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

Entry tags:

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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

He hadn't expected that, but Killian won't lie and say that it's not welcome. He's never been good at emotions like this and trying to deal with them on his own after his mom died has been hell. He leans a little into Thorir, mostly out of instinct.

It's a few moments before Killian manages to say anything again. "When they say funerals are expensive, they're not joking." Probably not the best thing to say but it's the first thing that came to mind.

He'll take that as a good sign - a sign that Killian will open up emotionally, and maybe even let him help with the costs of the funeral - and accommodate the leaning but not otherwise move.

"They are." He's been involved with more than one store-internal fundraiser for the covering of funeral costs of an employee or someone's close ones - when his grandparents died, the family was lucky enough to be wealthy enough that the costs, and the additional costs of the transport back home, did not hurt them too badly. They didn't have to take out loans, though the added visit to Iceland for the funeral itself did replace the vacation that year. It was hard to lose both of them within a month, but it did make those things easier. He still thinks that his grandfather died of grief. ...But he is well aware that the financial burden of a funeral can be severe, especially when one already has to deal with the grief of a loved one passing away. "It doesn't make things easier at all."

"Does the exact opposite, really." He sighs, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Which is stupid, but whatever." Another sigh and Killian grabs one of the unopened letters to scan. "...did you meet Mom?"

"If you need help with paying for it, I'll be happy to help - I'm sure Mardís will be as well." Either just plainly paying for the rest, or working something out that will let Killian pay them back without interest and maybe at a later date. Whichever the young man's pride allows.

But moving on and regarding the question... "Yes, I did. I went to see them the year before you were born..." He doesn't think of Catherine now, nor of Hjalti, but of his parents and the rest of the family. "Your grandparents on both sides might have greatly disliked each other, but they had it in common the reason for their dislike, and the wish to break up their children's relationship. I was sent to speak to Hjalti and, as my father and a few others put it, make him see reason and leave her. I was offered to stay with them, and so I did." He shakes his head. "They were perfect for each other, they really were."

The boy blinks, a bit stunned. "Oh, uh, it's mostly paid for. I mean, that's why I'm still staying with Shou and not looking for my own place..." Killian's protests stop as he listens to Thorir explain why he had met his mom. He's not surprised that his grandmother disapproved of it, but hearing that Mom and his dad were apparently a good match is a first. Not even Mom had said that.

"Mom would've done that, yeah," he murmurs. "She had a sense of family that was honestly a bit overwhelming sometimes." Now it just makes him wonder about the truth behind her fall out with his dad, though.

"Well, family is important." Which is one of the reasons why the incident was so grave - weighing family against ideals and thinking patters, prejudices... and family losing. Though, to be fair, stubborn pride played a larger role in the end than any other factor, on both his father's and Hjalti's side, at least from what Thorir could tell.

"...Shou?" It's not an exactly rare nickname, not even a rare name, so he doubts that it is the person that he's thinking of. He still wonders what the arrangement is, but isn't quite going to ask just yet.

"Shou...uh, crap what's his--Chinen. Shou Chinen," Killian explains. "He's Numbered and everything and when Mom and I needed to get out of the Dead District after the bombings he let me move in with him. Sorry, thought I mentioned him."

"...You are living with Shou." He almost speaks to himself here, the world is really small, isn't it? And Killian might have, he just didn't pay attention then. He's just paying a lot of it now that he knows that Killian is his nephew.

And he has to admit to curiosity in one point. "What do you think of him?" He's a good person, in Thorir's eyes - someone who might be a bit out of touch with reality due to being blessed with too much money, but who doesn't let that keep him from seeing others as humans like himself.

"You know him?" Oh, come on. That's just too weird. "But, uh, he's a great guy? The pulses are kind of messing with him, but he's a nice guy. Just...well, he's got a fountain in his apartment." And all those costumes and really they were as different as night and day, sometimes, and he likes Shou but he's not sure living with him is going to work out in the long run.

"Have you met Inger?" The question might seem out of the blue, but trust him, it will make sense in a moment. "...messing with him in what way?" He noticed a few things, but that sounds like more than what he noticed.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject