moreofaponchoguy | Midnight Manor Boarding House, Room 1C, Saturday

At some later point, Cal would certainly be replaying this moment repeatedly in his mind and thinking about all the lessons he'd been taught on the dangers of attachments, but at the moment, all he could really do was flip the covers back more - just a little - and glance at the door. "Uh, wrong room!" he called, even as some of his sense came back and he knew that likely wasn't true.

Well, Cal had handled that very nicely. Arden, whose senses were quite happily mired in kisses, decided to reward him by trying to pull him back down against her and continue in the same vein.

"No it's not," came the second voice, young and piping. "We know this is your room, Papa. We can sense you in there!"

"In the Force and the wind," the first voice added, sounding a few years older.

"So wet us in!" came the first voice. It seemed to also have a problem with pronouncing L's.

Oh, oh no, this was definitely waking Cal all the way up.

"Um. That thing where the kids show up for people. Does that happen a lot?" Cal asked, nudging Arden in a decidedly not-sexy and please-wake-up-more-don't-make-me-face-this-alone way.

"Errr..." Yeah, funny how a child's voice calling for 'Papa' could make someone stop looking for kisses and start trying to hide instead.

"I think...once a year?" Arden said. "I didn't have any last year, so I didn't really notice."

Edited 2025-04-20 04:24 (UTC)

"Can we come in now, Papa?" came the younger voice again, along with more of those heavy-fisted knocks. BAM BAM BAM!

"Mom, if Papa's playing a silly game again, tell him to stop and answer the door," said the slightly older one.

Arden's face did interesting things at the word 'Mom.'

If nothing else, Cal wanted to get the banging to stop, so he scrambled up and threw a shirt on, motioning for Arden to stay in the bed while he went to the door and opened it a crack. "Hi. Who taught you to knock so loud?"

Two smiling face beamed up at him, an older girl with vivid red hair and a little boy, darker-complected, with eyes the same color as his. They both sported very curly hair.

"Uncle Greez," the little boy answered, trying to peer around Cal. "Ooh! Is that Mama in the bed? Hi, Mama!"

"Can we come in now, Papa?" the girl asked, demonstrating Extreme Patience^TM, as befitting a padawan.

Cal wasn't an expert at kid things, but how could he say no to that face?

Oh, right, because Arden might not be ready to see kids.

"Uncle Greez is a terrible influence," he said, because that was true no matter what the situation was. "Mama's still waking up--" Yep, that sure was a thing he was saying, oh boy, "so you'll have to give her a minute. Where did you come from?"

"I'm okay!" Arden called. Fortunately, she had been wearing a shirt this whole time (even if she'd maybe had ideas about removing it). "If y'all wanna come in so we're not having conversations out in the hall."

"Right before this or most of the time?" the girl asked. "Right before this, we came through a portal!"

"I found it," the boy said, puffing up with pride. "Just wike you in the stories about how you met Mama!"

"And before the portal, we were in North Carolina," the girl continued. "Mom had family stuff to do."

Cal took a step back and ushered them inside, taking a moment as he shut the door to center himself and try to stay calm. "It's... good to see you. We, uh, weren't expecting you," he said. "Did you have a hard time finding us?"

He wasn't freaking out that they'd mentioned the Force, not at all!

Arden felt similarly about the mention of 'North Carolina' and 'family stuff.'

"Mama!" the little boy cried and ran towards the bed. Just when it looked like he was going to run into the bed, he jumped. Jumped far higher than any tiny child just barely out of toddlerhood should be able to jump, landing neatly on the bed next to her, and wrapping his arms around her.

"Oh, um, hello," she said, wrapping her arms around him back, because no child was going to feel unloved or unwelcome in her presence. "Definitely not expecting you, but we're both real glad to see you. What are your names?"

The girl sniffed at those childish theatrics, though she was also trying to wrap her arms around Cal. But in a grown up and mature kind of way.

"No trouble," she replied with a shrug. "Why would we? We just followed the Force." Duh, Papa. "Oh! Is this a Fandom thing? Is that why you don't know our names?"

"An' why Papa's hair is weird!"

"It's not weird, it's just long," the girl chided her brother. Though the look she was giving Cal said the jury was still out on that. "I'm Cere and this is Quinlan, but we just call him Quin."

