You both got to the station, got on the train, and then sat down side by side.
It was a quiet ride, but you were thinking over worst case scenarios and consolidating them in your mind and Shoto was thinking about how best to help you but was pulling up a whole heap of zeroes.
You didn’t speak for about 20 minutes and then you turned to him.
“Tomorrow, after school,” you said, “come with me to see Syril.”
“Your grandfathers…” Shoto asked.
“Yeah,” you said, “if it’s ok… I want to talk to him a little, first, and then I want to introduce you to him.”
Shoto looked at you, seeing your eyes shining.
“You have a plan of some kind,” he said.
“Yeah,” you replied, “I do…”
“Ok,” Shoto said with a nod, his two toned fringe falling to one side of his forehead as he tilted his head a little, “I will come.”
That afternoon at Shoto’s, you spent time chilling in his room, reading your grandpa’s diary that you had snuck into your bag, pointing out all the times in his diary where he had said things that eluded to his relationship status with Syril being more than friends, doing your best to convince Shoto of this too, doing a little training, and then eating dinner and sleeping.
It had been a great distraction, staying with Shoto, so much so that you pretty much forgot about your dad seeing you and Shoto hold hands for that split second.
But back home, while packing up the house to move, your dad was running things over in his mind.
He had seen enough of hints and stuff from when you had not wanted to see your uncle again to now make connections and he was smarter this time around.
“I was in denial about Mazidan being an issue before,” he said to himself as he packed some of the closet items into a box, “so I can’t go against what my eyes and gut are telling me about this, this time.”
The snapshot image of Shoto holding your hand and you taking it so readily, then quickly retracting, still had his attention in a choke hold and he started to connect the dots of an almost forbidden painting.
“They are close. Very close. That Todoroki boy has been around a lot and Wyen relaxes immediately when they are together,” your dad thought, “is holding hands considered a normal male friendship thing these days?”
He knew the answer to that but he was struggling to accept the truth.
“Of course that is not a normal thing,” he reminded himself, “the only reason they would be holding hands is… because… their friendship… is… more… than just a friendship.”
He stopped what he was doing and hung his head.
“Wyen… why?” he asked himself, “are you really? Is this who you are? Is this part of your struggle? How long have you been hiding this?”
He let out a long sigh.
“What do I say to him? Do I ask about his relationship with Shoto? Would he tell me? What do I say in return?”
He lifted his hands to his face and pushed his palms into his eye sockets and rubbed them so hard he saw bright sparkles mixing in with the darkness of his closed lids.
“What do I do?!” he asked himself, “what if my son tells me he is in a gay relationship?! How could I face anyone?!”
He turned and sat down on the bed, then let his hands fall into his lap and allowed his eyes to adjust as he opened them.
Then he remembered the promise he had made to you about being on your side, no matter what it was, and he sighed again.
“I need to be there for him even if it’s not something I necessarily agree with. If I tell him it’s wrong and he can’t be doing this it will push him away and I could lose him forever. He’s all I have right now. It’s not worth losing my son. I love him. More than anything. And I need to remember that in the grand scheme of things this is his life and his choice,” he coached himself, “I’ll let him come to me but maybe I’ll open the conversation so that he doesn’t feel scared to tell me,” he told himself, “but how do you bring up a conversation about possibly being gay?”
He sat there, pondering, as the night continued on.
——————————
The next day, after school, you and Shoto turned left out of the school gates and headed down the road to the bus station.
“Do you have the address with you?” Shoto asked as you walked.
“Yeah,” you said as you pulled the folded paper from your pocket and showed him.
He nodded.
“And I also bought the diary,” you added, shrugging your shoulder that had the bag strap over your shoulder.
“Oh. Will you show it to him?” Shoto asked.
“Yeah… I thought I might,” you replied.
“How are you feeling?” Shoto then asked.
“Umm… I don’t really know to be honest,” you said, “so much has happened but I’ve just kinda shut down at the moment? I don’t really know how to describe it? It’s like my mind can’t deal with everything at once so it shuts off,” you said.
Shoto nodded.
“That alone is helpful, thank you for sharing, Wyen,” he said.
You nodded.
“I didn’t know having that information would be useful,” you thought, “I guess just talking about myself gives insight, huh, interesting,” you thought as you walked.
It was another 30 minutes before you and Shoto arrived on the steps of the retirement building and you entered the building first with Shoto behind you.
“Hello,” you said as you approached the reception desk, “I’m here to visit Syril, hero name ShadowWield.”
“Ah, yes,” the reception lady said with a smile, “yes, just head on down the hall over there and he is door number 101.”
“Thank you,” you said, turning and walking in the direction she had pointed you.
“Would you like me to stay here?” Shoto asked.
“No, come down the hall,” you said, seeing chairs outside some of the rooms, “just chill on the seat there,” you added when you got closer to the door in question, “I won’t be too long, I’ll come and get you.”
“Ok,” Shoto said as he walked over and sat down on the chair outside the room.
You watched him sit and then nodded and turned to the door and reached out to knock.
With three sharp taps to the wooden door, you then waited, and heard some people talking from inside.
Then you heard footsteps approaching the door and looked up as the door was opened before you.
There was a pleasant looking, shorter nurse standing there in front of you and you gave her a short bow.
“Hello, I’m here to visit Mr Syril,” you said to her.
“Sir,” she called back into the room, “Sir, you have someone visiting you.”
“Who is it?” came the gruff reply.
“Excuse, what is your name?” she then asked you.
“He might not know my name, but I am the grandson of Deathborne,” you said to her.
“Okay, I will tell him,” she said as she turned back into the room, “Sir he is Deathborne’s grandson, de ba.”
“Can’t be,” the gruff voice said with awe, “bring him in Rose.”
“He says you can come, see, sige,” she said as she beckoned you into the room.
You stepped in and walked in past the curtain that was only pulled half way across the room and turned to the bed there.
In the bed lay an older man, quite tall from what you could see of his frame in the bed, bright blue eyes, with grey and white streaked hair and his body sallow and sunken. It was clear that he had lived a hard life.
“Hello Mr ShadowWield, sir,” you said softly with another bow.
“What’s your name, son,” he asked.
“My government name?” you asked.
He nodded.
“Wyen, sir,” you said.
“Incarnate’s son,” he said softly with a gentle smile pulling at his lips, “you have grown so,” he added, “the last I saw you, you would have been about 1 year old.”
You nodded.
“Sir,” you said, taking a deep breath in, “I do come here on business.”
“Oh?” Syril asked as he tried to prop himself up in bed more but Rose, the nurse, had to grab the remote on the side of the bed and sit it up for him, “excuse me, my body has given up on me but my mind is still sharp,” he said with another small smile, “thank you, Rose,” he added once the nurse had sat him up.
“I wish to discuss something about my grandfather with you,” you said and Syril’s face dropped slightly.
“Rose, would you leave us for a bit?” he asked the pleasant nurse.
“Yes, sir, you call me when you want me, just press it on the button,” she said raising her eyebrows and pointing her top lip in the direction of the call button.
“I will,” he nodded.