Chapter Text
Grian presses himself as far back into the cave as he can, trying to control his breathing. It’s barely a cave, just a small burrow into the ground, not much bigger than a room. It’s enough for shelter.
Shelter for nature at least, Grian isn’t sure there’s a way to be sheltered from the monsters who prowl in these woods, bloodthirsty and cannibalistic. Is it even cannibalism if they’re not human anymore?
That’s a morality that Grian doesn’t want to face, those things are not human, no matter how much they can appear to be like one. They’ve killed countless humans before and have no interest in stopping.
Grian just had to have gotten caught inside their territory. It was just a simple scouting mission, go a little past the border, take notes, then leave. Yet his group got ambushed the moment they put distance between them and the border.
Most members were slaughtered instantly, the rest of them scattered. Grian had no choice but to run deeper into the vex’s territory, hoping to hide out long enough for them to lose interest, to think they lost him.
It’s been hours and as the sun slowly sets Grian can’t help but feel hopeful, maybe there’s a chance for him yet. The hope is shattered almost immediately as a tree branch cracks overhead.
Grian raises his head and his breath catches in his throat, perched on a tree not far outside the cave is a vex. Bright eyes glowing in the dark, staring straight at Grian. Its wings are spread outwards and its tail flicks back and forth, but otherwise stays stock still on that branch.
It’s the perfect picture of a predator waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
Grian swallows, panic beginning to consume him again. He needs to run, he can’t outrun a vex but one is staring him down and it’s going to leap at him and- and- he has no choice.
He slowly stands up, trying to steady his trembling breathing. Grian needs to somehow predict where it will pounce and dodge out of the way, that’s the only way he has a chance.
It’s a sliver of a chance, but it’s a chance nonetheless.
The vex remains in its near unmoving state, eyes entirely focused on Grian, and he can’t help but feel that this is pointless. All of a sudden, one of its ears twitch and its head snaps in that direction.
Now’s his chance! Unfortunately, Grian barely makes it two steps before the vex leaps from the tree, landing right in front of him. With the entrance blocked and his mind only yelling, run, run, run, Grian hurriedly backs further into the cave.
The vex casts a glance behind itself before stalking towards Grian, wings spreading out wider to block his exit. All of a sudden, a gravelly voice breaks through the silence, “You need to stay hidden.”
Grian’s immediately thrown off kilter, everything he knew tilted upside down. “W-what?” he winces as his voice cracks.
The vex stares at him, an intensity in its pure white eyes, “They’re still looking for you, if you try to return they’ll kill you.”
Well, duh, Grian could have figured that one out himself, he’ll take his chances though. “W-why are you t-telling me this?” he fails to keep his voice steady.
The vex flicks its tail back and forth as it glances around the cave, “I… don’t think you should die.”
“Right,” Grian slowly answers, trying to subtly find a way out of this cave. He was startled by the fact that vex can still speak—outside of their shrieking laugher—but he knows better than to trust the words of this one.
It’s probably true that other vex are hunting him down, but he’s currently cornered by one so it makes little different. If he’s going to die he’ll prefer it be by trying to live.
The vex’s ears tilt down, as if detecting his distrust, “I- I do mean it. I think it would be a shame if you die.”
Grian does not trust the vex at all, but talking might give him a chance, besides, he’s curious how it would respond. “Why would it be a shame if I die?”
It angles its head down, almost as if bashful, “I’ve been watching you for a while. You’re a survivor, I don’t think you should be killed for being on the wrong side.” Its tail flicks back and forth more irregularly, “You’ve fought so hard to survive this long, so you shouldn’t die here and now.”
That throws Grian off, “H-have you been stalking me!?”
This time the vex is very clearly bashful, looking ashamed at being outed. Nonetheless, it slowly nods, “I noticed you one day and got curious. I… I didn’t mean any harm in it, it’s just been a while since…” it lets out a heavy sigh, “since I’ve seen something so human.”
