Chapter Text
“Are you sure you want this, Grian?” Xisuma asked Grian as he pulled up the code from his communicator, scrolling through all the codes he’s had for the past few years of being an admin. “You know, I’m not changing the code after this. So you’ll be permanently stuck with your wings if I do this.” He explained to the other. It’s not like you have to change code on your server every day.
Grian breathed out and grabbed his sweater, squeezing it to help his nervousness. “Yes, I’m sure I want this. I- I don’t think anything too.. Bad could happen from this.” It was clear that he was overthinking this, but he’s made up his mind. Grian didn’t want to wait another season to do this. “Yeah. I want to do this.”
Xisuma typed a few things on his communicator and glanced at Grian. “After I press enter on this, everyone will be on the new server. You will spawn in with your wings like how all the other hybrid people do. Though, be careful with them. It has been a few years since you’ve used your wings naturally, so your wings and mind might not get along.” He watched as Grian nodded in agreement and pressed the enter button, preparing himself for the nauseating feeling of switching servers.
Grian held his head as he tried not to topple over, still not used to that feeling. He looked around to see everyone looking around the place they spawned at, not noticing Grian yet. Grian looked back and noticed his colourful wings that he missed, the ones that he hadn’t seen in a few years. Nobody knows about them, not even Pearl. He gave his wings a few flaps and grinned to see that they still worked. Well of course they would work, they’re attached to him.
It seemed like people were starting to look at the other players because all of the sudden Gem ran over towards him and was staring right at his wings. Oh Grian was not used to this at all. “Oh, Grian! These are beautiful!” Other hermits nodded. Where was Xisuma though? He wanted to show off the wings to him. But then Mumbo walked over and nodded, looking over at the hermit that was shorter than him.
“They truly are beautiful. I’ve never seen them before. Are they new?” Mumbo asked and he picked up a feather that fell to the ground after Grian flapped his wings. “They’re colourful..” Grian squawked when Mumbo picked up a feather and took it right from him. They stared at each other with wide eyes and Grian held the feather defensively.
“Sorry- instincts.” Grian knew that Mumbo would understand that. The other has been a hybrid a few times while being a part of Hermitcraft, a lot of people have. So it wasn’t unusual to have instincts. “Uhm.. and they’re kind of new? I had Xisuma hide them for a long time.. But I wanted to show them off. And now I’m kind of stuck with them.”
Pearl finally walked over to them and she looked at them with interest. “I’ve never seen you with these, Grian. And I’ve known you for a long time..” She was kind of surprised to not know something about the other. They’ve been good friends for such a long time that it was strange to see something new. “Do they work?”
Of course they work Was what Grian wanted to tell Pearl. Just because I haven’t used them in a long time doesn't mean they don’t work. But Grian just shrugged, doing a small twirl to show off his wings. They hit Mumbo on accident and he bit his tongue, he forgot how sensitive his wings were with pain. Mumbo looked at Grian with worry and was about to say something, but Grian spoke before he could. “Do you guys want to see my fly?” Everyone there nodded with excitement, it's been a while since they’ve seen a bird hybrid. Sure, Pearl has wings since she’s a moth, but even she had to agree that seeing a bird hybrid was super cool.
He flapped his wings with more force and flew up into the air a few feet up, only being a foot taller than most of the people there. Everyone looked so surprised.. Excited. Even Grian felt excited. This was so new to him. The hermits kept asking him to do more and more, and of course Grian listened to their request. Grian flew around and kept his wings out, letting the sunshine above his colourful wings show. The hermits gasped and awed at the tricks Grian was doing, the twirls and the swooshes. It was the coolest thing they’ve seen in a while. And they’ve been to outerspace, that truly says something. Grian could hear a few “Do a spin” and a few “Woah!”s here and there.
Grian could feel the wind around him, making it slightly hard to fly, but he managed. Until a hard gust of wind hit him and he came tumbling down, landing right on the edge of his wing. Grian wasn’t sure if he broke it or not, but he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his bones as he sat up and gently held the part of the wing that hit the ground. Mumbo came rushing over and sat down next to him, asking if anything was broken. He gently lifted up Grian’s wing and it fluttered against his hand. The winged hermit let out a whimper from how much it hurt.
