You were right there all along by Musicalmutt2 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Scout let out a pained sob, tears streaming down her cheeks as she let out all the emotions she'd been bottling up for the past week. She tucked her head against her knees as she sat against the tree-house wall, wishing she could make herself smaller or just straight up disappear. Why did everything have to happen all at once?

“Scout?”

She froze, sucking in her breath as she wiped at her face to hide evidence of her meltdown. Though she wasn't quite quick enough as she locked eyes with the familiar bushy-haired Kelpie climbing up the ladder in front of her.

“Thought I'd find you up here.” His voice was soft as he paused on the step, taking in the expression on her face. “... Is it okay if I join you? I can leave you alone if you want.”

Scout thought for a second before sighing, nodding in approval as she fought to slow the tears in her eyes.

Digger continued up to the deck and slid down the wall to sit next to her. The two sat in silence together for a few moments, the sound of Scout's sniffles making his heart break. He always hated when she was upset, ever since they were little kids. She was always so upbeat and joyful as she made other kids smile and laugh- it hurt seeing the pain in her eyes.

Scout gave a weak laugh, “Heh. Sorry you had to see me like this, Feathers.”

Digger hadn't heard that nickname in a while and he tried to stifle a laugh as he thought back to the memory. A bird tried to nest in his hair once as he napped under a tree when they went camping at 10. Scout wanted to see how long it would take for him to wake up and realize. It took about 30 minutes before he felt the bird plucking at his hair and flipped out.

“Don't be. I've seen you looking rougher.” He teased, trying to lighten the mood a little, but returned to a frown as he studied her expression. “...But in all seriousness, are you ok? I didn't know the break-up hit you that hard.”

“Ugh, It's not that..” Scout groaned, trailing off for a moment as she rubbed at her eyes in a feeble attempt to calm the waterworks. “To tell you the truth, I was bummed about the break up, but I also felt a little… relieved? It did still sting that he said I wasn't really his type, he just thought I'd be more interesting... He was SO pushy and tried to be cuddly all the time. He kept wanting to make-out.”

The Kelpie winced a little as he felt a creeping sensation of jealousy at the mentioned affection. “Did you ever kiss him?” he blurted out before he could stop himself, mentally smacking himself for such a stupid question. He was prepared for her to look at him like he was crazy for asking, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“No. Maybe It's silly, but I've always really wanted my first kiss to be special, y'know? I didn't really… Feel the right vibes with him. We hadn't really dated that long and maybe I was just too nervous, but I guess he got impatient. Said I was nice and all, but he assumed I'd be more ‘adventurous.’”

“You climb trees for fun, how is that not adventurous?” Digger scoffed, rolling his eyes as he nudged her gently with his elbow. “Seriously though, What a pig. You can do so much better.”

Scout glanced at him for a bit with a small smile, looking like she wanted to say something else, but she held back as her gaze shifted back to the ground.

“So what's really got you troubled?”

There was another stretch of silence as Scout played with her earrings, overwhelming anxiety clutching her chest yet again as her eyes immediately began to water.

“It's my mum.”

Digger's ears perked, nose scrunching at the mere mention of her. “The deadbeat?”

Now that got a laugh out of the Catahoula, but it was short lived as her face dropped, hands gripping her knees tightly. “I found out she has another family. Her account showed up on my recommended feed when I was scrolling the other day. I shouldn't have looked, but I guess curiosity got the better of me. She has a husband.. a new daughter…” her voice hitched with disdain, eyebrows furrowing. “Her name is Hazel. My Middle name. It was her 1st birthday. ‘A year with my sweet baby girl. Blessed to be your mommy.’ ”

Scout paused again, the tears rolling down her face as she grit her teeth. Digger could see the emotions flickering in her eyes. Anger. Sadness. Confusion. His jaw set as he felt rage boiling in his own stomach. He remembered how many times she'd gushed when they were little that her mum was finally coming to visit, only to be left crying on the curb. All the broken promises and empty apologies and he couldn't deny he'd heard his mum say a few colorful words or two about her too.

