｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

｡･:*:･ﾟ★"I break down walls and torch cities, I raze entire legions to the ground. But I don't leave my family behind.":*:･ﾟ☆

Sky

"I thought you wanted to start a family of our own?" Irene demands and you could hear a pin drop in the silence of the repurposed specialist's grounds.  "This is because of Farrah isn't it. You are my mate, mine. Not hers."

"Farrah is my friend and nothing more!" Silva exclaims as he storms onto the sparring ring and I really don't want to hear this fight as Irene storms after him into the very public setting. We've drawn a crowd. A large one. 

Everyone and their mum has come to see this.

The specialists shift around me, all of them transfixed and clearly uncomfortable. Silva and Irene never fight. And never, ever, publicly. They are literally the mum and dad of the specialists and I can practically see every Dumaris' here, daddy issues and mommy issues resurfacing.

It's honestly quite frightening how many specialists the couple have accidentally adopted and helped.

And I think all of them are struggling to take sides in the ongoing distance between the couple. Because Silva is literally an annoyingly perfect father figure but Irene.... She genuinely loves all of the kids she trains. We all heard her cries echo through the specialist hall when we lost three of us to the Burned One attack.

"Then what is the problem?" Irene roars, bringing my attention back to the current fight at hand. "Andreas? Sky? The War? Anything Saul, anything other than you don't want kids?"

Andreas and I awkwardly shift side by side. This was not what I was expecting when I spotted him by one of the sparring rings. I thought, 'hey, this could be an opportunity to bond and get to know each other better.' but no, mum and dad here decided to have a little domestic in the middle of the fucking sparring rings.

"Of course I want kids!" He yells back, "We have had this discussion a thousand times. And we have Sky and Riven for Helios sake! I just never wanted to put pressure on you."

"What is going on!" A stern voice demands and the whole area freezes as Dowling storms out onto the training grounds. She shoots concerned glances at all the onlookers. "Don't you all have somewhere else to be?"

All of the non-Alfeans listen to her command, quickly walking off along with most of our students. However, a few specialists and fairies loiter around. It's mostly the third and fourth years, the ones who have been witnessing the Silva couple for years. They would all know that this is a once in a blue moon event.

No one wants to miss the damn spectacle my family now is.

"Oh this is going to be brilliant." Andreas gasps, pure delight in his words. "Utterly brilliant."

He pauses for a moment, thinking through his words as Riven and Beatrix drift to my side. He gives me a hesitant smile and I wince in response.

"Oh this looks fun." Bea comments absently as she looks out at the silent adults stuck in a glaring match. "Someone should stop them."

"I know right." Andreas scoffs, getting out his phone and turning the camera on. "I can't wait to memorialise this-... wait. I'm supposed to stop them aren't I."

We all give him a look, one that clearly says 'please tell me you're not just realising this now'

"Eh," Riv shrugs. "They have Harvey."

"Works for me." Andreas doesn't hesitate to respond before turning back to the fight, video rolling.

"I think it's best if we all go to my office." Dowling remains regal and calm, and I know without a shadow of doubt that her reaction is driving Irene mad. "This isn't a conversation to be had publicly-"

"Oh fuck off you home wrecking whore." Irene turns to face Dowling, voice level but filled with spite. "Haven't you done enough."

And it's the exhausted tears welling in Irene's eyes that has every single Dumaris in the training field standing up straight in alarm. That instinct to protect, to protect the woman who has cared for them coming out in full force.

Irene scoffs and shakes her head, storming away towards Alfea and my heart breaks.

"After her." Andreas snaps, camera away. Beatrix and Riven don't hesitate to run towards Irene while I stay by Andre- my father's side.

"What do we do?" I ask with worry, for the first time I look at my father in question. Hoping he has the answer.

"You, do nothing." He commands, icy rage filling his voice. "I am going to yell at your father."

I watch in shock as he storms away from straight towards Silva.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asks, voice low and calm. "Your pregnant mate just ran away in tears and you are still standing here, staring at another woman."

"Because unlike you I try not to burn bridges everywhere I go." Saul's voice is so quiet, so full of rage that I see all the fairies quickly walk away. That instinct of theirs that protects them from an angry Dumaris perking up and keeping them safe. Even Dowling steps back until she is stood far to the side.

"Oh, I burn bridges as I please." Andreas drawls. "I break down walls and torch cities, I raze entire legions to the ground. But I don't leave my family behind."

Silva laughs.