Grian feels a pang in his heart despite knowing better. Vexes used to be humans once, that’s something they all know. One way or another, vex are made when a human gets corrupted, slowly losing their humanity. Until none of it remains and all that’s left is a bloodthirsty monster.
Yet here one is, looking ashamed as it admits that it thinks Grian should live, that it’s been watching Grian because it misses what it was like to be human. Acting so human in its emotions.
And that’s not an ethical dilemma Grian wants to have right now!
Grian slowly shifts to the side, wanting a better angle to escape while also not wanting to alert the vex in front of him. Unfortunately the vex is very perceptive and snaps his head upwards when Grian moves, seeming panicked.
“J-just hear me out!” It exclaims, looking almost desperate.
“I’d rather just leave,” Grian says cautiously.
The vex opens its mouth, but closes it just as fast when its ears twitch. Before Grian can say anything, the vex is pushing him against the wall, a hand covering his mouth.
Grian freezes, panic taking over, before he realizes that the vex isn’t attacking him. Instead, it almost seems to be shielding Grian with its body, and even more eerily the vex’s glowing wings have vanished and the glow in its eyes have diminished.
Then Grian hears it, footsteps and giggling of vexes coming closer. He holds his breath as much as possible, insanely tense. Achingly slow, the voices grow louder before beginning to get quiet again.
Grian relaxes when he can’t hear them, but the vex stays tense, ears twitching. It stays pressed close for another minute before slowly pulling back, sighing, “They’re gone.”
“Thanks…?” Grian says carefully, uncertain about what this means. He stays pressed against the wall, trying to keep space between them since most of it is gone now. He can’t fully trust this vex, but it did seem to try to protect him.
Its wings return and the glow of its eyes brighten up again, “Sorry about that, I couldn’t let them find you.”
Maybe it’s not the best priority of Grian’s, but he’s too curious to not ask, “Your wings disappear?”
The vex startles, “Er, yeah, they’re made out of magic, so I can choose whether to have them or not. I just hid them since they glow.” It gestures to its eyes, “Not as simple since that’s just a natural magic outlet, but I can restrict it so they’re not as bright.”
“That’s cool,” Grian says before he can’t stop it, immediately wincing when he processes what he said.
The vex cracks a grin, “The wings are a perk I guess? Not much else is good about this.”
“ Really? ”
“I do not have fun being the puppet of a system with no one to care about if I die or not.”
All thoughts of escaping are immediately derailed, “Wha- system!?”
The vex tilts its head, “Yeah? Did you really think there wasn’t someone higher up in charge here? There’s a reason why no vex ever stray passed the border. We’re forbidden to unless under a direct order. No reason was given, but it’s made the others antsy and eager to kill.”
Grian narrows his eyes, “Why aren’t you eager to kill?”
It steps back a little again, looking away and flicking its tail back and forth. It shrugs after a moment, “I’m not sure? I wasn’t in the best place before and my moralities were pretty fucked up, so when I got corrupted it couldn’t really corrupt my morals much more then they already were, so I was just left in this weird stasis. I guess the bloodlust pulls from that corrupted morality, so something about it just got twisted up due to that.”
Grian feels simultaneously relieved and terrified, because yeah this vex seems to have retained some of its humanity, but apparently it wasn’t good before it got corrupted. Humans are unpredictable in how bad they are, but mixing it with this corruption, yeah, Grian’ll pass.
Unaware of Grian’s thoughts, the vex straightens up, snapping out of its thoughts, “Anyways, that’s besides the point now. Right now you need to stay hidden here until the cost clears. The others should give up eventually, but you won’t have a chance right now, not with them patrolling the border like they are.”
“And what do you want me to do?”
“Stay here,” it insists, “they’re sticking to the border since they know you’ll have to pass it, some wander around but none would be searching every nook and cranny.”
Grian crosses his arms, “I can’t really stay here forever.”
“I can bring you food and water if that’s what you’re worried about,” the vex says, seeming not ready to give this up.
