[Third person POV]

“Wait… stop… no!” Markus backed away, shaking his head in disbelief, his voice rising with panic. “That can’t be true… it just can’t!”

He clutched his head, his fingers digging into his scalp as if trying to press out the truth he’d just heard. His entire body trembled with rage and confusion as he looked up at Thanatos with burning eyes.

“You’re lying!” Markus shouted, pointing a trembling finger at him. “You’re clearly lying! You’re just trying to ruin what I have with my mother!”

His voice cracked as resentment bubbled to the surface.

“I see right through you. You’re jealous—bitter!—because she chose me over you. Because she and I don’t need you! So now you’re trying to get in the way by spinning some disgusting lie about her—well, newsflash! I’m not buying it!”

“Markus…” Lucian stepped forward carefully, trying to place a calming hand on Markus’s shoulder.

But Markus slapped it away, his voice laced with venom. “Don’t touch me!”

His breathing grew erratic as he ranted on, raw emotion spilling from every word. “You seriously expect me to believe that?! That because of some hypothetical future, some fear that may not even come true, she dragged us through hell?! All those nights cold, all those days starving—suffering!—it was all just because of that?!”

Thanatos didn’t flinch. His tone remained calm, but his expression was pained.

“So that’s how you see it?” he asked quietly. “That your mother is just some irrational woman who put you through hardship for no reason? Is that really the way you see her now?”

Markus opened his mouth, but no words came out. He clenched his jaw, then loosened it again. “I just… I don’t know how to feel,” he admitted, his voice shaking. “Everything we went through, everything I hated you for—it feels like it was all pointless. Like we suffered for nothing.”

Thanatos’ voice dropped lower, soft but piercing. “So tell me, Markus… do you resent her? Do you resent your mother?”

Markus looked down, a deep frown cutting into his face. His fists trembled at his sides. A long silence followed. Finally, he exhaled shakily and closed his eyes.

“No,” he whispered. “I’m angry. I’m frustrated, and yeah… maybe I’m a little resentful. But she’s still my mom. I could never hate her.”

Thanatos gave a small nod, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Good,” he said. “Because she sacrificed too much for you to hate her now. Every moment of pain you felt, she felt it too. She walked through that cold, that hunger, that despair—with you. She would’ve walked through fire if it meant giving you even a little more time to live. She gave up her own happiness, her safety, her future—all for you.”

Markus looked away and muttered, “Alright, Alright I get it…”

But Thanatos continued, his voice gentle. “And what you went through—all of it—wasn’t meaningless. Not unless you choose to see it that way. What you went through taught you a lot, it has shaped you into the person you are today, into the boy who is kind, who is caring, who is modest, who is strong and has learned to overcome adversity. And that in my eyes is not nothing.”

Markus glared at him, irritation creeping back into his voice. “How the hell would you know? You don’t know anything about me—not really.”

“But I do,” Thanatos said simply. He took a cautious step forward, reaching out. “I can see it. The eyes, Markus… they’re the windows to the soul. And yours? They tell me everything I need to know about you.”

Markus’s face flushed with sudden heat, not from anger but from embarrassment. He turned away with a grumble, brushing Thanatos’s hand aside again.

“Where were those poetic lines when you were trying to hit on my mom?” he mumbled, eyes narrowing. “Trust me, they’d work way better on a woman than on your own son.”

Thanatos let out a surprised laugh, the first genuine one in a while. “They would, wouldn’t they?” he said, scratching his neck sheepishly. “Truth is… when it comes to your mother, I’m a nervous wreck. Half the time I can barely speak straight. I just end up standing there like a fool.”

“What about you?” Markus asked, his tone softer now, almost hesitant, as he looked over at Thanatos with curiosity lingering behind his tired eyes.

Thanatos tilted his head slightly. “What about me?”

Markus gave a faint, awkward smile. “Don’t you… resent my mother? I mean, she cut you out of our lives. Abruptly. That must’ve hurt. Can’t imagine that felt good.”

There was no accusation in his voice anymore—just the exhaustion of a boy who was tired of holding onto so much anger. Tired of blaming, fighting, guessing. He didn’t even know if he wanted to be mad at Thanatos anymore.

But what made him stiffen was the expression that crossed Thanatos’s face. A soft, loving smile—not forced, not defensive. Just genuine.

“I could never hate your mother, Markus,” Thanatos said calmly. “When you truly love someone, you love all of them. Their beauty, their flaws… everything. Your mother wasn’t perfect—but that’s exactly why I loved her. That’s what made her real to me. What I carry in my heart isn’t resentment… it’s regret.”

His voice dipped slightly, and Markus saw something in his father’s eyes that hadn’t been there before—deep shame and regret. A quiet ache that had clearly sat with him for a long, long time.

“Regret that I didn’t fight harder. Regret that I let the two of you walk out of my life without chasing after you. Regret for not being there… especially when you needed me most.”

Thanatos’s gaze didn’t waver as he looked Markus in the eye, voice steady and sincere. “I’m tired of drowning in that regret. Tired of looking back and wondering what could have been if I’d just made different choices. It might be too late to fix the past… but it’s not too late to try now.”

He stepped forward, slowly, his voice quieter but no less intense. “Markus, I want to have a real relationship with you. A proper one. One that isn’t built on silence, or guilt, or avoidance. I want the chance to be the father I was meant to be.”

Markus parted his lips to respond, but Thanatos lifted a hand gently.

“Please—let me finish,” he said. “I know I don’t deserve forgiveness. Not yet. I would be shameless to expect it from you just like that. That’s why I don’t want you to give it… I want to earn it. I know we can’t get back the years we lost—but maybe, just maybe, we can build something in the time we still have. So… would you allow me to try?”

The question lingered in the air.

Markus stared at him. Thoughtfully. Quietly. The silence that followed was not awkward—but rather expectant.

He finally closed his eyes and let out a deep, long breath. Then he spoke.

“I’m sorry,” Markus said. “But I still can’t agree to that.”

Thanatos looked down, a flicker of disappointment surfacing.

“I see… I’m sorry—”

But Markus raised his hand this time, cutting him off.

“Not yet, at least,” he said, correcting himself. “This is… all still really new to me. And raw. I haven’t had the time to process everything yet. I’ve spent so long feeling one way, and now everything’s flipped upside down. I don’t know what to do with it.”

He looked Thanatos in the eye again, and this time, the anger was gone. All that was left was honesty.

“I’m still figuring out how I feel. I need time—space—to work through it. To figure out if I can forgive you… and if I can finally let go of this bitterness.”

Thanatos nodded slowly, not arguing, not pushing. Just listening.

“I understand,” he said with quiet acceptance. “Take all the time you need. Whatever helps you find peace—I’ll respect it.”

Markus nodded. “Before I make any decision… I want to talk to my mom. There are things I need to hear from her. Questions that only she can answer.”

Thanatos gave a small nod, a gentle smile returning to his face. “Then you should. And when you’re ready… I’ll be here waiting.”

For the first time in a long time, there was no tension between them. Not full forgiveness. Not reconciliation. But a step.

And sometimes, a single step was all it took to begin a journey.

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