And laughs and laughs.

And there is so much grief, so much trauma and despair in that one sound. Tears are streaming down my face before I can stop them. There is something so raw about his emotions, something so real about then and the scent-

The smell of his grief is potent and sharp in the air. The rest of the specialists turn and bolt at the scent, unable to take the overwhelming nature of having a more dominant male lose control. I fight the urge to do the same.

Especially now that it's just Silva and Andreas staring each other down while Dowling and I look on. The headmistress drifts to my side and we both look at the two warring males in the sudden silence of the dead public space.

Oh this isn't going to end well.

"Aunt Farrah." I murmur, suddenly feeling scared that I'm about to lose the family I have gained.

"It's going to be okay Sky." She reassures me with a soft, sad smile. "I know we've had our differences but trust me on this."

"How can I trust you when you caused this." I whisper in horror as I watch my father and father figure draw out their blades. I ignore the headmistress as she freezes beside me.

"Are we really doing this Saul?" Andreas gripes with irritation but I can see the gleam in his eyes. Too long, they've waited so long to clear the air between them.

"You shouldn't see this Sky." Farrah murmurs.

I turn and run.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

No one's POV

Farrah walks off, leaving the males alone as they stare at each other. Both are already panting for breath as their rage builds. There's too much emotion, too many thoughts. All of which have been pushed aside. Looked over and hidden in the name of moving on.

"You would never abandon your family." Saul whispers, voice broken and low as he stares in disbelief at the male before him. He had often wondered what life would be like if Andreas would be alive, he was often dreaming of the life he had stolen from Sky. Never had he thought Andreas was still alive. Sure he had hoped and wondered. Spent the first few months after the fire begging for it to have all been some mistake. That Andreas had survived.

There was even a period of paranoia. He was lashing out at everyone and everything, driven mad by grief while being adamant that Andreas was not dead. Irene had left by that point. She herself had been driven to permanently live in her animal form and roaming about the Alfean forests. Silva had been alone with a two year old baby.

With sky.

"What about Sky." Saul whispers with an accusing hum. "You left Sky."

"I had no choice." Andreas answers, eyes sad as he stares at the man who he once viewed in the highest regard. "I was insane, Saul. Anyone could see that. The rage consumed me and then after the fire..."

He shakes his head. The self loathing is clear in his eyes.

"I needed that fire, Saul. I needed it all to burn away." The madness in his eyes has Silva's heart breaking. "Or I thought I did. When I truly looked back and saw the flames, when I saw what I did to Irene."

Andreas had never forgiven himself. That's the problem with everything Silva is saying because he did have the choice to come home. Only recently that is but for the past four or so years he could have come back. But after he remembered what he did to Irene? What he tried to do to Sky.

How could he come back? How could he come back knowing what he did to the people he loves.

No. It was better to stay away. Andreas had told Sky that all he wanted as a parent was to give him two loving parents and a safe home. And that's what he did. He took himself out of the equation and left Sky with the people who could really love and care for him.

Andreas had gone back to his home. Not that he would admit it to anyone here. But Beatrix and Ricki had gone out on a girls night with Tavi and Stella, so he left. It was the week after he had gotten most of his memories back. Enough memories to piece together who he was, where he lived and who he called family.

And he had gone home. He saw the burnt out husk of his old home, the graves of his parents, and Sky. He was sitting in the Silva city house. He must have been 17, still young and gangling. In that awkward teenage phase where he wasn't a man but wasn't a boy either. Andreas had stayed there for hours, just watching through the window.

Sky had set up the table, Irene was cooking a roast dinner. Silva had been out working and the car rumbling down the driveway nearly had him bolting but that familiar scent - the one that had him pausing as memories came back - was coming from the car.

Silva had rushed into the house, taking off his coat and being playfully shouted at when he forgot to take off his boots. He had ruffled Sky's hair as he walked past him to the kitchen. For a moment, Andreas had to look away as Silva and Irene kissed, a song on the radio turning on and the two had playfully danced around the kitchen. Singing obnoxiously off tune much to Sky's irritation but-

They were a family.

A family in the most cliche, awkward, random way. Mismatched yet somehow perfect. It was that moment that Andreas had realised that he had no right to call any of them family. He had no claim to them after so long.

So he left.

And he did his best not to look back.

But then the Silvas moved house and Andreas' world broke. He had spies on them of course. No matter what he told himself he still cared for them. But this move was so out of the blue, so sudden and Andreas didn't have enough memories to piece it all together.

