victory_road | Great googly moogly, it's all gone to [extremely loud incorrect buzzer]

"Window?" Henry's voice is small as he watches Scar disappear around the side of the house. He's standing at the front door and hesitating because it has been so long, but he doesn't assume there's no other way to get in.

But Scar is already out of sight.

Henry bites his lips. Okay...well. Okay. He'll let his friend do it his way. Henry tries the doorknob and finds the door unlocked. He quietly enters and is greeted with familiar smells and familiar walls. Pokemon toys scattered all over the house. Their posters and pillows and everything that was theirs. He smiles to himself. Why was he ever worried?

Laughter drifts down the stairs and Henry stops at the bottom of them, his hand on the banister. They're home! They're right up stairs and he can see them! Henry wasn't one to get excited, but he took the stairs two at a time on silent feet. In no time he is outside their door. He sees the dim light flickering from beneath it. He can hear the tinny sound of the movie playing through a small speaker.

He knocks once but doesn't wait for an answer. He pushes the door open and sticks his head and one arm inside as though he's delivering a cheerful wakeup call.

"I'm here!"

The climb isn’t as easy as it ought to be. Scar still can’t snuff out the quiver in his limbs, and his backpack is stuffed with camping gear. He makes it, though, sweat dripping down his back.

Maybe he would be sweating less if he wasn’t wearing a winter coat.

In August.

Food for thought.

Scar manages to toss one arm, then the other over the threshold of the window, pulling his not insubstantial weight through—

"Oh my God."

Girlies, there is a serial killer half in and half out of your window, staring like a deer in the headlights. Roll initiative.

One knock is not nearly enough warning when there's not supposed to be anyone else in the house.

It's one of those magical little Johto coincidences that a loud scare chord, Henry's face and arm appearing in the doorway, and then also an enormous brick wall of a man speaking directly behind their heads happen simultaneously.

"FUCK!"

The popcorn bowl is airborne, the contents raining down on Envy, Heather, and Scar's heads. Envy twists ungracefully to the side, legs tangled in the blanket, as he instinctively gets his back out of the 'line of fire'. Scar has that blanket to thank for not being very probably kicked in the side of the head.

Henry bursting through the door at this moment... would have been startling. Like, a 6 out of 10.

Scar physically manifesting in the window would have been very startling. 10 out of 10.

Henry bursting through the door, and Scar physically manifesting in the window, and a vampire-zombie jumpscare happening on the screen of the PokeGear all at the same time is an event that sends Heather's adrenaline shooting straight through the stratosphere. 2334596237 out of 10.

Heather screams and does a literal backflip off the bed. It's not a cool graceful backflip-- it's like a ragdoll g-mod backflip. Only the fact that she wasn't fully under the blanket allows her to escape Envy's tangled fate-- she is upright and snatching Envy's bedside lamp before she can even realize who and what have interrupted the previously-lowkey movie marathon, and it is only the fact the intrusion is coming from two separate physical locations (and therefore splitting her attention) that stops her from bringing it straight down on Scar's x-marked noggin.

"WHAT!"

Envy yells. Heather yells.

Henry yells.

"It's me!" Henry bumps the door the rest of the way open when he raises his injured hand to join his other in the universal No Weapons gesture.

Then he sees Scar in the window. See, Henry thought maybe Scar was going to a window to throw little pebbles against it to get the residents' attentions. Not...this. Henry frowns a little, his brow gently creasing. He looks across the room, through the chaos, and at his traveling companion.

"Why would you do this"

Like a human horseshoe peg, Envy's popcorn bowl lands squarely on Scar's head. Perhaps a glimpse into Scar's state of mind that he carries on ignoring it.

"I didn't think..." the door... would be...? Open?

I didn't think might be the most accurate answer of all, here, incomplete though the thought may be.

There's so much happening.

Envy glances wildly back and forth between the other three, trying to process everything. Henry (Henry!) with a...cast on his arm? Heather about to swing the lamp. Scar with his new hat. For a moment, he's at a rare loss for words.

That never lasts long with Envy, though.

"You're real?!"

THAT WEIRD VIDEO WASN'T A DREAM??

He's trying to point at them and get out of the blanket trap at the same time.

