Work Text:
The year Scott was supposed to come of age, the world ends.
He sits in a circle of seats with the other rulers as ash rains down around them, no one daring to break the silence. Joey’s long since stopped raging at Fwhip and Jimmy. Instead, he sits quietly with tear tracks winding through the grime on his face. Gem’s given up on trying to heal Fwhip- bandages wind around his largest slashes, but the burns and blood remain. Sausage has an arm around her, and she isn’t protesting. Lizzie’s leaning her head on Joel’s shoulder, quiet, weary. Jimmy’s staring at the ground, guiltily fidgeting with his shirt. Pearl is the only one still on her feet, scanning the forest around them as if she’s searching for danger. As if she can protect them.
“We should do something,” Shubble says finally.
“Like what? ” Joey demands. “Our empires are in ruins, our people are fleeing or dead, and it’s too dangerous to travel anywhere anyways.”
“We could try to escape,” Pearl says, but it’s a futile hope. Scott knows that as well as anyone. The ground is burning and the skies are filled with smoke and debris; there are no safe paths away from spawn.
Lizzie shakes her head slowly. “ It's no use.”
“Exactly! We can literally do nothing, Shrub.”
Shubble takes a deep breath. Scott watches her fists curl and uncurl. “Let’s play truth or dare.”
He blinks at her, taken aback.
“How’s that going to help?” Fwhip asks. His voice rattles in his chest, making the rest wince.
“Well- it won’t help us escape. But we never- I’m realizing we never got to do much fun together, you know? We never got to just hang out and be kids, we were all so busy ruling.” Shrub pauses. Takes another breath. “Let's do something fun. It’s not like we’ve got anything else to do anyways.”
It’s such a silly, childish idea. Playing truth or dare while the world burns around them.
“Shrub’s right.” Scott’s surprised by the lump in his throat. “We never got to just…do something stupid. Never got to act like kids.” It hasn’t ever been a choice for him. Rivendell needed a ruler, and Aeor needed a champion, and the world needed a hero, and somewhere in between ruler and champion and hero the child that Scott once was got lost.
Fwhip laughs, then. It’s tainted by bitterness, but then again, all of them are. “Alright. I mean, why not?”
“I’ll go first,” Katherine offers.
No one protests.
“Okay. Fwhip, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Did you ever do something bad and blame it on Gem when you were kids?”
“What, I would never!” He laughs again, and it's more genuine this time. “Of course I did, it’s what you do as siblings.”
“Fwhip!” Gem scolds, and the rest laugh.
“Fwhip, it’s your turn,” Katherine reminds.
“Cool, cool. Um…Joel, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Did you ever consider marrying someone else?”
“Hey!” Lizzie exclaims, and Fwhip snorts.
Joel gives him a scathing look. “No. My wife is beautiful and amazing, like me. Scott, truth or dare?”
Scott blinks in surprise. Oh, it’s him. “Uhhhh…dare.”
“I dare you to sit on someone else’s lap for the rest of the game.”
He glances over, hoping Joel is joking. He can’t be serious, right? But there’s a triumphant grin on his face, and Scott hates him just a little. He considers plopping all six feet and eight inches of himself directly onto Joel’s lap in revenge- but ultimately, he doesn’t want to spend the duration of the game that close to Joel. And he would also prefer to not get murdered by Lizzie.
Instead, he looks around the circle, trying to ignore Gem giggling at him. Finally, his gaze lands on Jimmy.
Fuck it. The world is ending anyways. None of what he does matters.
“Jimmy, how likely are you to get squashed if I sit on you?”
“Uhh- not likely!” Jimmy is covered in burns and bruises from the disasters, but his smile is undulled by the ashy air- the one form of sunlight no amount of air pollution could taint. “I’m big and strong, yup, that’s me!”
Scott eyes him dubiously, but it’s not like he has a lot of better choices. He settles himself on Jimmy’s lap, careful to avoid brushing any exposed burns. He won’t pretend his heart isn’t beating faster- but it’s the end of the world. All of this matters less. If it wasn’t the end of the world, he doubts Jimmy would wrap the arm around his waist, doubts that he’d lean back into the hold, but he does. They both do.
“Shrub, truth or dare,” Scott says before the rest can start mocking him.
“Dare! Give me something fun to do.”
“Just for that, I’m giving you something boring.”
She pouts, though the effect is ruined by her giggling. “Scooootttttt, c’mon!”
“Do a handstand for the entire time that you’re asking the next person- and until they finish their dare or truth. I know you can.” It’s impressive, actually, though he’d never say that out loud. “If you want a challenge, do it as long as you can.”
