• Closed • Planning on the porch

[Faith Augustin]

83rd Ymiden, 717

"This paint is stinky," Faith said, wrinkling her nose. The house next door to theirs was now also theirs and was more or less ready for Cyrus and Katie to move into. They had painted it and thrown open all the windows to get rid of the smell of that paint but Faith could smell it, still. "The perils of being a chef, I suppose," she said and wrapped her arm around his waist, nestling in against Padraig's shoulder. Katie had gone next door to make tea, since her and Cyrus' belongings were still boxed up. They'd all been living together for a season now, and Faith's refusal to be within five foot of Padraig in Cyrus' presence had first diminished and then died all together. Especially since coming home after being kidnapped in broad daylight, Faith had more of a tendency to be holding his hand or, as currently, leaning against him.

It had been not yet twenty trials since she had returned home and Faith would be lying if she said that she was fine. So, she didn't say that to Padraig, because he'd know better and she would never, could never, lie to him. It was her go to answer to anyone else, because she really didn't want to dwell on what had happened, but it had shaken them both. Very much so. Faith leaned against him for just a moment and then slipped her hand into his. "Shall we go get some fresh air? Drink our tea on the porch?"

The porch, connecting the two houses was wonderful and they'd knocked down the garden wall meaning that the two houses shared a large garden and had the covered porch and patio as a communal area. It meant that Cyrus and Katie could walk into their kitchen at any time they liked, and the same was true for them. Communal living and privacy combined. Faith had to admit, she approved.

Outside, there was large table with wooden chairs, which Faith had made cushions for and she sat down with a smile. "Cosmo's going to like it, too," glancing at Padraig with a grin, Faith put her hand in his and leaned back, looking at the garden. "I never dared to dream anything like this, you know." Her hand in his squeezed and she breathed in the fresh air, hopeful that it would shift this pervading smell of paint and the associated nausea.

"Do Cyrus and Katie like it?" Faith asked, glancing to where Katie, Cyrus and Luna were making tea in the house. Why it took three of them, she really didn't know, but she smiled as she heard Katie's reply.

"We love it," Katie, it had to be said, had changed since the glitter monster first appeared on their doorstep. First, when Luna arrived and again after the kidnapping. She was quieter, calmer and much more what they needed her to be. "It's perfect for us. It means that we get to be with the three of you," she included Padraig, Faith and Luna, who was walking out next to Cyrus, in her glance. Faith smiled in greeting as the trio came out with a tray of tea and snacks. "But I also get my love bug all to myself sometimes, too." Katie had changed, Faith thought, but not that much.

"I'm glad," Faith was very aware of the careful way that Katie watched her, Luna too. Cyrus it was harder to tell because he seemed to notice nothing, but see all of it. It didn't bother her, because she knew they were doing it out of love and they watched Padraig, too.

"So, little doll,tomorrow," Katie said with a smile and Faith looked up at her. "What's the plan?" Had to be said, Katie was looking more at Padraig when she asked that, knowing full well that Faith was utterly rubbish at such things. Faith, in fairness, didn't disappoint.

"I have a shift at the Order in the morning and the restaurant is open in the evening. It's also glass trial, which is a tradition where we go and leave glass offerings to the Immortals, so I thought I'd go to the temple," Faith wore her usual, serious expression when she answered, "then pop to the market on my way home and get something that you can all prepare easily while I'm working." She smiled at Katie and Katie sighed, then looked at Padraig again.

[Padraig]

It hadn't taken them long to get the house next door set up, and by virtue of a couple of well placed doors, connecting the two homes by virtue of a wide and deep covered porch. I amounted to a breezeway with plenty of space for them all to gather outdoors, would be plenty for added guests, and provided a perfect place outdoors to get out of the sun and enjoy a cool breeze in the warmer seasons. The one coming quickly upon them would be one of those. And this trial, it was the perfect place to escape the smell of wet paint.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Padraig agreed when he and Faith sat down, and he stretched his legs out in front of him. Painting was busy work. But it also allowed him to remain nearby her, a place he hadn't been eager to leave after what had happened all too recently. It would change in time, but not yet. "It's unusual." The porch between the two houses, he meant.

"But it's got a nice appeal from the street. And I get the impression that they do," he said when she asked, did Cyrus and Katie enjoy it. Padraig recognized the signs. His grandfather seemed to like the place quite a lot, though he wasn't really the kind to say so. But then Katie confirmed his suspicions when she joined them.

And then there was Luna, not surprisingly at Cyrus' side. The bond between the pair, young girl and grandfather, had caught him by surprise. But it pleased him too. From the moment they'd connected, the slave had never shown the slightest indication of fear or nervousness. At least not with him.

"The plan?" Padraig asked, his brows raised as if he had no idea what they were talking about. He did of course, but give a little, just an inch, and Katie was likely to take a mile and run with it. As for Faith, did it surprise him that what she had planned was just another ordinary trial? Not at all, and he resisted the urge to grin. So when Katie sighed dramatically and looked his way, he smiled, and played, somewhat, deliberately obtuse. "Oh, I don't know. This and that. The usual." Of course Faith would know better. Katie too and definitely Cyrus. But if he was planning anything specific, he didn't seem inclined to share.

[Faith Augustin]

That the shared porch was unusual was part of what Faith liked about it, to be honest. She loved Scalvoris as a place and the strange mish-mash of houses in Scalvoris Town delighted her. No two buildings were the same and there was just so much to look at. Her hand strayed over to Padraig's, and she smiled contentedly. "We just need time, that's all," her silver eyes were serious as she looked at him, "and we've got all of that in the world, you and me and us." A gentle squeeze of his hand and then she took back to looking around.

She was pleased that Katie and Cyrus liked it and nodded at his words. Katie's response she smiled at and, it had to be said, Faith was equally delighted at Luna and her relationship with Cyrus. The four of them, even Katie, had taken the young woman under their care and protection and Luna seemed to be doing well. She still had a long way to go, Faith knew, but the fleeting smile was seen more regularly, although still rarely. Having thought it likely, Faith now had no doubt that there was a personality in there and it was emerging more and more each trial.

"What about you, Luna?" Faith asked, looking at the young woman with a smile. "Do you like it?" Luna nodded and Faith smiled. "I'm looking forward to all of us sitting out here together, watching the stars." Faith's eyes lit, suddenly, as she thought of something, but she said nothing. Instead, Katie asked what they had planned for the next trial and Faith told her. Katie then did some strange, over-acted dramatic sigh and Padraig pretended to be oblivious. Faith shook her head and glanced at Cyrus and Luna. "Thank goodness for you two," with a grin at the two of them, Faith lifted her tea to her lips and wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Ew," she said and then realised that she was talking about something someone had made for her. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude. I think I just breathed in too many paint fumes." However, as she said that Faith realised that she had felt nauseous with the painting yestertrial, too. But only in the morning, by the afternoon, she'd got used to it. Putting down the cup, she looked at it and a frown crossed her face. Tea. She'd missed tea when they were in Rharne, she hadn't been able to face it the whole time.

"Padraig?" Faith said, the tone of her voice very different than usual. Panic, fear, nerves, excitement, suddenly each one of them. Lots of emotions, all at once. "Does my tea taste strange to you?" No longer concerned with offending anyone, it seemed, she glared at the cup, apparently unable to take her eyes off it.

[Padraig]

Time. Padraig agreed. They had plenty of it. Funny how as a scientist, he understood that time was fixed. Sort of. Relatively speaking, it was until it was proven that it wasn't. And yet it also felt sometimes as if time slowed down and sped up at the same time. At least so far as the human experience was concerned. Sometimes it crawled agonizingly by, other times it raced by too quickly to fully comprehend. Padraig had first met Faith just last trial, or so it seemed at times. But other times it felt as if he'd known her all his life. But she was right anyway. These unsettled feelings in the wake of what had happened. Those too would pass.

When Faith mentioned the stars, Padraig looked up and smiled. Then again he was looking at the beamed ceiling of the porch. "You know if I was to get really ambitious, I could have a roll away section of roof up there, open it up and gaze at the stars directly overhead." And let in just patch of sunlight from overhead during the colder seasons, he guessed. Cyrus meanwhile, had lowered himself into a spare seat on the porch and stretched out his legs in front of him. "It'll do nicely," he said, and left what he meant completely up to interpretation, as was the older man's way.

Padraig hadn't swallowed any of his tea yet, so when Faith seemed to find it lacking, he glanced at her and frowned. Katie made a lot of tea. It was a fairly straightforward thing to make and hard to mess up. Unless maybe the leaves were bad or moldy. It was probably the paint fumes, he figured. He frowned again though. Surely it wasn't just sour tea that caused such a range of emotions to cross Faith's expression? In order to judge accurately, he reached over and tasted the tea from her cup, but then also tasted his own. After just a trill, he declared the stuff passable. "It tastes like tea to me No different than usual," he added. "Are you feeling alright?"

[Faith Augustin]

Faith looked up at the roof of the porch and considered it, before nodding. "I could make that, it would be fairly straightforward. If you want?" She'd be happy to and, as carpentry skills went, it wouldn't be tricky. Far from it, in fact. Her mind was already ticking over on how to do it most effectively as Cyrus sat down, stretched out his legs and looked just like his grandson sitting opposite him. Faith smiled at the older man, "I'm glad. We're glad." Really, at the end of the trial, they just wanted everyone to be happy and that was that.

Katie beamed and took Cyrus' hand, moving her own chair so that it was touching his. "We're delighted, little doll. This is just the perfect place for us to build our own little love hutch, isn't it monkey-chops?" Faith couldn't help but smile at Katie's insistence on the names. Always with the names. Still, now that it was all it was, they were much more manageable. Good job, really, she wasn't stopping them any time soon. "And it means that the five of us are all together, but each with our own space. Like my Cy says, it'll do nicely."When Faith exclaimed an 'ew' over her tea, though, Katie looked rather surprised. She'd sipped her own and it was fine.

Padraig tasted Faith's tea and declared it tea like and then asked her if she was feeling alright. "No," she said, her voice distracted as she did some calculations in her head. Her gaze followed the cup of tea as he sipped it, her expression somewhat wide eyed. "I feel sick. I have done all morning. I did yestertrial too."

Her hand reached for Padraig's and she grabbed it, rather like she had the trial she had been given her freedom and he had wrapped a blanket around her. It was the same movement, with much the same emotion behind it. "And I can't drink tea, it tastes funny." That had been true during the pregnancy created by Aelig, Faith breathed in and out slightly, "And I'm late. My cycle, it's.. should have been just after I got home. I didn't think about it."

Should either of them notice (Faith certainly didn't), Katie had put down her own tea and was watching their exchange wide eyed. She didn't say a thing, simply watched but the smile of delight on her face could not be hidden and she squeezed Cyrus' hand.

Faith's concentration was entirely and completely on Padraig. "I have morning sickness," she said, very calmly and patiently. Then, just in case he didn't understand, although really because she didn't, she added, "Because I'm pregnant."

[Padraig]

"It shouldn't be difficult at all, should it?" Padraig agreed as he glanced towards the beamed porch ceiling once more. It didn't need to be a terribly large opening, and might be useful for more than just gazing at the stars. It could be opened up on a warm, still trial in order to increase airflow on the porch, or on cold sunny ones to create a patch of extra warmth to sit in.

But no, she wasn't feeling alright. And since he was ignorant to the cause of of that, a deep and concerned frown settled onto Padraig's face. And she'd been feeling poorly for two trials. It was no wonder he hadn't noticed. It wasn't that Faith kept anything from him, they told each other all. But in other ways, she was pretty adept at powering through whatever it was she was feeling. That was inevitable, considering where she'd come from and what she'd been through. Always for others. "Why didn't you say anything?" Meanwhile, Cyrus appeared to be oblivious to it all. But chances were, the older man wasn't.

But then Padraig realized, even before she said it, and his expression changed. Anticipation, concern and enthusiasm all wrapped up in one. "Morning sickness. Are you sure?" he asked and set down his tea. And he smiled. Immortals that was fast, it hadn't been so long ago that they'd spoken about it. But he couldn't have been happier. "Of course she's sure," Cyrus drawled, deadpan serious...or so he appeared to be. "And there sits the dunderhead of a father to be that couldn't see what was right under his nose."

Reminded of his upbringing, Padraig narrowed his eyes and turned them on Cyrus. "You didn't know. You're bluffing," he maintained, and for the first time that morning, a grin tugged at the edges of his grandfather's mouth, though what he said next was just as dry and blunt. "Prove it."

[Faith Augustin]

"I did," Faith replied, looking at him in some surprise. Say something, that was. "I told you the paint was stinky. That was... " really not enough information for him to work out that it was enough to make her feel sick, Faith realised as she said it. "I'm sorry," her hand squeezed his as she recognised that she was reverting to expecting him to be telepathic in some way or another. It simply was not something that she had ever done, to complain for no reason. If she wanted him to do something, these trials at least she'd ask him to and tell him why. But the thought of just saying 'I feel sick' was most odd to her. Why would she worry him or anyone else with something so trivial?

