Chapter Text
For the first time in his relatively short life, if Foolish Monarch told you he was happy, there would be no lie to be found inside his sentence.
He hadn't had an easy life, and the road to that happiness had been filled with batches. But it had stopped being ready to travel for a long time.
Now Foolish was married to the person of his dreams, he had two amazing children and a job he loved and was good at. And he could give those children and his partner everything they could ever want or need. Including his undivided love and attention. The relationship between him and his mother was good for the first time since he was a kid, and his little brother Dream was finally willing to have somewhat of a relationship with him. Or at least they were talking.
Life was good. Too good, in fact. Life was perfect.
Sitting in a white hospital room, Eret lay connected to a thousand and one machines, custody papers for his brother on the bedside table, he had a very hard time convincing himself of that.
Foolish Monarch had it all, it only took a second for life to rip it all away from him.
He hadn't grown up in what people would call a stable household. He didn't blame his father, not entirely at least. Puffy had actually tried for the first few years, and Foolish still remembered her efforts even after that.
The captain had adopted, housed, and raised Foolish after all, there was only so much resentment he could feel towards her. Puffy would always be his father after all, and despite everything, Foolish loved them.
Puffy was an amazing person. She loved adventure, and would often take him on her trips. She helped everyone that came asking for help and stretched herself thin so things ran smoothly, always with a brilliant smile adorning her face.
Being a good person didnt always merge well with star parenthood though, and Foolish was constantly aware of how much Puffy wanted to go back to the sea, of how much she sacrificed to raise him. Moves became more and more frequent, Puffy trying to appease her wanderlust by changing their place of residence at least once a year. She never told him that was the reason, but Foolish knew why they never went near portuary cities.
Because Puffy feared that, if she got near the sea again, she would realize how much more she loved the ocean than her son. Foolish was loved, but he was not the first choice.
He wanted to be a good son, to make his father happy. Foolish wanted to be enough, but he wasn't, so he did everything to get out of his father's hair. No matter where they went, or how good the school Puffy found for him was, Foolish would excel every time, never going lower than a B . He was top of his class for two years straight, all to graduate early.
Puffy always told him he should relax, that he was young and it wasn't necessary to stress so much over school all the time. Foolish knew she came from a good place, but it still hurt for all of his effort to be dismissed as unnecessary. Every perfect report card, every congratulation on a project, they were so normal, Puffy soon stopped acknowledging them.
They meant nothing to someone who never tied herself to societal expectations of success, and so Foolish also ended up learning that his mom didn't really care about what he wanted to do.
Once he was sure his grades wouldn't be affected, Foolish started working. No matter where they went, he found a job or two, and saved every penny to move out once he was in college, maybe have his own place. He was rarely home before midnight, something that couldn't be healthy or legal for a teenager going to school full time. Puffy never said anything, and even signed permits for him to sometimes work double shifts on weekends.
She tried offering him help, after all, Puffy had more than enough money to help him, but Foolish still wanted to save on his own so he would be a burden. Or depend on her. Once he went off to college, Foolish also planned to be completely out of his dad's life.
Puffy would finally be able to travel again, exploring the high seas. Foolish would only impede her if he depended on her through college, so he wouldn't. It was the least he owed his mom for everything they'd done for him.
Foolish was accepted into architecture school with a complete scholarship. Out of state, at least out of the state they were currently living in.
Puffy seemed genuinely excited for him, at least at first. The more the date of him actually leaving drew closer though, Foolish had the feeling that his dad was becoming more and more distant. Almost as if she knew there was a chance they would never see each other again.
When Foolish applied to rent an apartment instead of a student dorm or accommodation, it was like a string snapped between them. A silent accord of no intervention. They still acted like a family, loved like a family. There was an invisible anvil floating above them, the quiet realization that their days as such were numbered.
By the time he was eighteen, Foolish was loading his things up in the back of a moving truck.
Puffy's expression before he left had been distant. Something sad and heavy tinted her caramel eyes. There was a sorrow in her expression Foolish didn't understand, grief he didn't wish to mention.
Puffy had packed a bag too, far smaller than Foolish's own. One could be tricked to think that she was maybe planning on going with him. On accompanying her only son on the week long road trip it would take to reach his new home. In reality, Puffy had a plane ticket to the nearest port.
Foolish didn't mention his father's sorrow, because alongside it laid the brightest smile he had ever seen Puffy Captain wearing. There was a newfound confidence in the woman's posture, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Foolish wasn't surprised to have been right. He had been the only thing standing between Puffy and happiness. He just wished he wasn't as hurt by the truth as he felt. That the realization that his dad truly had been miserable by raising him could stop making his heart feel like ash.
In the end, Foolish Captain hugged his dad shortly one last time, got inside the moving truck, and drove foward.
He didn't look back. When he finally checked the rearview mirror, the town he had spent senior year in was nothing but a silhouette in the distance.
College was so different from anything Foolish had seen before and more complicated than he imagined. He was grateful to the rest of the people in his class because there was no way he could have survived alone. He made friends with a couple of other guys, and he finally decided it was time to listen to a bit of Puffy's advice.
Foolish started going out to parties. Whenever he wasn't busy, he was with friends, something he never had before. Growing up in a small coastal town, he and Puffy had been the only hybrids, but almost everyone at college seemed to have some sort of hybrid genes. He even became friends with a guy named Jack, who also had a bit of Totem in him. It was good to not be the only one anymore, even if he was using his newfound social life as an excuse to forget calling his dad.
He met Eret on a Tuesday afternoon.
It was common for Foolish to study with friends in a small café near campus. It was a cozy little establishment far enough from the main street that tourists usually passed It by, the best-kept secret of college students. There were PCs available to use, booths big enough for ten people, and a number of short coffee tables surrounded by comfortable worn-out leather couches. The whole place smelled like coffee and freshly baked sweets, and the prices were pretty good for the quality of the food.
