A Wizard Meets the Parents PV Simon Kincaid F

As she moved to sit beside him on the edge of the bed, AngelFyre knew from the tone of his voice something, somewhere along the way, had already gone a little awry. She was of course curious to know what it was, and her heart dropped to her stomach as she listened. She was the problem. Her efforts to make him comfortable had misfired, and she was feeling wholly embarrassed and a little misunderstood, but there were reasons for everything. Some of them he knew. Others he did not. And she quickly determined none of it mattered. If he felt she was protecting him far too much it meant he was feeling smothered, and that was precisely what she had set out not to do.

Best laid plans, and all that. Sigh.

She sat quietly and listened, but inwardly, she was both chastising herself as well as defending her choices. She knew bringing this up to her was not an easy thing for Simon, and she admired his diplomacy in doing so, but she felt he had some things wrong here, too.

"I am sorry, Simon, if my words or actions have already made you uncomfortable. I just really wanted you to be able to enjoy your time here without having to concern yourself overly much with some of the sun issues." She shrugged her shoulders and looked directly at him and sort of smiled. "I just thought it was part of being a good hostess and a good girlfriend. It felt like the bar needed to be set rather high given your last venture to the country and a bit of a reluctance to come here in the first place."

Then she took a deep breath and finished with, "Most importantly though, you need to know I do know, of course, that you can go outside and be in the sun. It was never my intent that you would be a prisoner inside this place while the sun was out. Remember, I go to school with you. I actually have seen you in broad daylight a time or two," and she teased a smile his way.

"But I will confess that my feelings for you always butt up against my naturally protective nature. That is in no way an indictment on what I see as your ability to take care of yourself and to know your limits. Honestly, I do take my cues from you on those things, Simon. If you feel in this case, however, that my protective nature reared its head too forcefully, I hear you and will work on that, of course. But I want you to know I feel I did so simply because I know these surroundings and you do not, so I just know better where some troubles may lurk."

AngelFyre faltered for a few seconds and looked away, one thumbnail moving over the tip of her other. "And really, I just missed you so these last few days and wanted to eek out as much time with you as I could. The sunlit hours not being optimal for you is not an untruth, but I will admit it might have been a cheap ploy to use against my father to get my way. Not proud of it, but I promise I will not use your dhampirness like that again. For that I am most especially sorry. Truly."

Then, looking down at their hands, she took his ring hand in hers and interlaced their fingers. "And fair warning, love. I will work to fine tune it and keep it on the back burners, out of your sight and out of your mind, but being protective of you... physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally... all kind of came with the territory the second I turned my claddagh ring around. Can you live with that or is that part of my nature more than you bargained for?" she asked him earnestly.

"And regardless of your answer, of course you may see my room. Just realize my father may have a feeling that is best left for tomorrow as well. Who knows?"

Then almost as if on cue, her father knocked on one of the open double doors as he walked in, and stopped about halfway between the entrance and where Simon and AngelFyre were sitting and holding hands on the edge of the bed.

"Your mother and I have discussed it, and we will allow you both an hour, but it goes to the treehouse and not to the dock, understood?" Then Iain McCubbin turned his head to look around the room. "I am confident that that one there," and he softly smiled at AngelFyre, "has seen to it that you have everything, but do not be shy if there is something you find you do need."

AngelFyre then jumped up and in her excitement rather unceremoniously dropped Simon's hand in the process of rushing her father with her arms wide open. "Oh! Thank you, Daddy. Thank you. One hour it is -- treehouse only. Check.".

Giving her father one last squeeze before releasing him, she just as eagerly ran back to Simon. She mouthed, "I am so sorry," and lifted the hand she had dropped to her lips for three soft kises. Then she looked into those golden-honeyed brown eyes of his and tugged his hand insistently.

"Come on. Midnight is burning. Fastest way is through your veranda doors."

AngelFyre's heart could have exploded with happiness the moment she and Simon crossed the threshold onto the veranda, closely followed by Hillary. She finally had him all to herself, and more than that, she had him in the one place on earth that contained all the magic she would ever really, truly need.

