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Apparently, there was a point where copious amounts of coffee could no longer keep exhaustion at bay. Wels wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d been up this time, but considering the fact that he’d been averaging 3-4 hours of sleep for a while, he was exhausted. The severity of this glitch wasn’t helping either, especially with how he could feel it scraping against his code. Gravity blocks had glitched, causing some blocks to remain floating when they were supposed to fall, and others to drop when they were meant to float. Several builds had been ruined, and the two were trying to fix this quickly before any more progress was undone. It… wasn’t going very well. He was barely lucid, at this point, continually getting distracted by how bad the glitch tasted — though he knew the taste wasn’t real and was just a consequence of staying up too late coding, it didn’t make the acrid taste any less annoying. Still, it was better than working on the firewall. …just about everything was better than working on the firewall, if he was being honest. He was always terrified he was going to accidentally close off one of Ex’s backdoors into the server, and keep them stuck outside for longer. So… really, as annoying as they were, he should be glad he was only working on gravity blocks. That knowledge didn’t make him much more happy to spend all this time dealing with them, though. After a couple hours more, when Wels was absolutely miserable and barely keeping his eyes open, he made a stupid decision.
“X, ‘m tired.” He slurred, and X sighed.
“I know. I’m sorry — I’m tired too. I think we’re getting there, though. Just… give us a few more hours…” X yawned, rubbing his eyes.
Well, at least X wasn’t mad he was complaining. He rarely was, though. There was a part of Wels who read too far into that. A part of him that yearned for a real connection with someone other than Hels. It was embarrassingly, traitorously easy to fall into a rhythm with X. To scrub at his exhausted eyes and let X pat his shoulder reassuringly and tell him to go get a quick nap, only for him to refuse. To time his own breaks when he knew X's concentration was starting to wane, so he could get the both of them to take a moment and gather themselves. To lay down next to X, sleeping on his bound wings in a way he'd only halfway regret in the morning, especially when X would toss a potion into his hands with a slow sigh. It was far too easy, especially with how Wels spent most of his waking day with Xisuma.
He was doing his best to distance himself, but… there was only so much he could do. The fact that the last time he’d seen Ex on the server they’d directly told him they were glad Wels was helping X… also didn’t help. There was a quiet beep from the computer — just the light chirp of Xisuma’s tests passing, and Wels was shaken from his thoughts. He yawned quietly and went back to trying to focus on the code. 4 and a half infuriating, disconsolate hours later, the bug was finally fixed, and they’d managed to roll back a little of the damage. X was now whispering his report to himself as he typed, and Wels stumbled upright.
“Goin’ home.” He mumbled.
“Goodnight.” X replied, not looking up from his computer, and Wels set off.
The flight was one of those trips that seemed to take forever, the bright sun almost burning against his eyes, but Wels was not consoled when he arrived home. It turned out that his base was one of the ones that suffered the most damage, as the roof had collapsed and covered his floor in debris. He started climbing through the wreckage, hoping his bedroom was untouched, only to give up before getting very far. This was just too precarious, he was going to fall and smash his head open on a rock. Ok… new plan. He climbed back out of the wreckage and trecked his way through the Nether, flying for just as long as he dared. Eventually, though, he made it to his destination.
The wave of relief that washed over him when Hels’ home came into sight was probably the best thing he’d felt all week. He staggered up to the door, falling but managing to catch himself on a fence post. He knocked twice, and the door swung open a moment later. Hels stood on the other side, looking him over before scoffing.
“I see you maybe twice a month, and every time I think ‘surely he can’t get any worse,’ and then the next time I see you, you prove me wrong.” He stepped back from the door. “Come on in…”
He stepped inside, Hels locking the door behind him before guiding him to the sofa. Wels grumbled softly but leaned against his side. One of Hels’ wings wrapped around him.
“You can’t go on like this.” Hels said when they had settled.
“Y’s I can.”
“No, you can’t! X is going to work you to death!”
“‘M fine. ‘N X is… good. Don’ think he’d hurt me.”
