Chapter Text
It happened three months after Grian got rescued by the Bamboozlers. His life had gone pretty much back to normal — aside from the occasional nightmare — everything was back to normal.
Grian was sitting at his table reading some new veterinary papers that had come out, and Scar was sitting on the couch watching TV.
The papers were about some fungus that had become increasingly common in dogs. Grian was supposed to hand out pamphlets about how to prevent it to every dog owner at the clinic the next day, and he was also supposed to learn how to spot it better.
He was studying the pictures trying to memorise the specifics, when suddenly there were black and grey mushrooms growing out of the papers.
They were growing fast, this couldn't have been normal mushrooms — where were they even coming from? There was only one thing this could be — a power.
Grian stood up as he screamed, pushing his chair back, memories of the Gs flashed through his head, a jolt of fear spreading through his veins. He staggered a few steps back, wanting to get as far away from the mushrooms as possible.
He started hyperventilating and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the mushrooms had started wilting away. Scar came running over from the living room to the bedroom, not even bothering to grab his crutch — which left him grabbing the walls for support.
Scar ran over to Grian. He followed the vet's gaze towards the table, his eyes widened when he saw the mushrooms. "What the–", he grabbed his Ringmaster themed crutch, which was leaning next to the door, and he speed-walked over to his bedside table, opening the drawer and grabbing his Ringmaster mask and putting it on.
Grian theorised silently, though he was panicking, that Scar had probably thought that there could be a hero hiding somewhere. Which was a reasonable thought, considering everything that had happened only a few months ago.
Even though it was unlikely that there was another group of rogue heroes, the Agency could have gone back on their deal, and decided that they wanted the Bamboozlers and their doctor gone.
"Who's there? Come out now." Scar said, his voice now firm and distorted by the modulator in his mask. Nobody answered.
Grian and Scar both stood there in silence, listening to every noise they heard, only the quiet hum of the fridge from the kitchen could be heard, Scar sighed, relaxing a bit — though still on guard.
He looked down at Grian and asked, "You okay? What happened?"
Grian opened his mouth, it was difficult to get the words out, when he finally did, the words came out shaky. "I don't really know, mushrooms just started growing out of the papers." Grian looked down at his hands and realised he was shaking.
"Do you think the heroes—"
Scar cut him off, "I don't know. I don't know of any heroes that have a power like that." Scar also looked down at Grian's hands, noticing the shaking, and took one of them in his own.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm here, I can protect you. I can call the others too, you're safe." Scar said softly.
Grian looked around, and slumped his head onto Scar's shoulder, exhaling a shaky breath. Scar's free arm wrapped around him.
Slowly, Grian wrapped his own arms around Scar.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, both were still listening for any sounds out of the ordinary, but they heard nothing.
When they parted, Grian looked up at Scar, his vision distorted by tears. He hadn't even noticed he had started crying. Scar's hand came up to the vet's cheek, cupping his face, and thumb wiping away a tear as it fell.
"You okay?" Scar repeated softly.
Grian nodded, though it wasn't completely true. But he felt a bit better.
"You should call the others," Grian said quietly.
Scar nodded, he raised his arm and clicked a button on his watch. Grian assumed he was probably calling the other Bamboozlers.
A robotic voice came from the watch saying "who would you like to call?" Scar swiped a few times on his watch, the robotic voice saying a few contact names. Until he landed on "Bamboozlers Group Call". he tapped the screen twice, and the robotic voice said "Alert: users not available via their earpieces. Switching to provided phone numbers instead."
The watch ringed a few times, then beeped, and Lizzie answered. "Why are you calling me through your watch? Wait, is everything okay?" The watch beeped again. Jimmy had probably joined the call.
"Everything's fine, for now atleast" Scar answered. "Wait what does that mean? What's going on? Why are you wearing your mask? Why are you calling us from your watch?" Jimmy said concernedly.