Hillary bounded ahead of them, stopping occasionally to sniff 18,000 blades of grass and wildflowers, before leap-hopping and chasing some small night forager. Unless the animal was already infirmed or a geriatric, AngelFyre felt confident that it would have no trouble escaping her gentle giant. Hillary was many, many wonderful things, but fast and coordinated she was not.

A fair distance from the house now, she slowed their pace down, relishing the cool night air and the unimpeded view of the glorious starry night. She was also relishing the feel of her hand in Simon's when his "precursor squeeze" as she had come to think of it alerted her that Simon wanted her full attention. A second or two later, her instinct was proven to be correct when she heard him say her name.

Simon had stopped and she turned immediately to face him, momentarily distracted by his pupils adjusting to the darkness from just having left his brightly lit room. The night was not completely inky blue or black as it was a waxing gibbous moon that evening, but with no city lights to distort the natural light, it was dark, but not too dark. Still, AngelFyre enjoyed the soft moonlight backlighting him in a beautiful, silvery-blueish aura. Listening carefully to him, she was completely relieved. She had not overstepped and had been given a green light to be selfish of their much too brief time together. After he kissed her hand and called her his temptress, her knees could have easily buckled, but she had to chuckle instead as he looked back over his shoulder to make certain her father had not heard him.

Smile-laughing now, she pecked him on the cheek and hurried them along towards her "secret lair", regaling him, and hopefully not boring him, with the history of how it came to be. In truth, her treehouse was not far from the house, but the entry to it, at least the one they would be taking that evening, was on the side of the tree farthest from the house. AngelFyre had always thought this entrance was so splendiferous, and she had loved working on it with her parents and with Ainz and Kendric. It was a somewhat elaborate, wooden ramp with tangles of stripped branches making up the ramp walls, and there were twinkle lights woven throughout to illuminate one's way. The ramp was built, not for her or her pals, but for Hillary. She would bay at the base of the tree like a hound dog, for hours, knowing AngelFyre was close but out of her reach. For everyone's sanity, the ramp had to be made to get her dog into that tree.

They wound their way up, past the twinkle lights and colored glazing balls until they reached the entrance. AngelFyre reached over and flipped a switch and the deck and interior lit up. She turned to Simon."It's all solar powered. The panels are on Hillary's dog house. I cannot begin to tell you how many hours I have spent in here with Kendric and Ainz and Hillary." She then took a deep breath and excitedly opened the door to the treehouse. She stepped aside to let Simon go in first and then quickly followed behind, as did the gentle giant, who headed straight to the back and hopped up on the bunk. Hillary was definitely a creature who appreciated comfort.

"Ta da! Is this not cool or what?" she asked, watching his expression without being too pointed about it. They were standing in the front room which AngelFyre often thought of as the hobbit room. "Up until I was about 7 years old, orange was my favorite color. Thankfully I grew out of that, but I just could not bring myself to stain the door any other color. Everything can change in here, and a lot has over time, but that door is going to be orange for a lot of years, I suspect. When I think of this place, that silly, beautiful door is always the very first memory that pops into my head." She watched him as he looked over everything, and he did not seem to be disappointed, which pleased AngelFyre enormously.

"My mother and Grandma Ruth scavenged a lot of the stuff in here. They get credit for the stained glass windows, all the ramp planks, the cafe style dinette set in the back, and the leather stools. But I... well I am the one who found the door. Not so now, of course, but when I was little, I was so certain I had found an actual hobbit door," and she laughed and blushed a little at her silliness.

She stepped over to him and took his hand once again. It just felt strange more and more lately to be in his presence and not be touching him. AngelFyre did not know how it was possible, but any touch from Simon both excited her and calmed her. Hand in hand, she pointed out that the stools around the tree table were actually small chests, so books and magazines, arts and crafts, board games and other things could be safely and neatly stored. She told him the back stories on some of the photos hanging here and there.

"The theme to the whole treehouse at one point was fishing. We will get to see the dock tomorrow, but we three amigos would go fishing in the mornings and then come back here and play pirates. That is a picture of us when we were still building this place. I was the littlest for so long but hit a growth spurt in this last year and a half. Now I tower over the both of them. And did you see my framed instructions on "how to build a treehouse"? They were so detailed. Ha! I may give up magic and write a series of 'How To' books," she teased. But anyway, that masterpiece is now hanging over here," and she pointed to the transition area from the front to the back room, but more specifically to the Instructions.

