𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔪𝔢 𝔲𝔭

𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕙 𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕠 - penned and cared for by luna, est, she/her

-- [introduction] -- [tags] -- [headcanons] -- [connections]

“Dude. I’m not going to be able to make pumpkin pie anymore. That’s sick.” Gareth waved his hands out in front of him in outrage, replaying all the information the news spewed out earlier that day. Sure, he was making jokes but in reality, he hadn’t stopped thinking about the circumstances surrounding the two patches. It was the same thru line that kept popping up -- that sludge. The sludge that Gareth jotted down in notebooks, had weird theories in lists that made no sense to anyone but him. It felt insane to be considering all of this but it was too weird. It was not right. He played it all off as a joke only for the sake of saving face. “And they were fine...what last week? I don’t get it. Do you get it? Because I definitely don’t get it.”

x

That was definitely a way of looking at it. So far, there hadn’t been news of anyone who passed during the storm or missing so for that viewpoint, Lily could understand where he was coming from that at least it wasn’t worse. However, she wasn’t so sure it wasn’t. The storm brought on bigger hope that her daughter was out there. She heard her. And that meant something. It had to have. “Yeah.” She said softly before she watched him closely to see how he acted with her question. He seemed confused and that made her heart fall a bit and her eyes just stared while he tried remembering. Her heart sank more and she sighed. “I… I heard…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’ll sound crazy and I’m not crazy.” She said and looked back at him. “I heard my daughter.”

just from the way lily’s expression shifted, gareth pieced together what she meant. it sunk his stomach down to the very pit of his body and his mouth fell open wordlessly. he wished he could tell her he had. he would have taken getting bitten by bats if it meant he could offer her some good news but here he was empty handed and every word of consolation seemed useless. it was one thing to not know about her own daughter but to hear her, to be that close -- gareth would probably never understand pain like that. “I don’t -- I didn’t, I’m sorry.” he stuttered out but kept his composure, his eyes trained on the side of her face. “I don’t think you’re crazy. not even a little bit.”

x

Lily looked down at the candy as he offered it to her and gave a quick, polite smile before taking it; playing with the wrapper between her fingers. “No, its okay.” She assured him. The last thing Lily wanted to do was make him feel bad or anything. “I got to cover quick. It’s fine.” She said and looked him over. “I know. Its crazy how different things happened to all of us.” The woman sighed and her eyes gazed over the few people in the room before back at Gareth. Now was the time. “Gareth… did you… Did you happen to hear a child at all? While we were at the mall.”

“well I’m glad it wasn’t worse,  you know?” no matter what, gareth had this bleeding heart for people. he wanted to help, wanted to do what he could and it sucked to feel helpless. he nodded slowly, fiddling with a loose strand on his jeans. “a child?” gareth’s brows furrowed at the question, not expecting that to be what lily needed to know. the events of starcourt were still kind of blurry in his head, a mess of quick moving moments that he couldn’t make heads or tails of. still, gareth saw how serious lily was and he wracked his brain, trying to play over what he did remember. “no, i mean I don’t think so but i think my head is all kinds of frazzled. why? did you hear something?”

Once Jeff had been assured of his family’s well-being (and that the Three Squares itself was still standing), his next point of call had been to go looking for Gareth. When he’d expressed his intentions to his mother, however, she’d given him such a look that he’d immediately sat back down, cowed into eating a seemingly endless supply of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while his dad bandaged up his arm. Flow Jefferson fully intended to go out and find his other son himself.

In the end, it proves unnecessary. Gareth comes barrelling into the kitchen, and Jeff turns from where he’s started pacing, raising his hands to ward the other man off. “Gareth, wait, I’m covered in sh-” But it’s too late, Gareth’s arms are already around him, and Jeff can’t bring himself to pull away. He holds him tightly, rubbing absent circles into his back as he notices his laboured breathing - did he run all the way here? “I’m sorry,” Jeff says, against all logic, his voice rough with emotion. “I’m really glad you’re here, man. I was going out of my mind - I didn’t even know where you were.”

when times got tough, gareth always flickered back to his hobbies to keep him distracted. sharing a place with jeff meant not wailing on his drums at all hours so one of his only forms of escape was good old dnd. it must have been well over a year since he’d played properly after the disbanding of the club but that didn’t mean gareth didn’t keep up. with his notebook in hand, gareth went on a walk through the busted up downtown area, flipping through pages as he muttered to himself. he didn’t pay much attention to the people around him as he did so, completely lost in his own train of thought. 

x

She could sense the distance in him. She knew it well, if she was honest. She was doing that herself all day and was feeling it coming on right now as she sat down and listened to him talk. The question had it all coming back. The hearing Natty’s voice, the cracking and shattering of glass, the screeches and wings of the bats, the feeling of their claws and tails (bats usually don’t have tails) hitting her skin… Thinking about it made her tremble and she swallowed for a moment before nodding. “I’m okay. A little scratched, but its okay.” She assured him. There were scratches along her skin here and there and her ankle still hurt, but she was okay for the most part. “Did they get you?” She asked; holding in what she really wanted to ask him: if he heard or saw Natty.

gareth usually knew how to comfort people. he said something silly, got a smile on their face, and cleared their minds of whatever was plaguing them -- this time though, he didn’t think he had it in him or worse, he didn’t think it was right. the gravity of the situation dulled his usual shine and gareth only thought about those demon bats screeching, echoing in the high walls of starcourt. still, gareth tried to keep his bleak demeanor to himself, reaching into his pocket and offering lily some candy he kept in there for safe keeping. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’m glad they didn’t get you too bad but I’m sorry.” He muttered, rubbing his hands over his knees. “Just a few bumps and bruises from trying to get away. I’m good though, just - trying to be here for everyone.”

Date. Will studiously decides not to read anything into Gareth’s choice of words, because he obviously didn’t mean it like that. He’s just being nice, because he’s always nice - unexpectedly so. “You don’t have to pay me back,” Will says hurriedly. “Honestly, you’re doing me a favour. At least now I don’t look like such a loser.” This is the second time in recent weeks that Gareth’s rescued them from that particular fate - first at Reefer Rick’s, and now here. It’s like he manifests whenever Will’s feeling especially socially awkward. “So, who’s not fun?”