Marriage is Murder

Brant chuckled and nodded " guess he hasn't , and if I did that I couldn't take his note book with me away..." he paused realizing he was about to say when he left but he was not going anyplace now this was home and he just smiled " your right I'll take a look when we dock, could be interesting" he listened to Angus explain about the lab that Robert had his face lit up at the thought of being able to look around it " do you think he would let me see it?" he asked. He slipped all his things away and stood up 2 need me to help with the ship?" he asked though he felt Evan and Angus probably knew how to sail the ship on there own with out him being there.

" I feel a bit like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole , I know eventually things will settle, its all going to feel strange for a while" he added smiling as he tied off a rope with out thinking twice about it.

"As I said," Angus said, "Ask one of the Lupins themselves when you feel like you know them a bit better. Robert, Kate, Brian, or Khaat. Robert doesn't generally let anyone but family into the potions lab. When you see it, you'll understand why. As for fitting in, you've been away from humanoids for a long time. You'll have to get adjusted to the positives and negatives in it. And they'll have to get used to you. Its a process.

"As for the ship, if you still remember how to ready a couple of fishing poles for storage, you could pack them in the gear cabinet on the port side of the ship. The first locker just behind the entrance to the main salon. We've got a good head wind now. I figure we'll be back at the dock in an hour. And if you can manage that, take the cooler and pack the fish in it with freezer packs to keep it cold til we get home. The fish is already packaged in the refrigerator. We just need to put them in the cooler. I'm going to stick Evan with cleaning up the ship once we dock."

"So what else is new?" Evan sighed, accustomed to getting stuck with cleaning the ship when it docked.

Brant nodded and rubbed the back of his neck as he usual's did when he was feeling out of his depth. " sure in a few months I will ask" he said and looked to the poles " of course I do" he said and began readying the poles and carrying them down to the locker behind the entrance and stowing them away ready for the next fishing trip. Moving to the galley he packed up the sword fish in ice and into the freezer packs knowing that certainly would keep them fresh. Once all the fish was packed away he cleaned up where he had been working and placed the cooler on the table ready to be picked up from the table once they arrived .

He felt glad it would not be too long until they got back on dry land as he'd had quite the day on sea even if they didn't swim but he knew back at the villa there was a pool he could swim in once all the young ones had gone to sleep.

Angus steered the keelboat into port and docked it, and as he pulled alongside the pier, Evan jumped onto the dock, and lashed the lines to secure the ship to the dock. As he did that, Angus powered down the engine that he had used to dock the ship. He did a last check of the ship to be sure that he had taken care of all the captain's duties before he tossed the keys to Evan.

Evan took care of steering the fishing trawlers while Angus was working for Brian. Angus knew his grandfather missed Angus being at the helm, daily, of the ships, but Edward also knew that Angus had, equally, a love for auror work and for his friends as he did for the sea. Edward understood how infectious a fighting career could be, and so he had supported his grandson's decisions.

"I've got this from here," Evan told Angus. "Just don't bugger up that fish, Bro."

"I'll see if I can manage to keep it edible," Angus said, knowing Evan was teasing and truly just looking forward to some really great swordfish. Angus looked at Brant. "You riding back in the car with me or apparatinig back with Evan when he finishes here?"

Khaat watched the Japanese strangers transforming the estate into a place that had, if it were possible, even more beauty than it had had before. She was very glad to have furniture that was not so close to the floor. It was far easier for her to use than to try to get down on the floor and back up, as incapacitated as she was. The crew brought beautiful handpainted porcelain bowls in teeny tiny sizes for the kitten and a little low sided sandbox.

The workmen started calling the kitten "Kiko." Khaat didn't know what that meant. One of the workmen said it was their own slang version of shortening a name that meant a child of light. It seemed to fit with a white kitten. When Khaat went back into the house, she saw that they'd added beautiful, brightly colored silks, draped freely from the ceiling, blowing in the gentle breezes. There were bunches of fresh flowers and cuttiings of blooming branches in delicately painted vases. The walls now held paintings--beautiful watercolors. Windchimes made a soothing musical sound, and she noticed a couple of small fountains adding the sound of flowing water. In every way, it was a sanctuary that she wasn't sure she wanted to leave.

The workmen moved outside as she came inside. They worked on clearing paths that she hadn't seen were there. The paths lead in various directions to other small traditional houses much like the house that Khaat and Brian had been using. This was, evidently not just a house and a garden, but a larger, secluded country compound.

And every time her father found these little pieces of peace away from England, the less she wanted any part of England. She didn't want to go back. She knew her children were there, her parents were there, her friends were there...but if it weren't for that, she knew she would find every reason not to return.

Brant watched as yacht pulled into dock he followed Angus and breathed out feeling the land under him once again. “ ow I'm coming you, I'm sure Evan can take care of things and doesn’t need me messing things up.” he said picking up the cooler and walking to the car that was still parked not far from the yacht. He was glad to be back on dry land he placed the cooler in the boot of the car and moved to the passenger door and opened it before he sat down inside. “ come on Angus” he said and looked back at the yacht. He wanted to get back and shower off the salt from his skin he had noticed had turned a light red.

Once back he slipped out of the car and around to trunk “ I'll get this to the kitchen”he said and headed to the kitchen with the cooler in his hands. Placing it down he moved to the fridge he took out a can of soda and drank the cool liquid from inside. Recycling the can he turned to he hoped see Angus, but his mind thought of the library Angus had mentioned he knew to get a chance to see it he'd have to work hard and not mess up in any way.

