(The Sabrina Carpenter song)

Subject/Victim: Joel/Smallishbeans+Grian and others
AU?: child AU+neglected AU+Hybrid AU
Genre: comfort/angst/fluff
TWs/CWs: mention of blood, injury, sympathy, banter, mention of stealing
Word Count: 1.9k

Note: this is a part two for the previous one-shot! Joel is 11, Grian is 10, and other characters vary but stay in the 8-12 age range! This is also not as heavy as the last one- apologies to those who were overwhelmed from that!

Summary of part one: Joel gets left behind by his family on the side of the road, he is sad and angry and enters the little park/forest where he was dropped. Because he wants his family to love him again he "gets rid of" his hybrid features. The one-shot ended with Joel "dying."

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Joel is in pain. To put it simply. But it isn't as horrible as before, and he no longer feels dizzy from blood loss.

Joel groans and opens his eyes, he jumps and rolls off the makeshift bed he was sleeping in. A boy was staring at him.

"Oh- I'm sorry!" The boy says, stifling laughter and scrambling onto the bed to look over at Joel.

Joel groans again because pain exploded on his back, he rolls over and lays on the soft floor face first. The boy giggles at him, then probably realises it's a problem that Joel isn't doing alright.

"Uh, I'll go get some potions," the boy says and flaps his colourful wings to quickly move around.

Oh. Joel thinks turning his head a bit and staring at the boy's beautifully feathered wings. A hybrid.

   "Here," the boy helps Joel sit back up and hands him a pinkish-red liquid in a bottle.

Joel stares at it and gives the boy a puzzled look, who, in return helps him put the bottle against his lips with an eye roll. "It'll help you, it might taste weird at first, but it gets sweet."

   The boy wasn't lying, because the liquid stung Joel's tongue, but it did leave a sugary aftertaste. Much satisfying to the other side of Joel, but he didn't really like that.

   "What is it.?" Joel asks the boy once a tingly feeling spreads all over his body, especially prominent on his head, ears, and back.

   "A healing potion. It won't fix everything, but it always makes people feel better!"

Joel figures the boy's correct, because the pain instantly becomes a small throb, only enough to be a bit annoying.

"You'll need a regenerative potion to fix.. that, though," the boy says, gesturing towards Joel's ears.

   Joel frowns and feels his ears. The point is gone, and bandages are around them. Right. The rocks.

  "Eh, it'll be fine," Joel shrugs and looks after his back, where the most pain had been.

  His wings are still badly damaged, but they seem to be healing steadily. Joel isn't sure how to feel about that. Glad? Or disappointed?

  Joel rubs his forehead as the boy stares at him. "I'm Grian," the boy tells Joel, holding out his hand.

"Joel.." Joel says, shaking Grian's hand.

"Up we go!" Grian says and flaps his wings to help him pull Joel up to his feet. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the others."

Grian drags Joel behind him, making Joel stumble. "What? 'Others'?" Joel questions. Grian just grins at him and pulls him out of the strange tent.

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

   Joel wouldn't admit it, but he is staring. It's not like there are a lot of them, but they are all kids. And hybrids.

"Hey Grian! Is that the half dead guy?" A brunette walks up to the two, Joel believes he should be offended for being known like that, but he supposes it's true.

"Yeah! His name's Joel! Joel, say hi, this is Scar," Grian says tugging on Joel's hand in a gesturing way.

Scar waves at Joel and Joel looks up at him. The only thing Joel found especially noticeable is the fact Scar is tall, has many ironic scars, and pointed ears. "Hi." Joel says.

It quickly gets awkward, so Grian tugs them a bit forward. "Uh, I'll talk to you later Scar. I'm going to introduce Joel to everyone else."

Grian tugs Joel forward and brings him to another winged kid, except he looks younger than both of them. "Hey Tim! Joel, meet Timmy!" Grian says cheerfully.

The other kid's wings ruffle up and he glares at Grian before turning to Joel. "My name's Jimmy, don't listen to him. Nice to meet you!" He holds his hand out.

Joel shakes his hand with his free hand and he smiles mischievously. "Alright, little guy."

   Grian laughs and tugs Joel away while Jimmy stares, baffled. "I'm taller than you! Both of you!" He shouts after the two.

   "I like you, Joel. Anyways! That kid passed out in the shade is Tango," Grian says, pointing at a kid face first in the grass.

   "He seems.. nice."

   "He is!" Grian grins and pulls Joel in another direction, then back to Tango, it is a bit dizzying since they aren't actually moving that far with each turn.

"Oh, and that little guy approaching Tango is fWip! We won't bother him because something funny is about to happen with him and Tango," Grian says and points at a ginger with large pointed ears sneaking around the tree Tango is using for shade.

Grian and Joel watch the two for a bit, seeing fWip tiptoe over Tango, pull his hair, and bolt when Tango shoots up, his hair now ablaze. Joel jumps when he sees the fire, then suppresses his laughter as fWip avoids Tango by ducking behind rocks.

"Amusing, right?" Grian breathes peacefully, smiling at the chaos as fWip runs towards Jimmy.

"Yeah, it is," Joel laughs lightly.

