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Scar gave the signal, waving Grian sharply towards the entrance of the fortress, behind his back so Ren and Martyn hopefully wouldn’t notice anything suspicious overtop of his distracting chatter. Grian slunk away around the corner, seemingly having got the message, and- wait, why was he back? What was he doing? They’d get caught! Scar gestured more insistently this time, and Grian seemed to understand, as he slipped away and this time didn’t return.
The plan was perfect. They’d trap Ren’s base and steal BigB’s cookie in one go - it was foolproof. Grian would manage the hard part, insisting that he be the one to handle the volatile redstone because his name was still green, while Scar, on the other hand, had precious little room for mistakes. From there, the rest of the plan was easy; all Scar had to do was keep talking. Thankfully, as the server’s Scammer Extraordinaire, talking was his specialty. He just had to keep everyone entertained - or at least distracted - until Grian planted the bomb, and then run like hell.
So far, everything was going according to plan. Grian had gotten out unnoticed, set the trap, and Scar had escaped safe and sound as well. Now all that was left to do, standing next to BigB’s house above the valley, was wait, as Jimmy, Scott, and Martyn gathered cautiously around the enchanting table, which was rigged to blow at the slightest movement.
Scott reached for the table, about to heave it off the ground, and time seemed to slow as he lifted it up off of the hidden observer. Grian held his breath, and Scar braced himself for a surefire deafening explosion.
He waited.
Waited.
And…
And nothing happened?
“Oh, wait- no, it didn’t work!” Grian cried. Scar groaned in sympathy.
Putting away his axe, Grian jumped down from his perch on the side of BigB’s house. “I can’t believe it didn’t work, what did I do wrong?” They watched for a moment as the others gathered around the bomb, trying to figure out how to disarm it without disarming their lives in the process.
“Okay, so… we could just take the cookie now,” Scar suggested. Grian looked at him, unsure. “Yeah, we take the cookie now,” Scar decided, and turned around, grabbing his axe and scaling the building. “Get the cookie and let's go!”
Working quickly before anyone noticed, they disassembled the cookie and packed it away in record time, all the while with Grian still questioning where his assembly of the bomb went wrong. Scar, axe stowed and wooden pieces of cookie secure in his bag, jumped down from the house and found himself face to face with Scott and BigB.
“They’re currently trying to disarm the bomb,” Scott told him, while BigB glanced up at his now cookieless house.
“Hey, who just stole my cookie?” He asked, looking crestfallen.
Scott laughed and looked pointedly at Scar and Grian. “Yeah, why’d you steal his cookie?”
Scar feigned innocence. “What? No! There was no cookie stolen-”
“We just watched you!” Scott cried, forcing down another laugh.
Suddenly a sharp hiss cut through hot summer air, and Scott went silent. Scar’s head shot up and he looked over towards the bomb outside the fortress walls and the group surrounding it just in time to see a flare of light and smoke curling through the air as the bomb went off, shaking the ground so hard he could feel it rumble under his feet, even from this far away.
[SolidarityGaming blew up]
[Renthedog blew up]
[Skizzleman blew up]
There was stunned silence. Then suddenly a high, shrieking cackle of triumph pierced the air, and Scar looked down to see Grian leap from his foothold on the side of the steep drop below BigB’s house and sprint closer to the wreckage, mouth agape and eyes wide, alight with victory and shining with madness. He looked insane.
“Yes!” He screamed as he ran, “YES!”
Scar scrambled down the cliff as quickly as he could without falling and ran over to the still-smoking crater. Water pooled below jagged rocks and charred soil, muddy with debris and hissing with steam from the heat of the explosion. He looked up and Grian had already darted back up the incline and stood next to BigB’s house, bouncing up and down and flapping his hands with mad glee. Scar half-ran, half-climbed back up to him, wheezing a bit from the smoke, and grinned.
Without hesitation, as soon as he was within reach, Grian grabbed his hand and ran. They ran back through hills, forests, rivers, and sand, Grian carelessly slashing at creepers as he pulled Scar back toward Monopoly Mountain, shouting happily all the way.
“We did it!” He cried through triumphant laughter, bounding up the mountain and dragging Scar into their house, still having yet to let go of his hand. He flung his bag down and jumped bodily into Scar’s arms, burying his face in his shoulder and wrapping his arms around him tightly, still cackling gleefully.
Scar stood shell-shocked, still breathing hard from the run, and dazedly brought his arms up around Grian as his mind caught up and his senses came to one by one. Slowly he took stock of each sensation, pulling himself down to reality and securing himself in a sandstone house, on a sandstone mountain, wrapped in a cackling madman’s arms. He felt heat and pressure from Grian’s body and felt his heart beating wildly in his chest from excitement and exertion. He felt soft hair tickling his neck and mad giggles wracking Grian’s whole body. He could smell gunpowder and sweat, and underneath it that smooth, mellow scent that had never been quite identifiable but was so decidedly Grian. He was here, he was real, this loud, manic ball of energy and fight, with his arms wrapped around Scar’s neck and his face pressed into his shoulder. Scar pulled Grian closer and shifted his grip, squeezing him tightly and burying his nose in the crook of Grian’s neck and shoulder.
Giggling, Grian pulled back, grinning to rival the sun and with frenetic electricity still crackling in his eyes, bouncing giddily as he looked at Scar and cried, “We did it! We really did it, it really worked, I’m-”
But he never finished his sentence.
That was probably because Scar, who had been staring at Grian in wonder as he slowly realized something, had suddenly been hit with the overwhelming urge to do something incredibly stupid. At best, it would probably get him a weird look. At worst, he’d be deserted. Or killed. But strangely, he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
In one swift movement, Scar cupped Grian’s face in his hands, pulled him up to look him dead in his beautiful blue eyes, and kissed him with all he had.
After a moment, a flash of panic overtook him as he realized that Grian wasn’t kissing back; that this man who could never sit still a day in his life had suddenly frozen in place, shocked.
Before Scar could even pull away, though, much less let spill any of the frantic apologies already forming in his head, Grian sparked into motion, sliding his hands into Scar’s hair and tilting his head sideways to deepen the kiss hungrily.
Now it was Scar’s turn to freeze. He had no clue what sort of reaction he’d expected from Grian but it certainly wasn’t… this.
… Not that he was complaining or anything, not at all, he thought, as he hummed softly into the kiss and felt Grian grin against his lips. Something warm and sweet flooded his body and he held Grian tighter, pulled him closer, let himself drown in that glowing, golden feeling overtaking him. This felt like home.
“You,” Scar mumbled, his words muffled against Grian’s mouth, “are insane.”
Grian broke the kiss but barely moved away, breathing hard, his eyes still closed, and bumped his nose against Scar’s teasingly. “And?”
Scar breathed in deeply, savoring the moment and committing every intoxicating feeling to memory. He never wanted to forget this, no matter what all happened next; come whatever may, life, death, none of it mattered. This was theirs.
“And I love it.”