"Everything's under control, could you guys come over to Grian's apartment? We'll explain what's happening when you get here, it's kinda difficult to explain like this." There were a few seconds of silence, then Scar added "Nothing life threatening is happening currently, but please wear your masks and costumes."
Scar clicked a button on his watch, and it beeped a few times. He lowered his arm. He looked down at Grian again, a worried look in his eyes. "Could you tell me what happened?" He said, voice soft though distorted by the modulator, probably trying not to startle Grian.
Grian nodded and huffed out a small "yeah."
"Alright, but is it okay if I just quickly change into my costume? I want to be ready if there is a hero nearby — I'll try to be quick." Scar asked.
Grian nodded quickly. Scar changed into his costume, it wasn't that quick, since the costume had many small buttons and facets.
They walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, and sat down on the couch.
"So, what happened?" Scar said, taking the vet's hand in his. Grian was still shaking and his heart pounding as he answered. "I was studying a new paper that my boss wanted me to read, it was about like vet stuff y'know..." He squeezed his eyes shut. "And then there were suddenly mushrooms growing out of the papers, and I screamed, because, y'know, it was scary, and then you came into the room and you know what happened next." Scar nodded and hummed quietly.
A loud knock at the window startled them. Grian whipped his head around to the window and exhaled a sigh of relief when he saw Lizzie. She was in full Eclipse costume. Scar sighed and got up and opened the window.
"Why'd you have to come through the window?" Scar said, he sounded kinda annoyed. "It's only 4 pm! Your neighbours could see me!" She answered, sounding out of breath and panicked, and her voice distorted by the modulator in her mask.
She stepped through the window, and Scar closed it. A second later came a knock at the door, Scar sighed again and went to open it. At first there was no one behind the door, then Jimmy appeared, also in his full Boogeyman costume. "I forgot my key." he said, voice also distorted by his mask.
He stepped inside, and Scar closed the door. And they all looked at Grian. The newly arrived's eyes widened, probably seeing Grian's shaking.
"What happened?" Jimmy said, voice firm but calm.
"Come sit," Scar said, gesturing towards the couch and armchair.
Lizzie sat down in the armchair, and Scar and Jimmy sat down either side of Grian on the couch, Jimmy on the side closest to the armchair. Scar took Grian's hand and laced their fingers together, and Jimmy placed a hand on the vet's shoulder.
Scar looked at Grian and asked "Do you want to tell them what happened, or should I?"
"Can you tell them please?" Grian answered, he was too shaken to explain coherently.
Scar nodded, and looked over towards Jimmy and Lizzie. "So.." he started.
"I’m going to tell it to you from my perspective first." The other two villains nodded.
"So I was sitting here watching TV, and I suddenly heard Grian scream." Jimmy's and Lizzie's eyes widened. "So I ran to the bedroom — where he had been reading some new veterinary paper — And I saw some mushrooms or something that looked like they had been growing from the papers, but they looked like they had started wilting. So I grabbed my other crutch, because I forgot this one over here when I ran." He gestured towards his civilian crutch. "And I grabbed my mask, because I thought that there could be a hero or something nearby, because like why else would there be mushrooms growing from some papers."
Lizzie nodded and Jimmy said "Oh so that's why you wanted us to wear our masks." Scar nodded, and Lizzie said "I'm guessing you don't think there's a hero here anymore atleast. Since you're sitting calmly on the couch." She gestured towards them.
"Well I'm still worried that there could be a hero hiding somewhere, so don't take your masks off yet." Scar replied, his voice was a bit quieter now.
Both Lizzie and Jimmy nodded. "Alright, but continue with the story" Jimmy said.
Scar nodded.
"So I shouted 'who's there? Come out now.' " Scar said.
"Just like people do in horror movies," Jimmy teased.
Nobody laughed.
"Okay.. not the time for jokes I guess" Jimmy said.
"Well, did anybody answer?" Lizzie said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Nope." Scar replied, in a way that sounded both disappointed and relieved.
Scar started speaking again, but Grian interrupted. "He asked me if I was okay and what happened. I explained that I didn't really know, and that mushrooms just started growing out of the papers — which you guys already know."
