[fic] [Tales of Arcadia] First Romances 3/5

[sakon76]

First Romances
by K. Stonham
first released 5th March 2022

Douxie and Carter have been going out for a month. And, amazingly, no one has given them shit for it. Well, Baja has, but it's actual friendly ribbing, not homophobia, so it's automatically a thousand times better than the first time around. Douxie's been tempted to deck Baja, but that's it.

(He still remembers how Carter, when he'd been Freddy Carter, had left one of their squadmates with a bloody nose when he'd made too derogatory of a ribald remark. Carter's first response had always been violence, the way Douxie's first instinct had been magic. Given the knife in Carter's shoe, it seems perhaps neither of them have changed all that much.)

"So, um." Douxie picks at his fingernail, which has a ragged bit that's driving him spare, "my family's going on a trip this weekend, and Claire said I should invite you."

Carter raises eyebrows. "Where to?" he signs.

"Trollmarket," Douxie tells him.

Carter's eyebrows go higher. He's used to Strickler's removing his glamour mask in class, so he understands in the abstract that there are trolls. But Douxie hinting at a whole town of them, a society, is something else.

Douxie can't wait until they hit senior year and get to take Strickler's special history class, the one not on the state curriculum, that covers the history of the non-human portion of the world. It's not prep for the ACTs or SATs, and is in fact optional, but as he understands it, very very few seniors opt out of the course. Watching Carter's mind get blown wide open by the fairy-pixie war, or the great migration of the selkies, is going to be wild.

"Let me ask my mom, but probably?" Carter fishes out his phone and sends a message, presumably to his mom. "What should I bring?"

Douxie shrugs. "Clothing and toiletries for two days," he says and Carter's phone dings with a response. Carter's grin lets him know that permission has been granted. Should he warn Carter about the gyre? Nah, it'll probably be fine.

---

It is not, in fact, fine, and Douxie has to help his wobbly-legged green-faced soulmate down off the gyre. Carter falls to his hands and knees as soon as they reach solid ground and just remains there for long minutes, sucking in air and trying not to throw up.

So much for a cast iron stomach.

Eventually, though, he masters himself and looks up. Only for his jaw to drop at his first sight of the glories of New Trollmarket. Douxie smiles fondly at his gaping boyfriend, who signs "What the shit?"

Waiting nearby, Jim grins and Claire smirks. Theo, held in her mama's arms and already wearing her backpack leash for when she inevitably wants to be put down and strike out on her own, babbles, shrieks and smacks Claire several times, pointing in excitement toward Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, approaching.

"Ah, Master Jim! You're a bit earlier than we expected."

Jim grins and hugs his troll father. "We made good time."

Claire rolls her eyes and gives Aaarrrgghh a hug, then surrenders Theo to him. Theo digs fingers deep into soft green fur and looks like she's in baby bliss. Aaarrrgghh, for his part, doesn't seem far behind.

"Uhhh." Carter signals uncertainty, staring.

"Ah, and this must be young Carter!" Blinky comes over and helps Carter to his feet, beaming. Douxie isn't sure just what Jim's said to Blinky, over Skype, whether he's covered the whole soulmate thing or not, but he definitely knew Jim had mentioned Carter, because Douxie'd been in the room when it had happened. And trolls do not have the same hangups that some sections of human society do about same-sex relationships. It probably helps that trolls, as a species, have rather more than three genders. "Welcome to New Trollmarket, young man!"

Carter is still staring. "Sorry," he apologizes with his hands. "You're kind of hard to understand. With the, um, tusks."

"Shit." Douxie should have thought of that. Strickler doesn't have any tusks, but rather a lot of trolls do, and it makes sense they'd interfere with Carter's lipreading....

"Ah! My apologies." Blinky switches seamlessly to ASL, "talking" with his upper set of hands, much like the royal Akiridions do.

"Wait, you know sign?" Carter brightens.

"I began studying it the moment Jim indicated your relationship with Hisirdoux might be a serious one," Blinky informs him, and if he were anyone else, Blinky would probably be looking smug. But instead he's elated that he got to learn something totally new and use it to help make someone comfortable. "Blinkous Galadrigal, at your service. And this is my partner Aaarrrgghh." He finger-spells their names. He has to adapt sign to the fact trolls have one fewer finger than humans, but judging by his face, Carter's having no problem understanding him.

