Chapter Text
By age fifteen, Alogar was very used to the way people would knock on the front door as a courtesy and then just let themselves in if they didn’t hear anything back. The Fang House was always open for family and friends and acquaintances, and occasionally perfect strangers who soon became one of the former. He knew it was no cause for alarm, and kept reading the book he was slowly working his way through. If it was one of his friends, they’d know to find him in his room, and with anyone else, they’d eventually find him once they realized his dad and sisters were out, or they’d make themselves comfortable and settle down to wait. It was probably just someone from the theater troupe anyways.
He looked up, though, when he heard the distinctive thunk of his mom’s cane on the carpet. Would it seem too needy if he recognized her based on that sound alone? He swore his piercing started to buzz at the very proximity, and only his desire to look cool kept him from running out to her. Should he let her find or call out for him? Or was that too mean?
“One thing I don’t miss about Dol-Makjar is this ever-present rain,” Thaisha grumbled. “Go ahead and hang up your cloak there. Don’t put your warhammer in the umbrella bucket, though, we don’t want the little one finding it.”
“I wasn’t going to,” another voice replied. Alogar’s ears perked up. Who had his mom brought home this time? Most of the time when she returned to Dol-Makjar from a trip, it was just her, but sometimes she was with other druids of her circle or other friends or travellers. Sometimes it was family, usually from the Lloy side, but if that was the case now, he didn’t recognize the voice, and they wouldn’t need instructions about where to hand their coat up if they’d been here before.
“Is it okay that we just walked in here?” Whoever it was, they sounded young. Maybe his age in terms of their voice, but the nervousness in their tone made them sound closer to Shadia.
“More than. I do live here, sort of.” There was that note of something in his mom’s voice, that Alogar could never put a word to. It wasn’t quite regret, but without his father’s way with language, that was the closest he could get. “In any case, I’m part of the family.”
“But I’m not-”
“You kind of are,” Thaisha interrupted him, her voice soft but firm. “Every impression I got from Thjazi said you’re his family, and he’s our family, so therefore you’re ours too.”
There was a moment of silence, then, whoever Thaisha had brought home not responding. Alogar put his book aside and stood up, but he didn’t know if this lull in the conversation was a good time to make himself known. He didn’t want them to think he’d been eavesdropping.
“Speaking of, where are they all? Hal?” Thaisha raised her voice then, giving Alogar the perfect excuse to go to her.
“Dad and the girls have gone out shopping,” Alogar said, appearing at the door of his room. He leaned on the doorframe, hoping to seem cool like Uncle Thjazi. Except, shit, if Thaisha had said to whoever it was that he was like family to Thjazi, then he had to know him well, and Alogar was sure to come across as plain and unimpressive in comparison. Whoever it was, though, he didn’t even get a chance to look at them.
It turned out that he needn’t have worried about wanting a hug from his mom but not wanting to seen wanting one, since as soon as he stepped out of his room, Thaisha stepped forward and pulled him in against her chest. Alogar’s recent growth spurt had put him above his dad in height, but his mom was still taller, and in her slightly-heeled walking boots and him in his socks, he was just the right size for her to press a kiss to his forehead as she hugged him, tusks pressing lovingly against his brow. He squeezed her back tightly. It had been about six months since he’d seen her last. She had said, when he was younger and she'd first started taking longer trips away from home, that he could come with her once he turned fifteen, but that had been before war broke out. Maybe now that it was finally over he could accompany her when she next left.
Eventually, Thaisha let him out of the cage of her arms, but she didn’t fully let go of him, leaving one hand on his shoulder and the other on his face. “You’ve grown,” she said, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“Yeah, Mom. I’m not six anymore, we don’t need to do the whole pinching cheeks and ‘look how big you are’ thing,” he said as he rolled his eyes. She laughed, and his heart hurt with how much he’d missed that sound.
“Okay, okay, fine,” she said, letting go of his face. She kept her hand on his shoulder as she gestured for the young man she’d brought with her to come forward. “Al, this is Azune. He served with Thjazi.”
Alogar’s impression from his voice hadn’t been wrong. Azune was a young human; he couldn’t be more than a year older than Al, at the very most, and quite a bit shorter. He had shaggy red hair and bright eyes. At first, it looked like there was a bloodstain across his face, before Alogar realized it was a birthmark. The scars across the other side of his face, though, were clearly very real.
