Of rabbits, hares and friendships.
"Silva, you're leaving for work?" Sky is still in his pajamas and, considering the downpour outside the window, Saul envies him a little.
"Yeah, Ben's dropping you off today." The downside of Alfea's location is the distance from the nearest elementary school, but because there are two of them, sometimes even three, as Martha, Farah's assistant, has a boyfriend in the same town as the kids' school, they can at least share the duties.
"Can you give this to Mr. Harvey and ask him to hand it over to Sam?" Sky shows him a familiar-looking book.
Saul frowns.
"I've just told you he's the one driving you today."
Sky, however, does not withdraw his hand.
"I know, but then I'd have to give it to Terra, because Sam has a cold and isn't coming with us."
"I thought it was Terra who's been lending you 'Harry Potter' so far?" Saul observes, still not understanding.
"It was. But I'm not talking to her anymore," Sky replies as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Saul sighs and drops down on one knee so as to be at the eye level with Sky (he wonders how long he's going to enjoy this height advantage anyway, as the kid is growing way too fast).
"Sky, if you and Terra had an argument, maybe you should just talk about it?"
The boy shakes his head decisively.
"There's no point. It's more a matter of… irreconcilable differences."
Saul stifles a laugh, wondering where the kid could have heard this phrase.
"And what are these differences, if I may ask?"
"It's just that girls are stupid!" Sky presses the book into Saul's hand and turns away. "Sorry, Silva, even you can't help it," he says, retreating back to his room.
Saul straightens up and shakes his head in amusement. He briefly considers the possibility that Sky has a crush on Terra Harvey, but quickly dismisses it as ridiculous. He may not be an expert in
these matters, but he could swear it's still at least a couple of years before his foster son starts paying any attention to the opposite sex. He and Terra are just best pals, and it's probably just an ordinary kids' argument blown out of proportion, he concludes. They'll probably get over it in a day or two, and if not, then he'll try to talk to Sky again. Meanwhile, he puts 'The Half-Blood Prince' on his desk. The fact that Sky has a quarrel with the owner of the book doesn't mean that Saul cannot finish reading it. Besides, maybe he should still force Sky to give it back to Terra himself? Isn't that what a parent should do?
However, when he comes home this evening after a long day of training in the rain, Saul is too tired and cold to mention the subject again, so he just makes sure Sky is in no worse mood than in the morning and leaves it at that. After hurriedly preparing something hot for dinner, he is relieved to just lie down on the sofa, phone in hand, not even having the strength to read the book.
The next morning, however, he is on school duty and he can no longer pretend that everything's fine.
"Silva, can I sit in the front seat this one time?" Sky pleads as soon as they are in the parking lot.
"You'd leave the lady alone in the back?" Saul replies jokingly, trying to defuse the tension, but it backfires.
"I'm not a lady!" says Terra furiously.
"Let her sit there alone until she gets smarter." Sky sticks out his tongue at her.
"Fine, at least you won't infect me with your stupidity!"
"Oi!" Saul decides to break in before the argument escalates any further. And besides, if it lasts for just a moment longer, they will be late for school. "To the back, both of you, now. Move it!"
Fortunately, both Sky and Terra know this tone of voice well enough to obey the order without protest. The ceasefire does not last long, however.
"Look, a rabbit!" Terra exclaims at the sight of the animal outside the window.
"It's a hare, you idiot. There are no rabbits in the forest," Sky informs her contemptuously.
"Oi, we do not use such words here, apologize to Terra," Saul scolds him hastily, at the same time slowing down a bit, worried that the animal the girl noticed by the road might have relatives who like talking walks on the tarmac.
Sky mumbles something that might be an apology, but might as well be the first line of the Solarian anthem or something just as unrelated to the topic.
"Sky..." Silva begins, warning in his voice, but before he has time to finish his sentence, Terra interrupts him.
"Mr. Silva, how are hares different from rabbits?"