The thing about the Force was that the girl - Cere, of course she was named Cere - could probably feel the way he was trying to close himself off from the flood of emotions that were threatening to overtake him. Kids, real kids, maybe even safe kids that were a perfect match between him and Arden. This was the sort of thing he never bothered thinking about, because it was such a waste of time, but this hug was real, and he maybe squeezed a little too hard wrapping his arms around Cere in return.

"Hey, I like my hair. I think it would look even better longer," he teased. "I'd grow myself a nice mustache too, but someone keeps telling me no."

"And you're welcome for that," Arden told him with a smirky little grin. "I mean, I assume you'd rather not be single?"

Her own emotions were very much a mirror of Cal's own. The little boy - Quin? - had maneuvered himself into her lap and was snuggled against her, head resting against her chest, looking very contented. Kids. The thing she'd sworn she'd never have, because she didn't want to subject her children to the kind of childhood she'd had: having to choose between hiding what they were and safety, or being true to themselves and being hunted.

And yet, here children were, bright and happy and the kind of fearless that came from being loved and protected.

Shhh! She didn't have tears in her eyes, you did.

"So, umm you know about Fandom things?"

"Yeah!" Quin said, excitedly. "Sometimes you're ponies and we get to ride you and fwy around!"

"And sometimes you're little kids," Cere added. "You're kinda bossy then, Papa, and Mom's a scaredy-cat." Quin nodded, his sister was speaking the truth.

"And sometimes Papa's a girl--" though with his difficulties with l's, the word sounds more like 'girwuh' "--and Mama's a boy!"

"And then there's all the stories that you and Mom and BD and all our aunts and uncles and everybody tells," Cere finished. "We know all about Fandom."

"Which is why we went through the portaw!"

"I mean, I want to tell you that you shouldn't touch strange portals, but then I wouldn't have ended up here and my life would be a lot worse," Cal said, looking at Arden with a warm smile. "I do think it might not be safe to ride us while we're ponies though, even with your... skills."

The thought of his abilities matched with Arden's in such tiny, vulnerable little bodies was making his head spin.

Meanwhile, BD had realized that he didn't need to hide from makeouts anymore and toddled out from under the bed with a squeal for the kids and a judging look for Cal and Arden.

Oh, now they get judging looks, even though BD-1 was all for them smooching before they started dating!

"Maybe a mix?" Arden said. "Riding ponies is okay when you're little, and touching portals is better for when you're older?"

What a way to find out that Fandom's weird stuff could follow even once you were off the island! So cool! Loved that for them!

"Do you, um, both? Use the Force? And, uh? The wind?"

Arden got dirty looks from both children for that. "We're not little!" Cere declared.

"Yeah!" Quin said. "I'm a big boy! Not a baby!"

"Sorry, sorry," Arden said quickly. "Of course not, I just meant, that your dad didn't start touching random portals till he was grown."

Cal, if that wasn't true, keep that to yourself, please.

"And yeah, of course we can," Cere added. "I'm gonna be a Elemental Queen Jedi Arbiter, just like you, mom!"

...Those were a bunch of words strung together, absolutely.

"Me too!"

"No you can't," Cere told her brother, voice withering. "Boys can't become Queens. House Solari is matri...something. You're a prince."

Cal was definitely going to comment on the vast number of stupid things he touched before he became an adult, but he got distracted by the word "queen."

"Oh, that's a pretty amazing title," he said. "But you're going to have to be good at negotiating and keeping the peace like your mom." As crazy as all of this felt, Arden figuring out how help in his world made more sense than anything else that was being said right now. "Do I also get to be a prince?"

"I want to be a prince too!" BD said.

"You have to be nicer about my relationship with the Queen if you want to be a prince," Cal teased.

And was spared the dirty looks he would have gotten for that list, too! Because the last thing these children needed were more terrible ideas.

...Okay, maybe he wouldn't have gotten any. Not with as pole-axed as Arden felt hearing all those names and titles getting rattled off.

"Queen?" she asked. "Arbiter? House Solari? What?"

"You are a prince, Papa!" Cere said with a laugh because the grownups didn't know anything. "But only when we're on Earth, cause you like being a brat, Mom says."

"I'm a prince always," Quin announced. "Cere is only a princess on Earth right now too."

"Only cause the rest of the time I'm a Jedi!"

"A Padawan," Quin retorted, like little brothers everywhere.

