Work Text:
Kal lounges against Luca lazily as they enjoy their afternoon with Spite chilling nearby while listening to Luca read them a book. The afternoon sun filters in through their windows as Kal sips his tea. Listening to his husband as he reads off those indecipherable symbols is as enjoyable to Kal as it is to Luca.
Footsteps reach his ears before the door to their study opens. “Dad! Papa!” Fey strolls in without a hint of hesitation. "Mum!” Spite perks up at being included as well.
“Babe! We’ve been over this! You shouldn’t just walk in on people without knocking!” A man’s voice that Kal very much does not recognize states before someone new enters behind Fey.
A moment later, an elven man with dark red, short hair shaved at the sides and deep purple eyes locks his gaze on Kal and visibly heats. “S-sorry, I uh, didn’t realize Fey had siblings over.”
Something sharp and painful strikes Kal straight in the heart. Right. He… He doesn’t age like everyone else does. Luca takes his hand, squeezing reassuringly while Spite lies himself over Kal’s shoulders. Spite whispers to him that they’re there for him and that everything’s okay right now.
“Cyren!” Fey sounds amused. “Kal’s not my brother. He’s my dad.” Oh?
Kal, needing a pick-me-up after the crushing weight of the inevitability of the marching of time, decides to be a little bit of a gremlin and captures Luca’s lips with his own. Fey just lets off a mildly amused huff while Cyren turns beet red.
“O-oh.”
“Been a while, Fey.” Kal greets. “You find yourself a boyfriend?”
“Yeah!” Fey preens. “This is Cyren! Met him a few months ago at one of Nella’s events. He’s great!” Fey pulls his boyfriend to him despite the way it’s bound to ruffle Fey’s immaculate clothes, pecking a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s cheek. It’s cute how flustered Cyren gets over it. Clearly, the boy’s got a lot to learn if he’s going to join Kal’s murder.
“Lucas is already preparing dinner, I’m sure he can prepare a bit more.”
Fey smiles. “I’ll let him know.” Without further ado, Fey’s off to speak with the dwarven man, leaving Cyren alone with Kal and his husbands. Luca smirks, producing a knife to play with as they speak with their future son-in-law.
“So. Cyren, was it?” The red headed boy nods anxiously, his eyes stuck on the knife. “How long have you been dating our son?”
The boy visibly swallows. “A— A few weeks.” Cyren plays with his hands, those eyes still focusing on that dagger.
“How’d you meet?” Kal questions, watching as the boy’s purple eyes flick to Spite for just a moment before moving off.
The door reopens before Cyren has a chance to answer. “Nella and I were on our way to Uncle Larry’s soiree when Cyren here tripped and fell out of a window and straight into my arms.” Fey has the same love-filled look Kal gets. “He was just so damn cute, so I brought him with us. Since then, Nella’s been helping to set us up.”
They watch as Spite pokes around the elven boy. Once every few seconds, there’s a moment where it almost seems like he has some awareness of Spite. It’s promising.
Fey swaggers up to his boyfriend, pecking a kiss to his cheek before pulling him up. “Come on, love. I’ll show you around a bit before dinner.” It’s cute, reminding Kal of the early days of his own relationship as the pair leave the room.
His eyes flick over his husband. His aging, silver fox of a husband. Love and hurt fill his heart in equal measure. He loves Luca and Spite so much more than he can bear some days, and yet only one of them is going to die of old age.
“Kal, mi amor.” Luca wraps around him lovingly. “What’s bothering you?”
It takes a moment to find the proper words. “You know I’ve never been bothered with you being older, right?”
His loving, wonderful Luca holds him tighter. “This is about your apparent immortality, right?” Luca shifts, pulling him into a soft kiss. “Oh, mi amor. I’m sorry this is bothering you so much. I wish there was something I could do to relieve your pain.”
“Luca?” Kal lets himself feel that uncertainty he doesn’t like but that Luca tells him is healthy to feel as long as he doesn’t let it consume him. “Does it bother you that I look like I could be one of our kids?”
“Bother me?” His Luca takes a moment to consider. “It bothers me that it hurts you so much. It bothers me that you’re going to have to find a way to live without me someday. But that you’re always going to be the incredibly attractive man I married? That you’ll always be free of the aches and pain of age? That you, mi amor, will never have to deal with every little thing building up that makes life that little bit more annoying?” Luca smiles, shifting off his bad knee. “No. As much as I would have preferred to grow old together, I find some comfort in the fact that you’ll never have to go through the sames things as me as the years drag on. It doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, love. I love you, and that’s not going to change just because I’m the only one that’s getting older.”
“It hurts that there’s going to come a day I’m left alone.” Kal admits, not for the first time.
“I know, Kal. I know.” Luca squeezes tighter still, unwilling to entertain the thought of letting go. “I know that one day I’m going to cause you so much hurt. I know that you’re never going to truly recover from it. And for that, it’s all I can do to make every moment we have as good as possible.” Luca shifts to whisper in his ear. “You know I’m always willing to listen, love. Do you want to continue this talk after dinner?”
Kal takes a deep, shuddering breath. “Yeah… I would.”
Luca smiles. “Then we will.” He gets a kiss. It’s enough to let Kal crack a smile.
Leon is the next of their children to bring home his spouse. “Dad? Where’s Papa?” Leon’s single eye blinks lazily, staring ever ahead.
“Luca’s off in a meeting right now. Something about the rest of the Talons complaining about who knows what, again. Should be back soon.” Kal looks over the rather plain looking elven boy his younger son brought to him. Between the unremarkable face and the basic brown hair, his piercing red eyes are the one thing that draws Kal’s attention. “Who’s this?” He can feel Spite pressing towards his end of their bond.
