Chapter Text
"No…Not ag- NOOO!" The scream echoes off the walls of the canyon, bouncing back into Grian's face all the while his soulmate remains blissfully ignorant. Surely, the universe was taunting him at this point.
(Not at all, the universe putters, slightly undignified by even the assumption of such a thing. This is a gift.)
"Are you actually linked?" Etho and Joel share a look between them that is equal parts relief, pity and amusement. Grian doesn't blame them, it's a bit of a funny reaction, and maybe he would even laugh along with them if this wasn't going to be the actual, literal death of him. They had tried this already. If this will go anything like before, Grian will get attached, and Scar will get ahead of himself, and Grian will- It won't be a pretty ending. Except this time, it will put them both into the grave. Grian thought he had finally been able to let go of his responsibility over Scar, only for his plan to be shredded by some cruel twist of fate. Because, if Grian left Scar alone, he knew damn well his life would be shortened. By sheer stress, if nothing else. The universe forced his hand, forcing him to care once again.
His thoughts are interrupted by Etho's enderpearl slipping out of his hands, making for a frightful teleportation. As Etho disappears, Joel squeals out in shock, but no mysterious wound appears on his body. A laugh startles Grian as it pours out of his own mouth. Yeah. Yeah, he shouldn't give up just yet.
Draping his hands over his face, Grian takes a long breath of air. "Okay, Joel, Scar hasn't figured it out yet. So, um, let's just keep it a secret for a while."
Maybe Scar could prove himself to be a capable companion if Grian followed him until he realized their bond. It couldn’t take that long.
-
"Oh wow." As casually as ever, Scar scrambles into Grian's boat, the spitting image of a wet cat. "You know what, I probably really should find some food, because I'm practically starving. Whoo, my god."
Clenching the oars so as not to drop them by the jostling movement, Grian takes a second to adjust to the added weight.
"Why- Why don't you just take some of this fish?" he says, handing out a few sticks of still-warm salmon, a false nonchalance in his tone. "I'll be generous to you, there you go. "
"Ah!" Scar's eyes light up and his smile grows."Thank you very much, very much." He swipes away a lock of drenched hair that sticks to his head and awkwardly gets himself into a criss-cross position before he digs in. "People have been so kind since this started" he points out, words muffled by speaking with his mouth full.
Yeah, wonder why that could be, Grian thinks.
-
"No, don't do that this time around, Scar-"-
-
"You're playing with someone else's life here, you know."
-
"Why would you punch the man with a dog?!"
-
When Bdubs sees them, he takes a small step back, then grins knowingly. "Oh, could it be true?"
-
And after trying to convince this man to not jump off cliffs and feeling him fail to do so, after feeling him get bitten by a dog, and after following him up a mountain where he's distracted by some goats-
After all that, it feels like this is more of a constant lifeguard duty than a mutual partnership.
("That is because you are taking this the wrong way. This is not your role," the universe insists, a thousand of writhing voices that go unheard. "You will see.")
There are scratches on his fingers before he even begins climbing the rocks himself, but the jokes don't stop passing between them even once during their climb.
"I'm going to be babysitting this man this entire time," he mutters to himself, more exasperation than irritation at this point. "I'll be honest, I've been in this situation before, and we all know how that ended."
So- this time- there's no way-
Grian's stomach is twisting a bit, but he feels ready. As at peace as he could ever be.
"We either win together, or we die together.
("Precisely.")
There is a lot in-between those two statements that Grian is going to promptly ignore for the time being if he wants to be able to think about anything else at all. He'll ignore all the laughter this has brought already, too.
-
"Grian, Grian, Grian.." Scar runs up to him on what Grian has dubbed the Plateau of death after the other two have gone out of earshot. The wood creaks under his excited footsteps, and he giggles like a middle school student with fresh gossip.
Grian looks up, and upon not seeing anyone in mortal danger, redirects his sight to the planks he's putting together.
"My instincts almost kicked in," he admits gleefully.
Grian snickers, himself, instantly knowing what he's talking about. "I know, I saw you thought about it."
While someone who doesn't know Scar might think that his dramatic bravado would end before any drastic measures are taken, Grian unfortunately knows better. Scar chooses to care about who, what, and when seemingly on a whim, even when it comes to lives. That meant almost making a person fall to their death, and it meant always being on board with Grian's more morally deviant plans. Honestly, it wasn't exactly his worst trait, even if it led to bothersome consequences sometimes.
("And who, but you two, will share a mindset like this?")
-
Carefully pressing his stomach against the wood, Grian sticks his head put over the edge to taunt the pillagers that are out of reach. With over a dozen crossbows pointed at his face, yet too far away, the threat feels silly. He laughs, and Scar joins him.
"Scar, I'm going to tell you what I said before. And that is that this is the most horrific plan I've ever seen," Grian says, grinning wider than he's been this whole day.
--
And sure, the bad ideas continue, as the usual Scar shenanigans do, but Grian also manages to go create a base on his own without either of them dying, so maybe there is hope.
Then Scar shows up, doing even more Scar shenanigans, and Grian doesn't know how to bring this up anymore. Before he knows it, Scar is running off again, and Grian is reaching out his hand and taking a half-hearted step forward too late.
"I had something to tell you…"
Something that feels an awful lot like frustration is building in his chest. He bunches up fabric in his fists and clenches his jaw. The emotional roller coaster that fate has thrown him in is starting to take its toll.
"I had something to tell you!"
--
Right. So Grian is simply going to get this over with. "Scar?"
"Okay little fellows-" Scar says, hunched down to look the pandas straight in the eyes. When Grian approaches, he holds up a finger in a motion for him to wait. "-Hold on! Hold on! We got big things happening here. “
"Scar- Scar, it's getting late, I've got something very important to show you-" Grian speaks over whatever moment Scar is having with the pandas, because it would be so easy to not tell Scar that they are soulmates, and if he doesn't do it now he doesn't know if he ever will. So Grian continues to babble like there's a hot potato in his mouth. "I found a new trick. It's really important. Right. I just need you to- I know you've done this before-"
Looking up from the dripstone contraption, Grian finds Scar fully absorbed by the sight of the pandas eating. "SCAR!" he shouts, laughing, then the frustration peeks through a bit in his tone. "Come over here, stop messing with the pandas."
Scar pouts. Pouts . "Aww, okay."
Grian nods. "I've got something really important. I need you to stand right under this, okay?"
"Oh, why am I doing this?" Scar questions, getting into place all the same.
"Look directly at me," Grian answers instead.
"Okay, I'm looking directly at you."
The pandas shuffle closer curiously, woofing just as Grian lets the small stone drop on Scar's head. Naturally, Scar revokes what he just said, and misses the matching damage on Grian and him by looking at the pandas instead.
"Look at 'em," he gushes.
Now Grian's just getting tired. "Scar."
Freezing, like he just now understood what he did, Scar redirects his gaze apologetically. "Sorry, okay, I'm looking at you."
Grian splutters, then readies the contraption again. "Okay, I can only do this one more time. Ready?"
Scar nods. "Yeah."
"Look at me."
"I'm looking."
…
Silence.
…
A quick breath of air.
…
"Oh my gosh."
Despite everything, Grian can't help but feel a bit touched at how happy Scar seems to have specifically him as a soulmate.
And then Grian has to make fun on the dumbfounded expression on his partner's face. It's practically obligatory!