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Chapter Text

Grian regrettably woke up to the sound of his blaring school alarm. He considered just letting it ring and sleeping a few more minutes, but the idea of his friends pounding on the door of his dorm was less of an ideal wake up than his alarm.

He, quite dramatically, slumped his way out of his bed and made his way toward his closet and begrudgingly picked out his outfit for today, his signature red jumper that was a little too big for him with two holes cut out for his wings to pull through and some black jeans.

Most of the people Grian knew would easily say that he has’t had a great start to his life. His parents either abandoned him or died at an age where he didn’t even remember their faces. So, naturally, as soon as he turned 13, he moved from the orphanage he was staying in into the Monster High dormitories, considering he clearly wasn’t human, if black raven-like wings on his back had anything to say about it.

This, unfortunately, is when he met Sam. To say he was the ‘wrong crowd’ was an understatement. Grian and his best friend Taurtis were lucky to leave that friendship with (mostly) just emotional scars. The duo had only recently gotten Sam and his girlfriend Yuki expelled a semester ago, and Grian was just enjoying the relative peace that came after the initial shock that came from those years.

Luckily, now Grian had a stable group of friends including Taurtis, and he was doing pretty well in his classes now that he’s started actually showing up for them.

Speaking of his friends, as soon as he opened his dorms door and stepped out he felt himself immediately side armed and almost tackled by one of his newer friends, Martyn.

“G!!” He shouts as Grian tried to regain his composure “I was worried for a sec you were going to call in sick today.”

“Don’t tempt me, theres still time.” He quipped as his other friends Big B and Netty caught up to them.

“Martyn!” Big B pants while catching his breath. “You can’t just run off at top speed without at least a warning first!”

“Whaaat, I was just making sure Grian here had someone to walk to class with.” He slyly answered while bumping Grians shoulder. “And no one said you had to follow.”

“Right.” Big B answered plainly before turning to Grian. “Good morning, G.”

“Hey B, have you guys seen Taurtis yet?”

“No, he should be in Ge-ogre-phy by now, i have that class with him.” Netty answered for him. “Why is he alright?”

Grian just hummed at her “Oh, yea he’s fine,” he cringed a little as the words fell off his mouth, Taurtis was physically fine now, but the words felt foreign to his tongue. “I was— just wondering because he didn’t respond to my text yesterday.” Grian awkwardly shook his icoffin for emphasis and Netty just nodded unsurely.

“Well, I’ll tell him to text you back when I see him!” She flashed a cheery smile at him before coming to a stop right in front of his locker “Isn’t this your stop?”

“Yes, thank you for my escort” he pointedly looked at Martyn before entering his locker combination. “You guys can go to your lockers now I think I can make it to Math on my own.”

Martyn put his hand on his shoulder in fake worry, and if he saw Grian flinch, he pretended not to notice. “If you are certain..”

Grian rolled his eyes and shoved him off before shewing them away.

“I’ll see you in math G!” Big B waved as he struggled to keep up with Martyn again.

-

His first two classes were just as boring as ever, but at least he was actually showing up now. And his next class he had with Taurtis so he was still hopeful for a good day.

When arrived at his english class he stood at the door as he scanned the room to find a certain vampire, and when his eyes landed on him as he was mindlessly scrolling on his icoffin, Grian quickly shuffled to sit at the empty seat next to him, and Taurtis didn’t move.

“Hey Taurtis.” Grian started as he shifted to get his books out as the teacher made their way to the front.

Taurtis hummed, and Grian took that as a sign to continue speaking “So, what are you doing after school today?”

Before Taurtis could even look up from his icoffin the student announcements blared through skullette.

“Grian, come to the head mistresses office immediately.” The room was silent as the whole class turned to look at him before the announcement was repeated and Grian begrudgingly got up from his chair.

“Great.” he swore under his breath as he exited the classroom, face flushing in embarrassment as his classmates muttered under their breaths as he walked by and made his way toward the office.

As he was walking he mentally prepared himself for another police officer asking about pressing charges on Sam, he had wondered why it was just him that they called and not Taurtis too, maybe that was why he didn’t answer him last night, they probably wanted to talk to them separately.

When Grian opened the door of the headmistress’s office he was not greeted by a police officer, but instead a tall man who looked like he was probably a knight of some kind, and was that the Ever After High logo on his uniform?

Before he got a chance to ponder anymore the headmistress spoke “Grian, come in and take a seat I need to introduce you to someone.”

“Are we doing an exchange student thing? Because I’m probably not the best monster for the job—“ Grian said as he reluctantly took a seat furthest from the man, but now that Grian got a better look at him he noticed he was probably too old to be a student here.

“Actually, Grian,” The headmistress cleared her throat “You may not be a monster.”

At this, Grian laughed as he side eyed the person next to him. “Right, and he’s going to tell me I’m some sort of prince??”

“Not exactly,” The guard finally spoke up “We think you may be the son of the evil fairy from the sleeping beauty fairytale.”

Grian just kept staring at him blankly, unbelieving. He let a few more moments of awkward silence pass so they could reveal that this was some sort of joke, it never came, the room remained silent.

“You’re being serious?” He asks after a few more seconds of silence, looking from him back to his headmistress. “He is” He exasperated “Headmistress tell him that he’s wrong.”

She gives him a familiar look of sympathy “No, Grian I dont think he is.” She pushes a file toward him, he just looks at it in disbelief, it is open to a page about the orphanage he grew up in. “The date you were put into this orphanage, was the same day that their son disappeared.”

Grian began to feel tears well in his eyes as he shook his head “No. It’s not true.”

“It is true, you have the same wings as your mother.” The guard explained while he fished out a picture of her and put it on the desk on top of the file. “You have her eyes and your dads hair.”

“They are not my parents!” He yelps as he stood from his chair, slamming his clenched fists on the desk. “They— they left me, they abandoned me!”

“Grian, I know this is a lot for you to handle, but you have siblings.” The headmistress reached out her hand as she rubbed his forearm sympathetically, in a similar way as she once did when she was last in her office, in clothes that didn’t belong to him and covered in blood, he flinched out of her touch.

“What?” His voice broke as he looked at them through his tear stained eyes.

“You do.” The knight(? escort? supervisor? life ruiner.) cleared his throat as he handed him two more pictures.

One of a boy, with golden blonde hair that was much blonder than his own, and his own pair of yellow wings that matched the vibrance of his blue eyes, and another of a girl that could have honestly been his twin, the same almost chestnut color of his own and dark eyes, even the same color wings sprouting from her back.

Grian couldn’t deny that they were beautiful.

“Their names are Jimmy, and Pearl.” The supervisor smiled lightly as Grian set the pictures back on the desk.

“Pearl and Timmy.” He whispered to himself as he felt a smile appear on his face against all odds. Grian had never felt like he was missing out on a family until now, he would’ve never have considered having siblings or even wanting them. But now that he knew all he could hear was their names ringing in his head.

“Grian, Ever After High wants you to transfer there.” The headmistress broke the silence once she saw that he had calmed down “Now, they have dorms too, so you can meet your parents on your own time, but your siblings would go to the same school as you so you could meet them.”

This, somehow, pulled Grian back to reality. He immediately shook his head “No,” he backed away from the desk which earned him another sympathetic look from the two of them. “no, I’m not leaving. My siblings probably don’t even want to meet me.”

“Honestly, there isn’t much of a choice in this matter, Grian.” The stranger said “You don’t belong here, you belong at Ever After High. With your family.”

“They are not my family.” He corrects coldly “They survived this long without me they can manage.”

“Your siblings do want to see you, Grian, they wanted to come with me to get you but it was against protocol so I couldn’t let them.”

Grians eyes softened for a moment, just for a vunerable moment he let himself pretend he could let himself have a family, like they weren’t just strangers who randomly showed up who had the same wings as him.

Then only one thought entered his mind, Taurtis. He couldn’t just be another person to leave him, especially not after the year he’s had. No matter how much he wanted to pretend.

“My friends I—“ He began, his voice wavering “I can’t just leave them, especially not Taurtis you know what he’s been through.” He pointed his gaze towards the headmistress.

“I know this isn’t ideal Grian trust me, but you need to go, you can write all your old friends and we can see about visiting during the summer.” She answered as the knight stood up and went to place his hand on Grians shoulder lightly.

“You can take the rest of this day to get some of your things together and say goodbye, but I will be back tomorrow morning to take you to Ever After High.”

Grian resigned, nodding his head lightly. “Okay.”

“Great, I will see you tomorrow.” He nodded at the headmistress before turning to leave the office, the door giving a soft click when it shut, leaving Grian and the headmistress in silence for a moment before she cleared her throat once more.

“Who do you want me to get excused for the rest of their classes so you can say goodbye? I obviously know Taurtis but I know you’ve made some new friends.” She picked up the phone for skullette as she waited Grians response.

“Big B, Martyn, and Netty should be fine.”

She nodded before calling for the four of them in skullette as Grian slumped back in his chair and rested his head on her desk, struggling to keep thebtears from forming in his eyes again.

-

“So you’re telling me you’re a fairy??” Martyn chuckled and Grian scoffed as he shoved him lightly with his elbow before returning to unloading a few of his favorite sweaters from his closet into a suitcase.

“You know, it makes sense honestly,” Big B butted in “We always assumed harpy because of the wings but the lack of talons make sense now.”

Grian hummed as Big B continued to help him unload some of his important stuff from his desk into a box.

“Are you actually going to go?” Taurtis spoke up, having not said more than two words since he dropped the bombshell on them.

“Are you kidding?” Netty exasperated “He has to! I mean he has siblings he never even knew about. How exciting!”

“Yeah, and he already said he doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.” Martyn added and Grian sadly nodded.

“If I could stay, I would. I’ll miss you so much Taurtis.” He met Taurtis’ eyes and gave him a sad smile, and Taurtis looked away.

Grian sighed as he continued to unload things into boxes, things he assumed he never truly cared about but now that he imagined life without them he was really starting to panic.

“Well, G, I for one am excited for you.” Martyn broke the tense silence.

“Is that so?” Grian said noncommittaly as he stared at his clearly full suitcase trying to find some more space for his hair dryer so he didnt have to get another box.

“Yeah! I don’t know much about Ever After High, but I mean a school with a bunch of royalty walking around like its no big deal is bound to be really cool!”

Grian shook his head as he laughed softly at that. He was grateful to Martyn, because ever since everything with Sam he had been one of the only ones who could cheer him up. He was going to really miss him.

His thoughts were interrupted as Taurtis stood up and practically made a B-line for his door. “This is nice and all but I’ve got to go, big test and whatever.” He said coldly as his hand was already on the handle.

“Taurtis—“ Grians voice was cut off by the doors loud thud.

His friends all looked around at eachother in shock before going to try to reassure Grian.

This was going to be a long night.

-

The night, was unfortunately, not long. His friends (minus Taurtis) stayed with him until early hours of the morning just reminiscing and making promises about writing letters and staying in touch, Martyn made him promise to facetime him at least once every week.

And now Grian stood in front of all his friends lined up right in front of this carriage as the last of his boxes were being loaded into it.

Martyn pulled Grian into a bone crushing hug, and normally Grian would’ve protested but he didn’t know when he was going to see him next so he just tried to let himself enjoy it. “Bye, G.” Martyn said as he gave one last squeeze and then let him walk next to Big B.

Big B pulled Grian into another hug, way more gentle than Martyns, and Grian drooped his head on his shoulder as Big B rubbed comforting circles on his back, Grian felt like he could stay in this hug for hours, which has never really happened to him before.

“You’ll be okay Grian.” Big B spoke just above a whisper “You can do this.” He pulled Grian away and let his hands linger on his shoulders as he gave him one last soft smile as Grian nodded before letting him go.

“Grian,” Netty spoke as soon as his eyes landed on her “You call us if you ever need anything okay?” She then lowered her voice into a hushed tone “We will find a way to smiggle you back if we have to.” Grian laughed as he assured her that he would call before moving to Taurtis who was stood with his arms crossed looking unimpressed.

“Taurtis, I—“ Grian began but Taurtis cut him off.

“It’s fine, Grian.” He says looking anywhere but Grians eyes “Just call. okay?”

“I will,” Grian smiled, trying to catch his eye “I’ll call every week.”

Taurtis just nodded before he gestured for him to go, pointing behind him to where the carriage was apparently ready for him to go.

Grian sighed as he begun to walk towards the carriage and as he stepped on the side bar he turned to take one finale look at Monster High, and his friends, trying to find a way to commit how it looks in his brain in case he somehow forgets. After a few seconds he heard the driver call for him and he reluctantly ducked his head into the door and sat down on what was going to be a long journey into a world he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready to join.

Chapter Text

As the carriage approached the gates of Ever After High all Grian can feel is a sense if dread in the pit of his stomach. He tried to reason with himself that he was going to meet his siblings for the first time and this was supposedly a good thing, but all he could think about was Taurtis’ face before he stepped into the carriage.

The feeling didn’t leave when he climbed out of the carriage either, or when the guard escorted him to the front of the school, or when he opened the door to reveal a stranger waiting for him.

Said stranger was ridiculously tall, it wasn’t just because Grian was short that he had to actually physically look up to meet his eye. He had jet black hair and paler skin than Taurtis — and Taurtis was a vampire —, he was wearing an almost black suit that reflected as purple in the sunlight, but the most strange thing about this stranger was the fact he had a full blown mustache. I mean, if he was Grians age, almost 17 how did he already have a fully fledged, albeit, glorious mustache?

This stranger noticed Grians hesitant eyes on him and decided to speak up “Uh— Hello mate! I’m Mumbo.” His voice came out shaky and nervous, now that Grian was paying attention he just seemed shaky and nervous in general.

Once Grian determined that he could take him in a fight, he decided to be cordial and reached out to his already extended hand to shake. “I’m Grian.”

This somehow surprised Mumbo who quirked an eyebrow at him “Uh,, Grian?? Are you sure?” He asked quizzically which earned disbelieving scoff from Grian.

“Yeah.” He said coldy. “I’m pretty sure.”

“Right!” He began immediately in an apologetic tone “Sorry, um, I was just told your name was Xelqua?”

The look Grian gave him somehow frightened the poor man more, so for now Grian decided to lay off and give him an easier time.

“I don’t know who that is, my name is Grian.” He sighed defeatedly as he began to walk, which caused Mumbo to frantically speed walk to catch up to him.

“Right! Well, my apologies,” He hurriedly caught up to him and began talking in a rushed tone, like Grian was just going to run away from him. “Nice to meet you, Grian, like I said I am Mumbo Jumbo, and I’m going to be showing you around.”

Grian couldn’t help but giggle slightly at his full name, which Mumbo looked at him confused for a moment before his face light up in understanding in which he joined in on the laughter too. “Right, I know the name is weird but that’s what you get with the Evil Queen as a mother.”

“No, no,” Grian waved his hands lightly trying to contain his fit of giggles “I’m not judging I’m sorry, it’s just the ryming that got me.”

“No, no I get it!” He reassured “Not very common, I know.”

“Alright then, Mumbo Jumbo, what are you showing me first?” He teases and he finds that his shoulders have relaxed a bit and the pit in his stomach has gone. It almost scares him.

“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to save meeting your siblings until last” He suggested “They are dying to meet you but I figured it would probably be a lot for you.”

Grian nodded gratefully. “Yes, I’d prefer to do that a little later.”

“Of course,” Mumbo nodded “Pearl and Jim will understand.”

“Do you know them?” He finds himself asking without thinking.

“Oh, yeah! They’re really nice, you’d be insane to not like them.”

Grian shrugs “I’ve been called worse.”

-

Mumbo showed him 3 of 6 of his new classes, all of which has ridiculous names, which is saying something because he just came from Monster High. After they finished the crownculous class tour, Mumbo had told him that it was lunch time and asked if Grian wanted to meet some of his classmates.

Grian didn’t necessarily want to talk to any more strangers but he and Mumbo got along just fine and if he didn’t want to just instantly run back to Monster High he had to at least try to make friends.

“Okay.” Mumbo snapped Grian right out of his thoughts as soon as the reached what Grian could only assume was the entrance to the cree— cafeteria. “You’ll notice most of my friends are also rebels like you and I, this doesn’t mean that royals and rebels can’t be friends, some royals are just snobs and can’t get past the whole destinies thing.”

Grian didn’t understand what the last part meant but he nodded hesitantly anyway. Mumbo gave him one last unsure glance before nodding determinedly and opening the doors and taking Grian in.

“Now I told your siblings that we are going to save the tearful reunion until last so they wint come up to us and overwhelm you.”

Grian nodded again gratefully and continued to follow Mumbo as he tried not to think about the fact that he was in the same room as the siblings he’s never met.

Mumbo led the two of them two a table with three people, two of them were talking at the third who looked like he just wanted to pass away.

One of them, was a short boy about the same height as himself, he had brown hair with a single streak dyed green, and was wearing a loose fitting white shirt with a corset type vest and he had a small golden crown on his head, so he assumed he was a royal, and the way he was talking made him look like he’s never had a single thought lead him astray before.

The girl on his left, was talking in a similar manner but not as extreme as the boy. She had orange hair that was neatly styled to show off fins where ears would normally be, Grians first thought was that she was a siren but then he remembered he wasn’t where he thought he was so he pushed that down. And even though she was clearly some sort of mermaid she was dressed almost like a pirate, she had a mix of shades of blue loose fitting clothes with belts and jewelry to complete it and a head scarf on her head.

The boy they were annoying, was what looked like a ware wolf, he knew he wasn’t one but he had the same ears and tail as Big B so he instantly made the connection. He had white hair that was long enough that it was tied into a small ponytail. He had two colored eyes, one almost black (similar to his own) and one red, and on the red one he had a large scar running down from his eyebrow almost to the tip of his nose, that was covered by a navy mask tight fitting mask. He had a very dramatically oversized unzipped green jacket with fur on the hood and a black shirt underneath.

As they approached the trio he could only get some of the first boy saying something about the third being obsessed, and judging by the look on the third boys face, it was probably not the truth. As soon as the brunet noticed them he isntantly perked up and went to introduce himself.

“Hi Mumbo! You’re the new student, Jims brother, right?” Before Grian could answer though, he continued. “Im Joel! The frog princes son.” So he was definitely a royal like Grian so cleverly deducted.

“I’m Grian.” Joel looks a little confused when he says that but he doesn’t question in further when the girl next to him speaks.

“Hi Grian!” Her tone is light and cheerful as she smiles a very bright smile “I’m Gem, the little mermaids daughter!” The fins made sense now, but Grian feels he could’ve probably guessed that.

“And that,” The prince, Joel, speaks up, pointing to the man they were just clearly teasing. “Is Etho! He is obsessed with me!”

“Nice to meet you.” Etho finally gets a moment to actually speak. “And for the record, he is obsessed with me.”

Joel scoffs “Yea you wish—“ his eyes catch to something in the distance before he excitedly stands up from his chair and points “There is my true obsession!”

He basically skips over to greet a girl with long pink hair half tied into two buns, wearing a short dark blue long sleeved dress. He takes her by the hand and the two come right back to where Grian is.

“This is my wife! Lizzie.” He beems as he introduces her.

Lizzie scoffs playfully “We are not married, but hello I am Lizzie.”

“Not married yet.” Joel corrects “She is the daughter of the princess who breaks my spell!”

Before Grian even gets a chance to question what he means by that Lizze is speaking again “Yes, my apologies, not yet.” She laughs lightly.

Mumbo speaks up after she’s finished “They are one of the people who got really fortunate that they fell in love with the person in their story.”

Grian looks at him questioningly “What does that even —“ He was cut off by someone new joining the table.

“Hello Joels!” A man with scruffy brown hair and a bionic eye sits down beside Etho and the look Joel of almost terror Joel gave when he did was very entertaining.

“This is Iskall!” Mumbo perked up and Joel looked the way Etho did a few minutes earlier, Grian chuckled a little at the comparison.

Iskall then turned to Grian and his eye lit up once he realized that the person who was sitting beside Mumbo was, in fact, a person he’s never seen before. “Ohmygosh!!” He cheered gleefully “Hello! You must be the new person from Monster High.”

Grian nodded “Yeah, my name is Grian. How do you know Joel?” He turned to look at Joel slyly as he was shaking his head vigorously.

“Oh me and Joels? We are in love of course!” Iskall blissfully informed Grian while Lizzie was clearly trying to contain her giggling and Joel looked like he was trying to plan his escape.

This answer surprised Grian, Joel clearly did not think of Iskall in that way and he felt bad for Iskall because he thinks that there is something there when Joel and Lizzie are a couple. It makes him almost angry but he chooses not to say anything because he doesn’t know them yet and it’s not his place. That doesn’t mean he has to stick around while they string him along though.

“Mumbo, shouldn’t we be going to see more of my classes?” Mumbo looks confused for a moment because they had only really just sat down, but then he glanced at his friends and then nodded knowingly before he got up with Grian.

“Yes we should go, we have a lot more to see.” A lie, but Mumbos friends didn’t need to know that. He waved goodbye and followed Grian back into the hallway.

“So they’re your friends?” Grian asks coldly pretty much as soon as the doors close.

“Um— yes?” Mumbo confirms carefully. “Are you alright?”

Grian laughs, almost like a scoff “You shouldn’t be asking me that you should be asking Iskall. Joel and Lizzie are stringing the poor man along!” Grian yells, the situation is oh so familiar. He remembers the whispered promises of a brunett to himself and then hearing about him and his pink haired girlfriend laughing about it. Oh so familiar.

He snaps back into the present when Mumbo places a hand on his shoulder, the action causing Grian to shove himself out of his grasp, he noticed Mumbos eyes widen when he did so and he quickly retracted his hand.

“Grian, it’s not like that.” Mumbo anxiously explains “Iskall is kidding, he knows it embarrasses Joel thats why he does it.”

Grian gave Mumbo a perplexed look, unbelieving.

Mumbo nods once he sees he has Grians attention. “It’s just a joke, he’s not really into Joel, they’re all okay with it.”

Grian groans internally, of course it wasn’t like that. If only he didn’t have to make everything about his own stupid trauma.

“Oh, right.” He mutters in embarrassment “Sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize, that’s what it looked like, you were right to call it out.” Mumbo assured, making Grian feel at least a little less foolish. He then asked Grian if he wanted to continue the tour which Grian confirmed and then began following Mumbo as he lead him through the halls again.

-

After Grian got a full tour of the school and the surrounding areas the sun was only an hour from setting and Grian knew that it meant it was time to meet his siblings. He knew it before Mumbo even asked him.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow? They wont mind.” Mumbo asked once more as they approached his sisters dorm. Grian decided to meet them one at a time, he wasn’t sure he could handle two long lost family members at one time, which Mumbo obviously understood.

“I’m sure, I want to meet them tonight.” Grian reassured for a final time before Mumbo stopped in front of a wooden door identical to the ones next to it, accept for behind this one was a sister he didn’t know he had.

“Okay one moment.” Mumbo gestured for Grian to stand back while he knocked twice and Gem, the mermaid from earlier, answered.

“Oh hi Mumbo!” She greeted “Is it time?”

Mumbo nodded and Gem exited her dorm and stepped aside so Grian could enter.

