[Sabre's POV]

I wake up, and immediately feel excited because I don't feel sick at all anymore.

I happily get out of bed, and go downstairs to see Orange Steve. He's on the floor with Gerald playing with something in a bucket when I get to the living room. I run over and hug Orange, who is at first surprised, but then realizes it's me and returns the hug.

"Hey Sabre!" Orange greets me. "You're excited today, are you feeling better?"

"Yep! I don't feel sick anymore!" I smile, then notice the metal thing in the water-filled bucket is moving around. "What's that?"

"Oh, it's a pufferfish! I like them, so I decided to bring one here." Orange answers. "Probably going to make a pond for it... and maybe give it some friends too."

I reach my hand out to poke it, but Orange stops me.

"Oh, it's not really a good idea for you to touch it, buddy!" Orange says, gently pushing my hand away from the top of the bucket. "Pufferfish have spines that they can pop out when they feel threatened. It might get surprised if you poke it, and stick you."

"Ah, okay!" I answer, just watching the gold-colored mechanical fish circle the space in the bucket.

We stay like that for a little bit, just watching the pufferfish swim around, but I get bored soon and start looking around for something to do. I'm about to go outside when Orange picks me up. How'd he sneak up on me?! He's a huge clunky robot! I didn't even hear him get up!

"What is it?" I ask, while Orange sets me down on the couch.

"Didn't you notice how dark it is outside?" Orange says, looking out the window. "You woke up earlier than usual, it's 6:00 AM. You can't exactly be climbing around the trees right now."

"Oh, alright." I say, noticing how the sun isn't up yet.

"Wanna play with me until it's safe to go out?" Orange smiles.

"Heck yeah!" I exclaim, excitedly running around as soon as Orange sets me back down.

"You're like a tiny Yellow Steve sometimes..." Orange chuckles, then crouches down to my level. "What do you want to play?"

I think for a moment, then get the perfect idea.

"Do you know what Hide and Seek is?" I ask, and Orange now shares my excited look.

"Of course I do, my friends and I play it whenever I visit the Village!" He says, seems to remember something, then mumbles. "Speaking of which, we need to go there today..."

"Yay!" I say, happily jumping up and down. "You count first, I'll hide!"

"Heh, alright buddy!" Orange says.

Not even a second later, I'm already looking around for a place to hide. I hear Orange start to count, and run into his room. I see a bookshelf along one of the walls... perfect. Running over to the bookshelf, I've just managed to squeeze myself under it when Orange finishes counting.

"Ready or not, here I come, Sabre!" He says, his voice reverberating through the house.

I giggle as I hear Orange search all around upstairs, then make his way back downstairs. I see him pass by his room and head to the storage room.

"Why did I agree to this... he has so many more places to hide!" Orange grumbles.

Suddenly, Orange stops in his tracks and walks back over to his room's door. Staring into the room, I hear whirring as he moves his head around.

"I didn't leave this open..." Orange says, walking into the room. He then giggles. "Sabre, I know you're in here!"

I stay as quiet as I can under the bookshelf. I'm so gonna win! He's too tall to look down here!

I'm soon proven wrong when I see Gerald walk into the room. Orange turns to him as Gerald looks up at him.

"Oh, hey Gerald! Can you help me find Sabre?" Orange asks, and Gerald starts walking around the room.

Wha- No fair! Gerald can't just join in the game! That's cheating! I silently inch myself a little closer to the wall so Gerald won't see me as easily, since he can actually look under the bookshelf. I just delay the inevitable, though.

Soon enough, Gerald spots me and pulls me out from underneath the bookshelf. Orange looks down at the both of us hearing the commotion, as I try to make Gerald let go. Eventually, he does... once Orange is already picking me up from the floor.

"That wasn't fair." I say, crossing my arms.

"Sure it wasn't." Orange giggles. "Okay, once we get back to the living room, it's mine and Gerald's turn to hide!"

Orange takes us to the living room again, and I close my eyes and count to ten. I hear lots of loud clanking as Orange runs around to hide, which makes it easy to know which general direction he's in. I get to ten, and I open my eyes.

"Ready or not, here I-" I start to say, but I immediately start laughing.

Gerald didn't even try and only hid halfway behind a couch cushion. Orange, meanwhile, just stole the lampshade off the lamp and put it on his head, then stood in the opposite corner. I can't even get a chance to collect myself through my laughter. Gerald knows he failed and hops down from the couch, but Orange still doesn't move from his spot. He only takes the lampshade off when I fall to the floor laughing. Orange sheepishly looks down at me while I try to get back up.

"...You can see me?" Orange asks, and I just laugh harder.

"You- You can't just-" I say, my own laughter interrupting my sentence.

Orange puts the lampshade back and picks me up from the floor again. He hugs me as I keep on trying to stop laughing.

"Okay, it was a bad hiding spot, I get it." Orange says, looking a little embarrassed. "You can calm down now."

"You can't just pretend to be a lamp, Orange!" I finally get out, stopping my laughter enough to speak.

"That was the shortest Hide and Seek round ever..." Orange mumbles.

It's my turn to hide again. Orange and Gerald stay in the living room, while I find a place to hide. I decide to go upstairs, and look around my room for a good spot where neither Orange or Gerald could see me.

Under the bed? No, Gerald would find me pretty soon...

The corner of the ceiling? I could climb up... no wait, Orange would notice me super fast...

Wait- The chest next to my bed! Perfect!

