Valeriana

35

CWs/TWs: referenced transphobia, referenced self-delete attempts

.•°*°•.

Joel left for home when Grian eventually fell asleep watching Naked And Afraid. He called Jimmy and asked him to come in and watch Grian for a while, mentioning that he could bring Scott, too, if they wanted to come. But for now, Joel was going to focus on taking care of his wife.

When he got home, he found her crying in bed.

"Oh, love," he said softly as he approached. "What's wrong?"

She wailed at the thought of talking about what was upsetting her, unable to speak a word.

Sighing, Joel sat down next to her and gently pulled her over so she was laying in his lap. She was quick to cling to him tightly, sobbing even more now that he was holding her. "It's okay, baby," he whispered to her caringly. "It's okay. Just try to relax for me, alright?"

She did the opposite, holding onto him tighter.

"Oh, Lizzie... What do I do for you?" he asked gently, kissing her hair. "What do you need?"

She didn't respond for a moment, then hiccuped and murmured, "You."

Joel smiled a little bit. "You need me, huh?" He hugged her a bit tighter. "What do you need me to do?"

Lizzie took a shaky breath in. "J-just- Hug me," she stammered.

"Okay. I can do that."

.•°*°•.

"I'm so disappointed," Scar's grandmother said sadly as she trimmed Scar's hair so it would look nicer than how choppy he cut it himself. "I loved your hair, dear. It looked so pretty on you."

Scar pouted. "It made me look like a girl."

"You loved your hair."

Something about the way she said that made Scar start to cry. He did love his hair. He put so much effort into growing it out and taking care of it and styling it so pretty. It made Scar feel like Scar. And he ruined it all because of a dumb comment his ex boyfriend made to him whilst in a state of delusion. Not to mention how guilty Scar suddenly felt about holding it against Mumbo even though it wasn't entirely his fault he said something like that. Not that that was an excuse.

"Oh, honey," she said, stopping trimming his hair to wrap her arms around him. "It's okay... You can grow it out again if you want."

Scar shook his head. "No, I don't want to," he said, sniffling loudly. "People will see me more as a boy if I have short hair." No matter how ridiculous he knew it was to hold on to what Mumbo said, he couldn't help but feel that way anyway.

Scar's grandmother sighed. "Alright," she said. "Just know that I'll always see you as a boy, even if you're dressed in frilly pink laces with your hair all done up and cute little heels on." She pressed a long kiss to his cheek, making him smile a bit regardless of the fact that he didn't want to smile. "Got that?"

"Yes, Nana."

"Okay, good." She started to trim his hair into shape again, sighing contently. "I remember when you used to dress up all nice, back when your parents would take you to church evedy Sunday."