“Well, the good news is that nothing is broken. It’s probably just bruised,” Mumbo reasoned with Grian. He was not good at being around emotional people, though, Grian was hardly ever emotional. So when he noticed that tears were spilling from Grian’s eyes, he immediately got nervous. “But- but! You’re going to be okay!”
What Mumbo couldn’t understand was through all the adrenaline and tears, Grian was regressing. He hadn’t done that in a while, long before the moon big stuff happened. He was too busy to ever think about his age regression. Did Grian even bring any of his little gear? Oh dear. What about Sir Squeaks, his stuffed mouse? Grian’s breath picked up as more tears ran down his face, and the way Mumbo was looking at him made Grian think Mumbo was about to cry himself. “Grian- Grian?” Mumbo breathed out and he nervously laughed. Neither of them were used to seeing Grian cry. The last time Grian cried was when he was regressed all by himself. Hardly anyone there knew about his regression. “Hold on- I’m going to get Xisuma.” Grian chirped with worry, he didn’t want their admin to see them like this! What would he think?
Grian watched Mumbo type on his communicator, probably sending a message to Xisuma like he said. He really didn’t want anyone to see him crying, it was already a problem that Mumbo was seeing him like this. It was probably during the first season he joined that anyone saw him crying, he was nervous and didn’t know anyone on the server. So the first thing he did was sob, because he missed Taurtis, he even missed Sam. But through years of being on Hermitcraft, he learned that Sam wasn’t as good as a person he thought he was. Which was kind of crazy to Grian, because he was the first person that found out about his age regression. Well, it was more of an accident. Sam was nice when he was regressed, he even was the person that bought him Sir Squeaks, but that was forever ago.
Taurtis never really understood the whole regression thing, but he definitely did try to help out. Which Grian was thankful for. Sam took it differently than Taurtis did, he took the role of a caregiver, he even bought most of his regression gear. It was the nicest he’s seen Sam in ages. It kind of hurts to not see Sam anymore, even if everyone thinks he wasn’t a good person.
While Grian was too busy thinking, Mumbo did send the message to Xisuma. It pulled Grian out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps that were getting closer, eventually seeing the other hermit there. He looked up and Xisuma looked down at him, Grian rushed to get rid of the tears on his face. This was all too embarrassing. First he hurt his wing and started crying in front of Mumbo, now he’s crying in front of Xisuma. The other didn’t seem upset though, even though Xisuma told Grian not to be flying around. No- no. He was definitely upset at Grian.
“Here, I’ll take care of him, Mumbo,” Xisuma crouched down to get a better look at what happened. He gently held Grian’s wing (the one that got hurt), poking at some parts to figure out which part got hurt.“You’re right, it’s only bruised.” Grian let his wing flutter away from Xisuma’s hand and went back to being behind his back, though that kind of made it hurt more. “Careful, Grian. I don’t want you getting more hurt.”
Mumbo gripped onto Grian’s sweater, he was overthinking this whole thing. “I- are you sure it’s not possible I can come with the both of you? I want to make sure he’s okay.” He rambled out. Grian was his best friend, if anything happened he wanted to be there with Grian. “I just- yeah.” Grian looked over at Mumbo and he tried to hold back a chirp. He wanted to be alone right now, but that was unlikely to happen.
“I don’t think so, I’m sorry,” Xisuma stood up and tried to help Grian up too. It took a minute of struggling, but the other did follow up. “It won’t be anything too bad. I’ll just get a healing potion since it’s too early for anyone else to have one.” Xisuma noticed how Grian did lean against him, it was probably the adrenaline calming down. It didn’t worry Xisuma too much until he saw the tears in Grian’s eyes, he must’ve taken quite the fall if he was crying.
“Okay,” Mumbo pushed himself up and looked at the two, he knew that nothing could go wrong, but it was still nerve wracking. “I don’t know- just- let me know if anything happens? I don’t want to see Grian even more hurt.” He half joked before waving, then walked away. Maybe to find where he’s going to go build his starter base.
