A/N: Time Travel Fix-It AU, sort of. More of a Time-travel-retcon-fix. These poor bois deserve all the happiness. Goddamn the makers of this game are sadists. And the rest of us masochists for eating it all up and coming back for seconds.
As a heads up, this story is based on a low-morality, high-brotherhood run, featuring Finn Romance.
Lyla didn't know what happened. One second she was goofing off with Sean, making a list about what to take to the party, teasing him about Jenn, then out of the blue Sean got up and ran inside the house without so much as half an explanation. This didn't seem like a cold shoulder, maybe he had heard something she missed? Worriedly she followed after him.
"Heyy! Perfect t-" Esteban started cheerfully, but Sean was not listening, or paying him any attention at all. His eyes were glued on Daniel.
"Daniel. Come over here, quickly." He commanded urgently.
"What? Why? What did I- hiii Lyla." Daniel pouted but got distracted by his crush walking into his house.
"Enano, we don't have time! You need to come here now. Please." The urgency and desperation in Sean's tone was palpable.
"Okay, okay!" Daniel frowned and got off his chair with a long suffering (brattish) sigh and an eye roll.
Daniel went to stand in front of Sean, who had kneeled down to be more at level with his little brother. Sean carefully put his hands on Daniel's biceps, holding him in front of him.
"Okay? Now what?" Daniel asked, sounding simultaneously a little curious and annoyed. Sean said nothing.
After a beat of nothing happening, the four of them just waiting in awkward silence, Daniel scowled.
"This is stupid, I-AAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Just like that Daniel started wailing into high heavens. Sean immediately pulled the boy to his arms.
"Dios mío" Esteban gasped and hurried over from the kitchen counter.
"No! No! No! Don't die! Please don't die, Sean!" Daniel sobbed hysterically.
The house started quivering. An earthquake? Now?
"It's okay, enano. Everything is going to be alright. I'm not going to die. See?"
Sean pulled Daniel back and took his tiny hand and pressed it against his own neck, close to the collarbone.
The earthquake stopped.
Daniel sniffled, visibly calming down a notch. He stared at the spot his hand was placed against Sean. Then he looked up to his brother's face and gasped.
"Sean! Your eye!"
Sean's hand went up to his left eye. "Yeah…" He sighed quietly.
Daniel suddenly looked around in confusion, as if he had not realized he was at home. He glanced at Lyla in puzzlement, cocking his head adorably. When his gaze finally stopped at Esteban his confused look turned blank for an instance, then all blood seemed to seep away from his face, leaving him pale and terrified.
"NO! YOU CAN'T BE HERE! YOU'RE NOT REAL!" He shrieked loudly and started hyperventilating.
Another earthquake started shaking the house.
"Hijo…" Esteban started and tried to reach his sons, but Sean turned Daniel around so he was facing away from Esteban again, and sent his father a warning look to stay back. Reluctantly Esteban did. Lyla just observed everything in confusion and anxiety.
"Daniel, look at me. Look at me." Sean commanded gently and cupped his brother's face between his palms to force him to look at him. "You need to calm down, enano, before you blow up the house. Can you do that for me, buddy?"
"But Sean… dad…" Daniel sobbed and hiccupped.
"I know… I know…" Sean pulled Daniel into a tight embrace and rocked him back and forth. Daniel sniffled into Sean's hoodie, who miraculously didn't seem to mind the least.
The earthquake stopped again.
"Sean… what's going on?" Daniel asked feebly as he extracted himself from his brother's embrace.
Sean took a deep, steadying breath.
"Apparently… I have power too. Not like yours. I can… go back" He explained meekly. "We're back. Back before everything happened. Everything you see is real."
Daniel's breath hitched and his damp eyes widened.
"This is real?" He hiccoughed and turned his now hopeful gaze towards Esteban. "This is really real?"
"It's real, enano, I promise."
That was apparently all Daniel needed as he launched himself at Esteban like a bullet. He threw his arms around the man and started sobbing into his stomach. "Dad! I missed you! I missed you so, so much!"
Esteban had no earthly idea what the hell was going on. This didn't feel like a prank concocted by his mischievous sons, there's no way Daniel could fake such raw emotions. At the moment that didn't matter, though. All he knew for certain was that his youngest was in severe distress and needed to be comforted. Answers could wait.
Sean stood up from his kneeling position from the floor, watching Daniel and Esteban with an unreadable expression.
"What the cheezenuggets was that all about?" Lyla blurted.
Sean turned to face her slowly, still wearing the same blank, unreadable expression.
"This feels like some twilight zone sh-whoah hey there." Lyla stammered as Sean took two swift strides and pulled her into a tight as hell bear hug. "Sean?" She asked, but the boy just held her tighter.
After a while he spoke, voice muffled from where his face was buried into her shoulder. "I've never told you this enough, but you're the best, Lyla. I love you. You're the fucking queen of the world."
"O-okay, er… I… love you too?" Lyle stammered in complete bafflement and patted Sean's back awkwardly.
She glanced over at Daniel and Esteban, where the adult was staring back at the teens. The two utterly perplexed people shared their confusion silently.
Finally Sean extracted from Lyla with a weak sniffle, his eyes were moist, but at least he was not outright crying.
"So… want to tell us what's going on, hijo?" Esteban coaxed his eldest gently.
Sean nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
"Y-yeah. You'll need to hear this. Both of you. Buckle up, it's going to be a… long and unbelievable story."
Esteban, Lyla, and Daniel went to the living room to take a seat on the couch, while Sean went to the bathroom to freshen up. He splashed cold water onto his face and steadied himself for the long talk ahead. His reflection caught his attention.
