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Scott's hands stung.
It was kind of nice, in a way. At least now he could feel something that wasn't anger.
His thoughts were a buzz of emotions that he pushed aside as he went to wash off and gather supplies to bring Pyro. His feelings didn't matter right now, the only thing that mattered was taking care of Pyro.
It doesn't matter that he was so out of it that he got lost going to Kindling, or that he stayed in the water until he ran out of breath because he got distracted by the blood streaming from his knuckles, and it certainly doesn't matter that he punched that tree harder than he ever has before, until his hands split open and bruised, and he could feel his wrists straining as he made impact after impact.
No.
He just had to see Pyro. Talking to Pyro would make him feel better, it always did.
Scott got off the boat at the capital docks and took a few steps before he heard someone else. He turned and saw Graecie just standing there. He walked up to her, not registering how she shivered and backed away when he got close.
“Scott?” she asked.
“Graecie? What are you doing here?”
“I'm here for Ros’s rescue!”
“What do you mean? Ros is back, we infiltrated the bandit camp on Saturday.”
“Today's Saturday,” Graecie said, her voice wavering slightly.
“...No, today's Monday.”
“Today's Monday?”
“Yeah.”
“It's not Saturday?” She tilted her head in a way that would be cute if it wasn't so concerning.
“No. Are- are you okay?”
“Yeah, it's just- today's not Saturday?”
Scott just shook his head.
“Well, I have to go see Pyro,” he said, before realizing that if Graecie was this confused, she wouldn't know that Pyro had been arrested.
“Pyro’s in jail, by the way.”
“What? Why?”
“For treason, apparently. And there's a trial- sometime, I have no idea when.”
“Oh! Well, I'll see you around.”
“Yeah, I'll see you at the academy.”
“May the shepherdess guide your path!” Graecie exclaimed, ringing her little bells as she did so.
As Scott walked away, he noticed just how visible the bruises and scrapes were against the pale skin of his hands. He's lucky that Graecie was too confused and focused on other things to ask him about it. He quickly changed into his gloves, he'd hate for Pyro to see the mess he'd made. Pyro had enough to worry about already.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott left the prison in a daze.
He'd been so set on visiting Pyro, and now that those plans have been disrupted, his mind starts to wander. He thinks of Plan B and what he's willing to do, and then decides he needs a drink to get his mind off things. The pain in his hands is still there, but it's dulled to the point where his emotions are getting through, and it'd be better to feel nothing than to deal with those.
He checks the pub, but it's been completely emptied of alcohol so he heads to Kindling. Surely Pyro won't mind if he just takes a little.
When he leaves the storage room, he's got six bottles of rum. Before he knows it, he's got six empty bottles of rum.
He should put those back, and that's definitely the only reason why he goes back to the storage room. The fact that he just happens to pick up some bottles of wine while he's in there is entirely unrelated.
Scott hears Ambear and Drift talking, and, making sure the wine isn't visible in his backpack, he walks over to them.
He offers Drift some Molotov cocktails and then, because clearly nothing can go right for him these past few days, he's stuck breaking the news of Pyro's imprisonment for the second time today.
“Sorry- what? Pyro's in prison?” Drift questions.
“Yeah…”
“Is Pyro okay? Are you guys okay?”
“Pyro's being tried for treason,” Scott replies, hoping she doesn't notice how he didn't answer the second question.
Thankfully, she seems too shocked to push it.
“How did this happen? We've gotta get him out!”
Ambear stutters through a response about how they're trying to, and Scott chimes in, saying how they were told to do it the proper way.
“Is there anything we can do to help him during this trial? Cuz that- that's a heavy accusation.” Drift says, turning between Scott and Ambear to look at them.
“We were told to make a case, and that's all we really know.” Ambear says.
“I think Osteon and Penrose were looking into it,” Scott adds.
“That's good then, that there are people working on it.”
“We managed to take out the bandits and rescue Ros, and then got called to the Queen to get awarded for our bravery. And then… Pyro got arrested instead.” Scott trails off, trying to stop the memory from replaying in his mind again. He'll never forget the look on Pyro's face as he was betrayed and blindsided.
Drift steps closer to ask “If you guys were intended to get awarded for your bravery, how is it that Pyro ended up getting arrested?” She gets a few steps away from Scott before violently shivering, but Scott turns away.
“Well, we did get our titles,” he says.
“Are you- are you doing okay Scott?”
“Mmhmm. Why do you ask?” He puts as much effort as he can into sounding fine. Really, he is fine, Pyro's the one they should be worrying about so it'd be best if he can get Drift to drop it.
“For one, anytime I step near you, it's cold. You're freezing.”
