Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Skeppy, the anthropomorphic diamond based golem like creature, wandered the plains of the dark nether in peace. The surrounding nature and mobs remained in their own space as Skeppy didn’t disturb them. He had calmed down from the initial caution from entering the nether, and so his hardcased exoskeleton softened and the brilliant blue exterior made of diamond eased and he remained to look like every other human. 

He had found what he was looking for; a cluster of quartz sitting a few blocks down a slope. It was a little risky climbing down as lava lay calmly below as usual. But Skeppy had cleared all the quartz anywhere remotely near most of the nether portals around and to avoid travelling far and getting lost, he debated his choices to climb down to the quartz. 

He grabbed his sword and used it to slowly lower himself down the steep slope until he stepped onto some firm ground. He looked down; only a little bit now. He went to take another step down but the wedge he had created in the mountain wall with his sword shifted and crumbled.

“Ack--” he yelped as he felt himself fall backwards. Automatically his skin hardened and his diamond exterior returned and he was a bright blue midst the raging red that was the nether.

He tumbled down the mountain side, his hand scrambling to use his sword to stop the fall and hopefully avoid lava, which was the worst case scenario, 

Fortunately his wrists managed to withstand the pressure of falling down a hill and the sword caught itself onto some rocks and he stopped rolling. 

Catching his breath, he lifted himself up onto a ledge and looked at the damage. He had fallen quite a bit, and lava was a few metres away.

That was close. 

He gathered his breath and looked around, which is when he realised the dreaded truth; he didn’t know where he was. Yeah, he fell down a hill but the rolling and tumbling, he had lost his orientation. Cursing, he climbed over a small mound and onto a flat terrain. Now he’d had to wander for miles hoping to find another human or a portal. He quickly checked his pack to make sure he had brought food and supplies.

As his eyes were busy, his ears picked up a noise and he returned to being alert. His fist gripped his sword and cautiously crept up behind a rising pile of netherrack. Behind it was a small piglin, wandering mindlessly. 

Skeppy almost relaxed his shoulders before he caught the dark figure of a nether demon. He froze. Nether Demons were not something he particularly wanted to bump into. Speaking to them was a nightmare, with their strong accents and boastful attitudes. They could lead him to a portal but they didn’t like it when humans got lost in the nether and so would do it all while ranting about humans and everything bad about the overworld; which to them was everything apparently. Not to mention they were dangerous and had a quick temper. Those traits alongside being annoying was something every Overworld citizen despised as they had to hold their tongue and tolerate the Nether Demon as they saved their lives. 

But Skeppy really wanted to finish his quartz mansion soon as the rest of the members in the village were getting on his nerves with all the ‘ We told you you couldn’t make a massive mansion’ .

So he waited for the Nether Demon to be finished so he could ask it to take him home. It took a second for him to realise it was hunting, and remembered the few times he’d seen one hunt, with the way they pounced and clawed the victim to shreds like tigers. He’d seen them eating in their animalistic manners, devouring the prey with their mouths with no consideration for the noise they made.

Skeppy watched as the demon crept forward towards the unsuspecting piglin. Skeppy almost frowned, inspecting the demon. He swore they were much taller. But the demon matched every nether demon description with his dark black skin, sleek looking wings, sly tail and sharp-looking horns. Although, the most definitely shorter than expected demon was wearing more clothing than nether demons did, wearing basically a proper full outfit rather than the scraps of cloth nether demons wore. 

Skeppy didn’t have much of a moment to think about this anomaly as the demon swiftly stepped forward and curved so his tail curled around the piglin’s throat and slit it. The piglin fell to the floor and the demon bent over it, taking out a knife.

Skeppy was almost one-hundred per cent sure demons didn’t use human equipment and usually just left the attire piglins wore to the side as they ate their food. This was the first time he’d seen a demon this close, and at that, a strange one.

The demon carefully cut a piece of the piglin and placed it through the knife. He then scrambled to the side, where a river of lava flowed. It was silent, with only the sound of crackling fires nearby, and the demon sat comfortably with his hand holding the knife over the lava.

Was...he cooking his meat?

Skeppy blinked. This demon seemed much more sophisticated than any other demon he’d met. Once one had seen the sight of him and threw the guts of a piglin at him just because Skeppy had looked in his direction. And now the demon in front of him is cooking his food.

He watched as the demon decided the food was cooked enough and brought the knife to his mouth to bite the meat off, chewing it delightfully. Skeppy could now see his face clearly; it resembled any normal demon's face, his fangs and teeth were the right amount of sharp and scary and his eyes were eerily white and bright. 

Skeppy found himself leaning a little forward and some dirt crumbled beneath the pressure of his hands, making a small miniscule sound. Skeppy almost didn’t even realise but the demon froze and looked up. 

Skeppy panicked and ducked, causing more dirt to fall and making a small commotion. He held his breath - what if he kills me like that piglin-- both of his hands were holding the sword in his hands. He didn’t hear anything but the next thing he saw was the blinding white eyes of the demon in his face.

“AH!” he screamed and leaned back against the netherrack he was previously hiding behind. “DON’T KILL ME PLEASE,”

The demon backed a little bit and watched as Skeppy scrambled to his feet and held his sword out in front of him. Everything Skeppy had said about the demon being short he took back, as the demon was still incredibly tall, and Skeppy realised the demon was only short compared to other demons, but was still a terrifying giant compared to Skeppy, who was just a little bit taller than half the height of the demon. 

“Don’t be so rudimentary,” the demon almost hissed, or whispered? Skeppy frowned. The complex language that the demons used causes their english pronunciation to be difficult to understand sometimes but this demon’s pronunciation was impeccable.

“How can you speak like that?” Skeppy asked, and almost immediately regretted it. “Wait- nevermind-” he was still terrified of the looming demon.

The demon watched intently at Skeppy who was almost shaking as he held the sword feebly. There was a moment before the demon shifted and phased, making Skeppy jump. When he opened his eyes again, the demon was significantly shorter. He was still taller than Skeppy though. 

“What- what was that?” Skeppy asked, still scared out of his wits. 

“I was making you feel uncomfortable,” the demon answered. 

“Oh,” Skeppy blinked. “Thanks, I guess. I’m Skeppy,” he remembered his purpose; he needed to get home. 

“‘Geppy?” 

Skeppy almost grinned, I supposed he still has language barrier troubles.

“Skeppy,” the demon repeated, and Skeppy could see the long forked tongue in his mouth. “I’m-” a series of echoing sounds that sounded like the depths of hell had decided to try acapella and Skeppy felt all frightened again. He’d only heard the demon language from a distance, as you could hear demon conversations even at great lengths due to the nature of demon’s voices when using their language. 

“I’m sorry?” Skeppy chuckled nervously.

The demon glanced nervously to the side. “Oh- I’m sorry. I forgot, you can’t understand. Um, let me see,” the demon thought for a moment, tapping his fingers together. “Translated, I think it’s ‘Bad Boy Halo’,”

“Your name is-” but Skeppy stopped himself from making fun of a literal Nether demon that was naturally double his own height. “Badboyhalo huh?”

“Yea,” the demon nodded. “I think so,” he squinted a bit but didn’t continue.

“I think I’ll call you Bad, since that’s a mouthful,” Skeppy smiled and decided to ask about his request. “I lost my way in here- I don’t usually get lost mind you, I’m one of the best Nether uh gatherers out there, I just fell from a mountain that’s all and so I got lost-”

“You want my help?”

Skeppy paused. “Yeah, that’d be neat,”

Bad paused for a moment and looked around again. 

Was there something I missed? Skeppy frowned, his own eyes darting about finding nothing.

“Ok,” Bad said.

“Really?” Skeppy broke back into a smile. “Excellent. I just need to find a nether portal then I’ll know where I am. I know every nether portal in the area so,” 

Badboyhalo made a mixed face of ‘ok sure’ and amusement. 

The following silence was cut short by Skeppy’s movement to follow Bad but Skeppy ducked and let out a small yell as another larger dark figure flew down in front of them. Skeppy looked up and saw a large demon obscuring their path. He looked at Bad.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Bad asked, in english. Skeppy frowned. Bad shifted to his larger form, the taller form Skeppy had found him in.

“What are you doing,” the large demon growled, not in english. Skeppy couldn’t understand but Bad’s wings twitched.

“I’m helping this Overworld Walker to find a portal,” Bad replied, again, in english. Skeppy wondered if he was doing that so he could understand the conversation but he doubted it. 

“You cannot,”

“ Why not?” Bad’s eyes seemed to look more menacing than Skeppy realised.

“ You cannot. I can lead him,” 

Bad almost paused in confusion before stepping forward in annoyance. “ Why can’t I do it. I can do everything like you,”

The bigger demon didn’t reply, and instead looked over at Skeppy. 

Skeppy almost felt like his diamond shell wasn’t enough protection and wanted to sink to the floor. The bigger demon looked like he was going to kill him. 

The demon looked back at Bad and pulled out a body from behind some rocks. It was the piglin body Bad was eating beforehand. “What is this?”

Bad looked at it. “My food. I was eating it before I found him,” he pointed to Skeppy. 

“Your food?” the demon turned the body around to reveal the chunk of meat that Bad had carved out. It was obvious the cut was made by a knife. “Why are you utilizing human materials?”

Bad scrunched his nose. “Because the way you eat is gross. Not all things the Overworld Walkers do are bad. For example, the invention of shoes are a magnificent-”

“Give it to me,” Bad was interrupted as the demon leaned forward, towering over Bad, who stumbled backwards. 

“Give what to you?” But Skeppy watched as Bad glanced down at his waist band as he revealed the location of where his knife was. Skeppy didn’t know what was going on but from what Bad was saying and the context, it seemed like the demon didn’t like Bad’s human-like behaviour.

The demon growled and Skeppy’s ears vibrated afterwards. The demon lurched forward and the next thing Skeppy knew, Bad and the demon were in a ball of dust and limbs clawing at each other. He noted the only screeches came from the bigger demon.

Finally, the demon managed to slip out of Bad’s attacks and stood alongside the lava river’s edge. “ Bad luck,” he lifted his hand from behind his back and showed Bad the knife in his hand.

Bad looked at his empty waistband and then at him. “No, don’t-”

The demon only grinned and dropped the knife, which was half the size of his hand, into the lava. There was a silence as the knife sizzled out of existence. Skeppy looked at Bad, who was staring at the lava, before looking back up at the demon.

“Why’d you do that! Do you know how long it took for me to find one!” Bad yelled back, and Skeppy almost cowered from the echoing nature of the Nether Demon’s native language. Besides, Bad was almost glowing, even in his dark form, and he seemed to look more terrifying than usual. His eyes shone brighter. 

The bigger demon paused and weighed it’s options against fighting Bad again (which Skeppy realised only the bigger demon had scratches and blood), or to leave it. “Whatever. The others won’t like that you’re communing with them,” And then he left. 

More silence followed, with only Bad’s breaths slowly calming down, and then he looked normal again. 

“Are- are you alright?” Skeppy asked, still shaking. 

“Huh?” Bad turned to face Skeppy. “Right, yes I am. Thanks for asking,” he smiled, almost as if the whole encounter didn’t happen. “Come on, I know a shortcut,” he turned around and began to trek over the harsh netherrack.

Skeppy blinked, and followed him.

--

“So, you don’t always look like that?” Bad asked after a while.

“Like what?” Skeppy frowned.

“Like, all shiny. Like your sword,” Bad pointed to the iron sword in Skeppy’s hand. “Except,” he seemed to have trouble trying to find the word. “Not gray,” 

“You mean blue?” Skeppy formed a smile.

“Yes!” Bad almost jumped in excitement. “I didn’t know the word for that colour. It’s really pretty,”

“Well, it’s my favourite colour,” Skeppy nodded.

“We don’t have many colours here. Only red. And orange. Something yellow. Oh, and pink!” Bad explained. “Do all humans turn blue?” he turned to face Skeppy.

Skeppy shocked his head after a moment. “No- no, only me. I’m special,”

“So am I!” Bad broke into a smile again. He didn’t elaborate and continued. “But all humans are squishy, right?”

“Sorry?” 

“Like,” Bad made a gesture with hands as if to try and play charades before poking Skeppy in the check. 

“Hey!” Skeppy yelped. 

“Like that,” 

Skeppy almost laughed. “Yes, humans are...squishy. Aren’t you?”

“In some places,” Bad said simply. “But you are an Overworld Walker, right?”

“Yeah,” Skeppy nodded. 

“Here! We arrived,” Bad sped up, to show Skeppy the portal. It was a slightly decorated one, and he realised it was the one near the edge of the village. 

“Oh, that was quick. Thank you,” Skeppy turned to face Bad. “Um, have a nice day,”

“A nice what?” Bad paused, staring at Skeppy.

Skeppy opened his mouth in confusion but remembered the Nether didn’t have night and day. “Have a nice time,” 

“Ok! Thank you!” Bad waved bye as Skeppy walked into the portal. 

Why did he say thank you? Skeppy thought back as he opened his eyes to the bright daylight of the Overworld. 

Chapter Text

Skeppy was wandering the nether again. He had a long way to trek if he wanted to find an area with some quartz, seeing as he had cleared basically half the nether at this point to find materials for his large mansion. 

On the thought of fearing he’d get lost again, he realised he recognised the lava river from a few days ago where he had met Bad, the strange Nether Demon. He had done some research when he returned home but had come out even more confused. All the books basically made it seem that no demon should be as short as Bad seemed to be, even in his tall form, and that demons didn’t shapeshift or be able to change heights. And on top of all that, he had asked Technoblade, a self proclaimed expert on Nether Demons about mannerisms they had and apparently none of them were supposed to like wearing clothes or using utensils to eat. Most of them didn’t even like interacting with humans. It all only solidified Skeppy’s confusion from that day, 

Skeppy stared down the path which led to the area in which Skeppy had found Bad. It was incredibly hard to find Nether Demons as they hid their homes very carefully and could access dangerous parts of the nether with ease due to their wings. He probably would never find Bad again, unless Bad sought him out personally.

With this in his head, he walked down the path, trying to remember if he saw another path behind where Bad was hunting, which could potentially lead to more quartz. 

Except when he approached the opening, he found Bad.

Skeppy paused in the silence, realised Bad hadn’t noticed him yet. He frowned, why was Bad here? The demon was sitting cross legged on the bed of the lava river. 

“Bad?” Skeppy hesitantly said.

Bad twitched and spun almost immediately, onto his feet with a small growl. Skeppy jumped, and his diamond form crawled over his skin as defense. He could feel danger radiating off the demon. Once Bad realised it was Skeppy he calmed down. Skeppy instantly felt safer. How Bad managed to seem terrifying one moment and perfectly normal the next was strange. 

“Hi,” Bad mumbled, turning back to face the lava river.

“What’s up?” Skeppy went forward and looked into the river to see if there was anything Bad was looking at.

Bad glanced up at the dangling glowstones above them. “They’re glowstones Skeppy, I don’t think the Overworld has them, but I’ve never been so I’m not too sure. I mean, you have to get light from somewhere right?” Bad was ranting as Skeppy stared at him.

It took a moment for Skeppy to realise Bad’s rambling about glowstones was from his misunderstanding of Skeppy’s ‘what’s up’ question, which was already a little odd in itself, but then Skeppy realised what Bad had said. 

“You’ve never been to the Overworld?!” Skeppy exclaimed.

Bad stopped his conversation and looked at Skeppy. “No, why would I have?” 

Skeppy broke into a massive grin. “You’re telling me you’ve never seen the Overworld? Ever? You have no idea what’s up there?”

“Well, no,” Bad answered. “They don’t let me. They said that humans don’t like us so it’s better,”

“What?” Skeppy still couldn’t wipe the excitement from his face. “No? I mean, some humans don’t like Nether Demons but that’s probably just because they’re scared of you. I mean, look at you, you’re terrifying. But when you get to know people, then they’re less scary! Humans would love you,” 

Bad process of the words. “But what if they find out?”

“What? The bigger demons? Come on, they can’t control you, plus you’re ten times scarier than them,”

Bad rubbed his nose, glancing away. “I don’t know, I’m not too sure. I probably have things to do anyways,”

Skeppy looked at the lava river. “What? Looking glumly at lava? You can do that in the Overworld!”

Bad turned bad to Skeppy. “There’s lava in the Overworld?”

