Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I do not want to make any profit from writing this story.

The Talk

Ronin did NOT want to do this. He would rather be facing an army of Boggans with a broken arm than what he was forcing himself to do.

Give Nod 'the talk'.

He wanted to argue he should wait until Nod was older but the boy had just turned 10. Nod was only a few years away from when hormones and teenage curiosity would start to kick in. The trouble Nod could get into as a teen, and the boy would, made Ronin's head hurt and he would rather try to least assure himself that he had armed Nod with knowledge to lessen the damage.

Granted, even though Ronin knew he had a good reason to do this, it didn't make the awkwardness any easier. He sighed as he glanced at the shelf where the helmet of Nod's father sat as a memorial. "I hope you realize you owe me for this," he muttered as he rubbed his eyes. Soren must be laughing at him, Ronin could feel it.

Theoretically, Nod's mother could have had the talk with Nod but she hadn't been the same since Soren died. He doubt she could fully plan out just what she should tell Nod. Plus, Ronin just felt this was a topic Nod should have with another man. That didn't make this any easier.

"Ronin?"

He jumped and looked back to see Nod had entered the apartment. Judging by the crumbs on his shirt, Nod had been smacking on honeybrittle again in one of his hiding spots.

"Mom said you had to see me?" Nod asked as he tucked his hands behind his head.

Ronin cleared his throat to recompose himself. "Yeah, Buddy, have a seat."

Nod stared suspiciously at the couch and then to Ronin. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Ronin said as he and Nod sat down. "There's just something I need to discuss with you."

"Oh, okay," Nod replied as he blinked curiously. "About what?"

Ronin coughed. Oh, Moon how was he going to bring this up? "Well...what do you think of girls?"

Nod stared confused. "Um...well, Mom's a girl, and the Queen's a girl and I like her, and Tessa and Leia in class are okay I guess."

"Yes," Ronin said with a nod. "But what do you think about having to kiss them?"

As he expected, Nod stuck out his tongue in response. "Yuck! Why would I want to kiss one?! It's bad enough watching you get kissy face with the Queen!"

Ronin froze. "Kissy face?"

"Yeah, whenever I see you two in the garden you always make the kissy face at each other."

"And just what are you doing in the Queen's garden?" Ronin said as he had only brought Nod there a few times and there were certainly no 'kissy faces' during those incidents, which could only mean Nod had snuck into the garden when he wasn't supposed to.

"I get bored and she has fun vines to climb, the Queen doesn't mind."

"That doesn't give you the right to-" Ronin cut himself off and pinched the bridge of his nose. No, he was getting off track, he'd have to save this lecture for later. "Never mind, listen I know you can't understand now but there will be a time when you too will want to kiss girls."

Nod scrunched up his face like had had sucked a lemon. "That's gross! Why would I want to do that?!"

"Because you find you'll like it and…" Ronin fumbled with his hands in his lap. "You will eventually want to do more than kiss."

Nod leaned back into the seat and he stared baffled. "What else is there?"

"Well...um…" He snapped his fingers. Birds, Nod liked birds, he could use them as an analogy. "Someday you'll want to lay an egg."

Nod frowned as he tilted his head. "Huh?"

"No, wait….I mean someday you'll have to have chicks, like birds, which involves more than kissing." Ronin continued. "And that 'thing' is something many people find enjoyable, and it can be but you need to be careful."

"Because I'll lay an egg?"

"Yes! No, that's not it," Ronin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, let me start over. When a man and a women have been together for a long time and they love each other they-"

"Ronin, are you trying to give me 'the birds and bees talk'?" Nod asked as he straightened out his posture.

Ronin's mouth went dry as the words left his mind. "What?"

"How babies are born," Nod said. "Isn't that what you're trying to tell me?"

Ronin's mouth hung open but he simply replied, "Yes, but Nod, where did you hear the phrase the 'birds and the bees' from?"

Nod sighed. "Ronin, I already know all about that stuff."

"Who told you?" Ronin said shocked. "Your mother?"

"No, Finn."

"Finn?" Ronin choked. When on earth had Finn talked about this with Nod?

"Last spring, when I wandered to the pond," Nod explained. "On our way back we saw some birds doing this weird dance so I asked Finn what they were doing."

"And he told you?" Ronin asked, now feeling like an idiot.

"Yeah, we had a long talk about it on the way back about how you need to make sure the girl wants it and stuff. Oh!" Nod snapped his fingers. "And you need protection before you do it too," he declared like it was the great new discovery of the century.

Ronin was speechless and twitching a bit. It seemed Nod had heard a very detailed explanation and he really wish Finn had told him about it.

Nod patted Ronin's shoulder. "You okay, Ronin? You sounded rather confused, do you want me to get Finn to talk to you about it?"

Ronin choked back a laugh. "No, no, I'm good thanks." He ruffled Nod's hair. "How about some dinner before I take you home?"

"Okay and can we have some seed cake after?"

"We'll see," Ronin replied as he figured Nod probably had more than enough sweets today. It wasn't what he had planned, and he had wished Finn had told him beforehand about having the talk with Nod, but at least it was one less thing he had to worry about for now.