Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Scar could not keep his eyes open for the life of him.

It was definitely his own fault, he was too busy these few days taking note of some conveniently placed… err… donated kidneys… yes. Very ethical and legally sourced, on a voluntary basis, donated kidneys. Checking to see if they were proper and good quality for any upcoming transplantations on patients. 

Anyways, just right before Scar had just woken up in the clinic, it was so early in the morning that the sun had not risen yet. He lifted his head up from the clinic desk with a crick in his neck, dried drool at the corners of his mouth, and a realisation that he had an off day today and did not even need to be in. 

Excited to leave the premise of his working environment after 3 full days in, scar had left rapidly for the sweet visage of this cat Jellie and bed at home. Only to accidentally lug back his heavy on site medical equipment, which was for in the rare case of any emergencies where him reaching there would be much faster than them coming over. 

This meant that he was walking like a drunkard through the cool and empty streets, hoisting a burdensome bag of expensive equipment. Through his exhaustion, Scar decided to take a short cut through an alleyway back to his apartment. No burglars would work at the crack of dawn anyways. 

Usually such reckless behaviour would have the sounds of Jimmy and Lizzie screaming at him; “crime rates have been on the rise recently, it doesn't matter if one thinks that burglars and criminals have a work life balance Scar!” with Jimmy just flat out screaming nonsense at him.

Normally he would take that as a sign he is doing something stupid and listen to his inner Lizzie, heck even inner Jimmy was screaming at him. However the fact that he brought the bag of medical tools and supplies instead of his work bag was a telltale sign of his coherence and he really could not be bothered. Scar was tired and wanted a nice warm shower and then to sleep for all of eternity next to his beloved queen, Jellie.

Then unexpectedly, scar saw a figure slumped at the side of the wall. The figure had a long big cut at his side and was bleeding out… shit.

Scar isn't new to the sights of opened wounds and blood due to his line of work, and from his angle he could tell it was deep cut. There was also a big pool of fresh scarlet blood around the figure, this wasn’t looking too good. 

Through his tiredness, he hesitated at first, thinking to pawn off such this sad case of theft and stabbing responsibility onto another poor unsuspecting civilian. But he halted that thought before it could be fixed. No, he is a doctor, he could not let such a person die when he’s right in front of them with all the tools he conveniently needs to help such a large and possibly critical injury. 

So, with quick and practiced movements he knelt down, next to the surprisingly petite man, onto the pool of blood. He opened up his medical supplies and got to work, checking the pulse and breath of the man, he was alive and it was still steady. Good. He unfortunately did not have gloves so distilled water rinsed hands will have to do.

He started with applying pressure onto the injury with one hand to the best of his ability, the other hand started reaching for some scissors to cut through the dress shirt to get better access to the wound and then the same distilled water to clean the area. (thank goodness he decided not to throw the water out just to save some weight lifting.) 

Through his ministrations, he heard the incapacitated man under him groan in pain. Bad sign, he might be waking up, scar needed to act quickly so that he doesn’t get up in a panic and move about. 

He brought out his stitches and needle but before he could even begin, the man’s eyes snapped open and the arm closest to Scar grabbed his hand in a tight constricting hold. 

In a professional trance, Scar instinctively replied before a word could leave the man’s mouth “My name is Scar, I'm a doctor and I'm going to help you get stitched up.” His hands moved deftly into position, the man loosening his arm as Scar spoke. “This is going to hurt for a bit but you will need to bear with me sir, you have a lot of blood loss and I need to stitch you up before things get critical.”  The man grunted in acknowledgement and his hand let go of Scar with a grunt, then he winced as the needle went through flesh but no other notable sounds were made. 

Scar continued on stitching up the wound, the man barely reacted to the stitching so the processes went by smoothly. Normally people would wince and whine a lot during such a process, but Scar just attributed it to a possible high pain tolerance.

Once he was done, he put a gauze and bandaged up the man, securing it with a hook. And with one last professional yet invasive check, scar deemed this a good and finished job. He turned up to smile at the man, only to see dark obsidian eyes boring in his direction, which stunned him for a moment. 

This pulled him back to the reality of the situation that no, he was not on duty currently and so he took a moment to actually process the man in front of him. He had short dark blonde hair, void coloured eyes, and actually… the man right in front of him wasn’t too bad looking…

“Thanks…” The man muttered, snapped Scar out of check the no longer incapacitated man. 

“Oh- yes, no problem, good sir! But, even though I am a professional at my job, I do recommend going to a clinic, or a hospital to get the proper supplies for your injury. The hospital I work at is the closest one to here, at bamboo mountain, the ever popular and reliable hospital if I do say so myself! Do call ahead and ask for Doctor Scar, I think I have already surveyed the seriousness of your injury so having me as your doctor should help you skip a lot of questions. And as long as you move carefully and don’t aggravate your wounds, you should be good to go, mister…?” Scar then realised he went back to professionalism mode, gosh he probably was rambling too much, he did not even know the guy’s name!

