Jurvik was…flabbergasted by Sigrin’s offer. He sort of had to start at xem for a little while to get his thoughts straight in his head.Jurvik had a different relationship with each of his bandmates. It was impossible not to, each of them had a different personality. Flash was loud and rambunctious, Berek was soothing and nurturing, and Sigrin…well, Sigrin was sort of aloof. Xie had an act on stage; during performances, Sig was a completely different person. Off stage, Sig was helpful but unobtrusive. Onstage, xie was always the center of attention, strutting out with an outrageous swing of the hips. Each bootfall made a loud noise on the stage, and when xie opened xeir mouth, the audience got a blast of that deep, deep voice. It was an interesting contrast, and it had taken a little getting used to even for xeir friends to separate the person onstage from the person offstage.
To be asked if he wanted to imbue with xem, to be told that he was someone that xie admired and, well, wanted to imbue with…it was sort of surprising.
It wasn’t entirely surprising. He’d been aware for a while that all of his friends had had an interest in him at some point. Well, sort of—Berek had had a pretty open crush on him at Academy, and he was one of the few men that Flash would flirt with. Sigrin’s attraction had just been by word of mouth. It would appear, though, that all of his friends considered him prime mate material. Jurvik wasn’t sure how he should feel about that—insulted? Complimented? Objectified? Deified?
He decided to feel flattered. His friends liked him—they loved him. And he loved all of them as well. He’d loved them all for a long time. Jurvik’s family hadn’t started with adopting Xenophon—it had just gotten that little bit bigger. If Sigrin wanted to have children, those children would be his kin either way, his friends, his family, his beloveds. The idea of being their father was…pretty tempting, actually.
“I’ll have to ask Xeno and Ruka,” he said. “And we’d have to decide who has custody of the children—will we be sharing them, or will one of us have them and the other visit them?”
“Of course you should ask your children,” Sig murmured. “And I would like them to stay at my place, if you don’t mind.” Xie smiled. “I’d hate to overwhelm you with two more children at once.”
Jurvik chuckled. “That’d be a little much, even for me. I’d like to see our kids, of course.”
Sigrin nodded. “Of course. I don’t think I could keep ‘em away from you even if I wanted to.”
Jurvik smiled. “No. I don’t think you could, either, and you’re pretty strong, Sigrin. I’ve seen you lift speakers before!”
Jurvik was in for further surprises when he asked his kids. Xeno said yes in a heartbeat, which Jurvik had expected. The real surprise was from Nkiruka, who was much shier and much less comfortable with strange adults in her life.
“Yes,” Ruka said. “Just so long as our little siblings don’t hog you.” She hesitated, then said softly, “Sigrin’s pretty nice. For a grown-up, I mean. Xie’ll be a good xither.”
Jurvik smiled and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, Nkiruka,” he said. “For your generosity and your honesty.” He gave her a hug, then went to tell Sigrin the good news.