“And what?” Grian presses, doubtful, “poison me or something? I’m fine staying human.”
It tilts its head and raises an eyebrow, “How exactly do you think this works? The whole corrupting thing happens with the people who run this place. There’s a specific group that handles the stuff to do that, I don’t have access to it. And the food isn’t poisonous, we do still need to eat.”
Grian doesn’t believe the vex for one minute, but he knows that he doesn’t have much of a choice. It’s obvious that the vexes won’t let him leave, so the only way to escape alive is to wait. He’ll need to scavenge things himself to survive one way or another. It’s a horribly awful stalemate.
Playing along would probably do him some good, so long as he never drops his guard. Grian sits down to hopefully seem believable in his agreement, “Alright, fine, I’ll stay put.”
The vex immediately perks up, “Nice! Great!” It sits down with him, looking way too happy, “I’ll keep you safe, I promise.” Its tail flicks around leisurely, almost like a pleased cat. It then grins, seeming a touch more relaxed, “I’m Scar by the way, realized I never introduced myself.”
Grian bites back his instinctual question of it having a name, because of course it does. It had been human and seems to remember that, so of course it has a name. It doesn’t make Grian feel better knowing that, since the more human the vex feels, the more he’ll trust it. He can’t let that happen.
After Grian doesn’t respond, Scar’s grin shrinks, “Can I know your name?”
“No,” Grian replies instantly, because that’s getting too personal with it.
Immediately Scar’s ears droop and its smile disappears completely, “Oh. I see.” A forceful grin takes its place, “That’s okay! You don’t need to!”
Somehow, that shifted the entire mood of the situation and the vex stands up to retreat to the entrance of the cave, sitting down again to lean against one wall, keeping a silent guard. Its tail has fallen still and its ears are still drooped. Even its posture seems disheartened.
Overall, it makes Grian feel bad. Which is bad because he shouldn’t, Scar is a vex, and vex are bloodthirsty creatures, he can’t drop his guard.
Despite that, Scar doesn’t even look back at him again, just staring out into the forest. Grian can’t help but feel bad, even when he knows better then to.
A horrible silence lingers over the cave and Grian stays pressed into a corner, wallowing in a strange kind of misery. Eventually Scar sighs, standing up, “I should go get food.”
Without looking back or waiting for a reply, Scar takes off into the woods, heading further into… the territory of whatever is in charge here. Grian knows that this is his chance, to get up and escape while Scar’s not here.
Yet there’s a part of him that would feel bad if he did, regardless of if he’ll even make it past the other vexes. Grian roughly hits his forehead, he needs to stop thinking those things, he can’t grow to care about Scar, not when the vex probably has some personal goal to gain from this.
It takes a long time for it to return, carrying a large sack on its back. Before Grian can say anything, Scar is bringing it into the cave, setting it down, and letting it fall open; revealing that it’s actually a rather thick blanket.
“I figured it wouldn’t be comfortable to sleep on a cave floor,” it explains, “so I went to get a blanket for you. It should help but I could bring more if you need it.” Scar frowns, “You probably need another one actually, to use as a proper blanket.”
Grian doesn’t know what to say to that, caught off guard by how serious Scar is taking the protecting him thing. He looks to see that the food is a collection of things that could be scavenged from around here.
He picks up an apple and stares at it, feeling conflicted in everything that he’s feeling. There’s no reason that Grian should trust Scar, not any sane one at least.
Grian takes a bite of the apple, since it looks normal, and forcefully stops himself from making a noise because it’s so juicy and perfect. It’s been a while since he’s had an apple this tasty before, which adds a whole new layer of everything to it.
Scar hasn’t moved since it first arrived, silent with its head bowed. Grian can’t help but feel guilty, and before he can think better of it, he murmurs, “Grian.”
The vex startles, looking up, “Huh?”
“That’s my name,” Grian answers simply, taking another bite of the apple.
Scar perks up, grinning widely, “Grian, that’s a great name!”
