A Birth day

Ruby heard Robert and spoke up " I'll get the shirt for you Jess" Jess nodded and looked to Robert " I'll get the sickbay ready " she said as Ruby quickly returned with a white light cotton shirt for Angus. Jess headed to the sickbay and put out put a bottle of fire whiskey and a couple glasses for the pair of them along with the burn salve so Robert could put some on Angus to ease the burns.

Ruby had moved up to their room and looked in the walk-in closet for a shirt for Angus knowing it would have to me light so not to put too much pressure on his burns and able to breath, she found a shirt and felt it , smiling she took it off the hanger and returned to Jess who took the shirt and smiled at her before heading to the duplex.

Aria stood in place as she knew getting back to duelling was just as good as getting back on a horse when you fall off. She watched Ginger and Anise duel as she duelled Robert. Once he said that was enough she smiled walking over to Marcus " he duels hard" she said some what out of breath and more than a little sweaty. " but I enjoyed it."

Ruby smiled seeing the girls enter as she was fixing dinner she had made a tomato and mozzarella salad, along with an Italian aubergine traybake that could be cut really small for the fae. " if you could set the table and bring over the fae dishes we can dish up for every one." she said as she finished her desert of Plum & amaretti semifreddo with several tiny Ricciarelli biscuits along with several normal sized biscuits.

"He fights hard too. You know, I don't think he would know how to take the easy way out of anything if it were handed to him on a silver platter," Marcus laughed. "You did well with them. And from where I was watching, Ginger made huge improvement. I am glad he made the girls get right back on it, though. The worst thing he could have done was let them believe that that buggared up spell was a major ordeal. Why don't you go get a shower and cool off? I'll bring him back as soon as Robert finishes with him."

Marcus headed into the main house, downstairs to the sickbay, and he found Angus and Robert drinking firewhiskey as Robert tended the burns more effectively since he now had Angus on his own. Robert had added some pain potion to the firewhiskey.

"I still don't see anything more severe than some second degree burns. You were lucky," Robert said. "That blue flame burns damned hot. You were very lucky that you didn't have worse. For you, this really is a whole lot of nothing, but that still doesn't mean we shouldn't treat it properly. I'm going to leave it open to the air. Do try not to shower til bedtime. I'll send over a special healing soap for you to use for a few days. It's actually a liquid castile soap with a healing potion added to it so you don't need to bandage all that up. If, though, when the blisters break they start to drain, you need to let me know that. Understood?"

"Yeah. Sure," Angus said, putting his shirt on.

"Go get some lunch," Robert told him. "And I'm not opposed to you helping the fae this afternoon, but do let Jack and the grounds crew do the heavy work this afternoon."

"Okay," Angus said. "Thanks for the help, Robert."

"Any time," Robert said. Angus got up and headed back to the duplex.

Aria chuckled and nodded to Marcus " just like getting back on the horse, or was that bicycle when you fall off?" she said then shrugged as he spoke of Ginger improving " yeah I saw her shift her stance slightly and that improved her control a lot." she said then chuckled again when he said for her to go for a shower " why do I stink?" she teased and stepped closer to him but then moved to his side " don't worry, it would be nice to clean up though." she said and chuckled as she hurried inside.

Ruby placed a small potion on each plate and carried it out to the fae adding in a large plater more of the salads so they could have seconds along with a small pitcher of some fresh strawberry lemonade. Placing it down she smiled " help your self " she said softly then watched as she saw them all head to the tables and sit down. Now with the Fae eating she headed into the main house and saw Anise and Ginger dishing up for the rest of them. She tossed Finn a treat and lanced at the babies in the playpen playing with the toys attached to it peacefully.

"Both," Marcus said. "I think I fell off a horse first, though, honestly. The bike came later, and by then, I had the lesson about getting right back on engraved in my brain." He laughed when she asked if she stank. "No. I just don't want you dripping sweat into everyone's lunch, thank you," Marcus teased.

Angus came back in, and he went back to the patio door and looked out. It was still on on target with where it needed to be. As he was watching, a pair of enormous Eagle Owls dropped two large boxes on the deck. Angus went out and opened them. Both boxes were jam packed full of all sorts of dollhouse miniatures, including some furniture, amongst other things. Marcus came out to see what was in the boxes, and he started to help Angus go through them.

"Did you order these?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah, and there are a lot more boxes where these came from," Angus said.

"Now those are clever," Marcus said, opening a little box with a couple of wing chairs, a camel back sofa and an ottoman, all done in a red tartan plaid. "That's the sort of decor I could really embrace in our stone house. Sturdy antiques, Scottish plaids, horse brasses on the mantle. Antique pottery. Decor that is as rustic and comfortable as the house is. The sort of look that gives you permission right from the start to kick off your shoes and make yourself at home."

"What does Aria want?"

"Dunno. We haven't really discussed all that yet," Marcus shrugged as Angus's stomach growled. "You must be hungry."

"I guess I am," Angus replied.

Aria laughed as she entered the duplex then headed up to shower, returning changed and now drying her hair she saw the miniature's and smiled " those are lovely, totally cosy up able " she said smiling to Marcus " we should get full sized furniture like this, not the tartan maybe but the high back and cosy style" she added then chuckled as she accioed two plates of food one for Marcus and one for Angus " here before you stomach growls its way out of there" she said and chuckled " I'll eat at the table " she said knowing Marcus wanted to stay close to Angus for now.

Ruby made up two plates then watch as they floated away from her towards Aria, Angus and Marcus she chuckled and made a third plate for Aria who she saw walk over to them "here you go" she said . Once she saw Aria sat eating she took over two glasses of fire whisky one for Marcus and one for Angus " here , I felt you'd need these." she said handing Angus his with a smile.