“No way, really?” Alogar asked, happily stepping forward to shake the other teen’s hand when he offered it. His other hand hung by his side, a long weapon held in a tight grasp. It must be the war hammer he'd overheard Thaisha mention, as it resembled the construction tools he'd used with Hal building sets, only much longer and covered in spikes and sharp edges. “Is that your war hammer? That's so fucking cool. C'mon, you can put that in my room where Hero, that's my baby sister, won't be able to find it.”
“Al, can you lend Azune some dry clothes too?” his mom asked. She didn't really mean ‘lend,’ he knew; she meant ‘give’ and was trying not to embarrass Azune. That was fine. The other teen was shorter than him anyway, so he could give him some of the clothes he'd recently grown out of. “It started pouring just as we got into town. You said Hal and your sisters are out shopping? I hope they didn't get caught in this.”
“Yeah. Them and Elodie.”
“Any idea when they'll be back?”
Alogar shrugged. “They're just getting groceries. Probably not too long, unless they stopped in a café to get out of the rain or something.”
“Oh good, I'm star- famished,” Thaisha corrected herself. Alogar’s mom may not have had the same way with words as his dad, but he had never known her to stumble over them. “I'm gonna see what you all have and make a snack. You want anything?”
“Elodie says I shouldn't ruin my appetite before dinner.” Never mind that he'd been growing so much recently that he thought it was impossible to stay full for long, no matter how much he ate.
“Well, then you don't have to eat as much as Azune and me. We skipped lunch at the Pass to try to beat the rain. Didn’t quite work out as intended.”
“I think there's some apples and cheese in the ice chest,” Alogar said. “And nuts in the cabinet, like always.”
“Perfect. I'll cut some up and leave them on the table for you and then I’m taking a nap until everyone gets home. Azune, do not let Al swing that war hammer inside the house. I don’t want broken bones or vases or concussions being what Elodie associates with me coming back to town.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Azune agreed.
Alogar leaned in conspiratorially. He had to lean in pretty far, with how much shorter than him Azune was. Maybe the kid had dwarven ancestry? Alogar had certainly never seen eyes quite like that on any of his human classmates. But if he had dwarven ancestry, he probably would have started growing a beard by now. And maybe his eyes were just unusual, like his and his mom’s dark sclera, not any indication of his parentage.
“She didn’t say we can’t use it outside,” he whispered.
“I heard that!” Thaisha shouted from the kitchen. Damn her sharp ears. Did being a parent make your hearing better? Alogar swore that had to be the case. “Whatever you do, just be careful.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Azune called back before Alogar pulled him outside to the alley.
It was still raining, but what was a little water compared to the opportunity to handle a real weapon? The only slightly similar experience he’d ever had was sparring with Shadia with prop-swords, and being absolutely trounced in a mock-fight by a really old soldier to prove a point when he said he was old enough to go to war with his uncle. But Azune had gone. And he was okay, even though he was so small, so obviously Alogar wouldn’t have just gotten himself killed like everyone said he would.
Alogar forced himself not to think about that too much. With the war now over, his jealousy didn’t serve much purpose. At least he could get all the stories from Azune. The other boy showed him how to hold the weapon, even as the rain made it slippery. He imagined it was the blood of his enemies instead of just water. The hammer was heavier than he thought, and longer, and his arms ached after just a few practice swings. But only when they were both soaked to the skin, and Alogar started to worry that his family would be back soon and get mad at them if they were caught playing with the weapon, did they go inside.
“Oh, here, let me find you some dry clothes that’ll fit,” Alogar said when they got to his room. Azune had already shrugged off his shirt and was using its last remaining dry patches to dry off the war hammer. He seemed totally unselfconscious about his shirtlessness, and Alogar had to force himself not to stare.
Azune was so skinny. And not in the way Alogar was at the moment, where his growth spurt had kind of stretched him out and it would just take a bit to fill back in. Azune did not look like his thinness was a temporary condition. He was all wiry muscle, as he probably had to be to actually fight people much bigger than him with that war hammer.
Azune was shivering too, although he didn’t complain. He just gave a soft, “Thank you,” when Alogar handed him a pair of pants that he’d grown out of, and didn’t wait for the other teen to turn around before starting to change into them. Alogar felt himself flush all the way up his neck and quickly turned back around to dig in the dresser for a sweater or something.