“Alright, G.” Mumbo began “If it gets too much for you, you can just leave, Pearl will understand.”

Gem nodded at this and for a second, he stood still. In front of the cracked door his nerves suddenly on fire. He looked back at Mumbo for a moment and he gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up and so he nodded slightly and entered the room.

When he entered he saw her, sitting on her bed, and when she looked up at him he eyes immediately widened and her mouth went slightly agape and she immediately shot up from her bed and rushed to him. Grian braced himself to be hugged or tackled but once she got close enough to him she stopped and just stared at him. Grian gave her a confused look but she payed him no mind.

“You look just like me.” She whispered, her voice cracking a bit. “Your name is Grian, right?”

Grian nodded “You’re Pearl.” He meant it to be a question but he already new the answer so it came out more like a statement.

Pearl nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. Grian looked back into her eyes in surprise, feeling a bit guilty that she was crying over him.

“Can I hug you?” She hesitantly asked taking another small step forward, her eyes darting around his face.

Grian glanced at her unknowingly for a moment, his immediate reaction was to say no, he was never a fan of hugs. But the more that he looked at her, his sister, the more he realized he would quite like a hug, actually. So against every bone in his body aching to do the contrary he let himself nod slightly, and hesitantly.

And Pearl carefully wrapped his arms around him in a gentle but firm embrace, she left an exit for him but she also didn’t make him feel like he was fragile by barely touching him. Which he appreciated.

Once he backed away after a few seconds he got a chance to look at her face, and she was right about them looking exactly alike, their faces are almost identical.

“Are we twins?” He found himself asking without a second thought. Even though he figured if they were someone would’ve told him by now.

She laughed a bit “No, you’re at least a year older I think.”

Grian laughed as well as he nodded and for the first time since he left Monster High he felt like he would be able to get through this.

“Have you met Jimmy yet?” She asked after a few moments of comfortable silence.

“No, not yet.” He paused before adding “Is- is he nice?”

Pearl laughed again, bringing her hand to wipe under her eyes. “Yes, he’s really nice you two will get along.”

Grian went quiet for a moment before he shifted in his spot a bit uncomfortably and he muttered in embarrassment “Um- Can I, hug you again?..”

Pearl had no trouble obliging.

-

After Pearl and Grian talked for a bit, mainly her asking about what it was like at Monster High, and while he obviously didn’t tell her everything, he told her about Taurtis and his other friends. When he told her about him thinking he was a harpy she laughed very loudly, so Grian threw one of her pillows at her. What can he say, it was the beotherly thing to do.

After about 15 minutes worth of a life-long catch up Mumbo knocked on the door and informed him that it was almost time for curfew so they needed to get going if they wanted to see Jimmy. So Pearl hugged Grian one more time, well maybe squeezed was a better word. Grian found that he didn’t mind and maybe he wasn’t as opposed to hugs as he thought.

When he got to his brothers dorm his dormate wasn’t home so Mumbo just told him to go in, so he hesitantly opened the door and he found the boy frantically adjusting things in his room, switching things from his shelf to his desk, repositioning the trinkets on his bedside table, etc.

When the boy finally noticed him it was just a quick glance before he immediately began to move some more things. “Not now, Pearl! He’s going to be here any minute and we agreed to one at a time so you have to—“

Grian awkwardly interrupted him, laughing a bit as he spoke “Uh— not Pearl..”

Jimmy immediately stood completely still as soon as he registered Grian talking, before he turned almost comically slow to face him, his eyes widened with a big smile on his face before the next thing Grian knew the man was plummeting towards him, crushing him in a big embrace that caused the two of them to coming falling down together with a loud thud he was sure even spooked Mumbo.

Grian couldn’t be mad though, so he just laughed as Jimmy squeezed him tighter.

“You look just like Pearl I’m sorry! I thought you were her.” He apologized while laughing in disbelief.

“It’s okay.” He assured sincerely, taking a step back to look at him, His bright yellow wings and Golden blonde hair would probably through people off but Grian could see the similarities between the three of them. He was definitely his brother.

“Xelqua! I can’t believe it, I’m so happy to finally meet you.”

This immediately threw Grian off, there was that name again.

“Are you expecting another long lost sibling or something?” He joked, huffing out a laugh to go with it “Because my name is Grian.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened “Oh.” He said wisely. “Sorry Mate, they just told me your name was Xelqua.”

By they, Grian assumed he meant their parents, which he definitely did not want to talk about so he quickly changed the subject.

“Right, well I thought your name was Timmy when I first found out about you, but I learned your actual name pretty fast didn’t I?” He joked and Timmys face contorted into disgust.

“Timmy!?” He basically screamed in disgust which made Grian howl into a fit of loud laughter.

He liked Timmy better than Jimmy anyway it was way more fun.

-

After Mumbo came in and told the pair that it was almost time for curfew and that he had to show Grian to his dorm room the two said their goodbyes and Grian made sure to put extra emphasis on the word Tim when he did so. Which earned him a glare from his younger brother.

It was clear to him instantly that his dynamic with his siblings was very different. It was surprising how naturally he felt around them, he supposed it made sense if they were going to try to be family.

Mumbo must have noticed Grian was lost in his thoughts when he cleared his throat and spoke up “So, how did you like them?”

Grian smiled before sighing contently “Honestly, way better than I thought I would.”

“Guess I don’t get to call you insane then.” Mumbo joked and Grian laughed lightly.

A few moments of comfortable silence passed before Grian interrupted it with a question.

“So you guys share dorms here?”

Mumbo hummed “Oh, yeah. Do you guys not at Monster High?”

“No, most monsters actually live with their family but they have dorms there for monsters who need them. But we didn’t have roomates.” He shrugged.

“Right, well I’m sorry for the lack of heads up. I dunno who your roomate is but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Grian assured him that it was fine and thebtwo walked the rest of the way to his dorm silently.

When they got to a door, that looked just the same as the other door except for a sign on the door that said welcome in bold letters with a picture of a cat winking. This caused Mumbo to start snickering before he and Grian switched numbers and said their goodbyes.

The cat poster definitely made Grians nerves go a little bit down as he hesitantly turned the key Mumbo gave him and he nearly dropped it in horror when he opened the door all of the way to see a familiar bright smile was there to greet him.

“Hello Gree-on!!” The boy with a familiar brown head of hair chirped cheerily.

Well so much for a fresh start.

Chapter Text

”Hello Gree-on.” Sam greeted him when he opened the door.

Just the sight of him caused Grian to lose his footing, he almost fell completely to the floor but he caught himself on the door handle. All he could do was stare wide eyed and helplessly as Sam tilted his head in mocking concern as he inched closer, taunting him.

“Oh my god, oh my god.” Sam sounded.. worried? As he came closer. It confused Grian for a moment but he remembered it was probably another manipulation tactic. Once he noticed how close he was getting Grian tried to make a break for it but this only caused him to fully fall over.

Sam tried to get even closer but that was when Grian finally got the courage to shout “No! get away from me!”

To his surprise Sam actually did take a few steps back, he still didn’t trust him though. “Why the hell are you here? How did you find me?” He shouted again, he felt numb as he felt himself beginning to struggle to breathe, thats when he took his eyes off Sam for only a moment, which is when he decided to attack.

When he felt a hand placed on his shoulder he couldn’t hold in the tears anymore and he started sobbing, loudly. He didn’t really know what he was saying, just a mix of begging for forgiveness and asking to be left alone, he was grasping at anything he could to get Sam to not freak out.

That’s when he heard his voice, but what was troubling was that it wasn’t Sams voice. So Grian hesitantly opened his eyes (which he didn’t realize he squeezed shut) and noticed that it wasn’t Sam in front of him at all, Sam had murky brown eyes but the ones he was met with were Emerald Green.

“Hey,” The boy spoke “Whoever you think I am, isn’t here, they cannot hurt you.”

Grians eyes flew around his face as he noticed that while he did bare some resemblance to Sam, he clearly wasn’t him, he had a thick scar on the bridge of his nose that went from one corner of his eye to the other, and another large one on his right cheek, and another smaller one on his left cheek. He mentally traced the scars in his head as his breathing began to slow down.

“That is—“ He cleared his throat when his voice came out wavering and horse “That is not my name.”

“I’m sorry— I was told your name was—“ The stranger began before Grian cut him off.

“It’s Grian.” He annunciated before swiftly getting up and basically sprinting out of the door.

Grian slept in Pearls dorm that night.

-

“Is that an icoffin!?” He heard his sister shriek behind him as he was brushing his teeth, with Martyn on the other line.

“Is that your sister??” Martyn gasps, and before he gets an answer he screams “HI SISTER!!”

Grian rolls his eyes as Pearl snatches the phone from his hands “Hello! Which friend are you?” She gasps “Are you Taurtis??”

Grian snickers as he hears Martyn on the other line “No, sorry to disappoint, I’m Martyn.”

“Speaking of, is Taurtis around? I wanted to talk to him.” Grian asks as Pearl is examing his icoffin in awe.

“No, can’t say I’ve seen him yet. I did just get here though haven’t even said hello to Netty yet.”

“Wow I’m that important?” Grian teased “Well, when you see him tell him to answer his damn phone.”

“Will do G-man! I’ve got to go, good luck during your first day!” Martyn said before ending the call swiftly and Grian smiled as he left the dorms bathroom to see Gem just waking up.

When she noticed him she jumped a bit in surprise “Oh my gosh! Grian!?”

Grian laughed a bit before gathering some things in his bag for school.

“Did you stay here all night?” She asked heading towards the bathroom.

“Oh yea—“ He chuckled nervously “You know, Pearl and I have so much to catch up on.”

“That’s true!” Pearl piped up from behind them, emerging from the bathroom. “He came over after he saw Jim and said that he couldn’t sleep because of everything that happened.”

Grian nodded and smiled gratefully at Pearl, because even though he didn’t tell her why he showed up shaking and crying at her dorm or why she had to talk him down from the panic he was feeling, she didn’t ask. She returned his smile with a look that said ’You’re welcome, but if you need to talk I’m here.’

Grian had no plans of telling her but he felt it was comforting to have the option available anyway.

Pearl interupts the silence by snatching Grians phone and running over to Gem. “Gem, look! An icoffin!!”

Gem stares in a similar awe as Pearl did a few minutes prior. “I’ve always wanted to see one of these.”

“Me too! They are so fancy.” Pearl chirps happily as she generously hands Grian his icoffin back.

He sarcastically thanks her and excuses himself to go and meet Mumbo before class.

-

Grian spots Mumbo at the end of the dorm hallway looking preoccupied fidgeting with his bag and mirror phone, so Grian decides to take advantage of this by initiating Mumbo into a proper friendship with him, by scaring him of course!

Grian slowly creeped up out of his field of view and when he was close enough he screamed “SURPRISE!!” at the top of his lungs.

Mumbo shrieked and almost dropped his phone and bag in the process of jumping out of his skin.

“You menace.” He said after getting himself together, placing a hand on his heart to monitor his breathing.

Grian just shrugged while giggling maniacally.

“I almost don’t want to walk you to your locker now.” Mumbo huffed as he already began walking, Grian following closely behind.

“Awh, come on don’t leave the new guy stranded!!” He teased

“You make it very hard not to.” Mumbo joked right back “Hey did you find out who you’re roomed with yet?”

Grian without missing a beat just hums “No, I stayed the night in Pearls dorm, left something over there and just stayed, we had a lot to talk about y’know?”

Mumbo seemed to buy it as he shrugged and dropped the subject as the two continued walking to their first class.

-

The first half of the day went by fairly quickly, and even though the names were lame, Grian definitely preferred the classes here to his classes in Monster High. They were much more fun even though he felt like he wasn’t actually learning anything.

He walked into the cafeteria with the intention to be nicer and more social to the people Mumbo introduced him to yesterday in order to make up for him being stand offish and rude yesterday. At least that was his intention until he saw that he got a missed call notification from Taurtis so he told Mumbo he was going to eat somewhere else and got out of there as fast as he could.

He found a quiet spot in the hallway a few meters from the cafeteria and sat crisscrossed against a locker and fished for his icoffin in his pocket and scrolled through his contacts and called Taurtis back.

It rang 4 times before he picked up, and Grians mood instantly improved when he heard Taurtis on the other line.

“Hey Taurtis! I’m glad you called finally,” Grian realized that the last part came out more serious than he intended “have you been busy?”

“Yeah, you know with classes and stuff, a lot to catch up on, Y’know?” He said, little interest in his voice “Anyway, Martyn said to call you.”

“Yeah! Taurtis it’s been crazy, you should meet my siblings I think you would like my sister.” Taurtis nodded noncommittaly but didn’t say anything else.

Grian cleared his throat before he continued “Anyway, you wont believe it” Taurtis hummed, for him to continue “My roomate; because they have roomates here.”

Taurtis lightly laughed and Grian smiled as he continued “My roommate— he looks exactly like Sam.” Grian was too worked up to notice Taurtis stop laughing “ I mean, not exactly, he actually looks fairly different but you should see his hair, it’s the exact shade just slightly longer!”

Taurtis said nothing, but Grian kept going anyway, Taurtis was the only person he could talk to about Sam, having lived through it with him, and he was grateful for it. “I mean he even called me Gree-on. I totally freaked on him Taurtis I just left.” He awkwardly laughed even though he didn’t find it funny, as he was laughing he finally noticed Taurtis’ complete silence.

A few more moments passed when Taurtis finally ended the silence “Look G I have to go, lunch is ending soon I have to get back to the creepeteria.”

“Oh right— Bye—“ He was cut off by the sound of the call being ended.

Grian sighed as he layed his head on his arm. Dropping his icoffin to the floor where there was a loud thud. His thoughts were interrupted by footsteps approaching him. Getting ready to lie about the state he was in he looked up but instantly flinched in surprise when he saw his roomate, looking at him with concern.

“Hey, are you alright?” His voice, Grian noticed, was much more soothing than he had initially thought it was, Grian found himself hyperfocused on his green eyes, the only thing reminding Grian that it wasn’t Sam in front of him.

“‘M fine.” He said plainly, even though he clearly wasn’t, the hurt in his voice poorly hidden.

“Right well, I’m really sorry about last night, I didn’t mean to spook you, Grian.” He spoke, correctly this time. “I didn’t tell anyone about what happened by the way.”

At that Grian scoffed. “What? Am I supposed to thank you?” He saw the strangers eyed widen in shock.

“No, of course not!” He began sputtering, “I just wanted to make sure—“

Grian cut him off “Right, so generous. It’s whatever I’ve got to go.”

Grian pretended not to notice the dissapointed look in his eyes as he gathered his phone and walked back to the creepeteria. He had been down the road of taking pity on brunett boys who seemed friendly before, and this time he was not buying it.

-

The day went by much slower after his call with Taurtis, he couldn’t focus at all in the rest if his classes he just kept picturing the conversation, he felt foolish for bringing Sam up when he knows how sore of a subject it is. He also spent the rest of the day avoiding his roommate, Grian knew he didn’t really do anything wrong but there was something about him that Grian just couldn’t stand. This is what he was talking to Martyn about on the phone.

“Martyn the man is like, everywhere!” He exasperates and Martyn laughs, because of course he does. “I mean, does he really have to be in every single one of my classes??”

“That’s just cruel mate” Martyn said inbetween laughs.

“It is! I’m also sure he’s friends with Mumbo because he is always either talking to him or his friends.” He groaned

“For the record, I don’t think he means any harm.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

“Just because he looks vaguely like him doesn’t mean that he’s anything like him, it seems like he’s just trying to be nice.” Martyn hushes his voice at the first part, so the students around him don’t hear unless they’re paying special attention.

“Yeah, that’s how they get you.” This is when Grian remembered that Martyn didn’t really know Sam so he wouldn’t see the signs. “They pretend to be all sympathetic and charming and then they…” Grian cuts himself off and Martyn goes silent.

Grian looks at his screen and notices Martyns sympathetic look, his eyebrows raised and saddened eyes. Which is the opposite of what Grian wanted to achieve. As Grian is thinking about ways to get out of this call he hears Martyn speak again, tone lined with mischief.

“It’s just so funny to see you so worked up over a boy.” Martyn teases and Grians face lights up in surprise.

“I’m hanging up now.” He rolls his eyes and ignores the flush on his face as he hits the end call button before Martyn can protest. Because that was the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard, because like he said, he’s been down that road and he was not falling for him.

It. Falling for it, me means.

Now that he was walking in silence he remembered his earlier call with Taurtis, and he begun planning how he could make it up to him when Joel from yesterday put his arm around his shoulder as he came up behind him, the amount of energy he had startled Grian a bit.

“Gri! How was your first day here, I hope it was as exciting as I’m sure the classes are at Monster High.” He exclaimed patting his shoulder before removing his arm and walking beside him at a normal distance, Grian just akwardly nodded, too embarrassed to look him in the eye for his assessment of him yesterday.

Joels pace slowed a bit and put his hand back on Grians shoulder, signaling for Grian to slow down a bit “I appreciate you for sticking up for Iskall by the way, it says a lot about your character.”

Grians eyes widened in horror “Mumbo told you about that?” He felt a bit betrayed if he was honest.

“Yes but please don’t be mad at him, it was good that he told us, gives me a chance to tell you that Iskall is one of my better friends. We only joke about that sort of thing because we’re so close.”

Grian felt himself wanting to cry at the fact Joel just mentioned the fact that Mumbo told multiple people about his minor breakdown. He honestly probably told his whole friend group, Grian cringed as he thought about what they had to say.

“Hey, look! It’s good that you got upset about that, because if someone were actually hurting Iskall like that I would want people to defend him like you did.” Joel smiled genuinely at Grian and he felt himself against all his instincts, believing him. “I can tell that we are going to get on just fine, G.”

Grian smiled slightly, only now realizing that they were in front of his dorm. He groaned internally and prayed to whoever that his roommate wasn’t home as he thanked Joel and waved him goodbye.

When he slowly creaked the door open he looked to the side of the room that wasn’t his and thanked whoever was listening to his prayers because when he saw that it was empty he felt that he lucked out.

That was until he turned to face the side of the room he saw that all of his luggage was completely unloaded and that his roommate took the liberty of decorating the rest of his otherwise plain room. Speaking of, the boy, who was wearing a black vest over a white button down that had the first button undone with lavender pants was standing in the middle of his room. Smiling awkwardly as he did a motion with his hands.

“So, I wanted to apologize for making you uncomfortable. I am genuinely really excited to be your roommate.” He flashed a toothy smile and Grian avoided looking at anything but the person in front of him, instead looking at the parrot plush he didn’t remember owning.

Grian just brushed past him, muttering that he needed a shower before he basically slammed their bathroom door shut, the lock making a swift click as he pushed his back against the door, sliding down to the floor, cupping his knees and ignoring the discomfort in his wings as he placed his head on his crossed arms.

A few minutes passed and a knock startled Grian from his thinking, he panicked and as he tried to think of anything to say a note slide under the door, right beside him. He hesitantly lifted it up and unfolded it.

‘Grian,
I am really sorry about everything, and I know that this must be a big adjustment for you so I am going to stay at my friend Cubs dorm for tonight so you can at least get used to your new dorm, and if you aren’t ready for me to come back tomorrow just lock the door when you get back from class and I will leave you be, just until you get comfortable : )

Oh and my name is Scar btw!!’

And if Grian smiled at the charming scribbly handwriting no one else needed to know.

Chapter Text

Grian had unlocked the dorm room door after two days, but that doesn’t mean the avoiding of his roommate stopped. It has been over a week since he started at Ever After High, and he has barely seen 5 minutes of Scar.

Grian would always make sure that he was up and out of their dorm before Scar even woke up, and he would always be asleep before he came home. His new friends teased him for going to bed so early, apparently he went to bed even earlier than Ethos best friend Bdubs and that was some sort of accomplishment, but Grian didn’t care.

Even though the letter that Scar gave him did help with the fear that Grian felt when he saw him, it didn’t help with the distain.

Whenever Grian saw Scar he couldn’t help but hyperfocus on the similarities between him and Sam. They were the same height, build, had the same hair color, and the way Scar presented himself gave him the familiar feeling that he used to, and Grian was having none of that.

The point was that Grian did not trust Scar. There was no way people were that nice for no reason, and Grian was not buying whatever Scar was trying to sell him.

Because Scar clearly wanted something from Grian, the man constantly pestered him with gifts to wake up and come home to, food, notes, even flowers. Grian couldn’t help but be curious as to what he was possibly trying to achieve by bribing him but he didn’t ponder it much, always throwing the gifts obviously in the trash bin for Scar to find when he returned to the dorm. This didn’t stop his attempts though.

But if Grian was ignoring Scar, Taurtis was striaght up shunning Grian. He had resorted to not even reading his messages, and Martyn said Taurtis wasn’t really talking to any of them anymore either. Which really worried Grian, if he was cutting himself off from all of his support system just because of what Grian said he wouldn’t know what to do. Grian had even resorted to sending the man a letter.

Despite his roommate and best friend troubles, Grian was throughly enjoying his time at Ever After High, he was doing well in his classes, became closer with his siblings, and developed a few close friendships.

He grew a lot closer to Mumbo than anyone else, he found himself spending a lot of time in his dorm, breaking things and causing mischief when at all possible, and his really weird roommate made it even more fun. Someone he really didn’t expect to get so close to was Gem, but being Pearls roommate meant they all spent a lot of time together and it turns out they both play this fishing simulator game (it also just so happens that Grian has the worst luck when it comes to that game.)

So it was safe to assume that Grian was loving his time at Ever After High, and of course he still missed his friends but with each day he grew less and less home sick. All his friends (with the exception of Taurtis) were really happy for him and he still talked to them everyday. Martyn even started to become friends with a few of the people he introduced him to, he even asked Mumbos roommate for his mirror phone number.

All of these feelings changed when one day during his 3rd class when an announcement came through the speaker. “Xelqua to the office.” It blared, and it took Mumbo reminding him to realize that that message was for him.

Feeling a bit panicky since the last time he was sent to the office he regrettably made his way slowly through the halls of the school to the head masters office, when he opened the door thankfully there wasn’t a human representative coming to ship him off to a human highschool but instead it was just the head master and the school guidance counselor who beckoned him to sit.

He obliged and as he braced himself for an awkward conversation about how he was fitting in, the head master cleared his throat and began to speak. “So, Xelqua.” He adjusts his glasses as he picks up a file from his desk but before he can continue Grian interrupts.

“Actually sir it’s Grian.” He corrects and the head master raises is eyebrow and looks at him with a stern questioning glance, Grian doesn’t falter though, instead he doubles down. “Look, if you’re going to suddenly take me from the place I grew up and change everything I know about myself I am at least keeping my name.”

The head master stared for a moment before he nodded slightly after realizing how important it was for him to be called by the appropriate name. (Which he wasn’t wrong.)

“Alright, apologies Grian, we will get the name change sorted out for you.” Grian smiled as his glance returned to the file he had been looking at before. “As for now though, I assume someone has told you something about Legacy Day?”

Grian shakes his head to the contrary “What is that— like Scareer day?”

The head master clears his throat uncomfortably “Well, yes kind of.” He began “Before we get into all of that though, I wanted to ask you how much you know about your parents story, Sleeping Beauty.”

