not_every_mage | The Preserve, Saturday Morning

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The Preserve, Saturday Morning

Anders and Nathan hadn't gone back to the dorms after the dance; they'd camped in one of Nathan's usual spots in the Preserve instead. Nathan was more comfortable staying outside, while Anders mostly wanted to be wherever Nathan was -- especially now that the weather was decent enough that he didn't have to sacrifice too much comfort to do it.

He heard some small noise and woke up just enough to squint toward the sun, judging its angle, then shut his eyes again and burrowed further under the heap of blankets. The birds and the deer and the alots might be cavorting about, but it was still early. He was staying right where he was for now.

[OOC: You know where this one is headed. For the boy and one other, please!]

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Sometimes, Nathan had issues with sleeping through the night. Between nightmares and other noises, he tended to wake up early more often than not.

But, he'd managed to sleep right through the sunrise and was still asleep right now.

And there was another benefit of staying in bed for now. It was unusual to see Nathan so peaceful, and Anders didn't want to disturb it.

But he couldn't resist dropping a kiss against his shoulder,all the same.

Nathan shifted a bit, scooting closer to the source of the kiss and the warmth before his eyes opened and he blinked blearily.

"Oh." The smile he managed was both slow and sleepy. "Hello."

"Hi," Anders said, smiling back and propping himself up on an elbow. "You looked peaceful. Good dreams?"

"Maybe? I don't remember anything bad at least," he said, rubbing his eyes slowly. "You?"

"Nothing worth remembering," Anders said, turning to nestle closer against Nathan. "No demons. Nothing scary. Boring, really."

This wasn't a criticism. For him, boring was good when it came to the Fade.

"You want to dream of those things?" Nathan asked, amused. "That's pretty hardcore."

"Part of the mage thing," Anders said, eyes drifting closed again. "Fireballs, good looks, demons in your dreams sometimes. You get used to it."

"All mages look like you?" Nathan asked, smiling sleepily. "How does anything get down in your world?"

"That's why we're shut away," Anders helpfully explained. "They can't have us distracting all the mere mortals."

"Those people don't know what they're missing," Nathan told him. "Poor them. Missing out on so much."

"Poor them, lucky you," Anders said easily, and tried to draw Nathan into a lazy good-morning kiss to show his appreciation.

Well, Nathan wasn't going to do any resisting when it came to that. He was still a little tired so his movements were slightly uncoordinated but he could still kiss Anders good morning.

It was a nice kiss, coordinated or not and morning breath aside, and Anders was going to do his best to just relax into it. There was no need to rush to get up.

Nathan wasn't in any real rush either. It wasn't like there were classes to go to or anything to deal with when it came to his eccentricities. He was outside and feeling fine.

Very fine right now as he leaned in closer and responded.

Well, hello. Anders made an eager little noise and traced his fingers along Nathan's biceps.

He'd long since stopped considering any privacy aspect to the fact they were technically outside. As far as he could tell, all they had to worry about this deep in the woods was shocking a few deer.

And hopefully the deer wouldn't react in any strange way to something like this. Didn't need to be trampled by any deer while he was kissing Anders in a small clearing.

Nathan slipped a little closer, arm going around Anders as he did.

Anders moved to firmly press himself against Nathan, batting the blankets away with his free arm. If he could read narration, he'd be very grateful deer stampedes hardly ever happened.

-- and then he heard the small, polite, but unmistakable noise of someone clearing their throat and froze.

"Did you hear that?"

"Unfortunately," Nathan said, ears attuned to the smallest of noises since he stayed in the preserve so often. He craned his neck around, trying to find the source of the noise.

Anders groaned. "Maybe if we close our eyes and stay very still they'll go away," he whispered --and patted the blankets back into place all the same.

Soon enough, a small boy dropped out of his perch in a tree and took a few steps into the clearing. "Dads," he said, in a tone of reproach. "Can you get up now? I'm hungry."

Nathan's eyes widened comically and he turned to look at Anders.

