It's half eleven, so close enough to Wednesday to post.
Hope you enjoy!
(I'll have the house layout completed by next chapter!)

• CHAPTER TWENTY THREE•

| Home Renovation |

Stepping up beside Tommy, you offered him a smile, "Ready?"

He turned to the group behind them and waved one final time before you both stepped into the obsidian portal and travelled into the hellish dimension.

The heat greets you and Tommy lingers in the SMP hub, glancing back at the portal longingly. You say nothing, patiently waiting for him. After seeing his family and best friend again, after making up with them and just seeing their faces again—it had to be hard.

(You know your own emotions were entangled from seeing your father again after so many years of separation. A part of you felt at ease, another still so conflicted.)

Tommy took a deep breath and flashed you a shaky smile, then you began the multi-day trek through the Nether once again.

By no means was this a goodbye to the SMP, people were welcome to come visit anytime and Tommy could go to them with the path you and Technoblade had carved out on the original journey made for easy and most of all safe passage.

***

Falling back into routine felt strange—you had been gone for two weeks and suddenly your day to day routine had slowed back down. It felt almost unreal to wake up in your own bed for the first handful of days.

Still, you had things to do, places to be, animals to tend to. You finally kill that second wither for another beacon. You and Tommy take trips out to explore and visit that village.

Tommy brings a sense of liveliness that you find you had missed. A liveliness that came with companionship. It makes you want to do more than just the motions of tending to your land. Brings laughter to your home; brightens the room. You had forgotten what it was like.

You had missed it.

You find yourself on late nights where sleep just isn't coming, slipping into the storage room and pulling out those drawings to reminisce. It viciously hurts still but you think, maybe, just maybe, that fissure had begun to scar over.

Some nights when you can sleep, memories that had been dragged up from the deep recesses of your mind by Phil's question all those weeks ago, you don't find yourself screaming awake as you had at the beginning. You don't wake up feeling like shit, no, you stand and greet the day with Tommy at your side.

Before you even know it, spring is beginning to make itself known. The weather warming up and snow beginning to recede. You managed to fit in one more snow fight with Tommy before tour work for spring really begins.

The new seed scattering in your greenhouses must be completed; making sure all your animals are healthy and ready for the new arrivals; helping the villagers against the threat of pillagers that attempt to raid for supplies.

So, you and Tommy are non stop for a good few weeks.

A letter from Phil announced a pending arrival and you realise that you don't have a spare bed now that Tommy had claimed the previous guestroom that had kinda been Phil's room since he had been the only guest until Tommy.

The fact you could have more guests made you duck your head and start planning an extension for your home. It would be possible if you dropped down a floor to add an additional circle to your treehouse. It wouldn't be much—just a guest room, but you had plenty of space in the living-kitchen-dinning for a spiral staircase.

And thus you began working on location, materials, and good old fashion labour to get the shell of the build completed. Tommy was a massive help with his own building skills to speed up the progress. You had never made a house before—your father had built the treehouse for you—but you had practice with watertight buildings like greenhouses and sheds. You had patched up stairs before, and Tommy seemed rather skilled in that department for some reason?

So two weeks is all you needed and then you were placing the last plank of wood to finish the soon to be furnished room. A few chests, a bedside table, a double bed, curtains and some paintings you had brought but never found a place to display.

As Tommy straightens the landscape painting, you step back and admire the new guest room proudly.

Tommy let out a triumphant "Ah-ha!" and spun around with a grin. You laughed, rustling his hair.

"Woman!" he barked, it just made you laugh harder.

"You did great," you compliant, "Thank you for your help."

"Of course I did good!" he rebuked, "I'm the biggest man around! I can do anything, bitch!"

You just chuckled and waved him out of the room and up the stairs, "Of course, of course. Most, uh, poggers man I know."

Tommy scrambled up the stairs with a cackle.