“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Gus said, sorting through the rubble of what still remained of his room. A lot of buildings had been completely demolished during the Collector’s reign, so he was just glad that his house was salvageable, even though it would be a lot of work to repair.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Matt responded, raising an eyebrow. He cast a spell circle to reconstruct one of Augustus’ bookshelves.
Gus took a stack of singed books and threw them into the trash bin with a sigh. “Yeah, but I’m sure there are a lot of other things you could be doing. A lot of other people who need help.”
“Yeah but those other people aren’t—“ Matt seemed to catch himself mid-sentence and freeze, tensing his shoulders.
“Aren’t what?” Gus looked at him quizzically.
“—Aren’t friends with the human who saved our asses from Belos and the Collector.” Matt recovered quickly.
“Oh.” Gus felt a pang of disappointment strike him and he suddenly felt very small. After a few beats of silence, he finally spoke up again. “If that’s the only reason you’re here, then you should leave. I don’t need your help.”
Matt’s face fell. “No, that’s not what I meant. I just…hey, what is that?” he asked, pointing at something near Augustus’ feet. Gus looked down and grabbed it in one motion.
“It’s nothing!” he said, swiftly hiding it behind his back.
Matt crossed his arms. “I’m not stupid, Augustus.”
Gus sighed, removing his arm from behind his back to reveal what he had tried to hide. Matt recognized it immediately as one of the human artifacts that he had crafted when he was still trying to win over the H.A.S. He walked over and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. It was just a rock that he’d drawn a “human” skull onto.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“I know, I know, it’s weird that I kept them because we weren’t friends or anything. I mean, not that we’re friends now—
“We aren’t?”
Augustus gaped at him. “I don’t know? I thought we were, but then…” he took a seat on the half of his bed that still remained, “after we got back from the human realm, I wasn’t sure anymore.”
Matt knelt down next to him. “Why would you think that?”
“Because the first thing you did when you saw me again was call me a loser and then right after that I found out that I didn’t even know your real name?”
“C’mon, you gotta admit that was funny,” Matt said, looking up at him with a crooked smile before looking away again. “Look, I’m not really good at this stuff. It’s just that you were gone and everything changed overnight and then suddenly I had all these kids looking to me to protect them. And it’s not like I didn’t think about…” Matt’s voice began to waiver and he paused to suck in a breath. “You know, before. But I couldn’t think about it too much or I wouldn’t have been able to keep going.”
“Oh?” Gus leaned forward, hanging onto every word.
“And then when you came back, I guess it was easier to just pretend you’d never left. Because I was scared that I was gonna lose you again.” As soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, Matt seemed to realize what he said and his eyes widened. “I mean—I was scared that Luz would…be weird about it.”
“I’m not stupid, Mattholomule,” Gus said, unable to hide the sly smile on his face.
Matt rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, don’t tell anybody that I got all mushy for a minute. Don’t want people to think I’ve gone soft.” He looked down at the object in his hand again. “That’s not what I meant, by the way. I didn’t think it was weird that you kept them because we weren’t friends yet. I thought it was weird that you kept them because they’re trash. They’re not worth holding onto.”
“I don’t think they’re trash,” Gus said, reaching over and grabbing the rock, “they’re special to me because they remind me of how we met.”
Matt smiled up at him, showing his chipped tooth. “Wow, I didn’t know you were so obsessed with me.”
Augustus frowned and kicked him playfully with his foot. They both sat in comfortable silence for a minute.
I’ve been scrolling down your blog for a while and I have to ask if you like Gustholomule? Not many know about it but you’re one of my favorite artists so I’m just curious. Hell do you even know what The Owl House is?
Hm, I don't think I've ever heard of "Gustholomule" before, let me search it up
Woah
Oh no
What the fuck. Holy shit, what the hell. Oh my god