“So, now that they’re coming to visit,” Dione spoke up at the dining table, where she sat next to Fallon and across from Hyde and Rune, with Barry close to them in the kitchen. “Can you tell us a bit about what they’re like?” she asked Hyde.

  Hyde hummed. He looked at Rune beside him. “You know them better.”

  “No,” Rune protested. “You know better what their first impressions would be. You should.”

  Hyde tilted his head. “Yeah, I guess.” He turned back to his mom. “Fine. He has two younger sisters, who are twins. And there’s his dad and his grandad.”

  “Twins?” Dione was surprised. “Are they easily distinguishable?”

  Rune nodded. “Yeah, they’re not identical.”

  “What are they like?”

  “Well, first of all, they’re teenagers, so, you know.” Hyde shrugged. “There’s Moon, who’s generally an energetic, cheerful girl, like, ‘Hey, how are you? What’s your name?’ ” Hyde tried to mimic her voice, making Rune chuckle. “She also likes to poke things,” Hyde added, annoyed.

  Fallon raised his eyebrow. “Oddly specific.”

  Hyde glanced away with a grumpy frown as he rubbed the spot where his bruise had been. Rune laughed a little.

  “Then there’s Night,” Hyde moved on. “She’s more quiet. And suspicious of everything and everyone. But it seems like it’s out of love, she was concerned with Rune’s wellbeing while being suspicious of me.”

  Hyde scratched his chin in thought. “I’m not sure how to describe Thomas.” He noticed Barry perking his head up to them from the corner of his eye. “He’s kind, usually. But also a bit rude, sometimes? I’m not sure how to put it.” He glanced at Rune for help.

  “Petty?” Rune suggested.

  Hyde squinted. “You’ve called him sassy before.”

  Barry chuckled. “That hasn’t changed, then.”

  Hyde shrugged at him, then thought of what to say about Severn. “Severn, his dad, is nice and loving to his family. But he also seems a little unhinged.”

  Rune gave him a confused, raised brow. “Unhinged? Why?”

  “Because he stabbed a bunch of people, Rune!”

  Rune opened his mouth to defend him, but Hyde interrupted, “I’m not saying it wasn’t an appropriate reaction after all the shit those people did, but goddamn. He grabbed a knife, walked into that building and started stabbing! Like a day after he came back to life!”

  Hyde glanced at his parents, they seemed a little disturbed.

  Hyde added, “I mean, those people were the ones that stabbed me in the back and nearly killed me, so I’m not upset about it. But that his mind went straight to stabby town is… fuck, dude.” He looked at Rune again. “I’m not afraid of him or anything. I get he was protecting you, and I guess me too, but I also definitely wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.”

  “Then I’d suggest you don’t break my heart,” Rune joked with a grin, earning a glare.

  “Well, they sound interesting,” Dione said, a little worried.

  “Don’t worry, they’re fine,” Hyde dismissively told her. “But they’ve been through some stuff.”

  “Okay, if you say so, hon.”

  Thomas was the last to step out of the train, behind Severn, Moon and Night. Rune waited for them on a bench with Hyde. The warmth hit him like a brick; it felt like summer, wasn’t it autumn? Was it this warm all year round? No wonder Barry hated it.

  Rune came up to them, followed by Hyde.

  “Hey!” Rune smiled. “Welcome to the south.”

  “Why is it so warm?” Moon complained.

  “Because it’s the south,” Hyde told her like it was obvious, which it was.

  “But it’s autumn!”

  Rune snickered. “Believe it or not, summer is even worse.”

  Moon gaped at him.

  “Do you get now why I always want a blanket in Enath?” Hyde asked with a grin.

  Night scoffed. “You haven’t even experienced our winter, yet.”

  “I know, I’m not looking forward to it.”

  Rune took a few steps backwards as he said, “Shall we go?” He looked at the sky. Thomas followed his gaze, it was getting darker.

  “Before we get rained on?” Rune finished his thought.

  The six of them went on their way to Corburn. Thomas quietly walked behind, he had too much on his mind to engage in conversation.

  Severn sped up to get beside Hyde and asked, “What can we expect of your family?”

  “Well, there’s my mom and dad, and my sister. Perhaps my brother-in-law. And my grandad, of course.”

  “What are they like?”

  “My mom is friendly, my dad quiet. My sister, excitable.” Hyde grabbed his chin. “I’m not sure what to say about my grandad, I’ve only known him for a week.”

  Thomas sniffed out a spiteful chuckle. “If he’s anything like he was before, he’s an idiot.”

  Hyde turned around to him, surprised. He shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Hey!” Hyde called out when they were all inside, right on time for the rain. He opened the door to the living room, everyone followed him. Thomas stayed in the doorway. A blonde woman walked up to them with a smile.

