Prompt Number Twenty Six: Distance

Word count (discounting A/Ns): 520

There was something unspoken in the air between them. An elephant in the corner.

Every time Riven approached his father, intending to talk about it and find out what was wrong, he would brush it aside and change the subject of their conversation.

To be frank, it was creating a huge, particularly morbid distance between them. And Riven was determined to change that.

Both father and son sat at the dinner table one night, about three and half weeks into the summer break. The atmosphere was silent - eerily silent, in fact - the only noise being the clatter of cutlery and the ticking of the clock. It had been this way for the past two weeks.

Riven finished off the last mouthful of his pasta bake, and sat back in his chair. He waited for his father to finish, before he would definitely find out what was troubling his father so much that he refused to talk about it. He sat forward, his elbows resting on the table, interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on them. He waited patiently for a while.

Thomas, though, knew that an interrogation was on its way, so he slowed himself down considerably. He took another helping of the food on the table.

Riven couldn't wait any longer. "Alright, Dad," he said, frowning slightly. "I've waited two weeks. What's wrong?"

"Son, why are you so stubborn?" Thomas joked slightly, trying to lighten the mood a little.

Riven wasn't falling for it today. "Dad, just tell me what's going on," he pleaded, ignoring his dad's comment.

"Riven... don't you realise that I can't tell you?" the older man sighed.

"Why? Is it so bad that I can't know? And anyway, it's not that you can't tell me; it's just that you don't want to. Why don't you want to tell me?"

"Because... I don't want to ruin our... friendship, if you will."

Riven laughed bitterly. "You're doing just that by not telling me."

"Riven. Drop it." Thomas shook his head, getting worked up.

"No, Dad. What is it? It's not like I'm going to... I don't know..." Riven waved his hand, searching for the right words. "Move out or something, is it?"

"No, but..."

"Well, then. What have you got to lose?"

"Fine. I... I lost my job," Thomas muttered.

"Was that so hard?" Riven asked.

Thomas shook his head. "No. But the reason..."

"What's the reason?"

"I got into a fight. With my boss. It started off as verbal, and very nearly turned physical. My colleague, Jack, had to pry me off him before he said I was fired." Another shake of the head.

"Why?"

"Now, that is my definition of shameful. No can do, buddy," Thomas said, grinning madly.

Riven smiled back, his mood lifting. "Fine, fine," he decided. "I guess telling me what happened is enough." He saw his dad relax so he jokingly added, "For now."

Thomas growled, reaching over and punching Riven's shoulder slightly. Riven breathed out lightly. The morbid distance between them had reduced a great deal. It was hardly there now. Everything was going to be OK.

A/N: Sorry for taking so long on this. I've now decided to do a drabble, then a one-shot (differing from the Winx Club, Frozen and Sherlock fandoms), drabble, then one-shot, and so on. So yeah. It's my motivation.