foggedgrief: • kiah & laz
he’d been staring out the window even through most of the briefing. it wasn’t necessarily going to be hard to be objective but this was the kind of case that would haunt them. how many decades of officers believed they had already investigated pine haven’s forest to the fullest extent that one could ? laz’s fear of the fog was not misplaced but he knew that if they were still present in town the next time they got a warning, they should be ready to go. a shame, really, not to be able to tell your family about the people who had helped sculpt the person you were. no, instead there was a part of him that thrived on the silence of them not knowing any better.
sick, honestly, just a bit. to want to make his team walk in blind to the town. he’d say it’s because he wants to keep as many people objective, that he doesn’t want anyone making too many assumptions, but those are the things he says that sound like they’re more than himself than for anyone else. as kiah spoke, laz hummed in acknowledgement but his eyes didn’t move from the clouds. part of him was waiting until he’d see the forest again, waiting to feel the absolute chill he felt in his spine when he saw it. it took him a few moments longer before he looked at kiah, someone who was more like his son than anything else, someone he wanted to protect from the horrors of the forest. a part of laz, too, thought that no matter what he said that his time might accuse him of over reacting, of being too protective.
❛ as well as any of us could if we were going back to our hometowns for a case. ❜ more measured than he meant to sound, laz was almost surprised with himself. ❛ there’s a lot of ground to cover with this case. ❜ with my family. laz was confident when he got on the plane that he’d be able to keep his work mind and his family mind separate, that he would be able to reconnect with family professionally, but the longer he sat there thinking about them, the less confident he was.
kiah didn't know where to start with the case that they were on, but he knew the weight of going home. he remembers the case with donnie. it was different, but still, going home was never easy. kiah wished he had some sage words of wisdom, something to make las feel better, but he didn't have those, that was more laz's thing anyway. it still hurt though, it didn't make him feel any type of good.
there was also the fact that laz didn't talk about his hometown much, didn't talk about how weird it was, that things were happening, but kiah had to guess that he really didn't talk about his own past that much. people just knew it from the news and that stupid fucking television show that he still internally shook his fist at, but he wasn't awarded the same privacy, but if he was, he had to guess that he would have also not said anything about it.
"i know," his eyes were kind, it's what he had. he heard how careful he was with his words, this wasn't like laz, but this wasn't their normal case. he wouldn't say anything. he could let it go for now. he nodded, "there is, but you got the team, you have resources. you're not alone in this laz. i wouldn't let you go in alone."
