A child's cry

[Ginny Weasly]

"You are wrong, you idiot! Wrong!" Ginny grabbed another piece of clothing, just to have something to throw, and pitched it at him too.

"No matter what you have done, do, or will do we will love you!" She threw another shirt at him, "No matter what has happened, is happening, or might happen, we will love you! You are his father, Xaver! The only man I love, Xaver!"

She didn't realize it, but she was on the verge of tears, her frustration peeking, "Why do you have to be so STUPID?!"

[Xaver]

Xaver cast a sidelong glance her way - and that one look at her was enough to shatter the sudden bout of anger within him.
No, he was no innocent - and death was not only something he was well-trained in, but what he was very good at... But, in all actuality, beyond the material, and physical - Xaver was as gentle, really, as he could possible be. He wasn't built to be cold, or angry. Those were the walls he'd been trying to build around him since as long as he could remember... And Ginny had always been his key.

He threw up his arms when the second shirt hit his chest, dropping his head back, and shaking it, allowing the shirt to fall to the floor beside its predecessor.
"I. Don't. KNOW."


He leaned back, heavily, against the dresser, and mopped his hands over his face.
He shook his head again, then looked at her.
"You, are the only woman I have ever loved. You.. And Cody... I know you.. I know you love me. And I love you.."
He waved his arms.
"It's... Just..."
He dropped them, hopelessly, to his sides.

"He asks questions, Ginny... I can't lie to him, or give him cheap answers. He deserves the truth. You both do... He's young, and I know that... But I believe letting him begin to understand now would be better than having him finding out some horrible truth later. Because there's a lot of those."

[Ginny Weasly]

"Why does he have to find out any of them?!" Ginny cried, bring her hands to her face to cover the tears she felt starting to slide down her face, "Why can't he just stay my baby?"

Neither of them were perfect. Ginny didn't want her only son to grow up. And Xaver didn't know how to take care of his son. How to answer him.

It was all very confusing and, despite a few details, normal for families. Perhaps, the most normal thing so far.

(GOOOOING to bed. G'night. Might post before school if you post something.)

[Xaver]

Problem was, neither of them were any good at being normal.

Xaver wasn't.
He openly accepted the fact, through a wall or three of frustration, and worry.
He wasn't good at normalcy - he had known none of it growing up, or into adulthood. What was he supposed to do about that now? Raised to believe that he would be forced into the immediate succession of his father's throne as soon as it was adequate to do so, and that he would live fighting, and probably die fighting - falling in love, and having a child, hadn't ever really been on his list on things to do.
And they had been the best things, that had ever happened to him.
Ginny, and Cody - he was still adjusting to this new life, and sacrifices were to be made, and pushed.. But in the end, Xaver knew he would give up anything, and everything, to be with them.
He wasn't good at it, exactly - but Xaver was trying. He couldn't parent Cody like he had Kylie, years ago.. Because even though it was the same, it was completely different, and he had to learn all the things that went with being a father. Not a brother, acting like one.


"Ginny.."
He said it, softly, as he went to her. In a moment, he had her within his embrace, his arms wrapped around her, planting feathersoft kisses over her hands, and forehead. Slowly, he gently pried her hands away, sweeping in and kissing her fully over the mouth, before sighing.

"..Because, in the end.. He's getting older.. And we can't stop that. Perhaps he shouldn't learn these things right away.. But eventually, he will be faced with them.."

[Ginny Weasly]

"Why does he have to grow up? I don't want my baby to grow up!" Ginny buried her head into his shoulder throwing her arms around him and squeezing him.

"He's my baby, my little angel...does he have to grow up so d**n fast?!"

[Xaver]

Xaver wrapped his arms around her. Drawing her close. Closing his eyes, and burying his face into her hair.
"I... I don't know."
He set his chin atop her head, his eyes closed against the reality that he didn't want to face, either.
"But.. He'll always be your baby, Baby. Our baby."

