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Antfrost was perched upon a rock on an empty beach. The rich purples and reds of dusk were slowly giving way to midnight hues of black, blue, and silver as the sun sank into the sea, drowning its fiery glory.
His glittering sapphire eyes reflected the faint sparks of gold that formed a corona at the edge of the sea, a thin line of bright, sparkling light that reflected off the underbellies of the scant clouds in the sky.
A breeze ruffled his cream and chocolate colored fur. It stirred the grass around him, causing them to brush together with a dry whisper, a multitude of gossiping voices. Hushing him, soothing the anxiety in his belly.
There was an innate peace in this moment, but his long tail still flicked eagerly from left to right.
One ear twitched as a new sound reached him—the thud of heavy feet tramping through dried grasses, covering the hushed whisper of the wind and the gentle rush of water falling onto the sand. Ant twisted around immediately, eyes flashing in the glow of the rising moon as a figure crossed the empty field to reach him.
His shoulders were square and ensconced in his usual array of artfully gilded armor. Black eyes like polished obsidian glittered, reflecting the stars above. The small mottled green scales crinkled at the corners, the only sign Sam was smiling.
"Good evening, Ant." Sam lifted a hand in greeting, his mask hissing softly as it cycled out each of his breaths, spent air exchanged for a fresh inhale.
Ant smiled in return, tail waving happily as he raised his own hand, brown furred palm with soft pink pads spread to greet Sam. "Hey, thanks for coming!"
Sam quirked one dark eyebrow, his expressive eyes filled with wry amusement. "Well, you made it seem important."
He finally reached the massive boulder Ant was perched upon and stopped to inspect it, running a gloved hand over the wind-smoothed side of the rock. With a huff, he turned and slid down with his back to the boulder, legs spread in front of him as he stretched and settled in to watch the sea and its thinly-gilt halo.
The two of them sat in a companionable silence born of years of familiarity., Ant was practically vibrating with energy, barely containing the urge to share his discoveries. He leant forward and looked down at Sam, whose eyes had slid shut, body relaxing into a near doze.
"Did you hear Technoblade joined the server? He's apparently Tommy and Wilbur's brother," Ant told him excitedly, unable to bite his tongue any longer.
Sam cracked one void black eye open and looked up at Ant, humming an affirmative response.
"I saw him today," Ant continued, voice dropping in tone, a hush of gossip layered over the words.
Sam sat bolt upright, eyes wide, all sleepiness forgotten. "What? You did? Are you okay?" he barked.
Ant screwed up his face, leaning back and waving a hand airily. "’Course I am. He may be strong, but I'm definitely faster. Besides, why would he hurt me?"
The Creeper folded his arms over themselves and turned his eyes back out to the sea, a deep furrow carving through his brow. His mask hissed and the faint smokey scent of gunpowder filled the air for a moment. The smell alone was remensicent of a battlefield, lingering on Ant’s tongue and harkening to memories of blood and bombs. It was a scent that had once haunted every single one of Ant’s dreams.
Ant blinked, baffled. He couldn't even begin to think of the reason behind Sam's obvious agitation.
"Technoblade... he's a warrior—a Hypixel champion, right?" Sam spoke slowly, tentatively, as if treading a minefield with his words.
The care taken with his tone only served to unsettle Ant further. He simply hummed in assent, smoothing a hand down his bristling tail.
"Yeah, pretty much undefeated so far as I've heard.” Ant drummed his fingers against the rock, his claws tapping against the stone, "Heard he's been in a few real fights on other worlds."
"So he's killed," Sam bit out.
Ant felt a dark anger swirl through him.
"Most of us have, Sam. Don't act like your hands are any cleaner than his," he snapped sharply, his tail beginning to bristle in earnest now.
"I don't fight for sport," Sam returned, voice just as sharp as a flash briefly illuminated his scales.
Ant reared back, lips peeling back to expose a mouth full of needle sharp teeth. "Then go take your high and mighty shit up with Sap, or Dream, or Purpled, or Punz, or–"
"Enough." Sam raised a hand to cut him off, then pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead, scrubbing at the worried lines drawn there. " Stop, I... I get your point."
"Do you? Then what the hell was that shit, Sam?" Ant growled, anger still thick in his chest, fueled by confusion. He tried to reel back in the instinctive urge to press the fight further, to demand why Sam’s mind had jumped to a clearly negative place.
Sam was silent for a moment longer, eyes squeezed shut as he inhaled and exhaled slowly, a few scales winking in mimicry of the stars above. The smell of burning and sulfur was thickening in the air, the creeper’s mask hissing and venting even more of the thick scent with every rise and fall of Sam’s narrow chest.
"Look it’s... you heard he's Wilbur's brother?" Sam asked, resuming his tentative dance.
Ant swayed again, caught in the tonal whiplash of the conversation. His lips and tail both twitched, the fur along the appendage still bristled from the shockwave of affront that had consumed him earlier. He still wasn't sure what was going through Sam's head, this conversation felt like it was built on a foundation of quicksand. Still, he forced his muscles to loosen and forged onwards.
"Yeah, don't know their order of birth, but that's what I heard. Tommy was with him today and seemed more than comfortable enough around him, teasing and poking at him even though the man is fucking massive, like easily three times his size." Ant threw his hands out wide, trying to express the great width of Technoblade's muscular shoulders.
