A Gift Unto the King

Arrival

"Knitting?" Remus pressed, an incredulous grin widening across his face.

"Mm-hm." Lucas nodded. "Five coppers I wasted on that shit. It was fucking awful."

The pair giggled together at the thought, and then, after a few moments, the laughter faded, and Lucas let out a long sigh.

"I think he worries about me too much." Lucas's tone dropped. "No matter how many times I insist that I'm fine... it's like he doesn't trust me."

Remus's brows creased slightly, his lips lopsidedly pressed together. Though Lucas's eyes remained fixed on Epona, he could still see the darkened cloud swirling across the golden glass. It had weighed on him heavily, that much was plain, but in that moment, Remus found his sympathies lying elsewhere.

"Can you blame him?"

Lucas lifted his gaze, his face falling slack. As he stared into Remus's softened eyes, his lips pressed thin.

"You gave him a good scare, mate." Remus continued. "Scared the hell out of me, too, and I wasn't even there." He shook his head, his eyes falling to the hay covered ground. "When I was ordered to cover for you... when he told me what happened... gods, I've never seen a man tremble that way without a sword to their throat."

A frown twitched at Lucas's mouth, as his thumb mindlessly rubbed Epona's jaw. She huffed lightly, then bowed her head, gently nuzzling her nose into Lucas's curved belly. He hugged her close for a moment, graciously accepting that small amount of comfort, until she pulled away.

Lucas hadn't known that Vin was the one who told Remus what happened. He had just assumed that the orders had trickled down, second-hand, from another member of the court, as they so often did. But Remus was there, with him, while Lucas was still lying unconscious in the infirmary. The idea of Vin being so visibly shaken over it all twisted in his stomach like a rusty knife. But he couldn't take it back. He couldn't change the past. And as much as he wanted to pretend things hadn't changed, the choices he'd made, no matter how misguided or ill-informed, had changed them. Lucas clenched his jaw as his mind fumbled over every mishap of the past few months. It was no wonder why Remus understood Vin so plainly. Before Vin, it had been him. Remus was the one who had dragged him to the infirmary the first time he'd fainted, and it was Remus who had held him, and looked after him, in Widow's Wild. He had been in the exact place that Vin stood in now, and Lucas hated himself for so easily putting them there.

"I never meant to worry anyone." Lucas whispered shakily. "I mean that."

Sensing the tremble in Lucas's voice, Remus lifted his gaze. The lycan's golden eyes had misted over, and his chin began to quiver—which he desperately fought against to little avail—and suddenly, Remus felt as though he may have sprinkled too much salt in a fresh wound.

"Whoa, hey-" Remus pushed himself off of the wall, and walked around the large black mare, towards Lucas. "Don't cry." His voice was gentle and kind as he pulled the sandy-haired knight close. "It's okay, please don't be upset about it. It's in the past now, it doesn't matter."

The low, rumbling vibration of Remus's voice radiated through Lucas's chest, bringing with it a calming warmth—though, the words meant very little in that moment.

"I shouldn't have brought it up." Remus spoke softly, still tightly clinging to the younger werewolf.

Lucas's swollen belly gently pressed into Remus's abs, and he couldn't help but notice just how much it had grown in the last few weeks. Even though it was still small, it had managed to become so undeniably present.

"I didn't mean to cry." Lucas mumbled into Remus's firm shoulder. "Damn kid, makes me cry over everything."

Remus smiled lightly, stroking the back of Lucas's head. The lycan's body jolted against him with each breathy hitch, his fingers tightly curling into the back of Remus's blouse.