[Ginny Weasly]

"I don't want him to grow up...this world doesn't deserve him...it's too cruel...he's too sweet...it'll take that away!" Ginny squeezed her arms around him, pushing her face into his shoulder and willing herself to stop acting like a child.

She had to let him grow up.
All children did it, and Cody was no exception.

"He's just a baby...I don't want them to do to him what they did to us..."

[Xaver]

As Ginny squeezed closer to him, Xaver's arms wrapped themselves firmly around her in return, keeping her near, and holding her tight.
He didn't want that, either. He knew there was no fate to give him fortune enough to keep Cody, just as he was.. And it scared him to death to know that his son, his baby, would be facing the same treacherous, cruel world that Xaver himself faced on a daily basis.
There was one thought, though..

"He has us."

Xaver looked down, into the thick recesses of the dazzling marvel of Ginny's hair, and planted a kiss upon the top of her head.

"He has us, my love. And they can't do to him what there was no one to protect us from."


If put into perspective, Xaver had had no childhood. Not really, anyway... He was forced to grow up and assume the titles he'd had stuffed down his throat from birth - and there had been no one, really, to protect him from the wrath of the hard edges of the world. And no one to sooth the pains and sorrows of the aftereffects of that wrath.
Cody, though..
Xaver would be there for Cody until he drew his own final breath - and he knew Ginny was no different.

[Ginny Weasly]

"But I had both parents....and six brothers...and it still got me...it still made me like this..."

This meant 'crazy', 'psychotic', a 'killer'. Ginny classified herself in all three, and many more categories. She didn't think much of herself, and her conscious weighed heavily on her mind daily.

"I don't want him to see death...not ever!" She cried out, squeezing her eyes shut.

[Xaver]

"You had no one who really understood these things. Not like we do. ..And if there is anything good that has come from my history of violence - it is that I know if I can not protect him completely, I know I could assist him. If he needed me. We may be not the most innocent - but we are ignorant fools, neither."

Gently, he hooked a finger beneath her chin, tilting her head upward to look at him.

"This - you -  I fell forever in love with. No masks - no visage. You, as you truly are."
He pressed his forehead to hers, after a slight shake of his head.
He knew - she was as harsh to herself, as he was to himself in his own thoughts.

"Death, dearest - is very much a part of life as-.."
Xaver trailed off, suddenly blinking.
He had said that before. Those exact words - but where? It unnerved him - as much as the sudden clairvoyance that he was about to find out - and soon.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny looked up at him, her face slowly becoming calmer as he spoke, the growing tense as his words drifted.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her voice rough and scratchy from yelling and crying.

[Xaver]

Xaver looked at her, blinking against his sudden reverie, thoughtful, even as he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose and his arms grew firm again around her, drawing her closer still.
"I.. It's just.. Odd, to be not in contol of my own thoughts. First the memory of Kylie, slipping through without my even letting it.. And now, what I just said..."
He shook his head, and rolled his eyes at himself.
"You're engaged to a mental idiot."

[Ginny Weasly]

"And your engaged to a psychotic b**ch." Ginny muttered, frowning and shaking her own head.

"Come on, I'm sure Cody is dressed by now and expecting to see his dear uncles."

[Xaver]

Xaver frowned, and was about to retort, when he simply shook his head. He took her hand, bringing it to his mouth and bowing a kiss over the top of it, before he turned, starting out, toward Cody's room, not letting go.
"But she's so good for me."

To him.

He nudged Cody's bedroom door open, with his toe, and started in.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny shook her head silently, following him into Cody's room. The little boy was no where in sight though and Ginny stopped, a bit of confusion of her face. She turned around, looking out into the hallway.
"Cody?"

"Out here, Momma." Cody called back from the living room. Ginny breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Xaver's hand, dragging him into the living room. But as she entered the room she stopped, her face growing cold. Cody stood in front of a man with dark hair and dark eyes. His skin had a deep tan, but he looked boyish as he smiled at Ginny, ignoring Xaver.

"He's a pretty kid, love." He said, his aristocratic English accent making Ginny wince.

"What do you want?" She said, keeping her voice steady for Cody's sake.