My friends say, are you gonna be sad?

[dreadinquisitor]

WHO: Character(s) Maxwell Trevean and You
WHAT: Kingsway Catchall
WHEN: Over Kingsway
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Mention of death (Kain's)

He'd warned Gavin. He'd given the elf a key. So now it was time to actually get on with installing an official lock on the cubbiehole Maxwell called a bedroom.

On his knees on the floor, he worked behind the door, tools tapping and scrapping, humming softly to himself as he set the lock. Hopefully, anyone stopping to see him would knock first, lest he catch it opening with his face....

~.~

Maxwell could have delegated the job of checking and refilling the bird feeder he'd installed to someone else, but he found he enjoyed the simple task. It wasn't just a favor to Kain (and then, later, in honor of his memory) - other birds had come to flock about it too - it was an easy excuse to get out and into the sunshine whenever the keep's walls started to feel a little too dark and heavy.

Besides, it was in sight off both the halla and griffon pens, so he could watch either without actually getting too close. And if he decided to plop down and do some sketching, well, at least he'd gotten something productive done.

~.~

It snuck up on him.

It wasn't until he was dating an official missive, that he realized how deep they were into Kingsway. How close it actually was to his birthday. How it would be his first birthday alone.

Away from home. Away from his parents.

It wasn't that it ever been an outrageously grand affair - family, perhaps some friends of said, all the appropriate movers and shakers - but privately there had always been a spectacle.

A lot of sighing. A lot of passive-aggression. A new ultimatum every year as his gift.

For a long moment he sat silently, blinking ahead, processing what it would mean to be at Skyhold (or anywhere with the Inquisition as opposed to home) on the 25th. Then he smiled. Small, and then wider, grinning brightly down at the letter and re-dipping his quill in the well with a happy little clink.

Comments

[el_tybs]

It was Nikita running off that led him here first, but it was the knocking, or rather hammering, that grabbed his attention when he was close enough.

"Hello?" He can see feet sticking out, but that hardly tells him whose there.

[dreadinquisitor]

A nail pursed between his lips, Maxwell leaned back at the call, peering around the door frame with an arched a brow.

Spotting Sam, he waved and mumbled, "melwhoa," waving his hammer gently in greeting as his other hand held the metal plate of the lock just so.

[el_tybs]

Ah, it's Maxwell. Raising a brow at the greeting - he's sure Max means 'hello' with his mouth full - Sam moves in closer, grabbing Nikita along the way.

"Hey. You're... installing a door?" It's looking good.

[dreadinquisitor]

He ducked toward the plate and pulled the nail from between his teeth, freeing his mouth to speak as Sam approached.

"A lock, actually." A grin. "I'm moving up in the world."

[el_tybs]

"A lock you say?" Sam gives a low whistle at that. "I don't know. Having a door is pretty impressive all on it's own." And a fourth wall. He likes his loft, but honestly if he could find someplace else that would be great.

[dreadinquisitor]

"I am the most spoiled," Maxwell chuckled lightly.

Such lofty heights that sought here in the Inquisition - doors and walls and locks to call their own.

"But at least I'm installing it myself, that counts for something, right?"

He tapped the nail lightly to start it, and then pounded it into the door.

[el_tybs]

"Hey I'm still trying to get over the fact you have a door. You're going to need to give me a moment here." Not really. It is impressive you are doing it yourself Maxwell.

"Just don't break the door with that hammer."

[dreadinquisitor]

"It is old," Maxwell allowed, finishing with the first nail and reaching for the second. "But hopefully it'll hold yet, otherwise winter will be... unfortunate."

Even as warm as Skyhold stayed compared to the valley beyond, it was still cold enough to make him want to be indoors. (He'd had enough sleeping on the ground last year.)

[el_tybs]

"I suppose if that came to pass you could just get another door." Course that would take time, but it wasn't impossible to do. "What made you decide to put on a lock? At least now? Too many random people walking in on you?"