Grian can feel himself blush so he looks down, “Thanks.” He gestures to the food, “For all of this as well.”
Scar flicks its tail back and forth, seeming please, “Don’t worry about it.”
Still confused about how to respond, Grian just quietly eats. He studies each food before eating it, each one seeming like it was freshly gathered. Still chances of being poisoned, but starving isn’t really a good option for Grian either.
Suddenly Scar sits straight up, “I just realized something!”
It’s standing and leaving the cave before Grian can even react. He stares blanking out the opening, muttering a confused, “Okay…?” after a few seconds.
With night setting quickly, Grian places all of the fruit he didn’t eat into a pile and wraps the blanket around himself, snuggling into the warmth of it. He could probably nod off right here, even sitting up.
Just as he’s on the verge of that, Scar returns carrying a large cup with him. It very cautiously sets it down, “I realized that you probably needed water.”
“Oh, thanks,” Grian murmurs, picking up the water and staring into it. It looks crystal clear, none of the cup’s color distorted by the water itself. He raises it to take a cautious sip, upon it tasting alright, he takes a bigger one.
“You seem tired, so I’ll leave you to sleep.” Seeming like not waiting is a standard thing for Scar, since it immediately turns around and exits the cave after speaking. It leaps onto the tree it was perched on at the start of this all, but Scar’s back is now towards him.
“Good night?” Grian quietly offers, still endlessly confused.
Scar just flicks its tail in response.
While he doesn’t want to fall asleep in such dangerous territory, all of the running and panic from the day has left Grian exhausted and he falls asleep anyways.
~ ~ ~
The next few days pass by similarly, Scar keeping guard after bringing Grian food. He isn’t around constantly, regularly checking the border to see the status, but also doing his own thing at times as well.
This has unfortunately come with Grian seeing Scar so much more as a person than he had before. It makes this situation increasingly more difficult.
Of course Scar hasn’t stabbed him in the back yet, and he has no reason to have held off if that was his intent, so maybe it’s not the worst thing. But Grian can’t help but be paranoid.
Grian has left the cave a couple times before and it wasn’t hard to see that there were vex still looking for him, making him immediately retreat. According to Scar, there are still vex patrolling the border as well.
With a sigh at another failed check around, Grian slinks back to where he’s set up a makeshift bed, mainly a collection of blankets. He flops down onto them, frowning as he stares at the ceiling.
Grian is getting so very antsy here, he really doesn’t think he can last much longer. It hasn’t even been a week and he’s already going stir crazy. The only thing that’s keeping him relatively sane is Scar’s presence, which he doesn’t know what to think about.
As if summoned by Grian’s thoughts, Scar appears, “Hey Gri! How’re holding up?”
The nickname does something to Grian’s heart that he doesn’t understand. He turns to look at Scar, “As well as I can be, trapped here.”
Scar’s expression falls, “Yeah, that- that makes sense.”
“How’s it looking?”
His ears droop even more, betraying what he’s about to say, “Not good. They don’t seem to be giving up. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay here a while longer.”
“Figured.”
Scar still looks upset, “I wish I could help you out more.”
“Mm.”
He carefully sets a basket besides Grian, “Here’s your food delivery, at least.”
Grian sits up again with a sigh, “Thanks.”
Scar returns to the entrance to sit down and stare outside, entire posture showcasing his disappointment, even his tail lays unmoving. It makes Grian feel bad for him, even when this has no effect on him.
Grian just eats in silence, at least until a thought occurs to him that somehow hasn’t yet. “Do you pick these fresh every time?”
Scar looks over his shoulder before fully turning around, “Some yes, but others no. A lot of the time we do eat just whatever is around, but there’s also a lot stored in the fridges back where we stay.”
“You guys have fridges, as in plural?” Grian asks, somehow focused on that over anything else.
Scar doesn’t reply right away, as if considering how to reply. “The situation is a bit complicated. Just like there’s a hierarchy of importance, housing is also dictated by that. Us vex live in what’s pretty much a ring of rooms surrounding the other buildings. There are kitchens interspersed throughout, but they need to be big due to the sheer number of us.”
