Chapter 213: Chapter 213: Proposal

“Come here,” Rafael said.

Frederik obeyed at once with the unnerving composure of a child who had inherited too much discipline too early but still had enough sense to understand when his father wanted him close.

He stopped in front of Rafael’s chair.

Rafael looked up at him.

Dust on one sleeve. Hair slightly out of place near the temple. Face calm. Eyes attentive.

And yes, annoyingly, beneath all that stillness was the unmistakable tension of a child who did not fear punishment nearly as much as he feared Rafael’s disappointment.

Rafael exhaled softly through his nose.

Then he lifted a hand and brushed the dust from Frederik’s sleeve with automatic care.

“You were in the maintenance corridor.”

Frederik nodded once. “Yes.”

“That was not authorized.”

“No.”

“Do you understand why that is a problem?”

Frederik hesitated, then answered with complete honesty. “Because if I can get there, someone else might too.”

Arik made a small sound through the ether link that was dangerously close to approval.

Rafael shot the projection a look sharp enough to discourage further commentary.

Then he looked back at his son.

Frederik remained still beneath his hand, all pale lashes and silver eyes and far too much Gregoris in too small a body.

Rafael’s fingers lingered a second longer at his collar before he straightened it.

“Yes,” he said at last. “That is part of the problem.”

Frederik listened with the full focus of someone storing every word.

“The other part,” Rafael continued, “is that you are six.”

Frederik blinked.

Rafael arched a brow. “Which means I would prefer not to discover you halfway inside the walls like a beautifully dressed infestation.”

Natalie made a choking noise that was definitely laughter disguised as a cough.

Gregoris looked down and took another drink of water, which was cowardice in liquid form.

Frederik, to his credit, did not smile. “I didn’t want the guards to be embarrassed.”

Rafael closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened them again, Gregoris was openly watching him now, quiet amusement sitting at the edges of his face in that infuriatingly restrained way Rafael had never once managed to make less effective.

“Your son,” Rafael said to him, “is trying to soften the situation by protecting the dignity of trained adults.”

Gregoris’s answer was immediate. “Useful.”

Rafael pointed at him without looking away from Frederik. “Silence.”

Then he returned his attention to his son and softened, despite himself.

“You are not allowed to test palace-adjacent estate security without permission.”

Frederik nodded once. “Understood.”

“You are also not allowed in the maintenance corridor.”

A pause.

Then, because he had been raised in a house full of dangerous people and had somehow still retained honesty, Frederik asked, “At all?”

Rafael stared at him.

Natalie put a hand over her mouth.

Arik laughed openly this time, his image flickering once with the movement.

Gregoris actually chuckled.

Rafael looked toward the ceiling as though appealing to higher structures of authority. “This is what I endure.”

Then he looked back at Frederik, whose expression had gone cautious again, that same small tension returning at the corners of his stillness.

“Frederik, this is not a punishment,” Rafael said, his voice losing some of its theatrical sharpness as he held his son’s gaze. “But you have to be aware that you are still a child, and it seems like I’m the only one sane enough to remember it.”

The room quieted.

Even Arik, still shimmering in blue ether light over the board, stopped looking amused quite so openly.

Frederik stood very still beneath Rafael’s attention. Composed in that deeply suspicious Frasner way—and yet six, still only six, no matter how calmly he moved through corridors and blind spots and household systems as though the estate were a puzzle built for his entertainment.

Rafael exhaled softly through his nose.

“You are allowed,” he continued, more gently now, “to be clever. You are allowed to notice things. You are even allowed to be impossible in highly specific ways, since apparently that runs in your bloodline.”

Natalie made a faint sound that suggested agreement.

Gregoris wisely said nothing.

“But,” Rafael said, touching two fingers to Frederik’s collar and straightening it again despite having already done so, “you do not have to prove yourself useful every minute of the day. You do not have to test every wall, every corridor, every response time just because you can. Do you understand me?”

Frederik’s throat moved once.

“Yes.”

Rafael studied him for a moment. “That was not a sufficiently honest yes.”

Another pause.

Then Frederik said, quieter, “I think so.”

Better.

Much better.

Rafael let his hand slide briefly to the side of the boy’s neck. “You are not one of your father’s operatives.”

At that, Gregoris finally spoke.

“No.”

Rafael turned his head slightly, just enough to make it clear he had heard the agreement and expected further good behavior from that side of the room as well.

Then he returned his attention to Frederik. “You are my son. Which means your first responsibilities at six years old are eating properly, sleeping enough, not getting yourself stuck in structural spaces, and refraining from causing me premature spiritual collapse.”

Natalie covered her mouth.

Arik’s shoulders shook silently in the projection.

Frederik, however, did not smile. He was listening too hard for that.

Rafael saw it and softened further despite himself.

“If there is a flaw in the estate’s security,” he said, “you tell an adult. Preferably one trained to deal with it. Preferably not by climbing into the walls first.”

Frederik hesitated. “What if they miss it?”

Rafael’s expression changed, but before he could answer, Gregoris stepped forward.

“They won’t,” Gregoris said.

Frederik looked at him.

Gregoris held his gaze with the same steady stillness, but gentler now, scaled down into something a six-year-old could stand inside without being crushed by it. “If you see something important, you report it. Then I check it. Or one of my people does. That is how it works.”

Frederik absorbed that in silence.

“You are not responsible,” Gregoris added, “for carrying the whole system yourself.”

Rafael glanced once at his husband.

Frederik lowered his eyes for a second, thinking.

Then he nodded once. “Understood.”

This time Rafael believed him.

“Good,” he said quietly.

Frederik remained where he was, still close enough for Rafael to touch and standing with that careful little control that always seemed just one size too large for him. The sight of it caught at Rafael’s chest in the familiar, irritating way affection often did.

So he did the only sensible thing.

He drew Frederik in by the shoulder and kissed the top of his head.

The boy froze in immediate surprise.

Natalie smiled.

Arik made a strangled sound through the projection, likely from witnessing emotional developments he would absolutely weaponize later.

Rafael ignored him.

“But if you did it only for fun,” he continued, drawing back just enough to look properly at Frederik again, “then we can ask your other father for access to an ether simulator.”

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