[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

[a_sin_for_him]

"Oh?" There's a hint of curiosity in her voice. What did he have to out pour about this evening? She hadn't thought he and Wrath had gotten particularly close, when they both shared this world before.

Perhaps she'd been wrong.

She leans into him, as he sits beside her, just grateful for the presence of him beside her. He's nice and grounding.

"Are you alright?"

[officerdown]

"Yes," he says easily, hoping to brush any burgeoning worry aside. And that had been the center of Heather's confusion; he's more alright than he's ever been, and it's giving him the bends. He isn't certain it will ever stop shocking his system. His face comes to rest against the crown of her head.

"You..."

Hm. The emotional tide rolls back in, slowly, then all at once.

"You surprised me," he murmurs into her hair, holding onto her a little tighter. "...Again."

It's anything but a bad thing.

[a_sin_for_him]

She looks up at him, as best she can, through her fall of hair. His answer has only confused her further.

"Me? What in the world are you talking about?"

Lust can't think of anything she'd done tonight that's particularly surprising. But at least nothing's the matter.

Still.

What had he been talking to Heather about?

[officerdown]

Scar draws back just enough that he can meet her eyes. He's already struggling to put the sea of emotions that's been washing over him for hours into words, and now that he is zero for two in another party understanding him? And one of those parties being Lust herself?

He didn't appear troubled before, but it does flicker past his eyes, now. The tight thread of shame has been tugging at him all night, for not somehow intuiting all of this. For underestimating her.

"I..."

His grip loosens at her side. Scar's eyes turn down to stare at his knees, instead.

"You've come a very long way," he says quietly, a tremor in his throat. "From when I first found you, and since I was gone."

Surely she's aware of that world of difference. Surely he isn't mad, for being moved by it... Right? He doesn't know what to do, if she can't see as much.

[a_sin_for_him]

"I...."

Lust stops herself. It's easy to forget, just how much time had passed between then and now. She'd lived it. Whatever she's gone through, it's been a slow and gradual thing. But to him it was anything but.

Of course she's aware. Introspection has never been something she avoids. Her own sense of self, the concept of who she is...god knows how many of her nights have sacrificed sleep in favor of pondering that.

At least most of those nights were in the past.

"I suppose I just think of it as having found myself. Though it's not something I think about as much these days."

[officerdown]

There's quiet, for a moment. Scar leans closer to Lust's height, searching for her eyes, earnest and weary.

"I'm proud of you," he says quietly, certainly. He hasn't said so, enough.

[a_sin_for_him]

Lust shifts, shrugging a little, awkward under the praise. From him, it's earnest and without a touch or hint of simply being kind. He isn't that sort. But there's a warmth, too, at hearing the words. Seeing how he looks at her.

"It's really nothing," she mumbles. "I just needed time being human to remember being human, I suppose."

Well, that and some Pokemon magic every so often. That had certainly helped, and was none of her doing.

[officerdown]

"It's many things, but nothing is not among them," he counters quietly as he reaches for her bangs, gently brushing a stray curl back. Scar sorts through his thoughts slowly, carefully. Even the unspoken lies in delicate balance.

"Both myself and the boy may know as much better than anyone," he adds, a streak of grim humor flickering across his eyes, still earnest in their intensity. The vestigial image of her cruelty still finds its way into his nightmares. The contrast may have been impossible for him to reconcile, were he anyone but himself-- the closest thing to something dead that got to keep its eyes and skin and memory. "I had an inkling that there was more than I knew, but... I've demanded enough answers from you, over the years."

[a_sin_for_him]

"I never saw reason to bring it up, after you came back."

To what end? Wrath had been gone for some time then, she'd dealt with it as best she could and put it away in the quiet dark of her mind.

"I didn't intend it. What he came to mean to me. I didn't intend to be responsible for him. But..."

Somehow it had happened. She couldn't even tell Scar when or how, there hadn't been any true defining moment. It had started, at least, that night Wrath had had a nightmare. he'd woken up calling out for his mother, and she'd gone to his bedside without thought.

It had grown from there, slowly.

[officerdown]

Scar only nods at her reasoning. Sincerely, he wouldn't have considered it his business. Certainly not when he had been dead. The thought makes his head spin. It happens less, with the passage of time, but like all of the pains woven into their fabric, it never disappears.

