Chapter Text
Grian woke up slowly with the sun in his eyes and his head pounding. Everything was too bright, loud, and just too much.
Groaning, he tried, unsuccessfully, to fall back asleep. He stayed laying on his front for a while- not wanting to fully get up and deal with his hangover.
Grian felt like a massive pile of shit, which means he must’ve gotten absolutely plastered last night.
Moving a bit more, he tried to get his pillow to fully engulf him. He didn’t move for a couple minutes more before his pillow was the one moving and he had arms wrapped around his waist. Grian nuzzled into the chest he was laying on before he thought about it for a minute longer.
Ah shit.
He did it again. He promised multiple people that he wouldn’t drink that much and that he would wake up alone the next day.
He thought back to last night and tried to think of who this could be. He didn’t talk to many people during the ball. He saw Mumbo and Pearl and Scar-
Scar, who he was trying to flirt with last night. Scar, who he had many, many drinks with. Scar, who he made out with. Scar, who is currently the mystery man laying underneath him.
Oh he really messed up this time.
Grian suddenly felt much more awake than he was a couple of minutes ago- especially after he looked down and noticed that they were both still naked as the day they were born. His cheeks grew bright red as he pushed up and off of Scar and the bed.
He grabbed a pair of clothes that he had on his floor for a while and had yet to pick up. While pulling on his pants he moved a little bit too quickly and the hangover came back to him at full force. Suddenly the world was spinning and Grian was hitting his back on the ground- hard.
After hearing the loud thud and then Grian’s, equally as loud groan, Scar began to stir in the bed. Once opening his eyes, Scar had the same reaction to the sun as Grian had not ten minutes earlier. “Ugh… where am I?” Scar turned from on his back to his side and made eye contact with Grian.
They both stayed staring at each other for at least a minute before Scar’s eyes grew the size of dinner platters and he very quickly shot up in Grian’s bed.
“Well hello there.” Scar said as a smile grew across his face. Grian also noticed that as he said this Scar’s eyes tarlied down Grian’s bare chest that he had yet to throw his shirt over. His eyes shot up to Grian’s face again as his cheeks grew a deep red.
“Scar, how the hell are you so calm right now?!” Grian looked away from Scar and began to pace around his room. “I can’t believe that I slept with you last night! What the hell was I thinking?!”
“Wow, was I really that bad? Usually I get fantastic reviews!” Scar giggled at his own joke.
Grian promptly ignored him.
“Oh my god, I slept with my sister's finance…” Grian whispered as he stopped pacing and what he did really started to settle in.
He screwed up badly this time. If his mom found out about this he would never be trusted by her again. This is truly going to be the final straw for her, this would be the end of the line for him.
Not only did he let down his mom, he also let down Pearl. What was he going to tell her? ‘Oh yeah by the way I slept with Scar so you know I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that he's okay with you being gay.’ She was going to be so pissed with him. He promised her that he would stop drinking as much and that he would finally start getting his life together.
Pearl wasn't going to be there for Grian forever, especially now that she was getting married. Soon she was going to have to step up and become queen and when that happens she can't be there to keep track of Grian and his wrong doings.
Grian is taken out of his thoughts when Scar clears his throat to get his attention. “So… um, I’m going to guess that you.. didn't mean for this to happen?” When Grian looks back to Scar he won’t make eye contact with him as he scratches the back of his neck.
Grian just stares at him for a bit before he speaks up again. “No Scar, I did not mean to sleep with you! I was drunk and not thinking straight. (pun intended.) I'm so, so, sorry, I didn't want this to happen.” Grian began to walk back and froth in front of the bed again, while he also started to rack his hands through his hair. “I was just flirting with you to see how you would react. We just wanted to know if you were homophobic or not! This wasn't supposed to go this far I swear.”
When Grian finally looked back to Scar he looked disappointed and upset. His face looked like Grian just told him that he was never going to be able to achieve his dreams. Scar didn’t say anything for a bit, he stayed just staring at him for a bit before he seemed to finally realize he had to actually say something.
He shook his head like a dog and looked away from Grian again. “Yeah… totally I didn’t mean to end up here either.” He gave a sad, awkward sounding chuckle. “I’m, uh, going to go back to my room.”
Scar pulled the blanket off his lap and got up to stand from the bed. When he did rise from the mattress he looked down and finally realized that he was bare naked. He looked down and then back to Grian before asking, “Would you happen to have any clothes I could borrow?”
They both looked away from each other with pinking cheeks.
“Yeah here.” Grian picks up a pair of pajama pants off the floor and passes them to Scar. He’s not quite sure that they’ll fit considering that they are quite different sizes.
Scar quickly puts them on and dashes out of Grian’s room without so much as a goodbye. As soon as he’s gone Grian collapses onto the edge of his bed.
“Ugh, what have I done?”
—----------------------------------------------
At some point during his thinking and sulking in his bed he falls back asleep.
His rest does not last long as Pearl and Gem come crashing into his room not ten minutes after he went back to sleep.
“Grian,” Pearl says in a singsong voice as she walks in with Gem behind her. “Its time to wake up and have our after ball debrief!”
She lands up on the bed beside Grian on his right as Gem sits on his left.
“No, sleep.” Grian groans at them before turning on his back to shove his face into the mattress.
“G you have to wake up at some point. It’s like ten o’clock already dude.” Gem told him as she started to try to roll him back over.