Heather, bug-eyed, whips her gaze back and forth between the window and the doorway, holding the lamp in front of her like it's a gun. It's still plugged in, and on. The continued guttural moans and snarling sound effects still filtering tinnily out of Envy's PokeGear speakers just kind of add to the surrealism of it all. She doesn't even notice Henry's cast for the moment-- her mind is racing.

Is it... one of those weekends? That's the first thing resembling a logical possibility to occur to her-- but it's the wrong time of year for that, and everything else today has been comically mundane.

But if it's not one of those weekends, that means either they're really here... or she's having some kind of catastrophic brain event.

"What's happening."

It comes out sounding utterly monotone, but she still looks like she's seeing ghosts.

After a long moment, she lowers the lamp.

"Henry?"

SHE WILL ADDRESS HIM BEFORE POPCORN MAN. It is the only option that can preserve her sanity.

Henry knows not to approach yet. Heather has never acted out of reflex toward him like ever but he just Knows not to, especially when she's holding something blunt.

He looks at Scar for a moment longer before turning his attention back to the trainers they have just home invaded.

"It's me, we--I lost my Poke'Gear a few days ago. I would have called but...I wasn't sure you would pick up."

He supposed he could have used a public computer at the Pokemon Center but...things were moving so fast at that point he'd just rather warp and walk here.

None of these are his people, and he's just miscalculated so catastrophically that he's spontaneously manifested in Heather and Envy's window. There isn't any embarrassment or guilt so much as the same bewildered fog that had brought him to this perch in the first place.

They are a pair, though. He notes that bit. Not shocking. He really did have to pick the window immediately beside their bed, didn't he?

Popcorn man waits.

Popcorn man sweats.

Popcorn man right next to them is very distracting, but Envy's brain is starting to catch up with him. He's going through the same mental motions that Heather is in regards to realizing that no, it's not the right time of year for a weird weekend, which means...

They really are here.

It's not like he's been completely drowning in loneliness. Lust and Heather have been here, and there were still a few people kicking around he was on good terms with. He spent centuries with no close friends at all.

But going from having so many and losing them, then avoiding making new ones to keep from losing more...

And now Henry was back. Even SCAR was back--they hadn't exactly gotten along but he is familiar. From the time when the house was full.

Everyone in the room is going to get to see a rare entire genuine emotion cross Envy's face.

"I saw a video a few days ago, it was so short I thought it was some weird dream. You're really back."

...wait. Speaking of that video. Envy's mind pings the cast again. And what he remembers of the video. He turns to Scar, expression now one of someone putting puzzle pieces together.

"What happened to Henry's arm?"

For a second she stares at Henry with a slack jaw, and her voice takes on a sort of lost tone, half-mumbling.

"Why wouldn't I pick up...?"

But even as the question completes itself, she already realizes why. It's always so easy to forget that that's even a possibility for you, when you're the one who's never Left. Of course he'd have been reluctant to call. So would she, if she were in his shoes.

But she was here.

They were both here.

Dropping the lamp (thankfully onto the bed and not the floor), she abandons Envy next to Scar for the moment and crosses the room to grasp her fellow survivor in a tight hug. It's then that she notices the cast, and pays enough mind to it to be careful, but IT'S HUGGIN' TIME and everything else can wait.

For now.

"Holy shit, Henry. You're really back."

Ah, his arm. He lifts it and turns it a little to show his injury. He opens his mouth to explain but suddenly Heather is hugging him.

His eyes grow misty and he hugs her back with both arms.

"I saw the date. I know it's been a long time. Only a few minutes passed back home."

He looks past Heather's head to smile and Envy. Oh, it's so good to see both of them. He notices the popcorn bowl on Scar's head for real for the first time. He grins and lets out a soft laugh.

"If it weren't for my friend, my wrist would be in even worse shape."

So. Envy is capable of giving a damn.

As the others are distracted with their friend's (mostly) safe return, Scar maneuvers his bulk through the window as gingerly as possible.

Of course it's the damn bed. Of course it is.

