Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Lizzie gave Xisuma a soft smile as she poured him a cup of tea before she sat down. Joel took a sip of his tea, smiling softly and mumbling something about how happy he was to be home, and Lizzie just chuckled. The hermits had been invited over to Lizzie and Joel’s house for tea, and while some didn’t accept, many were happy to see Lizzie again. Lizzie was always a delight for them to be around, with how she strived to make everyone comfortable, that was a given. Another bonus was just how calm Joel was when she was there, long gone was the egotistical persona he put up, and there sat a calm man who loved to be in the presence of his wife and friends.

“Lizzie, pardon me, but why have you invited us over?” Mumbo spoke up, tilting his head to the side. While Lizzie was nice, she typically didn’t invite people to her house, usually to parks or venues that she rents. Lizzie smiled, glancing at Joel who seemed confused. “Well, there’s something I wanted to show you guys! I think it’s still in the closet… somewhere.” This seemed to spark some realization in Joel’s eyes, and he shook his head, “Do you really have to?” Lizzie sighed, “Oh you’re such a baby, it’s not that bad, no matter what you say, It’s just-” Joel cut her off, “Well I don’t want them to see it.” A tense atmosphere filled the room as Joel and Lizzie stared at each other, seeming to be debating something.

Lizzie suddenly turned away, clapping her hands once, “Well, since Joel is such a party pooper, it seems I won’t be able to show you them.. BUT! I have something else to show you!” Joel sighed as Lizzie stood up, grabbing a small box from a cupboard and placing it down on the table between all the hermits. She opened the lid, “Tada! Empires Season one!” Inside the box were many polaroids of Joel, sometimes he was smiling with his friends, building his base, or simply just enjoying a quiet night. The hermits all reached into the box, pulling out a picture to look at. All the hermits seemed transfixed on their pictures, and it even seemed like Etho had a small smile on his face.

Joel seemed to shrink into himself, looking at all their reactions carefully, his face flushing as Grian held up a polaroid, comparing him to the picture. Grian laughed, “He’s smiling so big in this one…” The parrot mumbled softly, smiling. Etho leaned over to look at it, laughing slightly “Look at that, so different from our Joel..” Lizzie chose this moment to speak up, “Oh, Joel has changed so much over the years! It’s amazing! I just remember back in Crazycr-” Joel held his hand against her mouth. “No.”

The room tensed up for a moment as Joel removed his hand from Lizzie’s mouth, standing up, “I’ll be in the garden if anyone needs me.” and with that, Joel left. Lizzie sighed, “He’s just… insecure about how he used to look and act, gets really protective over it.” She explained. The Hermits had all known that Joel didn’t often talk about his past, only really mentioning anything Empires Season two and later, with the occasional mentions of other servers. The Hermits had always accepted people no matter what, and they surely wouldn’t pressure Joel into telling them what was wrong, it was just… off.

They left it alone after that, Joel came inside, strangely quiet. He clung to Lizzie for a bit, and all the hermits could see that this was Joel’s way of saying sorry. Joel had never been.. the best at expressing when he felt bad, but he always made an effort. The hermits didn’t talk about it after that, but they came to an understanding, there was something about Joel’s past that he didn’t want them to see, or that he wasn’t ready for them to see, and who were they to disrespect Joel’s wishes like that?

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In all honesty, they were talking about Joel’s time on Empires. It had been a while since Joel had gotten defensive over his past, and Etho was fully ready to move on. Until Bdubs spoke up, “Hey Joel, you were a god, right?” The question was innocent enough, and Joel smiled as he answered, “Well, of course I wa-” Lizzie scoffed playfully, cutting him off, “More like a messenger, Joel.” And Joel laughed, rolling his eyes. Lizzie smiled brighter, speaking up “Not the first time you were a ‘Messenger of God’ either!” Joel stiffened at that, but only for a moment, a soft smile graced his face. It felt almost like a victory, Joel felt comfortable with Lizzie telling them this, that there had been other servers, other friends, things that Joel had been so closed off about. Maybe they couldn’t know everything, maybe Joel wouldn’t let them hear it all, but for now they were content with this, just a sliver of a past long forgotten.

Joel laughed a bit, remembering the past, how his life had changed so much over the years, “Ya… I honestly didn’t think that I’d be able to talk to Scott ever again!” Maybe some of the jokes got lost in translation, maybe they didn’t fully understand why Joel would not want to talk to Scott, and it didn’t matter if they never knew, all that mattered was that Joel was sitting here, happily joking about his past. Joel clapped his hands together, looking at Etho and Bdubs, “Oh! Right! You guys don’t know about Donkey Jeremy and Jeremyism!” and boy did THAT cause some confused looks, not only from Etho and Bdubs, but from passers by in the park. “I.. I’m sorry? What’s Jeremyism? Who’s Donkey Jeremy?” Etho was the first to speak up, Lizzie laughing quietly to herself.

