Chapter Text
Where Morena’s tendaily teas were a relatively formal affair at least in its initial phases with their fine porcelain and delicate treats displayed in three-tiered stands, filled with polite conversation expertly steered by the hostess, her equally frequent dinners with her son were more… relaxed.
For one, they seemed to make a habit of switching off who hosted, Morena having the honor roughly every other tenday, and Gale doing the same the other half. The tone was usually wholly informal, even casual, a sharp contrast with the fine silverware and perfectly-plated food served at Morena’s, or the magically assisted creations Gale liked to concoct when he had the time.
It took Helaena most of a dinner sitting a bit wide-eyed in Morena’s dining room as Gale openly scoffed at his mother’s fond chiding and Morena responded to a particularly humorous anecdote with a most unladylike snort before she realized that as formal and, well, posh as Morena could be, her and Gale were quite simply family, not that different from Helaena’s own besides in size and general chaos.
It made her miss her own family, in truth. The Cresswell/Forster clan had always been a tight-knit one, even with Symon often away on duty as a Harper. Jeyne almost always brought Alyn to the frequent family dinners, and with him, any other members of his clan that happened to be in town, Gran would obviously be there, Dad would go slightly overboard with the cooking and likely make enough food to feed a small army…
Maybe it was time to pay a visit to the Gate soon. Her family aside, she’d like to make sure everyone from their adventuring crew was settling in well. It would be a shame to lose contact with them simply because there was no great evil to fight for a while. Sendings and letters could do a lot, but it wasn’t the same as looking someone in the eye.
“What has you frowning in such a manner, my dear?” Morena asked.
Helaena startled, realizing she’d been zoned out of the conversation at the tea party. It appeared the rest of the guests had left while she had been lost in thought. “I’m sorry, I was just thinking.”
“What about?” Morena’s expression was open, perhaps a bit curious.
She hesitated for a moment, before deciding on honesty. “I miss my family.”
“Ah. Homesickness kicked in at last?”
Helaena winced, but Morena simply smiled before pouring them both another cup of tea.
“No one could blame you, my dear. Moving five hundred miles, away from your family and almost everything you’ve ever known… It is no small thing.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here,” Helaena protested. She loved Gale, she liked Waterdeep, she wanted the life they were building together here.
“Of course not. You can want something and still struggle or doubt, at times. It’s not as if I haven’t been there myself.”
Helaena’s frown returned. Silly as it was, it was difficult to imagine Morena Dekarios as anything but what she was now; confident, formidable, and entirely comfortable in her own skin. Of course Morena had been young once, of course she’d had her struggles, same as anyone, but still…
Morena chuckled, perhaps a bit sadly. “You don’t believe me. I suppose that means I’ve succeeded in my efforts to portray myself as an impeccably unflappable society matriarch.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to-”
“Please, dear girl, we’ve been over this. To you, I am simply Morena.”
Helaena dared a laugh. “Yes, Morena.”
“I was a merchant’s daughter, you know. Oh, we had money, but to most of the upper class in Waterdeep, we were simply foreign upstarts, nevermind that the first Dekarios settled in the City of Splendors shortly after the end of the Guild Wars.”
Helaena did some quick mental math. That would be at least two hundred years prior, if she remembered her history right.
“Trade is, of course, more than welcome, but there is a great leap to be made between being a merchant family with a branch based in Waterdeep, and to be Waterdhavian. I was born here, raised here, educated here, but everywhere I went, I was still a Chessentan.”
Helaena could barely imagine. The Gate was a young city by comparison, only reaching its current size and influence in the past couple centuries. She was frankly unsure how long either side of her family had spent in the city beyond knowing both her parents had been born there, and her maternal grandmother on its southern outskirts.
“Helaena, my dear, I’ve only even been to Chessenta a scant handful of times in my life, and not for more than a decade now. In all matters but blood, I am as Chessentan as this teapot.” Morena gestured to the fine porcelain in front of them, in all likelihood a Kara-Turan import.
“But you and Gale both speak the language.”
“We do. We also both enjoy a good bowl of avgolemono, and I taught him how to make baklava from my grandmother’s recipe.”
A recipe Helaena couldn’t wait to get her hands on, at that, Morena’s baklava was fantastic.
“You can be more than one thing at once. I can be Waterdhavian, and still have roots and family and culture from Chessenta. It simply took some… convincing, of the upper echelons of society, to allow a foreigner entry into their midst.”