“Tamven Miretharall, Ser.” The boy smirks. Leon seems amused. “Yo, Leo. You didn’t tell me your Dad’s smoking hot.” To his credit, Leon simply seems fond. Tamven has his attention. Not often he gets flirted with, even if his heart is already spoken for.
Leon signs. “Tam. How, exactly, would I have known that?” Tamven doens’t seem to have an answer for that. Kal’s ear twitches as footsteps sound down the hall. Luca’s almost back with him. Leon smiles. “Seems like Papa’s back early.”
Its barely even three seconds before Luca’s strolled in with his glorious grey mane flowing behind him. Kal smiles, then spies Tamven looking at his husband with the brightest cheeks he’s ever see—
Oh. The poor boy’s passed out.
Leon sighs. “I apologize. I should have warned him better.”
“Nonsense. You’re not responsible for your partner having eyes.”
“I knew Tam has a fetish for older men. There was more I could have done… Though I admit he’s never been quiet this bad…” Leon leans down to pick up his boyfriend.
Luca moves to help him. “Here. It’ll be easier with two of us.” Luca turns to him. “I’ll be back soon, mi amor.” Kal sneaks over to steal a kiss or two before letting them move off to help Tamven to a bed.
He’s not really sure how he feels about everything. On one hand, he supposes it helps that he’s considered ‘older’ buy his son’s spouse, but there’s still the thing with that same boy having a massive boner for his husband.
It’s late at night when Kal hears shuffling downstairs. “Luca?”
“Hmm?”
“Which one do you think it is this time?” It’s not that rare for one of their kids to come stumbling in in the middle of the night, but usually they can tell by the footsteps. These ones sound unfamiliar.
Luca smirks, slipping out of bed after Kal. “My bets on Ren. We haven’t seen her in a few weeks and Teo was the last one.”
Kal smiles. “Alright. I’m going to guess it’s Teo, then. The usual anti?” Luca nods with a smirk. With the bet sealed, they make their way through the house where a series of crashes sounds out.
In a matter of minutes, they’ve made their way into the main hall where a pair of qunari support their bleeding, injured daughter between them. “What happened?” Luca demands. “And who are you?”
The qunari are injured too, now that Kal’s actually looking. “We were attacked on our way over.”
“Ren took the brunt of the attack. A few of them got a good few sticks in.” Luca rushes them to their infirmary while Kal moves to to find their healer.
Five minutes later, and he’s back at his family’s side. “How is she?” A spike of worry ices his veins as he takes in her condition.
“Lady Ren has several deep wounds, but I believe she’ll make a full recovery.” The flair of healing magic lights up the dim room around them. “It’s good the Lady got here as soon as she did. It makes my job much easier.”
Luca pulls him and the pair of qunari from the room. “She’ll be okay, mi amor. Ren will be fine.” Kal’s not okay with spike of worry in his veins, but this isn’t what he should be focused on right now. “Hey.” Luca says softly, pulling him in for a reassuring kiss. There’s a warm smile on his face when he pulls away.
“Now. We’re thankful for the two of you bringing our daughter home, but who are you?”
“Akay.” The male states.
“Asal.” They look and sound similar. Twins, maybe? “We’re dating your daughter.” Huh. Ren’s never been interested in anyone before this, so Kal hadn’t even realized Ren’s just as bisexual as half the other de Riva’s.
Luca’s smirking at him, Spite’s amusement beaming through that expression. “You must have met recently.”
Akay smiles shyly. “Last week.” Kal’s almost proud. There’s not many people who can bag a pair so easily.
“Well, hopefully we’ll have a better time going forward. This isn’t the best first impression.” Luca decides. “Why don’t you two tell my husbands and I the story of how you three met?” Luca pats the space beside him, asking for Kal to join him. He settles in, more than happy to cuddle his husbands.
“…Dad?” Teo hesitates, peaking around the corner. “Are you busy?” Kal looks up from his latest batch of cookies.
“Nah. What’s up?” Kal smiles as his youngest finally comes out from around the corner. It’s a shame his kid’s still so hesitant. He’d kill Caterina himself for the damage to Teo’s self esteem if only the witch hadn’t already died.
Teo rubs at a scar on their arm, debating his words. Kal’s patient. He can wait for Teo to find their words. “You’re not going to be upset, are you?” Another boy, late teens like Teo, comes around the corner.
“Hi.” It quick and quiet, but that doesn’t stop Kal from clocking that tone as more feminine. “Arwin.” Kal puts down his mixing bowl to take a better look at the elven boy. Curly red hair plays off his darker skin and deep brown eyes.
“You’re trans.” Kal figures. The boy nods, looking at the floor nervously. “Neat. Just treat Teo right and we won’t have any problems, ‘kay?” He can feel those brown eyes on him in surprise.
“I told you my dads wouldn’t care.” Teo smirks.
Arwin hesitates. “You really don’t care?” He asks.
“Nah. It’s none of my business what’s in your pants. All I need to know is what your preferences are.”
Arwin mutters his next words. “I don’t understand… Mom and Dad and the Tamassaran cared so much.” There’s a hint in that sentence that Kal doesn’t like.
“Yeah, but your parents suck. Mine don’t.”
“Arwin. Why don’t you tell me more about your family? We can talk over some of my freshly baked sweets and tea.” He can make it look like an accident. No one gets to hurt his kids and get away with it. No one. He’ll do it and leave no trace. Arwin deserves a happy family and he’s going to get it no matter what. He’s Kal’s kid now regardless of whether his relationship with Teo survives.
He can tell Luca later. It’ll be fine.