  “Hi! Nice to meet you all, I’m Dione.” She pointed at the tall, brown haired man standing some distance behind her. “That’s Fallon.”

  Thomas let his eyes wander around the room, until they landed on a familiar face in the kitchen. He flinched, Barry stared at him. How did Thomas take this long to notice him?

  He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but seeing Barry as an older, middle-aged man felt odd. Even at this distance, he saw the grey patches in his beard and at his temples. His face was quite heavily scarred, must be from his death.

  Barry came up to him, which snapped him awake and made him realise the others had walked further into the room to sit somewhere.

  “Hey,” Barry greeted him with a nervous look on his face.

  “Hi,” Thomas breathed out.

  Barry pointed to the stairs. “Want to talk upstairs?”

  “Okay.”

  Thomas sat on a bed in a room that confused him. Did Barry sleep here? It looked like a teen girl’s room. Mirrors, candles, magazines. It reminded him of Moon’s room. He shook his head; it didn’t matter.

  Barry quietly sat beside him, waiting for him to say something. For the past three days, Thomas had thought about what he would say to Barry when he finally saw him. But now that he was right in front of him, he couldn’t get a word out of his mouth. He couldn’t even bring himself to make eye contact; that would make it more real.

  He saw Barry’s uneasiness from the corner of his eye. Barry hesitated for a moment before saying, “You look well.”

  “Do I?” Thomas snarled. “I don’t feel well.”

  Barry rubbed the back of his neck. “It does feel kinda weird, seeing you after all this time—even longer for you. But it’s good to see you again.”

  Thomas only examined the wooden floor. He wasn’t sure how he felt, yet alone what he should say. Seeing his face brought painful memories back, but also an old comfort.

  “You don’t seem to agree,” Barry observed, a hint of sadness in his voice.

  Thomas remained quiet. Did he agree? Was it good to see him again? Or would he have rather lived the rest of his life without him?

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “What are you feeling?”

  “I don’t know,” Thomas quietly answered.

  “Did you want to see me?”

  “Yes, but not for the same reason you did.”

  “Why, then? I wanted to see you, because I missed you. Didn’t you miss me?”

  Thomas tensed his shoulders, anger beginning to cloud his mind. “I did. I missed you to death.”

  “Then why aren’t you happy to see me?”

  “Because you hurt me!” Thomas snapped, he finally made eye contact.

  Barry was taken aback, startled by his glare. “What? Because I didn’t answer you for thirty years? That wasn’t my fault.”

  “You really think that’s the only thing you could’ve possibly done to hurt me?”

  “What else, then?”

  “You left me! You went to live with a girl you’d known for a couple months and left me behind like I never mattered!” Tears stung in Thomas’s eyes, he felt like that nineteen-year-old, heartbroken boy again. “You promised me you’d always be by my side. You asked me to never leave your life and you left mine!”

  Barry shook his head with a frown. “I didn’t leave your life, we still wrote to each other.”

  “You think that’s the same?! You have no idea how much it hurt to read about you loving life down here while I was miserable, all alone and wanted to die! You never considered how I would feel.”

  Barry was shocked. “You never told me you felt that way. How am I supposed to consider your feelings if you don’t tell me how you feel?!”

  “I didn’t want to interfere in your perfect little life here.”

  “What—you know it was anything but perfect, I’ve complained to you about it numerous times.”

  “And yet, you never left.”

  “Because—!” Barry stopped as if he changed his mind, he gave the door a worried glance. “You know I was going to.”

  “A bit late.”

  Barry let out a frustrated groan. “I always told you if I was upset about anything, why didn’t you tell me when you were? Didn’t you trust me?”

  “I did. Then you broke my heart,” Thomas’s voice cracked. He hadn’t told anyone about this before. Was it relieving? He wasn’t sure.

  “…Huh?”

  Thomas scoffed. “Do I need to spell it out for you?” He leaned into Barry’s face. “I was in love with you.” He pushed his finger into the space between Barry’s eyes, causing him to pinch them slightly. “Guess being blunt about it is the only way to get it through your thick skull.” He backed away.

  Barry stared at him in disbelief.

  “I thought you felt the same,” Thomas continued. “The way you were always so cuddly and close with me. You even kissed me, once.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “I know you don’t remember. It was on my eighteenth birthday, when you insisted on getting wasted. You kissed me and passed out right after. But, despite all that, you still left with someone else, as if you never felt any of that.”

  “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

  “I wasn’t subtle.”

  Barry evaded eye contact this time and sighed. “You were the only real friend I ever had. I guess I didn’t know if it was just friendship, or—”

  “Seriously? We cuddled on the couch, we slept in the same bed occasionally, you often slept with your head on my lap, you even pulled me to sit on your lap sometimes!”

