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When Mumbo arrests Scar, he doesn’t think it’s a big deal.
He’s half-heartedly positive it’s all a big miscommunication, that Grian’s got the wrong guy on the other end of all his oddly-specific anonymous tips; he puts the cuffs on Scar without a second thought, and walks him into the interview room before Grian can dig himself a bigger hole accusing the man of something he’s very clearly just going to deny over and over again.
Scar is witty, and charming, and Mumbo can instantly tell Grian takes a liking to him. When Scar manages to successfully talk his way out of prison and into being a consultant on a case— well. That’s when Mumbo starts asking questions. Namely, who the hell is this guy?
He works the first case with Grian and Scar: simple homicide, ditched on the edge of town, no discernible murder weapon or lead. Just the ID of a girl who went missing weeks ago and the cause of death (drowning). Grian classifies it as suicide; Scar combats him, and points out the lack of river or bridge nearby to justify the placement of the body. Mumbo helpfully offers that the girl was on a swim team, and Scar helpfully disregards all police protocol to stalk the coach of said swim team. Despite this, and despite the very, very annoyingly dramatic outbursts Scar has whenever he claims to have a ‘revelation’, and despite Scar’s only braincell seemingly being encapsulated in the man he drags along with him to every location— who Mumbo later learns is named Cub— they solve the case.
And then the next, and the next, and the next—
Before he knows it, Mumbo is buying four coffees instead of three in the morning, wondering who the hell this guy is as he introduces HCPD’s ‘head psychic consultant’ to other detectives.
His answer comes when Chief Xisuma hires a ‘wrangler’ for Cub and Scar in the form of Scar’s dads. Scar is the son of two incredibly gifted detectives.
Mumbo had imagined Scar’s parents to be… weirder, honestly; Impulse and Skizz are two perfectly normal, well adjusted mates with all the respectability of ex-cops. Mumbo chats with them about cases and they chat back with stories of heists they broke down, undercover work Skizz had done, and Mumbo’s morning coffee order grows to require two cardboard cup holders.
-
Mumbo is definitely not a ‘bar’ kind of guy.
He’s also definitely not a speed dating kind of guy.
Honestly, Mumbo should really start figuring what kind of guy he is, instead of constantly discovering what kind of guy he isn’t.
“Y’know, he’s a flight risk,” Cub says into his whiskey, staunchly looking towards the bartender even as Mumbo turns, admiring the bright, contented laugh coming from his best friend. Cub clarifies, “Scar.”
“Honestly, so is Grian,” Mumbo answers, a little enraptured by the scene: Scar, twirling Grian to a song that doesn’t need a twirl, a pair of grins on their faces. It’s only a few weeks ago that Mumbo would’ve despised the scene, infuriated by his lack of understanding for Scar’s ‘gift’. Instead, he adds, if a little melancholy, “They’re kind of perfect for each other, mate.”
-
He dreams for the first time in a very, very long time. He dreams of Grian’s smile. He dreams of Scar’s laugh. He dreams of whiskey. He dreams of a four-person coffee order and a slow morning in the station.
Wakefulness brings with it a horrible, sinking feeling. Xisuma sounds a little worried when he calls out sick, but not enough to push Mumbo on his excuse.
He isn’t in the kind of guy to fall in love like that, he tells himself. He isn’t.
-
Scar gets kidnapped only moments after Cub manages to overpower a hostage situation. Somehow, both are connected; somehow, Mumbo comes to realise some fundamental truths far too quickly:
One, Grian is worried. And not the kind of worried he gets when a gun is pointed their way— no, the kind of worried he gets when they’re both unarmed. The kind of worried Grian seems to get a lot more often now.
Two, Mumbo knows what love looks like, and it’s largely to do with point number one— when Scar’s ransom video comes in, he swears he sees love personified in the way both Cub and Grian immediately begin to lock down on whereabouts Scar might be held, based on arbitrary items situated in the background and the occasional change in Scar’s inflection. He sees it further when Mumbo manages to finally get a word in edgewise, enough to say that, clearly, Scar is by this specific location at the docks, based on a number of also arbitrary background noises and Mumbo’s knowledge of abandoned factories in the area; he swears he’s never seen more relief cross Grian’s face.