"Mhm." Jimmy and Lizzie hummed and nodded in unison.
"And I was obviously panicking, so he hugged me." Grian said, squeezing Scar's hand, and leaning his head on Scar's shoulder.
"We hugged for a bit, and then I asked him to call you guys." Grian continued.
"Could you show us where the mushrooms were?" Jimmy piped up.
"Sure," Scar answered.
They all stood up, and walked to the bedroom and over to the table. There was nothing left of the mushrooms, except for a hole in the paper, where there had once been pictures of the fungus that dogs could get.
Lizzie leaned closer to the papers, and inspected the hole in the paper.
"You said that it just randomly started growing right?" Lizzie asked, not looking away from the papers.
"Yep, just started growing randomly." Grian answered.
"I was completely focused on the papers, it was really startling." Grian continued.
"Just out of curiosity, what were the papers about?" Lizzie asked, lifting the paper and inspecting it closer.
"Oh.. uh.. funnily enough, it was about a fungus that dogs can get if they aren't dried off properly after playing in water." Grian answered, noticing the strange connection. It was probably a coincidence though, he thought.
This answer seemed to surprise the villains, Lizzie set down the paper and turned around in one quick movement, the other two looked at her with the same baffled look as she was giving them. They had a silent conversation, glancing over at the vet a few times. The conversation ended with all of them shaking their heads simultaneously.
Jimmy and Lizzie looked over at Grian.
"We can guard the windows and door tonight if you want." Jimmy said.
Grian looked over at Scar, he was already looking at him. Grian turned back towards the other two.
"I think that would make me feel better." The vet answered as he nodded.
"I can guard the bedroom window!" Scar piped up.
Jimmy gave him a teasing look before saying, "me and Lizzie could take shifts guarding the other rooms. So that we get to sleep."
"Yeah! It'll be like a sleepover!" Lizzie said excitedly.
"Do you think it was a hero?" Grian asked blankly.
"I don't know. I don't know of any heroes with powers like that, and the agency would've announced a new hero debuting. But it could be a new vigilante, or a new villain who underestimated us." Scar answered honestly.
"But still it would be strange, how would they even get this address?" Lizzie continued Scar's sentence.
"I think we should just see what happens. I think speculating will just make us more confused." Jimmy said.
Grian thought about it, and he couldn't stop himself from speculating anyway. He was scared, but he felt safe with his villains. The sight of powers that were unfamiliar to him probably brought up a trauma response of some kind that made sense.
What didn't make sense was the mushrooms. Why would mushrooms grow in his apartment — not mold, mushrooms. They looked like ones that could be found in a forest.
It was strange, but Grian didn't have the energy to voice his thoughts. So he just nodded instead. This whole thing had drained him of all his energy, he just wanted to collapse into bed and sleep until all his problems went away.
"Alright!" Scar said, snapping his fingers and pulling the vet out of his thoughts.
"I was just about to make dinner when all this happened. So, who wants pasta?" Scar said happily.
"I am starving." Lizzie exclaimed.
"Me too." Jimmy added.
"Alright, you two can go sit somewhere, we'll be right there." Scar said, gesturing to the other two villains.
Jimmy and Lizzie left the room, chatting about something random.
Scar's gaze turned to the vet, he looked worried. "Are you sure you're okay? You know you can always talk to me about it."
"I'm still pretty scared. But I feel better with all of you here. I don't.. think I can talk about it right now, I might be able to later though." Grian answered.
Scar nodded, took off his mask, and pressed a quick kiss onto the vet's forehead. Then he quickly put on his mask again. And they walked out of the room.
Lizzie and Jimmy were sitting on the couch, The TV was playing something about the Tuff Guys' latest heist.
"I can't believe you're dating that guy." Lizzie said turning to Jimmy, which made him scoff like he had been personally attacked — which he sort of had.
"I mean, look. He's running across the city, and he's dropping everything they got. Hasn't he heard of a bag?" Lizzie continued.
"I should probably tell him that. But they'd probably leave the bag open again and let everything fly out.” Jimmy answered, shaking his head.
"I’m gonna go make the pasta. It'll take about 40 minutes. If you're really starving, you can eat one of these while you wait." Scar said, causing the other two villains to turn and look at him. And he tossed two granola bars at Jimmy and Lizzie, one of them hitting Jimmy in the head, and Lizzie catching hers perfectly. And he handed one to Grian calmly.
Jimmy threw a pillow at Scar which he dodged, and Scar made an offended gasp and quickly bent down to pick up the pillow and threw it back at Jimmy.
They kept throwing pillows at each other, one narrowly missed the TV. Grian and Lizzie locked eyes through the chaos, and Grian signalled to her to stop Jimmy. Then at the same time, both Grian and Lizzie caught Scar's and Jimmy's wrists mid throw. stopping them from throwing more pillows.
Jimmy groaned and tried to wriggle his wrists free.
Scar groaned, "he started it!"
"No you did!" Jimmy answered, sounding annoyed.
"I gave you food!" Scar continued.
"By throwing it at me!" Jimmy said, still annoyed but he stopped wriggling.
Scar sighed, and Grian let go of his wrists. Lizzie also let go of Jimmy's.
"You guys were going to break my TV." Grian said, annoyed.
"I would've caught it." Scar said, now less riled up.
"No you wouldn't have, you were too focused on Jimmy" Lizzie answered.
Scar sighed again, and walked into the kitchen.
Jimmy and Lizzie took off their masks and started eating their granola bars. And Grian walked over and sat down in the armchair.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, just watching the news reporter talking about the Tuff Guys' heist.
"Y'know, it's strange." Grian started, causing the other two's heads to turn towards him.
"The Tuff Guys, Tango seems so smart without them, but he does things like that when he's with them." Grian said, pointing at the screen where security footage of Tango running into a wall was playing.
"Or is he actually really dumb?" Grian said, turning towards Jimmy.
"He's not dumb! He's really smart, and cool and—" Jimmy answered, defensively. Cutting himself off, and going red in the face, signalling he was probably about to say something embarrassing.
"And what?" Lizzie teased, taking a bite of her granola bar, that she just seemed to realize she was still holding.
"Nothing." Jimmy answered quickly, going even more red in the face.
Grian and Lizzie laughed, but went back to watching TV.
After a while the food was ready and Scar brought it out to them. It was spaghetti with a homemade sauce. From what Grian could see, the sauce had tomatoes, chopped up mushrooms, and some basil leaves.
"I always forget that you're weirdly good at making food." Lizzie said after taking a bite.
"Ah, it's just practice," Scar answered casually, sitting down on the couch.
Grian took a bite as well, the flavour was perfect, as it always was when Scar made food.
Scar took off his mask and started eating as well.
"What's this made of?" Jimmy said as he hummed, clearly enjoying the food.
"Oh, the sauce?" Scar asked.
"Yeah"
"It's tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, garlic, some basil, and some spices to give it more flavour." Scar answered.
"Kind of ironic that there’s mushrooms, given what just happened." Lizzie chuckled.
"Huh, I didn't even think of that." Scar said, glancing over towards Grian, presumably checking for any discomfort in the conversation. He didn't find any. Grian had calmed down completely, as it had been a bit over an hour since it happened, and he felt safe now.
The three villains kept talking, and Grian kept eating in silence, only listening to a few of the words they said.
He looked down at a piece of mushroom, he was thinking of what had happened earlier. What could it actually be? It had to be a power, but who's?
As he was thinking about it, he saw something start to move on the mushroom. Another mushroom was growing, one that looked like the ones that he saw earlier, grey and black.
Grian's eyes widened, his hands started shaking. But he didn't close his eyes this time, he just stared as the mushroom kept growing. "Uhh.. guys".
The three villains looked towards him. Their brows furrowed, and they all grabbed their masks and put them on at the same time as they rushed over to Grian's side. Scar was the first to get to him — since he was sitting the closest.
Scar grabbed the fork with the mushroom, gently taking it out of the vet's hand. He examined it, but it had already started wilting away.
"It's wilting.."
Jimmy stood up, "Whoever you are, come out now. We're not scared of you." He said to the room, voice stern.
No answer.
"I'm gonna go search the apartment." Lizzie said.
"Could you go get me some tissues?" Scar asked Jimmy.
Jimmy nodded and walked to the kitchen, coming back a few seconds later with a roll of kitchen paper. He tore off a few pieces, handing them to Scar and placing the roll down on the table. He then turned around and started searching as well.
Scar took the paper, and placed it down neatly onto the table and putting the fork with the mushroom onto the paper.
Scar took Grian's hands in his own. He looked at the vet with all the love in the world. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," Grian answered honestly. He didn't know, he was scared again. He knew he was safe, he knew that as long as the Bamboozlers were there, no one could hurt him. But still, he was scared.
Grian felt the memory of Terra's vines wrapping around him, and the buzzing of Morphling's staff on his arm, even though they weren't there. Even though he wasn't in that place anymore, even though he was with Scar. He still felt that fear, that fear of losing everything and everyone he loved.
He held onto Scar's hands so tight that his knuckles went white.
"I'm scared." The vet said, barely audible.
"Everything is going to be okay." Scar whispered.
"What if the agency decided that..." Grian started, he wasn't able to finish his sentence, the thought was making him want to throw up. Though Scar seemed to understand what he meant, judging by the way his brows furrowed even closer.
"Then we'll handle it." Scar answered, sounding calm, though he was clearly nervous as well.
Grian sighed and Scar stood up. He turned around, and Lizzie walked up to him. "I've searched every room and both the hall closet and the bedroom closet, I've found nothing. Boogeyman is searching as well to make sure I haven't missed anything."
"Okay, maybe we should stay in the Bambunker tonight. I think it's too big of a risk to stay here, since it's happened twice now." Scar answered.
"G, is that okay? Scar said, looking towards the vet.
Grian hummed as he nodded.
"Alright, let's pack our stuff and we can get going." Scar said as he reached his hand out towards the vet.
Grian took his partner's hand and they walked to the bedroom. Grian grabbed a backpack, and put everything he thought he would need into the bag. — pajamas, spare clothes, phone and laptop chargers, laptop, phone, toothbrush, and toothpaste.
Grian turned to Scar, "I think I have everything I need. Don't you need to bring anything?"
"Oh, I keep spare things at the bunker in case anything happens, I don't need to bring anything except my phone." The villain answered as he held up his phone.
Jimmy was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, he was petting Maui. "Can we bring the cats?"
"Fine." Grian and Scar answered at the same time.
"That's actually a good idea, since no one would be here to feed them while we're gone." Scar continued.
Grian sighed. "I'll get the pet carriers." He was annoyed at not getting to just go to bed and sleep, though he was scared to sleep with the threat of a hero watching him.
He walked over to the closet by the front door and he grabbed his two pet carriers. Pearl and Maui would have to share since he didn't have a separate one for Jellie.
"You get Jellie into this one." The vet said, handing one of the carriers to Scar. "And you two can help me get the other two menaces into this one." He continued pointing at Jimmy and Lizzie.
Grian set the carrier down onto the floor and opened the top of it. Jimmy got up and picked Maui up from the floor with him. The cat made a surprised noise at being picked up so suddenly. At the same time, Scar had grabbed Jellie and put her into the other carrier. Neither cat was happy about being put into a carrier.
Lizzie had left the room and came back a few moments later, holding Pearl in her arms. "She is not happy about being held by me. I don't think she likes that I smell like Meri."
"Put her in here." Grian said, gesturing at the carrier that Jimmy was holding shut to prevent Maui from escaping.
"With Maui?" Lizzie asked, looking surprised, but moving towards the carrier.
Grian hummed. "I only have two carriers and I thought Jellie should get her own."
Lizzie nodded as she put Pearl into the carrier and Jimmy closed and locked it.
"We need to bring cat food and stuff aswell" Scar said as he pulled on an oversized hoodie over his costume.
"We're probably gonna have to make multiple trips to the car," Lizzie said.
Grian sighed. "I just want to go sleep. Why do we have to do all this?"
"You know why." Jimmy answered.
Grian sighed again and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed the bag of cat food, a clean spare litter box and a bag of cat litter. And he walked back into the bedroom. "I got the stuff, let's go."
The three villains stood up from where they were sitting in the bed, Scar picked up the carrier with Jellie inside and Jimmy picked up the one with Pearl and Maui inside. The cats were meowing, clearly annoyed.
Grian, Scar, Lizzie, and Jimmy walked to the front door, they put on their jackets and shoes and went outside. Jimmy went invisible and Lizzie hid behind Grian and Scar to not be seen by their neighbours while in their costumes.
They went outside and got into Scar's car and put the cats and everything else in the backseat with Jimmy and Lizzie. Scar put his crutch into the trunk and got into the driver seat and Grian got into the front passenger seat. He didn't need to wear the blindfold when going to the Bambunker anymore — the Bamboozlers trusted him now.
They started driving and Grian fell asleep almost immediately — for some reason, he was extremely tired.
After what felt like a second but was probably about 10 minutes, he was awoken by Scar's hand shaking him gently by his shoulder.
"You're really tired, aren't you?"
Grian grumbled groggily in response.
"Let's go inside, we can go to bed if you want." Scar said, taking his hand off of Grian's shoulder.
Grian got out of the car, Jimmy and Lizzie had already gotten the cats and the stuff out of the car. Scar got his crutch out of the trunk and locked the car and they walked into the elevator to the bunker.
The elevator dinged as they reached the Bambunker. The villains took off their masks immediately when the door closed. And they walked to Scar's room, Grian collapsed onto the bed almost immediately. He then realised that he was still wearing his jacket and backpack — sleeping like that wouldn't be so comfortable. He sat up, the three villains were setting down everything they had brought with them.
After they had set everything down Jimmy said, "We're gonna go search the apartment again, you two should stay here and rest."
Grian and Scar both nodded and Jimmy and Lizzie left the room.
Scar opened the two cat carriers and Maui and Jellie both bolted under the bed immediately, and Pearl slowly walked out, looking around carefully.
Scar filled the litter box with fresh litter and put it into a corner.
Then Scar walked over to Grian and sat down beside him on the edge of the bed. "Are you okay?"
Grian met Scar's gaze, he looked concerned. "Yeah, I'm fine, just tired." Grian answered, smiling softly, taking his partner's hand and interlacing their fingers.
Scar studied him for a few seconds before saying "You sure that's all?"
Grian sighed and looked down at the floor; it wasn't all. He had been feeling bad for a while. He had started feeling like this a few weeks after he got home from the hospital. It was a feeling in his chest and his stomach, he couldn't figure out what caused it. It wasn't anything he had ever felt before, it felt jittery, almost like fear but it wasn't that.
"I've been feeling... weird recently." Grian answered after a few seconds.
Scar looked at him, his brows furrowed slightly. "What do you mean? Weird in what way?"
"I don't really know how to explain it, just weird." The vet replied.
Scar hugged him, it felt warm in that familiar safe way. Grian hugged him back.
After a minute or so, they parted.
"Do you want to watch a movie?" Scar asked.
"Sure." Grian said quietly.
"Do you want popcorn?"
Grian thought for a bit, he wasn't that hungry, he had just eaten pasta. But he hadn't eaten all of it, maybe he should eat something then? He decided he probably shouldn't eat since he wasn't hungry. "Could you make me a cup of tea?"
"Tea, coming up!" Scar said energetically, leaving the room.
