The house was honestly more like a mansion than a house. With three floors and a basement, about 30 bedrooms, a kitchen bigger than Jace's treehouse, a library in the basement that looked a lot like Ivor's, an enchanting room, an armor room, and a lab.
They'd mostly split up, although Jesse had spotted Ellegaard, Olivia, and surprisingly enough Harper tagging along to go the lab, and she was also fairly certain that Magnus and Axel were going to blow something up (along with several of the gladiators, meaning all of them) just for the hell of it. She'd also spotted Ivor running down the hallway to go hide. The other people... well, Jesse didn't know what they were doing, but she hoped they weren't trying to cause trouble or anything. Although, she HAD spotted Jace searching the mansion with Petra for Ivor, so there was that.
She was just wandering around with Reuben, since for some reason the pig had started sticking to her like glue, and trying to process what was in this alternative path to the future.
It was better than her current path of the future, honestly.
The garden had lots of flowers in it, and there was a small farm a little beyond that, but she was mostly exploring the garden, since Reuben seemed to like the flowers quite a bit. There was a part of her that wanted to stay in this strange place with no monsters and an endless supply of food, but there was another part of her that knew she had to face her future, the one that she didn't care about or want to go to.
She had to wonder how the others felt. Would the Witherstorm destroy their home?
Would the Witherstorm destroy their world?
She bumped into someone as she wandered under a tree, and she looked up to meet a pair of startled blue eyes. "Oh! Lukas?" she asked, sounding faintly surprised.
"Oh... hi, Jesse." Lukas paused as he stared into the pond he'd been staring at before Jesse had collided with him. "... do you think some of us are going to die?"
"What?" Jesse asked, taken aback by this.
Lukas turned to face the shorter girl, his hands clenching into fists, eyes grim and mouth set into a line. "Do you think some of us are going to die?" he repeated, more firmly than before.
Jesse stood there for a moment, before looking back at the ground, then up at Lukas. "I... I don't know. I don't think so."
The two of them watched Reuben roll around in the grass a bit absently, before Lukas spoke up again. "The other Ocelots die, don't they?" His voice quivered only once, but he wasn't looking at Jesse anymore, so she couldn't tell what he was feeling.
"You don't know that. None of us know that. You can't just assume that," Jesse responded immediately, although she'd honestly been wondering the same thing. "And I can't believe that none of us are going to be the only survivors, even in your future. Besides, even if there's a difference with your future and the one that's being shown to us, we can try to change things-"
"No, we can't!" Lukas snapped, making her flinch back a step instinctively. His eyes were sparkling with tears that he didn't want to cry. "You didn't see the note, Jesse. It said that once we're sent back, we're not going to remember anything. We'll just... have extreme deja vu. And feelings about things. And you're not even going to exist in our future! I know that you're basically Jace, but- will he make the same decisions you do? Maybe not! This is an alternative path to the future-!"
"Hey, enough with all the doom and gloom, okay?" She cut him off sharply, but softened her tone when she spoke again. "Even if this happens in your future... it's much better than what's awaiting me in mine."
Lukas stared at her, his stance slowly deflating. "You're going to remember everything," he continued finally, in a whisper.
Jesse blinked; she hadn't been expecting that. "What?"
"Since you're not in our future, this doesn't affect you... you're going to remember everything about this. The note said so," he said, his own voice beginning to shake as he furiously tried to repress tears. "But you... you're not going to be able to help us..." his voice broke again, and he gritted his teeth as he tried to repress it.
Jesse was silent for a moment, before she shook her head once, sadly. "No, I won't. And I'm sorry about that." And then she instinctively gave him a warm hug around the midriff, gently squeezing. "But hey... let's stop worrying about this, alright? We should probably get some food ready in the kitchen, and I can't cook worth beans."
"Can you cook beans?" Lukas asked drily, shaking himself out of the dark place he'd been thinking in and looking down at the short girl currently wrapping her arms around him in a comforting hug.
Jesse laughed at this, and the dark mood that had settled over the both of them cleared up, even as she released him and smiled up at him. "Nope. I burn them in the fire of my previous culinary failures."
This made Lukas totally lose it, cracking up and falling backwards onto his butt. Jesse giggled before extending her hand to him. "C'mon, let's go."