Grian can feel another pang in his heart, “You only have a single room to yourself?”
He nods, “It’s not like that matters much, seeing as we can’t even really get any personal possessions. It still does suck a little, especially if you can sometimes.” Something lights up in his eyes a little while his expression darkens at the same time, “Especially when it’s a cat.”
“You have a cat!?” Grian says, probably too excitedly for the situation.
Scar grins, lighting up immediately, “Yeah! She’s a cutie named Jellie! It was very, very, difficult to be able to keep her. I had to do so much work and agree to so much in order to, but it was worth it.” His smile falls just a little, “I wish you could see her, but phones are banned and one of the clauses was that she couldn’t leave my room.”
“That’s unfortunate, I bet she’s adorable,” Grian says, trying to picture Scar playing with a cat. “I was going to get a cat myself, but then I came to work out here and… you can see how that went.”
Scar moves away from the entrance to get closer towards Grian, “That’s unfortunate. I hope you can get one soon.”
“Yeah,” Grian murmurs, then a realization occurs to him. “Wait, do you mean keep her as you found her around here, or did you have her before?”
“Oh, I had her before, I couldn’t just leave her behind when I turned.” Scar sighs, “Went through hell to do it, but to be able to have her still was worth it.”
“I bet.” Grian is curious about just how he managed to get strings pulled like that, and he should probably ask, but doesn’t, instead just letting himself enjoy this moment with Scar. “Can you tell me more about her?”
Scar perks up again and begins going on an elaborate story of how he first got it. Grian can’t help but smile the entire time.
~ ~ ~
As days continue to pass, Grian finds himself growing more and more comfortable around Scar, being able to casually chat with him like he was any of Grian’s friends. His glowing eyes and sharp teeth no longer triggering an instinctual fear in Grian.
Scar still comes and goes as normal, but their time together is spent having a lot more casual and fun conversations instead. Grian slowly starts to learn about who Scar is more deeply, both before and after he became a vex. And in turn Grian shared stories of his own.
Before Grian even realized, he’s considering Scar a friend and has long since stopped seeing him as an enemy. To be comfortable in the presence of a vex, who would have ever thought.
Grian still isn’t sure how—despite that growing comfort—he finds himself shoulder to shoulder with Scar, who is waving his arms as he gives a dramatic rendition to something that had happened to him.
It had started with Grian being curious about how Scar was, well, scarred. Grian isn’t sure if any of the stories are real, but Scar was quick to begin telling different stories, each one varying in believability.
All of them were stories from when he was human, whether that’s because nothing happened to him that would leave a scar since, or he’s choosing not to tell those stories.
Grian still is fascinated with each story, real or not, and somehow ended up pressing his shoulder against Scar’s as he talks. Without even missing a beat in his story, Scar wraps a wing around Grian, holding him close, soon followed by his tail.
Grian’s eyes fall closed as he presses closer into Scar, his cheerful words lulling him into an easy sleep. This one way more comfortable then the others he’s had here.
He wakes up slowly, warm, and feeling so much more safe than he should. Grian just snuggles closer, pressing his face against a neck, he feels like he could stay here for forever.
Unfortunately realization kicks in before he fully falls asleep again, bringing up the fact that he’s very much nuzzling against someone’s neck. Grian slowly opens his eyes, immediately seeing pale blue skin.
The full realization hits him before a complete panic can hit, although Grian is still mortified that he fell asleep against Scar. Although to Grian’s surprise, Scar is fully asleep, breathing lightly with his head drooped against Grian’s.
The smartest bet would be for Grian to untangle himself from Scar and wake the vex up, wanting to not make this awkward. But with an arm, a wing, and Scar’s tail wrapped around his side, it’s an impossible task.
There is no logical reason that Grian should feel as safe as he does. To feel like the best course of action he should take being to snuggle back up against Scar and fall asleep again. Yet there’s nothing else Grian would rather do.
~ ~ ~
Scar has been noticeably getting more antsy the past couple of days, fidgety in moments of stillness. He keeps trying to dismiss being as worried as Grian knows he is, always trying to deflect it with something or other.
Which is why Grian is surprised to see him looking very somber when he arrives. He sets down the basket of food and cup of water, sitting down with a lowered head.
“What, uh, are you alright?” Grian asks, worried.
Scar slowly raises his head, and a hand twitches to his side before returning to his lap, “I need to talk to you about something, but it can wait until after you eat.”
Grian narrows his eyes, glancing to Scar’s hip to see a bottle attached to his belt. “Alright?” he says slowly, hand going to the basket.
Scar lets his head lower again, nodding a little. The strangeness of it all makes Grian cautious, returning to studying the food given for poison. It feels strange, since Scar could easily kill him by brute force alone.
After once again finding nothing, Grian starts eating, his guard slowly lowering again. Once done, he takes slow sips of the water, “What’s going on?”
Scar lets out a long sigh, looking up with a kind of resignation, “Listen, Gri, I’ve been thinking about something recently. Nothing is changing, and I doubt it will yet.” He grimaces, “When involving hunting the other vex can be pretty organized, anything to feed the bloodlust really.”
“And that means what?” Grian asks cautiously.
“They’re not going to give up, if anything they’re more likely to start searching every nook and cranny to find you, out of desperation more than anything else.” Scar sighs heavily and grabs the bottle, “Which means, they’re going to find you, sooner or later.”
He holds the bottle up, revealing it to be partially filled with a dark blue liquid. It’s almost empty, just a quarter full, somehow that makes Grian apprehensive, “What is that?”
“This, when drunk, will turn someone into vex,” he whispers, cautious and tense. “I- the only way I could think of you getting out of this alive is to drink it.”
Grian immediately flinches back, moving as far away as he can, looking traitorously into his drink. Did Scar spike it? He swallows thickly, he feels fine, “I- what-“
“You don’t need to drink it,” Scar hurries to say, and he looks away, “but I don’t know if you’ll make this out alive if you don’t.” He lets out a breath, it trembles, “If- if you don’t want to take it, I’ll still try my best to help you out, but I don’t how long you can stay hidden here.”
Grian stares at the bottle for a while before looking back up at Scar, “I thought you said you weren’t able to do this.”
“I can’t,” he murmurs, fidgeting with the bottle, “but I know someone who can and was able to get this from him.”
“And he just gave you that?”
An uncomfortable look crosses his face, “I think he still feels responsible for an incident that happened a long time ago? So he’s fine going behind some backs to help me.”
“What happens if I refuse?” Grian asks cautiously, trying to not make it obvious that he is looking for an exit.
“I’ll return this and continue to help you to the best of my ability,” Scar continues to stare at where the bottle sits on his lap.
“Even if I drink it, I’ll just lose my mind. Certainly not better than death.”
“I just thought… maybe you could be like me?” Scar offers weakly, but seems dejected.
Grian silently stares at the bottle, he should say no, take his chances with hiding out until he could escape. But the fear of death clutches him tightly and he hesitates.
Scar looks up at him, taking in his expression for a moment. “If it will help, I can leave you alone to think on it for a minute?” Grian hesitates but nods. Scar gives him a tiny smile in return, setting the bottle down before standing up, leaving the cave and jumping to somewhere above the entrance.
Grian reaches out to grab the bottle, bringing it up close to see better. It is rather a disconcerting thing to drink in general, regardless of what it does, the color being strange and off putting.
He does an experimental swirl and watches as it resettles at the same pace water would. “Just like really fucked up water, huh?” Grian murmurs, trying to grapple with the fact that he’s actually considering this.
Grian thinks about his friends, about what it would mean. He’s never going to see them again if he does this, well, they probably wouldn’t want to see him again. Then again, dying would have the same result.
