To be honest, seeing this younger, hot-tempered version Anna that he knew so well was a welcome sight after the last month. Alaric would much rather be having some petulant, subconscious shouting match with her now than watch her broken down by sadness and struggling to remember even basic details about herself and her past. Feeling that way however did nothing to assuage his guilt. He got to come home and have a second chance but what had happened to the other timeline now? What would that Anna be left with now?
“I know you haven’t yet,” he said firmly. ”But you did. Later. I know you did it because you felt like you had to and maybe sometimes you did, but I needed to warn you about the consequences now that I know about them. God, Anna, you have no idea what it was like. To see you like that. Everything was destroyed and everyone was... I can’t let things happen that way all over again. I can’t.” He moved away from her then as well, went to sit down on the edge of the imagined bed. The noise outside had picked up again, swelling in time with his own emotions. It was almost strange how mundane the action was though, to be having an argument like this in his old room from inside a dream, but for the Wolffs this was not unusual. They had done this many times before.
“I didn’t have a choice!” he snapped when she said that he was the one took stupid risks. Maybe that was true given the way his future self had ended up but it was never without a sense of purpose. The pressure that Alaric put on himself was immense and had only increased while on this mission. He would never admit it to anyone, these last few weeks caused a few cracks to form in the walls he’d built up around himself. Anna. Irina. Even Howie. There was still so much he didn’t know how to process. It was easier to shove it all down and focus on the task at hand. Or at least it had been before...
”What?” he glanced up at her sharply when she spoke again. ”What do you mean you did? You were missing too?” He was back on his feet then, crossing the room towards her once more. She’d started crying and he hated that. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore than he’d already had. He realized that he could be harsh on Anna, hard on her more than anyone else because he wanted to make sure she wasn’t being reckless. He wanted to make sure that he was safe. But that wasn’t what was needed right now, he realized. Both of them were out of sorts in ways they didn’t even understand.
Slowly he drew Anna into a hug, resting the top of his chin against her soft, blonde hair. ”You don’t remember anything at all?” he asked. Maybe this time it really was for the best.