The two of them walked back towards the mansion, neither of them noticing Aiden watching them from a third-story window with cold green eyes until they disappeared from sight, standing perfectly still.
They didn't encounter anyone on the way to the kitchen, but the two of them could've sworn they'd heard someone shrieking curses that sounded suspiciously like Ivor. That probably meant Petra and Jace had found them.
The kitchen was empty, but it probably wouldn't take very long for everyone to start making their way there, once they realized how hungry they were. Lukas vocalized this thought before his stomach gave a loud growl and Jesse laughed.
"What should we make?" Lukas wondered, poking through the chest. "There's some beef, some chicken, quite a bit of cake, mushrooms, apples... ooh, how about we have salmon?" he asked, looking back at Jesse.
The black-haired girl shrugged with a nod. "That sounds good. You mentioned there was cake?" she asked, going back to the more pertinent question at hand.
Lukas nodded as he began to pull out the uncooked salmons. "Uh-huh. Lots of it, too. Why do you ask?"
"I'm thinking we should have that after dinner for dessert. It's been ages since I've had something sweet like that," Jesse said, poking through one of the chests herself. Then- "Ooh! Potatoes." And she pulled out said potatoes.
Lukas laughed and raised his eyebrow at her. "Do you want baked potatoes with the salmon!"
"Ooh! Yes please."
He laughed again and took the potatoes off her hands before putting them into the furnace, adding a generous helping of coal to it. That done, the two of them started setting the table, chatting about nothing in the process.
"So, Gill grabbed the nearest thing in the room, which happened to be a pineapple, and chucked it at my head," he said, grinning at the memory.
"Didn't that hurt?" Jesse asked, setting down the last plate. Lukas shrugged theatrically, making her giggle a bit in amusement.
"I wouldn't know. I ducked and it hit Aiden in the stomach right as he came in looking for me. He thought someone had kicked him in the stomach at first. Gill's stronger than he looks."
"How strong?"
"Strong enough to make chucking a pineapple at you feel like someone just roundhouse-kicked you."
"Oh! Was he okay?"
Lukas chuckled a bit at the memory. "Yeah, but he had a stomachache for a couple days afterwards. He swears to Notch and back that it was caused by the pineapple."
"Ouch."
"Whatcha guys talking about?" Olivia asked, coming into the room. She, Ellegaard, and Harper were covered in a thin layer of redstone dust, dusting it off with sharp swats and making a thin layer of red powder begin to dust the floor.
"Nothing really, we were just setting the table. You should, um," Jesse pointed at the redstone dust all over them with a faint smile, "probably wash up before eating dinner, though. We made salmon and baked potatoes."
"Alright, we'll be back in a minute. Want me to tell everyone that dinner's ready?" Olivia asked, about to leave the room. Jesse nodded at the curly-haired girl. "That would be nice, thanks."
Olivia shot her a thumbs' up before ducking out of the doorway with the two other women, all of them already beginning to engage in a chat about redstone as Lukas went to go pull out the salmons and potatoes. Jesse let out a chuckle and crouched down, scratching Reuben behind the ears. He let out a pleased snuffle and nudged her. "Ya like that, huh?"
"Oh! Hey, Jesse. Reuben really likes ya, huh?" and Jace popped his head into the room along with Petra, the latter smirking with satisfaction. Ivor came in a minute later, covering his black eye and skirting around the two of them with a wince.
"Yep, which is funny, considering I only met him earlier today," and she rubbed him on the head again, deciding not to ask what happened to Ivor. "Did you spot anyone else, by the way?"
Petra shook her head slightly. "Just Axel and Magnus, but they were already going to wash off. They looked pretty clean but it smelled like they'd bathed in gunpowder or something."
Jace wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, it was kinda sharp-smelling."
"Ahhh."
"Oh- thanks for the help, Jace," and Petra high-fived the mocha-haired boy, both of them grinning.
"No prob, Petra."
Slowly, everyone began to trickle back into the room, Isa and Reginald in a deep conversation with Benedict nestled in her arms, Milo trailing behind and chatting to Soren cheerfully, the YouTubers all having an animated discussion with Cassie nodding away in the background, Em and Nell coming in and chatting (well, Nell was talking, Em was just listening with her arms crossed), the gladiators, Magnus, and Axel looking completely clean but still smelling strongly of gunpowder, and Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto were discussing something quietly under their breaths. The only people who didn't say a word throughout dinner were Ivor and Aiden, the latter seeming to shoot Lukas this death glare.
