Mordred and Faolan
Mordred walked down the hall, Faolan pattering along behind him. He was still skittish of everyone except Mordred and sometimes Vortigern. Mordred turned around and caught him up under the arms, throwing him into the air.
Faolan shrieked in excitement. "Again!"
Mordred did so, smiling for the first time in a long time as he listened to Faolan laugh. "Whelp." He turned Faolan upside down and started walking.
"Dadada!" Faolan cooed, before shifting into cat and scrabbling up Mordred's arm.
"Brat," he told the kitten fondly. Faolan shifted back into human and giggled, planting a loud kiss on Mordred's cheek. "Hey Bobby..." Mordred nodded at the other mutant. "Did you get your chores for the week? You're on cleaning the Blackbird."
Bobby and Gwen
Bobby groaned. "Hey Mordred, Faolan. Yeah, I saw that actually. Great."
"Miss me?" Gwen asked as she walked through the door and saw Bobby. And Mordred. With a small child. Not her concern.
Gwen walked past Mordred and kissed Bobby's forehead. "Bought ya a present, love." She pulled a small snow globe out of her pocket and handed it to Bobby. "Stole it when I was in London."
Bobby looked at it and hugged her. "Thanks."
"Get my letters?"
"Yeah, good time, hey?"
"Yeah, very. France was nice too."
Bobby looked at Gwen, then at Mordred. Then at Gwen. Then at Mordred. "So... I should get started on the Blackbird."
"Hey, I can give you a hand with that," Gwen said.
"Actually, I should go get a start by myself, but I should also go talk to Storm about my history work, and then I will call for you. Stay here for now. Relax."
Bobby saluted and ran out of the room.
Gwen sat down. "That was weird," she said to herself, picking up the snow globe and shaking it.
Mordred and Faolan
Mordred felt his heart tear apart into a million pieces again. "C'mon, mate," he said to Faolan quietly and turned to leave. If she couldn't even bear to acknowledge his existence... Faolan started howling. "Shh now, what's wrong, whelp?" Mordred switched into parental mode. Faolan just cried harder, tears spilling from his mismatched eyes.
"MAMAMAMAMA!"
"I know, c'mon, mate, shh now." Mordred swayed slightly, Faolan in his arms.
"I want my mama!" Mordred gritted his teeth as Faolan broadcast empathic waves of distress. "She hurts! You hurt! Bad bad lady!"
"Faolan, what are you going on about?"
"She makes you hurt. Here." Faolan placed an outspread hand on Mordred's chest. He then turned his head and hissed at Gwen. "Bad lady."
"She's not, ok?" Mordred said firmly. Faolan started to pout. "And don't even try that look." Faloan pouted harder.
Gwen
Gwen got up and looked out the window. It had been a mistake coming back here, even to see Bobby. She knew she'd run into Mordred, and that was something was hadn't been ready for.
She loved him still.
And it hurt.
Mordred and Faolan
"Down," Faolan said firmly. "Now." Mordred raised his eyebrows, but bent down enough that Faolan could reach the floor with his feet.
"Gwen..." Mordred said softly, then shook his head. She wouldn't want to talk to him, and looking at her was tearing him into pieces. Faolan walked determindly over to Gwen, and Mordred's eyes widened in a type of alarm. What the hell could he tell Gwen about his son?
"Sorry for calling you a bad lady," Faolan said to Gwen.
"Great, whelp, now let's get going. Good boy for saying sorry for saying mean things." Mordred was very close to panicking.
Gwen
Gwen smiled down at him. "That's ok."
She returned her attention to out the window, trying to look anywhere but at Mordred.
If she looked at him, she'd cry.
"I still love you," she murmured in her mind.
Mordred and Faolan
Faolan cocked his head, then opened his mouth. "I still love you," he said in an excellent mimicry of Gwen's voice.
Mordred gaped, then walked over to scoop his son up.
"When I look at you, I think I could cry," Faolan continued in Gwen's voice.
"What did I tell you about snooping in people's minds?" Mordred scolded as he picked him up.
That it's rude and only bad 'pathers do it but to never ever do it on purpose. But she's thinking and feeling awful loud. Faolan thought gravely.
Doesn't matter. You don't embarass people like that. Mordred looked at Gwen. "Sorry 'bout... that." Faolan squirmed. "Would you stop it?" Mordred said sternly. Faolan sniffed back tears.
Gwen
"No, it's ok."
Gwen didn't turn to look at him, then decided to.
Which was a mistake.
Here came the tears.
"Mordred... I..." She took a step in his direction. "It's good to see you. You look better." She opted to play it safe and stick to trivial subjects.
