Maybe it's that Adam's not used to it. Maybe it's just that he's getting to old for this shit.

Either way, after his confrontation with the weird guy, he's retreated to their rooms in the bar. Grace ensconced happily in a playpen, Adam's on the bed with a wet cloth over his face.

Stopping for a quick breath, Adam wipes his forehead with his sleeve.


It's not as though this is strictly necessary, winter is still a bit off. It's not even as if he needed have done it, ther are certainly servants enough willing to do so. But there's something reassuring about the heft of the axe in his hands, the solid thwack it makes when it meets the wood. About the calluses he can feel forming on his hands. And when fall turns colder and fires are lit, there'll be a warm comfort to the knowledge that it's because of the work of his hands.

It isn't that Adam's bored. In their household, there is no bored any more.

It's more that he's-


okay. yes. he's bored. Without the writhing and squirming and squealing of small children, with nobody to hold or walk or look after-

he's bored.

Adam can't help it, he's on something of a high. There's a disgustingly smug look on his face as he closes the door behind him, and he calls out with a laugh-


"HONEY, I'M HOME."

It's a lovely dusk, the sky fading to a shade of purple not seen anywhere but here, Adam's convinced of it. A light breeze flows through the trees, and it seems that all creatures here are at peace.

It's something that's found so seldom, here at the end of the universe, that when he sees the shadowed figure, resting against the paddock fence, Adam takes care to approach quietly.





"Evening."

It's not that Adam and Alanna didn't kiss and make up. (They did that several times over.) It's not that things were uncomfortable, or that they didn't go back to being ridiculously happy, because they did.

It's simply that sometimes things take a while to go back to normal.

And so Adam's smile is honest, but smaller, as he looks up at Alanna over the book he's reading (a tome on bookbinding, from the libraries at Olau, actually) and he shifts to make room for her on the sofa.

An altercation, she'd said.



An altercation with a woman, and that she was locking herself in a cell for a bit. Not really clear on how long "a bit" was going to be, though when Adam tapped his foot, she managed to look suitably sorry.

But that's all she told him, other than the fact that Jack was there. Which could likely explain why Adam's currently tapping that same foot, but on the shore of the lake, looking out at the ship that's been parked there.

The remnants of the hot afternoon are fading as the sun sets, and Adam watches from nearby the lake, idly skipping stones across the surface of the water.

Adam's been spending a lot of time outside with Alanna, but not usually from this vantage point. He snickers a little as he watches people pass below.

For somebody who'd been living in the city, Adam sure does tend to enjoy the quiet of the outdoors. Which would be why he's out by the lake, book in hand. He's not actually reading it, but don't point that out.