Jeffery sighed he had worked all day. Putting up barriers around the bunker and around the rest of the compound. He had trained his father, Master Goodwing and some members of the Negromanti Coven, that were too old to fight, but were stubborn enough not to hide in the bunker, to use healing magic. He has not seen Azeon all day, because he was keeping Nora's aunt busy. Jeffery had heard stories about the woman, but the reality was a huge disappointment. Even her own husband agrees with Nora's course of action. Mister Owen Alure was a strange man, who looked old but wasn't much older than Jeffery's own father. Alright in his teenage brain that was quite old, but that man had some fire of a twelve-year old burning inside him.
"Hey son." His father slapped him on the shoulder. "Take a breather, you have worked your ass off today." Jeffery looked at him, he never heard him talk like that.
"Dad, what happened to mom?" Jeffery asked, that was the question that had plagued his mind all day. Ever since he had told Dragon King Mira that he had lost her.
"You know I called Abby, and I told her to grab Michell and your mother." His father said and Jeffery nodded. He also knew that his mother had not believed Abby. But she still let Abby take Michell. "Well Abby had not lifted her heals as those banshee bastards came into the house. From what I am told, she had put up a huge fight against them to give Abby and Michell as much time to get away. But in the end she used up all her energy, and still she kept on throwing magic." His father stopped and gasped. "Again I am told. That her last words were, you will never win. My son and daughter will defeat you." Jeffery's jaw dropped. Not knowing if she really said that, or that his father made it up to make him feel better. In any case, he was glad that his mother had fought for Michell and Abby.
"Abby told me that she didn't believe you." Jeffery said, he hated to say this about his death mother.
"I think that she only said that, so that Abby would leave her behind." His father said and Jeffery needed to say that it made sense. Otherwise, she never had allowed Abby to take Michell to an unknown place. "But enough doom and gloom. Tell me more about that dragon of yours." Jeffery smiled.
"Azeon you mean." He didn't give his father time to respond. "Where to begin, I met him at a banquet at aunt Epoa's palace. We were not only guests of the Lunar Coven, but also aunt Epoa's personal guests. And after Azeon had discovered that I was gay, we were inseparable. Going to the opera together, walking hand in hand through the city. Talking about everything under the moon, or we didn't speak at all. I love him dad, he is the one I want to grow old with. To raise a family with." Jeffery said and looked at his father who had tears in his eyes.
"You want to raise a family, you mean that you want to have children?" His father asked, and Jeffery tracked back his own words. He indeed had said that, and it filled him with joy that he had done that.
"Yes, I want to have children." Jeffery said. His father whipped the tears from his own eyes.
"After you told me the news, the only thing I feared was that you would not find the joy of raising your own family. That was what had filled we with so much rage, which I lashed out on you. Which was not fair to you, and I know that." His father said. "But to hear you speak about the man that stole your heart, it makes me... It makes me happy." He lowered his head. "I could sing about it, if I could carry a tune." Jeffery was glad that his father admitted that he couldn't sing. And he somehow understood his father's fear.
"Dad, there is something that you should know." Jeffery said, he hoped that his father would understand his decisions. "Azeon, is not my boyfriend. He is my husband. We married last night in secret, Abby found out this morning." Jeffery said. "But that is not all. We also left our seed, with the Lunar Coven. Just in case, one of use or both of use are not coming back." His father gaped at him.
"You are married?" His father said after a while, and Jeffery nodded. "But you both are so young." Jeffery raised his eyebrows, so that was his father's only concern? Their age. To be fair aunt Epoa had said the same thing. She even had cursed Andera for the suggestion of giving up his seed. Still she had married them, and even provided them with their wedding bands. "Do not get me wrong. I understand when you are facing something like this, you want to know that the people that you love are cared for. But you two have your whole lives in front of you." Jeffery nodded
"You are not the first who said it." Jeffery said. "And we know that the both of you are right. But still..."
"You are in love. In people who are in love make sometimes rushed or stupid decisions. Dragon Lords know that I have. Not that I am saying that the marriage between the two of you is stupid. I can see that you care for him, and by marrying you he tells me that he cares about you too. All I am going to say is that I am happy for you. So there I said it." His father said and Jeffery got the feeling that the last part was meant as something private. His father sighed. "Sorry, I am just worried about you. And I know I do not have the right to be that. I lost that right, when I kicked you out of the house." Jeffery nodded. That was indeed true. "But you are still my son." His father said.
"Can I join this conversation?" Azeon said. He sat down on a bench that Jeffery and his father had missed, during their conversation. "Do not get me wrong I am used to babysitting Andera's children. But that woman is really something else." Azeon said, pointing with his thumb to Sarotia. Who was currently in conversation with her husband, loudly. "But alright can I join in or is this a father and son thing?"
"Well it reached my ears that I can count you as a son." His father sat, while he sat down on the wooden bench. "Azeon may I ask you if this is all over and you two are going to start your family. Am I allowed to visit?" Azeon nodded.
"Of course you are allowed sir." Azeon replied.
"Good, well when this is all over I will come over to meet your parents to hear what they have to say about this." His father said.
"Uhm dad." Jeffery started, and his father turned his attention towards him. "His parents pasted away some time ago. He was raised by his aunt, Dragon King Epoa." His father nodded.
"Then I will talk with her then." His father said then. "Alright the two of you enjoy your night, get some sleep. Tomorrow will bring war." His father stood up and walked away.
*****
"So you told him." Azeon said, and Jeffery nodded. "After you told me that you wouldn't do it." Jeffery nodded again.
"I did, didn't I?" Jeffery asked. It was not a question, more of a conformation towards himself. "I am sorry, my love. But he asked about you, and then I went on and on, about how I met you. How we spend our day's and bits of the night. And I finally came to the point of that I wanted to raise a family with you. My father got emotional after hearing that." Jeffery stopped for a moment to gasp for breath. " Then he told me that he had feared that after I told him about my sexuality, that I didn't want a family. Which of course is ridiculous, but somehow I felt guilty. Guilty because I didn't tell him that I already started a family without telling him." He felt ridiculous when he said it out loud, hoping that Azeon would tell him so. But Azeon did not tell him this, he only nodded.
"And now he wants to talk with aunt Epoa, about our decision. That we are too young and that we have our whole lives to think about marriage and children." Azeon said.
"Yep he gave me the whole speech, like your aunt did. Still it was our choice and I still stand by it." Jeffery said. "Because I love you, and I do not doubt for one second that you love me." Jeffery grabbed Azeon by the chin and turned his head slightly. "I do not doubt it." He whispered against Azeon's lips, before he kissed him. Azeon relaxed and started to kiss him back.
"Hello, you two. Get a room." Satoria's voice reached them, and they started to laugh.
"Leave them be, they are young and in love." Owen Alure said to his wife. "That we never enjoyed such..."
"Do not go there, Owen. Do not even go there. Our marriage was political nothing more." Satoria said. "But that those not mean that I have to watch them kissing and stuff." Jeffery pulled away from Azeon.
"She has a point, my father had told use to get some sleep." Jeffery said and Azeon nodded.
"Let's get a room, then."