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]

That last bit rankles with Magnus, but he can't place why so he tries to ignore it. "Is this different-religion stuff, different-country stuff, or different-time stuff?" he wonders, to distract himself.

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's all three." Magnus is obviously not Christian, comes from a country Galahad didn't know existed before he came to the mansion, and a time some eight-hundred years after his own. The laws that govern marriage and its significance are surely different, and Galahad doesn't feel he knows Alex well enough to imagine what might matter to her. He knew about Claudius not just from the context they do share but from all the time he's spent listening to Claudius and saving his most idle thoughts, studying him like scripture. It would be presumptuous to speak on Magnus and Alex.

[summerdude]

"Huh. Okay." Magnus still isn't feeling very appeased on the whole concern-things-might-be-different front, but again, he can't figure out the source of the feelings.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What are you thinking?"

[summerdude]

"I think things maybe are different," Magnus says, slowly, trying to sort through his own thoughts. "Not in a bad way, like how I was worried it might be. But still... different."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Explain," Galahad says, not at all unlike his teacher.

[summerdude]

"I don't know how," Magnus says, still slowly. "I'm sorry, dude, I really do promise to tell you things and not, like, wave them off. This is just -- it's a vibe, not information. It's like..."

He breaks off, really pushing himself to try and understand his own knee-jerk reaction. "Maybe it's because we have such different frames of reference for this kind of thing?" he guesses.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods: this is what he'd meant before, when he'd told Magnus that he didn't know about his and Alex's world and history. "When you know more, will you please tell me?"

[summerdude]

"It means something to you. I want to understand. I don't know if I do, even though you've explained a lot. I feel weird about that. It makes me feel..." He rubs at a thinning spot on his jeans. "I don't know. I like being on the same page."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is silent again. He's silent for a long time, listening to the waves lap against the longship and the newly attendant gulls scream (they remind him of Percival). He thinks about how different the worlds he and Magnus are from are, how differently they were shaped, in spite of the ways they're similar.

Finally he asks, "What does it mean to you to have Sagramore for your father?"

[summerdude]

Magnus lies back, tucking his hands under his head, staring at the sky. His thigh is pressed close to Galahad's, and Galahad's slight torso blocks the brunt of the sun from Magnus's eyes. "It means... I guess it's a way of belonging."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods, and listens.

[summerdude]

"You know how I am about family. When it was just me and my mom I was fine with it just being me and my mom, but then on the streets there was Hearth and Blitz, and when I got to Valhalla, it was Floor 19, and then I got here, and it was you. But also there's, like, you know. It doesn't have to be the way it was." He offers the Galahad-shaped sunblock above him a crooked smile. "I can, like, rely on him like I would my mom instead of just, like, having it be me -- and Alex -- handling everything."

[onthewillowsthere]

Another nod. "You're different now that you have a father. It's not something that I want. Or need. But you do, and now that you have it you are different. Not bad different. I think marriage is like that."

[summerdude]

Magnus takes a long moment to turn this over in his mind. "That's so reasonable," he says, eventually; it might sound like a complaint but Galahad will likely be able to tell that he's relieved.

[onthewillowsthere]

He smiles a little (he's equally relieved to have understood, and it seeps a warmth into him, as summer-bright as Magnus' qi). "Lan Wangji is wearing off on me."

[summerdude]

Magnus tugs Galahad's shirt, trying to get him to lie down next to him. "Gross, stop it."

[onthewillowsthere]

At that, he lets himself drop to the floor of the boat beside Magnus. It's not as hopelessly stiff as it would have been before he started training with Lan Wangji; their focus on qigong is, so, so slowly, adding some grace to his graceless body. He stretches out along Magnus' side.

[summerdude]

"That was sarcasm, by the way," Magnus says, belatedly. "I think it's funny that you're picking up all these Hanguang-jun-isms." He twists his head to look at Galahad, and a little to get the sun out of his eyes. "I'm not jealous anymore. By the way."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you know why not?"

[summerdude]

"I talked to Hanguang-jun about it. He explained some stuff."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad settles himself more comfortably and listens. He's done a lot of talking and a lot of trying to understand and he's ready to be quiet now and just hear what Magnus has to say.

[summerdude]

Magnus doesn't have a lot more to say on the matter, though. He curls up at Galahad's side, the way he did during those two weeks Galahad was helping him sleep inside again. "Let me know if you get hungry, by the way," he says. "My backpack has become a bottomless snack hole for Sunny." He also has an emergency diaper and set of wipes, but he's pretty sure that won't be relevant during this adventure.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What snacks does Sunny like?"

[summerdude]

"There's a lot of cereal. Modern cereals." They did a taste test of them a few months ago, so Galahad will be familiar. "And granola bars and other vaguely healthy crunchy stuff like that. But I have some applesauce and stuff, too. And water."