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1.
Whistling to himself, Scar steps out of his hanging home. He looks over at the area of land that he’s settled in with a proud smile. He’s still a bit surprised that he’s made it to nearly half way of one hundred hours, a feat not even he himself expected. And he’s got quite a bit of work to show for it too! With his amazing nether portal, his farms, his curving tree.
But perhaps the best part of it all is that he’s not alone in this world. He’s with friends. And that makes the experience all the better. Speaking of his friends, it’s been a while since he’s seen them, being down in the mines for so long! Maybe he should pay them a visit?
With newfound energy, Scar hastily runs over to his barrel room and dumps some things into the barrels. He tries as best he can to keep them organized, making sure to put the wood with the wood, and the ores with the ores. Maybe he mixes a berry or two with the gold, but he’ll worry about that later!
As soon as he’s got the space to hold extra things, he’s out and running. His first stop is Grian’s place, because seeing Grian first only makes sense! And oh–! There’s that little fluttery feeling in his stomach that normally appears whenever he thinks about the avian. Scar’s got a little bounce in his step as he walks, and maybe he’ll play a little risky, with his water bucket in hand. He jumps and puts the water down at the last minute, adrenaline rushing through him.
“Man, my water bucket skills are really improving!” He grins, walking along the path. Maybe he should show Grian how much he’s improved.
With this in mind, he approaches the little hobbit hole like home, a smile on his face. “G-Man!” He calls, stepping inside. “I’ve returned from my cave explorations and–” His voice cuts off as he stares at an empty home. Gone are the villagers from their little trading stands, as well as all of Grian’s chests. “G?” He asks, stepping further into the house. It’s… completely empty. Why? Had something happened while he was in the caves?
“Grian?” Scar’s brows furrow as he looks around, seeing a very thin layer of dust beginning to settle over the once lively space that was Grian’s home. “Grian, bud, if you’re here, come on out!” Scar pleads, voice wavering with nervousness. It nearly cracks, but he holds it together. No reason to panic yet Scar, he might just be playing a very elaborate prank.
At least… that’s what he hopes.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to look around a bit more, right?
With that in mind, Scar goes to wander around Grian’s house a bit. Maybe the prankster is just hiding around somewhere, waiting to scare him! Scar nods to himself, as if giving himself a pat on the back for “figuring it out”. Man, he can’t wait to see the look on Grian’s face when he catches him! Oh, it’ll be great!
“Scar?”
He screams in response, jumping. He turns around, seeing Joel standing in the doorway of Grian’s house. He raises a brow at the reaction he receives. “Are you alright?”
Coughing, Scar brushes off some kind of invisible dust from his jacket. He clears his throat, “Joel! I didn’t see you there!” He says, turning to him with a smile. “I’m fine. You startled me!”
“I can tell.” Joel replies, his smile evident in his voice. “What’re you doing standing around in Grian’s old base for?” He then asks.
“Well, I was looking for Grian actually! See, I just came back from my latest cave excursion and I figured I’d pop in to see good ol’ G-Man and see how he’s doing!” Scar answers, nodding. And then he processes just what Joel said, and he stops. “Wait did you say ‘old base’?” He questions, feeling that feeling of worry creep up on him again.
Joel opens his mouth to reply but stops for a moment, before he shuts it. “Uhhh, yeah, yeah. He moved bases, said something about this one not having enough space in it.” He explains, and Scar feels relief crash over him.
“Ohhh! That makes a lot more sense than what I thought!” He laughs, walking over to Joel to pat his shoulder. “I was worried something might have happened! Thanks for letting me know, Big Beans!”
“Sure thing, Scar.” Joel replies, offering a smile. Though, he misses how Joel’s smile is a tad strained.
“Well, since Grian moved, why don’t we do a bit of catching up on what I missed while I was mining, hm? You know, I saw this huge spider down in the mines! And get this. It was invisible !”
2.
Scar is working on enchanting yet another pickaxe when Joel pops in. He can hear him climbing the ladder when he sees the man pop his head in. “Why hello there!” Scar greets, offering him a smile as he enters the room.
“Hey Scar,” Joel greets, setting down a shulker. “I’ve got a quick little delivery and then I’m off.” He says.
