Sue me. I may be terrible at Redstone, but I had become quite handy with the wires and circuits that made up robotic items. It started out when I created NCP Grian, or NPG. Sure, he was just a string of code, but he needed a vessel so I made him a realistic one that looked and sounded like me even if he was a little uncoordinated.

Later, I perfected my skills and created Robot Grian, or RG. He was a more refined machine but I decided to make him look less me. It had always been strange watching a doppelganger I had created lurch awkwardly around.

I had brought obviously them to Hermitcraft with me. I always had them with me as they were often useful when it comes to mining, creating concrete, or AFKing. I kept them in my base's basement, RG would be plugged into his port while NPG stays in his closet.

That gives me an idea! I could go hand out with them. Actually, let's not do that. I'm clearly way to bored if I want to hang out with NPG and RG. Instead I'll just take a trip to the shopping center, who cares if it's stil raining.

I stand up and grab an umbrella from my junk chests before walking out onto the soft ground, my shoes squeaking as the water seeps into them. Just great.

I ignore my wet socks and begin the walk to the shopping district as it's too rainy to utilize an elytra. The winds would push me around much too harshly and the rain would soak through the soft feathers, making them too heavy to stay airborne within minutes. And I still haven't moved my nether portal from the tree so I have no access to it.

After the quick walk through the jungle, enjoying the scents of the rain ridden soil, and an exhausting paddle through the wave tossed ocean, I dock at the mushroom island. Quickly tying the boat to a nearby fence gate to prevent it from being lost, I trudge into the heart of the shopping district with my umbrella closed, appreciating the rain as it rinses the salt water from my clothes and face. I'm already soaked from the waves so that's no longer a concern of mine.

My first stop is Keralis' LLAMB store to pick up some extra books that I don't have villagers for. I quickly move to Stress' glass shop to pick up some clear glass for a future project. \

As I leave her shop, my shoes slipping on the mud I had tracked in, I find that I'm out of food. So I rush over to my barge, which is shifting under the waves that had been risen on the small pond, to check for extra golden carrots. Sold out. I stand on the heavying wooden planks wondering what to do when I see a light on at Five Goats. I pull a couple extra diamonds from my ender chest and rush inside the warm restaurant. The warm stung my cold skin as I began to browse the assortment of carrots, looking for the freshest. I take my selected items to pay and just as I drop the diamonds into the payment chest, I heard grunting from the back.

I turn, choosing to ignore it until I heard what sounded like metal on metal and some robotic whistling, caused by the movement of uncalibrated robotic parts. I pocket the carrots and walk to the white door that leads to the back It's slightly ajar and I knock on the door frame hesitantly. When I don't hear anything I carefully push the door open to peek inside. My heart flutters slightly and I curse my dumb heart.

Sitting on a table in the middle of the room is Doc. His shirt is discarded on the floor, exposing his creeper skin and metal arm. His hair is plastered down to his head from rain and his robotic eye is flashing red. His left arm is holding a small tweezer as he pulls at a couple pieces of wire in his right arm. The wires are sparking and his arm is clearly malfunctioning.

I step lightly into the room and clear my throat to gain his attention. He looks up, anger flashing in his eyes and I take a self-conscious step back, nerves flaring in my stomach, before his gaze softens slightly, "What do you want Grian?"

I ignore the question before asking one of my own, "What happened to your arm? And is your eye malfunctioning too?"

He looked down to where his arm was twisting and bending unnaturally before looking up at me, "I got caught in the rain. What of it?"

"I thought your arm and eye were waterproof?"

He tossed his good hand up in the air, "I thought so too. But apparently the seals are broken."

"I can help..." I said in a quiet voice, not sure what the angry creeper hybrid would think about that fact. He just studied me with his eye narrowed and lips pursed before responding with a nod, "it's better than doing it myself. I'll walk you through it."

