Big Gay Alchemists

In the weeks they had been working together to make supplies for the troops so far, using either a lab at the Union or one at the Academy where Cael's mother worked, Aleyn hadn't learned a great deal about the young man. Most of what he knew about Cael's personal life came from a few things Vedran had told him - some talk about his family, the unfortunate end to his adventuring career, that more recently he had been seeing Kier... He was bright and helpful, but usually fairly focused on work-related matters, and otherwise rather shy. Actually, he reminded Aleyn of a younger version of himself in some ways.

One morning when they had been scheduled to work at the Union, Aleyn arrived to find the lab they had been expecting to use was out of commission - in fact, blocked off with barriers, and with a distinctly eye-watering green smoke still wafting out of it. "Sorry," the cleaner tasked with keeping people a safe distance away told him. "Going to be out of commission for at least a day."

"That's okay," he said, just as Cael was arriving. "That's the down-side of doing experiments, I guess." He turned to the younger man with a smile. "Well, do we want to just call it a day, or try to figure out somewhere else to work?"

"Oh, no, um, we can find somewhere else, I'm sure," Cael stuttered. "There'll be a free lab up at the Academy, or we could probably use the one up at my family's manse. It, ah, its a bit of a trip either way."

"Either is fine with me," Aleyn said, although privately he was a bit curious to see Cael's family home. "I suppose the one at your house would be certain to be available, at least? No students needing the space."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

He shrugged, nodding towards the way out.

"Probably best to take the elevator by the falls. We could, ah, we could get breakfast at the docks market along the way."

"Sounds good to me," Aleyn replied with a smile. "As long as your family won't mind?"

"I doubt any of them are there, really. Parliament gets busy towards the end of the session, and there're parties tonight."

He shrugged, giving Aleyn a sidelong glance.

"Though I'm sure you knew that already."

Aleyn smiled as they left the Union. "I suppose I did - at least about the parties, we're supposed to be going to two different ones tonight, or maybe it was three." He stifled a little sigh at the thought. "I'll take your word for it that this is a more busy time for Parliament, though, I don't really have any basis for comparison."

"Not too different, really," Cael responded, "I suppose I'll be going to those parties as well, though with Alia gone...well, maybe I can slip out quickly."

"You usually take her as your, uh, escort if she's available?" Aleyn inquired politely. He wondered if Cael's family knew that was likely no more than a friendly front, or perhaps a defensive mechanism to fend off other advances.

"Yeah. She usually makes things more...interesting," Cael said with a small chuckle. "I'd bring Kier, but it doesn't seem fair to inflict it on him even if I can't get out of it."

"Kier doesn't enjoy them much either, I take it?" Aleyn asked. "Maybe it's the sort of thing it helps to grow up with to really appreciate. Although... I guess maybe that didn't work in your case either," he added with a rueful shrug and a smile. "Vedran tells me they can be fun, under the right circumstances, but so far I mostly just find them stressful - or boring, when they're not being stressful."

"That sounds about right. I'll admit, they've never really been my strong suit. And Kier has his own issues with society events." Cael shrugged. "I get that, for Vedran, for Alia, for Brenn, they can be fun, even useful, but I don't really see the appeal. Knowing the shrimp fork or which bow to use to ask for a dance only demonstrates you took the time to learn those things. Its...a closed system, you know? Well, I guess its supposed to be..."

"Exactly!" Aleyn said. "Finally, someone who understands! All the unspoken rules and pointless things you're just supposed to know without thinking about them, no matter how illogical they are... it's all just a big test to make sure the 'wrong' sort of people don't intrude, or are too intimidated to say anything if they happen to get in accidentally for some reason, or won't pick up on the subtle little cues that they use to communicate things... Sorry, I didn't mean to vent at you," he said, trailing off.

Cael shrugged.

"Its not like I haven't been on that side of the griping. I think maybe you forget that, while we were born to it, we weren't born with it. We all learned that stuff, too. You don't like it now; try explaining to a five-year-old why its important."

"I'll probably have to soon enough," Aleyn said with a sigh. "As much as I want our kids to have... choices, opportunities in life, I know that having those skills will help open doors for them. I just don't want them to be limited to that stuff, you know what I mean? Especially if they have other interests. Maybe, at least, I can tell them 'I know this is stupid and doesn't make sense, but we'll practice it together.' Although probably if I say that, Vedran will give me a dirty look," he added with a crooked smile.

"You guys are going to have kids?" Cael asked with a wondering face. "Like, have have, or acquire have?"

"Uh... all of the above?" Aleyn said, smiling. "I mean, there's already Macen of course, and I - we - are planning to adopt as well, and eventually there will no doubt be Vedran and Ardith's kids... It's all sort of unfamiliar ground, and no doubt we'll figure things out as we go, but the general idea is we'll be parents to all of them..."

"That sounds nice," Cael offered, obviously contemplative. "Its good you guys have at least a plan going forward. I, uh, Kier and I don't have that..."

"Are you two at the stage of ... planning to make a plan?" Aleyn asked uncertainly. Cael seemed so young, it was hard to imagine he was thinking about settling down already, but then again, some people were married even earlier...

"Can we be, uh, planning to plan to plan?" Cael asked uncertainly. "We're pretty young, I know, but I...I love Kier, and that's going to mean my life will be pretty different than it would have been otherwise. Its probably better if I plan for that sooner rather than later."

"Planning to plan to plan sounds reasonable," Aleyn said with a smile. "Being aware of what kind of obstacles you might have to face, so you can be prepared and work around them if and when things move forward is probably a good idea at the very least. I don't know what your family would say, for instance, but I imagine you've given it some thought."

"Yeah. I mean, Brenn's offered me a job, either on the Highwind or whatever his next ship is. And the work I did on it, plus after the Overlook Disaster, has gotten me a lot of commissions for work. I can survive without my family, and Kier's already doing the same. I could probably sell my family on the match if his father was talking to him, but gods know how long that will be, if ever."

Cael shrugged.

"I'm happy, now, today. All things considered, I'm satisfied with that."

"That's good," Aleyn said. He thought about giving a 'now is all we can be sure to have' speech, but then... Cael surely knew that better than most people his age, and probably didn't need to hear it from Aleyn. He settled for, "Hang onto that," and a reassuring smile.

"Would you be willing to get by without your family, though?" he asked instead. "I don't mean financially, I mean emotionally. I don't know how close you are with them, or whether they're the sort who would cut you off for marrying someone they didn't agree with...

"Its, ah, I'd kind of be calling their bluff. Mom's no good at keeping a grudge, and Dad," Cael said, shrugging, "he doesn't really have much say. Hennet, Mia, Elynne, none of them will really care. Grandmother won't be happy, but I think Mom can bring her around. So I might get cut off for a while, almost as a formality, but I doubt it would last."

"What about you? How does your family feel about you and Vedran?"

"It varies," Aleyn said with a slight shrug. "My mother likes him very much, but she still worries for me, I'm sure. Hopefully a little less so now, though. My siblings range from mildly disapproving to politely indifferent to enthusiastic. I think most of the disapproval, such as it is - it's nothing so serious that they would cut me off or even have a big argument about it, more just little things now and then - is because they - well, mostly my sister Lystra, but maybe others to some extent - worry that he's taking advantage of me. Her view of nobles isn't necessarily the most charitable, let's say. And because I can't explain the entire situation to her right now, it's just going to get worse for a while when he gets married. I expect I'll have to field some cutting remarks, at the very least, but I'm comfortable with telling her to mind her own business."