WHO: Jacob, Serefin, and Adrian WHAT: Young parents track down their future kid to get to know him better WHEN: October 27th I think?? WARNINGS: None STATUS: Complete
Adrian Frye was perched on top of the roof to the pie shop, with few none-the-wiser. It wasn’t as if they needed to be informed, mostly because he wasn’t doing anything untoward. He liked high places that allowed him a wide view of whatever was afoot, and bonus points if the places smelled as nice as the whiffs coming from the pie shop. He was wearing a coat that blocked most of the wind and was reading some book he’d taken from the train - Charles Dickens. One of his father’s compatriots, or at least, he had been at one time.
Adrian wasn’t exactly hiding from the world. Anyone who knew him knew his tendency to go vertical when he wanted to be alone. An introvert at heart, he preferred disappearing before he got irritable and short - and frankly, there was a lot to process right now. Between his girlfriend’s plot going awry, and his father turning into a very young version of himself, Adrian had backed off from hovering too much, preferring, as ever, to be the observer. The quiet was beginning to wear on him, however, his stomach growling quietly as he realized it was nearly dinner. He put the book inside a large pocket on his coat, standing and stretching. It wouldn’t do not to show on the train for supper. And Adrian was all about doing what was best for everyone.
Serefin was glad to have Jacob back to an appropriate age, but that didn't immediately solve the son business. He had barely seemed to wrap his brain around that excessively compounding situation, before drinking himself a little stupid to ignore it. The week had been long and confusing. Especially with most of it missing from his memories.
But he couldn't responsibly stay drunk and ignorant for having a child from the future—one who was solemn, independent, and far more put together mentally than Serefin could ever dream to be at that age. He didn't know if it was because Adrian was blissfully clear of assassination attempts in his childhood or the frustrations of navigating a court, or simply because he didn't want to be a colossal fuck up like Serefin. He didn't voice these concerns to Jacob, knowing full well he had to deal with similar parental misgivings.
Perhaps it was curiosity that drove him and Jacob out to find Adrian and ask the pressing question—how? How was someone like that theirs?
Shuffling after Jacob around the city, it didn't take long for Jacob's eagle vision to catch sight of Adrian's aura on the roof of the pie shop. Serefin sighed heavily, reached for the fire ladder, and started to climb.
"I cannot believe—" Serefin said, huffing far more than was necessary, rung after rung, "That you are making me climb onto this roof to get to you. Is this punishment? Are we being punished? Blood and bone…" Serefin nearly tripped climbing over the short half wall at the top. He lacked the gracefulness of his boyfriend. "I would hope you would give us a little credit, and not hide away."
Jacob's memory of the last week was a few odd bits and bobs and if he tried to focus on any of them too long, the images generally scattered into pieces. He'd decided not to overthink it. So he'd been an annoying teenager who'd never taken a life and apparently couldn't even pilfer from his own sister. So what.
What mattered was Adrian. And Serefin's reaction to Adrian. And Jacob's reaction to Adrian. God, he'd been such a prat. He'd insisted on this little hunt to apologize and make sure Adrian was managing well enough in this strange situation. When Serefin had started climbing ladders, well, Jacob had very nearly offered a faster way up and then decided sod it - this was funnier. He waited until Serefin was near the top and then grappling hooked from below him.
"Maybe he's just punishing you," Jacob teased, snagging Serefin by the hand and pulling him up over the edge. He smiled warmly before he turned towards their goal. "Hope you don't mind the intrusion. We could've waited at the train like proper gents but well. We're impatient."
Adrian had heard them coming - Jacob wasn’t trying for stealth and Serefin seemed somewhat incapable of it when banter could suffice, and so he turned toward them, schooling his face to keep the look of surprise from it at seeing them both so young and changed from what he knew.
Not that it was a surprise now - not really. He’d seen one father in two ages, and now his other in three. Adrian generally didn’t like making a fuss of too many things - he preferred “rolling with it” - and so he rolled his shoulders back until they were loose and smiled, raising an eyebrow at Serefin coming up the ladder. “You might’ve sent me a message on the network, you know,” he teased lightly, not used to teasing this version of his parents, “rather than traipse around, risking life and limb.”
"Network messages lack nuance. And Jacob is right, we are impatient. Neither of us does any good with waiting," Serefin said, flashing a conspiratorial grin to Jacob. He was lucky he wasn't attempting to have this conversation alone. He would have already messed it up by falling flat on his face. Serefin was an embarrassment half the time, a mess the other half, but he was determined not to completely shove his foot in his mouth with Adrian.
"But I assume you know that already, given that we are your parents," Serefin said with a hand flourish, as he stepped over to sit on a discarded box. Everyone was standing, ready to bolt it seemed, and while the same nerves plagued Serefin, he would rather be comfortable, sitting. "And some of us quite like risking our lives for people."
He glanced at Jacob then, knowing that his boyfriend—who clearly became more than just that in the future, which was another thing they weren't quite talking about yet—often put his neck on the line. "I doubt he got that from me."
Jacob watched them banter, a smile tucked into the corner of his mouth. His gaze was a little nervous. Curious. He hadn't had much time to really look at Adrian before he got turned into a kid. It was bloody unnerving to see aspects of himself and Serefin in a stranger's face. Unnerving, but nowhere near bad.
"I'll take the credit for that one. Living life on the ground is boring, love." He squeezed the back of Serefin's neck in a show of solidarity before he moved over to sit down near Adrian. Or more like perch. As if he were afraid he wouldn't be welcome. "I wanted to apologize for being a bit of a wanker before up and changing into a smaller wanker. You...you were just a surprise, yeah? Still, that's not your fault. Sorry."
Adrian followed Serefin’s lead and sat back down, straight on the roof and curling his feet beneath him as if this all came naturally and was very comfortable. His dads were obviously trying, which went a long way for him, but he couldn’t help but give them a little bit of grief in the form of a lopsided smirk as he replied: “Oh, it’s fine. I figured it was payback for what I put you both through as a kid.”
Not that he had done much, but honestly, it didn’t matter. Worrying his dads was a fun little side activity and practically how they had bonded as a familial unit back home… even if it wasn’t typically Adrian who provoked most of the worrying. He looked back and forth between the two, still smiling, albeit more pensively. He did understand how awkward this was. He wasn’t much younger than either of them, at present. His sympathy (and politeness) won over and he added: “Seriously, though, I’m used to Vallo pitching a fit. I completely understand how this was very… unexpected. Particularly since I’m not a complete lunatic.”
Jacob apologizing made Serefin's brow furrow, and then he followed in suit—why didn't he think to do that earlier? "I, too, am sorry for being a wanker. And I did not have the excuse of being incredibly small," Serefin said, smiling at Jacob. He had enjoyed the distraction, if only to avoid the other distraction of Adrian. So his smile, though genuine, was short-lived.
"If I'm allowed to assume, " Serefin said this with all the confidence of someone who was going to assume anyway without permission, "Not being a complete lunatic actually makes this more confusing. You are incredibly well-adjusted for someone who is—" Serefin gestured awkwardly between himself and Jacob, struggling to get the word out: "Ours."
It wasn't a slight to Jacob, but after the last month they had just had, a child of their own making seemed impossible. Then again, Serefin being alive after multiple deaths was also impossible. "We should be asking you if you have questions for us, right?" Serefin asked, and then to Jacob, he added, "Do you—do I—do we have questions for him?"
Jacob didn’t argue. Adrian being seemingly well-adjusted was probably as big of a surprise as his existence at all. But Jacob did spare Serefin an uncertain glance. They probably needed to talk about this all like adults and not just jokingly dance around the subject. Not here though.
“Yeah I have a few questions for him. Like how? When?” He doubted he’d get exact answers to those two, but it felt necessary to ask. He wanted to know, after all. For once, he wanted to be ready. That didn’t mean he was going to be a completely serious bore about it though. He propped his chin up in one hand and narrowed his eyes. “And do you play Whist?”
“You taught me whist young. I’m good at bluffing,” Adrian assured Jacob, because sitting around the table with Aunt Evie griping about whist while Jacob taught him the game and Serefin critiqued it was one of many fond memories. But that wasn’t the real question here, was it? He could tell, from Serefin’s gestures to Jacob’s abrupt questions that to the pair in front of him, he was a little… unexpected, and not simply because he existed.
While he couldn’t really explain why he’d inherited the detail-oriented, type A personality that he undoubtedly had, he could at least assure them of the following: “You’re both too hard on yourself,” Adrian said with the confidence that came from experience. “You were wonderful dads to me. Maybe a little prone to overthinking things, but…” he shrugged, since that was also something Adrian was guilty of. “You sought out some kind of magical surrogate, so genetically speaking, yes, I’m from both of you. I’ve got the Assassin traits, and..” he rubbed his neck a little awkwardly, “some propensity with magic, but between you and Aunt Ostyia, I don’t do much with it. There’s at least like… I think eight more years before I’m born, if that makes things clearer?”
Hearing Adrian say they were being too hard on themselves was an easy way to get Serefin to seriously doubt himself. Serefin was his harshest critic, a person who tended to tear himself up on the inside but seem relatively composed and unfazed on the outside. Adrian catching on straight away meant that this was not the first time he had likely brought this up to them.