Hence why I’ve never heard you speak Chessentan to anyone but Gale, Helaena quietly mused.
“I had to be more Waterdhavian than anyone who can trace their lineage in the city for a millennium. I had to fit in, which included leaving much of my family’s customs behind, at least in public.
“Oh, some things like the food are considered harmless, but try to speak of Chessentan ideals of free expression or political debate, and you’d be branded a misguided outsider, inadequately informed of Waterdhavian ideals. This city really is hopelessly conservative in many ways.”
“But you did it.”
“I did. I am, or was, the chief legal advisor of two Masked Lords, and have spoken on a number of occasions to the full Council. That does not mean it did not take some amount of sacrifice and turmoil and doubt to get there.”
“How did you do it?” Helaena dared ask. “You said you had Gale when you were around my age.”
“I did. I’d finished my schooling, hmm, three years prior? I was still working my first job as a legal aide to a minor law firm, nothing impressive. I met Gale’s father in the Southern Ward, just off the docks. I was having a rare night out with friends of mine, and he asked if he could buy me a drink. I agreed.”
Helaena’s expression must have been amusing, because Morena hid a snort behind one perfectly-manicured hand.
“You were expecting something a bit more glamorous, perhaps? A grand masquerade or a fine fête, mayhaps a luncheon hosted by the Open Lord?”
“You met Gale’s father in a dockside tavern?”
“Every old woman was a foolish girl, once. He was handsome, charming, funny. He was as intoxicating as the truly terrible rum we were drinking. I decided to make a poor decision, for once. It had consequences. Most decisions do.”
“And you never regretted it?”
“My dear, I had doubts the moment I made every decision. But regrets? I could never regret Gale. He is the best thing I ever did. Every time I faltered, I could look at him and remind myself I had to keep going, not just for myself, but for him. And now, I have…”
Morena actually blushed, something Helaena wasn’t sure if she should try to record for posterity somehow.
The matriarch cleared her throat before continuing. “And now you are a part of my family, too.” She graced Helaena with a kind smile. “Would you mind if I showed you something? Our conversation made me think of it.”
“Oh, of course!” Part of her family. Helaena was still getting used to that, but it sounded… really, really nice.
Morena returned with a leather-bound album dyed a warm plum, something embossed on the front cover that may have been the Dekarios family crest.
“Now, I obviously don’t have every portrait I ever had done of Gale in this, some of them are framed around the house, but I do have at least copies of most of them…” She flipped through a few pages, reaching one she had apparently been looking for. “Ah, here.”
On the page was a miniature of a boy, roughly the age of six judging by the lack of one incisor, grinning widely through a mop of wavy dark hair, brown eyes sparkling with mischief.
Helaena’s heart clenched at the sight. There was likely a similar album or three somewhere in her parents’ townhouse, documenting every stage of her life from birth to now, birthdays, milestones, family events. Miniatures like this, family portraits, quick sketches done by her mother.
But seeing Gale like this, young and carefree and uncomplicatedly happy… And by the gods, he’d been so precious she all but wanted to squeal.
“Oh, Morena, he was adorable.”
Morena chuckled, nodding her agreement before turning to a different page, this one of Gale as a toddler, eyes wide with wonder as he looked at a small flame suspended over one chubby palm.
“He had a knack for fire magic even that young?” Helaena asked, smiling as she ran her fingers over familiar features hidden under a healthy layer of baby fat.
“Oh, he was a menace even in the crib. I think he singed my eyebrows off the first time when he was six months old. He loved magic, right from the start, but he was powerful enough to be a danger to himself and others much earlier than most. I suppose since I have as much magical talent as a candlestick myself I struggled a bit to realize what he needed.”
Helaena frowned, trying to remember what Gale had told her. “But Elminster started tutoring him when he was seven, right?”
“He did. Of course, once Gale learned control, he wanted to learn everything else, too, with… less concern for the potential consequences than might have been ideal.”
Helaena snorted. It somehow wasn’t difficult at all to imagine a young Gale, flush with success (and a somewhat inflated ego) attempting magic well beyond his years. And succeeding, at that, if with aftereffects he hadn’t anticipated.
“I suppose I should be grateful Tara is the one who responded to his call for a familiar. She was a grounding influence in a number of ways. And much more capable of keeping an eye on his habit of causing mischief.”
“With varying success, maybe, judging by a story or two I’ve heard from his Blackstaff years.”
