Bury Me, Bury Me

"Bury Me, Bury Me" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
After the group had been dismissed from the Great Hall, Liam took the time to have his meal out on one of the nearby cliff faces, spreading out a cloth on the grass next to him and tearing hungrily into the lamb that had been cooked for the meeting. The Warden looked serenely across the ocean as he did so, the both of them trading a flawless cycle of their stream of consciousnesses without speaking. It was mostly possible strategies, loose ideas, discussions of the future. Liam was trying very hard to distract himself from the thought of who he had seen in the meeting, annoyed at their need to cooperate with people he found personal and impersonal fault in. Nala did not address this much; she knew that the only comfort she could truly give in that regard was her presence and a listening mind. 
When Liam had finished eating, he tossed the bones off the cliff face and kicked back in the grass, leaning up against the demon’s body and staring out at the wind-whipped sky. The snow was finally starting to arrive and stick to the ground, and while he hated to see the mild sun of summer go, there was something comforting about cold climates to him. If only things like the weather could be more consistent, he thought to himself. If only a lot more things could be more consistent. He would have less to be sour about.
It had been quite a bit of time since the bar incident, and yet, he could still feel the underlying soreness from a well-placed punch embedded in his cheek. The cold didn’t help matters much, but his mind was too focused on seeing if he couldn’t find the young man that he caught in his peripheral vision during the meeting in the Great Hall.
The cliffs didn’t hold many great memories for the scout, but he had to address this. It was time to make amends, however he could do it.
Liam.
“Mm?” He’d almost started to doze in place, but Nala’s tug on his mind immediately awakened him and put him on guard. The porcelain body shadowing him hadn’t moved, but he could sense her attention was focused on something behind him. His consciousness briefly passed through her field of vision, like two passing scopes lining up with each other, and he saw an unfortunately familiar silhouette approaching. Liam scoffed and leaned down lower against Nala, his gut immediately coming to a simmer. Tell him to go away.
This is not my fight, Liam. This is yours.
Her essence and eyes dimmed, and as he sat up in disbelief, he felt that she had walled herself off from him–present, but unable to communicate. Disgruntled, he rolled to his feet and shoved her arm while trying to break through to her. “Nala, come on.”
There was a firm mental prodding in Vox’s direction, and Liam gritted his teeth, turning on his heel to face the ocean and hoping that maybe if he was quiet and still for long enough, the man would go away.
He made forward progress without any real indication of where he was heading, but his gut said it was the right direction to go. Scanning the area as thoroughly as possible, he finally made out the slightly smaller figure that was unmistakable to him. Vox made it a point to tread lightly as he approached with the utmost caution.
“…Liam. You alright, bud?”
After almost a full minute of silence, and no more action taken on Nala’s part, Liam hunched his shoulders and let out a long sigh, a stream of white breath escaping his mouth and blowing away in the freezing wind.
“What?” he growled. “What do you want?”
This was dangerous territory; their last encounter could not be described as anything less than hostile, and a repeat was the last thing Vox could ever want for the two of them.
“I… I just wanted to check up on you, and see how you were doing. I realize that you don’t want to see me, and you have every right to want that for yourself.” He stepped forward with very calculated movements, while still keeping a safe distance. “Do you think… you would be up to talking, even if just for a moment?”
“I really don’t know what the Hel you think we need to talk about.”
I deserve that.
He stood his ground, not wanting to push his luck with his only son.
“I think we need to address… well, everything, really. I know that I made every mistake in the book leaving you, Kendra and your mother behind for so long. It was so selfish of me, and I just wanted to see what I could do to maybe give you some… closure on it.”
There was another uncomfortably long silence. The wind whistled in both men’s ears, and Nala sat as still as a statue in the background. Liam stared at the ocean but he wasn’t seeing it.
He finally took a shivery breath, and Vox could hear some congestion in Liam’s voice as he finally said, “Why did you leave like that?” He tried to discreetly wipe his nose. “You saw me and you talked to me…and you turned around and walked out the fucking door.” 
Liam surprised himself in being caught up in the small detail of standing in the middle of their house, sweating and sticky from the summer heat, feeling Vox’s large hand muss his hair, his eyes caught on the large knot in the floorboard that he had tripped over more times than he could count as a child. It wasn’t the absence, it wasn’t Tree’s misery, it wasn’t the painful conversations he had with Nala over the following years. It was the distinct, piercing, raw feeling in his chest at hearing the front door open and close while he continued to stand there in suffocating swelter. 
