Work Text:
You’d think Grian spent most of his summer break days at Scar’s apartment to spend more time with someone he was developing a crush on, right? Sure, that was probably a big chunk of it, having spent loads of time with the man since that first of many movie nights and coffee shop study-help sessions in the last 6 months. But the fact of the matter is that Grian and Mumbo are not very wealthy international college students.. and Scar’s apartment has an AC.. and this summer had been particularly hot…
Don’t get it twisted, he wasn’t lounging around like a slouchy freeloader (most of the time). With only a minimum amount of prodding, much easier than what it would take to do his own chores at home, he’d help Scar out with some small or annoying tasks while Scar worked. Scar had a fancy tilted computer desk in his and Cub’s living room, half walled off by bookshelves filled with comics, figurines, books and fiddle knick-knacks, where he would work from home. He’d sit in a colorful office chair and draw or design on his computer during typical office hours.
After Grian had spent his first bit of summer break by going with Mumbo back to Europe to visit their respective families, Grian had returned alone, his own family going out the country on a vacation Grian couldn't be asked with which gave him a solid month and a half alone in a scolding heat. He would've stayed at his parents house but figured he could get some more shifts in at the campus coffee shop, still bustling with summer program students and faculty. Not even a couple days in of Grian's whining to his crush about the weather, Scar simply reminded him that his apartment had functioning AC and offered for him to relax there instead. Grian took him up on it, hesitant at first and only coming by when invited, but at some point Scar had sneakily slid a key into his pocket, prompting him to come by whenever.
Several weeks later and it was a daily routine, Grian working in the morning, bringing 2 coffees and takeout to Scar's place where they had lunch together, talking about whatever for a little bit until Scar had to start working again. Grian would lie on the big and very comfortable couch and play on his handheld console he left lying around there, glancing through the books every once in a while to get a tiny sneakpeak at whatever Scar was designing at the time. He'd also play around with Scar's two black-striped cats and fetch Scar coffees or pens when he'd ask, which let him learn how the place was (messily) organized. When Scar clocked out he'd cook dinner to pay back for lunch, and they'd relax with the TV on or just chat and play games until his roommate Cub got home and Grian realized how late it was, zooming out the door.
Sometimes, though, Cub was home from early afternoon and floated around the place doing different stuff, chatting with Grian every once in a while. Today was one of those days. It's a relaxing afternoon, Scar quiet at his desk, Grian lying on the couch playing Undertale with Katy Bee curled up on his stomach, and Cub at the dinner table in a corner tinkering with some metal contraption in his hand, sometimes having to swat away a curious Mr Finnegan trying to jump up and have a nibble at the small parts and screws lying around.
"Grian?" Cub starts while still focused on screwing something apart. Grian barely glance up in while being mid timed puzzle, mumbling out a "Yeah?"
"Out of curiosity, are you really only here for the Aircon?"
Grian hums and shrugs his shoulders, "Probably?" Had it been anyone else's home, he probably would only be around once a week or such, spending his days in public places like cool libraries or game cafés and come home in the evenings to suffer, but this was Scar's (and Cub's) place. He'd hate to admit out loud how nice his silent company actually is. Even more so to admit how nice it is to be trusted to rummage through Scar's room for whatever paper or tech piece he'd been asked to find. Lord knows he wouldn't admit his crush to anybody anytime soon, or even try to sleuth out if Scar was even into men or is just bromancing his friends for the fun of it.
Cub's eyes flick for a second to Scar who's wearing headphones and listening to something very loud, locked in reading a long client email. "We got a portable old one you could have for a few bucks. It's kind of just been sitting in storage since we moved here."
"Really?" Grian finally perks up when in a safe area, looking at Cub. "Yeah, that'd be great, actually. Would be nice in the bedroom, at least. Thanks!"
Cub looks back. "Figured. I thought it was weird when Scar said you didn't want it."
"I might've not payed attention when he asked, then."
"Riiiiight," Cub says almost suspiciously but with a tint of amusement so Grian doesn't think too much about it. "Well, I'll just go fetch it before you go, later. Staying for dinner?"
"Planning to. How much for it?"
"A 20? I don't know. Take it home and make sure it works first."
"Alright."