“Oooo!~ A delivery for me?” Scar asks, stepping back from his enchanter to look at the shulker box. His eyes shine with curiosity as he looks between the box and Joel. “What could it be?” He wonders aloud. Joel steps back from the box, letting Scar look inside. He lifts the box and sees three totems of undying laying in the box. “Whoa!” Scar exclaims. He raises his head to look at Joel, “Did you do another raid?”
“Nah. Grian, Jimmy, and I took down a woodland mansion, actually.” Joel answers, and Scar blinks.
“When’d you guys do that?” He asks, surprised.
“Er… when you went caving. It’s probably a good thing you didn’t come with us though, those vindicators hit rather hard.” Joel chuckles weakly. “No offense.”
“None taken my friend!” Scar hums, scooping the three totems into his arms. “These are greatly appreciated, and I am more than happy to pay you back for them!”
Joel waves him off with a dismissive hand, “Take that up with Grian. He’s the one who got them for you.” He informs him, and Scar feels a swell of affection in his chest. “He actually asked me to get these to you, seeing as he’s been so busy catchi – er, gathering more materials.”
Scar blinks, “Is it just me or does it feel like Grian is always gathering stuff?” He inquires, tone light. It certainly seems like Grian has been on the move nonstop lately. Every time Scar has run into him, he’s been in the middle of doing something . He thought that Grian would have relaxed somewhere in between now and his little caving adventure, but it seems like that hasn’t happened.
“Well, he does have a lot of work to do.” Joel reasons, “Making a new base and all. He’s also got his big base pillar thing.”
Humming, Scar’s brows furrow in response. “I guess so, yeah.”
3.
Scar ends up finding Grian by complete accident, funnily enough. Or well, maybe that’s not entirely true. It’s more like Joel had informed Scar of where Grian had set up his new base, and Scar decided to drop in, scout things out.
He just… hadn’t thought that he’d actually see Grian considering the guy has been a rather busy bee lately.
When he has a free moment, Scar heads off in the direction of Grian’s new base with the help of his handy dandy elytra. And a few rockets of course. He’s been working on trying to avoid dying because of his artificial wings, not really wanting to go up in a puff of smoke thanks to kinetic energy. Plus, “I don’t really want Scar’s death on my conscience.”
So he’s been trying to be better about it, be more careful when flying. He’ll clip into the side of a mountain every now and then, but other than that he’s been doing pretty okay!
And finally, he spots Grian’s new base. Despite feeling confused about why Grian needed a new base, he finds himself smiling. He stayed with that modern grass top look then. Still, it doesn’t do much to quell Scar’s ever present confusion about why. Joel had said that Grian thought there wasn’t enough room, but from the outside, it seemed like this house wasn’t any bigger than the first!
Maybe it’s just bigger on the inside then?
Sticking a (very) graceful landing, Scar observes the front of Grian’s house. As usual, it has Grian’s trademark building technique. Faces. And of course, looking at the build gives Scar a little blast from the past, mind trailing back to the avian’s season seven hobbit hole. It’s quite the look.
He’s looking over all of the little details that Grian has included in the build when he sees a flash of red darting around inside. He blinks and walks over to the door, peering inside. “G?” He calls, and for an incredibly brief moment, he worries that Grian won’t actually respond. Which is silly, because this is Grian’s new base, and obviously the avian is right in front of him!
“Ah– just a moment!” Grian responds, and when Scar’s gaze settles on him, he finds him head first in a chest.
Curious, Scar walks inside. He looks around, feeling surprised at the sight of birch walls instead of spruce. Huh. Brushing it off, he glances at Grian. “Looking for something?” He asks.
“Yeah, I think I’ve lost track of my emeralds.” Grian replies, and Scar hears the sounds of him pushing things around in the double chest. “I need to trade with my villagers to make sure I keep their – aha! Found it!” Grian’s head shoots up from the chest, throwing the lid fully open with a bang as it hits the side of the chest. In his hand are a few green shiny jewels, and Scar only gets a glance before the smaller is heading over to his villagers and trading.
Scar follows him with his eyes, watching with a confused stare as he really looks at Grian’s mini trading hall. “Am I going crazy or do you have less villagers than you did before?” He asks, spotting the number of empty stations in the mini hall.