"Shiiit…" Sean mumbled to himself, almost unable to recognize himself from the mirror.
He looked… so different. Funny what a single year (and not even that!) can do to a person.
The most obvious change would be the lack of an eyepatch. His two brown eyes peered right back at him, his depth perception fully restored. But that's hardly all that's different.
Sean was actually surprised how… round his cheeks looked. And his jaw line was a little bit softer now. It made him look so young and… cute? The lack of facial hair that he had just started to finally grow normally and not in ratty wisps wasn't helping either. His face had definitely been more gaunt in Arizona. On the other hand his body had been more filled out, he looked more awkwardly gangly now. The lack of scars didn't do his kiddie-like looks any favors either. His skin seemed to be a shade or two lighter, losing the tan he had gotten from the desert sun. Ironically his hair looked almost exactly the same. Funny that, it probably went through the most iterations than anything else.
But underneath it all, the haunted look, the weight of memories were still plain to Sean. His skin might be smooth and uncallused again, but the mental and emotional scars were not so easily discarded.
Sean shook off his slightly morose musings and headed back to the others. Along the way he spied a Chock-O-Crisp on the kitchen counter. Oh, yeah, he remembered the silly court game his dad played that day… this day. Fuck! Shaking his head he snagged the bar and went to the couch, where the others were waiting. He made an effort not to look at his father directly. If he did, he might break down, and right now he needed to stay composed for just a little while longer. That's alright though, Sean had gotten good at putting his own emotions on the back burner.
"Hey, guess what I've got." He said teasingly, twirling the candy bar between his fingers.
"CHOC-O-CRISP!" Daniel squealed excitedly, he jumped at his brother and snatched the treat, which he immediately dug into with gusto.
"Man, it's been like forever since I had a Choc-O-Crisp! Mom never could find any when she went on supply runs." He said thoughtlessly as he devoured the chocolate.
Sean flinched and chanced a nervous glance at his father. Esteban's eyebrows had both risen up high, but other than the surprise there was nothing else.
Right… Okay…
Sean sat down. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He had no idea how or where to start. He opened his mouth again and gesticulated with his hand, but still his words failed him. With a frustrated groan he ran his fingers through his hair.
Maybe… they needed to start with a demonstration? So that Esteban and Lyla won't think them completely bonkers.
"Daniel." He addressed his brother.
"Hmm?"
"You should show them."
Daniel lit up.
"Really? Is that cool?" He asked enthusiastically.
Sean nodded.
"Yeah. There's no way we can keep this from dad and… Lyla's cool. She totally deserves to know too."
"Awesome!"
"Yeah, but… make it something small, ok?"
Daniel just about bounced on the couch in excitement. He glanced around the room eagerly and finally focused on the leftover sushi on the coffee table. He reached out his arm and concentrated. For a moment nothing happened, then the foam boxes quivered and levitated into the air. A few seconds later they fell back to table.
"Why is this so harrrrd?!" Daniel whined.
"Is it? Huh, that's interesting." Sean mused.
Both brothers ignored the gobsmacked look on Esteban and Lyla's faces. Daniel too frustrated about being so underpowered, and Sean in deep thought.
"This makes sense, actually. Seems your power is more physical than mental. Remember how difficult it was for you just to lift a single rock? You'll need to train yourself back up again." He smiled at Daniel's horrified look.
"Awww man!" Daniel pouted.
Lyla spoke up, stammering, while still staring at the sushi boxes.
"That- that was- that- WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?"
"Daniel can move objects with his mind." Sean said bluntly.
There was no easy way to explain their supernatural gifts, better not to fuck around with this. Let them get over their shock quickly.
Daniel looked at Lyla and Esteban nervously as the pair tried not to bluescreen while processing what they'd just seen. Anxiously he shifted and went to sit next to Sean. Sean took Daniel's hand in his, squeezing his fingers to offer comfort, silently reassuring the younger wolf that everything will be alright.
"Oh, ha ha. This is a joke, right? There's a string hidden in the ceiling or… something. Very funny." Lyla finally chuckled.
Sean sighed quietly in exasperation. "No, Lyla. All this shit is real." He explained patiently. He had gotten very good at being patient.
Daniel reached out his hand and focused on a chopstick. It lifted into the air and casually floated over to Lyla. Wide eyed, the teen opened up her hand and the chopstick dropped onto her waiting palm.
"Oh, my god." She whispered. "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Daniel, you have superpowers!" She screeched.
"Yeah, I know." Daniel replied cheekily.
"This is so… wild! Oh, my god, I can't believe this!" Lyla squealed, now very excited.
Esteban coughed and patted himself on the chest. The three youths turned to the sole adult in the room, who seemed to be regaining his bearings.
"Yes, this is… unbelievable." He said cautiously. "But right now I have more pressing concerns. Like, why did Danny think you were dying?"
Lyla's eyes widened and she turned to the brothers expectantly. Sean winced.
"Yeah, um… so Daniel's got telekinesis and I can… travel back in time… apparently. And maybe take passengers? And… yeah, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like." He explained awkwardly.
Daniel snuggled closer to Sean. Lyla gasped and put her hands over her mouth. Esteban's lips pressed together pensively.
"You'll need to tell us everything, son." He said seriously. "How did you end up getting shot? In front of your little brother no less."
"That's… a long story, and I think it's better to start from the beginning." Sean sighed tiredly.
"Why'd you even let anyone shoot you? Couldn't you, I dunno, reverse time before anyone could even get close enough?" Lyla asked.
