Work Text:
Scars hurt.
They ache with memories attached, a physical reminder of past mistakes or adventures.
Scars don’t go away.
They may fade, heal, be hidden or even forgotten.
But scars don’t go away.
Of this, many of the Mighty Nein were aware. Reminders of history, mental and physical scars clouding their mind and body.
But two members were particularly bonded in this way.
Mollymauk and Caleb were never the closest pair in the group, but found quiet comfort in one another’s company. At first, sitting together at a tavern, while everyone else boisterously paraded among their own escapades, Molly and Caleb sat aside, watching the ensuing chaos.
But then forming into taking watch together. And going shopping together. Sharing a tab at a tavern. The list goes on – small things, events, memories. They flew by, before the pair realised they were even growing close.
So when they started sharing the night watch, sharing a room when Nott and the girls were having a ‘sleepover’, the space between them faded even more. Their closeness only grew, until the rest of the Mighty Nein felt that watching in on the two alone was like watching in on a private affair.
They never saw Caleb joke the way he did with Molly, his sharp tongue keeping up with that of a devil. Nott had bantered with him, and as much as he may deny it, he has made some jokes in the past, but the way the conversation flitted to and fro between the pair, most couldn’t even keep up.
Over time, inside jokes had developed, “For the last time, Mollymauk, your horns are not a testament to the throne. Stop acting like it. We have been over this many times, Ja?” – “So you say, but you’re the one who keeps bringing up how much you like them.” – “You know that’s not how I mean- I find them. Interesting. Shut up, stop laughing, you fiend.”
No one missed the way Caleb’s lips became upturned, only in the slightest, as his cheeks became a soft red underneath the scruff and muck on his face. Nor did they fail to see Mollymauk’s tail, a window to his emotions, flicking back and forward like Frumpkin’s does when Nott glints a light off her blade for him to play with, during the snark filled banters between the two.
So yes, it felt from fairly early on, like a very private affair to listen in to. It doesn’t mean they didn’t anyway.
But in the dead of night, camping on the road to one place or another, there became an unspoken rule. Those two were each other’s supports, however strange it seemed at first, and so if you woke up in the middle of the night to hushed voices and shallow breaths, you were to leave it to those it involved. You were to turn over and go back to sleep, allowing the pair their privacy.
Yasha and Nott occasionally ignored this rule at first, before it was even a rule, before it became evident that the pair in question had begun to lean away from the familial bonds formed prior to meeting, in favour of one another. With time, they learnt to leave the boys to themselves, wisely seeing the positive bond they shared.
Scars hurt, they don’t go away, and two members of the Mighty Nein were painfully aware of this. They helped one another through the phantom pain, through the memories and bittersweet dreams, along with the gruelling nightmares.
And through time, they became supports not just through the night, but the day time as well. Friendship became solid between them, they covered each other in battle, and tended to each other’s wounds. When either of them was downed, it was if there were another barbarian on the field, slicing and crushing their way to the other at all costs.
It was inspiring to the rest of the group, really, to see such comradery bloom from two of the most unlikely sources, but also somewhat terrifying. Both known to the unstable in one way or another, in the line of work they found themselves in, there was great concern for what would happen if one were to fall and… not get up again.
Luckily, it wasn’t a problem, there were bad times, and concerns, but all was largely well to begin with.
Luckily, it wasn’t a problem…
Until it was.