“Yeah! And so many other things,”

“Is that how you get your light? I don’t suppose glowstones grow up there...I heard that there’s nothing above you. Is that true?” Bad asked, tilting his head a little bit.

Skeppy almost couldn’t believe it. “You have to go see the Overworld! Come on,” Skeppy almost begged. He looked back at the lava. “We can make you another knife! Is that why you’re sulking here?”

“Make another knife?” Bad’s attention was turned. “You can make them?”

“Of course!” Skeppy nodded at a thousand miles an hour. “I have materials at my house. Come on,”

“Ok, ok, ok, I’m coming,” Bad said, in his soft voice that accommodated the English language. 

--

On the way to a portal, Skeppy noticed Bad glanced at the surrounding piglins roaming about. “Why are you looking at them. You do know they won’t attack you,” Skeppy said.

“No, I know,” Bad said. “I’m just a little hungry. I haven’t eaten since he took my knife away,”

Skeppy almost gaped. “Bad! It’s been like four days,”

“I know,” Bad said. “I can go for a while without eating. It doesn't mean I’m not hungry during those days,”

“What? Why haven’t you eaten?”

“Well, I don’t like eating with my hands directly from prey. It’s messy,” Bad shrugged.

Skeppy was almost flabbergasted. “Every Nether Demon does though,”

“And? It’s uncivilised. They don’t even wash their hands afterwards,” Bad tried to defend himself from Skeppy’s reaction.

“Wash their hands?” Skeppy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You don’t even have water here- how are you-” Skeppy’s brain flickered. “You take water from our camps?”

Bad looked scared for once. “Oh no! No, no, I’m sorry Skeppy, I didn’t mean to- well I did, but I left gifts in the chests as payment, you know? I’m really sorry,” His fingers returned to fiddling with each other.

Skeppy looked bewildered. “What? No, I’m not mad. Wait?” Skeppy almost covered his mouth. “That was you? All those blaze-rods and wither skeleton heads- and that one nether star that mysteriously appeared in our chests? That was you?”

Bad nodded. “Well, yeah. I felt bad for stealing your water. I hope you can forgive me,” he mumbled the last part.

“What? Water is like- it’s like lava here. It’s fine! No one’s mad,” Skeppy assured.

Bad seemed skeptical at the notion about water’s equivalence to lava but continued towards the portal that appeared within distance. “We’re here,”

“Nervous?” Skeppy asked, to fill the silence as he climbed up the step to the portal.

“Yes!” Bad almost squealed, his eyes darting around as if he expected a Nether Demon to pop out. 

“See you on the other side,” Skeppy grinned and disappeared in a puff of purple.

Bad swallowed and looked around one last time. The silence nether replied in response. Then, he stepped into the glittering purple with his eyes closed.

--

When Bad opened his eyes, he was immediately met with the brightest light he’d ever seen. He yelled and covered his eyes, and realised his ears seemed to be malfunctioning as well as hundreds of noises and voices could be heard.

“Bad. Bad!” Skeppy grabbed Bad’s hands and moved them away from his face. Bad opened his eyes to see Skeppy, shining in the bright light. He shut his eyes again. 

“No! You’re too bright,” 

Skeppy laughed. “That’s what your eyes look like in the nether,”

“Huh?”

Skeppy urged for Bad to open his eyes again. “Look! Look at everything,” 

Bad slowly opened his eyes, with Skeppy’s hand still on his arm. His white eyes, which looked plain white in the bright daylight instead of shining, went wide and a smile slowly formed. “Oh my goodness, everything looks so...bright!” He spun around to see some trees. “What are these? These colours! What’s this one?” He pointed to the handful of leaves he was touching, before walking around the tree trunk. “It’s like the Warped Forests in the nether!” 

“Yeah, they are,” Skeppy nodded. “Come look at the village,” 

“The what?” 

Bad turned around to where Skeppy was pointing, the collection of houses and people and colours and-- everything. “What- what is it?”

“Houses, people,” Skeppy answered. “Everything,” 

Bad looked up at the sky. “What’s up there?”

Skeppy looked up. “That’s...that’s the sky. There’s not much up there,”

Bad looked directly into the sun before squinting. “Is that a really big glowstone?”

“No, that’s the sun. It disappears in a few hours, making it night time. Then it comes back,” Skeppy explained.

“It’s so beautiful. It’s so bright,” Bad looked back at Skeppy. “You’re so bright!” 

“Oh, right,” Skeppy looked down at his glistening diamond self. “I forgot to change back,”

“It’s beautiful,” Bad kept looking at Skeppy.

“Aw, you’re beautiful too,” Skeppy teased before stepping to the side. “Come on, let me take you to my house,”

“Huh?” Bad processed what Skeppy said before darting after him. “Wait, but the people,”

“What about them?” Skeppy paused running.

Bad lurked back a little bit. “You’re the first human I’ve spoken to. They all usually run away,” 

Skeppy smiled. “Not to worry. You’re with me! Come on, they don’t mind,” 

Bad hesitated but grabbed the back of his hood and pulled it over his head. Skeppy noticed the little holes he had cut for his horns to peak out. “Ok, I’m coming,”

Skeppy led him to the mansion, which was currently a room and a half, a bigger room with fourteen holes in it and had no doors. 

“Is...this what houses look like here?” Bad frowned, smiling at Skeppy as he looked around at the other houses in the village. 

“Hey! I’m not done yet,” Skeppy pouted. He showed Bad instead and beelined for a chest. “Here we go,” he took out some lumps of silver metal and some wood. “Come,”

Bad followed Skeppy to a stone table that had fire in it. “Why is the fire trapped?”

“Trapped?” Skeppy laughed at the word choice. “It’s so it doesn't burn down the house. Look,” He placed the metal lumps into the fire. “It’ll melt and then we can shape it into a knife,” 

“Is that how that works?” Bad looks intently at the stone table, which was a furnace. 

“Wait, you said you were hungry,” Skeppy rummaged through the chest again and pulled out some raw meat carefully packaged. He went to another furnace and lit it, placing two pieces of meat inside.

“What are you doing?” Bad bent over to look inside the furnace.

“Cooking it. Like you did over the lava,” Skeppy said. 

Bad looked keenly into the fire, watching as the meat got darker and crispier. 

Chapter Text

Bad looked down at the sleek silver knife that was in his hand. It was much prettier than the knife he had before and much more shiny. It had shone brighter under the light from the Overworld. He thought about the beauties from there. Everything was so much more colourful, and the sky was blue, just like Skeppy. 

He placed the knife back safely into his belt and wandered the Nether. It was hot as usual, and mobs growling at each other peacefully. Bad kicked some dirt and sighed. The bigger demons didn’t like him going to the Overworld. They didn’t say anything when Bad returned, even though they most likely knew. 

It wasn’t fair how they treated Bad, but he knew it was mostly for his own good. He was a younger demon and was much stronger than the others. He might’ve hurt humans accidentally if he had been allowed to talk to them in his earlier years. In retrospect, he was pretty sure he almost killed Skeppy when he bumped into him sulking at the lava river the second time, but only stopped because the shining diamond caught him off guard. 

Still, he was older now, much older, and he knew how to be safe. And he loved the Overworld many times more than the dreary nether where he had no friends except the friendly wandering mobs. 

So Bad found himself back in the Overworld, peeking from behind some trees and fencing, looking into the village. Skeppy’s house was on the other side but he was watching some humans haul what looked like piles of wood to another unfinished house. 

“This side, Tubbo,” one of them called. Two others pulled a wooden plank on wheels which had the piles of wood on top towards the side of the house. 

“This thing is so heavy,” 

“Relax, or do you want to keep living with Schlatt?” 

“No,” they replied in a grumbling manner. 

Bad stared at the wheeled contraption. 

“Be careful of the sled, it’s pretty old we might have to make a new one,” 

Bad watched as they moved the logs from the sled onto the floor for construction. He got an idea.

Bad ran through the back of the houses until he reached Skeppy’s house. He peered inside one of the holes in the walls but Skeppy wasn’t home. He smiled. His plan could work.

Bad did a lap of the house and found a sled with a bucket of quartz, except it was practically powder. He remembered Skeppy telling him it was terribly annoying to mine quartz and it could be on the floor of the nether, or up on the ceiling or in annoying crevices in the mountains. 

Bad put the bucket on the floor and pulled the empty sled away from the village to a portal he knew was nearby. Skeppy is going to be so happy! He thought to himself.

It was a few hours of Bad flying from upside down netherrack spikes poking from the ceilings of the nether to bundles of quartz and retrieving them back to the sled he had left at the entrance of one of the portals. Skeppy was right when he said he had cleared the nearby collections of quartz but Bad could access parts of the nether Skeppy couldn’t and so he quickly managed to grab a sled full and dragging it back through the portal and back to Skeppy’s house where he placed the quartz onto the floor only to return the empty sled back to the nether and do it all over again. 

Each time he managed to stay hidden from the members of the village by going through the back. On the round he decided would be the last one of the day, he was hauling the sled towards the house when he realised the empty plain was being used by two armoured humans battling. Bad watched for a moment, reeling they were sparring, practising fighting. 

He didn’t want to disturb them and potentially get attacked so he took the dreaded route; through the front, which meant the high possibility of someone seeing him. He took that over fighting Skeppy’s friends. 

He turned the sled and pulled it onto the main path of the village and ignored the immediate whispers of surrounding members. While the hood hid his horns for the glance (any closer inspection would expose them easily), but his tail, wings and tall demeanor gave him away. 

He averted his eyes and continued to pull the sled with his back to where he was heading. Unable to see where he was going, he didn’t notice the steps that led down to a short bridge that went over a river that was in the way of the path. 

Thus, he tripped with a small yelp and tumbled down the three steps onto the bridge. His wings flayed a bit and hit the water that was surrounding the bridge he was now on. Surprised at the feeling of wet and coldness on his wing, he turned around and found the never ending river in front of him. 

“Is that water?” He said to no one in particular, staring at his reflection. 

“Yeah, it is,” 

Bad scrambled to his feet and faced the person who replied. In place stood a lady in a red coat, a hat and with some miscellaneous enchanted armour pieces on. “Oh hello, nice to meet you,” he smiled.

She looked at him with narrow eyes. “Hi? Who are you?” 

Bad noticed her hands on her hips, itching closer to the sword attached on her belt. “Oh! There’s nothing to be afraid of! I’m Badboyhalo, Skeppy’s friend!” 

“Skeppy?” she stared at him. “You’re a nether demon?”

“Yeah,” Bad nodded. “But I won’t hurt you!” he added. 

“You’ve never seen water before?” She looked at the river beside them.

“No! I have, but only in buckets. That you guys bring to the nether. I’ve just never seen so much! It’s so cool,” Bad looked into the distance where the river disappeared into. 

There was a moment of silence before; “I’m Captain Puffy, but you can just call me Puffy,”

Bad smiled back. “You can call me Bad. Or, at least that’s what Skeppy calls me. He says it’s less of a mouthful than Badboyhalo. I didn’t know words could fill mouths but-” Bad realised he was rambling. “Yeah,” 

Puffy looked at him in amusement. “So...you’re delivering this to Skeppy?”

“Yeah! It’s a surprise. For his house! Do you think he’ll like it? I neve thought quartz would be hard to get for humans, but I suppose it is since it likes to hide in far away places,” Bad giggled at himself. 

“Well, let me accompany you there,” Puffy offered. “I’ve got to go that way anyways,”

“Okay!” Bad grabbed the harness on the sled and slowly manoeuvred it down the steps and across the bridge. 

“So...you’re Skeppy’s friend?” Puffy asked, striking up conversation.

“Yup!” Bad nodded. 

Puffy watched as he pulled the sled behind them. “Wow, you’re strong. It usually takes two or three of use to pull one with wood, let alone stone like quartz,”

“I’m a nether demon,” Bad explained, even though it was probably what Puffy was implying. “Despite my size,” he giggled again at his own words.

Puffy shrugged off the weirdness. She hadn’t encountered a nether demon like Bad before, and unlike Skeppy, she’d fought a few as well as befriended some. None were as fluent and clean at speaking English or as small as he was.

“Did you grow up speaking English?” she asked, curiously.

“What do you mean?” Bad asked. “I spoke both English and Nether speak when I was younger,”

Puffy flinched a bit when Bad called the Nether demon language by its name. His voice changed as he pronounced the foreign word and Puffy’s ears echoed. She shivered. “No like, most Nether Demon’s I’ve spoken to, they don’t speak as...cleanly as you do,”

Bad considered her words. “Well, I try my hardest not to swear. My friends in the nether, well, they’re not really my friends, but they said that swearing and using dirty words make humans scared and I don’t want to scare humans so I don’t swear, you know. So humans aren’t afraid,” 

Puffy laughed. “No-- Bad, that’s not what I meant,”

Bad looked at her. “What? What did you mean then?”

“Nevermind,” Puffy let out a deep breath from her laughter. “You’re cute, Bad,” 

Bad returned a small smile. “Aw thanks, you too,” 

Puffy gave a confused smile. “Thanks?”

“We’re here-” Bad stopped abruptly, in front of Skeppy’s holey house and a pile of quartz Puffy remembered didn’t used to be there before.

“Hey! No wayyy,” 

Puffy and Bad turned around to see Skeppy, Tommy, Techno and Quackity approaching.

Tommy stared at Bad then turned to Skeppy. “You seriously got a Nether demon to do the dirty work for you?! I told you you couldn’t fucking a fucking simple mansion,” Tommy teased.

“ Language!” Bad squeaked, his eyes darting between the collection of humans around him. He hadn’t been surrounded by so many of them at once before.

“I didn’t!” Skeppy whined. “I didn’t Tommy!” 

“Then what’s all this?” Quackity pointed to the piles of quartz plus the sled full.

“I-” Skeppy looked at the piles in confusion. “I don’t know,”

“I got it for you as a surprise!” Bad explained quickly. “You were right when you said you cleared out any close quartz. I had to fly into all sorts of caves for this, and I had to go so far away,” he almost giggled but shushed himself. “I almost got lost, and I’m a nether demon, so I’m glad I did it, otherwise you might’ve died,”

There was some silence as everyone looked at Skeppy. He broke into a smile. “Really? You did that for me?”

“I don’t have much else to do,” Bad mumbled but was interrupted by Tommy. 

“You’re friends with a nether demon?!” Tommy looked up at Bad. “You’re short for one,”

“Are you kidding? He’s so tall! He’s basically twice the height as Skeppy,” Tubbo pointed out, who’d approached the circle. Some others had also become interested in the commotion.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Bad fiddled with his fingers and shifted, phasing into an even shorter form so he was just a little bit taller than Tommy.

“What the fuck?!” Tommy screeched. 

“Language!” Bad screeched back, his wings opening. Some of the others scattered back a bit anxiously. Even Skeppy tensed, his diamond exterior forming.

Bad noticed and closed his wings again. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry. Don’t be scared. I’m not dangerous I promise,” he held out his hands a little bit, stepping back. 

“How the fuck did you do that?!” Tommy screamed again. 

“Language!” Bad gave a quieter telling off.

“Is this who you were telling me about?” Techno spoke up, speaking to Skeppy.

“Huh?” Skeppy looked at Techno then at Bad, who was now only about a foot taller than him now. He had phased two sizes smaller than the size he had met him as. “Yeah,” 

“Oh my goodness, this is too much,” Bad put his hands to his ears. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Puffy began but Bad was shaking his head.

“No no no,” Bad denied, stepped back again and opened his wings to fly off but upon the jump to leave, he only fell back down. “Ow,” 

“Are you alright?” Skeppy stepped forward anxiously, but Bad’s wings were splayed out everywhere from flailing and his tail whipped around, hitting Skeppy in the face. “OUCH-” he exclaimed, stumbling back.

Bad composed himself, collecting his wings back and stood up frantically. “Oh my goodness, ah! I’m so sorry, Skeppy!” he rushed forward. “Are you okay!? My tail is super sharp! Oh no, oh my goodness I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he held his hands up in an attempt to try and somehow help with Skeppy’s face.

“It’s fine,” Skeppy laughed, wiping his face. “I’m diamond, remember? Nothing can break this bad boy,” he tapped his cheek where the tail had sliced, which had not even a scratch. 

“Oh my goodness Skeppy! You scared me,” Bad exclaimed, covering his mouth. “I’ve never hurt anyone before, except piglins, but only because they’re the tastiest of meat in the nether- but nothing compared to Overworld animals- I don’t think I’ll ever kill a piglin ever again in my life-”

“It’s okay, Bad,” Skeppy assured.