They were gone, and he wanted them back. He wanted a chance to be a family. To give Beatrix a family. One she deserved and not just him.

So he had agreed to help Rosalind, knowing she was under the school from what little information she had given him. He also knew that Silva would eventually send Sky to Alfea. It was torture waiting that extra year for Beatrix to be old enough to attend. To have her find her brother. 

Of course they had to conspire with Rosalind but he wanted his family back. That was all that mattered.

"I didn't remember you, Saul." Andreas whispers, "It was the only way to stop whatever was going on with my head. They had to wipe my memories."

"And what of before, hmm?" Silva demands. "I can forgive you for not remembering, but what about before. When you barely spent anytime with your family, when you burnt your fucking house to the ground with them in it. When you drifted away from your friends, from Irene and I"

"You always saw the best in me, Saul." Andreas comments instead. "Always tried to make excuses for me, except when it came to Sky. I'm grateful you took him in. I really am. But what gave you the right back then?"

"You stand here and yell at me for what I did before my 'death' but what about you did?" Andreas demands, feeling frustration bubble within him as words he doesn't mean begin to pour out as he loses control. "Now we're standing here, fighting each other yet again. And you stand there acting like you know how to raise my son bes-"

"My son." Saul snaps whirling on Andreas as he gets in his face. "I might be a fool, and an idiot when it comes to my mate and that is a flaw I can admit to. But at least I never abandoned my child to embark on some fucked quest for power on the orders of a sociopath."

"Loyalty! That is what you wish to talk about. Tell me, what have your pathetic loyalties got you? Farah is cockdrunk on you, Irene is seconds away from leaving you and Sky-" Andreas breaks off into dark laughter. "He seems content to bond with me over you. So tell me, how deep is your bond of loyalty with your Omada when they are all turning on you."

"Don't talk to me about bonding with Sky." Saul seethes, memories of the boy's childhood flashing through his mind. "What do you know of your son? You have no idea of who he is, of who he was... you weren't there when he said his first words. Actually you were there, you were still 'alive' yet you were on some psychotic break in the middle of a battlefield."

"You don't know what he did for his birthdays, or when he picked up his first sword, you don't know how long he called me dad." Andreas has a dagger to his throat in seconds, gripping the back of Saul's hair to keep him in place as the headmaster makes no move to struggle.

Andreas is out for blood now, yet his hand trembles. Saul's getting to him, not that he would admit it. Yes he wanted Sky to have parents, good parents, but it doesn't stop it from hurting when he hears about how easily he was replaced.

"I was robbed of the opportunity." Andreas rasps. "I was robbed of having my family."

"You left us." Saul whispers rage boiling as he glares at the male before him. "You left me."

Saul shoves Andreas off, pulling out his sword and allowing the other male to do the same. But he makes no move to attack, staring at Andreas with such a dead emotion in his eyes.

"I'm not going to fight you." Silva's voice is tired. "That won't get us anywhere. But if you want this, this family you so crave. You need to start fighting for it. A lot more than you have been."

Saul resheaths his blades and makes his way back to Alfea in search of his mate. To tell her that he's going to do better, that things are different now Andreas is back. That he feels like himself again without the weight of grief and guilt.

"And what of Farrah?" Andreas calls after the retreating male who pauses slightly.

"Farrah and I have gotten close over time, she helped me with my grief of losing both Irene and you."

"What do you mean by losing Irene."

"Not my story." Saul chose to ignore the sharp edge to Andreas' voice when Irene was mentioned.

"But Farrah was there for me. For an entire decade. Irene missed seven years of Sky's life, he needed a mother figure and Aunty Farrah was the best option."

"And I take it that the second mate bond of yours worked out quite nicely for her." Andreas scoffs and Silva fights down his scowl of annoyance. "Did you even tell her you're already bonded to someone else?"

"She has her suspicions. She cut off all ties with Sebastian." Andreas huffs at the males name. "And then she cut off ties with Sophia."

"You always did have a thing for the jealous protective type." Andreas steps forward to hesitantly join Silva on his walk back to Alfea, relief hollowing out his chest when he doesn't push him away.

"Don't let Irene hear you." Silva grumbles. "She'll have your head."

Andreas' laughter echoes through the area and for the first time in years the pair walk in comfortable silence.

A/N: What do you think of the argument between Andreas and Silva? Was it closure enough for them?

Thoughts on Sebastian?