"I didn't know I had these time abilities. I only found out when… well, you get it. Believe me. I would have reversed time a lot sooner if I knew I could."
Esteban frowned thoughtfully.
"How far from the future are you from?" He asked.
"4th of July." Sean said grimly and Daniel hid his face into his brother's side, whimpering. "Coming back to this time was an accident, but when I took the bullet, today was all I could think of, because… Because today as the day when everything changed."
"Start from the beginning then, hijo."
"Okay…"
(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS ESSENTIALLY A LOOSE RECAP OF THE GAME WITH SOME ADDITIONAL INSIGHT FROM THE WOLF BROTHER)
"It started with Daniel making his Halloween costume. He was going to be a zombie boy." Sean chuckled and ruffled Daniel's hair, who protested half heartedly and swatted his hands away. "He had this pretty cool idea to make zombie blood using corn syrup and red food coloring. It looked pretty fucking real. And… yeah, that became a problem later on."
"I'm sorry." Daniel whispered.
"It wasn't your fault, enano. Not at all.
Anyway, Daniel ran outside and somehow ended up spilling the zombie blood on Brett. Of course, being the grade-A douchebag that he is, he wouldn't let it slide and started harassing him. I got in between, and… thing sort of escalated into a fistfight. Brett ended up falling over and… I guess he landed wrong in some way, because he didn't get back up. That's… when the cop showed up. Timing, right? Fuck…"
"I don't remember that." Daniel piped up.
"I'm glad for that. Honestly, I wish I could forget.
So, here's what that cop must've seen, two Hispanic kids over a white kid, who was covered in blood and gasping for breath. He didn't react well. He told us to step away… on gunpoint."
"What? That's bullshit! There's nothing that could justify pulling a firearm at a nine year old!" Lyla protested angrily.
Sean shrugged, oddly nonchalant.
"It's difficult to remember what happened objectively, considering what comes after, but I think he was just nervous. I later found out that he had been on the force only for six months, and he wasn't even supposed to be on patrol alone. But yeah, definitely don't want such pussies as law enforcement who panic at the sight of some kids fighting. Definitely don't want to give them a gun… so they could fucking shoot the adult trying to defuse the fucking situation!" Sean scowled. "…Yeah, he shot dad."
Lyla gasped, her hands going to her mouth again, Esteban tensed.
"That was the first time Daniel's powers manifested. He screamed and a violent shockwave pushed the cop back. He didn't survive."
"Fuck…" Lyla gasped.
"Good riddance…" Daniel muttered darkly.
Sean squeezed Daniel's shoulder.
"I must've blacked out for a second there, but when I came to the street was trashed, the cop was face down in front of his turned over car, Brett still lied in fake blood, and dad lied in real blood. I had no idea what to do, and I panicked, so I grabbed Daniel, still unconscious, and made a run for it.
In retrospect, it would've been wiser to stay, and try to explain what happened, even if I had no fucking clue what actually did happen. All I knew was that a cop had killed dad, so I sure wasn't feeling very confident in them. And I had no idea how to explain the explosion, which they would surely inquire about. Cuz' hey 'my brother has superpowers' is hardly the first conclusion you would jump to. Running seemed like the only way to go."
Lyla choked a sob, her eyes misty.
"Oh, you guys, I'm so, so sorry." She sniffled.
"Uhu, you're already crying. Just wait until you hear what comes later." Daniel, the little shit, snickered into his hands.
Lyla looked at the little boy in surprise.
"It's been almost a year for us, Lyla. We've had time to mourn and process this." Sean explained kindly.
"Oh, okay." Lyla nodded and wiped her eyes.
"Is it safe to assume I should find some tissues, before you go on?" Esteban asked.
"Yeah, actually, that's probably a good idea." Sean nodded and Esteban left to find some tissues.
So far, Esteban had been very composed, listening to their story stonily, only sometimes squeezing a fist momentarily, or clenching a jaw muscle. He returned with a box of paper tissues and a bottle of water for Sean. "For your mouth. Long storytelling can make you parched."
Sean nodded and they all settled in for the continuation.
"Daniel didn't remember what happened. The trauma, probably. He had no idea that dad was dead. And I had no heart to actually tell him. So… for a few days I bullshitted him that we were on a brotherly-bonding hiking trip, trying to put on a happy face, all the while totally freaking out on the inside."
"The walking sucked, but the trip itself was actually kind of cool." Daniel piped up and swung his legs cheerfully.
"Yeah… we trekked out in the middle of nowhere for a few days until we came to a stop to this gas station. It was family owned, more or less. The owner had this habit of carving really creepy bears. They were all over the place."
"They were actually kind of cute. The owner was a creep, though." Daniel giggled.
"Agree to disagree.
Anyway, the news of what happened at Seattle had spread all over the news. A cop was dead and pretty much everybody thought it was me. Sure, it wasn't specifically said it was me in the papers, but it was heavily implied. 'Wanted for questioning' my ass. The creep owner of the gas station thought it gave him leave to knock my lights out and tie me up in his office, before he called the cops. Luckily Daniel managed to get away."
Daniel harrumphed and crossed his arms. "He was so mean. I had no idea why he started harassing Sean when we were just sitting at a table, but I ran for it when he hit me."
"He hit you?" Lyla asked. "That's battery on a minor. He had no right to do that under any circumstance."
Sean snorted and rolled his eyes.
"The asshole's the type who praised 'The Wall', he all but did. I don't think he cares all that much. Fucking hillbilly."
"Mmm. At this rate, we might need a bigger swear jar." Esteban commented offhandedly.
"Fuck, sorry." Sean said, and then realized his exact wording.