“You are the weirdest Nether Demon I’ve ever fucking met,” Tommy finally said. 

“Language!” Bad quipped quickly. 

“What happened?” Techno asked. “Why’d you fall?”

“I tried to fly,” Bad replied. 

“Did you flap your wings?” Skeppy made the motion with his hands.

“Yes I did! Do you think I’m silly?!” Bad hissed back. 

“Are they broken?” Puffy suggested.

“No! I would feel it,” Bad looked at his wings. 

“I mean they’re pretty small wings,” Tommy shrugged. “I thought wings had to be massive, you know?”

“You know, maybe he’s got a point,” Techno nodded. “The nether is obviously very different to the Overworld,”

“I’m pretty sure gravity works the same though,” Quackity frowned, skeptically.

“Well, have you got a bloody better idea?” Tommy said in his usual loud voice back. 

“Language,” Bad said simply. Tommy just made a face back.

Quackity looked at Bad. “Fuck,”

“Language!” Bad jumped and looked at Quackity.

“Stop that, only I can swear at him,” Skeppy stepped forward. 

“No you can’t!” 

“Yeah I fucking can,”

“Skeppy! Language!”

Chapter Text

“He’s...not normal,” Puffy looked at Skeppy, who throughout the entire discussion wasn’t being helpful.

“He’s fine!” Skeppy exclaimed. “Would you rather a giant, aggressive and quick-tempered demon instead?”

“No, but you have to admit it’s weird,” Dream said, leaning against his chair. “No one’s heard of actual phasing before,”

“And?”

“He’s smaller than Nether demons,” Niki added. 

“And?” Skeppy was becoming irritated with his friends. “So he's a little weird? We all are! I’m can literally change into diamonds, and Techno’s an anthropomorphic pig,”

“He’s a nether demon. He can be dangerous,” Dream stated again, for the fourteenth time that hour.

“And so’s Techno! And you’re not banning anthropomorphic pigs,” 

“We aren’t banning Bad,” Puffy sighed. “We just want to make sure everyone’s safe, including Bad. He obviously doesn’t want to hurt anyone,”

“I also want to know why he’s like that,” Niki began. “Like Puffy said earlier, nether demons don’t speak that cleanly in English unless they’ve had a lot of practise. And there’s no way Nether demons would allow their young to speak to them in English. They hate the language,”

“I have never seen Nether Demon’s wear clothing so...normally, and you said he eats with a knife. Nether demons don’t bother with that,” Dream agreed.

Skeppy sulked. “Well, I don’t know what we’re solving by discussing it,”

“Hey-” 

Everyone looked at the door where Ranboo was standing.

“We didn’t do anything! At least, I’m pretty sure,” he prefaced.

“What did you do,” Techno sighed.

“Nothing! Just, all the portals aren’t working,” 

“What?” Skeppy stood up.

“I don’t know, they’ve all been turned off. We’ve sent squads over to other portals further out to see if they’re still working,” 

--

Bad was scrambling up the wall of the nether as he closed in on the bigger demons. “Hya-” he jumped down, using his wings to glide into position, and tackled the demon to the floor. “Stop touching the portals!”

“Stop fighting us,”

“This is for your own good,”

Bad was thrown to the side. “No guys, come on, that’s the last one,” He ran after the two demons, hoping to get to the portal before them. 

“We’ll stop if you never speak to them again”

“No! I can’t do that, that’s mean!” Bad was faster than the bigger demons, and managed to catch up. He lurched to the side and knocked them down. 

“Stop fighting, you little d̶̼͎͈̫͉̺̍̈́͋̄̽̄̅́̓͝e̵͎̳̖̺̩͈̝͖̦͖͒̊̑̂̄̈m̷̛̲͙̼̌̾̿́̌̋̇ơ̸̢̭̭͔̱͍͓͚͕̘̎̈́́̓̓̀͌̏ṇ̷̏͗”

“Language!” Bad found himself saying before getting hit in the face with a large claw. 

“Why are you so small? You’re acting all feebly like those pathetic humans,”

Bad touched his face to find blood dripping down his hand. He stared at the blood and then at his friends. “Oh my goodness, please stop, it’s not funny,”

One of the demons punched the corner of the portal, causing some of the obsidian to crumble.

“Hey! No, stop!” Bad ran forward and clawed the demon back a little bit. 

“If you want to be with your humans so much, then go,” the demon growled and pushed Bad, right into the portal.

--

Dream, Skeppy, Puffy and some of the others had gotten word that one portal remained open and so they made their way to it. 

“We didn’t want to go in until you guys got here,” Tubbo said worriedly. “Is anyone in the nether right now? They might get stuck,”

“Yeah! Bad!” Skeppy exclaimed.

“Well, we’ve got obsidian and flint and steel on us, so if we get stuck we can get out,” Puffy double checked. “Some one’s probably playing a trick,” 

Everyone glanced at Skeppy. 

“I didn’t do this!”

“Wait look,” Dream turned the attention to the portal, which began humming, signifying someone was coming through.

“AHGH- '' a black blur flew through the portal and crashed into the ground on the other side. 

“Bad?!” Skeppy exclaimed, about to step forward to help as he recognized his friend. 

Bad stood up and turned to the crowd, which Skeppy and some others gasped to. Bad, apart from the gaping cut in his face, had scratches and wounds all over him, and one of his wings looked painfully bent and had a tear in it, seeping with blood. 

He didn’t say anything and looked at the portal, which shimmered again and a pile of lit TNT came flying through. 

“WAIT-” Skeppy began but Puffy held him back as the explosion went off.

.

.

.

“Is everyone okay?!” Puffy’s yells came through the clouds which eventually cleared.

“BAD?!” Skeppy’s screeches came through the ringing in everyone’s eyes. He wandered forward and almost tripped over some of the portal’s debris. “BAD?!”

“Skeppy,” Puffy mumbled, still dazed from being blown back by the explosion.

“Hey, it’s fine,” Tommy puffed, walking through the debris as well, waving some of the smoke out of his face. “I don’t see any remains, he might be able to respawn,” 

Skeppy looked at him like he was crazy. “Nether demons don’t have respawn points! Why do you think whenever you kill one it doesn’t come back for revenge!?”

“Then why are there no remains?!” Tommy yelled back.

“Shut up!” Puffy shut them up. “Some of us are hurt, let's go back and clean up,”

--

Bad felt himself being blown back and then closing his eyes. When he opened them, he was still flying- no falling. He spun around in mid air and realised he was falling; right into lava. He caught himself and his wings held him up as he flew to steady ground. 

He was breathing heavily, looking at his hands. He was fine. He instinctively touched his face, which was dry. No wounds. He’d died. He shut his eyes in anger. The demons had tried to blow him up and everyone else there. He hoped they were all okay. They seemed to be far away from the portal…

Bad stood back up and stumbled about until he found his orientation back. “Oh you guys will regret killing me, AND MAKING MY SPAWN POINT ABOVE A LAVA POOL,” he screaming into the abyss of the nether. He gathered his breath and buried his face in his hands. 

Could humans respawn? What if the demons seriously hurt them? This wasn’t a joke anymore, Bad had to stop them. 

The next thing he knew, Bad was walking into one of the demon camps. 

“Hey look who’s back in one piece,” some spectating demons laughed. 

Bad ignored them and reached the two who were bothering him. “Guys, I told you to stop,”

“We did, after we finished closing the last portal,” 

Bad didn’t find their joke funny, and watched them laugh. The sound of their laughs echoed through the caves and Bad growled. The laughs subsided.

“Hey b̷̧̛͇̎̇͑͋̈͘͝a̸̧̭͕̪͎̣̎͆́͝͝d̷̰͔̱̉̈́̈́b̴̩̂ͅo̵̭̿̀̚y̶̺̺̳̜̏̇͊̿̂̂h̵̢̧̢͔͎̫̪͇̭͇̕a̶̞͙̿̀̓̋̐͋͑͜l̸̨̺̰͎̞͋̋͌͒̉̔͆̿̓͘ȏ̵̪̖̞̪̤̔͆̍̈́͠, what are you doing?”

Bad felt his strength came back after stumbling his way to the camp. He phased back to his true size, his eyes glowing brighter than the sun, and everything distorted.

The other demons scattered, and the communal sound of ethereal screeches of their voices joined the constant hum of terror Bad was emitting. 

“Don’t hurt me or my friends again! Don’t touch their nether portals, and I can do whatever I want, do not try to stop me,” Bad commanded. He was speaking English but his voice vibrated as if he was speaking in his native language; the caves roared and it was hard to visually distinguish what was going on.

“Ok! Ok!” 

The light instantly stopped and it took a few seconds for the demons to stop being disorientated. 

“Ok, thank you,” Bad smiled. “That wasn’t too hard,” 

“What the hell is wrong with you,” one of them sighed, falling to the floor in exhaustion. “Just go,”

Bad smiled. “Well, have a nice time!” and so he began to leave. “Wait-” he spun around. “How do I open the portals again?”

The demons didn’t respond but one of them threw him a bit of metal and a stone. Bad accepted it in confusion and left, not wanting to be a bother. 

He looked down at the two pieces and sighed. He’ll figure it out. 

--

Bad was standing in front of an unactivated nether portal, staring at the two things in his hand. He had knocked them together, placed them in the portal, and even threw them through the portal, but nothing was working. He was about to give up when he heard human footsteps behind him.

He carefully turned around to see Quackity.

“Fuck, yes I have never been so glad to see a nether demon before,” Quackity sighed in relief.

“Language!”

“Yeah yeah, please tell me you have flint and steel,” Quackity looked around and spotted them resting on the steps of the portal. “Oh wait, you don’t know how to use them?”

“What are you doing here?” Bad asked, a little confused.

“I don’t know, I was going through a nether castle as usual, right? Then when I’m done and go back, the nether portal is closed. And I didn’t bring any flint and steel, so I went to another one, but that one's closed too!” Quackity is flicking the two pieces together, creating some sparks. “Then so now I’m panicking right, because I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here because I came really early because I wanted to get the loot from the castle before anyone else and now every portal I was going through was closed so I’m freaking out because why are they closed you know? Maybe George realised what I’d done so he closed them as revenge to scare me. Anyways, then I find one that’s completely destroyed, like the obsidian is just dust,”

Bad watches intently as Quackity tells his story and is chipping away at the two pieces. 

“So I’m like, if the portal is broken in this side then I’m in trouble because that means George is on this side of the portal, probably wanting to steal all the loot I worked really hard to get, anyways, and then I find you so it’s all good,” 

Quackity finally gets a big enough spark and the portal is lit to life.

“Oh my goodness,” Bad jumped back a bit but smiled. “You did it!” 

“Of course I did, I’m a fucking master,”

“Language-” 

But Quackity already went into the portal.

--

Bad follows Quackity home to the village, listening to the wild adventures he got up to in the nether castle. Once they arrived at the village, there was a commotion that neither of them quite knew was about. 

“Quackity, jesus, we had no idea where you were,”

“I was in the nether,”

“In the nether?! Did you get hurt?”

“Why would I get hurt?” 

“BAD!” 

“Skeppy? Oh goodness, you’re okay,”

“I’m fine-- YOU DIED,” 

Everyone looked at Bad. 

“Yeah dude, you died,” Dream confirmed. 

“You died?!” Quackity exclaimed. “I’ve been walking with a corpse this whole time?!”

“No no no,” Bad chuckled. “I didn’t die exactly, well, I did, but I came back,” he smiled at the end.

“How?! Nether demons don’t respawn!” Skeppy stood in confusion and relief. 

“Yeah,” Bad nodded. “But I do,” 

(Techno and Puffy glanced at each other.)

“Thank fucking god,” Skeppy sighed.

“Language!”

“What even happened?” Quackity asked in incredible confusion.

“Oh, you know, the nether demons got a little cranky that I come to the Overworld frequently, because they don’t like it here right? And they thought it could be a little joke to close all the portals, but I told them it wasn’t nice, so they won’t do it again,” Bad explained, his fingers fiddling again.

“A joke?!” Skeppy almost screeched. “You looked dead even before you got blown up,”

“You had blood everywhere, Bad,” Puffy cleared up Skeppy’s confusing wording.

“Oh, right,” Bad nodded. “They were a little rough but I told them to stop. It’s okay now. I also asked them not to annoy me ever again, so that means I can do what I want now,” he seemed a little excited about this, his tail extending.

“At least we’re all okay,” Puffy said. “We’ll reactivate all the portals tomorrow,”

--

“I want to show you something!” Skeppy pulled Bad into the house. “Look!” he pushed him in front of him, showing a room in the slightly more completed house. 

“There are two beds, Skeppy. Is one too small for you?” Bad frowned.

“No! Stupid, this one’s for me, and this one’s for you,” Skeppy ran forward, showing the beds off. “If you want it. I figured, we can finish the mansion together! It can be ours,”

Bad stared at the beds. “Oh…”

“What? What is it?” Skeppy broke panic into his voice. 

Bad shook his head. “No, no, no Skeppy! No, I love it! I’m sorry, it’s just I’ve never had a bed before. I’ve always just slept on the warm rocks in the nether,”

“Oh!” Skeppy smiled again. “Then you’ll love a bed! It’s all soft and comfortable,”

“Okay! I'd like to make the mansion with you! Maybe we’ll finish it quicker!”

“Hey-”

Chapter Text

“I can do it!” 

Skeppy and Sapnap looked at Bad. 

“What? It’d be quicker if I did it anyways,” 

“He’s got a point,” Sapnap said. “And we can go get some obsidian for the base,”

“Fine,” Skeppy looked at Bad but followed Sapnap eagerly.

Bad smiled and headed for a portal. All he needed to do was collect a bucket of gold nuggets to finish off their Massive Dream Statue they were making to help Sapnap with an apology. How a giant statue was going to help, Bad wasn’t too sure. Nonetheless, the team had underestimated how much gold was needed and so Bad was now scouring the nether for some gold. 

He quickly found a bucket full and returned to the Overworld, except his skin almost shivered from the lack of heat. He didn’t mind the transition from the two worlds, spending almost all his time in the Overworld now that he had the mansion with Skeppy. 

The mansion only took a couple of weeks to build, with Bad’s help. He was good at collecting resources and most surprisingly was his building ability. He had gotten used to the Overworld and even the members of the village came to like him, despite the teasing and annoyance.

Tommy had made a disk a few days ago with the repetition of him swearing like no tomorrow and there was a small commotion as Bad retrieved and destroyed it.

Nonetheless, Bad was walking down the paths back to where they were building the Dream Statue. He and Skeppy weren’t involved in the little argument between Sapnap and Dream. George was also involved, except he had somehow convinced Dream to go wood mining with him while Sapnap found a way to apologise for the both of them.

Bad and Skeppy decided to help because...well it was a big gold statue. What else was there to say?

“Hey! Don’t do that!” Sapnap’s screeches could be heard from a distance as Bad approached.

“Doesn’t it look like him though?” Skeppy’s voice replied.

“NO! Dream doesn’t have a nose AS LONG AS HIS FACE,” 

Bad passed the trees to see a half-built statue with Skeppy building the head. “Hey! I thought we were building it together!”

“We were but then your stupid boyfriend made the incredible decision to blow up the chest we stored everything in- long story short, he started without you,” Sapnap crossed his arms.

“I did not, Bad. Don’t listen to the liar,” Skeppy jumped down from the head.

Bad tried to process what Sapnap had said, translating the new words in his head. “Wha- huh? No,” he dumped the bucket of gold at their feet. “Here’s the gold,”

“Hey! He ignored my ‘boyfriend’ teasing,” Sapnap made a large smile, picking up the bucket and running off to the crafting table. “He didn’t deny it,” 

“Hey!” Skeppy ran after him.

Bad continued trying to decipher the new English words and followed the two of them. “Hey no, why’d you already begin building?” He began whining. “You said we’d do it together,”

“I know, I’m sorry, but it was his fault,” Sapnap pointed to Skeppy who gasped.

“No, Bad, I didn’t!” 

Bad huffed. “Sure,” 

“No Bad I promise!” 

Bad turned around. “I think I’m going to go and do something else,”

“No, Bad!” Skeppy whined in return. “We can destroy the statue and build it again!”

