Chapter Text
“I see you’ve finally put some meat on your bones” Edyn teases him, or maybe just states.
“And you’ve cut your hair” He remarks in turn. It’s kind of an insult, more of just a fact.
“Yeah, I wanted to match,” She says. Both of their hair is shoulder length. Edyn’s is because she cut it. Gillion’s is because he’s finally earned the right to grow it out at twenty.
He’s grown to be taller than her now. By a couple inches. She says she doesn’t mind, Gillion isn’t sure how he feels about it though. His whole life she’s been bigger than him and now she’s… not.
“You didn’t have to” He moves over so that she can sit down on the bed next to him. It feels awkward, how much bigger he is than her, not just in height, his shoulders are broader too.
“I know, but I wanted to. Besides it gets in the way” Pretzel has come over, she's gotten so much bigger over the years. Not that she isn't still relatively small.
“Okay” he says, for a lack of having anything else to say.
Edyn just lays back, elbows propping her up and head tilted back to look up at the ceiling as if there's something there. “Do you ever think about leaving?”
“No,” Gillion is not shocked by this question. It's not the first time she's asked something like this. He's past telling her off for having these blasphemous thoughts, now he just tries to keep them safely confined behind his door.
“Finn did it” Edyn says almost breathlessly. Like she idolizes him. She doesn't, she idolizes the idea of leaving the undersea.
“Finn might be dead” Gillion points out. Because it's been eight years that Finn was confirmed as missing, and really, if someone's missing for eight years they probably aren't coming back.
“Or living his best life” she argues, eyeing the few books on Gillion's shelf.
“This is my best life” Gillion says firmly, because he knows Edyn, and knows this is less about Finn and more about Gillion.
She just sighs, basically slumping over. “I know, sometimes I just wonder”
Secretly, some part of him also wonders. Some part of him wants to do what Edyn does, and take her hand and sneak away to the surface. Just to see what it's like.
He does his best to stamp it down.
Reed Tidestrider is a very organised man with a very organised schedule.
Everyday he wakes up at dawn, he gets dressed, and gets the ingredients out for breakfast, which he cooks with his wife. He eats with Falyn and Edyn and they make relatively little conversation. Then, he spends an hour cleaning the house while Falyn goes to work.
If it’s the weekend, then he goes shopping or takes a walk. If it’s the week, then he too goes to work and tends to the gardens. When he gets home he checks in on Edyn if she’s there, and then starts on dinner, if Falyn is back by then, then she helps him finish up, if not, he waits for her to get home. Then they eat dinner, talk about their days, then go to bed, rinse and repeat.
Some of his friends ask him “Reed, isn’t it boring?”
And some days it is. Some days he remembers sneaking into his father’s study and hearing a million different stories and a million fun facts. Some days he wishes he did something a bit more exciting like his wife, because taming sharks is surely more eventful than being a florist. Some days he wonders if maybe he should’ve taken that job researching the trench. Some days he thinks about packing it all up and going to the oversea like his father.
But most days, he doesn’t think about his father. Most days he looks at his wife and knows that sharks are scary and bite. Most days he looks at his garden and falls in love with his job all over again. Most days he thinks packing would be so tiring.
Today is like most days, the only slip up is that he wonders how Finn is, if he is even still alive.
Breakfast is nice. The house is clean. Work is beautiful as always. Falyn gets home in time to help him with the food. And dinner is-
“I’m moving out,” Edyn says. Which is a second slip up today that Reed did not expect.
Something in Reed’s chest does a somersault and he has to quickly lower his fork less he drop it and the food that it’s carrying.
“Oh?” He asks, a raise in tone. He isn’t judgmental, he’s not. That’s his daughter. She’s twenty seven. She can move out if she wants.
“Yeah”
“Where to?” Falyn asks, she’s taking this better than him, she hasn’t even stopped eating.
“The capital” Edyn shoves another bite of food into her mouth.
“Should’ve guessed” Falyn mumbles under her breath, and now everyone has stopped eating.
Edyn is glaring daggers into her mother, and Reed can tell where this is going to go. He’s sat through far too many dinner fights.
“That sounds lovely!” He interjects, trying to be cheery. “When are you planning on going?”
“Soon, maybe in a week” Edyn says, taking her attention off Falyn, although not without giving her a look first.
“Did you get a job?” Falyn asks, resuming eating.
“Yes” Edyn lies. Reed knows that she’s lying, he’s her father for crying out loud, he knows when she’s lying. But he doesn’t say anything. She’s an adult, it’s her decision.
