[closed catchall for Homeward Bound Boy Wrath]

[garbagechild]

Who: Wrath, Lust, Envy, Scar, Henry
What: LASSIE WRATH COME HOME
Where: Shark House (ie, quiet suburban neighborhood in Goldenrod City)
Warnings: Later threads include graphic dialogue about subjects like child death/injury, suicide, etc.
Summary: Wrath can't avoid the inevitable any longer. After meandering in awkward emotional paralysis for a month, he finally arrives in Goldenrod City to find out if his family is still there or not.



The city streets haven't changed a single bit.

The same smells hang on the humid, seaside air. The same warm yellow lights blaze above the sidewalks. The same buzz and murmur of never-sleeping nightlife float along main roads and narrow alleys alike.

Wrath remembers all of them with startling clarity, and yet they don't feel familiar anymore. He shies away from all of it, slinking along like an awkward shadow and trying not to be noticed. Which is blessedly not difficult, at least in the heart of town where there's still enough bustle and activity that a short kid and his Cubone hardly stand out. But even with his memories intact... coming back to a bona fide city after the isolation he'd wrapped himself in back in Amestris is overwhelming in every way.

What he's looking for, however, isn't in the heart of town. No, his destination is down in the southern half of the city, in a much sleepier pocket of suburbia...


____


His feet remember the path there better than his brain does, and all too fast, their surroundings have shifted from broad bright streets to ones lined with houses, trees, and lamp-posts. Completely preoccupied with his own growing anxiety, Wrath barely even notices how fast they've arrived until he realizes that downtown's golden hum has been replaced with the soft, velvet drone of chirping insects and whirring fans. The clank of his automail foot on the pavement is painfully loud now that there's so much less background noise to drown it out.

He stops right there in the middle of the road like a statue as the realization hits him.

This is it. This is their street...

Down at his side, Son squeezes his hand. The Cubone had been keeping up with his trainer valiantly all night long, despite his stubby little legs. Keenly-attuned partner-Pokemon senses aside, it hadn't exactly been hard to notice that Wrath had been growing tenser and tenser the closer they got (even though escaping from the chaos of the inner city should have, would have been a relief for most people). Although Wrath doesn't look down, the squeeze tugs him back into reality enough to carry on.

It isn't long until he spots it.

There.

It's there.

It's still there.

The House... but that doesn't mean it has the same people in it. Or that they would feel the same way they did once, even if they'd remained. ... It's not too late. He could just keep walking. He could just head straight out of town and into Ilex Forest, never to be seen again. They would never know that he was here. ... And vice versa.

A shadow briefly passes in front of one of the windows, and Wrath stiffens, freezing again. He feels like throwing up.

But Son delivers a gentle headbutt to his automail leg. CLINK. Wrath grimaces, swallowing, and stumbles up the walk.

Approaching the house is ten times more difficult and painstaking than it had been with the cottage in Violet, but eventually, he finds himself standing on the doorstep, almost too tense to breathe. He lifts a hand several times, only to drop it again. Once, he manages to make contact with the door... but just scratches it timidly with his nails, too quiet to be heard.

"... I can't," he mumbles hoarsely after these failed attempts, more to himself than to his Pokemon... but Son responds anyway with a whispered but no-less-vehement "Bone!" Yes you can!

Wrath lets out a shaky, miserable sigh, but... he can't say no to his son.

Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, he raises his hand again... and knocks.




Thread Timeline because we're out of control:
1. Wrath arrives and is ushered in by Henry + Envy; Scar informs Lust about Wrath's return; Lust and Wrath reunite.
2. As Lust + Wrath Cry In The Living Room (tm), Henry re-enters with a failed hot cocoa attempt; Envy flees to the laundry room.
3. Heather receives distraught Envy phonecall.
4. Envy and Scar briefly discuss The Gluttony Thing in the hall.
5. Wrath and Envy catch up; Evil Brother Hug! at Kitchen Island.
6. Heather and Scar fail to communicate on the porch, but it's fine.
7. Hot Cocoa Attempt 2.0 by Henry; Evil Brothers + Henry quiet couch time.
8. Scar + Lust discuss personal growth and parenthood.
9. Heather gets home with pizza baked goods, gets caught up on the tea.
10. The following morning, Scar + Envy discretely get info from Wrath; also Don't Tell Mom About Gluttony.

