Work Text:
When Pyro all but stomped up the stairs, his footsteps heavy and creaking the wood floor beneath him, he hadn't expected to find Scott sitting on the steps outside of his room, his dragon scampering around with some toy as he watched.
Something twisted uncomfortably in Pyro's gut, a feeling of dread settled deep in him. Their talk before the Prince had interrupted them, if you could even call that a talk, hadn't really been resolved. Half apologies, unsure of how much the other truly meant it. It still didn't sit right with him, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.
The sound of Pyro's footsteps slowing as he approached the end of the hallway made Scott look up, immediately sitting up. Aurora noticed him as well, retreating back to her rider's side on the steps in front of his room. Maybe the little beast could sense the tension that grew, thick and heavy in the air around them.
"Hi," Scott greeted, his voice too quiet and too cold. Not quite hostile, not like it had been in the first few days after arriving at the academy, but not quite smoothed over from before.
Pyro tilted his chin up a bit, a single nod before looking away from Scott, still heading towards the door to his room. "Hello."
"Finally slipped away from Prince Cam?" Scott cleared his throat, his shoulders sagging a bit with a small exhale. It felt like he was deflecting, not wanting to address whatever this weird tension between them was. Typical.
Pyro stopped at his door, a hand hovering over the doorknob. He was glad, for a moment, that he was faced away from the other. So Scott couldn't see the furrow in his brow or the frown that tugged at his lips.
"Yeah," He replied, biting back the emotion in his voice before it could give him away.
The silence that followed was just as thick in the air, Pyro could almost feel it as it settled heavily around him. His fingers tensed in the space just above the door handle, itching to grab it so he could leave as quickly as possible.
He stayed rooted in place instead.
He wasn't sure why he was just standing there, unsure of what was keeping him in place. Maybe some twisted part of him was hoping that Scott would be the one to say something first. For him to say something, to say anything. Maybe he needed to give some incentive.
"Well, I think I'm going to get some shut eye," Pyro sighed, turning around after schooling his expression into something more neutral as he faced Scott again. He wasn't sure why he didn't just, leave, actually turn in for the night. Instead, he stared at his childhood friend across the hall from him.
Pyro hadn't expected for Scott to be standing when he turned around.
"Yeah, me too," Scott let out a small sigh, nodding a bit, "Today's been… a long day."
Just calling it 'a long day' was putting it lightly. Pyro had to flex his fingers in order to keep from letting his hand ball into a fist, so Scott wouldn't notice. Of course Scott wasn't going to understand, why would he.
"And," Scott continued slowly, almost like he was testing the waters before he jumped in. Scott Borealith, ever the careful one, and Pyro hated it. "Um. I'm sorry, for not telling you sooner. About home."
This time, Pyro didn't fight against clenching his fist. "Yeah, well. I'm glad I know." He couldn't quite hide the way his voice fell, the venom behind his feelings spilling before he could try and stop it. He knew it the moment he heard it, that Scott had clocked it as well.
Scott stared at him, his face falling into something upset. Whether it was a sad upset or an angry upset, Pyro couldn't tell yet. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"What's what supposed to mean," Pyro shrugged, unclenching his fist like it would dull the flames that threatened to burst from it.
"You know exactly what I mean," Scott all but snapped back, his brows furrowing in a way that Pyro recognized. There it was, that anger Scott had been holding back for too long. "Why did you say it like that?"
Pyro sighed, a sharp exhale that was too warm. "I don't know what you're talking about-"
"Bullshit, you know exactly what I'm talking about." Scott accused, taking a step towards him, closing the distance with a confidence that still felt unfamiliar to Pyro. "I said I was sorry for not telling you sooner."
Despite Scott having walked closer to him, Pyro took a step back towards the door to his room, and he took immense pride in seeing Scott's cold anger flicker heavily across his face at doing so. "I don't know what you want me to say."
"Don't," Scott practically shouted, following after Pyro, getting far too close for comfort. The air got colder around them for a moment before Pyro's own heat fought it back into something more normal. "You don't get to deflect and run away. Again."
