Chapter Text
Hugo was nowhere to be found at the camp… again.
It’s probably fine , Varian would keep telling himself, he’ll show back up again, like he always does, and this time, we’re going to have a serious talk.
Hugo was hardly a team player, and had expressed numerous times how he didn't intend to be, but this was getting ridiculous. Whether Hugo liked it or not, he would have to realize that he was on a team, and that meant he couldn’t keep running off without a word like this.
It wouldn’t be such a problem if it weren’t for the fact that Hugo never notified the team when he left and never mentioned where he was going or what trouble he intended to get in that time. All Varian, Nuru, and Yong could do was wait until he showed back up, either with his arm around his latest one-night-stand or with purple and green bruises marking his freckled cheekbones.
No more. This time, Varian wasn’t gonna let him get away with it scott free. Varian had never gotten along with that smug con-artist, but he’d be damned if he was gonna let Hugo continue his self-destructive habits.
* * *
As much as Varian wanted to be mad, the truth was, he was worried as hell. Hugo had slipped off the night prior when the rest of the team was busy setting up camp- that was normal- but now it was near time to pack up and be on their way to the next town, and Hugo was still not back. That was not normal.
Varian had never been good about hiding his anxiety, always rubbing his arm or repeating phrases to himself, all of which he was doing excessively at the moment. He was so caught up in his thoughts, he was almost startled when Nuru placed a hand on his shoulder from behind.
“Hey. I’m sure it’s fine,” she reassured, “You know how he is. If he’s still not back in half an hour, we’ll go look in town.”
Varian turned to look at her, letting a deep breath in and out. He really did need to calm down. Looking at her face, he realized tha Nuru herself was probably more concerned than she was letting on. Nuru butt heads with Hugo more often than even Varian did, and it was no secret that the princess didn’t trust the scheming alchemist, but Varian also knew that she cared more than Hugo was likely aware. Still, Nuru maintained a poise in her distress that must’ve come from being the public figure that she is. She always remained optimistic, and was better at ruling out worry with logic than Varian.
Hugo was annoying and cocky and a constant pain in the neck, but no one on the team wanted to see him get hurt.
Nuru gave Varian a small smile, which he returned.
“He’s just never been this late before,” he explained.
“Yeah,” Yong piped in as he finished getting ready and walked up to the two to join their conversation, “It’s almost time to go now, and Hugo usually gets back before sunrise.”
“Nuru, what if the reason he’s not back is because he’s in some kind of trouble he can’t get out of?” Varian couldn’t shake the feeling that something could be seriously wrong, “If he’s hurt, we shouldn’t be wasting time waiting around. We should be looking for him.”
Nuru seemed to consider this, her eyebrows creased worriedly, but ultimately, she looked back up and said in that reasonable, diplomatic way of her’s, “He knows what time we’re leaving. If he’s actually fine, he’ll come here looking for us and be confused if we’ve gone. We should stay at least a few more minutes. Then we look. Ok?”
Varian nodded. He could wait a few more minutes. After that, either Hugo would show up in time or they would hunt him down themselves and drag him back by his ear.
The more Varian thought about it, the more frustrated he became. What makes Hugo think he can just do this? Why does he have to keep getting himself into dangerous situations? It’d be one thing if we could be there to keep him from getting hurt, but he insists on keeping his little escapades a secret! Varian could feel his face becoming hot with anger. He hated being so mad, but Hugo made it quite the challenge not to be. What would he turn up with this time? A broken arm? A bloodied nose?
Varian was so done with being stressed. He rubbed his tired face with his hands and sighed.
If he gets himself killed, he thought with finality, I’m gonna murder him!
* * *
Hugo was late. Shit. He may have avoided getting in trouble for running off before, but he doubted he’d be so lucky this time. It wasn’t like it was his fault. Well, this time it was, but normally it was because Donella kept giving him these stupid side missions. She trusted his ability to get jobs done a little too much, seeming to forget that he currently had three other children breathing down his neck that he had to slip away from every time she had a new assignment for him. She could only ask so much of him before his cover was blown.
Fortunately, he had a consistent and believable cover- that he’d gone into town and hooked up with some stranger for the night. This was especially effective because, oftentimes, it was the truth. The only problem was that he needed the team to be unable to decipher the difference between when he was telling the truth and when he was lying, which was becoming increasingly difficult as his assignments became more and more risky. If he kept returning to camp with new injuries, they’d stop believing him entirely. In fact, he suspected this was already the case. The best he could manage was wearing plenty of clothing- a long sleeved jacket with a high collar, fingerless gloves, even his bangs could cover up damage to an extent- but it was not enough.
He knew he’d been pushing his luck with them, and this time, he was surely about to get an earful.
As he approached the spot of their camp at last, he could already hear the dreaded rambling from Varian about how he was going to “tie Hugo to Prometheus for the rest of the trip” if he had to.
Oh boy. Here we go.
Hugo let out a sigh and stepped through the brush and into the clearing.
“Looks like he’s not dead after all!” said perhaps his least favorite person.
“No, I’m not dead, Nuru. Thanks for your gracious concern,” Hugo didn't care that Nuru was ever-increasingly pissed at him. It was Varian whom Hugo needed to tolerate him, so it was Varian he’d “apologize” to and no one else if he could help it.
“Ugh,” Nuru huffed at his sarcasm. He really didn’t like her, which was only fair because she obviously didn’t like him, so he ignored her display of frustration.
Varian turned around from the materials he was packing. If the knife-sharp glare didn’t give away the shorter alchemist’s mood, the red hue to his face certainly did. That wasn’t a good sign.
Hugo prepared for the worst.
“Where have you been?”
The question was simple. So was the answer. But Hugo had a feeling it wouldn’t be enough to save him from the coming storm.
“In town. Stayed with this girl I met at the bar. Look, I just overslept, ok? It won’t happen again! Let’s just move out to the next town.”
As Hugo had suspected, the ball-of-fury before him was not satisfied by this.
“And how am I supposed to believe that?”
“What do you mean?” Hugo asked as if he was offended at the implied accusation.
Varian’s eyes narrowed, “I think you know exactly what I mean!”
Just as he’d thought, he’d finally run out of luck. His injuries had indeed not gone unnoticed by the rest of the crew.
“You can’t keep doing this, Hugo,” Varian continued, “You’re always disappearing on us without warning. We have no idea where you are until you show up the next day. Then , you act as if nothing has happened, even when it’s obvious you’ve gotten into some kind of fight. You keep brushing it off, expecting us to respect your privacy and not ask any questions, which we’ve done for the most part, but this has gotten out of hand. You’ve made it pretty clear that you’re not a team player, but now it’s affecting more than just you. Do you know that we were just about to go into town looking for you? Whether you like it or not, we need you here, or else we need to know where to find you. Got that?”
Uuuuugh. Hugo had stopped listening about half-way through that crap. He just wanted to move on from this so that this long con- far too long, in his opinion- could be over and done with as soon as possible. He had told Donella he doesn’t do teamwork . She hadn’t listened.
“Yeah, fine. But just for the record, I really was staying with a girl,” he asserted.
Varian squinted at Hugo like he was searching for something. Maybe he was analyzing his face for any new marks to give him away for lying. Fortunately for Hugo, he happened to be telling the truth this time, and Varian found no such evidence.
“Stop. Running. Off.” Varian demanded.
Boy, did Hugo hate being told what to do, but he figured if he just nodded, Goggles would lay off.
“Got it,” Hugo agreed, knowing he was probably lying.