Everybody burst out laughing.
"Back to the story… in a nutshell I managed to escape with Daniel's help. He didn't use his powers or anything, at least at first, we still had no idea he had them, but we found a way for him to sneak into the office and he cut through the damn ziptie. That's when the creep found us, and scared Daniel enough that he had another outburst. Smaller than before. He didn't pass out this time and there was not nearly as much destruction. After what that bastard did, I didn't feel the least bit guilty filching camping gear from his shop and hightailing out of there."
"You stole?" Esteban asked, sadly.
Sean turned his head to the side, not meeting his father's gaze.
"Won't be the last time either. But… the rest is mostly food, just didn't seem like there were any other options." He admitted shamefully.
"I… understand." Esteban sighed and Sean glanced up with a small smile, feeling relieved.
"How did you get away from the gas station? You said you were in the middle of nowhere. And the cops were already called on your ass. Wait, wait, let me guess: you stole a car." Lyla jested.
"Not that time." Sean chuckled, fairly sure she thought he was joking. "Nah, Brody helped us."
"Who?"
"Brody is awesome!" Daniel cheered.
"Oh, right. Forgot to mention him before. He was this sort of a… crazy cool guy we met in the station before the owner went all apeshit. When we escaped we found his car in the forest, he didn't hesitate to help us. At all. Heh, he lived by philosophy not to get cynical in life. He has a blog called 'A Tribe Called West', you could check it out later. I think you'd like that, he's… pretty cool.
He helped us out a lot, too, and I'm not just talking about a car ride. He knew who we were, and he knew that we weren't some cold blooded murderers, but he chose to help us anyway. When Daniel was asleep we talked about what happened. He gave me a piece of advice that no matter how fucking shit my life felt at that point, I still had what was most important."
Sean ruffled Daniel's hair affectionately, who protested only half heartedly. Such a display was foreign to both Lyla and Esteban.
"He encouraged me to tell Daniel about dad's death. He suggested I throw away my phone because I could be tracked with it. He gave us his old backpack, which was roomy as hell. He gave us a bit of cash for the long road. Hell, he even rented us a motel for the night. I'm… so fucking grateful to him. And… he encouraged my idea to go to Mexico… if I really felt that was the right thing to do."
"México?" Esteban asked, surprised.
Sean shrugged.
"Yeah… our life seemed so over in America. Living as fugitives is no life at all, so… I got an idea to go to Puerto Lobos."
"To… what?" Esteban gaped, at a loss for words.
Sean shrugged again and Daniel shifted uncomfortably.
"I… see. And… did you?" Esteban asked cautiously.
Sean snorted and shook his head.
"No. It was always the plan, but… shit got complicated along the way. Anyway, Brody rented us a room at the motel and left for his own road. All I needed now was to man up and tell-"
"Mushroom!" Daniel shouted and the other three jumped.
"Oh, right. Back at-"
"There was a puppy back at the gas station. The creep owner's wife said she was abandoned, and was now up for adoption for anyone who wanted her. Sean said we couldn't take care of her, but when the thing happened I rescued her!" Daniel prattled enthusiastically.
"Which I didn't notice until we were in Brody's car and already on the road. I could hardly throw her out now." Sean rolled his eyes, a little smirk on his lips. "So, yeah, we had a dog now."
"You rascal." Lyla giggled.
After the moment of levity was over Sean turned somber again.
"I tried to have the talk with Daniel about dad, but… shit just kept happening and… Daniel found out about dad's death from the TV.
Fuck. He did not react well. The light flickered he caused a personalized hurricane inside the damn room."
"Sean made me a promise to never lie to me ever again."
"Hmm… that's also the moment that we realized that Daniel definitely wasn't an average little kid and we had to be extra cautious from now on."
Lyla worried her lip, unsure is she should voice her thoughts.
"Didn't that… kinda freak you out?" She asked cautiously, not wanting to offend Daniel.
"Maybe a little." Sean admitted nonchalantly. "But, honestly, we had more pressing concerns to worry about. Like actually getting to Puerto Lobos, which was easier said than done. We were almost completely broke and winter rolling in didn't make things any easier either.
We drifted southwards a bit, sleeping in shelters and stuff where no one gave a fuck about two runaway kids or their dog, until it got too cold. We lucked out by finding an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere, where we could be safe for a time. I think we stayed there close to a month. It was good. Daniel needed to get his power under control, we had plenty of privacy there."
"A whole month? What did you have to eat?" Esteban asked, concerned.
"The nearest town was a 15-mile hike, so, the few times I went I stocked up as best as I could. Money was tight so I mostly resorted to stealing or dumpster diving. You wouldn't believe how much good food people just throw away."
"Ugh, I still don't want to see ravioli ever again!" Daniel complained.
"Yeah… canned ravioli was a staple. But at least we weren't starving. And Shroom totally loved it." Sean chuckled, nostalgic.
"You were certain you were safe to stay? No one came to bother you?" Esteban asked, still not placated.
"There was some stuff left behind by the previous owner, some old toys that Daniel could play with, and a letter, dated about a decade ago, about the owner's chemotherapy. Preeetty sure we were relatively safe there.
We probably would've stayed there longer, but Daniel started to develop a cough, that only got worse as time went on. I knew I had to find some medicine, or we had to move. Sooo…"
Here Sean hesitated and sent Esteban a nervous look.
"Go on, son, I'm sure it's not that bad." Esteban encourage kindly, mentally bracing himself for a grand heist on a pharma company, or something.
"We hiked down for a few days… to Beaver Creek."
