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https://ift.tt/2KUDOG1Ooohohohohoho *rubs hands* this is gonna get long I can feel it but HERE WE GO:
-Short version? Badly. And with strong alcohol and much dazed staring.
-Longer version? He is incredibly doubtful at first and maybe (out of stress) says something to that affect to Axis, who just- looks him dead in the eye without a word and there is a fire and stubbornness there that looks too familiar and makes Clarus’s heart sink (there’s a memory from his young, pre-married days of a Galahdian woman with those eyes and that skin tone, who had looked at him with a similar fire and contempt before he’d managed to charm her. But that was once and so long ago, surely it’s just a coincidence. Surely if he had an illegitimate kid it would be from one of his longer flings when he was truly young and dumb?). He’s seen Axis around the Citadel a lot before now because he’s Nox’s close friend, they’ve even talked cordially a few times, but … his son? Surely not. Surely he would have known before the young man stormed in and demanded a blood test to prove he could be Nox’s Shield. Axis has been around for like- idk how long but definitely upwards of a year, because the Council only really kicked up the Shield fuss after Nox’s existence was leaked to the public (I think). Surely Clarus wouldn’t have remained oblivious to the presence of another child of his blood for that long right? RIGHT?
-Clarus awaits the results with increasing dread and a feeling of doom at the sheer burning, resentful, confidence this young man has in his declaration. Like Axis believes down to his bones that he is Clarus’s illegitimate son and is angry that he must now flaunt that fact to get what he wants (a permanent place at Nox’s side). It really doesn’t help that Nox spends the wait lingering near Axis, shooting worried looks at Clarus and bristling protectively whenever Regis’s Shield comes near (like he’s afraid Clarus will hurt Axis for this, like he’s afraid Axis will be punished for announcing his lineage to the world).
-The results come through and Clarus’s world comes down around his ears. Axis watches the doctors hand Regis the positive report with sharp eyes, then promptly turns on his heel and walks away. He doesn’t look at Clarus even once. Nox trails after him with a sigh, like he expected this, and starts talking softly to his Shield (to Clarus’s SON) about how being his formal Shield means he’ll have to move into Insomnia. Clarus doesn’t hear anything more past the ringing in his ears and the hand Regis has on his back to keep Clarus upright.
-He goes home and gets drunk. In between the glasses of whatever poison he’s snatched from the wine-shelf (he hasn’t checked), he tells Juno everything. He’s always told his wife everything, and he can see in her eyes that she isn’t really surprised. She’s known from the start that Clarus had been with other women before meeting her. He’d gone to extraordinary lengths to prove to her that she was different. That he had been serious about her in a way he hadn’t with his flings. So the knowledge that he’s apparently been seeing his illegitimate son around the Citadel without realizing just makes her sigh and pat his hand and take his wine away before he can get blackout drunk.
-Clarus continues to panic the entire time Axis is gone to “retrieve things from his home outside Insomnia” (read: tell his own wife Porrima that they have to move to Insomnia now, sorry about that). Nox shows very little sympathy, instead busying himself picking out a nice house in one of the “security approved” neighborhoods for Axis to live in. Regis, Cor, and Juno make up Clarus’s sanity for about the next two weeks it takes him to get his composure together, figure out (sorta) what to say to his long-lost son (as well as what to tell Gladio and Iris oh boy), and tentatively follow Cor’s directions to the house Nox picked.
-Clarus has no idea how Nox found the one house in upper Insomnia that was essentially an overgrown greenhouse of jungle plants (the last owner had been from Tenebrae and imported a lot of plants from his homeland), or why Nox chose the three-story, plant-infested house for his Shield (wouldn’t Axis get lonely living alone in such a big house?), but he sucks it up, gingerly makes his way under the drooping, flowering vines dangling from the trees to the front door and rings the doorbell with the hand not holding the housewarming/please-talk-to-me-I’m-your-Dad-and-I-want-to-know-you-better gift.
-Axis opens the door and stares him down, Clarus manages to stiffly get out a greeting and offer the gift (how do you talk to your illegitimate son you didn’t know you had until two weeks ago????) and Axis looks like he’s debating shutting the door in Clarus’s face when a woman shows up behind Axis, takes one look at Clarus, and invites him in.t
-The woman turns out to be Porrima Arra. Axis’s wife. A Galahdian woman with a prosthetic leg and a much friendlier demeanor than his son (his SON. Clarus is still not over this fact). She serves tea and apologizes for the mess because they are in the middle of moving in (Nox scoots by and dumps an armchair out of his armiger, which is a shameless abuse of magic but hey). Nox gives Clarus a look that might be pity, gives Axis a look that is definitely pity, and calmly asks if he needs to go “watch the gremlins” while they talk.
-Clarus has maybe three seconds to wonder what “the gremlins” are (pets? Galahdians are known for exotic tastes. Or maybe its a nickname for some of the glaives Nox has befriended?) when there’s a loud clatter from upstairs and a loud shriek noise that his father instincts recognize instantly. Axis seems to teleport out of the room, Nox on his heels and Porrima limping behind and Clarus finds himself bringing up the rear as they all tear up the stairs.
-The three children, two girls and a boy all about Iris’s age, blink up at the sudden appearance of adults in the room from beneath the cardboard box fort they have just knocked over. They all look like a flawless mix of Axis’s and Porrima’s features, with identical smiles as they look up at Axis and call him “Pater!” and scramble out from under the boxes to crowd around, “N’uncle Nox!” and Clarus-
-Clarus finds himself sitting down rather hard on the floor.
-This attracts the notice of the three children (Axis’s children. His son’s children. CLARUS IS A G R A N D F A T H E R) who hide between Nox’s legs and peer at him in question.
-Axis takes one look at Clarus’s expression and sudden seated position on the floor, sighs heavily, and says, “This is your grandfather, Clarus Amicitia.”
-”Is he safe?” Asks one of the little girls in suspicion, eyes narrowed in what is probably supposed to be a fierce glare but really just makes Clarus’s already stuttering heart melt.
-Nox laughs softly and pats their heads, “He’s safe. He’s just a little surprised is all.”
-Clarus suddenly has three kids (G R A N D C H I L D R E N) crowded around him asking questions that keep slipping off into the unintelligible Galahdian native tongue. Clarus looks up helplessly at Axis and Nox and he can see the moment Axis’s burning, vaguely resentful expression softens into something kinder.
-Clarus spends the afternoon sitting rather dazedly in an armchair, babysitting his grandchildren (G R A N D C H I L D R E N. THEY’RE IRIS’S AGE HOW YOUNG WAS AXIS WHEN THEY WERE BORN-) while an amused (if vaguely wary) Porrima babysits him and Axis, Nox, and the collection of glaives that just trickled in help finish the moving process.
-When Clarus finally gets back to the Citadel hours later, he staggers into Regis’s study, drawing alarmed reactions from both Regis and Cor, snatches Regis’s brandy off the desk, takes a drink straight from the bottle, then sits down on the couch and numbly announces, “I am a grandfather of triplets. They’re Iris’s age.”
-Beneath his own shock, it is extremely gratifying to watch Regis lose it as badly as Clarus himself is. Cor just muffles his laughter behind a hand (troll already knew about them, he’d been to Axis’s new house first he’d SEEN THEM and NOT TOLD CLARUS the little-)
-Clarus throws a couch pillow at Cor’s head and the man laughs openly in their faces while Regis fights down his growing grin as he realizes that Clarus no long has any grounds to lecture Regis on “safety first” and “his reckless youth”.
-Clarus has horrible friends. See if he tells them anything about his grandchildren ever again.
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