"I'm not!" Pyro laughed, because it amusing to see just how easy it was to push Scott's buttons. To see what it was that he was actually upset about. "I genuinely don't know what you want from me on this. Just because you said sorry doesn't mean I have to accept it and forgive you."
From the corner of his eye, Pyro noticed frost spreading across the floor where Scott stood, only going as far as the threshold towards his door where the heat from his room fought it back. Scott suddenly reached forward, grabbing the front of Pyro's shirt and practically slammed him against the door behind them.
"You never asked me about Tegrith, not once the entire time we've been here." Scott hissed, their bodies pressing together just a breath of distance between them. "Eight years you were gone, and you never once asked me about home, about your family."
It felt like molten lava was flowing in Pyro's veins, anger growing like a roaring forest fire. In rapid succession, he grabbed Scott's hands, pushing them off of their hold on his shirt before he flipped their positions. He shoved Scott against his door, an arm firm across his chest to hold him in place.
"And when were you going to tell me otherwise?" Pyro demanded, uncaring of the way his voice echoed in the hallway behind them. He locked his gaze with Scott and refused to back down. "Huh? If this whole thing with Tim, and Terry, and finding that corrupted village that's fucking spreading never happened, when were you going to tell me?"
"Well maybe if you weren't an ass and were easier to talk to-"
"Were you going to wait until I headed back to Tegrith with my fucking fire powers and my fire dragon to tell me?!" Pyro practically roared, ignoring the way something hot and wet rolled down his cheek.
The only thing that broke the silence between them was the sound of Pyro's heavy breathing, only barely trying to control the bubbling of fire beneath his skin that threatened to burst out from him. Scott blinked, eyes going wide as he stared at him.
"Pyro…"
Suddenly, he stepped back, letting go of his hold on Scott against his door. Shoulders tense and fists clenched, Pyro's eyes snapped down to the ground, pointedly looking away from the other. The floor where he had been standing was blackened, scorched beneath him. He took a sharp breath, like he was forcing the reigns of his magic back before it could get out of control.
"Just- look," Pyro breathed, measured and controlled, "I'm glad I know. I just wish you would have told me sooner. You can hate me for leaving, you can call me an asshole, whatever you want. But I would have never forgiven myself if I was the reason Tegrith fell to the corruption all because I didn't know."
The silence was deafening, ringing in his ears too loudly as he tried to smother the flames of his anger. He didn't want to fall apart. Not in front of Scott. Not like this.
He heard Scott take a breath before he sighed, slow, like he was trying to gently break the silence. "I… I wanted to tell you sooner, I swear. I just… there wasn't a good time for it."
Pyro didn't know if that was better or worse.
"Yeah. Sure." He said, not bothering to try and hide the way his voice felt tight, still not looking over at Scott. Pyro stayed in place, just out of the way so that Scott could leave for his own room. So he could go back to being alone.
To his surprise, Scott didn't. Instead of walking away, of heading to his own room, Scott took a few tentative steps towards him, closing the distance between them once more until he was standing in front of Pyro again.
Carefully, almost hesitantly, Scott lifted a hand to the side of Pyro's face, almost holding his chin. He gingerly lifted his head, forcing Pyro to meet his gaze. To his own surprise, he didn't pull away. Even through his gloved hand, the cold from Scott felt nice against his heated skin, smoothing over his flames better than if he were on his own.
"We're going to figure this out," Scott murmured, soft and quiet in the space between them. As if they hadn't just been at each other's throats just seconds before. There was an intensity in his eyes, like he truly believed everything was going to be fine.
Like he'd convinced himself of it with having known about the corruption in Tegrith the whole time.
Gods Scott had know the whole time.
Pyro wanted to be angry all over again.
He wanted to scream and shout and push Scott's gentle hand away from him. He wanted to burn so badly that no amount of ice could sooth the scars. He wanted to make Scott understand just how deeply the knife had sunk into his back. Sure, he'd told him everything, had gotten his trust from everything that had happened in the last few days.
