𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐄

~Icarus falls~

Then

And there he waits.

And waits.

He even paces around a bit.

Maybe a bit is an understatement. A gust of wind too strong will make his legs collapse. He's been walking for far too long. Maybe it's the arthritis. Who knows.

He's even made a new game.

Try to step in the footprints you've already made. He'll admit, it's not his most inventive game, but it passes the time.

He'll also admit, he wasn't the inventor of the family.

The swelling in his ankle becoming unbearable, he plops down. Head resting lightly against the bark. As if he put his full weight on, it would fall.

He tries to occupy himself with other things. Really boring things. Biting his nails, drawings in the dirt, looking at the trees in the distance, ripping up blades of grass and leaves. Like really boring.

He seems doubtful that she'll come.

Picking up a stick that he has named Bertie, he starts another drawing. Bertie was the name of his brothers horse. How he wished he could tell him. Apollo would have gotten a chuckle out of it.

Lost his thoughts, mindlessly drawing. He looks down and sees a messy Apollo in the dirt. He quickly brushes over it with the soul of his boot.

I miss you.

He shakes his head as if it'll remove his sorrow.

No matter how much he tries, his head still goes back to the day he... left.

"Icarus". He said in his all too solemn voice.

He held his shoulders, a small smile on his face. Not reaching his eyes.

"I promise I'm not leaving forever. You can't get rid of me so easily,". He chuckled, gave him a noogie, and left.

That was three summers ago.

The boy always hated being alone. He got lost in his thoughts to quickly. Lost in his memories.

He hoped to never hear the name Apollo again. But that was a lie. He wanted nothing else on this cruel world more. But just like Evanora, Apollo failed to keep his promise.

The dark was setting in. The fireflies illuminated the sky. The clouds moving into the oblivion to make room for the stars. The moon was shy and only wanted to show a sliver of itself. The grass turing cold from the breeze.

The chilly air spread goosebumps down his arms and climbed his shoulders to the nape of his neck. The tips of his ears turing a slight blush.

Oh how he loved the fall.

He didn't want to go home. So he won't. He'll go the only other place he dares to call home.

His brothers stable. Apollo had always said that there was room for him there. Now there definitely was room, for the fact that it was empty.

The door was never locked. He never had a need to. No matter how many valuables he could put in Berties stall. Nobody in town had the heart to steal from a little boy with a broken heart.

It's stupid really. He would rather sleep in a horse stall in his brothers barn than in his bed at home. It's not that life at home is bad. It's that life without him is worse. It was lonely. Slow. Nothing new. No laughs. No smiles. No... love.

Days were more full with Evanora. He loved her to pieces. So much so that he indirectly asks for her hand in marriage daily. Even if most of the time it was a joke. He didn't think about his sorrows when he was trying to make her smile.

Maybe he's reading too far into Evanora standing him up. Maybe her father still has a stick stuck too far up his arse. Maybe Evan was being a twat again.

Evan.

The name makes him sick.

It's all his fault. Even if some of it wasn't.

He regrets making his brother do the laundry for their mother.

I should've went to the stable.

Yet Apollo is gone. And there's nothing he can do about it. Well. Gone seems like too heavy if a word. But it's better than saying he left and probably won't ever come back.

He might as well be dead with the way you're mourning. His mother had said.

To Icarus, it was better than the truth.