There are some very good reasons, Douxie thinks, that Blinky became the leader of Trollmarket after Vendel died. He may be an outlier of troll society in many ways, but he's smart, and clever, and good with people.

Plus, given that trolls need like eight minutes of sleep a week, he clearly has a lot of time to devote to learning a new language. Blinky's a lot better at sign than Jim and Claire.

The minute they leave the gyre station, however, Carter has to stop and take his hearing aids out entirely. "Fucking pieces of shit," he's called them before. Apparently the best they can do is amplify an isolated voice - Miss Janeth's in the classroom, for instance, who frequently turns to the blackboard as she talks, forgetting that Carter needs to see her mouth in order to fully understand her. In situations with a lot of background noise, however? Like dodge ball in gym class, or the hustle and bustle of Trollmarket? They're absolutely useless.

Douxie can play his guitar for Carter, but he'll never be able to go clubbing with him, or to a concert.

Well, he thinks, taking Carter's hand and leading him forth to explore, there's worse things.

---

"So," Blinky says, "you are of course entirely welcome to refuse, but... a certain faction of Trollmarket has been clamoring for a Pyrobligst match, and a demonstration of the Trollhunter's prowess."

Jim coughs a laugh into his fist. "Pyrobligst? Seriously, Blink?"

"It has been a few years since you've played," Blinky allows, "but the rules remain simple enough, and given you have been keeping up with your training, I see no great difficulties in a simple, friendly match, if you are willing."

"What's pyrobligst?" Carter asks Douxie, and he gets distracted trying to explain the troll game to his soulmate.

"...fine," Jim eventually says.

"You will of course have your choice of partners," Blinky offers, with an open-handed gesture that encompasses all of New Trollmarket.

Jim hums, then pauses. And turns to look at Douxie. "You want to try, Doux?"

Douxie blinks. "Me?"

Jim shrugs. "Can't think of anyone I'd rather have by my side." His gaze, drifting to Aaarrrgghh, playing with Theo, gives slight lie to that, but Douxie doesn't mind. He, too, would trust Aaarrrgghh over almost everyone else. But neither would he want to take him away from baby bonding time.

Douxie glances at Claire and Carter, neither of whom seem bothered. "All right," he says, and smiles. "Trolls versus humans, I guess."

---

Jim's sword is taken from him prior to the beginning of the match, as is Douxie's bracelet. They're suspended high around the edges of the arena, as are their opponents' weapons.

"So how do we win this, again?" Douxie asks. He's watched Jim play pyrobligst before, but never participated.

Jim grins at him. "Speed and agility. Remember, trolls have the mass advantage, but we can use that against them too."

"Right." Douxie looks across the arena at their opponents. They're both huge and hulking and grinning confidently.

Jim puts his hand on Douxie's shoulder. "Relax. It's a fun match, not a death match. And you get to show off for your boyfriend."

Douxie's eyes widen indignantly. "And I suppose you're doing this to show off for Claire?"

"Nah." Jim glances up at where their family sits in the stands. None of them, save Carter, look particularly worried. Not far away, Douxie's cadre of Trollmarket friends stand, whooping and cheering and giving one another shit, as friends are liable to do. "I'm showing off for Theo."

"Theo?" Douxie demands. "Theo's a baby! She doesn't even know the kind of dangerous shit you get up to."

Jim's grin widens and he pats Douxie's shoulder. "Exactly."

Which makes absolutely no sense. Douxie glares at Jim as he walks away.

And then the game is on.

---

Pyrobligst is fast, and brutal, and leaves him absolutely no opportunity to look at the crowd. The other team scores two, then he and Jim knock it in with one, and it's all running and dodging and fast turns. It's exhilarating and Douxie begins to understand why Jim likes this game as he slides, literally slides between Glorg's legs, snagging the gorb and kicking it to Jim. Horgul has gotten his weapon, which honestly looks like a giant pizza paddle, and tries to use it to intercept the kick, but Jim runs up Horgul's back, and he has Excalibur, which he uses as a bat to send the gorb back to Douxie, and all that stands between him and the goal is Glorg--

Douxie fakes right, dodges left, and ties it up, two to two, giving him enough breathing space to look around at the spectators before the gorb gets shot out again.

Carter catches his eye and signs a "Fucking awesome!" at him. He's grinning. Apparently pyrobligst has won his heart after all.

