#also this is inspired by a piece of gf fanart that rewired my brain a little bit

[theminecraftbee]

Joe isn't looking at them, Cleo realizes. He's not looking at them, and not paying attention, which is concerning, since they're talking about Halloween decorations, and that's one of Joe's favorite things, and also about the bloody aftermath of the social game they'd just played, and that's another one of Joe's favorite things. But no--he's standing just outside of the Clocktower Village, and he's nodding along in the right places, but he's not looking at them.

They frown and tries to figure out where he's looking. His hands, mostly.

They stop talking. They take a breath. "Joe?"

"Yes, Cleo?" Joe says.

"You aren't paying attention," they say.

"I would never not pay attention to your wonderful words," Joe says.

"What were we talking about?"

"Well, blood and mayhem, mostly."

"...that's on me. I made that too easy," Cleo says. "But, Joe, if something's wrong, you can say so."

Joe is quiet.

"Or you can, like, not say anything?" they say. "I won't make you. Just, you also don't have to pretend to pay attention to me."

"Right, my bad. I'll pretend to ignore you instead."

"That's the spirit."

"Did you know I noticed the moon get big on Halloween?"

Cleo doesn't know how to respond, so they don't. They don't mean to look away from Joe, because that's rude, when he's saying something so important, but they do, a little bit, glancing up for a moment at the moon. It's large and nearly full, but there's a sliver waning away. The full moon, if they remember right, was a few days ago. They don't know why they felt like they needed to check.

"I noticed the moon get big on Halloween," Joe says again. "I mean, I didn't really. I just thought it was cool we had such a big full moon for Halloween. It made everything so much spookier, you know? It was only a little bit bigger, then. I didn't realize until later it had been getting bigger for--at least a week? Probably at least two? It grew so slowly then."

"I didn't know that," Cleo says.

"Well, I didn't say anything," Joe says. "I probably should have said something. I don't know. It's just--it's been two years now? It's been two years, and no one talks about it. I mean, sometimes in December, I guess, and at the start of the season we talked about it a little bit, but no one--I have a place in my base I'm already keeping everything important, and you and Cub have museums, and I keep on thinking that the museums are good, because if we were all gone tomorrow, and someone had to come pull something out of the rubble--is it stupid? Did it happen? Cleo, sometimes I feel like I'm crazy. No one talks about it. Maybe we shouldn't talk about it? Maybe it didn't matter? We're all fine now, we're all here, it didn't happen again, it's been two years since I had to miss you. And I love Halloween, and I noticed the moon get big on Halloween then, but it probably won't again, I mean, it was a freak thing, and, I just--does it even--did it matter, was it really bad, was it--"

He stops because Cleo's grabbed his hands, gently. They lower themselves down so they are looking Joe directly in the eyes.

"It was real. It mattered. It was bad," Cleo says.

Joe swallows and stares them in the eyes.

"I will never do that again," Cleo says.

"I won't make you promise that," Joe says. "I don't want to make you promise that."

"Okay. But it was bad. It mattered. It was bad," Cleo says.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

They stare at each other a little longer, and then slowly, Joe removes one of his hands from hers and looks back up at the sky.

"It's a waning gibbous," he says.

"That's what that's called?" Cleo says.

"Yeah," Joe says.

"Huh," Cleo says. "Sort of a boring name for a moon phase to have killed each other under, really."

Joe laughs. "You've got a point there. Not the most dramatic of moons, the waning gibbous."

"No, I can say that's not the most dramatic of moons at all," Cleo agrees, and then they are both silent for some time as they continue walking back towards Hermitcraft proper.