#x; flashforward

Monday, November 21 -- Back to the Future Thread: Write either a flashback or a flashforward thread with another mun! (This could be an existing connection or a connection that could possibly happen 10 years in the future! Should be 10+/- years in the past/future.)

@moon-yeongjun​

Gregory was back in Swynlake. 

It had been a while, hadn’t it? Gregory couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about that small fact. It had been over seven years since he’d managed to get back home to the place he’d grown up, but.. Gregory knew that once he left, he’d be hard pressed to want to come back. He supposed no one could blame him, after all he’d been through - but Gregory had to imagine that Swynlake had hospitalized him enough, right? 

So when he’d been accepted in the paid-internship position as the Magical Creature Caretaker apprentice at the Australian Zoo? Gregory hadn’t even hesitated a second before confirming his position. From there... everything had seemed to happen so fast. He’d been prepared for this - his shop left in incredibly trustworthy hands, his animals processed and screened for the trip with him. He’d packed, prepped, and said his heartfelt goodbyes to everything he knew so that he could jet off to start his new journey. 

It was only meant to be for six months. However...the paid internship quickly turned into another. ....And another. At first he’d even come home a few times, coming back to spend holidays with his family. To see his friends. To check in on the usual Swynlake nonsense. ...Until one day, the Zoo made him an offer he couldn’t refuse - a full time position as the head of their animal curator and care team. A position he happy announced the last time he’d come home - right before he’d gotten caught right in the middle of another brutal Swynlake disaster. 

It had put everything on hold. Having to defer his acceptance into the position while he recovered and recouped before he could even manage to get back to Australia. When he did he was fortunate enough to find that they’d held onto the offer for him. Allowing him to step into the role he’d always dreamed of, and... all too easily Gregory hadn’t looked back. Days turned into months, and months turned into years, and Greg had not once gone back to Swynlake. Instead, people came to him. His parents. A few friends. It was... better that way. Gregory was much happier. Healthier. Safer. 

But... he had to come home eventually... right? As much as he wanted to, Gregory couldn’t just run from Swynlake for the rest of his life. And so... Seven years later - here Gregory was again, smelling that crisp Swynlake Autumn air as he left his parents house and made a journey he used to take almost every day so many years prior. 

In a way - stepping back onto Moon Farm was like stepping back home. Memories existed in every direction in which Gregory looked, from the chicken coop that Tae had built all those years ago, to the goat pen he’d spent so many of his mornings in. The fence Jun and himself had rebuilt, the open fields in which he’d go to clear his mind. The exact place in which he’d stood when he told Jun he was moving. If he listened hard enough, he swore he could still hear the man’s proud words in the rustling of the wind-blown leaves. 

As Gregory pushed himself onto the porch, his knuckles knocked against the hard wood just once before he paused, knocking again in a similar pattern he had adopted long ago when he’d lost his ability to speak. His own little ‘code’ he’d had to signify it was him. His chest tightened then, as the door began to open - only really finally getting hit with the realization of how long it’d been since he’d seen his friend. How they’d gone from seeing each other most of the week to Gregory having not seen his mentor in person in years. The reality of how much he’d missed him.