Chapter Text
Scar shuffled uncomfortably into the limousine, the door closing automatically behind him. He grabbed the water bottle Cub kept in the back for him and downed it in one go.
“Why hello Cub, long time no see.” Scar winced a little at how raspy his voice sounded, the hospital air conditioning had been harsh on his throat.
“Next time you wanna give me a heart attack, Scar, can you please wait until after the board meeting?” Cub said, replacing the water bottle without taking his eyes off the road.
“Sorry, I’ll do my best to schedule my body-related breakdowns around your busy schedule. How was the board?” Scar asked.
“Everything was fine, asked about you.”
“I’m sure they missed me terribly,” Scar replied, deadpan. “Did you bring my laptop?”
“Absolutely not,” Cub said, using what Scar liked to call his parenting voice.
“Cuuuub,” he whined, “Do you have any idea how many unread emails I must have?”
“Yes, I took care of all the urgent ones, there’s less than 30 left for you to take care of which you can do tomorrow.” Cub’s tone was just daring Scar to challenge him.
“Thanks Cub, remind me to give you a pay rise.” Scar said, redrawing the line, they weren't family. Scar did his best not to think about the fact that he employed the only person he could trust to pick him up from the hospital. Nope, that thought was staying at the back of his old noggin.
The thing was, Scar wasn’t lonely, he had Jellie, also Bdubs and Cub. And yes, one of them was a cat another was his PA/Parental figure, and the third his COO, but was that really so terrible? Was it sad that the only people who had cared that he was in hospital were a bunch of Good Times Executives, most of whom he couldn’t even name?
Scar focused on the sound of the engine, pressing his head against the window so it rumbled all the way into his bones. He was fine, he reminded himself. He was going home and he was going to see his cat and everything was going to be ok.
Cub pulled up outside the villa, that was a relief, just because he had a bed in his office didn’t mean he wanted to use it. Scar wheeled himself up the front steps, cheerfully assuring Cub that he could get himself to bed without any problems.
Scar was tired down to his bones but he was so relieved to be home where it was warm and where he knew Jellie was that he couldn’t bring himself to go to sleep just yet. He found Jellie lounging in the hammock at the top of her cat tree, she made the lovely cat start-up noise when she saw him. “Mrrp?”
“Hey Jellie, did you miss me?” Scar reached his hand up and let her sniff it, completely failing to suppress his delighted gasp as she began to purr. “That’s my good Jellie, I missed you too.” Now he just needed to shower, he’d been wearing the same clothes since he’d been admitted three days ago and while he’d had access to a shower, putting on the same dirty clothes afterwards had somewhat undone all the good those showers had.
Scar had been home for well over an hour before the siren song of his bed finally claimed him. Jellie curled up against his feet and he smiled to himself. Scar has a great many reasons to be sad, but in that moment, he was home in his own bed, with his best friend and faithful companion, which was really all he needed for the sadness to be defeated.
The sun was already high in the sky by the time Scar woke up, only really waking because Jellie had decided it was time for him to feed her, she gave him an indignant sniff as he pulled himself into his wheelchair as if to say ‘what took you so long?’
“I know, I know,” he told her as he took his meds, “I’m sorry, I was very tired.” Jellie considered his excuse for a moment, which was long enough for Scar to wheel over to her food bowl and pour out some food, which was enough for Jellie to forgive him properly.
Cub was as good as his word and when Scar logged into his emails for the day there were only 34 waiting for him. He skimmed over the minutes from the board meeting, carefully checking for anything sneaky of embezzlement-y that anyone might be trying. Scar had been much happier with his job when it had just been designing things for his parents. Before the jet accident had made him CEO and worth billions of dollars. There was the obvious part, he missed his parents, but there was also the knowledge that someone as ‘fragile’ - as Kyle Dennis, head of accounting, had always put it - as him had never been intended to inherit the company.
Though what did Kyle even know really, Scar was doing OK, and he knew it. Mostly thanks to Cub of course, and Bdubs who did most of the day-to-day stuff so Scar could continue to design buildings and do the actual work. He wasn't even sure what most of the people his parents had employed on the board did, all he’d ever seen them do was look at spreadsheets and frown.
Scar’s phone rang.
“Hello there Bdubs, how are you?” Scar asked his Chief Operations Officer.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Bdubs replied.
“Please don’t, I don’t want to have to lie to you.”
“We just heard back from the Gallery, they want you to design the new building. Do you still have those drafts that we didn’t use for the Swedish Museum?”
“Yeah, but a gallery in Chicago and the Stockholm Museum have completely different needs and build palettes, “ Scar protested.
“You can adjust them, no need to come up with a whole set of new designs for this.” Bdubs told him.
“Nice try Bdubs, you’re getting new designs and you’re going to like them.” Scar could already feel the inspiration hitting him, this was gonna be fun.
“OK, OK, I surrender to you, oh supreme overlord.” Bdubs laughed into the phone.
“I’ll start on it as soon as I’ve gotten through these emails,” Scar promised.
“Or, and I’m just putting this out there, you could rest and take it easy for a bit.”
“Very funny,” Scar laughed, “I should have them to you by tomorrow.”
“If I get a call from Cub telling me that you’ve wound up falling asleep at your computer again I’m going to be very upset.” Bdubs said.
“I make no promises.” Scar replied before handing up and returning to work.
There were a few reviewed designs which needed adjusting, Scar enjoyed the challenge of pushing the boundaries of what a building was while still making the space usable and accessible, and appreciated the feedback the people who would actually be using the buildings gave him, even if they had a tendency to shut down some of his more exciting ideas.
Jellie had just settled herself comfortably on his lap and was cleaning her paw delicately when Scar came to the last email. A wedding invitation? That was new. Scar’s only real friends were two men in their forties and the cat on his lap. Who would invite him to their wedding?
He scrolled down the invitation and found the location (not that far, he wouldn’t even have to leave the state) and the names of the people. Well, one of them anyway, the jpeg for the second name was refusing to load. He googled this ‘Grian’ and found a few social media accounts. They hadn’t gone to school together that was certain, he was clearly from the UK, studying in the US. He was studying a Masters of Architecture, so maybe he was a fan? That sounded more likely, even if it was weird to think about the fact that he had fans.
Scar smiled to himself and responded with an RSVP. Despite what an exasperated Cub would say after picking Scar up off the floor at 3am, Scar wasn’t stupid. He’d had people reach out to him over money stuff before. And yeah, Scar knew it was unethical to hold onto billions of dollars. He had set up charities as quickly as he could, but Good Times seemed to generate money faster than he could spend it and the board were violently against him spending any more of what they saw as their money. There had been people, especially after his parents had passed, who had tried to get close to Scar, support workers and the like, who had just been out to get some of his inheritance. Cub and Bdubs had sorted that out, and no doubt would again if the need ever arose, rolling their eyes at him the whole time.
So, the way Scar saw it the risk in accepting the invitation was small, he’d spend some money that he could afford to lose and get lectured by Cub and Bdubs for a bit, or he could make some new friends; friends that were his own age and species.