"And you're still a youngling," Cere declared. "Which is why you still get to be a prince always, too."

"Okay, okay, no reason to fight," Arden said. "What's House Solari? What does that mean?"

Now Cere and Quin were both looking at her, their faces scrunched in confusion. "We're House Sowari, Mama," Quin said.

"Grandpa Quinlan's House," Cere added, clearly expecting that to clear up any confusion.

From Arden's expression, it surely did not.

Cal wished he had answers for her, but his own confusion was ramping up too.

"You'll be trained too," he assured Quin. "But you need to be older--"

"Because you were too young and we get to do it better now," Cere said with an eyeroll. "Yes Papa, we know."

"Well, you can't blame me for wanting to make sure we don't make the mistakes of the past. "But with Arbiters like your mother making sure there's peace, I'm sure it's a lot easier. That's a pretty big honor, you know." Maybe they did, but that was for Arden's benefit more than theirs.

"Arbiters...are a Jedi thing?" Arden asked him, voice hopeful. She only knew of Arbiters in one context and that was Callista.

She reached her hand out for Cal. "Why don't you two come join us on the bed?" she suggested, totally for no reason.

Cere tugged on Cal's hand. She might be very grown up now, but she still wanted to cuddle with both parents. Just, like, in a far more mature way than Quin did, obviously.

"Wiww I be old enough on my next birthday?" Quin asked. "I wiww be even bigger then."

Well, how could Cal argue with such an invitation? He settled onto the bed, letting Cere plop down in his lap as he slipped an arm around Arden. "Arbiters were--are definitely a Jedi thing," he said. "They're negotiators who are good at making people get along, especially when they don't want to talk and just want to argue. That's why there's no rush to stop being a youngling," he said, ruffling Quin's hair. "You don't have to start training to be part of the Order. You just have to protect those who are smaller and weaker than you."

He wasn't going to point out how few people fit that description at the moment, that just seemed mean, especially when this was his own child. Sort of. Maybe.

"Oh," Arden said, warmth flowing through her at the description. "That sounds really nice. Like something I could do that would make me very happy."

She leaned against Cal, resting her head against him. As far as snapshots of the future went, even with all the weird parts she hadn't figured out yet, this was...pretty nice.

And from the way the children immediately shifted in their laps, taking advantage of that lean to manage to cuddle with both their parents at the same time, it was a way they sat together as a family quite frequently.

These children did not represent a future where anybody was left touch starved, that was for sure.

"Papa, you're a Jedi Knight," Quin told him, very seriously. "And you go on 'ventures and save wots and wots of peopwe, because the Empire is very bad."

Of course the Empire was still around, this future of theirs couldn't be too perfect. "Saving people makes me happy too," he said. "And we want people to know they're never fighting the Empire alone. But I know what's most important is making sure you both are safe." If there was any version of him that wouldn't put his family first, he didn't want to know about it.

Heavy sighs because obviously Papa, they knew that. You said it, like, all the time.

"Master Luke keeps asking you to be on the Council," Cere reported. "But you keep saying no. Cause you keep wanting to protect people and not talking about everything like the Council does."

Arden was just going to look at Cal and grin. Because that did sound like him.

Cal looked flustered, partly because that did sound exactly like him, and partly because this was more proof that there were other Jedi out there and he might be able to find them (without them trying to kill him).

"I can't let your mama think I'm boring and all talk, or I'll put her to sleep," Cal said. "She deserves someone strong, don't you think?"

"Mama awways says she deserves someone who knows how to wuv her and us most of all," Quin pipes up. "Because knowin' how to wuv and how to work for that wuv is the best of aww."

"Wow, future-me sounds very smart," Arden preened.

"Present-you is also very smart," Cal pointed out. "I don't know if I'm a good cook in the future, but I know I'm not right now, so what do you say we all go out and get breakfast so I don't try to make things and ruin them?"

"Oh, I know present-me is very smart, too," Arden said with a grin. "I got you, didn't I?"

She leaned in to give him a soft kiss (much to the giggling amusement of the kids) and then scooped Quin up in her arms. "Luke's?" she suggested. "Pancakes for everybody!"

The kids cheered. "Pancakes!"

No, it wasn't a morning spent kissing and canoodling, as had been originally planned...but it was still a damn good morning by any stretch of the imagination.

Midnight Manor Boarding House, Room 1C, Saturday

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject