TCF Songfics (My version)

When sorrow roots too deep

The song title is "Touch" by Sleeping At Last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KDJeBH4ca8 

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On, Hong and Raon had been staying every day closer to their human, sensing his restlessness even after everything in the world has been settled. They still remember his red eyes and hoarse voice a couple of weeks ago, after running into him singing a heartbreaking song in the villa's garden.

Because, yes, they did saw him. They saw the pain in those shallow eyes, the emptiness and at the same time the longing and restlessness hiding in every word his sore throat could tear out from his quavering self. They couldn't help but wince in pain themselves, comparing that wavering and sorrowful voice with his usual stoic demeanor during war times, always talking like nothing besides their safety mattered and everything could be solved. There wasn't a trace of that certainty and confidence anymore, not right now, not with all that misery covering his facade.

They wanted oh so much to just run wild and hug their father figure, that frame that used to look so big and reliable but that it was starting to crumble out of the blue whenever it was all by himself. But they decided against it on behalf of letting him grieve before showing themselves with everybody else from their family to support him after the storm of his mind decides to yield and the calmness returns to his features.

Since that moment, they decided that every tutoring class or mission with Eruhaben or the Molans could wait until their human was feeling better. Because nothing else other than that person's happiness- their savior, their anchor, their father – could ever mean so much to them. And so, they've been following him everywhere, from garden to bedroom, from bedroom to forest, from forest to farm and so on till Cale decided to go to the state for a while. Always trying to show their support without being nuisances, asking for head pats or talking about little things (from their random thoughts about the world, to their deeds and all the knowledge they had acquired since they started taking lessons in the stealth and information gathering field, in the kittens' side, and magic, in the little dragon's side) to assure their human wasn't having intrusive thoughts that could trigger some bad memories.

Their human is not delicate or vulnerable, even as much as Raon loves to call him his 'weak human'. After all, he has surpassed every ideal of human force they could ever imagine, going beyond everything and everyone's expectancies just to live his so wanted slacker life – saving the world on the way, making acquaintances with every other powerful person that seems sane enough (not counting Clopeh, everybody knows that bastard is anything but sane) and letting the world behold all the types of strength somebody could acquire. Even so, they don't want to tempt fate, because they know they've been blessed with so much luck in the past couple of years and don't want to give the world a slight chance to fuck it all up and destroy what they've all achieved, the family they treasure so much and the center of it all, Cale. And so, they stick to his side, cling to him with all of their might (and that's a lot, coming from a great and mighty dragon).

With all of this, there's something they didn't considered in their plans to maintain the human distracted. And is that the human, even with his laze ass tendencies, is almost always awake. At night, when the sky is tinted with its dark hues and the world seems at peace, Cale's head becomes a turmoil of thoughts and feelings, so overwhelming that he can't even bring himself to sleep. He so much desires to let himself slip into the embrace of darkness to rest, to not think so much. But his mind doesn't allow it, and there's nothing the kids can do about that.

One particular night, after the kids that had been running and screaming and playing like crazy all through the day and had finally closed their eyes for a good night of sleep, Cale feels the restlessness in his chest swell and his head throb, his eyes filled with unshed tears. But he refuses to shed anymore tears for himself, he only allows his eyes to water whenever he is thinking about his precious people. He doesn't think he has the right to feel sorry for himself, not even once. And so, he goes with the second-best thing he can think of to let loose that knot in his throat and set free his feelings into the air, far away from himself.