Chapter Text
Scott splashed his face several times with cold water from the bathroom sink, in the hopes it would wake him up more. He's not really a morning person, but he had to go out on patrol as Permafrost today, so he needs to be at his best in case of a fight. Or, well, at least the best he can get to. Plus, splashing his face doubled as washing it! …He does normally wash his face the actual way, though. After he felt he was awake enough, he left the bathroom and quietly walked by his and Jimmy's shared bedroom, as Jimmy was still asleep, and grabbed a granola bar for breakfast. Not the best, but Lauren's bakery and cafe was a location on his patrol route, so he'd get something more sustaining there.
Before putting on his ice blue, gold, and dark grey hero gear, there was one last thing to do. He walked into the bedroom and over to the closet, being careful that the creaking of the closet door didn't wake Jimmy up, before pulling out a wing binder.
At some point while he'd been attending SHTA, his wings that had been tiny for as long as he could remember started growing. After a while, he realized that he could not keep ignoring that fact and hiding them with shirts that could easily rip. So, one night, he had taken a blanket and wrapped it around himself like a kid pretending they had a cape to hide his wings, and went to the only avian he knew and trusted (aside from Jimmy) because he was down the hallway.
When Grian had seen his wings, he was utterly dumbfounded at first because Scott was already a Deer hybrid, and hybrids of more than two creatures were unheard of. After his initial dumbfoundedness, Grian examined Scott's wings, and he was once again dumbfounded, telling Scott that his wings were ‘Absolutely filthy and stupidly damp and full of mud and pebbles my goodness.’ And then immediately tried to push him into the bathroom. Scott spent at least three hours sitting in Grian's shower while he cleaned his wings, all of the dirt and grime falling onto the floor of the shower. When he saw them after they'd been cleaned, Scott was amazed. They'd been dark grey when he came to Grian. After they'd been cleaned, the top of his wings were gold, transitioning into a brilliant white for most of the feathers, and finally transitioning to just a tinge of ice blue at the bottom feathers.
He took the wing binder into the bathroom, did a couple of stretches for his wings, and slipped the binder on before changing into his hero gear. Who knows what could happen if someone else found out about his wings… He shook away the thought while he pulled his gloves and mask on before heading out on his patrol.
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“Oh heya there Permafrost! I'll go getcha your usual!” Lauren said happily. “Thank you Ms. Zside.” He responded while Lauren went into the room behind the counter. When he was out as Permafrost, he had to be very careful with how he chose to refer to people, even being at Star Deer this early. It was still far less busy at this time of day, although it was still fairly busy. And, well, it's very expected to be busy as it's very possibly the best bakery and cafe in the city. Whenever he's out this early, Lauren always has his favorite pastries and drinks prepared to go whenever he stops by, and she had recently started adding Jimmy's to the order as well. They were good friends, so that was definitely a part of the reason, but another part of it was probably because Lauren used to run today's patrol as Toaster.
Which is kinda ironic, as the only ‘bread’ related things she had in her hero gear was a pair of clip-on earrings that were toasters, and a ginormous solid steel hammer that had the shape of a loaf of bread as the head. Scott shudders to think what could've happened if someone was brave enough to get on Lauren’s bad side. All that would be left would be a red splat. The rest of her hero gear… made her look like she was actually a villain, rather than a hero. There was a lot of red, black, and dark purple in the outfit, and when mixed with her antlers, she could easily be mistaken as a villain.
But, that was only if you knew what she looked like without knowing how she acted. She was always so optimistic, and her cheerful nature combined with looking like a villain made her one of the kids favorite heros, because she was showing them that it was okay to express themselves with creative outfits.
Although, about a year after Star Deer Bakery and Cafe opened its doors to the public, Lauren retired from hero duty because the workload of being a hero and running her own business at the same time was causing her some issues. She still has her hero gear, as she technically retired, but is also in what the older heroes called a ‘state of retirement’, where she isn't actively doing hero work, but if she's desperately needed, she can be called in.
She does also still run around in her hero gear sometimes. It's become sort of like a game for some people, if they can spot her and get her attention, they can get an autograph from Toaster.
“Alright, here's your order!” Lauren said cheerily, plopping a bag onto the counter along with a double drink carrier. “Two croissants, four pieces of bacon, one normal hot chocolate, and one avian safe hot chocolate, both with marshmallows.” Lauren continued. Scott grabbed the bag and drinks off of the counter. “Yep, thank you again, Ms. Zside.” He told Lauren, sliding some paper dollar bills onto the counter. “No prob, Permafrost! Have a good day!” Lauren told him while pulling the bills towards her to put them into the cash register. “Same to you.” He told her with a smile, before he turned around and left the building, which he and Scar had helped Lauren put sketches together for.
Lauren had come up to them one day for advice on if her sketches would be structurally stable (since Scott and Scar had studied Architecture as a hobby), and they spent a while making sure it would be the best it could, because she had also decided for some reason that she wanted a second floor that was essentially a house. Up until the building was finished, Scott and Lauren were roommates in a small house that she had bought on the sly. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. Once Star Deer was finished, Lauren passed off the house deed to Scott and told him that Jimmy could live with him now instead, saying; 'This way, I'll be living really close to my work space and you can live with Jimmy! It's perfect!'. And after him and Jimmy got married, he had moved in.
Right, enough strolling down memory lane, time to get home before that bacon and hot chocolate gets cold.
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“Jimmmyyyy.” Scott said quietly in a sing-song voice, leaning over the bed and playing with Jimmy's hair. Jimmy pulled his head a little farther out of his blankets and opened his eyes to look at Scott, a bit annoyed. “Scott it's eight in the morning it's too early for anything.” Jimmy said, annoyed. “But Jimmy, I got us breakfast from Star Deer and it'll get cold if you don't get up.” Scott told him in a mock tone of sadness. There was silence for a moment before Scott heard the rustling of blankets. “C’mon Scott, y’know I can't say no to bacon from Star Deer.” Jimmy grumbled. “Oh yes I know. I also know you ate nada of your dinner last night.” Scott responded a bit nonchalantly. “What?? But I thought I-”
“You thought you hid it well? Jimmy I'm your husband, we've been married for two years. I notice when you do things like that and I will drag you out of bed to make sure you eat something.” Scott interrupted. There was again silence for a while. “Cuddles afterwards.” Jimmy told him. Scott giggled a bit. “Of course.” Scott responded. He'd absolutely never say no to cuddles with Jimmy.