Work Text:
It was with eyes glistening with tears that a young wolf held onto the arm of the man who had purchased him and a bear both and not for the first time, he voiced his plea.
“Please? Please can we try one more time?” he begged, his voice wobbling.
Angeal moved forward, gently detaching Cloud from the man they called master and shook his head, though the ache in his chest was almost too much to bear. “Cloud, you know he’s probably not there. He has a new home now, you shouldn’t trouble our master with this again.” But he knew that if Cloud hadn’t caved and begged their master one more time, then it would have been the bear to do it instead. Life without the leader of their pride was really no life at all, fair new master or not.
Squall had been apart from them for over a year now.
Did the silveret even understand what they were asking of him? Because it was far more than just seeing a friend. It was reuniting a family, restoring balance to all of them. In their lion’s absence, the pair of them had fallen apart in their own ways and even with his wolf’s presence, Angeal still found it hard to contain the rage of his bestial side. Their beast piles were less comfortable without a third warm presence and that winter had been particularly hard on Angeal without his lion to reach out to on occasion from his den beneath the bed. He’d not said as much but he knew as well as Cloud did that the wolf was a poor substitute for their lion.
Cloud was a mess when Sephiroth finally relented. His eyes were red and a little puffy, his nose running and his cheeks blotchy like a child’s after a tantrum. The silveret was probably all they could have asked for in a master and Angeal would be eternally grateful to the man for taking him in along with Cloud but was requesting that he take on a third werecreature too much to ask for? And that was if their lion was even present and not living it up with the master the pair of them had seen him leave with.
The possibility that Squall could be enjoying his new life without them tore at Cloud’s already wounded heart and nearly prompted another wave of tears had Angeal not moved forward to slip an arm around him, always careful, always aware of the strength that he’d unleashed in the pit and now always afraid of hurting those he held dear. That too saddened the wolf.
“Thank you, sir,” Angeal murmured for his friend, nodding at the silveret who only sighed and gestured for them to get ready to leave. Briefly Angeal wondered how long it would be before they became more trouble than they were worth, pining for their lion as they were. Could he see a crease in the man’s brow that suggested disapproval? And how many masters would take not only two pets but a third on top of that? Were they inadvertently making their own lives more difficult by refusing to let Squall go?
Nevertheless, Angeal and Cloud both prepared for another trip to their former Home, hoping and dreading the trip all at the same time.
The journey there was in silence but Angeal could read in their master’s face that he wanted to ask them why, again. Why they missed the lion so much, why they wouldn’t let him go, why they thought that he could be back at the Home and why they seemed unable to live without him. Cloud had once likened their lion to being the glue that held them all together and Angeal had to agree with him. Without the lion between them, they were two extremes with no-one to balance them and it made him wonder whether Squall was having similar problems.
Was Squall struggling without a pride or did his new master have other pets? Was he as standoffish and loathe to be close without his bear there to coax him, or his wolf to initiate a beast pile? Or was he arrogant without Angeal to temper his teenage hormones?
So lost in his musing, he didn’t notice until Cloud nudged him gently, looking at him with hope in his eyes, that they had arrived at the Home.
Dread settled in the pit of Angeal’s stomach as he climbed out of the wagon that Sephiroth was driving and looking upon the place that they had visited on several occasions before but with no luck. Would Squall be there this time? Would the matron be willing to give up the details of Squall’s new master if he wasn’t?
Falling into step beside Cloud and behind Sephiroth, Angeal reached out to take the wolf’s hand and give it a squeeze. The blond’s palms were sweaty but the bear didn’t mind it. His were too.
Cloud barely listened to their master exchange pleasantries with the matron of the Home but he did notice the small glare she sent in his and Angeal’s direction and even though they were no longer her responsibility, she was not above scolding them with a ‘I hope you’re not giving your master any trouble boys,’ and a stern look. She probably knew as well as they did the reason for their visit. Sephiroth had dismissed her suspicions by claiming that he was looking for another pet to compliment the pair that he had, but it was a ruse every one of them could see through and no doubt on their return home, the silveret would have some stern words of his own for them.
“Please be here this time… Please be here this time…” Cloud prayed under his breath as the matron called for the inhabitants of the Home to gather in the viewing room for Sephiroth to look over them.
Suddenly, everything seemed to go into slow motion as the werecreatures filed into the room in a small stream, assembling in a double line to be viewed. Some looked happier than others, some even looked fearful but none caught Cloud’s eye but one and he felt his breath leave him in a whoosh.
There he was. Looking as small as he could and not meeting anyone’s eyes, clearly wishing that the ground would swallow him up then and there was their missing lion. For a moment all Cloud could see was Squall, his vision seeming to zoom in on him at the exclusion of everything else. And then suddenly there was movement beside him and he became aware of how the room had practically emptied and there was a very angry bear having stalked past him.
Angeal had stormed forward in a blind rage, snarling angrily. “Who did this? Who?!” he demanded, gesturing angrily at the brunet. “Who dared hurt him? I’ll rip them apart for what they’ve done, where are they?!” he roared, shrugging off the hand that touched at his arm. “Who hurt him?!” That was when he realised that his name was being called, that the hand was back on his arm and the red veil of anger began to slide from in front of his eyes. Someone had dared to step in when he was angry, dared to attempt to calm him. Part of him wanted to lash out at them but he wasn’t in the pit anymore, wasn’t facing a threat anymore.
“…geal! Angeal! Stop! You’re scaring him!”
Angeal froze, that sentence not making any sense to him at all. Scaring who?
And then he focused enough to look at Squall without his vision clouded by anger.
The brunet wasn’t cowering but he’d flinched away from the raven and his eyes were turned aside, looking at the ground. It made the scar he’d acquired a touch less noticeable but Angeal wouldn’t be able to erase that image from his mind. The scar was still slightly reddened, slicing across the bridge of the brunet’s nose, so close to his eyes. Someone had given him that scar. An abusive master had hurt his lion so much that instead of remaining confident that his bear wouldn’t hurt him, he flinched away, expecting to be struck and Angeal knew that part of it was his own fault, leftovers from his time in the arena. It wasn’t his fault though, that his lion stood there waiting for the blow as though he deserved it.
“Ah… Squall I… I’m sorry…” Angeal stuttered, deflating on the spot and closing that last little bit of distance more slowly, palms out in a show of peace but Squall didn’t move, didn’t say anything and didn’t look up. It was almost as if the lion It hurt more than the bear could stand and despite every muscle and bone in his body crying out to him to wrap his arms around the lion, the fear of hurting him more held him back and he took a step away from the lion instead, barely feeling his wolf wrap his arms around him in sympathy.
The look on Squall’s face, the one that told of weary acceptance, frightened him. It made him fear to see just what other marks may have been left on the young lion’s body.
“Boys. We’re leaving,” Sephiroth intoned from behind them, where he was stood next to the matron with a small bag of Squall’s belongings in his hand.
“But Squa-“ Cloud practically squawked in alarm, before Sephiroth cut him off with a reprimanding look.
“Squall’s coming with us,” the silveret replied with a sharp edge to his tone. Cloud had cost him a lot of Gil and he wasn’t best impressed with the wolf right then. Nevertheless, they’d found Squall and there would hopefully be no more tears.
The gods only knew what would happen about his home with yet another werecreature to consider.