YOU Get A Big Banana, and YOU Get A Big Banana, and YOU Get A Big Banana! [closed post]

[summerdude]

"Okay, just another minute," Magnus says.

It's a hot day out, so holding Galahad's hand is a sweaty affair... and Magnus's current use of his alf seidr isn't making matters any more comfortable. The grass is tickling at Magnus's back -- his shirt has ridden up while he lies, spread-eagle, in the middle of the lawn. Galahad is always so smart about his clothes, Magnus bets he's not getting the grass itches at all.

But he can put all that aside. Grass tickles are good tickles, and the heat of the sun is -- to Magnus -- always more refreshing than it is annoying. There's a trickle of sweat at the side of his neck, but even though it's hot out it's not really a temperature extreme, so as usual he feels regular about it.

All his attention is on the plants around them. Feverfew and milkweed, black-eyed susan and queen anne's lace, aster and boneset and flowering spurge and yarrow and tickseed and teasel and wild thyme and forget-me-nots and poppies and and and -- well. He's not sure what else is in the mix. He's been trying to get better at plant identification with Claudius's guidance, but the package he found earlier that morning only said FIELD SEEDS. He's doing his best! Right now, his 'best' is less focused on identification and more focused on growing them to flower, high enough that some of them are providing shade to both him and Galahad, in a very neat outline of the grass they've politely crushed between the two of them.

Eventually, he's done all he can without overtaxing the plants. "There," he tells Galahad. "Summer snow angels, check."

Comments

[summerdude]

"Of course you were," says Magnus, who can't imagine Galahad not being important to everyone he meets. "He sounds... He sounds kind of like my mom. In that way."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tell me about your mom?"

[summerdude]

"She, like, radiated joy. She loved life and being alive and being in the world. She was kind, and easygoing, and down-to-earth, and practical, and was happiest when she was camping on the weekends with me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Percival was happiest outside, too. And kind, and easygoing, and down-to-earth, and practical. He taught Galahad how to survive on long journeys, how to start a fire, catch and hunt small game, how to swim and climb trees.

[summerdude]

"Didn't you say once that Percival taught you how to skip rocks? Mom taught me."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. He taught me--" A faint smile, remembering their quarrel as children. "To play."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs, leaning his head against Galahad's shoulder. "Good! Someone needed to."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Will you show me the picture of your mother again?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, of course." Magnus keeps it on himself at all times, so he rummages through his backpack -- where he puts it for most of the day; he's worried about the chain breaking -- unloading piles and piles of snacks and emergency pull-up diapers in the process. The locket, as always, is in a little box at the very bottom. He passes it over to Galahad. "Here."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad stares at her tiny face, trying to commit it to memory, trying to find a feature that his mind will hold onto, trying to see something of Percival in her.

[summerdude]

"Do you have any drawings of Percival?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"No," quietly. "I didn't try to draw until I came here. I'm forgetting his face."

[summerdude]

"Could you try to remember it by drawing it?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He shakes his head. "I can't draw like that. I have to be able to see."

[summerdude]

Magnus hesitates. "I could heal you and then describe him to you?" he suggests; Galahad did a pretty good job drawing Alex before he ever met her. "Um, only if you're already hurt, though. That's how I figured out what Sunny's parents looked like."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I would like that," he says, after a long pause. He's not sure he'll be able to draw Percival correctly, but it matters more than Magnus will be able to see him, that Galahad won't be alone in remembering.

[summerdude]

"Next time you're hurt, then," says Magnus. "Find me. We'll see Percival."

[onthewillowsthere]

"We could hurt me now."

[summerdude]

Part of Magnus wants to say no, immediate and firm. He doesn't want to hurt anyone -- especially not Galahad -- he just wants to heal people.

"Do you have your sketch stuff with you?" he asks instead.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes." He touches his messenger bag.

[summerdude]

"Is he at the top of your mind?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods. Percival is there, holding his cold hands and blowing on them, rubbing them between his own to warm them, and laughing, always laughing about something.

[summerdude]

"Do you really want to do it now? We can wait until the next time you, like, strain a muscle during training with Hanguang-jun."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You don't have to be the one to hurt me. I'll do it."

[summerdude]

Magnus considers his options seriously for a long moment, then offers, "You wanna become, like, blood brothers?" In his mind, this is a perfect solution: hurt for two good causes, and just the right degree to where he should be able to get a clear image of Percival while healing Galahad.