"…oh." Was all Esteban said. That had been… unexpected. But in retrospect perhaps it should not have been.
"What's in Beaver Creek?" Lyla asked, being the only one out of the loop.
"Our grandparents!" Daniel said happily, completely missing his family's awkwardness. "They were super nice. Especially grandpa, he has this really kickass model train he let me play with. Grandma's more strict, and very tidy."
"Indeed. I imagine Claire had kittens to have a puppy in the house." Esteban tried to joke, trying to reassure his eldest that he was fine with this, but completely missed the mark as both boys tensed.
"Mushroom… got killed by a cougar… right before we set out."
"I killed it right back." Daniel muttered darkly.
Lyla and Esteban gaped at the boy.
"By accident… mostly." Sean rushed to explain. "Mushroom's corpse was right in front of us and… something I think snapped in Daniel in his grief. He lifted it in the air and crushed it before either of us could really think about it. It was a stir of the moment reaction."
"Oh, you poor baby." Lyla cooed at Daniel.
"I miss her. She was such a good dog."
The group took a moment of silence.
"Anyway, Claire and Stephen believed me when I said I did not kill that cop, and offered us to stay there, despite the fact that they could get in serious trouble for doing so. They had already been questioned about us before we arrived there."
"It felt so good to sleep in an actual bed again." Daniel groaned blissfully.
"Yeah, it did. We weren't able to stay for very long though, maybe a week or two tops. I think it was probably my fault. I couldn't help but check up on Seattle. My Facebook page was full of some serious hate speech, which you, Lyla, took no shit from. Seriously, you are the most awesome freakin' fighter queen in the world! You kicked up some serious shit about police brutality." Sean smiled at his best friend fondly.
"Of course I did." Lyla said imperiously. "No way would I sit silently after all that shit."
Daniel whooped and high-fived Lyla.
"I called you from Beaver Creek. I… probably shouldn't have, but I had to. You told me none of our friends believed any of that shit, and that everyone was rooting for us. You've no idea how much strength that gave me.
We couldn't stay long after that, the cops came around. I think either the call or me checking my wall tipped them off. Or, maybe it was the Christmas market, I dunno."
"Seriously?" Esteban asked incredulously. "You were in hiding and thought it was a good idea to visit a Christmas market in tiny town where everyone knew everyone? ¿En qué estabas pensando?"
"What was I thinking? Oh, this one's on Daniel." Sean said with a dark smirk, and Daniel squirmed. "I had been trying to stamp it into Daniel's head not to use his powers publicly. To always hide, and only train when no one can see. And what does he do?"
"It wasn't my fault. What was I supposed to do? Let Chris get hurt?" Daniel protested with a pout.
"You saving Chris from getting hurt by falling from his treehouse was fine. What was not fine was letting him believe he had superpowers afterwards. Dude, really? You couldn't let him think he had imagined floating before hitting the ground? The kid's got one hell of an imagination already."
Daniel crossed his arms and pouted even harder.
"Anyway, Chris was the Reynolds neighbor, the same age as Daniel, and the two made fast friends. Chris and his dad were supposed to pick out a tree from the market and they roped us into it… somehow.
We didn't stay at the market for very long… hmm, but we did end up meeting Cassidy and Finn there. That becomes relevant later. What was important in that moment was Cassidy telling me about train hopping."
"What's train hopping?" Lyla asked.
"It's when you hop onto a moving train. Quite dangerous, but useful in this situation, I suppose." Esteban replied, surprising Sean. He'll get that story out later.
"Y-yeah. It came in handy not long after. When the cops showed up at Claire and Stephen's we had to bail. We hopped a train and kept going until we reached California. It kinda sucked at first. I could steal food as needed, but we needed real money to make it to Mexico. Luckily, racial stereotypes came in handy, I guess. A Hispanic kid with no ID? There were farms and ranches willing to look the other way. Learned the hard way to be careful not to get fleeced, one asshole only paid me half the agreed sum and then had the balls to tell me to either fuck off or call the cops.
We got a lucky break when we ran into Finn and Cass again in Arcata. Turned out they worked in an illegal weed farm and they offered us to tag along. It was pretty sweet. The pay was damn much better than what I got before, and we had a camp where we could stay in pretty comfortably. The other trimmigants we worked with were cool too. Merrill, the boss, was a bit of an ass, but that was manageable."
"I liked it there." Daniel piped up. "The work sucked, but everything else was awesome! Especially Finn. He was supercool!"
"Aww, you were put to work too?" Lyla cooed and Daniel started whining about it.
Sean didn't mind, he needed the moment to brace himself for what came next. He exhaled a nervous breath rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Alright there, hijo?" Esteban asked, because of course he noticed Sean's distress.
"I'm… fine." Sean was quick to reassure. "Just… the story becomes fucked up from now on."
"More so than it is already?" Lyla raised a playful eyebrow.
"Oh yeah."
The following silence was thick enough to cut.
"Should I make some cocoa?" Esteban proposed.
"God, yes!"
"Cocoa!"
Esteban went to the kitchen to prepare some cocoa for all of them while Sean and Daniel told Lyla about the trimmigant gang. Esteban listened in as they spoke about the Swedish backpackers, Ingrid and Anders, who worked because they ran out of money traveling; the hilarious conspiracy theorist Penny; the slightly intimidating Hannah, who was older than any of them, but didn't seem like it; the shy and private Jacob; and of course Finn and Cassidy.
Esteban put the mugs on the table and everyone took theirs. They sipped the hot liquid, still telling anecdotes about their camp shenanigans. Finally they fell into silence.
Sean took a composing breath.
