TW: Mentions of Death, Trauma, Self depreciating humor, Sad boy being sad
POV: Sun (ThirdLife!Grian)
"Hey, Scott?" Sun knocked on the door of the room the other survivor resided within. He wanted to know... If this was normal. If the same thing had happened to the others. "Scott?"
He got eerie silence as a response. He knocked once more. "Scott, This isn't funny..." His voice shook, as he checked the communicator he'd been given. No death messages, so Scott couldn't be dead. "Scott?"
He slowly creaked the door open, to see an empty room. No, no no no... He took a deep breath. Scott's fine, he HAD to be fine.
He glanced around the room. "Scott, if your hiding somewhere, please, just come out, it's me, Sun-"
His eyes locked on something. On the desk of the room, there sat a note. His hand shook as he picked it up.
"Dear Gem, or whomever may receive this message.
We're very sorry. It wasn't meant to end this way.
Scott's alright, all things considered.
But he will be gone for a bit, a situation has arisen.
Please give this note to"
At this point, two names were written but hastily scribbled out beyond recognition. They were then rewritten below.
"Grian or Pearl whenever you can.
They'll know who we are, and how to find us.
- Canary and Shadow.
PS: we're sorry."
"What..." He fell to his knees. He choked back a sob, his mind racing to all the ways this could have gone wrong... Not again, he'd gotten close to this Scott... Something had gone wrong, and he couldn't save them. Was he cursed, would everything he touched fall far from his grasp?
"Sun?" A voice sounded from the doorway, soft and melodic. They seemed calm, but nervous. "Sun, are you alright?"
"He's not here..." He muttered, turning to look at the elf. "This note was left..." Tears fell onto the ground, his chest aching. He missed Scott... It hurt, it hurt so bad...
"Oh..." Gem wrapped him in a hug, tight, as if he might run off at any moment. "He'll be fine... I'll make sure of it. Grian and Pearl were asking for you..." Her voice was soft.
A warm, yellow glow wrapped around him, almost like sunshine. He let himself fall into it. It was nice, taking the weight off of his shoulders... But all too soon, it was gone.
"Pearl..." Gem's voice spoke from next to his ear. "Scott's... Gone. There was a note."
"What?" Pearl was clearly stressed, audible in the strain of his voice clearly even though Sun had his eyes clenched closed. He could practically vividly imagine her pacing the rock.
"Sun's not taking this well..." Gem's voice softened.
He wanted to say something about them talking about him as if he wasn't there, but the words got stuck in his throat. Footsteps approached, and he finally opened his eyes.
Pearl was approaching with a large fuzzy blanket. This didn't surprise him, he had almost guessed what she had been bringing when he heard the footfalls, the image had been vivid in his imagination. (How did he know that..? It was almost like deja vu, but even more... Real.)
"It's not been a great day for anyone here... How about we have a sleepover?" She grinned, although there was a hint of anxiety and sadness behind it. (How did he guess that..? She seemed as hard to read as ever, but he could just tell...)
He shrugged, staring at the ground. He didn't want to get attached again, it always hurt more... A vision of Scar flashed through his mind, and he nearly started crying... Never again, never again. It would cause others to get hurt, it would hurt him too, it was so much worse...
"Get some rest, you look tired..." Pearl's voice was oddly soothing, and made him yawn, although he had just woken up a while ago.
"I made a pillow fort! And we have hot cocoa!" Grian's head poked out, grinned from a mass of blankets and pillows across the room. "Just a heads up, Scarlet's here too."
A soft chuckling came from the fort. "You shouldn't have told him, now he won't want to stay." Scarlet's voice stung, as per usual, but the dark humor had a sharp edge to it.
"HEY, good vibes only here, we're RELAXING together. No self hatred, Scarlet." Grian scolded, sticking his head back into the fort, presumably looking at Scarlet.
"But-" Scarlet protested, her voice shaking slightly.
"Nope, not listening, LALALALALA." Grian chanted, causing Sun to laugh from shock.
It was a major change in mood from before, and he couldn't quite get used to these two's behaviors.
Grian looked up, and shot him a smile. "See? Sun gets it!"
Pearl chuckled, wrapping the fluffy blanket around Sun's shoulders. "Younglings."
"SHUT- I'm... older than you." Grian retorted. "Besides, I have a cool fort, what do you have?"
She chuckled again. "Sure, right, you're older." Her voice sounded somewhat sarcastic, but from what Sun knew, Pearl was the older of the two..? Gem had said that Pearl was like Grian's little sister. "Sun, come on, it'll be fine. Gem, you mentioned something about a note?"
Sun carried the blanket over to the fort cautiously, as Grian signaled for him to enter...
"Here!" Grian opened the flap, and Sun crawled into the fort. Within, there were fairy lights, and Grian passed him a cup of a hot beverage. "You like hot cocoa?"
