[Open Post: The Comfort of This House]

[timebethine]

Where once there was only a mossy clearing surrounded by highbush blueberries, the frame of a building now stands.

Over the last couple of weeks, Laertes and Sagramore have been working tirelessly (if not particularly methodically) to build their cabin. In the course of their planning, the project has grown in scope; there's a concrete foundation, and a deep hole dug for an adjoining cellar. The frame of the building has the suggestion of a loft now, and three rooms, and optimistic frames waiting for windows; however, Laertes's experiments in making glass have, to put it mildly, been unsuccessful. A chimney rises on one side of the house, waiting for a wall to join it.

It's a strange, hopeful thing--how the frame of the house bears up against the brisk spring wind, and stands. How it holds Laertes's weight when he climbs up on the crosswise boards to sit on the top plate and start nailing down rafters. There's hope in the rhythmic sound of Sagramore splitting logs to make shakes to cover their roof, and hope in the smell of fresh-cut wood, and hope in the hammer and the saw.

Everything hasn't ended, with Shen Yuan's death. There is still something left to make, and to build, and to do.

[Several threads contain explicit sexual content.]

Comments

[futaille]

Braving the outdoors is much easier in spring than in a long winter, especially when it's for a good reason. Grantaire comes sauntering up to the build site with a basket of rolls and cheese.

"I come bearing gifts!"

[timebethine]

Laertes, perched up on the ridge of the roof, sets his hammer down and waves. His grin is huge and startled. "Then thou art doubly welcome here, for thy gifts and thyself!" he calls. "Let me but climb down to thee, and I'll thank thee properly for it." And with that, he starts heaving himself down to a joist.

[futaille]

He watches Laertes descend. "I possibly should have considered your elevation before greeting you so suddenly, but all is well in the end, I suppose."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has, of course, made note of the construction - she had been trying to be a little more reasonable in her constant categorization and recategorization of the Mansion and its assets, but her vigilance ticked up again after Shen Yuan's death - but she's politely kept her distance.

Today, though, as she wanders back from her morning woods training with her bow slung over her shoulder, thinking about how she misses a good hunt, her feet take her past the site again. She sees Laertes standing outside, and waves.

[timebethine]

Laertes is at that point hauling a heavy bucket of stones toward where the cellar will be; he shifts his grip to secure the bucket with one arm, and he waves back.

[vineleaves]

"Yoohoo, darlings!" Dionysus calls once he's at a point he figures is within earshot of the soon-to-be house. Much like Grantaire did, Dionysus has arrived with a basket in tow, his full with a couple of bottles (a non-alcoholic wine and a sparkling grape juice), some grapes, some apricots, and some scones he swiped from a random pantry in one of the kitchens. He's wearing his overalls and a loose button up top, all slightly dirty from having been in the garden earlier, but he figures if Sagramore and Laertes are building a house they're probably in a similar state, so it might not matter too much.

[timebethine]

Laertes is indeed absolutely filthy--he's just finished digging out the cellar stairs, and he's just stripping off his shirt (and intending to strip off much more) to wash in the lake when he sees Dionysus approach. "Hallo!" he calls. "Be welcome. It's a fine day, is it not?"

[wickedwit]

Claudius comes, of course, with gifts — foremost a bouquet of harebells and blue hyacinths, with tufts of white heather. In the Scandinavian tradition he’s also brought a stoppered jar of herb salt, prepared in his workshop, and a small loaf of dense rye bread. “Hail to thee,” he says, when he sees Laertes, “and well-met. How hast thou been?”

[timebethine]

"Better for the work," says Laertes as he gathers Claudius into a firm embrace. "Look at thee! Salt and bread! What a fine gift. We'll want for nothing, with this blessing."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon lingers at the edge of all the activity, watching with poorly-concealed fascination. She's taken to carrying her sword again all the time, rather than just when she knows she'll need it, but she removes it from her back and sets it against a tree, rolling her shoulders. When Laertes notices her, she'll raise a hand in a little wave hello, and blurt, "Put me to work?"

[timebethine]

Laertes feels his back going up at the sight of her--she's going to say something rude, he knows it, and he might as well brace for it--but when she speaks, he softens. "Wouldst thou prefer to cut wood or lay stone?" he asks.

[temnota]

Aleksander came prepared - he was wearing what he'd come to think of as his work attire, rolled up flannel button down shirt and jeans and he had a basket filled with properly baked piroshki and cold drinks.

"I bring refreshment and help," he called out brightly, holding the basket up above his head.

[sagramore]

Once again, Sagramore is coming in comparatively underdressed, but the roof work is hot and shirts are one of the easiest things to take odd. He wipes sweat out of his face and beams.

"Sanyi! Jesu, it's good to see thee!"

[untamedantinous]

Enjolras, too, is in search of his close companions -- with another curled around his neck. He's not particularly skilled at construction, and so is probably not much use at the joining currently happening, but give him things to move around and he will happily help. Charlotte has accompanied him to meet her cousin, (?) and Enjolras has brought some sandwiches and lemonade with him.