And finally, this back area I think of as the residential portion. There are three bunk beds and a place to eat. Remember our night on the Great Lake when we discovered we both deal with serious bouts of insomnia? Do you also recall me blurting out how it would be great if we had a soup can phone line between our dorms to keep each other company, and I stated I had one in my treehouse?" She was beginning to bounce a little on the balls of her feet in excitement as she was looking up at the top two bunks, grinning from ear to ear. "The McCubbin Telephone & Soup Line Co." originates up there and ends in my bedroom. And it works, too! When I had the chicken pox and could not be with Ainz and Kendric, they came here and we all spoke over the silly muggle invention. It was great... really, really great."

"So, what do you think about your first ever treehouse visit? Is it very different from what you envisioned?"

And because she could and she desperately wanted to, she rested her head against Simon's shoulder and held fast to his hand in hers.

AngelFyre was delighted that he liked it. It was Simon's first visit to a treehouse, ever, but it was the only treehouse AngelFyre herself had ever been in, so she really had nothing to compare it to. She had seen the type of treehouse he described in movies and old television shows, and it was true. This was not those.

They had climbed up to the top bunk, it was a double, in order to gain access to the soup can telephone and to get a partial view of her bedroom. "Sometimes when Ainz and Kendric spend the night during the summers, we all sleep out here. He sleeps in the lower bunk and Ainz and I sleep up here. The light is off in my room right now so you will not be able to make out much, but my room is essentially straight ahead."

Unbeknownst to either of them, her father was sitting deep in the dark recesses of his daughter's room, watching everything going on in the brightly lit treehouse.

"Great minds and all that. YES!!! You can definitely sneak out here if you want to and talk to me all night long if you wish. I will be awake all night tonight for sure. I am just too wound up knowing you are here. I cannot even imagine being able to sleep. But it is okay, too, if you decide to stay inside. I do not want you to get too much a of a great thing,"she laughed. Then a little more softly she followed up with, "You might grow tired of me." On this point, she did not laugh.

While they had been talking, Simon's right leg had had lifted up at a 90 degree angle at the knee as had AngelFyre's left one, and they somehow managed to link themselves together at the ankles, swinging back and forth as they lay there, looking out the window. Inspecting the soup can more carefully, Simon wondered aloud if they could get one set up at Hogwarts? AngelFyre at first thought he was speaking rhetorically, or simply pulling her leg, but when she caught him looking at her, she knew immediately by the look on his face he was serious.

"Really? You are serious? You would be for it if we could figure a way to get one of these set up at Hogwarts?" She then rolled onto her side, facing him, and started to laugh giddily. "If you knew how many hours I have spent thinking of ways it could be done, you would be mortified. I only get as far as figuring that we would need a ferret or a rat or something to carry the line from my place to yours, behind the walls, but it pretty much ends there. I know you have your own private space, but my bed is in a room with a hundred other girls. Even if we did get it set up," and AngelFyre lifted herself onto one elbow at this point, stretched out next to him, and leaned over to him, placing her lips just barely on his ear, and spoke very softly but clearly, "I would have to whisper just.... like... this..." and she delivered a series of feather light kisses to his ear while the forearm of her free hand rested on his back, supporting her hand as her fingers began to play through his soft hair. Still whispering and playing with his hair, she continued. "I would be 1000% in favor if we could figure it out, but even if we never do, I love that you wanted it," and she smiled as she then just rested her chin on his shoulder and her forehead against the side of his head.

She really wanted to kiss him right then, but something told her it would be a bad idea to do so, so she instead sat up and patted his hand. It was then she caught sight of his bag, sitting on the little dinette table. Just as she was about to speak, Simon also had started to ask a question and they both laughed and played the 'You go. No, you go,' game. AngelFyre insisted he go first since he was the guest.