"Well, he's a warrior and Wilbur's brother. Just—you take a guess as to why he's here all of the sudden," Sam tipped the words out, spilling them like droplets of wine into a glass, still careful, as if unsure of their welcome.
Antfrost paused. His instinct was to snarl back at Sam again, but their long time friendship gave him pause. He swallowed his defensive reaction and instead tried to connect whatever dots Sam seemed to have linked together.
Ant had never met Technoblade; he still technically hadn’t. His closest ‘interaction’ had been his stalking of the man and his younger brother today while the two crept around the outskirts of the newly renamed Manberg. But like most everyone who'd interacted with society in the last ten years or so, Ant had heard of Technoblade's reputation. Of his sheer unwavering skill on the battlefield, whether the fight was for fame and money or life and death.
The man had somehow cultivated a nearly mythical status amidst most folk, and he'd elevated himself even higher after he'd defeated Dream in the tournament hosted by Mr. Beast. He was a warrior beyond compare, supposedly merciless. Though the piglin he saw today, gently elbowing his younger brother and accepting Tommy’s usual brand of abuse with grace, contrasted sharply with the blood-stained conjuration of Ant’s mind.
But Sam hadn't seen the two brothers interacting, he'd only heard the stories. He hadn't seen the soft tilt of Techno's brow and the amused twist of his mouth as Tommy gestured wildly and shouted without a care of the danger they would be in if the two had been discovered. .
Ant tried to erase that gentler image from his mind, instead focusing only on the considerable reputation that wreathed Technoblade's shoulders, and finally, finally he understood.
"You think Techno is here for a fight," he whispered quietly.
"What else would such a lauded warrior be doing on the server?" Sam snorted, his fingers digging into his arms.
"Visiting his brothers after they suffered a pretty major defeat and loss? Comforting them?" Ant couldn't help the sharp edge of his tone.
Sam twisted on the ground and looked up at Ant, his expression flat and cool as he studied him. His eyebrow lifted, but now it seemed condescending instead of amused.
"When has Wilbur Soot ever backed down in the face of overwhelming odds when his nation is on the line?" he asked.
Ant's anger burst like a soap bubble.
Never, was the answer. Wilbur Soot had stood his ground against the server’s own Admin and persevered through betrayal and hardship to earn his nation's independence. It was a stupid fight, full of stupid and useless death. Both sides of the battle had thrown themselves into combat so readily, without thought of the consequences.
Without thought for a fifteen year old boy who in the span of a year had two of his three lives stolen from him.
Ant's shoulders curled inwards at that grim recollection, realizing what Sam had already known; that Wilbur called his tank of a brother in as backup, as a weapon to regain his nation. That Technoblade's arrival was an omen predicting more bloodshed on the horizon unless he could pressure Schlatt into surrendering out of sheer fear alone.
But that was as likely as Soot giving up.
"Fuck," Ant whispered, sitting back on his ass and flopping across the boulder in an ungainly sprawl.
Sam hummed in agreement, but looked saddened instead of proud that he'd won the argument.
The two of them sat in silence, waves crashing on the beach. The wind stirred the grasses and the sounds of nighttime animals twittered quietly around them. Utter serenity in sharp contrast to the near constant chaos of Dream's server.
"He's a Mob player, and I... I was hoping…" Ant trailed off, closing his eyes and sinking his fangs into his tongue.
Sam twitched and looked up, brows furrowed. "He's a Mob?"
"Yeah, at least I'm pretty sure he is. If he isn't, then he's the highest display hybrid I've ever seen." Ant rolled onto his side and stared back at Sam, curling his tail around his belly as if the soft fur would protect his vulnerability. "I was hoping he could join us, ya know? Not that you aren't great company, Sam, but I wouldn't mind having another Mob around. It’d be nice to have someone else to share this safe place with, y’know?"
"Dream built this world for us–”
"And you don't want to share it? Come on, Sam. You of all people should know what security like this server means to people like us."
Sam was silent, fingers tapping on his biceps as he turned his beetle black stare out towards the ocean, studying the lapping waves blankly. Ant moved slowly, shifting himself towards the edge of the boulder until he could slide down its wind-smoothed face, landing on his paws in the grass beside Sam. His blue eyes practically glowed in the fully risen moonlight, the silver rays haloing his sleek coat. There was something desperate on his face, something searching as he stared at Sam's too neutral expression.
Sam finally sighed, uncrossing his arms and running one hand through his deep green hair. "I don't, Ant. It wouldn't matter if he is a Mob or not. He's a threat to this server’s safety. He doesn't get to enjoy Dream's security when he's a direct threat to it."
Ant retreated, not physically but something in his mind shuttered, expressing closing off as his thoughts buried themselves away deep where they could not be read. He turned around and slumped against the rock next to Sam, staring out over the ocean.
"Okay, Sam," he responded, voice flat and without inflection.
The chill of night had settled in as the sun’s rays were fully drowned in the ocean. Antfrost felt the cold in his belly, sloshing like ice water. The peace and serenity of the field no longer seemed to reach him and now he just felt lonely.
Beside him, Sam contemplated the fact that once again he had won the debate–
–but still he felt very much like he had lost.