Room to Grow

"Room to Grow" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread started on [IRL DATE] and finished on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
It was a day he had been dreading, but knew it would come all the same.
The idea of heading back to that tent so soon felt much like a betrayal; Dario’s acceptance that what must happen would come to pass. The stag was never certain if he would feel anything as strongly as he did during Yun’s encounter with Frigga, but the sunken heart in the pit of his stomach was fighting to prove him wrong with every second that went by without him putting on a brave face and seeing off his friend.
Despite his head’s persistence that he needed to return to the tent, Dario stayed seated at the table. He was sure that, at some point, he’d gather up the courage… but for this one moment, he could justify being alone in the chair that he could only now see as Yun’s.
foresight-botgd
Outside the front door, there was a sudden chime of familiar laughter, and then it opened, with two short figures stopping abruptly in the threshold. Yun looked nervously back at Milae, but the goat was already pushing him inside, and Yun conceded, holding the door open long enough to let his mentor in, too.
“Hi, Dario.” His emotions pendulumed back and forth between his previous happiness and a sinking anxiety. His fingers nervously came up to grab at his bag strap, already a clear sign of what he was planning to do.
dario-the-deer
“Hey bud.”
Dario stood, though not with his usual urgency. The pressure in his chest was overwhelming, but there was no time to let himself be consumed by grief. This was a good thing.
“Did… did you get a chance to see everyone? I heard how happy the Ericson lot were to see you.”
foresight-botgd
“Mhm. I saw Akkey and Hunter and Aria, too. And…Juro. Juro’s awake.” He bit his lower lip, fumbling his fingers together. “So I’m…”
dario-the-deer
“Oh.”
Dario couldn’t place where the surprise was coming from. He was thrilled to hear of Juro’s recovery, and glad to know that Yun wouldn’t be forced to wander in a world that was never meant for him, but even then, his heart wanted to remain selfish and unwilling to let go of his friend.
“Yeah… yeah. I’m really happy for you, buddy.” There was an almost imperceptible voice crack as he spoke that stopped his words. The stag could feel his fingers bouncing off of each other, almost in perfect time with his now trembling lower lip.
“I… I’m going to miss you a lot, Yun.”
foresight-botgd
It was instant–Yun sprinted across the house and squeezed Dario around the middle, burying his face just below his ribs. “It’s okay,” he said, words spilling, “I’m coming back, when I’ve got enough power, I can come back whenever I want and I’ll come see you, okay?” Yun rubbed his hands up and down the half-breed’s lower back, trying to comfort, even though he knew there was probably little to be found for him.
dario-the-deer
Dario crumbled instantly, letting himself fall into a kneeling stance and enveloped Yun in the tightest embrace he could ever remember giving. He had only but a few in this world that he could call a friend, and even fewer that meant as much to them as the seidkonur. His head pressed heavily into Yun’s neck, desperate to keep him present for as long as the fates would let him.
“I am… I am so proud of you, Yun.” His voice was raspy and plagued with obvious distress. Dario surrendered any efforts of keeping his tears back. “You don’t worry about us here. I just… I want you to be happy.”
foresight-botgd
“I am.” Yun draped himself over Dario’s broad shoulders, soaking him in. “But I know it’s not fair to you either.”
Yun disentangled himself and reached for the strap hanging from his shoulder, unclipping it as he kept talking. “So I’m making you a promise, okay? This is all my stuff from staying here. It’s pretty important. I still have medical stuff, I have the bits from Milae teaching me how to sew, I have that journal I was keeping, I have my medicine, my clothes. All that.” He held the bag out to Dario. “I cut myself off from all of it, even though it’s pretty important stuff. So I want you to keep it safe while I’m gone, and remember that you have it. Because I’m coming back for it. I don’t know exactly when, but…” He gave a sheepish smile. “One of my favorite shirts is in here. Can’t leave that behind. So I…I hope it helps when I’m away.”
dario-the-deer
His eyes fixated on the bag, held by hands that had grown familiar; hands that he never wanted to be a stranger to.
“Th… thank you, Yun. This…”
The bag was only in his possession for a moment before it was on the ground. Dario pulled Yun back into him, knowing that eventually the opportunity would not be there to do so. He let himself cry for some time, still very aware of how anxious Yun was to leave, but physically unable to separate himself. His hand reached up to run through Yun’s hair one last time. His breathing steadied after a while, giving him the composure to finally speak again without breaking.
