"Alright, well it all started around a month after the season first stated," began Xeres, "When Grian crashed into a mountain near my house"

—————————————Flashback————————————— (Surprise!)

EX was out looking for sand, he needed glass to make bottles and had completely forgotten to get it when he started building his home. He was turning a corner that would lead him to the mountains facing the main Hermit island when he heard a shout from above. Quickly ducking into a nearby cave he scanned the sky for the source of the shout, he waited a little while before deciding it was safe.

Spoiler alert! It wasn't.

As soon as he walked out of the cave a red blur came tumbling down on him, which knocked the wind out of him whilst also knocking him down.

"I'm so sorry! My elytra just broke and I tried to land safely on the mountain but I tripped and started tumbling down it!" said the person on him in a rush, "Once again I'm sorry!"

"And you'll be even more sorry if you don't get off of me" growled Xeres, annoyed beyond belief. It wasn't like the person was heavy or anything, it just wasn't pleasant to have someone press you down into the ground.

The person quickly scrambled of, muttering sorry's over and over. EX didn't really care for the apologies, he knew the Hermit would take them back once they knew who he was. Everyone did.

As he turned to stand up a hand extended in front of his face, following the arm up he was meet by the face of Grian. Who he only knew how he looked because X accidentally sent a pic of Grian and him in an Ocean monument instead of to Doc, like the big derp he is.

Instead of taking the hand he just stood up by himself, though he did kinda regret it when Grian retracted his hand with a sad face. Xeres didn't know why though, he had never meet Grian before! So why did he feel so bad for making Grian sad? He shook those thoughts out of his head, he'd think about that later. Not now.

"Why are you here?" growled EX, though if you knew him, you could tell there was no real bite behind it.

"As I said, I was practicing my flying" replied Grian, chest puffed out to seem more intimidating. And he was failing horribly, since it was more adorable than anything.

"Flying huh? I'd say it's more like crashing, but whatever makes you sleep at night" sassed EX, and holy shit. He was already comfortable enough with Grian that he was sassing with him? He blamed it on the feeling of familiarity Grian radiated.

"To ground yourself you have to crash first" quoted Grian with a grin, really liking this red clad stranger. He would say 'Red Xisuma' but comparing people isn't nice, so he refrained from doing so.

EX stilled at Grian's words, he remembered that fraise from his father, but why did Grian know it? "Hey, where did you hear that?"

The smaller looked up at the other weirdly, but decided to not ask questions and just answer the question, "I found it in a library once, why do you ask?"

"No reason," said EX, a bit too fast for it to be just for 'no reason', "I've just heard it too and was wondering if you heard it from the same place, but you didn't"

Whatever Grian was going to say was cut off by a loud clap of thunder, and the first drops of rain.

"Rain, wonderful" commented EX sarcastically, "Follow me, you're staying at my place until it stops raining"

"You know, I probably shouldn't follow you," said Grian, following after EX anyways, "But I've got nothing else to do. So lead the way my red friend!"

"The names EX, menace"

————————————————————————————

"After that me and him started hanging out more and more, it was a nice change of pace from what the other Hermits where like to me" finished EX, I small smile on his face. And it sent a bang of regret through Xisuma's heart, he had pushed his brother away far enough that the smallest form of human decency seemed like the purest act of kindness.

"Hey, stop that!" chided EX, "I know what you're thinking, but this isn't your fault! I pushed you away as much as you did me, so stop blaming yourself for that!"

"How can you say that?" whispered X, voice detached, "How can you be so nice when all I've done is beat you down? I literally called you Evil Xisuma in front of a group of people who don't know about our inside jokes! How can you be so forgiving after all I put you through?!"

Before the admin knew what was going on, a pair of pale strong scarred arms wrapped around him in a comforting hug, "Because I know you love me, and because I love you too. Don't you ever forget that little brother, never forget it"

Xisuma took off his helmet too wipe away the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, "I'm older than you, you doofus"

"Hmm, but with just a few minutes, little brother" taunted EX playfully, oh how he had missed this.

