He won't say so, not least of which because Astarion would only take it as mockery. But he is. It's no mean feat to struggle through emotions, especially when all the simplicity of childhood has melted away, leaving a nightmarishly volatile set of hormones and anguish in its wake. But he's trying. He's trying, and what more can Kanan ask of him?]
Good.
[He says it warmly, though there's a part of him taking note of that new addition to the story. Perhaps now the biting makes a tad more sense.]
I deem that an excellent start.
Is there anything else? There need not be.
[He asks only to pry open some space for any other potential guilt that might be struggling to break through to the surface, however minute. But then, in answer to that miserable, muttered tone:]
Pull it apart if you truly wish to— but not now. Not when the only point in doing so is to prove you right and him wrong. Later, when you both feel more amiable towards one another . . . then, yes, pull it apart, and see where you get.
[How many times have he and Zevlor done that? So many snappish, snarling fights eventually ended with tender cuddling and a gentle dissection of their words and motivations, all wrapped up neatly and sealed with a doting assertion of their love for one another. It isn't ideal, maybe, but it works for them. It has for nearly twenty years now.
And no, thirteen year olds aren't grown men comfortably settled within a relationship, no, but Maker, he's doing his best with what he knows. There isn't a manual for parenting, though there ought to be.]
no subject
He won't say so, not least of which because Astarion would only take it as mockery. But he is. It's no mean feat to struggle through emotions, especially when all the simplicity of childhood has melted away, leaving a nightmarishly volatile set of hormones and anguish in its wake. But he's trying. He's trying, and what more can Kanan ask of him?]
Good.
[He says it warmly, though there's a part of him taking note of that new addition to the story. Perhaps now the biting makes a tad more sense.]
I deem that an excellent start.
Is there anything else? There need not be.
[He asks only to pry open some space for any other potential guilt that might be struggling to break through to the surface, however minute. But then, in answer to that miserable, muttered tone:]
Pull it apart if you truly wish to— but not now. Not when the only point in doing so is to prove you right and him wrong. Later, when you both feel more amiable towards one another . . . then, yes, pull it apart, and see where you get.
[How many times have he and Zevlor done that? So many snappish, snarling fights eventually ended with tender cuddling and a gentle dissection of their words and motivations, all wrapped up neatly and sealed with a doting assertion of their love for one another. It isn't ideal, maybe, but it works for them. It has for nearly twenty years now.
And no, thirteen year olds aren't grown men comfortably settled within a relationship, no, but Maker, he's doing his best with what he knows. There isn't a manual for parenting, though there ought to be.]