A fresh throb of hurt clutched his heart as he shoved his paws in his pockets. “Why wasn’t that enough?” 
The hurt was palpable, and justified – from the young half-breed’s perspective, it was a cut and dry abandonment. Vox couldn’t argue that. He continued to address his son, nearly missing entirely that Nala had been present for the entire conversation.
“I… I know, buddy. I should have explained to you what I was doing; my worry was that you were too young to understand, but I see how wrong I was about that now. You’ve always been smarter than I’ve given you credit for and I can’t even begin to apologize for that. Leaving you all was the worst thing I could have done, and to have stayed away only made things worse. I know that I can’t take it back now, but I just needed you to understand that I didn’t do it because of any of you.”
The civil conversation gave Vox the courage to step closer to his son, although he still proceeded with an abundance of caution.
“You’ve always been enough, Liam. It is entirely my fault for never showing you that, and I will never fault you if that’s not something you can move past. I just needed you to hear it… at least once, from me.”
Nala’s head turned very slightly and her eyes shifted to look at Liam. He had his face turned entirely away from both of them, hiding in his hunched shoulders and messy hair, and there was yet another tense silence. Liam’s shoulders shook briefly, and his father heard a wet sniffle.
If there was a moment in time where Vox could pinpoint his heart shattering, he would have hedged his bets on this specific one. He was finally hearing the culmination of years spent away; a life that could have been stripped from a young boy that has since grown to resent him.
The scout became autonomous in his movement, trudging through the snow-covered ground until he was just inches away from Liam. Nala did not seem to oppose his closer proximity, so he settled for his current distance.
“I love you, Liam. I’ve loved you since the day you were born, and I love the young man you’ve grown up to be. I can’t tell you how proud I am to see how well you’ve taken care of Kendra and your mother. That should never have been your cross to bear, but you took it and made yourself better than I could ever hope to be.”
He felt his own tears freezing against his face while fighting off every urge to reach out to his son and embrace him.
“You’ve made us all so proud, and I hope you know that in your heart.”
Liam genuinely wanted to jump off the cliff at the same time as some kind of raw, bloody relief split his heart wide open. He still couldn’t fully feel Nala, and for that he was grateful. There were so many thoughts spilling through his head right now, he wasn’t sure if he would have been able to communicate if he tried.
He felt Vox hovering just over his shoulder. Still trying to silently stifle the tears flowing hot and fast down his face, he reached backwards with a paw, fumbled for Vox’s good hand and held it tightly.
The sudden grasp of Liam’s paw onto his own hand nearly made Vox jump; his chest tightened immediately and choked him up. He couldn’t find any more words to say, and at this point, it didn’t seem like they were necessary. He wrapped his fingers around his son’s paw, giving a reassuring squeeze to let him know he heard everything Liam was saying with one touch.
The only movement Liam made for a few minutes was to adjust his fingers slightly in Vox’s hand. The snow started to softly drift around them again, tiny flakes glittering in the gray light from above, and Liam finally used his scarf to mop up his face, looking further to his right and fixing his eyes on the cliffside.
“You’re still an asshole.” His voice was thick through his snotty mess.
Vox managed a soft laugh through his tears, surprised at the fact that Liam hadn’t already pulled his paw away. Progress.
“I have earned the title… can’t say I’ll wear it like a badge of honor, but I’ll take it all the same.” He shuffled himself forward to stand at Liam’s side – he hadn’t realized how tall his son had become, almost rivaling his own height by a few inches. “Liam… thank you, for listening to me. I know this doesn’t change the past and I know that we still have a lot to work out, but I don’t want to run anymore. I’ll only be in your life as much as you’re willing to have me, but I hope you’ll at least consider it.”
He looked down at the mop of hair covering his son’s features, unable to shake the smile that grew on his face.
“You need a haircut, bud.”
Liam gave him a sour face, still reddened with emotion, and thus lacking the bite it usually had. “Whatever, you look like a beaver.” He withdrew his paw and tucked it under his shawl, rubbing his paws against his body to warm up. “I thought Nala was gonna shunt you off the cliff. But I guess she wanted this.”