“It’s a work in progress hall at the moment. I’ve been putting it off because getting villagers can be incredibly frustrating but I decided today was the day to tackle it.” Grian hums in response, back still to Scar as he flips through a book.
A confused noise makes its way out of Scar’s throat, “But you had villagers, right? What happened to them?” He asks, mind flashing back to the empty stalls at Grian’s old base.
It’s then that Grian finally turns around to face him, and Scar can’t look away from him. “Scar!” Grian exclaims in shock, as if he’s been startled. “I didn’t realize it was you!”
“I’ve been here the whole time, G-Man.” Scar chuckles, walking over to him. Grian watches him approach until he’s standing right in front of him and he has to crane his neck up to look at him. “Though, forgetting about the villagers for a moment,” Scar starts, reaching out to brush his hand through Grian’s sandy hair. His fingers catch on a few particular strands, brows furrowing. “What happened to your hair? This strand here is all white!”
He misses the way Grian’s breath hitches at the question, eyes widening a bit. “Well uh.. y’know! I thought I’d try something different, kind of like how Joel has one strand of green hair.” He hastily explains.
Scar chuckles softly in response, “I have to say, I’m almost a little disappointed, Gri.”
Grian tenses beneath his hand as his fingers continue to brush through the smaller’s hair. “Y-You are?” He sounds nervous.
“Out of every color you could’ve picked, you chose white? A bit lackluster for you if you ask me. I think red would be a much nicer color.” Scar says before he can think. Images flicker in his mind. A mountain, sand, poppies, lilacs, red eyes, cacti, “BETRAYER!” rings in his ears. He winces, “Or… maybe a pink?”
Grian doesn’t comment on his little slip up. Instead, his shoulders relax and he laughs. It’s a nice sound, one of Scar’s favorites. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He replies, moving forward to wrap his arms around Scar in a hug. He doesn’t hesitate to embrace the avian, tugging him closer to himself. “I missed you. Joel said you went cave exploring?” Grian asks, voice slightly muffled against Scar’s jacket.
“Oh, yes! It was wonderful, the lush caves are absolutely amayzing! ”
“Didn’t we establish that those caves are anything but Scar proof?”
“But the spore blossoms , Grian!”
The new white streak in Grian’s hair drifts to the back of his mind.
4.
Scar is woken up by the feeling of the sun on his face. He slowly blinks awake, becoming more and more aware of his surroundings. He’s got a mouthful of hair, seeing as Grian has somehow cuddled back into his chest at some point during the night. Oh, so that’s why his arm feels numb. He gives an experimental wiggle of his fingers and yup! Nothing. Grian is right on it.
He should try to get his arm free.
He looks at the sleeping avian, wanting to avoid waking him up. Pursing his lips, Scar slooowly pulls his arm free. Though Grian’s back is to him, he’s still watching him as he gets his arm free. He’s got to be careful about this, a grumpy Grian is not a Grian he wants to deal with first thing in the morning (though he knows he can defeat the grumpiness with plenty of Scar Approved Kisses). Plus… with how much Grian has been working lately, he wants him to be able to get as much sleep as he possibly can.
Oh no! He’s letting his thoughts get away from him, focus Scar, focus!
He turns his focus back to getting his arm free, slowly tugging it. He’s making good progress, he can see his elbow and Grian is still none the wiser, sleeping away. Good, good. Now he just has to continue to slowly pull his arm. Eventually he gets it free, and Scar grins in triumph. Perfect! He succeeded in getting his arm free and Grian is still asleep!
Though… Grian is still cuddled against him. Hm.
As much as he doesn’t want to, he pulls back a bit. He wants nothing more than to pull Grian close to him again and properly cuddle him, but he needs to feel his limbs first! And avoid a mouthful of hair.
Trying to avoid making the mattress move too much, Scar pulls back from Grian. But then he hears Grian stirring and he freezes. ‘Please don’t wake up. Please don’t wake up.’ He hears a little sleepy murmur from the other before he repositions his head and (hopefully) drifts back to sleep. It’s only when Scar hears Grian’s breathing even out that he relaxes.
