#basch x wanda

[tarnishedxknight]

Adalia wandered up to where Basch was sat, tugging at his leg. “Daddy…Will you tell me a story? I can’t sleep,” the youngster asked, eyes wide.

@illbringthechaosmagic

They had just put the twins down for the night, and thought they might have some time to themselves. However, Basch and Wanda knew how unpredictable their little ones could be sometimes, and it was not long before little Adalia wandered into the room, just as Basch was giving Wanda a hug, asking for a story. He gave Wanda a knowing smile before he turned to his daughter, hooking his hands under her arms and lifting her as he went to a nearby chair. Sitting her down on his knee, he bounced her a couple times.

"A story, eh? Aye, I think I can manage that. Well now, what sort of story do you wish to hear?" he asked, though he probably already knew. Adalia loved stories with knights and princesses in them, and castles and mythical creatures, and all sorts of things from Basch's native time. He... wished she could have seen all those things with her own eyes, but for now, all he could do was tell he stories about them.

[tarnishedxknight]

“Basch,” Wanda was quick to take his hand, tugging him gently towards their quarters, “it’s been three days and you’ve barely rested. I can’t let you keep going like this…” She paused, looking over his face, “what’s going on?”

Had he been staring off at nothing again? Given Wanda's reaction, Basch guessed that he had been. He honestly could not remember the last time he slept. His eyes burned and their lids felt so heavy, while his tongue was dry and his throat parched. The days were blending together, and although Wanda was a constant and miraculous source of love and support, even she could not prevent Basch's thoughts from finding him again.

He did not fight her at all when she took his hand and began leading him into their shared quarters. His mind could not really even process what she was doing, let along resist her. Basch was much too tired for that. Going on like this...? Going on...? It took a moment for her questions to register, but once they did, Basch gave her a weak and softly dismissive smile combined with a small shake of his head. "'Tis nothing, love," he said, his voice barely above a whisper because he hadn't the energy to make it louder. "I am fine."

Even as he spoke the words, he knew she would not believe them. Hadn't he promised her that he would work on being more open with her, and on not bottling everything up inside? He was so tired... but he had to try. "Weeks, have I been here. Months. And yet... it is only now, in recent days, that it has dawned upon me that... that I truly shall never see Dalmasca again." And just like that, his eyes flooded with tears. his throat and jaw tensed, as though he sought to physically restrain his emotion, though it did not work. "I see her still... in my dreams... and it cuts me deeper than any wound of war ever could. So if I do not sleep, then I need not remember all that I left behind. All that I abandoned..."

[tarnishedxknight]

"Stop being difficult!" (To Ser fon Rosenburg)

Basch knew that Wanda was upset, and if he was being honest with himself, it was not a negligible wound. But neither was it a fatal one, either. A gash to his left side, done by a weapon sliding between the plates of his armor. He thought that if he could just return to his own quarters and quickly dress it there, it would be out of sight and mind. Wanda, however, had other ideas.

She had tried to treat it herself, to get to it, but Basch covered it with his arm, not wanting her to trouble herself with it. He knew that if she saw it, it would upset her, and so he thought the best thing to do was to keep it from her. As Wanda told him not to be difficult, however, looking rather frustrated, he paused.

"I... merely sought not to be a bother to you, my lady..." Basch explained, but he knew he had already lost the argument. "Very well... if you wish to see to it..." he said, lowering his arm and revealing a bloodsoaked patch on his shirt with a crude cloth pressed to the wound underneath it.

[tarnishedxknight]

“Basch, can I tell you something? It makes me so proud, watching you with the twins.”

They had been getting ready for bed, with Basch puttering around the room attending to this and that, having checked in on the twins to make sure they were sound asleep. He was sat on his side of the bed, slipping off his boots, when Wanda spoke. Sliding the boots over by the wall, he turned to look over his shoulder at her, a little smile forming on his lips.

"Does it?" he asked. "Am I to assume, then, that you approve of the job I am doing with them? I knew nothing of fatherhood before they were born. I've just been doing what feels right ever since. Spending time with them... feels like something I was born to do. Very few things make me as happy as that." He smiled at her. "Except being with you, my only one."

He rose and went over to her, his hands reaching up to rub her arms. "I love you all with everything I am," he said, his eyes welling up. His hand lifted to her cheek and he kissed her forehead.

[tarnishedxknight]

“Daddy, what’s it like being a knight? Do I get to be one too when I get to be your age?” Pietro asked, sitting beside Basch on the beach.