However, those thoughts went out of her head as she stopped thinking about what she was feeling and focused on why she was feeling it. Was she sure? Faith nodded, a slight frown on her face. "I stopped taking the herbs on the twentieth. Sixty three trials ago, just over two cycles for me. But the second one didn't happen." Facts. Numbers, dates, figures. These were things that she could handle right in this moment, so she was clear and precise. But she didn't let go of his hand and she kept her eyes on him.

Cyrus' words, though, caused her to pull her gaze away. Looking between the two of them, Faith didn't know quite what to say in response to their exchange. Katie, though, it seemed did. "Cyrus Augustin, you behave yourself." Faith's eyes widened slightly, was Katie telling Cyrus off? Thus far, all they had seen was an adoring glitterbug, but it seemed that there was more to her, too. Katie dug her elbow into Cyrus' ribs. "He had no idea, Padraig, he just enjoys reminding you that you get your sense of humour from him." She looked at the two of them and shook her head. "Whereas I am going to enjoy reminding him that I kept quiet and he interrupted this moment. Katie's not always the one that tromps in. Congratulations, you two. We're so happy for you." Katie looked at Cyrus with adoration and a healthy amount of challenge. "And don't call him names, Faith doesn't like it."

Faith watched, listened and didn't speak during that, but her hand squeezed Padraig's. "Father to be," she said, her voice just above a whisper and one notch below hysteria. "I mean, I could just be late and sick and the tea, I mean, it's fine. Look." Lifting the cup she took a deep gulp and then pulled a face much like she had when she'd tasted wine. "It's not fine," she said and breathed in then exhaled again.

As the realization hit her, as she considered it again, Faith did what she would always do. "Well, we need to... if I'm, now, then the baby will come..." Faith paused to count, "Cylus. The beginning of Cylus." That was more than a little ironic, she considered. That had been when Rose was born. "We'll be parents, then." Faith held on to his hand and looked at the smile on his face. Her thoughts were fluttering everywhere and she realised something. "I'm going to be. Well, when we get married my center of gravity will have shifted out. Oh, this whole wedding is already all so..." scripts and colour schemes and all sorts, "I think I'm supposed to glide gracefully places, not waddle." She looked up at him and smiled; she was holding on to facts and what she knew, he'd know that she was sure. "None of the books tell me what I'm supposed to do if the bride is pregnant."

[Padraig]

She'd told him before? In spite of the slow realization of what was truly causing Faith's troubles, Padraig grinned in spite of himself. "You didn't," he argued. Or at least not in so many words, she hadn't. Ordinarily he wasn't one to let nerves get the better of him. It just wasn't his nature. But in this instance, considering all that they'd been through together and also the promise of what they'd been hoping for, a small case of nerves swept through his system all the same.

But when she laid out the timing and the numbers for him, Padraig realized, how could she not be pregnant by now? There was no reason to believe either of them was infertile, and besides that, as a general rule they tended to remain busy. Of course she was sure. And then he grinned again, glancing Cyrus' and Katie's way when the older woman scolded his grandfather for his remarks. "It's alright Katie," he told her. And truly, it was. There was a time, during most of his arcs growing up, when Padraig would have taken the tone and the remarks to be criticism. Now though? He recognized it for what it was. It was his grandfather's way. His own brand of humor. "It reminds me of old times."

And in response, Cyrus snorted as if he had no idea what Padraig was talking about. Turning back to Faith then, Padraig watched curiously as she thought to deny it, then as good as gagged on her next swallow of tea. Laughing, he shook his head. "Father to be, mother to be...I don't think this little one is going to be denied. Or ignored either," depending on how long this feeling ill business lingered. "And yes, you'll be a little rounder at the wedding. But you know," he told her. "It's our wedding. Not anyone else's. Done as we want it and we've always done things in an unconventional way, even when we weren't trying." Why should this be any different, after all? So far as he was concerned? Toss out all the books and they'd write their own.

