Archive of Our Own ^beta

Grian is really bad at expressing how he feels. The watchers were never touchy feely and despite his bird brain he never learned to tune into that part of himself. The part of himself that could sing like a bird so to speak. But when he met Scar he wanted that to change.

Knowing the vex for such a long time has made his heart grow three sizes. All his friends could tell too, how the avian lingers around Scar a little longer than most, how he comes up with any excuse to have physical contact with the man. He didn’t hide it well nor was he trying. However, that didn’t stop the zookeeper from not noticing the love and affection from the man in the red sweater.

One day however that changed in the most embarrassing way possible. “I have planted so much wheat Scar!” Grian complained pointing out at the island across the way. “Yes you have” the vex smiled agreeing with the annoyed avian. “It's not just wheat, oh no no no, it's dirt I’ve placed so much dirt! And buckets of water and I still have another island to finish” Scar nodded along listening to his bird friend talk about all he does to make his build come to life, but the brunette doesn’t mind the ranting.

He actually finds it quite endearing, he also loves how after a sentence Grian tends to accidently without thinking about it let a bird cheep fall from his lips and Scar finds it adorable. “You know I love your little bird noises" Scar said in between Grian’s rant making the man pause.

“My what?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “Your bird noises are adorable” Grian turned red, his wing coming up to cover his face. Scar let out a little laugh “Are you embarrassed?” Instead of receiving a confirmation Grian let out another cheep before covering his mouth and taking off into the sky.

“Scare him off again?” Impulse asks, appearing behind Scar. “I can’t understand why he flies off when I compliment his birdness” The vex flared his arms around flabbergasted. “Well maybe you should just ask him?” The I man states moving to stand beside Scar on the fishing port.

“Yeah I know, but Grian hasn't this way of avoiding questions”
“You mean batting his eyelashes at you?” that comment earned Impulse a shove into the water but the tech guy started his rockets causing him to hover above the water “Nice try” Impulse winked. Scar crossed his arms pouting on the wooden deck.

Meanwhile, up in the sky high above where no one can see him, Grian spins around with a smile on his face. The avian doesn’t like to show his outward emotions, it makes him feel weak, or so he was taught. But just as he hides his bad emotions he also hides his good ones too.

Grian let the cheeps and chirps fall from his lips as he spins around like a ball of red in the clouds. He’s in love with Scar, anyone can see that and Grian knows Scar loves him too but the fear of letting someone in is holding him back, so instead of facing his problem he flies over to one of his best friend’s who knows him inside out at this point and is essentially his family.

Landing on the top of her castle he sees Scar and Impulse on his fishing deck waiting for him to return, Grian guessed. “Who’s that bird brain I see?” Gem’s voice perked up. The avian turned around to see the deer hybrid in her lab coat pulling her goggles up on her head. “Hey Gem” Grian crossed his arms causing the redheads smile to drop. “Come inside” she waves him towards the stairs taking them down further into her lab.

“What's up G?” she asks, sitting down at her kitchen table, Grian standing across from her. “I love him” Gem rolls her eyes “I thought we had established that”
“Yes but Gem!” Grian whined pacing the room “He just, he called my bird sounds adorable today and I couldn’t take it so I flew off and ugh!” Grian sunk to the ground.

Gem sighed, peeking over the table “You know he’s not going to judge your birdness, right?” Grian face down on the tile groaning “what was that?” she moves to sit next to him. Grian rolled over laying on his back looking over at Gem. “I know, he’s Scar he would never do that, but I ugh!” Gem reached over patting his head “Trauma?” Gem asked, “Trauma,” Grian responded.

“Look I get it, letting someone in his hard, It took me a while to let you and Pearl in, and now I have Tango and Impuse, and Skizz too, it's not the same as a romantic relationship but it is similar, the trusting part is at least” Grian knows she has a point, always does. “Yeah I know,” he mumbles. “And you’ve been friends with a Scar for what? 7, 8 years? I’m pretty sure you can trust him with every part of you, void knows he wants it” Gem chuckled.

Grian glared at her “anyways” she continued, “You’re not going to get anything done if you continue to lay on my floor, so up, up” Grian groaned before pushing himself off of the floor. “You may not have things to do but I have things to do so shoo!”
“By do, you mean bug my sister” That resulted in Grian being shoved out the door and into the grass. “I’m going to take it as a yes either way!” he shouted at her with a laugh before trekking down to his tunnel.

By the time Grian made it back to the dock only Scar was sitting there, his feet dangling over the water as the sun casted a perfect shadow on his face. Scar was perfect in every way in Grian’s eyes. His tan skin, his messy brown hair, his quirked up smile when he thinks nobody is looking. He loved every part of Scar and it made his wings flap with delight. “No shush!” he whispered to his wings.

You see avian hybrids have some control over their instincts but when you aren’t born with avian traits but rather ‘gifted’ with them they tend to have a mind of their own. “Grian?” Scar turned his head to see his feathery friend fighting with his wings. “Whats wrong?” the blonde man caught sight of Scar head on and froze. Its one thing to see a side profile its another to see Scar as a whole and man did it make Grian feel weak in the knees. “Hi” Grian mumbled. Scar stepped closer “you ok you seem frightened earlier” oh why does Scar have to be so caring? Grian thought as his heart swelled.

