Afterlife || irwin

[ 31 ] 2014

[ 31 ] 2014

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"You ever fucking try that again and I'll actually choke you with my own two hands."

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When the movie was over, Niall and Andrea went up to their room for the rest of the night, excusing themselves and bidding their friends a good night. It was already around nine at night and the teenagers had school the next morning. Calum and Harley got up from their place on the living room couch and he followed her down the hall to the library. Harley took a few hesitant steps first, as she didn't want to interrupt their conversation if they were still having one. But when she heard nothing coming from the other side of the door, she gave a small knock, her voice sounding small at first. "Dad...Michael...are you two still alive in there?"

Calum couldn't help but stifle a laugh at her words, his mechanical hand coming up to block the sound coming from his mouth. Almost immediately came Michael's voice full of impatience. "Barely."

She then asked another question full of hesitance. "Did you guys talk things out?"

This time, she got a response from Arthur. Michael knew that if he replied to her anyway, she likely wouldn't believe him, as he was very likely to lie to her. She thought that his resentment against their father was too much for him to get over so easily. And in a way she was right. He had heard what Arthur had to say, and he was surprised to find that he understood him in a sense. He understood that Arthur cared about them, but it was dangerous for all the people he loved if he were to stay. That was why he couldn't even stay by Harleen, the one woman he had loved his entire life, or his two kids who he also loved with his whole being. Michael understood all of those reasons, but he was still resentful because the outcome of it all was that his mother had died. She died alone, and always waiting for him. 

"Yeah, we talked, sweetheart." Arthur said tiredly, rubbing his temples like he was feeling an oncoming headache. He was tired of being in the same room cooped up for hours, sitting in the same chair, with his son shooting him only glares until he finally decided to hear him out. Arthur was used to being in the shadows, never detected by anyone. Now that he was out so publicly, in front of what he felt was so many people, it was exhausting for him. Arthur Vega had never been much of a social person. It was exactly the kind of personality his two kids had inherited as well.

As he explained everything though, he could see the way his eyes and his expression softened towards him significantly. He was still resentful of what had happened to Michelle, but at least he understood the reasons why Arthur did it. Still, he had asked Arthur to give him some time and some space to think about things and come to terms with everything. It wasn't easy accepting the fact that his mother was gone, and that his father was a powerful man, leader of an organization of hunters. It wasn't easy to accept that after so many years of growing up alone, he finally had a father. Arthur apologized to Michael on that behalf as well. He knew that presents, money, and a few handwritten letters every now and then were not enough to win over his son's love. But the truth of the matter was that he never had a father of his own, and therefore he didn't know how to act as a father to his own children.

As a final condition, Michael had asked Arthur to promise that if h e were to try to get along with him, he had to promise that he would no longer continue his hunt of the two original shifters. Arthur felt like it pained him to accept this condition. It was his life's work, and the life's work of decades of dedication from his family's end. Letting it go just like that was like letting go a part of himself. He finally concluded though, that his son was more important than all of that, and he agreed. 

He had promised to back off, and talk to his hunters, calling off the ransom on the heads of Hazel and Jack Quimby. They would continue hunting, as Michael even suggested they could just enforce justice. They could go after the shifters who were known to cause trouble or murdered people, like the ones who had killed his mother. Arthur thought it wasn't such a bad idea. He could keep his organization afloat, and he could be on good terms with his son. It was a win-win situation for the two of them.