She softened, reaching up to fix my collar. I’d messed it up somehow, though I had no memory of doing it. “You’re sweet when you’re besotted.”
“I am always besotted with you.”
“I know.”
Before I could kiss her the way I wanted to, the door burst open and a small tornado in formal wear flew into the room.
“LOOK! I’M FANCY!”
Killian spun in a circle, showing off his miniature formal outfit. He looked exactly like me, just smaller and covered in significantly less honey than this morning. My mother must have given him another bath and somehow convinced him to stay clean for more than five minutes. A miracle.
Wen knelt down immediately, her face lighting up. “You look so handsome!”
“Do I look like Papa?” He spun again, clearly proud of himself.
“Very much like me,” I said, kneeling beside Wen. Our son’s face was bright with excitement and nerves, his little hands fidgeting with his vest, the same nervous habit I had.
“When I get big, will I be tall like you?”
“Even taller.”
His eyes went huge. “WOW! I’ll be SUPER tall!”
“The tallest,” Wen assured him, smoothing his hair down.
I immediately messed it up again, just to see her swat at my hand. She did, and Killian giggled at our familiar routine.
“There’s SO MANY people coming!” Killian bounced on his toes. “Like a million!”
“Not quite a million.”
“A hundred?”
“Closer. About seventy.”
“That’s... that’s...” He tried to count on his fingers, got confused around six. “I don’t know that many numbers!”
“We’ll count together, baby,” Wen said.
“I can count to ten!” He straightened, very proud. “Wanna hear? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, twelve!”
“Close,” Wen said gently. “It’s ten after nine.”
“Oh.” His face fell slightly. “Can I try again?”
“Later, pup.” I ruffled his hair again, unable to resist. “We need to go.”
“Do I gotta be polite?”
“Very polite,” Wen told him. “Say please and thank you.”
“What if they’re boring?”
“You stay polite anyway.”
He considered this. “Even if they got bird nest beards?”
I remembered Ambassador Crescentborn’s unfortunate facial hair incident. “Especially then. We do not mention bird nest beards.”