But between the mention of magic, the kind that Serefin barely understood currently, and the assassin's blood, he was feeling a little ill with being overwhelmed. Blood and bone, he wished he had brought wine with him.
"I feel as though I am overthinking things right now," Serefin said, directly to Adrian. He could see the similarities; it felt ridiculous to have not before. "You must understand that my relationship, or lack thereof, with my father is complicated. Being one is—" A dozen words flew through Serefin's mind, but all of them sounded terrible or not quite right. He landed one. "—new. It's a new idea. Brought upon your arrival." There was another cautious, questioning glance to Jacob. "And one that we haven't spoken about yet? Eight years is a long time and not at all."
Jacob’s eyebrows rose. That was entirely more information than he’d expected. And a mixture of too much for his brain to process and just enough to quiet his scattered emotions. “I…well, I’m glad. That you think we’re good parents, that is.” He was a little surprised he’d gone out of his way to pass on the assassin lineage, but the more the thought sat behind his ribs, the more his surprise carried to Serefin’s choice in the matter instead. It wasn’t as if his “family” had done much for him.
Jacob met Serefin’s glance and reached out to press his fingertips to Serefin’s spine. “I haven’t the foggiest idea how we get from here to there, but I also don’t think it’s the world’s most insane idea. I like kids.” He smirked at Serefin. “I’m reasonably fond of you too. I suppose…” He glanced back to Adrian and managed a smile that was less startled deer and more charming rogue. “A family of my own sounds nice. But!” He dropped his chin and pointed at Adrian with his free hand. “I do hope I give you a fitting amount of grief for how buttoned up you are. It’s like we raised my sister somehow.”
It was on the tip of Adrian’s tongue to point out that he wasn’t the future - he was just a potential future - but it felt too much like distancing himself. Sure, he may never call this particular version of Serefin and Jacob his parents, but that was beside the point when they were here together now, and so achingly familiar that only his egregious amount of common sense prevented him from throwing an arm around one of them and referencing jokes they would not understand.
Adrian raised an eyebrow at Jacob’s teasing - that, too, was familiar. “Someone in this house has to have a degree of good judgement,” he answered back, his nose in the air, before dipping his chin back down to normal levels with a grin. “Don’t be so shocked. Auntie Evie was very instructional growing up.” Ribbing on him was a great deal less awkward than trying to explain his own existence - a subject he’d rather not think about, like most children. “And I’m not so buttoned up,” he objected, because he had a degree of pride. “I’ve won fight club once or twice.”
Not that it was any sort of surprise, but Serefin still looked pleasantly amazed by Jacob's comments. He wasn't against the idea, and he liked the feeling the words I'm reasonably fond of you did to his whole being. He grinned, briefly wagging his eyebrows in Jacob's direction before landing back on Adrian.
Serefin's interest in Adrian's upbringing was piqued, as he too believed Adrian was more like Evie than them. Perhaps that was what made the whole situation not entirely absurd; Serefin was not a complete disaster in parenting with Jacob. He was starting to wonder if the reason they did, what he assumed, a good job, was that their combined efforts not to be like either of their fathers was a sticking point. Clearly, Serefin hadn't tried to murder Adrian in an attempt to gain some kind of ultimate grasp for power.
But he did look absolutely delighted about fight club wins. "You are in luck, as neither myself or Jacob have, and therefore the irony of the situation is not lost," Serefin said, sitting back on the box. "Perhaps you could show us how it is done. And then I will watch from the sidelines and give applause appropriately." He paused for a moment, glancing between the two of them. "Before dinner, after dinner, somewhere not on the rooftop?"
Jacob was not shocked or even upset that his sister had influence over Adrian's upbringing. She would be good for any kid in her life. Assuming she didn't sound too much like their father all the time. Jacob smiled, distracted but not as uneasy anymore. Serefin's taunt snapped him out of his meandering train of thought.
"Oi," he scoffed at Serefin, more warmth than annoyance in the tone. "I was going to offer you a lift to the ground, but now I think I'll challenge...our son instead." He felt a zing of emotion saying the words out loud. Which emotion was unclear. It was good. It was complex and a little terrified, but it was good. He flashed a troublemaker's smile at Adrian and hopped up onto the roof's edge. "Race you to the Underground?"
Adrian had barely processed what Jacob was challenging him with before his father’s toes hit the corner of his roof, and his body knew what was about to happen. He managed a casual “sure” as if he hadn’t a care in the world before his back toe dug into the shingles and he took off, a flash of movement that tore off of the side of the building with the assurance that he had done this a million times before.
Adrian figured if he didn’t win the race, well, at least he would have confirmed to everyone’s satisfaction that he was, in fact, Jacob and Serefin’s kid for the moment.