Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

Ky wrinkled her nose at that. More choices. Gods. "I mean... it could be." He was a Lord. Decisions were kind of what he did, right?


Tadaaki had ended up in front of a window at the end of a hall, staring out into the early morning dawn and the very first hints of light creeping up on the horizon. He felt so old. So tired. And weak, on top of it all. How had a crippled old man managed to fight Wyl off better than he could -- when he was young and fit and strong? It was pitiful.

He raised his eyebrows at her, willing her to go on.

Tomhas finally located him, pausing as he saw Tadaaki gazing out the window. He looked weary; should he really disturb the poor man? He'd been through so much.
But Ky wanted to talk to him. Tomhas cleared his throat awkwardly.

She shrank. That clearly hadn't been the right answer. Gods. Fine. "... I think Tomhas will feel left out if we do this while he's not here -- but I think it'll upset Tadaaki if we talk about this in front of him -- so... I don't know. I don't like making decisions."

She supposed if he forced her to make the call then she'd suggest they wait for Tomhas. Tadaaki could always leave if he was distraught by it. And she'd already put poor Tomhas through so much this morning.


Tadaaki flinched slightly. He hadn't heard anyone come up behind him. But he turned and saw Tomhas and relaxed a bit. He offered a smile, but it was tired. "Good morning. How are you?"

"After Tadaaki leaves?" he suggested.

"Hey." Tomhas returned the smile. "I'm okay. How about you?"

"That sounds good." Ky nodded.


"I'm fine," Tadaaki murmured. He wasn't. Not really. But he hadn't been fine in the past four years -- and doubly so wasn't after last night. There were too many memories wrapped up in that level of complete terror. To much discomfort was brought by recognizing the face of the man who tried to kill him. But, unlike Ky, he hadn't been stabbed. And unlike Zander and Gaius, he didn't have to live with blood on his hands. So all in all, he actually had very little worth complaining about. "How's Ky?"

"She's..." He shrugged. "She's back in the infirmary. Just a precaution. She was asking for you, so I came to find you?"

Tadaaki narrowed his eyes slightly. A precaution against what? He wasn't sure whether to hope it was physical or mental. Both seemed like bad options. But she'd had much, much worse when it came to injuries. Which meant she was probably having a breakdown, if she needed supervised. "Is she... stable?"

"Yeah. Oh, yeah, she's stable now. Tentatively. Gaius is a better parent than I am, I think. He talked to her."

Tadaaki shook his head, uncomfortable with that statement, but not quite finding the courage to tell him he was wrong. Ash seemed like a fine father. But he had yet to see the utter adoration on his face that Tomhas had around his own children all moments of the day. "You're an excellent father... she's just very..." Fragile. "Easily discouraged."

And he couldn't blame her. She was tough and took an incredible amount of physical and verbal abuse from Aleth and a large number of Aleth's clients as well. But when it got to her, it got to her. Bad.

"I understand that." Tomhas bobbed his head. "I do. I'm still learning, getting to know her. It's different, having an adopted kid versus one you've known from birth. I haven't been around her quirks and anxieties long enough."

Tadaaki nodded. “It makes sense. I’m still trying to get to know Tasia fully, and she’s a well-adjusted little kid with no knowledge of what the world's like. You’ve got the added challenge of having a daughter the world has been awful to… and you’ve never seen…” He bit his lip, trying to decide how much to share. “Well… Aleth was on his best behavior when you saw him.”

It was so, so much worse when they were at his own home.

Tomhas shuddered involuntarily but kept his eyes on Tadaaki rather than look away. He needed the man's face to ground him before he saw Aleth bleeding out in front of him again. "I know," he said quietly. "I've heard."

Tadaaki nodded. He’d said too much. He was upsetting Tomhas. “Anyhow… she made a consecutive series of poor choices when she first came to live with us… I’m glad she didn’t…” He didn’t know what she might or might not have done or tried to do. “I hope she’ll make better ones moving forward.”

"Let's go see her," Tomhas said rather than reply and think about the implications. "She's waiting for us, I'm sure."

"Sounds good." Tadaaki made a mental note to keep his mouth shut. He clearly wasn't helping matters. He took a step towards the infirmary, looking at Tomhas. "Thank you for coming to find me."