Grian cringes at the mention of his parents before shaking his head again “It may surprise you but I don’t really know anything about it.” He sarcastically joked.

He nodded and fished out a book from the top drawer in his desk and slid it over to Grian “Why don’t you read this and come back to my office before classes tomorrow?”

When Grian was dismissed it was lunch and he was determined to get answers on Legacy day and what it had to do with Sleeping Beauty. He figured if it was really important his friends would’ve already told him what it was, so he figured he didn’t have a reason to be nervous. Though the rational thinking didn’t stop him from being nervous, of course.

When he walked up to a table that had Mumbo, Timmy, Joel, and Lizzie he acted as nonchalantly as he could as he sat down, by the way his friends looked at him he could tell he was doing a poor job though. So he just decided to rip the band-aid off.

“So legacy day,” He begins and all his friends go wide eyed and look around at each other, and Grian awkwardly laughs “Anyone want to tell me what that is?”

“Mumbo you buffoon! You didn’t tell him about legacy day!?” Joel screeches and Mumbo gasps in offense.

“Hey! It was his first day would you have told the poor lad when he was already freaking out?”

Joel was about to say something else when Grian spoke up “Now you guys are scaring me, what is it?”

The whole table went silent before Joel nudged Jimmy harshly who shouted in surprise before turning furiously at Joel.

“Me!?” He gapes “Why do I have to?”

“Duh. He’s your brother.” Joel answered and Mumbo nodded alongside him

“What? Mumbo was the one who should have told him to begin with!” Jimmy shot back and before Mumbo got the chance to reply Grian stood up from his seat quickly.

“Thanks for making me not panic.” Grian said harshly before he swiftly exited the cafeteria, shuffling in his pocket for his Icoffin.

As soon as he got into the hallway he called Taurtis. The phone barely rung before it was sent to his voicemail. Which, great, Taurtis was taking his ignoring him to the next level. Grian was too panicked to get upset over it right now though so he called Netty.

It rung once before she answered.

“Hey G, can’t talk right now, I’m in the middle of switching classes.” Her voice came through muffled by all of the students buzzing around her.

“It’s fine Netty, I just might need you to help smuggle me back home after all.”

-

The rest of his classes went by painfully slow, he sat alone in all of them, avoiding most of his friends for treating him like an obligation and for thoroughly freaking him out. With Netty promising to call back after she figures out an actual plan to get him out of here he just had to wait.

And when the day was over he just went straight back to his dorm, not even caring that Scar could possibly be there. If things were going to go how he thought they were it would be the last time he saw him anyway. However when he opened the door he wasn’t there. Just a note on his nightstand that Grian was too exhausted to throw away.

So Grian sighed out of relief and took out the book the head master gave him from his bag as he sat on his bed and began to read through it.

After a few hours and an uncomfortable about of information he learned about his apparent mom he was still confused. He had hoped that the book would’ve given him some insight about legacy day, but it didn’t mention it once.

Defeated he checked his ifcoffin to see if Netty had called him back, which she did. He also saw a lot of text messages from his friends. He expanded the notifications and they read.

Mumbo:
Hey Grian, I’m really sorry about lunch. 4:10 pm

And not telling you about Legacy day. It’s just it would’ve been a lot to handle, especially on your first day. 4:10pm

I just realized that probably isn’t helping. 4:12pm

Please text me back.. 4:13pm

Pearl:
Hey Griba, sorry about our idiot brother, he is very sorry. 5:07pm
Please come over and we can talk about legacy day okay? 5:07pm

Martyn:
NETTY SAYS ITS JAILBREAK TIME BABY!!! 7:46pm

WE HAVE A PLAN GRI CALL US BACK. 7:46pm

Grian laughed at the last message and began to text a reply when he heard the door begin to open. Grian stared in horror as it began to creek slowly open and Scar carefully crept in, tip toeing comically like he was trying not to wake someone up.

When he turned and saw Grian he screamed and almost dropped his book bag. And Grian couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as Scar dramatically put a hand to his heart and stared at Grian with wide eyes.

“What are you doing?” Grian said inbetween his light giggles “You acted like you were trying not to wake a lion when you came in here.”

“Yeah, well you’re usually asleep when I get here so I try really hard to not wake you up.” Scar smiles at Grian and he feels his face go soft when he sees it.

When Grian realized his reaction he immediately stiffened up and looked away from him, and Scar noticed this.

“Are you alright by the way? You got called to the principal and then after you seemed like you were avoiding your friends.”

Grian scoffed playfully “What? were you watching me?”

“Yes.” Scar replied almost instantly, acting like it was no big deal and Grian looked at him judgingly.

“Right. Well, we sort of had a fight, not like it’s any of your business, but since you’re stalking me I figured you were going to find out anyway.” Grian meant for it to come across as stand offish but Scar laughed anyway.

“I wasn’t stalking you, I just keep an eye out for you to make sure you’re okay, I promise its not creepy.”

Grian nods suspiciously “Right, well you do wake me up when you come in by the way.” When he saw Scar frown he was quick to add “I’m a light sleeper, nothing you could to to help.”

“Oh well, I’m sorry anways.” He apologized and smiled again.

Grian chooses to ignore the fact that anyways wasn’t a word and instead focus on the fact that it was way past curfew and Scar was just now coming home.

“So where were you, it’s almost two hours past curfew.” When Scars face completely dropped Grian smiled mischievously.

“Whaaat?? It’s past curfew? It’s only—“ Scar put on a show of checking his phone to and when he read the screen he looked back at Grian in fake shock. “Oh my god! It is past curfew! I say we go to sleep and pretend this never happened.”

“Oh now you have to tell me.” Grian beamed as he scoot closer on his bed toward Scar who was still standing at the front of the their door. “It’s gotta be good if you’re this nervous.”

“What— no. Me? Nervous? I never get nervous. It’s like a talent.” Scar stammers

“What? Is it embarrassing or something- or is it illegal? If it’s illegal I don’t want to know.” Grian begins listing in a tangent before he gasps “Oh my god its a secret girlfriend!”

Scar scoffs “It is not a secret girlfriend.”

Grian laughs “Oh right my apologies— secret boyfriend.” He corrects himself giggling like an idiot before Scar screams something incoherent that Grian is sure wakes his neighbors as he plops down in his own bed in embarrassment.

“You don’t have to tell me, Scar I’m just messing with you.” Grian lays down back in his own bed as he sighs “I just had kind of a bad day and it was nice to have a distraction.”

After a few moments of silence pass Grian is sure that Scar wasn’t going to say anything else and just let the topic pass, and Grian couldn’t blame him for it. So, he begrudgingly got up, intending to grab his phone so he could excuse himself but he was met with Scars mischievous face, just inches from his.

Grian screamed in shock as he fell back onto his bed and Scar immediately began apologizing. Offering a hand to help Grian up, which Grian took because he clearly wasn’t thinking.

“I am so sorry, I don’t mean to keep spooking you.” Scar apologized once more as Grian internally cringed as he dusted himself off.

“It’s fine—“ He shot out coldly. “Why on earth were you staring at me though?”

This is when Scars face warped back to the mischievous look he had on early, before he scared Grian out of his skin.

Before Grian can question him Scars speaks up “Do you want to know what always makes me feel better?”

Grian looks at him nervously and glances over to look at his icoffin. And even though He knows he still has to call Netty, and even though his immediate instinct is to say no, he stupidly says yes.

-

He realizes just how stupid he is when Scar leads him to an abandoned barn just in the edge of the woods surrounding the school.

When they approach it and Scar is about to open the door Grian can’t help but stop him.

“Okay, are you about to show me a dead body? Did you kill somebody?” He rushes before muttering “I cannot believe this is happening again.”

“What?— I— No! I did not kill anybody!” After a beat Scar exclaims “Wait did you say again!?”

“Well then why are we in the middle of the woods at your murder shack—“ He gasps, his heart rate picking up “Ohmygod I’m the victim.”

“Oh my god no—“ Scar places his hand on Grians shoulders, which affectively shuts him up, staring into Scars eyes with his own widened. “I am not a murderer.”

Grian couldn’t do anything else but nod awkwardly, trying to focus on anything but Scars hands on his shoulders, Grian felt really hot all of the sudden. As quickly as they came however, Scar removed his hands from his shoulders.

Grian opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Scar opened the door to the barn, it made a horrible creeking as it opened and Grian was almost scared to look.

He’s glad he does though, because in a far corner of the room resting on a pile of hay that has been there god knows how long is a beautiful dragon. Grian stares at it with his mouth hanging in shock as Scar calls for it.

When it wakes up and comes closer Grian see’s the prettiest green, almost yellow, eyes he’s ever seen, it is mostly white with a gray spot on its face and a larger gray spot running down its back. Once it gets closer to Scar, nudging its head under his hand as he begins petting it is when Scar speaks.

“This, is Jellie.” He beams as he gives her head a few more scritches as Jellie chirps happily.

“You have a dragon?” Is all Grian can manage to say as he watches as Scar continues to pet her.

“Yes,” Scar begins before rushing out a disclamer “and I’m definitely not allowed to. But I’ve raised her since she was a baby and I can’t imagine life without her.”

Grian smiles softly at Scar and Jellie who are both looking at eachother with equal fondness. “She’s beautiful.” Grian whispers and Scar whips his head toward Grian, a proud smile beaming on his face.

“She is!” He agrees easily and Scar and Grian continue to look at each other for a few more moments until Scar clears his throat and looks away.

“You can’t tell anyone about her though, not even Cub knows and he’s like my brother.” Scar says on a more solemn note, the seriousness surprises Grian.

Grian raises his eyebrow and gives Scar a questioning look “Why are you showing her to me?”

“Well, she always makes me feel better and you had a bad day.”

This answer, somehow didn’t make Grian feel any better, or less confused. He tabled the thoughts when Scar beckoned him over to him and Jellie. He began to pet her, Jellies scales didn’t put him off like he thought it might. He found her skin texture to be very smooth and easy to pet, and Jellie was loving the attention. Grian found himself laughing at the cat like noises she was making.

He was so lost in the moment he barely registered Scar looking at him, when he realized that he was he turned his head to meet his gaze to find him looking softly at him, it startled Grian and before he had the chance to question it Scar was speaking.

“Do you want to ride her?”

Grians eyes shot wide open “What?”

“I know it probably wont be as fun for you since you can fly, but it will make you feel better.” A few seconds of astounded silence passed before he added “That’s a Scar guarantee!”

“Wont we get caught?” Grian asked, even though he thought he was crazy for even considering it.

“I haven’t been caught yet and I try to take her flying at least once every week. It’s good for her.” Scar assured Grian and he looked back at Jellie, who was still looking at Scar lovingly. He reached his hand out to pet her again and thought about what Scar said.

“I don’t fly, I—“ Grian began, trying to force it out as Scar looked at him quizzically “I don’t think I can.”

Scar smiled at him sadly and Grian expected him to drop it, but of course he didn’t “Well then, let me show you what you’re missing!”

Scar climbed on top of Jellie before scooting foward, leaving enough room for Grian and he stuck out his hand. Grian just stared at it for a couple of seconds before looking back to his face and when he did, for the first time he didn’t think of Sam. So he carefully took his hand and hoisted himself onto Jellie behind Scar.

As Scar directed Jellie out of the barn and into the sky, is when Grian had realized he had made a mistake. Jellie accelerated quickly to a high altitude and Grian realized that this was a bad time to remember he was afraid of heights. He hadn’t noticed his tightening grip on Scar until he had closed his eyes and buried his face in his shoulder.

“Grian!” Scar shouted against the wind “Open your eyes or you’ll miss all the fun!”

Grian shook his head against Scars back “No, this was a bad idea, I need to go back down.”

“If you really want me to, I will but at least open your eyes for a second first!”

Grian felt like an idiot but he did open one eye, and he felt like an even bigger idiot when he realized that Scar was right.

Initialy Grian was horrified when he opened his eyes and immediately saw that the were way past the top of the school. Then he realized that because he was so preoccupied with the initial fear, he had completely forgotten about being mad at his friends. He had even briefly forgotten Taurtis ignoring him.

That’s when he leaned back from Scars shoulder and let himself be scared. He looked around at the view, they were just above the clouds and they were beautifully lit up by the night sky. Eventually Grian wasn’t scared, or angry, or ignored anymore. All he could focus on was the wind in his face and Scars contagious laugh as Jellie glided in the night sky. Soon Grian found himself joining in on the laughing.

Chapter Text

Grian woke up to 13 missed call notifications from Martyn alone. He also noticed over 50 texts from him, the most recent at a sensible 5am just read;

’bitch you better facetime me atp i need proof of life.’

Grian chuckled as he sat up from his bed and looked at the time, it was the weekend so he didn’t have an alarm so he had slept until 10am, which was pretty late for him since he started at Ever After High (since he’d been avoiding Scar) but he had gotten back to his dorm around 1am and promptly passed out.

Grian smiled fondly at the memories from last night, sneaking back into the dormitories giggling like maniacs, almost getting caught after Scar tripped on something and Grian holding his hand over his own and Scars mouth trying hard to supress his cackles as Scar looks at him with something unreadable in his eye.

He honestly didn’t know where he stood with Scar anymore. After last night he knew he wasn’t trying to hurt Grian and he did trust him. But he didn’t know if that made them friends, and he definitely didn’t know why Scar trusted him enough to show Jellie to him.

He didn’t ponder it long, instead looking around his dorm to see that Scar wasn’t home. He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as he turned his attention back to his icoffin and went back to Martyns contact, and as a courtesy he did facetime him.

Martyns screaming voice answered instantly “OH MY GOD YOU’RE OKAY.”

Grian narrowed his eyes at the loud voice but quickly adjusted his phone volume and replied “I’m sorry I fell asleep on you guys, it was just exhausting yesterday, you know?”

“You could’ve texted us back, you know?” Martyn pestered, fake annoyance present in his voice,

“Yea, but your first thought is death?” He countered, with a playful look of mockery “I mean really Martyn?”

“Well I mean what are we supposed to think?” He exasperates dramatically, a look of worry still evident in his face “You call Netty, basically on the verge of tears telling us to get you back home immediately.”

Grian sighs knowingly “I know, I’m sorry, I feel asleep but I should’ve called last night was so hectic.”

“What the hell even happened?—” Martyn asked before interrupting himself “Wait nevermind, you can tell us when you get home. We have a plan G, we can get you back by tonight.”

Grian just sat awkwardly for a few seconds, looking at Martyns shit eating grin while he awkwardly adjusts himself “Yeah,, about that..”

Martyns face instantly fell “You’re staying!?” He screeched

“Well— maybe??” Grian sighs exasperatingly “I dunno, I’m just saying maybe hold off on the rescue party until maybe tomorrow.”

“Well what the hell?! What changed?” Martyn exclaimed and at the most convenient time for Grian, Scar decided to walk out of the bathroom, his hair damp from clearly taking a shower.

“Hey Grian, sorry if you needed the bathroom, I didn’t know you were awake.”

Martyn dramatically gasps “IS THAT YOUR ROOMMATE—“ Grian cuts him off by ending the call.

“Wrong number.” He smiles awkwardly at Scar who just laughs and does a sarcastic ‘mhm’ as Grian brushes by him hurriedly to get into the bathroom.

-

When Grian gets out of the shower Scar isn’t in their dorm anymore, he finds it a little confusing but after Grian ignoring him for the better part of a week he understands it.

With Scar out of the dorm however, Grian finds that he has no excuse for continuing to ignore the issue with his friends and brother. He did want to ignore them forever like Taurtis did but after the dragon ride with Scar, he was honestly embarrassed for the way he acted. So he was dreading having to awkwardly apologize for storming off from them… again.

He decided to rip the bandaid off however, by calling Mumbo first, and then Jimmy. Who he was going to meet at cafe on the school grounds that Mumbo showed him on his first day. He was going to text Joel and Lizzie, but he figured it was unnecessary considering he Jim and Mumbo were really the main ones involved.

Once he made his way to the cafe and ordered himself a tea, he picked a spot he felt like would be comfortable enough for an awkward conversation (a booth right next to an exit) and waited for Mumbo and Jimmy.

Unfortunately, Jimmy arrived a few minutes before Mumbo so he and Grian had to just make awkward small talk before they had an even more awkward conversation. Eventually, the topic of roommates came up, and so they talked about their respective roommates until Mumbo showed up.

Grian learned that Jimmy’s roommate was called Tango, which he didn’t know prior because they would always hang out in Pearls dorm. He also found out that Jimmy was apparently good friends with Scar, which Grian had mixed feelings about for some reason. He did know that if Jim trusted him hopefully it meant he had no ulterior motives for befriending Grian.

But thankfully before they went back to having nothing to talk about, Mumbo arrived, he didn’t even order anything as he frantically began apologizing for ‘running late’.

“Mumbo, it’s fine you’re on time Tims just really early for some reason.” Jimmy glared at Grian for the use of his ‘nickname’.

Mumbo sighed with relief before the three became quiet again. A few more awkward silent moments passed before Grian decided to speak up.

“So,” He began as he shifted in his chair and cleared his throat “I’m sorry for how I acted.”

Mumbo and Jimmy just looked at eachother with some expression that he could not place, but neither of them were talking so he decided to continue “I see now that running off like that and ignoring your texts and calls was pretty immature, and again I am very—“

It was at that point that Mumbo clearly had enough and cut him off “Wait, mate—“ He said exasperatingly “You’re sorry??” His face contorted with confusion and as Grian glanced to Jimmy his expression was similar.

“Yes?” Grian answered quizzically

“You shouldn’t be the one apologizing, Grian.” Jimmy interjected, as Mumbo nodded along side him, and this confused Grian.

“What?” He tilted his head slightly “I was the one who stormed off and then ghosted you.”

“Yea—“ Tim continued “Because we were jerks.”

“Yes, we are the ones who owe you an apology.” Mumbo began “We treated you like a chore, all because we wanted to avoid an awkward conversation with you.”

Grian stared blankly at them “No, I overreacted, you don’t have to apologize, I feel way better now.” Which wasn’t a lie, hanging out with Scar last night made him forget the reason he was even mad in the first place.

“You didn’t overreact G, you’re my brother and you’re Mumbos friend, you dont treat your brother and friends that way.”

“And we can tell you about legacy day, if you still want to hear it.” Mumbo said after Jimmy.

Grian felt his face go fond at that before shaking his head “No, it’s fine. I have a meeting with the headmaster later and he’s going to tell me, I feel like it might be best for an adult to explain it to me.”

Mumbo nodded, and Grian could spot the hint of relief in his eye. The trio decided to spend the rest of their time talking about anything and everything that was not legacy day, until eventually Mumbo had to leave to go work on whatever project he was onto next (trinkets, Grian called them).

Grian also excused himself moments after Mumbo had left, he still needed to talk to Pearl before he went to see the headmaster.

So he made his way back to the dormitory building and decided to just go straight to Pearls before he got distracted and inevitably chickened out.

When he got to her dorm Pearl immediately answered and as soon as she saw Grian he could see an immediate wave of relief wash over her face. She sighed and immediately brought him into a tight hug, which took Grian aback but he accepted the hug anyway.

“Are you okay?” She asked as they separated, her hands still gripping his forearms.

Grian laughed lightheartedly “Yeah, I’m fine don’t worry. Tim and I talked it out.”

“Good. That’s good.” She nodded, looking away from Grian before fully pulling back from him as she gestured for him to come in her dorm. “Well, come and sit, I’ll tell you about legacy day, though you might want to make yourself comfortable this is going to be—“

“No, Pearl.” He interrupted “It’s fine, I’m going to talk to the headmaster about it as soon as I leave here.”

Pearl gave him a look he couldn’t quite place brfore shaking her head “I think I should be the one to tell you, I mean I’m your sister and this conversation probably wont be easy.”

Grian tried to push the overwhelming worry that came with her words way down as he spoke again “That’s why I should have this conversation with an adult. So if it goes really poorly I will hate him and not you.”

Pearl gave him a pity laugh before going silent again, her face dropping in sadness before nodding understandingly.

After a few more moments of silence Grian cleared his throat, effectively pulling Pearl out of her thoughts before speaking “So, where’s Gem?”

Pearl laughed at Grians attempt of trying to clear the uncomfortable tension while shaking her head “Etho was just loitering in our dorm bugging Gem so I told kicked them out.” She said proudly, and Grian joined in on her laughing.

“He shows up here often, right?” He asked, remembering Gem complaining about him constantly stopping by her dorm and messing things up, which with what Grians seen from Etho so far was a bit hard for him to believe.

Pearls groan says all he needs to hear about the accuracy of his statement though. “Yes!” She exasperates “All the time!!”

Grian laughs a bit louder as she dramatically tilts her head back.

“Seriously, he doesn’t even knock too, he somehow got a key?” She continued and Grian stared her down, confused. “I know right!” She says as she noticed the look on his face “Imagine how I feel.”

The two siblings continued to banter for a while until Grians phone alarm went off, indicating that it was time for him to go to the headmasters office. Pearl asked if he wanted her to go with him, he thanked her but ultimately said no. Whatever legacy day was, was obviously bad and there was a likelihood that he would cry, and he didn’t need Pearl to see that.

So instead he said goodbye to her and made his way back to the regular school building.

-

When he made his way to the office he noticed that the guidance counselor was also there again, which was a bad sign. He tried to shake it off and remain, remembering that if it’s truly that bad, his friends will rescue him.

He placed the book that the headmaster let him borrow on the desk before taking the seat furthest from the guidance counselor. Awkwardly shifting in his seat before meeting the headmasters eyes.

The headmaster slid the book over to him and nodded before clearing his throat “So, you’ve read the book?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry if I missed something but I couldn’t find where it mentioned legacy day—” He began, but the head master interrupted

“No, no, you didn’t do anything wrong, Grian. The book wasn’t supposed to teach you about legacy day.”

Grian quirked his eyebrow in confusion, now a little annoyed that he had him read a whole book in an afternoon for nothing. “Well then why did I read Sleeping Beauty?” He asked, not trying to mask the sass in his voice.

The headmaster just nodded awkwardly, shifting his hands before speaking again “Do you know why we teach what we teach here? I’m sure out curriculum is different from Monster High.”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been anywhere fancy before I just assumed this is what all the royale people learn.” He shrugged and fidgeted with his hands “What does this have to do with legacy day?”

“Well,” The headmaster cleared his throat while he sat up straighter in his chair “we teach the way we trach to prepare students to assume their parents destinies when they grow up.”

Grians face contorted in confusion “I don’t follow.” He stated plainly.

“On legacy day, we have this ceremony where students sign the story book of legends, which is essentially a binding contract saying that you will follow in your parents footsteps to carry out your story.”

Grian narrowed his eyes “What does that have to do with me?”

“Well—“ He exasperated awkwardly “You are the eldest of all your siblings so—“

“Wait.” Grian interrupted, all of what he was saying starting to click in his brain “You want me to sign that book?”

The headmaster let out a breath he was holding “Yes, you have to follow in your mothers destiny.”

“No!” He shouted “You want me to kill someone just so you can carry out your weird nepotism cult!?”

“Grian” The headmaster snapped sternly, causing Grian to shrink back in his chair
“you don’t have a choice. All of the eldest children have to sign.”

