A Wizard Meets the Parents PV Simon Kincaid F

She listened with a laser focused interest on Simon's thoughts and observations of her father. While he was not gushing about what a fabulous man Iain McCubbin was, she could tell that Simon actually did appreciate the things he mentioned. It was the best she could hope for given the missteps between them since Simon's arrival. They still had over 48 hours in which to warm to each other, and since AngelFyre actually did believe in miracles, she would continue to believe that both Simon and her father would come to see each other on much friendlier terms before it came time to see Simon off in a couple of days.

"You mentioned expectations. Am I safe in assuming, then, that a dissolution of our boyfriend and girlfriend status is no longer his demand? My mother spoke to me while you were both gone and basically said that decision would rest with my father," and AngelFyre scoffed. "I did not argue with her, but as I stated earlier this morning, I do not believe that is for either of them to decide."

As they walked on down the path, she was certain she must have blushed as Simon momentarily faltered before he very diplomatically landed on the word 'purity' when describing her father's primary concern with their relationship. AngelFyre looked at him and shook her head a little as she was surprisingly finding herself having to stifle the building laughter inside. "Well, that is embarrassing and endearing all at the same time, I suppose. Did you reassure the man your intentions are nothing but honorable towards his.... what was it you called me last night ... temptress... of a daughter?" She did let loose her laughter as Simon mentioned the motorcycle and wanting one. Good to know it was not all bad for him. "Did he tell you about my bonding plan for the two of you and the dirt bike track? If not, 'Surprise!' and if so, maybe we can do that tomorrow morning after I feed the animals."

She got quiet for a moment and backtracked to 'the talks' they had each endured that morning. "I do think you will be pleased to know that Grandma Ruth stood up for both of us. I was standing right there when she told my mother that from her observation of the two of us at breakfast that you were not someone who was toying with me, but that you seemed to be very respectful of me while showing a genuine disposition of caring for me," and AngelFyre squeezed his hand before continuing. "That was not even the best part, though. Are you ready for this? My mother responded that my father told her essentially the same thing last night." At this point, Simon quickly stepped ahead of her and then turned facing her as he took both of her hands in his and began to walk backwards. "He apparently watched us from my bedroom for a good part of our time in the treehouse. I was at first very upset about that, but honestly, Simon, if he had not seen how you are with me when we are not entangled with each other, this may have gone a lot differently."

"I don't know though," he said as his eyes met hers. "All that talk about boundaries and yet, all I could think about was getting back to you," his eyes lowered a little, "and now all I'm thinking about is how much my lips miss yours." Her heart immediately skipped a beat upon hearing his words and the tone of his voice. Knowing they were conveniently in a blind spot on the path and therefore invisible to any prying eyes at the house, AngelFyre cocked her a head a little to the side and smiled at him invitingly. "Have you now?" she asked as she closed the distance between them in a couple of steps and placed his hands behind her back as hers moved around his neck. "What a coincidence. I have been thinking the very same thing about yours."

******

Upon reaching the dock, it occurred to AngelFyre how mucked up her plans had become. Oh well. It was what it was and besides, all that really mattered to her was that she was with Simon. "So, here is the dock. It is one of my favorite places, quite honestly. It is here I come to when I want to be alone and just listen. I listen to myself or I pray or I listen to the birds and the water and the insects. I love the peace I find here. And it is just beautiful at night. Mom and Dad remodeled the boat house a few years back. The back half has the boats and shop area whereas the front area is a sort of entertainment area. It is where I will be celebrating my 12th birthday with a "pool" party but make no judgments. It is not decorated yet. She looked around and smiled. She loved the way this place smelled. It smelled of wood, wood oils, sawdust, and the river breeze.

"There is a refrigerator that has water if you are thirsty, love, and in the back is a WC if you are so inclined. We also have a sound system and lights. And boats. More than a few boats. Maybe at some point you can put that dhampir strength to good use and we can go for a row, if that would interest you at all?" She watched him as he looked around and felt guilty about the way he was being introduced to her surroundings. "I know you really want to see my room, and we will, I promise. I just needed time and distance away from the parental units for a bit."

Changing the subject back again to their present location, she stated, "The water is not as cold as it is in the lake at Hogwarts right now, so I can also offer up the possibility of a swim as well. We keep a wide selection of trunks and swim suits in back, though I do recall hearing from the rumor mill at school that you apparently like to skinny dip," and she arched an eyebrow at him before bursting out laughing.

"Now that would truly give my father a heart attack on the spot."

