Requested By: A_Rice_Dorito

Genre: fluff

Spoilers: none

Warnings: animal dissection

Extra: Two dialogue prompts given by WinterBlue_Angel22 have been used in this one shot. Thank you! The prompts are "You're rambling and it's adorable" and "Are you blushing?"
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Varian's POV:

Ever since I can remember, Y/n and I have always been the best of friends.

I remember when we were little kids– probably younger than ten– my dad had introduced me to Y/n. He and Y/n's parents are very close friends, and they hoped that their dear children would get along. At first, I didn't see the point in being friends with a girl. I figured girls were more interested in sewing and playing with dolls, which isn't exactly my cup of tea.

Oh, how wrong I was.

The first time I saw Y/n, she was dissecting a deceased squirrel.

At first, I thought the process was disgusting. I mean, who in their right mind would dig their hands through an animal with their bare hands? However, once we got to talking, she explained that she was doing this all in the name of science, specifically anatomy.

The thing Y/n likes most about anatomy is learning about how living things function. From a young age, it always fascinated her how muscles move and how all the different organs work together to keep something alive. It's incredible what a body can do!

Y/n and I quickly bonded over our love for science. While I'm a casual enjoyer of alchemy, I can appreciate Y/n’s understanding of basic biology. In the field of anatomy, she's practically a genius!

Today, we're sharing my lab space to conduct our own experiments together. I have my beakers and chemicals spread out on my half of the table to add some finishing touches to my alchemy balls, while Y/n is dissecting a baby deer that she had found dead near her house. I don't know how, but she's always had a knack for spotting the deceased creatures around Old Corona. Fortunately, it helps her progress in her studying, and she always gives each animal she experiments on a proper funeral. She does this as a way to thank each animal she experiments on for their services. She may be somewhat crazy, but she's a kind person at heart, which is one of the things I love about her.

“Hey, Varian, do you happen to have an extra pair of goggles on you today?” Y/n asks me, deeply concentrated on the part of the deer she's looking at.

I bend down and snatch a pair of goggles from underneath the table. I hand them to her willingly. “Yeah, I always have an extra pair. You don't need to ask me every time you need them.”

“I know, but sometimes you leave them in the most random places,” Y/n says, gratefully taking the goggles from me and placing them over her e/c eyes. “It can be difficult to find them sometimes.”

“I guess you're right,” I chuckle lightly. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

Y/n, who's fully gloved, carefully sticks her hand inside the baby deer’s stomach. “Nah, you're good! You know I could never be mad at you. You're just a bit absent-minded is all.”

I laugh again and go back to observing my experiment, checking for any faults. It seems to be alright in weight… size… Yeah, it looks good. I glance over my shoulder to see what Y/n’s doing, and I smile at her determination and interest in what she's doing. She really loves what she does.

One reason she works with anatomy is to discover and prevent unknown illnesses within animals. After years of practice and research, she can identify most of these illnesses after a few calculated glances. She has yet to experiment on an alive animal, but I believe she'll work her way up to that someday. She shows great promise and potential.

One smile from Y/n shows that she's aware of my staring. “Are you all done with your project, Varian?”

I love it when she says my name. The way it flows off her tongue is enchanting. “Yeah, I'm all finished. Just curious as to what you're up to.”

“Well, you can help me out, if you'd like to.” Y/n pauses for a moment to summon me over to her. Instinctively, I move over to her and stand beside her comfortably. I take notice of the deer. Its four legs are splayed out across the table, and its chest is facing upward. A Y-shape is cut into its chest, displaying its internal organs. The sight of it makes me feel a little sick to the stomach, but I convince myself to persevere through it.

Y/n has a scalpel on hand and uses it as a pointing tool as she shows me the insides of this deer. “As you can see, this is the basic anatomy of this young fawn. There are the organs, such as the heart, lungs, liver, and stomach. Over here is the ribcage and the spinal cord over in the back. This fawn has died sometime during the night, but no signs of claw marks or any other external injuries are visible. I figure this young fawn has died of a different cause, and I'm trying to figure out how.”

Y/n uses the scalpel to carefully slice open the baby deer’s stomach. The smell of rotting flesh makes me gag a little, but I refuse to let it show. Even after all these years, I never understood how Y/n is continuously able to stand the smell of dead animals without passing out.

Y/n observes the contents of the deer’s stomach, lightly pushing some things out of the way with the scalpel. Finally, she finds something. “Oh, do you see this? There's undigested food in the stomach!”

She points out some half-digested berries to me. They're small and red, and they look absolutely repulsive. Y/n lifts a pair of tweezers from the surface of the table and pulls out a sample of the berries. “Do you have a book on plants native to Old Corona, Varian?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do!” I rush over to the lab’s bookshelf and skim through each of the book covers until I find one about plant life. I rush it back over to Y/n. “Is this what you're looking for?”

The way Y/n’s eyes light up is so excessively adorable. She takes the book from me. “Yes, thank you!”

