Better to fight for something, than to live for nothing

Place: Aston, Raymon Street.
Date and time: 07/02/2022
Weather: Cold and dark
Dedicated to: @Roman, @Rose, and @Ryan

With a short wave of his hand, the werewolf was sitting in a wheelchair, still completely knocked out. If nobody had anything to say, he was gone within a moment and reappeared by the Walkers’ house. It didn’t take long before he could see that the lights were turned on in some of the rooms. “Super,” he sighed and started to roll the poor guy on the wheelchair towards the front door manually.

It was one of those; mom and dad were out because they needed to check up on everything with Riley. Leaving Roman and Rose holding down the fort, and if there was one thing you shouldn’t do, leave the two kids alone in a house. What could happen? Everything.
No, not really. She and Roman had been sitting and shouting at each other but towards the tv as they played Mario Cart. Rose almost threw the controller through the room as Roman had won the thousands of times. Then she had challenged him to an ice cream eating contest, which she had lost again.
Now Roman had fallen asleep on the couch while Rose had put one of her favourite horror movies on. Drool gliding slightly down his cheek. “How you managed to get Katelyn is beyond me” she rolled her eyes, removed the drool with the end of her sweater, and put the blanket a little further up, almost to his nose. Now that he was lying there so peaceful, she wondered if she should maybe do the old, draw a moustache? She had to press her lips together and tighten her throat so as not to laugh as she could almost see the scene where she would happily exclaim that she knew that he couldn’t grow one himself, so she had decided to draw him one! For a werewolf, he was relatively hairless; even she had more hair than her brother. But all of those thoughts left her as she heard someone or something outside. She got up and looked out the window and saw someone roll, wait, was that Ryan in a wheelchair?
“Roman”, she called over her shoulder “, Roman, wake up!” – “Our fucking big brother is sitting in a fucking wheelchair, being pushed by some tall, pretty boy that is straight out of a god damn vogue magazine or something" she then walked over and opened the front door and looked at her brother and then back up at the ancient witch, not really minding that she was only standing in an oversize sweatshirt and ankle-high white tennis socks. "Oi, what the hell happened?" she asked raising her brows, looking at the stranger before her eyes darted to her sleeping or knocked out brother. Well if she was being honest, this wasn't even the craziest thing she had seen.

Of course he had heard his sister call on him the first time, he had even heard her move around. But sometimes there was this thing where you just pretended you still were sound asleep to see how the other person acted. So, he opened his eyes and removed the drool with the back of his hand while sitting up. Ryan in a wheelchair? What was going on? Roman rushed up from the couch rather quickly as Rose opened the front door, not knowing if he should laugh or get mad. Who was this old warlock? Before he could ask the warlock himself on what had happened, Rose did and well Roman just crossed his arms a little while waiting for the respond he felt like both him and Rose deserved. "He shouldn't be out partying, that is what I told you? He can't hold his liquor -" Roman waved his hand out towards the knocked out brother of his, not actually giving the warlock a fair chance to talk. The last thing they had heard from Ryan was he was supposed to go out with some friends and now this? Well they were getting used to Ryan being out at more parties now after his split with Seraphina, but well this was a new look, and it did not suit Ryan.

The female werewolf certainly knew how to howl, and it certainly made Bentley regret having accepted the small favor he had accepted. Bentley raised a brow as the male werewolf said that his brother couldn’t handle the liquor.
“To ease both of you, he seemingly wasn’t drunk,” he said and stopped pushing the wheelchair when it was in front of the kids. “Sweet little man lost control and punched Aleks,” he said and clapped Ryan on the cheek, just like he had done to Aleks, but Bentley wasn’t about to unleash what he didn’t know what was. “From what I could figure, a small witch managed to cool him down, and” he looked down at the unconscious boy. “Well, I think he stepped on the witch’s toes because she put a sleeping spell on him,” he explained and looked up at the siblings. “I can remove it now, and the two of you can handle him alone, or he can sleep it out,” he offered, hoping that he could leave as soon as possible. He believed that there was a bigger chance that Nicole’s ex-boyfriend would be a mess if he woke him now than if he slept it out, but maybe the siblings wanted to talk to him immediately?

