keeping my enamys a little to close

Jaden walked into the Leaky Cauldron carrying his one year old daughter Danielle with him. He rolled his eyes when he saw Darius was there. “Daddy has no idea why he brought you with him,” he said to the little girl who most people who knew of her though was his cousin and not his daughter. Luckily that was easy to believe since she looked more like her mother than she did her father. Walking over to a table Jaden accidentally bumped into the table where Darius was sitting and Danielle giggled.

They had been in London and had stopped to get something to drink and escape from the hot sun before going into diagon alley. His siblings had asked that he got them some stuff form Wesley’s Wizard Wheezes and a few books for Florish and Blots before he and Danielle came home. His mother even wanted him to pick something up from her. He couldn’t exactly tell them no but he didn’t like the idea of keeping Danielle out in the sun for more than an half and hour at a time.

As Jaden ordered two glasses of water and some fires Danielle took off his hat and played with it. He smiled watching her as she giggled. She was having fun and that’s all he really cared about.

Jaden's outfit

Darius was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, feet in a designer version of combat boots and swung out on top of the table he was sitting at. His chair was leaning only on the back two legs to facilitate Darius’ uncouth choice of posture, but so far, no one at the pub had challenged him on it. He was wearing dark jeans slung low on his narrow hips and a light grey button down shirt with the top few buttons undone. In his hand was a cigarette, which he pulled on every now and again, intentionally blowing the smoke toward the two pre-teen girls sitting at the table next to him.

The Slytherin boy wasn’t really in town for any particular reason. His parents were on vacation in some place he hadn’t bothered to remember, so there was really no one at home to serve as the victim of his barbed comments. The maids, chefs, and house elves were entirely too easy pickings, because whenever he tried to cut them down, he found they already had such low opinions of themselves that his mockery didn’t even make a difference. No fun in that.

So Darius had come out to the Leaky Cauldron in search of new victims to entertain himself, and hadn’t yet gotten lucky when Jaden walked through the door holding a blobby bundle of poo that others sometimes referred to as a baby. Darius didn’t know the Hufflepuff boy well, but he knew enough to know he didn’t like him. This kid was like a gold mine when it came to making fun of people, and as if that weren’t enough, Jaden served himself up on a silver platter by accidentally running into Darius’ table.

“You know, if you want to set a good example for your daughter, you really ought to learn to walk,” Darius shouted across the pub at Jaden, blowing a cloud of smoke at the middle aged man next to him that tried to tell him to keep his voice down.

“Though considering your choice of clothing, perhaps her mobility is the least of your worries,” Darius added, blatently ignoring the stares of those around him as he pushed forward with his scathing review of Jaden, “It’s probably a good thing you have a daughter rather than a son, or he might have ended up with the same gender confusion you seem to have, what with the pink and all.”

“The fedora’s nice, though,” Darius said, pretending to appraise Jaden’s choice of accessory, “I think I saw one of those on the runways… in 2018.”

That ought to do it. Insult his ability to parent and his fashion sense all in one blow. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t cry, Darius thought to himself, smirking over his cigarette at Jaden.

“How in the world?” Jaden said looking at the slythirn and trying his hardest not to cuss in front of Danielle, “How did you know?” he barley spoke loud enough for Darius to hear. How did he know that Danni was his daughter and not his cousin like he was sure to have told everyone who asked. Confusion was clear on his face. Jaden shook it off and glared at the guy as he insulted him more. Only now he moved on to his clothes instead of his parenting stlye. “I have no worries about her at all,” Jaden said and played with Danielle a little trying to forget about Daurius but the guy just didn’t stop. “Danni, comeing in here wasn’t daddys best idea, was it?” and the little girl just keep giggling and grabed his ears.

Jaden had no idea what he had done to make Darius hate him so much. Ja had heard that that Darius acted this way towards everyone that didn’t have boobs and even then some of them. “Danni can dress how ever she wants. She can be who ever she wants and I’ll still love her the same.” he said as their fries arrived and he set them out of Danielle’s reach until they cool off a little. He didn’t want them to burn her mouth.

Darius smirked deeply at Jaden’s reaction to the fact that Darius knew about his daughter. This was exactly why Darius went out to find people – it wasn’t for the company, or want of relationships or people to spend time with. No, Darius went out for two reasons: to get laid, and to make other people miserable. And because there wasn’t a chance in hell Darius would ever sleep with Jaden, this situation clearly fell into the latter category.

The smirk was totally at home on Darius’ features, and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to be most effective at throwing Jaden off-balance if he continued shouting across the bar. So instead, Darius swung his legs off the table and stood up, causing the girls at the table next to him – the very same girls he had been blowing smoke at all night – to start giggling in what could only be described as an incredibly annoying way.

Even after you torture them they still come willingly.

“I make it my business to know things people would rather keep a secret,” Darius said as he reached the bar where Jaden was standing with the glob of flesh in his arms, not bothering to whisper, “And since you do a really, really bad job of flying under the radar – again the pink – it wasn’t too difficult to find out your story.”

Darius rolled his eyes obnoxiously when Jaden started talking baby-talk to the child in his arms, making it a point to look as disgusted as possible. This was exaggerated for effect, but Darius did not at all need to feign this emotion – he truly found that ‘gaga, googoo, dada’ bullshit repulsive.

