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Today was going to be a good day. Scar was sure of it!
The sun was shining where it filtered in through the curtains, the faint smell of waffles was in the air, and Scar had just woken up with minimal pain in his joints.
If that wasn't the start of a good day, he didn't know what would be.
Speaking of starting good days.
Scar jumped out of bed full of energy, grinning from ear to ear when his joints didn't hurt. Looking at the clock, he saw it was 7 AM. Just in time to get ready and go to work.
As Scar walked out of the bedroom and into the main living area of their apartment, he got hit with the smell of breakfast full blast, making his mouth water. He walked —floated really, like a cartoon character— straight to the kitchen. Where he saw Cub making breakfast, waffles with a side of bacon.
Before he could even open his mouth, Cub spoke.
"There's coffee on the counter." He said, while tilting his head to where Scar now saw his favourite mug, filled with coffee so light it looked like milk, just how he liked it.
Seeing that made his heart warm; however, he was still himself, so…
"Well! What happened to good morning? How did you sleep?" Scar said with a silly intonation, already walking over towards the mug —and by consequence, Cub.
"Good morning, there's coffee on the counter." Cub deadpanned, even though Scar had clearly already taken a sip of his coffee, by how he was flailing around, fanning his mouth. Cub smiled fondly.
"So today's a good day?" He continued, serving them both what he had been cooking, while gesturing to Scar to go sit down.
"Yeah! Almost no pain!" He exclaimed, taking a look at the food in front of him and immediately digging in. Burning his tongue in the process. Again.
Following a (sorta) peaceful breakfast after that, they both got ready for the day.
Cub had already left when Scar approached the door, looking at his smaller mobility aids resting against the wall, his wheelchair back in their bedroom. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to take his offset cane, the one with stickers Lizzie and Jimmy had put on it a while ago. He nodded to himself and left towards the bus stop.
Sitting down in the cold metal bench, Scar couldn't help but notice just how pretty the sun made things. The light shining through the trees above transforming the ground into a kaleidoscope of sorts. The sunlight was also reflecting off the windows of the buildings behind him, bathing his back with a warm light and warming up the bench.
He thought about how if Cub were with him, he would definitely have said a nerdy sun fact he would have forgotten about in around five minutes.
As he looked up, he saw the bus coming. As it stopped in front of him, he could see it was mostly empty, with plenty of seats available.
Sitting down on the plastic chair, he looked out the window and saw a faint rainbow in the middle distance. He smiled.
Yeah, today was definitely going to be a good day.
Yeah, no, not a chance.
Scar was drenched as he stepped into his workplace.
As soon as he got off the bus, the sky decided to start pouring down as much rain as possible. And because that morning had been so sunny, Scar hadn't bothered taking an umbrella with him. Bad idea.
And so, we came to the current situation. Scar was dripping water from head to toe, making a small puddle of water where he was standing. Resigned, he started the trek to the first-floor bathroom.
"Ok, no, listen, hear me out on this one," said Grian, in his usual mischievous voice, grinning from ear to ear.
"Mate, no way. I don't think even you could salvage tha- Scar!" Mumbo startled when he saw his coworker's state.
As soon as Mumbo shouted his name, Grian turned to look at him, and ended up looking at him slack-jawed.
"Holy crap, dude, what happened?" Grian snapped out of the trance first, going to take some paper towels from the dispenser to help Scar dry what he could.
"Nobody's saying hello this morning, are they?" Scar said with a shaking smile. The weather had left him cold, really cold, and the wet clothes also didn't do him any favours.
Noticing his shaking, Mumbo ran out of the bathroom. When he came back, it was with his coat in hand, putting it on top of Scar's shivering form.
"Guess I should have taken an umbrella with me, huh?" Scar joked.
Now with Scar somewhat dry, the trio went up to their cubicles, cajoling and bantering the whole way there. Sitting down, Scar noticed a little pain coming from his knee; he frowned but left it alone. He could handle just a little pain, it's fine!
This was starting to get annoying.
Scar stood in front of the office elevator, one hand resting on his cane and the other supporting a veritable mountain of papers, certificates and other varied paper-worky stuff. Looking at the "UNDER MAINTENANCE" sign taped on the doors.
Sighing, he considered his options.
He could 1. wait for the maintenance team to fix whatever was wrong; they were usually fast enough. However, he didn't exactly have the luxury of time at the moment; he needed to get these papers to his boss's desk ASAP. So that option was a bust.
2. He could simply call one of his friends and have them take the papers to their boss. However, G was currently on his lunch break, and Scar was like… 99% sure he went to a restaurant nearby to grab lunch with Mumbo. And as much as Scar liked being jokingly annoying sometimes, he felt bad interrupting their…outing? Date? Whatever, you get the point.
So that left him with number 3. Scar looked hesitantly towards the stairs. Steeling himself, he slowly started his ascent. It was only a floor! He would be fine!
And the universe apparently likes to prove him wrong. Even though he only had to go up one floor, Scar was tired. And in a lot more pain than earlier this morning. Handing the papers to his boss, he went back to his desk and practically collapsed onto his (not particularly comfortable) chair. The only thing on his mind right now was how much he was missing his wheelchair… and Cub. But mainly his chair.