"Bossman Merrill was really not into having children on the farm. Understandable, considering. But he really had a short fuse when it came to Daniel. One day Daniel was caught exploring where he shouldn't be and Merrill didn't hesitate to fire our asses.
What really galled was that it was payday, and we were let go without getting our due. The others were left without their weekly pay too, despite it not being their fault. Big Joe scared Daniel enough that he ended up exposing his power to Cass, Finn and Jake. We had to tell them the truth. They all promised not to tell."
Here Sean paused to press the heels of his palms to his eyes.
"Finn… had an idea to… rob Merrill… using Daniel's gift. Because he had a safe full of cash and the asshole deserved it."
"Oh, Sean, tell me you didn't." Lyla whimpered.
"It was my fault. I wanted to!" Daniel declared, trying to protect Sean. Sean placed a soothing hand on Daniel's shoulder.
"On one hand, we desperately needed the money, on the other hand… we would be stealing from armed criminals. I didn't know what to do, but Finn seemed so confident and… when I asked Daniel what he thought he was more than happy to. I finally agreed to it. And… yeah.
I'm not going into the gritty details, but we were caught by Merrill and Daniel ended up losing control over his powers."
"I'm sorry." Daniel whimpered.
"It wasn't your fault, enano. It was mine."
"But you lost your eye because of me."
Lyla gasped and Esteban clenched his jaw. Sean just shook his head grimly and went on with the story.
"I ended up in a coma for a few weeks, and a few more rotting in the hospital, recovering. Daniel was missing. I had no fucking clue where he could be. An agent came and interrogated me several times. I think she was a good person, but she had obviously already decided my guilt, therefore useless to me. I told her the same story over and over again, but she still seemed to expect me to change what I said. All but said she couldn't help me if I don't tell the truth. Bitch."
"But you did find Daniel, right?" Lyla asked tearfully.
Sean nodded.
"Yeah. Jake had taken Daniel to his home, and written me a secret message in my sketchbook that made sense to no one but me. I only got the sketchbook back on what would've been my last night there, so I decided I needed to break out and get to Daniel. Luckily the hospital was under construction, so I could use the scaffolding to escape. I… I saw Finn in one of the hospital rooms. We were… able to say goodbye to each other."
Daniel, the little shit, picked up on Sean's melancholy tone, and ever so tactfully piped up. "Ooo, is that when two you kissed?"
Esteban's eyebrows rose to his hairline and Lyla gaped. Sean let out an annoyed sigh.
"No, enano, that was before." He said blandly.
Since his time at the weed farm, and later at Away, Sean had become very comfortable with his sexuality. But this is not really how he would have liked to come out to his father and best friend.
"What, what!? Time out! Time out!" Lyle squealed and made a T-symbol with his hands. "You kissed a dude? Like on purpose? By accident? Experimenting?" She shot away enthusiastically.
"Because I wanted to." Sean said bluntly. "Our entire trip we discovered new things about ourselves, and some of them didn't completely suck. Like being bi. Seriously, it's not a big deal."
Lyla squealed even louder. "Yes it is! When did this happen? How did this happen?"
Sean rolled his eyes at Lyla's reaction. Yeah, that's about what he expected. His father's reaction, however… Esteban only raised an amused eyebrow at Lyla.
"You don't seem very surprised." Sean noted.
"Honestly, son, I kind of suspected. You did have that Justin Bieber phase." He teased.
Sean's eyes widened comically. "What?! Dad, no! That's not funny!" He sputtered in protest.
Esteban waved his hand dismissively. "I kid, I kid, it was actually Shawn Mendes." He whispered to Lyla conspiratorially.
Sean groaned and threw himself back at the couch. "Oh, come on! That is so…" then he stopped and actually thought about it "Oh… y'know, you might actually have a point there." He conceded.
"See?" Esteban said smugly.
Lyla rocked back and forth, giggling into her hands hysterically.
"That was pretty cool. I'm glad he liked Finn, instead of Cassidy. I didn't like her that much, she was kind of whiny." Daniel told Lyla happily.
"Dude, Cass and I weren't like that." Sean rolled his eyes.
"Dude, I'm ten year old and I noticed she was totally into you." Daniel snipped right back.
"Actually, you're nine again, enano."
Daniel's eyes went round. "Awww, man." He pouted.
"Look at you, mister I-Have-No-Game. Having two cuties fight over you. I'm so proud!" Lyla crooned.
"Seriously, it wasn't like that. Cassidy was just really chill." Sean protested.
"Dude!" Daniel groaned. "She always begged for your attention like a lost puppy. Complimenting you art, your looks. She asked you for Spanish lessons!"
Esteban roared out in laughter. "Ay, hijo, I've got to agree with your little brother. When she's asking for private Spanish lessons that's a clear sign she's definitely into you."
Sean sputtered out embarrassed protests as the other three laughed.
"Aww, you precious bean, only had eyes for one, huh?" Lyla teased.
"Screw this shit, I hate you all." Sean groaned.
Slowly the laughter came to a stop after a while.
"This was good. Because… there won't be much laughter from here on out." Sean finally spoke somberly.
"Okay, at your own time. Where were you taken, Danny?" Esteban coaxed gently.
Daniel curled up against Sean. "I don't wanna talk about it." He mumbled.
"It's fine, you don't have to. Just… let me tell it."
Daniel nodded and snuggled up against his brother, hiding his face in Sean's hoodie.