Simon grabbed a couple of waters for them as he looked around the boathouse. Admittedly, it was not the most interesting place to look at, but it was a fabulous place to be, at least for AngelFyre. She stood in place but looked as well. The place was full of so many memories of she and her father tinkering on things. He liked to work with his hands and he was often down here working on the boats, keeping them in good shape. That often meant sanding them, sometimes bleaching them, scraping them. Her favorite part was treating the wood. She loved the earthy smell of the wood, and when they oiled it before sealing it, she was in heaven.

AngelFyre was still stinging a little from the morning's run in with her parents. Everywhere she looked around her here brought a mental picture of her father immediately to mind. She looked out at the dock and was remembering how she had her first boy girl dance there with Kendric. That had long been preceded by her first father-daughter dance out on the dock.

The dock had since been remodeled, but gosh, that dance was during the gloaming one lazy summer evening during their very first summer living here after leaving Edinburgh. He turned on the music and it drifted out over the river in soft, dulcet tones. He made a gallant show of bowing to her, calling her his princess and offering his hand to her as he pulled her in close and told her to step on his feet. He moved slowly so she could get used to what it would feel like before he would move and told her to keep her eyes on his. She was so short then and he seemed a giant to her, but she did as he asked of her and she got so that she could actually anticipate where he was going to move and how.

It was a revelatory night for her. It sparked her love of dance. And it solidified her father as 'her best fella'. That was also the evening she rushed in to tell her mother afterwards, most emphatically, that when she grew up, she was going to marry Daddy. She was five. They both laughed, of course, but she was most sincere in her declaration.

A tear spilled over and tracked down her cheek. She casually reached up to wipe it away, only then fully realizing as she saw Simon intently looking to her that she must have been speaking her memories aloud. Smiling a little wanly at him, she reached for the offered water and looked out over the river.

"My house, my call eh? Right, then. I say we row, and just to be clear, when I say 'we', I mean you, handsome. It is upstream, but the current does not seem to be swift today. I think your dhampir strength will not be overly taxed. There are a few things I can show you along the way," and she laughed a somewhat subdued version of her normal laugh while about to tease him, "and some of them might even interest you."

One of her favorite boats was already in the water, so no push off from the shoreline would be necessary. Looking to an anxious Hillary, she shot her arm out in the direction they would be rowing and said, "Shoreline, girl! Shoreline!" and she happily took off, barking her encouragement for them to hurry along as well. "Hillary loves the water, but is not crazy about the boat. She has capsized us more times than I can count," and she smiled as she watched her girl set off on her own landlubber adventure, canine style, of course. Then turning to Simon, AngelFyre smiled at her true love, reached for his hand, and beckoned him to follow her. Always the gentleman, he climbed in first and helped her aboard. "Welcome aboard the H.M.S. Afton, Captain Kincaid."

"It is named, as am I, after the river where my father proposed to my mother." She smiled remembering Simon's recitation to her not even two weeks ago of a Robert Burns poem at the Midspring celebration. "Are you familiar at all with the song 'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton'? It is Robert Burns put to music once again, based on his poem of the same name. It is such a hauntingly beautiful tune. I have always loved the history behind that part of my name, as well. Everyone always gets so caught up in the AngelFyre part that the Afton part oft gets overlooked."

As Simon rowed, she sat across from him, but leaned over to watch as the oar dipped and pulled out of the water and dipped in again. She reached her hand out to the river and let it be dragged in the cool, dark water. Still looking overboard, she remarked with some awe, "You have a nice, steady rhythm to your rowing. Your strokes are clean as there is hardly a sound made as the oar dips into the river. I am absolutely convinced there is nothing you cannot do." Then smiling and beginning to feel more herself, she looked at him and suddenly felt her heart filling with ever more love for him. Hearts, she was beginning to learn, had an infinite capacity to hold love because had they not, AngelFyre was certain hers would have burst long ago when it came to Simon.

"You, O Captain! My Captain! are an absolute marvel, but I need to test a theory out on you." And with that, she leaned her impish self well over the side so that she could position herself to rapid fire splash water with both hands at her handsome fellow.

"I need to see just how... or even if ... your perfect mop holds up to this onslaught," and then she puppy paddled water back at him at a more than respectable rate, laughing delightedly as the loud splashing and her laughter, along with his mock protestations and Hillary's excited barking from the shore echoed out across the river, disturbing nary a soul.

She looked back when the rowing stopped, but only briefly. Progress was being made much to her great surprise, but more was yet to be done. She turned back to the water and redoubled her efforts. He was breathing very loudly and she just could not have been more tickled. She slowed down only a little when he somehow felt the necessity to remind her he was half vampire and not half a merperson. Well, he did have a point, it was true, but not a great one. If she recalled correctly, it was only that very morning he had told her all about his competitive swimming prowess, so there was a little "mer" in the boy.

