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"Well his room is still there and so is yours, which both of you are welcome to. Its on its own floor and I can assure you no one else would bother either of you again." He shrugged. "I don't want you wandering the island or him with predators like that around." He was irritated at Melody also, unable to help the sense of furious indignation at people trying to seduce his most naive son.

Malkam got a cold and calculating look and finally the claws vanished. "But is he infected? Are you infected?"

Lawrence seemed to relax just a little as Malkam reassured him that he was all right and Mikael was too, for a given value of all right. They wouldn't be sterile and they wouldn't be infected and right now that was one of his main concerns. His shoulders sagged slightly.

"Yes I mean it." he said. "I enjoyed seeing his paintings and I would equally enjoy experiencing any hobby you take up. I might not ever be considered your father to you but that doesn't mean I do not want to get to know you or him."

Lawrence eyed the young man with about as close to sympathy as he got. He might not understand exactly how he felt, given that he had never chosen to be on the island in the first place, but he had devoted no small amount of his time to pursuing someone who repeatedly moved out of reach, someone who in the end moved far enough away that even obsession couldn't reach her. There was a hollowness and a space left behind. Malkam had to have experienced that too finding what happened to Melody. It was his fault while simultaneously being something that felt like someone else did it.

"I don't want anything to happen to Mikael either." he said. "I don't want anything to happen to either of you and I'm furious that this hellish corporation managed to recruit my sons into this murder machine." His narcissism extended out far enough to cover the two boys.

There was a moment when he stepped forward, intending to hug Malkam and doubted himself, dropping his arms to his side. "I thought one day I'd be an actual father." he said stiffly. "I'd say I'd protect you, but I've never been much cop at that."

"I don't have a regular cycle of people. I perhaps did have at one point but I've been wholly serious with Rodney. Melvin never asked me to make a serious commitment, Rodney did. So here I am. No one will be in that house who would harm Mikael and that list will henceforth include Melvin. But, perhaps I never tried before, that doesn't mean I don't want to try now and dearly want to be permitted to."

Climbing up a shallow hill he made his way tentatively down the other side. "I'm glad he doesn't blame me." he said. "I'm not trying to absolve myself of blame to any extent, it was stupid of me to assume they weren't being serious when they said we were not allowed to see family. I didn't know what would happen and my curiosity has left me.." he waved a hand vaguely. "Horsemen are our greatest enemy, they want all hunters killed, along with humans in general, we destroyed their home in an attempt to protect ourselves from what I gather but that wasn't successful. I am fairly certain the horseman who killed Melody was either one I met or one of her lackeys. I attempted to get in close with her for my own reasons."

He lifted the hem of his shirt a little and showed the beginning of a very deep scar which looked like it could well have been lethal at the time. "They are where I got this infestation and are tied firmly to the clones of people which have been spotted around the place. I think the infection is why they let me live. I'm not done with them yet, obviously."

Lawrence always felt a little better and more private in Swedish so naturally lapsed right back into it. //"They know where I am, and of course where you and Mikael are, they don't know where anyone else is. Primarily they want to kill off potential hunters, making us sterile is a good way to end bloodlines. That's all they know unless we lead them somewhere we should not. Famine is the clan which causes the most immediate issues I've personally found."//

He took Malkam's comment seriously and shook his head. //"I know Rodney wouldn't do anything like that because he is not that sort of person, he's devoutly adherent to rules and morals, he was resigned to never having a partner and is just.. he's not a bold man, he's mostly timid and artistic, he wants little more than to be in a very traditional relationship. He sees Mikael more like a son than anything else I think, though in a less condescending way and would without a doubt see you the same way."// he frowned a little //"Even if you looked down on him for the homosexuality aspect of the thing. He's not very happy with that either, or wasn't until he made the decisions he did. I can't give you absolute assurance, because apparently I don't really know anyone who is around me, I trusted Melvin after all, but I can only assure you that I don't think Rodney is like that."//

//"Because he apparently mis-construed the cues I had given. Which is fair, it wasn't exactly a normal relationship, Melvin tended to try and strangle me, drown me and other light hearted interactions. Quite a lot of bickering, a lot of friction and tension. He became very hostile after I explained I had lied to get him to go with me in the first place. It was quite a confusing environment, I presume Rodney assumed it was open and failing. I had offered for him to join the open arrangement but he consistently declined citing it was all or nothing at all, so I said that was fine. It was an accident of sorts that I said I would do all, but since I said it, I have honoured it and intend to continue. If I ended it with him that would be it for him for ever."//

Butch wanted Lawrence to throw a stick for him REALLY BADLY and it made it difficult as always to concentrate.

//"Miscommunication and ostensibly emotion are to blame, but I made a commitment and here I am, even if where I am is much quieter than it once was."//

It was probably too much information to answer a simple question, but he was so used to not quite figuring out what was being asked at any given time that he'd learned to try and overshoot a bit.

//"No."// he said. //"I would want to. I know I would, I always do. But it would be his lasting legacy I suppose that though I want to I always have the choice to decide not to do it."// The idea of Rodney leaving was distressing to him, even in a potential scenario. //"I'd let him go."// And then he would be alone, which was possibly one of the worst positions he could be in, he found an echo chamber of his own unmitigated opinions was deeply concerning.

<> Butch growled <>