Comments

[garbagechild]

<sub>[NO TEAM ROCKET THIS TIME... and it speaks to just how hard Wrath's entire world was rocked that he doesn't care. Like... at all. Even with the memories being re-introduced into the unstable ecosystem of his mind like rehabbed animals, the way that Dante's Sins had fallen apart was so spectacular that his fervent loyalty to Team Rocket feels... silly, childish in hindsight.]

[He nods, still staring ahead-- it's hard to look anywhere else, in the same way that getting out from under a weighted blanket is hard.]

[Home? He'd been so afraid that it wouldn't be... but that doesn't mean he'd really figured out what to do if it was.]

[With considerable effort, he turns his head to look at Envy. The Cubone (still dutifully finishing his water) is a serviceable space-taker-upper between them that relieves any of the potential awkwardness that sitting directly next to each other would bring, but Wrath's expression is... not afraid, but... timid. A little guilty, even. So Envy's not alone in the shame department.]</sub>

... I wasn't... sure if anyone would be here.

_{[Or if he'd be let in, quite frankly. He trails off there, swallowing. There are words, surely... but they're locking up again. Envy's not angry, that much is clear, and a relief... but even so, what does he say? After a moment of clearly struggling to speak, he adds:]}

... Glad... that you are.

[exeggutorhead]

[The slow-motion turn and timid guilt in Wrath's expression hurts to see, as does the halting struggle of the kid trying to speak. And then hearing Wrath actually say that he's glad Envy's here adds a whole new conflicting surge of feeling, because he really hadn't been sure that was going to be the case until Wrath said so.]

[It's an overwhelming emotion on top of an already messy pile of them; he kind of wishes he at least had some of Henry's tea. He doesn't know what to say either, going quiet as his thoughts scatter.]

[His little brother came back, and is glad that he's here. In spite of everything.]

[Eventually, Envy finds words again, and manages a tentative half-grin.]

Glad you are too.

[He may not have connected the dots about that network post quite yet, but even without it, he does know how important for any homunculus to hear unequivocally that they're wanted. Especially Wrath, here and now.]

[a_sin_for_him]

[Lust descends the stairs in her robe and slippers, knowing Scar is close behind. This is a possibility she hasn't accounted for, hasn't allowed herself to account for. It was too painful a 'what if?'. She isn't prepared for this - though perhaps it's not the sort of thing that can be prepared for.

Hearts were funny that way.

While she doesn't rush, she doesn't linger either. She needs to see for herself how he is, has a need to soothe and tend to him. Even after all this time, those feelings and impulses remain.

But she resists rushing to him when she reaches the living room, not wanting to startle or distress him. God only knows what he's been through, what must be on his mind. But she calls to him, trying to smile despite the shock of seeing him. Rather, the state of him.]

Wrath?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[At that, Wrath fully meets Envy's eyes (possibly for the first time since arriving), and that faint ghost of an almost-smile-- the one he'd had when Scar showed up on the stairs-- flickers across his face again.]

[And then a familiar voice calls his name and he whips around to face it, the brief calmness instantly morphing back into the skittish, about-to-bolt stare he'd had at the door. This is not in any way her fault, of course... there was simply never going to be any avoiding distress.]

[It's her... it's her.]

[Dissociation may have kept him from panicking while he waited, but... now she's right there, looking at him, looking simultaneously exactly the same and nothing at all like he remembers. Because what he remembers of her is both happy, healthy, here... and laying deathly still on the cold concrete floor, slowly liquefying into scarlet. And coming at him very very fast with cold fire in her eyes and claws whistling through the air, but that's not even entering his mind at the moment, not really. Despite the hollow horror in his own face as he looks at her, he is NOT afraid... he is ashamed.]

[Jerkily, with all the grace of a lame deer, Wrath lurches upright off the couch-- stumbling and nearly making Son spill his water in the process. (The Cubone lets out a startled noise, but manages not to drop his glass).]

[Once he's standing up, the... differences are probably immediately apparent. The automail where his stolen arm and leg used to be... some of the old roundness in his cheeks exchanged for a couple inches of height... and deep, deep shadows under his eyes. He's scrawny, covered in little scratches from the road, utterly exhausted, and he looks... like he has no idea what to do, or what to say.]

[He has NOT been taking his vitamins.]</sub>

... L... Lust, I...

_{[... Is all he manages to get out at first.]}

[a_sin_for_him]

[She stays where she is, Wrath's state of mind clear. She fears if she takes a step, he'll bolt.

