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What was that?
Leo hurried down the staircase to investigate what sounded like heavy objects clattering to the floor. He hoped it wasn’t another bear –it was too early in the morning for dealing with bears.
Instead of a bumbling furry creature, it was his (bumbling) husband kneeling on the ground, sheepishly trying to pick up the books and a weighty jade vase that had toppled to the ground.
“Just when I thought my wards were keeping the creatures outside the house…” Leo finished the last few steps of the descent slowly, wearing a bemused expression.
Takumi looked up. “Ah shit… I woke you up, didn’t I?” It was very early. Leo was typically late to bed and late to rise, but he’d had a feeling Takumi was going to rush home to surprise him, so he’d decided to rise with the sun to surprise him back.
Takumi had been visiting family and retainers down south at Castle Shirasagi for a fortnight. Leo would have accompanied him, as he usually did on such visits, but he’d come down with a cold the day before departure. So, making the best of the situation, Leo had caught up with some paperwork and otherwise enjoyed the quiet in their secluded home nestled in forest within the borders of the two countries.
Leo flapped his hand dismissively. “Not at all. I was already awake. Well. In the process of waking up. I had a feeling you would get here before your letter claimed.”
“Before the sun!” Mock shock oozed from his voice. “If I had known I was so dearly missed, I might have come sooner.”
“Oh, shut up.” Admittedly, solitude had lost some of the charm it used to hold, but he wasn’t about to say that to someone whose head seemed to absorb and inflate at such comments. Instead, Leo crouched down to deposit a quick kiss on the cheek, then helped with the last of the books. Job done, Takumi stood before dramatically collapsing onto the sofa with a sigh, eyes closed.
“Long ride? Or…?”
There was a chuckle in response. “No. It’s our nieces and nephews! They are more exhausting than any enemy I’ve ever faced. Four years old is truly the worst age.” Despite his words, Takumi’s face showed only a contented bliss, thoughts of his younger kin seeming to refresh his weary face from just moments before.
Leo chuckled. “That’s what you said about three.” Needless to say, there had been a baby boom once the war had ended. Takumi called all the children of their old war comrades family, and those of the retainers his “nieces and nephews”. It was endearing.
After their wedding (there had been quite a wedding boom, too) he and Takumi had moved out into the country to avoid the hustle and bustle. Yet their visits to the two castles and the surrounding grounds were so frequent, Leo often wondered if they had made a mistake in removing themselves. Takumi, in particular, seemed to take a shine to his honorary role of uncle (blood related or not).
Leo shoved aside one of the oversized pillows and sat down. He closed his eyes and leaned back.
“Do you ever wish we could have children?”
Takumi, a moment ago boneless and nearly comatose, literally sputtered in response. “Chil-what?? Where is this coming from? Making a joke…??”
Leo opened a lazy lid to side-eye his husband, who looked as disheveled as he sounded.
“I’m being serious. Hypothetically. If we could. You wouldn’t want to?”
Leo’s childhood had been tumultuous. But he’d come to understand it didn’t have to be that way. Shouldn’t be that way. He wasn’t opposed to children. Not if Takumi was there to help him fill in the blanks required for a happy childhood. Leo’s own experiences were likely insufficient on their own.
He suspected Takumi actually wanted kids, in a sense greater than just the feeling of being left out.
A suspicious look this time. “Where is all this coming from? See, this is why you shouldn’t wake up so early. It messes with you. And now you’re messing with me , too.”
“A child conceived of two fathers? We’ve witnessed things I would consider more strange than that.”
“Of course I’d like children.” The confession was muttered quietly, and Leo could have missed it from his usually loud and brash husband had he not been, somewhat to his own surprise, hanging on every word. Takumi continued, louder, “But… conceived with two fathers?? I’d like to fly and control time too, but talking about it can’t make that happen either.”
Despite the words, Takumi’s face showed a glimmer of sincerity and earnest vulnerability that squeezed something deep in Leo’s chest. Both being princes, they were not often in want of much. It discomfited him knowing that there was something he couldn’t provide.
But maybe…
A big sigh diffused some of the emotion in the room.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs and have a nap. Or a tea. I’ll tell you all about my trip once you’re back to being normal.”
Leo took the offered hand, but knew he’d have a hard time sleeping with ideas swirling in his head
---
As it turned out, the Nohrian library was surprisingly abundant in books dealing with fertility issues. Maybe this shouldn’t have been that surprising; wanting to have a child was clearly a biological prerogative. Leo noted that once you started looking for information specifically about producing a child between two men, however, both the number of sources and the credibility thereof significantly diminished. Male pregnancy had come up more than once. Nohr had a history of… mentally unhinged sorcerers.
Those books went directly into the fireplace. Had the suggested magics had even a hint of credibility, he may have entertained the idea of at least asking Takumi, but based on his own surmises, he figured the spells would cause tumours at worst, and perhaps some reversed aging at best.