“That’s good. We’ll help you move then” Reed offers. He’s trying to be calm about this. He thinks he’s succeeding, he can’t really tell though.
“I don’t want help” She says, and that throws him for one.
“Why not?’ Falyn asks, she’s always been the more pushy one.
“Why does it matter?” Things are getting tense again, Reed is stealing himself for another screaming match.
“Fine” Falyn says, and she makes a point of turning away from Edyn and going back to her food.
“Fine!” Edyn slams her hand on the table, getting up and leaving.
Reed watches her go, unsure if this is better or not than a fight. Falyn just rests her head in her hands. “Where did we go wrong with her?”
Many different responses come to mind, mainly ”Where didn’t we?” and “About twenty years ago” and “I think it’s when we decided to have a son.” But Reed Tidestrider prides himself on his intelligence and decides in this case, it would probably be smarter not to speak.
Instead he decides to finish dinner, clean the dishes, get ready for bed, and go to sleep.
Sleeping proves to be a bit more difficult than previously assumed, a third slip up in today's schedule. And really, today has so many slip ups, he might as well add a fourth.
He is sneaky getting out of bed; he has done it many times before, Falyn doesn’t even notice. He is silent slipping out of the room and into the hall. There is not a noise nor a movement from where he pauses by the stairs to look at the pictures hung up.
Most of them are of him and Falyn from when they were younger. There’s one of his father holding him as a baby and one of him, Falyn and his father. There are five of Edyn, either with them or alone. There is only one of Gillion. Taken when he was around a year old. Falyn is holding him while Reed holds Edyn, everyone is smiling, except Gillion, who is clearly mid-cry. It is the only picture of Gillion they have out in the open. Edyn took all the others.
Reed thinks it's almost fitting that the only picture they have of Gillion is one where he is unhappy. Like it was an omen of what was to come. Like he, as only a baby, knew that it would end up only being a family of three, not four.
Most days, Reed tries not to think about his son.
Some days, he does.
Today is one of those days.
Edyn says that Reed likes to pretend that he never had a son. That it was always Reed, Falyn and Edyn, and no one else. Reed doesn’t correct her, but she’s wrong. He doesn’t like pretending that he doesn’t have a son. It’s just that too often people ask about it.
“Isn’t your son the Prophesized Champion?”
“Didn’t your father go to the oversea?”
“Hey, could I meet your son? I want to get the Champion’s blessing!”
“Do you have any of your father’s notes? He’s a genius”
Reed also pretends that he doesn’t have a father. He also doesn’t like doing this.
In Reed’s mind, there are two Tidestriders. Reed and Edyn.
He’d love it if there were four. He’d love to serve breakfast to two children instead of one. He’d love to sit by his father and hear about whatever the fuck he’s researching now. Reed would love to go to work and tell the other gardeners about his son. And he’d love to answer the store clerk when she asks how his father is doing.
But Reed’s father is probably dead. And Reed will never get to know his son. So he tries not to think about it too much.
He’s learnt to settle with what’s given to him
Edyn feels bad lying.
She knows she’d feel worse if she stayed though.
A week ago, Edyn requested to see Gillion, they told her no. This would not be surprising if it weren’t for the fact that they also told her no two months ago. Because two months ago she went for her routine visit with Gillion and they wouldn’t let her in.
“Why? What happened, did he do something?” Those words taste bitter in her mouth, because Gilion should never be punished for any of his actions. But sometimes he is, and a more serious punishment is often that he isn’t allowed to see Edyn.
The messenger just shrugs.
“Did I do something?” She doesn’t think she did. She’s been very well behaved recently, her mother says that she’s mellowed out with age. Edyn likes to think that she’s just gotten more subtle.
They just shrug again. “All I know is that the Champion will not be taking visitors right now”
Edyn had accepted it. Unfortunate, but it happens.
And then they said no again. They have never done that before.
So maybe, just maybe Edyn broke into Gillion’s room in the middle of the night. No one noticed though, and no one caught her, so did she though?
The only thing she really remembers from that night is that Gillion was not in his room. Which also never happens. So maybe, just maybe, Edyn started doing some digging.
And maybe, just maybe she lied to her parents. She’s not moving to the capital, she’s running to the overseas to find her brother. And some might call her crazy for it. But she's a Tidestrider. Crazy is in her blood.
And Edyn refuses to be separated from Gillion again.