  Barry smiled a little. “Because you were so small and huggable—” He noticed Thomas’s glare and stopped smiling. “Not the time, sorry. I’m not very in tune with my emotions. I’ve always known I loved you, I guess I didn’t know in what way exactly.”

  All the anger was startled out of Thomas for a moment. Did he admit he did feel the same? “Are you telling me you were in love with me, too?” he choked up.

  Barry was quiet for a while. Thomas saw him thinking, considering what to say.

  “I… you know what my plan was after leaving Corburn?” Barry whispered all of a sudden, like he was worried someone overheard him.

  “No?”

  “I was hoping to live with you again. I was never as happy with Vela as I was with you those three years. I’d always missed that. And now that my kid was an adult, his parents divorcing wouldn’t be as devastating, which is why I waited so long.”

  Thomas let tears fall down his face.

  “I’d still like that, if you’d have me,” Barry added with a nervous quake in his voice.

  He still felt the same? All this time, he did love him back? Thomas hadn’t been delusional and an idiot? Those feelings really were there?

  He asked to move in with him. Should he let him? It felt too soon to decide. So, instead, Thomas told him, “Before we came here, Severn asked if I only came here to yell at you, or to actually reconnect.”

  “Which is it?”

  Thomas shrugged. “I’m not yelling. But I don’t know if I can trust you with my heart again.”

  Barry frowned, sad. “Oh. If it’s any help, I know I want you. I won’t run off with someone else again.”

  Thomas was quiet with tears on his face, staring at nothing.

  Barry sighed beside him. “I’ll give you some space to process all this. I’ll keep my distance, then you can come to me when you’re ready, okay?”

  Thomas thought it over, then nodded.

  “Mom,” Hyde called to Dione, making her turn to him. He gestured at the two girls uncomfortably standing near Rune. “Would you be interested in entertaining two teenaged girls?”

  Before Dione could answer, Moon called, “We don’t need a babysitter!”

  “I figured you’d like to talk to some sort of mother figure, since you don’t have one.”

  Silence filled the room. Hyde tensed as he rethought what he said.

  “Well, damn,” Rune spoke up. “Kick us while we’re down, why don’t you?”

  Hyde nervously chuckled and the rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound so harsh.”

  Dione snickered. “Oh, I’d like to,” she decided to save him. “But, you know I can’t leave your father alone with new people.”

  Hyde glanced past her to the kitchen. “Doesn’t seem like he’s doing too bad talking to Severn.”

  Dione turned around and—to her surprise—saw her husband chatting with someone he just met. He seemed pretty relaxed, too. A rare occurrence. “Oh.”

  Was he actually relaxed, though? Maybe he was masking. She decided to join them, in case she needed to help him out of a conversation he couldn’t find an escape from.

  “You know, last I heard, Rune’s parents were dead,” she interrupted whatever Severn was saying, catching both his and Fallon’s attention.

  Severn considered her for a moment, then said, “Yeah, so were both of his.” He pointed at Fallon. “What of it?”

  “Dad!” Rune scolded, startling Severn. “Could you be polite for five minutes?”

  “No,” Severn told him, then proceeded to ignore Rune’s following angry comments. “You know,” he began at Fallon, “it’s weird seeing other people in their fifties and realising they’re the same age as me.”

  “It’s equally weird the other way around. Isn’t it odd you and your kids look the same age?” Fallon responded.

  “To people who aren’t familiar with the double lifespan, sure. I remember when I was younger, some people wouldn’t believe my dad when he said he was my dad.”

  Dione stepped away, deciding to let Fallon have this conversation on his own. He didn’t seem uncomfortable, even asking a question himself instead of only answering. It was rare new people didn’t make him feel uneasy and lock his mouth shut. She wondered why this was the case with Severn, though. Especially considering the only thing they had previously known about him didn’t paint him in the best light.

  She went back to the girls, who were giving Hyde a hard time, presumably for his previous choice of words. “How do you girls like Hyde? I hope we raised him well.”

  The girls stepped away from Hyde to turn their attention to Dione. Night looked grumpy. “He’s very nosy.”

  Dione gave Hyde a disapproving look.

  Hyde tensed and defended, “What—as if you aren’t! Where do you think I got it from? Not Dad.”

  “He’s a bit oblivious,” Moon audibly whispered to Dione. “Which is a great match for Rune’s anxiety around someone he actually likes.”

  “Wha- Don’t tell people that!” Rune complained.

  Hyde glanced between Rune and Moon, confused. Both proving her point.

  Dione chuckled. “Oh, hon.”

