A Birth day

Aria listened to Simone and Robert and smiled nodding as he spoke about Minos " I do remember Minos talk about other factions that were after it, so I guess that would be a great relief they didn't get it" she said then she listened as they spoke about Rosaria and she smiled again " good to know shes resting well now and Carlo isn't as upset any more" she said then saw the time " sorry i should get back, if I were you Simone take Roberts advice and think about the surgery, scars are not nice and can cause issues later on" she said then smiling she bid good night and headed back to the living room closing the door between the two buildings.

Aria walked over to Marcus " Rosaria is in no pain right now, and she's resting from her surgery. Carlo had some Greek lemon orzo soup for supper and from what Robert said he seem to like it, he's tired tonight from all the stress he's had. Robert said maybe a good night's sleep will help them both feel better."" she said to Marcus and smiled " so all seems good right now"

"Oh definitely," Robert replied to Aria. "For a king like Minos, the survival of his people, including being able to continue as free Fae, completely depended on them finding that gold. The Fae have every reason to celebrate. Good for them."

"Thanks for checking. And thanks for supper. It was great," Simone said. 

"I'm glad Rosaria and Carlo are both feeling better. Angus will be glad to hear. I think I really should go up, though. He found that gold by falling and landing in a stinging nettle bush. I need to get my tweezers out and help him remove the nettle hairs because they will really just keep irritating his skin. He won't complain but there's no point in leaving them in there if I can help them get them out. Maybe I should show you and Ruby how its done, though, so you can help if the boys ever get into a nettle in their work outside. Robert showed us a trick for that on one of my first survival weekends. One of our new recruits knew enough to know that nettles are edible, but he didn't know how to gather them safely, so his hands were buggared, just about like one would except if they tried to pick up a porcupine. So, Robert took the time to show us a much more effective way to get all the hairs out. I'll be back." 

Marcus went upstairs, got a pair of tweezers and convinced Angus to come down so he could show Aria and Ruby how to remove nettle hairs from skin. Angus was freshly showered and in his pajama trousers. Marcus had Angus sit backwards on a kitchen chair, and Marcus cast a specific spell. Once the spell was cast, Marcus could see some patches of bright neon blue specks on Angus's back and on the base of his neck, and across one shoulder and down his upper arm.

"See that?" Marcus told them. "Every one of those specks is a spot in the skin itself where its' being pierced by a nettle hair. Now, its a matter of taking the tweezers and removing the nettle hairs. Painstaking but far better than letting his skin get all torqued off by it." Marcus pulled some of the hairs, put them on a paper napkin, where the ends of the hairs that had been in the skin glowed bright blue on the napkin. And Angus skin, where the hairs had been now had little, pale purple dots. "See. A bit like mowing grass. You can see where I've been. The purple is a wee tiny spot of blood from removing the hair. Not enough for us to have to do much with, but when all the blue spots disappear and turn purple, then we know we've gotten them all. Not necessarily fun, but he'll feel better. Now, if the boys show up with them, you'll know how to get rid of them."

Aria smiled to Simone and nodded " our pleasure" she said as she returned and listened to Marcus and smiled glad that every one was recovering and relaxed. Now she heard Marcus mention the nettles and shook her head " okay , it will be fun at the least and useful to know " Ruby looked at Marcus and nodded too.

The saw Angus return from his shower and watched with interest as Marcus cast a spell and parts of his back glowed a bright neon blue. The watched as Marcus took the tweezers and plucked the hair from his back and the color went " wow that's handy" Ruby said watching Marcus "Good thing Robert knew this trick" she said " and knowing the boys it will so come in handy.

Aria watched Marcus technique as he removed the meddles from his back. She moved closer and picked up a tweezer herself , gently she took hold of a needle and gently removed it placing it on a paper napkin just as Marcus had done she then moved on to another " many hands " she said simply as she smiled to Marcus. Ruby picked one up and did the same but put it don after one feeling there were enough people around him removing the needles from his back.

" I bet he'll feel much better after those are all out2 she said glancing to the play pen where the girls sat playing ." should feel better soon" she said now facing Angus " but landing in a stinging nettle bush.?" she said and smiled to him.

"Apparently, I'm coordinated like that," Angus told Ruby. "It could have been worse, though. Could have been poison ivy or something."

"Or rocks," Marcus said. "Or, you could have waited for us and perhaps not fallen at all. But would you listen? of course not."

"But we found the gold. Isn't that most important?" Angus asked.

"So, your philosophy is just damn all the torpedos and get the shiny thing under the bush?"

"Yeah," Angus teased, knowing that would irk Marcus.

"Nitwit," Marcus headslapped Angus, and Angus tried hard not to laugh.

"In this case, it worked great," Angus said.

"Which is why all three of us are picking nettle hairs. Great strategy. What a great way to spend an evening."

"Well, what else do we have to do? We're not muggles, after all. No tv to watch."

"Look, Doofus. Wizards have never had television, and we have survived evenings without television."

"Admit it. The only thing you had to do was to go to bed in time, which we rarely do anyway, so I don't know why you're complaining."

"I'm only complaining that this was avoidable."

"And we'd have never found the gold if I had done it your way."

"You don't know that," Marcus said, not wanting to admit that Angus was, most likely, right. "And besides, you'd have gotten them in the bed, and Ruby might not have appreciated rolling over on some."

"Well, I suppose there is that," Angus admitted as all four teens wandered in, and Sam opened the freezer and got out the ice cream, and they began to make chocolate sundaes for the four of them.

"Hollow, All four of them. Absolutely hollow," Marcus said. "We just ate, and they're back for more."

