Chapter Text
Tango groans internally, not quite sure how to work his mouth just yet. His eyes flicker open, flooding his vision with bright light before he can begin to register where in the world he even is. He takes a moment to get used to the brightness, and then looks around.
He’s in his base, and he’s not alone. He's surrounded by people, looking straight at him, whispering something which Tango can’t quite process.
“Wh- Hello there.” He says, blinking as his vision slowly returns to normal.
Almost instantly do the people stop talking, and Tango begins to recognize them as their faces come into focus. They’re hermits. They’re his friends. Tango realizes he’s laying down, in a bed of all things, and he squirms for a bit before he can find it in himself to toss the blanket aside.
“Hey Tango.” Someone says, coming into view. They look like Xisuma, but he’s wearing red armor. But, why would he-?
“...Evil Xisuma?” Tango asks.
“No, just regular Xisuma.” He laughs, and hearing his voice confirms that it is, in fact, regular Xisuma. Tango mentally slaps himself in the face. Of course it’s him! How could he ever forget his voice?
“How are you feeling?” Xisuma asks.
Tango takes a moment to process his question. He’s... fine? Yeah, nothing seems wrong. Why are they all surrounding him, staring ominously?
“I’m good, I’m good.” He says, surprised at how clear his own voice sounds. “What happened? Why are you all here?”
He can hear Xisuma blow air through his nose in what would be a laugh, and that calms his nerves quite a bit.
“We’ll explain everything, don’t worry. For now, just- take it easy, okay?”
Tango rolls his eyes and moves to get up, pulling himself up with his arms underneath him, huffing as he climbs upright.
“Whoa, easy, dude. What did I just say? You’ve only been awake for, what, two minutes? Settle down.” Xisuma laughs.
Tango chuckles and swings his legs over the edge of his bed, stretching his arms above his head as high as possible. He pretends to yawn.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I had a great night’s sleep! I’m ready to get back to business. What time is it?” Tango moves to get up but Xisuma holds him down with a hand on his shoulder. Tango looks up and sees Xisuma’s face behind his now red visor, the dark bags under his eyes. When he looks at the other hermits he sees just how tired they all look as well. Oh. He’s serious.
“I mean it, Tango. It’s... it’s been a lot longer than just one night.”
Tango sits back and cocks his head to the side questioningly.
“You’ve been asleep for, what, four weeks? Five? I don’t even know. We all-” Xisuma gestures around the room at the other hermits. “We all tried our best to get you to wake up again, but it took quite some time. A lot of things have been happening in the meantime, as well.”
“Oh. Five weeks, jeez, that’s... wow.” Tango drops his arms down. He doesn’t think about it for too long, though, a smile already appearing on his face again.
“Well, what’d I miss, then?” He asks.
Xisuma chuckles and that lifts the tension in the room quite a bit. “Like, we have a mayor now! Scar’s the mayor of the shopping district, and-”
“-Woah woah woah woah.” Tango cuts him off. “You had a whole mayoral election while I was just. Sleeping?”
Xisuma nods sheepishly. “There’ll be plenty for you to catch up on, but I don’t doubt that you’ll fall into your rhythm again sooner than later.” He’s making it sound less bad than it supposedly is, but Tango’s grateful for that.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Xisuma asks.
Tango racks his brain, thinking back to what he remembers doing last. “Um... I think I was working on my Doofenshmirtz building? I've been planning on adding that as the final large building to my base. Yeah, yeah that sounds about right.”
“Alright, that’s good.” Xisuma nods. “Looks like you didn’t lose a lot of time, save for the time you were out, but that’s okay. I’m glad you’re back.”
Tango can’t help but ask. “What happened to me, anyway? Why did I pass out for so long?”
“Beats me,” Xisuma says. “I’m just- I'm glad we were able to wake you up again.” Xisuma surprises him and moves in to hug Tango, catching him off guard. Tango pulls away but Xisuma holds him tight for just a second longer before getting up again.
“Your communicator should still be working fine, so should you run into any problems you know how to reach me.” Xisuma gets up and starts making his way to the big open window, the unofficial entrance and exit to Tango’s base.
“Well, I’ll be off. Wouldn’t want to keep you cooped up longer than necessary.” He smiles back, deploys his elytra, and shoots out of the window with a couple of rockets. Tango just stares at where he left, lost for words.
“What... I- okay.” He sighs, and turns his attention to the other hermits in the room. Zedaph, Mumbo, Iskall, Stress, and even Grian all surround his bed in the corner in a big semi-circle. Once Tango locks eyes with Zedaph a grin spreads on his face and before Tango knows it he’s being tackled back onto his bed with a hug.
“Gah-!” Tango yelps out before Zedaph almost crushes him, what with Zedaph being taller than him and all.
“Zed! Get off me!” He laughs, trying to pry himself free from his friend’s grip. Zedaph just laughs and squeezes him tighter.