Once there’s room between them, Scar lets himself appreciate how peaceful Grian looks while he’s asleep. He’s usually a bouncing ball of chaos, so Scar always takes moments like these to appreciate the calmness of the morning. There’s a small smile on his face as he looks at him.
That’s when Scar spots it.
It’s on Grian’s wings, specifically. Nestled within the red half of Grian’s wings are white feathers. Scar blinks at the sight in confusion, were Grian’s feathers always white like that? Gingerly, he takes a finger and lightly traces along the feathers with furrowed brows and a frown tugging at his lips. It’s almost like there’s little strips of the feathers that have been removed, and even some feathers are missing. “What?” Scar whispers to himself, continuing to trace the feathers.
There’s faint scarring on Grian’s wings, and Scar wonders where that came from. But before he can wander down any kind of hypotheticals, there’s a sleepy voice hitting his ears. “Sc’r?” His voice is still thick with sleep, gravelly and soft.
He freezes and lifts his gaze to see a freshly awakened Grian looking at him. He’s rubbing one of his eyes, head slightly lifted up from the pillow. “What’re y’doing?”
Hearing Grian’s sleepy voice has him melting, and he wants to do nothing more than tuck him close and cuddle him. But he can do that in a bit. “Your wings,” Scar starts as he pulls his hand away and repositions to rest his head beside Grian’s. “You’ve got some white feathers and faint scarring. Did someone hurt you?” He asks, concern dripping into his voice like honey.
“‘S fine, it didn’t hurt too bad. ‘M all healed up.” Grian replies, rolling over so he can bury his face into the crook of Scar’s neck. “Now no more questions. Wanna sleep.”
Scar forces out a chuckle, relenting. At least Grian is alright, despite how unpleasant the injury looks. “Alright G, you win. Back to sleep we go!” He says cheerfully, wrapping his arms snuggly around the smaller and resting his chin atop his head.
Even though Grian is alright, there’s still a part of him that worries. Who was it that hurt him?
5.
“Scar!” Grian exclaims, landing beside him with a smile. Scar looks up from the little tree farm he’s got going on and smiles.
“Hey G!” He greets as he turns to him. “I hope you’ve got your axe ready, because we’re doing some chopping!” Scar exclaims, and Grian hums in response. He holds out his hand and a diamond axe appears in it.
He holds it up for Scar to see, “I’ve always got it ready. Though I hope we don’t do that much chopping. I’d hate to lose it.” He chuckles.
Taking a step back, Scar spins the axe around in his hand. “One should always be prepared to sacrifice their axe for the sake of a build, Grian.” He says, a relaxed smile on his face.
Though, that expression isn’t reflected on Grian’s face like it normally is. Instead, he’s taking a small step back from Scar, and his smile is strained. “Right…” Is all he responds with. “Well then, shall we get tree chopping?” He asks.
“We shall!” Scar exclaims, making a note of Grian’s face. That was odd. Maybe he’s got something on his mind? He pushes it to the back of his mind for now as he turns to the spruce tree in front of him and starts swinging. Grian watches him for a moment before getting to work himself, chopping at a tree near him.
Cutting down logs for wood is always a rather mindless task for Scar, it’s easy to get lost in the chopping motion and let his mind drift. It’s not something he has to put a lot of thought into. So he lets his thoughts trail all over, thinking about whatever comes to mind. The first thing is plans for his base, how he can expand upon it and what he can add to it. What else could he add? He’s got his farms, his portal, the wonderful railroad system.
More farms? Or – maybe he should add more storage. But more storage would mean more opportunities for him to misplace everything and suddenly his storage will be more of a chest monster than anything.
Well, maybe if he tries really hard…
“Scar, SCAR!” Grian shrieks and Scar is forcefully ripped from his thoughts as he turns to look at the other. Grian is squatting on the ground, hands over his head. His wings are tucked around him almost protectively, and he looks scared out of his wits.
“What?! What happened?!” Scar questions, running right over to him and crouching down beside him. His arms are extended toward him but not touching until he gets the okay to do so.
