modern au where daeron still drinks and his whole family is disapproving and they constantly fight about and when daeron drops out of uni it gets to the point of maekar threatening him with disinheritance, hoping that that would set him straight and he would put some effort into changing his life for the better, but daeron thinks his father meant what he said so he gives back the card he's paying for, packs up and leaves. they try to find him and reach out and maekar's going crazy because he wasn't actually being serious but now daeron's gone and he can't take those words back anymore. years pass without them meeting each other and then daeron sr. dies and, since they've always had a good relationship and daeron's feeling awful for not being with him in his last moment's, daeron shows up at the funeral.
no one realises daeron's there because in those years they haven't met, she completely transitioned and stopped drinking so she looked nothing like the mess they remembered her as. still, afraid that she'd be recognised she sticks to the back but they still catch glimpses of her and they're suspicious. the more they look at her the more anxious she gets and when the funeral's over and she thought she was in the clear, she gets cornered by valarr who takes her to a side room and tells her how worried they were and how glad he's to see her and before she could say anything her siblings and maekar come into the room and everyone's fussing over her but no one's addressing the gender change. daeron thinks it's because they think if they ignore it hard enough it'll go away, while in truth they're afraid to bring it up because what if daeron runs away again if she misunderstands their questions as it coming from a malicious place.