What he wanted to know was if he would get to meet Kendric and Ainsley on this trip. AngelFyre had thought about this for a couple of days before his arrival. Ainsley was visiting family out of town. Both she and Kendric, like AngelFyre and Simon, were on their spring breaks, so Kendric was the only one here. AngelFyre had long known that Kendric had a crush on her and he knew absolutely nothing of Simon at this point in time. Without Ainz also here to help him nurse what AngelFyre was sure to be a hurting heart, she had decided a meeting between the two would best be done another time. Besides, her time was so short with Simon as it was that she really did want to be greedy and have every second she could all to herself.

"Not this time. Ainz is on her Easter break and is out of town for a week. Kendric is home, but.... uhhmmm...he does not know about you, about us, and I do not want him to find out until Ainz can be around to be a support for him. She is as crazy about him as I am about you, and he is as crazy about me as Ainz is about him," and she laughed, but a little sadly. "It sounds terrible, I know, but for a lot of years we three have been able to make it work. I do not want the apple cart upset with her not here. Besides, our time is so short and we are still so new. I want every nanosecond I can get with you all to myself. I hope that does not disappoint you too much. There will be other trips," she stated (mostly?) emphatically, while looking at him confidently, but the ever so slight quiver in her voice likely gave away her confidence in a return visit by Simon to be a fraud.

" Now, my turn. Riddle me this, will you? Why are you carrying your bag everywhere with you? Are you afraid one or all of us are going to invade your privacy? I promise we would not," she grinned.

Graphic by Liana Kerr

Navigating Hormonal Rushes and Facing Hard Truths with @Simon Kincaid

AngelFyre had wanted to kiss Simon earlier but had not, which was why she had patted his hand when she sat up. Their silent communication through their hands had actually become quite sophisticated, and while clear-headed Simon normally would have recognized the pat as a sort of brake tapping, not-right-now signal, he missed it entirely this time. AngelFyre had now learned an important lesson. Brake tapping alone is ineffective if one finds himself beyond the point of no return, so to speak.

It was entirely her fault, but she was not sorry. She should have recognized what was coming, and said something to him, but she was not upset in the least, however, when Simon kissed her…twice. And she, of course, eagerly kissed him back. Life was too short and there were so many things that could change between them, but she just could not fathom there ever being a time when his kisses would be unwelcome or turned away. Plus, she had enjoyed the added benefit of knowing he welcomed them as well.

She had quickly learned that one way to have him stop anything he was doing… well, anything he had been doing at the times this method had been employed, anyway… was to give the boy finger massages while playing with his hair on his neck and the back of his head while simultaneously delivering kisses of her own. She had begun to suspect the kisses themselves, while nice, might be unnecessary to achieve the desired effect, but she was not certain. This was something she was especially looking forward to discovering about her teenage Adonis, but this was not the time. What she absolutely knew to be true already, however, was that Simon would invariably close his eyes and go into his zone as AngelFyre had come to think of it. It seemed to be good for him and it was definitely great for her because he always came out of it feeling very affectionate. It was a powerful thing to know about him, and she had already determined not to abuse it.

So when Simon kissed her and shortly thereafter pinned her down briefly before delivering another kiss to her forehead, AngelFyre knew exactly where that had all come from and could not help but luxuriate in his playfulness while smiling. Bearing witness to the events from afar, her father, however, was definitely not smiling. Iain McCubbin was already formulating what his course of action would be as he continued to sit in the darkness, watching his daughter and her boyfriend.

*************

As Simon climbed back up into the bunk next to her, AngelFyre was excited to see what he was going to share about his bag. She recognized it as his enchanted satchel as she had one just like it, but hers was in her room at the moment. She half expected him to pull out his guitar, which would have been lovely, but that is not what he had to share with her. He instead pulled out the three notebooks and AngelFyre immediately recognized two of them. She was most familiar with the notebook where he entered whatever question he had about something he wanted to know more about and would research later. It was not unusual to see him writing in it numerous times a day. Often, when he would finish his homework and they were in the Library together, he would pull that notebook out and head off to find research materials to answer one of his questions. His inquisitiveness was one of the most attractive things about him to AngelFyre. She could envision a lifetime together with him where they would never run out of things to think or to talk or to learn about. “Ah. This I recognize very well,” and she rested her head against his shoulder as he spoke. “I am curious about this. Do you find that most of your questions get answered? And do you go back to your older notebooks to research any unanswered questions there?”

