savetheearth | Keep Watching Over Durin's Sons [Closed]

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Keep Watching Over Durin's Sons [Closed]

Who: Killian and Thorir
What: Killian's finally going through his mom's things and finds several documents with a familiar last name
When: Sometime after Thorir's gotten his numbers, probably February 6th
Where: The smithy
Warnings: Swearing from Killian is likely

Killian enters the smithy a bit late, though not late enough to be in trouble for it, and almost immediately goes to find Thorir with a photograph in hand. He knows it's probably nothing and he should just get to work, but his mom had letters addressed to a Thorsson and mentioned someone she called "Yeti" in her diaries that she kept every day until she died (though Killian had just flipped through them to see if she had left anything in the pages, only reading those pages that had something bookmarking them. Still, that had been enough to get him curious).

When he finds Thorir, he hands him the picture. It's of Catherine and a much taller man, smiling and holding hands. "Do you know that guy? I, uh, finally went through Mom's things and that was labelled with her name and another I can't pronounce, but his last name was, uh, Thorsson. I think."

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Thorir takes the picture from him with a questioning expression, unsure where this is supposed to lead... and then just. Holds it and looks down at it.

It's been a while since he saw a picture of Hjalti. He hasn't seen pictures of Catherine for even longer, because he only ever saw them when his brother presented them to him. It's been a long time since he has seen either of them, too. Over 18 years...

He looks up at Killian. Back down at the picture. Wonders why he didn't see it earlier (of course he didn't. Why should he even have thought of this, he was sure that they were back in Ireland, probably with a bunch of kids, and that they of course would have taken his name because no matter how much parts of the family disapproved of Hjalti, they would have disapproved even more if they took his name, and... and. And there is just no reason why he should have connected a clearly American boy with the last name Ryan with a child that should have grown up in Ireland with the last name Thorsson... But still. He can see both of them in Killian. His mother's height, clearly, but there are things where he can see Hjalti as well, and...). Wonders if he's leaping to conclusions, but Killians age, the picture, and... "Your parents?"

Edited 2014-01-30 23:08 (UTC)

Well, he was right about one thing it looks like. Thorir knows the man.

"Well, that's my mom," he explains, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "I, uh, never knew my dad. Mom said he was still in Ireland last she heard. I think that might be him? But I don't know, could just be an old boyfriend."

Calm eyes rest on Killian. "I heard last from him in March 1995." It's funny, in a way. He hadn't thought about him in ages, and then he mentioned him to Filbert just the other evening. And now this - only that it is not funny at all. What happened? They - "He said that a child was on the way, and that they thought that that would finally make Catherine's mother give her blessing to a marriage between them."

He's looking down at the picture again when he adds: "His name is Hjalti." He doesn't want to think of him in the past tense. He never did when he thought they had just fallen out of contact, and now that dread curdles in his stomach - did something happen to him? Even if Killian was told that he was 'still in Ireland last she heard' it just so doesn't sound like Hjalti to abandon partner and child. It especially doesn't sound like him with how excited he sounded when he told him about pregnancy and possible marriage, doesn't match with how he gave up basically everything just to be together with Catherine - it just does not match up. And he can't quite extinguish the worry that something must have befallen his brother.

Killian barely hears Thorir when he tells him the name of the man in the photo. He knows he hadn't said Mom's name to him before but Thorir knows it anyway. He was born in 1995. And, looking at the photo, he could kind of see himself in the man, mostly in the face.

"A-all I know is the spring before I was born, Mom and everyone had to get out of Ireland because of financial trouble," he manages, still not really believing what Thorir's just implied. "When I asked, Mom would say that my dad...he couldn't handle the stress of the Ryans suddenly not being well-off and moving to America and--who is he?" To Thorir, to Killian.

"A good man." He's really not sure where to go from here. Spring - he must already have known something, at that time. Yet he didn't mention it... which is no wonder, really. Internet and international texting didn't offer the possibilities for secret communication that they could have used today. International calls were ridiculously expensive. Their contact had been sporadic at best, and he can easily understand that pride keeping trouble out of the few and precious contacts.

But the child, and the marriage - Hjalti had spoken about those, and been so sure... He opts to not speculate, to not assign blame, and instead answer the other side of the question. "My younger brother - one of our middle children. A bit older than Fil's mother..." And he's always seen a bit of Hjalti in Fil. Of all the children in the family he seems to resemble him the most. Not to a dot, but enough to make it hard that he could never mention it. "I heard that you are friends with Fil?" If what the conclusion of all of this seems to be is true... that would make them more than just that.

Edited 2014-01-31 00:15 (UTC)

His brother. This man--Hjalti--who Killian thinks is his dad, is his boss's brother.

His life can't be simple, can it?

"Yeah, I sold him his sister's birthday present before you hired me." There was also the network thing but that's not his place to tell. "Hang on." Killian reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the letters he had grabbed before heading for the smithy, going off his gut telling him he might want them. It feels awful, violating his mother's privacy like this, but she's gone and he can't ask her himself. He needs to know.