“No, we don’t have time!” Sapnap complained but he was ignored.\

“It’s not the same,” Bad pouted. “You’re practically done,”

“Ugh, I’m sorry! Alright,” Skeppy made a face.

“You little-” Bad almost finished before pausing.

“What is it?” Skeppy frowned, looking around. Sapnap placed his hand on the hilt of his sword cautiously.

Bad turned a little to the left where the village was only a few metres away. He sniffled his nose. “I smell something,” 

“Is it bad?” Skeppy asked, taking a long deep smell of their surroundings.

“I don’t smell anything,” Sapnap said, letting go of his sword.

Bad inched forward. “It smells really good,” he jumped excitedly. “Oh, Skeppy, can I go see what it is?” 

Skeppy opened his mouth not quite sure what to say but Bad continued. 

“It’s fine if I leave right? I mean, you’re practicality done anyways, and Skeppy’s a really fast builder,” Bad assured Sapnap. “I’ll quickly go see what the smell is okay? I’ll be right back,” he was basically vibrating in excitement. Whatever smell he was smelling, it had elevated all of his senses.

“Um, sure,” Skeppy rubbed his arm, glancing back at Sapnap. It was better than before when Bad was mad at them for starting the statue without him anyways. “Have fun,”

Bad let out a noise that was a mix between a squeal and a Nether Demon-like noise before running off towards the village. He entered the main pathways, looking around to see if his nose could lead him in the direction of the smell that was enticing him so much.

He slowly walked towards it, finding himself in front of Puffy’s house. He looked at it, making sure the smell was coming from inside. He edged closer to the door, immediately hearing:

“Be careful! You’ll spill it,” Puffy’s voice scrambled, followed by a yelp and some clattering metal.

Bad leaned up against the door, the smell getting incredibly strong through his already heightened senses. His hands touched the door as he put his ear to it, trying to hear what was going on.

“FUCKING CHRIST TUBBO-” Tommy’s screaming blasted through the door. Followed was more metal falling to the floor and screeches, presumably from Tubbo.

“Language!” Bad automatically yawped. 

The commotion inside paused, silence replacing the chaotic noise from before. “...Bad?” Puffy slowly said.

Bad made another incomprehensible noise and almost immediately the door clicked open and Bad tumbled inside. “AH!” his voice was high pitched as he was sprawled out on the floor of Puffy’s house.

“What are you doing, Bad?” Puffy asked, hiding her laughter.

“Yeah, what are you doing?! That’s really suspicious of you Bad, why were you hiding?” Tommy closed the door he had just yanked open.

Bad clambered back to his feet, tucking his wings behind his back. “Nothing! I wasn’t doing-” his eyes, which were on Puffy, Tubbo and Tommy in front of him, slowly wandered to the pile of dark brown objects littering the table behind them. “What is that?” He stepped forward, his hand almost out in front of him and his eyes almost as big as the lumpy items that he was being lured to.

“These?” Tubbo picked up one of them. “We made them with Puffy,”

“WE MADE THEM?” Tommy was back on his screeching. “Tubbo fucking destroyed my batch!” He pointed to the stain in the wooden floor to the side. 

“Language!” Bad scowled, but he returned to his prior face of awe.

“They’re muffins, Bad. Don’t you know what muffins are?” Puffy looked at the nether demon ins fascination. 

“No? They smell amazing! I could smell them from all the way- far away!” he rushed forward to lean on the table, putting his face close to the muffins. The smell was definitely coming from here.

Tommy laughed. “Wow, you’re desperate,”

“Have one,” Puffy pushed Tommy out of the way from disturbing Bad. 

“Have one? You mean eat it?” Bad looked at her surprised.

“Yeah of course,” 

Bad looked at the muffins with glee and picked one up. The texture was rough but it was squishy and he almost crushed it with his hand as he didn’t expect it to be soft. He opened his mouth to take a bite of it, but instantly shut it when Tommy gave a small yelp and Tubbo sidled behind Tommy. “Are you okay?”

Puffy rolled her eyes. “Real immature guys,” she told the boys.

“No, sorry, we just didn’t expect the...you know,” Tubbo gestured to his mouth. “Go on, eat. Those ones were made by Puffy and she’s really good at making them,”

Bad blinked at them and then realised what they meant, his tongue feeling the smooth surface of his two most prominent fangs. Instantly he felt himself slunk back a bit. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you, I forget you guys are younger- and haven’t encountered many nether demons,” 

“It’s fine, Bad, really,” Puffy said, looking at Bad, who’s wings had lowered and his shoulders had crouched. 

“Um, right yeah,” his eyes darted around before he hurriedly put the muffin back on the table and headed for the door. “You know what? Nevermind, uh I’m a little busy, helping Skeppy and Sapnap, you know? Maybe next time,” he gave a last smile and rushed out the door, feeling hot and small.

--

Skeppy returned from the very eventful process of making the statue, which they finished just in time as George and Dream were seen in the distance, returning from their adventure as Skeppy placed the last items down. He had left Sapnap to surprise Dream with the statue and so now he was wandering down into the village to see where Bad had gone off too.

“No Puffy! What if he eats me instead?” Tommy mumbled rather loudly. 

Skeppy’s attention was turned so he followed the voice.

“Look Tommy, we scared him off, he’s not going to hurt you,” Tubbo replied.

 Skeppy turned the corner to see the front of Puffy’s house where Tommy and Tubbo were arguing. “What’s going on?”

The two of them jumped at Skeppy’s presence but Tubbo replied. “We scared Bad and we feel..well bad, so we’re going to go give these to him as a present,” he pointed to the box of covered muffins that Tommy was holding. 

“You scared Bad?” Skeppy stared at them. “Well, okay. Let me help you find him,” 

The trio walked over to the Quartz Mansion to try and find Bad but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. 

“Maybe he’s in the nether,” Tubbo finally said after they searched the whole mansion, looking through the nether portal that was in one of the living rooms. 

“Alright, to the nether we go,” Tommy held the box of muffins firmly and entered into the nether.

Skeppy didn’t ask about what the two had done to ‘scare’ Bad, as it would most likely end in a screaming battle so he watched as they looked around the portal in the nether for any scrawny demon. 

“BAD!” Tommy screamed. “Smell these delicious muffins!” he held out the box in the air, leaning over the edge of a clift.

Skeppy frowned. Was it the muffins Bad had smelt earlier?

“I don’t know if we can find him, maybe we can just wait until he comes back,” Tubbo finally said.

“Wait, listen,” Skeppy stopped them.

The three of them fell into silence as they listened. Distant screeches from a ghast could be hurt, periodical explosions and some smaller screeches, which sounded a little bit like the nether demon they all knew: Bad.

“Oh you s̴̨̯̠̥̟̣̤͈͈͚̓i̵̦̥͙͆̔l̷͖̅͂l̷͕͗̇̄̽̀̋̃͒ẙ̶͓̝̖̳͇͚̽̄̌͠- stop it!” They could hear the higher pitched voice echo through the nether as they ran down to the noises. “ You’re in my way- I’m sorry for hitting you!”

Skeppy skid to a stop behind some netherrack mounds and managed to stop Tubbo and Tommy from running into the crossfire. They ducked behind the protection and watched as Bad, significantly bigger, was dueling with a Ghast. 

His wings were spread out, flapping rhythmically in the air, as he was rushing forward towards the Ghast, slashing his knife at the mob as well as using his tail to hook and lacerate it. 

“Fucking hell- he looks…” Tommy gaped. Skeppy watched as well in astonishment, he’d never quite seen Bad fighting, apart from the occasional quick and silent takedowns of the occasional zombie or skeleton. But this was different- Bad was bigger, taller, and his eyes were blinding white. 

Most of all; all three of them were practically shaking, their heads aching from the echoing and deafening sounds of Bad speaking in his native language. Something about his aura emitting danger and everyone watched as he delivered one last blow; his tail struck forward, right through the Ghast’s eyes, and it dissolved into the thick nether air. 

Bad hadn’t noticed them yet, so he slowly lowered himself back onto the floor to pick up the frozen Ghast tear that had fallen onto the floor. His wings were still open and he was still towerer much bigger than Tubbo or Tommy had seen him. 

“Go,” Skeppy whispered, shoving Tommy out from behind the stone. Tommy yelled but stumbled onto his feet.

Bad was startled and spun with the knife in one hand, the ghast tear in the other, and his tail pointing dangerously at the movement- but as he saw it was only Tommy, he lowered all three limbs. “Tommy?” his eyes followed up behind him and spotted Tubbo and the out of place blue diamond that was Skeppy. “What are you doing here?”

“Um, here, these are for you,” Tommy quickly held out the box, to which Bad immediately towered over, peering inside, his nose obviously picking up what was inside. Tommy blinked awkwardly before saying. “We’re uh, sorry. About before,” 

Tubbo rushed forward, poking out from behind Tommy. “Yeah, we felt really bad. Your fangs are really cool! We just didn’t expect it,”

Skeppy watched as Bad shifted into his smaller form and placed the knife back onto his belt. The now smaller nether demon slowly took the box from Tommy. “Thank you, for apologising. I’m sorry for scaring you. I forget that I look scary, you know?”

Tommy and Tubbo nodded, smiling hesitantly.

Bad jumped, alarming the two of them, but Bad just got excited. “Here, you can have this in return,” he held out the Ghast tear.

“Really?” Tommy looked at the item. “Thanks,” he took it and put it into his pack. 

“No worries!” Bad looked under the cover in the box. “Ooh, these smell so good!”

Skeppy watched from behind as Bad stood in excitement, holding a box of muffins, and he almost forgot he didn’t just see a nether demon slaughter a mob in a terrifying manner.

Chapter Text

“Hyah!” Tommy shouted as he repeatedly whacked a skeleton with his sword until it crumbled into a pile of bones. “Got another one!”

Puffy was hiding behind a shield as she approached another one. Those two and Bad were out hunting skeletons to collect some much needed bones. 

Bad had snuck up behind a skeleton and wrapped his tail around the neck, yanking it backwards and down, causing the spine to snap. The skeleton fell to the floor and Bad stood over it, satisfied. 

“Way to go bad!” Puffy said, looking around. No more skeletons were nearby. 

Bad spun around to face his friends when Tommy yelped. Bad gave a nether demon equivalent of a yelp in surprise. 

“You’re lucky I have god-like reflexes!” Tommy screamed in his usual chaotic manner, lowering his shield.

“What happened?” Puffy asked, walking up to them.

“Bad slapped me with his razor sharp tail! I could’ve been decapitated, ” Tommy exaggerated. 

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Bad exclaimed, grabbing his tail to stop it from waving behind him. “Oh goodness, are you alright?”

“He’s fine,” Puffy rolled her eyes. “He’s being dramatic,”

Bad didn’t look convinced. “Okay, are you sure Tommy?”

“I’m fine, due to my ultra-mega-defense skills,” he pretended to flex his nonexistent muscles.

Bad didn’t say anything as he let go of his tail, but it remained close to his body.

--

“Baaaad, did you get those skeletons?” Skeppy said coming into the house.

“Yeah, we got some, but we’re going to go again tonight,” Bad responses, his voice a little muffled.

“What are you doing?” Skeppy watched as Bad was bent over, going through a chest. His tail was perked up, swishing from side to side.

“Getting...this!” Bad stood up straight, holding a small block of netherrack.

“What’s that for?” Skeppy asked as he placed some food he had collected on a table.

“To blunt my sharps,” Bad explained, sitting on the couch and lifting his arms to his head.

“Your sharps?” Skeppy pondered a bit to try and think of what he meant before he turned around to see Bad sanding down the tips of his horns. “What? What are you doing!” he exclaimed. 

“...blunting my sharps?” Bad said slowly, thinking it was obvious.

“No- I know but,” Skeppy walked over, all tense. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

Bad shook his head as he finished with one horn and moved to the other. “Not at all. The tips have almost no pain receptors, just like the edges of my tail spade. Otherwise it would hurt when we use them to fight,” Bad explained.

Skeppy almost winced at the noises the netherrack made against Bad’s horns. “But why? They’re for defense,”

Bad shrugged. “No, they’re for offense,” he looked at Skeppy, “I’m a nether demon Skeppy, at the top of the food chain. Anyways, we always blunt hatchling’s horns and tails since they’re the most energetic things you’ve ever seen,”

Skeppy watched as Bad grabbed his tail from midair and began to carefully rub the netherrack against the sharp edges. “But you’re not a hatchling anymore Bad. You’re not dangerous,”

“Yes I am! I almost hurt Tommy today,” he said, in a lower voice than usual. “It’s fine, I get too excited sometimes and so my tail goes everywhere. It’s safer this way,”

Skeppy didn’t feel it necessary but he didn’t stop Bad. “If you want to, I guess. But I don’t think you’re dangerous,” he added.

Bad looked at him sympathetically, almost as if he didn’t believe him. 

--

Skeppy and Bad were searching for some more skeletons in the forest behind the village; it was evening and hostile mobs were beginning to approach. They’d already collected a few bones but they needed more.

“We have to be back for George’s dinner, Skeppyyy,” Bad repeated, weary of the time. George had made dinner for everyone and they were supposed to go to the town hall to have a reunion type evening, despite everyone seeing each other everyday anyways. 

“I know, I know, let’s just kill one more mob,” Skeppy said, high on adrenaline. He and Bad cautiously edged through the forest with their shields up in case of any flying arrows. 

“Wait, shush,” Bad paused, his ears pricking up underneath his hood that covered his head most of the time. His eyes glanced around before he spotted a zombie.

Almost instantly, it began to groan, alerting Skeppy to its presence as well. Before Skeppy could react, Bad, who noticed it first, swiftly side-stepped around it so he could curl his tail around its neck, trying to slice it.

Forgetting he had blunted it, the act did nothing except irritate the zombie from the burn it had just received, flailing its arms trying to grab Bad. Bad quickly realised what was happening and used his tail instead to wrap completely around the zombie, strangling it, then pulling down so the zombie fell onto the floor, howling. 

Bad then tried to kick it, unsure how to kill it without his sharps. “Skeppy!”

Skeppy stepped forward, amused at Bad’s incapability, and decapitated the zombie with his sword. The zombie’s groans withered away. “Oh, Bad…” he teased.

“Shut up,” Bad hissed, crossing his arms. “I still took it down,”

Skeppy was about to continue teasing him when he realised; “We should teach you how to fight with a sword!” 

Bad looked at him like he was ridiculous. “What? Why?”

Skeppy rolled his eyes, leading his friend out of the forest. “Come on, you just rendered your most powerful weapons useless. Even your claws! You need to know how to fight,” 

Bad twitched a bit, rubbing his nose. Skeppy noticed this seemed to be a nervous tell of his. Bad sighed. “I suppose so. I hope I’m not clumsy, Tommy will never let my live it down,”

Skeppy laughed. “ I won’t let you live it down. You won’t be clumsy, I promise. You’re naturally really strong anyways, and plus you’re the most agile person I know! I blink and you’ve already killed the mobs I didn’t even know were there,” 

Bad muffled a mix between a growl and a laugh. “Okay, Skeppy,” 

The pair dropped off their bags of bones and headed to the town hall where Bad could smell all sorts of meat, stews and food.

“Fuck, it smells so good,” Skeppy said as they entered, where many of the members were already seated and eating.

“Language Skeppy!” Bad interrupted, but his eyes were fixated on the food. “Oh my goodness, I’m so hungry,”

Skeppy scoffed and ran to the table where the plates and pots full of food were. “I’m gonna eat all the food,”

“Hey-!” Bad rushed after him. 

“Hey, hey,” Quackity nudged Tommy. “I wanna see if what you said was true,” He called over to where Bad and Skeppy were snatching food from each other’s plates. “HEY!”

They came over to them and sat down where some free seats were.

Quackity leaned over the table. “So, Bad, is it true you cut off your tail because you hurt Tommy?”

Bad yelped, feeling himself get hot. “No!” he felt his tail go a little rigid. “And I didn't hurt Tommy,” his eyes glanced over at the boy for affirmations. “Right?”

“No, no, Bad could never hurt me, I’m too much of an Alpha, amiright?” Tommy winked.

“And I didn’t cut my tail off! I still have it, see!” Bad gestured to the now swaying tail behind him. His white eyes curved downwards a bit. “That would really hurt if I cut it off,”

“They don’t look as sharp though, Bad,” Puffy pointed out. “Why’s that?”

“Oh, I rounded them, so I wouldn’t cut or hurt anyone. Same with my tail,” Bad explained, gnawing at the carrot in his hands.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Tubbo asked curiously. 

“No,” Bad smiled. “It’s like your nails. I don’t feel much on the edges of my tail, or the tips of my horns,” 

Techno gave a sly grin. “Can’t feel much on the edges, huh?” he looked directly into Bad’s eyes.

Bad coughed, and looked away from Techno. “Yeah. It’s safer anyways,” He then smiled. “So I don’t hurt anyone,”

Skeppy grinned with a mouthful of soup. “Bad’s a small demon child,” he giggled. “Baby proofing,” he fell into a fit of laughter.

“Shut uppp,” Bad whined, getting hot again.

“Baby proofing? We’re not babies!” Tommy began to get loud again.

“No, I’m talking about child nether demons,” Skeppy said through his laughs. “Hatchlings.
They need to get their sharps blunted so they don’t hurt anyone since children are too ecstatic to sit still,” he was still in a fit of laughter. “Bad’s a baby nether demon,” he teased, watching Bad shrink into himself in embarrassment. 

“Hey! How are demon babies made, Bad?” Tommy blurted out, holding back his own laughter.

“Language!” Bad said, breaking into a higher pitched voice. 

“Language?! I didn’t say anything!” Tommy exclaimed. “I asked a genuine question,”

“Argh!” Bad scowled, his throat vibrating.

“It’s okay, I’ll answer,” Techno began, clearing his throat. “As the knower of all,” he pronounced, “I shall share the descriptive tale of nether demon’s reproductive systems,”

“Oh my goodness,” Bad whined, covering his eyes. “It’s not fair, I don’t hear you chatting about human reproductive systems at the dinner table,”

“It’s because we all know how that works,” Quackity said, turning his undivided attention back to Techno. 

“So, the male and the female-”

“ Incorrect, ” Bad interrupted but covered his mouth with his hands. “No- I didn’t say anything- LANGUAGE,” he stuttered. 

“Incorrect?” Tubbo and Tommy broke into laughter. 

Techno grinned. “Would you like to correct me, Bad?”

Bad shook his head. “Nope, no, no, language!”

“I didn’t say anything- nevermind,” Techno looked back at everyone else. “As I was saying, the female and male nether demons can-”

“Oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing, stop it you muffin heads,” Bad exclaimed. “It’s just like you guys! We reproduce just like you guys!” he almost yelled.

There was some silence before Techno inputted: “Except with eggs,” 

“Except with eggs,” Bad repeated, mumbling and feeling hotter than ever. “Can I eat my food in peace now?” He eyed particularly at Tommy.

“Have you ever-” 

But Tommy was slapped by Quackity. He knew it was all fun and games but there was a line.

“Hrgh,” Tommy grunted.

---

Skeppy and Bad began their short walk home back to their quartz mansion. The dinner lasted a while and it was the nicest meal anyone had had in a long time. 

Skeppy was doing a weird mix between skipping and balancing on the side of the path when he asked Bad “Hey, that conversation, about hatchlings...are you all good with that? You know, the teasing,”

“Yeah, I guess,” Bad felt the tip of his ears heat up. “They were just making fun,”

“They’re immature children. You don’t need to take mind,” Skeppy reminded him.

“I know,” Bad grinned. “It’s alright, it’s just embarrassing,”

“I could gather,” Skeppy laughed. “I could feel the heat radiating off you,” 

“Really?” Bad frowned, feeling himself getting hot again. Oh dear.

“It’s fine, you’re like a heater,” Skeppy said, as they arrived at the house. 

“Aha,” Bad squirmed a little. “Thank you,” 

The process for getting into bed was routine for them, getting ready in silence and then just falling into bed in exhausted sync. 

“Goodnight, Bad,” Skeppy murmured. The lure of the comfortable bed made him sleepy. 

From across the room Bad gave a small growl followed by “Goodnight ‘geppy,” 

And the night fell. 

Skeppy snapped his eyes open, the blurriness of uncertainty blinded him temporarily as the scream lessened into quiet whimpering. “Bad?!” He called out worriedly and turned to the otherside of the room where Bad was sitting up, his wings sprawled out covering the walls of the room, and shaking. “Bad?” 

Skeppy got out of bed and ran towards Bad’s bed. “Are you alright?!” At first he thought that someone had tried to break in, a very hostile mob perhaps, but then he realised; Bad was having a nightmare.

“Skeppy- '' Bad choked, his eyes looking distantly into Skeppy’s. He still seemed very dazed, but he realised he was awake. “Hmph-” he managed to say before diving into Skeppy’s arms. 

Maybe Skeppy was a little bit glad that Bad had rounded his claws and tail, as Bad, who’d just woken from a nightmare, looked terrifying as a dark figure with horns and glowing eyes, alongside the fact that Bad’s fingers dug into Skeppy’s human flesh, forgetting his own strength and his tail curling around his body, which had never happened before.

Skeppy could feel Bad’s body emanating heat so much he thought he was going to get burned. “Bad- are you alright?” 

Bad replied in a hollow growl, and Skeppy could feel his body vibrating.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Skeppy finally asked.

Bad nodded, letting go of Skeppy, but still obviously shaken. “I’m sorry for waking you up-” looking over at Skeppy’s abandoned bed. 

Skeppy sighed. “It’s fine, Bad, you had a nightmare. Can I ask what it was about?”

Bad stared at him for a moment before hastily replying “I- I don’t remember,” his voice was still shaking but his wings had closed a bit. 

Skeppy looked at his friend, who he’d come to know very well in the months that he’d first come to live in the Overworld- Bad didn’t get scared, not even by the bigger, more abusive nether demons. But by staring into the white, sad eyes of the small nether demon in front of him, he could see that the eyes had seen indescribable terrors and any nightmare could equal that. 

“Okay, well, are you good to sleep?” Skeppy asked. It was still dark out and it didn’t feel like the sun was coming any time soon.

“Um,” Bad looked at the window then at Skeppy. “Yes. I’m fine, thank you,” 

Skeppy nodded and reluctantly returned to his bed, which felt cold compared to the warmth Bad had provided. Lying down, he turned so he could see Bad in his bed from the corner of his eye. 

Bad had laid back down, covering himself as best as he could with the blanket over his wings, periodically letting out small hisses and quiet growls. 

Chapter Text

Skeppy hadn’t done anything wrong, except whined. The only issue was that he whined about Bad’s incoherence to collect him sand. To the nether demon, it was a playful teasing act Skeppy was doing, trying to get his attention.

While Bad enjoyed giving Skeppy attention, he was busy with making a sandcastle with Ranboo, Tommy and Tubbo. The concept of sand was a delight to him, as the nether had nothing of the sort and no one built nether portals on beaches.

Skeppy’s reaction to Bad’s confusion when Tommy had proposed they go to the beach to have fun was a mixture between disappointment and delight. The beach, Skeppy’s favourite place by nature, was a biome of importance to his species and Bad’s ignorance of it made him excited to teach him all about his race.

But Bad was too busy giggling at the small nature of the sand particles. 

“Baddd, come on,” Skeppy continued, as he had done for the past half hour.

“Skeppy, there’s sand everywhere ,” Bad said mindlessly, piling more sand onto the lump that was their ‘sandcastle’.

Skeppy fumed. He wanted Bad to ask why he wanted sand, then he could explain why. As Skeppy thought about his annoyance, he imagined how he would explain his culture to Bad, and as he thought more, he realised maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea.

If Bad gave him sand...it would mean something, and to Bad it would mean nothing. Skeppy frowned. He didn’t really want Bad to give him sand, right? Right? He questioned himself.

He didn’t think about it properly before. Bad had been living in the Quartz Mansion with him for a couple months now, and they had adapted to a routine, Skeppy had adapted to Bad. 

While Skeppy had ignored many of his species’s norms, he still valued some. Even living together was something he should look into but his many years away from home had let him not see friends living together as scandalous. 

Phasing out of his dream, Skeppy realised the squeals of the others had quietened. Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo were nowhere to be seen.

“They’ve gone to catch fish,” Bad said, turning his attention to the nether demon sitting beside him. “With their hands,” he seemed thoroughly amused at that prospect, humming through his teeth.

“Oh,” Skeppy nodded, realising they were alone on the beach.

“Here’s your sand! I got some dry soft sand for you,” Bad held out a handkerchief with some sand in it. “I didn’t know how much you wanted. What’d you need it for?” 

Skeppy blinked at him, not moving. Bad’s hand hovered in the air with the sand-filled handkerchief. Skeppy blinked again.

“Skeppy?” Bad frowned, worriedly. “Are you okay?”

Skeppy looked down at the handkerchief. “Yes! I mean, you don’t want to give that to,”

“Yes I do, Skeppy! You were crying about it earlier,” Bad said.

“I was not crying,” Skeppy defended, “I was teasing you. I can’t accept your sand, Bad,” he said, even though he wanted to grab it and keep it forever.

Bad’s tail fell onto the floor, flicking some sand into the air. “I don’t know what you mean, it’s just sand,” he lowered his hand so it was resting on his lap. 

Skeppy felt himself convert into his diamond form, even though he tried to put all of his energy into not transforming.

“Skeppy?” Bad’s tail stood straight, and his eyes looked about for any threats.

Skeppy shook his head. “No- nothing’s wrong,”

“Then why did you change?” Bad asked. “Is everything alright? Is the sun hurting your skin?”

Skeppy laughed. “No, I’m fine. Thank you for your offer...of sand,” Declining the sand felt weird. He wanted to accept it. By Gem-people standards, he and Bad were....

Bad’s tail swished a bit, before he asked; “Then why’d you want the sand before? Why was that teasing? Is it like a human thing?” he got excited at the last part, being enamoured with learning new things.

He asked the question Skeppy had wanted him to ask, but now he didn’t want to answer. “Uh, I don’t know, I was being silly,” he quickly answered.

“But Skeppy, you're getting hot. Are you sure you’re okay?” Bad’s eyes curved in concern. 

Skeppy stared. “How do you know-”

“I have heightened senses, Skeppy,” Bad said as if Skeppy was dumb and forgot, “I can feel you heating up,”

Skeppy laughed awkwardly. “No- I’m fine,” 

Then Bad let out a small gasp- or a nether demon equivalent; “Nggrgh! Wait-” he looked at Skeppy. “Is this like food?”

Skeppy now was confused, looking at Bad, who was leaning forward and looked a little flustered. “Food? No, I don’t eat it,”

“No- no, that’s not what I meant,” Bad spluttered. “ Food, for me!”

“You eat sand?” Skeppy asked, perplexed.

Bad laughed. “No! Skeppyyy, nether demons! And food,”

Now Skeppy was confused, trying to flip through every mental file he had on Bad. “What...about nether demon food?”

Bad sighed. “Food? Why do you think I don’t share my food?”

“Because you’re hungry all the time?” Skeppy tried to answer.

Bad stared at him, and Skeppy swore a wash of woe went through Bad’s facial expression. “Oh- I thought you knew,” his tail seemed to curl around his outstretched leg. 

“Knew what?” 

“Doesn’t matter,” Bad said quickly. And then there were two in awkward silence. 

“Wait, what does food mean? Maybe it means sand,” Skeppy slowly said. 

Bad looked up at him, and his tail returned to moving about as usual. “It- it means...sharing food, you only do it with your mate. Because you hunt for it- then take it home to share it,” 

Then it made sense, why Bad kept to his plate even though Skeppy liked to snatch food, something he stopped when Bad began to live with him as he snarled as Skeppy’s hand went anywhere near his. Why Bad insisted on hunting for his own food and why they had separate chests for their food even though they lived together.

“Oh-” Skeppy said. “Sand- sand isn’t like food,”

“It isn’t?” Bad’s voice fell. 

Skeppy noticed it; did he want it to mean food? Did Bad want to give him the sand, if it meant food? “It’s...more than food. It means, it’s like flowers for humans,”

Bad didn’t seem to understand that better.

“Like, cards, saying ‘I love you’ on them,” Skeppy finally said quickly. “Like declaration of love,”

Bad watched as Skeppy’s diamond form fell and revealed a red in the face Skeppy. 

“But I love you,” Bad said, his fingers rubbing the edges of the handkerchief still filled with sand. “I even seaved it out for you! There’s no little rocks, or crabs in it,” he hopefully lifted it again.

Skeppy couldn’t believe it, and he didn’t. “No, I don’t know if you know what love means-”

“I do!” Bad interrupted, seeming annoyed Skeppy thought that of him. “It’s like sharing camps, and hunting together! For nether demons,” he added. “Like me to you,”

Skeppy didn’t believe it. “No, it’s- it’s like what George and Dream have- it’s like having a mate, ” he finally said the final word.

Bad seemed to hesitate a bit at the word but continued firmly. “But we haven’t mated,” he simply said. 

Skeppy almost choked on his saliva. “Of- of course we haven’t, that’s not what I meant,”

“You said mates,” Bad frowned. “Did you mean...like bonding partners?”

The confusion in the air was so thick that Skeppy swore he was suffocating. “Wait- how do your species- how, what-?”

Bad seemed a little amused at Skeppy’s misunderstanding. “Bonding partners are...they’re like nether demons in love!” he jumped at the word, smiling again, glancing at the sand. “Like sand, but if you’re also breeding partners then you become mates. But you can also be breeding partners with being bonded, so then you’re not mates,”

Skeppy tried to follow Bad, “Wait so, you can be bonding partners but not...breeding partners?”

“It’s a little frowned upon since you’re not reproducing, even if half the time mating doesn’t result in hatchlings,” Bad shrugged. “It doesn’t make much sense but there are bonding partners without breeding- acts,” he almost giggled immaturely. “But breeding partners are so much more prominent,” 

Skeppy understood- “Wait okay so, you giving me sand is like declaring you want to be my...bonding partner. You don’t want that,”

Bad’s tail twitched a bit before he shook his head a little. “No...what? I do, Skeppy, that’s what I said! I love you, so I want to give you Sand,”

“I love you too, but I don’t think you know what it means,” Skeppy insisted.

Bad didn’t seem to understand Skeppy’s hesitations. “Skeppy,” his eyes darted around the dim beach, the sun was setting. “Here,” he carefully placed the handkerchief with sand in it on the blanket they were sitting on, and reached into one of his pockets to retrieve a stone. “Here-” he dropped into Skeppy’s lap.

The stone had a hole in it- presumably for a string to form a necklace. The stone itself seemed to made of a merge between gold and quartz and the edges were roughly carved into a downward triangle shape. “What’s this?”

Bad was now radiating heat, much hotter than Skeppy. His fingers intertwined with each other and fiddled. “That’s a heart stone,” he looked Skeppy in the eye. “It’s like sand, but forever,”

“...Forever?” Skeppy frowned, staring at it. 

“You give to your- to your mate, after-” Bad saw Skeppy’s amused face as they both thought about it. “-LANGUAGE!”

“I didn’t say anything-”

“You thought it-”

“But we haven’t mated,” Skeppy repeated what Bad had said earlier.

“No-” Bad’s tail was curling around his arm now. “But I want to show you I’m serious! I don’t think I’ll ever find another bonding partner like you,” he made another small growl noise before saying- “I mean- we haven’t officiated becoming bonding partners- that means plaiting each other’s hair- but-” he seemed to be running out of words so he grabbed the handkerchief and shoved it into Skeppy’s hands.

Skeppy’s hands now held two declarations of love. Sand, which he so dearly wanted to receive from Bad, and a heart stone, which was the first time he had heard of such a thing. “I-” he didn’t know what to say, exactly.

Bad looked at him in silence, waiting for words. 

“You want to be bonding partners?” He finally said.

“Like what humans call togetherness,” Bad nodded.

“You mean ‘being together’,”

“Shut up,” Bad bit his lip, but looked down at Skeppy’s hands. “Make sure to not show other nether demons the heart stone, otherwise they’d think things. But we can braid our hair- then no one will touch you,” 

Skeppy watched as Bad’s face lit up as he spoke possibilities. “Wait- wait- braiding? And- what exactly is a heart stone?”