Douxie grins, happy and energized.

After Glorg and Horgul score the next goal, there's a halftime, which Douxie uses mostly to try and catch his breath. "Horgul's going to go for his weapon next," Jim murmurs from beside him. "We can use that to steal the ball."

"All right," Douxie said, half leaned over with hands on his knees. There's a stitch in the center of his chest. Coach Lawrence's classes have definitely not prepared him for this. Track team has not prepared him for this. Maybe he needs to get more serious about parkour training.

"Alternately," Jim says, "we use that distraction to get you your bracelet." His smile is sly. "And your staff."

"Is magic legal in this game?" Douxie wonders.

Jim shrugs, still smiling. "No one said we couldn't, and all of Trollmarket knows you're a wizard."

Douxie stares at him. Then he starts to grin.

"We got a plan?" asks Jim, offering his forearm.

"We have a plan indeed," Douxie agrees, bumping his arm against Jim's.

It's simple enough in theory. Except after the Sealing Hour break, during which Glorg and Horgul have, in fact, sealed their minor wounds with molten metal while Jim and Douxie make do with hydrogen peroxide and bandaids, the topology of the arena changes. It unfolds into multiple shifting levels, with swinging scythes, thrown flames, tricky nets, and rotating floors.

"Lovely," Douxie says, not at all intimidated. Really.

"You up for this?" Jim asks, concern in his voice.

Douxie takes a steadying breath, looks Jim in the eye, and nods.

Jim grins unexpectedly. "Just like back home," he says, and launches himself in.

Douxie follows.

Stick to the plan. Get my bracelet.

And he does, even though Glorg scores another goal with an unexpectedly nimble roll that put him soaring over Jim's head.

"They're up by two," Jim reports, breathing heavily. He swipes the back of his fist over the corner of his mouth.

"Slowing down in your old age?" Douxie asks, just to needle him.

Jim casts him a sideways glance. "Ask me that after we win."

And they do get the next point; Douxie discovers his staff can be used like a lacrosse stick, sinking the gorb directly into the goal.

They just have to keep doing that; two more points to the win.

He's feeling a bit feral as he snags the gorb out of the air on the next round and passes it to Jim. He runs up the slope before it can turn over completely, winning his way to the next level, turning to see where Jim is. Jim throws him the gorb--

--only to get knocked by Horgul, misjudging an intercept, directly into one of the flame-spouting constructs.

And through it.

Slamming into the wall of the arena.

Plummeting down the long drop to the ground.

The remains of the statue crashing down on him.

And Horgul, overbalanced, falling on top, crushing him.

Douxie stares in horror. He can't breathe. It feels like his heart is caught in a vice grip.

"Dad!" he screams, abandoning the game, running to Jim. He's on his knees, digging through the rubble with his hands, batting Horgul's woozy form aside with magic like the troll is no more than a gnat, until he finds Jim--

Bruised.

Dusty.

Bleeding.

But still breathing.

---

Jim wakes in distinct pain. Which, sadly, is not an unusual life experience for him. He takes stock before he even opens his eyes: ribs definitely bruised, maybe cracked. Legs surprisingly okay, though his left ankle feels twisted. Arms... ouch. He's going to need a sling for the right. At least his head feels okay. He has a vague memory of having cushioned it with his arms.

He opens his eyes, coughs rock dust out of his lungs, and intensely regrets it, as pain spikes through his chest. "Ow...."

"Master Jim." Blinky has been waiting by his bedside.

He smiles at his father. "Hey, Blink."

"You took quite the hit, and subsequent fall, during the pyrobligst match," Blinky says, pouring liquid from a pitcher into a cup. He helps Jim sit up, which requires careful breathing on Jim's part to manage, and hands him the beverage. "Drink this. It should help with the pain."

Trusting Blinky implicitly, Jim does, fighting down his gag reflex to finish the entire cup. He doesn't know how, but troll medicine is even worse than human medicine. He swallows three times, trying futilely to get rid of the taste. "Did we win?"

"Alas, no. Douxie abandoned the game immediately after your injury. He was most distraught."

"Oh." Jim can see that.

"Claire was also distressed, but much more inclined to believe you will be fine. I believe she is with Douxie and Carter at the moment, reassuring them."

"Okay. And Theo?"