The green Void smacked his twin on the chest lightly, "A few minutes or not, I'm still older!"

"Whatever you say," snickered EX, "whatever you say"

"Hey, as glad as I am the your getting along again. Can we continue? I believe I have yet to explain how I met Grian and Xeres!" interrupted Markus, orange eyes narrowed in fake annoyance, "We don't have all day"

"Right, right, sorry Punk, go ahead and tell my brother how we meet" apologized EX, not really sorry at all.

"Ok, so I meet Grian and EX near the start of the season," started Markus, a shit eating grin on his face, "When they invaded my island"

"Copycat!" called EX loudly, loud enough that Rodger came down to see what was going on. But after EX explaining what was going on the robot returned upstairs mumbling about not being paid enough to deal with this.

"Can I start now? Good. As I was saying-"

—————————————Flashback—————————————

Markus has been happily going around feed all his chickens when the sound of two rockets being activated filled the air. Looking up, he could see two red dots summing across the sky, seemingly chasing each other. He fed the last of the chickens before moving to the watchtower to get a better look. As he moved up he could hear laughter coming from the two blobs, and once he reached the top of the tower he could see what the two dots where.

They were actually people! Two people in red in fact, one having a red sweater and the other having red armor, playing what looked to be a game of sky tag. Armor dude seemed to be the chaser and Sweater guy the chased. They were laughing and playfully taunting one another as they danced in the sky, seemingly having the best time of their lives. Well, at least until the armored dude ran out of rockets and plummeted to the ground with a very loud, "Shit!"

It was silent for all of five seconds before the other guy started laughing his brains out, as morbid as that sounds.

"Don't laugh at me menace! I'm wounded! How dare you disrespect me like this!" yelled the armored man, his illusion of anger destroyed by the happy tone in his voice. Markus imagined he also had a smile on his face, but the dudes gray mask covered his face so Markus couldn't tell.

Sweater guy, and Markus really needed better things to call them, just continued laughing. Which is why he didn't see when his own elytra gave out, well he did notice, but only when he was halfway to the ground. But even then he didn't stop laughing, he actually started laughing more than before.

Markus looked on in amazement, he had never seen two people laugh about falling and hurting themselves. It was quite weird, but very fascinating, especially since he was pretty sure he lived alone in this world. Wait, if he lived alone, then why was there other people here?

"Maybe because you're not living alone? But I don't know, you tell me," Markus flinched back as the armored dude suddenly appeared in the opening of the tower, smirk visible through the red visor.

Instead of responding like a normal person, the mahogany teen screeched before throwing a splash potion of harming at the armored dude. To the dudes credit, he didn't fall down. Only letting out a tiny hiss of pain.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I just panicked and threw it! I didn't mean to hurt you!" rambled Markus, joints freezing up slightly in fear. And who could blame him? A six something feet tall dude in red armor with a pretty intimidating mask just tanked a splash potion of harming two like it was a tiny sting. Not to mention that he silently climbed up a tower, a tower that was very creaky. Trust him, he knows.

"It's ok Punk, I'm actually quite impressed by your quick reflexes," grinned EX, "The names EX by the way, and my friend over there is Grian, who are you?"

"Do you just go up to people and introduce yourself like this?" asked Markus, orange eyes squinted in confusion, "And the names Markus"

"Just the ones I know I'll get along with," started EX, grin still very much there, "And you, my dear Markus, is someone I'll get along with"

————————————————————————————

"So that's how you all meet?" asked Xisuma, rubbing at his temple.

"Yup!" smiled EX at his twin, still on a high from his and X's little make-up.

Before it could escalate, Markus interrupted them, again, "Enough explanations! Let's talk potions and getting Grian back"

"Right," said Xisuma, "What do you need?"

"Well, I'll need-"

Before Markus could continue a voice interrupted him, "X? EX? Random teen I don't know? What is going on?"

...

"Shit"

<> Chapter 10 everyone! And the longest yet! Sorry for not getting this out earlier, schools been a pain. But It's out now! And I hope you all enjoyed it! Have a wonderful time everyone!<>