Three— Grian is in love with Scar.
-
Cub ends up telling him when Grian and Scar end up officially together in the form of a curt text and a ‘you owe me twenty’ shortly before Mumbo leaves to grab coffee for everyone.
Grian awkwardly skirts around it, like he’s trying to break the news of a divorce to a horribly innocent child. It takes him half a day to crack and tell Grian that he knows. It takes a few seconds before Grian starts, somehow, being twice as obvious as before.
Mumbo’s happy for them. He’s the kind of guy who would be.
-
They solve more cases, as usual: Scar drags himself into things and Grian lets him. Mumbo and Cub start awkwardly making more small talk as they manoeuvre on the outskirts of a relationship neither are privy to, which culminates in the weirdest case Mumbo has ever had the pleasure of working (which is saying a lot, given he’s worked with Scar for nearly two years): Cub and him getting paired up together.
They work surprisingly well— Cub has a penchant for results, and Mumbo has a drive to do things simply. Together, they manage to get a few clues under their belt as wins before Grian and Scar solve the case; Mumbo feels like he understands, all of a sudden, when Cub doesn’t put together the dots before Scar despite the fact that he so clearly could. He thinks he gets it, in a way no one else could; he thinks he’d do the same just to hear the way Grian cheers, excited, as the two manage to beat both him and Cub at a game neither was aware they were really playing.
-
His nightmares get worse.
Every one, the same: he wakes, a cold sweat steadily drying, to the unending feeling of loneliness in his bones. He makes himself tea, and he settles down with his case files, and he gets stuck thinking about the next thing.
Because— what next?
Part of him is envious of Cub. Scar drags him around like they’re two halves of the same being: whatever Scar is doing, Cub is two steps away, doing more rationally. It’s a comfort, a blessing, and a curse; because there’s no room for Mumbo. Not that he’d only want to be between Cub and Scar— he can appreciate that both of them are attractive, but it’s rather the bigger picture he’s concerned about. Because Grian only has two hands, and Scar would never let Cub go. And they’re getting married. And Scar had dragged Cub into his proposal to Grian, but Mumbo had only heard about it the next day from Xisuma— not even from his own, supposed, best friend.
And he’s positive Grian is looking to move to a better, higher-paying position, which means leaving the HCPD in favour of somewhere else.
Which means leaving him.
Which is what his nightmares are all about.
He settles with his tea, and his case files, and he ends up getting nowhere. Going nowhere. What’s next is that they leave. What’s next is Mumbo moves on. What’s next is that Mumbo isn’t sure he can move on.
-
The day comes in the form of Scar handing him back the security key he’d managed to pick pocket the first day they’d met.
“Repaying old favours,” Scar says, winking, and Mumbo tries not to laugh at how eerily similar the sentiment is to all the many, many nightmares he’s had over the past few weeks. He’s calm. He’s rational. He’s content where he is, watching from afar, empty hands and all.
When Grian leaves, Scar follows; Mumbo offers him a custom pistol, hand made, a waffle engraved on the handle. Grian offers him a bittersweet smile and Mumbo doesn’t push for a hug, no matter how badly he wants it. Scar follows, tears in his eyes and a sad song playing on blast in the car he and Grian have packed up, and Cub lasts a day (technically, half of one).
Mumbo doesn’t even get roped into that plan, either. Xisuma packs Cub into a car and they drive across the country, to Grian and Scar, and Cub stays. The three of them buy a three bedroom house and supposedly only use two of them.
Sometimes, in the dead of night, Mumbo sits in his car and calculates how many hours he could get out of his tank of gas before he’d need to stop, fuel up, and talk himself back into driving again. Sometimes he starts the engine. Sometimes he makes it to the edge of town. Every time, he wonders if the third bedroom is untouched, a space he could carve out for himself. Every time, his fingers itch to dial Grian’s number, to take the leap he so desperately wants to.
He doesn’t ask. Grian only has two hands.