[[ A Knight By Birth ]] -- solo 2/4

Gauvain was throwing the worst tantrum imaginable. He had already hurled several white plates at his father's head, just because. Not really just because, actually. Tommy had just tried to gently explain to Gauvain that he couldn't be a knight, because only the Queen could appoint Knights from amongst the nobles in her own faction. And then, when Gauvain said no problem, he'd just move to Hearts, Tommy had to equally kindly explain that he would have to stay in Clubs with his fathers. That was about when Gauvain started to cry, and then scream, and then throw dishes.

Later, when Gauvain had grown up into a pleasant and very charming young man, they would all laugh about this. For now, Tommy was trying to figure out how to stop the onslaught on both his plates and his person. "Gauvain! If you maim me, I will be very upset with you!" That didn't work. Time for a bribe?... "If you stop, daddy will take you to the casino, and we'll play the Slots?" Gauvain did find this idea tempting, but given he was an infant, he sort of ignored it and continued to rage-- he'd be damned if he would give in so easily!

Thurisaz walked in through the door in very, very tight leather pants and a wifebeater that had something obscene sewn onto the front in black sequins. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he set his bag down on the chair with a sigh. No plates were hurled. The whole apartment was in utter silence as Gauvain and Tommy paused mid-fight to look at Thuri for his opinion. Which turned out to be I don't even give a ********> Thuri turned to Gauvain and held his arms out with a tired sigh and a smile. "Where's my beautiful baby boy?" Thuri asked, kneeling so that Gauvain could run into his arms.

Which he did, placing the rest of the plates down on the floor. "What's eating you, sweetheart?" Thuri asked, as Gauvain sobbed on his bare shoulder and Thuri scooped him up, balancing him on one hip. His stripper father was pretty fit, and golden from immaculate tanning schedules. Gauvain looked like a ghost next to him.

"I-- Tommy says I can't be a knight!" Gauvain managed to squeeze out, in between hiccups, his little wings tucked against his back.

"Daddy says you can't be a knight, baby," Thuri corrected gently, before putting in his two cents. "Sweetheart, you know what? You can be so much more amazing than those old, boring men. They always smell like sweat and they never wash," Thuri told him, sitting down on their couch and sitting his son on his lap. Thuri and Tommy were both quite notably young for parenthood. But they hadn't asked for Gauvain's egg to suddenly drop on them, after all.

"But I want to be a knight! I love the knights! I love the knights more than I love Daddy!" Gauvain's tantrum was beginning to surface again. Thuri winked at him, and diffused the tantrum that easily.

"Baby, you're better than a knight already, okay? Really, sugar," Thuri replied, cementing his earlier statement. Sometimes Gauvain needed to have things said to him more than once. Thuri looked around Gauvain's head in order to mouth at Tommy: He gets his temper from you!

"So I'm... brave?" Gauvain asked, his whimpering drifting into a mild sniffle, as he rubbed his eye sleepily. Looks like he hadn't had his nap.

"Always," Thuri agreed, emphatically.

"And I'm loyal?
"Until the end of time."

"And I can save any prince in trouble that I want to, with my sword of justice and rightfulness?" Gauvain mumbled, crawling off of Thuri to curl up on the couch in a ball on one side, only barely awake.

"Yes, baby, you can be the hero anytime you want," Thuri replied, smiling down at his son. Who was now well and truly asleep. Tommy opened his mouth to protest that, yet again, Gauvain clearly loved Thurisaz considerably more than he loved his more constantly present parent. After all, Tommy's hours were far more normal than Thuri's were.

Thuri shook his head, smiling, and pointed at Gauvain: he was asleep, and newly so. Tommy began to grin. Thuri rose slowly from the couch, and pressed into Tommy briefly to steal a kiss and look him up and down, biting the corner of his lip, before heading off into the furthest room of the apartment and shutting the door behind him. Tommy paused only briefly to make sure Gauvain was, indeed, asleep, before racing off after his husband.