WHAT. Gansey visits a friend and brings gifts. (+ Nora Lynch appearance) WHERE. The Barns WHEN.After his arrival and after talking to Blue. WARNINGS. SAD. Swearing (it’s Ronan), talks of death, survivor’s guilt, struggling. Crying, hugs. STATUS. Complete!
Gansey thought he’d prepared himself for this. He knew what had happened, in a roundabout way, and had been warned. He’d talked it through with Adam. He’d thought about it himself.
He hadn’t prepared himself for Blue crying all over his shirt. Or just how bleak everything was. But he had prepared himself for needing to hunt down Ronan like his best friend was a scavenger hunt. Ronan distancing himself from things was normal, and it certainly wasn’t the first time that Gansey had to track him down.
Blue had left him with little information to go on. Changes. Changes, Gansey would have expected! A long time had passed and he hadn’t been here for so much of it. But somehow she managed to make the word “changes” sound ominous that Gansey didn’t rush through the place he called home.
It felt like a shell of that home. Quiet. There were no goats trying to chew on his laces or cows mooing in the nearby barn. He had heard Chainsaw when he approached, but she hadn’t swooped down to mess up his hair like she normally did.
He could also feel Cabeswater. The dark corruption, the fading magic. He knew deep down he couldn’t stay here long even if he’d wanted to, not without dire consequences with the way it was. They had to fix this.
Gansey wasn’t sure about going into the house uninvited, no matter if he lived there once upon a time or not, and ended up awkwardly standing on the stairs leading up to the wrap-around porch. When his hand landed on the railing, it came loose from it’s foundation, and Gansey jerked his hand back like it’d been burned. “Shit.” With things already looking bad, he didn’t want to be responsible for more damage to this place, and immediately reached around to pull his camping toolkit out of his backpack.
Going to work to fix the railing he’d just unseated kept his brain occupied for a minute, or… more, as his screwdriver wasn’t as equipped as something like a power drill for fixing a wayward deck screw.
Ronan wasn't hiding. He'd known things would be chaotic when the time travelers first arrived and he and Nora had been at the Outpost for a while, but then the anticipation had driven him crazy. He'd snatched up his daughter and come to the Barns with only the barest plan - pick up a few of Gansey's old things that he still had in the attic, check on Cabeswater, and maybe yell at his husband from outside the edge of the corrupt forest. It was childish but it helped him to feel like he was reminding Adam he was still there.
And maybe he'd yell something about Gansey. To see if it got a reaction. He'd have to dream later probably to find out and that was the riskiest plan of all.
What he hadn't expected was for Gansey to follow him here. Someone should've kept his dumbass at the Outpost where it was safe. Ronan stomped down the stairs after he'd caught a glimpse of Gansey outside near the porch, and his permanent shadow, a nosy seven year old with a riot of dark curls, stomped down after him. Nora was the only reason Ronan didn't slam the front door as he came out onto the porch.
"The fuck are you doing, Dick?" He tried not to let the emotion of seeing Gansey again - here, young and alive and stupidly trying to fix something already - color his greeting but it was impossible. Every word was heavy with emotion.
You're not supposed to be here.
Fuck. I missed you.
This is so much worse than I expected already.
"It's probably got termites, just--just fucking leave it alone." Nora peeked around Ronan's back. Ronan instinctively put a hand on her head, keeping her mostly behind him but hugging her to his side anyway.
“Nope, one moment.” Gansey was in it now. He had the screwdriver out, was holding the railing up with his knee, determined to fix what he’d broken, even if it meant he was ignoring Ronan for a moment.
It was probably for the better, anyway, as that could give Ronan a moment to gather his thoughts. It thankfully didn’t take him long, and he had the railing in place precariously. It was then and only then did he turn his smile over to Ronan-- and stopped short at the curly headed child half-hiding behind his back. “Oh.” It took a second for his brain to catch up with his mouth. “Blue left some things out.”
It made sense to see Nora. He’d met her before, twice, and knew that she was in Ronan and Adam’s future. But to actually see her here made it all the more real that they’d had happy lives before everything went to shit. “Hello.” It was directed at both of them, even if he was looking more towards Nora.
Who promptly stuck her tongue out at him and flipped him the bird, which made Gansey huff out a quiet laugh and look up at Ronan. “Definitely yours.”
Ronan had to remind himself that this Gansey wasn't the one who'd died when Nora was a toddler. This Gansey hadn't seen her home fresh from the hospital as a smooshed face newborn. This Gansey didn't have a goddaughter who he'd pretended to hold long conversations with when she was just a babbling baby.
"The apple doesn't fall far blah blah blah," Ronan grumbled, even as he stroked a hand affectionately over Nora's hair. "We warned her you were coming but you know. This whole thing…is fucked." His eyes were annoyingly damp, staring down at Gansey from higher ground on the porch. He took a step forward and rubbed at the back of his neck roughly. "I uh, I was gonna wait for you at the Outpost but I got twitchy. How'd it go?"
So maybe he was giving Gansey a chance to talk about time travel, so what? He hadn't heard his best friend ramble about something nerdy in five long, miserable years. He was due.
Gansey didn’t try to gain any ground or meet Ronan, he just stood in his place, looking up with growing softness in his eyes. Blue had warned him things had changed and he could only imagine how tough it had been on them the last several years. But Ronan was, as he always expected, a survivor of the highest caliber.
“It’s certainly something,” He agreed. “It went--” I made Blue cry after giving her yogurt didn’t seem like a good leader into anything. Though he hoped they had each other given how terrible everything else was, and hearing Ronan tease Blue might just boost the mood. Maybe later. “As well as can be expected? Blue escorted me here, and I made a promise that I’d stick near one of you, if you’ll have me.”