“I don’t think it makes the case better,” she said with a slight smirk and then walked towards the wheelchair where her brother was sitting in. She looked up as he told them what had happened; closing her eyes, she let out a soft sigh, already connecting all of the dots. Then she looked down at the sleeping brother, but she saw a shadow walking past them before she could say anything. “Georgia?” she spoke out, and the woman turned like a deer in headlights. “Rose?” she said, not understanding what they were all doing out so late; then, her eyes looked at the man sitting in the wheelchair. “Ryan?” Georgia then spoke, and instead of being scared that they might have caught her in something she wouldn’t know how to explain, she was more concerned about what had happened to her friend. Rose clicked her tongue. “Sorry that they ended up bothering you with the task of getting him home, but thank you, you can just lift the spell; I’ll make sure to take it from here” she turned to Roman, “you go to sleep”, she laughed then she bent down, and even though she was far smaller than Ryan, she lifted him with ease and threw him over her shoulder. “Thank you, have a nice night” she waved her hand to Bentley, then turned her hand to wave Georgia to come with her; if she knew her brother right, he might need a little pick me up after all of this, and she wasn’t really in the mood of being an understanding sister. Georgia passed the warlock with a confused look and followed Rose inside the house, and closed the door behind her.

Roman caught the scent of Georgia rather quickly, but was way more fixated on the Sinclair witch who had this brother in a wheelchair. Given what was going on with the werewolves over all, who could really blame Roman for being extra careful, and then hanging out with a Sinclair warlock - even if he knew it was Nicole's doing, he sometimes thought Nicole forgot who she was around. Then in her defense, if you were so used to the family you were raised in, you didn't see them as the most powerful of magic users, you just saw them as people - where the entire world thought something else. So yes, Roman kept his eye on Bentley. "Go to sleep," he mocked in a lower tone as Rose told him to go sleep. Not because Roman wasn't tired, he was, after all he had fallen asleep on the couch not long ago. But he wasn't going to sleep before Ryan was in his bed, the warlock had left and they hopefully didn't wake their parents. Not that their parents had a habit of reacting to such things. One should think they would in a neighborhood like this, but no.

Roman let out a sigh, not because he had anything against Georgia, but company at this hour, maybe Ryan should just sleep it out and worry about the mess he created after. Roman more or less wouldn't mind punching a few good, 'get your shit together' into that mind of his older brother. But he did take his phone out to take a few good pictures of Rose carrying Ryan to his room, because it was a little too good not to get on camera.

Bentley shrugged a little as the girl mentioned how it didn’t make the case better that Ryan wasn’t drunk. He understood why. Bentley’s eyes found the human girl, as the werewolf had called for her. Rose and Georgia. Why the hell was Georgia up at this hour? Normal people were sleeping! Bentley was getting tired of all the names that was flying around, closing his eyes for a moment, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. He simply gestured to the boy as she thanked him for bringing the brother here. He could clearly see the sibling’s dynamic, almost being able to mirror it in his own siblings. His eyes ended on the younger male werewolf; he had felt his eyes on him almost constantly. He understood why the boy was scared, because Bentley could be a dangerous man if he wished to. His brows lifted as he watched how Rose picked up the much bigger brother. He gave the family and the neighbor a half-assed wave as they headed indoors, and just before they were about to close the door, he negated the spell that the witch had put on him. With a blink of an eye, Bentley disappeared.

Ryan mumbled a little as he started to wake up, groaning from the way he laid across Rose’s shoulder.

__________
Bentley Out

Georgia just managed to see how the warlock disappeared as if he had never been there, to begin with. Then she closed the door and looked at Roman and Rose that was carrying Ryan.
“What happened?” she asked, a little weirded out by all of it, but then turned to see that both Rose and Roman looked as confused as she did, but even then, Roman still found the time to get pictures of his older brother lying over his sister's shoulder, who was carrying him to the bedroom. “Your parents are away again, aren’t they?” Rose asked, and Georgia nodded before she realised that Rose wouldn’t be able to see her. “Yeah, another fundraiser, you know how it is”, Georgia chuckled; “Well then, I think you should sleep here, especially with those werewolves running around; I don’t even know what Ryan was thinking, being out there alone” she huffed smacking her brother on his backside as she went upstairs “You awake sleeping beauty?” she asked as she finally took a turn and was able to throw Ryan in his bed then looking down at him with the best ‘I’m judging you’ look.

Roman took a deeper breath in, no - he didn't understand why Ryan was out there on his own either. Same thought went to Nicole, not that he was close with her, but he had always liked her - a good friend to the people around him too. "Okay, this was fun and games. I'm out - I will give him a piece of mind tomorrow," he made a salute towards the girls before heading towards his room. He didn't really have anything better to do, and besides he would rather shit talk and judge Ryan when he was awake and feeling shitty than now. Perhaps it was the reckless behavior that poked Roman, because here he was himself, being so careful not bringing danger to Katelyn's doorstep, while Ryan was out about with little care about the danger luring around. So, no he had no intentions yet to talk to his brother.

