The sun had barely risen above the skyline when the big black tour van rolled into the quiet neighborhood of Gabriel\u2019s childhood home. It was still. Peaceful. Nothing like the chaos of the past two days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The van was packed. Gear stowed. Coffee in every cupholder. The band was inside\u2014buzzing gently with excitement and exhaustion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gabriel stepped out alone at first, just needing a few seconds to soak in the street he once walked daily. The cracked sidewalk. The tree he used to climb. The front porch where he first tuned his secondhand bass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thane came out after him, quiet and steady, joining Gabriel by the open back doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A moment later, Gabriel\u2019s family stepped out from the house. His dad gave him a long look, then walked over, arms open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They hugged tight. No words at first. Just the kind of silence that meant<\/em> something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of you,\u201d his dad finally said, voice low, right next to Gabriel\u2019s ear. \u201cI was proud before the music. Now? I\u2019m in awe.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel swallowed hard. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be who I am without you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou were always that person,\u201d his dad said. \u201cI just made sure you had strings and power cables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They both laughed softly, and Gabriel handed him a signed setlist from the show, folded and laminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel said. \u201cI thought you deserved one of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His dad nodded, eyes misty. \u201cThis one\u2019s going in a frame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel turned next to his grandparents, who each took his clawed hand in theirs like nothing in the world was strange about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re a very good boy,<\/em>\u201d his grandmother said. \u201cAnd a fine musician. Your grandfather cried during that solo. He won\u2019t admit it, but I saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel grinned. \u201cThank you. For coming. Really.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They kissed his cheeks and shuffled off toward the porch, warm smiles still lighting their faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last came his mother and Nathan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They stood a bit apart from the others. Gabriel nodded politely. No more. No less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane stood behind him, arms crossed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His mother opened her mouth like she might say something, but Thane\u2019s eyes locked onto hers with a gaze so icy it could\u2019ve frozen asphalt. He didn\u2019t growl. Didn\u2019t move. Just\u2026 watched<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She closed her mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan made eye contact for half a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane didn\u2019t blink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan looked at the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel didn\u2019t speak to them. Didn\u2019t need to. He just turned and climbed back into the van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane followed and slid the side door shut behind him with a quiet click<\/em> that felt like a period at the end of a sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the van pulled away, Gabriel looked back once\u2014just once\u2014then turned toward the front, resting his head on Thane\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d he said with a quiet smile. \u201cLet\u2019s go be legends again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thane nuzzled the top of his head and whispered, \u201cAlready are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And with that\u2026 the van rolled west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The road was calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sun had barely risen above the skyline when the big black tour van rolled into the quiet neighborhood of Gabriel\u2019s childhood home. It was still. Peaceful. Nothing like the chaos of the past two days. The van was packed. Gear stowed. Coffee in every cupholder. The band was inside\u2014buzzing gently with excitement and exhaustion. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3200,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/3200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/tourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}