“In that book my ‘mother’ kills someone, I don’t want to be forced to kill anyone!” He pleads, once more leaning forward in his chair passionately.

“You won’t actually kill anyone, he will just sleep for a hundred years.”

“‘Just sleep for a hundred years’!?” Grian repeated back “Do you hear yourself? I don’t even know who this person is! I could never hate them that much to kill them.”

“You’ve met him, the son of sleeping beauty.” The headmaster assured, and Grian tried to think back to everyone he had met so far and he couldn’t recall ever meeting them

The headmaster apparently noticed his struggle and interrupted his thoughts “He’s your roommate, Scar.”

Grians eyes widened in horror, sure at first Grian was very cautious and stand offish to Scar, but he certainly didn’t want to kill him. Especially not after the two just started to get along.

“I definitely don’t want to kill Scar!” He shouted back.

“No, Don’t worry about him, you will be helping Scar in the long run by signing, it will insure that he gets his happily ever after.”

This response just made Grian angrier “So what? You want me to sacrifice my morals just so someone else can have a good ending? Just because thats what my mother did?” He scoffed “Well it’s not happening. I’m not signing.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, Grian. If you don’t sign, all the people from your story will disappear.” The headmaster seemed unphased by Grians uncomfortability

Grian scoffed “I don’t believe you!” He stood up from his chair, intending to storm off, but the counselor spoke up.

“It’s true Grian,” He spoke in a soothing voice that Grian wasn’t buying “That means that everyone from that story would disappear, including your siblings.”

Grians face dropped, for a moment he was angry at the counselor for trying to use his closeness with his siblings to guilt him into signing his life away, but then something horrible clicked in his brain. That’s why they’ve been so nice to you.

If Grian signed the book, that meant neither Pearl or Jimmy would have to, that burden would belong to him. That’s why they danced around the legacy day subject around him. The thought made him sick, he just slumped back into his chair, he heard the headmaster and counselor saying words but he tuned them out, not paying attention to anything they were saying. Just waiting for them to finally be done so he could get out of Ever After High as soon as possible.

-

Grian barely remembered the walk back from the office to his dorm. As soon as the headmaster stopped talking he as calmly as he could excused himself and rushed out of there, almost running to his dorm.

While he was walking he tried to fish for his phone in his bag but his head was so full he couldn’t even focus on feeling for it. He just frustratingly waved his arm around in his bag until he made it to his dorm. He finally stopped for two seconds and found his icoffin, so he brushed into his dorm, b-lining to the outdoor balcony he had, already typing furiously to his group chat with Martyn, Big B, and Netty.

He was climbing the railing to the balcony when he finally registered Scars frantic voice coming from behind him, when he turned to face him he was met with Scars worried and frantic face, his expression filled with some sort of desperation.

“Oh my god Grian!” He exasperated “Gri— G, you don’t have to- to do that.”

Grian turned to him, and tilted his head, confused and clearly annoyed.

“There are other ways to deal with this, Grian.” Scar hesitantly made his way toward him, hands in front of him like he was going to scare Grian off with the slightest movement. “Come inside and lets talk, okay?”

Then it registered what this probably looked like to Scar, with his legs dangled over the railing, and Grian let out an annoyed exhale “God, Scar no! I’m not trying to— No!“ He exasperated.

Scar let out a big sigh of relief as he physically relaxed, bringing his hands back down to his side and coming to sit next to him on the balcony. “Well, thank goodness.” He said finally “What are you doing crying on the balcony then?”

“What are you on about?” Grian asked and Scar gave him a look, so he brought his fongers to his cheek where he did realize they were wet with tears. “Oh.” He must’ve started crying while he was looking for his icoffin and was too distracted to notice.

Scar sadly smiled at him “Why don’t we go inside okay?” He brought his hand to Grians arm, cupping it lightly and Grian made no attempt to move, he just sighed at him.

“No,” He exhaled “no, I’m running away. I can’t—“ his breath hitched “I can’t sign that book, Scar.”

“What do you mean you’re running away?” Scar brought cupped his other arm, holding him firmly “No— you can’t.”

“I have to!” Grian snapped, and Scars face softened sadly. Grian looked away “Look I’m- I’m sorry if you actually believe that you wont get your happily ever after— or that you’ll ’disappear’ or— whatever, but—“

“Wait, wait,” Scar interrupted, shaking him lightly. “You think that’s why I’m here?” Grian gave him a pointed look, figuring it was obvious. Scar scoffed “I want you to stay, because I’d miss you if you left.”

Grians eyes widened slightly at his confession and Scar was giving him a look he couldn’t read, one he’d never seen before. His eyes were almost glistening in the midst of the darkness surrounding the two, his mouth tilted slightly upward in a sad smile. His hands still held onto Grians arms slightly, and Grian felt lost and frustrated at the fact he couldn’t read him.

“Let’s just— go inside and talk okay?” Scar suggested, and Grian really didn’t want to. He wanted to jump off of this balcony and make a quick escape and never look back.

So he really doesn’t know why he lets Scar slide his hands gently from his arms to cup his hands and let him lead the two back into their dorm without saying a word. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t stop him.

He doesn’t know why he let Scar convinced him to stay, all he knows is that he texted his friends that night to say he was going to try his best to stay at Ever After High. All he knows is that he stayed and it was too late to do anything about it now.

Chapter Text

After that night Grian went from avoiding Scar to basically never leaving his side. He had started to ignore his siblings, meaning avoiding most of his friends, so he started leaning on Scar. The two got very close throughout the last few weeks, and Scar did try to get Grian to talk to his siblings but he never pushed him too hard, knowing when to back down before he truly upset him. And Grian was grateful.

While he was avoiding his own friends he got to meet Scars friends, including Cub, which Scars was happy to realize that they got along very well. He also met his other good friends, Bdubs, Skizz, and Impulse, and they all got along well. He also found himself getting closer to Etho who he learned was also good friends with Scar.

So even though he was barely talking to Mumbo, Gem, Joel, Iskall, and Lizzie, and not talking to his siblings at all, he was doing really well. Of course his siblings were worried and he had to practically run away whenever Pearl stopped him in the hallways, but other than that his avoidence was pretty successful.

Speaking of avoidence, he still hadn’t heard a single word from Taurtis and it had been weeks, he had texted and called multiple times. He knew that this was exactly what he was doing to his siblings but he felt like at least he had a better reason, so he was going to keep pestering until Taurtis gave him an answer.

Which is what he was doing by his locker, inbetween classes. Standing impatiently tapping his foot on the ground, icoffin pressed to his ear. When it went straight to voicemail for the 5th time he angrily groaned “Taurtis!, Martyn says he hasn’t even seen you outside of class, that you’re not even going to the creepetria to eat anymore. I’m sorry for saying anything but don’t isolate yourself from our friends because of me, okay?” He went silent, trying to think of anything else to say and when he couldn’t think of anything he sighed frustratingly and told him to call back before hanging up and tilting his head up against his locker defeatedly.

“He still hasn’t called back?” Scar interrupted his racing mind and startling him, causing him to jump a little.

“No, still nothing.” He picked at his nails as the two begun walking to their next class.

When Grian said he and Scar got close, he wasn’t exaggerating. He had told Scar stuff he didn’t even tell Pearl about, including that his stubborn best friend was ignoring him. Scar was quick to point out the similarities with him and his siblings (which of course he denied ’It’s nothing like that!’, he told him, even though he didn’t believe it himself.)

“Why is he even ignoring you again?” Scar asked, which okay. Maybe Grian didn’t tell him everything. Definitely not anything about Sam, ever.

“I don’t know!” He exasperated, sticking his hands out in front of him passionately for emphasis “I think he is mad at me for leaving or— somerthing.” Which of course wasn’t a lie, just not the whole truth.

“Well that’s lame.” Scar said and Grian scoffed unseriously at him “Hey, it’s true, it’s not like you really had a choice, he shouldn’t get mad at you for that.” Scar smiled at him sympathetically and Grians face softened at him.

Scar, not unlike Martyn, had this ability to calm him down very easily. Which he was glad for considering he never see’s Martyn in person anymore. So he nodded gratefully at him and the two kept walking to their next class. Grian found it funny that he was now grateful for them having most of their classes together when just a few weeks ago he would dread seeing his face in them.

Grian was glad he let his guard down enough to get to know Scar. He felt foolish for ever comparing him to Sam in the first place now that he realized the two were nothing alike. His friends at Monster High even loved him, Grian, Scar, and Martyn would often stay up late and talk on the phone about anything that came up.

His thoughts were interrupted by Mumbo coming up to walk next to the two. “Hey Scar and Grian! Where are you headed?” He asked, surprisingly chipper considering it was from Mumbo. Grian assumed it was because he was trying to figure out why he was avoiding everyone so he was overcompensating by being overly friendly.

“We’re heading to mythmatics! Grian said he would help tutor me soon actually.” Scar spoke for the two, which Grian was quick to retort.

“I did not say that and you know it.” He scoffed teasingly "I’m just as bad at that class as you are, you just want an excuse to hang out more.” He accused and Scar shrugged shyly, not trying to deny the ‘allegations’.

“Well, maybe me and Iskall could join and actually tutor you guys?” Mumbo suggested and Grian was quick to shake his head in fake sympathy.

“Well, sorry but me and Scar are busy that day—“ He grabbed Scars arm for emphasis “Right Scar?”

Scar gave him a saddened look but nodded anyway and turned back to Mumbo “Yeah, sorry. Another time?”

Mumbo just nodded awkwardly, clearly not believing their excuse or that they will invite him next time. Grian just started to pick up his speed a little bit “Well, me and Scar better be on our way.”

Grian gestured at Scar to follow him, which he did, mumbling an awkward goodbye and apology to Mumbo before catching up to him. Once it was just the two of them Scar lightly shoved him on his shoulder, to which Grian turned to him and gave him a confused and angry look.

“Come on, Grian you aren’t even mad at Mumbo!” Grian rolled his eyes at him and Scar just sighed. “You can’t just distance yourself from all your friends.”

“I’m not! For one, I’m still putting up with you no matter how many times you bring this up.” Grian reasoned while giving Scar a pointed look, to which Scar returned his eye roll. “Besides, Mumbo is good friends with both my siblings so I can’t ignore them and still talk to him.”

Scar hummed after a while, and Grian assumed it was going to be the end of the conversation, but of course Scar had to open his mouth again. “I still don’t think they mean any harm, Grian. I mean I’m really close with Jimmy and he doesn’t seem like the type of person to just be nice to you out of selfishness.”

Grian huffed in annoyance at the continuation of the topic and the mention of his sibling. “Well I don’t know what to tell you, People are inherently selfish.”

Scar gave him an unconvinced look but Grian continued anyway. “Hey, I’ve been surrounded by those type of people all my life, I’m probably a master at spotting them.”

“Well, I still think you’re wrong.” Scar tried to reason and Grian just gave him an annoyed groan “You should at least talk to them about it! I mean you can’t ignore them forever.”

“Let’s just drop it Scar. We can talk about this later.” Grian replied frustratingly, running a hand through his hair.

Scar looked at him sadly, clearly wanting to say something else but just nodded defeatedly as the two reached their next class. Grian brushed past him to get into the room, ending their conversation abruptly.

-

“Wait Grian,” Scar grabbed his arm as Grian was exiting their class “I’m sorry for earlier, I know I shouldn’t have pushed.”

Grian smiled softly at him “You’re fine Scar.” He assured “They’re your friends and you’re the type to defend your friends. I’m sorry I got frustrated at you.”

Scar shook his head “No, don’t apologize. I understand I can be a little pushy.”

Grian smirked “Well, I’m not going to deny that.”

Scar scoffed in mock offense “How dare you sir! After our nice heart to heart just then?” He nudged Grian in his arm and Grian just laughed at him.

“So are we good then?” He asked after a beat of comfortable silence

“We’re good.” Grian confirmed, taking his phone out of his pocket to check his notifications, after getting a feeling he should.

His heart dropped when he read the most recent notification.

Martyn:
Taurtis didn’t show up today, no ones seen him :( 10:12 am

Grian sent him back a quick ‘text me when you see him’ when he heard Scar talking next to him again.

“So, are we getting lunch together?” He asked and Grian didn’t even look up from his screen.

“No, I have to go to the bathroom I’ll meet you there.” He rushed out before beginning to quicken his pace again

Scar made no effort to catch up to him, instead raising his voice a bit, calling after him “Are you alright?”

“Ask me again later.” He practically shouted as he was already scrolling for Taurtis’s contact as he basically tackled the bathroom door.

The first time he called Taurtis it immediately got sent to voicemail, Grian hung up and immediately called back. It didn’t ring again, he called back. He kept this up until he had called 4 times, so he decided to leave a voicemail.

“Taurtis, you can’t keep doing this to me! Martyn said you didn’t show up to school, please just call me and let me know you’re just out sick or something.” He let the line grow quiet for two seconds, just his frustrated and anxious breathing filling up the line. Then he hung up.

He waited a minute before calling back, he felt his eyes watering as he brought up his phone up to his ear for a fifth time. Hearing the same answering machine, he just let out a defeated ”I miss you.” before hanging up and dropping his arm back to his side, closing his eyes and sliding down the wall he was perched on in defeat.

He made no effort to stop the silent tears from falling, he was close to calling Martyn when he heard a knock on the bathroom door. He was confued for a moment because it was a public multi-stalled restroom until he heard the voice on the other side.

“Grian, It’s me.” It was Scar, *mof course it was “Can I come in?”

Grian thought about it for a moment before wiping his tears and standing himself up so he could let Scar into the bathroom himself.

When he opened the door Scar looked surprised to see him, Grian just huffed out an ‘I’m fine.’ as he shuffled to the side, allowing Scar entry into the schools public bathroom.

“You’re crying.” Scar pointed out, making sure Grian knew that he knew he was lying to him.

“Am not.” Grian said doubling down, and when Scar just gave him a pointed look he sighed defeatedly, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to lie his way out of this.

“What happened?” Scar asked, coming closer to Grian, face morphing into concern when Grian made no more effort to stop his tears from coming.

“I just— I don’t think I’m ever going to see Taurtis again, and I think he hates me so much that he is going to actually move schools to get away from me— and I dont even go to that school anymore!” Scar wrapped his arms around him and Grian basically planted his face into his chest as Scar patted his back.

“The worst part is I don’t even know why he hates me.” Grian sighs into Scars chest, his voice hoarse from crying.

“I don’t think he hates you, Grian.” Scar tries to assure but Grian just scoffs, it being cut off by the fabric of Scars shirt, but Scar doubles down “Really, I don’t think he does, I think he just misses you.”

“You think if he missed me he would pick up his damn phone.” Grian groaned and Scar gave him a bittersweet laugh before going quiet. Not in a comfortable way though, so Grian pulled himself back and looked up at Scar, who looked lost in thought, and Grian gave him a confused look, but he brushed it off, shaking his head.

“What’s wrong?” Grian pushed.

“Nothing!” Scar assured, not sounding convinced, so Grian gave him another more frustrated look and Scar just sighed “I shouldn’t ask it’s— not my business.”

“Just say it.” Grian pushed

“Are you two a couple?” Scar blurted, and Grians eyes went wide and he took another step back from Scar, whos face morphed into an expression Grian didn’t like.

“No!—“ Grian rushed out “No, it’s not like that, your question just surprised me.” Grian thought for a few more minutes before he came up with a better way to answer “Taurtis and I, we went through hell together.” He said finally “I wouldn’t be here without him.”

Scar just nodded and Grian thought he looked even sadder than he felt at that moment for some reason. Grian realized it was probably because he felt bad for him but he was still a little confused, he then realized the prolonged silence was probably giving him the wrong idea so he spoke again. “We aren’t a couple though, we never were.”

Scars eyes went a bit wider as they met Grians again, his expression almost looked.. relieved?

Grian didn’t ponder it too much, still thinking about the suggestion that he and Taurtis would ever be a couple. He suppsosed it was because Scar didn’t have all the context that he would assume something like that.

“You’re not a couple?” Scar asked again, to confirm.

Grian thought about what he was about to say very carefully before he said it, making sure he truly wanted to share this with Scar. As he searched Scars face for any reason he shouldn’t though, he came up empty handed.

“Basically the whole time Taurtis and I were friends—“ He began, even thought he could basically feel his throat closing up even thinking about it, but he prushed through, even though he didn’t understand why, for some reason he felt like he really wanted Scar to know that he and Taurtis weren’t together. “I was hung up on someone else.”

“Oh.” Scar said wisely as Grian just kept trying to keep his breathing normal.

“Yeah—“ He felt his voice becoming weaker as tears filled his eyes “So I’ve never seen Taurtis that way.”

Grian thanked anything and everything that was looking out for him for making Scar know not to ask him anymore questions, instead Scar just hugged him again, Grian burrying his face into his shoulder as he cried. The two stayed like this for a few minutes, Scar just rubbing Grians shoulder comfortably as Grians breathing returned to normal.

Eventually after Grian had calmed down enough Scar broke the silence “Do you want me to go and get food?” He muttered into Grians hair “I can go and get it and we can eat it in a classroom or something.”

Grian laughed lightly “No it’s fine I’ll come with you.” He pulled back from Scar to find him giving him a questioning look, to which Grian scoffed, even though he was grateful for Scar looking out for him “Hey, I’ll be fine, I can pull myself together long enough to go to the cafeteria”

Scar hummed, seemingly unconvinced, to which Grian rolled his eyes “Alright but if someone tries to sit with us I’m kicking them out of the table.”

Grian laughed at him before nodding his head slightly “Alright, deal.”

Scar smiled proudly before leading Grian out of the bathroom and to the cafeteria.

-

As soon as the rest of the school day was over Grian rushed back to his dorm and immediately called Martyn, who he was on the phone with now.

“When is the last time you’ve heard from him?” Grian says as he is pacing his room, eyes glued to Martyns concerned face.

“I saw him yesterday at study howl but I honestly haven’t spoken to him in at least a week.” Grian frowned and when he noticed Martyn gave him a sympathetic smile “Hey, it’s probably alright I honestly shouldn’t have even told you.”

“Has anyone else seen him? Netty, Big B, Salem, Tom—“

“Grian.” Martyn cut him off “He’s probably just sick, okay?”

“Will you go to his dorm?” Grian distractedly threw out “And check on him? Don’t tell him I asked though.”

Martyn let out a long sigh and grew quiet for a moment before nodding slowly "Alright, alright I will.”

“Okay,” Grian smiled “okay good, and you’ll tell me how he is, yeah?”

“Of course G.” Martyn confirmed softly “Of course.”

Grian smiled silently for a moment, before scoffing fondly “You know Scar thought we were dating?”

Martyn exasperatingly gasped “What!? You and I?” His face morphing onto an expression that was almost horrified.

Grian cackled at that “God, no!!” He brought his hand to his mouth to try and suppress his laughs “Me and Taurtis, dummy.”

Martyn rolled his eyes “Well jeez Gri, be more clear.” He joined in on Grians suppressed laughter as he considered what he said “Well, I mean he doesn’t know anything about Sam so it’s not the most far fetched thing in the world.”

Grian felt his blood grow cold at the sound of his name coming from someone else, he shook it off and nodded “Yeah, I think I told him about it.” He said without thinking.

“You told him about Sam!?” Martyn gasped

“No—“ Grian immediately rushed out “no, I just told him that he was there— kind of—“ He paused, trying to formualte his words “it’s not like i told him his name or what he did. For some reason I just didn’t want him to think I was into Taurtis.”

Martyns mouth dropped, and as soon as Grian heard what he said, he immediately began internally freaking out, obviously for no reason other than that he didn’t want to give Martyn the wrong idea— he didn’t care if Scar thought he was available or not— he just didn’t want Taurtis to be uncomfortable if he and Scar met. Is that what he was going with? Yeah? Yeah. That’s reasonable, sensible even.

Martyn’s concerned voice and sympathetic face is what pulled him from his internal spiral “..Oh Grian.” He said softly

“Can we talk about something else?” He pleaded quietly, avoiding his eyes, Martyn, of course, agreed.

“You still not talking to Pearl?” Martyn asks after a few seconds of thinking.

Grian scoffed. Of course the other thing he’d least wanted to talk about. “Will you cut that out?”

“Awh, c’mon G! I like Pearl and the more you don’t talk to her, the more I can’t talk to her.” he pestered, dramatically putting his hand to his chest.

“Martyn,” Grian deadpanned seriously “you know she was manipulating me right? Her and Jimmy.”

Martyn rolled his eyes unseriously at him “God, you’re so paranoid. Didn’t Scar literally say that he and Jim were friends?”

Grian narrowed his eyes at him “Yes? So? Jimmy could be lying to Scar too!”

“Mate, I know Scars a bit aloof but you have to cut him some slack.”

Grian huffs “I wish I didn’t introduce you two.”

“You can always go back to talking to Pearl and this wouldn’t be an issue.” Martyn scoffed and Grian rolled his eyes.

“Whatever I’m hanging up, call me when you check on Taurtis.” He clicked the end call button before Martyn had a chance to even protest.

Grian groaned as he plopped back onto his bead, he couldn’t help but feel worried about Taurtis, he knew that he could take care of himself and if something were actually physically wrong he would’ve found out by now, but that didn’t stop the worry.

Grian stared at his ceiling trying to think of anything other than his best friend taking the silent treatment to the extreme. So he thought about his siblings, specifically what Scar and Martyn said about them. Grian trusted Scar, so he didn’t understand why he couldn’t trust his judgment. He tossed over in his bed squeezed his eyes shut. He internally scolded himself for being unable to think of something positive.

Grian sighed frustratingly as he brought his hands to his eyes while trying to clear his mind of his problems for a few seconds becofe he heard a knock at the door. Grian smirked as he figured it was just Scar forgetting his key again, so he shuffled to the door, intending to lightheartedly scold him but when he opened it he saw that it wasn’t Scar, but instead his friend Impulse.

“Oh.” Grian said wisely when he opened the door fully.

“Hey Grian! Is Scar here?” He asked, ignoring Grians embarrassing bluntness, which he was glad for.

“No, he’s with Cub.” Grian answered and after a brief pause he added “I thought you were him to be honest.”

Impulse chuckled a bit “Yeah, that checks out.”

Grian awkwardly shifted at the door before moving to the side a bit “Did you want to come in? I don’t know when Scar will be back but I could call if its important—“

“Oh! Don’t worry about that!” Impulse hurriedly interrupted “I can just get it back tomorrow its alright.”

Grian nodded slightly “Right, I’ll tell him you stopped by.”

“Great! Thanks, Grian.” Impulse smiled kindly at him and Grian thought that would be the end of the conversation but he spoke up “Well, I heard that you only recently found out about legacy day, that must have been rough.”

Grian cringed, he has had so much on his plate lately he has barely thought about legacy day. Being reminded of it wasn’t the greatest feeling in the world.

“Yeah, I definitely wasn’t thrilled to learn about it.” He joked lightheartedly.

Impulse laughed lightheartedly “Yeah, don’t worry you aren’t the only one.”

“What do you mean?” Grian slighlty tilted his head, silently urging Impulse to continue

“Trust me, I don’t want to sign either,” Impulse began “Do you think I want to put a curse on my best friend?”

