Work Text:
The room was quiet, the first proper bit of stillness that they'd had all day. Sausage could feel the exhaustion in his bones, so deep it seemed to invade every part of him, even the joints of his copper limbs. He pulled the blanket tight around where Graecie had draped it around his shoulders, once again quietly cursing the prevailing cold and wind of the Academy. He wasn't meant for such chilly drafts! He was meant for the warm glow of the afternoon sun and the gentle breeze of a spring day. Or, at least it felt that way.
He staggered to his feet, leaving his temporary bunk behind him, and traipsed his way over to the fireplace, taking a few logs and propping them in the fireplace, sighing contentedly when the crackling flame leapt up, bathing him in glowing heat. And while it was pleasant for him, a deeper part of him felt that it would be even better for...
He sighed, a quiet huffing thing, turning around to look at the other occupants of the room. Graecie and Zam were crammed together on a hastily constructed bed, Zam's wiry arms cradling the smaller woman closer, both of them still and soft in sleep. Twilight and Fleece were curled up in the space in front of them, tiny paws clasped with Gadget's own coppery ones, Penny curled around him to protect him from the chill, staking her claim on their recently returned fourth. All six of their bodies served as a barrier for the last occupant of the sea of bedding.
Tucked against his bed's railing as far back as he was able, like even in sleep he was too petrified to hurt one of them, was Legundo. Swamped under a mound of blankets that Graecie had scrounged up with the help of the guards, Sausage could still see the fine tremors shaking the smaller man's body. The tips of his ears and his cheeks were washed flush with the start of a fever, and even now his face was creased with anxiety, his form curled up small.
The scene on the bridge had been....probably one of the worst things Sausage had ever experienced, and probably would still rank that high even if or when he got his memories back. And that was saying something considering he'd almost gotten erased from existence only a few hours before that.
Legundo was always such a timid thing: small and hunched, nearly swimming in clothing two sizes too big for him, he brought to mind a hare, wild and flighty but a single wrong move would send him bounding away, not to return until some great length of time had passed. Under that, he was a sweet boy; intelligent, kind, thoughtful, it was painfully easy to grow as attached to him as he had to the other two of their little group, his love for them only eclipsed by his love for his dragon.
On that bridge there had been none of that kindness, none of that intelligence. He reminded Sausage more of a wounded dog than anything else, backed into a corner and half wild with terror, teetering on edge of the bridge's railing and only a single misstep from falling into the corrupted waters below. He'd been half delirious already with exhaustion and fear, looking at them not like trusted friends but like possible threats, even as Gadget nuzzled at his chest, desperate to soothe his rider's distress. Backing away from him had felt wrong but it least it got him down onto the main part of the bridge and away from immediate danger.
I thought if I ran far enough, if I waited long enough, the world would change and the portal would disappear, and you all would be safe.
Devastation had crawled up Sausage's throat and nearly strangled him with sickness as the meek confession curled through the air. Graecie tremored against his side as the gravity of their friend's actions sank into her mind, and he could hear the tears in her voice as she tried to coax him back with them, try and steer him away from his plans conceived solely through fear and truly figure out what was wrong.
It had taken some time to get out of the younger man what was wrong, his words stumbling and repeated the same refrains of self-recrimination and deprecation over and over again, but eventually they'd succeeded. As the sun had risen he'd slipped a small tome from under the thin, threadbare purple cloak, tossing it at Graecie's feet with a shaking hand.
A book. Another damned book, laying there on the planks, unassuming. The contents were just as unnerving, but just as misleading but he could see what would have driven the other to his desperate actions.
Iron drinks magic.
The words did send a bit of a shiver down his spine, whoever or whatever had written them had known how to get to the heart of a person's fears, that was for sure and for a moment he feared that they might have a greater hold over Legundo than they did. But, thankfully, that was not the case and eventually Graecie got him to agree to come inside, to not run away again and to let them help him.
He'd stopped, just a few feet from Sausage and Graecie after his agreement, and Sausage saw his eyes harden briefly, grim determination flickering in gimlet emerald depths. His gaze locked on Sausage, then flitted down to the diamond blade glimmering on his belt, and back to Sausage again.
Don't let me hurt anyone.
An unspoken plea, but one Sausage was not sure he would ever have the fortitude to answer.
It was a slow progression back to the academy, one part Legundo's exhaustion, the other part his lingering reluctance to return with them, but eventually they managed to get him through the door and sat in front of a fire. It had taken them another hour to get him into the dorms and into clean and dry clothing.
