Trouvaille | Technoblade x Reader

Chapter 8 - Redemption

The chime to your shop rang out as a customer gingerly opened the door. He was just a scrawny  kid, probably nine or ten, with scruffy brownish blonde hair and freckles dotting the bridge of his nose.

A small smile graced his lips as you caught his eye, and you raised an eyebrow curiously at his appearance.

"Hey kid," you greet nonchalantly. "What brings you to a place like this?"

Especially at a time like this, you wondered.

Moonlight and the dim lighting from the street was streaming into your shop through the open windows. From what you could tell, it was nearly midnight. Kids - and adults too - didn't get up to anything good after midnight.

"Um," he backed up a little, looking like he wanted to bolt out the door. "I was playing with my friend, and I was looking for a good place to hide."

With the way his voice shook and his wide green eyes flickered anywhere but your face, you guessed that he was lying. Well, a little lying never hurt anyone. Plus, what was he going to do? Rob you? You were more likely to disembowel the little brat than let him take any of your items.

"Well, come on in then," you said with a smile. "Feel free to browse around for anything you might need."

"You-You'd sell to me?" he asked quickly.

You hummed quietly.

"Maybe. What's your name?"

He hesitated at that, shuffled his feet back and forth like he couldn't quite stay still. The shoes he wore were coming apart at the seams, you realized.

"My name's Clay," he finally admitted after some silence. "I... I was lying - about the game. Um, I have a friend. Who's in jail. I need to get him out, and I heard that you sell invisibility potions."

You let out a frustrated sigh at his words. Adults just kept getting kids involved with this sort of thing. You weren't about to let a kid get manipulated into throwing his life away for some criminal.

"It's a steep price," you admitted. "Your friend better have given you a lot of emeralds."

Any hope left in his eyes was extinguished by your words. Still, it was for the best. The residents of the Overworld were so... hungry. Not for food - although you were sure that many were - but for power. It made you miss the towering End Cities of your youth where the citizens mostly did what they wanted and got what they deserved. It was chaos at times, but you had loved it anyway.

Your fingers instinctively rose to play with the golden piercings that adorned your ears. They were from the Nether, but they were a reminder of what you had left behind in the End. One golden stud for each of your brothers and sisters crawled up your ear, and at the top, a bar piercing on either ear symbolizing your mother and father.

"Are those from the Nether?" Clay asked, eyes narrowing in on your piercings.

"Yep. Lovely place, really. The heat is wonderful. I grew up in a pretty cold area, so when I went to the Nether for a few years, I was in heaven. You ever been?"

He shook his head, but something in his eyes had changed. The kid actually came up to your counter.

"I... do you think it's right that they're hunting down those demons. The ones from the Nether?" he asked quietly.

You raised your eyebrows at that. A lot of people in the Overworld hated the demons and wanted them slaughtered. It was none of your business, so you stayed out of it, but you remembered the hospitality that they had shown you a few years ago in the Nether. A few bad apples had spoiled the bunch, at least in the eyes of the Overworld citizens.