The second notebook she did not recognize at all. He likened it to a daily journal, and the knowledge that he kept such a thing just made her heart soften towards him even more. He shared nothing that was in it, and she would never pry, but she could feel her own smile spread across her face as she watched him flip through it. He stopped at one page in particular and she could tell it was a fairly recent entry because he had flipped through from the back and she could see that all of those pages were empty. When he did stop, he fell almost silent as he looked over the page, uttering only a small recognition of “hmmm” with a soft exhalation. His sparkling eyes were quickly scanning, but he was smiling and AngelFyre could not help but wonder if what he was reading had anything to do with them. Some mysteries were never meant to be answered, but they were sure fun to think about.

The third notebook she recognized as well. It was the notebook he had been writing in the evening they met. He had been playing his guitar that night -- a lovely composition of his own. AngelFyre remembered how enchanting it was as it had stopped her cold in her tracks in the entry to the Common Room. “Ohhh. I know this notebook, too,” she said excitedly. “You were working on your guitar composition and taking notes in this the night we met, remember? I loved that piece immediately. Still do.” And she turned to catch his gaze, lingering there for all too brief a time, feeling an undeniable closeness to him as they were both reliving those moments in each others’ eyes.

Then he pulled out a cell phone and took a couple of pictures. This especially excited AngelFyre because they were the first photos of them together. “I want you to send those to me at some point, please. My parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said a cell phone. They were a little hesitant, I think, but when I explained I was going to go all out crazy if I could not see you and hear you over the summer, they may have been persuaded. You have been ALL I have spoken of since I have been home, so I imagine they would rather hear me talking to you than about you,” and she laughed happily.

She continued to observe with great anticipation everything he brought forth from the satchel. Lemon drops, airpods, and his Bible were all things she could have easily predicted. She had spent many Sundays with Simon in the Library as they had put together their own Sunday worship and study time, so she knew his Bible by sight very well. If asked, AngelFyre could produce a running list of 478 things she loved… truly loved… about Simon, and honestly, many of those things had sub categories of their own with even more things listed. But the one thing she loved best about him because it towered above all else in making him who he was, and who he would become, was his faith. It was his mention of his faith that made her heart yearn towards his in the first place. The moment he explained to her what his names meant from a biblical perspective, AngelFyre definitely took notice of him in a way she had not done previously. Handsome and kind and marvelous and funny as he is in any category one could name, without his active faith and belief in God, the two would not be a pair right now. So, yeah; she expected to see his “best friend,” and would have been disappointed otherwise.

The compass from his Aunt Maggie though, that was an unexpected pleasure that warmed her heart. She held out her hand for him to let her inspect it more closely while he told her about it and the British Boy Scouts. AngelFyre often wondered if she had the same soft look when she spoke of her parents or Grandma Ruth as Simon had whenever he spoke of his Aunt Maggie. She was secretly dying to have a chance to meet his amazing Aunt Maggie one day. Simon did not get to be this wonderful all on his own, and AngelFyre wanted to meet, and thank, the woman responsible for raising her incredible boyfriend. It sure could not have been easy, but she had done a phenomenal job with him.

Enjoying the feel of the compass in her hands, she smiled as she returned it to Simon. “I am also a girl scout, though here it is called Girlguiding Scotland. I know very well how to use a compass myself. If you were going to be here longer, we could have done some geocaching or orienteering. Maybe we can do that next time you come for a visit.” To her surprise, she felt much more confident that there actually would be another visit from Simon, if for no other reason than she suspected he really liked the treehouse, and oh yeah – also quite possibly the girl and her dog who went along with it.

“‘Tender is the Night’ eh? So, tell me. Is this a favorite of yours or is it what you happen to be currently reading? It is just so desperately tragic. Well written, but so sad. Have you read ‘The Great Gatsby’? That is my favorite F.S. Fitzgerald novel. Also desperately tragic.” She was silent for a minute and then offered, “I cannot wait until we can explore the Library. I think you are going to like it.”

