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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 12:00 pm
Casseth’s mind wandered as he sat on their back deck, bare feet hanging over into the water. It had been a little over a week since Araceli had given birth to their third child and Lithian had helped. They’d remained on Ayr, for a few days after, to make sure both mother and child did well as they all adjusted. Once things had settled and Cas and Lith, and their daughters, had started to grow homesick, they’d set out to leave. The promised to be back, as often as they could, to visit and check up on Zaeyn’s growth.
Cas absent mindedly threw a small pebble up into the air, catching onto it with his magic and twirling it around as he thought. The memory of holding Zaeyn in his arms was fresh and he couldn’t move past just how right it had felt. He longed for that again and, in a way, it surprised him. He’d been so nervous about having a child before. Even after Tala and Tana had come into the world his nerves had gotten the best of him a few times. Now, though? After having their girls and raising them — still raising them — he felt more confident. He knew he could do it. He...wanted to do it.
He flicked his fingers, sending the rock skipping out across the surface of the water as he leaned back and glanced up to the sky. Casseth wondered what Lithian would think about another child. He’d always said a large family was something he’d dreamed of long ago but they had not talked much about having anymore children after the girls. They hadn’t even really had a chance to talk about it, when it was fresh on Casseth’s mind, back at Araceli and Detra’s. He shifted and pushed himself up and went off in search of his mate, and best friend, determined to talk to him about this.
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 6:52 pm
Lithian sat in their library, toes bare and one leg tucked beneath him, an old tome nested in his lap—a religious testament to Abronaxus. Though he rarely stressed about it in the moment, one of the greatest recurring causes for him to re-examine his faith were his daughter’s comments, Tanarah in particular. Although it had played a large role in his own young life, faith and religion were not — thanks to Casseth — building blocks of this household, and while it was not what he would term a ‘regret’ of his, on occasion it left him lost in thought and wonderings, pouring back slowly over the scriptures he had been raised on.
At his back, sunlight poured warm through the great windows from the direction of the balcony, spilling between the eaves of the tall shelves and casting a pale yellow light on the dust motes that lingered in the dry air. He was comfortable, and while he was pleased on the whole with their daughters’ upbringing, sometimes he wondered if they were not missing—if nothing else—part of his own cultural history that he would have felt freer teaching them in depth if not for Casseth’s discomfort with the concept.
He realized late that his eyes were not longer reading the words before him, and sighed, tucking a marker into the text and letting his lashes fall shut as he leaned back. It was no fault of anyone’s, he assured himself, and if ever either of his children wanted to learn more of the gods, that avenue would always be open to them.
Sitting there, he lost track of how long he waited with his eyes shut, listening only to the distant, muted sound of the rolling sea and surf before the nearer approach of footsteps drew him from his daze.
“Casseth?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:15 pm
“Mmm...hello, handsome,” Casseth said as he stepped up behind Lithian and leaned over, wrapped his arm around Lith’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to the spot right below his ear. “What’re you reading?” As he asked this, Cas peered over Lithian’s shoulder, nose wrinkling slightly as he recognized the religious text. He’d never been big on religion, his own father never having really taught him anything about oblivionites or the other religions. And hence, though he’d been close to Lithian for some time (and around at least the dovaa faith through him), Casseth had never really held any interest for religion of any sort.
Part of him felt a tiny pang of guilt that he didn’t share this interest with Lithian. It was, after all, important to his mate. But Casseth had never been able to bring himself to be interested in learning. Every time he thought about some great god, sitting up high, ‘watching over’ his people, Casseth couldn’t help but mentally roll the eyes he didn’t have. It seemed ridiculous to him but he never said as much out loud. What people believed was their own business.
Casseth nuzzled Lithian’s neck and then pulled back so that he could move to the chair across from Lithian. He’d come in here to talk to him. And, despite a slight pinch of nerves, he was determined to do so. “I wanted to talk to you about something, Lithian.” He leaned back in the chair, eyes closing a moment as he went over how to word what he was about to say. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, his lashes flit open as well. “You’ve talked, before, about wanting a big family when you were younger. Do you ever think about that anymore?”
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:33 pm
Lithian’s lips curved up at the touch, eyes shutting again and head tilting. “And to you,” he murmured in return, sparing a small, half-amused glance over his shoulder. “Nothing you’d be interested in, I’m afraid.” When Casseth settled, however, Lithian set the tome aside, recognizing that between Casseth’s choice to sit and overall posture, he had come with some sort of definite purpose in mind other than to cuddle one another into the evening.
After Casseth finished speaking, Lithian blinked, letting the words settle for a moment before he sat back himself, eyeing his mate. It was silly, he thought, but his first instinct was to wonder if seeing their closest friends have another child had affected Casseth’s own perspective on the matter. He didn’t say as much aloud.
“I have,” he said. “Moreso when we were a little younger…” He eyed his mate, “…but I don’t suppose it’s completely left my mind. On some level I thought, though, after we had our girls…that that was all you would want. I didn’t want to pressure you. But…” A head tilt. “Why do you ask?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:38 pm
Casseth frowned slightly at Lithian’s words. “I suppose at one point I would have agreed with your assumptions. I was so nervous with them at first. And until you, I hadn’t really thought much on children and wanting them. It’d been the farthest thing from my mind. But…” He let his words trail off as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Leaning forward, he rested his elbow on his lap and laid his chin his hands. “Holding Zaeyn back on Ayr sparked something inside of me. I miss holding the girls in my arms, the sound of tiny footsteps going all over the house.” He raised his head up, gaze pinning Lith before he continued. “I think...I want another child, Lithian.”
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:44 pm
Lithian heard the question coming. The further along Casseth got, the more sure of it he became, so that by the time the words were actually voiced aloud, his smile was already broad and long since solidly in place, ocean blue eyes dancing with some mix of mirth and good humor. He stretched a touch in his chair, shifted his weight, hummed as though in deep thought—and then leaned forward until their noses were all but touching.
“I think I could live to raise another,” he said. Tipping his face just the barest fraction further in, he touched his lips to Casseth’s and then said, without withdrawing, “Would you like to try to make one?”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:51 pm
Casseth grinned as Lithian moved in close. “I would love to at least try,” Casseth said with a smirk on his lips as he closed his eyes and caught Lith’s lips up in a hungry kiss. His tail wrapped around his mate’s waist, tugging him up out of his own chair and over into Cas’ lap. His hands settled on Lithian’s sides as he deepened the kiss. He didn’t relent for a long while, enjoying the feel of his mate so close. When he finally pulled back, his lashes opened but only half way. “Mmm...we’ll have to discuss when...and how. Eventually…” Cas leaned in again, nipping at Lithian’s neck and nuzzling. “But that can wait for another time. I have other things, in mind, that we need to ‘discuss’.”
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:58 pm
Lithian chuckled, cooperating as Casseth urged him over and then tucking himself into his mate’s lap. Whenever he thought about it—where they had come from and what they had made it to—it still amazed him on occasion that he had ever managed to get what he had, so far above and beyond what he’d ever expected of their friendship. And at this point, after all the middle struggle, it was all but effortless.
“I think,” he murmured, “…I can work with that…”
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