Maybe this will cause him irreparable harm, maybe he could never be the same, but he’s been running down a clock this whole time. Day by day just waiting to be discovered before he could escape. The only chance to survive the vexes is join them.
Grian stares into the dark liquid for a long time after, debating if he could beat the slim chance and survive. He doesn’t want to be stuck here, he wants to see his friends and family again. Can he even do that?
Eventually he sighs, well, there’s only one way to know if fate is kind to him or not. If, after weeks, he can survive. Grian walks towards the entrance, “Scar? I’ve decided.”
Immediately Scar is jumping down and entering the cave again, looking cautious, “What have you decided?”
“Before that, can I ask a few more questions?”
He nods, “Of course!”
“So this is how you got turned? By drinking contaminated water?”
“No, no, this… thing can come in multiple forms,” Scar looks away, “I had little say in the matter. It was more like mist, or something similar. Just dump enough into the ventilation system, turn it on high, and a full building can fall in minutes. The only warning was the smell, and by then I had already breathed it in.”
“Oh,” Grian murmurs, caught off guard. It was insane to hear about such a mass corruption happening, and that he never knew about it. “I’m sorry to hear about that.”
Scar weakly shrugs, “It’s been a long time since then.”
Grian hums, staying silent a moment before asking, “Why did you choose a liquid form then?”
“It just seemed like the best method for you to drink only by your own violation,” Scar answers, simple. Like he wasn’t being considerate about how Grian would be wary of this being out of his control.
It really shows that Scar is here to help Grian.
“Can’t get turned if I refuse to swallow,” he whispers, the understanding like a kind of weight settling over him. Scar just gives him another nod, waiting for what Grian will do next.
With a sigh, Grian reaches out and pulls out the plug on the bottle. Almost instantaneously he smells the potion and gags, putting the plug right back in. Scar winces, “I should have warned you about the smell. And taste. It’s vile.”
“Noted,” Grian says, grimacing.
“You’re going to take it?” Scar asks softly, like speaking any loud would change Grian’s mind.
“Yeah,” Grian whispers back, “Figured I was going to die after the rest of the scouting party did, this is my only chance to survive, really.”
Scar cracks a weak smile, “Sorry.”
Grian nods, and goes to uncork the bottle again before a thought comes to him. He looks up to see Scar’s eyes trained on him, bright white and glowing. It’s not really the sanest feeling he’s ever felt before, but really, there’s no way he could stop it.
“Just in case,” he murmurs, barely audible, before stepping closer to Scar. Grian raises a hand up to pull Scar down by the back of his head into a fierce kiss. If this fails and he loses himself anyways, at least he got to kiss Scar.
Scar makes a quiet noise, but is quick to pull him close in return, kissing him back just as fiercely. It’s addicting and Grian wants to do nothing else besides kiss Scar from now on.
Unfortunately he does need to pull back at some point, for the fear of being caught. As Grian moves back to be able uncork the bottle again, Scar’s arms loosen until he’s just holding Grian’s shoulders.
With a deep breath in, Grian pulls the plug out of the bottle and brings it up to his lips. He’s incredibly grateful that it has the consistency and texture of water as the moment it touches his tongue, Grian’s body is compelling him to spit it out again.
Grian ignores his body’s rejection of it and tries to chug the potion down in one go. He barely manages to swallow the last bit of it before his control fails and he starts aggressively coughing, bottle falling to the ground.
Scar moves to Grian’s side, one arm circling his shoulders to hold him against Scar’s chest as he gags. Scar rubs soothing circles on Grian’s arm, trying to murmur comfortingly, “You’re doing alright, it’s okay, you’re going to be fine.”
Grian just sags against into Scar, a dizziness filling his visions as he feels something twist inside his chest. It roils, painful and disrupting, like something is trying to tear him up from the inside out.
Scar slowly lowers them to the ground, pressing a kiss to Grian’s forehead, “I got you, I’ll keep you safe.”
Grian loses consciousness with Scar’s comforting murmurs in his ears.