@illbringthechaosmagic

Basch watched Pietro as he shoveled sand into a tiny bucket with an equally tiny spade, smiling at his questions. He reached over to pack the sand down so Pietro could continue to fill the bucket up. "Well... being a knight is not really an occupation that is held by people nowadays, I do not think. It was where I am from, but not anymore." The bucket was filled and Basch packed it again, picking it up and flipping it over. "Give it a strong pat," he said, watching as Pietro slapped his little hand down onto the bottom of the bucket a few times. Basch lifted it up and the sand stayed behind, the humble beginnings of a sand castle. He passed the bucket to his son for prompt refilling.

"Howe'er... being a knight is more than just the jobs associated with it. You can be the sort of person a knight is, if you choose to be. Things like honesty, empathy, and honor. Do you know what those are?" he asked, watching Pietro shovel in the sand again. Basch smiled at the level of concentration the boy had while doing this.

"Honesty... means you uphold the truth, you never tell lies. Empathy... means you are understanding of others and care about the troubles they are going through. And honor... is when you are a good person no matter what other people or the world might say to you. If you grow to have these values, Pietro, then you can be a knight in your heart someday, if not in practice," he said with a smile, gently poking his son's chest over his heart. The bucket was flipped again, and now the castle had a second tower.

[tarnishedxknight]

"Basch, I need you to do something for me," Wanda smiled, her hands resting on his, "I need you to tell me what you want. I know that you don't enjoy being so forward but... well I think it suits you. I don't mind you being a little forward with me handsome, ok? Nothing you say will change how much I love and adore my partner." (modern verse!)

Basch's gaze was drawn first to Wanda's hand and then to her eyes as she laid her hand over his. For a moment, he wondered what it was she was talking about, though it did not take him long to realize. "What I want?" he asked at first, but then he blushed and seemed to know. "Is it that obvious...?" He had been very restless of late, if that was the proper word for it, but he was not a man to voice such needs and desires openly. He viewed it as something needy and inconsiderate, to say that he wanted her in bed. Should she not tell him when they might share a bed? Surely he should not be so forward as to say he wanted it...

But Wanda seemed to be saying exactly that, that she wanted and even liked for him to be so forward. And now she was giving him an opening he did not know what to do with. "I never want to appear as though that is all I think of you, that you are merely there to warm my bed," he admitted. "When I... mention such desires to you, I feel that I am being demanding or disrespectful in some way. Though... if you are asking to hear my thoughts right now... I will admit that I have been preoccupied with the thought of having you for some days now."

[tarnishedxknight]

"Stop being difficult!" (To Basch)

"I... I was not intending to be..." Basch said. It was late, and he was tired. It had been a long day, and all he wanted to do was retire to bed. Wanda, however, though they should eat something first. They hadn't had any dinner, having been occupied all day with various Avengers-related social obligations. Basch loved to interface with the public in his own time, but here in this time period, he found it a bit more exhausting. He was simply unfamiliar with the people here, and he often didn't know how best to answer all their questions.

When Wanda suggested they eat, Basch told her to go on ahead, that she wouldn't disturb him if she wanted to bring food back from the kitchen. Her insistence that they both get something to eat had been met with a shrug from Basch and a weary, "I'll eat in the morning, love." To which Wanda had told him not to be difficult.

Was he being difficult? Hmm, yes, perhaps he was, given that Wanda was always looking to take care of him, or rather, pushing him to take care of himself. He should have known that she would not eat alone, that she would insist that he ate properly as well. As tired as he was, he knew that he had to eat, not only for his own sake, but for Wanda's. "Very well," Basch said, relenting. "What did you have in mind?"

[tarnishedxknight]

“Basch, would you dance with me?”

Turning to look at his love, Basch smiled warmly. "Aye... though I must warn you. I am not an accomplished dancer." That was the understatement of the year. Basch had never had much of a reason to learn how to dance. Even when he'd been in his own time, he'd stood watch over balls and celebrations, he hadn't participated in them, unless it was to discuss important matters with some of the more politically significant guests. This had left his dancing skills pretty much nonexistent.

However, it was just them in their own home right now, with the twins already laid down for the night, and soft music playing in the room as they were winding down after a long day. Whether he was good at dancing or not, how could he refuse her? He knew Wanda would not judge him for the quality of his dancing as long as it was heartfelt. "Will you be so good as to guide me, my love?" he asked her humbly as he went to her, his hands coming to rest on either side of her waist.