After they all finished eating, they piled the dishes neatly into the sink, each taking a slice of cake or some other sweet and heading back to the living room. Lukas headed to the bathroom, so they all spent their time just absentmindedly talking within their own groups, although they did chat with one another every few minutes.
Lukas came back in to see Aiden was taking up two seats on the Ocelots' couch, and he raised his eyebrow a little. "Um... you're kind of in my seat."
"Oh, am I? Didn't realize," Aiden hummed, but he made no move to move.
"Then, um... can you move?"
Aiden's eyes went colder than ice chips. "Why should I?"
Lukas just looked bewildered now. "So I can... sit down?"
"You don't need a chair to sit down."
"Did I do something?"
"I don't know. Did you?"
"Could you stop that?" Now Lukas sounded faintly annoyed, his brow twitching as his eyes narrowed at Aiden.
"Stop what?"
"Asking me stuff I don't know! Why are you being such a jerk all of a sudden?! Can you just let me sit down?!"
Everyone was now watching this scene as though it were some sort of soap opera, eyes wide. Maya and Gill were especially quiet, wide eyes flickering between the blonde and the brown-haired boy. Aiden just 'humph'ed and tilted his head back at so that he was looking down at Lukas, even though he was at a lower height than the blonde boy. "You've got a seat on the floor."
Hurt and confusion were mingling on Lukas's face, but he jumped when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked to see Jesse touching his arm, blinking up at him with big green eyes. "If you want... the floor's more comfortable than it looks near the coffee table," she said softly.
He stared at her for a moment, before his gaze softened. "Thanks, Jesse..." Shooting Aiden one last confused look, he followed the shorter girl over to the coffee table and plopped down right next to her, their shoulders touching.
"What was that all about?" Axel wondered quietly, while the Order bickered about who would get the remote in the background.
Lukas shook his head, still looking hurt and confused. "I don't know... he was sending me these nasty glares through dinner, too. I wonder what I did...?"
"Maybe he's jealous?"
The group let out a yell and jumped- Petra had literally stuck her head right in between Lukas and Jesse's out of the blue, making the two of them jump violently. In fact, Lukas fell backwards to avoid conking heads with the redhead, making her grin at him.
"Why would he be jealous?" Jace asked, after he'd gotten over the shock.
Petra shrugged and squeezed her way in next to Jace, making Axel and Olivia scoot over, the dark-skinned girl slipping and nearly landing smack in Axel's lap. "Jesse's a better person than he is- both of them," and she pointed at both of them, "and he bullies them because he knows it, even if he's not going to admit it to anyone, let alone himself. So to see the people he's secretly jealous of go on this big adventure with the Order of the Stone..."
Jesse let out a comprehending hum. "And Lukas is the one that just so happens to tag along with us. I get it."
Lukas sighed and rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on. "That's... I hope he'll get over it soon."
"Hopefully," Jesse agreed.
The episode started to load, the screen fading to black as Magnus shouted triumphantly, "Got it!"
Ellegaard snorted derisively at him. "The buttons literally say what they do, how did you not get it before?"
Magnus was about to retort, when Jesse's voice came on onscreen and cut him off. "Previously on Minecraft: Story Mode."
A/N: Some (late) Lukesse fluff that is a bit off to me, but whatever! Yes, this is mostly a filler, but next chapter we get right into Episode 2!
RQTC: WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA?
Me xD
I'm so sorry, I'm tired right now xD
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs)
AquaK13: HERE IS MOREMOREMOREMOREMORE xD
Emily The Avenger: I know, right?
Guest: HERE xD have some shippy moments
Kaos Ruin: (laughs)
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: xD
RapidSammi: Glad to hear that, Sammi-kun!
rebekahtpe: Nope, and it doesn't have anywhere near that amount... only about 58,000 views xD
pensuka: Haha probably xD
Meow Shadow: Probably there are going to be several filler chapters. And no xD They were not stolen.
Slayer88: (cracks up)
Luna96: (screams with you)
DynamiteHunter6: Yay! (I only have two videos, so xD) And I'm glad you liked that part! And... no spoilers (looks at the ceiling)
x.X. A.L. X.x
