This is Love and Wealth by Earl Scruggs which I stumbled upon today, and not to headcanon post, but I really love the idea of these two taking comfort in country music, and that’s why they spend so much time in Lonesome Flats.
This is also, if you couldn’t tell, a Dream AU post, because it kind of haunts my every thought. AU by @hey-hey-j, I like to believe they’re coping.
Two Hearts Meet
I wrote a Flickory fic about Floyd and hickory having a little conversation. It's not long, but I really enjoyed writing it. I hope yall like reading it! I also drew fanart of the two of them in the kitchen with their teas.
Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84508966
Full Story Below as well
The bunker was bigger than hickory was expecting, when they had been corralled down into the hole he had been convinced that Dickory would flip his lid. Of course they had come this far and John was next to them leading the way. A ghost come back to the life.
He couldn't believe he was alive.
John had passed out soon after they got back to the bunker, the excitement of the day must have drained him. Dickory practically growled at branch when he tried to separate the two so john could go rest. Thankfully the grump didn't put up too much of a fight especially when john asked for him to stay.
He brushed his hand over the dirt wall, grimacing at the gritty texture seeping into his paws. John's room was covered in the soft glow of lichen, it helped the sickly pale color of his skin look somewhat normal. He looked so different then he used to, but the same glimmer shown in his eyes that hickory remembered.
It almost seemed normal, John curled up next to dickory his snores softer then before but the rumble was the same as ever. His swiped at his eyes pushing down the tightness in his chest.
"It's not as bad as it looks"
He glanced over one of John's.. brothers was next to him, Floyd maybe. His pink hair fell softly over one eye with black highlights racing through the strands a cruel mirror to the white ones that seem to run through John's hair. He gave hickory a gentle smile looking at the two trollls in the bed.
Hickory followed his gaze looking at John again, seeing the bags under his eyes, the scars littering his body, the way his chest stuttered with each inhale like they hurt, what happened to him that it just hurt to breathe. Hickory grimaced eyes making contact with dickory for a second seeing the matching bags under his own brothers eyes. The defensive position he'd put himself in able to jump over john to protect him with his life, the same one hickory remembered he brother used to do when they were out on bountys.
The anxiety settled in his chest, a writhing mass of worry and fear.
"Okay…its- its pretty bad" Floyd admitted the same anxious gaze in his eyes.
"What-..what happened?"
He didn't want to know but he had to know. He needed to know how john had seemed to lose all the pop troll energy hickory had always known him to have.
"Two teenagers used him as a talent supplement, sucked all the pop essence right out of him."
"Wha- what?"
"It's… a long story" he was given that same small smile, it seemed Floyd had a specialty in making them.
He glanced back in the bedroom, dickory shuffled closer to john brushing the fading hair from his face. His brothers hair was loose down his back,a rare show of vulnerability from his overly defensive brother. Harmony help the troll that decides to bother his brother while he's like this.
"We got time, no ones gonna get withn' fifty feet of john right now."
Floyd gave the duo a wary look glancing over to hickory a nervous grin on his face.
"We have refreshments in the kitchen, I think, but you sure your bother won't do anything that might hurt john."
"Oh no' he'll wait till john has energy back in him before he kills him."
"Oh.." Floyd gave a more nervous glance at dickory.
"Not actually of course, he'll just yell at your brother for a few…hours maybe a day or two."
"Yeah well he can get in line, i think we all have some choice words for john." Floyd joked making Hickory chuckled. Floyd gave him another one of those perfect smiles he seemed to have mastered. It made hickory want to smile back in a way that he'd never felt before.
"Come on the kitchen isn't too far"
"Thank you"
"You aren't the only one who's worried about him."
"Yeah' but I'm the only one who can pull dickory of one of ya' brothers if he decides their a threat."
This time Floyd laughed, not the quiet sweet thing that his smile was but.. oh that's why hickory liked it so much, it reminded him of John's laugh. It wasn't as deep but he could still hear it. The loud echoing joy that always made him feel like the house was a home, that even the creaking cold drafts were hugging him.
Floyds was sweeter, but his mirth could be felt through every breath- his grin was contagious as a cold. Hickory found himself giggling along with the pop troll chasing the joy that seemed to spill from the others lips.
"Oh, Floyd by the way. I don't think we were properly introduced."
Hickory took the pop trolls hand shaking it like the respectful gentleman delta had shammed him to be.
"Hickory, I remembered your name vaguely from John's stories. There was one he always told about you sneaking out and getting your ear pierced."
Floyd grin turned into a grimace like the memory put a bad taste in his mouth, "oh that's…awesome."
"I remember wanting to get one just like you did when he told me the story, even tried to do it myself once with a hot iron. Didn't turn out well though for me."
Floyd nodded retreating into the kitchen, it wasn't anything special just a dingy room with a small kitchenette and a plain wooden table in the corner. Hickory wondered over to the table running his hand over the wood of one of the chairs, only one of them matched the wood of the table the rest of the chairs seemed to have been scavenged from all over the house. One of them even looked like it was supposed to be a rocker for the living room.
"You like anything specific," Floyd called fiddled with the gas stove before letting out a triumphant grin as he managed to light it.
"Y'all got any sweet tea here?"
"Um yeah? I'd assume so pop trolls love sweet things."
"You say that like ya' ain't one?"
Floyd turned to him resting his back against the counter, a quirked brow that made hickory feel like he was missing something.
"Well..I am technically but I don't really see myself as a pop troll anymore."
"oh."