“If she can play this perfect mum now, why couldn't she do the same for me?” Scout whimpered, shoulders trembling as she stared down at the ground. “I could handle the break-up on its own, but add this to the mix? I dunno, Diggs.” She wiped at her eyes for the millionth time, a shaky sigh heaving from her chest as she leaned her head back against the wall. “I was never good enough for her, I wasn't good enough for him. Is there something wrong with me?”

“Absolutely not!”

Scout jumped slightly at Digger's sudden volume change, turning towards him as he reached out and put his hand against her shoulder, taking in the look of concern in his eyes.

“It's their loss for passing you up, sucks for them that they don't get to see just how amazing you are. You're witty, resourceful, funny. Hah, I don't know anyone else who can identify more than 100 birds and plants off the top of their head as easily as you do.” He smiled as he watched her roll her eyes at that line, a tiny smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. He took her other hand, gently pulling her up to her feet as he continued to ramble. “You’ve always been so fearless and kind. Anyone out there would be so lucky to have you in their lives, there are so many people who love and admire you… Even someone… Right here..”

Digger could feel his cheeks burning as he fought for the next words to say. Before he could open his mouth again, Scout squeezed him tightly, lifting his feet off the ground as she knocked some of the air out of his lungs. He swiftly reciprocated the embrace, tail wagging as she pressed her cheek against his. He hoped she couldn't feel his heart pounding against his chest, not knowing she was thinking the same exact thing.

“Thank you.” she whispered, not breaking the hug. “You really are the best, Cherrybomb.”

“Hah. Nah, I'm second to you, Sunflower.”

Scout laughed, hiding her face against Digger's shoulder as she kept her arms wrapped tightly around him. This was the feeling she was missing before. She tried for months prior to brush her growing crush aside before she got asked out. They'd always been “_just friends_”, surely those new feelings would fade if she was with someone else. Nope. She was dead wrong.

“Scout, I-”

“Digger!! I thought I told you to take the trash out tonight! Where are you?!”

“Oh crumbs.” Digger winced, folding his ears back as his mum's voice rang out from next door.

“Better run before your mum rips you a new one.” Scout smirked, giving him a playful nudge, trying to shake off the disappointment of the interruption.

“Yeah, good call.” He looked over his shoulder to his own house, squeezing her hands with a reassuring smile. “Keep your chin up, everything will turn out how it's meant to be.”

The Catahoula just smiled back, giving him another tight hug. She waved at him as he scrambled down the ladder and over the fence, scurrying into his house. Scout laughed a little as she heard the faint squabble with his mum. She was certainly drained, but, oh, she felt so much lighter.

“Yeah, I think it will.”

I've been trying to work on this since friggin April since i posted this sketch. but I kept getting hung up on the background and making it look somewhat decent as well as trying to force myself to get through art block. I've known for ages that I wanted to draw them a confession dialogue scene similar to Ron's confession to Kim from the Kim Possible Movie (I have forever been obsessed with 'Could it be' and I firmly believe Kim and Ron were my first ship and the reason why I adore the "Childhood Friendship to more" trope ;u; ) But i also ended up getting a little deeper and added another layer of angst in there for poor Scout surrounding her mum. lol. And then the song "Stargazing" got popular on Tiktok for a while and the lyrics also made me think about them 🥹

As mentioned in previous posts, they're around 17 here. They take another few weeks before they actually start dating, but they kinda get the hint now that they both like each other. I have a few other scenarios I've been wanting to draw out, but I'll save them for another time.

i did wanna bring up their little nicknames though! They've had a few diff nicknames for each other since childhood:

Digger:

Cherrybomb

Cause his coat is reddish and red cricket balls are often nicknamed "Cherry". Plus his dad is in the army so he though explosives were neat as a kid. (Influenced by Kent in Stardew Valley sending us Cherry bombs in the mail lmao)

Feathers

As explained in the story above, bird tried to nest in his hair once on a camping trip when they were kids (i want to draw this out sometime lol)

Scout:

Sunflower

Sunflowers are her favorite kind of flower. Also partially why their daughter is nicknamed Wildflower in the future.

Inkblot

Some kids were being little bullies in kindy and teasing her for her spots being messy like ink, but she kinda owned it and coined it as a nickname and didn't let it bother her

Anyway, I'm so happy I finally got this finished, now I can focus on some final owed art before jumping completely into art fight