Absit Omen RPG

Jason was back?! On time, more to the point! That almost never happened, to the point where Sam was concerned that perhaps an intruder had infiltrated their floo system when he came bouldering into the living room. The sleeping boys didn't wake, though they threatened to as they stirred.

"They've only just nodded off, about fifteen minutes ago." Sam smiled as she tucked a tiny bit of hair behind Aidan's ear, watching the pair snooze so happily. Jason greeted her - a kiss and a wandering hand, which she would have batted away had he not been quick enough to remove it himself.

"Oh, before you go and shower," Sam started as she attempted to move from inbetween the boys without waking them, "There's a couple of things I need to show you." She cautiously pulled her arms from where they had been cradling the boys, moved the blanket that had been covering the three of them, and stood up. The boys leaned in towards each other, Lewis on the bottom and Aidan with his head resting on Lewis' shoulder. Sam draped the blanket back over them and went into the kitchen to grab a couple of things.

When she came back into the living room, Jason was already half stripped off for his shower. Sam held out one of the pieces of paper she had - a colourful card in wild designs. "We've been invited to a wedding. A distant cousin of mine." She pulled a face as though she couldn't really be bothered to entertain the idea, but would have to go since it was family.

The second piece of paper was more exciting in Sam's eyes. She grinned as she held it out. "I've made us an appointment to see an estate agent this afternoon. Get this place valued and maybe look at bigger places?"

Jason had been working one of those strange shifts, the kind that are neither day nor night shift, but start in the early hours of the morning and end late morning onto lunch time. Sam had the day off work, so she had been only too happy to look after Aidan as well as Lewis. Jason had got up in the middle of the night, kissed her goodbye, said sweet-dreams to the two boys, then left for work.

Sam woke up fairly early and pottered around the apartment for a little while until she heard the boys start to stir. That was when she knew her work was going to start - keeping two young boys occupied and making sure they play nice was no easy feat, but she figured that the best way to start would be keeping their little tummies happy.

"Who wants pancakes for breakfast?"

Needless to say the boys were ecstatic at the thought of pancakes, and the pair sat either side of Sam at the table, dripping maple syrup, sprinkling sugar, squeezing lemon, pouring melted chocolate and dunking various pieces of fruit onto their pancakes. After food, Sam decided that maybe a lazy morning would be the key to keeping the boys happy. She let them go and pick one toy each - Aidan chose a quidditch figure, and Lewis a dragon - sat them down on the sofa, squeezed in between them and draped a duvet over the three of them.

The boys giggled as they pulled the duvet down from their heads so they could see as Sam set them up watching a movie. Muggles had made some very interesting and at times extremely handy inventions, and a TV and DVD player had turned out to be just two of them.

Samia's four-year-old son was itching for a pet. Little Aidan was hanging on Lewis' every word, and so now he was also adamant they needed a pet. Samia had said no over and over again, but after a discussion with Jason, they had decided that perhaps starting with something small might actually be productive. Perhaps the boys would learn the importance of looking after others. Plus there was the added bonus of being able to use the pet as a bargaining chip whenever the boys wouldn't do as they were told.

But what kind of animal? Well, this was something they hadn't really decided on, and Sam had thought it best to go the the Menagerie in Diagon Alley and have a browse to see what would be suitable. Upon entering the Menagerie, Samia was immediately targeted by owl droppings from up above. She gave out a yelp and jumped to the side, a natural reflex that unfortunately sent her in the path of another young woman.

Sam watched as Jason considered their options. She agreed that his place was too small – she would never be able to fit all of her clothes in his closet! She let out a gentle sigh as his fingers lightly caressed the skin of her shoulder, trying to focus on what he was saying. They could stay at her apartment – she glanced around the living room briefly, with its magnolia walls and little fireplace, nondescript carpets and almost boring sofa. A small frown came to her lips as she realised just how much she actually wanted a fresh start. A life away from the four walls she had come to know so well since her divorce.

Then he suggested that they could look for a new place, and Sam felt her heart beat faster.

Was this something they could seriously consider? Sam wanted a house again, with more than one storey. She wanted a back garden, not a patch of grass shared by countless other families. She wanted to come in her front door and have the kids run to greet her, not have to walk up two flights of stairs and along a corridor past each door which was a clone of the last, before finally reaching her own.

She found herself starting to get excited at the prospect of a new home with Lewis, Jason and Aidan.

“But the boys are still at an age they can share a room.”

Sam’s growing smile faltered slightly. It was true, the kids actually enjoyed sharing a room, but Sam wanted a house with a spare room for if guests came to visit, and maybe a toy room for the boys. She quickly found her smile again as Jason kissed her neck – she didn’t want him to think she was jumping the gun. It was something they had plenty of time to discuss.

“And we can share your room…”

Sam chuckled as his lips migrated up towards her ear. “Which would become our room.”

“And your couch.”

She grinned. “Our couch.” She pointed out as his lips finally found hers. He took the bottle of wine from her as he pulled away to take a drink. Sam bit her lip gently; if there was a right time to say what she thought, it was now. She looked down at her hands. “I’d like us to think about buying a new house. I know it’ll be expensive, but if we both consider selling our places…and I can take on extra work at the alchemists…we could do it quite comfortably.” She let her eyes find his, a questioning smile playing on her lips.

"I insist." Her reassurance was affirmed with a nod of her head just before she gratefully received a kiss to the lips. Sam allowed herself to be tugged gently away from the sleeping boys and into the living room. Being pulled onto Jason's lap was one of the witch's favourite past times, and she relished in the moment by sticking her feet out in front of her and wiggling her bare toes. She watched him as he held out his wand, curious as to why he needed it -- then she saw the bottle of wine dancing towards them and a comfortable grin spread across her lips.

Sam's eyes widened slightly - drinking wine from the bottle, eh? Something she'd never considered before now, but also something that made a whole lot of sense. Jason offered her the wine and she took it from him hungrily, holding it up and letting some of the red liquid slide easily down her throat.

At the mention of the boys, Sam let her eyebrows rise and fall suggestively. "If we're lucky." Using her forefinger, she gently wiped at the corner of Jason's mouth, ridding him of the tiny droplet of wine that had nestled itself in the crease of his lips. She brought her finger up to her lips and let her tongue dart artfully over the tip of her finger, before biting her lower lip in thought. "So...are we staying here? Yours? Or...are we buying a new place all together?" She wanted to broach the subject carefully; Jason seemed almost apprehensive at the moment. It had taken him a while to actually ask her to move in with him, so she didn't want to push him into making any wrash decisions.

He didn’t seem all that happy. Apart from saying ‘Yes Jason, I would love to move in with you[/i], Sam couldn’t see how she could have made it more obvious. Or was he moving in with her? Were they buying a place together? She couldn’t fathom that bit out from the very little he had elaborated on the subject, but those finer details could be defined at a later date.
 
Jason pulled back and Sam watched as a small frown fell across his shadowed features. Her brow puckered gently in confusion. What was the problem? He’d finally put into one eloquent sentence what he had been trying to say all night, and now he wasn’t pleased with the answer? Was he asking out of pity or guilt? She started to back away, the familiar feeling of wanting to close herself off from emotion creeping into her veins.
 
Then he asked for clarification on what they would be celebrating.
 
Sam let out a breathy laugh, relieved to find that he just wanted to make sure they were both on the same page. No mixed messages. “I want to celebrate you-“ she prodded his chest very gently with her forefinger, “-finally managing to put into words what you have been hinting at all night.” She grinned and cocked her head towards the door. "There's a bottle of wine in there that needs to be finished. Let's go and celebrate that we're moving in together. And once it hits midnight, I can give you your birthday present. Don't think that you can get away with getting a year older!"