And then AngelFyre could feel his sudden nervousness and hesitation. The only other times she had felt this from him was in the Library and on the Great Lake when the subject of his being a Dhampir arose. She wrapped her left arm around his shoulders and squeezed him tightly, even leaning her head against his, trying to offer him her unflagging reassurance. She was not completely surprised then when he brought out the blood pops and then the small vial of blood, calling it his daily ration as he told her about them.

Her heart broke for him because this was her vulnerable Simon, and she knew how much he hated being vulnerable. She knew this, not because he had told her in words, but because his voice and his body language said it all for him. Simon always made eye contact with her, except when discussions were initiated about his dhampirism. She had hoped that she had been able to convince him in the Library that “what” he was was not anything that would repulse her, scare her away, or have her think any less of him, but their relationship was very different now than it had been at that time. Maybe like she felt, Simon also felt there was a lot more at risk between them now and more opportunities for unfathomable pain. He was allowed to have his own insecurities, and this was one of his biggest. He was trusting her with his unspoken shame and she just prayed fervently that at some point he would feel the truth of what she felt about him and would be able to see her love for him reflected in her eyes each and every day and in her actions towards him.

She smiled to herself as he very quickly went right from the blood vial to his wand and a deck of cards. Those were his escape routes. She knew it and he knew she knew it. But she was not going to let him escape. This was too important. He was too important.

“Hey. Look at me,” she said smiling at him as she gently pushed his satchel and everything on top of it to the side with the exception of the vial of blood which she noticed he had not set down. That vial he had continued to hold onto, almost as if attempting to hide it from further view. She grabbed two pillows for them and laid down on her side, inviting him to lay down on his as well, facing her. “Come here. Closer.” They were now as close as if they had been dancing, except that now they could look directly into each other’s eyes. She was lying on her right side and her right arm was folded at the elbow, resting comfortably between them. Simon was mirroring her position exactly. Her left arm came to rest across his waist after she first reached for, and obtained, the small vial he was holding.

“You would have no way of knowing this because the night was nothing but a train wreck from start to finish, but I actually placed a blood pop on your plate the night of the Valentine’s Day Tea Party. I got to the table first and left it there for you so no one else would see or know. Everything was so crazy that night that I am not certain you saw anything I had for you actually. In addition to the mis-delivered note Haley received, she also got the two lemon cupcakes I had made for you. It was a shame, too, because while I knew you would not want them as a snack, they were beautiful. They were decorated to look like piano keyboards, and there were two, of course, to coincide with the duet reference. Your Aunt Maggie would have been impressed, never mind you,” she laughingly teased.

“Anyway, the blood pop was my offering to you as a replacement of sorts for the beautiful but otherwise useless cupcakes. More importantly though, that blood pop, even back then, was my way of letting you know ‘I see you, Simon. I love everything I see about you, and I am not scared or put off by who or what you are’. And mo chridhe my heart, that is even more true today than it was then, and you know what?” she asked, the emotion catching in her throat and her eyes beginning to glisten with tears. “It will be even more true tomorrow and the day after that and the week after that and the month… and so on....” and she leaned over to kiss him firmly, but tenderly, wishing she could transfer everything she felt for him in that one, simple action, so he could know… really know... how utterly devoted she was to him, just as he was.

Pulling back and wiping the trail her tears had tracked down her cheek, she then directed her gaze to the vial she now held between them. “God does not make mistakes, Simon. I know you know that and believe it, so believe it, please, when it comes to you. You, Simon Ezra Kincaid, are not a mistake or something to be reviled. You are perfectly made. Whatever your father may be, your Father had pre-destined your wonderful existence, so I can be nothing but happy about that. Do you think I can pick and choose to love some parts of you and not others? I cannot. Everything you are…everything…makes you the you I love. And I am prepared to say this to you as many times as necessary or to show you each and every day the truth of my words until the day arrives when you accept it as easily as you do that the sky is blue.”

