Work Text:
Varian groaned unhappily as a bug landed on his equipment for the umpteeth time (he’d stopped counting after the 8th one), swatting it away carefully while making sure not to distribute the violative liquid inside the beaker.
Sleeping out in the middle of nowhere was surprisingly not the worst thing in the world and he had gotten used to the hard ground and random noises in the middle of the night fairly quickly. But what was the worst was working outside.
The amount of bugs that seemed to appear every time he started working was astonishing. He wondered if the chemicals he worked with was the cause. Maybe he should run an experiment-
“Goggles. You’re thinking too loud, it’s disturbing my workflow.”
The alchemist found himself groaning for an entirely different reason now, sending a glare at the other. “Shut up.”
Scratch that, if Varian had to pick the worst part of his travels so far; it would be the man next to him, Hugo.
The blond was snarky, was able to annoy Varian more than anyone ever had, and - worst of all - Varian had to admit the other was just as smart as him. And happened to be smart about the exact same things.
This led him to another issue with his workstation.
”Pass me the knife, Hairstripe.”
He had to share it with Hugo. Varian huffed but passed over the requested item with little complaint.
The sun was slowly setting over the horizon (meaning normally Yong and Nuru would still be awake, but they did a trial that morning then had imminently started traveling towards the next. Both of the younger ones were exhausted.) With settling camp early, it gave himself and Hugo the free time to replenish on chemical mixtures that has started to get low.
Varian glanced over to his alchemical journal for his next ingredient. “I’ll need the knife in a minute.”
”Hold your horses,” Hugo grumbled, more focused on the process of cutting than he was on Varian.
“I said ‘in a minute’ not ‘right now’.”
Hugo scoffed in response which only ticked Varian off more. The thief took his time (100% going slower than he needed to) before carelessly passing it back to Varian.
He let out an embarrassing squeak as he fumbled for it, sending Hugo a deadly glare. “Careful! You don’t handle things like that in a lab setting!”
Hugo rolled his eyes. “Pipe down. It’s not like I threw it at you. Though-” The blond leaned in as he continued to speak, reaching up to flick the lens of Varian’s goggles, “You’d know all about lab safety, huh Goggles?”
Varian felt his face flush in anger as he pulled back and reached up to fix his eyewear. He took a breath, hearing a voice that sounded like Nuru’s telling him to “be the bigger person”.
“Whatever…” Varian picked up the ingredients he needed as he focused on cutting.
But Hugo was distracting. It was one of the reasons Varian hated sharing the ‘lab’ with him.
The other had a habit of humming to himself as he worked a habit Varian found (endearing at first) annoying. And he grabbed tools without asking, and he’d try to get peaks at Varian’s formulas, and-
“Fuck!”
He’d gone a little too far when cutting and accidently sliced his arm. His eyes caught on the blood and Varina could only mumble Hugo’s name before he tipped backwards.
- - - - -
The loud thud that followed the quiet call of his name was definitely the thing that caused Hugo to whip around (barely remembering to carefully set down the highly volatile chemical compound he’d been holding) and kneel next to Varian.
“Goggles?!”
The thief hadn’t reacted fast enough to catch him, but pulling a hand away from the back of the younger’s head revealed no blood. He’d likely passed out before he’d hit the ground.
Hugo spares a glance down to at the slightly concerning about of blood on Varian’s arm, but finds his eyes drifting to a bag sitting not too far away.
Varian’s bag.
Varian’s bag that Hugo knew held the totems. Varian’s bag that had the almost fully translated journal tucked inside.
He slowly stood, approaching the bag.
He knew the others were asleep. Everyone was incapacitated and it would be so easy for the thief to-
Hugo’s hand hovered mere inches away from grabbing the bag, having been halted by the distressed chitters of Ruddiger who was currently circling his owner.
He stands there for a moment - thoughts of the mission, of Donella, and of his ragtag group racing though his mind - before he groans.
“Fine!”
- - - - -
Varian groans at the sharp stinging sensation emanating from his arm. His blue eyes slowly fluttered open, landing on Hugo’s face above him.
He could tell he was being dragged but couldn’t remember-
“Hey, hey! You with me, Goggles?” The blond asked, the grimace that had been on his features relaxing as he ‘gently’ tapped Varian’s forehead.
”Ow…”
”There you are.”
Hugo lifted him up onto a log, Varian’s eyes instinctively going to his arm. A wave of vertigo overcame him as he caught sight of the red substance but quickly hauled his eyes away.
“You’re bleeding.”
”Yeah, no shit Blondie.”
Hugo glared up at him from where he’d move to kneel, not that Varian could tell from where he was looking. “I was just about to offer to patch you up, Hairstripe.”
The click of the med kit opening almost caused Varian to look down.
There was no way in the seven kingdoms he was going to let Hugo help him. The other man would hold it over him forever!
”I can do it, I just need to-“
As he tried to stand, Hugo's hand came up to press against his chest. “No. Sit down and hold still.”
The stern words and following forceful shove sent Varian right back down onto the log.
He felt his face getting hot despite the blood loss.
Hugo was focused on bandaging the younger, but also knew he’d need to check up on him. He wanted to help build trust after all.
Afterall, it was definitely the only reason he’d chosen to help instead of running off with the satchel. “What happened?”
”I just…” Varian cleared his throat to repress the nervous shake and his blush, “wasn’t paying attention to cutting and-“
”I don’t mean that, Shortstack,” The blond cut off, looking up at Varian’s face again through his hair, “I meant the whole passing out thing.”
Varian glances down for a second, contemplating.
Wow, the blood loss must be getting severe if he’s even debating telling Hugo about his condition. How would he even begin to explain this in a way that didn’t make it sound pathetic?
”Um… I have a fear of blood…” Varian finds himself admitting even while the more rational (and humiliated) part of his brain begged him to keep his mouth shut.
”And that causes you to… what? Pass out?” Hugo questions, kicking himself for actually being a bit interested.
”Yeah… it’s called hemophobia. I uh… get dizzy then faint. Though as long as I don’t see the color I can like, imagine it isn’t blood. Then I’m fine.”
The blond’s eyes shut to the teal goggles resting apon Varian’s head. “So that’s why you have those… cause-“
”Teal cancels out red,” they say in sync, eyes meeting. Varian’s eyes widen as Hugo’s dart away, but the younger doesn’t miss how his ears turn pink.
Cute…
Wait, what?!
Varian did NOT find Hugo cute.
Sure, he has fluffy hair that looked like it would feel amazing to run his fingers through. And sure, Hugo always knew exactly what Varian was thinking and could fill the gaps in his knowledge perfectly but-!
Varian’s pretty sure he’s dying from blood loss.
“Th-there. All done,” Hugo said as he quickly stood and cleared his throat. “Uh… I’ll clean up. You just… go rest.” The blond’s arm came up to cover his face as he whipped around and stormed off.
Yeah, he must be dying.
Though the way his heart rate picked up argued a different story. One Varian didn’t even want to consider.