"Dads? What? What?" So eloquent.

Anders might have tried to answer if he hadn't been occupied cursing a blue streak and making sure his clothes were covering the important bits. Not that he had a clue what was up, really.

As it was, the boy filled the gap.

"I said, can you get up so we can get breakfast?" he asked, frowning. "Are you sick?"

"I -- Maybe?" Nathan said, frowning. "Who are you? How'd you get out here?"

The boy looked hurt at that. "I'm Leo," he said, because duh, they should have known that. "Your son. I tripped in the garden and there was a portal thing and now I'm here," he said. "Were you trying to hide?"

"My son?" Sadly, Nathan's first thought was that this was somehow the Council, trying to get at it him. The second thought was the island. He took a breath. "Not hiding. I like being outside. So, we're here."

Anders, meanwhile, was ... mainly confused.

"You did notice we're both men, didn't you?" he asked Leo. "So -- maybe you have the wrong people?"

"I know you're men, that's why you're my dads," Leo insisted, shaking his head firmly. "Both of you. You're acting really weird."

"We're surprised!" Nathan pointed out. "I don't think either one of us expected a child to arrive. Did you expect to be here?"

"Not ... exactly," Leo admitted, and sat cross-legged on the ground. "I thought I'd still be in Wales. But we're on that island where you went to school, aren't we?"

"Wales?" Nathan was...actually kind of glad to hear that. If he was in Wales, things had to be pretty okay, right? "Yeah, this is where we went to school. Or are going to school, to be more exact."

"Are going," Anders echoed. "You're maybe a few years early, Leo. Or a universe off. We're not quite old enough to be your fathers yet and that's why we're so surprised."

He'd been happy to hear Leo mention Wales, for similar reasons to Nathan. If they were in Wales -- and with a son and a garden, no less -- there was at least one world where things didn't go too terribly for them.

"Oh." Having been around magic from different universes all his life, Leo didn't take quite as long to wrap his head around that notion as another boy his age might have. "So ... you don't know who I am yet?"

"Not yet," he said, shaking his head. "Don't be too sad about that though. That just means you can tell us about yourself. Like a story."

That was perhaps an unwise thing to point out to a child of Anders'

"So I could make up whatever I want?"

"I guess you could," Anders sighed, because he knew where Leo's head must have gone. "Or you could start with the boring true stuff and then add exciting bits once we know all of that!"

"Exactly," Nathan said in agreement. "Tell us the boring stuff and then once that's out of the way, the good stuff, the exciting stuff."

"Okay, but the boring stuff is boring," Leo claimed, then tapped a finger to his jaw as he thought of where to start. "Um ... my whole entire name is Leo Hawke Byrn. I'm six. I like knights and chocolate biscuits and climbing way up high. My kitty is called Serah Whiskerface. I can't use much magic yet" -- because he believed his dads would ask -- "but when I get big I'm gonna be really good."

"So, you're a mage?" Nathan asked, glancing at Anders. "Like your dad? I mean, this dad?"

Since they were both dads, he pointed at Anders when he said that.

"I'm a me."

So that cleared that right up. But as Leo met Nathan's eyes to answer his question, the gold shapes swimming in his dark eyes caught the light.

"He might be too small to tell for sure," Anders interjected. "But if I had to guess, probably. He feels like it, and besides, it's almost inevitable if we were both involved, isn't it?"

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't know of a world where people with magic had it easy, unless they were born rich in Tevinter.

"He's got eyes like mine," Nathan noted, holding back a wince. He wanted to ask Leo if the Council was still around, if they were hiding in Wales or anything else like that. But he held back. "You'll be good when magic when you grow into it. I promise."

As usual, Anders had to squint and concentrate to see the shapes properly, but when he did --

"A Mage and a black witch," he agreed softly, with a wince of his own. "That'll be interesting in a few years."

"Hopefully he'll get a smaller staff than yours," Nathan joked. "One that's Anders sized would be bigger then him."

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The Preserve, Saturday Morning

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