Bad paused and remembered Skeppy was oblivious to nether demon culture, apparently. “Oh- right, braiding is a signal of breeding partners! For nether demons it’s important to show your mating status- or your mate, usually it can be done by scent marking but not all nether demons are mature so there are other ways-”

Bad’s tail seemed to be excited, waving around, and Bad’s hands followed as he gestured. “-like braiding. It stems from grooming each other but we don’t do that much anymore since evolution- like hundreds of years of go, so now a single braid can show that you’re not available,”

Skeppy liked the thought of not being available, and belonging to Bad-

“-and heart stones are the coolest!” Bad seemed even more excited, almost squirming in his seat. “They’re supposed to be a stone you give your mate- but you get it from your parents who make it for you when you hatch. It’s the symbol for a complete family,” 

Skeppy felt the coolness of the stone in his hand. “Wow,” he was somehow out of breath, from the whole ordeal, despite them having been sitting the whole time.

Bad nodded quickly. “Although, mine doesn’t look as pretty as everyone else’s. I had to make my own,” 

“Wait, why?” Didn’t your parent’s give it to you?

“-but it means the same! I almost fell into lava for the quartz part, I was a small nether demon then- I could barely fly,” he laughed at the memory, but didn’t answer Skeppy’s question- or didn’t hear him. “Oh- this is so exciting, I never thought I’d have a bonding partner-” he leaned forward, his eyes glowing.

“Me- me neither,” Skeppy confessed. “I mean- I left home so long ago and I never met another gem person. I guess they didn’t have to be one,” he smiled a little, puting the heart stone in his pocket and returned to staring at the stone. He grabbed a thermos they’d brought and poured the sand inside. “I- thank you, for the sand,” his heart warmed at the words. 

Bad nodded, not saying anything but smiling. 

“Wait- here, I should-” Skeppy looked around and sectioned a bit of the beach they were sitting on and got out a glass bottle from his pack, using it to scoop the sand into it. “Here-” he held it out for Bad to hold. “For you,” his felt himself warming up and his diamond exterior threatened to form. 

Bad ‘oh-ed’ and accepted it. “Thank you for your declaration of love ,” he quoted Skeppy. “You don’t need to get me a heart stone! I mean, we haven’t even- but- it doesn’t matter. But can we-” he gestured to Skeppy’s hair.

“Yeah- we can,”

Even though neither of them know how much the gestures meant to the other party, both were content with the result- a declaration of love. 

Chapter Text

Skeppy watched Bad chase the chicken on the flat lawn that had been cleared for practise sparring. They had been practising their sword skills but Bad had gotten distracted by the chicken, flapping around the field. They were probably going to take it to the farm to breed but for now Skeppy let Bad have his fun.

Ever since they had bonded, Skeppy had fallen for Bad even more. When they returned to the village with a braid in each other’s short hair, no one thought twice- no one really knew about nether demon culture- except Techno, who choked on his drink once and didn’t mention it again. 

Secondly, Skeppy had tried to scour the library for books on nether demons to learn more about his ‘boyfriend’, or bond partner, as Bad called it, he couldn’t find any except for a paragraph in a ‘What to avoid in the nether for beginners’ book. 

He had tried to ask Techno about it but the looks he gave them, the only one in the village in the know about them, made Skeppy blush and not think straight. 

And so he decided to just wing it.

Skeppy was just sitting on the grass and Bad was on fours, using traditional nether demon hunting techniques to pounce and scare the chicken. He kept on bursting into giggles as the chicken squawked in surprise each time. 

While any nether demon would look terrifying as they jumped to attack, Bad looked like...Bad, just playing with the feathered bird. Skeppy frowned in amusement, as he thought about a few nights ago when Bad had woken up from a bad nightmare. He’d known Bad had nightmares often, sometimes waking up from whimpering or small growls coming from Bad’s side of the room.

He never woke him up, only because Bad would most likely have jumped and pushed Skeppy, and Skeppy knew Bad would never forgive himself for ‘hurting’ Skeppy, even if Skeppy was protected by his diamond form. 

Still, thinking that Bad, the kindest and calmest person he knew, had experienced things that would allow for nightmares to form, was something Skeppy couldn’t understand. He knew he was a nether demon, but Bad said he never participated in the terrorific things nether demons sometimes did. 

The bigger demons did sometimes bully Bad, before he left to the Overworld, but Skeppy doubted they would’ve done anything bad...right? Bad enough for him to ‘forget’ what he had nightmares about? 

“Oh! Skeppy I caught it!” Bad yelled from a few metres away. He walked up to Skeppy with the chicken in his two hands. “Quickly, let’s go put it in the fences,” 

“Hey wait for me!” Skeppy ran after Bad, not realising he’d already sprinted off.

“What’s this?” Puffy said as they approached the farm. She was feeding some of the horses.

“I found it on the sparring field,” Bad said, popping it with the other chickens. A cluster of ‘squawks’ followed from the various chickens.

Skeppy glanced at Bad as he felt his tail knock him on the back. Bad simply reached to his tail and held it so it would stop waving and pretended like it hadn’t tapped Skeppy. “Well, we’ll be off!” Skeppy waved goodbye to Puffy and the two of them went back to the field, even though none of them felt like sparring anymore.

“I'm tired,” Bad complained.

“Because you spent all your energy chasing a chicken?” Skeppy chuckled, making fun of his friend.

“No! Yes…” Bad looked a little bashful, but his face was still warm and bright from the exercise. 

Skeppy rolled his eyes teasingly. “Wow Bad, I thought you had more energy, being a strong nether demon,” he put on a fake voice at the end to seem tougher.

“Skeppyy!” Bad returned the teasing tone, his voice going a little higher. His tail tapped Skeppy again, but Bad grabbed it again and tried to put it on the other side. 

Skeppy ignored it.

--

It was a communal lunch picnic- Tubbo and Ranboo had proposed it and most of the village had turned up. The day was incredibly sunny and Dream and George had recently cleared the area for mobs so it was perfect.

Still, the screams of mainly Tommy and the even louder screams from Quackity could be heard as some people were play-fighting and teasing each other.

While the screaming fest was a perfect opportunity for the best screamers, Skeppy and Bad, the two of them were sitting down on the grass. Bad had forced Skeppy to stay put for a bit as they ate the god-worthy muffins that Puffy had made for the occasion (Bad had begged her to teach him how to bake and now Skeppy was ‘forced’ to tag along) 

“I never thought about it like that before,” Bad mumbled clumsily with muffin remains still in his mouth. “I always thought that-”

“Thought that what?” Quackity interrupted, sitting down in a rush and grabbing a muffin.

“That fish can drown,” Skeppy laughed, letting go of his laughter. Bad scowled.

 Quackity matched his laughter. “No wayyy you thought that,”

“Well, we drown underwater- so fish drown out of water,” Bad tried to justify his misconception. “It’s not funny,” he pouted.

His tail tapped Skeppy again but Bad didn’t seem to notice this time. Skeppy gave him a quick glance- he was too busy nibbling on another muffin. Bad’s tail had continuously tapped Skeppy on the back, or the back of his legs, or the arm, all throughout the day, and Skeppy was pretty sure the day before too. 

Most of the time, Bad had moved so the tail couldn’t reach him or he’d grabbed it to stop it from wacking Skeppy, but none of the times had he acknowledged it. What Skeppy did realise though, was that the spade-shaped end of the tail was hitting him flatly, the face of it hitting him rather than the edges which was the orientation that Bad’s tail usually was in when he hit someone with. 

Briefly, while they were in the nether to get some glowstones, Skeppy had caught the sight of some nether demons hunting some pigmen and he saw the attacks they did with their tails, horizontal and with the edges. 

Even though Bad had stopped using his tail to attack as it was blunt, he still used it to hit Tommy whenever he jump-scared him, or when Skeppy stole something of his. Or anyone if they were standing close to him and used bad language. And each time, it would be a quick poke with the point or edge of the tail. 

But now, for whatever reason, the tail kept flicking near Skeppy, hitting him, but with the flat side. After it hit him three times, Bad noticed, and grabbed it again, settling it underneath his leg. Again, he didn’t mention it, and neither did Skeppy.

“Hey, Skeppy, surely we’ll go and gang up on everyone later? They were bullying me,” Quackity asked, “They wouldn’t let me win,”

“Oh, one hundred per cent,” Skeppy grinned mischievously. Ganging up with Quackity was always so much fun. 

“Maybe you should be a better fighter if you want to win, Quackity,” Bad said simply, with an innocent look in his eyes.

“Ooooh, Bad out here with the FACTS,” Puffy laughed at Quackity.

“Skeppy! Can I join? I want revenge on Tommy for killing my pet fish,” Bad turned to Skeppy rather abruptly.

“Wow Bad, could you get any closer,” Quackity said, almost screeching.

Bad instantly went hot, and pulled back, not realising he had turned and faced Skeppy with barely an inch between them. “Oh- sorry Skeppy!” He put his hand on his tail, which had escaped its prison and was swishing about. 

Even if he was his bonding partner, they weren’t mates. Skeppy didn’t ask why not, but Bad didn’t mention it so he didn’t either. Skeppy had tried hard to find out customs or anything to do with mating in nether demons, but again- there weren’t any resources in their village. 

They hadn’t even done anything with human customs, despite Skeppy having been more used to human culture compared to his own- they hadn’t kissed yet, and Skeppy was too much of a flustered mess to ask why- or if Bad even knew what it was. But Bad did his little things that Skeppy knew meant a lot, even if it was just the occasional food sharing.

Skeppy blinked. He thought back to a few hours ago, every minute from the past two days, and realised that Bad had gotten progressively closer to him every time they spoke. His head would tilt in sometimes, or his face would just be close in general. Skeppy hadn’t really realised it, but as Quackity had pointed it out, Skeppy noticed. “It’s fine, Bad,” he laughed. 

Bad didn’t think so, he let out a small mewl before standing up. “I- I think I’m going to go and fight Tommy, you know, give him revenge now, ha ha,” he said quickly, before picking up his sword and running off to the field. 

“What was that?” Puffy asked, frowning.

“Why is everyone looking at me? I don’t know,” Skeppy glowered. He looked at Techno, who was barely paying attention to the conversation. “You know everything, did anyone annoy him or something?”

“Hey, I’m not the town’s gossip,” Techno huffed. “Maybe he's in heat or something, I don’t know,” he suggested casually, picking up a biscuit but sending Skeppy a look.

There was some silence.

“IN HEAT?!” Quackity screeched.

“SHUT UP-” Skeppy leaped forward and tackled Quackity to the floor. “He can probably hear you!”

“AND?!” Quackity yelled. “Oh my god- he’s a fucking Nether Demon- of course he has heat cycles, oh my fuck-”

“Jeez, Quackity- it’s perfectly normal, don’t be freaked out,” Puffy sighed. The immaturity…

“Relax, quite a few of us have heat cycles, Quackity,” Techno furrowed.

“Wait who?!” Quackity yelped. 

“You’re really perceptive, you know,” Puffy said sarcastically. 

“Techno does,” Skeppy exposed, even though it was common knowledge, and it was just Quackity who was overreacting. “You just don’t pay attention,”

“Oh really?” Quackity edged. “I did know Techno has heat cycles- and as if I don’t pay attention, I’m the one who noticed Bad was being suspiciously close to you just then. I bed you didn’t even realise he was being weird,”

He was wrong, of course.

“Alright, shut up,” Skeppy simply said. Inside, he was boiling. What was going on? If Techno was right- “Why do you think that?” he asked him. They were bonded together, Bad should be telling him these things, unless...it was to do with the fact Bad hadn’t even brought the prospect of mating .

Techno shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean, he’s got to have one at some point- all Nether demons do,”

“Yeah, but maybe it was something else. Why do you think he’s in heat?”

Techno shrugged again. “I don’t know, I read the books ages ago, when I went to the Capitol years ago. But I do remember something about pheromones and erogenous zones...or something. But some aren’t inherently sexual-” 

“Ok! I get it, you don’t know,” Skeppy waved his hand for him to stop. He was burning, physically and mentally, with questions.

“Oh, this is hilarious,” Quackity muffled his laughter.

“It’s not funny!” Puffy harassed, but a small smile was evident. It was funny. Anytime any member was in heat, if they did, was hilarious but it was all light fun. 

“Why don’t you ask him?” Quackity asked Skeppy. “You know, so nothing bad happens,” after he said this, he broke into laughter again. 

“What are we laughing at?” Tommy asked, approaching some other exhausted members of the sparring game, hungry for food.

“Nothing,” Puffy said quickly. 

“Did Bad find you?” Skeppy asked.

“Nope,” Tommy simply said, grabbing some cake.

  --

“Baaad?!” Skeppy yelled into the nether. He was wandering around, looking for his bond partner. It had been a few hours and Bad hadn’t returned from wherever he went. 

“Come on, BADDD!?” He kept on going until he heard some scrambling and rocks falling. He turned around to see Bad sliding down a small pile of netherrack before flapping his wings to stability on the ground.

“Skeppy! What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?!” Skeppy shot back. “I was worried! You ran off weirdly and then I couldn’t find you for hours, ”

“Oh- I’m sorry Skeppy! I didn't want to worry you,” Bad apologised, standing up normally. He held his hands together.

Skeppy walked up to him. “Don’t do that again! Okay? You’ve been weird for the past two days. Care to explain? Quackity and Techno brought up all of these stupid ideas and- well, I don’t know,”

Bad stared at him awkwardly. “Um, well nothing’s wrong , per say,” he rubbed his forearm. “It’s just...well a lot of people get it wrong with Nether demons, you know, they say that- you know,” he was all hot again, but Skeppy barely noticed this time as they were already in the boiling nether.

“I won’t be weirded out, I promise,” Skeppy assured. “Quackity already did all of the weird assumptions,”

“Oh dear...everyone’s going to make fun of me,” Bad began. “Oh my goodness…” 

“No no, no one will, I promise,” Skeppy went closer and placed his hand on Bad’s shoulder as an instinct to comfort him.

Bad glanced at it before sighed. “Everyone calls it a heat cycle but it’s not-” he stuttered, “-it’s not really a heat cycle, we don’t get those,”

Skeppy blinked. “Wait so Techno was right?”

“Wait, you guys talked about me?” Bad looked mortified. “Oh my goodness,” he put his hands to his head in panic.

“Look, relax. If you don’t have heat cycles then you can make fun of everyone else who does,” Skeppy laughed a little. “Wait, what do you mean ‘it’s not really a heat cycle’?”

Bad whined a little bit but explained. “It’s...I mean, we don’t have heat cycles, but ..” he sort of buried his face with his hands. “It technically is one, which is why everyone says it’s one but it’s not...culturally,” 

“What do you mean?” Skeppy tilted his head slightly in confusion. He could now feel the heat radiating from him. 

“I mean, we get like...higher levels of hormones, and we release pheromones to attract each other… you know, but in practise we don’t do…”

“So...what do you do?” Skeppy asked, allowing Bad to skip the ‘language’ word. 

Bad swallowed. “It’s mostly for choosing your mate. And our ‘zones’ lean towards them, on instinct,” he added the last part hesitantly. “But it's not for...you know...like everyone thinks it is. Everyone has it at different times, and affects them differently depending on if anyone's pheromones are attracting, you know? It’s to ‘expose’ you...or whatever to your future mate. I don’t know,” Bad quickly finished. 

Skeppy let out a heartwarming laugh. “Oh, Bad, that’s it? I was worried before, but this is fine,”

Bad let out a nervous chuckle, “Oh, sorryyy,” his tail, which was waving around the whole time when suddenly it spun around and hit Skeppy in the shoulder.

“What the hell-” Skeppy jumped, not expecting it.

“Language- oh my goodness,” Bad yelped, covering his mouth with one hand and grabbing his tail with the other. “I’m sorry Skeppy, I’m trying to control it,”

“Not doing a good job though,” Skeppy laughed.

“Wait, you noticed?” Bad’s face changed. “Oh, you didn’t react before, I thought-”

“You didn’t bring it up...although I thought it was weird, seeing as it never happened before. Why is it doing that-” Skeppy’s brain caught up to his words as he realised; ‘our ‘zones’ lean towards them, on instinct’.

“What are zones, Bad?” Skeppy said.

Bad let out a noise worthy of teasing before muttering something incomprehensible. 

“What’s that Bad? I didn’t hear youuu,” Skeppy teased.

“They’re like...sensitive,” Bad said a little clearer.

“Sensitive zones?” Skeppy grinned. “Oh, Bad, this is too funny,”

“No it’s not,” he replied, in a slightly higher pitched tone.

Skeppy put on a thinking face. “And you said these zones tend to lean towards a potentially attractive mate?”

