Chapter Text
Ein woke up to the sound of silence. The school was closed that Friday to install new bathroom doors or whatever, something they probably should have done during the summer but whatever, Ein definitely wasn’t complaining. He stretched the sleep kinks out of his back tiredly and rotated onto his front, breathing deep and relaxed as he let himself slowly wake up in bed.
It took an hour for him to sit up and look around his room, the morning sun streamed in from the gap between his curtains, heating up a straight sliver of his black duvet cover. He kicked his covers off and went to the bathroom, not bothering to make his bed because there was no point in that just yet, it’s not like anyone was going to come and kill him for not doing it right away.
Ein filled the sink with cold water and held his face in the small pool for a moment, letting the cool water relieve the heavy feeling in his eyes and letting it cool down his face. He stood straight and ran his hands over his face slowly as he peaked at himself in the mirror through his fingers, his hair was a mess, his eyes only opened half way from how tired he was and his ears drooped down half way. He didn’t bother brushing his teeth, ‘no point,’ he thought. He walked out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom, it was a little after 11 AM by now and he remembered the short conversation with Pierce, ‘right, Minecraft,’ he huffed tiredly and grabbed his switch. He waited five minutes for Minecraft to load, he searched up Pierce’s user and a profile popped up that he knew was Pierce’s. The character looked a lot like him, long hair, blue pixels on the side of the head that must have been his horns, a blue jacket, black shirt and basic blue jeans with white shoes. Ein scoffed lightly at how basic it looked, even though his own character was the same and looked just like him. He added his account with a small smile on his lips before texting Pierce.
”Yo ram head I added u”
”Ram head???”
”Oh haha it's because I like sheep and I have horns.”
”VERY funny.”
”Mmlem :P”
”Anyways, we can play later today, I’m out with my family at the national park up in the hills”
”Euugh the only thing that plase is good for is wolf week”
”What is wolf week?”
”It’s when you sneak into the park and hunt deer but as a wolf during the summer, i didn even get to go because i was at camp”
”Not a lot of werewolvs do it becaus of morals and shit”
”oh”
”Ik its so ass coz i barel get to do it like eve r”
He didn’t receive another reply from Pierce, he was either busy with his tightly knit family or ignoring Ein for the sake of his own sanity. Ein shrugged it off and logged out of Minecraft. Maybe he’d play Final Fantasy on the PlayStation he hadn’t touched since before the summer for a little while, maybe get some snacks and mostly just stay in his room all day or something.
He reached over from his bed with a groan to turn his PlayStation on and grabbed the controller. The only games he had were the original Final Fantasy, a low budget racing game he’d never actually played and GTA. Since there weren’t many games on his PlayStation he tended to stick to the Switch, the one Zach had bought him after they got into a huge fight and Ein ended up with no dinner for two nights and a nasty bruise over his ribcage. He dismissed the memory with a huff and waited for his game to load up, the starting screen lit up on his TV, the calm music playing quietly from the speakers as Ein shifted in his bed and pressed the New Game button. The screen showed a group of characters, the warrior, the thief, the white and black mages, and the boxes where their names were supposed to go. Ein actually had no idea how to play Final Fantasy at all, this was the first time he’d actually opened the game.
The forward leaning warrior had brunette hair, Ein tilted his head for a moment before naming him Pierce. The thief looked exactly the same as the warrior, just with blue hair and different coloured clothes, he named the thief Ein. The white mage was tricky, he wasn’t sure if it was a girl or a boy but he was leaning a little more towards it being a girl, he ended up calling her Maria because he couldn’t think of anything else. He called the black wizard Orko because that was the name of the wizard guy from He Man, he thought the sprite and the character looked pretty similar.
He pressed start and the screen panned up to show a crudely drawn castle on an island. “The world lies shrouded in darkness.” It said as Ein sighed and put his focus solely on the game.
Meanwhile.
Pierce sat on a bench under a tall tree, it faced out over the high hills he was visiting with his family. He could see the highschool, he could see the arcade he hadn’t visited yet, he could see his house and Ein’s house, he could see the fields a little bit away from the school. His mother sat next to him, a content smile on her face as she watched her husband teaching their youngest how to make a fire with things they found on the forest floor. “See boy, you’ve got to put pressure on it,” the man instructed as he helped his son with patience that didn’t match his demeanor at all.
”You know,” Pierce’s mother said quietly, out of earshot of her husband, “when me and your father first met he was just fresh out of cadets, he had absolutely no idea how to start a fire let alone start a stove,” she giggled fondly, “his common sense wasn’t on par with his charm.” Pierce laughed a little, “really? I wouldn’t have guessed.” “Oh your father was oblivious to everyday tasks because his mommy always cut his food up and made his bed for him. After he got out of the cadets I whisked him away as fast as I could, taught him how to cook a decent meal for himself before he went off to the army.” She smiled proudly, “his mother didn’t like me all that much for making her son the smallest bit independent.” Pierce smiled and nodded, snickering a little, “I can imagine, is that why I never met her?” He asked, “oh she was miserable, she lives out in Alberta by herself now, doesn’t even talk to your father anymore.”