"...What?" He glanced down at the beverage, assuming that was what the mysterious liquid was.
"Oh my gosh, you've never had hot cocoa?"
"Neither have I." Scarlet spoke up. "I just thought you were trying to poison me. Wouldn't be the first time I've heard of poisonings to try and get kills, but no one was stupid enough to fall for it."
"Scarlet... I assure you, I'd never do something like that." There was a hint of sadness in Grian's tone, or perhaps Sun was over reading his response.
"You never can be all too sure... The ones who seem trustworthy are the most likely to stab you in your back." She spat. "Even if you spend days with them! Even if you didn't do anything, they'll BETRAY YOU! You'll end up alone, and no one will ever BLAME THEM! They'll call you a monster and throw you aside, until they need you later."
Well that... seemed personal. Sun shuffled over to Scarlet, resting a hand on her shoulder. Scarlet winced, and shifted away.
"I know what you mean." Sun whispered. "People you trust... it hurts so much more when you trust them, if they die, or they stab you in the back, figuratively or not."
Scarlet nodded silently in response.
"I'll try the hot cocoa..." Sun said softly. He had nothing to lose, and if something happened, he could finally see Scar again... He lifted it to his lips, and took a cautious sip. It was quite good, silky and sweet, spreading warmth through his body. "It's... Good. Safe to drink."
Grian had been silent for a bit, watching the two. He smiled at Sun's comment, and Sun saw him watching Scarlet carefully.
Scarlet cautiously sipped the beverage, and her expression appeared shocked. "I... I've never had anything like this before..."
"Hold up- You've never had chocolate-" Grian looked completely appalled.
"What the heck's chocolate?" Sun was very confused. "I've never heard of that-"
"My gosh, we need to get you two to the Hub and have you eat EVERYTHING." Grian clapped, excited. "This'll be so fun! I can show you all my favorite spots! Ooo, and you can meet some of my friends!"
"Heh..." Sun smiled at Grian's excitement, even though meeting people sounded like a nightmare.
Scarlet's expression mirrored his own, but her disdain was less hidden.
Grian wrapped a wing around Sun, smiling gently, seemingly picking up on the two's discomfort. "Hey, for now, we just need some rest." He moved to embrace him, but he paused. "You like hugs?"
He nodded. He was ashamed to admit it, but he missed them... In the early days, sometimes Scar and him had hugged, but soon it began to fall apart and there was no more time...
Grian wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer with his wing. "It'll be alright, okay? Everything will be fine, we'll protect you from anyone or anything."
"Ugh stop being so sickly sweet." Scarlet groaned from the corner, seemingly having gotten over her confusion and distress.
Pearl poked her head into the fort. "Gri, can I talk to you?"
"Sure." Grian's smile faded almost instantly. He tapped Sun's back with a hand, making Sun flinch.
Grian had just touched where the new feathered appendages had grown in. The spot was still incredibly sore, and although Sun thought it was hard to see if it was just looking, He was almost certain Grian knew. Besides, his reaction hadn't been subtle. The touch had shot a wave of agony throughout his whole body.
"You two, get some rest. Scarlet, you're injured, and Sun, you need some time to heal." Pearl sounded like a stern mother.
"Yeah, no." Scarlet retorted. "I already told you, not sleeping here. Too easy to get my throat slit. Especially with this stranger here."
"..." Sun fell silent again, the final semblances of warmth and comfort disappearing. He didn't want Scarlet to be uncomfortable with him... "I'm... Sorry."
Scarlet glanced at him, something resembling pity in her expression. "You're actually weaker than I remembered. Even if I fell asleep, I could take you. You know what? I give up. Sleeping is better than having to deal with social interaction, yuck." Scarlet rolled over, not explaining her change of attitude.
Sun paused. This had been odd... But he closed his eyes as well, exhaustion catching up to him quickly. Last night, he hadn't had much sleep, and it had been a long few days...
For the first time in a while his sleep was peaceful...
~+~
"Huh..." Grian paused, pacing. "Sun was turned as well. I felt his wings... We failed them."
"No, it's not too late- We can make their powers dormant..." Pearl stared at the blanket fort.
"No." Grian retorted. "We can't. They are too powerful. They have the level of power of an active watcher."
"What-" Pearl stared at Grian. "How- No, no- If they lose control..."
"They will lose control. There's no way they won't." Grian retorted. "We have to tell them. We can't just leave them like this! A single trauma response, or instinctive reaction, and they could kill a hermit, or even us!"
"But the risk! Scott's out of our hands, the two will deal with it, but I'm afraid- I don't know-" Pearl paced anxiously.
"You two aren't very observant for watchers." A calm voice shook both of them out of their thoughts. "However, it appears my suspicions were correct."
A/N:
Ooo busted- Who do you think interrupted?
Also your welcome for the fluff, it was very hard to write but eh, it was sweet.
WC: 1848
- Xera