“I, um, oh, shit, sorry,” Azune apologized rapidly after a moment’s pause. “Thaisha said but I forgot that people usually expect more privacy than in a war camp and I-”
“Don’t worry about it,” Alogar cut off his rambling explanation as he tossed a sweater towards Azune over his shoulder. He was still blushing so hard he didn’t want to turn around, as he knew his ears in particular had to be deep green. He heard Azune accidentally smack his hand on the wall or something as he rushed to pull the sweater on quickly, the thump unaccompanied by any kind of exclamation or grunt of pain.
“Okay, um, I’ll just. Wait outside.” The door to Alogar’s room opened and closed, allowing him to finally breathe without feeling like he was going to melt from embarrassment. Would it have been better if he just didn't say anything and pretended it was normal to him too? He'd never thought nudity was weird before, but it felt like puberty was making everything that used to be natural bizarre instead.
He did realize that tarrying for too long would make it weird, so he got dressed quickly and paused just a moment to check in the mirror that his blush had faded before joining Azune out in the living room. He didn’t know what gave him the impression, but he had a feeling the other teen didn’t do well with being alone.
Azune was staring at some art on the wall. Well, calling it art was kind of stretching the term. Alogar himself had drawn it when he was no older than Hero was now, and it wasn't very good. Definitely not interesting enough for Azune to be staring at it so intently. He turned quickly when Alogar came out, almost snapping to attention, but then his eyes drifted over to the table.
The table where Thaisha had laid out a plate of sliced apples and carrot sticks with a jar of walnut butter, along with two glasses of water and a bowl of mixed nuts still in their shells. Except for the fact that the butter hadn't actually been spread on the apples and carrots and the nuts were uncracked, it was very much like a snack Hal would put out for Hero and her little friends. There was something sweet but also a little painful about the fact that Thaisha thought Alogar still needed his food cut up for him. Then again, with the way Azune had clearly been trying not to look at the food while Al was gone, maybe it wasn't for him at all.
Trying not to make a big deal of it, but feeling much too awkward to be casual, Alogar went and sat at the table and started cracking into the nuts with the ironwork nutcracker laid out for them. After a second, Azune joined him at the table, but he didn't reach towards the food. Alogar made a ‘go ahead’ gesture that earned him only a nervous look. Maybe he needed it made more explicit. Lack of interest in the food was clearly not the problem, given the way he kept looking at it.
“You should eat. Thaisha said you skipped lunch, and she'd kill me if I didn't make sure a guest was fed.”
Azune's eyes widened, and he quickly reached for the food.
“Not literally!” Alogar immediately amended his statement as Azune shoved an apple slice in his mouth so fast he worried he might choke on it. “I just mean, we don't want you going hungry until dinner, even if that's soon. And if I eat all of this, I will ruin my appetite, so you should eat as much as you want.”
Azune's expression, which had calmed a little even if he still seemed on edge, turned shocked again. “As much as I…”
“Yeah, man, as much as you want,” Alogar said. He watched without trying to stare as Azune took several nuts from the bowl and set them on the table in front of him.
“Is this alright?”
“Yeah? Of course. Please have more if you want it.” Alogar himself reached out for an apple slice and scraped some of the walnut butter onto it with a knife, in case Azune needed to be shown it was okay to take those too.
Azune's expression was inscrutable as he seemed to measure up Alogar in some way. Perhaps comparing him to his uncle? If that was the case, he was apparently deemed at least sufficient. He reached out again to the apples, more slowly this time, and copied Alogar in applying the walnut butter.
Alogar consciously didn't watch as Azune ate, instead devoting himself to the task of cracking nuts. When he had as many as he wanted, he lifted his head to pass the nutcracker to Azune. There were no longer any nuts in front of the other teen, though. Nor had they been put back in the bowl. It took Alogar only a second to come to the conclusion that Azune must have slipped them into a pocket, but the thought of saying something about it never even crossed his mind. His parents and Elodie had raised him honest, but they'd also taught him to keep his mouth closed if he ever saw anyone stealing food, unless the person they were taking it from seemed to have even less. And this wasn't even stealing, since it had been freely offered. Neither Alogar or Thaisha had made any conditions about when he had to eat the snack. If it made Azune feel better to have a pocketful of nuts, absolutely no one in the family would begrudge him that.
“Are you staying awhile?” Alogar asked, cracking another nut and offering Azune the meat. If he was saving some of the nuts for later, he should have some to eat now too. Hal and Elodie would probably want to make something extra for dinner now that they had guests, and so the cooking would take longer, and it was no fun to be too hungry while you were smelling wonderful stuff being made. Since his growth spurt left him constantly hungry, Alogar had picked up a tendency to pinch ingredients from the cutting boards and saucepans while helping cook, and often burn his fingertips doing it.