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded " yep suppose it could have been worse" she chuckled at the banter between Marcus and Angus about finding the gold and his trip into the nettles. " well I'm thankful for not having nettles in the bed tonight" she said to him and chuckled as Aria worked on removing more of the needles until the napkin was covered and they threw it and replaced it with a clean one and continued.

Aria removed more of the needles and looked at Marcus " never thought I'd be doing this tonight" she said smiling at him but then saw the boys walk in and make a sundae for each other " wow hollow is right" she said and chuckled " there's whipped cream and cherry's in the pantry" she called to Sam and chuckled as she saw the size of the sundaes. She looked over at Marcus and chuckled " does look good though" she said

"Well, Nettle Boy here owes us sundaes for taking care of him," Marcus said. "And since he's a chef, he needs to make them killer sundaes."

"Finish up, and I'll show you how to make a killer sundae," Angus said.  When they finished he got out two saucepans and a sheet pan and he began cooking while Marcus threw out the nettle hairs and made sure he disinfected the table, in case there were any stray nettle hairs. Before long, Marcus could smell the aroma of warm chocolate but he also thought he smelled the aroma of caramel. And, then he could smell some sort of nuts roasting in the oven.

It took Angus about fifteen minutes but when he was finished cooking, he had some excellent looking sundaes--vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce made from scratch, hot salted caramel sauce made from scratch, toasted candied pecans, whipped cream, and a cherry.

"Homemade gourmet turtle sundaes," Angus told them, handing one to Aria, Ruby, Marcus and keeping one for himself. "Is that a decent enough reward?"

"That'll do," Marcus said. He looked at Ruby and Aria. "If he fixes us sundaes for a nettle bush, maybe I should let him dive into that poison ivy bush next time. Hard telling what he'd fix us for that." He tasted his sundae. "Perfect, Mate. Cant' think of a better way to end an evening than gourmet sundaes."

Ruby chuckled as Marcus mentioned the Sundae and both chuckled " oh has to be very good " Aria said and chuckled as they finished up and cleaned up after removing the needles from Angus back. Both her and Ruby watched as Angus walked to the kitten and began making the sundae's for every one she took a deep breath and smelt the hot salted caramel sauce emanating from it. " wow that's smells wonderful" she said now anticipating the sundae.

Rub watched as they cleaned up and she chuckled at the banter " please don't give him any ideas" she said chuckling as she smelt some delicious smells coming from the kitchen as he made the sundae's " I thought sundaes were just ice cream?" she said walking over to watch him put it together before returning to her seat as he returned and handed them out " looks superb " she said and gave a loud groan as she took a bit then looked at Aria and chuckled " sorry ,but its really good" she said as Aria chuckled.

"You thought they were just ice cream?" Marcus asked. "You really were a deprived child. It's just ice cream until you add a topping. When you add both hot fudge and hot salted caramel, and pecans, now you have a turtle sundae. We don't know who invented the turtle sundae, but turtle candies were first made in Chicago by putting down 5 pecans to look like the turtle head and legs, add a dollop of caramel over that to form the bodies and then top the caramel with chocolate for the turtle shell. So, when you add those same ingredients to a sundae, now you have something amazing."

"It helps if your parents own a candy store," Angus teased Marcus.

"My dad studied up on all that before he bought Honeydukes from the Flumes, and now he is a font of all sorts of useless candy trivia. My kids want him to invent a candy trivia game, and I think he could do a good job of it. Angus, these are awesome. I want ot tomorrow for breakfast."

"No problem," Angus laughed. "We have hot fudge and caramel left, so that would work."

"Zane challenged my father to make some candied bacon."

"Tell your Dad I can already do that. Maybe I'll just send some over to your dad," Angus said.

"He would love you forever," Marcus said.

"Sam challenged me to do it, and I'm debating on surprising him some morning by making candied bacon and then crumbling it up in some pancake batter and making him pancakes with candied bacon. He told me there's no such thing as too much sugar in the morning. Maybe I need to candy the bacon with maple, put it in the pancakes and add maple syrup."

"Oh, God. I'll watch, but i dont' think I'll eat that before about noon," Marcus laughed.

Ruby listened to them and laughed " oh I guess so because this is wonderful I can understand why you want it again, but I think I'll stick to this one for now, I could not have two " she said and chuckled then heard him mentioned candied bacon " oh that sounds not so bad " she said as he mentioned he was going to make Sam some in the morning and that Sam had this thing of never too much sugar in the morning. " boys are full of energy enough, you really want Jack to deal with them hyped up?" she then paused and laughed " oh new challenge for him" she added.

Aria laughed as she ate her sundae " I think its good as a treat and tonight angus deserve it after what he went threw." she said smiling as she ate another spoon hearing the candied bacon she raised an eye brow " not had that, be interesting to taste " she said wondering how it would taste once candied. Aria finished her sundae and took her bowl to the kitchen placing it in the sink as she saw it was getting late . she moved to sit on the couch and opened the book she had been reading.

The evening went fairly quickly for Angus after that, or it seemed to. Near midnight, Marcus went to do his security check, and he made sure all was secure. He made sure his clothes and Angus's were laid out and that Edward and Simone had all they needed for the night.

Angus went out and found most of the Fae had either gone to their own homes or were sleeping off the beer in various spots in the garden. For some reason, it felt soothingly peaceful there tonight. The crock of beer he had left for the Fae almost entirely gone. There were still a few Fae who were semi-sober, and they asked him to just leave the rest of the beer. They thanked him for helping to find the gold and for donating the beer tonight. Angus had been happy to do it. He bid them goodnight and went back in.

"The party is over out back except for a few stragglers," Angus yawned. as the living room clock chimed midnight. "I think I'm heading upstairs. Goodnight." He went upstairs, found Finn asleep in the nursery, and he went to bed, thinking maybe he might try again to re-start his book.