97 Discussions II

Yuliang knew something had been bothering his friend since their first visit to the Rydel's and had been waiting for Eric to confront him about it for a while now.

He braced himself for the worst.

Far too used to that specific combination of words preceding bad news.

"Yeah, I figured. What's been bothering you Eric?" he asked.

"I just need to know, what's your plan for the future, Yuliang. What's your plan for...us? Me, Elys, our Pack. How is this going to work out? You're just… so you and you have the responsibility of three people now and… I don't want to sound like I don't trust you, but what do you have in mind for us?" Eric's face looked increasingly distressed as he rambled. His emotions were even strong enough to seep into his scent, souring it.

"As our leader, what's your vision for our Pack, Yuliang?" Eric asked, voice, barely above a whisper.

Yuliang sighed, stroking his hand through the short locks of Eric's hair, "I don't exactly have one," he confessed.

"So, you don't know what you're doing and you don't have a plan," Eric said, tone more scathing than probably intended, if the apologetic whimper directed his way afterwards was any indication.

Yuliang shook his head, "Not exactly. I don't know how a traditional Pack is meant to run. My granny's a normal human, so all she could tell us what she knew anecdotally. We didn't exactly have books lying around about things related to all this either. The Davos, our family, has always been very secretive about our bloodline. Word of mouth is how we pass down knowledge." A bitter smile twisted on Yuliang's face, "So, obviously our education on such matters was... cut short."

Eric's face scrunched up in sympathy.

Yuliang accepted it with a shrug.

Death was death, no amount of sympathy was going to change that.

"In terms of how things should function between us, while I don't have a solid plan, I do have a rough idea of what we could do. My brother's staying here to finish the degree, but he'll be spending the summers in Mist Valley. I was thinking that you and Elys could also agree to a similar arrangement."

Eric pulled back with a thoughtful and they both sat on the couch beside each other, as was appropriate for the discussion they were having.

"Do you need constant updates from us during the times we'll be apart?"

Yuliang shrugged again, "I'm not particular about things like that. How you run your lives is up to you, I'm just back up in case things go south for anyone. If you need a safe space or help to hide a body-"

"What."

"-or just someone to talk to, you'll have it. I trust you guys to take care of yourselves." Yuliang reconsidered his words, "Well, except Elys. Honestly, who the fuck thought it was a good idea to let a 13 year old study with adults? "

Eric laughed.

A relaxed, boisterous laugh that let Yuliang know that while this matter was far from resolved, at least he was heading in the right direction with it.