Well, this was embarrassing.
After the whole big long talk with his father, the one he'd been so so nervous about, after it was all settled and they were all sure they still loved each other and that nobody was mad at anybody else, they went to split up.
...Only to discover they were both going the same way.
After they'd already said tearful goodbyes.
Awkward.
Matthius was letting his father walk a ways ahead of him, because walking next to him was too awkward, their silence neither comfortable nor heated with words unsaid; it was just...silent and weird and Matthius wanted no part of it. But also, he didn't have anywhere else to go, so until further notice... here he was.
It was nice to know that, at least, whenever he did discover where to go and what he wanted to do by himself, he could do it. He really did feel better, having just gotten everything off his chest. He could go, and leave his father, and it wouldn't be the end of the world, for either of them.
Maybe most importantly, when he'd done whatever it was he wanted to do and found whatever it was he needed to find, he felt like he could come back home. To wherever Hathi landed, he could come back and join him and it would be fine. That was comforting - that was, he was fairly sure, how kids were supposed to feel about their parents before they left home, not the resentful, angry knot he'd had in his chest for... for far too long.
However, that freeing thought was cut short by a startled yelp and a sudden thunk from somewhere in front of him as his father - was suddenly on the ground.
"Dad? Dad!"
Hathi was completely in his own head, trying to carry the seriousness that had followed him since his Big Conversation with Matthius, even though everything in him shied away from sobriety in favor of joviality. But he was trying, for his son, because his son had asked him to, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for Matthius. At the end of the day, he was what mattered, and Hathi needed to start acting like--
Hathi let out an undignified yelp as he went tumbling down, chest first, leg and chin second. He made a confused noise as he shook his head, the world vibrating momentarily as he tried to figure out what had happened.
And why his ankle hurt. Bad.
"I'm okay," Hathi said, mostly to just make Matthius stop yelling, and stop looking at him with big, concerned eyes. Oh no, what if Matthius thought he'd done this on purpose to trap him here with him? Oh no no no no. "I'm okay!" Hathi said again, forcing a smile to his face that he only hoped did not look as much like a grimace as it felt like.
"I just tripped. I'm f-iiiieeeee," Hathi said, the word mutating in his mouth as he tried to stand - tried to put weight on his front left hoof and sent shooting pain up his leg. He lifted it gingerly off the ground, hovering it a few inches above. It still hurt, at the angle he was carrying it, but at least it wasn't shooting pain now. "No blood, no bone. I'm fine! I'm great!"
((WC:
Matthius: 295
Hathi: 263))
