I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy hadn't told Ira much about her new situation. She didn't know what she could tell a fourteen-year-old boy. He was too young to need to worry about politics and she didn't want him to worry about her either. 

He was under the impression she worked in the royal gardens now and that her husband had gotten a promotion so a lot had changed in a short period of time. She was going to have to tell him the truth eventually before he came to visit but what would she say?

'Hey, Ira. As it turned out, my farm-boy-turned-soldier husband was actually royalty this whole time, took over this country in retaliation for what they did to his, and is now doing his best to run it and benefit the common people. Who knew?'

That wouldn't work. It was too hard to believe even if it was the truth. 

How was she supposed to explain this to a kid? Smart as he may be, Ira was still a child. He didn't need to deal with adult problems yet. 

Daisy momentarily shook such thoughts away. She needed to focus on reading his letter so she could write a reply. She was always happy to hear from him despite having to be more selective about what she wrote back now. 

'Dear Miss Veronica,

'You'll be pleased to hear that I have, in fact, managed to make a few friends. My Chemistry lab partner Sarabeth, Ciara and Demetria from Magical Theory, and a boy in my year named Nico. 

'We're all sort of doing this extracurricular project with the Magical Theory and Literature professors, which is how we got thrown together. We're a rather unlikely bunch. Sarabeth drives me crazy more than half the time and Nico sort of eggs her on so that makes things worse. 

'I spend most of my time with Ciara. We practice magic together since she's a rather accomplished darkness mage. Out of everyone involved in this project I enjoy her company best even if she is a bit strange. She's a difficult person to describe.

'She isn't Sarabeth Strange—I'm thoroughly convinced she could take over the world and then cackle madly about it—but there is something odd about her. I think it might be partly because she isn't used to Mirean customs but I'm not sure what the other part is.

'Demetria doesn't like Ciara much. I think it's because she doesn't like being the second strongest mage in the class. She is in her last year of school so I suppose I can see where she is coming from but I still find it childish. 

'Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I'm better at memorizing things than coming up with spells but Ciara is amazing at it. She took what her father taught her and made it her own. 

'Anyway, I thought you should know I have people I interact with on a regular basis now. I'm still engrossed in my studies but whenever I'm not studying I'm with one or more of them. Crazy as Sarabeth may be, we have a shared interest in chemistry so we have a lot to talk about academically speaking. 

'She spends a lot of her free time discussing hypotheticals with Professor Rothman and later tells me all about it. Some of what she's doing is fascinating and some of it is going to get somebody killed one of these days. 

'I hope you and Mr. Leo are doing well and that my future brother or sister isn't giving you too hard of a time. I've read a lot about pregnancy symptoms and about now you're probably experiencing headaches, fatigue, back pain, and so on. I hope you're managing alright. 

'Love, Ira'

Daisy laughed at the ending of the letter specifically. She was experiencing all of the above and then some but she had sort of expected that after reading some of the books he checked out after discovering she was pregnant during their visit. 

Ira showed he cared in such an interesting way. Who knows? Maybe interacting with people his age more would help change that. 

She was relieved he had some friends now. Though with how much he complained about Sarabeth she seemed more like a frenemy than anything. She wondered if she would ever be able to meet any of his friends. 

There was always graduation—she did plan to travel back out for that no matter what Rukelion said to the contrary—but that was rather far away. It would be nice to put faces to names. 

She put the letter down and washed her hands before getting back to work. Less than twenty minutes later Rukelion came looking for her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his hands on her stomach where their baby was growing. 

He had snuck up on her. She hadn't even heard the door open since she was back to singing. When he kissed the back of her neck she stopped mid-word and twisted around to smile at him. 

"Hey, Rukelion! Are you all done for the day?"

"No but I heard you were making an apple tart so of course I had to see for myself. How far along are you?" he asked eagerly. 

Daisy laughed again. She should have known. Apple tarts were one of the few things in the world that he actually got excited about. He had been like that ever since he was a kid. 

"I'm nearly done then I can put it in the oven. I'll be sure to bring you a piece as soon as it's out and has cooled down enough that it won't burn you," she promised. "You do have a tendency to scarf things down."

Rukelion scoffed. "I'm a fire mage! I can't get burned!" 

"Seriously? You've never gotten burned by anything in your entire life?"

"No. I'm heat resistant. I can stick my hand into a flame and it wouldn't hurt. I'm not about to get burnt by something as minor as hot food."

Daisy blinked at him. Well then. Fire mages were really something, weren't they? She felt like she learned something new about them all the time. It was comforting to know that her children could never get burned though. Heat blisters were extremely painful. 

"Okay then. I guess I'll bring you some BEFORE it cools down. I'm going to have to wait though because I'm not superhuman like you," she told him. 

Rukelion grinned at her. "Excellent. The sooner the better. So have you been doing anything else aside from making apple tarts today? I know Elaine wasn't able to come over because she's under the weather. Conrad mentioned it."

"I got a letter from Ira. It's on the counter if you want to read it. It's honestly pretty funny. The kid finally made some friends and seems like he doesn't know what he's supposed to do with them."

He let go of her so she could put the finishing touches on the apple tart before sticking it in the oven and ended up scanning the letter. When he was done he looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "I've never met him but Ira seems like an interesting kid."

"You'll meet him soon enough. Before I knew you had become king I invited him to stay with us next summer so he can meet his new brother or sister. He seemed pretty excited about that," Daisy said before frowning. 

"The problem is that I have no idea what I'm supposed to tell him about what's actually been going on here. I don't want him to worry about politics or feel awkward around me like most of the people I know do now because of my title." 

Rukelion set the letter down and leaned against the counter looking at her seriously. "I'm surprised you haven't told him yet. It's been months."

"I know! I just…how do you even put something like that in words? It was hard enough explaining it to Miette and she saw the evidence with her own eyes! How am I supposed to get the right words out to a kid?"

"You tend to underestimate people because of their age, you know. Ira's a scholar. Scholars don't think the same way most people do. They tend to let logic win out. I'm sure if you used basic, logical terms with him he would be able to understand." 

Daisy sighed. What sort of basic, logical terms was she supposed to use though? She knew she needed to do this sometime before next summer but she kept putting it off because she didn't have the right words. 

Maybe once she wasn't pregnant anymore and her brain didn't feel like mush she would be able to come up with the right thing to say. In the meantime she couldn't do anything but skirt around the truth. She didn't have the brainpower to do more than that. 

"I'll get to it eventually," she said wearily. "I'm just glad he's doing alright. He's such a serious little thing—far more serious than you were—and I worried about him being out there all alone. Having friends will be a good thing for him even if it is only in the context of doing a project."

"I wonder what sort of project it is," Rukelion mused. "He was rather vague about it. Is he normally like that?"

"About some things. Most of the time he goes into excruciating detail though. Maybe he's embarrassed. I don't know. Kids can be weird. I just hope he's able to keep these friends after the project is over."

"You worry too much."

"I suppose so but isn't that my job as his foster mom?" Daisy asked with a shrug. 

Rather than replying with words, Rukelion kissed her before heading back out since his break was over and people would be looking for him. She tried not to worry about Ira too much.. His situation with his friends would be fine. Wouldn't it?