#grccndragon

          WITH EVERYTHING GOING DOWN WITH THE WHOLE FRIEND GROUP, GABRIEL KNEW THAT SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE. Naturally, the first idea he had was to take his family ( Fievel, Kit, and himself ) out to the beach.

     It wasn’t too crowded, which was a little odd for a weekend-- but Gabriel wasn’t about to complain. Not if it meant more space to chill out with the two most important people in his life. ‘Gabriel, that’s Gay™,’ he knew Fievel would say if he heard the thought. His only response, however, would have just been that the joke was on him, considering they were both gay together.

     Stabbing an umbrella pole into the sand as if it were someone who threatened to harm his loved ones, two large blankets were laid out before he moved to sit, his attention quickly moving to watch Kit try to start building a sandcastle. It was cute, even if she had a lot of trouble with it at first.

     For the most part, though, he was just happy to lay there on blankets and sand with Fievel. They didn’t get to do this sort of thing very often-- not with Fievel being on tour with his band so much. Gabriel was just happy to have what time they could have together--- with him and their daughter.

     A daughter who seemed to have given up on perfecting her sandcastle halfway through after another little boy had walked by and kicked over what little castle had been created so far. That one action sent their little girl standing and going after the other boy, only getting one arm punch in before her parents went after her.

“Kit-- Kit, honey, no-- you can’t just go punch a boy like that.”

“He kicked over my castle, daddy! He needs to pay.”

Lord, where did she learn such behavior?

Wait. No, Gabriel knew exactly where she had probably learned it. But he would have to give Ariel a talking to much later. This was supposed to be a nice day for the family. Lecturing his own older sister about things to teach his daughter was definitely not on the list for such a time.

With Fievel apologizing to the other child’s mother, Gabriel managed to pull Kit back over to their own pile of beach apparel to sit her down and help her rebuild her castle.

     IT WASN’T SOMETHING SAGE EXPECTED TO HEAR DURING ONE OF THE FRIEND GROUP’S GET-TOGETHERS AT ROCKY’S BAR. Fawn had immediately made a beeline for the bar and gotten so smashed-- the only way he felt he would have been able to drop such an information bomb on everyone.

     Everyone sat and listened about what Fawn had gone through. What the fucking band manager had put him through-- the abuse ( in more ways than one ), among other things. It hit Sage like a brick to the stomach, hearing everything. It made a lot of things over the years make a lot more sense, though. Fawn’s whole thing about staying out of sight of people. Being far quieter than he’d been before. But Sage had thought he’d tried his best to be there for his little brother. He’d tried with the tree incident, but this? This was something else altogether.

     It wasn’t enough. He hadn’t done enough. He couldn’t save Fawn. Why hadn’t he tried hard enough?

     Maddox knew. Rocky knew. Looking over to the other two sitting across the room didn’t reveal too many emotions, or at least not from Maddox. He just looked tired and like he didn’t want to be there in the building. Like he didn’t care about anything. Nobody could blame him for that, though, he’d been through a lot of shit lately, too, with Dawn and Eliza gone-- Sage still wished he could have been able to do more to help him, too.

     Rocky, though? The look on Rocky’s face told Sage that she’d absolutely known and she was Sage’s best friend. His platonic soulmate. They practically told each other everything--- except for this. This was a big thing that she’d kept hidden. The fact that Sage is a GODDAMN UNCLE, and has been for a little while now.

     Fawn was far too drunk to really get himself anywhere, so Sage could only stand and watch as Rocky carefully helped his brother to the back of the bar-- either to lay down or do something else to sober up a little bit, he couldn’t know for sure.

All Sage really knew was that he needed to get out of there. He needed air. He had a lot to think over. Would he keep talking to Rocky for the foreseeable future? He couldn’t know. It was a big thing to keep from him. All Sage wanted was to be able to protect his sibling. He couldn’t even do that.

     IT HAD BEEN A REALLY DUMB AND AWFUL COMMENT MADE BY THEIR GRANDPARENTS. Christmas dinner was always a time of awkwardness and tension galore, considering their views on things, and this time was no different. Being the youngest of everyone at fifteen years old, neither Dakota nor Gabriel really had any say in whether or not they had to stick it out.

At some point in the dinner, a grandmother or a grandfather ( Gabriel really couldn’t remember at this point ) had made an offhand comment about how ‘gays were going to hell’. On top of everything else, that had been the straw that broke the camel’s back and brought Dakota to stand up immediately and start walking out the door.

          “Where are you going?” his grandmother had asked. Dakota only seemed to look both her and his grandfather dead in the eyes before answering.

          “To hell, apparently.”

          Within moments, he was continuing to head back out the front door.

Nobody spoke for a little while after that--- nobody really knew what to say. If anything, that definitely wouldn’t have been the way Dakota would have wanted to come out to his family, but what was done was done.

Slowly, one by one, everyone started to react.

Ariel and Dusk stared at each other in shock, slowly mouthing the words ‘holy shit’ at each other.

     Thorn stayed quiet while parents and grandparents alike started arguing, but she managed to send a text to Dakota to make sure he would be able to get somewhere safe to stay--- somewhere out of the cold, if he wasn’t going to be coming back to the house for the rest of the night.

Gabriel, though?

     Gabriel knew that if he let his brother leave now, he might never get to patch things up. He knows he’s been an idiot about things, especially when it came to thinking he was losing his friendship with his brother-- his best friend. If he didn’t fix things now, he might never get the chance to.

So what does he do?

Gabriel actually got up and went after his twin, grabbing two jackets on the way out and putting one of them on in the process.