Grian surpisingly nodded his head, he did know that Impulse was the son of the sorcerer who puts the curse on his best friend Skizz’s mom, the swan princess. He had just assumed that Impulse was just going to suck it up and sign because he had believed the lie that they would all disappear if he didn’t. He never considered there would be anyone else who would actually consider not signing.

“You are seriously not going to sign either?” Grian asked, his eyes widening in shock

“Oh- no- I’m definitely going to sign, I’m just saying I get not wanting to.” Impulse hurriedly corrects before his eyes widened “Wait are you not going to sign?”

“Oh, well—“ Grian nervously shifts in his spot “I was considering it?”

“But— You’ll disappear.” He stares at Grian in a mix of worry, confusion, and awe.

Grian scoffs at the idea “Oh please that is clearly a lie, I’ve been manipulated enough times to be able to spot an outlandish lie when I see one.” He perks up like it was an accomplishment and Impulse is still staring at him with his mouth slightly agape.

“You seriously think we wouldn’t disappear?— You’re not going to sign?” He asked after a beat of silence and Grian softens his gaze at him.

“I’m not, and it sounds like you don’t want to either.” Grian smiles and Impulse breaks their gaze. “Look, one of the reasons I’m not going to is because I would never want to hurt Scar.”

Impulse nods “I just wish I could believe you, Grian. I mean no offense but I know a little bit more about this than you because I grew up here.”

“I understand, but once I don’t sign then everyone will have to admit that the whole ‘disapearing’ thing was just a lie for control and a bunch of royals to get their happy endings.”

“I just wish there was a way to know that for sure, because if I could avoid having to curse my best friend that would be great.” Impulse joked and after a few seconds of thinking Grians eyes lit up.

Impulse tilted his head once he noticed Grians look. Before he got the chance to question it though Grian grabbed his arm and hurtiedly pulled him into his dorm and after he closed the door he giddily turned to Impulse who wore a confused look on his face.

“How about you and I start a resistance?” Grian smiled, and Impulses look didn’t change.

“A resistance?” Impulse repeated quizzically, and Grian just nods excitedly. Impulse stared at him blankly for a few more seconds, and after Grians expression doesn’t falter he speaks again “I don’t follow.”

“We resist legacy day!” Grian shouts happily like its the most obvious thing in the world.

“And how would we do that?” Impulse asks, his tone still unconvinced

“Well, I was thinking we could probably just say we aren’t going to sign, to scare them, you know?” Grian begins pacing around the dorm, excitedly explaining his half cooked plan as Impulse still struggles to follow.

“Scare who?”

“The headmaster mainly”

“Right and how would scaring him solve anything.”

“Well I’m hoping that if enough people will say they aren’t going to sign then it will scare him into canceling legacy day, or at least delaying it.”

Impulse hummed, finally understanding “Well, what if it doesn’t work?”

“If it doesn’t work then on legacy day I just wont sign, because I fully believe that nothing bad will happen.” Grian assures, but after a beat he hums “My only worry is we wont get enough people unhappy with their destinies to join the resistance.”

At that, Impulse laughs “Please, I know at least a dozen rebels who wish they didn’t have to sign that book, numbers isn’t your problem here.”

“Then that’s perfect! We can make a flyer that nonchalantly mentions not liking your destiny that directs them to a secret meeting place.” Grian claps his hands and Impulse seems to consider it before shaking his head

“I just don’t see a world where this works, I mean I don’t think they will just cancel legacy day.” Impulse tries to reason but Grian is quick to retort

“Okay so what if it doesn’t? At least we would have tried, and if all fails I just wont sign and I’ll prove this whole thing is a sham anyway.”

Impulse goes quiet for a moment, clearly considering Grians plan, before sighing defeatedly. “It beats just giving up and signing anyway, alright. I’ll do it.”

Grian grins widely at him as he moves to shake Impulses hand, which he gladly reciprocates.

Chapter Text

It took a minute for Grian to figure out a discreet meeting place, Impulse managed to kick Skizz out of their dorm for a few hours, it would be temporary, but it would work for now. So now Grian and Impulse were anxiously waiting to see if anyone would show up.

It had only been a few days since he even thought of this plan so he definitely didn’t have all of the details figured out but since Taurtis was still ignoring him he needed the distraction. Martyn did call him back later that night to tell him that Taurtis was okay and that he just took a personal day, but somehow that didn’t make him feel any better.

Even though the whole resistance is maybe 25% a distraction from everything else that was going on, Grian still was very committed to this cause. He knew he had his work cut out for him with convincing a bunch of brainwashed, traumatized kids to uproot their whole belief system for a guy who just entered their life but he was still hopeful he could get at least some of them to agree.

Grians thinking was interrupted by the door
creaking open. He saw Impulse lean foward in his chair a bit trying to catch a glimpse of whoever was going to walk through the door, and when they saw that it was Etho both of their eyes widened as they glanced at one another.

Etho laughed as soon as he saw Impulse and Grian sitting there “I should’ve known you would be the one behind this, Grian.”

Grian shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly with a big grin on his face

“Wait but, I get why Grian and I are here, we both don’t want to kill our best friends-“ Impulse started but Grian interjected

“Actually, Scar is like my—“ He paused to count on his fingers (Taurtis, Martyn, Big B—) “4th best friend.”

Impulse stared at Grian blankly “Right. Anyway my point was, why are you here Etho? Being the son of the big bad wolf doesn’t seem so bad.”

Grian nodded and Etho visibly tensed a little bit.

“Well for starters I don’t really want to eat anyone.” He joked lightheartedly, and Grian could tell that wasn’t the full answer, but he decided not to push as it was clearly personal, and Impulse must have gotten that too because he didn’t say anything else.

After a beat of silence Etho clears his throat and sits in a free chair Impulse sat out. “So it’s just us three then?”

“Seems like it,” Grian answered “I dunno about Impulse but I’m just glad one person showed up.”

Impulse just nodded and Etho looked like he was going to say something else but he was interrupted by the sound of the door opening again.

Mumbo’s roommate, Ren, walked in and this surprised Grian but before he could say anything else, someone else came through the door, someone Grian didn’t recognize.

He smiled and he turned his gaze to Impulse who had a surprised look on his face, as another person walked in after the last.

After inital shock of more than two people joining and everyone settling in a chair, Grian cleared his throat as he stood from his chair.

“Welcome to the resistance everyone.” He grinned widely as the rest of the room shot confused glances at eachother.

-

Not much happened in the initial meeting with the resistance, but something that surprised Grian was that he got all of them to agree to a second meeting. Etho said that his friend could help him set up a newer more permanent meeting place. Other than Ethos friend however, they all agreed to keep their meeting and everyone who attended a secret. Meaning Impulse wasn’t going to tell Skizz, and Grian couldn’t tell Scar.

It’s not that Grian didn’t want to tell Scar, or that he didn’t trust him enough to keep it a secret, he just knew that if the resistance were to be found out he would likely be in a lot of trouble and he didn’t want to risk Scar being apart of that if he didn’t have to. Impulse was in the same boat about telling Skizz so they didn’t have anything to worry about on that front.

Grian however was now faced with the crushing reality that he has no clue what he is doing with their little revolution. He didn’t really expect anyone to take it remotely seriously, so now he was in his dorm, pacing trying to figure out some sort of plan while losing his mind. He couldn’t even talk to Scar about it either so he was at a loss.

Now that he had talked to people who felt the same about not signing, he really didn’t want to disappoint them. He had never been a leader before, always a follower, and he immediately had felt like he had taken off more he could handle. He did not want to get their hopes up and then have the whole plan fall through.

Of course that would imply actually having a plan. So far all his ‘plan’ is to just not sign the book. He couldn’t think of anything to get the headmaster to cancel legacy day. He was new so he barely knew anything about school events, or how news is spread. So his lack of knowledge, let alone resources was already setting him back as a leader.

Grian sighed as he plopped onto his bed in defeat, his thinking not getting him anywhere. As he finally settled down the silence of the room was interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

Grian knew it wasn’t Scar, he said he was going to be spending the day with Jellie. So he just planned to just let them knock until they figured nobody was there and left.

Of course, the universe couldn’t have that because after the person learned knocking wasn’t working, they began pounding on the door. Which sure, was annoying, but he could ignore it. That was until;

“GRIAN!!” He could hear someone yell “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE, OPEN THE DOOR.”

With his cover blown, he unfortunately couldn’t ignore whoever was at the door (which he figured it was Gem by the voice) anymore. He slumped toward the door, ready to create some excuse for not being able to hang out.

He begrudgingly opened the door to reveal a very clearly pissed off Gem. Effectively scaring off any excuse he had formulated in his brain.

“Um.. hello?” He hesitantly said when he noticed Gem not saying anything, he tried keeping his tone light in order to not set her off any further.

“’HELLO?!’” She yelled back at him.

Grian slightly winced at the screaming, so clearly lightening his tone did not work.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘HELLO’?” She exasperated

“Why are you screaming at me!?” He retorted back

“Because I cannot stand Pearls moping anymore!.” Gem groaned “Whatever she did you have to talk to her about so you guys can get over it already!”

Grian sighed internally, regretting answering the door already.

“Respectfully I don’t see how this is your business so,” Grian snapped as he began closing the door again

Gem immediately grabbed the door, preventing him from shutting it any further. “Hey! Pearl is my friend, also my roommate, it is my business when she’s sad all of the time.”

“Imagine how I feel having to actually sign the dumb book.” He glared at her

Gems expression immediately softened “So this is about legacy day then?”

Grian didn’t answer, he just looked away.

“Grian, most people here don’t like legacy day. It’s very normal, Pearl could probably help you—“

"Please! She was only nice to me because she learned that I was going to be the one signing, you should tell her to not even bother with the fake sympathy anymore because I know the truth.” Grian interrupted her and Gems eyes widened and her eyebrows dropped

“Grian, that is not true.” She put her hand on his shoulder which Grian immediately shrugged off as he scoffed. Gem doubled down though. “It’s not, I promise! I know she would sign for you if she could.”

“Right.” He gave her deadpanned look.

“Will you at least talk to her about it? You have to at least give her a chance to explain, Scar has to have told you the same thing, right?” Grian went silent after she said this “Please.” She added.

Grian thought about it, and he had no reason to not trust what Gem was saying, he did like her and his siblings was the only reason he didn’t fight tooth and nail to stay at monster high. He also really missed Mumbo and his other friends, avoiding them was exhausting. He offhandedly wondered about Taurtis, and if he had felt the same about him.

He sighed defeatedly and Gems expression immediately lit up.

“I will call Pearl and Jimmy.” He finally agreed

When Gem immediately pulled him into a tight hug he couldn’t help but wonder just how mopey Pearl had been.

-

When Grian texted it didn’t take long for Pearl to respond. It took even less time for her and Jimmy to show up at his door.

He couldn’t help but feel a bit ashamed as he opened the door, with everything else going on he barely had time to think about the conclusions he jumped when he found out about legacy day. Even though he still didn’t entirely trust them he still should’ve given them a chance to explain themselves.

Pearl was first to rush in, immediately swooping behind him, like he was going to suddenly change his mind and slam the door in their faces. He couldn’t blame her. Jim followed hesitantly after her, his wings closely pressed to his back.

Once the two were both in he shut the door with a soft click. He turned to face them, both of their expressions nervous, as if a bomb was about to go off. Grian wonders briefly if he was right and they were worried that they got caught. He tries to push down that bias as he struggles to find where to begin.

“Well, for starters I’m sorry for avoiding you.” He began “It wasn’t right and I should’ve let you explain yourselves before jumping to any conclusions.”

Both of their faces softened “We aren’t mad, Grian” Pearl assured him calmly “We just want to know why.”

Jimmy nodded alongside Pearl “The last time we talked with Mumbo, you said everything was good and then I didn’t hear from you again. Just confused me is all.”

Grian exhaled, it was good that they weren’t angry with him yet. They very well could be though after he explains his reasons for ignoring them.

Grian took a deep breath before speaking “I was ignoring you because after I learned about legacy day I may have jumped to a few conclusions.”

Pearl nodded her head, not saying anything else, urging him to continue, so he did. “When I was told about legacy day, I completely freaked out. When he told me the oldest sibling has to sign, I just figured that’s why you guys were so nice to me.”

Jimmy tilted his head in confusion, and based on Pearls expression she didn’t make much sense of what he had just said either. “Why would that make us be nice to you?” He asked after a beat of silence.

“Well, so I would stay and sign so you didn’t have to?” He explained, as if it was obvious.

Both of his siblings eyes widened in horror as they both turned to look at eachother. For a moment moment he pondered if he had got it right, and he was just never destined to have a real family. As he was pondering Pearl scoffed lightly, it was really more of a light laugh, as she shook her head slightly.

“Oh, Grian.” She said soflty after noticing the look of utter confusion on Grians face “You should’ve talked to us dummy!”

Jimmy joined in on her laughing, and Grian exhaled sharply “Mate, Pearl literally asked the headmaster if she could sign the book for you.”

Grians eyes widened in disbelief as Pearl nodded her head and Jimmy continued “That was literally the first question out of her mouth after she found out about you.”

“I knew this would be a lot for you.” Pearl began softly as she patted the place next to where she was sitting, beckoning Grian over, he obliged, sitting between his two siblings. “It’s hard for anyone, but at least I knew what was going to happen many years in advance.” She smiled sadly at him “Unfortunately the professor said no, you can ask him he will tell you I practically beged.”

Grian didn’t say anything for a few moments, just taking in what his siblings had to say. He felt so foolish for not talking to them sooner, or for even judging them in the first place. He should know by now that not everyone is like Yuki or Sam, he should especially give that benefit of the doubt to his siblings. They were the whole reason he was even here.

Grian felt his eyes watering as he continued to think, when they noticed his tears Jimmy put his hand on his shoulder and shot him a comforting expression.

“I’m so sorry guys.” Grians voice cracked as he softly spoke, Pearl immediately pulled him into a tight hug.

“Hey, it’s alright Grian, you do not have to apologize.” She muttered into his hair as Jimmy joined in on the hug.

It was nice, Grian knew he still had a lot to make up for, no matter how much his siblings said he didn’t. He hurt a lot of people, and even if it was a defense mechanism they still didn’t deserve that, not his siblings or his friends. Instead of thinking about though, he let himself cry into his siblings embrace. His mind finally clear of the rest of his troubles for the first time since that Jellie ride Scar took him on.

Speak of the devil, their nice moment was interrupted by Scar hesitantly opening the door, being very careful to not wake Grian in case he was sleeping as usual. When he saw Pearl and Jimmy though, his face immediately lit up in pure joy.

“You talked to them?!” Scar practically squealed in delight, clasping his hands together next to his face.

Grian wiped the tears still lingering on his face as he smiled slighlty, giving Scar a nod. To which Scar basically bolted to the trio, joining them in their now group hug. Effectively squeezing the life out of Grian. He really couldn’t bring himself to mind though, not when he looked at Scars face, scrunched up in relief as his arms were wrapped around him.

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since he made up with his siblings, and Grian couldn’t be any happier. He had all of his friends from Ever After High and Monster High, he had his siblings, and he had Scar. He hadn’t felt a sense of belonging this much since he had met Taurtis, the only thing that would make it better if he would actually talk to Grian.

He still hadn’t heard a single word from Taurtis since his 2nd day at Ever After High. Martyn said he was showing up to classes again and that he was at least being cordial with them. This did not help Grians worry at all, he was starting to believe that Taurtis was more than just mad at him and he was trying to just cut him out completely. It would be nice to hear him at least tell him he needed space instead of completely leaving him in the dark.

Martyn said that he would always change the topic or abruptly leave the conversation whenever he would be brought up, so Grians worry was almost completely overtaken by frustration. He wishes he could go and force Taurtis into some healthy communication like Gem did for him. It hurt to know that it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

Above all else he missed Taurtis, no matter how angry and worried he is for him, he just wishes he could call him and just talk to him. He was beginning to feel majorly homesick, especially after he had made up with his siblings. He didn’t have much to distract him anymore. He tried to focus all of his energy on the resistance and their first meeting, which he had set a date for at the end of the week.

At least he had Scar to talk to about all of the Taurtis nonsense now, so Martyn didn’t have to feel guilty not giving him the updates he was hoping for. Scar had been a huge help in keeping him sane throughout this whole situation. The two were only getting closer as time went on.

People would joke about them being inseparable, Pearl specifically would tease Grian relentlessly for spending most of his free time with Scar and having little interest in hanging out in group settings if Scar wasn’t going to be there. He couldn’t help it though, he had opened up the most to him and he made Grian feel nothing but safe. In all honesty Grian felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did, the feeling never went away.

When Grian pulled himself from his thoughts he found himself smiling fondly as he looked at Scar, who was clearly distracted by something on his mirror phone, he had his eyebrows scrunched and he was biting one of his fingernails. He chuckled at the fact he probably didn’t even know Grian had woken up.

Scar perked up when he heard Grians laugh, turning to him happily, abandoning whatever he was previously doing on his phone.

“I didn’t know you were up mister!!” Scar said in his signature sarcastically offended voice.

“I’m sorry I didn’t want to interrupt whatever you were doing, you looked very focused.” Grian smiled as he furrowed his brow

“Oh that, that was—“ Scar stopped suddenly and his eyes widened “That was nothing! You better start getting ready, we’re going to be late!”

Grian just narrowed his eyes at him, very clearly not buying the whole ‘it was nothing’ act. He didn’t really care enough to argue though because Scar did have a point about being late to class, besides if he really wanted he could tease him about it later.

So Grian just rolled his eyes and got out of bed, making sure to shoot Scar an unimpressed look before making his way to the bathroom to get ready.

After he rushed through getting ready, he and Scar set out of their dorm and began walking to class together like they do everyday. Grian noticed Scar looking happier than he normally does, which sounds impossible because the man is the definition of cheerfulness.

“What’s got you so smiely?” Grian can’t help but ask as the pair are exiting the dorms building.

Scars smile impossibly widens for a moment and he looks like he wants to say something but he stops himself, smile morphing into something more nervous. “It’s nothing! Don’t worry about it.”

Grian frowned at him, Scar could usually be a good liar when he wanted to be but he wasn’t even trying to hide it. It confused Grian because the two were pretty honest to eachother, and he obviously knew he didn’t know everything about Scar, lord knows he certainly didn’t know everything about Grian, but he had figured he would at least share when something made him happy.

Grian tried to shrug it off, he figured if Scar wanted to share it with him he would eventually. For now he wanted to change the subject, that’s when he remembered something that Martyn had told him yesterday.

“Apparently Taurtis won’t even talk to the teachers about me.” He said, and Scars look saddened in sympathy. “Yeah, Martyn told me that one of the teachers asked him how I was doing, and he said that he didn’t want to talk about it. Not like he would even know how I was doing.”

“Im so sorry, Grian.” Scar rested his hand on his shoulder, and Grian half heartedly smiled at him.

“It’s alright, Scar. I would get if he needed space or something but I just wish I could see him or something.” Grian sighed

Scar immediately got weird again, his demeanor completely shifted and before Grian got to question it Scar was talking “I just remembered I forgot my notebook at the dorm, I’m going to go run and get it really quick.” He nervously said, already halfway turned ready to sprint back to his dorm.

“Oh, alright. I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it back in time for class but good luck I suppose.” Grian awkwardly smiled at him, not completely buying his excuse.

“Right, well. Thank you—“ He turned around completely but right as he was about to take off he turned back to Grian hastily and quickly added “Oh and before I forget, I promised Bdubs I’d help him with something at lunch so don’t wait up for me, okay?”

Grian nodded and then Scar was gone. He basically sprinted back in the direction of their dorm, leaving Grian standing alone and confused at the entrance of the school building.

-

Scar was in fact late for his first class. He also came back and was very weird towards Grian throughout the rest of their classes together. He barely even looked at Grian when they sat next to eachother and any chance he got he moved away from Grian.

So something was definitely up with Scar, and Grian just couldn’t handle another piece of drama right now, so he gave Scar his space and no matter how much it worried him he did his best to shrug it off.

That was until he got to the cafeteria. Imagine his surprise to see that Bdubs wasn’t with Scar, but in fact sitting with a group of his other friends. So whatever Scar was keeping from him was a secret from his friends too. Determined to figure at least something out, he marched right over to the table Bdubs was sitting at.

Etho, Tango, Bdubs, and Skizz all greeted him and he did his best to be normal with his greeting back to them, but basically right after he said his hellos and sat down he pointed his gaze directly at bdubs.

“So, Bdubs,” He began, trying his hardest to keep his tone light hearted “How did the thing with Scar go?”

Bdubs confused gaze was all the answer that Grian needed, but Bdubs just confirmed his thinking by saying “What thing?”

“He said he had something to help you with at lunch today.” Grian kept his voice light even though he couldn’t help but feel betrayed that Scar lied to him.

“I don’t need help with anything I don—“ Bdubs began but abruptly stopped before he looked like he was considering something “Wait— oh. Maybe I do?”

Grian shot him a confused glance then Bdubs perked up dramatically, as if he remembered something “Oh, I do! He said he would help me creative storytelling homework! I should definitely go and meet with him now. Bye guys!”

Just like that Bdubs hurriedly gathered his lunch and rushed out of the cafeteria. After a few moments of stunned silence Tango started chuckling to himself. Grian raised his eyebrow at him but this only caused him to go into full blown laughter as he tried to gather himself to explain properly.

“I’m sorry— that was just the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.” He breathed out after he composed himself long enough to do so and Skizz joins in on his laughing. “I mean— there’s no way he asked Scar to help with his homework.”

Grian exhaled a little laugh, he knew that a lot of the time people underestimated Scar but he was a lot smarter than people would give him credit for. He tried his best not to be offended on Scars behalf but he still felt like he should say something “Yeah, but, Scar’s actually really smart.”

Tango nodded along with him “Of course, but I doubt he’s even done his homework, I mean it’s Scar.”

This, Grian couldn’t argue with. Scar was the biggest procrastinator he has ever met (not including himself of course).

“Besides Bdubs usually asks Etho for homework help, he’s the only one of us that actually knows what he’s doing.” Skizz added, and Tango agreed.

“Well what do you think they’re doing then?” Grian asked.

Tango and Skizz both immediately stopped their little chuckles as both of their eyes widened, they both looked as if they had forgotten who they were talking to.

“Ah, you know maybe Scar did actually do his homework for once who knows.” Tango awkwardly giggled, as he glanced around at the other two boys, clearly looking for some help.

Etho rolled his eyes after Skizz and Tango awkwardly looked at eachother for a few seconds “Grian are you doing anything significant after school?”

“No, Nothing important.” Grian said noting the awkwardness and the quick subject change but deciding to just ignore it and continue with the peace, he was exhausted enough as it was without adding whatever those three had going on in the mix.

-

Scar spent the rest of the day keeping Grian at arms length, whenever they would talk Scar would act like everything was normal until abruptly in the middle of the conversation where he would make up some excuse and leave as fast as he could. It was all very confusing, they had been fine the night prior and now Scar had been acting all jittery.