“Maybe not intentionally, but — We both know he’s a derp. He doesn’t recognise what he’s doing to you, and if you don’t tell him he might not realise it until it’s too late.”
Wels just shrugged.
“‘Be an ok way to go out.”
Hels dragged a hand down his face.
“No, no it wouldn’t! Wels, you’ve got to tell him—”
“No I don’...”
“Yes, you do!”
“Can handle it. ‘ll handle it—”
“Welsie, please!”
Wels hummed softly, curling against Hels. The other knight sighed, holding him.
“‘M tired, Hels…”
“I know. I know… Just — Get some rest.” Hels sighed. “We can talk about this later.”
Wels nuzzled into him and did just that. He awoke in the early afternoon, stretched out across a large ottoman, a red blanket draped over his body. He yawned and sat up, the exhaustion from the previous few days still noticeable. He wandered out into the living room where Hels was waiting, watching the lavafalls outside of his window.
“Feeling better?” He asked as Wels sat down beside him.
“Yeah.” Wels said.
“Good. But — we still need to talk about this.” Hels said.
“...why?”
“Wels, you know this isn’t healthy. Spending all your time in a basement, fixing things until you and Xisuma are practically passing out? It’s not good for you. He isn’t good for you.”
Wels’ brows furrowed.
“What do you mean ‘he isn’t good for me?’”
“I— Look, Wels, at best the two of you are egging each other on with your obsessive tendencies and your unwillingness to ever yield.”
“And at worst?”
“...you don’t want to hear that.”
“Well you’re thinking it, so go on.”
Hels sighed.
“Worst case scenario, he’s deliberately pushing you past your limits because he either just doesn’t care, or is trying to manipulate and isolate you.”
“That’s — not what he’s doing! He — we’re taking care of the server!”
“But are either of you taking care of yourselves?”
“No, but — sacrifices have to be made!”
“And they have to be you? Would nobody else help out if they truly knew how much X is struggling?”
“I don’t know. But until other people show up, we’re going to keep doing it!”
Hels groaned loudly.
“That’s a terrible idea! If one of you would just ask for help—”
“We don’t need help! We have it handled on our own!”
“No, you don’t! You passed out from exhaustion halfway between X’s base and your own last week — You’re telling me that’s fine?”
“It was! X figured it out and brought me back to his base—”
“And that’s the problem!” Hels shouted. “You act like he’s someone you trust to be unconscious around, someone who’s worthy and capable of nursing you back to health without hurting you—”
“X isn’t going to hurt me!”
“Then why haven’t you shown him your wings?”
Wels froze.
“I…”
“You don’t trust him.” Hels said flatly. “A part of you is smart enough to not fully trust him, and I need you to listen to it.”
“He — He doesn’t want to hurt me. And if he does… as long as it’s only a little, as — as long as I can still do things, as long as nobody knows—”
“It’ll keep happening.” Hels said gravely. “Ex keeps getting banned because he won’t let me tell anybody. If — if X decides he doesn’t like you anymore, he might ban you too. I need you to be realistic here—”
“He’s not going to ban me!” Wels said, fighting the incredulous laugh that was fighting its way from his chest.
“How do you know?”
“He wouldn’t ban me—”
"Yes, he would! He already took Ex from me! I — I'm already losing them, he can’t take you too!"
Wels' eyes widened.
"Hels—"
"Oh — Whatever!" Hels stood, turning to stomp across the room. "Go fucking— kill yourself for Xisuma, if that's what you want."
"Hels, I'm sorry—"
"No you're not! Just — Go home, Wels. Just go home..."
There was a sort of resigned exhaustion in Hels' eyes. Wels didn’t want to leave him — not like this.
"Hels, I—"
"Go home…" Hels said, not bothering to even look at him.
“I… are you sure? I don’t want—”
Hels looked back at him. His eyes were steely and cold.
“Go. Just go…”
He turned away again. Wels swallowed back his growing sense of alarm and started for the door. When he reached out to turn the near-scalding doorknob, Hels was already out-of-sight.