”Mama look I made fire!” Paxton shouted with a bright grin as he kneeled over the small pile of sticks and leaves that had caught fire, his father kneeling behind him with a proud smile. “Oh well done sweetie! I brought marshmallows if you want to roast some!” Their mother smiled and rummaged through the back she had packed, “yes please!!” Pax grinned triumphantly.
The four of them sat there roasting marshmallows over the flame, a sickeningly sweet family display. Pierce smiled as he listened to his father praise his little brother, he could remember when he was barely double digits and proud of himself over these small moments, like the time his father took him out hunting for rabbits or the time they went fishing and Pierce caught a small fish all by himself. Or when his mother taught him to cook a few small meals, taught him which fabric sprays were best and how to use a washing machine so he could do his own washing.
”I remember when I taught Pierce how to start a fire,” his father started, burnt marshmallow in his mouth, “he was 9 years old and I had taken him camping during his Spring break. He burnt his arm and he had to disinfect it and wrap the bandage around it himself, did an alright job but he was crying the entire time.” If Pierce had ears like Ein they’d be pinned back in annoyance and embarrassment, “Daaad…” he grumbled with a heated face. His father ruffled his hair out of its tie and laughed, “you were so cute as a kid,” he said.
”Did Pierce do good at camping?” Paxton asked, “he was good at fishing, but he couldn’t set up a tent if it was a one step job,” his father snickered and took a drink of his water. “Shut up, it’s hard,” Pierce grumbled as he tied his hair back into a low tail. “Haha, loser,” Paxton stuck his tongue out, his mother gave him a small flick on the cheek, “don’t make me send you back to school, you know you aren’t supposed to be off today.” Paxton rolled his eyes and stuffed another melted marshmallow into his gob. They all sat there until the bag of marshmallows was empty and the fire Paxton had made died out, they all packed up the small amount of things they had taken out of the bag their mother had insisted on bringing ‘just in case’ as most mothers do. The sun was high in the sky and it wasn’t quite lunch time yet, they walked down one of the trails that went down deeper into the woods of the park where there was supposed to be a deep river and an old altar that was supposedly built when Irene was alive or something.
The sound of a woodpecker accompanied the rustling of bushes and pine leaves from the slow moving winds. Sunlight bounded off the petals of bright blue and dark blue flowers, a few twisting together at the bottom of a thick tree that reached up taller than the others. Paxton clung to Pierce’s hand as they made their way down an uneven trail that had a few tree roots making bumps below their feet. Pierce was strong enough to lift his brother over a dip in the path with one arm, the boy giggled as his legs kicked in the air before he stood on the ground again, a bright smile painted onto his face. Their parents trailed a little bit behind them, mother’s arm wrapped around father’s as they laughed and chatted, sharing the occasional romantic comment that made Paxton’s face scrunch up in childish disgust.
They walked until they came to a deep river, thick enough to fit a school bus across the way like a bridge. The water trickled and splashed across rocks and against lifts in the ground around it. A squirrel hopped around on the other side of the river, tiny paws to its mouth as it collected food from between the grass next to the old stone altar in the middle of some densely packed trees. The altar reached up into an arch with low, broken walls that formed a small circle around a square stone that wore crystals in deep grooves of the rock. Light bounced off of the light rock and the gems, making the altar look as if it was glowing in the (nearly) midday sun.
On each side of the river there were remnants of what could have been a wooden bridge, long gone after collapsing what must have been hundreds of years ago. Pierce tilted his head as he stared at the worn altar across the water, there was something so captivating about old structures like that, about imagining what they were used for and who went there. He looked over the engraved stone of the arch from the other side, it was hard to tell what they depicted, there were deep wings at the top, he could tell that much, the rest were hard to see even in the light.
”Bet I could swim over there super fast,” Paxton said as he kicked a stone, Pierce laughed and shook his head, “you’d get swept away and we’d have to spend the rest of the day looking for you little buddy.” Pax rolled his eyes and threw a stone into the stream, it made a tiny plop noise as it sunk into the constantly moving waters. Their mother was busy taking photos with that bright yellow and green camera she always took on their trips or days out, she’d had it since Pierce was a toddler, maybe longer. Their father stood with his hands on his hips looking up at one of the larger trees next to them, “mm, could make good lumbar out of this, might make a good shed,” he mumbled, punching the bark lightly as if to test the sturdiness of this very thick tree.
”Oh sweetie, come look at this blue bird!” Their mother called, pointing to a plump bird with bright blue feathers on its back, she cooed eagerly and took a picture of it from afar as it landed a few steps away. Pierce smiled as he watched his mother, for her the world was so full and exciting, he’d never seen her upset or angry or even tired, for a 40 year old woman she was so spry and full of life, something their father adored fondly.
