Work Text:
Finishing up her most recent project around her base, Gem stood back, looking up at the newly finished statue. It was beautiful, a perfect addition to the atmosphere of her base, but she couldn’t put her full focus on it.
Not with the large swirling clouds in the backdrop or the clear humidity in the air. Cool wind brushed by her, ruffling the fur of her ears and spreading goosebumps across every inch of her skin. Her ears swiveled, attempting to find something, any sign of life within the forest, but everything was gone, replaced by the singing of the trees in the wind.
Rain.
Gem huffed to herself, before listening again. Her time spent in the forest brought a lot of things, but the most important was learning how to understand what the forest could tell you. Many times a day she used the knowledge that the trees or the animals held, she let them guide her and teach her about the woods that she lived in.
Today, she was listening to determine how bad the rain was going to be.
For example, finches tended to stay out during the lighter of rains. They often used the fallen branches and seeds as well as the flooded out worms and bugs for food, and could be found living their lives as normal right up until a storm hit.
Today, everything was silent.
This was her sign to get inside asap. A silent forest meant everyone decided to hide away, a bad storm. Bad storms brought thunder and lightning, and those two brought a bad time.
Gem had always hated storms. Over the years, she had gotten better at accepting the smaller ones, letting them pass without really interrupting her schedule. It was the bigger ones she was still terrified of.
Thunder, loud and booming, startling her and hurting her delicate ears. Lightning, bright flashes and fire, destroying hours worth of work in a split second. Both, mixed with intense rain, capable of taking down buildings and flooding anything and everything. She hated storms.
It didn’t help that as of right now, she had no roof, or walls for that matter. A skeleton of a base, an outline of the gorgeous plans she held, was not, in fact, going to help right now.
She should’ve dug down, used the last few minutes of light in the quickly darkening sky to create a small underground base, something just big enough to survive the night, but she couldn’t move.
Not with the sprinkles of rain already falling and the sky already dark.
A few blocks later, she was curled up into a corner of her not-base, a 3 by 3 block roof overtop of her and a noticeable lack of walls on two sides.
It was fine.
Everything is fine.
Doc and Ren are working on something just over the horizon, they’ll sleep and it’ll all be over soon.
Panic coursed through her when the first strike of lightning hit, shaking the ground and causing loud booms echo through her small clearing in the woods. The Roof above her did nothing to protect her against the rain, heavy droplets of rain pelted against her, leaving her sweater soaked and fur wet.
It’s fine. Everything is gonna be okay.
Except, when the thunder should have stopped, it just… didn’t? The sky stayed as bright as before and the continuous booms just kept going.
This is where I die.
She stayed curled into her exponentially smaller and smaller ball, shaking and barely breathing, praying that this passes before she is the one who ends up passing.
~~~
The experiment got out of control, and fast.
Doc would be the first to admit that making a mysterious machine in his world, the blueprints of which just showed up on his doorstep, was in fact, a bad idea.
Now, he and Ren were fighting for their lives, trying to stop whatever portal to hell they just opened.
They didn’t know what to expect, but a constant stream of lightning strikes was not it. Doc could practically hear his cybernetics struggling to keep up with the constant flashing and sounds, accompanied by the whirring of his eye adjusting in the dark.
It was overwhelming, to say the least, but he had to stop it. Ren had already taken off, retreating back to the van, either to try sleeping or to get away from the sensory hellscape they had just created. Ren tended to get overwhelmed a lot faster than him, but even Doc was fighting his hybrid traits, trying to stay focused.
As he circled one last time, he couldn’t help but watch his surroundings. Something was off, other than the constant stream of lightning, and he couldn’t tell what. The creeper hybrid landed on the glass of their structure and scanned the horizon.
False, Stress, Impulse (for some reason), Botem off in the distance, Gem.
Wait, Gem?
<RenDog went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!>
The lightning finally calmed down, stopping after a few minutes and leaving a deathly quiet across the entire forest. Doc was left soaked, cold, and overwhelmed, cybernetics lightly buzzing in response to the rain, yet he couldn’t rest just yet.
Not while someone was missing.
He watched as Ren rushed back, spamming fireworks to get to the group of people as fast as he could, presumably to apologize for this disaster. Doc stood there, unmoving, trying to find where she would be .
A small speck of cobble, something Gem would have never placed inside the outline of her base, and Doc was off, experty diving down and dodging the taller of trees to get to her base.
“Gem?” Doc yelled out, trying and failing to hide the pure worry in his voice. “I’m sorry if we startled you, the experiment went a little wrong.”