“Ugh fine.” Grian rolled on to his back and sat up beside both of them. “So miss the centre of attention, how did the ball go for you?” He turned towards Pearl and he rubbed to sleep out of his eyes.
“Yeah yeah it was busy and all that. What I want to know is how did flirting with Scar go for you?” Pearl turned to him with one of the most excited expressions Grian has ever seen on her face.
Grian flopped back on the bed with a groan.
“That bad huh?” Gem quietly asked.
“Do you want the good or the bad news?” He asked them both as he threw his arms over his eyes. Maybe that way he wouldn’t have to see their disappointed looks.
By the silence that followed his question Grian could tell without looking that Pearl and Gem were having a quiet conversation with their eyes.
Finally Pearl spoke up, sounding like she’s never been less sure of something in her life. “Um… good news first I guess.”
How was he going to put this? God he really messed up; maybe if he words it right he won’t have to tell them what he’s done. “So he’s definitely okay with you guys being a couple.” Maybe if he starts off with the best of it the rest won’t hit as hard.
“Wait really! That’s such great news!” Pearl sounded as if she was about to jump off of the bed with how excited she was.
“Hold on, what's the bad news?” Gem asked with a hint of skepticism.
Right of course Gem would see right through his plan. Grian must have laid there not saying anything for too long because soon Pearl was nudging him and telling him to just spit it out.
“Well I guess you're not the only gay person going into this marriage.”
“Okay isn’t that even better. I still don’t see how this is bad news.” Pearl told him.
“I um…” Grian started before stopping again. God this was the worst he’s ever felt when telling Pearl something like this. How would she react? Would she be mad? Would she yell? Would she give him the silent treatment?
“Come on G whatever happened you can tell us it’ll be fine.” Gem gently told him as she put her hand on his thigh.
“I slept with him.” There he said it. It’s out in the open for anyone in the room.
After a bit of silence Grian moved his arms to look Gem and Pearl in the face. Both of them were looking at him with a mix of disbelief and concern.
“You slept with Scar?” Pearl was quiet as she repeated it back to him.
“I don’t know what happened! We were having a couple drinks and then we were talking and then I woke up and he was naked underneath me!”
Everyone was quiet for a bit before Grian heard little giggles. Pearl soon was doubling over and laughing harder than she had in a long time. Grian and Gem looked at her and then each other. They both had a baffled look on their faces as if this was the weirdest thing they’ve ever seen. (It was.)
“I- I’m sorry, just this is,” She paused to catch her breath, wiping tears from her eyes. “G I’m going to be honest this is kinda the best thing you’ve ever done.” Grian and Gem still looked lost and confused so she continued on. “I mean you know how I feel about you going around and sleeping with random guys. But this guy might be the best pick you’ve had in a long, long, long, time.” She finally gathered herself and continued. “First of all we know he’s gay which is great. Second, if this works out well I may not be the only person in a relationship.” Pearl wiggled her eyebrows at Grian in the last part of her explanation.
Grian sat up and stared at Pearl for a long while. Was she joking? She had to be there’s no way she wanted Grian to get in a relationship with Scar. He should be focusing on his schooling and starting to get into the politics of the kingdom. He shouldn’t be getting into a relationship with the guy who was about to become the King of said kingdom.
Finally Gem broke the silence, “Pearl why do you think Grian and Scar being in a relationship is a good idea? I mean you always say G should be focused on other things than being in a relationship.”
Pearl thought for a moment before she gave them both her reasons. “Well yeah I do think that he should be focusing on that stuff because he will have to help me when I take over, but I also think that being with Scar might be good for you. I mean he lives in the castle literally right next door to your room. But besides that I've been quite busy recently and we haven't had as much time to hangout anymore and I can tell that it's affecting you. I think that if you had someone else to be with besides me and Gem to hangout with you would feel better.”
Grian tried to stop her and protest but got quickly shut down. “Don’t try to fight with me on this Grian. Both me and Gem have seen that you haven't been yourself recently. You have been drinking a lot more and pretty much every time you go to any kind of get together you are always trying to find other people to talk with. You never used to do this G. I’m just worried and think that you are just lonely.” Pearl explained to him with a concerned and kinda pitiful expression.
Grian glared at them both and scoffed. He didn't want their pity; he was doing fine! Sure he was feeling a lot shitter recently but that was fine. Sure he was drinking more. Sure he was thinking that he was going to be alone for the rest of his life once Pearl got married. Sure he was starting to not want to leave his room everyday.
But those were just all a part of life; par for the course.
Grian was fine without a boyfriend. Besides having one would probably be more of a hassle anyway.
“Pearl, I get that you're worried about me but why would dating Scar be that fix? He would probably be in my way more than he would help.” Grian grumbled the last bit to them.
“Maybe we would be, but you wouldn't know useless you tried G. Can you just think about it? For me Griba?” Pearl gave him her best puppy eyes to help conscience him.
“Ugh fine I'll think about dating your fiance.” Grian told her as he laid on his back again. Pearl jumped up and off the bed while she squealed. “Thank you G! Also don’t say it like that. That makes it sound weird.” She told him as she sat back down on the bed beside Gem.
“Okay, okay enough about that, tell me about what happened to you guys last night.” Grian tried to get them to change the topic to something else. It worked as Pearl and Gem both went off about their evenings. Grian tuned them both out as he thought about what Pearl had told him.
Would it really be good for him to date Scar? Would he really help Grian with some of his problems?
Maybe he’ll just try to be friends with him first.