Warm hoodies on cold nights (and all the stars in your eyes)

Chapter 7

TWs (may contain spoilers): Homophobia, plain nasty parents, description of death

It's Schlatt who wakes him. He surfaces from the nightmare, gasping for breath, and Schlatt crouches by him, a hand on his shoulder, warm and steady. Unable to help himself, Wilbur ends up clutching at Schlatt's arm in a half-embrace, taking several deep, shaking breaths before he calms down a little and stands up quickly, resolving to pretend that never happened.

"So-" he says, and his voice only shakes a little bit, "Are we building that house today?"

"Sure, man," Schlatt says, and Wilbur can feel his gaze on him, but doesn't bother turning around. That would just make things even worse. Instead, he walks out of the pub building, and stands in the fresh air for a few seconds.

"What kind of house were you thinking?" he asks Schlatt when he feels him stand next to him.

"Don't mind," Schlatt shrugs. "Maybe like a combination of our other two. Hilltop castle style."

"Yeah, sounds good," Wilbur grins, threads of excitement starting to pulse through him, and his jumbled emotions from waking up slowly start receding. "How 'bout that big mountain over there?"

"Sure," Schlatt nods, walking towards it. "How much dark oak do you have left?"

"A stack," Wilbur says, checking his inventory, and runs to catch up. "Will we need more?"

"Probably," Schlatt replies. "We'll build the foundations first and plan it out, then we can gather resources."

"Sounds like a plan," Wilbur nods, and after twenty minutes of clambering up a steep hillside, trying not to fall, they make it to a tiny ledge just by the top. "Here?" Wilbur suggests.

"Jesus christ we're high up," Schlatt mutters anxiously. "We need to be careful about the damage, Wil."

"Sure do. But at least it's high enough that we'll respawn as soon as we hit the floor."

"Yeah, yeah, but it'll hurt like hell before you do."

"I guess so," Wilbur replies, peeking over the edge, but Schlatt pulls him back. "C'mon now, Wil. Start building. Do the same thing you did with the pub but bigger. Like a hallway and three branched rooms bigger."

"Yes, sir," Wilbur smirks, pulling out his pickaxe, and starts mining. "You go get birchwood and dark oak," he tells Schlatt, and Schlatt nods, leaving Wilbur to mine out a large chunk of the mountain.

He's even filled in the stone foundations by the time Schlatt comes back, and they sit down to eat some food and bicker over the building choices. Eventually, it's decided that each corner will be dark oak, the middle wall will be birch blocks, and there'll be two floors.

They finish the first floor by midday, and have a break outside. Wilbur's hand has rubbed raw from the pickaxe, and though the burn blisters have mostly healed, it's still significantly more painful than his other hand.

"You do the interior," Schlatt urges, noting Wilbur's discomfort. "Or build a balcony."

"Or both," Wilbur suggests, and Schlatt shrugs.

"Sure fire. I'll take care of the second floor and the roof, then."

He manages to make a few more tables and chairs, as well as placing two beds in the back room, and eventually decides to join Schlatt on the second floor and build a balcony.

"How's it going up here?" he asks, and Schlatt pauses for a second to throw him an apple.

"Pretty good. Just got that wall and the roof left."