Morena groaned. “The Death Slaad. I could have wrung his neck for that one, he’d been at the Blackstaff for two months. I was this close to pulling him out of the academy altogether, but Elminster spoke his case.”
It was strange to think of a world where Gale had barely been a wizard at all. Well no, he’d likely have continued to teach himself, regardless of his mother’s opinion. Something Morena was likely to have been well aware of.
Helaena turned another page, her eyebrows shooting up at the portrait of a young family, a young Morena smiling down at an infant Gale cradled in her arms, likely only a few months old.
A tall, handsome man with Gale’s nose and mouth combined with the olive skin and dark eyes and hair of the Old Empires stood next to his wife and son, his eyes fond but perhaps a tad distant.
“Oh. This is-?”
“Yes.” Morena’s brow furrowed, her lips pinching together. “I suppose it is important to remember the good times, too, before… Well, you know how it ended. He wasn’t a villain, he was just a man. A man who was not fit to be a husband or a father, but many aren’t.”
Helaena nodded, unsure what to say. Gale’s wounds from his abandonment clearly had never fully healed, but it wouldn’t have hurt nearly as much if there hadn’t been something to lose.
Still, she wasn’t sure she had it in her to be as gracious towards the man who’d sired Gale as Morena was. Helaena didn’t consider herself to be particularly prone to anger or rage or holding grudges, but this man, whatever his intentions, had hurt Gale.
And that was one thing she was unlikely to ever forgive, however unintentional the hurt might have been.
As she wandered home late that afternoon, after another hour spent cooing over portraits of Gale at every stage from newborn to university graduate (his beanstalk stage had, indeed, been ridiculously endearing), Helaena wondered.
Family. She’d always had it, her parents busy but loving, siblings to tease her, grandparents to spoil her, long evenings spent in front of a roaring fire, hundreds of lively conversations over a table groaning under the weight of plentiful good food.
Gale had had his mother, and later Tara, and the extended Dekarios clan she’d so far only met a few members of, but his childhood had been very different all the same. As sick as Helaena had been of either or both of her siblings, especially during her adolescence, they’d always been there. She’d never been lonely.
And seeing pictures of him as a child, especially when he’d been tiny, it made her wonder what kind of family they wanted to build. There were the two of them of course, and Scratch, and all of Helaena’s family, and Tara and Morena and the rest of the Dekarioses, and all their family by choice rather than blood, but all the same…
It boiled down to this: Did she want children? Before Gale, it had been a solid Maybe, possibly a Maybe No, more because she found it unlikely she’d find a partner willing to deal with her idiosyncrasies than anything else, and as certain shameless older women of her acquaintance had been fond of reminding her, the clock was ticking and she wouldn’t have the chance forever.
Helaena was only twenty-eight for hells’ sake, there was plenty of time, but it just hadn’t seemed plausible. But now, it was. She was engaged, she’d be married within the year, she had a home, financial stability, physical health, all of the things necessary to at least consider it.
She’d never thought about it that much, never considered it a great sacrifice or loss if she never had the chance, but if it was with Gale… She needed to think, to consider, and eventually, to talk to her fiancé.
“Laena, love.” Gale greeted her with a kiss to the temple, Helaena smiling a bit distractedly in response. “How was the cafe?”
“Hmm? Oh, it was good.” She had taken a job in a mid-sized cafe nestled midway between the Blackstaff and the Great Drunkard, and had been greatly enjoying spending her days in the kitchen and teaching the young apprentices on staff. “I left a bit early to go to your mother’s tea party.”
Helaena looked up from the celery she’d been chopping, something deep inside her melting at the love and trust and comfort radiating out of Gale, even if he did look a bit tired from a long day of classes. She loved him so much, loved the life they were building, had every belief they could get through almost anything after the nightmare they’d met in.
“I love you,” she told him, her heart full to bursting.
Gale’s smile widened, his hand reaching up to stroke her cheek. “And I love you.”
Celery now wholly abandoned, Helaena buried her hands in his hair, rising on her tiptoes to greet him with a proper kiss.
Maybe it was silly, but with the thoughts that had been swirling in her head for hours now, she wanted him. She wanted him as close as they could be, to feel his heart beating against hers, his breath against her skin, his groans in her ear.
“Not that I’m complaining, but what prompted this?” Gale asked, gratifyingly breathless, a flush spreading over his cheeks.
