Clearing in the Preserves, Tuesday Afternoon

[not_every_mage]

Anders was relieved to see the day he and Nathan had set for their picnic had dawned clear and warm. He made his way to the clearing and got the space organized, spreading out a blanket and putting the cookies, fruit and drinks he'd brought to one side.

The shop had refused to sell him the ale he'd wanted -- something about drinking laws -- but he'd gotten lemonade and sweet cider, and those seemed almost as good. Not that he thought the choice of beverage could ruin his time with Nathan, but fussing over that kept him from fussing over anything else.

He was, perhaps, a tad excited. (And a tad nervous.)

[OOC: For that one boy.]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

"And lots of months before either of us will need to do anything else," Anders added, luxuriating in it. Time where he wasn't either running, thinking about running or recovering from his last escape attempt was still pleasant and strange -- and more than a bit comforting. "How long is it until you're 17, anyhow?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I turned seventeen just before I got here," Nathan told him, flashing back to that time in the snow with his father and his ceremony. Right before he'd run, right before realizing Gabriel was gone and Annalise was in Mercury's hands. "Maybe a month or so before I ended up here, I turned seventeen. Happy late birthday to me."

[not_every_mage]

"Happy late birthday," Anders answered automatically. "Happy late nameday, even, which is what we say at home. I was 16 a few weeks after I got here."

He glanced over, squeezing Nathan's hand again. "I thought you said you would get your gift when you were 17?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"We do but it doesn't always appear immediately," Nathan said, making a face at how his world seemed to work. "Sometimes it takes some time before you discover what you can do. Like your gift is being chosen and prepared for you or something."

[not_every_mage]

"What, like it's an order in a restaurant and you just have to sit and wait?" Anders checked. "I'd be crawling out of my skin trying to figure it out."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I'm not going to deny that I'm curious," Nathan said because he was. He knew the powers his father had and wanted to see what side of the spectrum, basically, he'd fall on. "I just don't know the timetable on this. It sucks. It's just a lot of waiting."

[not_every_mage]

"Can you test it at all?" Anders wondered sympathetically. "Jump out of a tree and see if you can fly -- all right, that might not be the best idea. But something like that."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I haven't really tried that to be honest," Nathan admitted, rubbing his free hand through his hair. "My grandmother's gift was potions so I did try that one day. Just some simple balms and healing salves she made when the thing with my back happened."

[not_every_mage]

"How'd it go?" Anders wondered. "I still don't know the herbs here. I should figure it out someday."

He said this with no sense of urgency: It was easier to hoard the elfroot that came into the Magic Box than to figure out an entire different way of making potions, which he'd never particularly enjoyed anyhow. There were too many fiddly bits.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I nearly got my hands stuck to my shirt," he said, shaking his head at himself. "I don't have my grandmother's touch. And I had no injuries to really test it out on either so maybe it worked but I'm not sure."

And he wasn't about to injure himself to find out. He'd done that enough for Clay and his Hunters awhile ago.

[not_every_mage]

"Probably you'd feel something if it did," Anders speculated. He sat up and reached for the sandwich he'd almost forgotten. "Not worth hurting yourself or welding your hands to your shirt trying to prove either way, I'd think."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Probably not," Nathan agreed, following suit and sitting up. "And unless I get injured with something specifically poisoned to work against me or can't heal, I should be able to just heal up and not need salves and lotions."

Hopefully that wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

[not_every_mage]

"I'm going to settle for just hoping you don't get injured at all," Anders informed him between bites of sandwich. "And especially not with anything designed to hurt you."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, we can both hope that," Nathan said, reaching for a cookie since he had a craving for it now. "I'd rather not experience anything like what happened to my back or when I ended up getting shot in the back."

His back just didn't have good luck at all. "Thankfully I've been injury free for awhile."

[not_every_mage]

"Thankfully, but go back to the part where you got shot?" Anders requested. He'd stopped hunting for an orange and was giving Nathan a concerned look. "I barely got grazed while we were in Rapture and that hurt like a bastard."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"That was...a few months ago. Hunters. They were chasing me because I had something fairly important and one of them managed to shoot me in the back."

He used his hand and pointed to the area around his kidneys were he remembered the bullet lodging.

"It was laced with some kind of poison so I couldn't heal it. I got very sick for awhile. Almost died."

[not_every_mage]

Anders' eyes flashed with anger. "That sounds like absolutely the best way to persuade you to hand it over," he said acidly. "I swear, Nathan, I'll shoot lightning at your Hunters if I ever meet them. Just on principle."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You won't find me stopping you," Nathan told him, blowing out a breath. "It might give them pause, make them think twice about blindly chasing me just because of who I was born as. It's...tiring to run."

[not_every_mage]

"I know," Anders told him, remembering the exhaustion that came of always looking over his shoulder. "And at least when I run, it's a fair fight. You get a bullet in the back for your trouble and you didn't even do anything."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Being born was enough for some people," he said, shrugging. "The bullet's gone though. Don't even think I've got a scar from that one. Not that anyone would see that scar because of the other one."

[not_every_mage]

"Not like any of us get a choice in how we're born," Anders shrugged. "And I don't think I noticed a scar but I don't remember. You're right, the giant letters make for an excellent distraction."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Maybe one day I'll figure out a way to make those go away." There wasn't anything fun about having a giant BW scar on your back. "My grandmother said it'll probably fade with time. Guess that's the best I can hope for there. Least it doesn't hurt anymore."

[not_every_mage]

"Did it hurt for a long time?" Anders asked, which seemed like a stupid question as soon as it was out of his mouth. Obviously it had. "That is -- I wish there were some way I could make it better."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"I don't remember a lot the first day or so after it happened," Nathan told him quietly. "There was a lot of pain. I think I was passed out half the time but the pain eventually went away. It hurt for maybe two or three days."

Thank goodness he'd been unconscious for a bulk of that. At Anders' words, he smiled. "You can't make the scar go away but that's okay. What made me feel better is that you saw it and it didn't turn you away. That's what helps me."

[not_every_mage]

Anders smiled back at him, gently. "I can't imagine anything you'd show me that would make me turn away."

Trying to prove that with a kiss seemed like the best idea ever. He leaned toward Nathan again, closing the space between them. It wouldn't make the marks disappear, but it was the best Anders could offer in the moment.