“Oh, heck yeah!” She gets up, taking a few steps before flipping up into a handstand against the nearest tree. “Okay, uh, Pix, truth or dare!”
“Truth. I’m afraid of you guys’ dares.” A bit of burned tree bark settles in Pix’s hair.
“Have you ever wanted to kiss anyone here?”
He laughs a little. “Yes, but kisses mean a lot of different things in Pixandria. You can kiss someone to assert dominance, for example.”
“If any hot men want to kiss me and assert their dominance, you know, let me know. Hit me up,” Scott jokes. He gets a couple of laughs and a “Scott!” from Gem- not the worst outcome.
“I’ll kiss you!” Sausage says brightly. Scott can’t actually tell if he’s joking; he doesn’t know if it matters. Jimmy’s grip on his waist tightens.
“Moving on from that,” Lizzie says, ”Pix, ask someone."
“Joey, truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Sit on a tree branch for the rest of the game.”
“This game is stupid,” Joey pouts, but he climbs onto a tree. The smoke makes his face look grainy from this distance, though his voice is clear as he calls “Lizzie, truth or dare!”
“Truth!”
“Have you ever killed an axolotl?”
“Well…. maybe. I had to!”
Joey gasps- drama king. “Oh my god, your own kind? I can’t believe you!”
“Hey!” She tosses a stick at him. He throws it back, and she glares. “Fine. Jimmy, truth or dare?”
“Dare,” Jimmy says. Scott can feel it rumble through his chest.
“Dump Scott on the ground,” Lizzie challenges.
Scott tries to give her an outraged look. “What the fuck, Lizzie?”
“Sorry, Scott,” Jimmy murmurs near Scott’s ear, and before Scott can protest, he’s being unceremoniously dumped into the dirt, only narrowly missing one of the chasms. There’s a rock poking his wing, jagged and rough. It's unnaturally warm; the fire is near.
He ignores that all because Jimmy is pulling him back onto his lap, apologizing again and again. “I had to, it was a dare! I’m so sorry, Scott!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Scott repeats. They’re even closer this time. He doesn’t protest.
Jimmy’s breath is warm against his ear. “Gem, truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Gem decides- wisely, he thinks.
“Did you ever do something bad and blame it on Fwhip?”
Gem looks away with a guilty little laugh. “Yes- yes, a lot of times.”
Fwhip doesn’t even look put out by that. “Yeah, I know.”
“Okay! Um, Pearl, truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to… lift someone onto your shoulders.”
Pearl’s grin promises trouble.
Joey yelps when she pulls him down from the tree, wings flailing everywhere. “Girl! What the heck!”
She just laughs. “Sausage, truth or dare?”
“Dare!”
“Follow through on what you told Scott earlier. If he doesn’t mind.”
“Oh, I will!” Sausage is scrambling over before Scott has even processed what the hell is happening. “Uh, Scott?”
He’s very close. His breath smells like mutton and smoke.
The ground rumbles beneath them.
Fuck it.
“Go on.”
Sausage leans in without hesitation, confident in a way Scott wishes he could emulate. He has to take a breath before he meets Sausage halfway, shaky, nervous.
He couldn’t say if the kiss is exceptionally good or not, but it’s…nice. Sausage’s lips are kinda chapped, and he does smell like smoke, but he’s gentle about the kiss and his mouth is warm against Scott’s. All things considered, not a bad experience.
He pulls back first, unable to resist the urge to make a dry remark. “Well, that wasn’t a bad first kiss.”
“That was your first kiss?” Jimmy and Sausage demand- in near perfect unison, which is actually quite impressive.
He smiles wryly. “I became the elvenking at the elven equivalent of fourteen. I haven’t had a lot of time to mess around with boys.”
Before either of them get the chance to enquire further, there’s a rumbling noise as the ground jolts under their feet. Sausage falls backward, and Jimmy’s arm around his waist is the only reason Scott doesn’t follow. On the other side of the clearing, Shubble yelps as she tumbles out of her handstand. Lizzie has to pull Joel out of the way of a falling piece of debris, and Pearl sidesteps another as Joey shrieks.
After a few moments, the shaking dies down, leaving a painful silence in its wake.
“Guys?” Shubble’s voice shakes for the first time as she pushes herself back up. “Are we- guys, do you think we’re going to die?”
“I think we are,” Scott answers because no one else is going to.
Lizzie nods, mouth pressed into a tight line.
“I don’t want to die, Scott,” Shubble says, and it’s almost childish in how pleading it is, but Scott understands it so, so well.
“I don’t think any of us do.” He’s surprised to find that his voice breaks on the last word. Jimmy pulls him closer.