“Missed you today,” Helaena said simply, her lips moving to his jaw, under the ear adorned with her engagement present, along the line of his neck, now unmarred by the spread of the Orb. She nipped teasingly at his pulse point, relishing in his soft groan.
Gale’s hands tightened where they rested on her hips, his voice slightly strangled. “Love, I…”
Helaena backed away immediately, looking up at him. “Do you want me to stop?”
Gale huffed out a chuckle, gently stroking back a curl that had escaped from her ponytail. “No, but I was wondering if perhaps you wished to move this to our bedroom.”
“Oh.” She considered for a moment, then winked at her fiancé. “Nah, I’m good.”
Gale grinned, his hands moving down her sides with purpose until he scooped her up by the thighs and placed her on the kitchen counter, less than a foot from her abandoned cutting board.
“Right in front of the celery, too,” she chided teasingly, biting back a giggle as she drew Gale closer with her ankles crossed behind his back.
He huffed out a laugh, leaning down to kiss her, again and again until her head swam and all she wanted was more, more, more.
“Gods,” she gasped, as Gale’s mouth moved from her lips to tease down the column of her throat, lingering on every sweet spot he’d charted after months of sharing a bed. “Gale, please…”
She could feel his smile of satisfaction against her skin. He really was entirely too fond of getting her to beg. Those damn hands of his squeezed her thighs, fond and perhaps a bit possessive, stroking the soft flesh on their way to her rapidly dampening core, sadly covered by her trousers.
“As much as I enjoy the easy access of your skirts,” Gale murmured into her neck, one long-fingered hand toying with the button at her waistband. “I must say, these trousers do wonderful things for your arse.”
Helaena snorted, caught off-guard as always by Gale’s infrequent crassness. “I’m glad you’re enjoying them.”
“I think I’d enjoy them quite a bit more off at this very moment,” he countered, thumbing open the buttons holding the trousers in place, his hand sliding inside her underwear to tease her already-dripping slit. “Is all this for me?” he teased, running his finger through her wetness, too lightly to do anything but frustrate her.
“Hells, Gale,” she groaned. “Please just-” She whined as the pad of his finger caressed her cl*t, so softly it was barely there. “Please,” she repeated, her eyes half-lidded as she looked at Gale, for once almost exactly at her level with the extra inches given by the kitchen counter.
Gale huffed, that soft, disbelieving sound he sometimes made when he was kissing her, or f*cking her, or just looking at her; as if he couldn’t believe he actually got be hers as much as she was his. His eyes were unbearably soft, filled with love and no small amount of awe, a helpless smile curving his lips.
He leaned in to kiss her, soft and slow and tender, in complete contrast with his fingers as he finally stopped teasing her, two easily sliding inside of her, his thumb working her cl*t.
Helaena whined into his mouth, her arms wrapped around his neck, hands buried in his hair. Gods help her, she loved his hands, loved how they felt inside her, she loved him so much, she wanted to do this with him forever, for the rest of her life if she could.
“I know, love, I know,” Gale soothed.
Helaena’s blush deepened as she realized she’d said at least some of that out loud, but she quickly forgot to be embarrassed as a muttered spell left her naked on the kitchen counter. Was it weird she found it kind of ridiculously hot Gale had done that with one hand busy fingering her?
“I didn’t want to let go of you long enough for you to get undressed,” he explained, perhaps a bit sheepishly, his free hand moving to appreciatively squeeze one newly-bared breast.
Helaena couldn’t help but laugh, the contractions almost forcing his fingers out of her. She kissed his cheek, his temple, anything she could reach, her hands reaching down to fumble with the clasps of the trim trousers he’d worn to teach.
Gale continued to do his level best to distract her between his fingers pumping inside her, his thumb rubbing circles on her cl*t, his lips on her neck and now his other hand gently kneading and teasing her breast, so when she eventually got the damn things undone, she made a sound of triumph, cut off by a moan as Gale’s fingers hit a sweet spot at a perfect angle.
“Ge-get inside me,” she tried to demand, breathless. “I’m so close, Gale, I need-”
“One like this, first,” Gale countered, his eyes dark, darting between where his fingers sank inside her, to where her chest heaved with each breath, to her lips, swollen by his kisses. “One like this, love, and then…”
If he said anything else, she didn’t hear it, a low, desperate whine building in her throat as his thumb on her cl*t sped up, the additional friction and pressure exactly what she needed.
“Almost there, almost- oh gods, Gale, I’m almost, I need, f*ck, I’m-”
He kissed her as she peaked, hungrily swallowing every moan. His lips were soft and reverent as she slowly came down, his fingers carefully slipping out of her a moment before she got too sensitive.