A groan left Ryan as his back landed on his bed, his arms a little above his head, almost looking like someone who was taking a ride in a rollercoaster. It took a moment, where he looked a little mindlessly from his sister to his childhood friend before he realized what was happening around him and his eyes widened. “What?” his voice sounded quite soft and confused while he tried to get a hold of his own arms, so he could lean against the elbows. “How did I get here?” he wondered and some hassle, he managed to sit up with his hands behind him. “Where is ‘Cole?” he wondered and looked around. He tried to get further up, “And Lex-” his words were cut off by an ill huff, as he lost balance and ended up sitting back in the bed. He felt dizzy and sick in the stomach. What the hell had he been doing and why had Aleks been able to provoke him to do such thing to Lexie? Why… The questions were many, but he was almost certain that he wouldn’t be receiving any usable answers.

Rose let out a sigh as she looked at her older brother sitting there, wondering what had happened or what was going on. “Well, her brother brought you here after Lexie knocked you out with a sleeping spell; what the hell were you thinking?” Rose wanted to know, Georgia mainly keeping to herself, feeling somewhat awkward for even being here in the first place. But she understood why Rose might think it was a good idea, especially when she was clearly upset with the whole thing, not that the female werewolf would ever say it outright. Still, after all, she had known Rose since the day she was born, which was nineteen years ago now; how the time went. That, however, made a small smile form over her lips.
“I’ll get you a glass of water,” Georgia said softly before putting her things down and walking downstairs, her fingers pushing some of her hair behind her ear as she walked downstairs.

Ryan raised his brows as she explained. Her brother… Which of them? He cursed himself for not even being able to remember that, but on the other hand, if Lexie had put him out, he didn’t really have any chance of knowing, did he? He just hoped that Nicole didn’t owe some kind of favor to one of her brothers. Some of them had some sick ideas sometimes. “The thing is, Rose… I wasn’t,” he said, closing his eyes and rubbing his eyes and eyebrows. Maybe he was thinking, or maybe? It was odd to be thinking back to it.
Georgia’s voice sounded, and his eyes almost popped open, and he looked after her. “Thanks,” he replied, clearly sounding a little confused about her presence in the middle of the night.
As soon as Georgia went downstairs, he looked at Rose, “How is she involved?” he mouthed to Rose, hoping that he remembered right, and she hadn’t been there. He just feared that he might have overstepped and possibly ruined another friendship. What the hell were you thinking? He repeated the words Rose had spoken in his head while he swung his legs properly up on the bed. He was so awfully tired and at the same time, he couldn’t find rest when he knew he had made so much trouble.

“She just happened to walk past us when that tall blond dude came with, in a wheelchair no less”, Rose scoffed before letting her tongue run out “didn’t think it was a good time to walk around, so I said she could stay here, I think her parents are away again” she informed her brother before looking over her shoulder, it sounded like Georgia took her time to get a glass of water, maybe she knew that she and her brother needed to talk for a minute, “so don’t worry, only fucked up two relationships tonight” she sighed before walking over and sat down beside him, her hand found his shoulder, and she gave it a slight squeeze “just, text them when you wake up and apologies for whatever it was you did;” she then turned her head as Georgia came in, Rose got up and saluted the both of them, much like Roman had done “see you in the morning, were I would very much like to know what the hell you did, but now I’ll let you sleep” she winked before closing the door after her and walked into her own room.

Georgia looked a little perplexed as Rose suddenly decided to go, before turning her gaze back at Ryan with a soft smile on her lips “here you are” she whispered and handed him the glass, without asking she walked over to his dresser and found one of his t-shirts, it wasn’t the first time she had spent the night, even though it had been a while since she last had done so. Walking into the bathroom she changed and came back only wearing that. “All right, let's sleep” she chuckled, before getting into bed beside him, luckily she had just come back from one of her small escapades, which meant her entire body was aching for sleep.

A wheelchair. Super. He rubbed his forehead again. “Good point,” he replied, sighing even though he didn’t mind the guest. He put his hand back on his bed, pulling a bothered smile as she pointed out that it only was two relationships he had fucked up. That was still quite a bunch. Both hands found his head, covering it, rubbing it while she moved around to sit next to him. “Yeah,” he sighed after he had removed his hands again, “I doubt apologies are going to be enough,” he said with a sad chuckle while he shook his head a little. He was still going to apologize to them, but he doubted that they were going to accept it that easily. Georgia got inside again, and his head turned to her, giving her a small smile. As soon as Rose got up, his eyes sought his sister. With no protest, he waved to Rose. He was quite certain he wasn’t going to tell Rose much. He knew he had fucked up and he didn’t wish to have more people be mad at him.

He was handed a glass of water, and with a tired sigh, he took it. While she got herself something to sleep in, he drank his water. While she changed, he rearranged his bed a little so they both had a duvet and a pillow. He got himself undressed but wore an undershirt compared to when he slept alone. It was just a little more appropriate. He had only just gotten under the sheets on the side where he usually slept when she was visiting. He clapped a couple of times on her duvet before she got underneath it. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this,” he mumbled.