“Oh, uh, you don't- have to do that,” Azune said, even as he reluctantly accepted the shelled nut.
“Yeah, but I like doing it,” Alogar said. “Gives me something to do with my hands.” He had no idea if he was being subtle enough for the situation. Probably not. Ancients, he couldn't wait for his dad to get home and take over. He would know just how to do this all right.
As if the world heard his plea, the door opened. Azune jumped instantly to his feet as Shadia entered with a bag of groceries on one shoulder and holding Hero's hand with her other arm. She didn’t react to Azune beyond raising an eyebrow, and when her gaze turned to Alogar, she just rolled her eyes at him. What had he done to deserve that? She’d just gotten here? Alogar loved her, of course, but sometimes he wondered why he had to get saddled with two annoying little sisters.
“C’mon Hero, come help me put the groceries away,” Shadia said, otherwise ignoring their new guest. Hero seemed much less inclined to do the same.
“But there’s a new person! I wanna bother them!”
Well. At least she was self-aware about that, and gave him some kind of warning as to her intentions.
“You can bother them later, come on.” Shadia was such a pill sometimes. She did give Azune a slight nod as she walked past the boys into the kitchen, dragging Hero with her, so that was something, at least.
Hal and Elodie entered after the girls, and actually paused at the doorway to help each other out of their cloaks and hang them up on the hooks. Evidently they had gotten caught in the same rainstorm, as they were dripping too. Funnily enough, Hero had been mostly dry; she must’ve hidden underneath her mom or dad’s coat when it started pouring.
“Oh, hey there,” Hal immediately greeted Azune when he looked up and saw him still standing at attention. “What's your name?”
“Azune Nayar, sir.”
“No need to call me sir. Hal is fine. It’s nice to meet you. Those two girls, who are being exceedingly rude by the way!” Hal pitched his voice up at this, so it would carry to Shadia in the kitchen, “Are Shadia and Hero, respectively, and this is my partner Elodie,” he introduced all of them. “Are you a friend of Alogar's?”
“No, sir. Or, I g-guess, not no, just, not yet-?” Azune looked to Alogar with wide eyes, obviously terrified that he'd made a mistake and caused offense.
“Azune served with Uncle Thjazi,” Alogar explained for him. He wasn’t offended, and he knew his dad had really just been asking why Azune was there, since he hadn’t seen him around before and he was clearly not from the neighborhood.
Alogar didn’t think this explanation should have been all that shocking, but he had never seen his dad freeze like he did in that moment. He just stopped halfway through the motion of hanging up Elodie’s cloak. Elodie, for her part, looked almost as startled. She grabbed Hal’s elbow as if she thought he might faint.
“You're joking, right?” Hal finally said after a few seconds. His words were slow, like he didn’t quite believe he was saying them.
“N-no? I'm sorry, I-” Azune took an involuntary step back, his hip bumping into the table, and one hand fell to his waist like he was reaching for something. Alogar realized he was trying to grab his weapon, the war hammer, only they’d left it in the closet in his room. The pants Alogar had given him didn’t even have a loop to hold it at his side, like his own trousers had.
“How old are you?” Elodie asked. She was still holding Hal’s arm, as if to comfort both of them. Were they seeing something scary in Azune that Alogar hadn’t? What was so wrong?
“S-sixteen.”
“Sixtee- fucking Azgra.” Alogar’s dad normally did not swear, especially not in front of kids, and especially not in front of guests. Invoking the name of their dead Shaper was an oath so harsh Alogar had never heard it pass his lips before. He had to know that Shadia and Hero were eavesdropping from the kitchen too.
“I'm sorry-” Azune said again.
“What for?”
“I didn't mean to- to surprise you or anything. I thought- I thought maybe Thjazi told you about me in a letter or- or… I'm sorry, I'll go, you clearly weren't expecting company and I don't want to impose-”
“Hey, hey hey hey.” Hal’s voice went soft and suddenly reassuring, his tense posture instantly loosening as he stooped a little to make himself look smaller. It was still remarkable to Alogar just how fast he could switch into ‘dad mode,’ and how instantly comforting he still found it. His voice alone still made him feel so safe, though he would have been loath to say so out loud. “Just because you're a surprise doesn't mean you aren't a welcome one. Please stay.”