Laughing still, she stopped as she felt something land upon her feet. She looked down to see it was.... wait.... was that? Was that Simon's shirt? She looked over to where he was now standing up in the boat, and her face must have registered the shock she was experiencing in that moment. The boy was almost always wearing hoodies, and she had seen his arms peeking out of a t-shirt every now and again, but a bare chested Simon was a new vision to behold. So much so that she had completely forgotten all about his hair, which was probably still perfect. Even messed up that perfect mop would still look perfect to her, but there was a whole other level of perfection standing before her, and she did not want to stare really, but.... No, she actually did want to stare, but the moments to do so were too short.

Smiling at her, he said something about being soaked already, and before she could fully register that statement, he surprisingly just let himself fall over the edge and into the water. She positioned herself to see him go under and then almost as quickly he bobbed back up, shaking his hair out of his face. Yep. It still looked perfect, but in a playful way.

God, how she loved him.

Now she had a decision to make. She was not wearing a suit beneath her clothes, but in a flash she decided it did not matter. She kicked her shoes off quickly and tossed the anchor weight overboard just in case the tide picked up speed. A mere two seconds after the anchor weight hit the water, so did AngelFyre.

A row and a swim. Could life get any better?

She gratefully took Simon's offered hand when they got back to the dock. She loved to swim, but it was exhausting, and she was feeling maybe just a little shaky, mostly due to hunger. She was more concerned about her dhampir boyfriend, however. Sunny day. Water reflections. Dhampir skin. uuuuuggghhh. But he is the one who jumped in, so she had to trust him to know his limits. Still, it was her prerogative to worry about him. That was just never going to change, and deep down, it made her happy. Not the worrying itself, per se, but the feeling like he was hers to care for and look after simply made her heart happy. Caring for him could be her superpower one day she was quite certain.

She smiled at her thoughts and then she smiled even more widely as his nautical self made his way back to the safety of the shaded boathouse. "For your edification, my love, one hitches a horse to a post, but one ties off a boat," and she chortled. After "hitching" the boat, she quickly inspected the oars and got them stowed safely within the bottom and placed off to the side. Next she checked the chain that the anchor weight was attached to, making certain nothing was rusting out and that all links were solid. When satisfied that all was ship shape, AngelFyre climbed the steps back up to the boathouse where Simon had already put down some towels for them. The sweetheart even had one down for Hillary.

Inspecting him closely, she kissed his cheek and told him she would return in a few. She knew he was a little tired himself. The sun, of course. The good news was that she saw no signs that he had burned, but she honestly had never seen Simon with a sunburn so was not familiar with whether or not dhampir skin looked different than human skin under such conditions. Her skin always felt warm or hot to the touch if sunburned and turned bright red. Simon had naturally cold skin, and while his skin was not as cold as it normally was, she could not say it was warm, let alone hot, but what was his range for skin temp change to indicate a burn? She always said she wanted to know everything about him....and she truly did.... but this she did not want to have to learn from her own personal eyewitness account if he could be spared the ordeal. She would be happy, and so would he, she imagined, to learn what she needed to know of such things through his telling of it. Since she did not know where his burn threshold lay, however, she decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

She ran back to the WC and opened up the medicine cabinet, grabbing a tube of aloe vera gel. She also grabbed her brush and Hillary's brush out of one of the drawers under the sink and started to head back. Then another thought hit her and she went back and grabbed a comb. She did not know whether Simon would want to primp, but if he did, he now had a choice with which to do it.

"You know, that was a blast, but honestly, I had a plan to take you someplace much cooler and with much more shade. We were almost there too," and she grinned at him. "No big deal. We still have more time or you will just have to come back some day," and she leaned over to brush her hand through his hair, brushing it back off of his forehead while smiling into his beautiful eyes. "I know you are vain about your hair, but you look so handsome, even now. Especially now because you allowed that to happen for me, and we both know you could have dodged it all if you had really wanted to, so thank you for indulging me, " and she smiled softly at him. "Here you go though, if you are interested in getting your cool back on. The boar hair brush and blue comb are mine, so you will not get any cooties if you choose to use either. The big black one, is for Hillary, obviously. I would advise against the use of that one," and she smirked teasingly at him.

Then moving her concentration elsewhere, she placed the back of her hand on his forehead, then at his neck, and along his arm. She was relieved that he did not seem to be getting warmer, nor was his skin turning visibly red. "So here is what is going to happen now, and you have no choice in the matter, Mister Man, so just resign yourself to that fact and you will be one happy dhampy," and she snickered and rolled her eyes at the failed ryhme.