And when Grian asked Scar if he wanted to hang out after their classes he said that he had to feed Jellie, which Grian knew was a lie because he always goes to visit Jellie after curfew. He tried his best to give Scar the benefit of the doubt before jumping to any conclusions like he did last time but the man wasn’t doing himself any favors.

Grian was just about to text Martyn to tell him about Scar’s weird behavior when he got a text from an unknown number.

Unknown:
Hey Grian, will you meet me in the library later to discuss things? 3:17 pm

Grian read and reread the text again to search for any clue of who this could be, his heart rate quickening a little despite his. best efforts to remain calm. Ever since he got Sam expelled he always just expected him to reach out and try to get in touch, so whenever Grian got texts from unknown numbers he always immediately assumed it was Sam. No matter how irrational it was. Shakily he typed out his reply.

Me:
whos this?? 3:19 pm

He was quick to get a reply, when he read it he immediately let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding as his hands steadied a bit.

Unknown:
Oh sorry! This is Etho. Gem gave me your number… (: 3:19 pm

Grian chuckled at the way Etho typed, he instantly felt way better as he easily wrote his reply.

Me:
oh well hello etho! 3:20 pm

when did you want us to meet up? 3:20 pm

Unknown:
Around 6:30 if you’re available, you said you didn’t have much to do today. 3:21 pm

Me:
i will be there 3:21 pm

-

By the time it was 6:30 Scar still hadn’t come back to their dorm, when he texted him he had said he was still with Jellie. So at least Scars weirdness meant he didn’t have to come up with an excuse to leave the dorm. He still texted him that he might not be home when he got back anyway, and Scar didn’t ask any further questions. Which is unlike him but Grian didn’t really have time to question it further if he wanted to be able to meet Etho on time.

He was sure that Ethos ‘friend’ was the person he had brought up in the first ‘meeting’ of the resistance. He also had a feeling that he shouldn’t be late, so he left a few minutes earlier than he normally would. Etho said that he would help keep their meetings a secret, and that was arguably the most important part so he wanted to make sure that he could get this person on board.

When Grian arrived to the library, it took him a minute to spot Etho. As expected he wasn’t sitting alone, to the left of him was another boy. He was a brunet and even from just sitting down he could tell that he quite tall. He also looked even more intimidating than Etho did at first, if that was even possible.

When Etho spotted him he waved him over and Grian hurriedly made his way to their table and sat across from the two, waiting for Etho to introduce the two. Which after a few moments of silence, he realized he was not going to do.

So Grian awkwardly spoke up “Uh, hello, I’m Grian.”

The boy nodded “Yes, I know, the new kid from Monster High.” He spoke with a heavy accent that somehow made Grian more nervous.

“Yes that is me!” He awkwardly chuckled as if he were telling a joke and the boy just looked at him like he was crazy.

After a few more beats of awkward silence and pleading glances toward Etho that got him no where, Grian cleared his throat “So, what’s your name?”

“It’s Doc.” He answered plainly and Grian just wanted this conversation to be over with.

“So you don’t like your destiny?” He asks Doc after a few seconds of thinking.

“No, my destiny is fine, I don’t really care about it.” Doc answers and Grian couldn’t help but appreciate the honesty.

Grian still couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you helping us then?”

“He owes me a favor.” Etho answered for him “You can trust him, Grian.”

Even though Grian is still hesitant he has no reason not to trust Etho so he decides to go along with it.

“So, Etho said you needed a secret location to hold your meetings.” Doc said, finally speaking more than just a few words to him. Grian nodded. “Good, I’ve scouted out a location and all I need from you is to approve it and give me a timeframe for when you need this done.”

Grian grinned widely at Doc. Now they were getting somewhere.

-

Grian did end up liking the spot Doc had picked out, and surprisingly Doc was much more okay with the time frame Grian needed than he originally thought he would be. So at least with the resistance everything was going smoothly.

As for his best friend troubles, Taurtis of course still has not responded to his mountain of texts and calls. To add to that, he felt that he was seeing less and less of Scar these days. He would have a new excuse each time he suddenly had to leave.

Yesterday, he didn’t even greet Grian when he woke up, he just went to school without him. To make matters worse, everyone he would try and talk to about it would make up excuses for Scar. He was starting to think he was going crazy for even thinking Scar was acting different. He just knew this wasn’t how Scar acted when they first became friends, and he really missed him.

At least preparing for the resistance meeting was keeping him busy. Doc kept him throughly updated throughout the week and their entrance was ready, just in time for the meeting happening tomorrow night. He also was tasked with giving the location of their little base to the other members. He enlisted the help of Impulse and the two got it done pretty fast. Unfortunately though, now all Grian had to do was wait.

Waiting only made him miss both of his best friends that were seemingly ignoring him now. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Taurtis, so he was going to try and message Scar. He said he was going to be hanging out with Cub but Grian was hoping they could hang out after, considering he’s barely even seen him all week. He stared at their messages for a few minutes thinking about what to say, he began typing a few times but ended up deleting them. He eventually settled on something simple, after realizing that it was stupid for him to be nervous texting Scar of all people.

Me:
hey scar wanna hang out after youre done with cub? i was thinking maybe we could go and see jellie, i miss her. 5:12 pm

Scar:
im sorry grian as much as i would really like to do that i think im still going to be a while here i might actually stay the night at cubs to make it easier 5:15 pm

qnother timw tho?? 5:17 pm

Grian couldn’t help but feeling the disappointment as he read Scars messages. He knew he shouldn’t get mad at him for hanging out with someone else though, so he just sent an ‘okay, sounds good.’ and plopped back down on his bed in disappointment.

He had to just come to terms with the fact that he was just going to have to face the music and just sit and think about Taurtis ignoring him.

What was funny though, was the fact that the only thing Grian was thinking about was the fact that Scar had been acting distant toward him.

-

Even though the night passed so slowly eventually the next day came, and Grian woke up feeling more ready than ever for the first ever resistance meeting. He felt a little nervous sure, he didn’t know how he would do as a leader but he was definitely going to try. He knew that none of these people should have to follow through with a destiny that they didn’t want, no matter the reason.

Determined, he got ready for their meeting quickly, wanting to get there a little earlier to see if he could scout out the room a little. Wanting to make sure he got the seating arrangements right.

So when the meeting time came a little closer, he hurriedly gathered his bag with a notebook he intended to use to jot down ideas any of the members had and made his way to their new secret meeting room. Noting the fact that Scar still hadn’t returned before leaving. He shook that off though, still determined to make this meeting go smoothly.

Doc did a phenomenal job with their secret entrance, Grian of course doesn’t understand how he was able to do it, but somewhere in the dormitory hallways, if you clicked some loose tiles in a certain order, you would find yourself in a quaint room, with not much in it. Just a wooden table surrounded by chairs, with a white board behind it just in case some scheming was in order. Grian was very pleased with it though, he happily made his was to his own chair. Not before counting each chair though, triple checking that he had brought enough for each member.

Once he had made sure, he took out his notebook and waited for each member to arrive, and as the meeting time approached, each of them did.

Surprisingly, Doc had arrived first, a few minutes early. Doc confused Grian a lot, for a man who seemed so uninterested in resisting and not signing the book of legends, you would think he wouldn’t be the first one to their meeting. Grian just shrugged it off, figuring he was a man of punctuality.

Impulse arrived after Doc, followed by one of the people Grian didn’t recognize (he learned that their name was Jevin). As more people began to trickle in the more nervous Grian became. He hadn’t seen all of the members in the same room since their first ‘meeting’ in Impulses dorm, and even that didn’t include everyone here today. It all was beginning to feel very official, and Grian still wasn’t even sure he was up fir this task.

It was too late to take it all back now though. As the last person (Etho) arrived all of his members looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something. He hesitantly stood up from his chair and cleared his throat. Any sort of time preparing for this was basically out of the window as his mind raced at a million miles per minute.

Still, he spoke anyway. Doing what he could to sound assured and leaderly. “We are all here because we wish we didn’t have to sign the storybook of legends.” He began, “Besides, Stress.” He added quickly, “Who just happened to stumble across our hideout while Doc was working on the door.”

“Hey, I don’t know what you expected, building it right next to my dorm and all.” She interrupted pointedly.

“Right well— We are happy you’re here anyway. More the merrier.” He tried to sound as lighthearted as he could, even though when she found Doc working on the door while Grian and Impulse were discussing keeping it hidden he had thought his whole plan was completely over and he was going to bring down Impulse and Doc with him. Thankfully, Stress was more than willing to keep their group a secret. More than grateful, Grian offered her a spot in their resistance even though she was a royal. He was pleasantly surprised when she accepted.

“Anyway, I’m sure you’re all confused on what this all even means,” Grian continued on a more serious note “you’ve probably figured out by now that this is more than just a support group for people that are unhappy with their destinies.” He paused to look around at the faces on the table, each of them listening pointedly. “My goal with this resistance is to make sure none of you have to sign if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, you said that, but how is that even possible?” Ren asked, but before Grian could even reply, Doc interrupted him.

“Wait- Ren?? What are you doing here? I thought you loved your destiny.” Doc asked, confusion visible on his face.

“Oh hi Doc!” Ren replied chipperly, momentarily ignoring his question (which was very on point for Ren, as far as Grian knew him.) “I’m not here because I don’t want to sign, I just think it will be kind of funny when they inevitably fail.”

Grian gave Ren an unimpressed face. Doc however, found this hilarious. He broke out into a fit of wheezing laughter, Ren perked up with pride. Grian would probably normally be mad, however this is the first time he’s seen Doc show a pleasant emotion, so he couldn’t help but join in on the laughter, doing his best to suppress his chuckles with a hand on his mouth.

When Docs laughter died down, and Grian composed himself he thought back to Rens question. Even though Ren was here as mostly a joke he still felt like it was a valid question so he thought he should answer it.

“Well, for starters I have no intention of failing, or being caught.” He turned his gaze to Doc, silently showing him that even though he was hesitant at first, he fully trusted him. Doc gave him a slight nod in approval, so Grian continued. “As for your question, my plan is to scare the headmaster into canceling legacy day.”

“Scare him?” Etho asked in a doubtful tone “How do you plan on scaring him into canceling the most important event of the school year.”

“Well for that I was hoping you guys could help,” Grian began but he quickly realized that sounded like he didn’t have a plan at all, so he immediately back tracked “what I meant is, I was thinking at any other events the school has we anonymously make it known that we are not going to sign the book. I need your help with that because I don’t know of any of your school events.”

Unsure glances were passed around in the crowd and Grian already felt himself losing them. All of his doubts at being a leader were resolidified as he struggled to think about what to say next.

Thats when Impulse slowly stood from his chair, Grian gave him a grateful and relieved look as he cleared his throat.

“Grian isn’t saying that we aren’t signing the book, he’s saying that we are going to say that we aren’t.” Impulse explained

“Why would that get him to cancel legacy day though?” Another member that Grian had only just became acquainted with (XB) asked.

“Well Grian thinks that he is lying about all of the people from our story disappearing,” Impulse answers for him again, which surprises Grian, but he is happy nevertheless that Impulse is on the same page with his plan. “So he thinks that if enough of us say we won’t sign it will scare him into canceling because if he doesn’t everyone will know that everyone disappearing is a lie when all of us don’t sign.”

Grian smiled at Impulse as he continued “Yes, exactly! I’m not asking you guys not to sign, because I know that would be a lot for you to agree to. I just think this is worth a shot, and if all else fails I just won’t sign, since I know this whole thing is a sham anyway!”

From what Grian could tell their explanation helped with some of the doubt and confusion, still though they didn’t look 100% convinced.

“So how do you plan on scaring him?” Etho asked

“Well I was thinking of sort of crashing any sort of major school events where everyone will be there.” Grian began, “Like assemblys and such.— Or, I don’t suppose you guys don’t have a monster ball, do you?”

There were multiple people who shook their head.

“What is a Monster ball?” Ren asked throughout the crowds confusion.

“You know its like, a dance where you could ask someone to go with you and there is music, and punch.” Grian explains the best he could, even though he never went to one. He had always wanted to but Sam had always thought they were lame, so he never got the chance.

“Oh! Thronecoming!!” Ren exclaimed happily “We have one of those!”

“Thats perfect then, we can use that to stage our plan.” Grian said, reaching into his bag so he could get the notebook he had brought in order to take notes. “Now can anyone explain to me in detail about your thronecoming.”

-

Grian arrived back to his dorm feeling some type of high. It seemed that all of the members of the resistance were on the same page as him and were all on board with his plan. Which they all begun mapping out. Grian still wanted to research some of what this thronecoming thing was about, but he still filed that meeting under a complete success.

When he opened his door he felt even better when he saw that Scar was home. While Grian knew he couldn’t tell Scar exactly why he was so happy, he still intended to hang out with him and share some of his good energy.

That was until as soon as Scar saw Grian he immediately rushed out “Oh well hello Grian! I’m just here getting a few things before I have to go and do something.”

Grians face instantly dropped from the smile he previously had, he let out a disappointed ’oh’.

“Scar, can you maybe reschedule? It feels like I haven’t properly seen you in forever.” He asked, placing his hand on Scars arm, effectively stopping him from hurriedly gathering his things and putting them sloppily in his bag.

And for a second, when Scars look softens from his previous nervous and frantic one, he thought that he was actually going to say yes. Unfortunately for Grian, his face instantly morphed back into his nervous expression. Like he couldn’t be in the same room as Grian for more that a few moments.

“Sorry Grian, I have to go and get this done, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Scar released himself from Grians grip and hurriedly made his way to their door.

“Scar, wait—“ The door shut with a swift click before he even got the chance to say anything else, and Scar was gone.

Grian felt his eyes beginning to sting. No matter how many times his friends excused Scars behavior lately, it didn’t help Grian from feeling hurt. He already had his best friend from his old school ignoring him, he didn’t need his best friend from this school doing the same.

Grian felt completely helpless as he took out his icoffin and took the familiar journey to Taurtis’s contact.

Me:
please just answer me taurtis
! not delivered

taurtis??
! not delivered

Grians eyes widened in horror at his screen. He had figured he might’ve been trying too hard to get Taurtis to reply but he never thought he would actually block Grians contact.

As Grians angry tears flooded his vision, his immediate reaction was to call Martyn. But as he switched to their messages something clicked in his brain.

Just because he couldn’t force Taurtis to talk to him, didn’t mean he couldn’t force Scar into talking to him. As soon as the thought entered his mind he compulsively basically bolted out of his door. Scar couldn’t have gotten very far, it had only been about 5 minutes since he had basically stormed out on him. If he couldn’t find him in the hallways he could always just go to Cubs dorm.

It took him a minute of angrily storming down the halls to find him, but eventually he did find Scar walking in the direction he thought he would be.

“Scar!” Grian shouted at the other end of the hallway, and Scar (rather comically) turned toward him slowly. Once he was facing him Grian practically marched towards him, his face stained with frustrated tears. Once he was close enough he grabbed Scar by his shoulders and pulled him towards him, and he made no effort to pull away from Grian, his eyes were wide with concern as he noticed Grians state, and if Grian thought about it more he could notice a slight flush on his cheeks once he grabbed his shoulders.

Grian was too sad and angry to pay that close attention though, so that detail went unnoticed as he angrily shook Scar as he spoke. “I don’t know what I did,” He began, and Scar opened his mouth to speak but before he said anything Grian rushed out “and don’t say it’s nothing because I know you’re avoiding me, so just let me know what I did because I can’t have another one of my best friends not talking to me, Scar.”

Scars face immediately softened to that familiar look in his eyes when he would look at Grian. So Grian sadly smiled at Scar “Please, talk to me.”

“Oh, Grian. I am so sorry.” Scar exhaled “I am so stupid. I wasn’t even thinking that what I was doing is exactly what Taurtis is doing to you as well.”

The mention of Taurtis stung, especially now that Grian couldn’t even text him. He felt more tears forming in his eyes, he tried to compose himself as he spoke though “I just want to know why.”

“Grian it was nothing you did, I swear I wasn’t trying to avoid you.” Scar explained softly and Grian looked at him intently, silently waiting for him to continue.

“I just—“ He hesitated “I’ve been sort of setting up a surprise for you, and everytime I was in cose proximity to you I was in serious danger of just telling it to you.”

Grian immediately let go of Scars shoulders and let the tears he was holding back fall in relief. He let his head fall onto Scars chest as he couldn’t help but to begin laughing. “Oh my god, you idiot.”

Scar didn’t even try to defend himself, he just joined in on Grians laughter, he sounded relieved. That made two of them, Grian thought.

“I’m so sorry.” Scar apologized again “I clearly wasn’t thinking.”

Grian raised his head again and smiled fondly at Scar “Clearly not, I would way rather a surprise be spoiled then not hang out with you.”

“Well I didn’t want to promise you something and then it not happen. Especially not something like this.” Scars brow furrowed and now Grians curiosity was peaked.

“What is it?” Grian asked, and Scar smiled at him. Grian was somehow nervous for what he was about to say next. He pulled slightly away from Scar so he could better look in his eye.

“I got the headmaster to agree to let you go back to Monster High for the weekend, so you could talk to Taurtis.”

Grian just stares at him in complete shock for a few moments. Scar eventually says a quiet “Grian??” Which causes Grian to basically launch himself at Scar, tackling him into a tight embrace.

“Thank you.” He says softly, voice cracking as he buries his face into Scars shoulder.

Chapter Text

The week leading up to his Monster High visit had been going by agonizingly slow. Grian felt bad because he had been so hyperfocused on going back home that he hadn’t really been all that present in the resistance meetings. He had been listening of course! Well,, somewhat. He knew that Etho had begun working on the video that they were going to blast at their thronecoming game. Impulse had already gotten to work on hacking into the schools speaker system. So Grian hadn’t really felt too horribly for his lack of participation because his teammates were more than making up for it.

He had intrusted Impulse to be the designated person for other members to turn to if they had anything pressing come up, but he doubted anything eventful would happen in the less than 48 hours he was going to be gone for. He still felt like having a backup plan just in case was the smart leadership thing to do though, so he had let everyone know that Impulse was temporarily in charge, just in case.

That was about as much thought that he had put into the resistance though, the rest of his mind that week was just filled of what he was going to say to Taurtis. Or what his other friends would say when he got there, because to his knowledge Scar didn’t tell anyone else but Cub his plans to get Grian to be able to go back home.

He knew that Martyns reaction would be to scream at him probably and he prepared himself for that. He thinks its way funnier if he doesn’t know he’s coming anyway.

The only thing Grian really thought about though was Taurtis. He couldnt figure out what he would say when he saw him. Would he even sayy anything? Would he just slam the door in his face? He honestly didn’t know what he was expecting, he thought he knew Taurtis fairly well but the more he thought about it, the more his mind filled with doubt.

Scar had done his best to assure Grian that everything was going to go smoothly. He told Grian that Taurtis was going to listen to Grian and they would be as close as they used to be. If Grian were honest, it did help a little bit. Scars positivity was always something Grian admired, and it was definitely infectious.

Grian honestly wanted Scar to go with him, he figured that if he did this amazing thing for him the least Grian could do was take him home to meet his friends and show him around. Apparently Scar wasn’t allowed though, no matter how much he asked the headmaster. Scar had insisted that it was alright because that wasn’t the reason he had organized the whole thing, but deep down Grian really just wanted to introduce him to his friends, and maybe Scar could see what Grian saw in Taurtis if he met him in person.

It was Scars fault he was even able to go back to Monster High anyway, Grian felt like it was only right he got to go. But no matter how many times he tried to reason with the Headmaster, the answer was always no, and Grian didn’t want to push too hard in case he changed his mind on even letting Grian go. So unfortunately Scar would have to get a tour of his home another time.

That didn’t mean he was exempt from helping Grian pack for his less than two night vacation! (Scar had to offer to help because Grian was too busy freaking out to even start.)

“I can’t believe you’re making me be the responsible one right now.” Scar said as he had folded the last of the clothes that Grian was going to bring into his bag.

Grian laughed “You know neither of us are the responsible one.”

Scar was silent for a moment before shrugging lightly “I guess that’s true.”

Grian smiled but it soon faded to the familiar look of anxiousness he had been wearing all day, all week really. Even that didn’t last long though, as a swift pillow thrown square in his face interrupted any train of thought he had. Once he gained his composure and fully registered what just happened he just gasped half offendedly at Scar, who had a mischievous and satisfied grin on his face.

“What the hell Scar?!” He excused in a half laugh

“You were going to downersville.” He laughed back, his voice in a nonchalant tone.

“Downersville?” He was basically giggling at Scar who had a nonserious look on his face.

“Yeah, you’ve been doing this all week, you have to stop getting in your own head.”

“Thanks Scar, thats so helpful.” Grian rolled his eyes playfully

“Im serious mister! You’ve got nothing to worry about all of your friends are going to be very happy to see you.” Grian sighed and looked away from Scar, going right back into what Scar called ‘downersville’. Once Scar noticed this he was quick to add “Even Taurtis.”

Grian hummed, he didnt fully believe Scar but he let himself try to listen to Scar and his accursed positivity, and try to ignoring the looming feeling in his gut that this wasn’t going to go how he wanted it to. He saw the pillow Scar threw at him in the corner of his vision.

He obviously figured that getting his revenge would help with his anxiety, so if he chucked a pillow or two at Scar, could you blame him?

And if a pillow fight (war) broke out between the two, causing them to completely ignore Grians packing again, could you blame them?

-

The ride from Ever After High to Monster High was as long as it was when he first took it. He felt the same dreadful feeling he had too when he stepped off the carriage. When he arrived he noticed it was just around when students were getting ready to leave for day. So unfortunately he didn’t have much time to find Martyn and the others.

He could just head up to Taurtis’ dorm now and get this whole thing over with, but now that Grian was actually here that was the absolute last thing he wanted do. So he hesitantly opened the door to his old home and immediately began scanning the halls for any sign of his friends.

His eyes widened as he pretty much immediately locked eyes Big B who was looking right at him with his jaw practically on the floor. Grian just froze as soon as he noticed him like a deer in headlights. He barely had time to react to Big B hurdling towards him until he was already enveloped in a crushing hug.

“B, you’re crushing me.” Grian managed to get a laugh out

“What are you doing here?” Big B asked ignoring his statement, but he did loosen his embrace a little bit.

“I came here to see you guys” He answered honestly.. okay it was a half truth, Big B seemed to clock it too because he pulled away from Grian just to give him an unamused face, to which Grian responded truthfuly this time “Okay, fine. I’m here to talk to Taurtis, but seeing you guys is an added bonus.”

Big B laughed lightheartedly “I figured, but i just wanted to make sure you weren’t running away.”

“Not this time, B.” Grian confirmed, which was a little weird to him because a few months ago Grian figured the next time he would see Monster High was if he did run away. It made him miss Scar, considering he was the only reason Grian hadn’t run.

B must’ve noticed his frown because he shook him out of it by excitedly grabbing Grians arm and tugging him throughout the still crowded hallway “Come on we’ve gotta find Martyn and Netty, they don’t know that you’re coming, do they?”

Grian laughed menacingly, which seemed to be answer enough for B, who just nodded knowingly and begun leading him towards what seemed to be biteolgy, which Grian knew to be Martyns last class.