[Faith Augustin]

Katie smiled at Padraig when he told her it was alright and she beamed when he told her why it was. "Well, it sounds like the old times he's told me about," she leaned across and kissed Cyrus' cheek, back to adoring, "he talked so much about you before we came here, I felt like I already knew you. The serious little lad who worried him sick when you got lost in the woods at just five arcs, your sharp mind and how determined he was that you'd get where you wanted, oh, all the stories. He didn't warn me that you have the same sense of humour as him though, did you my love-bug?"

Faith smiled at Cyrus as he snorted, a look of genuine affection on her face. When Padraig laughed at her, though, for trying the tea again, Faith spoke to Cyrus specifically. "If you ever feel inclined to trade stories, I'd be game," she held on to Padraig's hand as she spoke. "I could tell you all about the cat-bathing incident, for example. Or the physics of rowing a boat." She was teasing and would not, ever, embarrass Padraig by sharing anything he would not want shared or share himself, but still. It was banter, the way that families were and she was slowly growing used to it.

It felt good and her hand in his tightened.

Looking back to him, Faith nodded. "I'm pregnant," briefly unable to breathe again, she concentrated on the action of doing that, in through her nose and out, slowly, through her mouth. But then she looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Rounder? I'll be rounder? As in, more round? Like a ball? A sphere? What a lovely picture," she bit and then grinned, humour and nerves tinged together but humour winning out. "Snippy, too. It's definitely not the tea."

They'd never done anything traditionally, he was right and Faith looked at him with an earnest look. "Normally, we do things like fall in love and go on dates and be romantic in an untraditional manner. I do declare, we're even doing pregnant and married in a topsy turvy fashion. But no one else is impacted by that. This? People will be watching this." There was a very real possibility that it would all just go disastrously wrong, after all.There might even be casualties, the way their luck went.

"Little doll," Katie said, quietly. "Forget the books, the planning, forget everyone else. If it was just the five of us, what would your ideal be?"

Faith looked a little surprised at that question although she didn't need to think about it because she already had. "Faldrass. When we first came here, we went there and it was amazing. On a cliff there, watching the snow fall and feeling our bare feet tickle on the warm sand of the beach." She shrugged and then nudged Padraig in the ribs before adding, somewhat grumpily. "If we hire a boat to get there, I'd be so round that you could use me as flotation device in case of emergency." She grinned at him, just so that he was sure she didn't mean it.

"But it's not what the resort offer, and what they offer is nice, people would like it. But costs a lot and so I thought the temple would be the best compromise. Then, Cally's is the most convenient option, but people keep telling me I shouldn't cater." Which led to all sorts of bother. It was her restaurant, so the thought of people coming in and cooking there just didn't sit well with her. Catering herself simply wouldn't occur to her if they weren't there. "What about you? What would your ideal be?" Faith's silver gaze turned to Padraig and Katie's did too, though the older woman's smile was more simply encouraging, whereas Faith was entirely perplexed.

[Padraig]

Cyrus had talked about him to Katie? Stories about his childhood? Padraig smiled curiously in light of the revelation. As a boy, though he knew different now, he'd viewed his grandfather as a larger than life figure. Tall and imposing, a voice that...when he was in trouble, sounded much to his ears like a harbinger of impending doom. Glancing Cyrus' way he still found the older man to be impossible to read, inscrutable in every way. Now though, Padraig was beginning to see through that facade, and also recognizing just how much his grandfather had sacrificed for him, and how deeply his daughter, Padraig's mother, must have disappointed him.

"A scientist, an educated man of letters, and you don't know better than to bathe a cat?" Cyrus drawled blandly when Faith mentioned the incident, and Padraig winced. "It wasn't a cat," he argued. "It was a minion of doom and destruction simply posing as one." As for Faith being rounder by the time that they married, he smiled and took her hand. "If it's possible, you'll be all the more beautiful." And if people were watching, it would be all the more evidence of just how much they loved each other.

"But who cares what the resort offers, or doesn't?" Padraig argued. "And this shouldn't be about what other people would like or what they think, and it's not about convenience." This was about them, and what they wanted, he maintained. It was their wedding, their trial. Not a party that they were putting on for others. "What I want...my ideal," Padraig told her, "is to have the wedding you're dreaming of when you've put away the lists and the expectations of others." That was the wedding he wanted, and whether it meant a hundred guests or just her and him alone on the edge of a cliff, or on the sand with nobody but those strange, happy sea creatures they'd watched that trial, then Padraig wanted nothing more than for her to have it.