I quickly scramble inside the wooden chest, where I usually keep all my personal stuff. Y'know, my storybook, my bear plush when I'm not holding it, the spare crop seeds, my little pocketknife... normal things for an apocalypse dweller.

I close the lid just as Orange gets to ten. He takes a while to count, maybe he has a different counting system? I hear him and Gerald as they look around the house for me. Eventually, I hear them come up the stairs.

"Alright, where are you..." Orange says, as I hear Gerald already trotting around the room.

It's a while before I hear Orange again. I do, however, hear as he searches near my bed, when he walks to the balcony, and when he stops near the window. He's standing right next to the chest I'm hiding in. I'm so good at this!

I hear Gerald walk back up to Orange.

"Humans don't have sort of cloaking mechanism, right?" Orange says, and I quickly keep myself from giggling.

My hiding spot is quickly discovered, though, when a low growling sound interrupts the silence. Gosh dang it. I hear Orange laughing as the lid to the chest opens, and I look up at my robotic friend. Orange laughs harder when he sees my annoyed expression. He then takes me out of my hiding spot and keeps laughing.

"Betrayed by your own tiny systems." Orange chuckles.

"Shut up." I say, as Orange takes me downstairs.

Orange sets me down on the couch, still laughing. Orange then walks over to the storage room, stifling his laughter. Gerald has a smirk on his face as he hops up on the spot on the couch next to me.

"What are you looking so smug for? You didn't do a thing!" I say to the mechanical pig, and Gerald just ignores me.

Orange walks back out of the storage room holding some bread, a few apples, and a water bottle. He hands them to me and sits between me and Gerald. I quickly finish the apples and bread, then pick up the water bottle and drink the water inside.

"Hey Sabre, what do you think about going into the village today?" Orange asks.

I set down the empty water bottle on the table and look up at him.

"The village is fun!" I answer. "What do you need to go there for?"

"Well..." Orange says. "The Leader actually knows exactly where the Orange Crystal is. Figured since we... can't get the Red Crystal, we could start there."

"Even better! Let's go!" I exclaim, jumping up from the couch.

Orange giggles and picks me up, heading towards the door.

"Alright buddy. It is bright enough to go out now." He says, the turns to Gerald, who's still on the couch. "We'll be back soon, Gerald!"

As Orange takes me over to the orange portal, I feel the early morning sun's warmth on my face, and it makes me feel happy. It's not cold anymore, and the sun isn't scorching hot like back in my old world. It's just... nice.

Orange gets a tighter grip on me as he starts to speed up once we reach h the portal, and I copy that grip as much as I can as we go through the colorful window inside the frame.

—————————————————————————————————————

When I open my eyes again, we're just outside the village in the little clearing with a path.

I excitedly run out from the forest once Orange sets me down, as we enter the village. I'm immediately met with a few familiar smiling, robotic faces as we both go down the village path, Orange walking right behind me. I say 'Hi' to a few of the other Orange Steves, and they greet me back and wave. Orange also smiles at them as we pass by.

We stop in front of two specific people; Happy and Funny Orange Steve. They both seem excited to see me up and walking around again, after what happened the other day.

"Hey there, little guy!" Funny says, ruffling my hair. "How you doing?"

"I'm doing better, thanks to you guys' help!" I say. "By the way, Orange told me what you guys did to Rainbow Red. That sounds like it was awesome!"

"Oh, so that's the punk's name?" Happy says. "Yeah, it was pretty awesome! You should've seen his face when Shy got him square in the throat. Priceless!"

"It was pretty freakin' awesome." Orange says.

"So, whatcha guys doing?" Funny asks.

"Oh, we're going to see the Leader about something." Orange replies. "He... knows something about something we need."

"Alrighty. Have fun!" Happy says, as Orange and I walk towards the Leader's house.

When we get there, Orange knocks on the door and Shy answers. Shy now has a leather hat on.

"O-Oh, hey guys!" Shy says, smiling.

"Hiya Shy! Cool hat." I say.

"T-Thanks, it's my l-lucky one..." Shy says. "C'mon i-in, y-you two."

Orange and I walk inside, and Shy closes the door behind us. I don't have time to look around before Cleo bounds up to me and excitedly starts nuzzling my face. I giggle, and pet the mechanical dog as she barks. We then hear the Leader upstairs.

"Who is it?" The Leader says, as we hear him walking towards the stairs.

"Hi, Leader!" Orange says, making sure Cleo is gentle with me.

"Hello!" I call out.

The Orange Leader gets downstairs, and sees us two. He walks over with a small smile on his face.

"Hello again, you two." The Leader greets us. He the silently motions to his dog to calm down, which she does. "What's up?"

"Sabre and I decided a little while ago to start looking for the Crystals, as you know from my explanation about the intruder from the other day." Orange begins. "Since we can't get the Red Crystal at the moment, we're moving onto the Orange Crystal. Is it still where it's been since I last saw it?"

The Orange Leader has a look of surprise for a second, then nods and leads us outside.

"Yes, it is, although there's been a few... additions to where it's kept." The Leader says. "I'll take you to it."

The Leader takes us out of the village once we're outside, and we start walking into the part of the forest behind his house.

"Hopefully the walk isn't too much trouble... it's a nice day today." The Leader says as we make our way through the branches and vines in the metal forest.

Orange shields me from the steel plants that are too close to where I am as we walk through, neither of us wanting a repeat from what happened last time we were in a forest.

For some reason, the Leader and Orange Steve keep looking around as we go, as if they're keeping watch for something...