#this obviously takes place somewhere between poe and deadfire

[haledamage]

Rhicember 12/18

Come on! Can I open just one? - Kai&Vela (with a bit of Kai&Edér and Kai/Aloth)

“Is all of this for me, Mama?” Vela stared at the tree with open awe, the mage lights reflected in her bright eyes. It was easily twice as tall as either of them, tastefully but cheerfully decorated in blue and gold and pink mage lights and shining glass baubles, and the space underneath it was filled with gifts wrapped in colored paper and tied with ribbons and string.

Even though Vela’s gaze was only on the tree, Kai knew it was the gifts that she was really asking about. She put a hand on her daughter’s head, brushing her unruly hair back from her face. “No, my darling. Some of them are for the rest of our family. But some are yours.”

Vela ducked out of her mother’s reach and dove into the stack of presents, searching for one with her name on it. She disappeared under the tree, leaving only a suspicious rustling noise to mark her location before surfacing suddenly, triumphantly, with a small, neatly wrapped gift in her hand. “This one has my name, Mama! Can I open it? Please please please?”

“Not until New Year.”

“Awwww, come on! Can’t I open just one?”

“Not until New Year,” Kai said again patiently.

Vela turned her best puppy eyes on Kai, wide-eyed and sweet and adoring, but unfortunately for her, her mother was immune. Mostly immune, at least. Definitely, at least partially immune.

“Hey!” Edér’s warm greeting rang through the hall, interrupting their staredown. It was followed by a gust of cold air as he closed the door, and Kai wasn’t fast enough to stop her daughter from bolting toward him excitedly.

“You’re here!” Vela squealed happily as she held up her arms in a gentle demand to be picked up. Edér obeyed without any hesitation, lifting her into a big bear hug.

He set her back down and knelt so he would be closer to her eye level. “Of course I’m here. Where else would I be? You been a good girl this year?”

Vela nodded enthusiastically. As if she’d have ever admitted otherwise.

“Good,” Edér said, nodding sagely in response as if she’d said something profound. He reached into a bag that rested on the floor behind him and pulled out a box. “‘Cause I got you somethin’.”

“Really?” Her wide eyes got even wider. “Can I open it now?”

“Ask your mother.”

Kai stared at the twin pleading faces of her daughter and best friend and sighed from the depths of her soul. “Fine. You win.”

Edér set the box down in front of Vela and took a couple steps back to get outside of shredding range as the child gleefully descended upon it. He took the opportunity to approach Kai and wrap her in a big bear hug of her own. “Heya, Kiki.”

“Hello, my dear. Or should I address you as ‘sir’ now, Mayor Teylecg?” she said with a teasing grin.

Edér flushed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “If you’re gonna be like that, I’ll start calling you ‘my lady.’”

Kai laughed, feeling more like herself again with her friend here. “Gods, no. I’ve been ‘my lady’d enough in the last year, I don’t need it from you too.”

“Yeah, I heard the new duc has been givin’ you a hard time.”

She glanced at her daughter, who was playing with what looked like a pair of hand-carved wooden dolls, one of which had a familiar-looking head full of red hair made of curled yarn. Vela wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to their conversation. Kai lowered her voice anyway before saying, “He wants me to join his council. I’m running out of polite ways to tell him no.”

Edér put a warm hand on her shoulder. “Maybe you should give him a show. Do the creepy Watcher thing, scare him into leaving you alone.”

She scoffed. “I’m pretty sure the ‘creepy Watcher thing’ is what he’s after. Wants to put me on display to keep his dissenters in line.”

They didn’t get the chance to speculate further, as Vela joined them, wrapping her arms around Edér’s leg in an attempt to hug him. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, kiddo.” He chuckled and picked her up so he could hug her again, and his expression went soft and sentimental as he looked at her. “You’ve gotten so big since the last time I saw ya. Pretty soon you’ll be carryin’ me around.”

“Mama says I’m growing like a weed!” Vela said proudly. She took the attention Edér gave her in stride for only a moment before she was squirming out of his grip to go play again.

“She’s a good kid,” Kai said fondly.

“She is. She’s got a good mom raisin’ her.” Edér nudged her in the side with his elbow and abruptly changed the subject. “I got you something too, Kiki. It’s waiting for you in Brighthollow.” There was an emphasis on ‘waiting’ that piqued her interest. “Why don’t you go check it out? I can stay here with Vela for a bit.”

She studied his face, but couldn’t read anything but smug joy from his grin. “How very suspicious of you, my dear.”

“Just trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”

He hadn’t. They both knew he hadn’t. “Don’t let her open anything else while I’m gone, please,” she said, then to her daughter added, “Vela, darling, I have to go back to Brighthollow for a moment. Can you help your uncle put the rest of the presents under the tree?”

“Yes, Mama,” Vela said dutifully.

Kai didn’t bother to put her coat on, feeling strangely hurried. She wrapped a spell around herself to keep the worst of the cold out and walked as briskly as she could in the direction of her home. The hearth fire was warm and inviting when she stepped inside. It looked like Edér must have thrown a fresh log on before he came to meet them in the main hall, she mused as she stomped the snow off her boots.

Something moved upstairs, the sound distinctly kith rather than animal, and she froze. After a long, tense moment of silence, she heard it again. She jogged up the stairs, pulling a concealed dagger from her sleeve just in case.

Standing outside her bedroom door was a very familiar man with a very familiar nervous smile. “Hello, Kai,” Aloth said softly.

The blade slipped from her limp fingers, clattering to the floor. She stared at him slack-jawed, afraid that if she looked away he would disappear like a vision or waking dream. He didn’t look much different than when she’d last seen him, but his hair was a little longer and his armor was new, similar to what he wore before but in a much more flattering cut; he looked just different enough that he probably wasn’t a hallucination.

“Your letter said you were in Old Vailia,” Kai finally whispered, dumbstruck.

“Yes, well, I lied. I wanted to surprise you.” He chuckled quietly at the awed way she still stared at him. “It seems that I was successful.”

She approached him slowly, still not trusting her eyes, and when she was close enough, she reached out a tentative hand to touch his face. He leaned into it, eyes fluttering shut as her fingers traced over his cheek. He felt real, warm and alive, and the familiar scent of vanilla and the ozone-smell of arcane magic wrapped around her. “Aloth,” she breathed. “It’s really you.”

“Yes. It’s really me.” He smiled at her, gentle and fond. “I’m home.”

She pulled him into a tight hug, burying her face in his shoulder, and he held her close. Neither of them said anything. There was nothing they needed to say.

They stayed like that until Edér and Vela finally came to join them.