Saul closes his mouth and considers the question for a moment. Sky would be content with any answer, but Ben's daughter is much more inquisitive. Even if by some miracle she leaves the topic for now, she will definitely Google it later, and he is not such an expert in the field of zoology to risk it.
"You have a phone, right? Find the answer and read it to us. This way we'll all learn something."
There is a moment of silence, but it turns out to be only because Terra and Sky are both trying to be the first one to pull out theie smartphones and find the right information. The race ends with both of them reading the answer at the same time, but each using a different source, so Saul doubts that the relevant information has reached anyone in all the chaos.
The rest of the way, Sky and Terra keep opposing whatever the other one says, arguing over every word, and when they finally reach their destination, Saul finds it a miracle that he doesn't have a headache yet. Before he even leaves the school parking lot, he takes out his phone and writes:
"BEN, WE HAVE A PROBLEM."
Harvey replies almost immediately:
"SO YOU'VE NOTICED IT TOO? :D"
"BEN, THAT'S NOT FUNNY. THEY'VE ALREADY GIVEN ME A MIGRAINE AND IT'S NOT EVEN 8 O'CLOCK YET."
"YOU TELL ME. LET'S DISCUSS IT TONIGHT. MY PLACE OR YOUR PLACE?"
"REMIND ME WHY THERE AREN'T ANY BARS AROUND ALFEA?"
"BECAUSE OUR STUDENTS WOULD FREQUENT THEM MORE OFTEN THAN WE?"
"FAIR POINT. FARAH'S OFFICE THEN. AT LEAST THERE ARE NO CHILDREN THERE."
"NO CHILDREN, AND A BOTTLE OF WHISKEY?"
"NOW YOU'RE TALKING :D"
When the exchange ends, Saul is already smiling at the smartphone screen. In his unexpected role as a father, he would often forget that there was someone nearby who could understand him perfectly. Fortunately, Ben Harvey, although his innate abilities are based on earth magic, is also pretty good at reading minds, or at least that's what it seems like to Saul. His friend just always knows when to lend a helping hand — even when Silva himself hasn't even noticed that he needs it — and when to step back and let Saul deal with the situation himself. Farah once jokingly called them 'the Single Daddy Club', and although he would never admit it, Saul is grateful for the existence of such a club, even if he would have used a slightly different name to describe it.
The evening conversation with Ben, however, does not lead to any constructive conclusions — apart from the obvious that the children should be forced to make up — for which Saul blames the whiskey (which they will have to replace for Farah now, because they drank a bit more than they initially intended). Still, when he gets out of bed the next morning — just a little later than usual, but he can afford it since it's Saturday — he's a bit more optimistic about the whole thing. Or at least he has a plan.
The plan is to talk to Sky and get to the bottom of the argument, but Silva knows perfectly well that the boy is not very eager to share the details, so he decides to first prepare him a little by doing something Sky really enjoys and taking his mind off the matter. Therefore, just an hour after waking up, he marches Sky through the training ground, which is empty at this hour, and ignoring the slight headache (bloody whiskey), he helps the kid choose the right weapon.
They train for a while in silence, broken only by Silva's instructions. Only when they are both tired and covered in sweat, and the sun is high in the sky, which also attracts some of the more zealous Specialists outside, does Saul signal to end the training. He sits down on the bench, unscrews the water bottle and watches Sky make a few more thrusts with his practice sword, then surprises him with the question he has been waiting to ask since they got here.
"So what happened between you and Terra Harvey?"
Sky sighs heavily like someone four times his age, then sets down his sword and sits down on the bench next to Silva.
"It's because Terra is still defending that piece of shit, Snape. Even after he killed Dumbledore in front of Harry!"
"He what?" Saul blurts out.
"Oops, sorry, I thought you've already read this part."