Angus parked the car in the garage and headed towards the house. He saw that his grandfather had appeared to have planted hundreds of flowers and was finishing his considerably large vegetable garden when Angus arrived.

"How did you do all that so quickly?" Angus asked, frowning.

"Hard work, my boy," Edward said. "So how did he do?"

"Fine," Angus said. "Do take those moldy old potions books away from him, though. They don't work out well for him."

"Some of those potions just don't work as they're written in there. Has he been tinkering with them?"

"Apparently so," Angus said.

"Well, some potioneers just have to learn the hard way," Edward shook his head. "The ones that don't work are on the top shelf, out of reach for a reason. There are plenty of updated versions on the shelves that are well within reach. Anything I need to worry about?"

"Nothing you would worry about, knowing you,' Angus laughed.

"Fair enough," Edward replied. "Do let me know if he grows a third head or something."

"Will do," Angus said. "Beautiful swordfish for dinner."

"Tell your aunts. You're on holiday, remember?"

"You like my swordfish better, and you know it," Angus said.

"Don't tell your aunts, then. They won't want to hear that," Edward said, laughing. Angus headed into the house.

Brant once finished in the kitchen walked to where Angus and Edward stood. He heard their conversation and chuckled "I told them Edward and I'll try and not grow that third head" he said smiling as he walked out." yeah one salve didn't work" he said " the one from Rome" he said knowing Edward would know what one it was. " its got a use by date on it" he showed him his red cut.

Pulling down his sleeve he looked at the flowers " nice flowers" he said leaning down to smell one before he looked at them both " Angus told me Robert has a large potions library" he said smiling as he stood up folding his arms across his chest.

"You didn't read my notation in the front of the book if you used that old book from Rome. I wrote specifically in it that the potion ingredients had all been scrambled by a Cornish pixie jinx. What'd you do? Start in the index in the back of the book like you usually do instead of opening the book rightways from the front? I bet you didn't even see my note I put on the inside of the front flyleaf," Edward said, knowing too well how Brant often looked at the index in the back rather than opening a magic book rightways from the front. Opening up books backwards was a habit of Edward's brother--Brant's grandfather. Edward had seen the habit being copied from one generation to the next.

"Go get the proper book, open it correctly, and make the proper remedy," Edward said to Brant. "If you do it right, it shouldn't take you more than ten minutes. If you bugger it up like your grandfather usually did, it'll take you an hour. Ten minutes to do it wrong, ten minutes to develop the side effects, 20 minutes to figure out what you did wrong, another ten minutes to do it right, and another ten minutes to clean up your mess. If you bugger it up like your father did, it'll take you a week."

From their safehouse, Brian was delighted when the crew stated they had enough work to keep them busy until morning. Brian took full advantage of the situation and took Khaat into Tokyo. He took her shopping for a couple of changes of clothes. One was a lovely dress for going out to a romantic dinner in. He bought a suit. He managed to shrink the rest of the purchases and tuck them into the pocket of his suitcoat. He bought a black silk scarf for her to use as a sling to cover her very medical looking one. He could never get past how beautiful he always thought she was. And he so rarely got to take her to dinner these days that he loved every moment of it. The dress she chose was a shimmering copper, gold and black, and he particularly liked this one. He was hoping she would wear this one again--just for him.

He had chosen a sharply tailored black dress suit for himself, and rented a limosine to take them through the crowded Tokyo streets to the restaurant. He noticed that when they entered they seemed to command attention. He didn't believe it was him. He believed it was her. And, pressed tight to his side, his arm around her waist, she believed firmly that it wasn't her they were staring at. She firmly believed it was him.

Brant chuckled and rubbed the back of his head " I guess I did, bad habit and all" he said remembering how his father had done the same when he had been young. Brant nodded and smiled " I think I'll get it this time" he said and opened his little book and tore out the page scrunch it up he placed it in his pocket.. " Guess I still need work on that" he said closing the book and placed it back in his inside pocket. He watched Edward and Angus both seeming happy together. "Figures that would be one of the thing my dad gave me, the one thing that gets me in trouble. " he said softly as he moved to another flower smiling as he smelt the sweet scent from it.

"As I recall, neither your father nor your grandfather are potioneers," Edward said. "They try, but its not their forte. Your grandfather did much better at painting magical portraits. Or at least that's what he did before you were born. Your father was much better at growing herbs rather than actually using them. I was the one your father made fun of for being, whats the term now, geeky? Perhaps thats why Robert and I get along. Remus always thought Robert was the geek in their family too."

And Edward had been the child that got picked on for being studious. It was his anger at being teased and made fun of because he liked books that made him like to fight. One of his professors had gotten ahold of the angry young boy and had taught him to fight, tutored him with extra lessons on Defense Against the Dark Arts. And that had caused him, in time, to be skilled at werewolf slaying. It had evolved from there into a lucrative career that fed his swiftly growing family.

He hadn't actually gone questing for a rogue werewolf for many years, but that didn't mean his name didn't still mean something. He had put the business of the pack in England aside, but he knew he was going to have to go pick that nasty business up again as long as they were making mutant beasts. It was going to mean killing the entire pack and destroying all evidence of the genetic tampering. And no one was going to like the idea of having to kill every one of the werewolves who had seen how the genetic altering was done.