A Birth day

Anise placed both bottles in Marcus hands and smiled to him as she watched him head down to the girls room. Turning to Angus she chuckled " teens" she simply said and smelt his cooking " smells yummy" she said Ruby chuckled as she nodded.

"his cooking is always good." she said as a knock came on the door and Lucian walked in.

"sorry guys, thought you'd like to know those guys and there employee are behind bars" he said hen chuckled " hum that smells yummy, but I got a date with some fish and chips" he added and paused " I'll seen a report to Robert in the morning, maybe some fish and chips too, I hear he loves those." he chuckled as did Ruby.

" yep " she said as she put the last of the dishes away for the moment. Aria moved to Lucian and smiled.

"god seeing you again, maybe we could work together more" she said and Lucian nodded and chuckled.

"that's up to your boss" he said " see ya around pewee" he said and headed out the house before porting away. Aria looked at Marcus as he returned from the girls room.

"that's a god sign, if we all ran when grounded there would be a lot of runaways, she's safe here and has boundary's too." She said and moved to pick up the local quibbler that she saw on the table so she could read till the supper was ready.

"Fish and chips probably one of that man's biggest weaknesses," Angus laughed. "And Kate tries so hard to de-rail him at lunch by sending salads with him."

"Which he dumps in the bin on the days he choose to order from the Leaky," Marcus laughed.

"Yep," Angus agreed. "Anyway, thanks for the assist, Lucian. We definitely appreciate it." When Lucian left, Angus looked at Aria and Ruby and Marcus. "I do completely expect Robert will want a word with Anise before bedtime. He will make a very clear distinction between her slipping out and joining a mission without permission. The slipping out is one thing. That's up to us to deal with, and we have. However, joining a mission without permission is something he will see as a breech, and he will talk to her about it."

"Indeed," Marcus said. "I expected him here before this, but he will certainly come or he will summon her there. Speaking of which, you should let him look at that shoulder. You're struggling to get those potatoes peeled and that cabbage chopped."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't hurt that bad. It's fine," Angus said.

"I've never made colcannon, and I'm not much help with cooking that tenderloin or in chopping cabbage, but I can peel potatoes. I could give you a hand," Marcus offered.

"Sit and relax. I'll manage," Angus laughed. "Or, if you want to do something, you could take Finn out. or find out why we have two babies and no noise from them. Six kids in the house and no noise is not a good thing."

Ruby took the cabbage and began cutting it up for Angus she smiled as he looked over at him " I'll help" she said with a smile as she continued to cut the cabbage. Aria and Lucian chuckled and he nodded as he left. Ara smiled a she heard Angus " take Finn for a walk poor things probably crossing his legs" she said and chuckled " I would take him out but he seems to like you better" she added looking up from her paper and smirked at him. Aria heard Angus mention the other kids and looked into the play pen " well one is sleeping and the other is just listening" she said " the older ones I can check on later since one is grounded and another is sulking in his room" she said with a chuckle " and enjoy it while it lasts."

Ruby finished the cabbage and moved on to prepping the tenderloin for Angus so all he had to do was season it ready to cook. " okay cabbage is done, and chops are ready for seasoning" she said " what's next?" she asked him washing her hands clean of the meat.

"Aria, that leaves a presumption that Victor and Ginger are not misbehaving," Angus teased. "I wouldn't presume that. I know those two. Thanks, Ru." He put the seasonings and the sauce on the tenderloin and put it in the oven and then put the potatoes on to boil. He got the loaf of pannetone out of the freezer and cast a thawing spell on it. "Give that a moment and then you can use it and make a bread and butter pudding from it, if you like. As much as you bake, I'm sure you can make a bread and butter pudding in your sleep. There are all kinds of chocolate chips in the pantry. Use what you want. I'll set the table in a moment."

He made some plain mashed potatoes from some of the boiled potatoes and pureed some leftover chicken for the babies and got out a jar of homemade applesauce.

"I've got supper ready for the babies if two of you could handle that while I set the table. No point making them wait for our supper to cook," Angus said, setting two divided baby plates with portions of the pureed chicken, the mashed potatoes and the applesauce, along with some bottles of water for them to drink.

Aria groaned and looked at Angus " thanks for the mental image" she said placing down the paper and picking up Diamond , she looked to Marcus and smiled " could you grab Caprice please" she said and moved to the table so she could feed Diamond her food and give her some milk. Ruby chuckled and moved to retrieve the panettone from the pantry so she could make bread and butter pudding with chocolate chips.

Ruby made up a custard base then soaked some of the panettone in it then sprinkled chocolate chips into it then added more until the dish was done then she set it in the oven to cook as she put everything back in the pantry again and cleaned up the sides. " how's Caprice doing?" she asked Aria who chuckled and looked over.

"she's doing good Marcus not so much" she said making Ruby chuckle too. " she's defiantly her daddy's girl" she said spotting Caprice throw some food at Marcus before putting her hand in her mouth. Ruby walked over with a cloth and placed it near Marcus.

"supper won't be long" she said then glanced at Angus " you going to let Robert take a look at that shoulder, the pain potion won't last for ever," she said to him moving to check the pudding as she saw it start to brown on top.

