Bannerfall Flowersmith - Hugs //Bannerfall 2/24 vague spoilers\\
hi so today was a wild stream from nominal gravy. im going to get that man for the emotions he put me through today. anyway he deserves comfort, so i wrote this based on this prompt post i found the other day. and then made it flowersmiths. im kissing the bricks nom missed before he threw them at us.
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Nom was tired. Physically, emotionally, mentally. What was the difference anymore? His body ached from sleeping in the woods for four days, from the walk back to blue kingdom having eaten nothing but fish, and from all the time spent alone with his thoughts. At a certain point, after he’d trekked back down the mountain with dirt staining his hands and the weight of the weapon dragging behind him, he started feeling emotionally numb.
Following Scott as the mage showed him around the Blue Kingdom was just muscle memory. Nom took note of all the changes that had been made while he had been gone. His entire world had shattered to pieces around him, but the kingdom was still moving forward. Adrenaline was the only thing that was keeping him moving, he was pretty sure.
It wasn’t until they stopped on the bridge in front of the castle that Nom felt it all rapidly dissipate, as if all his energy slipped through his fingers in a matter of seconds. The sun was beginning to set, and he could vaguely hear Scott still talking beside him, filling the muffled silence around them.
Nom wasn’t aware he was moving again until he was sitting fully on the edge of the bridge, letting his feet dangle over the edge as he stared down at the river below. He didn’t know Scott had stopped talking until the stretching silence made his ears ring, a buzzing that went from being background noise to all encompassing. “Hey..” Scott’s voice cut through the silence, clearer than it had been for the length of time Nom had been running on auto pilot. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” He found himself answering quickly. Maybe too quickly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Silence filled the air again, and it made Nom aware of how restlessness began to settle under his skin. The feeling of wanting to run made him want to jump down into the water below.
“Can I sit with you?” Scott asked, and the question made Nom blink in surprised confusion, the need to get out dissipating in seconds. He looked up to see the mage standing next to him, close enough to almost be touching. An expression he couldn’t quite place was on Scott’s face, though with the way his stomach sank at the sight he was sure it was something like worry.
“Why?”
“I just.. I was thinking maybe I could use a hug.” Scott spoke gently, in that soft tone that added to the mage’s genuine kindheartedness that chipped away at Nom’s walls he’d built around his heart the day that Katie left him.
He let silence fill the air again, considering. It made sense, Scott needing a hug, after everything the mage had been through in the last week. Nom didn’t mind being a source of comfort for him. He inhaled sharply, shifting over so that Scott had room on the bridge next to him. “Yeah, sure, I guess.” Nom patted the spot next to him.
“Thanks,” Scott moved to sit down, fitting into the space Nom made for him like he was always meant to be there. Vaguely, Nom was aware he should put an arm around the mage, he had asked for a hug after all. But even as he thought about doing so, his limbs wouldn’t cooperate, staying in place with his hands in his lap as he stared, unfocused, down at the river under their dangling feet.
In the silence between them, Scott gently put an arm around Nom’s shoulders, pulling him closer. And oh, the mage was warm against him, his body heat seeping through the coolness of Nom’s armor that covered him. Blue fabric poked into the corner of his vision, and when he turned his head slightly, he noticed Scott had draped his cloak around them both.
This time, when something interrupted the silence, it was followed by something wet slipping down Nom’s cheek. His vision blurred, and when he blinked that wet something rolled down his cheeks again. When he felt Scott’s other hand gingerly wrap around his chest, guiding his head to rest on the mage’s shoulder, Nom realized the sound that spilled into the air was a broken, choked sob that had broken free from his throat.
The weight of the last few days, from his fleeing from the top of the mountain into the woods, to throwing that cursed morningstar into the sea, to trekking back into the kingdom, finally caught up with Nom. And with a moment to rest, without someone pushing into his memories, without yelling and screaming and reminders of what he had lost, Nom let the dam of his emotions break.
Arms instinctively wrapped around the mage’s waist as Nom buried his face against Scott’s shoulder in order to muffle the quiet sobbing that began to wrack through his body. Scott, without saying anything, just let him for as long as the knight needed to.