"Then he is my responsibility as well," he says quietly, affirming what has already been implied between them throughout the evening. He suspects it doesn't need saying, that she already knows, but the act of putting it to words carries a weight of its own.

His hand tightens at her side as the tide washes over him, again. She's something of a miracle, bastardization of the term though it may be. It isn't the first time thought has seeped into his mind tonight, but here it is again, manifesting in how closely he holds her at his side, how warm his eyes are on her in spite of his frown.

[a_sin_for_him]

"It would be good for him. He's never had that."

Lust's voice is quiet, strained in the particular way that indicates she's more emotional than she cares to let on. Emotions around Wrath are complicated. But Scar should know, he's a part of this strange little 'family' now.

"He's never had anything resembling a proper family, really. We do our best. I know I'm not perfect, but God knows I'm better than any other mother he's ever had. I try."

It's all that she can do, and something in her compels her to do it. He's still so young, he has so much better a chance than she and Envy, to move beyond all the misery of their previous lives. To grow and learn as a boy should.

He deserves that.

[officerdown]

Scar's throat aches as Lust speaks. His hand strokes a soothing pattern on her side when her voice pulls tight. There's a terrible temptation to scoop all of her off the bed and into his arms, but she's been jostled around enough tonight, even if only emotionally.

"He suits us perfectly, then," he rumbles, lowering himself just enough to gently tap his forehead to the side of hers.

She thinks he would be good for him. It crashes over Scar's head like every other little revelation that she's brought him, warm and lovely and too bright to stare directly into. He's determined not to intrude, for the boy's sake, but in near equal force is giddy desperation, uncovered for what it is for the first time.

This is one of many things they, by all rights, should not have. And it isn't even one of the many that they ever speak on.

"I remember him, as he was before. You can set the bar a fair deal higher than try."

He won't let her sell herself short, right now. Not even in a short aside, not even a single notch. He remembers their first excuse for a 'date' entirely too well. The memory makes the corner of his mouth quirk up. What's one more bit of irony, on top of the rest?

[a_sin_for_him]

"That just means I do very well when I try." She wasn't putting herself down. Trying takes effort, whether one succeeds or one doesn't. And god knows she puts a great deal of effort into trying with Wrath.

Sometimes she falls a bit short, but really, it's not as though she's read child rearing books. And perhaps sometimes her knowledge is a bit outdated, she's working with common knowledge of essentially decades ago.

"He's a good boy. He really is. Just...he had a very difficult start."

The details of which aren't hers to share, but Scar certainly knows by now that none of them had a good start.

"But he's going to have a good life, here." For as long as he remains, this time. Perhaps it will stick. It has for her and Envy.

[officerdown]

"I know the sort." Wrath is far, far from the first troubled young man to stumble into Scar's life. He recognized as much in the homunculus boy immediately.

He thinks of Rick. He thinks of Leo. There is an ache in his chest, alongside the glitter of anticipation and possibility. He wishes he could have even a last moment with them to say good-bye. On most days, it's little more than a quiet ache among all the others. Tonight, it roils to the surface.

For a moment, more than anything, Scar wishes he could be home.

He gathers Lust closer beside him.

"We'll make certain of it," he murmurs into her hair. A moment follows in which he says nothing. Then, through the heaviness in his throat, gently amused, "I'm fixing his spelling."

[a_sin_for_him]

"I was teaching him how to read and write, but I'm afraid his education suffered an interruption."

Really, it's a miracle he can read and write the way he can. But Lust's voice is warm with humor. Scar is welcome to take over that particular task.

"I think I still have a box of workbooks, tucked away somewhere. The ones real teachers use."

She'd made sure to get proper ones. So he could have a proper education. Where else was he going to get it in this lifetime? It's not as though they could send him to school.

With a small sigh, she leans her weight into Scar and rests against his side. The evening has worn her out efficiently. It's nice to unwind like this, quietly talking and curled into one another.

[officerdown]

"Something to dig out tomorrow," he agrees, weariness winning him over the more time he spends in their private space. He sighs through his nose nearly in tandem with her.

"Heather was kind to me, tonight, my utterly baffling her aside," he adds quietly as another moment passes. Half of a nonsequitur, but one he thinks is worth pointing out, given their... history. It is related, despite everything. This unlikely home keeps itself together better and better, with time. One of many one-in-a-million surprises that have come with this world.