“Yeeaaaah,” Darius said after Jaden defended his daughter’s future choices without knowing at all what they would be. Already he was getting tangled in Darius’ web, taking the bait with open arms. Darius helped himself to one of the French fries Jaden had ordered, popping it into his mouth before adding insult to injury.

“Too bad the rest of the world doesn’t live in the universe of kittens and rainbows you do, Jamison. Then she’d be set no matter what,” he added with a sarcastic raise of his eyebrows, grabbing another fry while Jaden tried to come up with a response.

“Who said I lived in a world of kittens and rainbows?” Jaden said as he released his ears from his daughters grip. “letting my sisters dress me the way they wanted to made them happy when they where younger. It still makes them happy. That is all I care about. I could careless what you think about the way a chose to dress and as Danielle gets older I will let her make own dissisions when it comes to dressing her self, and buying her own clothes. If she would rather dress like her uncles than her aunts then her whole family would be behind that. Well everyone but her mother.” Jaden cheeked to see if the fries where warm enough for the little girl who was almost two. “here you go Danni,” He said handing her a fry.

He took a sip of water and ate a fry or two. “Danni do you like this nice man?” he asked being completely sarcastic. He laughed as his daughters face twisted into a look of discust or as if she had just eaten something that tasted bad.

“It was implied,” Darius said with a heavy roll of his eyes as Jaden asked about the kitten/rainbow world he had mentioned earlier. Clearly Jaden wasn’t fluent in sarcasm, which was a pity, because it was Darius’ primary language. The Hufflepuff boy seemed hell bent on defending his – or rather, his sisters’ – clothing decisions, and continued to blather on about how his daughter would be allowed to dress in the future. Darius did not even make an attempt to feign interest.

Usually, Darius would have been content to see how much he was winding up his victim, because Jaden was all too easy to manipulate into getting defensive. But Jaden was just so damn annoying that Darius was beginning to wonder if this really was the most useful course of action to be taking at the moment. Those girls he had been blowing smoke at were still sitting at the table, watching him from across the bar, and if he pitted them against one another, he might even get them to compete for his attention.

But as long as the fries were here, Darius figured he’d at least get some free food while he finished Jaden off.

“Don’t worry, that’ll change,” Darius commented, blatantly grabbing three fries from Jaden’s dish and popping them into his mouth one at a time, “The girls may not like me when they are young enough to still have a conscience, but I’d be more than willing to corrupt your little darling once she’s old enough to have the hormones for the job,” Darius intoned mockingly, knowing this would cause Jaden to fly off the handle. Darius would be in his 30’s by the time this girl was old enough to even be remotely interesting, but the logistics weren’t all that important. It was really more about pushing Jaden’s buttons until the fries were gone.

“If you do and I find out about it, I’ll be sure someone with the power to put you in Azkaban will hear about it,” Jaden said smiling at his daughter, “Yeah daddy thinks the same way about him.” his daughter still couldn’t speak but she had a wonderful way of communicating. If he worried about any thing it would be that she only knew two words, daddy and grandma, and she couldn’t even pronouce grandma right. She always said grama instead. She still had plenty of time to learn so he hadn’t started to worry just yet.
“Danielle the mean man is eating your French fries,” He said and she turned around to see.

Reaching for the fries Danielle picked up a few in her small hands and chucked them at Dariuses head. Squinting at him she stuck out her toung and spit at him. “Daddy,” She said giggling and claping her hands as Jaden smiled slightly.

“Yeah Danni your right that was funny,” Jaden said watching his daughter take his hands and clap them together for him. Jaden looked up at Darius and made a pradiction about his future fathering styles, “Darius, your going to be a horrible father to your future children,” he said.

Ugh, if this guy were any more wholesome, he’d be mother freaking Teresa, Darius thought, feeling as though slapping his palm to his forehead would be the appropriate response to Jaden’s constant babytalk to the bundle of mush in his arms. This whole situation was growing incredibly tedious, so much so that even Jaden taking the bait Darius was throwing out wasn’t entertaining enough to fully validate Darius’ continued presence at the bar.

Good thing the fries were almost gone so he could move on to someone more interesting. Unless Jaden or his kid started crying soon, Darius wasn’t likely to stay invested much longer.

“Well I really only sleep with women with daddy issues, so I won’t lose too much sleep over whether or not you’ll ever find out about it,” Darius said, growing more crass as he grew more bored with Jaden, who was back to coddling his daughter. As if this weren’t disgusting enough, the tiny human seemed to be acting on her father’s more immature personal wishes, and before Darius could invest enough interest to notice what was about to happen, he was pelted by salty potato.

You have got to be kidding me, Darius thought as he raised a hand to wipe away the grease from the fries, closing his eyes against the impulse to grab the kid’s arm and shake her violently. Though the action would not have bothered Darius’ conscience any, he knew violent outbursts like that would land him in more trouble than he preferred to handle. Him being an asshole was something bar owners may not have liked, but they tolerated; outright violence toward children, however, would move him quickly from asshole to psychopath, and even though that would be a more accurate description, Darius wasn’t keen on broadcasting that for the population at large.

“If you think for even a second I would ever want screaming, crying, vessels of poop to call my own, you’re even dumber than that hat makes you look,” Darius replied scathingly, shooting Jaden a cutting look.