Chapter Text
Mumbo had a terrible habit of tunnel vision when he was focusing on a project, which he was starting to realise as every time he started working for a few seconds, hours seemed to pass. His partners knew this about him and understood completely (Scar felt that he would be a hypocrite if he advised Mumbo to take breaks as he was exactly the same in his painting projects, and Grian wasn’t allowed in the office anymore after the Shoulder Debacle).
So, when Mumbo disappeared into his office one morning and only came out for water once in a six-hour period, four hours ago, Scar didn’t panic or break the door down. Instead, he got up from his spot on their slightly-larger-than–normal loveseat, paused his Bob Ross video and started to make his way over to their kitchen. As he adjusted his braces to double check they wouldn’t jam, he realised he should probably call Grian to let him know. They all liked to keep tabs on when any one of them started disappearing too often, just in case it stopped seeming like a hyperfixation and started looking more like escapism.
~~~
“Hello?”
“Hiii Griaan, are you on break?”
“Oh hey Scar! Yeah but my phone’s about to die it’s on like two percent, what’s up?”
“Oh yeah sure, just calling to let you know Mumbo’s in the zone again, he still hasn’t left the office since you went to work”
“Ah, uh- yeah, he said he just started a new.. thing. He looked super busy when I left, not even sure he heard me say goodbye haha”
“Oooh, he hasn’t said anything to me about it! Did he say what it was? Is it for his work stuff?”
“No, no, it’s just a, um.. New.. Thing? He didn’t say much about it love, sorry.”
“Awh, that’s okay, I’m just about to make him some food, I’ll ask!”
“NO- Don’t- Uh, I mean, yeah you can do, let me just- oh you stupid thing don’t di-”
“Gri? Griaan? Are you alri- oh he’s gone”
~~~
Scar giggled to himself at his boyfriend’s predictable lack of preparation and put his phone down, instead focusing on balancing the ingredients for a very quick snack for Mumbo. He grabbed the bread, butter and american cheese slices before remembering Mumbo’s aversion to ‘that bloody plastic rubbish’ and changing them out for the bag of grated cheddar instead. He managed to not drop anything as he made his way over to the breakfast bar and started up a random train of thought as he made Mumbo his sandwich.
‘What if sand witches invented sandwiches accidentally and someone was trying to insult them but they didn’t hear it right and didn’t know everyone else called them sand witches and thought they were suggesting a name for their new food and they said “Wow sandwiches is such a cool name for this” and then.. Sandwiches..’
~~~
Mumbo whistled a tune to himself quietly as he worked, carefully placing the coloured redstone dust into the bottoms of the moulds before carefully placing in the gems and pouring the resin. He sighed as he finished the tedious process for the twelfth and final time, sitting up and very slowly registering the pain in every single one of his vertebrae as he let out a small noise of relief, both of finishing the penultimate step of his new project and the pain in his back that was slowly but surely subsiding.
He very carefully placed the moulds further back on the desk to avoid knocking them, before pulling his phone out of his pocket. He pointedly ignored how long it’d been and noted that he had a few messages, from his partners and also one from Iskall asking him about a quote for a potential client.
[07:49] Gri <3 - couldn’t finish the pancake batter, do u want some more?
[07:58] Gri <3 - oooo right youre working on That, i’ll just leave the batter in the fridge <333
[08:32] Gri <3 - leaving for work now, good luck finishing the ring!! love youuu <3333
[13:27] Gri <3 - CAREFUL SCARS GOI
After spending an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out what a ‘goi’ was while also wiping the sweat from his brow with a nearby half-used tissue, Mumbo decided he would just ask about it later. Instead, he put his phone down and focused on the resin in the moulds, waiting until he could feel the tingle in his fingers before bracing his hands over them. When the resin began to cure, he started counting in his head, getting to 26 seconds and then trying to solidify the now-gelatinous substance. Mumbo had spent most of his teenage and adult life trying to figure out how his unique ability worked, but always ended up at the same dead ends in his research. The best he could figure out was that he could alter the state of resin around 3300 times faster than it cured naturally, but that was through his own experiments (and a lot of mess).
Once Mumbo was satisfied with how the resin looked, he made sure to set it out of the way of the sunlight (he knew it was probably okay to touch and he could fix any mistakes, but he would know they were there and this was a special gift for the loves of his life) and went back to trying to crack his back. He ended up on the floor with his desk chair tucked in, attempting to use the foam roller Grian got him for his last birthday.
That’s how Scar found him, knocking and then opening the door to poke his head in when he heard the okay from the redstoner.
~~~
His boyfriend laying face down on the floor was not what Scar expected to see when he went to let him know his food was ready, but that’s what he saw when he opened the door to the (way too dark) office.
“Mumbo, I made you- oh my gosh are you okay did you fall over are you alive-” Scar rushed into the office and was by his partner’s side in seconds, immediately relaxing as he saw the foam roller.
“Darling, what on earth..?”
“I can’t figure out how to use this thing, and my back’s really hurting..” Mumbo complained as he got up and brushed the leftover dust off his trousers before unbuttoning his dress shirt a bit.
Scar laughed at his boyfriend’s disgruntled expression and skewed moustache, fixing it and then giving Mumbo a chaste kiss when it looked less unkempt. As he was brushing some of the hairs with his fingers, he caught a glimpse of Mumbo’s laptop screen. It was open on a Wikihow article on how to propose to someone and Scar decided not to panic or comment on it, instead ignoring it in favour of taking care of his overworked boyfriend.
“I’ll make you something if you come and eat the lunch I made you. I’m pretty sure I have the stuff for a pain relief potion, if not you can have one of my less specific ones!” As they left the office, Scar got a glance of a small sparkly box, with a logo on it that made it look suspiciously like one of the jewellery boxes from Gem’s shop.
“Are you sure mate, you might need that if you flare up later? Have your braces been alright today? No troubles or jams?” Mumbo and Scar started to make their way to the kitchen, Mumbo keeping an eye on the new braces the whole way.
“Nah, I’m alright buttercup, don’t worry about me. The braces feel great, like I’m floating really, your inventions are always perfect!” He grinned at the slightly taller mustachioed man.
Mumbo gave a fond smile at the pet name (which Scar noticed with a smirk) and his partner’s compliments, and then the terms of Scar’s earlier bargain set in.
“Wait, you made me lunch? Aww, cheers, I didn’t even realise I was in there for that long!”
“Of course I did! You go ahead and eat, I’m gonna go make those potions,”
“Okay sweetheart, thank you so much, I love you!”
“Love you too, buttercup!” Scar gave his partner a quick kiss on the cheek, before making his way down the corridor to his potions room, deciding to file away the information about what he saw in the office for when he wasn’t as busy.