A smile graced Joel’s face, standing up excitedly, ushering them over to the house nearby. Joel was never this excited to show them things, and Lizzie smiled, staying behind to pick up the picnic but she soon followed and joined them. Once in the house Joel was rushing upstairs, and Lizzie turned to look at them, “Don’t worry, he’s probably either getting changed or just grabbing some things.” and that seemed to calm Etho and Bdubs down, something about how excited Joel was scared them in a way, not too bad, maybe it was just weird. It didn’t take long before Joel was back downstairs, but this time in a… toga? He had a flower crown on his head, and a bracelet on his wrist.

Joel led them over to a table, opening a cupboard filled with boxes. “X.. X.. X.. X Life! There it is!” Joel pulled a box out, a piece of tape on the box had the words “X Life - Joel” written on it. He opened the box, taking out some pictures and laying them out on the table. “This is my cult!!.. Er.. religion I suppose, since we have over three members! Or had, depending on how you look at it!” Joel smiled at them, pushing a photo towards them, and a look of shock crossed over their faces “JIMMY?!” they said in unison, how could Jimmy, this silly guy, be a part of Joel’s cult? “Mhm! He was my first member!” Joel pushed some more photos forward, filled with faces both familiar and unfamiliar to the two hermits. Etho pointed at one, tapping it slightly. “Who’s that” and Joel just smiled, “That’s SeaPeeKay! Callum, as you might know him by.”

Lizzie smiled, walking up behind him. “Oh, remember the war?” Lizzie asked, and Joel sighed. “I’m not ready for that, Lizzie.” Joel seemed shy, and Lizzie just nodded, “That’s fine Love.” she looked at Etho and Bdubs, “You should meet Callum, he’s nice. You might have heard Oli talk about him, maybe Lauren too?” Etho and Bdubs just looked at each other and then back at Joel and Lizzie, “Lauren?” They asked, and Lizzie looked downright offended, “Lauren? Scott’s sister? Xornoth’s sister?” Joel said, as if that would ring a bell. Etho shrugged, and Bdubs just shook his head no.

Joel laughed, “Oh Scott will tell you all about her!”

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Joel had been getting more and more comfortable with showing the Hermits bits and pieces of his past, and in turn Lizzie had been pulling more and more things out of her storage. Like today, where Tango, Impulse, and Skizz were all over at their house, and Lizzie had gone out to grab something, leaving Joel to converse freely with his fellow hermits. Joel was just talking away, something about afterlife, and how the time he’d spent as a blazeborn had affected his perception of just how dangerous fire was, something he and Tango were laughing about. Joel had his head on Impulse’s lap, just talking and talking as if nothing else mattered in the moment.

Lizzie returned a while later with a box in her hands, “Aha!” she said proudly, and Joel smiled. A smile so different to the fear he’d given them before, progress. “Oh, I forgot about those things.” Joel sat up, Impulse complaining for a brief moment. Joel reached out to take the box, smiling as he opened it. A pair of glasses sat in the box (now identified by the hermits in the area as a glasses case) and Joel took them out gently, placing them on. He looked around, smiling for a moment, “Probably need to get new ones, don’t I?” Joel asked, and the hermits looked at him.

Skizz was the first to speak up, “Wait, wait, wait! You’ve needed glasses this whole time and we’ve just been letting you run around without them?!” he sounded more concerned than anything. Joel nodded, “Ya, my prescription isn’t too bad though, and I can get through life decently fine without them.” This calmed Skizz down a little bit, and he simply pulled Joel into a side hug, “As long as it’s not too bad.”

Lizzie smiled, pulling out her phone and Joel simply groaned, “Really?” Joel asked, sighing as she showed the picture off to the other hermits, “You used to look so cute in them!” It was a picture of Joel, luckily he had his hoodie down, and he was just softly smiling, a complete 180 from the Joel they had today.

Imp and Skizz found themselves fawning over the picture, showering Joel with compliments. Joel simply blushed, hiding his face in Skizz’s neck, but this did nothing to stop the three hermits from looking at the picture. For now though, Joel was content to hear Imp and Skizz tell him how adorable his glasses used to look on him, and the occasional comment from Tango on how he should smile more made it all the better.