Consolation (HTTYS)

“Sawyer?” Charlie called out, standing on the edge of the clearing and looking around with a frown. His friend was nowhere to be found- and considering Sawyer was over seventy feet tall, that was really saying something. “Sawyer, where are you?” The small college student wandered out into the middle of the large field, the tall grasses brushing up against his legs. He looked around, but he couldn’t see his overly tall friend anywhere. Wandering further towards the large, rocky overhang at the edge of the clearing Charlie kept a sharp eye out, half expecting Sawyer to scoop him up and surprise him at any moment. It never happened, and that was almost more worrying.

Charlie kept to the edge of the rocky hillside and walked further into the forest on the other side of the clearing. The trees didn’t encroach too closely upon the rock face here; mostly because Sawyer usually walked this way. At one point the path seemed to dead-end in a large pile of boulders. Charlie simply scrambled up and over the rocks, sliding down the other side. Once there it was easy to see where the boulders had come from. The mouth of an enormous cave lay before him, the roughened edges a sign that it had been enlarged from what it may previously have been.

All the same, it was still pretty small compared to Sawyer, barely deep enough to shelter the giant when it rained. So as soon as Charlie walked in front of it he could see his friend, sitting against the far wall with his knees curled up and his head buried in them. “Sawyer?” Charlie called, immediately concerned. Sawyer raised his head slightly to look at him, brown eyes peering over his knees, but otherwise didn’t say anything. Charlie walked up and put a hand on the edge of Sawyer’s shoe, concerned. “What’s wrong?” Usually Sawyer only got this subdued and morose when he was really tired, or exceptionally lonely. Charlie had been coming around every day as usual, though, so it shouldn’t be the latter.

Sawyer reached down a hand and brushed against Charlie’s shoulder, fingers nearly as thick as Charlie’s torso wrapping around it. Charlie gave him a worried look, patting the fingers around him comfortingly but not saying a word as Sawyer gently lifted him and held him close. He could hear the giant heartbeat in the chest right beside him, and could see Sawyer’s face when he looked up only because the larger man had buried it in his knees again. “Charlie,” he said after a little while, his voice a hoarse whisper. His eyes were still closed, and his thumb was rubbing against Charlie’s shoulder rhythmically. “…do you think I’m a monster?”

“What?” Charlie exclaimed, sounding aghast. He stared up at his friend’s large face with only worry in his eyes. “No, Sawyer, of course I don’t!” he reassured him, entirely distressed. “Who said that? Did somebody say that to you?” Charlie held onto the thumb that had been rubbing his shoulder, giving it as best a hug as he could. He couldn’t stand the thought of Sawyer thinking that. His best friend might be bigger than most, a great deal bigger, but Charlie had never once seen him hurt somebody. He was most certainly not a monster, not by any stretch of the word.

Sawyer just shrugged, the motion pitching Charlie up and down. “I dunno,” he mumbled in reply, the sound rumbling through Charlie thanks to the student’s proximity to his chest. “Just thinkin’ ‘bout it.”

“Oh, Sawyer,” Charlie said sadly. He scrambled to a stand in Sawyer’s hand, making the fingers around him freeze. Charlie could feel Sawyer’s pulse accelerate and his own, smaller heart lurched, knowing it was probably because Sawyer was nervous he was leaving. Instead Charlie reached up, putting both hands gently on Sawyer’s nose- about the only part of the giant’s face he could reach. “Sawyer, please never think that. You’re an amazing, caring person.” Sawyer cracked open his eyes, peering down at him, and Charlie smiled straight up at him. He could see his small face reflected in Sawyer’s large, wet eyes. “Besides, do you really think I’d be best friends with a monster?”

Sawyer smiled at that, slightly, but it was a smile just the same. “But you were scared of me the first time we met,” he said, his voice still low and hoarse.

Charlie’s smile faltered slightly but he answered all the same, his hands still reaching up. “I was startled,” he corrected, only stretching the truth a little bit. “And I wasn’t ever scared of you after that, was I?” Sawyer shook his head at that, causing Charlie to lose his balance and fall back into his hand with a light huff. The giant looked down at him sheepishly but Charlie just smiled up at him, making Sawyer chuckle.

“No,” Sawyer agreed. “No, you’ve always been really nice to me.” Even when he was scared, whether Charlie would admit to that or not. Smiling more fully now Sawyer cupped his hand around Charlie and held the small student against his chest in a hug, curling around him. “Thank you.”

The sentiment was felt more than heard, and smushed up against Sawyer’s chest as he was Charlie couldn’t even see his friend’s face. He smiled anyways, and pat the chest next to him comfortingly. “Of course,” he replied, hoping it was loud enough for Sawyer to hear. “You’re my best friend.”

And he always would be, monsters be damned.