"You don't like the plaid, huh?" Marcus sighed. He looked at Marcus. "I knew it. I'm going to be flooded in freaking florals and doilies. Merlin, help me."

"Doilies," Angus laughed. "You do know, Aria, that it honestly was the red plaid that he liked the most about that furniture, right? Give him at least one room with the Scottish plaids."

Marcus caught the lunch plates easily and handed one to Angus.

"Thanks, Ru," Angus said. "Smells great." Marcus took the firewhiskeys when Ruby brought them.

"Ah, now that's a real beverage," Marcus smiled. "Thank you. Just so you know, we're not playing with the toys. This is serious business. We're quality checking more Fae furniture. Angus tells me the boxes are just going to keep coming."

"I'm quality checking. He's playing," Angus said. "Anise, Ginger? Do you both have your homework done for tomorrow?"

"Almost," Ginger said.

"What did you leave undone?"

"Oh, just a composition for Muggle Studies. We were supposed to do a reading and write an essay on it," Anise said. "I'm skipping it."

"What? You will not. What's the trouble?"

"It's talking about a child's day at school, and she spends her lunch hour playing hopscotch," Ginger said.

"So?"

"So, we don't know what hopscotch is. We've never seen it or played it. Never heard of it." Anise said.

Aria chuckled and nodded "I do , its just the red I don't like not all plaid is that colour" she said with a chuckle " I do like the green or blue plaids." she looked at Marcus " but if you want the red that's fine." she added with a smile as she saw Ruby walk over and give the men fire whisky drinks. " florals and doilies , really?" she said teasingly " I hate florals and as for doilies there nothing but a nightmare" she said pulling a face. " I'm more of a real wood and soft tones kinda person, warm cosy furniture like these are" she said and picked up the sofa holding it in her hands.

Ruby heard the girls say the didn't know what hopscotch was and smiled " its a game that you jump around in squares." she said " I use to play it" she said and looked to Angus " had to do something when I was younger and being ignored." she added chuckling as she finished her food " A player tosses a marker onto the court. The marker ether a small stone, coin, bean bag, or small chain with a charm is thrown and should land in a square without bouncing, sliding, or rolling out. In Scotland and Ireland, the marker is usually replaced with an old shoe polish tin or flat stone its also called a piggy. In the United States the marker was called a “lagger” player stops in the square before the marker and reaches down to retrieve the marker and continue without touching a line or stepping into a square with another player's marker." she said as she marked out the lines on the floor using tape in a T shape. " you want to see it?" shea sked the girls as she numbered them from 1 to eight.

"We'll work something out," Marcus said, unconcerned. "She can have her cold tones if she wants. I'll keep just one room for myself. It'll be fine."

"Sure. It's played indoors?" Anise asked.

"Outside," Angus said. "She's just showing you how it works. Pay attention, and then, when lunch is over, you both go write those papers. I want to see that they're finished before you do anything else--and I do mean before absolutely anything else."

"Thank you for a great lunch, Ru," Angus said, noticing the babies had had enough of being quiet. They apparently wanted to be loud and naughty and restless . "I need to get back to work." He took his and Marcus's plates and whiskey glasses to the sink and put the leftovers away and then set a washing up spell in place to clean the kitchen. Then he accio'd a blanket, shoved some toys in his pocket, scooped up both babies and took them outside. He plopped the blanket on the ground not far from the garden and put both babies on it with some toys. "Now, you little monsters, scream all you like."

He went back to work. He saw the ground crew was laying the flagstone circles and spokes. He joined in, hauling flagstone and helping to lay the mortar and then lay the flagstones. It was heavy, hard work, but it needed done. He tried to keep an eye on the babies, and Caprice was crawling off the blanket and exploring the grass. Diamond was raging angry that Caprice was moving and she wasn't, and she was screeching about it. Angus saw she wasn't hurt, so he basically just let her scream.

Ruby picked up a pen from the table standing at one end she threw it and did exactly as she had said hopping from one leg to the other then both before repeating until she got to the pen bending down still balanced on one leg she picked it up then continued to the other end. " and that's how you do it , there is rhymes to go with it but I never learned any." she said placing the pen down on the table.

Jack had organised the grounds men and watched as they placed stones and spokes to the wheel Angus had designed for the Fae. " hey Angus , its coming, slowly but its getting there , the fae have worked on their stumps." he said and paused hearing Dimond screaming " she's throwing a tantrum because Caprice can crawl?" he said and shook his head " anyway , the fae have been a great help too, letting us know where to put things, I found an old stone fountain and shrunk it and placed it in the centre , it does work too" he said and moved to a small switch , flicking it a small trickle of water ran in the fountain.

"It's looking great, Jack. It's going to be an amazing space when its done. So, you put the fountain near the big tree at the center? To be close to the palace? That'll be cool." Angus said. "Diamond? She screams about everything. She screams if there are toys in the playpen. She screams if its empty. She screams in Caprice is in there with her, She screams if she's not. Diamond screams if she's out of the playpen, and she screams if she's in it. She just freaking screams about everything. I'm learning I have to ignore her. I hate doing it because I'm sure that's why she screams like Lizzie Borden's in the house, but after a point, she really gets on my nerves. So, I thought I'd bring her outside and maybe try letting her get it out of her system."

"Um. You might want to stop her from eating that grasshopper, though," Edward pointed to Diamond, who was busy shoving a live grasshopper into her mouth. Angus had flagstone mortar all over his hands. "Ru! Get the damned baby before she eats that grasshopper!"

"He's having a baby meltdown," Simone laughed.

"He's got two of them. He's entitled to one meltdown," Edward laughed.