She closed her eyes and tried to even her breathing. When she opened them, she brushed her hand against his cheek and asked, “Do you have a cold containment unit of some sort in that satchel of yours, or do we need to get this blood refrigerated? “

She could not help but chuckle a little at the rapid fire Q&A Simon was patiently putting up with from her. Proof yet again that he was a Hufflepuff through and through. What could she say? Everything interested her about him. Why be with someone, friend or beloved, if you did not want to learn about them or speak with them? Nope. That person was never going to be her, but she could tell by the glint in his eyes he already knew that. Good. That was incredibly reassuring.

As he gave her his cell number with city code, AngelFyre was beginning to feel just a little grown up. "So you know, I am calling you as soon as I get my phone. I do not care a whit if you are with Clair when I do. She gets you for a whole week. She can spare me a few minutes just so I can hear your voice. I promise not to be a nuisance though. You can call me every time after that first call while she is still there, if you want to that is. That way I know you really can talk."

When Simon tapped his forehead against hers gently and looked into her eyes, she knew he had made at least some peace with their situation, even if it was a temporary peace. And yes, she very much thought of it as "their" situation. If AngelFyre had any say in such matters, she was dead on certain Simon would not ever have to deal with it alone. "No need for shame. No need for embarrassment. You must have realized by now I have seen your eyes in the dark many times over. The first time was ice skating on the Great Lake. I would like to think that you are comfortable enough with me that in those moments, you forgot about that change because we were so engrossed in whatever else was going on at the time. That would say a lot about us as a couple if true. Whether nearly solid black or your usual gorgeous golden browns, I think you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, and that is largely because I love how they look upon me." And she told him to close his eyes and she leaned over and kissed each one, whispering "These are my two favorite windows to your soul."

Looking again at the vial which had been turned back over to his care, a nagging worry surfaced and she felt now was as good a time as any to ask. "Simon, that is an awfully small vial, love. How much blood do you consume in a day? I watch you in the Great Hall, and the amount of food you eat would not keep a sloth alive. You mentioned earlier that you have the blood pops but have never tasted them. This leads me to wonder, and here we go again....worry... that you are depriving yourself of something you need because of some stigma your mind has associated with it. If the Ministry requires that you take a daily ration anyway, would it not be better to take a quantity that would satiate you? I mean, if you are depriving yourself of something your body very clearly needs, think how much better or even stronger you may feel with it in the proper amount. Plus, it would just have to be healthier for you. Does one vial vs. 4 or 5 or 10 make that much of a difference to you, and if so, why? If it is human blood, I assume it is coming from blood banks so you know no one is being harmed to get it. That should be a relief and not an excuse to go hungry." She sighed deeply and enjoyed his closeness. "I want you around for a long, lonnnng time. Please do not do yourself harm by a self-imposed rationing.

They lay there in silence for a few minutes and she knew he was mulling over what she had said and asked. Then she smiled and closed her eyes as he said what she had been thinking as well, which is that it would be wonderful to be able to stay out there just the two of them. They both laughed when Hillary made her presence known and Simon included her as well. It was all perfect.

And then he did it. He touched on the AngelFyre subject-equivalent of his dhampirism.

She had fallen into such a relaxed state that his question cut her breath short in her throat and froze every muscle and sinew momentarily in place. "In 10 years, where does she see herself?" Seriously? Is there any universe where this boy honestly does not know where this girl sees herself in 10 years? Well, to be fair, it was not so much a matter of "where" as it was a matter 'with whom', but still. Simon Kincaid was no dummy and AngelFyre McCubbin had not exactly kept her feelings a big secret from him. She never saw the point in doing so. She was so open because it was what she had seen modeled by her parents. If you love someone, you let them know. And if they grow tired of hearing it or never appreciated hearing it in the first place, then AngelFyre figured that was a couple that did not belong together.

Her heart was racing in that moment. Did she skate around it or go for the whole truth and nothing but....? Yeah. Of course it would be the whole truth. He would expect no less. And maybe this would garner important feedback for her. The truth was, Simon had every reason to know exactly where he stood with her, but the same could not be said of AngelFyre with him. She was not looking for him to be exactly where she was, but after baring her soul at least twice that she could think of, the first time at the Valentine's Day Party, under the influence of a love potion no less, and the second on the night of the MidSpring celebration, her feelings were pretty clear. Her only signs that he was not ready to run away was that he did ask her to be his girlfriend and he continued to willingly and eagerly play the role of boyfriend, and she was very aware of both of those things and was not dismissive of them. BUT the whole truth was, her admissions had never been addressed.

