parallels [desert duo]

[waveridden]

Title: parallels

Fandom: Life Series SMP

Prompt: dreams and nightmares

Rating: G

Summary: Grian can't get what he wants, at least in this world. [Desert Duo, 280 words]

There is a world—

Many worlds, if Grian wants to be granular about it. There are many worlds and servers, countless places outside of the desert, that he knows Scar from.

He can’t put a label to any of them, but he dreams of them. It’s the only way he can remember, and he’s not even sure that they’re real memories. They feel like pure dreams, haze and hope and something intangible. The only things that he knows these days are the sand and the sun and the heat on his face, even when he manages to leave the desert for minutes at a time.

He dreams of trees, and mountains. He dreams of Scar in hats and coattails gesturing with the same panache. He dreams of laughter that was never pinched around the edges, that doesn’t echo through empty sky.

“Do you,” he asks Scar once, when they’re both awake between dreams. “Do you—”

“I do,” Scar says, and there are millions of questions he could be answering, but Grian’s certain that it’s the same one.

He fumbles for Scar’s hand in the dark, and Scar holds on and squeezes for dear life.

A life outside of survival. Grian will experience it, or at least some version of Grian will. He is not that version. He’s lucky to get the dregs of that version.

Scar’s breaths drift into something even. His grip doesn’t loosen on Grian’s hand.