Grian held his breath, he knew that Xisuma was looking down at him. What didn’t help was that he was noticeably shorter than the other hermit, causing his regression to hit him even harder. “Are you okay?” He heard Xisuma ask. What? “Here- let’s go back to my place. I’ve already finished some sort of place we can hang out at.” The two of them started to walk, Grian didn’t understand why Xisuma was being so nice to him though. Should he risk talking so he could figure out?”
“You mad?” Grian tried to use his biggest adulty void he had, but his words still came out slurred. He was slipping more and more each step they took, stumbling with each foot he placed down.
“Huh?” Xisuma saw how Grian was half way limping- was it limping? It looked like he was struggling to walk. Did the other hurt his foot or something more than that? “Why would I be mad at you, Grian?”
The winged hermit bit his tongue and he shrugged, but Xisuma wasn’t taking any of that. “Uhm- cause I did the- the- I used my wings and you said not to?” Grian was staring at the grass, he truly did not want to see Xisuma’s disappointed face. He messed up and he took the consequences, now he may never fly again. Big him would know that he could probably fly in a few days, but little him did not know what bruised meant. To him bruised meant broken because his wing hurt really badly.
“No, I’m not mad at you. You were just excited and wanted to use your wings again. Sure, you didn’t listen to my directions but I’m glad that it’s only a bruise.” Xisuma ran a hand through Grian’s hair and sighed. “Did you hurt your foot too? Because you’re kind of limping and it’s worrying me.”
Grian looked up at Xisuma with wide eyes, looking back down at his foot and then at Xisuma. “No,” he lifted up his foot and shook it to prove that it was fine. Grian almost fell over but Xisuma caught him with a “Woah there”. He jokingly stuck his tongue out at the hermit and snickered. “All good.”
“Then what’s wrong?” Xisuma could not stress this enough. Maybe he was overthinking this, overthinking this more than Mumbo did. “You’re limping, your words are slurred- you’re acting like a chiii…ld…” Then it processed in his head. All the clues he needed. “Are you regressed, Grian? You never said anything about that before.”
Grian let out a surprised chirp and paused when Xisuma picked him up, placing him on his hip. Curse his baby brain to like being carried. He knew there was nothing wrong with regressing, a ton of hermits regressed themself, Grian found it embarrassing when he did it though.”No!” It was the least convincing no that he’s ever said, at least that’s what Xisuma thought. Because Grian had one hand in his mouth and the other lightly hitting Xisuma, but Grian thought he was doing more than lightly. “Never ever!”
Xisuma hummed and he bounced Grian on his hip, trying to get the other to calm down. It did work since Grian started to chirp quietly and he sucked on his thumb, the regressed part of him just wanting to get his wing all better. He wasn’t used to this pain, probably because he hasn’t had wings physically attached to him in ages. It wasn’t like Xisuma minded the light punching, he just thought Grian needed a moment to calm down. “Poor little hatchling,” he started and that caught Grian’s attention. The younger hermit hasn’t heard those types of words in ages. “Your wing just hurts so much doesn’t it?”
And it actually does work, Grian could feel his brain digging himself deeper in his regression. He stared at the other hermit and chirped a few times, moving his hands to squish at Xisuma’s face. It was something so small that made Xisuma feel so proud. He felt a bit bad for not knowing about Grian’s regression, but now he could try to help out now. The regressed little kept babbling about whatever as they continued to walk back to the other hermit’s home.
When they arrived at the house, Xisuma placed Grian down on his bed as he searched for something. Grian didn’t know what he was looking for, but the bed was sure comfortable. He flopped backwards (being careful with his wings) and started to chew on his hand. It truly would be nice to have his pacifier right now. Wait. Where was Sir Squeaks? Grian started to sniffle and tear up, looking around the room to see if any of his little gear was. This was what Xisuma came back to see, a regressed Grian crying and looking for something.