"Yeah, I've been with the rock trolls now longer than I ever was with the pop trolls. So…I kinda consider myself a rock troll. I don't mind pop music, but it just doesn't really… It just doesn't feel like me." There was a new sharpness in Floyd's tone, and hickory could see that the soft gaze he had been given all morning was only a act of kindness. Floyd eyes could have easily skinned hickory from head to toe if he wanted them to. "I hope that isn't an issue for you hickory."
"N-no not at all" He was pretty sure Floyd could smell fear. "Actually i uh- I get what you mean. I mostly stay with the country folk's now a day, they just… they feel right in a way yodeling never did. So I get ya', no worries from me."
Floyd let up on his murderous gaze, his eyes softening back to their merciful state. Hickory tried not to let out a relieved sigh. The rock troll pushed off the counter taking the small steps necessary to walk over to the table and take a seat.
"You mentioned early that john used to tell you stories about us?"
"Yeah, never anything bad! At least not ta' me"
"What… did he tell you?" Floyd asked the guarded expression was back in his eyes, but it more nervous like he wasn't scared of hickory hurtin him but more like the actual stories would.
"Well um," he trudged his memories up in his mind trying to remember the details that got forgotten in the fog of emotion. "I remember from the stories that you always sounded like you watched out for your brothers, and I remember that john told me once that you do really neat eyeliner. I didn't know what eyeliner was but the way john talked about it was like it was a mighty fine thing ta' learn."
Floyd let out a wet chuckle quickly wiping at one of his eyes. "Ah, I um I never knew he liked it. He always seemed so annoyed when I did his makeup."
"Whenever he told me about it, I always got the feel'n he felt guilty. He- ya know john, he would smile but it never reflected in his eyes ya know?"
"Yeah… I know the face your talking about. He was so stubborn about admitting that he wasn't happy. Drove me crazy."
"Don't I know it, Ya know one night Dickory seemed to break through to him."
"Really? I didn't think it was possible."
"Honestly the only one who matches dickory in stubbornness is john. Unstoppable force meetin' a immovable object those two."
Floyd chuckled at that letting the room fall into the comfortable warmth of his mirth. Hickory relaxed into the silence, grinning
"So, um how did you guys meet up with john?"
"uh- I'm not really sure if I'mma be honest, apparently dickory and him met when I was pretty young. It's kinda a blurry memory for me." He tries to think back to the day they met but his mind failed him,memories of john reading him bed time stories and the loud laughter that used to get his brother grinning popping up instead.
"Oh! Did john stay with you guys long?" Something shifted in floyds gaze as he asked and the warmth of the room seemed to get distracted by something leaving them back in the coolness of earth.
"Um a couple years, we… we lost him in an avalanche. Dickory thought he was gone but, I don't know he always seemed larger than life ya' know. Didn't feel right, think'n of him as dead."
"Yeah… he's he always seemed that way." Floyd agreed his eyes distant.
The kettle screamed at them from across the room, interrupting whatever Floyd was thinking. Hickory watched as he swiftly moved across the room, gracefully even. He really didn't seem like a rock troll but hickory had learned better than to judge a book by its cover. There was still something bothering him about the whole situation.
"Ya know, I don't mean ta pry but why weren't you with john when we met him?"
Floyd seemed to freeze at the kettle, before stiffly pouring the two cups of hot water into the cups and placing gigantic sugar cubes in them. Hickory was so engrossed in watching him he almost missed the answer that Floyd seemed to whisper.
"He wasn't John when I last saw him."
Hickory stared trying to figure out what that meant. John had always been John; loud, sad, and energetic John. Floyd turned back to hickory before he could get a question together.
"After our parents died…John started to do anything to not think about them. We were in a pretty popular band and so he turned all of his attention to that. He stopped being my big brother John after a certain point, and it just hurt to be around him. It hurt to be around all of my brothers after a while."
The room hadn't changed in any real way, but it still felt different. Like the walls were hushed trying to make way for the truth that Floyd confessed.
"So… you just left him?"
Floyd seemed to crumble at little at the question, he turned back to the tea trying to shield his face.
"There was nothing else I could have done, He wouldn't listen to me"
Hickory stood up taking care to push the chair back under the table before walking over to the rock troll. If Floyd noticed his approach, which he had to have noticed it by the little flick his ear gave, he didn't say anything. Reaching over hickory picked the tea up resting back against the counter facing the door.
"I ain't judging you Floyd, ya'll's story seems…"
"Complicated?"
"That seems like quiet an understatement."
This seemed to encourage a laugh out of Floyd that made hickory's poor country heart warm. The rock troll turned around holding the cup of tea in his hands. Together the two of them leaned against the counter letting the quiet seep into the cracks a slowly ease the pain.
"Thank you." Floyd whispered, the words barley strong enough to move the steam from his cup.
"Ya don't need to thank me. I should be thank'n you."
Floyd gave him a impish grin that hickory damn near melted in. Seriously what was with the pop trolls and their ability to change the world with smiles.
"How about we call it even, both of use helped the other. Deal?"
"Deal." Hickory couldn't stop the stupid smile that came to his checks as he reached out and shook floyd's hand.
The bunker was musty, and the smell of dirt never quiet settled in his lungs. In the silence though, hickory could swear he felt the warmth of a home he'd lost a long time ago. It was nothing like the snow filled mountains with chaotic battles of music and laughter so great it shook the rooftops. No, this home was quiet and the laughter was contained in bursts of joy. The strength of the love though, it was just as powerful. So in the kitchen next to another troll who found peace in a different crowd, hickory decided he'd found a new home.