"I hotwired a car from the hospital parking lot and headed to Nevada, where Jake had taken Daniel. Yeah, I know. Dick move, but I was honestly beyond caring. I got to Haven Point and… well, it was a shitshow. Jake said he grew up in a small religious commune. Religious my ass, that place was a fucking cult. Knew shit was off when I saw the flyer about 'the Angel Daniel'. Attended a sermon in secret. That bitch reverend had him levitate the bigass cross as a sign of a 'miracle'. Of course her flock of sheep ate that shit all up.
I went to see Daniel after. He was happy to see me… but he refused to leave with me."
Daniel whimpered and snuggled closer to Sean's side. Sean pulled him in tighter.
"Credit where it's due, she was damn good at manipulating people. And she had Daniel thoroughly brainwashed. She had her goon throw me out, while making me look like a villain and herself coming out smelling of roses. I would've probably snuck in again immediately, likely getting myself shot, but… erm…"
Here Sean sent a nervous glance at Esteban.
"Karen showed up." He admitted awkwardly.
"Karen? Your mom?" Lyle asked.
"I see… go on, hijo." Esteban said kindly.
"She took me to a motel to patch me up. I didn't really want to have much to do with her, but I'd take whatever help I could get to get Daniel out of that damn cult. We met up with Jake. He apologized for bringing Daniel there in the first place, and offered his help, and also asked help to get his sister out too.
We snuck into the reverends house to see if we could find anything incriminating against her. And boy did we. If I didn't know she was an insane fanatic before, I definitely did now.
Karen and I finally went to confront her and Daniel in the church. I…"
Sean faltered, unsure how to proceed. Daniel let out a small sob.
"I… finally managed to break through to Daniel. But… ohh, fuck…
Long story short, the church got set on fire and that crazy bitch thought it was a good idea to block our way out, ranting about burning in hell and such. Yeah, right, cunt was just sore Daniel chose his family over her.
Daniel… finally saw how she had just been using him and… he was pissed. He…"
"I would have killed her!" Daniel suddenly growled from Sean's embrace.
Lyla and Esteban looked at the small boy in surprise.
"He… She refused to move out of our way, blocking our path in a fucking burning building. Daniel… lifted her up with his power and… I think he was ready to snap again and crush her the way he did that cougar… I… I couldn't let Daniel's hands get blood on them… so… so I shot her. Dead."
Lyla wouldn't even gasp. She just stared at the boys, horrified, tears streaming down her face. Esteban simply had a look of grim… understanding? Sean didn't have the guts to look at either of them directly.
"Karen took us away then. To her home commune."
Sean turned his head away, holding onto his brother, silently waiting for the judgment. For a few heartbeats nothing happened, then there was a sniffle, which turned into a choked sob, which turned into a full blown sobbing. Esteban reached for the tissues and offered them to a near hysterically crying Lyla.
"You guys that's so… so… so… f-fucked up. I am so sorry!" She howled.
Sean tensed and turned to look at the others. Lyla was openly ugly crying her heart out, and Esteban… was completely stony. Sean had no idea what he was thinking, his expression so closed off. Somehow Sean didn't know if he found that concerning or reassuring.
"How much more of this crap is there?!" Lyla hiccupped.
"We're almost done." Sean said quietly.
"This shit can't get any worse!"
Sean cringed at Lyla's declaration.
"It will." He said stiffly, shocking Lyla enough that she stopped crying, staring at him in silent horror.
"It's best you get this over with as fast as you can." Esteban said grimly.
Sean nodded and took a sip from his cooling cocoa, steeling himself for the clusterfuck that is the finale.
"We stayed with Karen and her commune for close to two months, recuperating from all the shit that had happened. We sorely needed that. Everyone there knew our full story, and nobody judged us for it. And by full story, I mean full story. It was… just that kind of place. It was… pretty damn awesome, actually.
But we couldn't stay forever. The police were hot on our trail and… our case had become a real high profile shitshow. There was no way we were going to be left alone. In the end, Karen gave us her truck, her friend David gave us new license plates, and off we went. The big finish line. As per David's advice I didn't use the main road, and veered off course a bit. We indented to break through the wall, instead of using the checkpoint. Shhheeeet, that wall was a lot sturdier than I imagined, but Daniel rose to the occasion. So proud of him. You wouldn't believe how his power had come along since it first manifested.
Unfortunately, we never got to cross. Fucking vigilantes thought it was an acceptable idea to shoot at as. They grazed Daniel in the shoulder, and he lost consciousness as he fell down."
Sean completely ignored Lyla and Esteban's reaction, if they had any, not glancing in their direction once. He needed to power though this.
"They pinned us down and the cops showed up. At the very least they were not pleased with some dumbass rednecks shooting at kids, wanted or not. They arrested all of us. They took us to their station, where the cop who arrested us tried, I guess, interrogating me? I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish, but… he seemed like a decent person, I think. I can't really remember, I wasn't thinking very straight.
They took Daniel to an infirmary and patched him up. I'm guessing Daniel freaked out a bit when he woke up, because he broke us out… quite spectacularly."
"Of course I freaked out! I woke up surrounded by people I didn't know, with you nowhere in sight! I thought that the cops were the ones who shot at me!" Daniel piped up, his voice wavering in distress.
"Yeah… Anyway, we broke out… not gently… and made a run for it to the border and… I guess I fucked up because I went for the checkpoint this time and… it was completely blocked off by police cruisers. Even agent Flores was there, trying to talk us down… Heh, she really sucked at it. A-"
Sean stopped talking when he realized Daniel was sobbing. The quivering living room was a dead giveaway as well. Sean checked up on his little brother, who seemed to be having a mini panic attack. He stroked Daniel's back, but when that seemed to be ineffective he fully pulled the boy into his lap.