"Hallo!" he waves when he sees Laertes, which prompts an annoyed noise from Charlotte atop his shoulders. "I've brought a new friend."

[timebethine]

Laertes is nailing up the siding of the house, but he sets his hammer down (the board will hold, for now) to come to greet Lucien and Charlotte. "Hallo!" he calls in answer as he jogs over. "Who's this sweet creature?"

[lightbearinglord]

Naturally, there is no way Lan Wangji could have failed to notice the construction of the house. He still circles the grounds every morning as a matter of course. The breeze is crisp but not so cold today, a day on which spring feels like a promise of better things. Lan Wangji descends from above, jumping lightly to the ground just outside the increasingly-believable suggestion of a house, carrying a tidily-wrapped bundle roughly the size of Szarka when he first scooped her out of a tree.

[timebethine]

At the time when Lan Wanji arrives, Laertes is starting to craft a huge bathtub of stone; he'd had some extra mortar left from lining the cellar, and he wants to start this project now, while his ideas for setting up drainage and building a water pump are still fresh. However, at Lan Wangji's descent, Laertes quickly rinses the mortar from his hands and dries them on his jeans, then lopes across the floor to greet Lan Wangji. "Welcome! How dost thou?"

[summerdude]

Improbably, the last batch of falafel Magnus made -- the ones with the chickpeas he'd soaked overnight and ground and turned into food all on his own without help -- actually turned out pretty good? And he made, like, a million of them.

He's been skirting around the thing Laertes and Sagramore are building in the woods basically every day when he sneaks off to sword practice with Lancelot. Today, though, he's trying to spend more time with friends. So here he comes, ambling along, a paper bag full of hot fresh falafel in one hand, grease marks forming on it side.

"Hey," he calls as he approaches the construction site. "I have lunch, and also, what can I carry for you?"

[timebethine]

By now, the roof has been fully covered with boards and a protective layer of shakes, and the tools and sleeping bags have been moved from under the tarp to under the roof; the siding, however, is still very much in progress. Laertes is at that moment making good on that progress, fitting boards together on the side from which the prevailing winds blow. "Hallo!" He pins a board in place with another nail, then waves. "Canst hold these up for me while I hammer them down; it will go more swiftly, with two."

[biteybaby]

Sunny has seen houses after they have been destroyed, but she has significantly less experience with a house as it is being built in the first place. This is just another one of the many things she feels she will learn from spending time with Sagramore!

"Mawklej," she asks suddenly, which is a word that here means, "Are you using that small piece of wood over there, or could I perhaps have it to chew on?"

[timebethine]

Laertes nearly leaps out of his skin. Somehow, miraculously, the hammer doesn't go flying. "Merciful heavens," he mutters, then calls, "Sagramore! Sunny's here--and unaccompanied!"

Szarka is not confused at all! She knows this small human who is good to Lick!!! This is the best of days. She tumbles across the mossy ground toward Sunny, making tiny not-bark sounds of delight, and then drops to an eager play-bow when she's a little less than a foot from Sunny. Her tail is wagging wildly.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot is riding this afternoon, and is wending his way back toward the stables to put up Rivelin and start thinking about evening plans. He has known for some while that Sagramore and Laertes have been building a house, but given that the notion still unsettles him a little he has largely avoided the area, inasmuch as he's been able.

He is starting to feel, though, that this avoidance may seem like lack of support for the two of them, for their comfort or happiness. And so he has decided to deliberately come by to say hello and see what the state of things is.

He rides up, smiling as easily as he can and calling out, "Hail! How goes it?"

[timebethine]

By now, the outer structure of the house is almost complete--the walls nailed into place and waterproofed, the chinks between the boards sealed with clay, the roof handsomely layered with crisp wooden shakes. Laertes has even managed to locate an install a couple of glass windows, which overlook the lake and the mossy woods leading toward the mansion; it's in one of these windows that his face appears at Lancelot's hail. "Hail!" Laertes calls in return, and he runs to unlatch the door. "Come in, come in--I've been building furniture."

[sagramore]

The day they finish the bed Sagramore is in high spirits. Enjolras does not carry over four mattresses at once, but he does get Temeraire to fly them over, and Sagramore and Laertes nestle two of them side by side in the giant bed frame, large enough to sleep four grown adults comfortably. Sagramore and Tress sew together the sheets that will fit it and bring up blankets from the mansion in a big wicker laundry basket Dionysus makes for them, and Sagramore makes supper for all of them.

Afterwards, when their friends have gone, he strips down naked and stretches out on top of those new blankets, basking in the pleasure of accomplishment and a full stomach.

[timebethine]

Laertes grins down at him by the light of the hanging lantern. He will run an electric line out here, he thinks; he can build a more efficient water heater than the fire-powered one they're currently using, and plug in a hot plate and a little oven for them to cook with. And lights, of course. Lights. He mustn't forget. (He will probably forget.)

Sagramore's new tattoo shimmers bronze in the flickering light, and Laertes frowns. "That's new," he says as he sits down at Sagramore's side.