It’s Great to Communicate Easily with Your Son, and Especially for Him to Communicate Back
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“You know what I liked best about our weddings?” Owen asked Gavin, in the carriage on the way back to the castle.
“The fact that we got to marry people we loved?” Gavin asked, looking down at some papers.
Owen smiled. He and Gavin had married Edwin the other day in a really nice ceremony that Erik had told them had been how people had used to get married before the Catechism. People were smarter back then, and so lots of them had been allowed to get married to the same person, and Erik had painstakingly gotten together everyone Edwin loved so they could all marry him at once. It had been really nice. “Yes, but you know what I liked second best?”
“The sex after?”
“Third best?”
“Do you really think I can’t do this until we get home?” Gavin asked sweetly.
Owen flicked his ear, then kissed it better. “I liked that we didn’t have to practice for them.” They’d been at the First Church for hours, going over every second of Gabrielle and Franz’s wedding. It was very important that nobody ruin the most important event in the kingdom by standing in the wrong place or, Cal forbid, holding the wrong kind of flowers. “Practicing for a wedding seems excessive.”
“Has to go off perfectly, but it also has to look like it just happened to be perfect, so that it looks like we’re perfect,” Gavin explained.
“I know, I know. But that’s also ridiculous.”
Gavin shrugged. “I know. But it’s how it is.”
“I liked it,” Greg said, smiling down at his hands. Beside him, Grey Rain had fallen asleep on his shoulder. “It was nice to know what I’m going to have to do. I was worried I’d do the wrong thing and ruin the wedding.”
Gavin looked up. “You would never have ruined the wedding.”
“I know. But I was worried anyway.” Greg turned his smile on them now. “You’re both good at everything, so it’s hard to explain what it feels like to always think you’re doing something wrong. I liked getting told everything I have to do, because now as long as I do everything the way they showed us, I won’t have to worry.”
He probably would worry anyway though, and it hurt to be reminded of that. That to Greg, everything was worth worrying about, even the things nobody else did. But what worried Greg the most was the idea that he was hurting others, which meant Owen had to be careful how obvious he was about Greg’s worry upsetting him. And it was why Owen was going to spend as much of his life as Greg needed making sure he didn’t have to feel that way. “We’re not good at everything, Greg. I know we joke about stuff like that, but neither of us is good at everything.”
Greg nodded. “I know. I just mean that you think…you’re used to thinking that if you do your best, everything will be fine. I don’t know how to think like that. I’m trying to learn from you. But I can’t do it yet. So I like knowing what I have to do. Um…I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Grey Rain was very bored too. I just wanted to tell you how I feel.”
Owen reached across the carriage and patted his knee. “I appreciate that. I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t make you feel bad by saying it was boring.”
Greg shook his head. “No. I’m okay.”
“Okay,” Owen said, leaning back and taking Greg at his word. He brushed his hand over his hip, where he had World Cave’s fetish on his belt, just to make sure the wedding went off well. “Are you excited to go to Great Scar?”
Greg nodded, poking Grey Rain’s leg. “Yes,” he said. “I’m excited to meet your family.”
“I’m excited for you all to meet them too,” Owen told him. “They’re going to love you. And you’re going to love them.”
“I know. They’re like you.”
That made Owen grin, and the literal only thing that stopped him from pulling Greg into his lap was that it would have made Grey Rain fall over. “Exactly like me. A little bit less horny for you to put up with, though.”
At that, Greg snickered. “I don’t mind the horny. I’ve been doing a lot of it with Grey Rain the last little while.”
“Really?” Owen asked, not entirely surprised. They’d been going to bed suspiciously early all week. “Good. I’m glad you guys are enjoying yourselves.”
“We are,” Greg promised, blushing now. “A lot. He’s very hard to…keep up with. But it’s fun to try.”
“Now you know how I feel,” Gavin said, nudging Owen. “Had to get your dad a second husband just to get any work done.”
“If you think about it,” Greg said, voice totally innocent. “That’s another argument for why they should have sex with each other.”
Owen rolled his eyes while Gavin laughed beside him. His sons were such wonderful, terrible influences on each other. “Anyway, I’m glad you guys are having fun. The night before the wedding you’ll have the apartment to yourselves to do whatever horny stuff you want. Gavin and I will be going out to Franz’s groom party.”
Owen had never been to a groom party before, but they were supposed to be fun. He had no idea how much of the whole ‘drinking until he passed out and being horny with everyone he could’ thing a prince could pull off, but probably at least a little. If he and Gavin had had time for groom parties before their first wedding, Gavin probably would have sucked off half of Pelican Bay before he’d even gotten drunk.
“Okay. Maybe we’ll invite some of Grey Rain’s friends over,” Greg said.
“Don’t kids usually hide it from their parents when they’re having friends over for a horny party?” Gavin asked idly.
“Don’t parents usually hide it from their kids when they’re going to a horny party?”
Gavin looked up at Greg. “You didn’t used to talk back to me.”
Greg grinned. “Sorry,” he lied.
“Don’t be, it’s a good look for a prince. Do you want permission to have the horny party, or would it be more fun if we forbade you?”
Greg shrugged. “I think I would rather have permission.”
“Then you have permission. Have fun and be safe.”
“Promise,” said Greg, crossing his heart. “Are you and Owen going to have groom parties before you get officially married?”
“Yes,” Gavin said with a smile. Owen kissed his cheek. “Separate ones, of course. But we should plan another few to make up for the ones we skipped when we got married the first two times.”
“How many more times do you think we’ll get unofficially married before we’re allowed to get officially married?” Owen asked.
Gavin shrugged. “A few, maybe. It’s fun. Besides, think of how mad Gabrielle will be if she finds out that I got married before her multiple times.”
“I don’t actually think making someone mad is a good reason to get married?”
“That’s because you’re an only child,” Gavin told him.
“I don’t think it is either,” said Greg.
“That’s because you’re going to end up marrying your brother.”
Blushing from his hairline to his neckline, Greg cleared his throat. “That makes it sound weird.”
“As someone who just married someone who was also marrying two of his brothers, it’s really not,” said Owen. “It makes you happy and that’s all that a wedding should be about.”
“Okay.” Greg looked at Grey Rain, touching his ear and getting a sleepy tail wag as thanks. “I don’t think we’re going to worry about getting married right now anyway. Since we’re too young.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” Gavin said.
“It…is?”
“Yeah. You just said you’re not worrying about something. We should celebrate. What do you want for supper? Has anyone told you that certain foods make you hornier?”
“Uh…it was just a figure of speech…but…”
“Sure it was,” Owen told him, as they pulled through the castle gates. Hopefully it was one Greg would be able to use more often. Hopefully it was one they’d all be able to use more often, once the wedding was past and they could leave the capital.
For that reason alone, Owen couldn’t wait to do everything they’d practiced for real in a few days.
—
How Best to Use a Sword 