"But seriously, I have a tube of aloe vera here, and even though to my inexperienced eyes, it does not look as if you got burned, you should still find this quite soothing. If you did get even the slightest scald, this will help draw the heat, lessening any pain and helping your skin to heal and repair itself more quickly. It is also fabulous for wind burn, too, for your future reference, like maybe after a broom race. Just saying," and she popped open the cap and squirted some of the thick green liquid in to the palm of her hand. "Tell me love, do you feel like you got burned at all? I know what to look for on human skin, but I have no idea if your symptoms would present a little differently," and as she was asking him, she swirled the fingers of her free hand into the gel and began to gently smoothe it over his face in little clockwise circles on his left side and counterclockwise circles on his right side, starting with his forehead and then moving down the bridge of his nose to its tip, bopping a large dollop of the green stuff there, just to amuse herself. Giggling, she scooped the dollop off and as she had done with his forehead, so she did with his cheeks and and then that incredible jawline of his. "I know it looks like it would be thick and sticky, but it really is quite light and absorbent. In a minute or so, you will not even know it is there."

She slathered some on his neck and then on his arms, and then she looked him straight in the eyes and cleared her throat...three times... before telling him, not asking him, telling him , to remove his shirt so she could apply it to his back. She was pretty proud of herself, actually. The mirth... and excitement, not gonna lie... must have been dancing about in her own eyes, but she could tell her voice had a resolve to it and she was fairly certain her expression was giving no indication that there might be an ulterior motive here as well. "Unless you are also part octopus or part kraken, I assume you are going to need my help in applying the gel to your back, yes?" and she continued to look at him evenly, blinking slowly, and arching her brow just the slightest bit. Yeah, her look absolutely dared him to challenge her on this.

Simon was a very playful boy. Ball in your court now, handsome, she thought.

As she suspected he would, he acceded to her wish eventually, and for the second time that day, he took off his shirt. Even so, he did not just give it away without his own measured response. Chess master Kincaid's golden brown's were dancing with his own self-contained mirth while he pondered his move. He made a good faith attempt to put that famous poker face of his to good use, but this was a different kind of situation altogether, and she actually could get a read on him this time. He knew exactly what he was doing to her, and they were both enjoying the heck out of it. But the pretending as if nothing was going on was all kinds of enticing.

Love. Is. Incredible.

How could people be bothered with hate or anything else awful in the world, she wondered, when this sublime feeling existed?

AngelFyre laughed most satisfactorily as she positioned herself behind him to rub the aloe vera into his skin. She looked over the muscular landscape back there for any signs of a burn, and once again, she did not see anything that alarmed her. In fact, his skin seemed like it was cooling off to its normal temperature, and for that she was extremely grateful. When she finished, she kissed first one shoulder and then the other and declared his victory.... "Simon Ezra Kincaid, one....the sun, zero!"

Moving back to sit beside him, she opted to put some of the aloe on her own skin. She was very fair lass and while not a particularly vain girl, she did not want to wrinkle before her time. Besides, the aloe was so soothing.

"Hmmmm. I do not disagree with your points about about magic and science, or magic and medicine. What galls me, however, is the magical world's stingy application of such things with the muggle world. Why is magic healing not shared? Why can a wizard be cured of cancer, but not a muggle? The injustice of that bothers me a lot, Simon. My folks....your Aunt Maggie... they are not lesser because they are muggles. As I said.... it galls me." She was silent for a moment and then she pondered aloud a bit more.

"Does it ever strike you that there are a lot of things to which magic could be applied to better so much of the world in general, with literally the flick of a wrist and a few words, yet it is not? I mean, honestly, what is our purpose... yours and mine... for learning the magic we learn, only to exclude its use in benefit of those we most love? Why is that, do you think? I realize it would not solve everything, but so much human misery could be so easily avoided. Why is it prevented? If you know, I would love to hear it."

One of the gazillion things she loved about her fella was that he happily engaged with her on these little philosophical discussions as they came up between them. How many hours had they stayed up way too late in front of the Common Room fireplace deep in such discussions? More hours than she could count right now. He was good for her heart. He was good for her sense of well being and her spirit, but Simon Kincaid was also good for her mind.

She reached for her comb and gently ran it through her long mane, detangling it before then reaching for her brush. While brushing her damp hair, she had a quick answer to Simon's question about what next. "I am actually famished. One buttery croissant at breakfast is not enough to sustain me. How about we head back so I can grab something to eat, and something for you, too, if you would like, and then we can explore the house. There is still my room, the Library, the small music room. We can listen to music or you can play.... whatever you want to do to just kick back and relax. How does that sound, love?"