when we were young

moon river and me

- trigger warnings: mentions of blood, alcohol abuse and slight self harm. read at your own discretion

author's note

- HII EVERYONE i'm so excited for you guys to read this chapter. this chapter is one i've had planned for awhile so i hope you all love it :)

- thank you all for your sweet comments and messages. they fr mean much more to me than you can imagine. thank you all for reading, always.

-the soundtrack to this story is linked on my homepage, scan code is at the top and on spotify w the same user as here:) same for my other social medias except insta which is @retroackermanS :)

- w all of that being out of the way, i hope you all can enjoy this chapter. it was so much fun to write and a lot of these ideas in this chapter i've had planned for  a very long time so i hope you all love it:)

- in jean we trust

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[play the angels by labrinth]

"How much longer do you want to sit out here?" Annie asks with a mumble. You stay seated against the single  giant oak tree while Annie stood up and began looking for rocks to skip in the lake.

"I'm not sure." You respond and turn your back towards your house and try to listen. It was quiet, the only sounds aside from the breeze and Annie skipping rocks to the water was the faint yelling coming from your house. You continue.

"Whenever they stop yelling I guess."

"You guess?" Annie threw the remaining rocks in her hand into the lake and and turns around to look at you. Once you shrug your shoulders, Annie sighs and starts walking towards you. Her back rests against the tree for a moment until she starts sliding down to sit next to you. You stare into the water and go on.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. You know how it is when Paul comes home." You're not even upset. Well at least not about that. This is just routine. Every few months, when Paul got his break with the other warriors, they all had to come home. Or that's what they were supposed to do.

It was more often than not Paul wouldn't even stay at your house for those times. Mainly because every time he did, this would happen.

Hours of nonstop verbal fighting between him and your parents. What would the fights be about? Well, anything.

More like everything.

Today was Paul's birthday. In fact it was his last birthday. His 21st.

But you were the topic of their fight.

It all started at the dinner table. It was such a rare occasion both of your parents, Paul and yourself sat a table together for an extended amount of time. It started out normally, until your dad spoke up.

~

"How's training camp going Y/N?" Your father asked. That's all he ever asked about with you.

"Okay." Your answers were always short and the same. What was there to say? Your parents knew what you did there. This wasn't the first time they made their child go through this. But this year was different.

Next year, Marley officials were going to choose their new set of honorary Marleyans. So your parents were coming down on you more and more as the days passed.

"Just okay?" Your dad asked again, more unimpressed this time. You look up and see that his right eye has a slight twitch to it.

You look over to your mom who's pouring another glass of wine.