“Zed...” Iskall says, and finally he lets go of Tango, allowing him to breathe properly again.
Zedaph helps Tango sit back up and pulls him close with an arm around his shoulder. Jeez, they really must have missed him, huh?
“I just-” Zedaph begins. “I’m just glad you’re back.” He says, and even though Tango can’t quite grasp the fact that he apparently has been gone for so long, he appreciates the sentiment, the feeling of being welcomed back.
“So, what’s on the agenda today?” Zedaph says. “I hope you don’t mind me being around and spending the entire day with you, because that is exactly what is on my agenda today.”
Tango worms himself free from Zedaph’s grip and gets up, patting down his jeans. He feels a little... woozy? for just a moment before the feeling subsides. He can feel many pairs of eyes locked on his every move, but Tango shrugs them off. If he really has been sleeping for weeks on end he’s bound to have to get used to moving in his own body again, right?
Regardless, he needs some alone time. Or at least a bit fewer eyes staring at him, waiting with bated breath for him to do... something, he guesses.
He looks around. Wow, his base really, really needs a good cleaning. There’s a layer of dust as thick as a carpet of snow on just about every surface.
“I suppose some spring cleaning is in order,” Tango remarks, and surely enough, Grian speaks up.
“Well, sounds like you two will be just fine on your own.” Grian laughs and with a smile and a wave he flies off. Of course, nobody actually likes cleaning. This is the perfect plan to chase everybody from his base with. Tango smirks.
“Oh yeah, the floors need mopping, spiders need to be chased away, pipelines need to be checked and cleaned...” He can see the look in their eyes. Dread. Bingo. “I wouldn’t put it past you if you don’t want to help, but...”
And just as he expected, Mumbo and Iskall look at each other, then look back at Tango and nod at him.
“I think... I think I’ll work on my omega tree today.” Iskall says.
“Yeah I, I need to do some. Redstone... Things. Seeya!” They both deploy their elytras and take off, Mumbo a bit less graceful than Iskall, but no less eager to get out.
Stress, however, stays behind. She even walks up to Tango to give him a short hug, which catches Tango off guard again but he appreciates it nonetheless.
“I’ll help!” She says, smiling at him and Zedaph.
And so Zedaph produces a couple of sponges and other tools from somewhere in Tango’s storage, and the three of them get to work. First cleaning every surface, every nook and cranny that spiders or other bits of dirt might have collected. Then mopping the floors and tending to his Nether portal room, and even cleaning the windows of his main blue tower.
It’s nice having them around for this, though. Tango can’t thank them enough for wanting to put up with so much dust and neglect. Five weeks of no cleaning really shows. Tango asks several times if Zedaph and Stress know anything about why he fell asleep for so long, but they both shrug and say they haven’t got a clue. Shame.
But by the time they start to pick apart and reorganize Tango’s storage system his mind is taken off of it completely, and with how many laughs both Zed and Stress provide, it’s hard to keep thinking about it. Sure, it feels weird moving his body again after apparently a whole month of inactivity, but that’s to be expected, no? It feels nice to have all of his items pass his hands again, knowing where everything is and where everything is supposed to go.
They’re so busy with just his main hall and his portal room, joking around and filling Tango in on some of the things that have been happening on the server, that they don’t even get the chance to look at the rest of his base before the sun starts to set. Stress excuses herself and with another hug she takes off, flying all the way back to her jungle base at the other side of the sea to get a good night’s rest. But not before Tango can thank her and offer to help with her base sometime as well.
Tango relishes in how nice and clean his base feels, plopping down in his window-door and watching as the sun sets next to the shopping district. Even from over here he can tell that it’s changed. He can’t remember what it looked like before, but it looks so crowded, now. Who knows how many new shops opened up while he was gone? He’ll have to take a day off to wander around and explore, that’s for sure.
Zedaph’s not-so-subtle cough successfully gets his attention, and Tango gets up and turns around. Zed bids him farewell with another tight hug.
“Zed- can’t breathe-” Tango wheezes, completely joking, but Zedaph lets go of him instantly, his eyes wider than usual.
“Sorry, sorry! Are you okay?” He asks, checking Tango over.
Tango laughs, “Relax I was just messing with ya.” and Zedaph loosens up, punching him in the shoulder softly.
“You idiot.” He smiles. “It’s good to have you back.” Tango smiles back at him, and then Zed takes off, swooping down with his elytra for a bit before launching a rocket and flying back towards his base.
Tango takes in the sight of the land around him again, thinks about how much he needs to catch up on and how much he needs to clean still, and then decides that he’s had enough for today and drops back down onto his bed.
His eyes close, and feels like he could fall asleep almost instantly, the exhaustion of being back in action finally seeming to catch up to him. He must’ve been tired, he guesses. He’s taken by the darkness into a deep, dreamless sleep.