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."

Scar smiled a little more at the thought of his parents. He remembered bits and pieces of their time together, going to church being one of the few. He really liked dressing up like that when he was little. "Yeah," he said. "I almost miss it."

"Almost?"

"I don't miss church that much," Scar admitted honestly with a shrug. "We didn't know many people there and they didn't really like us that much, from what I remember. Dad used to complain about how they thought we were rich because of the way we dressed, and that they didn't want us there to ruin the congregation... or something like that."

She chuckled. "Well, that isn't a very godly church if all they think about is money, now is it?" she joked, then took a step back. "Ah, well, I guess I'm done, sweetheart."

Scar stood up and looked in the mirror hung on the wall. "It looks nice," he said hesitantly.

"Oh, you don't like it," she said, pouting a bit.

"No, no! I do, I just..." Scar sighed. "I miss my long hair, is all."

"I knew you'd say that." Shrugging, she walked to the closet and grabbed the broom and dust pan. "Do you want to go get ice cream when I'm finished cleaning this up?"

Scar's eyes lit up like a small child's. "Yes!"

.•°*°•.

"We can't be long," Jimmy said after parking in front of Nathan's and Amanda's house. He paused after unbuckling himself, then reached over to put his hand on Scott's shoulder. "You alright?"

Scott shrugged, looking slightly out of it. "I just..." They sighed. "I don't know what to say to them. I told them they were abusive..."

Jimmy thought for a moment. "What if I went in instead?" he offered. "I'll get your medicine and then we can go see Grian."

Scott hesitated before nodding a bit. "'Kay."

"Okay." Jimmy got out of the car, immediately sweating in the summer heat. He sighed before walking up to the house, not having to knock on the door before Amanda opened it, tears in her eyes. "Oh- Hey."

"Is Scott with you?" she asked, sniffling. "Are they coming back home?"

Jimmy opened his mouth to answer, but hesitated. He suddenly felt bad for her now that he could see how she was affected by Scott leaving her and Nathan. Clearly she didn't want them to leave and clearly she cared about them and wanted them to come back home. But... "No, I'm just here for Scott's meds," he said uncomfortably.

Amanda pursed her lips and nodded. "I'll go get them," she said softly, then closed the door.

Jimmy took a deep breath. "I definitely need to talk to Scott," he murmured to himself.

Amanda came back a few moments later with a zipper bag with pill bottles and bubble packs. "Don't... Don't let them get them themself, please," she said. "They have a history."

Jimmy nodded and took the bag. "Bye."

"Buh-bye, sweetie."

.•°*°•.

Mumbo had left Scar's house to give him some space, but he was left wandering around the neighborhood in the heat. He wanted to make sure Scar had all the space he needed to relax and cool down. Mumbo knew how wound up he could get when he was in a funk.

He knew of a corner store down the road from Scar's house that he could go to for some ice cream or something cold to drink, so he aimed in that direction. Except he must've remembered wrong and made a wrong turn because he ended up at a fast food restaurant instead.

After using the bathroom there, he left and went back where he came, figuring Scar had a good amount of time to cool off. He walked down the street, but he didn't recognise any of the houses anymore. He took a turn left, then left again, then right, then left, then right... ending up even more lost than before.

Sighing, Mumbo reached in his pocket for his phone to call Scar.

He froze.

Then he checked his other pockets.

Nothing.

"Oh, shit."

.•°*°•.

Scar stared out the bay window as he waited for Mumbo to come back home. He knew that Mumbo was probably upset with him because of how much yelling went on, so he expected him to be a while when he left. But now it was starting to get dark and cold out. It was worrying Scar.

"Has he come back yet?" Scar's grandmother asked, taking off her apron as she walked into the living room from the kitchen. She frowned when Scar shook his head. "He might be lost. Did you try calling him?"

Scar sighed and held up a phone with a black case that had a neon green mustache on it - a symbol of the robot he and Grian made a few years ago. "He left his phone," Scar said tiredly.

"Oh, dear..."

"Should I go look for him?" Scar asked. "I don't want something to happen to him."

"Take a jacket," she said. "And be careful, hunny."

Scar nodded and stood up to walk to the coat rack, grabbing a brown jacket to wear. "Hopefully he hasn't gone far." He shivered at the cool air that bombarded him when he opened the door, then waved goodbye to his grandmother. Rivendell summers were usually pretty warm during the day, but it was near freezing at night. How that worked, Scar had no idea.

He searched first the way to the corner store, knowing Mumbo knew how to get there by himself. He figured he'd gone there, then got lost on the way back. Mumbo wasn't at the store, (Scar figured he wouldn't be), so he went back and began to search the neighborhood from one end to the next. But Scar couldn't find him anywhere.

In tears, Scar called his Nana. "Nana, I can't find him," he cried. "This is all my fault- I shouldn't have yelled at him the way I did..."

"Oh, sweetie," she said, "it'll be okay. We'll find him."

"Nana, I've looked everywhere," he retorted. "Where could he be?"

She sighed. "I don't know, honeypie. Just come back home, okay? It's freezing cold outside. We can call the police department to search for him."

"Okay."

.•°*°•.

Grian yawned, laying back down in the bed. "I miss Dad," he said tiredly. "Can you call him?"

Jimmy smiled softly and patted Grian's head. "Joel is tending to Lizzie right now," he said. "He'll be back tomorrow."

Grian's lower lip trembled, making Jimmy freeze.

"Don't cry," he said urgently, looking around. He brought a lot of things for the two of them to do when Grian wasn't sleeping (which he seemed to do a lot), all of which were scattered around. He coudn't think of anything he had that would've calmed him down. "Uhhh..."

Grian was starting to cry now. "I want my dad," he sobbed. "I want-" He hiccuped. "I want Dad-"

Jimmy sighed. "He can't come right now, Grian," he said gently. "Just- uh... Do you want to colour some more?"

Grian just wailed and buried his face in the pillow.

Sighing again, Jimmy shook his head.

Here comes a long night.

.•°*°•.

I've been thinking about this story a lot and I'm not sure if I want to put more filler before I end it or just wrap it up and give you the gutwrenching, heartbreaking ending. What do you guys think?

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed!! Love y'all, thanks for 11k <3 (and 75k on APBAON)