Bad made another noise before shaking his head. “You don’t secrete pheromones Skeppy!” Then he realised his mistake.

Skeppy paused. “Wait what?”

Bad’s two hands on his tail gripped tighter nervously. “Nothing! I didn’t say anything-”

Skeppy began feeling hot too. What was happening? It started as teasing but Skeppy’s slow brain hadn’t caught up. “No, I don’t secrete pheromones, Bad…”

Bad shook his head furiously and his eyes darted around. 

Skeppy looked at the small nether demon, who was still a good few inches taller than him, and realised he was still leaning in a bit towards Skeppy. He wondered what that was, so instinctively, he stepped a little closer.

In the silence, Bad didn’t really notice the movement but his head wavered a bit before leaning a bit more forward. Skeppy frowned a little, a small smile forming. He abruptly leant forward, tiptoeing so his face matched Bad’s. 

Bad gave a small growl mixed with whine, staring into Skeppy’s eyes. “Skeppy- what are you doing,”

“Why do you lean in, Bad? When we talk?” Skeppy asked.

Bad seemed to struggle to stand straight. “Wha- I don’t know what you mean,”

Skeppy got a little closer, “Come on,”

Bad gave a yelp and stepped back. “No, it’s not fair,”

“What?” Skeppy stood normally again. “What isn’t fair?”

Bad let go of his tail and prayed it didn’t hit Skeppy again. “You don’t produce pheromones!”

“I know,” Skeppy frowned at the repetition.

“I’m in my heat cycle Skeppy- or at least the Nether demon version- my- my zones are trying to find a mate, that’s why my tail keeps hitting you,” Bad was really hot now, and Skeppy felt himself sweating.

“Oh,” Skeppy spluttered, now staring at the tail that was swishing around. “Wait what?”

“You’re a true muffin head,” Bad rubbed his face before hesitating. “My horns are sensitive too,”

“Your horns?” Skeppy was surprised. “Wait, both your weapons are sensitive zones?” he exclaimed. The irony.

“Yes,” Bad griped. “The ends of my horns, and the edges of my tail have no sensory receptors but the flat part of my tail and the rest of my horns are some of the most sensitive parts,”

“Wait, is that why you kept leaning in?” Skeppy asked.

“Yes,” Bad said quietly. “I don’t know what’s happening, you don’t have pheromones,”

Skeppy looked at Bad. “Bad, are you sexually attracted to me right now?”

“Ack! Language!” Bad jumped, and his tail whipped around and whacked Skeppy in the arm. Bad covered his mouth. “Hmph-”

“What- what was that?” Skeppy stared, his ears tingling from the noise Bad just made.

“What? What was what?” Bad asked, lowering his hand and trying to grab his tail but Skeppy beat him to it.

The foreign hand on his tail was a new feeling, and Bad stared at it in fear. “Skeppy- you don’t know what you’re doing,”

Skeppy looked him in the eyes. “What, what am I doing?” there was a sense of genuine uncertainty.

Bad’s outstretched hands slowly went limp. “That’s- only...you’re not supposed to hold tails that aren’t your own,” he said quickly. 

Skeppy automatically let go but the tail remained, wavering. “Oh- I’m sorry Bad, I didn’t know,” he stuttered, himself going red clearly visible.

Bad looked at him, before moving his tail away. “It’s- I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you-” 

Skeppy frowned. “Is it an act of trust?” 

Bad nodded, “Yes- I just- you don’t know what it means-”

“Is it like, I’m accepting your offer of being a mate?” Skeppy joked...or at least half joked, a small hope of sincerity lingered.

Bad’s eyes widened. “Yes,” 

Skeppy froze again. “Wait really?”

Bad blinked. “The- the tail is a deadly weapon, so holding it- it’s a form of trust, you know...that I won’t kill you. The horns are the other way around- it’s trusting your mate that they won’t control you,” 

Skeppy’s breathing was deepening. “Wait- so you’re in heat...you’re trying to look for a mate,”

Bad made a muffled noise in response. “Yes- it makes our zones even more sensitive,” he added, looking down at his bond partner.

“Why’d you keep this from me?” Skeppy asked, frowning.

Bad shook his head. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t really notice, I mean, I never had anyone to seek so most of the time I didn’t even notice my heat cycles had come and gone- but this time was different,”

“Obviously,” Skeppy wanted to ask; could they become mates now? Was the heat cycle something Bad was waiting for?

But before either of them could speak, the crumbling of netherrack was heard and the two of them ducked as a larger nether demon landed in front of them.

“B̷̧̛͇̎̇͑͋̈͘͝a̸̧̭͕̪͎̣̎͆́͝͝d̷̰͔̱̉̈́̈́b̴̩̂ͅo̵̭̿̀̚y̶̺̺̳̜̏̇͊̿̂̂h̵̢̧̢͔͎̫̪͇̭͇̕a̶̞͙̿̀̓̋̐͋͑͜l̸̨̺̰͎̞͋̋͌͒̉̔͆̿̓͘ȏ̵̪̖̞̪̤̔͆̍̈́͠? Who’s this?” the nether demon spoke, shaking Skeppy’s eardrums.

Bad’s wings opened momentarily before closing. “Skeppy,” he simply said. Skeppy noticed his eyes were glazing about and his fingers were fiddling with one another.

“Skeppy?” The demon said his name in English with some distortion from the nether demon language accent. To Bad’s dismay, the demon lurched forward and inspected Skeppy. “ He is of the stone people,”

“Yes,” Bad nodded, carefully eying the demon’s behaviour with Skeppy. Skeppy was leaning a little backwards as the demon used one of it’s long claws to pick out the braid in his hair. 

“ What is this?” it said, in a tone not even Bad could distinguish.

“A braid,” 

The nether demon turned to face Bad. “You bonded? I do not smell a scent mark,”

“I haven’t done that yet-”

“Of course you cannot,” the nether demon spoke in English again, his voice thick. Skeppy frowned, trying to catch the conversation.

“I can!”

“Then do it right now,” 

Skeppy looked at Bad, utterly confused, but Bad was hesitant and almost shaking. “Bad? What’s going on?”

“Nothing- I don’t need to follow orders from you,” Bad defended, crossing his arms.

The nether demon paused gently before smiling. “You’re in heat. Is it nice...to play with your pet?” his much larger tail, curled dangerously around Skeppy. Skeppy could see the intense sharpness of the tail’s edge, compared to Bad’s bluntness.

Bad growled, “He’s not my pet, he’s my bond partner, let go of him,”

“Then protect him”

Skeppy was worried now. What was going on?

Bad shook his head. “No- no, I said to everyone to not bother me or my friends! That includes my bond partner,” fear seemed to be laced within his voice, and now Skeppy was scared. His diamond exterior had formed a while ago, but now he wished he had his diamond armour to protect him as well.

“You haven’t scent marked him. He could be mine,” the nether demon hissed.

Bad phased to a slightly bigger form, and he stalked up to the demon. “Leave him alone!”

“Give me one good reason why,” the demon taunted, still significantly larger than Bad.

“ AUGHH,” Bad growled louder, making Skeppy do a double take; he’d never heard Bad this loud or terrifying before. Bad stepped closer and his tail weaved passed the demon’s hands and towards Skeppy’s chest. The tip of his tail plucked the heart stone dangling around Skeppy’s neck from underneath his jumper. 

The nether demon’s eyes widened at the sight of it. “ You mated?” his eyes cornered back on Skeppy. “You mated?” he repeated to Skeppy. 

Skeppy looked at Bad, who didn’t budge.

“Yes, now will you leave him alone?” Bad asked. Even though his bonding partner was being threatened, he still maintained his polite structure.

The demon huffed, releasing his grip on Skeppy. “It’s not real,” he finally said. ‘Your heart stone. You made it yourself. It’s not real,”

“Yes it is,” Bad said indignantly, but his voice shook a little. “It’s real,”

The nether demon didn’t say anything but it left, leaving the two of them standing still.

“Oh my god- that was the scariest time of my life-” Skeppy let out a breath of relief. 

Bad didn’t say anything.

“Bad? Are you alright?” Skeppy asked, realising. He walked over to him, placing his hand on his shoulder again, but this time Bad, who’d phased back to his small form, rushed forward into his arms, with a small mewl. “Bad?”

It didn’t take long for Skeppy to realise he was weeping, tears falling from the abyss of shining white eyes and almost immediately steaming up. 

“Wait- Bad, are you okay?” Skeppy asked frantically, alarmed. He’d never seen Bad cry, not even after waking up from a bad nightmare.

“I tried everything- all of the rules, but-” Bad tried to speak, “-they still won’t take me seriously,”

“What- what do you mean?” Skeppy frowned, his arms wrapped around the nether demon. “Are you talking about the heart stone?”

Bad nodded, making a small noise muffled by his face in his hands.

Skeppy gently pushed him forward so they had some space between them. “Bad...we’re real. Our bond is real,” He placed a hand on Bad’s face, rubbing the jawline. 

“Mrrn,” Bad replied in a hesitant growl. He leaned forward on inclination, and this time Skeppy knew why. 

Skeppy edged his forehead closer in response, looking carefully at Bad, who opened his eyes. 

Then, completely surprising Skeppy, Bad impulsively pecked Skeppy on the mouth before moving back with big eyes. 

When Skeppy didn’t say anything, Bad spoke; “Isn’t that what humans do?”

Skeppy nodded, still stunned silent. He then went forward as well, placing his own lips on Bad’s. As the kiss lengthened, Bad was a bit tense before calming a little as he got used to it. 

Bad made a small noise before mumbling; “Be careful of my fangs-” but Skeppy didn’t care, he continued doing what he’d always wanted to do. 

It was perhaps many minutes before they separated and Skeppy gently placed his forehead on Bad’s to rest. As he did, Bad let out a small noise before he grabbed Skeppy’s arm.

“Are you alright?” 

Bad nodded, but keeping his head on Skeppy’s. His grip didn’t loosen. “Mhm...just, no one’s...it’s like kissing,” he murmured, letting out small growls of satisfaction as he moved his head slightly so the base of his horns were touching Skeppy’s.

Skeppy remembered seeing other nether demons, upon glances, sharing foreheads touches. Another mannerism unknown due to lack of information, he fumed internally. He whispered quickly to Bad; “Does it feel nice?”

“Mrnngh,” Bad replied. “No one’s touched them before,” he simply said. 

Skeppy’s mind was racing; then Bad paused and inched forward. For a moment Skeppy thought he was going to kiss him again but Bad spoke; “Can I scent mark you?”

It was a simple question, but this time it was Skeppy who made an incomprehensible noise. “I thought you’d never ask,” Skeppy said quietly, remembering the beach where Bad had explained the routines for bonding. It had been weeks and he thought maybe Bad had already done it and he just didn’t notice. 

Bad didn’t say anything but leaned forward so his face was next to Skeppy’s. Perhaps his weight was too much for Skeppy, or maybe Skeppy was in too much shock that he stumbled backwards and fell onto his back with Bad on top of him.

Neither of them said anything, and as Bad made sure Skeppy wasn’t hurt, he climbed over him and rubbed his around his neck. And wow, Skeppy’s mind shut down- it was hot how Bad had advanced onto him, with Skeppy’s back on the cool floor of the nether.

Then Skeppy flinched a bit, as Bad nipped Skeppy’s neck and followed to lick- or kiss it. The act was similar to receiving a hickey (without the bite) but soon enough Bad sat back up, his legs still around Skeppy. He seemed happy.

“That’ll show those pesky nether demons to stay away,” Bad huffed, glancing around awkwardly. He sniffled a bit before saying. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah- I am. I’m excellent,” Skeppy said, out of breath. “That was hot,”

Bad blinked and grew hot. “Skeppyyy,” 

Skeppy sat up as well, looking at Bad. 

“What?” Bad frowned, watching Skeppy’s facial expressions.

Skeppy lowered his eyes. “Bad, I want you to be okay,”

“I am okay! I’m better than okay,” Bad assured, confused by Skeppy’s concern.

“You say things- during your nightmare, and just before…” Skeppy tried to explain. “I need to know who you are,”

Chapter Text

Skeppy never appreciated inconvenient interruptions- but disappearing after he went to look for Bad, who had disappeared himself only hours before would warrant suspicion and amused concern so when Quackity and some of the others jumped through the ravine and to where Skeppy and Bad was, Skeppy internally groaned.

Quackity had screamed “GOT YOU RED HANDED”

But Bad had quickly dismissed himself and said he needed to go do his farm chores in the village before disappearing, faster than Skeppy could explain to everyone why the nether demon was sitting on him. 

“Skeppy! What did you do,” Quackity laughed, but even he knew something was up.

“Nothing, uh,” Skeppy waved mindlessly. “A nether demon attacked me,”

“That’s all?” Techno frowned, looked at Skeppy with interest.

“That’s all!? I would be terrified,” Quackity exclaimed. “Good thing Bad came to the rescue, right?”

Skeppy didn’t answer, deep in thought about his unanswered question to Bad. 

“Right?” Quackity nervously repeated. 

“Thanks for the concern guys,” Skeppy suddenly smiled and nodded. “I have to go do...what I came here to do...uh to find some gold. Before dark,” he added. “I’ll be home soon!” and he ran off into the wilderness of the nether, leaving everyone behind in confusion. 

Now, hunting a nether demon was never a good idea but Skeppy didn’t quite know another way to find one without Bad. But he knew if he lingered around a lone piglin for long enough, a nether demon was bound to jump out.

And so Skeppy wandered the deep nether, getting all sorts of lost, until a nether demon came out of nowhere, devouring the piglin Skeppy had been trailing. He paused in his steps as the nether demon had mauled off the head of the piglin and was digging its face into the chest. 

Skeppy watched tensely as the nether demon ate. To his interest, the nether demon didn’t finish eating the whole thing and instead stopped halfway and clawed at it, to pick it up. That was when Skeppy noticed the thick braid in the demon’s hair. They were bonded- and maybe mated as well, but Skeppy didn’t have the scent smelling abilities to identify it. 

As the nether demon tried to pick the corpse up, Skeppy realised it was going to leave so he rushed forward, his diamond form hardening and sword on his belt. 

“Hey- uh mister?” Skeppy abruptly stopped as the nether demon turned to him, wings dangerous pointing towards him. He eyed the tail that seemed to have risen nearer to Skeppy’s face.

The nether demon seemed surprised at Skeppy’s appearance but it lowered it’s wings and tilted it’s head. “What do you want, Overworlder,” they said in a low voice, their accent thick with blood.

Skeppy swallowed. “Um, I’m sorry for disturbing you, I was wondering if you had time? For some questions, I mean,”

The nether demon lowered it’s shoulders and looked at Skeppy intensely. “Questions? What for,”

“For my...mate,” Skeppy said, terrified at the large nether demon who he’d just seen devouring a piglin. “I don’t know if you know him- but I just some questions and I don’t know anywhere else to get answers,”T

The nether demon was silent for a bit before they calmed down. “Ok. You are the Puerile’s mate,”

 “The what?” Skeppy frowned in confusion.

The nether demon leaned down onto all fours before making themselves comfortable on the floor. “Puerile. The stage after infantility, which is dubbed as hatchlings,”

“Bad’s a hatchling?” Skeppy exclaimed.

“No, he is not. He is a Puerile. Young, especially compared to a nether demon’s life span,” the nether demon explained.

Skeppy slowly joined them into sitting. “Right, okay. So, what’s your name first? I’m Skeppy,”

They seemed amused at Skeppy’s calm nature around a nether demon. “I am Maldoral,” They paused for a bit before asking, “What would you like to know about...Bad? Is that what you call him?”

“Yup,” Skeppy nodded. “Well, firstly, how do you know him? Are you from his camp?”

Maldoral grimaced. “No. Bad does not have a camp,”

Skeppy seemed confused. “What? No, camps are like family, right? Not biological, but like, a trusted community,”

“Bad did not have a camp. But he was a part of one near mine for a while, during his hatchling years,” Maldoral expanded. “But he is known within many communities,”

Skeppy squinted, realising he was about to uncover a lot of information. “Right...what do you mean by that? He’s never told me anything,”

“Well, let me tell you the whole story,” Maldoral said, becoming fond of Skeppy.

**

“Bad was a lost hatchling. His egg was found amidst a horde of wild piglings far north from here. This is odd for many reasons, but mainly as nether demons do not leave their hatchlings unattended, at most the camp looks after the nest under the absolute necessity. It seemed like the piglins were protecting the egg, despite their nature to destroy abandoned eggs upon the misfortune of neglect. 