Scar can already feel the Blame Cloud materializing over his popcorn crown when Henry jumps to his defense. Any attention turned to Scar at the moment will find him ambling across the bed on all fours, the popcorn bowl finally sliding off his head to land with a soft thud on the sheets. He's trying his damnedest to keep his shoes off the mattress, and to touch the whole deal as little as possible before ambling onto the floor.

Heather can do the hugging for both of them for now--Envy may have come around to enjoying getting hugs, but he's not likely to really ever be someone to start one, even in a situation like this. That doesn't mean he isn't feeling just as much rising happiness the longer the situation has to sink in.

He does still remember that Scar had been responsible for a Henry Arm Injury before (seven years is like no time at all for Envy holding onto a petty grudge), and that blame cloud is well and truly starting to form before--

Oh. Huh.

He blinks back over at Scar, surprised, the recalculating of the situation clear on his face. Henry's calling him a friend? Scar rescued him from even worse injury?

Interesting.

Scar also weighs more than both Envy and Heather combined and him crawling onto the mattress is actively shifting the whole center of gravity, and Envy's having to actively try not to slide or fall into him as he passes. There is no way to ever gracefully crawl over a bed.The man is keeping his feet in the air. The bowl falls down and that's as much as he can take.

It starts with a snicker and it's only moments before he's laughing so hard he almost really is in danger of sliding into Scar's gravity well. Real laughter, too, not even his signature mocking villain cackle. His eyes are a little wet.

It has been a long time.

Not as long as it could have been.

But still a long time.

Hell, she and Henry are probably the same age now. She'll rub that in later, once the shock has worn off-- but for now, she gives him a last hard squeeze before backing up a little bit, finally breaking into a slightly incredulous smile (Envy's hysterical laughter behind her is contagious, although she doesn't join in just yet-- she hasn't turned around to see Scar awkwardly scrungling across the bed). There might be a tear in her eye, but that could be leftover from that scene where the movie guy's Mightyena got infected.

She remembers the fiasco with his arm and how mad they'd all been-- but you know what? She doesn't want to question shit. This all feels kind of like a nonsensical dream where if you question it, you wake up. SO IF HE SAYS SCAR HELPED, SHE BELIEVES HIM.

"I can't even turn my back for a few years without you fucking yourself up, can I?"

And then she turns her head and sees Scar.

She does not start laughing hysterically, but the tears do start falling and she splutters. She is choking on the laugh.

"Holy sh-- ffffhhhhckare. A-are you okay?"

Envy bursting into laughter starts affecting him as well. His shoulders shake and he ducks his head a little.

"I guess not...There was a Heracross and I fell down this steep hill and got my arm hung in a tree."

He doesn't mention that he was running. Or why.

He then sees Scar doing his best Samara impression across the bed and walks over to hold out his good hand to help up without him having to like. Crawl around like a lizard. Henry does this bold as brass, as though he never had a crippling fear of Scar before this moment.

"I can say one thing...after the back and forth of it all my memory is messed up. But I remember that I belong here."

Envy bursts out laughing, and for a moment, Scar freezes. The stern angle of his frown softens, and he slowly lifts a hand as the shrimpier of the homunculi lists in his direction. He nudges Envy safely out of his personal sphere as he finally manages to get off the bed.

Scar doesn't bother to stand. He lets his bulky camping pack roll off his back, ignoring the peel of his sweaty clothes against his back as the weight is lifted from it. He rests against the wall, immune to the wave of relief that's washed over the room at large.

He only makes a noise in response to Heather's sputtered question. What in the world could ok possibly look like, at the moment?

Edited 2023-08-17 04:35 (UTC)

Envy wasn't expecting to be nudged so carefully, but he lets it happen and manages to scoot further away to a more balanced position. This is fine.

Also much preferable to literally colliding with Scar, because the Ishbalan isn't the only one with a personal sphere. He stays on the bed where he is because the room is a little crowded at the moment, the laughter starting to sputter out to more manageable levels.

"What a welcome back to the wilderness..."

Yes. Joke. Much easier to say than expressing all those feelings with words. But they're escaping in his voice and face anyway. He swipes at his eyes...then a thought hits him with a jolt.

"Oh shit. Lust."

She's out of town!! She doesn't know or she'd have called them already!!

