A Birth day

"That sounds fine," Angus said. "Ginger enjoys her time in the kitchen, but it makes Anise nervous. If she could just learn to relax and not take herself so seriously in the kitchen, that would be great. She acts like its life and death surgery. I know baking requires accuracy, but regular main dishes and things are far more forgiving. If she could just learn to lighten up, she might enjoy it. She doesn't need to measure herself by anyone else's scale. Maybe I can inspire her to keep assisting in the kitchen until she learns it isn't so hard. And quite honestly, it wouldn't hurt Sam and Victor to learn to cook too. After all, it shouldn't be entirely up to Ginger and Anise to do all the cooking for the four of them. Maybe we should try again to assign each of them, in a rotation, to help with breakfast, lunch, and supper. Lunch, though, while they're working, would need to be whatever they want for the four of them to pack in their lunches. If you think about it, 3 meals a day, seven days a week, stretched across four kids. That's five meals apiece every week they'd be helping in. That might teach time something--maybe. What do you think?"

Ruby listened to Angus and smiled " that sounds perfect, we could put the rota on the fridge for them for a month then see how it goes especially with the boys" she said looking at him " but yeah Anise thinks cooking is all about following the recipe, well its about enjoying making the food you eat " she said and chuckled " I learned that from you, she need to loosen up in the kitchen and have fun, but not too much fun" she added. I'll see if Aria is free tomorrow and we'll take the babies into London and gather the items or the boxes, be good for the babies to get out " she added .

Aria chuckled and nodded " that she sure does " she added crossing a word off the list in her book. " well there's a white board already there just use that and mark the days on it and who does what and when." she said and Ruby glanced back into the kitchen and nodded " and yeah it certainly would teach then time keeping since they would have to get up before any one else to make it" she said placing a toy that had been thrown out the pen back in.

"Good idea. I think it's good if you and Aria can get out. I mean, we shouldn't relax entirely, in case Priscilla is still going to try to pull something, but I think, if you're careful, you could go enjoy part of a day in London. It would be good for you both. I think we should think about getting a few beginners' cookbooks and putting them on the bookshelf in here. They can get some ideas from them. I know there are a lot of cookbooks now that have recipes using 5 ingredients or less. I think that might be a good place to start. They could decide what they might like to try, and we can guide them through it. If they give us a couple days' notice, I can make sure we have their ingredients on hand. How are they with laundry? Are we letting them do their own laundry? If not, we need to start encouraging that. Maybe teaching them how to fold things--especially things like sheets. Doing some house cleaning, and some other things. I should take them each to Gringotts and teach them about banking and budgeting. They should learn to do some gardening and some home repair, and probably a hundred other things I'm forgetting. If they think they want to be married next year this time, then they all four need to learn to step up.

"You know," he sighed, "I'm going to want to teach them all these things, and I'll end up terrifying them, and then they'll live here forever. It's funny how I rather took the time we had with them for granted because of nitwits like Priscilla and Pearl. And now, it feels like there's no time left to teach our kids all the things they need to know to be functioning adults. I feel like I messed up and I'm out of time."

Ruby listened to Angus and smiled to him " we'll get those too" she said then listened more to him " we have as long as we are alive to teach them dear, they are still young and will learn somethings on their own, I believe some one once said that we learn from the mistakes we make" she said and chuckled " besides we still have Caprice and Amari you can teach too." she glanced down at the now sleeping babies then looked back at Angus " you know you really do sound like a father now, and I like that" she smiled to him as she set down her book and picked up Caprice , not before gently kissing Angus on his cheek.

Aria picked up Amari in her arms and paused letting Amari drift back to sleep. " we'll be back down once these two are settled in their cribs, and I agree you have plenty of time to teach them what they need to survive this world, Cooking could be a start, I do know Sam and victor do need to learn, badly" she said and chuckled as she and Ruby moved to the stairs and up to the nursery where they placed each baby into their cot and pulled their cover over them.

The house grew quiet as the kids all went to sleep. Angus liked this time of day because when the kids felt safe enough to sleep, it somewhat felt like all was right with the world for just awhile. And, since Marcus felt like things were safe enough to leave, even if Aria were still here, it did give Angus more of a feeling that things were safe temporarily. He was becoming aware that the last couple of years had taken away from him the ability to easily relax and stop looking over his shoulder. Suzanne and Priscilla had trained him to always be at the ready. Still, the quiet at night still felt as peaceful for him as it got.

He got up, went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of firewhiskey, just because he appreciated the taste of it and it was a good way to unwind after a particularly busy day. He listened to the soft sounds of the fae language as they established their posts for protecting the house for the night. Minos was checking on them to make sure they were all where he wanted them, and it felt reassuring for Angus.

