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It was early in the morning when Ashe found Gregor sitting by himself at the table outside the bar. He was breathing deeply, as if meditating, but seemed more tense than usual.
“Gregor?” Ashe asked tentatively as she approached the boy.
He opened his big brown eyes and looked at the snowy-haired woman. “Oh, morning, Ashe.” His nose was red and his sleeve was damp.
Ashe gave the boy a pitying look. “Markus told me you’ve been having nightmares.”
“Yeah, but it’s no big deal. They’re pretty normal for me.” His voice was unreadable. Ashe couldn’t tell if he was being genuine or just putting on a tough act. Either way, she felt bad for him.
“Gregor, I can hear you screaming from the woods sometimes. If they’re that bad… Do you want to talk about it at all?”
Gregor was silent for a moment, then scooted over so Ashe could sit next to him. She wordlessly obliged and watched as he stared at his feet for a few moments longer.
“I was dreaming about the day the Outriders were killed.”
Ashe’s heart felt for the boy, but she made no move to speak, encouraging him to continue in her own silent way.
“Sometimes I wonder why I wasn’t killed alongside them. They talk to me in the dream, making me feel guilty for surviving. I… I just didn’t want to die… I was just trying to be good.” Tears threatened to spill over from the brunette’s eyes.
Hesitantly, Ashe reached a hand over and rubbed across his shoulders soothingly. A small green spark jumped into his skin and relaxed the tension in his back. The tears finally flowed free as Gregor quietly sobbed. Ashe sat next to him, offering her silent, slightly awkward support as the boy leaned against her, turning his head into her shoulder.
When Gregor finally calmed down, Ashe spoke. “Gregor, I’m not going to tell you that everything’s okay, because I know it’s not, but I just want you to know something. I… we all consider you a friend. A very close friend. We’d probably do just about anything to save you if you were in danger. Hell, Markus teleported to some eldritch chaos plane to save you. My point is, no matter what happened to your family in the past, we’re your family now. Sure, we might get mad at you, and what you do doesn’t always make sense to the rest of us, but you deserve to be alive right now, Gregor. I mean it. I’m not really sure what we would even do without you.”
Gregor looked at Ashe with puffy brown eyes and sniffled. “Ashe, I know you don’t usually like hugs but-”
Ashe cut him off by pulling him into a warm embrace. “But you could really use one right now. I know.” Gregor, although stunned at first, couldn’t help but smile and hug the young woman back.
Suddenly, Markus appeared and draped himself across the pair’s laps, wrapping his arms first around Ashe, then around Gregor. Ashe gave the tiefling an annoyed look.
“What? I thought we were gonna go for a group hug,” the blonde man smiled innocently.
“I suppose a little privacy would have been too much to ask for?”
“Ashe, you’re in direct view from the bar’s window. And besides,” he added, nuzzling the woman’s cheek before giving it a peck, “I was getting jealous.”
Gregor listened to the couple banter. It brought a smile to his face to see them like this. This was his family. This was his home. He wouldn’t give them up for the world.