Oh wow, yeah. The last time Henry and Scar had both been here at the same time, Heather distinctly remembered Henry turning invisible every single time Lust's intimidating boyfriend (????????????????????????????) entered a room.

But there he was, going and helping Scar off of the bed like it was nothing.

A brief, painful pang of pride grips Heather's heart as she watches... and then what Envy just said sinks in and she sobers up instantly.

"Oh, shit," she parrots him for, like, the second time in the past three minutes. "She must not know."

Way to state the obvious, Heather.

"Lust..." Henry parrots them. Another friend he's eager to see. "I didn't see any of her Pokemon downstairs."

In fact, he hadn't stopped to look around for any Pokemon. Now that he's here in this familiar place, he feels like he should have Burger winding between his feet or Prince trying to bury his 'ugly' shirts in the yard. He doesn't hear the high fluty sound of Flotsam playing in the pool. His heart aches.

He's so tired.

He's so fucking hungry. He's been surviving off canned soup, protein bars, and the cookie that the nice ladies in Cherrygrove gave him. And he wants a goddamn cigarette! Henry sucks in a breath.

"I think I should make us some tea." You know. That tea.

The heterosexual elephant in the room toots.

Scar's circulatory system freezes over.

"Why else would I be here?"

The question... does not come out the way it had formed in his mind. It rasps uneven out of his mouth exactly as you might expect it to from a man who is coping with the uncertainty of his immediate future with the only person who truly knows him by wearing a fur lined coat in August.

It's barely more than an idle thought, but. He would enjoy tea, right now. As much as he could enjoy anything.

Envy doesn't take offense to the question--after all, it's not like Scar was on exactly friendly terms with anybody in this room the last time he was here, even if he's apparently somehow become friends with Henry spontaneously in the past few days.

Thinking more on what kinds of things went on with Scar and Lust seven years ago...

He realizes that he has no idea how Lust will react or what will happen when they meet back up or really anything because whatever the two of them had going on was incomprehensible. Anything could happen.

Scar was already just sitting on the floor looking like a lost baby deer which was. A new look.

...was that a fur coat?

You know what tea sounds great. Envy knows exactly what kind of tea Henry's talking about and yes. That tea. That will make everything easier!

"She's not here in the house, she's in Ecruteak. We'll need to call her. But there is some of the tea in the kitchen first."

The Tea.

"Some of her Pokemon still stay here but they're probably asleep in her room..."

She sounds distracted as she says it-- her brain is still moving at a mile a minute and it's already plowing ahead of that particular thought. Because... yeah, she doesn't know how Lust is going to react to this either.

Heather generally tries to stay out of Lust's business, outside of the occasional necessary Girltalk Night (tm)-- but she knows Lust has had relationships. Might even be in one right now. Oh god.

"Tea?"

Heather also generally doesn't partake in Henry's tea. Alcohol is her drug of choice, if she really wants to get crazy and stupid. But this is all so... much, so fast. And she would kind of like her brain to slow back down to at least where it was while she and Envy had been watching their horror movie (which is still blaring muffledly from somewhere on the bed).

"I could... go for that, actually. I'll show you where it is, we have to keep it somewhere the Pokemon can't get it--" She starts towards the door again and it's several crunchy footsteps before she realizes she's stepping on all the spilled popcorn. "--Shit, are you guys hungry? Have you eaten? Do they still only give you that one shitty bento box in New Bark?"

Scar is included in 'you guys'. If she has any lingering weird uncertain feelings about the man, they're going to have to wait until after... after.

"You kept it..." Henry feels his chest grow tight. He's got such feelings for this group of people. His people.

When Heather mentions food, Henry's guts actually decide to speak up and let out a pitiful sound. He feels a little bad. Scar took care of them on the road as well as his rations could. But Henry is not fit for The Wilderness.

"Haha, I am...very hungry. Yeah." He turns to Scar and gives a little wave. "Come on."

And he's off down the stairs again, his heels hitting the edges hard. Two stairs at a time. Now he's not afraid of waking people up. Or taking up space. More and more of his personality is unfurling the longer he's away from the Otherworld. He's remembering the life he made here.

"I need to show you my Pokemon."

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