Blinky smiles. "She will not be parted from Aaarrrgghh."

That wins a smile from Jim, though it comes with a wince. "Sorry to spoil everyone's weekend."

"Nonsense!" Blinky blusters. "It is I who must apologize, my dear boy. I had not fully realized the risks to you now that you no longer have the Trollhunter's armor to protect you."

"Blink." Jim looks his mentor in the eyes. "This is no one's fault. Horgul didn't mean to hit me. It was an accident. They happen."

"You and I know that, Jim. But I fear that your son may be less easy to persuade."

Jim sighs and carefully lies back down on the bed. He stares up at the ceiling. "More than three years of working to undo all the crap in his head, and then this happens."

"He does know you are mortal, and fallible," Blinky says softly.

"Does he?" Jim turns his head to meet Blinky's gaze. He draws a breath. "We all worship our parents and think they're greatest good, until we get old enough to be adults ourselves and realize they're as, well, human, as we are. But he never had that as a kid."

Blinky sits back and crosses his arms. "You think he disregards his previous life's knowledge of you?"

"I think," Jim says carefully, "that Claire and I are the best parents he's had in any lifetime. And that he's going to overreact to this."

"An overprotective child." Blinky gives him a significant look. "As you were, with Barbara."

Jim opens his mouth then shuts it, caught out by Blinky's (valid) point.

"As your people say, 'like father, like son'," Blinky says smugly.

Jim sighs, deflating. "Yeah."

"And as he is a wizard," Blinky continues, "it will be most intriguing to see what particular form his urge to wrap you in bubbles takes."

"It's bubble wrap, Blinky."

"And it is a most delicious snack," the troll agrees.

---

The worst thing about an adrenaline spike is the drop afterwards. Douxie rescued his da-- Jim and then had to stand to the side, shaking, as the Trollhunter was picked up and bundled off to be tended to, because what more could he do? Magic can't heal.

He feels cold and lost, even though he's wrapped in a blanket and Carter's arms.

"Jim will be fine," Claire says, sitting on his other side, her hand on Douxie's shoulder. "It's just some impact damage. He's had worse."

"He doesn't have armor anymore," Douxie says hoarsely. Which is not his fault, it's Arthur's and the Arcane Order's, but for some reason it's hitting him more now than it ever has before.

Jim could have died today, playing a stupid game, because trolls play rough, humans are squishy, and accidents happen.

He could have died, and Douxie wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

Carter's face is all questions, but he doesn't ask any of them as Douxie lays his head on his soulmate's shoulder. And he knows that there's parts of Carter he hasn't seen yet, questions he hasn't even thought to ask, but right now all Douxie can do is be grateful and soak up his warmth.

"Knock knock," someone says weakly from the door.

"Jim!" Claire is up like a shot, going to her own soulmate as Blinky helps Jim into the room. He's bruised and bandaged, leaning heavily on the troll and limping nonetheless. Claire fusses, and helps guide him down into one of the armchairs.

"I'm fine," Jim assures her. "Well, not fine, but you know what I mean."

She puts her hands on her hips and purses her mouth at him. "You're calling out of work next week."

Jim shakes his head. "Can't. I have too many home visits, and I'm not canceling on them."

"You can barely walk," Douxie protests.

It earns him a wan smile. "Oh how terrible. On our family camping trip we went hiking and a bit of cliff collapsed under me." Jim shrugs off the criticism. "I've had worse."

"Not the point, James Lake, Junior." Claire is full-naming her husband. "It's not going to make you heal any faster, and seeing their case worker looking like he's been beaten up is not going to do those kids any good."

Jim sighs. "I'll go in Monday and take a straw poll in the office," he offers.

Claire snorts. "You're not going to be fit to drive yourself on Monday."

"We'll see." The pair of them hold each other's gaze like a challenge, before both looking away, tabling the point of contention.

Jim's eyes settle instead on Douxie. "Doux, how are you holding up?" he asks softly.

"Too much nerves," Douxie replies honestly. "Jim, you could have died--"

"But I didn't."

"But you could have--"

"I could have died," Jim says quietly but firmly, "any of a thousand ways since the day the amulet picked me. And I haven't. Yet." He holds Douxie's gaze. "Someday I will die, Douxie. God willing, not for a long time, but it will happen. What I need you to do, is not be stupid about this."