“I’m fine” the avian’s voice cracked. “Are you sure? You seem flushed” Scar reached out and touched Grian’s face to check for a fever. Which sent Grian into overdrive as his wings flapped on their own. Scar saw the pupil of Grian’s eyes turn to saucers. “Birdy?” Scar’s voice wavered as Grian broke free and started moving weirdly.

His wings and arms flapped as he jumped around Scar like a mad man. “Grian, what's going on?” The vex tried but got no response as Grian continued to dance. Just as Scar started to panic Pearl and Gem walked by stopping in front of quite a sight. “You ok Scar?” Pearl asks, watching her brother dance around Scar.

“I’m fine, is Grian ok? This is weird for him and I’m worried!” Grian started fanning his wings above his head to make them bigger. “I think he finally broke,” Gem whispered to Pearl with a laugh. “What are you laughing about? This isn’t funny! Something's wrong!” Scar pleaded standing beside the girls as Grian continued to hop and run around in circles in front of him.

“Scar there's no need to be worried,” Pearl says, trying to hold back a laugh. “Look at him!” Both girls looked over at Grian who was now in a crouched position walking around with his wings high in the air and his hands flapping around. “Did Grian seriously not tell you about his bird instincts?” Pearl asked. “I’m assuming how Grian was acting earlier Scar doesn't know” Gem answered the moth.

“Bird instincts? Like his chirping and stuff?” Pearl nods “when Grian feels strong emotions his instincts can take over, and since he wasn’t born an avian he tends to” she looks over at Gem “take over more than normal, hence” She gestures over to the love sick idiot rolling around on the grass. “Oh!” it finally snapped into place in Scar’s head.

“I think the brain cells finally created a thought” Gem smiled leaning against Pearl. “Wait, so what emotion is causing this?” Scar’s face contorted to confusion. “Or not” Gem retracted her statement. “Scar, you can’t be this dense,” Pearl pleaded. Scar stared at Pearl in confusion while Grian ran around like a mad man behind him. “Sweetie, he is, You’re going to have to spell it out for him”
“Spell what?” Scar says confused. Pearl looked to her left down at Gem who shrugged before turning to Scar. “You’ll figure it out, just let him calm down first and talk, like adults” Gem stated before taking Pearl’s hand in hers and dragging her off.

“You’re just going to leave me with” Scar stopped when Grian stood in front of him, eyes still black voids like how Jellie looks at him when she has fish. “Grian are you in there?” The bird man blinks a couple of times, his eyes returning back to their normal brown color. “Scar? Scar!” Grian jumped back. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry you had to see that, that wasn’t, I wasn’t, void um” Scar reached out placing a gentle hand on Grian’s shoulder forcing him to look up at the vex.

“Can we go sit down and talk about this?” Grian stared into Scar’s eyes and didn’t see even a hint of hatred. Not that he expected there to be, but he didn’t know what to expect. “Ok” Scar walked them both back over to the dock as they sat with their legs dangling over the side. “So bird instincts huh?” Scar smiles teasingly. Grian shoved him lightly, “if you’re going to make fun of me go ahead” he pouted but Scar didn’t make fun of Grian instead he laid his head on the boy’s shoulder. “I would never make fun of you G for something you can't control” Grian frowned but let his head lay against Scar’s. “I can’t control the fact my legs don’t work all the time, would you make fun of me for that?” and the avian knew he would never do that but his bird instincts are not a disability like Scar’s so why was the vex being so kind about it?

“Your brain is being mean to you again, stop it brain” Scar sat up poking the sides of Grian’s head. “But what if it's right?” Grian said sadly looking down,
“But what if it’s wrong?” Scar countered. Grian took a breath looking out at the water. “So what caused that dancing back there, Pearl said strong emotions, so were you stressed? Angry? Were you” Grian cut Scar off “it wasn’t a negative emotion Scar, it was” the avian paused his eyes looking down at his reflection in the water.

“Was?” Scar asked Grian shook his head if he didn’t get it out now he never would. “It was a mating dance,” he said, starting to turn as red as his sweater. “A mating dance?” Grian nodded “for who?” Scar asked. Is he really this oblivious? Grian wondered before rolling his eyes “for you idiot" that made Scar pause which made Grian continue. “I saw you sitting on the port and I just, my bird brain lost it, It went into overdrive and I tried to calm it down see if I could at least internally react but no, I had to react externally and now you’re looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, I’m sorry” Scar shook his head taking Grian’s hand in his “Dove” Scar hums kissing the tops of Grian’s knuckles.

“There's no need to apologize” Grian tries to speak but a chirp escapes him instead. Scar smiled “G, I should have said this before and I’m ashamed I didn’t but I love you, romantically” the vex says looking away bashfully. Grian jaw goes slack “don’t look at me like you didn’t know” Scar teased. Words form in Grian’s head ‘I love you too’ or ‘you’re mine’ or just say anything but the second Grian tries to speak his voice cracks into bird nonsense. “I guess I’m going to have to learn to speak bird, aren’t I?” Scar laughs. Grian closed his mouth and nodded “It's ok Angel, I know what you were trying to say, you said it earlier with your dancing” Grian whined before his head slammed into Scar’s chest.

The vex chuckles, running his fingers into Grian’s hair. “I know you love me too,” Grian nods in agreement. Scar smiles and kisses the top of Grian’s head while off in the distance there's a Gem, Pearl and Impulse watching them and silently celebrating. Later in the night Grian is finally able to say the words he had been dying to say to Scar since third life and Scar kissed him profusely afterwards as the two finally found each other after so long.