“We don’t really have much of a choice.” Fwhip’s tone is light, but when Scott looks over, his fists are clenched tight in the fabric of his coat.
Gem leans her head on his shoulder silently.
The ground shakes again.
Katherine is the one to break the silence this time. “For what it’s worth- even if we do die here, I’m glad I got to know all of you.”
“Me too,” Pix murmurs.
Shubble nods. “Same!”
“I love you guys so much,” Sausage agrees, and Scott kinda wants to cry.
“I love you all.” His words come out wobbly, throat tight with tears. “Except Joey.”
“Hey!”
He manages a little smile. “Kidding, Joey, you too. Even with everything that happened.”
“Love you too,” Joey chirps, and then coughs, shallow at first and then harder.
“The smoke is getting thicker,” Lizzie notes.
Joey hacks out another cough. “No- shit!” The smoke tickles the back of Scott’s throat, makes him want to cough too.
“Well, I love you, Lizzie,” Joel says.
“I love you too, Joel. I wish it didn’t have to end this way.”
“Me too.”
The ash is falling thicker now, catching in Scott’s hair and wings, smoke making it hard to breathe. The sunlight is weak and red where Jimmy’s hair catches the light; it softens the lines of his friends’ faces, reminds him how very young all of them are beneath the veneer of battle-worn rulers.
The ground rumbles, louder and longer yet again.
“If we die here, I’m glad I got to meet you!” Shubble yells over the noise. “I’m glad I got to play truth or dare with all of you! I’m glad we got to be kids again!” Her voice cracks- it sounds a bit like she’s crying.
Scott thinks he might be crying too. He can’t tell. “I’m glad we got to be kids too!”
“I love you!”
“I love you too!”
There’s more debris falling, cutting through the relative safety of their clearing. Shubble’s forced to dive towards them as a bit lands right where she was standing.
Scott grabs her hands, pulls her towards him. “Over here! Shrub!”
“Scott!”
He shifts around on Jimmy’s lap so he can pull Shubble and Sausage and Jimmy into the safety of his wings. They, too, are dulled by ash, though the light still catches on his golden wing jewelry.
A small branch pings off his wings. A rock. A shard of debris that has to have once been part of a stone wall. He doesn’t let go.
“I love you guys,” Jimmy says. It’s uncharacteristically quiet. He’s not sure why that’s what he notices.
“I love you too, Jimmy.” Shrub’s voice is raspy from smoke, dulled with exhaustion.
“Yeah, I love you all!” Sausage agrees, and that’s about the last thing any of them manage to say. The smoke is so thick that Scott can barely breathe, and the debris is falling faster and harder. He curls around the others, trying to protect them from the onslaught.
It means nothing.
He knows it means nothing.
If they all haven’t already inhaled lethal amounts of smoke, they will have soon. And even if Scott keeps these three from being crushed, there’s still no way to escape.
And yet Scott doesn’t pull his wings back even when he wants to, even when they’re bruised and battered from falling debris, even when a razor-sharp stone leaves a gash through the delicate feathers. He can no more let go than chop off his own wing.
He loves them.
The world is ending.
He loves them.
They’re going to die. He’s going to die.
He loves them.
His throat aches with tears and smoke. Ash stings his nose. But he opens his mouth and starts, in wavering, barely-remembered Sindarin, an old prayer.
“Sulimo save them, Mandos hold them. May Este-” He breaks off to cough. “-heal their bodies and Lorien their minds. May Nienna weep for their sorrows. May Vana witness their joys. Let them walk in the green forests of Orome and lay in the plentiful fields of Yavanna.” He’s nearly crying- maybe he is, but the tears evaporate off his face so quickly he hardly feels it. “Tulkas grant them strength and Nessa swift- swiftness, and may they never have need for either. Where-” he’s struck by a fit of coughs so strong he nearly doubles over- if he were not an elf used to thin air, he’s not sure he wouldn’t have suffocated. “Where ocean wave meets shore and hammer meets hot metal, may-” another cough, and he can see the rest of the rulers across the clearing, he’s praying for the rest too- “may Ulmo’s seas shelter them and Aule’s fires warm them. May Vaire weave them a kinder story, and may Elbereth hang their tale in the stars, never to be forgotten.” He draws a ragged breath. “Let them be at rest.”
It’s an ancient elven prayer, beseeching gods older than Aeor: the only gods who can help them now.
He does not pray for himself. There is no god who will save him.
Instead, he pulls the others closer to himself. Buries his face in Jimmy’s hair. Lets his stinging eyes fall shut.
He loves them.
The world is ending.
He loves them.