But she keeps her body language friendly, open. Her distress at his current physical well fare is kept locked beneath the surface. The last thing she wants is for him to mistake what's upsetting her.]

I'm very glad you're home.

[There's no doubt, looking at him, that he's had many more years than previously. He's lived through things he hadn't before. God only knows what that's done to him, what he may think of her or feel about her now...

She couldn't even blame him, if his feelings have turned. She remembers well what had passed between them back in the world they came from.

Still. She hopes their time in this world is stronger.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[It's stronger by far. If it hadn't been... he wouldn't be standing here right now.]

[Like her, he doesn't move from where he stands-- at least not at first. It's not even really conscious. His whole everything just locks up as he takes in the details, mind trying to cement the Lust in front of him as reality. She's alive. She's alive. ... But he still killed her.]

[Her voice is what breaks the spell, and Wrath's brows crease upwards as the words sink in.]

[Does she... know?]

[Swallowing heavily, he speaks again in a brittle voice.]</sub>

You... w... were...

_{[And then, inevitably, something breaks and his eyes fill up with the tears that had been missing since he walked in.]}

--you were right, you w-ere right about-- ev-erything...

_{[Sagging in place, his eyes promptly disappear behind both hands. It's not a classic wailing meltdown like he used to have-- he never used to be ashamed of crying. His shoulders are quaking now with the effort to swallow it all back, not just with the force of emotion.]}

I'm s-- s-s--ss- ...so-rr...

[a_sin_for_him]

[The moment holding them both breaks for her, too, and as soon as his hands come up she's moving towards him without thought. It's an instinct so base that there's no questioning it, no denying it.]

Oh my little wild one, I know. It's alright. It's always been alright.

[She's always known. There'd been no need for him to, before. Why put that on him? Wrath had been struggling with enough, hurt by so much already.

There was no way to shield him now, but at least she can assure him that nothing is held against him. All the pain and anger and battle of the old world was left there. More troubling is how upset he is, how thin, how miserable this last month must have been for him.]

Don't trouble yourself. You're home now, and all is just as it should be.

[Her voice is warm but wavering with emotion. The walls Lust keeps between explicit feelings and the rest of the world don't exist when it comes to Wrath.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[When she swoops in, he doesn't recoil. She's able to fold him into an embrace with no trouble whatsoever, and he's still as a statue. But he doesn't hug back, at first; although his hands come back down from his face, he holds them in the air for a moment... as though afraid to so much as touch the woman whose life he'd gleefully ended over loyalties that would then be ripped clean out of him mere hours later.]

[There's a quiet but still audible rattle of metal from his automail arm as it shakes... before he slowly and so, so carefully returns the hug.]</sub>

S...s...sorry, I'm sorry, m'sorry...

_{[The muffled, broken apologies come out despite the reassurances... but he doesn't have the strength, much less the willpower, to do anything but accept the comfort. It doesn't fix the self-loathing that's spent two years taking root deep inside him... but for right this second, all he can do is crumple gratefully in her embrace like he hasn't been hugged in years. (Which... well, he hasn't.)]}

F-f-fraid... that. Youwo-uldn't... be. Hh-here...

[officerdown]

[Scar hadn't known what to brace himself for. As his hand falls away from Lust's lower back, he's left standing alone and utterly stricken.]

[One of the last things he remembers, before the cruel skip in his memory, is their tenuously positive relationship, and that alone had been a wild turnaround since...]

[There's a tiny, upward quirk in his corner of his mouth as he recalls New Years. Wrath had been caught stealing money out of coat pockets, and security had dragged him to Lust's side because she'd been seen accosting him earlier in the night.]

[Fast forward to that flu she'd been stricken with, and the wretched soup Wrath had been trying to cobble together not ten paces from where they stood, now. And to the hour ago when he had known little but to keep Wrath's name and his conspicuous absence out of his mouth.]

[Now, the present. Now, the multitudes in her he hadn't known. That, even if he had known her feelings, he wouldn't have expected to be freely given. He knows Lust's attention, care, love, to be a mad, desperate man's pursuit, earned only on the brink of death, only when it's too late. She is a lifetime removed from the woman he had scorned in Amestris, but the vestiges of her insecurities, of her defenses, are still painfully familiar. Sometimes, they drive him mad.]

[He would do it again, though, if she awoke tomorrow manipulated, callous and cruel.]

[So, she loves Wrath. And he loves her. He can work from there.]