None of these letters were ever sent, though they were sealed, and there's no actual address on any of them. Just Thorsson and a scribble Killian assumes is supposed to be Hjalti. He rips one of the letters open and scans it. It's dated the month after he was born and is two pages of Catherine telling Hjalti about Killian and how she's sorry they left but the marriage would have never worked out.

By the time he's done reading the letter, his hands are shaking. He's not sure if his mother lied to him for eighteen years, but it sure as hell feels like it.

While Killian is reading, Thorir tries to not only sort all this new information and slot it into what he knows and what he believed, tries to match and mix and fit together all the information - but he also and more importantly tries to decide what to do next.

Killian's reaction to the letter solves the question for him, in a way. "Come." He'll take Killian upstairs into his apartment, where no employees might suddenly drop in to ask something or get him for a problem and no family will just happen to come in - and nobody should be home right now either, the boys in school and in one of the other stores, Filbert at work... Yes, it should be the best place right now. Plus he can make Killian a cocoa or something.

Killian stuffs the letter back in the envelope and nods, following Thorir wherever he ends up leading him. He hadn't expected this when he recognized the name on his mom's stuff. The most he anticipated was Thorir saying he might be a relative. Not that the guy his mom wrote all those letters to was his brother.

"I am so sorry about this." He doesn't know why he's apologizing, just that he feels like he should.

"Don't apologize when you don't even know what for." Thorir's words are not said unkindly, but also not delivered in the way that one might expect - they are not a phrasing of 'oh, it's fine'. They demand from Killian to not take an apology lightly as they assume that he has little, if any, power over the situation and caution against overly hasty conclusions, pointing towards the younger man probably not even knowing half of the full picture yet.

They will cross over to the main house and enter the smaller of the two staircases that the non-public part of the house possesses - and the only one that goes up past the office-level of the building. It doubles as a fire escape for the part of the house that serves commercial purposes, but it's surprisingly homely for that - the reason for which would be that it leads up to the apartment of the building's owners.

He really can't argue with that, so he doesn't, following Thorir silently up to the his apartment. He can't help the urge to look around and take it in once he realizes that's where they're going.

It feels like a home. The only thing Killian had close to that was the tiny apartment he and his mom had before the bombings.

It is - quite a large home, at that. Not fancy in the way that Shou's apartment is, much more down to earth, a very lived in and practical space without luxury and starlet features - a very "normal" apartment. The fact that money is not a stranger to this place takes a second glance, and more will reveal itself on a third and fourth and fifth.

The number of rooms that the apartment has and their relative spaciousness is probably the most obvious one, but there are smaller things too - the furniture, while not new, is of high quality, the paintings on the walls originals, and so on. Though the most obvious think to Killian might be that everything is too high - nobody who currently lives in this apartment is under 1.80, and it shows in where pictures and mirrors hang, where the clothes are hung and shelves are located. Thorir will let Killian in first, with a short request to take off his shoes before he goes in further, and then close the door behind them and place his keys in the keybox, placed in a small niche in the wall way over Killian's head.

"Welcome in my home." He seems almost relaxed for a moment - this is something that he knows, that he likes, and that he planned on anyway - having Killian up here as a guest. But it's gone quickly, the seriousness and uncertainty of the overall situation returning. "Even though I had not expected to welcome here as quickly and certainly not under such circumstances."

He obeys, looking around and wondering just why everyone in Thorir's family was so goddamn tall (and if his brother was Killian's dad, why the hell did Killian get the short genes from the Ryan side).

"I didn't expect to come up here either, don't worry," he replies. Sure, Fil had mentioned inviting him over for dinner and a conversation about the pulses but he didn't figure it be only a few days later. "It's...nice. Tall, but nice." He can't even reach the hook for coats without stretching, though he tries to keep the stretching discreet.

"You would have, eventually." He takes a bit longer with his own shoes so Killian doesn't have to feel watched while hanging up his jacket - Thorir could do it easily for him, but doubts that such a display would be wanted. Or the an obvious observation of the younger man doing it, at that. "Fil asked if he could invite you over for dinner the other night, I'm sure he'll approach you about it soon."

Damn, the man was serious, wasn't he? Killian wonders if Thorir knows about Fil being Numbered or not.

"Seriously? Didn't expect that." Which isn't a lie, since he really hadn't expected Fil's invitation the other night.

But that isn't why they're up here now, he knows. He shifts his weight around a little. "D'you want to see the letters?"

Edited 2014-01-31 01:51 (UTC)

"I would like to." He stands again and nods down the hallway. "If you sit down in the living room, I'll get us something to drink. Juice, cocoa, milk, something else?" Never let it be said that he is a bad host, under any circumstances.

"Anything's fine." He smiles a bit, though it doesn't really reach his eyes, and he goes to sit down. Thankfully he's used to being too short to sit on most furniture comfortably the normal way; he can't tell if this sofa's taller than normal or if he's just short. Either way, he sets the letters down on the table and sits back, legs sort of folded up next to him while he waits. It's the only way he's comfortable on most furniture.

