The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

Yes, Arthur was still technically wounded (and wearing that infernal sling so he couldn't actually use his regular sword arm), and if all had been normal, he wouldn't be here. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated that his only other alternative would be to be stuck in one room with Leto and a gaggle of screaming children instead, and he was fairly sure that was what other people meant when they talked about Hell.

The salle was the better option. At least he'd-- imprinted them all with the importance of discipline and swordcraft. Right now, it was a brilliant way to distract the little bastards. With any luck, Gawain would show up (or simply vanish into thin air, because weren't these things supposed to last two days) to make the insanity complete.

He was dragging Reno off to go drinking once this was finished.

He eyed Arawn. "Check your posture," he ordered, "You'll just ruin your arm like that. Morgana, don't point that at-- Down. It's called discipline."

It was going to be a long day.

[[ open to all, especially to insane au relatives of doom (tm) ]]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah showed up, looking bleary-eyed and frustrated, Gawain trailing behind her. "Morning." She shot her son a look when she saw the other two Pendragon spawn. "Don't you dare start something. It's way too early for that."

[newlances.livejournal.com]

Gawain's response twas to ignore his semi-mom and nearly skip over to the sword rack, chanting what he'd been thinking for two days: "Sword sword sword. Finally!"

[bitchprince]

Morgana looked as if she was about to say something--

"Silence," Arthur commanded.

She did not look impressed. "WHATEVER!"

"I'm not training with him!" Arawn said, throwing in his three cents. Not that he'd been happy about training with Morgana to start with, but at least she was just a girl.

"I said," Arthur said, with all the bloody patience in the world (you could really sense the palpably contained irritation here), "Silence."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"If you can't behave, we'll leave," Dinah warned Gawain. He sent her an outraged look, and she shook her head. "But I know you can do better than that, right?" At his eyeroll but lack of comment, she breathed a sigh of relief. "C'mon. Swords."

There might, finally, be a little bounce there herself. Her kids hadn't quite wrung all of her energy out of her.

She grabbed her usual practice sword, waited for Gawain to pick one light enough for him, then grinned. "Okay. Show your ... um.... dad, what you can do." Then started her own drill.

[newlances.livejournal.com]

Gawain started off very carefully with his drill, which was easy after two years, ignoring Arawn and Morgana because they were babies, ha. It was funny that Mom wasn't better than him yet.

"Mom, you're leaving your side open!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"She's coming to Art Club with me," Katchoo said, showing up in the doorway of the salle and looking like this wasn't even going to be a matter of discussion.

[bitchprince]

"Art club?" Arthur asked, staring up over some blonde heads holding very non-lethal practice swords. Non-lethal. They better remember that. "What's she going to do there?"

[destinybitch.livejournal.com]

"It's not like yours is any better!" Arawn hurled at him.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Help me set up," Katchoo said, deadpan because of course that was a preposterous notion. "Look, teach her to beat stuff up all you want, I got no problem with that, but if she likes art too, I wanna find out and oh geez I'm acting domestic, kill me now."

[bitchprince]

"Haven't I taught any of you about proper discipline?" Arthur asked, "Silence, or I'll-- put you in the corner." He was not going to look frustrated. He was going for annoyed.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah shot Gawain a look. "More practicing. Less talking."

Okay, now she was sounding like Arthur.

"If you get through this without fighting with either of the littler kids, you get ice cream at Chilly Boulder," she tried. Yes, bribery was wrong. Who cared.

She smiled at Arawn, where Gawain couldn't see, and said, "Thanks for sticking up for me." Which made it a nice thing, and not fighting with his brother. Gawain rolled his eyes again, she could see that, but didn't say anything.

And one, two, third position, fourth-- and she fell into the drill again, because she was too tired to be actually distracted.

[bitchprince]

Arthur blinked at her for a moment. Oh, right. Morgana was a girl. It was a little hard to tell underneath all the rage. "Right," he said, "She'll need to learn some womanly arts, I suppose."

Not that Arthur knew a lot about those. Except that girls needed them if you wanted to be able to marry them off later.

... The only woman Arthur had grown up around was Morgana, and she was half a man as it stood.

[destinybitch.livejournal.com]

Arawn stared at her as if she'd grown a second head. "All right," he said, slowly, "Did you pass on some kind of disorder?"

Arawn was sometimes the worst of two fathers, yes.

[bitchprince]

"Don't spoil the children," Arthur said, keeping his keen eye on Gawain this time. "No ice cream. You don't want them to get fat, do you?" Such tact.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

You could have practically seen the icicles (sharp, stabby icicles) hanging off the look Katchoo gave Arthur.

". . . womanly arts," repeated the girl in ripped, paint-splattered jeans, battered sneakers, and hair that hadn't seen a brush in two days. "Womanly arts."

[bitchprince]

"There's a sewing circle," Arthur said, thoughtfully, "You could get her involved with some... needlepoint. Or... something."

The sad part was that he was being entirely earnest.

[newlances.livejournal.com]

Gawain glared over at Arawn, and growled, "Don't talk to my mom like that. You're--" Then remembering the promise, he glared at his dad. "She promised. No take-backs."

He gave Arawn a very significant glare, one of, If there's no ice cream I'll start something all right.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Gawain." Dinah didn't look at Arawn, just said remindingly, "Little."

Then to Arthur, eyes still on her sword, "That was smart. If you're going to contradict me, don't do it in front of the kid. And he's not in any danger of getting fat, he's hyperactive."

[bitchprince]

Arthur rolled his eyes. "You might want to consult me before you start spoiling my children," he said, "Too much frivolity won't do them any good."

That was Arthur's own childhood speaking, kids.

[destinybitch.livejournal.com]

"You don't get to order me!" Arawn yelled. He stilled when Arthur put a warning hand on his shoulder, however.

"Stupid BOYS," Morgana declared in the background. "Stop MESSING AROUND."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

This would be when Dinah started badly wishing for some popcorn. And trying not to let the kids see her giggle.

Go, Angry, go Angry!

[newlances.livejournal.com]

Okay, that was just -- Gawain turned around to give the tiny girl person a filthy look. "Stupid girl," he growled.

Then he smirked at Arawn, and made a very big show of Ignoring Him Now, moving so he was in Arawn's line of sight, and showing off how he could do stuff that Arawn wouldn't have learned yet, ha, see.

"My dad taught me this."

Hey, if there was no ice cream, he was going to be Good in the most obnoxious way possible.

[bitchprince]

"You have a FACE like a TWAT," Morgana shot back. "SHUT UP, or I'll TEAR YOUR FACE OFF."

Arthur was actually a little impressed. He shook it off. "Morgana," he started, and now if that didn't sound familiar, "You will be calm."

It might be a lost battle. Arthur almost missed being able to order people to be flogged. (All right. They were children. He wouldn't have gone beyond the stocks, and his father would've called him weak, whatever) "That's not bad," he said to Gawain, "But watch your knee."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah couldn't help but stare at Morgana a second for that, then blink, and mutter, "Angry as a mom, right."

She couldn't help but grin at Gawain, though, which seemed to calm him down a little. "I have trouble with that too."

Continuing the drill, she asked Arthur, "So where's Arawn's mom?"

[destinybitch.livejournal.com]

"I don't have a mum," Arawn intersected immediately, caught between bitchy, affronted, and sort of upset. "I've got Father the King and my Da, can't you people use your ears?"

"Crybaby," Morgana pitched in, "More HITTING now. Be a MAN, will you?"

"Shut up!"