That didn't stop the dull roaring of flames that were too in tune with his emotions, didn't stop the voice in the back of his mind that blanketed his every thought with doubt and mistrust.
But, there was no harm in pushing it aside. Just this once.
So instead, he nodded, barely leaning into Scott's cool touch in search of some relief for how warm he'd gotten.
"You promise my family's okay?" Pyro winced at how small his own voice sounded, as timid as a child would be. He lifted one hand to cover Scott's on his face, the other reaching for his free hand at his side. Scott let him take it, locking their fingers together before giving him a small squeeze.
Scott nodded, a determined assurance on his face. "I promise. Both your parents, your sister, they're all okay."
"If anything happens to them… if it spreads too far…"
"Before I left," Scott interrupted him, still holding onto that gentle tone, "the village made plans to move back into the mountain if the corruption spread too far. They have plans in place, Pyro."
"But they haven't seen what we've seen," Pyro couldn't help the twinge of worry in his voice, a tightness in his throat that was getting harder to make go away. Something hot bubbled in his chest, something like panic that threatened to boil over. "They don't know how far it can go, how fast it grows and the things it does to trick people-"
"Pyro, take a deep breath," Scott said firmly, letting go of his hand in order to bring it to the other side of his face.
Before he could spiral further, Pyro gave a small nod against Scott's hands, inhaling the cold air that surrounded Scott and exhaled the warm air that filled his lungs. "The best thing we can do right now for Tegrith, for our families, is to keep doing what we're doing. Studying, exploring, figuring out how to raise Cindy and Aurora. It's not going to help anyone if we just stand here panicking."
Pyro nodded again, just a single one, leaning forward into Scott's hands more while also pressing their foreheads together. Scott leaned into the touch as well, and Pyro let his eyes slip close. "Right… fair enough," He muttered.
They stood there like that, almost pressed entirely together. Pyro's hands twitched, fingers flexing slightly as they itched to grab something, to grab Scott, and hold on. Before he could, Scott broke away first, taking the ice that dulled his flames with him, though he didn't go very far.
Scott's hands dropped from his face, gingerly tracing down his arms until they grabbed a hold of Pyro's hands. He watched the way Scott held him tightly, giving him a gentle squeeze. "It's late."
Pyro couldn't help but scoff, but there was no real heat behind it. "You don't say."
"Come on," Scott motioned with his head towards his room, a small smile on his face. He let go of one of Pyro's hands, though pulled him along with the other.
He didn't fight back, following Scott into the ice and snow covered room. Once the door closed behind them, he carefully maneuvered his backpack so that he could let Cindy down and out, watching momentarily as she scampered into the room ahead of them. Silently, Pyro was lead through the room, Scott never letting go of his hand until they had to climb the ladder up to the loft where his bed was.
From somewhere below them, Pyro could hear the quiet chittering and playful footfalls of their dragons. For a moment, he hoped the two hatchlings were getting along better than he and Scott had been earlier.
Pyro was pulled from his thoughts as Scott tugged him towards the bed, finally letting go of his hand in order to take off his gloves, coat, and boots. Pyro followed, kicking off his own boots before a look from Scott had him placing them neatly beside the other pair of shoes.
Then, Scott was grabbing his hands again, climbing into the bed as he pulled Pyro down with him. He didn't protest.
The silence wasn't as deafening anymore. Instead, it was comfortable, more familiar as Pyro laid down and let Scott curl up against him. He couldn't help but let out a small sigh in content, his breath visible in the cold air of the room.
He felt like a kid again, tucked into warm blankets and quilts alongside Scott to brave the winter storms that howled outside his house. They slotted together just like they used to, Scott's head tucked against his shoulder, Pyro's arm wrapped around his back with his other hand holding Scott's as his arm draped across his chest.
It was odd, having this kind of familiarity. Things would never go back to the way they used to, Pyro was sure of it. But for now, he could ignore the weight of everything going on around them if it meant he could hold Scott this close as they drifted off to sleep.
For now, this moment could be enough.