(Almost) Everything Is Comin' Up Chase [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus, triumphant, has finally managed to make some old bamboo sprout. With Drosera fed recently enough that she's not complaining of hunger and resting in her new favorite perch (lounging on his shoulder tucked right against his neck, her beak tangled in hair that is once again getting long), he sneaks it into the Mansion, hides it in a large gift-bag a closet gives him, and hangs it on Claudius and Galahad's doorknob with a quickly-jotted note that reads Claudius, What next? - MAGNUS CHASE.

Then, since he's already inside, he figures, why not wander around until he finds someone to talk to?

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[summerdude]

"Oh," Magnus demurs. "I probably smell like Dro. Um, are you guys okay with me petting you anyway?"

[lightbearinglord]

Xiaoxue lifts his head just the slightest bit, still notably on guard with his ears forward. Let us smell you first?

[summerdude]

So Magnus reaches a hand forward, careful and slow, keeping his other hand soft on Dro's back, stroking the fluff that Galahad has assured him will one day look more like feathers.

[lightbearinglord]

Danding is the first to begin sniffing Magnus' hand, but Xiaoxue joins him a moment later, noses and whiskers quite busy with the investigation. Lan Wangji lifts his hands to let them shuffle forward, and watches as their ears slowly settle into less cautious positions back against their heads.

"You may touch them," he advises after a protracted moment, and neither rabbit protests.

[summerdude]

So Magnus runs careful fingers over the tops of first Danding's head, then Xiaoxue's. "They're so soft," he marvels.

Drosera squirms in his lap. baby soft!!!

"Yes, you too," Magnus allows, scratching the itchy spot where her feathers meet her fur.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji observes this with his own feeling of softness tucked away quietly, because he still paying very close attention to everyone present at this gathering. "They are soft," he agrees, though, and then he pets Danding's cheek with two fingers to show that they like to be stroked there particularly.

[summerdude]

Magnus glances up at Lan Wangji, then mirrors the motion with Xiaoxue.

[lightbearinglord]

Friend, Xiaoxue opines, leaning his small face into the touch, and Danding agrees, although he's still snuffling at Lan Wangji's fingers himself. Rabbits aren't the most mentally complex creatures in the world, but they are terribly sweet.

[summerdude]

"Friend?" Magnus grins, stroking carefully. "Even though I have a tiny griffin daughter?"

mama play???

[lightbearinglord]

"They like anyone who is gentle with them." Lan Wangji pauses, considering. "Can you feed them in front of Drosera? They also like those who feed them."

[summerdude]

Magnus hesitates. "Drosera?" he asks. "Are you okay with your bunny-brothers eating in front of you? I'll give you meat as soon as we get home. They don't eat stuff you'll like."

hungry baby try?? mama feed???

Magnus looks up at Lan Wangji. "Her Royal Fluffiness would like to try rabbit lettuce, or whatever."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods, then. He doubts Drosera will like what he has to offer, but that is naturally her conclusion to make. He opens his qiankun pouch, then pulls out a smaller pouch from which he produces a small handful of mustard greens. He offers a leaf to Drosera, frankly curious to see if she will eat it at all, and then the remainder to Magnus for rabbit-feeding purposes.

[summerdude]

As Magnus releases his hold on Drosera to offer one leaf each to the rabbits, Dro gives the leaf Lan Wangji is proffering a suspicious bite.

bad food!!! bad!!!!!! she says, but she yanks the leaf out of Lan Wangji's hand anyway, and drags it off of Magnus's lap before he can stop her. Off to the side, she sets about trying to murder it to death, rolling on her back with it clutched in her talons, kicking at the stem with her back paws, tearing off chunks with her torso. She's doing a little chirruping, grunting growl as she attacks it. It's the cutest thing Magnus has ever seen, actually, but he angles himself so that the rabbits can't really see it just in case.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji also finds himself rather charmed by Drosera's performance, but he is grateful that Magnus is shielding Xiaoxue and Danding from viewing it. Meanwhile, the rabbits in question are busily eating their leaves from Magnus, very clearly becoming more relaxed and content in the process. Lan Wangji meets Magnus' eye with a look that borders on a smile.

[summerdude]

"Look at them!!!" Magnus whispers, utterly charmed. "They're gonna be best friends."

[lightbearinglord]

Of that, Lan Wangji is not so certain, but he has no interest in telling Magnus that he is wrong. "They will require time," he repeats, "but they are doing well." Xiaoxue has dropped a piece of mustard green in Lan Wangji's lap; he plucks it and feeds it to him.

[summerdude]

"Well, obviously," Magnus says, not looking away from all the babies. "Rome wasn't built in a day, or whatever."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji tucks away the idiom for future usage, glad that he stumbled accidentally upon a history of the Roman Empire in the mansion library some weeks ago. The rabbits are most certainly still slightly unsettled, their attention riled, because they aren't settling calmly into Lan Wangji's lap the way they usually might after being fed, but they're less rattled by Drosera's presence, at the least. He gives Danding a congratulatory pet on the head for having been quite courageous today. "Galahad drew these two and presented me with the drawing at your birthday celebration." He doesn't actually say and I was very touched, but he intends the sentiment of it in his ensuing pause.

[summerdude]

Magnus picks up Lan Wangji's meaning immediately, of course; he's made a study of his quiet guys and the meanings of their silences. "He's great that way, huh."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji realizes now that he is uncertain whether Magnus knows anything at all about the quietly tumultuous history between himself and Galahad. If not, there is no reason to bring it up, but it does color the relief he feels as he says, firmly, "He is."

[summerdude]

Magnus, as always, knows absolutely nothing about the social histories of his friends or fathers. He can sense that Lan Wangji is having an emotion, though, and gives him a quizzical look before deciding that it probably has to do with the way the little bunny noses are twitching and Drosera is starting to peer curiously at them again now that her leaf is in shreds around her.

[lightbearinglord]

Too little of this story is his own to tell, so Lan Wangji settles for saying, "I once believed Galahad would prefer never to see me again." It's rare that it comes as a relief to have been wrong, but this is an unusual circumstance. He looks down, fond at the brave wariness of his rabbits.

[summerdude]

"Whoa, what? Really?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." He tears off and offers another small piece of mustard green to Danding, who takes it eagerly. It can't go amiss to teach the rabbits to associate Drosera's presence with food.

[summerdude]

"Why?" He reaches to scratch Drosera's belly, and laughs as she kicks her hind paws against his arm. When he pulls his hand free, he rescues some shreds of the leaf she destroyed and passes them to the rabbits, too.