Grian wondered how he had so much energy. It felt like it was late, so he checked the time on his watch — 6.15 pm. If it wasn't that late, then why was he so tired? The vet decided to stand up and walk to the kitchen.
Scar was standing in the kitchen pouring water into a kettle. He turned his head towards Grian and asked, "What type of tea do you want?"
Grian sat down in a chair at the table. "Oh.. uh... just black tea, like I usually have it. I need the caffeine, I'm so tired."
"You sure? You might not be able to sleep well." Scar's brows furrowed. "And don't you have a shift in the morning?"
"Ah. right." The vet sighed. "I could just call in sick though."
Scar looked surprised at this. "Call in sick? What's with the switch up? I swear a few months ago, you got mad at me for even suggesting you call in sick."
"I wasn't mad, and that was before—" Grian trailed off. He looked down at the table, memories of things he'd rather forget flashed through his mind.
"Oh.." Scar started, but he didn't finish.
Grian cleared his throat, he looked towards the kettle that Scar was still filling, it had started overflowing. "The kettle!"
"Oh god.. uh." Scar stammered, realizing now that there was water everywhere and trying to stop it from getting worse.
He closed the tap and grabbed a dishcloth and started wiping the water.
"Are you okay?" Scar asked, concerned. "Genuinely, you don't seem okay. Since the thing with the mushrooms happened, you have been.. distant."
Grian thought for a bit, thinking about everything that has happened. It was a lot. He was scared, he was worried, he felt unsafe. Like any second, a hero could jump out from the shadows and hurt him.
"I'm... scared." Grian said, and he started hyperventilating. "It feels like a hero could be anywhere."
Scar set down the dishcloth, wiped his hands hastily and walked over to the vet, sitting down on a chair next to him, and shifted it closer. He took Grian's hands, "you're safe here, I want you to know that. Breathe with me."
Scar took a deep breath in, and Grian followed.
Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
The sat there for a few minutes, breathing together. Grian felt a bit calmer, though not completely calm, he felt better.
Scar broke the silence and said, "This is normal, you went through something traumatic, and something happened that reminded you of that. This is normal, you are allowed to feel this way."
Grian looked his partner in the eyes, there he saw all the care and love in the world reserved solely for him. This made him feel warm inside, and sparks radiated from every point they touched. He leaned in, kissing Scar softly and slowly. He was kissed back with the same gentleness.
He raised his hand, cupping Scar's face and deepening the kiss. Scar's arms wrapped around him, pulling him closer, Grian broke the kiss for a moment to get up from his chair and sit in Scar's lap instead. The moment he sat down, lips were meeting his instantaneously and desperately.
A pleasant buzzing filled his veins as he was kissed harder.
Quietly he muttered "I love you so much." into Scar's lips.
"I love you too." Scar muttered back. Grian raised his other hand, lacing it through Scar's hair. The kiss became messier and static filled Grian's head. He never wanted this to end, he wanted to stay there in Scar's embrace forever.
They kissed until they couldn't breathe, until it felt like the world revolved around them, until their hearts were filled with sparks and happiness.
After a while, they broke apart. Scar's face was flushed, he was smiling from ear to ear. Grian wore a matching expression.
Both let out a small laugh. Grian stayed in Scar's lap. "I feel better now."
"Good." Scar replied, smiling impossibly wider.
Instead of standing up, they stayed there, holding each other close as if they were afraid the other would disintegrate if they let go. Grian felt safe when he was with Scar.
"Did you still want tea?" Scar asked, looking towards the kettle — which was still dripping with water.
"Uh.. Yeah. Tea sounds good." Grian answered, neither of them stood up.
"Y'know, as much as I like this. I can't make you tea while you're sitting in my lap." Scar said, huffing out a small laugh.
"I don't want to.. let go." The vet said, holding Scar closer.
Scar let out a small laugh. "We can stay here for a bit longer then."
Grian let his head rest against Scar's chest and he closed his eyes. This was comfortable, this was safe. And at some point he fell asleep.