“I don't- I don't have anything I can give you.” Azune was still standing. His hands were clasped behind him, like a soldier standing to attention. Not like one, Alogar realized. He was one. Was that what made Hal and Elodie so obviously nervous about him? Alogar had said he served with Thjazi, though, so they should have known he was on their side.
“That's okay,” Elodie was quick to reassure, shaking her head slightly. “You don't have to bring anything. We have enough for everyone.”
“If you really feel you have to trade something, how about you tell me about how my brother's been, yeah?” Hal said when Elodie’s statement only made Azune stiffen more. “I've heard a lot but haven't had the chance to see him much for six years. How long have you known him?”
“Four years.”
“Four years,” Hal repeated. Alogar could see him doing the math in his head. “You were twelve?” Azune nodded. “That was when you joined the Torn Banner?”
“Yes, sir.”
This time, Hal didn't correct Azune about what to call him. Alogar didn't know if it was because he just didn't notice, since he still looked gobsmacked by everything else Azune had said. Elodie had sat down on the bench beside the door to start taking off her shoes, moving slowly and deliberately, but Hal had yet to take his eyes off Azune. He had barely even acknowledged Alogar.
“That's so young,” he said softly, as if to himself. “Peace, Thjazi and I were practically kids back in the Axe and Vine but at least even he was as old as you are now. I'm so sorry, for whatever happened that brought you to war so young.”
“I- thank you, sir.” Azune sounded instantly on the brink of tears, and Alogar watched him look up at the ceiling to try to force them away. He managed it surprisingly fast, his multicolored eyes clearing as he looked back to Hal, though they remained bright.
“None of that, none of that,” Hal said softly. “No more ‘sir’ if you can manage it, okay? I'm not your commander, and anything I ask you is a question, not an order.”
Azune nodded so quickly that Alogar knew he couldn't actually have processed the words before agreeing, like Hero did when she was so eager that she didn't stop to listen. Unlike with her, though, Hal didn't press the issue.
“How'd you get here, kid? Thjazi give you the address?”
“Thaisha brought me.”
“Thai is here?” Hal asked, and then his face fell, as if expecting to be disappointed. “Oh, she didn't leave already, did she?”
“Mom's upstairs,” Alogar cut in. “She's taking a nap.”
His suspicion that his sisters had been eavesdropping was proven right in that moment, as Shadia evidently overheard the first half of his statement and ignored the second. Azune flinched as the door to the kitchen banged open and two green blurs ran past to the stairs.
“Hero-!” Elodie called, then sighed as she gave up on getting her daughter to not go throw herself on Thaisha. Alogar and Shadia’s mom was one of the little girl’s favorite adults in the world, and six months was a long time for a six year old to go without seeing their beloved auntie.
“I’ve got them,” Hal said with a sigh as he walked considerably more slowly towards the stairs. “Pardon me, Azune, I'm going to go say hello and talk with Thaisha a little too. Please make yourself at home. I'm very glad you're here.”
Hal looked to Alogar then, a ‘take care of him’ kind of look, and Alogar immediately nodded. He wasn't about to let Azune run off now. And now that Elodie was home, he had an ally in that. One who would take the lead, too.
“I was about to go start dinner,” she said as she put her shoes away and slipped into house-slippers. “Al, Azune, do you want to come keep me company in the kitchen? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, though.”
“Yes, ma’am, of course. I can help with anything you need. I’m not good at cooking yet but I learn fast.”
Elodie didn’t correct Azune about calling her ma’am, more used to being addressed with an honorific than Hal was because of her business. Perhaps she also guessed that it would make Azune more comfortable to let him use it for now. “I wouldn’t turn down the help, especially because I’m guessing we won’t get Hero and Shadia back for a bit. Have you ever kneaded dough before?”
Azune shook his head as he followed Elodie like a duckling into the kitchen. Alogar did not particularly want to help make dinner, but he went along as well. Shaping dinner rolls was usually Hero's job, while Shadia and Alogar would chop meat or vegetables. He wondered if it was intentional that Elodie had given Azune a task not requiring a knife.
“I can teach you. It's easy,” he reassured Azune. He made sure they got tucked into a cozy part of the kitchen not too far from the stove. The counter was also lower there, so Azune wouldn’t strain his wrists or shoulders from reaching up too far while kneading.
Being given a task seemed to relax Azune more than the warmth, or anything else so far, had done. As Elodie clearly also took note of that fact, Alogar got the feeling that his own chores were likely to be lightened a little for the near future as all his parents looked for something to keep Azune occupied. Everyone wanted to give him a reason to stick around.