Finally getting out of work, Scar walked out of the office, bidding goodbye to G and Mumbo and starting the short walk to the bus stop.
Thankfully, it wasn't raining anymore, but he still didn't enjoy the aftermath. Scar thought as he stepped into a puddle, looking down at his now dirty shoes and sighing. He couldn't wait to get back home to Cub and watch a movie and cuddle.
Snapping out of his thoughts when the bus stopped right in front, he stepped in, and thankfully, even though it was kinda full, there was one blue priority seat available. He stumbled as the bus started rolling, but he managed to get to it before hitting anybody.
Around ten minutes later, in comes an old woman. Dressed in a fancy red coat and a handbag in hand with a hysterical chihuahua inside it. Scar turned back towards the window and turned up the volume of the music he was listening to. Thank goodness his headphones had a noise-cancelling feature.
He suddenly saw that vibrant shade of red fill his periphery, along with a hand waving in front of his face. He hurriedly removed one side of his headphones and looked towards the lady, dread seeping into his weary bones as soon as he saw her facial expression. That look of entitlement and smugness blended together to create the most obnoxious expression known to man. Scar knew it well; he just didn't think he would have to see it today.
"Excuse me, young man," she said with a shrill voice, almost spitting in his face. "This is priority seating. I need this seat more than you do"
Scar sighed internally and prepared himself to be screamed at for about 30 minutes.
And to think the day had started so well.
Finally stumbling into their apartment, he made his way over to the couch, kicking his shoes off in the process. The first thing he did after sitting down was take the pill containers from the coffee table and immediately down his pain meds and hope they would bring the pain down soon.
Cub came into the living room from the kitchen, a slight crease in his eyebrows told Scar he was worried. It was, after all, unusual for Scar to come in quietly. He usually came back rambling about whatever caught his attention on the commute back, or something funny Mumbo had said, or the prank Grian had played on everyone in the office that day, or… well, you get the point.
Cub walked over and sat down right next to Scar, who immediately burrowed himself in his arms, smelling the citrusy smell of Cub's perfume mixing with the slight floral scent of the freshly washed sweater he was wearing, which he was pretty sure was his. And melting into it.
"Bad day?" Cub asked softly as Jellie came in, sauntering her way over from the bedroom and jumping to be on top of their laps.
Scar stopped trying to fuse with Cub only to pet Jellie, who started purring loud enough to bother the neighbours.
"Yeah…" He answered softly, not wanting to break the calm atmosphere that had settled over the two of them. "Today was just…" He paused, his tired brain trying to find the words.
"Bad thing after bad thing after bad thing. And it wouldn't have been so bad if every single thing hadn't also worsened my pain. I mean, it started raining so bad when I got off the bus and I didn't take an umbrella 'cause I thought it was gonna be sunny today and the cold and wetness made my joints hurt a little bit but then I had to go up stairs cause the elevator was under maintenance and then on the way back there was this really rude lady that screamed at me for a long while until a nice girl offered her her seat, but even then she would stop making comments and…yeah" He finished off, losing steam after his rant.
Cub looked at him for a few moments before snaking out from where he had ended under Scar during his rant.
Scar just looked at him, confused and a little out of breath. Startling when Cub dipped in and scooped him up in a bridal carry. His hands immediately flew to lock behind Cub's neck, relaxing a bit when he got put down in their bed. As he went to speak, Cub bent down, kissed his forehead, and walked out of the bedroom. Leaving Scar speechless and a bit flustered.
After calming down a bit, Scar realised where this was going, got his pyjamas from under the pillow and changed into them.
When he came back, Cub brought with him a cold compress, a bottle of water and a small container of Vick VapoRub.
Wordlessly, he put everything on the night table, crossed the room to pull down the blinds. And as Scar reached for the water bottle, Cub left the room, again. Only to come back with even more stuff, this time bringing in a small heating pad and Scar's headphones, which he had discarded with his bag at the doorway.
"Ok, not that I don't appreciate this Cubby, but why the headphones?" Scar questioned, already lying down.
Jellie had come in, and as if sensing the nature of the moment, just lay down beside Scar. Who instantly started petting her.
"When you have a really bad day, you're more likely to get migraines, Scar," as soon as those words left Cub's mouth. Scar started to feel a sharp pressure building just behind his eyes.
"How do you do that? Seriously, you're magic," Scar put the headphones on as Cub put the cold compress on top of his forehead. That, combined with the low light in the room, made his head already feel a little better.
Cub then snaked his hand under his lower back to lift him up just enough to put the heating pad under him. After that, Cub finally sat down just beside his legs and opened the Vicks VapoRub. The minty smell assaulted both their nostrils and made both their eyes water a little. Laughing softly at both their reactions, Cub proceeded to use it to massage his joints, from his ankle, passing by his knees and ending up on his hips. The slight warmth from the Vicks VapoRub and the heating pad had Scar feeling cosy and floaty, although that might've just been the headache he had.
But even after the day he just had, he felt nice, good even.
He opened his eyes to look at Cub, his partner in crime, and he couldn't help the warmth that filled his chest.
"Love you," he said, already falling asleep.
"Love you too," He managed to hear before letting sleep claim him.
Yeah, today was a good day.