Once they got closer it was seemingly impossible to spot Martyn in the sea of students surrounding the halls. But when Grian saw a familiar black bandana and shot Big B a look, which he understood to mean for him take the lead.

So Big B walked a few paces ahead of Grian while he tried to contain his laughter as Big B tapped Martyns shoulder.

“Hey, Martyn. Look who decided to show up at Monster High again.”

“What?—“ Martyn begun as he turned toward the pair and immediately cut himself off when he saw Grian who was desperately trying to contain his grin.

He must’ve looked too serious because Martyn immediately dropped what he was holding and pushed Grian into a tight hug, he stumbled back a bit, obviously taken aback by his unexpected reaction. He did end up reciprocating his hug eventually. The two stayed in that comforting moment until Martyn pulled back harshly, holding Grians shoulders his eyes looked all over his face.

“Grian are you okay? What happened I thought everything was going well? Was it Scar? If it was Scar I swear I’ll—“ Martyn began to protectively ramble but before he got too ahead of himself Grian cut him off with a light laugh.

“Slow down Martyn, Scar didn’t do anything.” Grian wasn’t entirely sure why he would assume Scar would be the one to cause him to run away, but he felt he should clear that up before anything else. “I’m here for like a day and a half to talk to Taurtis.”

Martyn sighed out of relief “Good. Im glad someones going to finally talk some sense to him. Im going to try to ignore the fact that you only came back to talk to Taurtis though.”

“If I were only here to talk to Taurtis I wouldn’t be here talking to you two fools.” Grian joked back

“Oh please I already know that you’re putting off talking to him as long as possible, B and I are just one of your many distractions.” Martyn clocked instantly.

“Well, you’re not wrong,,, but you’re wrong.” Grian laughed, bringing a hand to cover his mouth a bit.

Martyn Shrugged nonchalantly, joining Grian in his laughter “I just know you too well, Gri.”

Grian rolled his eyes, but he knew he was right.

“Martyn do you reckon we freak out Netty with him?” Big B asked, mischievous grin spreading on his own face.

“Big B you menace!” Martyn exclaimed offendedly “… Let’s do it!”

Grian deadpanned at the two “You guys can’t talk about me like I’m not here.”

“Oh come on Grian, you know you want to.” Martyn grabbed his forearm and begun dragging him towards an unspecific direction

Big B grabbed his other arm and followed Martyns lead “Yeah, it will be fun!”

Grian just laughed as he let his friends drag him down the hallway, halfway because he missed them and their antics, and the other half because they weren’t wrong. Messing with Netty did sound like fun.

-

Of course Martyn and Big B were right, Netty’s reaction definitely did not disappoint. She reacted how Grian had expected Martyn to react. She saw Grian and immediately started yelling at him for not at least calling them before just showing up. Which of course when he told her it was funnier this way, she was less than pleased.

After Grian eventually apologized a few times though, the group immediately fell back into their old routines. They spent basically the whole afternoon at the coffin bean just talking. Grian tried asking Martyn about his improv club, but the rest of his friends were fairly set on just talking about just what/how exactly Grian was doing here.

He told them he was here to set things straight with Taurtis, but that clearly wasn’t answer enough to satisfy them.

“Yeah, I know you’re here to see Taurtis, I’m just asking how you got here.” Martyn asked for what felt like the milionth time.

“And I already told you,” Grian got out through gritted teeth “Ever After High sent me in a carriage, just like the one they picked me up in.”

Big B chuckled tiredly at Grians smart comment “Very funny G, I think Martyn meant why did they let you come back? It’s only been a few months. And don’t they need you to sign some books?”

Grian scoffed at the mention of legacy day, it made him think of the resistance. He hoped everything was going well back at Ever After High. Grian snapped out of it though when he realized he hadn’t replied yet. “Okay fine, Scar got the Headmaster to agree to let me come back home for the weekend. I don’t know what he said for sure, but it was something about boosting my morale for legacy day.” Grian paused, cringing slightly at his own mention “As for legacy day itself, I obviously don’t plan on signing my life away, thank you.”

Netty’s face brightened at Grians answer “Aww, Scar got you here? He’s your roommate, right? I like him.”

Grian nodded, and he was relieved to hear her say that, considering the three were (understandably) pretty overprotective when it came to Grian picking out friends. It took Martyn weeks to even adress Joel when the three would have conversations. So the fact that they all seemingly really liked Scar meant a lot to him.

“Yeah, well Grian definitely likes Scar too.” Martyn smiled menacingly at him but Grian just rolled his eyes. Of course he knew what he was insinuating and he saw the way the others had perked up at Martyns suggestion, but he wasn’t going to engage in his fantasy, because frankly it was ridiculous.

“Im just glad you guys like him so you aren’t embarrassing me like you did with Joel and Mumbo.” Grian joked, trying to change the topic.

Martyn seemed to had gotten the memo, because he backed off about the subject very quickly. “Well how can we not if he got you here? Hopefully after you talk to Taurtis everything will go back to normal, finally.”

“Here’s hoping.” Grian shuddered a little, the thought of his conversation with Taurtis, the feeling in his gut that it wasn’t going to go well was still there and everytime he even briefly thought of Taurtis it just amplified.

“Are you talking to him tomorrow before you leave?” Big B asked

Grian huffed “I wish i could put it off until tomorrow but I’m sure by then he would’ve already heard that I was here by now. I can’t risk having him getting out of it somehow.”

“Wait you’re seriously going to talk to him tonight?” Big B tilted his head at him “It’s already getting pretty late, if you’re going to do it tonight you’ve got to do it soon.”

Grian almost cringed as he lifted his Icoffin to check the time. He knew B was right but now that he was here the thought of actually going to Taurtis’ dorm and knocking felt surreal.

Grian genuinely didn’t know how Taurtis was going to react. Up until recently he thought he knew his best friend pretty well, but the best friend Grian knew wouldn’t have ignored him for all this time so he really wasn’t sure what to expect.

Would he even answer the door? When he saw Grian would he let him in? Would he slam the door in his face? He wasn’t sure and he wasn’t too keen on figuring it out. But he felt the clock ticking while he was trying to enjoy catching up with his friends. Eventually his nerves got the better of him and he decided it was time for him to face the music and finally talk to Taurtis.

He told his friends this, and even though they were surprised at the abrupt ending to their hangout they wished him luck and then there he was on his way, he was finally going to do it, and either everything was about to go back to how it used to be, or everything was going to change.

-

Grians heart was basically beating out of his chest as he passed the familiar halls of the Monster High dormitories. They definitely weren’t as fancy as the dorms back at Ever After High, but it was basically where he grew up. Grian was sure that the sense of nostalgia was the only thing keeping his heart from giving in to the stress he was feeling.

Grian lingered a little longer at the front of his old dorm. Luckily the room hadn’t been filled yet so that was where he was going to be staying tonight. Now that he was thinking about it, he might have forgotten to tell anyone else that, oh well, he would text them about it after he talked with Taurtis

Speaking of Taurtis, the closer he got to his dorm, the slower he felt his steps becoming. However, once he found himself in front of his dorm, he couldn’t really delay it any longer. He balled his fist and slowly raised it to his door, pausing briefly before softly knocking on his door.

After a few moments of stillness a sense of horror washed over hime, that he had come all this way but still waited too long and now he was asleep, and probably already heard that he was here and making up a plan to avoid him. After some more panicked thinking he finally heard some rustling behind the door.

“One second” It was Taurtis, it felt surreal for Grian to hear his voice after months of not talking. The only time the two had went that long without talking since they met was when Taurtis physically couldn’t talk to him.

That was a weird thought that Grian had to push down as Taurtis’ door slowly creaked open, the light from his room illuminating Grian in the dark hallway. Grian took in all of Taurtis, he looked the exact same. He looked the same as he did when they were still talking, like completely cutting Grian off had no effect on him. The only thing different was the look of horror on his face when he saw Grian.

“Are you serious?” He asks, almost in a laugh.

“You must be a very busy man Taurtis, because this is the only way I can seem to get ahold of you.” Grian flashed him a sarcastic toothy smile. He didn’t mean to be that bitter, but after months of being ignored he felt like he might have earned the right.

Taurtis scoffed and then rolled his eyes “Very funny.” He began to close his door but before he could Grian grabbed the frame.

“Wait,” He got out, immediately regretting the start they got off to “Please, we clearly need to talk.”

“Grian, I don’t want to have this conversation with you right now.” He says, and he sounds tired. Grian really shouldn’t have waited this long to come by.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Grian says sincerely “I don’t want to either but I’m only here until tomorrow and I physically can’t deal with anymore silence from you.”

Taurtis paused for a moment, just looking somewhere behind Grian, his door still cracked with his hand on the table.

Grian couldn’t describe the way he was feeling as anything other than dreadful. The only time Taurtis has even looked at him so far was in horror when he first opened the door.

“Fine, okay.” Taurtis opened his door a bit wider, stepping aside a bit beckoning Grian in. “Come inside.”

Grian did what he was told, he walked into the familiar place that was Taurtis’ dorm and his first instinct was to go and sit on his bed, but he wasn’t sure if he got to do that anymore. So instead he just sat by his nightstand awkwardly, waiting for Taurtis to make the first move.

It took him a few minutes but eventually he caught that Grian wasn’t saying anything so he finally broke the silence “So I’m guessing that you saw that I blocked you, then.”

Okay, straight to the point. It was getting late so they might as well get to the point, Grian could handle that… hopefully.

“Yes I did, it was coincidental timing though, Scar was the one who got me here.” Grian awkwardly shifted, momentarily fidgeting with his hands as he spoke.

“Who on earth is Scar?” Taurtis asked bluntly.

Of course, Taurtis wouldn’t know who Scar was. It kind of reminded Grian how upset he was, that two of his best friends haven’t even met yet. “You would know if you knew how to answer a text.”

Taurtis scoffed back at him “Real nice, G.”

“Well what did you want me to say, Taurtis?” Grian bit back in response “Thank you so much for ignoring me, lets move past it and be besties again? No, I want to know why.”

Taurtis just stood there, looking almost at Grian but not quite. Grian let out a noise of frustration once he noticed he wasn’t saying anything. He was about to raise his voice again but Taurtis spoke.

“I don’t want to be friends anymore.” It was almost a whisper. Grians stomach dropped, he had to do a double take to make sure he heard it right.

“What?” Grian exasperated, he almost lost his footing, sure his mind went to this place but he didn’t expect to hear his worst case scenario come out of Taurtis’ mouth.

“This is why I blocked you, I thought it would be easier if I just never saw you again.” Taurtis rushed out “Instead of having this conversation.”

“So you were just going to let me wonder what you were thinking if I didn’t come here and force you to tell me that you were ending our five year long friendship?” Grian gasped out in disbelief, he could barely recognize the person he was talking to. “I was a good friend to you, I think I deserve more than that.”

“A good friend to me?” Taurtis scoffed out a laugh “Good friends don’t let their exes stab them”

Grian gasped angrily “I did not—“

Taurtis cut him off though “And it shouldn’t take me saying I was going to press charges for you to break up with him!”

Grian went silent. He felt himself being transported back to a year ago. Dressed in Taurtis’ clothes, sitting by his hospital bed, one of the only times he was able to get away from Sam to visit. This time, Taurtis was awake, and he was angry. Grian told him about what had happened since he had been in a coma and he wanted to do something about it. Grians face was tear stained as he was begging him not to. Thats how their deal was formed. Taurtis wouldn’t press charges if Grian cut all ties with him.

Grian practically forced himself back to reality, he didn’t want to fall back too deep into the headspace he was in that day. He brought his hand to his cheek only to realize that he must have started crying, it was hard not to when he thought about that time.

“This is why i didn’t want to tell you.” Taurtis raised his hand frustratedly, probably referring to the state Grian was now in. “Everytime I’m around you I’m brought back to that time.”

Grian said nothing, still processing what Taurtis was telling him, his mind was racing and he almost felt like he was seeing this in 3rd person.

“It took you leaving to realize how suffocated I was when I was around you.” Taurtis continued, if he noticed the effect it was having on Grian, he didn’t care enough.

Meanwhile the word suffocated kept repeating in Griand head. All the time he had thought everything was starting to be okay again, he felt suffocated.

“At first I was mad at you for leaving, thats why I distanced myself.” He explained, Grian was only halfway listening “But the more time I spent away from you, the more I finally felt like me again.”

Grian tried to muster up something thoughful or at least right to say but he couldn’t come up with anything, instead he just bearly squeaked out “I’m sorry, I have to go.”

And just like that, Grian practically sprinted outside of Taurtis’ dorm, and booked it for his own. He almost missed it with where he was in his head but he threw himself inside and basically slammed the door, desperately searching for something to do to keep him from spiraling.

He fumbled for his phone, his immediate thought is to call Martyn but he just couldn’t handle explaining it to him right now. He felt like Sam, he felt dirty. Like he was the person he hated. Taurtis felt like himself with him gone. Just how they did when Sam left. Martyn wouldn’t get it, he know most of what happened but nobody would ever have the full story. He just lost the only other person he could talk to in depth about this.

Grian didn’t know what he needed, but he knew what he wanted. He clicked Scars contact on his phone, and facetimed him. It was way past Ever After High curfew but Grian genuinely didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t answer. Of course, he didn’t have to worry about that for very long because Scar answered. He always did. His phone screen lit up his almost pitch black room.

“Well hullo there!” He said cheerfully as soon as he picked up the phone, just as he always did, but once he noticed something was wrong his face immediately changed. He sat up almost instantly and worry became prevalent from on his face “Grian? What’s wrong?”

Grian exhaled shakily “It didn’t go well.” Is all he managed to muster, which made him feel even worse. Calling Scar was such a mistake, he was worrying him for nothing, Scar wouldn’t understand and Grian was certainly in no shape to explain all his trauma even if he did want to.

Grians racing mind was interrupted by Scar who was clearly putting on his soothing tone “Hey, it’s okay Grian. I wont go anywhere, I’m staying on the phone, okay?”

Grian just nodded, he pressed his back fully onto his door now, trying to ignore the discomfort in his wings. He leaned his head up to where it was resting on his door, and he just let the tears fall. He was trying to keep it a little together before but he was through with that now. He has almost forgotten that he called Scar until he said something.

“Grian?” He called out, and when Grian looked back down at his phone he noticed their dorm light was now on and he was sitting upright, clearly now completely focused on Grian “I’m back now, what happened?”

Grian looked away from his screen, he didn’t know what to say, he barely even knew what happened himself. How was he going to explain anything to someone that hadn’t lived through it. “He doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.” He said bluntly, his voice still hoarse from crying, he honestly didn’t feel right saying it about Taurtis.

Scar looked like his heart had broken for him. Grian didn’t like seeing him sad, it had just made him regret calling him even more. He should’ve just called Pearl, this was more of an older sibling job anyway. He just felt like he needed to hear Scars voice but now he had just felt guilty for disturbing him.

“I am so sorry Grian, if I had known he would have dond this I wouldn’t have sent you over there.” Grian looked back at his phone screen, Scar had a frown on his face and his eyebrows were furrowed, it looked wrong on him.

“Don’t apologize Scar” He assured “It’s not your fault, I just want to come home.” Him calling Ever After High home was something he didn’t expect to come from his mouth.

“Do you want me to ask them to pick you up earlier, I think it’s too late for them to come and get you now, I could ask.” Scar offers and you can hear in his voice that he is anxious, he sounds like he’s talking to a ticking bomb.

“It’s okay Scar, I can hold out until 4pm. I have Martyn, BigB and Netty.” Grian said (pretty coherently he might add).

“Have you told them yet?” Scar asked softly, he could probably tell that Grian has calmed down a bit.

Grian shook his head lightly “You were my first call.”

Scar smiled sadly at him, and they went silent. Grian couldn’t blame him for not knowing what to say, he felt bad for springing this on him. He should’ve called anyone else. Scar shouldn’t have to worry, he doesn’t even know what he’s worrying about.

Grian sighed “I’m sorry, Scar. For calling you.” He started, noticing Scars frown, but before he could continue Grian added “I’m also sorry for being so mean to you when we first met, you were so nice to me you didn’t deserve it.”

Grian was fully crying again now, he struggled to get out his apologies inbetween hitched breaths.

Eventually Scar was able to interrupt Grians string of apologies “Hey, Grian I’m not going anywhere okay?”

Grians eyes immediately focused on Scars, of course he saw right through him.

He continued though “I’m not going to be ending our friendship anytime soon, okay? Also, I’m glad you trust me enough to call me.” Grian was touched by the sincerity in his voice.

He wondered if he would say the same with the same sincerity if he knew what he had done. Right now he didn’t think about that, he just let Scar shift the conversation into any sort of ramblings he could think of until they both fell asleep.

-

Grian woke up with a sense of clarity and a serious ache in his back. He was so emotionally exhausted the night before he just fell asleep pressed against his door frame. His wings were so out of place and uncomfortable he felt like he was going to die. He would have to clean them later, Pearl called it preening. He’s only done it a handful and he doesn’t like it because of how it makes him feel most the time. Hence why its gotten this bad.

Grian didn’t have time to worry about his wings right now anyway, they were pretty much dead weight anyway. He was determined to talk to Taurtis again. He wasn’t going to beg him to be friends again, he just needed them to leave off on a better note if there was ever a chance he was ever going to reconsider.

Grian checked his phone, it was already 11:30. He only had a few hours to clear the air with Taurtis and catch the rest of their friends up. He decided to just quickly comb through his hair and brush his teeth before immediately heading out to Taurtis’ dorm. He just hoped the other would be home.

As he was walking down the dorm halls he sent a quick text to his friends groupchat telling them that he’d tell them everything and to meet him in about an hour or so. To which all but Martyn replied, so he assumed he was still asleep. Grian did notice 3 missed calls from him from around 4am when he woke up, so he couldn’t be upset about it.

When Grian got to Taurtis’ door he felt less anxious this time, maybe it was because he knew where he stood now. Nevertheless he was just glad he wasn’t internally freaking out like he was yesterday, so hopefully he would be able to have a full conversation without running off like a baby. Grian cringed thinking about the state he was in yesterday. He had to shake it off when he realized he probably looked like a creep just sitting in front of Taurtis’ dorm like this, so he knocked on his door again.

“Hey, Taurtis it’s me again, I leave in a few hours and I just want to try to talk again.” He called after a few moments of silence.

Just when he thought he had missed Taurtis, or that he was avoiding him again, he heard his lock click and the door opened to reveal Taurtis, who looked a little rougher than how he did last night.

“Hey” Grian said again, not knowing how to break the silence.

“Hey” Taurtis parroted “Come in.”

Taurtis opened his door wider and moved over, allowing Grian more of an entrance. He took it and basically as soon as Tairtis shut his door he immediately began to speak.

“I’m not here to try and change your mind,” He started “Even though it would be great if you did, I understand why you don’t want to he friends with me anymore.”

Taurtis’ visably relaxed, clearly he didn’t expect the conversation to go this way, and he let Grian in anyway. It made Grian remember why they were friends in the first place.

“I am really sorry for what I did” Grian said as sincere as he could “I can’t even begin to describe my headspace on the day that you woke up, the day that you were stabbed even.”

“Woah Grian, it’s not your fault.” Taurtis stuttered out “I said a lot of things I didn’t mean yesterday and I’m sorry too, I was just caught off guard.”

“It was my fault though, I’m so sorry I even remotely made you feel how Sam made me feel. I didn’t think of it that way until you said something, that’s why I left like that, I felt so terrible.” Grian said

“What? Grian no— you misunderstood me, you are nothing like Sam, okay?” Taurtis iterated seriously. Grian cocked his head a bit and looked at him very confused, so he continued “God, Grian, I never meant to insinuate you were anything like him. It’s just that in order for me to actually heal from that time I need space from you because you were also a victim in it, does that make sense?”

Honestly, to Grian it didn’t really make much sense, but he was just so relieved to hear that Taurtis didn’t think he was like Sam so he nodded anyway.

“Unfortunately our friendship is just another thing he took from us, then.” Grian sighed sadly, he wasnt really upset with Taurtis though, not anymore.

“I know, but at least you have Martyn, Netty, and Bigb still.” Taurtis tried to say enthusiastically.

“Hey, we both still have them.” Grian corrected “Please don’t distance yourself from your other friends because of me, I promise I’m okay with us all being friends.”

“Don’t worry about me, G. They were always more your friends than mine.” He smiled, and Grian shook his head “I’ll be okay, I’ve sort of already made a couple of new friends.”

When he said that Grian instantly felt relief, that was one of his main concerns with Taurtis not talking to anyone, that he was going to distance himself from other people because of Grian. He was a little jealous of the fact that Taurtis made new friends so easily but he tried his best to be happy for him. Because Taurtis deserved someone like that, even though he had hurt him these last few months they were still best friends for a long time.

They tried to make a little bit of small talk with him before Grian decided it would probably be best to get leaving so he can get his things together before going to meet his friends. Once he left his dorm he felt much better about how they were leaving things now. Grian felt lighter, he felt ready to focus on legacy and leading the resistance with no distractions now. He felt like he could actually breathe around people now that he wasn’t only worrying about Taurtis and constantly refreshing their chats. He was ready to go home now.

Chapter Text

Grian spent the first couple of days back in Ever After High in his bed, just staring mindlessly at his ceiling. He wasn’t even really sad, he had realized that he already mourned his friendship with Taurtis in the months that he ignored him. So no he didn’t feel sad, he just felt nothing. Staring up at his bedroom ceiling he couldn’t help but feel like nothing, so thats what he did. Nothing.

He couldn’t keep that up forever though unfortunately. With a little help from Pearl and the resistance he eventually got out of his room. He still didn’t feel 100% like himself but he didn’t have anymore time to sit there and ponder with Thronecoming only a month away.

Most of his nights consisted of resistance meetings nowadays, and he felt like he had been seeing less and less of Scar. They were still spending some time together but Scar definitely noticed Grians absence. Grian did his best to assure Scar that he wasn’t avoiding him without giving too much of his whereabouts away. He didn’t think he was all that convincing but whenever he said he had something to do, Scar never pushed which Grian was grateful for.

Now it was just pushing midnight and Grian had just left Impulse in their secret room. The two were the last ones who lingered after their most recent meeting, Grian was helping Impulse with the finishing touches on the video they were going to broadcast at the big Thronecoming game.

Originally they were going to play it at the dance, but decided since there was probably going to be more people at the game,(definitely not because Grian actually wanted to experience a real school dance for once) to play it there instead.

Grian was so lost in thought he didn’t realize how careless he must have been with his movements, only when he heard footsteps coming rushing towards him did he realize he was probably heard.

He booked it as quietly as he could to the end of the hallway behind a wall as the foot steps grew louder. Grian knew that he probably should just rush to his dorm as quickly as possible but his curiosity of who else could be out this late got to the better of him. So he slowly peaked his head out from behind the wall, where his suspicions were confirmed. It was Xisuma, their student council president, who clearly heard him walking around as he was examining the area Grian was just in.

Grians breath hitched. When he did so he noticed Xisumas head turn. He snapped his head back behind the wall as quickly as he could, just praying he didn’t see him.