Foolish loved sitting down in a booth with his friends, some from different majors, and simply getting lost in the ambiance of it all. He remembers how lonely high school had been, moving constantly and with no time to make friends. He often studied alone in the library, or at work during his breaks.
It was a welcomed change.
Fundy was late to a study session, or as late as one could be to an informal get-together with no real schedule. He was carrying along one of his friends from a different major.
From the moment the pair got near the booth, Foolish couldn't help but stare at the newcomer. There was something about them, something that Foolish couldn't quite pinpoint, something that made them familiar.
They didn't talk much that day, but Foolish asked Fundy for their number anyways, he found out soon enough, Eret had done the same. They laughed at the coincidence, and decided to go on a date.
One day became two, and then ten. Then started talking daily, finding eachother on campus in between classes, holding hands.
Foolish had never been easy with affection. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Puffy liked to show her care through actions and encouragement instead of hugs, maybe it was just Foolish's own inexperience with love. Either way, he rarely initiated touch with people, didn't really enjoy hugs.
And yet, with Eret, affection came naturally, almost as if the idea of not being close to her was wrong and wierd. Foolish found himself tracing soft circles over her hand with his thumb as they walked, playing with his hair as Eret cooked, drawing them closer as they watched films.
What he had with Eret, what he felt, it was something Foolish never did before. And it was so filled with happiness, with wonder, and care. He wondered how he'd been able to live without it at all.
It took them only six months to live together.
It was probably a bad idea to move together when they relationship was so young, but they didn't have much option.
Eret faced being evicted, and he struggled to find a new apartment withing his budget in time. It had been the only option Foolish had seen plausible, so he asked.
She said yes, the same unsure look in those whited out eyes Foolish was pretty sure was present on his own face. He knew a lot of their friends were judging them behind their backs, but he didn't care.
Maybe it was rushed, maybe they could have found a better solution. The maybe plagued his mind, and a lot of the time they sounded like his father, telling him the dangers of selling out his wonderer heart and settling down.
But Eret worked at a flower shop when he was not in class and their house smelled of lavender. They brought their door mat (leave your bullshit out the door), and filled the living room bookshelf with old tomes on any topic Foolish could imagine. He was never one to spend much time in his apartment before, he had fully thought the purchase had just been something needed to get away from Puffy without coming back, he had never Lived it properly.
Foolish had never really had a home before. By the time he got used to being in a new place, a new home layout, him and Puffy were preparing to move again.
Eret filled the shelves with trinkets and the bed with blankets. She put art pieces on the walls and throw pillows in the couch.
Foolish got home first, and when Eret came home the first thing they did was find him. Soft kisses, hugs from behind as Foolish cooked dinner or worked on a new blue print.
Foolish had never had a home before, but he was pretty sure Eret was his.
Eret was looking at him with a stern look on his face. Not angry, or demanding. It was the face of someone who knew they were right (Foolish kinda hated them for it).
They had a calendar in the kitchen, one Foolish had gotten himself and written on. One with two words written in red on top of the day's date that were staring straight into Foolish's soul.
It had been his idea. September 18th, it was his dad's birthday. It had been five years since the last time Foolish saw Puffy, two since they spoke. He had written the reminder in bold red to make sure he couldn't ignore it, couldn't try to run from it.
"Call Puffy".
It was simple, a menial task, something Foolish needed to do for a while but that he adamantly refused.
He understood that talking to his father wasn't defeat, or forgiveness. It didn't mean surrender, or that he was forgetting everything Puffy had done to him growing up. It just meant he was trying to give the first step, trying to heal like he deserved.
But it went further than healing didn't it?
Foolish stared at the metal band on his finger, a similar one on his fiancee's hand.
Fiancée, he still wasn't used to that word, even thought it made him feel giddy and happiness bubble in his heart. Eret was his Fiancée, he was marrying his favorite person and best friend in just a few months.
And as much as he was trying to deny it, Foolish wanted Puffy there. He wanted his dad, the woman who had raised him, to be there for him on his big day.
But of course for that to happend, Foolish needed to call her.
Puffy knew about Eret, but their relationship was still new the only time they had spoken, over the same land phone Foolish was glaring at now. He didn't want to just send her the invite and have her just find out that way (plus Foolish didn't even know her current adress).
No, Foolish definitely needed to call her. Hence the stern look from Eret, as seven pm was nearly approaching on Septemeber 18th and Foolish still had made no move for the phone.
Eret sighed, leaving the vegetables he was chopping at the table before going to where Foolish was standing leaning aganst the kitchen island and hugging hi. Foolish instantly relaxed at the tuch, staying still as he felt Eret's head resting against his chest.
"Come on Foosh, it's just one phone call, I know you can do it. "Eret moved so the were looking him in the eye, a look full of comprehension. "You don't have to do it, not if you truly don't want to, but I think you'll regret it."
Foolish nodded, knowing fully that Eret was right. She smiled softly at him.
"Stay with me?"
"Always."
As he spoke to his mom, Foolish was perfectly aware of the soft touches running through his back, the hands playing with his hair. It wasn't obnoxious, or distracting. It was grounding, reminding Foolish once more of why he loved Eret more than he did himself.
Things that were supposed to happened after this:
Wedding shenanigans
Foolish discovers his mom adopted a new kid (Dream) and gets mad cause now there’s a new kid to emotionally neglect.
Him and Puffy finally have a chat about his childhood, things get better
Eret and Foolish adopt Finley and Foolish Jr
Eret, Puffy and the kids are going to go Christmas shopping but there’s a car accident, Puffy dies, Eret is in a comma and Foolish is left as Dream’s legal guardian.