Grian blinked as he got a text from another number. Maybe they didn't block me? Maybe I just... had bad WIFI or something. Maybe they want to be friends again.

Mumbo Jumbo-

Hello 👋

Grian-

Hey Mumbo :D

Grian-

Why are you texting me? 🤔

Mumbo Jumbo-

Well we haven't hung out in a while
And I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out with me and Scar for a bit

Grian stared at his phone, blinking. They want to hang out with me? I know they've been nicer lately- not sure what prompted that- but I didn't realise they might want to be my friend again.

Grian-

You sure you haven't texted the wrong number?

Mumbo Jumbo-

Pretty sure I know your number, Grian 🦜

Grian-

Okay. Where do you want to hang out?

Mumbo Jumbo-

How about the coffee shop downtown? Or there's the weird magic trick shop Scar likes to go to

Grian-

He still goes there? I thought that place got shut down

Grian-

Because Scar got so excited over a new magic trick he found that he accidentally dropped his staff and accidentally set the shop on fire. Remember?

Mumbo Jumbo-

They rebuilt it

Mumbo Jumbo-

And somehow Scar isn't banned

Mumbo Jumbo-

I'm like ninety percent sure that Viridian made them unban him 👍

Grian-

Well the coffee shop sounds good lmao

Mumbo Jumbo-

Mk. See you there in like half an hour? 👍

Grian-

Mhm

Mumbo Jumbo-

👍

He stared at his phone quietly for a moment, contemplating what had just happened, before switching it off.

——

Grian carefully opened the door to the coffee shop, glancing around.

"Grian! Over here!" He looked to the side to see Scar, who had shouted, and Mumbo sat at a table in the corner of the room, Scar wearing a dark gray hoodie with the hood pulled up (no doubt to hide the brunette's elf ears) and Mumbo still wearing the same suit he wore during hero work but without all of his hero gear.

Grian waved with a slightly wary smile, walking over and sitting down next to them. "Hey guys." He greeted them with a wave.

"Glad you could make it." Scar said with a grin, smiling. "So... how are you? We haven't talked in a while." For obvious reasons.

"I'm doing okay I guess." Grian admitted with a shrug.

"How's your arm?" Mumbo asked quietly. How do they- oh right they're friends with Thunderstruck, of course they know what happened.

"Well, it's taken a few weeks to heal but it's almost back to normal." Grian said, waving with his left arm and wincing slightly. "How's hero work?" He raised one eyebrow as they exchanged a slightly odd glance. "Hey, I fight villains as well, and if there's a problem that could hurt my friends I want to know about it."

"Nothing much. Just that we've noticed that the villains either have a plan we haven't figured out or are just trying to confuse us in preparation for some big sort of plan they have." Scar shrugged. "All they've really been doing is messing around with smaller shops instead of the sort of places they'd normally rob. It's quite confusing actually." The brunette tilted his head. "Your friend used to have some connections with villains. Does she know anything?"

"No. Why?" Grian asked, slightly defensively.

Scar squinted at him before shrugging. "Just... wondering. Is all. Not saying she still is involved with them." He squinted again. "Your eyes look a bit weird. I don't know if it's just the light or..." He glanced at Mumbo, who nodded.

"It's probably just the light." Grian said with a shrug, for some reason feeling a slight twinge of panic. "So... did you guys just invite me here to accuse my friends of being villains or do you actually want to talk?" Why am I being like this? I want to be friends with them again, not drive them away.

"Actually, we kind of wanted to apologise for the way we acted when we became heroes." Mumbo admitted quietly.

Grian frowned quietly, staring at his feet and partially zoning out as the other two continued to talk and the conversation from that night replayed in his head.

——

"Grian! Guess what?" He glanced at Scar, who was watching him excitedly. Before he could ask what, Scar blurted, "Me and Mumbo are going to be heroes!"

What?

Mumbo nodded awkwardly, not meeting his gaze. "Mhm."

"But doesn't that mean..." He paused, not wanting to ruin this for them. "You'll leave me? Like... I haven't gotten any sort of invitation, so..."

"I mean, I think 'leave' is a bit of a harsh term." Scar said with a shrug. "More like, it's not really... socially acceptable?" He glanced at Mumbo for confirmation, and the black haired man nodded. "-for heroes to hang out with vigilantes."

"I mean, we can still be friends though, right?" Grian asked, pretending that his feelings hadn't been at all hurt by that statement.

"Not really." Scar said with a shrug.

"But you literally have no reason to-" Grian was cut off by Mumbo, who sighed.

"Can you just stop being selfish for once?" What? "Me and Scar have a great opportunity and you have to make it all about you like always." Is he serious right now?

——

Grian was dragged out of that part of the memory by a shout from Scar.

"Griannnn. Are you paying attentionnnn?" He smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah. Sorry." The dirty blonde apologised.

"It's fine." Mumbo assured him hastily. "I just wanted to say that we were pretty out of line, and now we kind of know that the heroes are fine with vigilantes and nobody really cares. We were just nervous and we didn't want to mess up being heroes or do the wrong thing-"

"-and kind of ended up taking it out on you and doing the wrong thing anyway." Scar finished with a frown. "We're really sorry. You don't have to forgive us, but we do want to be your friend again."

Grian paused thoughtfully. "I don't... fully forgive you. Some of the things you said hurt me a lot. But I appreciate the effort to apologise and I do kind of miss you guys. So I'm fine with being friends again."

Yay Grian, Mumbo and Scar are friends again :)

SuReLy that means there'll be no more kinda angsty stuff right

Haha

No.

Not for at least another chapter tho (that might be a lie, depends on how I decide to write the next few chapters)

I will say

Somebody will die (possibly multiple somebodies)

But not for a few chapters

(Unless I change the plot. I change the plot a lot. I know that at least one character will die.)