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“What are you doing?”
Anger nips at Caesar’s heels, suppressed only for Alexei’s sake, who talks excitedly with the chauffeur standing nervously next to the car.
Leewon looks up at Caesar as though he sees nothing wrong with the situation, all wrapped up in winter clothes, still in his wheelchair. He’s been oddly accepting of the mobility aid and pacing the speed of his recovery. Before, he’d already be struggling to walk on his own again, but he’d obediently allowed Caesar to help him into the chair every morning and relied on the others in the mansion to help get around. It’s a difference that pleases and enrages Caesar at the same time, having been absent to witness this change in temperament, yet benefiting from it.
That was, until today.
“Alexei and I are going to visit my father,” he tells Caesar matter-of-factly, a discussion that never happened already done. “I’ve wanted to introduce Alexei to him for a while now.”
Caesar’s felt anger more than any other emotion during Leewon’s absence, all of them repaid by the satisfaction of having him back, but that hasn’t dulled the edge of the blade at all.
“You are not leaving—“
“You agreed to this,” Leewon interrupts him. He looks utterly apathetic, as though Caesar’s wildfire is beneath his notice, unworthy of being considered in depth. “If you wish to go back on your word already, there is nothing left for us to talk about.”
Leewon has not yet recovered, Alexei is just a child. Dragging them both back inside would be an easy enough feat but—
Concessions were made.
Leewon is a good liar, but he has been a father longer than he has been Caesar’s lover and Caesar does not doubt his threats.
Here is how this relationship is going to work or Alexei and I will be gone again.
The list had been shorter than Caesar expected, but each demand made cut twice as deep. Leewon allows the construction of a birdcage, but he decides the build and which key to lock them all in.
“You should not be moving yet,” Caesar says instead of pursuing his earlier line of argumentation.
Leewon only snorts, amused, briefly escaping Caesar’s presence as he vanishes into a memory Caesar does not share. “This is nothing. Alexei’s birth was much worse.”
It’s another missed moment, one Caesar can only puzzle together from the medical records Leewon sent with Alexei for their first meeting. His son was born premature, in an emergency cesarean section the attending doctor had probably only done one or two times before. It’s a miracle Leewon didn’t bleed out in that rural hospital. Ah, the thought alone is enough for Caesar to want the hospital burned to the ground.
“Then I will just have to come along,” Caesar decides and flashes a smile Leewon seems even less impressed with. “Can’t have my dear father-in-law thinking I’m not taking good care of you.”
Leewon’s expression doesn’t change, nor does he call upon the provocation. Caesar once entertained beheading Mikhail to see if it would return Leewon to him, but seeing Lomonosov’s devastation at his son’s disappearance and that fool Vladimir struggle to keep the reigns over the family was almost enough to satisfy him.
“Do as you wish.” Leewon turns to their son again. “Alexei, tu es prêt?”
“Ne, appa!” His son’s French and Korean are better than his Russian and it would displease Caesar if the fact Alexei speaks the language at all weren’t a gift in the first place.
“Then let’s go.”
Leewon makes no move to go however, merely glances at Caesar in waiting. It’s somewhere between a test and a peace offering.
Caesar accepts most graciously and pushes the wheelchair of his beloved to the car.
Previously, such car rides would be quiet, but Alexei talks nearly non-stop, excited to meet his grandfather. He switches between languages rapidly enough that Caesar has to concentrate following his rambles; a behavior Alexei did not display when he stayed with Caesar on his own. He also wasn’t this excited to meet his father, but that will be forgiven considering the precarious circumstances.
“—and will grandpa like me?” Alexei finishes his last question.
“You are my son, of course he will,” Leewon answers at once. “You should tell him about our trip to the Louvre last year.”
He has no doubt that Mikhail will adore their son, to the degree he’s hashed out binding contracts that would leave Alexei with him instead of Caesar depending on the circumstances. His lover does not trust him with their son and he’s made no secret of that to Caesar.
What a cruel man he loves, willing to rip father from son.
“What are you smiling about?” Leewon asks, gaze full of suspicion.
“I am merely interested to see what your father’s reaction to Alexei’s appearance will be.”
Caesar sees his lover most of all in Alexei, but he knows that their son’s features regularly have his subordinates whisper about their similarities to Caesar.
Perhaps letting Mikhail Lomonosov live just so he could see Caesar’s face in his grandson was worth it after all.