Maybe those two things, asking her to be his girlfriend and not running away, were her answers in the only way he knew to give them. He was 13 and she was prepared to cut him a lot of slack on that score and for the fact that he had no role model like she did. Did he really know what it looked like and sounded like to have a bonded pair open up and share and respond? Probably not she had concluded, so she had to give him a lot of credit for even being able to do as much as he did... as he always tried to do. All of this had been reviewed forwards and backwards, and up and down in her mind a gajillion-bazillion times, so what could she say now that would be any different than what he had already heard?

"Before I found out I was of magic, I had seen myself at Oxford, studying Law or Politics. It is my father’s alma mater, so it was not an unreasonable dream. Another favorite dream had me in Veterinary School. None of that will be possible with a Hogwarts diploma, and that is okay. Priorities have changed significantly for me because of Hogwarts. Well really, because of you.

This was her nervousness at play because she understood now how it was hard for him to look her in the eyes when he was uncertain what he would see there because of certain revelations. She felt extraordinarily vulnerable bringing her deepest desires and visions to the surface, exposing them to the possibility of being cast aside under the guise of, "We are too young -- you do not know what you want now or who you will want in 10 or 15 years," but she knew that was bollocks. She knew exactly who she wanted and all of the rest of it seemed to matter less than that one, critical choice. And as always, there was just a surety that came with these thoughts that separated them from wishful thinking.

"This place will be mine one day. I admit that many pictures I had in my head had me here, or very near here. You know I love the country. I always will. This place feeds my soul like London feeds yours. The first night with you in the Rehearsal Room, however, it became crystal clear to me that those pictures would change. And they have. When I think of me in 10 years, I see me in a city, whether it is London or any other city our hearts desire. But wherever that city is, I am there with you.”

“I see us having a family. I do not know that that would be starting in 10 years, maybe, but I feel that it all works out for us. The night on the lake when you said you wanted 12 kids, I thought you were joking at first, and even that had me thinking what a noisy, chaotic, messy, beautiful life that would be, if it were with the right person.” Then turning and locking her gaze to his, she just said it as plain as she knew how. “You, Simon, are my right person. I can do anything with you. I want to do everything with you. I want to travel and enjoy us being 'us' before a family starts arriving. I see time together, uninterrupted time, where we can have those love drunk moments where we are the most important thing that exists in this world for the other – growing in each other and with each other, so impossibly close and tangled that it is hard to know where you begin and I end. I see us having the luxury of looking at only each other for as long as we can before the world insists that we turn our gaze away from each other, but when we do, we are able to focus on the world’s business as a single synchronous unit, looking outwardly with a shared vision.” She stopped, having no idea how long she had gone on, knowing she could go on so much longer, but that should be enough to give him the general idea.

His eyes were still fixed on hers, but his expression gave nothing away about his feelings at her answer. “I was recently asked whether my name held any special meaning, and in going over the answer with them that I once gave to you, it occurred to me that even that has been colored by your presence in my life. Mom and Dad wanted me to be a force for good in this world. What greater force for good could there be in this world than to love someone so deeply that you would give your life for them? What greater force for good could there be in this life than to raise 1 or 12 little persons to be as loving, kind, and decent as their father? A career would be nice, and I see that for me, too, but a family raised to love on the world is surely something that is needed -- most especially in these cruel times -- and that is definitely nothing to be minimized or looked down upon.”

"And finally, I have this. I have carried it around with me for months and plan to always carry it with me. I could have saved us the 10 minute soliloquy if I had just pulled it out at the start, but where would the fun have been in that?” She smiled at him and then rolled onto her back and reached into her left front jean’s pocket. When she removed her hand, there was a small piece of paper, folded in half, nestled between her fingers. It was written in her own handwriting, in navy blue ink. She could have so easily just quoted the contents to him, but it was important to her somehow that he see it.

Once upon a time there was a girl who
loved a boy, and his laughter was a question she wanted to spend
her whole life answering. – Nicole Karuss, The History of Love