"I-I'm so sorry. It's all my fault, I-" Daniel bawled.
"Shhhh, little cub, it's alright. I'm fine. We're both fine. See?"
Sean took Daniel's hand in his and placed it against his neck, as he did before. He rocked his little brother in his lap until he had started to calm again. Daniel sniffled and put his ear against Sean's chest, listening to big brother's heartbeat, reassuring himself that he was not left alone.
Sean didn't look at the others. Didn't dare to. He didn't want to know what their reaction to this would be. At least not now. He needed to finish the story.
"When… when I was at the station the cop told me I was pretty much fucked… but Daniel was too young to be prosecuted. He would likely go to our grandparents. At the border… with the cops everywhere… we could have broken through. We damn well could have! Daniel's power had grown to height you wouldn't believe, but… I… I couldn't ask that of him. To get to Mexico I would've had to ask my brother to willingly go and maim, possibly kill, to carve a path to our freedom.
FUCK! I had stolen, cheated, lied, engaged in grand theft auto, even murdered on our fucked up journey since dad's death. But this… I had finally run into a line I could not cross.
I made a decision.
I told Daniel that we would surrender. That he would be alright. But… I guess Daniel didn't agree. It was his turn to refuse to give up after all the shit we had been through. He hijacked the truck with his power and rammed through the gates. When we were shot at, he flung them away. But… it wasn't entirely perfect. One bullet got through. It hit me right here."
Sean pointed to his neck, close to the collarbone, where he had taken Daniel's hand to.
A couple of books flew off the shelf violently. Sean shushed Daniel and kissed his temple, calming the younger enough that he didn't have more outbursts at least.
Sean huffed a humorless laugh.
"I don't know what you'd have to smoke to get to the state of mind I went into. I didn't even feel the physical pain, but my mind was in this most bizarre combination of panic and serenity. It's said that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. My thoughts were all on that fucked up journey we went through, focusing especially when it all started.
And then… I think the most accurate way to describe it would be 'vortex'. Then nothing. Then… I woke up in a hospital bed."
Sean chuckled.
"It was one hell of a confusing time, and I bet my nonsensical yammering confused a lot of people too. But the fact that I had two functioning eyes was a dead giveaway that things were not what they seemed. It took me some time to figure out that I had actually time traveled. A bit more to figure out to when I had originally tried to travel to and how. I had been comatose close to a month, you see. Traveling back in time takes a lot of energy, and I had traveled almost a full year with a plus one. When I finally got the trick down, I started going back again a few days at a time, with a few hours of rest in between. Until I finally got to the here and now.
And that's the story."
A pregnant pause, where no one moved or said anything. Finally Sean chanced a glance at Lyla and Esteban.
Lyla was staring at him wide eyed, face red and blotchy, but she wasn't crying anymore. Esteban still looked stony, as if he was cut from marble, not an emotion peeking through. It would've been better if he had yelled how disappointed he was. That blank face was killing Sean.
Suddenly Esteban stood up and strode into the kitchen. He rummaged through the high cabinets, clearly looking for something. Finally he pulled out a… bottle of scotch? He took a glass and poured himself two fingers, then gulped it all down in one go. He leaned over the counted with a deep sigh. Then poured the glass completely full and proceeded to guzzle all of that down too, without pausing for breath. When he was done he coughed.
Finally he turned tail and strode back to the couch. He kneeled close to his children.
"None of that crap should have happened to you. Either of you. But you're home now. Everything is going to be alright."
It was like a dam broke inside Sean. He launched himself into his father's arms, taking his little brother with him, and howled and sobbed his heart out, finally letting all the accumulated grief and emotions out. Daniel and Esteban joined him in his howling. After a beat Lyla launched herself at the group and let herself cry along the others.
It's okay, though.
The wolf brothers were finally back home.
A/N: I friggin love this game. I even love both romance options for Sean, because they're so fundamentally different. Like, Cassidy's romance seemed more of a booty call. She was a good friend, and she taught innocent virgin Sean quite a lot. But hers was the more typical teen romance. The kind where two young people meet, they fool around, get life experience. She was the loss of virginity that an adult Sean would think back at with fond nostalgia, but that's it. And that's not a bad thing at all! Many people go through just that as teens.
Finn's romance is different. While, yeah, hella lot of sexual tension there too, they connected deeper on an emotional level. I think theirs was the kind of romance that could potentially grow into something life-long and permanent. Finn seemed like the settling type, and that's what Sean was looking for too (even if it was only for him and Daniel at the time). And yeah, Finn absolutely is the settling type. He told Sean about how close he was with his family, until he got screwed over by his douchebag of a father. He had no choice but to find a new family since the old one was out of reach. He expressed his desire to settle down with his drifter family and just be happy together, which Cass turned down cold. I think she didn't even realize how much that hurt Finn, who shrugged it off with humor (common coping mechanism). Sean described Finn as 'the leader of the pack', so you know he was very into keeping his little family safe.
Ooh, got off topic. Anyway I think Sean and Finn could've easily settled down together… eventually. They're very young and likely would've broken up and gotten back together at least half a dozen times before finding their happy equilibrium, and building up a domestic bliss. I'm actually kinda glad that they didn't include a choice to have sex with Finn. It further cements the difference between the two romance paths.
A/N2: Writing a 'sequel' to this, but not sure if I'll post. It's mostly interconnected oneshots about the two poor babies trying to readjust to their old life. PTSD is a writer's goldmine for fluffy hurt/comfort pieces. Would take a shit-ton of work undoing low-morality Daniel's budding psychopathic tendencies too lol