“Your uhm – your axe…” Grian shakily says, pointing over to the tree he had been chopping. Scar makes a confused noise in the back of his throat as he directs his gaze to Grian’s tree. Lodged into the wood is Scar’s axe rather than his hand and oh . That’s weird.
Turning to look at Grian, Scar offers him a sheepish smile and a little laugh, “Whoops, sorry about that G! Guess uh… my grip might’ve gotten a bit too relaxed when I was chopping.” He apologizes. Grian still looks a little nervous, his gaze unfocused and his body tense as if he expects to suddenly run.
“It’s – it’s fine.” Grian responds, voice still a bit trembly. He manages a shaky smile, and the sight of it makes Scar’s heart break. “You’re the only person I know to accidentally throw their axe while getting wood. If we had painted a target on the tree you would’ve gotten a bullseye!” He jokes weakly, and it’s so painfully obvious that he’s trying to avoid the elephant in the room.
And Scar laughs, not because he’s trying to help Grian avoid the topic, but because it’s a funny joke. “I don’t know, I think my aim might’ve been a bit rusty .” He says, not to avoid how tense Grian is, but to make the tension in his shoulders ease. He smiles when he sees the way Grian’s wings relax and his smile becomes a little less strained.
Next time he needs help getting wood, he’ll rope Joel into helping him.
+1 .
Secrets don’t last forever. Either someone slips up and spills the beans, or they’re eventually shared, secrets aren’t kept. The cat gets let out of the bag at some point, and it’s up to the one trying to keep the secret to clean up the mess it leaves in its wake.
And in the case of Grian? Well, he makes a good attempt, but he can’t hide it forever.
Scar drops into his base with a prank and a request. The idea came to him while he was flying over and he found it absolutely genius! Grian is always going around pranking people, sneaking up on them and giving them a little spook, so why not give him a taste of his own medicine? Yes, it’s perfect! Scar has been giggling about it since the idea hit him.
He lands right outside Grian’s door, trying to quiet his snickering. He peeks his head around the corner, finding the coast clear. Perfect! Being as sneaky as possible, he enters Grian’s hobbit hole, keeping an eye out for the avian. He isn’t with his villagers, nor is he at his enchanting station. So where –
Scar hears a soft thump upstairs and grins. Perfect.
He heads for the stairs, trying to walk up them as quietly as possible. He avoids the creaky steps, knowing where to step and where not to step. And when he reaches the top of the staircase, he listens for a moment. He knows that Grian is upstairs, but where? He hears shuffling from the bedroom and he grins.
Continuing to sneak along, Scar makes his way to the door of Grian’s room. There he is! Scar’s eyes spark with mischief as he spots Grian, and it seems he’s in the middle of getting ready for the day. His back is to him, and in a rare moment, Scar catches him without his jumper on.
He almost wishes he hadn’t.
Resting in between Grian’s shoulder blades is a rather large scar. Without his jumper, he gets a clear view of it, even with Grian’s wings there. The skin of the scar is pink, and it covers from his left shoulder just about down to the middle of his back. It looks like two slashes crossing over one another, and Scar can’t look away from it.
And suddenly his mind starts putting the pieces together like a puzzle. The white hair and feathers, Grian’s sudden fear of axes, the scar that was most definitely not there before. Oh goodness, how could it have taken him this long to figure it out? Someone hurt Grian, hurt him bad enough to leave a scar and he’s been none the wiser about it. And… Grian hadn’t told him. In fact, it almost seems like Grian’s been hiding it from him.
He doesn’t realize that he’s standing right in the doorway, nor that Grian turns around and sees him. “Scar!” He jumps, startled. His voice snaps Scar out of his stupor, and he properly meets Grian’s eyes. Grian hastily tugs his jumper over his head, head popping out through the hole of the jumper. He quickly slips his arms through, and a few seconds later, his wings are free as well. He looks nervous as he looks at Scar, who hasn’t said a word yet. “How… how much did you see?” He asks, voice uncharacteristically small.
Oh, Grian is addressing him. He should say something, anything. He should give Grian a well thought out reply of some sort. Scar opens his mouth, “How long have you been hiding this from me?” Grian winces at the question, a guilty expression falling over his face and oh gosh that is so not what Scar wanted to start with! “I-I mean– Grian someone hurt you, and I don’t even know how it happened, or when! Are you okay? Does anyone else know?” As he speaks, he’s drawing closer to the avian, arms outstretched to him.