Now he had two options; wait silently and pray that X wouldn’t have seen him and just walk away, or run as fast as he could down the hall, turn the corner and pray he did it fast enough for Xisuma to not recognize it was him. The thing was, he was never much of a runner. So he stayed put, hiding behind a pillar as silently as he could, barely even breathing. He was kicking himself when he heard faint footsteps becoming less faint by the second. Maybe it was Grians heartbeat, which was also getting louder with each thud of the hardwood. Grian prayed it was his heartbeat.

Just when it sounded like the footsteps couldnt get any closer he heard what he could only assume was a teacher call for Xisuma. Grians breath hitched as X called back, saying he thought he heard something. Thankfully the teacher convinced him it was nothing and he heard the footsteps grow faint again.

As soon as he couldn’t heard them anymore he ran as quickly as he could to his dorm, careful to not make anymore noise. Breathing several sighs of relief when he finally shut his door behind him.

-

The next day was finally a day where Grian had no resistance meetings, so he finally had the day to hang out with Scar. They didn’t have much planned, they were going to probably just play video games in their dorm after school until lights out, so they could sneak out and ride Jellie. Grian couldn’t complain though, he had been so busy he felt like he had no time for a social life.

At least they consistently walked to class together though, that was one thing that didn’t change even after Grian got back from Monster High. Scar still made it sure Grian made it to class. He glanced over to the right of him to see that Scar was already looking at him, it seemed like he was deep into thought about something, his brow furrowed a bit and his lips turned down.

“Scar?” Grian asked, adding a lighthearted laugh at the end of it, letting him know he caught him staring.

Scar responded by shaking his head a bit “Sorry, Grian- I just—“ He paused, “Why were you home so late last night?”

Grian felt his stomach drop “What? I wasn’t—“

“When I came home from feeding Jellie, you were out from your bed.” He interrupted, and Grian scolded himself internally for forgetting. “What happened? We haven’t really talked since you got back from Monster High, you can talk to me about it, you know?”

“I’m fine, Scar. I hear enough of worrying from Pearl and Martyn.” He assured, he’s talked about his feelings so much in the past few weeks he’s starting to be annoyed thinking about it. “I’m just busy, y’know?”

Scars face dropped, he looked like a kicked puppy. It was almost too much for Grian to take. He felt bad but he made a promise with Impulse, if he couldn’t tell Skizz, Grian wouldn’t tell Scar. It was better for him anyway. Scar looked like he was about to say something else when someone called for his name.

Grian turned to face the person who called, he was unable to recognize his voice, and when he turned he still didn’t know who this random person was calling for him. Scar didn’t seem too pleased as he let out an unimpressed sigh before closing his eyes briefly and taking a deep breath out, which confused Grian even more because Scar seemed annoyed at this person and Scar liked everyone.

“Sorry, Grian I have to go and see what he wants.” He begun to drag his feet over there semi dramatically but Grian stopped him by grabbing his arm.

“Who is that?” He asked, only because he was curious and not for any other reasons.

“Oh!- Uhm..“ Scars eyes widened and his cheeks went a little red, Grian didn’t like that. “It’s- nobody. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

Grian exhaled in annoyance but before he got to say anything else Scar had turned his way back to the strange guy at the other side of the hallway. He was by Scars locker. How did he know where Scars locker was? How did he know Scar?

He groaned at the sight of them, this stranger was being all giddy and giggly to Scar. It became too much for him to bare when he went and grazed Scars arm with his hand, so he turned and stormed off, like a normal person.

Because there is no way Scar could be seeing someone and not tell him, right? And thats totally the only reason Grian would be mad about him dating someone. Also he didn’t like this guy he was with, he had stupid blond hair and a stupid bright smile, there was something wrong about him he just didn’t know what yet.

Grian was so lost in thought he wouldn’t have noticed Mumbo if he hadn’t bumped into him, knocking his books and pens to the ground. Once Grian realized what he had done he immediately went down to help him pick up his things.

“Im so sorry Mumbo, I was distracted I wasn’t paying attention.” Grian hurriedly apologized, scurrying on the ground to help gather his things.

“No worries mate, it looked like you were really in your head there for a bit.” Mumbo nervously chuckled, also rushing to pick up his things considering the bell already rung 30 seconds ago.

“Yeah, you know how I am.” He sighs as he finally finishes up gathering Mumbos things and as an act of friendship (and guilt) he helped him carry them to his first class.

“What had gotten you so worked up anyway?” Mumbo said as they were walking

“Nothing.” Grian grit his teeth, trying not to think about it.

“It didn’t seem like nothing.” He suggested, clearly a little nervous. Grian groaned, clearly not wanting to elaborate to which Mumbo sighed. Just when Grian thought the topic was dropped, he spoke again “I know you probably go to Martyn, or Pearl, or Jim, or even Scar about these things when something is troubling you, but I just want you to know that I’m a person you could go to as well.”

When Grian turned over to face him he was giving him a sad sympathetic smile that made Grians stomach twist. He had felt even more guilty than when he bumped into him. When he first got here he and Mumbo got close very fast, and Grian guessed he unintentionally iced him out a bit after the whole thing with him and Jimmy. Maybe he was more mad about that than he thought he was.

It doesn’t matter now, what matters is Grian had been so busy he let his friendship with Mumbo grow distant and he wasn’t about to let that happen anymore!

Grians thoughts were interrupted by the second bells screech, signaling that he and Mumbo had better get to class.

Mumbo had already begun to turn around to face his classroom but Grian stopped him “Mumbo I’m sorry about being distant, I didn’t even know that I was, honestly.” He sighed, and Mumbo smiled at him “Meet me after class, I’ll tell you about this new guy that I hate!”

Mumbo stared at him in shock and let out a breath he was holding, but before he got another word out Grian was already booking it to his next class. He guessed he would find out soon enough though.

Unfortunately classes had Mumbo and Grian too busy to talk until lunch time. Grian did make good of his word though and he pulled him aside at the lunch line, and effectively shewed away any people who tried to sit with them.

As soon as it felt like the coast was clear and no one was going to come up again Grian immediately started speaking in a hushed tone “So I saw this guy that I’ve never seen before talking to Scar.”

“This guy that you hate?” Mumbo interjected.

Grian nodded “Yes, he was talking to him and being all dumb and…” Grian paused, and made a face “giddy.”

“..Okay?” Mumbo furrowed his brows “I don’t see the issue here.”

Grian made a noise in frustration “What do you mean you ‘don’t see the problem?’ he was being so touchy with him for gods sake.”

Mumbo let out a long ‘Ohhhh’ before shaking his head amused at something “You’re probably talking about his prince.”

Grian tilted his head in confusion, and Mumbo clarified “You know, the guy who’s destined to wake him up after his 100 year sleep?” Grian made a face in pure disgust, clearly Mumbo didn’t notice his distain because he kept talking “He’s probably planning to ask him to Thronecoming, his name is—“

Grian slammed the table dramatically and Mumbos eyes widened in shock as he turned to face him again “Who cares what his name is!? I asked who he was and Scar started blushing for goodness sakes!” Grians eyes widened as he realized he said that way too loud, he lowered his voice again “Is he actually going to ask Scar to Thronecoming?”

“Well yeah, they’re destined to be together or whatever and he is crazy about Scar.” Mumbo said which Grian did not like. He didn’t like it at all.

“Scar wouldn’t say yes though, right?” Grian let out a bit of a manic laugh “I mean he doesn’t even like him right if I hadnt heard of him?” Mumbo just stared at him like he was crazy and after a moment of just Grians awkward laughter he asked again, “Right?”

“Oh my days, you’re jealous.” Mumbo covered his face trying to contain his light laughter

“What!?” Grian shouted, but quickly lowered his voice again “Jealous? I am not jealous, why would I even be jealous?”

Mumbo responded by just staring at him knowingly, like Grian was supposed to already know the answer, but all he was met with was confusion.

“Oh my god you’re serious.” Mumbo said after more awkward silence.

“What?” Grian asked again, confusion still adamant in his brain.

“Nothing—“ Mumbo hurriedly said, only making him more confused. “You have nothing to worry about though, I don’t think Scars very interested in him.”

Grian internally let out a sigh of relief. Only because it meant Scar wasn’t keeping secrets from him of course. There was no other reason no matter what Mumbo was trying to hint at earlier. Grian was not jealous, jealous wasn’t even a word in his vocabulary.

“I mean” Mumbo spoke again, interrupting Grians train of thought “Until legacy day of course. Then theyre kind of bound together, y’know?”

The pit in Grians stomach only grew. Now he had just another reason to add to his ‘reasons legacy day is awful’ list. No way a book should be telling people who to love. Especially not Scar.

Grian just seethed the rest of his lunch period. Angrily picking at his food as Mumbo tried making conversation.

-

The rest of his classes were so painfully slow, with only one thing lingering on Grians mind. Eventually though they were over and Grian could finally hang out with Scar now that he had no resistance plans to follow through with. It was going to be a nice relaxing night.

Of course as soon as he thought that though he saw him again, talking with Scar. Scar looked less than pleased at him and Grian grit his teeth as he marched up to the two of them. Once he got closer he saw Scar looking at him clearly confused about the angered state he was in.

“Hello, Scar. You ready to go?” He got out in a fake cheery tone, not even looking at the guy next to him.

This apparently didn’t phase the man though because he thought it was appropriate to speak to Grian anway. “Oh hey, you’re Scars roommate, you know, Scar talks a lot about you. Anyway I’m—“

Grian swiftly interrupted him “Yeah, I don’t care.” Scar stifles a laugh “We have plans so, we’re going to go” Grian kept up his fake cheerful tone as he grabbed Scars wrist and dragged him away from him.

“Grian what was that?” Scar laughed out once they were far enough away from him.

“Nothing.” He said quickly before blurting out “Are you going to Thronecoming with him?”

Scar opened his mouth but before he could even say anything Grian cut him off again “You know what, nevermind it doesn’t matter.” Grian sighed, letting go of his wrist finally. “Anyway, what did you want to do first?”

Right as Scar was going to speak he was interrupted again, this time by Xisuma coming up to the two of them. Grian froze up instantly as he greeted them both.

“Hello, Grian and Scar.” He smiles at them, and Grian can just tell by the way he’s looking at him that he’s caught.

“Well hullo there Xisuma!” Scar greets cheerfully, just as he always does. Grian wants to run away.

“Hi Scar, I was just wondering if I could talk to Grian for a minute?” He asks and Scar turns to him confused, and thankfully he gets that Grian might be in a bit of trouble here.

“Well, we sort of have plans so-“ Scar begins to say but Xisuma interrupts him.

“Right then, I’ll make this quick.” He pulls out a feather from his back pocket “Grian, why were you out past curfew?”

Grian mentally curses himself. Of course one of his stupid feathers would stupid fall out. He shouldve listened to Pearl about taking care of them properly. He then realized he hadn’t said anything yet so he had to think quickly.

“Um- I wasn’t?” Was the best he could come up with. He wanted to die. How could he be the leader of a whole resistance but not come up with a decent lie on the spot.

“You weren’t?” Xisuma hums “Well thats funny because I was sure I saw someone at the end of the hall I was patrolling. When I went to check it out all I saw left was this feather.” Grian wished he would just rip off the bandaid already, he was pretty sure the sweat was visibly running down his forehead.

“Uh- sorry to interrupt” Scar interluded and Grian looked at him like a deer in headlights. “Grian was home all night.”

Xisuma looked shocked as he did a double take between Grian and Scar “What? But how is that possible- the feather—“

“I walk down these halls everyday, and these things have a mind of their own.” Grian gestured to his wings, feeling much more confident in his lie “It’s very possible you found one from when I passed through earlier.”

“Besides, Grian was helping me with one of my projects for most of the night.” Scar said sheepishly, it surprised Grian how easily he could lie. “You know how I am, X.”

Xisuma sighed, Grian doubted he bought their story, but he probably realized he didn’t have enough evidence to do anything about it, especially not with Scar now covering his back.

“Well, I guess that settles that.” Xisuma put on the same smile he had on while he was questioning Grian “If you two see anything out of the ordinary though, you come to me okay?” He turned to Grian “With Legacy Day right around the corner we wouldn’t want anything happening to jeopardize anyone’s happy ending.”

Not everyone is going to get a happy ending is what Grian wanted to say. He knew that would just make himself a bigger target though so he just put on a forced smile and nodded. After a moment of tension Scar excused the two of them and he and Grian begun to walk back to their dorm.

“Dude I’m sweating.” Grian exhaled as soon as they were away from earshot.

Scar seemed unamused by his attempt to break the ice, he just looked at Grian, his face full of concern. “What are you doing that has student council involved?”

“Nothing!” Grian immediately yelled back, defensive.

“Where were you last night, really?” Scar pressed, clearly not letting up that easily.

“I was on a walk to clear my head, okay?” Grian fibbed quickly. Obviously he felt bad for lying but he had to.

“Grian, I’m sorry but i know you’re lying.” Scar deflected “Why did X bring up Legacy Day?”

“I don’t know.” Grian frowned. That was the full honest truth that time, there was no way the resistance was caught on to. They were all incredibly careful, as far as Grian knew his slip up last night was the only mistake the whole resistance had made.

“Grian,” Scar furrowed his brows and lightly put his hand onto Grians shoulder, snapping him out of his thinking. “I can’t help you get out of trouble if I don’t know how much of it you’re in”

Scar knew Grian had a hard time saying no to him in this state, he was giving him his best sad kicked puppy eyes.

Grian sighed “Scar, I just can’t tell you, okay? If you knew then I’d start having to let other people know and soon it wouldn’t even be a secret.”

Scar took his hand from Grians shoulder “Okay. If you promise me you aren’t in any danger I’ll drop it. For now.”

Grian was happy to make that deal.

-

Grian and Scar spent the next few hours just sitting in their dorm talking and occasionally playing games, but it was mostly them just sitting on Scars bed and talking.

They had talked about anything and everything they could think of, and if they ran out of things to say (which they rarely did) they just sat in silence and enjoyed eachothers company and it was so nice to just hang out with Scar for an evening for the first time in weeks.

Just when Scar was thinking about getting ready to go feed Jellie they heard a knock at the door. Which usually isnt a weird thing, but it was only about 15 minutes before curfew. So whoever this was at the door, they couldn’t wait. Grian had a hunch about what it could be about. Which is why he almost didn’t want to answer the door, because that means he lost his only other free night but that wouldn’t be responsible of him so he reluctantly got up and answered the door after Scar gave him a confused look.

He creaked the door open to reveal what Grian had suspected, Impulse was standing there, something clearly on his mind as he seemed nervous.

“Impulse?” Grian questioned “Why are you here so late?”

“I know this is risky, but I just wanted to come by and warn you that they have members of the student council patrolling every corridor every night now.” Impusle answered, he sounded uncomfortable.

“What?” Grian whispered in shock. Clearly Xisuma didn’t buy he and Scars story. “I didn’t know he would take it this far.”

“What do you mean?” Impulse asked, and Grian realized he had said that part out loud.

“Right.” Grian tensed as he recalled the events of last night “I was lost in thought on my way back from one of our meetings, and Xisuma almost caught me.”

Impulses jaw dropped a little “Well.. that certainly is a problem.” Grian sighed and Impulse begun to speak again “Listen, we can talk about this all later but I’ve got to go, they’re already patrolling some of the hallways, can you lend me some of your mythmatics notes so I have a cover story if I’m asked?”

Grian nodded his head and excused himself to go and get his notes. Scar immediately rushed up to him and asked him in a hushed voice “What was all that about?”

“I’ll tell you in a second.” He whispered back as he made his way back to the door and handed Impulse his notes, before he walked away Grian couldn’t help but say “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Impulse.”

“Me either.” He sighed “I’m sure you’ll think of something.” He waved him an empathetic goodbye and made his way down the corridor.

Grian shut the door softly and let his hand rest on the handle for a moment before Scar came up to him.

“What did Impulse want?” Scar asked “I know it wasn’t just your notes too so please don’t try and lie about that.”

“He came by to tell me that Xisuma has the student council patrolling the corridors all throughout the night now.” Grian answered, his mind still running at a million miles per second “My guess is until legacy day.”

Scars face riddled with concern “Grian, what are you doing that Xisuma is willing to make people lose sleep over.”

“Nothing!” He retorted defensively

“It’s not nothing, Grian. And clearly Impulse is in on it too so why is he involved and I’m not?” Scar pleaded.

“What happened to dropping it, Scar?” Grian reminded him of their conversation earlier and Scar looked at him, he looked defeated.

“You promised me it wasn’t dangerous.”

“It’s not.” Grian reiterated

“I just don’t believe you.” Scar exasperated “Whatever it is, it’s going to keep me from going out and seeing Jellie, so please tell me it’s for something important so I don’t have to get mad at you!”

Grians eyes widened and he felt horrible, Scar had begun to yell at some point, and he never yelled, well sure if it was a scream in horror or a happy shout, but never in a mad way.

Grian looked down at the floor and let out a shaky breath. “I started a resistance and a group of me and some other students are pledging to not sign the story book of legends.”

“Okay.” Scar exhaled after a few seconds. Clearly this was not what he was expecting to hear. “Why wouldn’t you just tell me? I was already aware you hated Legacy day, I’m okay with it.”

Grian was shocked he wasn’t angrier at him. “I had a deal with Impulse that if he couldn’t tell Skizz I wouldn’t tell you.” Scar shot him a look

“Is that seriously why you’ve kept this a secret from me?” He aksed in disbelief.

“Also-“ he interjected before he got too upset “I thought it would be safer for you.” He paused “That if we got caught you wouldn’t know anything about it and you wouldn’t be punished.” Grian looked away from Scar, his worried gaze becoming too much for him

Scar smiled bittersweetly at him. “As if I would ever let you take the fall by yourself.”

Grian sighed “I know.” He turned to face Scar again “I know you wouldn’t I just didnt want to put you at risk in something you weren’t involved in.”

“I understand, Grian.” Scar assured “I’m just glad I know now.”

“I still so bad that you can’t even feed Jellie because I was careless.” Grian plopped back onto Scars bed dramatically

“Don’t worry about it, Grian. I’ll just go on my lunch breaks, and whenever I have a free moment.” He pats Grians arm assuredly “It will be a tad more risky but it’s fine I’ll be careful.”

Grian hid his face in Scars pillows, just letting out an unsatisfied sigh.

“Really, Grian it’s okay.” He says again and Grian unburies his face from his pillow. “Why don’t you tell me about this resistance you’re leading?”

Grian gave a small smile, sitting himself up as he begun to explain everything as Scar just listened intently. Interjecting to offer Grian advice wherever he saw fit. It was nice, and a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders to finally loop Scar in.

-

Life became so much harder in the days the followed for the resistance. Grian tried his best to get messages past along to all the resistance members but he was sure stuff was lost in translation. They had resorted to talking in a group chat which was way riskier than Grian would have ever liked but its the only thing Grian was able to think of.

At least he had Scar to talk about all this with now. He felt a little bad for breaking his promise with Impulse but this just made his life infinitely easier.

What Grian didn’t like was this prince person who kept on trying to bug Scar when he was around. Like if he wanted to flirt couldn’t he wait until he wasn’t around at least? These situations were becoming way too frequent with the Thronecoming dance was fast approaching.

Grian couldn’t help the faces of absolute disgust he made whenever he heard his grating voice. The only thing that kept him from completely losing it was Scars seeming complete lack of interest in the guy. That for sure made Grian happy. Only for humorous purposes of course.

He thought back to Mumbo throwing around the word jealous like it was somehow a trait he possessed. Like yes he used to want to claw the eyes out of anyone who tried to flirt with Sam back when they were a ‘thing’ and the times he wanted to almost vomit when Yuki would act all lovey towards him. That was different though, he was like in ‘love’ with Sam, and he had nothing but platonic feelings for Scar. So obviously it was very different and Mumbo has no clue what he was talking about.

The more this guy was talking the closer he got to actually clawing his eyes out though. So maybe it wasn’t all that different. Grian pushed that thought way down and tried to just focus on he and Scar getting to class without any interruptions.

Of course since they couldn’t have one single day of peace, music filled the halls and Grian and Scar shared a knowing look. Scar unenthusiastically turned to face that it was in fact his prince, coming down the hallway with a bouquet of bright sunflowers as some cheesy romance song played in the background. Some of the princes friends (even though Grian was shocked that creature could somehow befriend anyone) carried a red carpet in front of him and was dropping it as they walked closer.

Something that stayed consistent between Monster High and Ever After High was the fact that when they had a school dance the students would go for big gestures for the people they wanted to ask. This happened to be the fourth time he had asked Scar, and it was about to be the fourth time he was rejected. Which was going to be a fun sight to see for Grian.

Eventually he got to the end of the hallway where Grian and Scar were stood. Scar gave his usual annoyed and unimpressed face whereas Grian was sure he saw the man flinch at the distasteful look he was giving.

“Scar!” he begun dramatically as he held out the bouquet for Scar to take, he didn’t budge though, somehow the prince took this as a sign to keep going “This is the fourth time I’m asking, and I will keep asking until you say yes.” He paused to take in the reactions he was getting, when he saw the two weren’t giving him anything he continued anyway “Scar. Will you please do me the magnificent honor of going to the thronecoming dance with me?”

“Public humiliation, really?” Scar said and the princes eyes widened “You keep asking and I’ll keep giving you the same answer, I’m already just going with friends.”

He laughed awkwardly “Well about that, I tracked down all your friends and talked to them about that, they all said they were fine with us going instead!” Grian glared at him, showing he definitely did not ask everyone. “Well Cub— did say no. He’s also forcing me to tell you that he said no. So he didn’t have to hear about it later.” Grian chuckled at that.

“I just think,” Scar grit out “You know— we’ll have forever after legacy day to be together so you know, why rush?”

Grian couldnt help but roll his eyes, as if he would ever let that happen.

“Well legacy day is so soon! Why not get a trial run at the dance?” He pleaded, it was honestly really sad. Grian was really enjoying himself. “Just one night” He added “If you don’t like it I’ll leave you alone until legacy day.”

Scar groaned, hear it was. The sweet moment of rejection.

“Fine.” He said after a minute “One night.”

“What?!” Grian and the prince both said at the same time. Grian glared at him but he just gave him a smile back, clearly not caring about his adamant hatred for him.

“Thank you so much, you will not regret this!” He actually got down on one knee and presented Scar his flowers once more, which Scar reluctantly took this time. Only then he finally left them alone.

As soon as they were away from the crowd Grian immediately turned to Scar “What was that?!”

“I couldn’t really do much, you know? he sort of backed me into a corner there.” He sighed, tossing the flowers into a trash bin as they were walking past.

“You could’ve said you had a different date or something! Anything but actually agreeing to go to the dance with him!” Grian couldn’t help but shout, of course he wasn’t actually angry with Scar, he was just angry this loser couldn’t take a hint.

“I’m sorry Grian, but I was honestly just sick of dealing with him.” Scar admitted, then he sympathetically placed his hand on Grians shoulder, a comforting tactic he liked to use that made all the blood rush to Grians head everytime “I know you were looking foward to hanging out at Thronecoming but I promise I’ll make time, and I’ll help with any of the you-know-what problems that come up.”

Grian just gave out his best fake smile and tried to nod in a way that didn’t give away how sad he honestly was.

Thronecoming just got way less exciting.