(no subject)

Being back in Roarton doesn't feel like it could be complete without seeing the den again. He knows he shouldn't come out here because it makes his family worry, but if Sirius is right about everything, then maybe he's not going to be back here forever. Maybe he's only here for a visit and if that's the case, he needs to be here. He'd left a map for Sirius with Jem and then he'd headed out, standing at the mouth of the small cave for a long while.

He's not sure why, but it takes all his courage to enter, like this place is so steeped in memory and emotion that it's overwhelming, now. He crawls inside slowly, by the time he reaches the rocks where he'd done it, he feels ready to collapse, wishing he'd waited for Sirius to come join him. Here, he can see the etching into the rock, but Kieren reaches into his pocket for the knife that he'd brought with him. Below the RICK + REN, he starts a new one.

Halfway through Sirius' name, he sits back to wipe the sweat from his brow, determined to make this place into something more than just an awful memory of a boy who was taken from him twice, of a place where Kieren made a terrible decision, of a cave where he broke his father's heart. Going back to the wall, his eyes are blurry with tears as he keeps working, but he needs to, because he needs to make something different of the den, even if it's not forever and it's only in this strange place.