Douxie breathes. "Stupid how?" he asks.

Jim shrugs, then winces. "Stupid like trying to remake the amulet or something."

Douxie snorts. "Even if I had the equipment, that was a one-time thing."

Jim quirks an eyebrow.

Douxie sighs. "It required two master wizards to lock the amulet together. Not to mention, the power of a third to forge it."

Jim looks blank.

"Morgana's hand infused the metal with magic," Douxie tells him. "Everything else Master Merlin had tried, failed. There was no metal strong enough to contain the power of the working."

Jim's eyes are wide. Claire looks slightly green.

Douxie sighs. "So reforging the Trollhunter amulet simply isn't going to happen. Though...." He stops, something niggling at his brain.

"Douxie?" Claire asks after a minute.

Douxie's eyes widen. "We don't need a new amulet," he says, looking up at his parents. "We need to find Excalibur's sheath!"

---

Carter has questions, Douxie can tell. But he holds them back and waits until after dinner. Until after Claire has chivied Jim into bed (Jim, admittedly, not protesting very hard), with Theo in her Pack-and-Play. Until after Douxie and Carter are in their own Trollmarket guest room for the night, the door firmly shut behind them.

"Douxie," Carter starts, "what the hell?"

And Douxie could play dumb, put off this conversation for later, but....

...But this conversation's going to happen one way or another, eventually.

He takes a breath and takes off his shoes and sit cross-legged on the queen bed they're sharing. "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

Carter blinks and sits as well. "New Age woo-woo claptrap," he signs.

Douxie just looks at him, and silently summons magic to his hand.

Carter looks at his silent rebuttal, then nods. "Okay. Not claptrap?"

"Not in the least," Douxie tells him.

Carter still looks skeptical. "So how's reincarnation relevant?" he asks.

Douxie takes a long breath, trying to decide where to start his story. At the beginning, he finally decides. "A thousand years ago, I was an apprentice to the wizard Merlin."

Carter's face is unreadable. "Merlin. Like King Arthur's Merlin?"

Douxie nods. "Arthur was a prat. But Merlin was everything to me. And the thing about wizardry is...." Douxie sighs. "If you have enough of it, you live for a long time."

"How long?"

Douxie meets his soulmate's gaze. "Centuries."

Carter rolls his eyes. "You're trying to tell me you're hundreds of years old."

"Well, no," Douxie has to admit. "I'm sixteen. But in my last life, I was hundreds of years old."

From Carter's expression, Douxie might as well be trying to sell him a bridge in Brooklyn.

Douxie sighs again. "I spent something like nine hundred years being nineteen years old," he tells Carter. "And then, shortly after I met Jim and Claire, I died. Seventeen years ago."

Carter's still not buying the bridge.

Douxie shrugs. "You can ask Jim and Claire, if you like. In the morning," he amends. "But they knew me then, and when Jim found me in this lifetime, I was a thirteen-year-old runaway with the same face and same magic as I'd had in my last life. They took me in to keep me safe. Because we'd been friends. My memories have been coming back ever since."

Carter is still and silent for a long moment. "Assuming you're telling the truth," he signs, with an emphasis on the first word, "what's that mean for us?"

"That... is a trickier thing," Douxie admits. He scoots a little closer, took Carter's hands, tangles their fingers together. He takes a deep breath and looks back up, meeting Carter's brown eyes. "I knew you," he admits. "We were in World War Two together."

Carter frees his hands. "Friends?" he signs.

"Lovers," Douxie replies. He hesitates. "Will you let me show you what I see?"

Slowly, Carter nods.

Douxie smiles. "Trust me," he signs and says, and uses his bracelet. With it, he's able to touch a transference spell first to his own eyes, then to Carter's.

Carter takes a sharp breath in, and Douxie knows what he's seeing. The faint glow of wizard's sight that lets him know where magic is, and what kind. Carter has almost none, but around him, and around Douxie himself, there's a shimmering glow, reminiscent of a comb jelly's rainbow iridescence. Where their knees touch, it forms one field, a bubble around them both.

It's the same thing Douxie sees around Jim and Claire when they touch. Around Blinky and Aaarrrgghh.

Carter, though, looks wary and confused. "What's this?" he signs.

Douxie smiles and leans forward, brushing his fingers over Carter's cheek. "We're soulmates."

Carter freezes, the smile falling from his face.