"Please? I want to be a good dad, not like mine, and I want all my kids to be happy."

Hug. "I can't get very far if he doesn't want to let me, but I will try if he wants me to."

"Thanks."

Macalaure's watching him contentedly. "I'm really happy you have Bella, Fëanáro."

"You're welcome."

"I wanna learn Loki's magic after you've invented a way to make it less boring. Singing won't help. What do you do besides singing?"

"I compose things," he says, "my magic works fast and is not very boring. And I think you are underestimating my singing."

"It's really good singing," Bella says in a loud whisper.

"You can sing if they're magic songs."

Macalaure laughs. "You know, some kids care a lot if their fathers are proud of them and if you were one of those you would make me sad." And he starts singing.

Any of your brothers have that problem?

All of us, honestly. But not so much this one's approval, even we don't think our father's approval at the age of twelve was tremendously important...

I'll watch out when this one gets around to having kids.

We all came out more capable for it, honestly. Less happy but more accomplished and when the world needed it more able to really do what was required. 

I'm not sure that's a tradeoff I will want to make when presented with an actual sorta-grandkid!

I know what you mean. I think there's a reason most of us wouldn't have kids, and it's not entirely that the world might technically be at war at the moment. 

Nod.

It's a sense of - being very glad you had your life exactly as it was and horrified at the idea of inflicting it on anyone else. 

Hm, I don't think I'm glad I had my life exactly as it was.

Yours does not sound like it had griefs that demanded your competence.

Not so much. My world demanded my meekness.

Yeah, that I don't think any of us would cope with well. Or at all. My father wouldn't live to have children but if he did we'd all but Maitimo die very young. 

I think viewed outside the immediate environs of Materia one would guess that of me too but I have a very strong self-preservation instinct and it won.

Me too? In a way? I am very glad I didn't have the chance to find out, I suppose. 

Yeah, it's not, like, a stimulating challenge or anything.

I'm glad you're out.

Me too. I was actually sort of expecting Fëanáro would try to rescue me and I thought it would be better to shoo him straight away but then he showed up and I just wanted out.

I bet. How on earth would you have shooed him away? Without him promptly engineering a way back?