Refuge In The Shadows

21.

Carys and Cadeyrn snuggled in their father's armchair, their bellies full from a delicious supper. The chair, with its tiny rips in the seams revealing the stuffing within, nearly dwarfed the twelve year-old twins' frames. Eira and Gwilym smiled affectionately at their children from their place by the kitchen. Cadeyrn was beginning his growth spurt and already towered over Carys, who remained half a head shorter. Through their nightwear, their parents looked with pride at their emerging muscles and lean physiques. They would make excellent fighters in the coming years.

"Who dares steal rightful place in the chair?" Gwilym boomed, playfully stalking towards the twins who gave him delighted grins. They laughed as he lifted both of the two up with ease and sat down on the chair with them on his lap. Carys wrapped her arms around his neck and nestled her head on her shoulder. Cadeyrn looked up at their father with utter awe and respect. "Tad, can you tell us how you and Mam met?" Carys asked. Gwilym sent a heated glance at Eira who blushed. "Perhaps that is a story for another day, cariad," their father replied with a knowing smile. But Carys was not easily deterred. She widened her eyes impossibly wide and stretched her lips into a heartbreaking smile.

Eira settled into another chair across from the three and watched as both her husband and son succumbed to her daughter's charms. She had them wrapped around her finger and the little devil knew it. Gwilym groaned and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "You are going to have men on their knees groveling with that look. Very well, cariad." Carys brightened and stuck her tongue out at Cadeyrn, "You always ask Tad about boring stories about his training." Cadeyrn did not bother to defend himself. He blinked away the dazed look in his eyes and gave her a sheepish smile.

"Keep this story short, Gwilym," Eira warned her husband, "the children need to go to bed soon." As Carys and Cadeyrn started insisting they were not tired, Gwilym widened his own eyes, "and reduce our epic love story to a brief summary of ten minutes? I could not do such a thing!" Eira rolled her eyes and played along, "All right, children listen very carefully to what Tad has to say, especially when he tells you both how I wanted to disembowel him from the very start." Gwilym scowled at his wife while Carys clapped her hands. "Finally, a story where the girl does not fall in love at first sight." Eira grinned. Carys had been recently gifted a book of fairytales from one of Gwilym's friends. She had made Carys read it much to her dislike for such stories only so she could keep up with her reading.

"I think it is more like I fell in love with her at first sight," Gwilym replied, winking at Eira. The twins listened attentively as their father recalled how Eira crashed a Phantom Hunt meeting he attended after following her suspicious neighbour in the middle of the night and how she adamantly refused to leave. "I think I wanted to marry her right then and there when your mother, not trained at all, managed to dislocate one of my friend's shoulders after he tried to lead her out of the house." The twins giggled while Eira, blushing, stood up and headed to Carys's and Cadeyrn's room, "That is enough for tonight, little ones. Time for bed." Gwilym kissed each of his children on the cheeks and let them go with their mother. Cadeyrn hopped up and waited for his sister to come with him, but Carys buried her head into their father's chest and refused to go. Gwilym wrapped his burly arms around his daughter and pressed his cheek on the crown of her head.

He adored his twins equally more than life itself, but there was something about Carys's resemblance to her mother in temperament that tugged at his heart. "You need all the energy you can get to beat your brother in training tomorrow," he said, standing up from the chair with Carys in his arms. Cadeyrn trailed after them into the bedroom and hopped into his bed. Gwilym gently placed Carys into her own and tucked the sheets over her. Their parents kissed them goodnight and closed the door behind them.