He hands me the tweezers and I hope onto the table, sitting cross legged beside his arm. I start working through the wires and circuits as he tried to walk me through it. I didn't look at his face, but I could sense his amazement as I moved faster than his explanations. Just as I was about to replace the last wire I realized that I would need to power down his arm. When I manually did so, he protested but I ignored him, slapping away his other hand when he tried to reboot his mechanical appendage. It took so long, that my hair had dried and was sticking up at some crazy angles, the curls flopping into my eyes.

"There." I sit back grinning at him while he glares at me. I raise my eyebrows at him.

"I honestly thought you were good at mechanics for a moment their but now look. My arms completely dead," his voiced hissed with annoyance as I continued to stare at him.

"Why don't you try a reboot?"

"It won't work."

"If you're so sure. I'll do it." I reach my hands forward and begin the reboot process. In minutes his arm is working normally again and he stares at it in utter amazement. He flexes his fingers a couple times before rotating his wrist and shoulder. He slips his shirt on and I laugh at his amazement, feeling my nerves melt away as he looks me in the eyes.

I lost it at that, my laughter doubling. His normal eye was full of wonder but his robotic eye was still flashing and blinking randomly. I hope off the table and walk in front of him to get a better look at the malfunctioning eye, "Do you want me to fix this too?"

"Yes, but I have a question, I thought you were bad at Redstone."

I grab the eye and began the process of releasing it from where it rested on Doc's face, "Yes, this is not redstone."

Once I had worked the complicated wiring off the eye, ensuring not to send any painful signals to Doc's brain, I examined the tech. I could feel Doc's eyes on me as I gently peel open into the interface. A small chip was clearly fried and smoking. It would be an easy fix if he had a replacement. I do a quite search of the parts he has strewn around the backroom. Nothing.

I know where I can find one though. I also have extra sight chips since NPG had a habit of destroying his. I rock back and forth on my feet as I contemplate what to do. I don't want to take Doc to my lab, but I don't want to leave him here with a broken eye. He already knows about this hidden talent of mine, so would it be all that surprising to have a place dedicated to it in my base?

But what about NPG and RG? I can't let Doc see them. He would think I'm crazy and worst of all, they have the same emotions as me and no filter. They'd share my deepest secret of all and I can't let them happen.

"Grian? What is it?" Doc's rough voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Uh- you're sight chip is fried."

He cursed under his breath before sighing, "I don't have any more and it's going to take me a couple days to build one."

I was caught off guard by his dejected attitude. Doc was usually so gruff and mean. I guess losing half of your eyesight would do that to a person.

"I have an extra one at my base, we can go grab it," the words slipped from my mouth before I even had a chance to think and I think Doc was shocked as horror flashed on my face. But he brushed it off and accepted.

I pulled out my umbrella and held it to him to walk under to protect his arm. We stepped back into the pour rain, my hair immediately began sticking back to my face again and I wipe it out of eyes as I lead Doc to the boat. We get in and I begin rowing as he holds the umbrella in such a way to protect his arm from the splashing waves. The walk through the jungle was silent as we listened to the pattering of the droplets on the canopy leaves.

I sigh as we finally enter the clear just in front of my mansion and we quickly make our way into the shelter of my storage system. I dig a couple towels from my chests to hand one to Doc and I then began rubbing the soft fabric through my hair, making my hair stand up more than it had been before.

Once we were both dry to our liking, although I still needed to change out of my wet clothes, I lead Doc to a small entrance in the corner of the spacious room. I slip into the room ahead of the hybrid and began the walk down the stone stairs I used for the descent. After a couple minutes of the silent descent, I ask Doc to wait at the door as I enter into the white laboratory style room. I make sure that NPG and RG are in their normal, hidden spots before yelling at Doc to enter.

He walks in and runs into a table I have just beside the entrance. I guess that's what happens when you only can see through one eye and have no depth perception. He groans and rights himself as I walk over to a chest I keep NPG's spare part.