“What?” Scott suddenly can't focus as he thinks back to Graecie at the docks, the guard at the jail, and the bird on his way back, who all flinched away from him in what he now realizes was pain from the cold. He was freezing them just by being near them.
“I'm not meaning to,” he continues, and he honestly isn't. Scott had thought he was good at controlling his magic, after all, he was the strongest in the academy, but this is clearly his magic acting without his permission. He doesn't know what's going on.
“And aside from that, you just… don't seem yourself. If you ever want to talk about it, I'm here.” Drift reaches out to Scott but he's already moving to leave.
“I'll be myself when Pyro's out,” Scott says, and after a brief goodbye he's hurrying away, mind racing.
How is he meant to protect people if he can't even go near them? That's the one thing he's always been good at, that's what he's there for. He protected Tegrith, and now he protects his fellow dragon riders. He's the strong one, he needs to be there for them.
He's not meant to hurt people, what's wrong with him? Why can't he stop this?
His gloved hands go up to tug at his hair and he flinches as the movement agitates his bruises.
He downs two bottles of wine and tries not to think about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott stands by the lava in the forge. He can't really feel how cold he is, so the warmth doesn't have much of a physical effect, but it does relax him a little. If he closes his eyes, he can almost imagine that it's Pyro, and that he can actually be near someone again.
Scott wishes Pyro were really there, and he gets so lost in his thoughts that he almost misses seeing Legs come in.
“You wanna talk about it?” Legs asks, walking across the room.
“Talk about what?” Scott's deflecting and he knows it, but he doesn't want anyone to worry and he wants Legs to leave before he gets hurt. He hopes that if he sounds enough like he doesn't want to be bothered, Legs will leave him alone.
It doesn't work.
“Whatever's on your mind,” Legs says.
“You mean, Pyro getting thrown out like trash for a crime that the capital's already admitted to committing?” Scott's hands tremble as he speaks.
“Could you please just take a step this way?”
“I'm not suicidal,” Scott says, and he does mean that. Just because he'd sacrifice himself a million times over for Pyro to be free doesn't mean he wants to kill himself. Although it's not like he can be much use to anyone right now with how he hurts them, so maybe they would be better off with him gone.
Not dead though, Pyro still needs him. Scott has to make it to the trial. He has to be there in case they need to enact Plan B. He has to be the one who's willing to do whatever needs to be done.
Even if Pyro didn't need him, Aurora does. His life is tied to hers, and he'd never want to do anything that would harm her.
“I just thought that when I'm running this cold without realizing it, that maybe being near the warmth might help.” Scott takes a step away from the fire and towards Legs. He doesn't want Legs to waste energy worrying about him when there are so many other more important things to worry about.
“I get it,” Legs says. Scott doesn't really believe him, Legs has never had to stand and watch his best friend get arrested.
“I just feel like- we have all these powers, all these dragons, and we still can't do anything with it. And then my whole thing, the one thing I'm good at, is protecting other people, which I can't do because I can't even stand near you.” Scott steps back as Legs starts walking towards him.
“I know what it's like,” Legs says, shivering and wincing as he does so.
“See?” Scott turns away and backs into the corner, he doesn't want to hurt Legs any more than he already has. “Legs, you're just hurting yourself.”
“No, Scott,” Legs walks right up to him. “I know what it's like. Iron stood alone, cold and necessary. Been there.”
“If I can't figure out how to control this, I can only hurt people that I care about.”
“Yeah, I thought so too, for a long time. And I'm just starting to figure out that our magic is what we think of it. It's what we make it. If you're afraid of being alone, you're just gonna-”
“I'm not afraid of being alone, I just think everyone else is safest if I am,” Scott interrupts. “I'm used to it.”
“Being alone. Being useful, and then going back to work by yourself. Yeah, I've been there.” Legs shudders in pain.
“The only way that I can help people is by constantly holding myself back out of fear. The one time that I didn't, it didn't go well. And now, even when I'm trying my hardest to hold everything back, I'm still hurting people. I bumped into Graecie at the dock earlier and she got too close, and realizing in hindsight that that was me, kills me.”
Legs flinches from the cold and steps back a bit, before casting his iron wheel.
“More than enough books have told me that this is the biggest crime that was ever committed against magic. And now it's mine. And I'm not gonna tell you how to feel, you take the time that you need, but sometimes we hurt the people who are closest to us because we're afraid to be hurt ourselves.”
“I- I appreciate it. I'll figure it out eventually.” Scott feels like the state of his hands proves that he's far more afraid of hurting other people than he is of hurting himself, but he appreciates the sentiment regardless.
“When you're ready to talk, come find me.”
Legs walks right up to Scott, clearly shivering. He seems to be trying to keep from visibly flinching, but it's obvious that he's freezing. He wraps his arms around Scott and hugs him for a few seconds. Scott's too stunned to react, he hasn't let anyone get close enough to touch him since he started freezing people.