Making his way towards the cobble, slowly, not caring when the mud soaked his lab coat or when his feet sunk a bit deeper into the path than he expected, he had to get to her. Leaning down, bracing himself on the make-shift roof, he saw her.
The little deer hybrid was shaking, hands pressed firmly over her ears and lightly whimpering to herself. She almost looked like a small fawn, curled up and terrified, waiting for whatever horrors just happened to be over. Ginger locks, now soaked, covered her eyes, and although her face was mostly covered, he could tell she had been crying.
Shit.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re okay hon.” He reaches out, just barely stopping himself right as his hand reaches the closest leg. “I’m gonna get out of here, is that okay?”
A small nod was all he needed before the creeper hybrid was scooping her up, pulling her as close to him as possible and encouraging her to wrap her arms around his neck. She was cold, clearly shivering and worming her way closer and closer to the other, trying to steal his heat.
The walk back to the van was not easy, with both hybrids soaked and exhausted, but they got there eventually. Ren was waiting, some chops and potatoes already on the fire, and towels in hand. Fluffed up fur fully on display as he sat in just a pair of shorts, the rest of his clothes still drying on the line.
“There you are–” The wolfdog cut himself short, face turning from excitement to pure worry.
“I found her at her base, I think our experiment took its toll.”
Ren simply turned around in response, grabbing the nearest towel and holding his arms open, ready to take the still shaking hybrid. It was times like these where he thanked the hybrid gods that both of them got strength as one of their traits.
His lab coat, soaked and covered in mud, was shed, being pinned up on the line next to the rest of their clothes. Shaking like a dog, he dries off, flinging whatever leftover water that still clung to his fur.
As Doc stepped inside the van, he couldn’t help but smile at the sound of Ren. The man was currently sitting, whispering sweet nothings to the girl in his lap, as he dried and brushed out her hair.
It was oddly domestic, in a way. The way that no words were needed for them to understand what needed to be done. The duo had hurt her, and now it was time to make it up.
Doc rifled through the camper, not caring if things were messed up or thrown about, he needed a healing pot and an extra set of clothes, now. He checked each and every pair of sweatpants they had, making sure the cotton on the inside was still soft or that the drawstring wasn’t itchy. He knew how easily hybrids could get overwhelmed by that kind of thing, and by Void was he going to avoid it.
One soft tee and a pair of pants later, both obviously too big for Gem’s fragile frame, but comfortable nonetheless, and he was on his way back out.
Ren was still sitting with Gem, sunglasses offered to the other as he sang quietly. The man gladly took the healing pot, bringing it up to her lips and encouraging her to drink. Once about half of it was done, he handed it back.
“You could use a couple of sips yourself.”
Gem was dozing off as the two ate their breakfast, warmed by the morning sun and the man beneath her. She was content, calm and cozy, but mainly exhausted.
“You wanna get into some dry clothes?” Doc asked, trying to stay as quiet as possible. “I got some extras, though I can’t promise they’ll fit.” She simply hummed in response, before attempting to get up on her own.
The panic attack from earlier caused her legs to be slightly wobbly, and her voice to be slightly hoarse, but otherwise, she seemed fine.
“You can change in the camper.” Ren offered, and she didn’t need to be told twice.
She came out almost glowing, clearly 100% more comfortable than before, and if it wasn’t for the tear tracks under her eyes or the mess of ginger she called hair, you would almost think she was here for a happier reason.
Tired, she let Doc pull her into a hug, resting her head against his chest. She didn’t want to talk, not yet at least, and the others seemed to be fine with it, simply soaking in the comfortable silence left behind.
It wasn’t until she began to doze off, occasionally loosing her balance and stumbling awake, did either of them move. Doc, obviously noticing her tired state, was the first to say something.
“We are going to the nest.”
She let herself be scooped up by Doc, watching as Ren followed, hot on their heels, and watched as he pressed a hidden button by the door. Clicks of observers and pistons firing, followed by a short fall, and they were in the dark again.
The room was perfect. Easily relaxing her eyes and ears, quieting the ever growing headache that always followed her panic attacks. Gem hummed in acknowledgement, barely recognizing the quiet purr she got as a response.
The safety of a nest surrounded her, followed by the two other bodies, and she couldn’t help but feel calmed.
They cared about her.
They must feel so bad.
Dozing off, she recognized a soft fur beneath her fingertips and a light purr from somewhere else in the room. Comforting smells cradled her, lightly rocking her stressed out and tired self into a peaceful sleep.
Home.