“Err… I’m Grian…” The man now named Grian had a funny look on his face as if he just made a mistake saying his name, intriguing. Scar then moved to take his phone out of his pocket planning to call a cab, again in a similar fashion to before, Grian’s hand shot out to grab his, making him drop his phone. This time, Grian used his other arm and leaned a lot closer to Scar. His face was closer now, and Scar could see the freckles dotting the blonde’s cheeks making him flush.

Unfortunately, the suddenness of his motion affected his own wounds and the sound of pained groan brought Scar’s eyes away and his hands onto the impatient patient “Wow you sure are a rebellious one, I just said not to aggravate you wounds with sudden movement! Hold on, let me check your bandages.” 

Grian flushed a bit at the comment and then let the doctor check through his wounds. Pacified Grian answered muttering, “Sorry doc, I just would not like an ambulance right now”. Scar then understood where Grian was coming from, maybe he was scared of hospitals? Well Scar wasn’t one to judge so he decided to explain himself.

“Oh, I see. Okay, your stitches aren’t opened, that's good. I was not going to call an ambulance because that's far too expensive and you are no longer in critical danger good sir.” Scar chuckled to himself at that, “Do you have a friend that can pick you up? Or do you need me to call you a cab? I can help you back to where you live if you don’t mind," he replied.

Grian didn't look relieved at the questions but seemed to have claimed a bit so Scar gave himself a mental pat on the back for that. “I have a friend that I can call, thanks…” Scar stared at Grian, watching as he took out his phone. While waiting for Grian to call his friend, Scar finally had the time to take a full good look at the man. His eyes drifted to the bandages on habit and then moved to what he was wearing, which was a maroon suit. 

Thankfully the blazer was off enough that Scar did not need to cut it off, but the inner blouse had to be ruined completely so that the bandages could cling to skin. This revealed an silhouette of Grian’s lean torso, and wow. Scar had to stop himself from ogling him and he blushed looking outwards to the alleyway. Scar's subsequent thought was: cute and hot, maybe he can get his number when he comes for a hospital visit- 

The thought formulated, but Scar wanted to move on like he just didn’t think of asking out a guy he just bandaged up in an alleyway. 

And as Scar was struggling with his inner foolish thoughts, Grian’s call ended and Scar remembered he needed to start packing up and help Grian up on his feet. Swiftly stuffing the equipment into his bag, Scar launched up and turned to help Grian. Before Scar could even bend down to grab his arm, Grian shot right up, as if the wound was never there, the only inkling that his side was ever injured was the large expanse of white wraps on his torso. Really high pain tolerance then, maybe he should note this down when Grian comes for a hospital visit.

“Thanks for the help, doctor. I will keep your advice in mind.” And then at just perfect timing a car pulls up and Grian promptly enters it, and in a blink it speeds off before Scar could so much as say goodbye.

“Awh…” Scar pouted as he didn’t even manage to give the man his business card.

As Scar walked back home, all he could think about was the phantom grips of a hand around his wrist and the look of void black eyes staring back.

Chapter Text

Honestly after that day, Scar never really thought that much about Grian. Grian didn’t even appear in the hospital like what his professional medical advice said to do: go visit a hospital. So he did not get much of a chance to even see him.

Sure, he had a pretty face, hot body, but he was awfully quiet. Which don't get Scar wrong, it is totally fine if he was quiet. Heck he was stabbed… or sliced… and bleeding out, he could be in shock, but that doesn't really tell what his personality was like. 

And Scar is nothing but a guy big on personality. He definitely does not think about Grian anymore and does NOT walk through that same alleyway sometimes when he walks back home, risking his safety, in hopes to see those lovely, dark… alluring… eyes-

Eitherways, the next time Scar sees Grian was when he least expected it. 

He did not go through the alleyway this time, it was starting to feel far too creepy. Maybe at first he was too tired to feel the unease the path gave on that day. He walked back at least 4 more times after the incident, and all he could feel was eyes boring down his skull each time. But when he turned around there was no one but the sound of dripping pipes and squeaking rats. 

Another reason he decided the alley was not worth it was also due to the fact he received a government online alert of a rise in criminal activity in the area. These alerts don't come with descriptions and can fall between petty theft to big villain attacks. 

Oh did Scar mention? There are villains here as well as heroes in his town. Most of these people have some God given abilities – powers? – but Scar doesn't have any, so he has to be a lame-io doctor. But he worked hard for that degree, so only he gets to flame himself. 

Moving on, the general rule of thumb for these alerts is just to stay away from dim and hidden paths. Going to one is just asking to be taken as a hostage, getting robbed or even sliced like how Scar found Grian.

During the supposed standard, sane and safe route home, an alert sounded again, it was a new criminal activity recorded, yikes. This meant he was just going towards danger on the way home. Scar sighed and hoped he wouldn’t run into any trouble and just trekked forwards. 

