A Birth day

Angus heard a knock on the door, but when no one just knocked and let themselves in, Angus got up and went to the door and saw Nigel there with one of Robert's shoulder bags.

"Come on in," Angus told him. "Tea? Ruby's made a pot of some herbal thing. It's pretty good."

"I really shouldn't stay," Nigel said. "I need to get back and make sure Robert isn't left alone too long, but I'll take a raincheck on it. I heard your shoulder was injured this morning--the one Robert and I rebuilt."

"It's not serious. Ruby's tended it just fine," Angus said.

"I would rather judge that for myself," Nigel said.

"As you like," Angus said. Nigel took the dressing off and saw the tear wound above Angus's collarbone. It was a couple inches long, and it was at a bit of an angle. And the entire area was starting to bruise, starting to turn black.

"Your shoulder is going to have some serious bruising," Nigel told him.

"I had him ice it when he got home," Marcus said.

"Good. It slowed the swelling and the bleeding. I'm going to cast a few spells to start to heal the wound that was made by the jaw on that thing. You might find you're stiff by morning. Those are some delicate, new tissues that she was bashing on. I'm going to check it tomorrow. Until then, I'm going to keep your magic wrap on it. Do try not to let crazy women beat on you between now and then, would you?"

"Am I planning on running into any crazy women tonight?" Angus asked Ruby, trying not to laugh. He looked at Cris, who looked frustrated at not understanding English, and Angus translated for him.

"Așteaptă până la luna plină și apoi o voi mânca pentru tine," Cris said. Angus looked at Cris, surprised and then he laughed out loud, finding it hilarious. He looked at the others.

"Cris said I should wait til the full moon to go find the crazy woman because he'd eat her for me and solve the problem," Angus laughed.

"She did indeed," Nigel said. "I would fully expect Robert to want to see it for himself tomorrow. You know what he's like with bones and joints. He's going to want to check for himself to make sure she didn't chip the bone or something. I'm not feeling it, but we all know he's got a very sensitive touch when it comes to bones and joints. He might have a head injury, but he isn't going to let it stop him from making sure you all are alright. Let's give him at least til morning, though, I think. When I left, he was sleeping, and Andrew was with him, and he was making sure that I had all the equipment I was going to want for him there. Im' glad you kept him on, Angus. With the sort of work you lot do, he's going to be well occupied, I think. How's the movement on it been so far--before today?"

"It's alright. It's a little limited but not overly so. Still, if I had to support my body weight with it, I don't think it would hold."

"You're bloody not ready to try to hold your entire body weight with it," Nigel frowned. "Planning on dangling off your hippogriff tonight or something?"

"No. I am not,' Angus said. "The only thing I'm really thinking about is what the devil I'm cooking for supper for the kids, and right now, I'm thinking about ordering subs and crisps for everyone and calling it done."

"The way you cook, and you're looking at ordering trash? You've lost your mind. At least order from a decent chippy if you're going to order out."

"The only one in the wizarding world that makes decent fish and chips, aside from Angus, is the Leaky," Marcus said. "Angus's is still better, though, in my humble opinion."

"The idea was that I wasn't going to cook tonight," Angus laughed.

Angus laughed when Ruby said he was only going to hang off his pillow, but when she suggested Sparks, he nodded.

"Sparks is a great idea," Angus agreed. "That never entered my head, quite honestly. Thank you. I'll let you take care of it. Just surprise me. The kids will eat anything we put in front of them, so you honestly could probably order whenever you like."

"Lizzie has a nice chicken piccata on the supper menu this week, so I might have that," Marcus said. "Shall I ask Edward and Simone if they want to order with us?"

"By all means," Angus said. Marcus got up and went over to Edward's.

"Alright, so I'll check it tomorrow," Nigel said. "And we'll just accept it as a foregone conclusion that Robert will want to see it himself when he gets his wits about him again." He cleaned and redressed it. "Keep the magic wrap on it, and leave it set to intermittent cooling. Cool for 20, off for twenty, until I see you again. In the meantime, I need to get back to Robert. Let me know sooner if you have trouble. See you all later." He took his leave for the main building to get back to Robert.

"The full moon is tomorrow, I think," Angus said to Jessie. "Shall we just meet outside after supper as it starts to get dark? I'll bring the s'more supplies. I think you and Yu need to sort of expect that he may really be afraid of losing you and Yulong. You might find him really trying to pull away from you tomorrow night until he sees he's not going to be an uncontrollable monster that's going to kill you. He's more afraid of losing you two than he is of hurting me--by far. So just keep that in mind so you don't take it personally if he tries to avoid being within reach of hurting you."

"That's fine," Angus said. "I doubt Nigel would be happy if I hauled firewood with my shoulder. You know what a stickler he can be. I know you're in it for the long haul, and he already knows that too. He's afraid that if he does change into a werewolf, you won't leave him, and he'll end up ruining his chances with his new family like he ruined his old family. It's all about not trusting himself. He's afraid he's going to kill you or Yulong tomorrow night. He isn't afraid of hurting me because he thinks I can run fast enough to outrun him. He'll get it figured out when he doesn't change." He looked at Cris. "Cris, vrei să mă ajuți să fac niște marshmallows de casă? Vrei marshmallows cu vanilie sau ciocolată?"

Cris looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Ce? Bezele aromate? Poti sa le faci si aromate?" Cris asked.

"Da. Ciocolata, capsuni, zmeura, orice iti place," Angus nodded.

"Ciocolata si vanilie," Cris said.

"Bine. Mâine dimineață."

"Și prăjituri cu Ruby."

"Da," Angus said. He looked at Jessie. "I told him I would make homemade chocolate and vanilla marshmallows in the morning. And he's already planning on making cookies with Ruby in the morning too, so he's got kitchen duty over here, if that's okay with you."

"As he sees it, he has a lot riding on tomorrow night. The very last thing he wants is to ever hurt anybody else," Angus told Jessie. "In a way, I think it will do him good when he sees that he can go months and months without transforming. Or that even if he does, we'll still be there for him. I don't think anyone should go without their potion deliberately to show him that, but he'll figure out that being a werewolf won't frighten us off or make us love him any less. I think hurting Sergio's son and losing his own family really traumatized him. He'll heal in time, I'm sure."

"Thanks," Angus said, tucking into his supper. Cris could see and smell that it was fish. He liked fish, so he just tucked into it. Angus accio'd some malt vinegar for his fish and chips, and Cris looked at him, not sure what he was putting on his supper. Angus broke off a piece of his fish that had some vinegar on it and handed it to him to try. He tasted it, and Cris's eyes grew wide, with a big smile. He definitely liked it. Angus handed him the vinegar, and Cris added it liberally to his supper.

"O să-l pun pe toate," Cris told him. Angus laughed.

"Pe înghețata ta?" Angus asked, and Cris gave Angus a look like he was completely grossed out.

"He just told me he was going to put malt vinegar on everything, so I asked him if he was going to start putting it on his ice cream, and you saw the look I got," Angus laughed. "I don't think he really means everything."