May 17, 2012 - 8:21pm — Rutilus
It's been a long time since he's been to this place. Every time he comes back, he's reminded of why he left in the first place all those years ago. It wasn't running away - not so cliché as that - but rather, leaving unexpectedly. His mother and stepfather were furious at the time, but they never understood why he left. They didn't understand that it was their fault, that they'd driven him out. He was eighteen at the time, just out of school, going into university to study English, become a teacher. He could have done it, too, if he'd only stayed at home. But he didn't. And that only made him more bitter as the weeks went by without the comfort of home.
The house is quiet, and on the corner of the street, with a fairly large front garden and even a back one, too. Rutilus' mother has always taken great pride in her plants. It's one of the things that drew her and Caedo - his stepfather, Enya's husband - together. Fucking plants. Like being in a forest full of magical trees wasn't enough for the doe-woman. And what's worse, Rutilus thinks - she's the one that introduced Caedo to the forest, too, just as her previous husband had done for her, and just as she and him had later done with both of their children. It makes him angry, knowing that she ruined that tradition.
He walks up the path, closing the wooden gate behind him, and stops at the front door. At either side of the door there are rose bushes against the steps, to the side of them. They're small just now, light pink with darker rims. Rutilus turns his gaze away, stares at the little glass window in the door instead. It takes a lot of courage for him to knock. He hasn't been here in so long...yet nothing seems to have changed.
To Rutilus' dismay, it is not his dear, sweet mother that opens the door to greet him with her sunny smile, her green eyes - which Taliene inherited - and light, greying-brown hair. Instead he is met with a man that looks nothing like either of Enya's children, for he is by no means their father. His eyes are a bright, venomous green and his hair is greying-black, his cheekbones are wide and beneath them is hollow. To Rutilus, he looks like Satan. To Rutilus, he looks like chaos.
"Rutilus!" he exclaims, and he looks genuinely happy to see his stepson; Rutilus knows damn well that Caedo tried very hard to be a good father to them, but that doesn't matter to him. He still hates the man's guts. He can't help it. This man hit his sister. This man hit him, too. This man is still the man that replaced his real father, and Rutilus can't forgive him for that, nor can he forgive his mother.
It's hours later and Rutilus knows he has to tell them before he chickens out of it. He sets down the mug of tea his mother made for him and leans forwards with his elbows on his knees, giving a heavy sigh. His left hand runs through his hair and he feels guilty, so fucking guilty, because everything's been going so well. He was even starting to like Caedo's presence, even laughed at his jokes. The guy did have a sense of humour - Rut suspected that he'd gotten his own from him.
As soon as she realises something is wrong, Enya Phoebus wraps her arm around her son's back, unable to do so around his shoulders. She's a comforting presence and always has been, but there isn't much that can comfort him now. He straightens and avoids eye contact with his stepfather, who is looking at him with a fatherly sort of concern. It doesn't help.
"What's wrong?"
He can't tell them.
"It's just..." He gives a weak, crooked smile, clearing his throat and shifting slightly, putting his mug down on the coffee table. "Well--I've sort of got a girlfriend." The thought of his not-girlfriend makes him smile, and he looks down at his lap to try and hide it. The older ones don't miss it; both of them are watching him with interest, surprised.
"A girlfriend? Really? Even after...?" Caedo questions, eyebrows raised. For a split second, the blonde fights the urge to punch him. It's none of his business! But it is his mother's, and for that reason alone, Rut answers him.
"Yeah. She's been my friend for years, remember I told you about Martisol?" At this, Enya laughs and covers her mouth with her hand. The greying man on the opposite sofa just nods, not really remembering his stepson mentioning this woman at all, but Rut knows this is because he only ever spoke about her to Mum. "I sort of--well I've loved her for ages, but recently we...you know. We're not together but...y'know. We might as well be."
"Aw, son, I'm so happy for you. You have to bring her t'meet us sometime!"
Eventually, he knows that it's time. He can do it now. He has to, because Caedo mentioned her.
"...Caedo, Mum, there's...somethin' else, too."
They look towards him.
He doesn't want to.
He can't.
He can't.
He must.
"Taliene's...she's gone missing. No-one's seen her in almost six months and...well I thought--maybe it was time to tell you. She's not--not in the forest, nothing. She's just...gone."
Enya clutches at her heart and gives a choked sound, and, not for the first time, Rutilus sees the expression of a mother who has lost her child. It breaks his heart and he wants to hold her, he wants to tell her it'll be alright, but before he can move his stepfather is already there and she clings to him as if her daughter's life depends on it.
The roses are withering and Rutilus doesn't know what to do.
asdfasdf poor Enya and
But when he mentioned Marti ♥