Conversation stop when Mr Finnegan tackles Katy Bee on top of Grian and he nearly falls off the couch in surprise while Cub grins, watching, as they fly around for a bit until things settle back into the calm they had before. By the time Scar gets off work, Cub and Grian are both on the couch, complaining about a mom and daughter reality TV-show but neither actually trying to switch the channel. Scar joins for a hot minute, settling right between the two to watch an episode, arms on the back of the couch which makes Grian fully clock out of conversation as he tries to subtly lean just a tiny bit closer to his side.
Disappointingly, he takes just a tiny bit too long before Scar gets back up again and he loses the chance to fully lean on him. Not so disappointingly, he goes into the kitchen to make dinner. "Spring rolls?" he calls back while washing his hands.
Grian gets up. "Sure. I can cut the filling." He goes to wash his own hands while Scar brings out rice and begin washing it.
"Alright, I'll go to strorage then."
"You're finally finishing your abandoned projects? That's unlike you," Scar jests, grinning.
"What do you take me for? Productive? No, I'm getting the old air conditioner for Grian."
Scar fumbles his hold of the pot of rice, which thankfully wes barely a couple inches off the counter and didn't spill, and his words escape him with an equal amount of grace. "The what now?" Grian wasn't sure if the uncertainty in Scar's voice was from fear or surprise.
"I told you there was no way he didn't actually want it," Cub smirks with what sounds like some inside joke Grian definitely wasn't a part of before he heads out the door. The two remaining men are left kind of just standing around in the kitchen, Grian hands in a towel to dry and Scar just looking out the kitchen door in shock.
"Sooo... should I just grab whatever looks right in the fridge?"
Scar snaps out of it, shaking his head for a second, cogwheels turning. "Uhh, no. Wait.." He takes out a shallot, couple carrots, water chestnuts and bit of cabbage, setting them in a strainer hanging over the sink for Grian to wash. Grian starts washing them as Scar puts the rice in the rice cooker and takes out some bamboo shoots to blanch.
They work mostly in silence, Grian sometimes keeping check of the saucepan as Scar rests on a chair to relax his legs. Eventually they get get back into a goofier mood while folding the rolls up, Grian failing miserably several times and Scar barely managing to salvage the outcomes. Cub comes back almost half an hour later, dropping something big with a loud thud in the entrance. Scar flinches at the noise, like he had almost forgotten about why Cub left in the first place. Grian politely ignores it when Cub pokes his head into the kitchen. "Done yet?"
"Almost."
Cub dips again and scrapes of metal bits can be heard in the living room so Grian can only assume he's clearing the dinnertable. Once Scar begins to fry the rolls, Grian washes his hands and start setting the now clean table up.
When they eat, Grian notices that Scar takes most of the rolls Grian made which makes him try to force down a shy smile behind a mouthful of food. He wonders if Scar even thinks twice about the things he does to make Grian more comfortable or if he's just a natural people pleaser. Because Grian definitely noticed the new handtowel in his favorite color in the bathroom, or how Scar's pencils were magically organized the day after Grian complained about finding a specific pen after having been in his pen drawer several times before with no change, and even how the pillows are always set back to how he likes them on the couch no matter where they ended up when he left. Neither of the actual tenants would ever comment on small changes, so Grian wouldn't either.
Even before he started spending every day there, when he'd come by once or twice a week with Mumbo in tow, he'd notice some of the two's prefered snack brands in the cupboards, or how Scar would struggle to hold his tongue despite obvious disagreement towards the college studends' food habbits involving mostly cup foods, TV dinners or takeout (though he still insists the grocery store salad bar isn't a proper salad). After the first few movie nights Cub started joinging too, really getting along with Mumbo, and Scar would try and insist that he could take the floor so everyone had comfortable space, but in response the three new friends would silently agree to refuse to sit on the couch until he changed his mind. That was a few fun weeks of four people sitting or lying amongst big blankets on the floor right in front of the couch until Scar eventually realized it was a battle lost and would compromise on taking turns. From then on they begun switching between Mumbo and Grian, Mumbo and Cub or Cub and Grian on the floor. Never Scar. Whether it was out of consideration for his legs or simply out of spite, none of them were sure since it never really came up in conversation.
There was also a couple months where either Cub or Scar had bought a massive bag of tiny yellow ducks with hats that the two had hid everywhere. Grian and Mumbo were confused at first and tried questioning them about it but they would (badly) gaslight them about how they had no idea about where they came from. Grian and Mumbo quickly started competing about who would find the most ducks, but then they made up backstories for specific ducks they gave tiny accessories to, which obviously lead to a duck civil war between the tophat wearing ducks and the bowlercap wearing ducks.