True to typical Gansey fashion, he swung his backpack around to open it. “I brought you a gift?” He hadn’t prepared for Nora and would have brought her something more specific but knew he had a few things stashed away at the bottom of his bag for her, as well, so he flashed her a grin. “You too.”
If you’ll have me. Ronan rolled his eyes. As if there was any world where Ronan Lynch would send Gansey away. The only reason he hadn’t crashed down the stairs and locked Gansey into a bear hug was the knowledge that this whole thing was dangerous and temporary. He didn’t get to keep Gansey. And even if this hail mary worked, there was no guarantee he’d get Gansey back. All the worst possible endings to this scenario were sitting in Ronan’s gut like a boulder.
Still, he mustered up some courage and came down the stairs.
“We could’ve done this inside, you know. This is still your house, no matter how shit it looks now.” The farm around them was dead quiet and it occurred to Ronan that Gansey wouldn’t be used to that either. Ronan could barely remember what it sounded like when it was full of animals and people shopping the market two days a week. He grimaced and awkwardly shuffled his feet next to Gansey. Getting closer hadn’t been his best idea. He could smell the mint. “I can’t believe you got a ride to the future and you brought fucking gifts. I mean, I can. But still.”
Nora stayed at the top of the stairs but she was clearly curious and waiting for her present, whatever it was.
“You haven’t actually invited me in, and I didn’t want to intrude.” All-manners, when it suited Gansey, though he was looking a little more pleased now that Ronan got closer. Progress.
Unless of course it was to punch him, which would have been deserved, if Gansey’s intel had been correct in how things went down. He knew he was the type to do the right thing no matter the cost, but he also knew that Ronan, Adam, and Blue were the types to hold it against him in the same manner as he would have done to them. Self-sacrificing had its downsides, no doubt about that.
Gansey fished out the tiny silver brick and headphones from one of the pockets on his backpack, pushed it into Ronan’s arms, and went back to digging around for all of the colorful gel pens he had in there. Six of them in total, and another three sharpies of various colors, and he pulled out a handful. “These,” as he stepped around Ronan to hand them to Nora, “are very good for drawing temporary tattoos on your skin. Or your father’s head.”
Well, that’d earned him a delighted laugh, which made it feel worth it just in case Ronan tossed his gift in the bin.
"I don't have to invite you into your own fucking house," Ronan grumbled. "I just came here to get some shit of yours out of the attic. Clothes you could use. Whatever…" He trailed off as Gansey pulled out the gifts and his intense gaze followed Gansey as he moved closer to Nora. The last few years had involved protecting his kid with a ferocity that scared him sometimes. But this was Gansey and all he could do was watch as he charmed Nora.
"Thanks, asshole." He sounded fond. Sighing, he turned his attention to the gift in his hands. It had been years since he'd seen an iPod, let alone one that worked. He probably could've handed the gift-giving without having a stupid fucking emotional breakdown, but he made the mistake of turning the iPod on and checking the songs.
Murder Squash was at least ten of them.
"Fuck." Ronan blinked back tears but it was too late. He grabbed Gansey and pulled him into a fierce hug. He'd told himself he wouldn't do this but grief had always had him by the balls and he knew it. There was no putting the genie back in the bottle. So he buried his face in Gansey's shoulder and let himself cry. It must have startled Nora because he felt her little arms loop around his waist and her face press against his ribs.
Oh. So he was two for two now, between Blue and Ronan. Gansey hadn’t set out to make either of them cry, and here he was managing with both. He hugged back, firmly, without protest or calling it out. He’d seen Ronan cry a handful of times and had been there to hold him each time that he could.
Finally, when he felt the shakes subside, Gansey rubbed a hand against Ronan’s back. “This isn’t to say I want to listen to it, just so you know.” He would even with the disagreement. He’d do anything Ronan asked of him in that moment.
Except leave. This was too important for all of them, even at his own risk.
Gansey didn’t want to ask about Adam with Nora right there, but he felt it. He felt Cabeswater. A silent shudder went down his spine as he attempted to reach out to that bond, which made him pull back immediately. “So uh, all of this-- well, sucks.”
Ronan hadn't let himself cry in a long time. He wasn't sure he'd ever let himself cry this openly in front of Nora. It had to have happened at some point but he'd blocked it out. He wanted to block this out too, because it was going to haunt him. His head ached and his heart ached and fuck everything.
Gansey's face as Ronan pulled away was too much.
"Yeah," Ronan grunted. "Understatement of the century." He scrubbed an arm roughly across his eyes and then he crouched next to Nora, pushing her hair back from her face so he could look her in the eyes. "I need to tell him about your dad. And I need you to go up to the attic and grab a box of his clothes. Grab Chainsaw from her perch in the living room and take her with you, ok?"
Nora's eyes were also too much for him, but she finally glanced sideways at Gansey and then let go of Ronan to stomp inside. Ronan did his old smoker's breath and stood up. Unlike Nora, he didn't look at Gansey. "I'd spare you the details, but you need to know. Come on. We'll walk a little ways so she doesn't have to hear this shit."
Gansey gave her a little smile and wave as Nora stomped away with a familiar gait. “We’ll talk later,” he promised as she gave him one last stubborn look. It was something a little better to focus on than the impending conversation that already felt like a pit at the bottom of his stomach. “I know I didn’t know you when you were that young, but she’s basically a splitting image of stubbornness.”
And had already been through so much, it made his heart hurt again. All of this just left him-- tired. Hurt. Angry.
Gansey heaved out a sigh and wrapped an arm around Ronan’s shoulder to prevent him from getting too far, as if he would. “I don’t want to hear it, either, but I know I have to. I can already feel some of it.” And none of it felt good. But he could and did square his shoulders and put on a brave face, for Ronan’s sake. “I’m here now, and I’m ready to help.”