“Necessary,” Legs says. “It may be a little cold, but you don't have to be alone.” He winces as his lips start turning blue.
“Thank you.” Scott doesn't know how to feel about Legs putting Scott's well-being above his own. He doesn't feel like he deserves all of Legs’s care.
“Catch you later,” Legs says as he slowly walks away, still shivering.
“See you.”
Scott's hands tremble as he watches Legs leave the room. What was he thinking? How could he have let Legs hurt himself like that? Scott doesn't need people to be near him, not if he's just going to end up hurting them. He's better off alone, it's safer this way. He should go back to Thawdale, maybe even stay there until the trial. At least there he can't hurt anyone but himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He should feel relieved. He is relieved, of course he's relieved, so why does he still feel so on edge? He'd thought the accidental freezings would stop after Pyro was declared not guilty, but they haven't and Scott doesn't know why. Pyro getting arrested is the reason he was like this in the first place, so now that that's over Scott should be better, right? Yet he isn't.
He can't even properly join in on the celebrations without someone getting hurt, so he just stands to the side and watches.
Again.
Throughout the night, Legs and all the others at the pub do help a bit with making Scott feel more relaxed, and the alcohol certainly adds to that effect. By the time Pyro's ready to go home, Scott is less stressed, and perhaps just a little bit tipsy. It's a good thing he has such a high tolerance, the amount he drank would have knocked out someone like Shelby.
They bid farewell to the remaining pub people, and then Scott follows Pyro to the caravan that'll take them through Thawdale. He sits about as close to Pyro as he can, grateful to have someone he can touch without feeling like he's hurting them.
Scott's not paying too much attention to their surroundings, only briefly noticing that they're arriving in Thawdale and should be at the docks soon. But when Pyro suddenly speaks up, Scott's mind refocuses.
“Hmm,” Pyro starts. “Is- what is that?”
Scott turns to look where Pyro is, and his heart drops. It's one of the splatters of his blood from earlier.
“It's nothing Pyro, let's just keep going, we're nearly there.”
“No, no I think that's blood.” Pyro glances around and seems to notice a few of the other splotches. “Scott, what happened here?”
“It's not important now, we should go.” Scott turns to start going again, but Pyro moves as he does so, and Scott can't help but wince when his hands bump into Pyro's.
Pyro's eyes narrow. He always was a perceptive one. “Scott, take off your gloves please.”
Scott hesitates before starting to peel off his gloves. He can feel some of the scabs opening as the dried blood had been stuck to the glove.
Pyro takes his hands to examine the extent of the wounds. Scott's hands are all scraped up and some of his knuckles are bleeding again. A few of the cuts look deep enough to leave scars. Scott's lucky he wasn't caught earlier, at least now most of the bruising has gone down.
“Scott…”
“I didn't mean for them to get like this, I just couldn't stop thinking about how awful everything was, and since we had to do things the legal way, I needed a different outlet. I'm sorry.”
“Let me guess, trees?”
“You really do know me too well.” Scott watches Pyro scan the area, and sees their eyes lock onto the hitting tree.
“I'd say it's impressive if I didn't already know what you were capable of. Don't think you're getting out of letting me treat those hands though, and before you start, I am aware of the irony in that.”
“I guess I shouldn't have expected to be able to hide this from you of all people. And you're right, you'd best believe making sure you get healed is first on my priority list.”
“I'm sorry,” Pyro says.
“What? No, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
“If I hadn't kidnapped Mae, I wouldn't have gotten arrested and none of this would have happened.”
“This is not your fault, it's my problem to deal with. And if you hadn't taken Mae, we wouldn't have been able to eradicate the bandits.” Scott gestures with his hands as he speaks.
“Fine, but you absolutely don't have to deal with your problems alone. Next time you start feeling like this, you come to me, you hear me?”
“Promise.”
“You do know they make bags specifically for punching, right? We're not in Tegrith anymore, you have more options than just trees and rocks for when you need to take out your anger.”
“To be honest, I haven't exactly been thinking straight this past week. I guess I just fell into old habits from… well, the first time I had to learn to survive without you right there with me.”
“I am sorry for leaving you all, I hadn't realized quite how much it would affect you.”
“I know you are, and I forgive you for that. You’ve changed, and I know you wouldn't do it again. But Pyro, you're my best friend, then and now. You mean the world to me, you always have, so there's no world in which I wouldn't be affected by you leaving.”
“I appreciate that, you're my best friend too. Now, how about we go get those hands of yours bandaged up?”
“Thank you. For always being there for me.”
“Of course. You would do the same for me.”
Pyro takes Scott by the arm and, making sure to be gentle around his hand, walks intertwined with him the rest of the way.