Ummm there may be some swearing in this chapter so small warning I guess? It shouldn't be that bad, but that depends on how bad you see it I guess.

Also smoking and maybe drinking?

Grian and Mumbo woke up together later. A blanket of white, sparkly snow covered the ground, indicating it had snowed while they slept, but the sun was shining brightly. The snow was likely not to last long.

"Hey Gri~ how'd you sleep, darling?"

"Wish it was longer... I could sleep with you forever..." The blonde mumbled as a reply.

Mumbo chucked lightly. "I'm sure you could. We really should get out of bed though, we don't want to waste a day."

"I suppose so... What do you want to do today?"

"Well, I've been running low on diamonds. I wanted to go shopping, but I checked my diamond stock and I don't have many. So, I was thinking, an adventure in the mines! If you'd like to join me."

"Mmm I guess so... Sounds like it could be fun." Grian was clearly extremely tired.

Mumbo hopped out of bed and Grian got up very slowly. The two got dressed and put on their armour.

They pulled out swords, shields, pickaxes, bows and arrows. They were ready.

They walked out the door, hand in hand, and headed to their small mine.

Mumbo was digging, Grian fending off Creepers and Zombies that were after them. It didn't take them too long to find a few diamonds.

Mumbo still wasn't satisfied though, he didn't have nearly enough yet.

Grian was done though, even though they hadn't been down there too long.

"I think I'm gonna head back up, okay?" He kissed Mumbo's cheek. "If anything is happening and you're in trouble, message me immediately and I will run as fast as I can."

"Sounds good, Gri! Love you~!"

"Love you too Mumby~!"

Grian headed back up to the surface to their house. He dropped off his tools and armour.

Grian noticed someone walking around he had never seen before. He walked closer and closer, and the figure soon was more clear to him.

He wondered who it could be; he hadn't heard of anyone new joining the world. Especially after being in for a few months already.

Grian decided to introduce himself to the person.

"Hello! I'm Grian! Are you new here?"

The person smiled at him. Grian guess it was a girl, based on the figure she had, facial features, and long hair. He wasn't wrong. "Oh, hi! Nice to finally meet someone here! I'm Elise, you can call me El or Ellie though!" She held out her hand to Grian, who happily shook it.

"So nice to meet you! How long have you been here?"

"Only a couple days. I haven't met anyone else yet. Well, I met Xisuma, but he invited me here and I haven't really personally met him yet. I haven't quite got myself on my feet too well yet."

"Oh, here, my house is right here! I can help you out a little, give you a few items to get you started."

"Really? That would be great!"

Grian brought Elise to his and Mumbo's house.

"Wow, beautiful place! You're a good builder!"

"Oh, thank you!" He opened the door for her, and invited her in.

He went between chests and shulker boxes, looking for a few decent items to help the brunette girl out.

Grian was very gay, but couldn't help look at the girls beautiful features. It was clear to anyone, she was extremely beautiful.

She had long brown curly hair, sparkly green eyes, dark shimmery skin, black freckles, round lips, and a very nice figure. She wasn't particularly thin, but she was definitely not large.

Grian grabbed two diamond pics; one with fortune II and mending, and the other with silk touch and mending, he also grabbed a pair of mending elytra, some diamond armour with decent enchants, a plain netherite axe and put it in a shulker box.

He took the box over to a nearby anvil and renamed the box 'the box of friendship'.

"There! Hopefully that'll give you a start!" Grian smiled at the girl and handed her the box.

She took it gratefully, and opened the box smiling at the items inside.

She looked Grian in his button-black eyes. Elise had somehow already been thinking about him in ways that she shouldn't.

She though about what they might look like together... If the held hands, watched the sunset together, hung out and laughed all the time, walking around the shopping district... Late night calls... She didn't know he was already dating someone, nor the fact he was gay, and found herself almost crushing on him. He already seemed very kind and friendly towards her which was a good start in her mind.

"Thanks very much for the box, Grian! Very kind of you! I'm going to leave and try and meet some of the other people around here. See you!" Elise smiled and waved at the blonde boy, he waved back and she was off.

A little later, Mumbo came back to see Grian.

"Mumby I missed you~!" Grian kissed him immediately when he saw him.

Mumbo smiled. "Awe, I missed you too Gri~! What'd you do while I was gone?"

"Oh! I made a new friend! A girl named Elise joined by Xisuma's invitation, and she was wondering around."

"Oh, that's lovely! I got plenty of diamonds. Maybe we can go shopping together tomorrow!"

"That sounds wonderful!"

The two smiled widely at each other. Might was approaching and so they decided to go to bed.

The next morning, Grian woke up to a pile of messages from his new friend, Elise.

Ellie-bean: hey, would you wanna hang out today?

Grian: I actually have plans today, could we hang out tomorrow instead?

Ellie-bean: sure! Where and when do you want to meet?

Grian: do you know where the town hall is?

Ellie-bean: yeah, X showed me around!

Grian: perfect! We can meet there tomorrow morning, around 9? And then we can walk around or something!

Ellie-bean: sure! Sounds good, see you tomorrow!

