For Mordred - Tea at the house

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain leads the way, stepping only on the top step of the front stoop - the other two get leapt over - and swinging into the house with even more energy than usual.

He's worried. It won't do to act it.

Comments

[illgotten]

Mordred follows more quietly, pausing to rest a hand on the doorframe before passing through.

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain's got the fire stoked and the kettle on far more quickly than ought to be possible.

He pulls out the chairs at the kitchen table. "Have a seat?" he says, "It'll be a minute."

[illgotten]

He complies in silence.

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain sits down across from him.

"Well," he says. And then stops, considering.

"This doesn't look familar, does it?" he finally asks.

[illgotten]

Mordred draws in a long breath; lets it out shakily. "No."

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain nods. "I think maybe I don't remember some of the things you do."

He pauses, then smiles, a little wryly. "So we're even."

[illgotten]

His hands move restlessly on the tabletop. "What things?" Still quiet, wary.

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain looks at him solemnly. "I don't know. But you look like you saw something awful, and I don't remember much at all beyond a few months after I married Ragnelle."

[illgotten]

Mordred meets his eyes, frowning slightly, as though he's trying to gauge the truth of this. At last he looks away, and rests his head against his folded hands. "I don't understand. I don't."

[girdleforakiss]

"I don't think any of us do."

Gawain pauses and then says, as the kettle whistles and he stands up to get it, "Except maybe Clar, and I think the explanation might be more trouble than it's worth."

[illgotten]

"I--" He looks up again, but no words come. There's too much, too bitter to put into simple words; and here is Gawain, who has never been able to lie, making tea as though he truly remembers nothing--

--Gawain, who would not listen even when he knew the truth as well as Mordred does--

He watches, silent.

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain brings the kettle back, pours it over tea, fetches the remaining muffins from the morning - they're Clar's, and very plain.

He's not going to say anything until Mordred does. He doesn't know what to say.

[illgotten]

At last he says, a little thinly, "Tell me, then. What I don't know."

[girdleforakiss]

Gawain takes a deep breath. "We've been living here, putting the house back together. You built the fence. Clar's living here too. Niko's moving in - he's your boyfriend. We have to find room for Gaheris somewhere too. There's a garden - that's half ours and half Clar's. And Clar's been turning people into hedgehogs again and -"

"...This isn't very helpful, is it?"

[illgotten]

"I don't know." He's quiet for a minute, absorbing it. "How long...?"

[girdleforakiss]

"Nearly a year."