She turned so she was facing him, a small smile formed over her lips, and she let out a small sigh. “Please, I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen you in worse situations than tonight” she tried to brighten his mood, not that she thought she was successful, but she really didn’t think less of him; he had after all been through a lot these past few months, just the last year had been rather stressful for the whole Walker family, which only made her respect for him even greater, it certainly didn’t make him seem any less in her eyes, just because he hadn’t been able to hold back his temper tonight, or what else could have transpired.
“Want to talk about it, or would you rather just go straight to sleep?” she wondered, knowing that he might not be able to keep himself awake, not that she understood how sleeping spells worked, or if the guy that had lifted it, had done so entirely or just enough for him to wake up again.

He groaned lowly as she claimed to have seen him in worse situations than this. He couldn’t quite compare anything with this. Being returned home unconscious, in a wheelchair, by his ex-girlfriend’s brother and having ruined two relationships, if not more. Things just had to evolve. After all, his stunt could end up splitting Nicole and Aleks, and Ryan could get a hell more of ruined relationships if he didn’t think carefully about his explanation.
People might even forget that it was less than a month ago that he was shot in broad daylight and Seraphina and he broke up. Besides that, hell had just been on the loose the past year with his siblings. He had just tried to be there for them, but none of it had really been accepted. Hell, Riley hadn’t even bothered to ask for shaving advice yet. Ryan knew that he wouldn’t be asking Roman for advice he couldn’t give, but of course, there was their father. Would Riley go to their father for advice? Ryan had for a long time just felt like he was standing as an audience looking at the chaos evolving around him, and he was unable to do anything. It was first when he ended up at the hospital, that he was being allowed to react to all the things that had happened, or at least it felt like that. It had been an emotional rollercoaster, and tonight hadn’t helped.

His eyes found Georgia’s completely as she spoke about talking about what had happened tonight. He sighed, looking down between them, thoughtfully. “Depends on how much sleep you want tonight,” he chuckled though his voice was a little drowsy. He blinked a couple of times, and he could feel how it made him more awake. “I don’t know, I feel like I just fell into old emotions with Nicole,” he explained with a soft sigh, “And I could have sworn that it wasn’t just me who felt the chemistry. I- We- It was her father who managed to break us up, so it wasn’t like there were any bad feelings between us,” he told her. She knew that he had told that story before. His eyes looked around, trying to remember everything that had happened right after because things had truly gone fast. “So, I kissed her,” he said and looked up at Georgia. He cursed a little under his breath and rubbed his forehead. “It was my point of no return,” he laughed, trying to push the sad feelings that arose away. “I believe Lexie interfered, and… Then Alex arrived… I don’t even remember what he said… But he just made me so angry,” he furrowed his brows a little, trying to remember what was said between them. “I got so angry… So, so angry,” he was still thinking, but the more he thought about it, he could also feel how his wolf got angered. His eyes found hers again and he felt like a misunderstood puppy who was scolded for something he knew nothing about. “I know I’m not innocent in any of this, and it’s not the first time that Alex has angered me but… I’m just not the type to get into fights,” he said, trying to understand his own actions, “But the next thing I knew he was on the ground and I was just so confused… Shocked about what had happened,” he sank a lump in his throat, “I feel like I’m losing myself, Georgia.”

She chuckled with him and then shrugged, mostly to tell him that she didn’t mind staying up a little longer if it meant that he managed to get some things off his chest.
So, she listened, and as the tale began to unfold, she moved around so the arm lying underneath her was placed so she could gently caress him over his hair—finding a couple of strains of hair which she started playing with between her slender fingers.  
“Oh, Ryan”, she whispered with a slight smile on her lips; she leaned in and placed a soft kiss against his forehead; “I know it’s going to be okay; even if it feels like you’re losing yourself, it isn’t worse than you can apologise to them” she tried to argue that even though it seemed like everything was falling apart, you could always do something, and when you had done all you could, exhausted all possibilities you could then turn it around and tell yourself; at least you turned over every stone and made sure to fix what you had broken.
“I don’t think anyone would blame you or Nicole for things feeling like they are falling apart; a lot has happened over the last year or so, not that it apologises for you being a dick, but things happen, and sometimes we aren’t completely in control of what we are doing” now that was something she knew very well, losing control over your own body and what it wanted to do. The regret that followed after the act was done. With a soft breath she moved her hand “my best advice is to talk with Nicole, maybe in a more calm setting, invite her out for coffee or something like that,” she said, even though she could feel the pain in her heart—how could she not have fallen in love with Ryan, especially because of his gentle soul, but she would much rather have him always as a friend than to destroy it by engaging into a relationship that would possibly just end up the same way her and Aleks had turned out.