[Semi-Closed Post] the 'how are you's

[lanselos_du_lac]

It's a couple of days before Lancelot is feeling well enough, and before Susan is willing to let him out of her sight. He is still tired -- the incident with Magnus was surprisingly taxing, given the chill and the fever -- and he looks it.

He is dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater, and he convinces Susan that he's feeling well enough, he needs to check on Magnus. In truth, he still feels on the mend, but giving into the urge to keep sleeping for another day or two would feel wrong.

So he ventures out, first to get coffee and then to seek Magnus. He decides to forego drills today, as he doesn't suppose he has the strength. He isn't entirely sure where to find Magnus, but he heads instinctively for the greenhouse, since that's where he left him. (Lancelot knows he might well find him elsewhere, but this is a good starting point.)

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[summerdude]

Fortunately for Lancelot's mild reluctance, Drosera chooses that moment to emerge from underneath her little table-cave with a skittering of talons on stone. She knocks a fragment of her favorite flower-pot out first -- oops, looks like that one's broken! Bizarrely, she has what looks like a smudge of charcoal on her beak. She comes stumbling out, chasing her fragment of terracotta, bumps into Lancelot's legs, and then stares up at him, frozen.

[onthewillowsthere]

"That's our daughter," Galahad says helpfully.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Oh," Lancelot says, quietly.

Very slowly, he shifts to crouch and offer Drosera his hand to sniff or nibble.

[summerdude]

Drosera looks at it suspiciously, and then makes the face she always makes when she's about to pounce.

"Gently," Magnus tells her. "He's not used to your roughhousing."

baby play!!! Drosera insists, and bites Lancelot's fingers.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Don't bite him," Galahad says, with every expectation of being ignored.

[lanselos_du_lac]

It does hurt, a little, but Lancelot doesn't jump back or anything. Much as he might with a puppy who is still learning, he draws his hand gently away with an exaggerated little, "Ouch!"

[summerdude]

Drosera immediately deploys her new trick when someone tells her no, which is giving Lancelot a truly unsettling sort of hang-dog expression and then rolling on the ground, stretching out her talons and her paws alike as if to say 'what, little old me? look how cute I am!'

What she is saying, of course, is, a much more defensive baby play!!!!! Magnus signs this to Galahad, and then crouches down to scratch her belly. She whips up to bite him too, of course, but only closes her beak around his hand without truly biting harm, staring at him like she's waiting to see how much he'll let her get away with.

[onthewillowsthere]

Cuteness is not something that affects Galahad, in general -- he appreciates that Drosera is very charming, but it doesn't delight him in the same way it does Magnus. However, the way Dro rolls and stretches now makes his chest squeeze oddly.

Baby, he signs.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"She's quite fierce," Lancelot says, warm and approving. It's clear from his expression that he finds Drosera incredibly cute.

[summerdude]

"She's a good little girl," Magnus agrees, proudly. "She wants you to play with her."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad finally gets up from the floor, unfolding to his feet, and retrieves the feather on a string Magnus made for her (after cajoling said feather from the peacock-pheasant in the woods).

"Here," he says, handing it down to Lancelot, who has neither supernatural strength nor a healing factor.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Ah," says Lancelot, smiling up at Galahad briefly before turning his attention back to Drosera. He dangles the feather just out of her reach.

[summerdude]

Drosera goes wild for this, of course, She's working on her wing strength -- she's not ready to fly yet, but she's getting there, and she spreads them now (nearly knocking over several plants in the process) to give herself more balance as she rises on her hind paws and snaps at the feather.

[onthewillowsthere]

It's Magnus' turn with the camera right now, so Galahad isn't sure where it is, which is a shame because he thinks Susan would like to see this. Laertes might too, or even Grantaire, now that Grantaire has to be accounted for as well, but Galahad thinks mostly of Susan because they've talked about Lancelot being allowed to be different here. The cold, angry, arrogant man (although Galahad now wonders if he thought Lancelot was arrogant because it's something other people said about him, and he couldn't read Lancelot well enough to know whether it was untrue) Galahad knew in Camelot is impossible to imagine like this, playing with a half-grown creature.

[lanselos_du_lac]

All of Lancelot's attention is on Drosera. He flits the feather up just quickly enough to evade her, then swoops it a little before letting it dangle back within her reach.

[summerdude]

Is he... good at this? Magnus signs to Galahad, incredulous.

[onthewillowsthere]

He's good at this, he signs back, impassive.

[lanselos_du_lac]

On another sweep, Drosera nearly catches it and Lancelot says to her, in a doting tone, "Such a splendid hunter-- didst nearly have it!"

[summerdude]

baby hunt!!!! Dro cries, swiping at the feather.

[onthewillowsthere]

Fine. If he doesn't have the camera, he can at least try to sketch it. He retrieves his sketchbook from the floor by Magnus' tomato plant.

[lanselos_du_lac]

After another pass or two, Lancelot lets the feather dip lower, gives her the opportunity to catch it.

[summerdude]

And Drosera surges up, capturing it in her beak and dragging it from Lancelot's hand with her talons, making her squeaky little growl as she murders that feather to death.

"Isn't she the best?" Magnus says, serenely. He'll have to get another feather. She's shredding this one.

[onthewillowsthere]

Luckily, they took long enough to get to the feather-murder that Galahad has a passable sketch. He looks up at Lancelot and what surely will be his approval of their daughter.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"She is a fierce hunter, indeed," Lancelot says, all approval. "Very fine."

[summerdude]

Okay, okay, Magnus officially can't resist. "Say thanks, grandmama," he tells Drosera, with a tiniest apologetic glance to Galahad.