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a-place-to-come-back-to · 3 years

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OOOOO 17 “The only person who will end up hurt here is you.” WITH DAD CREW + BADGER PLZ

(this takes place shortly after Badger injured his leg ((based on a hc I have))

It had been a chilly day that turned into a cold and snowy night outside of Toad Hall. Instead of focusing on the remaining clutches of winter, however, Toad had taken it upon himself to make an agenda for the upcoming spring.

“The boat race, of course,” he said with a nod towards Rat as he marked it down on a sheet of paper, “garden competition—I’ll have to make sure to get that rabbit back again this year, the work he did with the flowerbeds last year was just magnificent.” He scribbled for a bit before he spoke up again.

“I suppose we can’t do the foot race anymore, but we—”

“Why not?” Badger cut in. There was something about his tone that caused Toad to falter for a moment.

“Well—it’s just—your leg, Badge,” he said after a moment.

“What about it?” the badger snapped. His grip on his cane had tightened a considerable amount and Toad glanced at Rat helplessly for assistance.

“Considering that your running... isn’t what it used to be,” Rat said tactfully, “it would just be best for us to skip the race altogether.” Badger glowered into the fire and Rat frowned, feeling a sense of unease.

“What’s wrong, Badge?” he prompted.

“I’m not made of glass, you know,” his friend snapped, “I see the way you look at me—the both of you.” His voice began to rise until he was almost shouting, “I’m fine, you hear me? I’m fine!”

“No one is saying that you’re not!” Rat tried in bewilderment, but at the same time that Toad yelled, “because you’re not fine!” Rat groaned, slumping down in his chair with his face in his paws.

“I am perfectly fine!” Badger huffed, standing from his chair as if to prove his point, but the way he wavered and the way his face contorted with pain for a moment did not go unnoticed.

“You’re still recovering, Badge!” Toad argued.

“So just because I’m unable to do it means that no one can do it?”

“Yes!” Toad exclaimed, “that’s exactly it!”

The rat understood that his friend intended the meaning to be more of “since we can’t do it together we won’t do it without you,” but evidently Badger did not, as he let out a growl and limped to the door with an impressive speed.

“Where are you going?” Rat called after him. He didn’t answer, and simply slammed the door shut behind himself. Rat slumped down even further in his chair and swore under his breath.

“Well, if he wants to be like that, there’s not much I can do,” Toad said coolly, but Rat knew his friend well enough to know when he was concealing his concern under apathy. Rat’s gaze fell to the door, and then to the coat stand by the door and the coat that hung there.

“He’s left his coat behind,” he realized suddenly, something close to panic clawing at his chest. Toad followed his line of sight to the coat.

“So he has,” he remarked. An obvious note of uneasiness had slipped into his voice. “He’ll be back for it in a minute or two, I imagine.” Rat shook his head, springing up and grabbing his own coat from the back of his chair before heading to the door.

“He’s too stubborn for that, and we both know it,” he bit out, opening the door against the howling wind, “I’m going after him before he freezes in a snowdrift.”

The wind was so strong that it caused him to stumble a bit as he closed the door, but that only increased his determination to find his stubborn friend. His sharp gaze whipped around for footprints or a retreating figure in any direction, any sign of the other animal—surely he couldn’t have gotten far. There was a dark shape ahead on the road. He desperately hoped it wasn’t Badger, but had a sinking feeling that it was. He quickly ran over to the dark shape which indeed proved to be his friend, collapsed into a heap.

“Are you alright?” he asked, wrapping the coat around the other animal, “is it your leg?”

“I can walk!” Badger snapped, but his defenses had fallen away and Rat could see his anger had given way to fear—or perhaps it had been fear all along.

“You need to get back inside,” he said firmly.

“I’m not going back in there,” Badger growled. Rat let out a groan of frustration.

“You listen to me, you stupid animal,” he said, “the only one who will end up hurt here is you. You cannot walk right now. Don’t try it, I don’t want you hurting yourself more—I swear, if your stubbornness doesn’t kill you then I will—but you need help right now, and that is just fine.” The wind sent another sharp blast and his friend shivered violently.

“I don’t want to be a nuisance,” he choked out. Rat sighed, pulling the coat around him tighter.

“Badge, you are the furthest thing from a nuisance,” he muttered. “A pain in the ass at times, but never a nuisance. Now let me help you.”

Badger reluctantly allowed Rat to drag him to his feet and failed at stifling a cry as he put weight on his bad leg. Rat grabbed his arm and slung it over his shoulder firmly, ignoring the weak attempts to throw him off as he hauled his friend back inside. The other animal gave up fighting until they reached the drawing room, but then practically dug his heels into the carpet, refusing to budge.

“I’m not talking to him,” he snapped obstinately. Rat bit back a sigh and was about ready to try and knock the other animal out and drag his unconscious body into the room, when he caught a glimpse of Toad standing rather ominously around a corner down the hall.

“He’s not in there,” he promised, feeling like he was dealing with two pups rather than two grown animals. Badger begrudgingly allowed himself to be led into the room and be deposited into a chair by the fire with a hot cup of tea to glower into. Rat left the room discreetly and all but charged down the hall to his other friend.

“Toad!” he hissed, catching the amphibian by the arm as he tried to leave, “you need to go in there and apologize to him this minute.” Toad brushed him off with a shrug.

“It’s not my fault if he didn’t understand what I meant, is it?” he responded defiantly. Rat clenched his paw into a fist and fought the urge to wrap it around Toad’s neck. Of all the times for him to choose defiance over common sense—

“You need to at least try and fix this,” he urged. Toad thought for a minute, his hands in his pockets.

“Alright, I’ll try when he does, but if he doesn’t try then I won’t waste my time,” he said airily, and with that, turned on his heel and went on his way. Rat groaned as the back of his friend retreated down the hall and after a quick glance upwards with a muttered, “give me strength,” he entered the drawing room again, thoroughly unsure how he was supposed to fix the splintering friendship before him.

#asks #kat writes #fics #writing prompts #thank you for the prompt!#this was great because i already had maybe 1/3 of this written and had abandoned it but this gave me the kick to finish it #if you squint and read every other word its almost good #the wind in the willows musical #the wind in the willows

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