“I…” Grian sighs softly, “Guess the cat’s out of the bag then.” He furrows his brows, frowning. “Remember when you went cave exploring and we brought Timmy to the server?”
Scar hums, “Yes? You guys conquered a woodland mansion. But I don’t see how–” He cuts himself off, eyes widening in realization.
Grian nods, “We were doing pretty well until we reached the meeting room. I didn’t see the vindicator approaching me and well, I got caught off guard. It killed me.” He explains, which sends Scar’s heart racing.
“But! But you’re here! You’re standing right in front of me!” He exclaims, and Grian gives him a somber nod.
“I had help from Them.” He says simply, and that alone makes Scar want to tug Grian right to him and hide him away. It makes him want to do absolutely everything in his power to protect him, to keep him from getting hurt again. He’ll do anything if it means keeping Grian from those cursed beings. (It also makes him want to hunt down the vindicator that hurt him and give him a piece of his mind.) “I’ve got another shot at this challenge, and if I die again well…” He trails off and Scar fills in the blanks.
“Is that why you made a new base?” He asks, thinking back to the empty home he found when he first returned from his explorations.
“The timer completely reset. It’s only fair I start with absolutely nothing.” Grian manages a smile. “Though, I’m officially back at forty hours, so consider me all caught up.” His smile brightens, and Scar feels an explosion of warmth in his chest.
In a burst of affection, Scar tugs Grian to him, hugging him close. Grian squawks in surprise, not expecting it. Though, his arms come up to wrap around him and Scar hides his face in his hair. “So Joel and Jimmy know?” He asks quietly, and Grian nods against him. “Why… why didn’t you tell me, G?” His voice is so soft, nearly breaking with emotion. He’s a little hurt that Grian tried to hide his death from him. Things like this were meant to be shared between them, aren’t they?
“I didn’t want you to feel bad.” Grian admits, voice muffled against Scar’s jacket.
“What?”
“The whole reason we went to the mansion was to get more totems for you.”
Scar’s heart breaks all over again. His grip on Grian, impossibly kind hearted Grian, tightens and he squeezes his eyes shut as he presses a kiss to his head. “You didn’t have to do that.” He says.
He feels Grian shake his head against him, hands moving to grip onto the fabric of the back of Scar’s jacket as he presses himself closer. It’s quiet for a moment, Scar simply holding Grian against him. And then, “I guess even in this life I still want to see you live.” Grian quietly confesses and it hits Scar hard . It hits him so hard that he feels like he’s been punched in the chest, the wind knocked out of him.
Third Life is not something they talk about. It’s an almost mutual agreement between them. Although it had been the start of this new… relationship between them, they don’t talk about it. The scars are still too fresh, too new.
It feels like someone squeezes Scar’s heart.
There’s a silence between them until there isn’t. Grian breaks it suddenly with his peels of laughter, and Scar pulls away to blink at him. “What?” He asks, obviously confused.
Grian shakes his head, “It’s nothing just – I just realized that this is the first time that I’ve died before you have.” He laughs, and Scar can’t help but laugh along with him. And they’re laughing together, and Scar smiles.
“What a world, huh? Never thought I’d see the day.” He chuckles. He thinks back to the three totems of undying sitting in his barrels back at home, and gosh he’s never been so happy that he’s still got Grian here with him. “G.” He says.
“Hm?”
Scar gives him a soft smile, “I love you.”
Grian stares at him, simply blinking at him like an owl would. And Scar watches as the color slowly paints his cheeks at the sudden confession, his stare turning a bit bashful. But he smiles at Scar, “I love you too.” The words make Scar feel all warm and fuzzy and he’s crushing Grian in a hug again, making the avian laugh. “Oh, by the way, what did you come here for anyway?”
“Oh! I was going to try and steal some stuff again.” Scar answers with that cheerful tone of his, which sends Grian into a second laughing fit at his cheerful and casual admittance.
Scar laughs along with him, and he thinks that they’re going to be alright. In these worlds of death, he’d much rather have Grian at his side than anywhere else.