The last caused a wisp of an idea to form in his head. He did know someone who would likely know about --
“Leo!” The heavy library doors burst open to a sing-song of a voice calling his name. He threw one last book into an already blazing fire, thus hiding the evidence of his secret searching.
“Uncle Leeeee-o!”
Turning to look over his high-backed armchair, he saw Takumi shuffling towards him, two children somehow holstered around his legs. One dislodged itself and came running towards him in an excited flurry of fluffy hair. He braced himself just in time, as the girl clambered on top of him and embraced him in a tight hug. Sigbert demurely appeared as well, his head head poking above the armrest.
“Ophelia. What’s all over your face…? It’s all sticky…”
“Daddy made perilous popsicles !”
“If you hurry, you can get one before they melt.” Despite the prim suggestion, Sigbert also had the hint of a purple stain around his mouth.
“Why are you hiding up here anyways? Just take another carriage full of all the books you want.” Takumi stood with his back to the fire, oblivious to the purple popscicle stains on his pants and the book quickly turning to ash in the heat. “Your sister keeps going on about how ‘antisocial’ you’re being…” The word antisocial was punctuated by air quotes, and a particular mocking voice Leo found strangely endearing, although it gave no hints as to which sister was being referred to.
“You know what? Good idea.I shall… socialize.” Leo decided he could target two birds with one stone. “Phi, do you know where your mother is?”
“Maaaaybe… but you gotta catch me first!” And instantly she had hopped from the couch and was already sprinting towards the doors.
Takumi and Leo exchanged glances.
“Well. Guess you better start running.”
Leo ignored the smirk as he pursued in a fast-walk with as much dignity as he could muster.
---
“Eugh. Child-magic is always such icky business. Half those books should be burned.”
Leo sipped his herbal tea across from Nyx and her low table. “Incidentally, I’ve been taking care of that. So I was correct in assuming you were… familiar with such things?”
Her curse was not unknown to anyone who’d been in the army. Even now the woman looked hardly through with puberty, and yet she spoke like she could be someone’s grandmother. She waved her hand dismissively. “Oh yes. You know how facets of magic are related… not as many degrees of separation between producing a child and un-childing someone as you might think. I’ve done my share of research on the latter.”
“Save me some time, then: Is it folly?”
She sipped in silence for an annoyingly long time (and he considered himself a patient man!). At times like this he wondered how his eccentric retainer and Nyx managed to find matrimonial harmony. But a quick glimpse of the surroundings (rat skulls, sprigs of nightshade, an engraving with strange runes…) reminded him she was unironically the mage Odin probably wished he could be.
“Not quite. Although don’t waste your time with books.” Another sip and a long gaze. Her reddish eyes were inherited by Ophelia. That and the crazy tangles of hair.
She cleared her throat. “From an elemental standpoint, producing a child is merely the combination of the essence of two people. Genetics and biology aside. In magical terms, there needs to be a combination of two objects which can be translated to the magical essence of each individual.”
“Hmm… I feel like this is heading in a dark direction.” Leo knew about the magics which involved the sacrifice of blood, body parts, and the like. Another unsavory product of Nohrian mages over the centuries.
“I know what you’re thinking. And actually, thankfully, no. Let’s say you and Takumi both donated your left legs. That still wouldn’t meet the magical activation energy required to combine your essences and produce life.” She shrugged.
“Tsk. So it’s basically impossible.”
“Not impossible. But it requires something more concentrated than merely body parts.” Suddenly she was giving him a shrewd look. “You don’t look much like the doting parental type.”
He suddenly felt defensive. “I could say the same about you.”
She arched an eyebrow like she would have a retort. But instead she laughed, a grandmotherly-type chuckle. “You got me. Something about nasty childhoods makes one cower from such things. Although with the right person… well, some things are never too late to be taught I suppose. Even to an old lady like myself.”
---
Leo was mulling over what he’d learned with a walk along the courtyard (a sad, dark place compared to the one at castle Shirasagi). He had the sensation he was being followed. Putting his hand on Brynhildr, always tucked away in a holder at his hip, he called out, “Show yourself!”
“ Raaawr! ” A small girl’s mewling growl preceded a dramatic entrance from behind a stone pillar. “Ah! Oops!” A small stone fumbled from her hand.
Leo picked up the beaststone. “Velouria. Very rude. Trying to use your transformation to scare me like that.” He noted the pulsing coming from the stone. Magic. He’d never held one of these before. Keaton and Kaden had always been very protective of them. He must have been in silent consideration longer than he realized, because when he snapped out of his thoughts he saw tears forming in his niece’s eyes.
“P-please… I’m sorry… I’ll never do it again. Just give it back. Please…!”
“Here.”
With a ‘pop’ she transformed and clambered into one of the courtyard’s decorative hedges, looking like a weirdly proportioned puppy as she did so.