“Hey? What’s wrong, bubs?” Xisuma handed the potion to Grian and helped him drink it. It seemed to cheer Grian up the smallest bit, because the tears started to slow down. They were definitely there still, and Xisuma didn’t know what to do. “Do you know what’s wrong?” Grian nodded. Xisuma stood there and tried to figure out what was wrong, but nothing was coming to mind. “Do you think you could tell me?”
“Dunno where little stuff at,” Grian fell onto the bed and turned onto his side, letting the tears drip down onto the bedding. To Grian it was like the world was ending and like he was never going to get his things back-
“Actually- I think it might be in one of the shulker boxes I have,” Xisuma opened his inventory and pulled out a red shulker. He glanced at Grian and seemed to know what he was thinking. How the heck did he get that? “Sometimes when Hermits leave things behind, I collect them just in case they didn’t mean to leave them behind.” Xisuma grabbed out a white pacifier and some toys including a mouse. Grian immediately started to do grabby hands at the stuffed mouse and babbled very loudly. That was sir squeaks and he needed him now! “Ooh you want this?” Xisuma offered them to Grian.
The winged hermit took both of the items and cooed, his wings flapping happily. “‘Ank you, zooma.” Well, that wasn’t the weirdest way he heard his name before. Xisuma nodded as he patted Grian on the head.
Neither of them were used to seeing the younger regressed, but it wasn’t too bad. They could get used to this.
— — — — — — — — — —
After an hour of the two of them laying on the bed together, and Grian being almost asleep. All of the sudden he sat up and tried shaking Xisuma. “I wan’a play!” Xisuma was confused on what just happened- the younger must’ve regressed to an older age or something.
“You don’t want to lay down?” Xisuma pushed himself up either way. He wasn’t going to exactly decline Grian from whatever he wanted to do, but laying down sounded like an extremely good idea right now.
Grian tried to put on the best pout he could right there and then, shaking his head. “No! Borin’!” He scrambled out of the bed and pushed open the shulker, grabbing a few of his toys that he had. “Play! Colour and and- mmm.. stuff animals!” Grian crawled back onto the bed and handed Xisuma the stuffed cow he had. “Look- I be Sir Squeaks. You be Becka.”
They started off with a simple story line, where Grian is playing royalty with Sir Squeaks and Becka. The story gets a little more detailed as the game continued on, but it wasn’t like either of them minded. It kept Grian entertained and Xisuma got to stay in bed. Except for the one part where they played a quick game of hide and seek with the toys and he had to hide Becka. But after half an hour of playing the game, Sir Squeaks suddenly ‘stabbed’ Becka.
“What! You can’t do that,” Xisuma gasped, but was mostly joking. Grian didn’t seem to catch onto the joking part and he rolled his eyes. “Hey, watch the attitude, little bird.”
“No!” Grian punched the bedding and crossed his arms.” “Can do that- cause while Becka was hiding Sir Squeaks grabbed a knife and stabbed Becka! It works, it fair!” It was clear that the regressed hermit was starting to get a bit cranky, maybe they should’ve stayed laying down. Xisuma was not that good with cranky littles, but maybe he could manage.
“Well, okay,” Xisuma started. “I guess Becka did get stabbed. But, I think it’s time for the two of us to take a nap?” He learned over the time that most littles liked when there was company, maybe the reason depended on most of them, but Xisuma didn’t mind.
Grian bit his pacifier and grumbled, kicking the bed a bit. He continued this until Xisuma reached over and started to tickle Grian, causing him to laugh. Even a giggle fit. It went on like this for maybe a minute until Xisuma deemed Grian less grumpy. But now Grian was actually tired, but he failed to see that this was actually Xisuma’s plan. He fell backwards and forced the other down with him, mumbling something about a “good night.” And to hear one returned. There were a bunch of sleepy, but happy, butterflies in his tummy right now. Maybe he should regress more often.
— — — — — — — — — —
After the nap and Grian was big again, they had a long talk about Grian’s regression. He explained that he considered it weird for a long time, still having troubles with coming to terms about it. Xisuma offered to be Grian’s caregiver, or something like that, and Grian agreed to it. Only because “he doesn’t trust little him”, but they both knew that Grian was happy to accept this.