“You are brave, you are strong, and you have the biggest heart of anyone I know. I will forever be so thankful that fate let our lives intertwine, even if only for a brief moment…”
Dario pulled himself away, a display of gross post-crying facial features and a fractured smile that carried a genuine happiness for Yun.
“…and if you ever find yourself struggling to see the good you give to the world, just promise me that you will love yourself as I love you.”
foresight-botgd
Yun held Dario’s face cupped in his hands, and leaned forward and touched foreheads and noses, rubbing his thumbs back and forth over his cheeks. “I’d be lucky to even give myself half that much,” he whispered, his own face flushed and wet. “But I can try. You made me what I am just as much as he did. Way nicer, though.” Yun tilted his chin over his shoulder, and Milae scoffed slightly through his own emotions. “Make sure he takes care of himself, okay?”
Dario was thankful for the laugh that managed to escape. He winked at Milae, knowing that this could only hurt worse for him.
“I don’t need to be the one to tell you that I can exercise no control over him… but for you, I will try.” Dario lowered his forehead to Yun’s, knowing that it was time. The stag rose to his feet, feeling lightheaded as he did so. “I… I don’t want to keep you any longer than I already have. I’m sure you’re ready to go.”
foresight-botgd
“Yeah, but you needed it.” Yun bent down to give Dario his bag back, and then slowly turned to look at the goat half-breed standing in the light of the door, afternoon sun glinting an auburn halo around his head and neck. Once so foreign and alien to him, now Yun could read him as well as a human, and it only made the mix of relief, pride, and sorrow on his face far more clear.
Yun stepped up and took his hooves, and looked him in the square-pupiled eye. “We did it,” he said, almost faint with the realization.
“You did it,” Milae affirmed solemnly, and Yun shook his head, grabbing him by the forearms and aligning his fingers with the thick scars in his skin.
“Yeah, but no way in Hel am I ever gonna let someone believe I did it all by myself. And if they did, I’d…” He paused. “Well, I don’t know. But I’d make sure they knew they were wrong.” He pressed his thumbs against Milae’s old seal. “However you feel about it now, that power was yours, even though I was the one using it. And you showed me how. I got here not even knowing how to swing a staff, and you…” Yun’s throat swelled, and Milae held the side of his face tenderly.
“What I taught you, I knew you already had within you. We were simply finding it, together.”
“Whatever, come here.” Yun grabbed Milae by the upper arms and gave him a huge, encompassing hug, and the goat hung his neck over Yun’s shoulder. The seidkonur could feel the old goat’s body shaking, as he knew he was holding back his emotions for the present, waiting for Yun to be gone to fully release. That was fine by him.
“If–” Milae’s words suddenly started tumbling out. “If something happens, someone comes after you, and I–and you can’t–”
“Hey.” Yun squeezed him tighter, stopping him. “Don’t think like that, or you’re not gonna let me go. We’ll deal with things one at a time. Okay? I’ll be alright. I have Jin.”
Milae sniffed heavily and pressed his face against Yun’s. “Thank him for me. For doing what I can’t, while you’re gone.”
“I will, I promise.” After several minutes, the two finally found it in them to part and step back, and Yun backed into the sunlight while Milae moved by Dario’s side, finding his hand and holding it tightly. Milae ached everywhere, but it was something he wouldn’t trade the world for, knowing that his second half had come through for them. Yun took a huge breath, shook out his arms and wrists, and looked up at the couple watching him. He was silhouetted in gold and amber light, like an illusion. “Ég elska þig, dádýr, geit.”
dario-the-deer
Dario could feel Milae’s grip tighten at Yun’s words of endearment. If not for how deeply he felt everything in the moment, seeing Yun like this almost seemed like a dream. He could remember the first time they hugged, after his antlers unceremoniously separated from his head; the horrifically embarrassing misread during their meeting; the seidkonur falling asleep with him while the goat and deer healed after their encounter with Sylar… he could remember quelling Yun’s fears in this same room. There were so many things that they had already done, and so many things that time could not gift to them.
The deer half-breed swallowed, forcing out the words he so badly wanted to say with his tight throat keeping them to a soft whisper.
“Ég elska þig líka, vinur minn.”
foresight-botgd
“Ég elska þig,” Milae said in the same hoarse tone. 
Yun’s chest swelled, and he grinned and nodded at both of the half-breeds with misty, shining eyes. 
Then his arms moved, and after a fuzzy rush of blood to the head, he disappeared from the Golden Timeline.