He’d almost forgotten Nala was here – the intense focus directed towards the conversation at hand pushed her out of his perspective for a moment. Though he knew it wasn’t a sincere remark, Vox wouldn’t put it past her. Looking back to Liam, he could see the half-breed’s breath in the cold air, and a slight tremble resonating throughout his body. He’d been given enough closure for one day, but he couldn’t leave his son out in the cold like this.
He stepped just a bit closer to Liam, putting his good hand behind the cat and around his arm, pulling him closer to Vox’s own body. He knew the risk involved, but given the current circumstances, he figured this may be one of the few chances he would have to be helpful to his son.
“I know you probably hate it… but you’re cold. Let me have this.”
Liam rolled his eyes a little and disengaged after a second, prying Vox’s arm off his shoulder. “Yeah, okay. Now you’re being gross.” He held onto Vox’s hand for another second, though, giving it another brief squeeze before letting go. “This isn’t because you’re gonna go do something suicidal, is it?,” he asked. “Like, you didn’t make yourself do this. I have a hard time believing that.” He looked up through his hair at Vox, still looking melancholy, and feeling a little smaller next to his dad, who still had a few inches on him, despite Liam being grown now.
Vox met his son’s eyes, noticing how his own reflection danced in the sea of green, washed out by very real tears that had yet to dissipate. Liam had grown so much in the span of ten years.
“You’ll have to try a bit harder than that to off me, bud.” He reached out a gave Liam’s arm a light squeeze. It was little victories at this point. “So… you and Nala, huh? I can safely say I’m at least… intrigued.”
Liam shifted his eyes to Nala and shrugged. “She was around a lot. I dunno. We just get along.”
Said Warden was now fully watching the conversation, but still being politely silent.
He watched as the Warden’s eyes shifted between the two of them. There was always going to be a subtle feeling of discomfort around her, but he had to acknowledge her willingness to allow this conversation to occur.
Thanks, Nala.
“Well, I’m glad to see it. If you’re anything like I was when I was younger, you need someone to keep you out of trouble. It’s so strange to think that your mother and I-”
Tree.
“Ah shit, Liam. I still haven’t been to see your mother since… all of this.”
Liam gave an unsympathetic grimace. “Wow. That sucks, doesn’t it. She’ll be happy.” Regardless of how he felt about Vox, he wasn’t exactly in Treepelt’s good graces, either. 
Hearing his son’s seemingly hostile response didn’t instill confidence in his inevitable reunion with Tree, but that could wait. This mattered more in the moment.
“Well, what about you? What have you been up to since… we last…” He looked over to Liam, now facing away from him again. He didn’t want to delve too deep into their last interaction. “…since we last talked. Anything exciting happen?”
His face scrunched. “More stuff has happened over the summer than has ever happened in my life, dad. I thought you were on Haligan? Rhenco and Nala? Verdandi is a valkyrie? Night Furies and a bunch of goofy time shit and the raids and the factions?”
This timeline of events meant nothing to Vox; it had only been a short time since he returned to Haligan under conditions not even known to him. He didn’t want that to be the emphasis of the conversation.
“I… I had no idea, Liam. I knew about the Night Furies, but that’s… that’s it. I was present at the Great Hall to hear about everything going on, but I was a little preoccupied with… other things.”
He couldn’t stand to look at Darien. Between him and Sylar, Vox had plenty weighing on his mind.
“Are you okay, though? Is there anything I can do to help?”
Liam was quiet for another long moment, looking back out to sea. Then he turned back to Vox.
“Don’t leave again?” he suggested.
The young man’s tone wasn’t nearly as sarcastic as Vox had grown accustomed to. He wanted to believe the sincerity of the request, regardless of it’s intention.
“Yeah, bud… I’m not going anywhere. I know that I should have been there for you, for Kendra… for your mother… and I wasn’t.”
He flashed a grin at Liam, hoping to somehow pull the same from his son, no matter how unlikely it was to happen. This wasn’t a chance he was willing to let go of so easily.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight, kiddo. You’re stuck with me now.”
Liam managed a kind of positive grimace, dropping his gaze and moving a little closer to Nala’s side. He nudged her hand, and she linked a finger around his, still letting him take the lead in the conversation. “Well, just make sure I can breathe every now and then,” he said dryly.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act II
Category:The Warden
Category:Liam Arnason
Category:Vox Arnason