The egg was monitored, of course. Perhaps the parents of the egg would return, so the Aurth camp supervised. It was five days before concern grew and it was decided to remove the piglins and retrieve the egg.

As you mentioned, Skeppy camps are like family, and while the possibility for adoption within a community is available, one for a lost egg is not. Personally, what occurred was not ideal but Bad’s egg was passed to a childless pair of mates who decided to look after Bad as an ‘experiment’ before their own hatchlings. 

Bad hatched soon afterwards and for a while he seemed normal. The parents did not care for him, and so his odd behaviour was dismissed as a result. It was quickly realised though, that it was not normal behaviour. 

You see, Bad was exceptionally strong and grew incredibly fast. He was intelligent, displaying 12th day behaviours much earlier days than he should be. Then came the incidents, which resulted in the camp having to move, which is a massive deal. After that, the camp despised Bad, and the parents had already laid their own nest of eggs. 

It was then that Bad had decidedly not had parents anymore, even though he was only perhaps about 21 days old, still a hatchling. The camp could not let him leave, as they had branded him as their own and to let a hatchling leave is dishonourable within the nether and so Bad remained, but alone.

I do not expect him to have known what was really going on, as he was still a hatchling. Still, stories tell of his...differences, that let for sections of the nether become destroyed. 

It was as he entered juvenility when he first died from an accident provoked by his oddity. Nether demons don’t respawn, as we are not bonded to the powers of the Gods as Overworld members are, just as your animals and piglins do not return after death. But Bad returned, and that was when everyone knew something was wrong.

Some of the older juveniles in the camp decided to monitor Bad, and prevented him from doing many things as to protect him and the other nether residents. 

Still, stories become rumours and so Bad is still a topic of conversation on his crypticness. Later in his youth he left his camp and became a lone demon, still with the witness of the older nether demons as so he did not break any of the set rules for safety. 

It has been many years since he left, but often I did see him wander the realm on his own. I’ve been told he enjoys interacting with hatchlings and brings them gifts of gold for them, but my own hatchlings have yet to be met by him. 

I have heard that he had left to the Overworld and only recently by Vozgum, one of his old supervisors, were others told of his mating status,”

Maldoral finished with a small growl, looking at Skeppy who had stayed silent and content the whole time.

Skeppy hadn’t realised what he was getting into. He figured some sort of bad thing had occurred, perhaps something with parents, but neglect and abandonment wasn’t quite it. “Wait- what did you mean about ‘oddities’, before?”

Maldoral flexed their tail before answering. “Not many know. I do not. All that is known is destruction occurred,”

Skeppy made a face when Maldoral interrupted his thoughts. “I do not recommend going to Vozgum or anyone else for answers. You may be marked by Bad but they will not hesitate to kill you if you enter their camps,”

Skeppy frowned. “Okay, thank you, for answering my questions,”

Maldoral smiled. “Thank you for not being afraid of me,” 

--

Skeppy found Bad in the kitchen in the middle of a pile of torn up flowers. “Bad? What are you doing?”

Bad froze and looked up. “Skeppy! I was-” he looked down at the mess he had made. “I was trying to get you a gift but it got a little messy,” 

“Bad…” Skeppy sighed. “Are you alright?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?” Bad frowned, lowering his hands. 

Skeppy edged a little back, just in case Bad’s wings opened up on instinct. “I may, or may not have asked a nether demon about your history- only since you never told me-”

“Skeppy!” Bad exclaimed, covering his face with his hands before his wings covered him as a defense mechanism. “What?!”

“I- I had to- you wouldn’t tell me,” Skeppy tried to climb through Bad’s blockage.

“I- I didn’t want to tell you for a reason-!”

“But why Bad, there’s nothing wrong with being an orphan,” Skeppy tried to say, managing to slip through Bad’s wings and confront him.

“It’s- it’s not that,” Bad looked at Skeppy. “I- I hurt people,”

“I know,”

Bad blinked. “I hurt people. I destroyed things. I don’t know how, but-”

“I know, Bad, and I still love you,” Skeppy affirmed.

Bad looked at Skeppy. “Mrnn,” he growled in defiance. “I love you too, Skeppy,” he mumbled in response. “I don’t want to hurt you,”

“You couldn’t hurt me,” 

“You have to promise me you’ll stop me if I ever-”

“You won’t ever,”

Chapter Text

  TEN

“Can I scent mark you again?” 

Skeppy almost jumped at the sudden proposal, a question he didn’t quite think he would hear again. “I’m sorry?”

Bad paused from his flower-arranging that the pair were doing to decorate the outside of their house. “The last one is wearing off, I think. It’s been a week,”

Skeppy averted his eyes, feeling rather hot on the cool sunny day. “Um, sure,”

“Cool!” Bad yipped, returning to his usual humming and fiddling with the stems of the peony flowers. 

The flower that Skeppy was holding seemed to be in shreds as his fingers rubbed against it in anticipation. “Uh, Bad?”

“Yeah?” The demon didn’t turn away from his project of flower arrangements.

“I have a question...you know I don’t know much about nether demons,” Skeppy asked, also not looking at Bad, feeling very awkward suddenly.

“A question?” Bad looked at Skeppy, pausing.

Skeppy didn’t notice as he was staring hard into the wall. “When that nether demon attacked us...in the nether, before you scent marked me-” his mouth began saying words before his brain could think about them “-he couldn’t tell we had mated, because obviously we hadn’t- but if we had, which is what he believed, then couldn't he have smelled it? You know?”

Bad considered his question and shook his head. “No, mating doesn’t always result in scent marking, especially if you’re just breeding partners and not bonding partners. And we could’ve mated ages ago, so he wouldn’t have been able to sense it from that long ago,” he seemed a little amused by that, returning to his flowers.

Skeppy felt the edges of his ruined flower. “Ahem,” he cleared his throat from the non-existent blockages. “Cool,” and he didn’t ask anything else. Bad didn’t notice anything unusual and continued with his task. 

The question still reeked in Skeppy’s mind. Why weren’t they mates yet?

---

“Techno, please!” Skeppy pleaded, at the doorway of the anthropomorphic pig. 

“I’ve already told you a thousand times, I really couldn’t tell you,” Techno sighed, looking at his abandoned cup of tea that had been so rudely interrupted by Skeppy’s barging into his house.

“You’re the only one who knows remotely anything about nether-demons,” Skeppy almost wanted to shake some sort of knowledge into Techno he was desperate.

“And I don’t know much about why he hasn’t fucked you yet,” Techno rubbed his face. “That really sounds like a you problem…”

Skeppy groaned obnoxiously loudly and left, leaving the door wide open, much to Techno’s annoyance. Skeppy’s options had run out. He had waited it out, he survived Bad’s heat cycle, he had asked Techno...he had nothing left except to either ask Bad, or advance on him. And he really didn't want to do either. 

Running away from home at a relatively young age...he didn’t quite have the experience to just go up and propose to become mates.  

The only option other than those two was to ask a nether demon but Skeppy figured he had a better chance bargaining with death than to survive asking a demon about their mating cultures so he fumed.

“Hey Skeppy!” the bright voice of Puffy broke into his head and Skeppy realised he had walked into a fence.

“Hey,” Skeppy smiled as usual, burying his thoughts away. He found it immensely amusing that no one knew about him and Bad, apart from Techno. They didn’t engage much with human culture, except for the occasional short kiss which only ever occurred behind closed doors.

The only signal of their relationship was the braid in both their hair and the dangling necklace hanging underneath Skeppy’s clothes. Puffy would never know what he was thinking about.

“Do you think you could help me with moving these logs into the other cabin?” Puffy asked hopefully, pointing to the shed behind him.

Skeppy looked at the half filled shed. “Uh, sure!”

“Bad’s already helping me,” Puffy smiled, lifting up some logs. “He’s so strong he can move twice as much at once,” she mentioned before walking a few metres away to the other cabin.

Skeppy watched Bad wave to Puffy as he passed her and then see Skeppy. 

“Skeppy! Hi,” Bad’s smile became bigger as he walked up to him. “Are you going to help Puffy?”

“Yup,” Skeppy nodded, picking up some of the miscellaneous logs near him.

“We can go together!” Bad realised, lifting twice as much, as Puffy had described. Skeppy blinked as he saw Bad lift, what to him was a ridiculous amount. “Skeppy?”

Skeppy was gaping, not realising his mouth had opened. “ That’s hot,”

Bad’s eyes widened at Skeppy’s description and stumbled a bit. “Skeppy!” His eyes darted about as if everyone had super hearing like he did. 

“What?” Skeppy let out a chuckle. 

Bad shook his head. “No,” and simply walked off. There was some humor in his voice and so Skeppy hurried after him, struggling with the logs in his arms. 

The both of them gave an acknowledging nod to Puffy as they passed her on the way to the cabin. 

“Baaaad,” Skeppy whined in protest of something he himself wasn’t quite sure of. 

“Whaaat?” Bad mimicked Skeppy’s tone.

“You’re hot,” Skeppy repeated, eying the nether demon walking with ease as he carried the several heavy logs. 

“Nnnrgh,” Bad grumbled, ignoring the statement.

“Whaaat, Baaad,” Skeppy pleaded for a response. “You’re being too cute, shrinking behind your scarf and hood like that,” 

Bad shook his head, notably flushed. “No I’m not, I’m scary ,”

“Sureee,” Skeppy rolled his eyes. 

“Hmmph,” Bad replied. 

There was some comfortable silence as Skeppy tried to think of some other annoying thing to pester Bad with when he felt a tap on his back. He glanced behind him in case it was Puffy catching up to them, but only the empty woods replied back.

He was about to ignore it when he saw Bad’s tail waving around behind the nether demon. He squinted suspiciously before looking forward again.

It wasn’t long before he felt the tap again and this time he let out a small yelp, to get Bad’s attention.

In return, Bad only let out a small screech, dropping the logs as he covered his mouth. “Skeppy! You scared me!” 

“Well, you scared me with your scream!” Skeppy said defensively, having been spooked a little by Bad’s yelp. 

“Why’d you yell?” Bad asked, looking around for any wild zombies.

“You hit me!” Skeppy said accusingly. “With your tail,” 

Bad seemed afraid but as Skeppy added ‘with your tail’ he let out a small noise, covering his mouth again. “Oh my goodness,” 

“What?” Skeppy frowned. “I’m not hurt, it’s fine,” the burning question echoed at the back of his mind; was it with the tip or the face of his tail ? “ You dropped all your logs so,” he crossed his arms.

Bad looked fleetingly at the fallen logs on the floor before looking back at Skeppy. “Right, yeah,” he knelt down to pick them back up and soon enough they could see the cabin.

Skeppy peripheral vision could see the tail waving around, getting dangerously close to Skeppy at times before turning away. Skeppy bit his lip; maybe it was trying to hit him. Maybe.

“Skeppyyy, please stop looking at my tail,” Bad suddenly said, obviously noticing Skeppy’s hungry look at the appendage. Bad put down the logs inside the cabin. “It looks like you want to eat it,” he giggled at the prospect before freezing. 

“Would you like that?” Skeppy jokes, before realising Bad’s frigid state. “Are you alright? I was just joking,”

Bad nodded. “Yes! Just- ignore that,” he ended the sentence with an awkward chuckle, bringing his fingers together again to fiddle with each other. 

Skeppy looked at him. “Bad, why did your tail hit me again? Are you in heat again? Because if so, that’s really quick since the last one was literally a week ago,” 

“Hnngh- can I scent mark you?” Bad let out, covering his face a little with his hands.

Skeppy paused. “What? Yes? Now?” he looked around as if he expected Puffy to pop out from behind a tree, which she most definitely could be doing.

“Mhm!” Bad nodded, stepping closer.

Skeppy tried to to ignore the fact that Bad’s tail had seemed to stop restraining itself and had curled around Skeppy’s leg. “Okay,” he breathed quietly, remembering the last time Bad had scent marked him.

“Okay,” Bad repeated, leaning in, placing his hand gently on Skeppy’s arm as if to hold him in place. Silence followed as Skeppy felt Bad bite his neck, although this time it felt a little harder- or perhaps last time he just had too much adrenaline to notice the pain- but Skeppy stopped himself from flinching.

It felt like he had drawn blood, but Skeppy wasn’t too sure as the sensation was immediately covered by Bad’s tongue caressing the area. Skeppy frowned, his heart beating faster than he knew it could- it was hot, yes, that Bad had bitten his neck, and this was the closest thing he had to mating with his breeding partner at the moment, and Skeppy could feel the warmth coming off Bad. 

Skeppy’s hand automatically reached up to his neck to feel it, but Bad seemed way too into sucking his neck. He glanced at his fingers, managing to feel his neck fleetingly. To his slight alarm, but also confusion, he did in fact see some smudges of blood on his hand.

His heartbeat piqued and he gave a small yelp of surprise.

Bad jumped and stepped back, making a small collection of growls of worry and panic. “Are you alright?!” 

Skeppy stared at Bad, who’s mouth had some more smudges of red, of what Skeppy presumed was blood, his blood. “What- what are you- I’m fine, but what are you doing?”

Bad looked at Skeppy’s hand that had a small bit of blood on it. “Oh-” he covered his mouth before looking into his own hands to see the blood there. “Muffins- I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise- oh no, I’m lying I did realise but it felt- nnrghh,” Bad collapsed in shame and fell to his knees, covering his face.

Skeppy was utterly confused and knelt down with him. “Bad- what were you doing? I promise I won’t get mad,” 

Bad refused to remove his hands from his face. “No- no, you won’t look at me the same again,”

“I promise Bad, on my heart and stones that I will always look at you the same way I always have,” Skeppy tried to assure, placing a hand onto his shoulder.

Bad made an incomprehensible noise before muttering something.

“Louder- I can’t hear that,” Skeppy asked, leaning in closer to hear better.

“It tasted nice,” Bad repeated, a little louder. His hands lowered a little, to see the anticipated horror in Skeppy’s face, but he only frowned further.

“My blood?” 

“Yes-! I’ve never tasted human blood before-” Bad looked at Skeppy’s neck. “Oh..it looks so bad,” 

Skeppy reached to feel his neck but he couldn’t feel any pouring blood, if anything it felt a little like a small paper cut he always got on his fingers. “It’s really not that bad,”

“No- Skeppy, you don’t understand- nether demons eat humans! Well, not anymore because humans can fight back now and war is just such a hassle, but-” Bad rambled. “I’m not supposed to like the taste of blood- not your blood,” Bad almost whispered. “What if I eat you? Oh no...I’ll become vegetarian! I’ll never eat blood ever again,” Bad tried to think, panicking. 

“You couldn’t eat me even if you tried, ” Skeppy laughed, but then looked at Bad seriously. “And it’s fine- it’s just a little bit of blood, I mean, I’m probably not even using it so,”

“Skeppy! You need your blood,” Bad exclaimed, looking in shock.

“I know that, stupid,” Skeppy rolled his eyes. “I’m joking,” he added as Bad was about to shoot out a ‘language’. “You were very into it though,” he whispered back, leaning in a little.

Bad’s eyes remained stuck on his, “Was I?”

“Why’d you want to scent mark me now? Now...of all places,” Skeppy asked, noting Bad’s tail waving around again. 

Bad’s head wavered closer to Skeppy’s, trying to subconsciously rub his forehead against his bonding partner. “Hmm?”

“Are you thinking straight, Badboy?” Skeppy smirked, tilting his head in, allowing the gap to close. 

As if Bad took this gesture as acceptance, he shuffled closer, allowing his tail to wrap around Skeppy’s arm. “Yes...I think so. Everything’s cloudy,” 

Skeppy grinned. “Am I your first mate Bad?” he whispered seeing Bad’s eyes close at the sensation of their foreheads touching. 

Bad made a deep growling noise, edging closer to Skeppy. “Nrggh, I don’t-” his hands were holding tightly onto Skeppy’s, something he didn’t realise until Bad’s tail had curled around Skeppy’s free hand and led it up to Bad’s head. 

Skeppy would bet Bad didn’t know what his tail was doing, based on the fact he was murmuring incomprehensible words with his eyes closed, but Skeppy accepted the movement and placed his hand on Bad’s temples, receiving a hum in response. 

But before he could explore further;

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK-”