Leo was left standing, the magical energy left his hand tingling. The feeling was strangely familiar. He put his hand at his hip.
---
Leo hurried Takumi along the path that ran deep behind their house, the fujin yumi, as requested, gripped in the other man’s hand. Despite the lack of explanation, Takumi seemed willing to go wherever Leo was taking him. The man liked surprises. Takumi’s bemused expression contrasted Leo’s racing heart.
Why am I so nervous?
Finally, he felt the magical presence and stopped. It looked like a regular tree unless you knew to look carefully. But it felt like a magical bonfire. Further proof that Takumi couldn’t sense magic if it literally slapped him across the face. Although he knew the bow also reflected magic, somewhat.
He swallowed heavily and raise his arm to gesture to the sapling. “This is Brynhildr.”
The tree was about twice as tall as a man, dark green leaves that tapered to a point, and bark that had a delicate appearance with a subtle texture.
“ That is a tree.” Yet he saw Takumi’s eyes travel downwards to where Leo usually had the tome clipped at his waist.
“It’s buried. Under the ground.” Leo had done this just two weeks ago. He wasn’t sure what to expect. The tome could control the earth, propagate vegetation at will. What happens when you plant a plant-propagating tome?
Evidently, an immensely magical tree. He had spent the past 2 weeks studying it. It was unlike any other tree, plant, or living thing he’d ever encountered before. The details of which were unimportant for the moment, but which he would surely devote some time to publishing at his leisure.
He grabbed one of Takumi’s hands, hating how clammy he knew his own hands felt. “This is how we get our child. This… is my half.”
Takumi’s head turned immediately, not at the gesture, but at the words. “You… want children? You buried your sacred tome… because you want a family?” There was awe in his voice, disbelief.
“You want children. I… I want you to have one. I want us to have one.”
And then he laughed. Takumi laughed.
His uncertainty finally boiled over. “I don’t know if it will work –”
“—Do you want a baby, Leo?”
He hesitated for only a moment. “Yes.”
Another chuckle. “Then we’ll get a baby.” He finally seemed to take a good look at the tree. Pulses of magical energy not registering in the slightest.
“So then. What do you need me to do?”
“To be honest, I’m sort of making this up as I go along. It needs Fujin Yumi’s magic. You can decide how to interpret that.”
Takumi made a bit of an arcing path along the perimeter, eyeing the tree carefully.
“Gotcha.” Leo was surprised at the stride at which his husband was taking this. “But just so you know… I feel like this makes your half the woman half.”
“…What are you on about.”
Takumi had already drawn his bow, arrow knocked.
“I’m just saying, if we had to choose which party is getting penetrated …”
“…”
Thunk . An arrow hit the tree at eye level, the head buried a few inches deep. Takumi walked up and gently placed his precious bow in a crook of the branches just above.
---
---
“Daddy, I know kids have to have a Mommy. But I have two Daddies . Why?” Forrest asked this casually, as if it were one of his never-ending inquiries as to where animals sleep at night or where spit comes from.
Leo and Takumi exchanged a glance, midway though an otherwise normal tuck-in session. Worried a hurried explanation would only wake up Kiragi sleeping in his futon on the other side of the room, Leo made a decision and replied, “You’ll see tomorrow, okay?”
---
Takumi and Leo walked the overgrown path that extended behind their cottage. Kiragi was weaving from one side to the other, running ahead and occasionally checking behind him to make sure they were still there. Forrest seemed subdued by the significance of the moment. The walk to meet his “mother”. Leo swore he hadn’t phrased it as such, and assumed his dramatic son came up with the idea on his own.
Finally, they were in front of a huge tree, many feet taller than any of the ones surrounding, and full of pink, fragrant flowers. Leo’s hand reflexively fluttered near his hip at the familiar sensation in the air. An arrow was still deeply lodged a few feet up the tree, just below a conspicuous hollow. And intertwined irretrievably in the branches further up, a glimpse of a large, beautiful bow.
Forrest giggled, and ran between his parents to hug the tree. “A tree! A tree is my mommy? And you named me ‘forest’?” More laughter. “She’s so pretty…”
Leo and Takumi made conspiratory eye contact. Probably better to leave the explanation at that. For now.
Kiragi, jumped out of the bushes, already making an attempt at climbing the miracle tree. “That’s so awesome! Do I have a tree mom, too??”
With the smuggest look imaginable, Takumi shook his head and looked Leo directly in the eyes as he replied, “No, you were adopted .”
There was no shortage of orphaned children from the war and the families struggling to recover afterwards. Once Leo had shared his convoluted plan (and thus given Takumi irrefutable proof that this was something Leo wanted, too), Takumi had brought home Kiragi from a local orphanage. Leo, apparently and unsurprisingly so caught up in magic, had forgotten one of the most reliable ways for couples to obtain a child.