Wicked style, Liam Dunbar

4.6 Generational Love

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'I know if I'm haunting you, you must be haunting me'
- Haunted, Beyoncé
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Atlas and Liam lay in silence as Liam rests his head on Atlas' bare chest and he plays around with his hair.

Atlas knows he has to tell Liam about his immortality, how he won't age anymore and will remain seventeen forever. He can't bring himself to have that conversation, he promised the boy that he would grow up with him.

"You know, when we were younger I didn't hate you" Liam shrugs as he glances up at Atlas, breaking the comfortable silence. "I never have hated you Atlas."

"So why didn't we get along back then?" Atlas questions he continues to run his hands through Liams hair. "I got the impression that you hated me so I just hated you back."

"I was jealous of you" Liam admits, sighing, "I wanted to be you. Your family had all this influence on this place. You had everything you wanted. Everyone liked you. Your parents were madly in love. You had this life that I just wanted so badly to have for myself."

"I didn't have everything I wanted" Atlas replies. "I didn't have a best friend. Everyone may have liked me but I was never anyone's first choice." The pair sit in silence for a few long moments, "I was the type of kid that would call everyone my best friends so no one would feel left out, but I would never be anyone's favourite. I would've jumped in front of a train for anyone and nobody would dive into water for me."

"What changed?" Liam questions. "You would still jump in front of a train for someone but what changed you?"

"I saw beyond the mist for the first time" Atlas explains. "I saw my dad, wolfed out completely, red eyes blazing back at me. It was before I knew what I was and it changed everything for me. I was six and wanted to run away after arguing with my mum, my dad followed me. I went into the woods and a pack of wolves were going to attack me. They were werewolves, my dad stopped them. After that moment, I decided that I would protect the people that would protect me when I need it. That's what changed me."

"I wish we could've gotten along when we were kids" Liam smiles at the boy.

"Maybe if we got along back then we wouldn't be like this now" Atlas suggests. "I don't think I'd change anything I've ever done in my life. I don't have any regrets, because I like my life right now and if I were to change something I don't think it would be like this."

"I wish we would've stopped arguing sooner" Liam admits. "I wish we didn't spend half the time arguing when you came back and sorted out our differences."

Atlas sits up and reaches forward to cup Liams chin in his hand. "Well you have me now. I love you. Besides we agreed to stop talking about all the what ifs of life." Liam hums in response as he leans back onto Atlas' chest. "You said that you were jealous that my parents were in love. Were yours not?"

"My parents divorced when I was nine" Liam explains with a sigh as he stares up at the ceiling. "I knew it was coming from a young age, like five or six. I started noticing at pick up in elementary how in love everyone's parents were. Yours were the most in love."

"Well they were together for over half a millennium" Atlas shrugs with a sad smile.

"My dad treated my mom like shit. He was always shouting at her and she was too scared to shout back. He hit her."

"Why didn't she leave him?"

"She was too scared. My dad then began to treat me like shit. In the beginning I thought this was how fathers treated their sons, hitting them so they'd be stronger." Tears begin to pool in the bottom of Liams eyes as he continues to talk, "I wasn't a bad kid. One night at dinner me and my mom were talking, I was telling her about how I wanted to sign up for the hockey team. My dad came home and started to argue that hockey isn't a man's sport, that I should sign up for football. I argued back, I told him that I wanted to play hockey not football. He slapped me across the face and it left a trace. The left side of my face was red for a few days" Liam lifts a trembling hand and points to the area which was slapped. "My mom told everyone that I had gotten sunburnt, that she'd forgotten to put sunscreen on me. I still believed that my dad with teaching me to be tougher, not to take shit from anyone."