Unravelled - Desert Duo Fic

Chapter 8

TWs include: dark humour relating to suicidal ideation and eating disorders, implied self-harm, blades, blood, general mental health struggles.

Hello wonderful people, I had a really really horrible day at work today, so here's a chapter!

Maybe it was cringey, but Scar - just standing there and dancing - had felt an immense amount of joy. It felt so silly to him, too. All he was doing with jumping and spinning around, waving his arms in the air and making noises whilst listening to his current favourite song. That shouldn't have been a joyous moment at all, especially considering someone else was there with him. In, fact, it should've been embarrassing. Stuff like that wasn't "cutesy" or "energising" or any of those other things he'd tried to convince himself. It was annoying. And inconvenient. And incredibly awkward to be around.

So why wasn't he feeling like that? After years and years of trying to find a way to get rid of his stims, or, at the very least, make himself more comfortable with them, he'd eventually given up. But being with Grian, seeing him dancing and jumping around so unapologetically... The shorter Hermit had willingly joined in with him, just out of his own goodwill. He was such a sweet guy, honestly. Scar couldn't have asked for a better best friend. Whilst he obviously wasn't immediately comfortable in his own form of emotional release, he felt a little more at ease, and that was enough for now, right? He hoped so.

Still, he couldn't help but notice that something seemed off with the Hermit. Was he nervous about the news that Xisuma had dropped? In all honesty, Scar himself was nervous. The idea that someone he loved was secretly an imposter? That was absolutely terrifying to him. He wasn't one to easily pick up on body language, or someone to notice when things were wrong. What if one of his closest buddies was being replaced and he didn't notice?

That's why he was concerned about Grian. He'd been trying considerably harder to try and notice smaller details in people. It didn't always work, but he felt like he was onto something. The thing was, though, he had no real evidence - it wasn't as if Grian had outright done anything wrong, he just seemed to be acting slightly out-of-character. Even if he did have solid proof that Grian was an imposter, he didn't think he'd be able to bring himself to turn him in. Hypothetically speaking, say that this "Grian" was an alter ego: it was still Grian. He was still a part of Scar's best friend.

Scar sighed and drummed his fingers rhythmically on his hips. This was all way too confusing.

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"Grian, mate!"

Grian whipped around to see a moustached man standing in his doorway. He leant against the frame with an amused expression on his face, his eyebrow quirked upwards.

"You slept in today, buddy."

"Yeah!" Grian said with fake laughter, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry about last night."

"It's no worries!" Mumbo smiled. "Sorry that I had to leave this morning: I had to meet up with Xisuma to discuss what was happening at the meeting, today. I did pop by later, but found Scar already here."

Oh.

So maybe Mumbo did care about him? If he wasn't leaving because he despised Grian and only because he was ordered to, then maybe he wasn't all bad?

Nope, dumb thoughts, never mind. He couldn't believe that he'd actually considered that. If he wanted Mumbo to actually care, he'd have to stop being so annoying and clingy and useless and utterly worthless and—

"Say, what did you think of the meeting today? The news, I mean. What do you think?" Mumbo asked curiously.

"I-I don't know what to think. It's all a bit confusing, to be honest," admitted the Hermit. "How come you already knew about it?"