"Morning Mumby~! I'm gonna be hanging out with Elise tomorrow. I hope that's okay!"

"Of course! Maybe I'll gather some resources or catch up with Iskall tomorrow."

Grian loved that the two could balance their relationship between friends, resource gathering, and each other. It was so nice to have a stable relationship and common friends.

The two held hands and walked over to the shopping district. They didn't live too far from the district, so it was a short walk there.

They went into all their favourite shops; redstone for Mumbo of course and a trinkets shop which Grian quite enjoyed. They didn't spend too many diamonds, but did spend a fair amount. All the work Mumbo had put into mining was nearly spent that day.

He looked forward to building new redstone contraptions though, he figured maybe something like a fancy minecart roller coaster to the shopping district from their house.

Grian put the trinkets up on shelves around their house later on.

He and Mumbo decided to cuddle up and watch movies until they fell asleep together on the couch.

Grian was the first to drift off, Mumbo kissed his forehead and was next.

Grian's alarm woke him up at 8:15 the next morning. He quietly got up, trying not to wake Mumbo up, but it didn't work very well.

"Have a good day love!"

Grian smiled and kissed him on the cheek, heading to the bathroom to shower and get dressed.

8:37

He ate breakfast, put on his favourite sweater, and headed out to the town hall.

8:56

Elise was already there, waiting for him.

"I hope you haven't been here too long!" Grian smiled.

"Of course not, only about 5 minutes."

That was a lie. Elise had been there since 8:30. She was so excited she was getting the chance to hang out with Grian more.

"So, I know a really cool path through the jungle if you want to head there? We can just walk and get to know each other!" Grian suggested.

"Sure! Sounds like fun!"

Grian led her to the jungle, to a path that he knew all too well.

The two were walking, talking, and laughing. He was telling her stories of previous years in different worlds, parties, everything. He got to know a little about her life and what she did before she joined, which she believed wasn't too exciting. She was working in a small company, and though she did get paid decently, she just wasn't enjoying herself at all.

It wasn't long before the sun was setting, and Grian was far from home.

Elise smiled at him. "That's alright, we're not too far from my house! You can stay at my place tonight!"

"Okay!"

He quickly sent Mumbo a message.

Grian: hey love, I'm staying at Ellie's tonight, I'm too far from home to get back in time. Miss you

MumboJumbo: okay love, be safe and have a good night! See you tomorrow!!

Elise invited him inside.

She had a very lovely house. It was fairly colourful and well decorated.

Elise offered to sleep on the couch and Grian have her bed, but he insisted on not taking her bed away and mentioned he would probably leave early in the morning.

Grian didn't sleep well that night; he was used to curling up into Mumbo's warm chest, being held by the mustached man, and cuddling.

He woke up fairly early the next morning, before Elise had, and left as soon as he did.

He went back home, opening the door, and seeing Mumbo still was asleep. He crawled into bed with his love and curled up just as they did every night. Mumbo momentarily woke up, smiled, and kissed his boyfriend on his forehead before going back to sleep.

---

A few weeks passed, and more days like the previous one would happen. Grian would hang out with Elise, and Mumbo would go and get resources or visit Iskall.

"Man, I just don't fucking know anymore." Elise took a puff of her cigarette and tapped it.

"I get where you're coming from. People can be annoying sometimes. I've been really lucky to be really good friends with all the people who are here now, though."

Elise took a small swig out of a flask of whiskey. Grian could smell it, even though he was a fair distance from her.

"Want some?" She notice him watching.

"Oh, n-no I'm alright... I don't really drink. Or smoke."

"Oh, damn. Sorry. Well that's alright."

There was silence before she spoke again.

"So, got anyone special in your life?" She winked at him.

"Oh yes, I do. I have the most incredible boyfriend in the entire universe. He's just perfect... Muscular, extremely good looking, kind, funny... He's wonderful."

Elise looked at him and just burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Y-you're serious..?"

"Um... Yes?" How else was he supposed to answer.

Elise slammed the flask onto the ground, so hard it made a dent.

"FUCK are you fucking kidding me right now! I thought we had something. You've had a partner this whole fucking time?! Not to mention you're fucking gay! Absolutely disgusting! I... I can't believe you right now! All this shit I've been through. Here I am, thinking, I've met him. I've met the guy. This is the one. The one who's gonna fix everything. But you're gay! And dating a man!"

She walked up to Grian. "I can't even fucking believe you!"

She paused for a minute, thinking of everything she just said. She saw the horror in Grian's eyes. He was on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Oh, God, fuck, I'm so sorry. Shit. I fucked up. No, no please don't cry." She talked to him like she had just hit her younger brother and didn't want her mother to hear. "No one can know about this. Fuck! Don't tell anyone."

Grian ran as fast as he could.

2026 words!!!!!

You can already see Elise is a new character, she's essentially the villain right now? I know these chapters are a bit more sad... But I feel like I'm just dragging the story on and on by writing happy feels all the time.

You can obviously tell Elise is extremely homophobic.

Hm, wonder how that will play into the story.

Anyways, hope you somewhat enjoyed this chapter as sad as it was. At least this one had some happiness! I hope that helps a little...

Bye for now!!!