Dinner was a non-starter. Legundo took fresh beef for Gadget and fed him with shaking hands but when they'd asked him if he'd eaten, he'd simply demurred, saying he still had plenty of food in his pouch. Judging by his paler than usual skin and the tremor in his hands, Sausage very much doubted he'd eaten much - if any - of that stored food in the last few days. While it had only been a night, one anxiety induing night in which none of them had gotten sleep for worrying, the resource world was...different. Something about the magic of the realm caused the time to move so much faster on that side of the portal, and Legundo had been on the run for nearly a week by the time he'd landed back in the academy.
As much as Sausage wanted to push, he left it in the hands of Zam and Graecie - Legundo had seldom been able to tell the girls 'no' - letting them gently cajole him into at least drinking some water, and he was powerless to stand-up to them shepherding him into his bed. He let Graecie wrap him up in blankets and place Gadget on his chest, and he didn't protest when Zam placed a bed right in front of his own and another, Sausage's bed, horizontal at the head of both to bracket them from the door. He didn't even protest when the baby dragons were plopped in the space between his and the girls' bed, preventing him from escaping without waking up everyone.
He'd simply curled up silently and drifted into fitful, silent sleep. Where usually he'd fling an arm out, searching even in sleep to be in contact with them, he kept them curled close. Graecie and Zam had settled into the other bed shortly after, curled together with their eyes on Legundo, and the sky was long dark before either of them joined the boy in slumber.
Sleep yet eluded Sausage, and he could tell it would be a long time coming, if it even did at all. He'd sat up, picking over the food Zam had so lovingly crafted and sipping on the remanent of the coffee he'd gotten from the cafeteria. He'd paced the room from end to end, brushed the dragons one by one until their scales gleamed and stood near the foot of both beds, hands braced as he watched over them. Zam and Graecie were still with exhaustion, the dragons curled together, the room still save for the crackle of flames in the hearth and the sound of seven sets of breath.
He wandered the room again, taking in for the fifth time all the little touches the younger had used to decorate the room. Dark woods, book shelves aplenty, several work benches already covered in various little projects and tools but a startling lack of personal touches. No pictures, no knickknacks, nothing to signify where Legundo had been or anything he'd done before coming here, just the few things he'd been given or collected since his arrival. He wasn't the only one, Sausage knew: after all the academy had drawn all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons, but the boy didn't strike him as the type to discard personal things. He guarded things jealously, keeping them close and protected, when they were important to him. One of the few times someone had touched one of his things, a small leather band Sausage had made him, Legundo had actually snarled at the offending party, sounding every inch more like Gadget than himself for a moment.
So it was baffling to Sausage to see nothing of the sort in the boy's room. Come to that, he couldn't remember if he'd ever seen anything of the sort in his rooms.
Well, they'd just have to give him more things to decorate with, to show him he was wanted and loved here.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a whimpering cry and he turned around to see Legundo had rolled on to his stomach, the tiny tremors in his limbs increased to a full on shaking, his face buried in his pillow. He wasn't awake, his face still scrunched up with disturbed sleep, but before Sausage could cross the room and try and soothe him, the others on the bed were moving, still half asleep themselves. Graecie reached forward and pulled his arm out of the wrap of blankets and pulled him close, his side tucking up into her chest. Zam made a quiet, rumbling click before draping herself over both their bodies, the Stella going limp and flat to press them both into the mattress with her large frame. The dragons squeaked and chirred their protests for being woken before migrating, curling up in a purring, glittering lump of scales at Legundo's other side; Gadget draped over his flank, Penny draped over Gadget possessively once more, Fleece and Twilight on either side of them.
Legundo snuffled and whimpered a little longer, and Sausage feared that - where pressure was usually soothing to his anxiety - it might be the wrong call after the last little while, but he settled fairly quickly. His face smoothed out, his breathing settled out of those stuttering gasps, and his body uncurled and softened as he sank deep into sleep again. Sausage heaved a breath of relief, his own tiredness finally catching up with him, along with a terrible fondness and an unquiet urge to sink into the press of bodies.
Well, who was he to deny himself the comfort of the people he cared for? Certainly a stronger man might be able to hold back, but not him. He chuckled at his own thoughts and gingerly climbed into the second bed, glad that this one didn't have railings. He curled around Graecie's back, flung his flesh arm over Zam's back and, with a little fidgeting, managed to get his copper arm under Legundo's feverish forehead, a tiny flicker of pride shooting through him when the younger man sighed with relief and sank even further into sleep.
In the morning there would be plenty of issues to begin unraveling: hurt feelings, the brewing sickness from Legundo's time on the run and his lack of food, the books; all of it would need to be sorted in due time, but for now he was content.
Sleep came for Sausage at last, lulled into dreamless slumber by Graecie's floral scent, the hum of Zam's spacesuit, the purring of the baby dragons and Legundo's quiet breathing, calm and at peace at last.