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[peachfuzz]

Connie had a terrible habit of wandering without notifying anyone that he'd be doing it. If no one ran into him while he was prepping to go, and asked what he was up to, he would leave people guessing when the last time they saw him was. He never planned on making anyone worry, of course, but Connie had long since gotten used to doing things on his own and though he liked the crowd he now ran with at the compound, it never occurred to him to report something like this to them.

It had only happened a few times in the month and a half since his arrival, and until then the longest he'd spent out was two nights. With all the fuss that was kicked up over that, he'd then tried to limit his outings to afternoon excursions or something that would get him in early the next morning before anyone realised he'd been gone at all, but this time he got distracted and ventured further without thinking on who might be wondering about his absence.

And so this time, it had been twelve days since anyone had last seen him.

He came back mid-morning with his old school backpack he'd managed to hang onto despite everything on one shoulder and a newly found but dirtied neon orange messenger bag over the other. Both were packed full of his findings, and he was chewing on some turkey jerky he'd uncovered in his travels as he strutted back into familiar territory.

His shirt had an entirely new tear in it, from getting snagged in a tree branch on his way down from where he'd been sleeping one night, and his hair tie had broken, leaving his mass of hair bobbing with every step, but Connie was, in fact, completely okay.

Comments

[pyred]

Marco has managed to accept that Connie, wild-child that he is, will sometimes disappear for a day or maybe (only the one time) two. It makes him worry, especially since Connie won't go with Sasha, Annie, Reiner or Bertolt, but he can't make the teenager do anything he won't want to.

And then one day turns into two turns into three, and it's nearly two weeks. A week in, Marco was still pretending Connie was probably okay, but it was obvious to anyone around him that he was worried.

Connie wasn't as young as his students had been, but it felt like the same kind of pain in his chest when he thought of Connie dying. When he thought of Connie alone, without anyone to help him - even if that had been how he'd managed it at first.

Which is why, when he spots Connie on his way to get rid of some actual trash-trash (Sasha has been showing him how to save animal skins and bones, which might be trash to people like Jean but useful for what she's teaching them) he spots the familiar mass of hair.

He stops, stares, drops the bag he's holding and lets out a sharp cry of "Connie!" in uncharacteristically loud fashion. Connie won't get much warning before he's scooped up in a huge hug. Not a Reiner-style bear hug, but something close to it. Probably more along the lines of 'relieved teacher'.

[peachfuzz]

If someone really fought and insisted they come with him, Connie would not stop them, but he worried about having to be responsible for keeping an eye on anyone, even when they were far more qualified to protect themselves and others, and were worrying the same for him. Logically, he knew everyone had survived through the outbreak just as long as he had, but it was hard to not fall back on what he already knew worked to keep him safe, even if it meant doing it alone.

After nearly two weeks in dangerous territory, he couldn't be caught completely unaware, unable to drop his guard even within the relatively safe walls of the compound. Still, Marco was quick. Connie'd only managed to tell it was Marco calling for him and had turned mostly towards him before being wrapped up by the older man.

Connie was at a point in his life where he hadn't been hugged by many teachers after grade school, usually sticking to a firm handshake if there had to be any contact at all, so Connie couldn't really identify the nuances that separated it from other hugs, but he didn't really care. He would have let his bags drop if Marco had left him the space to do so, wrapping his arms around Marco as much as he could with them still weighing his shoulders down, and patting his back.

"Wow, gramps, calm down. You're gonna break a hip moving that fast."

[pyred]

Marco is hopefully not crushing anything that Connie salvaged that he was hoping to keep whole. Mainly, he's just focused on gathering all of Connie and his bags up into his arms, giving a laugh that sounds suspiciously like it could have been a sob if he hadn't forced the laughter out of his throat.

"I'm gonna break your hip for leaving for so long!" Marco retorts instead, loosening the hold on Connie only to slide his hand up into his (dirty, leaf-flecked, and still so happy it was there to be touched) hair, ruffling it and sending it sprawling into Connie's face. "You didn't tell us you were going to be gone that long. We thought..."

His voice cracks, and he doesn't go on. Connie probably figures what they thought, and instead, Marco drags an arm around Connie's neck to give him another hug.

"Jesus, I'm glad you're okay..."

[peachfuzz]

Connie doesn't make a habit of grabbing things that break too easily, because he drops his bag often, whenever he needs to run or fight, or sometimes by accident when he's climbing with it. Even with how tight Marco's got him, nothing should have gotten truly wrecked by it.

He's got another snip on the tip of his tongue but quiets at the crack in Marco's voice, and looks up at him from under the curls of hair once again in his eyes.

"Yeah, man. I'm fine. Seriously. I tried to come back after like three days but I saw a swarm that pushed me kinda far away, and then, y'know, unexplored territory and I got curious. . ."

[pyred]

Marco wouldn't know. Of the group, he's probably the least inclined to wander. He'd only done it out of necessity; the compound was good for him, in that sense, because it was a sense of stability in their fucked-up world now.

At the same time, he doesn't chide Connie for it. He's mostly upset that they hadn't heard anything, not because Connie wanted to explore after the swarm pushed him.

"I know," he settles on, sliding his hand to rest on Connie's shoulder and giving him a little squeeze there. "I'm just - glad you're alive, okay? I'm gonna start breeding carrier pigeons at this rate."

So he can find you all!