Midnight Manor Private Residence, Sunday Afternoon

[pocketpretzels]

Yesterday afternoon, Watts had spent a considerable amount of time making candied oranges for a recipe he wanted to try making today. They were... well let's say most of them were far from picture-perfect slices, but the important thing was nothing had burned or crystalised. They'd be edible, and that was what mattered.

Anyway, today he was in the kitchen once again, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, singing a song as he worked.

[ooc: for the beau! details of discussion NFB, everything else is fine.]

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[hasaknightjob]

Marc had had some errands to run that morning, so it was afternoon when he came back. After taking care of putting things away, Steven took over and got changed into his own clothing. He went downstairs to check on Llewellyn.

"Hello, you. What are you up to?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Is truagh nach- oh! Hello, you," Watts beamed at him. "Those bars I mentioned yesterday."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's nice," Steven said. He came over to give Llewellyn a kiss on the cheek. Then, naturally, he had to ask, "Is singing to them part of the process?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Hmm?" Watts took a moment to parse the question. "Oh. No. Not- usually. But I had the tune- stuck in my ear."

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm sorry I interrupted," Steven said. "I like hearing you sing. What song is it? I don't think I'm familiar."

[pocketpretzels]

"Mo Rùn Geal Dileas," Watts said. "A Celtic number."

[hasaknightjob]

Steven leaned against the counter to get comfortable while they talked. "What's it mean? Do you know?"

[pocketpretzels]

"'My fair and faithful love'," Watts said, as he measured the shortening and sugar into a bowl. "A love song, if a somewhat melancholy one."

[hasaknightjob]

Steven moved over to stand behind Llewellyn and slip his arms around his waist. "Melancholy? Hopefully nothing you've been inspired to feel?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Not beyond my usual frustration with how this season drags on," Watts assured him, leaning back into the embrace.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven hugged him closer. "That's all right I suppose. Not that I want you unhappy but compared to you being worried about you and me for some reason."

[pocketpretzels]

Watts shook his head. "Once upon a time, perhaps. But now? No."

[hasaknightjob]

"Once upon a time?" Steven asked. He was fairly certain Llewellyn meant the early stages when Steven himself had also had doubts, but it didn't hurt to check.

[pocketpretzels]

Watts nodded. "When we were still- in the early stages of courtship. Finding our footing, as it were." For a moment it looked as if he were going to continue, but then he thought better of it.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven looked at him curiously. Which perhaps Llewellyn couldn't see with Steven behind him. "What? It's all right. You can tell me."

[pocketpretzels]

He'd held on to this for so long, far past when it was actually a concern that it seemed absurd now, but they'd also- they'd promised to be honest with each other.

"In the days before Mr. Argentum returned to Fandom. I worried that you might- that Mrs. Argentum- of course, she hadn't been Mrs. Argentum at the time, she was still Miss Sherman- " Watts was aware he was babbling now, but couldn't make himself stop. "- That Miss Sherman might ask you to be a father for her child. And that you would say yes."

[hasaknightjob]

"What? Oh, Llew. Here, put that down," Steven said as he moved to pull Llewellyn into a tight and proper hug. It didn't matter that such an idea had never occurred to Steven. It had clearly weighed on Llewellyn's mind far too much. "What a hard thing to carry. Especially after everything in Toronto."

[pocketpretzels]

And Watts just melted right into that hug, too overcome in the moment to say anything out loud.

[hasaknightjob]

"I love you," Steven told him, still hugging tight. "I'm not leaving you, I promise. Not for anything or anyone."

[pocketpretzels]

"I know that now," Watts assured him. "I do."

[hasaknightjob]

"That's a lot of fear to carry on your own," Steven said. "I'm sorry you had to bear it. My poor love."

[pocketpretzels]

"I'm sorry I thought it," Watts said. "But she was your dear friend," who Steven had had an attraction to, "and she was going through a difficult time, and you're so- so very you."

Of course, even if that had ever been a real possibility, there was also the Marc of it all which would have prevented Steven from going through with such an arrangement, which again was something he understood now as opposed to at the time.

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm so very me?" Steven said. He couldn't help a fond chuckle at the comment. "I suppose it's at least nice you think such generous things of me. But nothing so far as that, no. Not then or now, I promise."

[pocketpretzels]

"You are," Watts said. "Kind and sweet and generous and you'd help anyone in need without a second thought."

[hasaknightjob]

"Of course," Steven said. "That's just being human, isn't it?"