No, Saul definitely hasn't read it yet. Does this goddamn author have to take out all of his favourite characters one by one? Only after a moment does he realize what else could hide behind the boy's words as well, as he needs to remind himself for the umpteenth time that Sky does not know the truth.
"So Snape killed Dumbledore?" he repeats, not knowing what to say.
Luckily, Sky takes this as an encouragement and eagerly continues:
"Terra says there must be something else. That they probably had some sort of deal, and Dumbledore is just pretending to be dead so that Snape would be more credible as a spy or something. But that's stupid, Silva, it's just what Terra wants to be true, not what's in the book. And I don't know what she sees in Snape. After all, he was always an awful person. Even when he was helping the light side, he didn't have an ounce of honour. If it were the Specialists, everyone would be ashamed of him! And Terra still defends him."
"People have to make difficult decisions sometimes, Sky," Saul replies carefully. "And they do things they wouldn't be proud of, but that doesn't mean they're bad to the core. I'm not talking about your book, just in general."
He is proud of himself that he still manages not to think about Andreas. Or at least almost not think. Not every situation in this stupid novel has to relate to your life, he tells himself sharply.
Sky, however, is not so easily convinced.
"You said yourself that one always has to fight with honour. That certain things are not to be done, no matter what. And now suddenly Terra justifies murder, and that's okay?"
And the whole decision not to think about Andreas goes down the drain. Saul closes his eyes for a moment and for a short, frightening fraction of a second he has an overwhelming urge to tell Sky everything here and now, against all logic, and let the boy judge him himself. However, he quickly takes his emotions under control. It's not about him, it's about Sky, he reminds himself. Saul will live with his guilt forever, but that is no reason to ruin a child's whole world just to satisfy his own selfish need for absolution, which he isn't sure he even deserves.
"No, Sky, I'm not justifying murder. I don't even know what exactly happened in this book yet. I'm just trying to tell you the world is not so black and white. That both sides must be heard before judgment is made. And that just because someone is acting in a way we don't understand, it doesn't make them our enemy yet. Terra for example," he returns to safer ground. "Have you tried to understand why she likes this character so much?"
Sky still looks unconvinced.
"Dad would hate Snape, too," he mutters to himself, and although Saul knows it's just childish defiance, he feels a painful stab in his heart. He begins to wonder whether every time Sky disagrees with Silva, the boy thinks about missing a father who'd understand him. Maybe he is right this time though. Andreas was just as quick in his judgments... No, Saul slightly shakes his head in response to his own thoughts. There's no point in wondering. Sky is not his father, he just thinks the way he was raised to. It was Silva who has taught him so much about honesty, courage and honour of a Specialist, setting Andreas as a model of all these virtues. If the boy glorifies his father and all that he represents for him, it is only because Saul has taught him to do so. He wonders at what point he himself began to exaggerate Andreas' actual merits, intentionally forgetting his flaws. Did he go so far in his stories that he himself started to believe in Andreas, the knight in shining armour who had only lost his way in the last hour of his life? But still, despite all Andreas' flaws, Saul knows there was a time when he considered the man his best friend...
"Silva?"
Saul blinks several times, struggling to bring himself back to reality.
"Make up with Terra, Sky," he says quietly, no longer having the strength to pursue the topic, even though he's been the one who started it. "It's not worth losing such a good friend because of a book. Besides, people don't have to agree on everything to be friends."
"But you and Dad did, didn't you?"
Saul freezes for a moment, desperately searching for the most appropriate answer. Finally, he makes a decision, a really difficult one, that just this once he would say the truth.
"No, Sky. To be honest, we disagreed very often," he says in a tired voice.
The boy gives him a surprised look.
"But you were the best buddies!" he protests.
"We were. But we also argued frequently, and often about completely unimportant stuff." Saul smiles sadly. "Make up with Terra," he repeats. "Otherwise, you might regret it one day..."
Fortunately, Sky doesn't ask any more questions, because Saul doesn't know if he would be able to answer them.