He picked up the French wizarding newspaper and he started to read. There, buried in a little article on the 7th page was a small mention of an inmate of the wizarding prison who had been found dead of "natural causes" in his cell. It was Dominic--Priscilla's husband. Angus knew it wasn't natural causes. It put him a little more on guard, but he wanted to make sure he talked to Robert about it the next time he saw him. He set the newspaper out to show the article to Ruby when she came downstairs.

Ruby showered changed once the babies were sleeping . Now fresh she headed down to sit and enjoy a quiet house. Walking down the stairs she spotted the paper moving to pick it up she saw what it was open too " well, I can guess who that was, " she said reading more of it " we should get Robert to confirm he really is dead and not playing possum" she added as she placed the paper back on the table.

Walking to the kitchen she pored herself a coffee and moved to sit down she saw the glass of fire-whisky and chuckled " enjoying the quiet?" she said smiling to him " I don't blame you" she spoke softly as she sipped her coffee quietly.

"I don't doubt he's dead, but I don't believe it was natural causes, not for one moment," Angus said. "I'm sure Robert's seen it by now already. When I see him next, I'll ask him. I don't think there's any emergency there tonight. Yeah, this can be one of my favorite times of day, when the kids are all asleep and the house is quiet for the night. it's hard to have sixteen people and a dog in one house and have it ever be truly quiet. Maybe tomorrow, now that Elwood is settled, I can get with Evan and see what I can do to help him and his family. It has to be hard, losing absolutely everything and having to start again at ground zero and rebuild all of it. I haven't had a chance to help him because of all of this drama with Pearl. And then there's the matter of Rosaria and Carlo and the reconstruction of Edward's place in Tuscany too. I know it was all Pearl's work. I'm not going to say a syllable of that to Elwood. He does not need to know. He is not responsible for Pearl's crimes, but I do want to help them rebuild in Tuscany if there is something I can do to help."

Ruby listened as Angus spoke about he didn't dough Priscilla's husband was dead just the means of his death. " hum, I agreed" she said softly then heard him talk about Tuscany. " we could send Jack or Jessie over to watch over the refurbishment and send regular reports back" she said softly " but I agree Carlos and rosaria need to be back in their own home, best way to get over a traumatic event." she said " we could update the kitchen for Rosaria and the conservatory for Carlos so he can grow more plants indoors" she looked up at Angus and smiled " but for now lets just enjoy the quiet we now have" she said smiling to him.

Aria walked the duplex and checked every door she gently knocked on Elwood's door and smiled " for give me but I mush check the windows for security." she said and walked over finding it slightly open she cast a charm so that it would not open any further so he could still have his fresh air but nobody could climb in or port in. Once satisfied she smiled to him and walked back out closing the door behind her.

Returning down to the living room she moved quietly to the kitchen and made herself an Irish whisky for herself before she sat down on the couch as she drank it slowly.

"Good idea. You know, I'll talk to Evan and Edward, and I'll wager all i'll find out is that they have it all covered. They're like that, you know. I'll want to help, and they won't have a damned thing for me to do." He sipped on his whiskey, and as he did, he got an ornery thought. "You know, I'll do that. I'll offer, and they'll turn me down. And then I'll get 'em. Both of them. And I know exactly how I'm gonna do it. I haven't been hanging out with Robert and Michael all these years not to be able to take a play out of their handbook. I might need a co-conspirator or two, but I know how I can fix them." He laughed, with a boyish grin.

"I know what they're going to tell me," Angus said. "They're going to say that just knowing they have our support is all they need. I'll make sure they know they have our support. They won't forget it anytime soon."

He finished his drink and set the glass aside, yawning. "Suppose we ought to turn in soon? I don't know if Elwood is an early riser, but I suppose we'll find out. I should have asked but it never occured to me. I'll try to check on him a time or two during the night." Minos gestured to Angus that the Fae would keep an eye on him and if he needed something they would wake him or Ruby.

"That would work for me," Angus said. "Does that sound like a decent solution just for one night, Ru?" Angus asked her.

Ruby listened to Angus and chuckled knowing his thoughts " oh I can already guess" she said smiling a she finished her coffee and headed to the kitchen with her cup and his glass placing both in the sink to wash the next day " if he follows the family, he will" she said and chuckled then smiled to Minos as he offered to check on Elwood during the night for them " thank you Minos that will be a great help" she said .

Aria closed her book and finished her coffee sending the cup to the kitchen " when I checked on him he was sitting up reading but he did look like he was sleeping too" she said and chuckled ass she walked back to them " well if your headed up I'll make a last check and head home" she said and smiled as she began to check the lower rooms and the living room before stepping out and locking the back door , waving to them she walked over to the cottage and entered.

Finding Marcus she chuckled " oh Angus has a wicked mind, hes planing something fun for Evan and Edward" she said to him as she stretched out her slightly stiff muscles. " all been quiet?" she asked " oh and all's locked up I did a double check, even Elwood's room" she reassured him as she sat down next to him on the bed before she changed into her Pj's before she slid in next to him and cuddled against him.