(no subject)

[cloakand_danger]

[there is the sound of papers shuffling occasionally, and clacking sounds like Yuan is typing on a keyboard. Suddenly, the work noises are interrupted by a little voice.]

Daddy?

Yes, Kieran?

...Where do babies come from?

[The typing noises stop for a long moment.]

...I think you should ask your mother that question. She used to be a teacher, so I'm sure she'd be better at explaining that to you than I would.

'kay.

[Raine, Yuan is not even a little bit sorry.]

Comments

[ruin_mania]

[There's a slight huff over the journal.]

[Yuan]

That's hardly fair. We don't, in fact, know where these children come from.

[/Yuan]

Of course, Kieran. Are you in your father's room?

[cloakand_danger]

Uh-huh!

[Raine]

Maybe we can discuss it with him, then.

[/Raine]

[ruin_mania]

I'll be right over then.

[After she stops to grab some illustrated books that are, in her estimation, neither overly pandering nor insultingly childish. Childish is fine - he is, after all, a child - but not insultingly so.

After a few minutes there's a knock.]

[cloakand_danger]

I get it!

[Kieran is proud of being big enough to reach the doorknob and strong enough to turn it, so he's the one who opens the door to let Raine in, with Yuan watching from the chair at his desk to make sure it really is Raine.]

Hi, Mommy!

[ruin_mania]

[She picks him up in a hug. He's bigger, certainly, but not so big she can't pick him up, at least for a little while.]

I brought some books. Let's look at them.

[She brings him over to some place a little more comfortable to sit and sets him down.]

Now the first thing you must understand is that you are special. You, and every other child in this castle, didn't come to us in the normal way. Now which would you like to hear about first?

[cloakand_danger]

[Kieran nods solemnly, and thinks.]

I wanna hear 'bout me first.

[Yuan goes back to typing, but seems to be keeping an eye on the conversation in case his input is needed.]

[ruin_mania]

[Of course he does. Raine smiles at Kieran.]

Well, the castle brings in people from every different world, you know. It's very powerful. But one day it decided we were lonely, since we couldn't have children here in the normal manner. So it took a little bit of myself, and a little bit of your father, and it combined them to form you.

You're very special to both of us, you know.

[cloakand_danger]

Uh-huh! [Kieran beams at being called special.] ...Then how's the normal way?

[ruin_mania]

[She opens one of the books to a picture of a pregnant woman.]

It's the same idea, you see, where a bit of the mother and a bit of the father combine to make a child, but he or she grows inside the mother until the child is large enough to be born. Then they enter the world as a tiny baby, and the mother and father raise the child.

[cloakand_danger]

Oooh... [He reaches out to touch the picture, tracing a finger around the shape of the woman's belly.] But how's the baby get out?

[ruin_mania]

Very carefully, but between the mother's legs. Women have an opening there to let babies out.

[And in, but she won't mention that.]

[cloakand_danger]

...Oh. [And yes, Raine, he's staring at your crotch for a moment thoughtfully.] ...Babies must be really little when they come out.

[ruin_mania]

[Fortunately, there's a lot of cloth down there, so he won't be seeing much.]

Indeed. Much smaller than you were when you came to us, of course.

[cloakand_danger]

[He nods.] Yeah. I was big already then.

[This seems to catch Yuan's interest, and he glances over from where he's been staring rather intently at the computer.] So you remember?

Uh-huh! We had blueberry pancakes.

[ruin_mania]

Do you have your memories of the time when you weren't here at the castle?

[cloakand_danger]

[Kieran's brow furrows, and he goes quiet for a bit as he tries to think. Eventually he shakes his head.]

My head hurts.

...That's all right, don't strain yourself. The castle probably made you forget.

[And Yuan is going to have to hurt it for messing with his child this way. Never mind that the castle created Kieran in the first place...]

[ruin_mania]

[It's a dilemma, certainly, but just the sort of dilemma the castle presents them with on a regular basis.]

Don't be concerned. It does that to many of us.

Do you understand, or would you like to look at more pictures?

Yuan

[heliotroping]

How... would you have actually explained that?

Django

[cloakand_danger]

I really don't know. That's why I had him ask Raine instead.

[cloakand_danger]

I think I get it. [He looks at Yuan.] Daddy, where's the other book?

The one with the train? I put it back on the shelf.

[Kieran dashes over to the bookshelf and comes back to Raine with a brightly-colored picture book.] This one has more pictures!

He had me read it to him three times last night.

[ruin_mania]

Ah, come here then.

[She guides him to sit on her lap while she opens up the book and reads slowly to him, giving him plenty of time to look at the pictures. She can only think that he's inherited a liking for books from his parents, after all.]

Yuan

[heliotroping]

[he sighs]

I don't know how I'm going to explain to my kids then...

[fishy_go_byebye]

[A giggle]

Storks, Thunder~