Then she looks through the book for any kind of answer she can find. Meanwhile, I struggle to keep my nerves down as I gaze at her. I can feel my heart pounding through my chest, and I pray she doesn't notice how loud it is.

Occasionally, Y/n goes back and forth from looking at the book to the berry sample she found in the deer's stomach. Her forehead creases as her brows furrow in deep concentration, making her appear like the deeply motivated sciencist that she is. It's almost breathtaking…

“I got it!” Y/n exclaims, slamming the book shut. I jolt out of my daydreaming instantly, startled by the sudden noise. “This young fawn consumed lots of toxic yew berries, causing it to die within ten minutes of consumption. The poor thing… its mother must not have been around in time to stop her baby from eating such a poisonous plant. Now that I know the cause of death, I can easily determine both the manner and mechanism of death. Then, I can conduct a thorough investigation around my house to discover where these wild yew berries might be. Maybe I can find a way to prevent these animals from eating them-”

The longer Y/n continues to talk, the more I get lost in her eyes. She's so beautiful when she rambles…

Somewhere in-between Y/n’s sentences, I softly say aloud, “You ramble and it's adorable.”

It takes Y/n a hot minute to process what I just said, and when she does she stops dead in her tracks and looks at me like a confused puppy. “You think I'm adorable?”

With that, my face becomes a steaming hot tomato filled with every ounce of awkwardness. “Huh? Ha– was that what I said? I, uh, I'm sorry! I didn't think I had said that out loud.”

I turn away from Y/n in embarrassment but she's persistent to maintain eye contact with me. Without warning, she presses the back of her hand against my forehead, which only makes me blush more.

“You seem to be radiating heat higher than the average body temperature,” she concludes. “Not to mention, your body language radiates anxiety yet endearment. Are you blushing?”

“N-No, what makes you think that?”

“I already gave a perfectly reasonable explanation for your strange behavior, Varian.” Y/n gives a soft laugh but returns to her previous state of worry. “Is there something you'd like to tell me?”

“I… um…”

Not only is Y/n smart, she's also highly observant, which can make hiding a crush from her difficult. In a way, I've made my attraction to her fairly obvious, but she sometimes struggles to get it. She'll sometimes pick up on something, such as blushing, but she fails to connect the pieces every time she does.

I don't think I can take it any longer. I gotta tell her.

“Yes, there's something I'd like to tell you– something I've wanted to tell you for a long time,” I begin slowly, already feeling the need to combust from my persistent nerves.

“Yeah, what is it?” Y/n says, giving one of her signature sweet smiles.

“I, uh…” I fiddle with my hands. “Y/n, I just wanted to tell you that I… I like you… a lot.”

“I like you too, Varian! You're my best friend.”

“N-No, Y/n, I mean like a crush kind of ‘like’.”

“Oh. Oh!” Y/n’s face goes red. “Oh…”

I nod my head shyly, trying to get an understanding of how she feels. Sometimes she can be hard to read.

“Varian, I…” A wide smile shows on Y/n’s face. “You don't know how long I've waited for you to say that.”

“Huh? Wait, really?” I say, completely baffled by her response.

Y/n nods. “Mm-hm! I've carried these feelings for you deep down inside for a long time, but I just couldn't bring myself to say it first. I was scared our friendship would turn sour if I confessed to you. Now I know how wrong I was.”

Completely overwhelmed by strong emotion, I scooped Y/n up into a big hug, holding her off the ground. “Thank you, Y/n, thank you! I'm so happy you feel the same way.”

“Varian… as much as I… love you… I can't… breathe…” Y/n says in-between struggling breaths.

“Oh, s-sorry!” I let Y/n go and let her catch her breath. “I got a little too excited.”

Y/n laughs, then returns the hug. “It's alright!”

I wrap my arms around Y/n’s torso, making sure not to completely bust up her ribcage. Together, we stand in a comfortable silence, taking in each other's presence. Y/n is soft and warm, and she's everything I dreamed she'd be. She's perfect– just perfect!

After a while, Y/n releases me, chuckling awkwardly. “Heh, sorry. I got deer guts all over you.”

“Oh–” She was right. I examined my clothes and found various splatters of deer blood all over the raggedy fabric. I wince but regain myself.

“Here, I'll help you clean it off,” Y/n offers, removing her gloves and grabbing a piece of cloth.

“That would be greatly appreciated, thank you,” I say with gratitude.

For the next half hour, Y/n and I help each other clean up after our science experiments and have a good time doing so.

Word Count: 1958

I hope you liked the one shot! I wrote all of this at work today. For some reason, this has been unusually slow for a lunch shift

I took a Forensics class this year, so that's why I used such scientific language regarding the autopsy of the baby deer. You tend to pick up a lot of things from Forensics because of how interesting it is

Since it's summer vacation now, I'll have lots of time to write and get the rest of those requests in! I hope you're looking forward to them. I'll see you in the next chapter! ❤️