The bird cocked its little head to the side as it glanced at them with beady little eyes, beak holding a bug securely for it to eat, it threw its head up and swallowed the wriggling bug whole before flying away swiftly. “Oh birds are lovely creatures, did you know Emu’s have double shafted feathers dear?” She turned to her husband who stood there nodding his head with a smile, “yes darling, you told me that in Finland during our honeymoon.” “Oh that’s right I did! I enjoyed it there so much, we should really think about going there again soon.”
Meanwhile.
Ein had left his game on one of the earlier stages because he had gotten frustrated after an hour of playing. He had opened his window and pulled the curtains back to clean his room, turned out he was actually pretty good at being productive when he wanted to be, or in this case when he suddenly felt like doing stuff, it was mostly because he had nothing better to do, he never did. He smoothed out his bed covers and pulled out his clothes drawers to rearrange them, he spent time folding the clothes he had thrown in there and he threw out the empty cans that were on his desk. He stood in his room and for the first time in a while he actually felt fine, not sick, not grumpy, not hating himself, not hating others, he felt just fine, a sudden sturdiness coming to him that might have been contentment.
He looked at the time and decided to go downstairs to the kitchen, it was just before lunch so he may as well eat. His stomach growled at him quietly as he rummaged through the fridge, there was bacon that he didn’t know how to fry, there were eggs he didn’t know how to crack without getting shell in it, there was milk, there was orange juice that he didn’t actually like and a bunch of other stuff. He huffed and stood there for a moment, he hadn’t been taught how to make anything actually, the only thing he could really make was microwave noodles and cereal. He looked at his phone and went on YouTube, if no one was going to teach him then he’d learn by himself.
”how mak e bacon nd egg toast sandwich thing for dummies”
He set his phone down against the coffee container and stood there with his arms crossed, a look of concentration on his face that he would normally cringe at internally.
”So the first thing you wanna do is turn the heat on your stove up to a medium heat, now usually people tell you to cook with oil but I prefer butter, it makes for a much richer taste in my opinion.” The man said as he dropped a hunk of butter into two pans. “You wanna make sure the butter is mostly melted before you put in your bacon, put in maybe 3 or 4 pieces, or if you wanna put in as much as your pan’ll fit that’s also fine, go crazy.” The man took the raw pieces of bacon and put them into the pain in a neat order. “Now you wanna leave your bacon for a few minutes or so to cook on one side, this is when you’re gonna make your eggs.” He cracked two eggs into a second pan. “It all depends on how you like em, I like my bacon crispy and my egg yolks runny.” The man flips his bacon, he checks his eggs and he puts bread into the toaster.
’It seems simple enough…’ Ein thought after he finished watching the whole video. He shrugged to himself and opened the fridge again, he pulled out the unopened pack of smoked bacon and the full container of eggs and the butter. He got two cooking pans out of the cupboard and the tongs he’d never actually known they had in the house. He then got to work cooking himself some actual food for the first time in his life. Ein turned up the stove to a medium heat and put butter in the pans. He waited until it was mostly melted down before he put in his bacon, cracked his eggs, and watched them for a while. After deciding it was time he put two pieces of bread into the toaster and let them sit there until they were also ready.
Once he had finished he put the bacon and eggs onto the toast and sat at the table. He saved the tutorial just in case and ate. The bacon was a little too crunchy and the eggs were kind of chewy and had a few bits of shell in them but it didn’t matter to him because this was something he had made, it wasn’t going to be perfect on the first try. When he finished he sighed and leaned back in his chair, for his first try it definitely wasn’t all that bad.
Ein got up and cleaned the dishes he had used and put them all away where they belonged. He felt a sturdy feeling in his shoulders that made him feel productive and content, it was something that seemed to hold his head high without him trying. ‘Maybe I’ll buy myself something nice, a new game or something…I could go to the mall tomorrow…’ He went back up to his room and sat down on his bed, his eyes landed on his schoolbag that housed the homework he’d been given, ‘...nah, I’m not feeling THAT kind of productive today,’ he thought to himself and scoffed, as if he was actually going to touch his homework. He picked up his remote and put his TV on, settling into his cool bed for the rest of the day with a lazy grin he didn’t know was on his face. ‘I could look online and see what games they got at the mall…’
Meanwhile.
Pierce and his family had gotten back home after around 5 PM, Paxton had to go take a shower to clean up the mud that was all over him from falling in a puddle, their mother started on making dinner, their father sat down in front of the TV and put on one of his favourite shows. Pierce went up to his room and changed into comfortable clothes, his clothes from their day out being thrown into his washing basket next to his door. He huffed and let himself fall onto his bed, legs slightly sore from walking so much that day. He checked his phone and went through his notifications since his phone had been on silent for most of the day. There was a short message from Ein.
”Made myself a meal for the first time evrr when you b ack home?”
’Oh right, we were supposed to play Minecraft,’ he remembered.
”Cool, I’m kinda tired from being out all day, maybe we could play tomorrow?”
”Yeah aight”
He got his response back fast. Pierce sighed and pressed his face into his pillow that was cold from not being touched throughout the day.
That night his family had a nice, easy meal. They all went to bed early and by 8 PM they were all fast asleep, the lights in their house all turned off.