Mordred and Faolan
"Yeah..." Mordred shuffled his feet slightly. But at least she was talking to him. It was an improvement. "This is Faolan. Faolan, Gwen."
"Nice to meet you," Faolan said gravely in his piping voice.
"How was your job?" Mordred shifted Faolan onto his hip, which was more comfortable for the both of them. The little boy sighed, then rested his head against Mordred's chest, mismatched eyes watching Gwen solemnly.
Gwen
"Aww, nice to meet you," Gwen said to Faolan, then turned to Mordred again.
"Good, good. I did a few in London, and one in France. Was good, you know, almost like a holiday."
Gwen sighed.
"This is stupid, we're so awkward. I hate that. Look... if you can forgive me for being an idiot, I can forgive you."
Mordred
"Never even needed to ask," Mordred told her quietly. Faolan decided his work was done and put his hands up as he did the hip shimmy toddlers had developed to make the adult they were carrying drop them. When that didn't work, he shifted, then padded away on four velvet feet. He looked an awful lot like Nyx...just younger. "Yeah...um. Faolan, go find Uncle Vortigern, ok?" He turned back to Gwen. "He's mine. Apparently. Nyx turned up...she looked awful. She had blood everywhere." His eyes begged her to understand. "Apparently, Glory made her first moves. Bastet's dead...and Nyx is running from Glory. Obviously, she couldn't take the kittens with her so..." Mordred shrugged helplessly.
Gwen
Gwen nodded.
"Well..." she trailed off, not knowing where she was going to go with that statement.
Gwen took another step closer to Mordred and before she knew what she was planning to do, she kissed him.
Mordred
Mordred couldn't believe that she had kissed him. But he wasn't going to push this. He wasn't. But oh god, it had been so long. He hesitantly placed his hands on her hips as he kissed her back, feeling like he'd come home.
Gwen
Gwen pulled away after a few seconds.
"Uh, sorry. That was probably... too soon. Or something. Um."
Gwen looked away, the kiss still lingering on her lips. She gently disentangled herself from him and sat down on the couch, gesturing for him to sit down too.
Mordred
Mordred sat down where she had indicated, hands in his lap to stop himself from touching her. "I'm willing to wait for you forever. As longas it takes. I don't care. Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. I love you too much to let you go." He put a hand to his forehead, feeling the tears building up behind his eyes. "I would do *anything* to have you back."
Gwen
"Mordred... I..."
Gwen bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes.
"I... I love you too. You don't have to do anything to get me back... if you still want me, I'm here."
Mordred
"You're the only one I've ever wanted since I first saw you." Mordred said. "I love you, and only you. It was only ever you."
Gwen
Gwen nodded.
"Look... let's just... I love you too. But I don't know that we can just jump back into it, like nothing happened. I know it wasn't your fault, but I'm still not sure what I really feel about this whole thing. All I know is that I love you and it hurts not being with you, but I know it's incredibly naive to believe things can be as they were."
She sighed.
"And I'm babbling."
Mordred
"I said I was willing to wait," Mordred said quietly. "I kow things can't be as they were...neither of us can just wave the wand that makes everything alright again. Magic doesn't work like that. Can we just take it slowly?"
Gewn
"Yeah."
Gwen looked away.
"I'll head back to LA later tonight. And I'll stay there for awhile, but... but if you wanted... you could visit."
Mordred and Faolan
Mordred smiled at her. "That would be bloody fantastic." Faolan skittered in, wolf shaped this time, a swearing Spike bare inches behind him.
"Little brat!"
Faolan leapt into Mordred's lap, and then gave Spike a stare of superiority. Nah nah ni nah.
Mordred's mouth twitched. "What did he do?"
"He bit a hole in me flaming duster!" Spike growled, then saw Gwen. "'Lo, sparks. How's life treating you?"
Faolan yawned, then scratched his ear furiously with a hind paw.
Gwen
"Hey Spike," Gwen greeted.
She shifted to get comfortable in her seat.
"I could steal ya another duster, if ya want, Spike."
Mordred
"Sounds like England. Always a lot of rain. Good place for vampires," Spike said almost wistfully. Mordred smiled, then leant his head back against the couch back.
"Can you just get me my book from that table?"
"Sure, mate." Spike got the book and gave it to Mordred, his son slumbering on his lap. "You've got it bad."
"And like you don't." They shared a grin. "Now, sod off. Whelp's got more of a chance staying asleep if it's quiet."
"And I'll see about getting my duster fixed." Spike left and Mordred settled to reading.