  Footsteps came downstairs, Rune looked to the door. Barry walked into the living room. He didn’t seem happy. He sat on the couch without a word.

  Rune wondered where Thomas was. Was he still in the hallway? He went to see and found Thomas indeed lingering in the hallway. He wasn’t particularly happy either.

  “Hey, how did it go?” Rune asked.

  Thomas shrugged. “Where will we be sleeping?” he ignored his question. “I want to be alone for a bit.”

  Rune frowned. “Oh, okay. I got two rooms at a motel for you, I’ll take you there.” The rain had stopped anyway.

  Thomas nodded.

  Barry stared out the window. The sun had gone down. He wasn’t happy with how his conversation with Thomas had gone. But he should give him space; he had said he would.

  There were more things he wanted to tell him, though. Things that might help Thomas process his feelings. Or make it worse. Barry wasn’t sure. He had wanted to tell him before, but he didn’t want to risk Fallon overhearing. It might be upsetting to him. He wanted to tell Thomas somewhere where they were truly alone.

  Barry knocked on a door at the motel. Thomas opened it, a bit confused.

  “Hey,” Barry greeted. “I’m sorry, I know I said I’d give you space. But there’s some more stuff I’d like to tell you. Want to come to the beach with me?”

  Thomas thought it over with a sigh. “Okay.”

  They walked over the sand in silence. The only thing they heard were the waves. They were alone; who would go to the beach at night? They did.

  Barry sat down on the sand, leaning back on his hands. Thomas sat next to him, Barry noticed how stiffly he moved his right leg.

  “Doesn’t sand get everywhere?” Thomas mumbled, annoyed.

  “Not as much after rain.”

  “Then you’ll get a wet arse instead.”

  Barry squinted, unsure what to make of his annoyance. Did it mean he was more or less comfortable?

  “Why did we have to come here?” Thomas asked, snapping Barry out of his thought.

  “I wanted to be sure no one overheard. I don’t want Fallon to know, or at least not find out like this.”

  “Know what?”

  “I wasn’t as happy here as you seem to think I was. And I’m not only talking about Vela. I’ve always felt incredibly homesick. I thought it’d go away after a while, but it never did. It lessened after Fallon was born, because now there was something here that I loved, but it never went away.”

  “You didn’t love your wife?”

  “I—it’s complicated.” Barry brought his knee up and hugged it. “It’s not that I didn’t think she was a nice person or anything, but we weren’t a good match. You know how cuddly I am, right?”

  “You’re the cuddliest person I’ve ever met.”

  “Well, she wasn’t. At all. At least not in the way I wanted. Early on, when I was feeling homesick, I tried to reach out to her for comfort. I tried to lean on her or cuddle up to her like I was used to with you, but she always pushed me away. And then told me to get over it, because this was my home now. She cuddled up to me, but I wasn’t allowed to cuddle up to her, no no, that was illegal,” Barry mocked.

  “She didn’t like whenever I was upset or sad for whatever reason, she told me to ‘man up’. It’s like she had this idea of what she wanted me to be, and whenever I deviated from that, she got upset. She wanted me to be this perfect alpha type, whose only negative emotion was anger.”

  “So, she tried to make you into something you weren’t?”

  “Yeah. I emotionally distanced myself from her, which resulted in a very loveless marriage, as I’m sure you can imagine. Fallon was the only thing keeping it together, which is why I don’t want him to hear this. I don’t want to risk him somehow twisting this into it being his fault that I wasn’t happy here, he was the only thing that did make me happy.”

  Thomas frowned, thinking. “Do you regret marrying her?”

  Barry sighed. “That is… also complicated. I don’t want to say I regret it. If I hadn’t, Fallon wouldn’t have been born. It makes it sound like I regret my son, which I don’t, at all! I love him more than anything.

  “But, I do wonder what things could’ve been like if I had left sooner and taken him with me. But then, Fallon wouldn’t have met Dione and Hyde and Tayen wouldn’t exist, and—” He grabbed his head and groaned in frustration.

  Thomas let out a sad sigh. “Even if they had met, if you had left and came back to me with Fallon, then him and Severn probably would’ve been more like brothers. And that would make Rune and Hyde like cousins. I doubt they’d be dating, then. And seeing how much they adore each other, that makes me sad.”

  “Yeah.”

  Thomas moved a little closer to Barry. “Maybe this is how it was supposed to go. At any turn, if things had been different, something would drastically change. I don’t know what I’d do without my family, either.”

  Barry lifted his head up to him, sad. Thomas gently pulled his head onto his shoulder, to Barry’s surprise. Tears stung in Barry’s eyes; no one had been tender with him like this in years—decades, even. Thomas rubbed their heads together, then sighed and released the tension in his body. He let Barry quietly cry on his shoulder.