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_____She tucked away the information that Jasper wanted to see them. She wanted him to see all of them too, even if she knew part of her family would turn their noses up at him and snarl. Maybe even threaten him, but they were family. Maybe they would understand that or maybe she was just chasing a pipe dream. “Oh it was, was it?” There really wasn't that much of an age gap between them, hardly enough to make sense for any sort of generational span. “I guess that means that mine isn't that far off either.” Was it already that late into the year? She felt like it hadn't been all that long since she had left him at the other side of the mountain, but soon autumn and its coat of many colours would be on them. “I'd make an old man joke here, but I think that could almost get turned around on me.”
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He smiled, and a chunk of hair fell into his face. Though he felt old, he really wasn’t that aged, compared to others. For the de le Poer house, though, it was reaching. Four was a magical age, which people reached and then died. They didn’t live that long, falling to disease, violence, whatever took them. “Jasper thought he would be funny to call me grandpa when he found out about Gabe’s kids,” he said, shaking his hair out of his face and looking at the tawny female. “He’ll be two this year,” the blonde added, almost as an afterthought. A pause. “Christ, I was his age when I had you guys.”
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_____“I guess we all grew up pretty fast,” she said, not really feeling the age thing at all herself. Jasper didn't seem like he would already be two years old either, but he didn't act nearly as old as he was. He probably wouldn't either, as shy and reclusive as he was. But maybe, she thought one day he would turn out to be more than just a little boy. But she also knew of the significance in her father's age and quietly hoped his end would be in sight like those before him. “And now you're a grandfather,” she added onto his words with a forming smile. She wanted to laugh about that, but didn't. It seemed surreal. “I wonder if any of the others have had children. Conway was really taken with that one girl when we were in France.” How many times over was she possibly an aunt already without knowing it?
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“Yeah,” he echoed, and took another drag. They were all grown up, all of them. Even Jasper, who was still a boy in many respects. At the mention of her brother, Ahren frowned a little, wondering what exactly had happened to all his children. They had scattered to the four corners of the earth and he doubted they would come here anytime soon. “Who knows,” the blonde offered, smoke pouring from his mouth. “I wouldn’t doubt if Mab and Bowie had some kids of their own, now that we all got out of her hair.”
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_____“I'm sure that they have by now. With all of us gone, I would imagine it got very quiet around there quickly.” Now that she assumed her cousin had liked all of them crammed into the same place. Always there, always making noise. Children that got into everything and set things on fire. She hadn't been much of a help where she should have been during that time either, always staying out of the way and to herself. Always instigating something when she felt like it. “I should have been a better sibling to them,” she said rather abruptly, looking towards the ground once again. “I probably should have been more of a help to you then too.” Yet it was a little late to regret what had already been done, but at least she was learning not to pause on them so much. She understood what she hadn't before and in that regard, had grown up.
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He started at her words, and frowned again, taking another drag on the cigarette. It was almost to his fingers now, and he could feet the heat. “No,” he said, exhaling and pushing his hair out of his face again. “I should have been a better father.” Then, he let out a half-laugh, and looked down again, hair spilling back into his face. “Figured I had enough practice, ja?”
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_____She laughed at his comment, but it was short. “You did the best you could. You were young, after all, younger than most fathers usually are.” And it wasn't like he had a very good upbringing either. Corona didn't know all of the parts and pieces to it, but what she did know told her that he had probably tried to give them the things that he hadn't. Just in the same way that Gabriel gave Talitha the things that he hadn't had. “You're still doing the best you can.” Fighting whatever illness it was that was keeping them down, still giving the time and the attention to children that clung to him tightly when he could have very well told them all to go die in a fire somewhere. He could have left them all behind and gone to see the rest of the world. He could have just kept running and never stop.
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Once, he believed he could run. Take off without regrets or concerns, and run forever. Then his heart had blown out and he had lost his legs in the war and come crashing down to earth, breaking his wings as he did so. Now he was an earthbound man, half-blind and crippled, nearly useless. Where would he go? What could he possibly do? It had been luck and luck alone that kept him alive this long. There were still a great number of people out there who wanted him dead. “I guess so,” he said, looking back up to the sky. “I’m just sorry it took this long.”
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_____She was sorry that it had taken it that long too. But it still didn't stop her from wishing that she could have turned back time to the beginning. To relive the moments when everything had seemed perfect and not such a screwed up train wreck that it had become. Before her mother had gone away, before she had more children, before he had been forced to leave the coast by Segodi. To go back that far when the only thing mattered was whether they were all accounted for at the end of the day. “We both grew up,” she said with a sad smile. “It's easier to see the folly in all of it after it's all said and done.” Even if it took time, they'd always come around to realising their mistakes.
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There was no such thing as a happy ending, or once upon a time. The heroes did not go off into distant sunsets and live in glory forever. Princes and kings (both of which Ahren had been) wound up on the streets. Cities crumbled and castles became vacant. In the end, there was only themselves, only the ego and the id and that was all they ever really had. In the end, they would all be alone. “Yeah,” he said, though his voice was distant and his eyes unfocused. “I suppose so.”
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