Marcus had a bit of a different way of dealing with Caprice's food throwing. When she threw food, he simply took her out of the high chair and set her on the floor and cleaned up the high chair and the floor. Eventually, Caprice got the message and started screaming unhappily that there was no food coming. Marcus ignored her, but when she settled, he picked her up and put her back in the high chair and tried again. She threw food again, and Marcus repeated it. By about the fourth time she threw food, she seemed to be understanding that if she threw food, the food went away. The fifth time, she raised her little fist to throw food and then stopped before she threw it.

"I rather like that tactic," Angus told Marcus.

"I'm actually doing well. I'm not feeding--I'm teaching. It's pretty simple," Marcus said. "Even the dumbest kid on the planet can figure out that if she throws food, there is no more food. See? She's already getting the idea. She's not nearly throwing as much or as far. And this time, she didn't throw at all. She'll learn."

"Well done, then," Angus said. Ruby asked about his shoulder. "I'll talk to Robert after supper. I just figured first things first. Besides, he's still going to want to talk to Anise. I figured I'd go with her whenever that happens."

"Be honest. You're hungry," Marcus laughed.

"Yep. I am," Angus said. "And the boys are always hungry. And for some reason, the werewolves here tend to eat more on the nights of the full moon. I can't prove it, of course, but I think it may have something to do with the body trying to prepare for transformation, whether they actually transform or not. So I figured I might as well get supper out of the way. It won't be long now, maybe another twenty minutes or so." He walked over to the doorway and invited Edward and Simone for roasted pork tenderloin and colcannon. They were glad to get the invitation and said they'd be over shortly.

Ruby watched and was amazed how quick she picked up on not throwing her food at Marcus, she heard Angus and Marcus talk of being hungry and she chuckled but simply nodded when Angus said he would talk to Robert after he had spoken to Anise " your doing well with her" she said as she looked at Aria with Diamond " how's she doing?" Ruby asked and Aria held up the half empty bowl.

"real well she wants more now" she said " and she's holding the spoon when I offer it to her, so I'd say their both learning." Aria chuckled seeing Caprice now put her fist in her mouth with the food rather than throw it. " are we sending food down for Ginger, Anise , victor and Sam or they coming up to eat?" Aria asked Angus.

"I expect them to come to the table if they're hungry," Angus said. "The more I think about it, I think I need to change things a bit. If they want to be treated like grown ups, then we need to do just that, and they need to act like adults and show up. I am not sending food to them because they're not five and they're not sick. The boys are actually adult age now, even if they don't always act like it, and the girls have a year to go. If they don't come up, they can come up, take some leftovers and fix their plates and reheat it when they get hungry enough."

"They aren't going to thank you for that, you know," Marcus said.

"Well, they will at first--until they realize that adulting is hard," Angus said. He took the tenderloins out of the oven and sliced them both against the bias into thin, professional looking diagonal slices, plated the slices and drizzled the honey garlic sauce over the slices. He filled a large serving bowl with the colcannon and added several knobs of butter onto the top and a sprinkling of large crystals of kosher salt before putting the supper on the table.

"Well, such as it is, it's ready," Angus called. He called Edward and Simone and then called the kids to come if they were hungry. "let me," Angus said to Marcus and Aria. He put the babies in the playpen to play while the adults ate. "I think its safe for us all to eat now." he said

Ruby chuckled and nodded " I agree" she said and moved to sit down at the table while Angus dished up supper for them she thought she heard foot steps at the top of the stairs but nobody came down. Taking a plate she dished up her own food while Aria placed Diamond into the play pen and chuckled as Marcus called the older kids down. " that will do it" Aria said as she dished her own plate hen handed the meat to Edward and Simone before taking some of the veg.

Ruby pored some sauce over the meat and took a bite " yum this is delicious, once again" she said smiling to Angus as she then tucked in. After a moment she stood up and went to take out the bread and butter pudding leaving it on the side to cool a little as she returned to the table and finished eating.

Anise and Ginger came upstairs, albeit a bit later.

"Sorry. We got a letter from our dad," Ginger said. "It's our mom's birthday in a couple days, and he's missing her. We were trying to write back, but its hard knowing what to say."

"I can understand that," Angus said.

"Where are the boys?" she asked.

"In their rooms, I suppose. I called them, and they didn't come down," Angus said. Ginger got up, and she went upstairs.

"Um...Dad? I don't even know what this is, let alone how to fix it," she called. Angus frowned. He got up and went upstairs. The bedroom door to their room had grown fur and eyes and had a mouth of big sharp teeth, rather like an overgrown monster book of monsters. It was breathing, and it made the door move when it breathed.

"Sam? Victor? You alright?" Angus called.

"Yeah, but every time we try to open the door, it farts flames on us," Victor said, frustrated.

"What?" Angus frowned. "What did you do?"

"My moronic brother decided to cheat at the dragon puzzle but he buggared his own made up spell," Victor replied. "He's a knob. Get us out?"

"Yeah. We will," Angus said, not honestly having a clue how to handle this. He looked down at Edward and Marcus. They both came upstairs and looked at the buggared up bedroom door.

"Well, now, that's not something you see every day," Edward said.

"Got any ideas?" Angus asked.

"Maybe.," Edward said. "Who do you know who understands objects that have been animated through spell screwups?"

"Michael," Angus replied. "Ru, see if you can reach Michael on the floo and ask him to stop over, would you? Before the door barbeques our boys?"