A Birth day

"Better. Much better," Angus nodded. "I can't actually confirm or deny that is part of the magical system issue. I didn't have an issue so much with accuracy as much as I just didn't have any power to cast any spells to begin with. I just didn't have any magic, period. Look, you do realize what you're doing right? You're trying to find a way to defend yourself that your skills aren't at the same level as ours, and you don't have to work at defending yourself because we're just not in competition with each other here. Even when we have maybe a sparring match, we're doing it so we all improve. You're not being measured by someone else's skills, so you really should try to stop defending yourself about what you think does or doesn't work well. The fact is that we all have strengths and we all have shortcomings. And, honestly, we all train--constantly. Even Robert, even for all his strengths, he trains constantly right along with us. You're new to all this. Those of us who have been doing this awhile, we should have skills that are a bit more polished than yours because we've been at it a lot longer than you have. Robert's been at it over 40 years longer than you have. I've been at it 14 years longer. Edward has been at it 50 years longer. We're a team her, so you'd fare a lot better if you just took whatever help we can give you."

Angus saw all four of his teens heading home. That meant it was five, and it was time for him to check the stew and set the sideboard up for supper.

"Anyway, I need to get home or my kids are going to eat the furniture," Angus told him. "Get some balance into your life between work and play, and keep working at your skills. I'll see you later." He turned and headed back inside.

Joseph listened to Angus and nodded as he spoke about finding his own balance. " okay" he said then saw Victor and Sam head home" yeah they might eat you out of house and home, and thanks for the dueling lesson to day" he said smiling as he watched Angus and Marcus head back to the duplex, Jack stayed with him and patted his back.

"listen to Angus , hes good at giving advice" he said and chuckled " even if hes not good a taking it and use it himself." Jack chukled and this made Joseph smiled " now go get some grub" he said and both headed to the guard house part way there Jack headed to the main house leaving Joseph pondering what had happened that evening as he gently practiced his movement of his wand as he walked but didn't cast a spell with it.

Ruby smiled seeing Sam and victor enter the duplex " hey guys , suppers still, oh hey Angus" she said seeing him enter the duplex and head to the kitchen. Aria smiled as she sat with the niffler on her knee now sleeping.

The kids had already headed to wash up for supper when Angus got home.

"Hi," Angus said. "It won't take me long to get supper on the table. Hopefully, just a few minutes." Angus stirred the stew, tasted it, re-seasoned it, added more stout, and tasted it again. Much better. Satisfied, he set out the large bowl of salad because there was plenty left from lunch, and it was still crisp and fresh. He sliced the crusty bread with big, thick slices and set out a bread basket and some room temperature Irish butter.

Then he set out big pottery bowls for the stew, some bread plates, some cutlery and some napkins, some glasses and a pitcher of iced tea and one of lemonade.

"Well, it isn't fancy, but I think it's one of those comfort food suppers that I think everyone should be happy with. You can all come and fix your plates," He told them. "Big bowls of stout stew with some crusty bread."

Ruby heard Angus and nodded " all right dear" she said as Aria stood up and walked Digger to the cage " its just while we eat" she told him as Aria nodded and closed the cage door. " we did add a comfortable cushion for you to snuggle up on." smiling both women picked up the babies and walked to the table once Angus said everything was ready.

Setting Amari down Aria sat next to her and took a bowl of the stew and some bread but blew over it till it was only warm and eatable for her, Ruby did the same for Caprice, who happily bit down on the bread giggling as she ate it. Ruby took a spoon of her stew and smiled " love the flavour" she said smiling as Aria dipped her bread into it and let it soak up the liquid then ate some.

"yum I have to agree, I can feel it warming me already." she added then looked at Marcus " so hows Joseph doing, I'm guessing he need more training and to calm down?" she said with a chuckle.

"Joseph will do alright," Marcus said, "if he quits trying so hard. He clearly runs on anxiety. He's anxious about bloody everything, or at least that's what I see. If he would just lighten up, he'd do a lot better overall. I don't know why he just seems to not settle for steady improvement. He gets anxious if he doesn't perform on the same level that we do, and we've been at it a lot longer than he has. I certainly haven't heard any question about job performance, so I'm sure he could develop his skills at a good even pace like the rest of us did, but, well, he struggles because of his own expectation that he has to be just as good as everyone else."

"Brian has a performance scale that gives a rough idea about where a fighter should be, according to age, experience, and training," Angus said. "It's a bit of a complicated thing, but perhaps Brian should figure out a training expectation for him and let him try to hit the next reasonable stage or so if he keeps working at it. I never bothered with it myself because I just kept working at it, but it might well be that he just doesn't know how to chill."

"Maybe we all ought to step back and let him figure it out for himself," Marcus shrugged. "In the meantime, I'm having a bit more stew and another slice of bread."

"Reminds me of our mom," Ginger said. "My mom used to keep the leftovers, even if there wasn't a lot, and she serve what was left over some noodles for another meal. I used to look forward to that just as much as I did when the stew was fresh."

"We could do that," Angus said. "We could fix some noodles after supper tonight, and then package up some individual servings of stew and noodles for everyone's lunch tomorrow, for those who dont mind leftovers."