Cub and Mumbo actaully strongly bonded over the war and ended up siding with the Bowlers, conspiring privetly and disappearing somewhere secret to build tiny trebuchets they would just casually bring out when everyone would be hanging out. On the other side of the war, Grian and Scar were mostly on the defensive, being the designers and siding with the Toppers. The Toppers had canonically recruited help from the construction helmet wearing ducks, the Builders, to build a tiny castle (using thick cardboard with glued on cobble brick texture). It was named The Crastle, a name which was never up for debate, because apparently it was a miniature of one of his coworkers' personal designs.
Scar was dead set on getting his hands on the design the second Grian mentioned building something defensive but had to promise his coworker that he would have the biggest and strongest duck named after him, which became a normal sized bath rubber duck named General Bdubs, and that the castle would keep it's name since he was very proud of it. Apparently Bdubs also had a thing for clocks because Scar made a tiny pocketwatch for General Bdubs while Grian made a fitted tophat and monocle for him to fit with the rest of the Toppers. Most of the ducks eventually got lost after being launched all over the place and their poor dusty corpses are found every once in a while, but seeing as The Crastle still stood grandly at the top of a shelf it was unofficially considered a victory for the Toppers, even though most of the ducks that disappeared were from their side of the battle.
Scar had decorated a shoebox with dried poppies and lilacs where the duck corpses were laid to rest which made Grian feel some type of way, watching Scar delicately care for the box and talk so fondly of the fallen heroes. Meanwhile, not as gracefully, Mumbo had hogged the trebuchets and put them on the windowsill of his and Grian's shared bedroom, decorated with red markers to look like the spilled blood of fallen comrades. He still insists the Bowlers would one day get their revenge and Grian would scoff at the promise every time, but secretly make his own designs for future strongholds. General Bdubs was still hidden in Grian's school locker after all, having faked his own death and binding his time until the next time the horns of war would sound.
Point being, there was a lot of good times being had between the five-minutes-away-from-each-other neighbors. At least, that's what Grian thinks the point was, he may have gotten a bit derailed while thinking about the new friend dynamic that had quite quickly built between the four. He sighs. Grian missed being better than Mumbo. It didn't happen a lot since moving here together.
Don't go there, Grian, stop overthinking it.
Scar and Cub was mid conversation by the time Grian started paying attention again and joined in, the two prompting him in without as much as commenting on his zoning out which was a relief.
Cub did the dishes and the three just lazed about anywhere and everywhere for a long time until eventually the summer sun started to set and Grian looked at the clock, remembering how little sleep time he had left as if it was still a surprise after having the same problem every day. He goes to put his shoes on but stops for a bit as he sees the AC standing by the door. It's almost menacing. He considers "forgetting about it" for a hot minute, but the idea of finally sleeping in a not burning hot room makes the idea not worth it.
After hesitating for a moment, Grian remembers he can just leave his controller case behind instead, which will probably be more subtle. When Scar sees him off, Grian makes sure the key to their apartment stays out of sight in his pocket, not really wanting to part with it.
Hopefully he can come up with new excuses to keep visiting while at work tomorrow.
Once Grian has officially left, Scar goes back to the couch, taking up significantly more space than he did with Grian around.
"You're lucky he's as dense as you are." Cub comments, on his phone with Scars legs over his lap while Scar cuddles Katy Bee.
"Grian isn't dense," Scar immediately defends, irritated.
"You know what I mean. You're not exactly being subtle," Cub deadpans. "You want him around."
"That's just not true."
"Come on, man..."
"Why did you give it to him?" Scar accuses, going on the offensive.
"So you admit you were bullshitting about asking him?"
Scar huffs. "So what?" The childishness of the situation makes Cub sigh, trying to be the calm one in the conversation.
"Because I know you. All that will happen from you spending every day together like this is you getting seperation anxiety, and then you'll be scared because you won't be sure anymore whether you actually like him or if you're just lonely."
Scar groans, rubbing his temples. At least he's listening, so Cub continues, "Just think about it for a bit. Besides, he's still got things around. He's coming back. You still have movie nights."
"But Mumbo comes to those too, and he'll be back next week." Scar isn't even refuting his interest anymore. It's almost funny. "He's fun to be around, but it's just not the same."
"You're trying to tell me you would make a move if you two were fully alone for a night?"
"Yes."
Cub grins. Scar eyes him suspiciously, dragging out a questioning "...Why..?"
"No reason," Cub lies through his teeth. "No reason at all."