Thorir will take a moment longer than strictly necessary to gather the drinks, hoping to give both of them a moment to gather themselves, before he follows after his - his nephew, wouldn't he be? Not that the concept of having a nephew is something that he wouldn't be used to.

But so suddenly gaining one, and then one that he already knew before this... "Here." He went for hot cocoa in the end, or rather a cocoa for Killian and a coffee for himself - he knows enough people who won't drink coffee, but everyone likes cocoa, right? And it tends to have a calming effect on most.

It's not like Killian's not used to uncles and cousins either. He's just not used to the idea of them being anything but a Ryan.

Killian nods his thanks, relaxing a bit at the smell of chocolate. He's not a coffee drinking, having been raised on tea, but chocolate is something almost everyone likes.

"That's just some of the letters," he explains, gesturing. "Couldn't fit any of her journals in my pocket."

"Do you want to read them first?" Sure, they seem to have been written for his brother, or at least with him in mind, but they primarily a thing between Killian's parents. It seems prudent to ask.

But something else catches his attention. "Her journals?"

"Yeah, Mom kept journals until she--" He hesitates just a second "--until she was killed. I've got at least a thirty, going all the way back to when she was a kid. That's where I found the photo, in the one dated 1994-1995."

Thorir has a point, though, about the letters, and he reaches for one to open it and start reading. This one's dated before his first birthday.

He does catch the rest of what Killian says, but at the moment that is not what he he can concentrate on.

Sure, he only met Catherine that one time when he went over there on his parents' orders to bring Hjalti back to America, without her, but... they got along well. Her mother was impossible, and her father difficult, but Catherine herself - he could understand what her brother saw in her, absolutely. He wouldn't have minded her as an in-law.

"She was killed?" It's an echo of another sort than what the network brings, and a few things suddenly click into place - the grave that Killian mentioned at one point, the fact that he doesn't live with her despite his age, and of course why those letters are in his hands, and her journals too...

Killian looks away from the letter (this one telling Hjalti about Killian's first year) and nods.

"By the Blood Keys last month." His voice is quiet. "We were on our way to, God I don't even remember anymore. But we spotted some trying to hurt a young kid, Mom called the police, and they shot her. I got her to the LSR clinic but..." Killian won't mention the attack on the clinic. He tries not to think about it. "S'why I'm going through her stuff. The rest of the family's off in Alaska for some reason and they don't know when they'll make their way back this way so I've gotta do it."

One month... He hadn't expected to see her again, and they had not been close by any means, but being robbed of a meeting by something like that, by only a month... And it's good to hear that Killian still has family, even on the same continent, but they seem to be as far away as possible while staying in the same country, from what it sounds like, and with no inclination to come. He almost asks why, but then remembers what Killian mentioned about financial trouble being the reason for him having been born in the States. They might simply not be able to do necessary but sudden trips like that.

He shakes his head lightly to get rush of a sudden urge to tell Killian that he understands - it feels like it, somehow, but he really doesn't, both his parents are alive and well and this is such a mess (he hopes that his father will have the decency to apologize, and his mother with him, he's not sure what will happen otherwise - it has been years, maybe decades, since they last fought, and it might just happen again if he doesn't).

"Catherine was a good woman." Just like his father was a good man. He won't tell Killian to not hold against her the lie that she let him grow up with, because it is something too big to easily leave behind; but he won't let his own frustration with it color any word that he says about her parents, or at least attempt it. He's a honest man, but he also knows when to hold back, at least when he feels that he should.

He'll have to bring it up with Killian before he meets them, what his grandparents and their families did that, most likely, was the cause for the split of his parents - it's a guess, but one that he has a good reason to venture. But not now, and not before reading the letters.

"Does she rest in Locke?" His own family isn't far enough into the settling process yet to have graves in America - Thorir's grandparents were transported back to Iceland to be buried there. But with Killian being born here, and finances probably sparse - he hopes that Killian will tell him if he had to take out a loan for that; he'd gladly help with that, and he is sure that his wife will think so as well. Catherine... he tries to remember her face, but it is a bit vague. Short and lively and just so perfectly perfect for Hjalti back when they met...

He nods.

And he's torn between telling Thorir nothing else about and telling him that he's still paying off her tombstone (the money from his Network sale covered most of it, but rock is expensive), that he's still scared and so not ready to be on his own like this, that he really needs to find a new place because as much as he likes Shou it's just not going to work in the long-term. Killian likes and trusts Thorir well enough, despite only know him for a short time, but he's not sure he can dump all of that on him, even if they are apparently family.

God, he never thought he'd have any family not a Ryan. It's so weird to think of.

He's silent as all of this goes through his head, eyes wide and hands shaking. Eventually, he just curls up on himself a little and holds his head in his hands. "Christ..."

Sure, Killian is not someone that he has known for all that long, but between him apparently being family and the many times that Thorir has been sitting next to upset children and teenagers on this couch...

He'll wrap an arm around the younger man, not pulling him against his chest but putting his arm around his shoulders and his hand on his hair, the option for Killian to lean in obviously there in the gesture but not enforced. He's not saying anything right now - it seems more like a time to wait for Killian to speak. To let him say what he wants to talk about, and then go with that.

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