"When they're your leftovers, no one minds," Victor said.

"Thank you. I appreciate that," Angus said.

"Where did the niffler come from?" Sam asked.

"We think he was sent to be part of Kate's magical creature rehab project, but we're niffler sitting, probably just overnight," Marcus said.

"But he's cute," Ginger said.

"Well, baby dragons are cute too, but they make really lousy pets," Angus said. "Not everything Kate gets is supposed to belong in our house."

"Killjoy," Anise said.

Aria and Ruby chuckled and looked at Digger " his names Digger Minos can talk to him and since Angus can talk , kinda to Minos that's how we found out" she told them as she finished her stew as she glanced to Amari who was holding up her bowl " I think she wants more" Aria said taking the bowl and adding a bit more to it, not too much that she would be over full but enough. " there you go" she said blowing over it to cool it again.

Ruby looked at Caprice who had finished her bowl and was wiping the bread around the insides of it making Ruby chuckled " I wonder there she saw how to do that?" Ruby asked looking over at Marcus and Angus.

Aria placed her spoon down into the bowl and sat back sipping her coffee " I think your right he needs to relax and find his place here and not force it too quick" she said smiling to Marcus "he'll get there eventually" she added

"Well, if he doesn't feel like he's found his place, he needs to get a grip and talk to Michael and clear the air. Whatever the hell is going on in the Tremaine family, he's not going to feel like he belongs until he knows if Michael has something against him or not. Michael isn't going to care if he's the best duelist on the planet or if he's a squib. That doesn't matter to Michael. Michael only cares about the quality of the person. Are they decent or are they not. Michael told me about his relationship with his brother, and my best guess is that if he has any hesitancy about Joseph, it has nothing really to do with Joseph. Its more about the bad blood between Michael and his brother John. If Joseph is waiting for Michael to approach him and break the ice, he might have a long wait. He might need to just break the ice himself and go talk to the man."

He got up to clear the table.

"We'll get it," Ginger told Angus. "But...we're not so good on making coffee for dessert."

"I'll get that," Marcus said.

"Dessert is already cut," Angus said. "it just needs to be served. Lizzie sent some pie. I think you'll all like it."

Aria listened to Marcus and nodded " yep best bite that bullet and get it over with" she said then heard ginger talk of coffee and she chuckled " well I for one love coffee" she said chuckling as she sipped hers then heart Angus mention Lizzy 2 oh she makes the best deserts" she said sitting up in her chair as Amari began banging her spoon on her table Aria took it from her and the bowl placing both on the table in front of her.

Ruby chuckled at Arias words " your just a caffeine acholic" she said and Aria chuckled and shrugged making her chuckle more.

"hey it gets me moving in the morning" she said smiling to Ruby " but can't deny Lizzies deserts are the best" she said and now Ruby nodded and shrugged.

The girls finished clearing the table, and Marcus made fresh coffee.

"With or without Irish cream tonight?" Marcus asked.

"Irish cream? Why would you hesitate? Coffee with Irish cream is phenomenal. That should not even be a question."

"Then we need to just have it all around," Sam said.

"Yes," Victor agreed.

"Okay, Any objections, Dad?" Marcus asked.

"No. They're home. It's fine," Angus said. Marcus poured coffee for everyone and poured in a shot of Irish cream into each mug and gave a mug to everyone. Ginger cut slices of pie for everyone and served them. "Very nicely done, Ginger," Angus said. "Your kitchen skills are getting better all the time."

"I just watched everyone else do it," she said.

"Good job. That's how a lot of us learned our kitchen skills," Angus said.

"Those of us who didn't go to culinary school," Marcus teased.

"So this is peach and what else?" Sam asked.

"A layer dulce de leche--a Mexican flavor meaning three milks. A caramel layer, and a peach layer," Angus said.

"This is awesome," Victor grinned. "This might be my new favorite pie."

"Well, then I don't have to make that dark chocolate silk pie anymore," Angus teased.

"Well, now wait. That's my real favorite," Victor laughed.

"You just like any dessert item," Sam said.

"I do. So you're not allowed to quit making dessert--ever, Angus," Victor said. "I'm waiting for him to serve a 12 course supper where every course is a kind of dessert."

"That would be a definite sugar overload," Marcus said.

"But I bet it would be great," Victor said.

Aria and Ruby chuckled as Victor told Angus he had not made his dark chocolate silk pie. " oh that sounds nice too" she said and looked to Marcus " hey I got a sweet tooth too" she said and chuckled as did Ruby.

"I'm good with savoury's too" she said looking at him as she ate her pie savoring the flavours once again as she ate. " but Lizzy is a terrific baker, and a witch with deserts" she said and chuckled at her own pun. Now the babies were eating they were quiet Amari was rolling the pieces of peach in her mouth to crush it since she had only two front teeth. Caprice was licking the clear layer off the spoon and then with her fingers picking up the peach pieces and placing them in her mouth to eat.

" Don't worry we'll wash them before bed" Aria said and Ruby nodded now seeing Caprice pushing hr hand into her mouth , retching out she took it out and gave her the spoon back filling it and showing her how to get the food into her mouth cleanly.