Running was dangerous, especially with all the snow and ice on the sidewalks-- but Gabriel didn’t care, he needed to catch up to Dakota. He HAD to. And if it had to be at the cost of getting a faceful of dirt and ice somewhere down the line because he had no sense of balance? That would just have to be the risk he had to take.

          “Dakota, wait!” another slip, but he somehow catches himself and keeps running, despite no answer from his brother who keeps walking. “---’Koda! Koda, please, listen to me!”

Soon enough, he catches up and immediately notices his brother shivering ( well, no shit, he left in the middle of the night on Christmas, of all nights )-- which brings him to hand over one of the two he’d grabbed before.

          “Leave me alone, Gabriel.”

          “Put this on before you freeze, dumbass.” not the best thing he could have said in the moment, but the kid was making an effort here.

          “Look--” a pause to catch his breath and shove his, now free, hands into his pockets. This was hard.

          “I know that-- that we’ve kind of been not on the greatest of terms lately. I never meant for things to- to get this bad. Sometimes I can be a dumb jealous bitch, okay? We’ve always grown up as the best of friends, and with the whole growing closer to Fievel thing happening-- I thought I was going to lose you.”

Lavender eyes twitched their gaze from the ground to the piles of snow in the gutters to his shoelaces-- before finally moving back up to see if his brother was listening.

Dakota didn’t seem to be completely ignoring him, so- at least it was a start. Gabriel draws in a breath.

          “If you go away, you’re seriously taking my heart with you, bro. On top of our distancing from each other, it’s breaking my heart. I can’t force you to come back home or stay, but-- maybe we can try and fix things together? I can’t fix what’s going on with Nana or Pops, but fuck their opinions, man. I support you. You deserve to be happy, and if that means finding a guy who’ll do that for you? Who makes you genuinely happy? Then goddammit, I'll help you do that, too.”

He swore to himself that he wasn’t going to cry, but he could feel that familiar heat building behind his eyes-- get back in there, tears, now is not the time to wimp out.

          “....I can’t go back home, Gabe.” words were quiet, but at least it was something. At least Dakota was actually saying something to him that wasn’t centered around telling his brother to go away. Gabriel pulls one hand out of his pocket to set it on his brother’s shoulder.

          “So don’t. We’ll call one of the other guys and have them come pick us up--- that is...if-- if you’re okay with me coming with. Are we- are we cool?”

Silence.

          “I want us to be able to fix things. But it might take some time,” Finally an answer, as Dakota pulls his jacket tighter around himself. “...Do you think Maddox would let us stay at his place?”

A small smile on Gabriel’s part.

          “Knowing him? There’s no doubt about it. He might drag us in his tiger form to his place just to get us out of the cold.”

I've never given into madness, never given into madness I keep an eye on the chamber door, but I'm better now than before No, I never really panicked-- no, I never really panicked You inhale 'till your lungs get sore, but that's not who I am anymore

Though Nathan was always prone to stressing out about the people he cared about, he never let it get so far that he couldn’t function. Distracting himself with taking care of his son was the best he could do-- after all, Xavier needed him. He couldn’t just bail on the kid because of worry.

Even if he was constantly worried about Tiger, it had taken time to lessen enough to be manageable. Spending time day in and day out doing nothing but panicking didn’t get things done. It didn’t get lunches packed for a child, it didn’t get household chores done. It certainly didn’t magically get songs written on their own.

But stirs of whispers trail and linger, you still haunt the corner of my eye The remnant faces fleeting traces of you haunt the corner of my eye Oh, echoes of you, echoes of you Repeating from the beating of your tell-tale heart Oh, echoes of you, echoes of you Repeating from the beating of your heart Of your heart-- of your heart now

Time passes slowly ( even painfully ) when you miss someone. Someone that you’d fallen head over heels for, and when they leave, it means you have to lie about who the other parent of your child is. But every day that passes, Nathan can always clearly see bits of Tiger-Lily in Xavier’s face.

Every day that passes is another clear reminder that Nathan had never fallen out of love with Tiger. There were times over the years when the two would text or call each other, but somewhere down the road, it had stopped. That didn’t mean his love had stopped, though. Anyone who knew him any sort of amount knew that Nathan had been in love with someone--

You know I tried to make it vanish, I just want to make it vanish But the notes of an old mistake still ring louder every day From a little to a manic, a cacophony of frantic A relentless refrain is the only thing that remains

There were times when Nathan had to force himself to not think about things just in order to get through the day. The fact that Xavier had features similar to those of two of his friends-- Fievel and Tanya Smirnov. Nathan couldn’t have known that they were all related, not unless Tiger told him, personally.

But stirs of whispers trail and linger, you still haunt the corner of my eye The remnant faces fleeting traces of you haunt the corner of my eye But stirs of whispers trail and linger, you still haunt the corner of my eye The remnant faces fleeting traces of you haunt the corner of my eye Can't stop my falling now, who said don't look down? Can't stop my falling now ( who said )-- you said don't look down I can't stop myself from falling now ( who said )-- you said don't look down I can't stop myself from falling now ( who said )-- you said don't look down I can't stop myself from falling now ( who said )-- you said don't look down I can't stop myself from falling now ( who said )-- you said don't look down I thrust my fist into the post, I still insist I see the ghosts I can't stop myself falling now, don't look down

No matter how much he tried to deny or fight things, Nathan knew one thing first and foremost--- there would never be a day where he would ever end up letting go of his feelings or his falling for Tiger. He could never let himself look down, for fear of any sort of regret ( not that he ever thought there would be any possibility of regretting his time of knowing the other, but nobody else could know for sure ).

Tiger was the best person he’d ever met, and because of this, they had Xavier.