(Warning: Slightly Singing Ahead.)

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Chapter 22 -
All Is Forgiven, For Now
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Varian waits until his dad left outside and heads into the bedroom. “(____)?” He sees you crying silently and comes over to sit next to you.

“Hey, what happened?”

You feel his hands softly grab your shoulders and you slightly pull away. Varian has a hurt look, but stays next to you, “(____), tell me. Please?”

“I don't belong anywhere, Varian. I thought it was because I don't have my memory of anything, but it's a feeling.” You tear more, “I'm lost, both mentally and physically. I don't know who I am. Who cares for me now? I don't have anyone like all of you.”

Varian doesn't say anything and you'd thought he would get and leave, but he didn't. He pulls you into an embrace and your head is under his chin as he holds you close.

You didn't know how you were going to keep distance from Varian. He made you feel safe and comfortable. Varian gently runs a hand over your hair and you cling to him.

After a awhile, Varian hears you breathing steadily and looks to see you're asleep. “When I see you cry. What I'd give to hold you.” He sighs, knowing his dad something to upset you, “But my hands are tied.” He glances down sadly, “So I watch you cry.”  

Varian softly wipes your tears, “When I see you bleed. What I'd give to heal you, in your time of need.” He picks you up, trying not to wake you from your sleep and walks toward his room, “If I don't, I won't succeed.”

You shift slightly when Varian lays you on the bottom bunk, but you quickly fall back asleep. He pulls the cover over you, “So I try. Yes I try.” Varian sits on the edge, "You are not alone. There's a love beside you."

He smiles softly and takes off your glasses, "Though this wall is stone. You are not alone." On the beam above, a raccoon quietly goes across it, but stops to watch you and Varian below.

"Let me lead your way. More than just a shadow. With you every day. Beside you;" Varian leans down, kissing your forehead, ";to guide you away."

Varian gets up and heads out the door, feeling determined. The raccoon smiles and follows Varian above. "And I try, Yes I try!"

Running outside, Varian smiles and glances around to look for Quirin. "There's a hill to climb. These minutes slip through hands of time." He walks around the village and groans mentally, not spotting is dad, "And the hill is steep. And I know talk is cheap."

"Oh, but we'll be ok. So trust me as I lead the way." A villager points the direction Quirin went and Varian waves a thanks before jogging, "Yeah, we'll be alright if you just hold on tight!"

"Cause I try! Yes I try!" Varian sees his dad and takes a deep breath, "And I try! Yes I try!"

Quirin is walking back from somewhere and he spots Varian before sighing silently. He knows Varian is going to talk about what happened. Quirin always knows his son is curious about everything and quite naive sometimes.

“Varian. Not now.”

Varian steps in front of his dad, “No. I just want to know why you told (____) that she doesn't belong here. Why? She cares about us, Dad.”

Quirin went to go around Varian but he stood in front of him, “No. If you won't tell, then fine. But I won't let anyone hurt her. She's part of our family and if this is because of mom, then stop. Don't take this out on (____).”

Quirin stops and gives Varian a look to be quiet, speaking in a warning tone, “Varian. Enough.”

“I won't stop unless you apologize. (____) might not belong anywhere, but she will always belong with me!” Varian pants then runs back home, leaving his dad behind.

You woke up after you felt something furry curl up under your arms. It was the raccoon Varian was chasing as he chirps softly. You smile slightly and pet his head before just laying there with your eyes closed.

Varian comes in, immediately spotting the raccoon but he didn't do anything since you were hugging him. He sighs and sits on the bed, leaning on the bedpost. He closes his eyes and sings softly, “When I see you cry. What I'd give to hold you.” He wipes a tear from his eye, “But my hands are tied…….So I watch you cry.”

You heard him sing and you can tell this was making him upset.

Varian decided to take a nap, so you quietly get up and let the raccoon lay next to Varian. You make your way toward the kitchen where you hear, most likely, Quirin making dinner.

“What?” He asks, not turning around.

You sit down at the table, head on your hands, “I'm going to say what I have to, Quirin. Like father like son, you two are very stubborn when you want. If you're too stubborn to listen then don't.”

Quirin still has his back to you and you draw imaginary lines on the table. “I understand why you said what you said to me, yes, it hurt, but it's understandable.”

You started to bug you how Quirin slowed down on cutting vegetables, so you walked over and took over.

“You're a leader and more importantly a father, so you being overprotective of everyone and your son come with who you are.”

Quirin blinks at the fast rate you're cutting the vegetables before you put them in a pan to fry. “But don't try to distance yourself from the ones you care about and I'm talking about Varian.”

You dust your hands off and cross your arms, narrowing your eyes up at him, “Distance doesn't work out how you want it. If I do that, then Varian becomes sad. Now if you do that, how hard do you think he'll take it. He'd be alone and feel unstable about everything.”

“We'll keep that one conversation on hold, but eventually it all has come clean someday.” You add meat into the pan.

“Let's just get along, at least for Varian’s sake.”

Quirin now stares at you while you're getting out flour and such to make biscuits. You don't pay no mind to Quirin’s silence, but you do get startled when he speaks up.

“I'm sorry.”

You look at him and he has a stoic expression. The angry feeling that he sent toward you before had faded, so he was really sorry.

You smile faintly, “Thank you. I'm sorry I kinda went on a rampaging talk session there.”

Quirin couldn't help but smile, “No need to be sorry.” He glances away, “Cordelia use to always do that. She was much more stubborn than me.”

You tilt your head, “Your wife.”

He nods, smiling distantly like he remembered the most precious moments, “She believed that having faith is the key to everything.”

You feel his hand on your shoulder, “I may not trust you fully, (____), but know I do have faith in you.”

You hug Quirin and he hugs back softly, patting your back.

“I take a nap and now everything is okay? Maybe I should take naps more often.”

You two pull away to see Varian, who's smiling sheepishly and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

You snort to hold back a laugh, “With the way you work non stop with Alchemy, you do need more naps to catch up on sleep.” You check on the biscuits then take them out of the oven.

Varian pouts, “No. Sleep is for the weak.”

“Unless you're whining about about wanting more sleep the next morning.” Quirin commented, smiling lightly.

Varian glares, “Hey!”

You laugh. Glad that everything was back to normal, a bit. “Your dad's right.”

Varian retorts back, “(____)! You complain more than me!”

“Well that's because I'm always the test subject to your experiments.”

He stays quiet before crossing his arms, “My brain is too tired for this.”

“What happened to, Sleep is for the Weak?” You laugh.

Varian frowns, clearly unamused, “Quiet.” Though he smiles and you two laugh as Quirin just enjoys the good moments again.