When he reached a clearing, he then knew exactly what the alerts were for: a villain battle. He has absolutely no context to what or why this is happening but a bunch of civilians were crowding around trying to take photos of the esteemed Bouncer and Bartender: the family hero duo.

It's a strange name and Scar has no idea where it came from, nevertheless, people had their phone whipped out, eager to get footage of them and brag to their many friends and family or whatever. 

Scar wasn’t very versed on the topic of heroes and villains. They didn't have much to offer him in the way of entertainment, it really was just action packed scenes with bloodshed, which just made Scar uncomfortable thinking of all the ways a doctor has to treat all that. (He does give it to them though, they must have either very good dodging skills or a very skilled doctor behind the scenes since he's seen the damage the hero duo has done and it is nasty.)

Sure, he knew the popular household names like the Duo mentioned before, but he could not tell you who they were fighting right now. It was also all a blur to him. Unlike in the movies, where everything is slowed for the viewer to be able to keep up, fights start and finish fast. One point of injury is already a sign to leave in this field, and in this case they looked like blurry figures of green, orange and black swirling together.

There was no point staying here honestly,so he started to take a round about way home, just around the block. 

Cue the meeting. 

Just as Scar had turned around into a side alleyway, he saw the man of his dreams- sorry, the man that he coincidentally met at the other alleyway, drop down a few paces in front of him. (seriously, what is up with these alleyways) 

“AH! Geez-, warn a man next time!” Stunned, his hand flew to his chest.

Grian’s back was facing Scar and immediately straightened at the sound of his exclamation. He whipped around quickly with a face of a man who just got his foot stepped on. “Who?-... oh…” Straight away Scar realised the white feather mask upon Grian’s face. It was really pretty and drew attention to the obsidian black eyes framed by the pure white. 

Grian then huffed akin to how one would sigh at a terrible joke, so Scar decided a conversation was to be in place. “Hi there… Grian right? What a splendid way to meet you where you're not incapacitated… and on the floor bleeding out  in an alleyway.” A short laugh escaped the fine man’s mouth at the comment.

“How’s your wound?” Scar really couldn’t help his professional side from acting up, but it was better than the other parts his brain could've been straying too.

Grian seemed to not have predicted such a question but answered with a collected tone “Oh, my wounds healed fine, thanks again for your generous help in aiding me.” The man paused before continuing, “I am indebted to-” 

Scar decided he wanted none of that and simply cut in “Ahhhh, no worries good sir! I was just helping a poor citizen in need, it's really unfortunate with these burglary cases, you really need to be careful at night.” Grian seemed to look like he was holding back his mirth, “I'll make sure to be careful, just for you doctor… Say, what brings you here today? There's a villain attack right behind, normally one would flock to the scene.”  

Scar blinked, remembering what he just saw before “Oh, the villain attack? Not really a fan of such messy affairs, as a doctor I hate to see people injured, you know? I was just in the process of leaving before you dropped out of nowhere!” Scar looked up to emphasise his point and genuinely trying to find where the man could have dropped out from. The alleyway was a lot taller than the one where they first met, but there was a fire escape on the left, perhaps from there then.

“So you're not familiar with the villainous and heroic side of things then?” Grian questioned.

“No, but I'd be interested in getting to know you more.” The words left Scar's mouth before he could even think to thread the conversation normally. “W-wait- I meant, like in a friend way- like getting to know you more like a friend!” God he was messing this up pathetically, he just met the man properly too.

Grian looked puzzled at his words and then a bout of laughter came out. “You're a funny one Scar.” 

And before he could even come back from fumbling, Grian eyes flashed a dark purple and pushed him to the side towards the wall and moved behind him  just in time to intercept a stray axe flying past them.“Oof!- Oh my-” Turning to see what the sudden aggression was for, Scar saw Grian holding his arm out, and the axe that looked like it was in slow motion and stagnant in the air hovering in front of his hand. “What?...” 

A sudden tension seemed to leave Grian’s body as the axe appeared to decide that gravity was real and bounced off the invisible force of Grian’s hand. The man had an ability, probably force related, and Scar could only stare at meeting such a person up close. Grian didn’t turn to face Scar and stared at his hand, seemingly unaware that he had an ability to begin with.

Turning his eyes to the embedded axe on the floor, Scar assumed it might have been a stray weapon from the villain attack happening, he hadn’t walked that far from the site after all. “I think we should move somewhere safer, you having secret abilities is great and all but I like my head on my neck yeah?” 

Grian looked taken aback by the comment but shook it off quickly. “Yeah… We should, I think I’ll go find my friend, he’s at the attack site and if an axe flew all the way here, I’d hope he would be okay. I think you should head home.” 

Before Scar could say goodbye, Grian dashed off into the opposite direction of the route to his house. “Not again…”  Not feeling like chasing him and knowing if any injuries happen it would be taken care of swiftly, Scar decided not to waste time and head home. 

With another strange interaction with the man over, it left him wondering of abilities. Scar didn’t know anyone with abilities personally and was quite curious, maybe he could ask Grian the next time he sees him.