#oops it's time to talk about the worst thing scott has ever done (biased)

[jayflying]

The Flower Husbands / Ethubs parallel (No Stranger Curses AU):

Alt Title: "Why Scott and Etho do not get along."

Scott falls in love in the last days of summer. To him, love looks like gold. Sunlight caught in golden hair. Warm wind blowing through golden leaves. Two gemstones studded in a golden ring. They make their home in a place where all the flowers of autumn bloom, the poppies and roses and marigolds. They ignore the warmongering and drama. While they can, they choose to be happy.

He is not so naïve as to believe this will be forever. Not so foolish as to believe his strength will be enough. This "game" means nothing but death for all of them. But he puts that all aside, because he wants. He wants to hope. He wants to love. Even if he knows it will break his heart.

The days grow shorter, and darker, and colder, and he is so, so scared. He should trust Jimmy to protect himself, but he doesn't. He tries to stop fearing the worst every time they are apart, but he can't. He's not proud of the alliance he strikes up to protect them both, but for the two of them he would do anything and it would be worth it.

…He buries Jimmy where the dawn's first light catches on winter's final flowers. He knew this was coming, dreaded the inevitable, but his heart still hurts. He carried on because he was fighting for more than just himself, but what now?

When he falls, he hopes that at least he can be at peace. When he wakes again, that hope is shattered. Scott thinks he might be the only one who remembers the game that came before. It doesn't matter. He'll see this one through to the end, no matter what.

Etho falls in love beneath grey skies. His love is all the colors of the forest that surrounds them. Green like the trees, like the moss, like his eyes. Brown like the dirt, like their doorstep, like the color blood dries. Loving Bdubs is easy. It feels familiar. It's not hard to imagine that maybe somewhere, before everything, they loved like this.

(Scott sees far too much of himself and Jimmy in the two of them. It leaves a bitter taste on his tongue. He knows exactly how this ends.)

Etho isn't one to frame his love in light and flowers. He frames it in the careful arrangement of quiet and noise, laughter and empty threats. They make their home a castle, white walls on a snowy mountaintop. They build up every battlement with their own bare hands, pretending, if just for a moment, that they can escape the game outside for good. Live in peace forever. Stave off the looming shadow of death.

The first time Bdubs falls to his red life, Etho is terrified. He blusters, and schemes, and fights, because it is the only way he knows to hide when his voice trembles and his hands grow unsteady. Over and over again, he claws Bdubs back from the brink. He stays up late into the night, every night, restlessly planning for every possibility. Exploiting every advantage, every person, with vicious dedication.

(Scott does not entertain his threats for even a moment. He's sure to give Etho a piece of his mind whenever he tries. "Give up on him", he all but says. "You're just prolonging the inevitable." His words are met with disdain.)

The last time Bdubs falls to his red life, their castle is torn apart, and that feels like an omen. The survivors, no matter their old allegiances, band together out of necessity, and Etho can't help but notice that Scott immediately asserts himself. He doesn't like it, but he's been wearing himself thin for months now. He's too tired to piece together quite why this alliance makes him feel uneasy.

Bdubs finds them hours later in the middle of the night, crimson-eyed and not quite himself; sinister in the way all red lives are. There's no further way around it. Etho can feel the static-buzz of magic in his chest as he offers Bdubs a life, and yet Scott stops him. "He needs to earn it", is the objection. "Have him kill someone for us," Scott whispers in his ear. He hesitates. That seems… fair. Right? A life for a life. That makes sense.

It is not until far, far too late that Etho numbly realizes what Scott has done. He never gets to bury Bdubs. He never gets to see the body. He's never quite the same again, distant and short-spoken. Cleo is the only one who seems to realize that he is so desperately angry.

(Scott does not feel bad about this. He does not regret this. He tells Cleo as much when she confronts him about it. They argue about it all the way up until the fateful battle with Joel. Scott knows he's right, though. There was only one way this was ever going to end.)