Work Text:
Hal has met the boy a handful of times. He trails behind Thjazi like a nervous shadow, always looking for something to hold or fetch for him. Thjazi finds tasks for him and responds to Hal's "the hell are you doing" look with his own placating "I'll explain later," shrug. The three of them had to run before he could, and by the time Hal learned more about Azune than his name he was more or less old enough to do the squiring Thjazi made it sound like no one could stop him from doing.
He's 17 now, basically a man, even if the beard he's trying to grow gives away the lie his muscles tell. He's in Hal's front room standing stiffly like an actor trying to figure out what to do with his arms. Hal isn't sure if it's discomfort with new people in general or Thjazi's family in particular or if he's just not used to being indoors.
Hal has Shadia and Hero in the kitchen and is sitting and having a very brief family meeting before dinner. They were young and either in bed, at school, or at their friends' houses when Azune was around before. Now Shadia is 15 and smarter than anyone with Hal's blood has any right to be , and Hero is 12 and right at that stage where she's starting to get good at the art of the insult.
"He's new in town and probably a little overwhelmed by the big city. I need you two to behave and make him feel welcome. If." He pauses for effect and both his girls lock in, knowing this is the important part. "You keep the jokes to yourself while he's here, you can tell me all of them later and we'll critique and workshop them until bedtime. Deal?" He holds out both pinkie fingers.
Hero takes the deal instantly, pinkie promise to seal the pact.
"Whose bedtime?" Shadia asks.
"Group workshop until Hero turns in. One on one until you go to bed."
She takes the bargain.
Azune is vibrating in place like he's trying desperately not to pace or twitch or whatever his usual self-sooth is. The dinner table is quiet while everyone plates up and searches for something to talk about that isn't the war that was declared over last month or the new addition to their dinner table.
"This is a very nice table, Mr. Halandil," Azune says woodenly.
"Thank you. It was my father's. Might have been his father's before him. It's been in the house since the house was built."
"It looks sturdy."
The mood warms a few degrees. Azune successfully made small talk, and Hal is nothing if not a solid yes-and man. "Did I ever tell you kids about my mom and how much she hated this kitchen?"
A good, relaxed story about his parents arguing about the kitchen, how his mom was too tall for most of it but most of the fixtures were too big to fit through the door without destroying the furniture or the walls.
"Dad said if she wanted them out she could get them out herself and stop talking his ears off about it. Mom threw a chair at him and told him to get out of her house if he wasn't going to help."
Azune has retreated into himself some, but it's a calm retreat and regroup, and he'lll be back when he has something to add. Thjazi already warned Hal that the kid doesn't usually have a lot to give to any conversation, but is happy enough being around people while they talk.
"What are you working on in school?" Hal turns it over to Hero to take the spotlight off of himself. Shadia is staring at Azune like she's trying to see the clockwork.
"Long division. Its butts." she makes a face. "And Miss Elle won't tell us what it's good for."
"Nothing. I've never used it a day in my life, but you need to learn everything so you have the tools and skills if you ever need them. You didn't need to memorize The Ballad of Saint Bernard either."
"But I liked doing that one. It was fun. Where did you go to school?" She turns to Azune to be polite and not monopolize the conversation the way they've talked about.
In slow motion Hal sees the spotlight shift to someone who's not ready for it and watches Azune freeze like a rabbit in a snare.
"...School?"
"Yeah," she says. His daughter can tell she made a fumble but doesn't have the experience yet to turn it into a flip. "Did you..."
"I didn't go to school." He's stiff and tense, and comedy be cruel his voice chooses that moment to crack upward one perfect octave.
Dead, ringing silence follows, long enough to hear when a horse kicks and a man yells outside. Azune's hand comes up like a reflex at the noise, positioned to cast, and he slaps it back down on his thigh very audibly.
"What's- what's- What's long division about?" he asks.
"Yeah Hero. What's long division and how does it work?" Hal asks.
Azune bristles a little. It's hard to read exactly what has his hackles up, when Hal is challenging his daughter to explain what she's learning. The table jitters a little and he realizes Azune is gripping the bottom lip of it with both hands to stop them from shaking.
Hero groans and fists her hands in her hair. "I understand it! I understand long division just fine!" she wails. "I just can't explain it yet."
"It's a longstanding rule in this household that you don't understand something until you can teach someone else," Hal explains for Azune, who looks lost in the complication of what these people are all so upset about.
"It's the worst," Hero says.
Hal can feel the tension of Shadia holding herself back from a lot of things she could say, but made a deal she wouldn't until later tonight.
"You know where you're staying tonight?" Hal asks.
Azune is helping with dishes and already had the lion's share of them washed by the time the table was clear and wiped clean. There's still too much awkwardness hanging in the air for Hal to argue about it. Not that arguing would do a lick of good.
"Thjazi found a place for me. And a job for tomorrow."
"And you're gonna be able to show up on time?"
"I like to show up early"
"A couple minutes early is good. Shows initiative."
"I usually show up an hour early," Azune says. If Hal thought he knew how to make a joke it would be funny banter.
"If you show up that early they won't have anything for you to do."
"I would find something to do."
If he didn't sound so deathly serious, if he were doing a bit and not desperately trying to find approval in a new place, it would be the funniest thing Hal had heard all day.
"Azune," he says, hand on the shoulder, fatherly tone, "five minutes early is the perfect amount. Too early and they'll think you're someone they can take advantage of. Early is good. Too early is a weakness."
Azune stares at him with wide, bright eyes. "Five minutes" he breathes. "Five minutes. I can do that."
"You'll be safe getting home?" Hal asks on the porch, giving an orcish goodbye to his guest.
Azune's hand strays to his belt and the sword there, checking he still has it. "Yes?"
They need to come up with a signal for small talk, until he's better at telling when a question is a question and when it's friendly noise to keep him on the porch for another five, ten, fifteen minutes.
"And remember. Five minutes early. Work at two thirds of your best. If anyone asks, you have friends you're meeting up with at the end of the week. You're allowed and encouraged to lie at work. Take your -entire- lunch break, no matter what anyone says."
They went over all of it inside, when it was clear he'd never had a job that paid a wage and had benefits before. Work in the rebellion paid room and board and another day alive, and was either sitting around in the mud waiting for a day clear enough to fight in, or nonstop backbreaking work until he was too tired to lift his arms.
"Yessir," he says. His hands twitch at his sides briefly, then he wraps Hal in the most awkward hug he's ever gotten and flees before he can hug back.
"Jokes." He's inside sitting down and ready to give honest, loving critique to his teenage daughters and their roasts of one of the strangest people who has ever been in this house. "Let's hear it. What'd'ya got?"
"Dad? How old is he?" Shadia asks.
"Seventeen," Hal says.
She nods. "You said he fought with Uncle Thjazi?"
"He was in the falconers rebellion with him."
"Why?" she asks in a quiet, broken voice.