[Scar swallows. He blinks. The redness around his eyes is less, with the scarred skin. But it is present.]

[a_sin_for_him]

[Lust only holds him, not caring that he's having trouble returning the embrace. That he tries at all means the world to her. When she speaks, her voice is thick with emotion she's struggling to keep from it. Not out of shame or a need for privacy, but simply because she wants to hold herself together for Wrath.

It's clear he's raw with emotion and not in any shape to handle that. Not to mention his age makes it all the harder, so unused to channeling and processing such great and big feelings. She can't begin to imagine what it must be like for him right now, how much is going through his head, how horribly his heart must heart.

But still her eyes sting.]

I've been right here, the whole time. This is where my life and my home are. My real ones.

[She's quick to reassure him of that. Everything that matters to her is right here, her life started in truth when she woke up in this strange world that's become so familiar.]

And I've missed you terribly.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Right here the whole time.]

[If Wrath put even a tiny bit of stock in the concept of 'God' beyond its potent use in waxing melodramatic about things... he would be thanking it. As it is, he doesn't know who or what to thank, but he's thankful. He's so thankful.]

[It doesn't close the searing wound in his soul that he himself cut on that accursed day in the warehouse, but it is a balm. Knowing, even if he still has a hard time wrapping his mind around how it all works, that she was here. Alive here. Okay here.]</sub>

M- ... m... mi-ssed you to-oo...

_{[A hoarse, agonized sound escapes his throat before he can stop it and then the dam busts and he's just sobbing into her shoulder in full earnest. Still more... tempered, than when he was brand new. But... well... he has a lot of crying to make up for.]}

[a_sin_for_him]

[She simply keeps holding him and soothing him, letting him cry it out. Sometimes that's what's needed, a purging of the miserable feelings and everything else. Her hand strokes his hair, his back, murmuring general words and phrases of comfort.

Hearing him cry, feeling hum shudder, it hurts. But god it feels good to be able to hold him again, changed as he is by years and who knew what experiences. Nothing good, his artificial limbs speak to that.

But there will be a time to ask questions later. For now, the only thing that matters is getting him fed and resting.]

When you feel as though you're up to it, I'll fix you some soup. You need proper food. Then you can rest.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[It's safe to say that up close, Wrath's general... state... is all the more obvious. His hair is tangled-- even starting to see the beginnings of matting in a couple places. And he's... well, he'd always been a scrawny thing. But it would seem he has not been keeping himself "well fed", in any case.]

[Complete lack of self-care aside... he'd spent weeks letting this very event build up to almost catastrophic importance in his head, and it has now come to pass with acceptance rather than rejection. Which is GREAT but also that much pressurized anxiety getting dissipated so quickly is... a little disorienting.]

[So he can do little but just lean into that embrace until, eventually, the violent wracking sobs start to slow. When she mentions food, his first response is just a wordless mumble of acknowledgment (he doesn't wanna eat, he wants to stay in the hug dimension...), but then he remembers... and lifts his head at last to look up at Lust properly.]</sub>

... M... my son. Can... can he have some soup, too?

_{[At the mention of his name, the little Cubone peeps over the arm of the couch and very shyly waves his bone-club in greeting. He'd been... sitting there sort of awkwardly during this reunion, figuring this did not seem like something to interrupt!]}

[a_sin_for_him]

Your...

[There's a moment of blank confusion, before the motion in the corner of Lust's eye answers any question she may have. His Pokemon. That's the name of his Pokemon.

That makes sense.]

Oh. Of course. We have plenty of soup. And then it's to bed, you need to rest properly.

[Tomorrow they can worry about getting clean and tackling that hair. One more night won't make any difference at this point. There will be a dozen other things to do, but they can all be done tomorrow. Wrath is home, that's the most important thing.

And she needs the comfort of bed as much as she imagines he does.

It's been another emotionally exhausting evening.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[You know! His son! His child! Your grandbaby!]

[He's coping with some stuff, okay.]

[Wrath loosens from the hug in order to cough wetly into his hand (and not directly onto Lust herself), and Son scoots off of the couch to trundle to his trainer's side, now that the most intense part of this reunion seems to have passed.]</sub>

M'not that hungry, but... soup sounds... good.

_{[He's barely eaten or slept a wink the entire trek from Violet City to here and he knows that's not great, even if he's had barely any appetite. The exhaustion, though, he feels acutely. God, he could lay down right here on the floor.]}