It doesn't take me long to find the part and fix the eye and as I return to where Doc is standing, I can't help but feel pride as he marvels at my lab. Doc, the mad scientist, creeper hybrid, love of my life, likes my robotics lab. It makes me blush but I force it away as I begin the replacement of his eye to his nerves.

As he sits on one of my lab tables, he stares at me. He stares at me the whole time and I can no longer fight the blush. Hopefully he assumes it's just from the cold.

"There you go Doc. How's that feel?" His eye flashes lightly a couple times before settling on its normal blood red and he smiles at me.

"It's perfect."

I nod and step back, "well... I guess you can't be going anywhere before the rain stops but I might have some sealant that we could use on your arm to waterproof it again."

His smile falters and his face returns to his normal pursed lips and narrowed eyes, "I guess so."

I quickly turn away from him, swallowing my encroaching nerves, and run up the stairs to my chest to quickly grab my sealant. I usually kept it down in my lab but I had recently used it on a leak in my roof and had yet to return it to the basement.

Sealant in hand, I jog down the stairs, not wanting to leave Doc down there, alone, for longer than necessary. Who knows when NPG or RG will wake up and walk out of their charging stations to see Doc.

I open the door to the lab and freeze. I'm already too late, Doc's going to hate me now. NPG was literally sitting on the lap of Doc, who looked like he was into it?

"NPC Grian!" I yell as I barge into the lab. Doc looked up, glancing between the two of us, clearly trying to wrap his mind around that fact that there is two of me. He glances down to see the can of sealant in my hand and he stands up horrified as he removes NPG from his lap. NPG just throws an annoyed look at me as he continues to cling to Doc.

I walk up to them and hand the can I was holding to Doc as I begin peeling NPG off of him. Doc does what he can to help and soon I'm holding NPG at arms-length, glaring daggers into his soulless eyes. I can feel Doc awkwardly standing behind me.

"Oh, come on Real Grian... I was just having a bit of fun."

"Don't call me that and what did you do?"

NPG's arms waved loosely at his side as he just smirked at me, "what you've always wanted to."

I turn to Doc, NPG still in my grasp. He looked away awkwardly and I knew I had lost Doc as my friend. Right there. And it hurt. I turned the hurt to rage, and began forcing NPG back into his closet, ignoring his pleas and apologies. I slammed the door shut, locking it quickly (I should really keep is locked) and turn to see RG standing in front of me, arms crossed.

"That was rude Real Grian."

"Oh, for aether's sake stop calling me that!"

He just shrugged his metallic shoulders and walked away. I wondered why he wasn't going after Doc like NPG. He could sense my question and turned to me frowning, "I still haven't recovered from my break up with the microwave."

I rub my forehead as he walked away. That was like 4 years ago now, but at least I didn't have to worry about him and Doc.

Doc.

I whip around, expecting him to have already left, but he just stood there, staring at me, an apologetic look on his face.

I walk up to him and stare at my feet in shame, "what did NPG do to you?"

"Um- he- he kissed me."

I felt my heart shatter. NPG had just ruined my relationship with Doc but I listened as Doc continued, "now I know that that wasn't you, although I thought it was for a moment, I'm not going to hold anything he did against you. You will have to explain why you have two robots though."

I just shrugged and turned to lean into the table, trying to control the tears threatening to spill. He moved in front of me and lifted my head to look him in the eye, "maybe another day then. But I have one question. NPG said he did the one thing you want to. Do you really want to kiss me? Do you really feel that way?" His gruff voice was commanding and I can't even force myself to lie to him. I tear my eyes from his as he still holds my head up, and nods.

"Well then," I tense as I wait for his rejection or worse, "I've had the fake version of you once now, but I think I'd like to try the Real Grian."

I just stare at him as his robot eye dulls to a more subdued red. He grins at me, "you're much more submissive than NPC Grian, or whatever you called him. I like that."

He brings my face to his for a quick kiss. I didn't fight, but rather leaned into it slightly.

"Yes. The Real Grianis much better than any of those robots, no matter how human-like."