Vayko’s recover had been fairly efficient, though it had added a few new scars to the collection that had started the moment he had chosen to escort Vanadis to her family… a decision he would come to regret for the amount of blame he seemed to shoulder for her disappearance, as if he had not done everything in his power to find her and bring her home to his cousin. He was no monster. He did not revel in the pain and sorrow that his cousin experienced day after wretched day…

His cousin was the closest thing he had to a brother, to the deep bond of family… Sharlee as well though they had not interacted much if at all since he had returned. Another elephant he would need to address.

He was doing his due diligence, hunting to fill the caches as much as he could, ensure that Clover had as easy of a time as possible when it came to the children she carried, and so no one in the pack need to hungry. They were his family, apart from perhaps the slimy Halex, whom he found himself avoiding while he prepared his own revenge.

Vayko had known that his nephew and Eros’s friends had returned, but he himself had been preoccupied in his recovery and Clover’s pregnancy to pay much mind to them. His focus was on the pack, which is what it should have been all along instead of going with Vanadis on her adventures. It would have certainly saved him much grief if it had been.

He caught Eros’s scent vaguely through the smell of hare that flooded his nose due to the limp creature hanging from his jaw, depositing the creature as he saw Eros with a marmot, a soft smile on his features for a moment before it faded at seeing the bristling tail. “Eros?” There was a questioning to his tone.

He, for one, did not understand. And even if he had known what Eros was so cross about, he would not accept it. He would not be a punching bag for the Valles to take their anger out on just because they had been unluckily separated by a storm.

What he hadn’t expected was the harsh glare that came from his mouth and sharp retort that merely have him raising a brow, taken aback but remaining the usual calm and collected that came from the moments where he wasn’t flying off the handle.

“What is with the attitude?” He couldn’t help but gruff as he set the rabbit he had in his maw at his feet and found himself looking for some answers in that regard. “I have not seen you in any real capacity since my return. I thought we could catch up.” He stated simply, peacefully in his own way after his gruff counter to the boy’s attitude.

Perhaps he was in that angsty teenager phase… the one that Vayko himself had been in when he had first arrived to the Lore.

The agitation on his features, his rage at the world that radiated off of him… it reminded him scarily of Vayko when he was Eros’s age, his face leveled with emotion as the boy snapped out at him. He did not, for a second, believe that Eros’s anger was truly with him in this, not even as he sneered as his tail curled over his back with aggression.

And he would not let the boy get a rise out of him as he might have once, a frown finding his features instead.

“It’s a start.” He stated simply as he looked at him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find her… when we got separated by the storm, I tried and tried, but I failed.” He felt he owed Eros that, just as he had given such an apology to Viorel upon his return to the Backwater. He had risked his life, multiple times, in an attempt to keep Vana safe.

“And I’m not just fucking your mom, Eros… I love her, care about her.” He would correct him in that regard too, setting the record straight. “You’re angry… I understand that, you’ve been through so much, but you’re letting it consume you, Eros.” That much was obvious just from the short interaction between the two of them, and from Vayko’s own experience of wanting the world to burn because of his shitty circumstances.

In that moment, he wondered why he had ever bothered coming back at all… perhaps it would have been better for all of them to believe that both he and Vana had died… perhaps he might have been able to find the coastline, or a pack, or raise his own instead of living in the depths of the Backwater that had quickly become an amassing shadow to his cousin.

Eros’s words were meant to sting, and yet he found himself with a strange amount of apathy. He should care, because the boy had been through so much… but who hadn’t? Eros had never been abducted from his home… Vayko’d had his mother abandon him too… he’d lost people too.

“Believe what you want, Eros.” He would find himself stating instead, turning away from him. It was clear to Vayko there was no relationship there left to salvage… just as he wasn’t sure there was one with Viorel either. He'd been maimed attempting to protect Vana... he'd almost died from starvation in his search for her. Eros wouldn't know that because he had been safely tucked at home where the biggest tragedy had been trusting another pack with his siblings...

If it weren’t for Clover, their children… for Shar’s children who needed him… he’d already have been gone again… but he would endure it, for them, for their sake. Because they deserved better than the shitty attitudes they were surrounded by.