so very dapper

[temporal_affairs]

The Joker is awfully domestic, in his way. He makes pretty clothes. Nathan's perfectly happy to be a clothes horse for his sartorially-inclined mate. Some of the clothes are distinctly feminine, and Nathan does not wear those, although the Joker could probably talk him into a kilt, even if that's not a Manx thing but only their neighbors.

Comments

[temporal_affairs]

"Wug," says Kerron.

[manofmyword]

"Snugglebug," he says, kissing the baby again.

[temporal_affairs]

"Uggawug."

"Maybe he's run through all the phonemes he's heard so far and now he's trying his hand at imitation," speculates Nathan.

But the next thing Kerron says is "Ludigamifrax!", which sounds nothing like anything that has been said recently.

[manofmyword]

The Joker giggles.

[temporal_affairs]

Time goes on. The capital moves to Russia, and this time teleportation is involved instead of the historical piling onto airplanes. Kerron gets bigger, noticeably, daily. Various babysitters babysit, and the Joker and Nathan acquire a reputation as insatiable new-mates, one of whom will happily solve any problems that present themselves with magic much more casually than the Empress will. Nathan's newly mated leave ends, and he is obliged to report to work as needed, though as promised Bella does restrict her questions to batches when Kerron and the Joker are both asleep whenever she can.

Kerron manages to go without meeting Addy until he is two weeks old, walking and uttering simple sentences.

The instant he sees her, he runs up to her and hugs her leg, beaming up at her.

"Oh, wow," exclaims Addy. "Aren't you a tasty little combo platter?"

"...Excuse me?" says Nathan.

[manofmyword]

The Joker raises his eyebrows.

[temporal_affairs]

"He's a twofer! He's an ingot and a witch!" cries Addy, picking up a giggling Kerron.

[manofmyword]

He relaxes, smiling.

[temporal_affairs]

"Oh, I wasn't gonna eat him, he's a half-vampire, he wouldn't even be tasty," scoffs Addy. "I'm tasting his magic. And he knew it! Got two, closely related powers. The ingot bit is sensing - goals, wants, intents, that sort of thing. Witch bit sees how he, personally, fits into them. Very tidy package. He knows what I like and he knows he can help so he came straight up to me! Aren't you a helpful little cutie!" She boops Kerron's nose.

"I'm helpful!" Kerron beams.

[manofmyword]

"He is a helpful little cutie," the Joker agrees, grinning. "Well. Ain't that special."

[temporal_affairs]

"Completely unprecedented," pronounces Addy.

"What's my magic taste like?" Kerron asks winningly.

"Pineapple and coconut," she tells him. "The pineapple is the ingot part."

"Mummy can I try those tastes?" Kerron asks, looking away from Addy and at the Joker.

[manofmyword]

"Sure," he says, and snaps his fingers, and there is a glass of thick, pale yellow juice in his other hand. "Or did you mean separately?" And he steps up and does the pulling-a-quarter-out-of-your-ear trick, except that instead of any kind of coin, he extracts from thin air a divided plastic bowl with slices of pineapple in one half and chunks of coconut in the other.

[temporal_affairs]

Kerron giggles madly, and holds his hands out for both dishes.

"God but do I ever love you," Nathan tells his mate.

[manofmyword]

The Joker hands over the solids first, flashing a smile over his shoulder at Nathan.

[temporal_affairs]

Kerron tries some of the pineapple, and then some of the coconut, and then goes on alternating until it's all gone, and then he grabs the glass and drinks it down.

"I'm tasty," he announces. "Not as good as bubbly though."

[manofmyword]

The Joker disappears the containers and leans over Kerron to kiss his forehead.

"Y'know," he says musingly, "I wonder if that stuff tastes so great in comparison because it's that much better, or 'cause being a half-vampire makes other stuff that much worse. Does anybody know?"

[temporal_affairs]

Addy says, "It's hard to compare directly across memories, but I think it's a combination of the two, mostly the second."

[manofmyword]

"Think I should fix it?" he asks, glancing between Nathan and Addy and Kerron.

[temporal_affairs]

"Fix it so food tastes as nice as blood or bubbly or whatever to Kerron?" Nathan asks.

[manofmyword]

"Mmhmm. Whaddya say, munchkin?"

[temporal_affairs]

Munchkin says "Yay!"

[manofmyword]

Laughing, he snaps his fingers.

And pulls a large, ripe strawberry out of thin air next to munchkin's ear, and offers it to him.

[temporal_affairs]

Kerron bites the strawberry right where it is, not even taking it.

Then he beams and seizes it and eats the rest, leaves and all.

"Nicely done," laughs Nathan.

[manofmyword]

The Joker giggles.

[temporal_affairs]

"I wanna have weekly check-ins with Combo Platter here," says Addy. "See how he's developing, make suggestions. This is a critical period, with him so little."

Nathan looks at the Joker.