Obediance is Key.

After everything that had happened, after getting thrown out of the midnight manor for beating one of the slaves unconscious Zack took off. First into the skies, which wasn’t a smart idea, but he powered through the rippling pain that ached his wings and back. His flight wasn’t graceful or pretty, and he kept dipping in altitude a few times. But he didn’t stop until he was as far away from the manor as possible. His teeth chattering, eyes stinging, skin prickled from the cold.

He lands and almost automatically sneezes a couple times and shivers, but he ignores it. From there he walks, he doesn’t know how far, but he walks all the way until he reaches a town. He finds some place to at least warm up his hands so he could unlock his phone and call for a ride.

It takes him a while to get home. Nugget and Crovi are immediately happy to see him, though become concerned when he doesn’t react. Nugget grabs a blanket and wraps it around the blond as he shuffles by, worried about his owner as he just sits on the couch. The Pokemon shuffles into the kitchen and before Zack knows it, he has a cup of black coffee in his hands. Surprised, the blond looks up and blinks at the Blaziken.

“Thanks.”

The next morning, Zack got up, called his son and told him that he was coming over. David stammered on the other line, looking around his messy apartment and grumbled at his dad. When asked why the sudden want for a visit, Zack told him that he would explain when he got there. David wanted to complain but he dropped it, his pops sounded tired so he figured it wasn’t worth it. He warned him about the mess but said he would see him soon.

The visit was a lot more emotional than Zack intended it to be, but the moment he had gotten the boy into his arms he started crying. He couldn’t imagine what his life would have been like if he lost David, he would never be able to even try to understand how Des must be feeling losing his older Brother like he did. Even the idea had sent Zack running to visit his (not so) little boy just to hug him. Sure he had called him and left him a voicemail a few nights previous but it just wasn’t enough for his old mind.

With Dirk finally in place, unable to dodge or avoid his attacks Zack finally landed the punch he had been aiming for so badly. He hadn’t legitly fought someone out of anger for so long that it was almost a small spike of adrenaline as his fist connected with others face. 

For everything that had happened, for all Des had gone through, this was all for him. Zack knew it wasn’t what Des wanted, but it’s what he thought would work best. Striders were known to be stubborn and they can either talk shit out and be emotional dweebs, or they have to fight it out to get the message through. And Zack had tried to talk to him, sure he was aggressive but Dirk didn’t step up and pull through, so it had come to this. A second punch landed, a soft grunt wheezed from the blond below as he flinched and took the hit. 

Zack was shaking by now, angry, disappointed, vengeful, and sad as the lip split beneath his scaled knuckles, blood smearing over the greyish stained tanned skin. He just couldn’t wrap it around his head why Dirk was so adamant about Des being better off without him and it hurt. Especially last night. Memories of holding Des back from the fire damaged home as he screamed for his brother, crying that he couldn’t leave him, that he needed him. It had sent shockwaves emotions through Zack as he had held the screaming boy. And after all that, when he realized that his Bro was no longer there, that he wasn’t coming out of the destroyed house, Des broke down. Shaking and in tears, calling out instead for Dirk. 

He pulled back into the present after his third strike rang true, catching him on the left side of the face for the second time. Emotions twisted Zacks' gut and he felt disgusted, with the whole situation not just what was going on. He hated that it came to this, he hated fighting between family members. He might end up taking off for a bit after this, as long as Des was in good hands, to go spend time with his son. 

With tears in his eyes and expression a mix of anger and despair, Zack reared back for another punch, but thankfully the guards had finally stepped in. He struggled as he was pulled off, someone grabbed him by the elbow, another by his other arm as he was pulled off of the blond who was just laying on the floor. A series of squawking distressed noises spewed forth before Zack finally found his voice. “What’d we fucking learn??!” He snarled as he was heaved back towards the exit of the Hold. “Fucking fix this! Your only Brother needs you, fucking do something!!”

When the two of them were getting ready to leave, Zack made sure to shake hands with the large troll. Both thanking him for watching over Des and apologizing for the issues that had happened over the course of the cycle. He stood back and watched Des give his own goodbyes as well before the both of them made their way back to Midnight Manor. 

Upon arriving Zack was hardly surprised as Eve practically threw herself at Des who was caught off guard a little by the sudden attention. He watched as the younger Strider was then distracted by a rather cute girl who also jumped him, before turning to wrap the sheep troll in a hug of his own and press a few kisses to her cheeks. It was a cute little moment and it did the both of them some good, but sadly all good things are short-lived since Life was notorious for being a bitch.

Shortly after the greetings had happened, while Jade and Des were being cute with their first meeting, something caught the Crow’s attention out of his peripheral. Wings haunched almost instantly above his head, fluffing up at the snap of disgust and anger spiked. One moment he was standing by Eve’s side, and with a small shift, the blond birdman was gone in the blink of an eye. Suddenly he reappeared, across the lounge and before the guards had time to react, he pulled back a tightly curled fist and launched it right for the apathetic pair of shades.

“I’m depressed and I want to kill myself” “Oh, just stop being sad.” “Yes, thank you this fixes everything. Why didn’t I think of this myself? Thank you person who knows how to fix things that I could not.”

Kids got a cute ass laugh that should be illegal.