“I love you,” she breathed, her eyes fluttering closed as she blindly kissed his cheek, his jaw, the corner of his lips. “So much.”
“And I love you.” Gale gently guided her back to his lips with a hand on her chin, his kiss loving, appreciative, but with an undercurrent of hunger that rekindled her own.
Helaena’s legs pulled him closer, her hands returning to his waistband to push down his trousers and underwear, freeing his co*ck. He was hard as a rock despite not letting her pay the slightest bit of attention to him, beautifully responsive even at the first gentle strokes of her palm, aided by a quick spell to summon enough oil to keep everything slick and wet.
His brow furrowed as he groaned, his hands twitching where they rested on her shoulders, his hips jerking as she teased him with a twist of her wrist. “Gods, love, you don’t-” He bit his lip, stifling a delicious sound she’d have to tease out of him again.
“Your choice,” she breathed into his ear, her hand steadily pumping his co*ck. “Like this, or inside me, or maybe in my mouth-”
Her words were cut off by a desperate noise, somewhere between a whine and a moan, Gale’s hands quickly batting hers away as he pulled her closer to the edge of the counter, sinking inside her with a groan of relief.
“Hells, love…”
Helaena had to perch somewhat awkwardly at the edge of the counter to make it work, but she sure as hells wasn’t going to complain now that Gale was f*cking her, a litany of his groans and curses muffled in her shoulder, her arms and legs wrapped around him to keep him as close as he could possibly be.
The angle wasn’t right to do much for her, but she didn’t care, it did as much to her to have Gale like this, to feel him, his lips forming soundless words at her collarbone, his hips snapping desperately against hers, his hands warm and broad and possessive on her ass, keeping her positioned so he could f*ck her, hard and fast, feel the way he trembled as she clenched down on him.
“Gods, Laena, darling, I’m not…” He groaned, his hands twitching where they gripped her ass, hopefully hard enough to leave a mark. “I’m sorry, this won’t take long.”
Gale tried to move one hand down to tease her cl*t, but she batted it away to his obvious confusion, frowning as he looked up at her.
“Take your pleasure,” Helaena told him, clenching down on him to prove her point. “I want to watch you,” she admitted, blushing at the admission despite him being inside her.
His eyes widened, but he didn’t protest. She greedily watched every single twitch and jerk and furrow in his brow, listened to every moan and grunt and whine, moaning softly herself as he finally spilled inside her, holding him close in the aftermath as he panted into her ear, whispering sweet nothings as both their hearts began to slow.
“Are you happy?” Helaena wondered aloud somewhat later as they were curled up on the couch in the library, a fire crackling merrily away in the hearth.
Dinner had been rather delayed but very good, if she did say so herself, but like this, utterly safe and comfortable in Gale’s arms and so in love with him her heart could burst, she didn’t think she’d ever been happier.
“Right now?” Gale mumbled into her neck, pressing a soft kiss to her pulse point. “Love, if I ever claim to be anything less than wholly thrilled to be holding you, feel free to take me for a doppelganger.”
Helaena poked his shoulder, grinning. “That’s still not funny,” she insisted.
Gale simply hummed, tugging her closer, but she could feel his smile against her skin.
“I meant in general, though,” she continued after a few quiet, content moments. “Are you happy with how we are right now?” Did he want more? Was there something he needed she couldn’t give him? Did he quietly dream of little ones with his eyes and her hair filling the tower with life and love and laughter?
“Helaena, darling, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life than I am right now. I have you, I have my home and my family, I have work that is satisfying without being overwhelming. There is nothing more I could ask for.”
She nodded, hiding her slight frown by turning to bury her face in his shoulder. She supposed that was answer enough.
And it wasn’t like she wasn’t happy as they were now either. It would be no sacrifice at all to never have children, even if part of her might be saddened by the thought of never getting to see Gale grow into the role of father, never getting to watch him hold a child that was a perfect mixture of them both. But hopefully with his eyes. She did love his eyes.
“I love you,” she whispered into his collar. “More than I ever thought was possible.”
Helaena would give up a hell of a lot more than vague, half-formed dreams that might never have been at all regardless for the chance to have this, the man she loved whole and safe and happy, no Netherese Orb or Goddesses or tadpoles threatening to tear him away from her.
Just them, just this? She’d have been happy with so much less.