"Anyways!" Grian pulls Joel, yet again, in a different direction and to a different tree.

"Etho! Come meet Joel!" Grian calls out to a fox hybrid curled up by the tree.

"Yeah, I'm good!" Etho shouts back, using a stick to make shapes in the dirt.

"Let's go meet Etho," Grian tells Joel and drags him over.

Etho looks up when Grian stands in front of his stick and blinks. "Hey," he says, waving at Joel and Grian. He then pokes at Grian's slightly broken shoes.

"Hello there, Eefo, I'm Joel," Joel says, kicking at the stick Etho is using to poke Grian.

"Etho." Etho corrects, his ears twitching.

"That's what I said, Eefo," Joel glares at Etho.

"Yeah.. sure you did. Grian, just go to Xisuma already, he'll be glad Joel's up," Etho tells Grian and looks around for a new stick, because Joel broke his.

Grian salutes with his free hand and pulls Joel away. Joel picks at the bandages on his ears as Grian drags him to another awkward tent thing. Grian pulls on Joel's hand and scolds him. "Don't do that. X is in here, c'mon."

"X-eye-zooma!" Grian shouts, peeking his head inside the tent. Joel hears a scream and jumps.

"Grian. Don't scare me like that!" A brunette with bug wings lightly shoves Grian away from the entrance and exits.

"Oh, you're up! How are you feeling? Your wings healing okay? Sorry about the ears and antennae," the brunette ignores Grian and looks over Joel's shoulder to see his back.

"Eh, I'm fine," Joel replies, his eyes trailing over Xisuma's hybrid features.

He's a hybrid like Joel, thin antennae with little colour at the tip, that probably glows in the dark. Pointed ears that twitch. Thin wings with all sorts of matching colours, kind of like stained glass. Except different colour schemes, and Xisuma actually still had the features.

"Do you want anything to eat? Your wings can heal themselves, but you need to eat and rest plenty for that. I know from experience, don't ask," Xisuma reaches out to touch Joel's wings and stops for a moment. "Oh, can I touch them?"

   Joel lets himself process Xisuma's fast talking before answering. "Yeah, sure."

   Xisuma gently grabs Joel's limp wings and raises them up to access the damage and healing process, his own wings opening up. He glances at his wings then at Joel's slightly twitching ones. "Uh.. I'm not exactly an expert but I think they'll be okay? They were pretty crushed when Etho found you."

   Joel nods, he hesitates, but asks anyway. "What about my ears? And, uh, antennae?"

   "Well.. the antennae might grow back, but I dunno about your ears. Skin regrows.. I think? But I have no idea if it'll go back to normal. I was never taught hybrid anatomy in school. Or much human anatomy.. too young for that. But- I'm getting off topic. Sorry, I do that a lot," Xisuma explains, his wings fluttering faster as he talks faster.

   "He does. It's almost harder to get a straight answer out of him than it is to get one out of Scar," Grian finally speaks again.

   "That's-!" Xisuma sighs, "Fair.."

   "Now, Joel, let's get you some food, and you can tell me and 'Suma all about who did that to you!" Grian says cheerfully, with a bit of malice, pulling Joel into the tent, Xisuma following soon after.

   Joel awkwardly lets himself get pulled down onto the ground while Xisuma digs through a backpack. X grabs some sliced up oranges and gave them to Joel, after he smacked Grian's hand away. "Tango stole them from some campers not too long ago, so they're sort of fresh." Xisuma explains.

Joel smirks and takes an orange slice. Xisuma sits down and watches as Grian pulls grass out of the ground, then he turns to Joel again. "So.. could you tell us what happened?" X asks.

"Yeah, who don' it?" Grian questions, putting his attention on Joel.

"Well... a rock. And a tree," Joel replies, staring at his orange slice before slowly eating it.

"What?" Both boys question at the same time.

   "Yeah. Rocks are deadlier than you think," Joel answers, feeling extremely awkward. He can't tell them he did it to himself!

   "There's more to it, right? 'Cause that makes no sense, sorry," Grian says, spreading his feathered wings out and resting one over Joel.

   Joel sighs and slumps. "I did it. I used a rock to cut and a tree to damage."

   "Oh." Grian mumbles, his wing wrapping around Joel protectively.

   "Why?" Xisuma asks softly.

   "I.. I was tired, and I let the bad thoughts get to me. And I didn't think about the consequences, or how I actually felt." Joel grumbles, squeezing an orange slice, then regretting it as the liquid made his hands sticky.

Grian gives Joel a tight side hug. "Well, now that isn't allowed. Your wings are going to heal, your antennae are growing back, and your ears are going to get fixed. And it'll all be okay again!"

"His wings can't heal when you're suffocating them like that," Xisuma points out, making Joel let out a pained laugh.

"Oh- sorry!"

Grian lets go and, after some decision, pats Joel's head instead and steals an orange slice from him. Xisuma stares at Grian blankly and Joel laughs normally this time.

"Yeah, I think it will be okay," Joel smiles softly, then shoves Grian off of him playfully. "Now stop with all this sappy talk! It's hurting me."

"Sure thing, Joelio," Grian laughs.

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Take these two beautiful Joel fanart images (neither are mine-)
If they work-