The soul is healed

[lord_wizard]

Who: Felix, his son Ryuga, and ANYBODY
What: Watching after his child
When: Today
Where: The play room at the resort
Rating: PG for kids

Years ago he might have worried what people would think if they saw him now - the people he once knew in the Mirador certainly would be laughing themselves silly - as he sat at a comically tiny set of table and chairs. Considering everything else that had happened, it was now the least of his concerns. One of them was Ashura, who he'd left in their room to rest after quite a bit of goading, while he took their fussy impossible progeny out to play. He watched with a tired but gentle smile as his son rolled a tiny plastic truck across the floor to his feet.

His son. He could never quite get over that.

Felix rolled the toy back with his foot, but Ryuga simply frowned and tossed it away, evidently unsatisfied with this.

"You don't like that one?"

Ryuga shook his head, obviously pouting.

"Well, what do you want?"

The boy only whined louder, and Felix rubbed at his temple. The boy had been much easier to entertain when he was smaller, and not quite to the age where he could articulate it effectively. But he'd have to think of something soon, before this turned into a tantrum.

Comments

[thraxios]

Those words would have been followed by dangerous comments, affectionate and goading in equal measure. Felix is hardly incorrigible. He has the capacity for kindness, even tenderness, whatever he might believe of himself; Gideon has seen it often enough.

And it increasingly seems he has the ability to apologize. Gideon still can't quite believe it when he hears it, despite the sincerity with which it's offered. He recognizes the careful, tentative cadence of Felix's words, but the words themselves still feel surprising.

The fault is mine, he writes. With a wry smile, he adds, I can't blame you for a flaw I possess in equal measure.

He looks up at Felix as he moves the tablet over so it might be read, knowing full well that he's never been able to hide his affection as well as he might like--and for that moment, not caring.

[lord_wizard]

Even after all this time it's hard not to miss that look in Gideon's eyes, and it does not fill him with the dread he was expecting. The mutual apology has a lot to do with that, given that Gideon used to be just as disposed towards intransigence as he was.

"None of us are perfect," he said, reaching across the small table to place a place his hand other the one Gideon had on the tablet. It was a startling reminder of the first time they been together in that tiny Kekropian hotel, and the memory itself springs rather vividly to mind along with the impulse to duplicate it further by leaning over for a kiss. He stops short, but the desire is easy enough to recognize.

[thraxios]

Gideon's breath catches at the way Felix looks so intently at him. He thinks he can see the selfsame yearning he feels when he's in Felix's presence--when they aren't rising to each others' bait, at least (and even then, he knows, it's there). That same desire to pull him up from the table, go away to a private room, and relearn with eager hands and mouths the things they've lost.

After a moment of staring transfixed at the curve of Felix's lips, Gideon tears his gaze away and shakes his head. He has to draw his hand back from the warmth of Felix's, little as he wants to; they're treading on treacherous ground when they watch each other so. But he still can't resist turning his hand beneath Felix's and clasping it, squeezing for one brief moment before letting go entirely.

He moves his tablet so he can write a reply. No. We aren't.

[lord_wizard]

Felix stares down at his own hand a moment before retracting it, feeling briefly bereft of that familiar touch. It wasn't just the intimacy, but the recollection that Gideon had once been his confidant and protector before he was a lover. Felix had of course left plenty of lovers in his time, but none had been much more than that.

"All we can do is try. I realized that some time ago," he said, a neutrally as he could manage. It was best that part of that realization came as a result of his relationship with Ashura, and wanting to prevent the mistakes he'd made with Gideon in the past.