Students were starting to mill around the booth already, the majority of whom had been subconsciously dragged by their sense of smell. Many of them were exciteably naming the things they could smell; sweet treats, fruits, wood, paper, spices. The usual things made an appearance, but Sam also heard some strange things, one of which was mouldy cheese. Sam's little nose scrunched up slightly. Mouldy cheese?! Well, each to their own she thought.

One giddy young girl was shouting out names of desserts, but the student that caught Sam's attention was the girl next to her, watching on with slight confusion. As the student guessed what it was, Sam smiled and nodded. "Yes, it is. The potion for which the company is named." Sam waved her hand up towards the banner, which proudly (or garishly, depending on the onlooker) displayed the company's name. "This company was founded over two hundred years ago, back in the days when there was no restriction on the production of potions - the majority of potions were actually traded in what would be considered as a 'black market' nowadays," Sam began to explain, a few of the other students tearing their noses away from the dish of pearly liquid. "Now, of course, the Ministry has imposed quite heavy restrictions on things like this," she indicated to the dish, "to ensure that nobody is forced into anything against their own free will. Although technically speaking it is not illegal to produce Amortentia for personal use, there are hefty fines for companies such as ours that seek to sell for profit."

"So why do you make it then?" A girl no older than fourteen was pushed forward by her two friends, all three of them eyeing the potion hungrily out of the corner of their eyes.

Sam nodded. "A good question. Although we are responsible for producing many potions for places such as St.Mungo's, we are primarily a research institute. We do our own research into the boundaries of potions such as this, and we look at different ways of manipulating them to tweak the effects. That is the fun part of the job. If you like messing around with potions and making things blow up, you'd love my job." She grinned.

Sam felt Jason's lips spreading into a grin against hers as they kissed, and it was reflected in her own. Although it hadn't been a fun couple of weeks, and though she had hated arguing with him and how it made her feel, this was making at feel almost worth it all. The anguish she had felt since he had walked away from her apartment the previous week, was amounting to this; the kids asleep together, a kiss and an important question that was dangling in the air in front of them like an invisible piñata of potential.

Jason pulled away and Sam's eyes fluttered open gently, finding his eyes in the dim light. She took in a deep breath just as he did, and stayed silent as he finally said what he had been trying to say for at least half an hour now. She pressed her lips together and looked down at his shirt, her eyes twinkling as she tried to avoid his gaze while she decided how to respond. There had been a complete break through; not only had he actually said he loved her, he had taken the next step in their relationship and decided they should consolidate their living space.

She had the urge to lift her hand, pat his cheek and say 'Well that wasn't too hard, was it?', but she figured that would make him feel a little patronised - certainly not the best thing for her to do when he had just laid his cards on the table for all to see. Instead, she sufficed with nodding slowly, finally raising her eyes to meet his as he waited patiently for her response. She grinned, unable to contain her excitement any longer, and instead of verbally reassuring him of her opinion, she pushed him up against the wall and melted into his arms, her lips finding his again. "We should celebrate," she murmered in between kisses. Surely he was smart enough to work out what that meant?

Sam's smirk mirrored Jason's as he stated that he wasn't looking for her opinion on washing the boys and laying them to bed. Her expression faltered slightly as he flicked water at her, and her mouth fell open into a little 'o' shape as she shielded Aidan from the droplets. Lewis was out of the bath now, which meant it was Aidan's turn - and since Jason was drying Lewis off with his towel, Sam figured it was her job to bath the youngest. She lifted Aidan from her lap, her hands under his arms as his feet dangled towards the warm water below him. He gave a gentle whimper as his feet made impact with the water, but he soon got used to it and allowed Sam to smother him in bubbles and wash his hair.

Jason enquired about the clothes, and Sam simply nodded as he ushered Lewis out of the bathroom, leaving Sam and the little one to finish off. Aidan was really tired, to the point where he was almost falling asleep in the bath. More often than not, bathtime meant lots of splashing and lots of making bubbles, but tonight it had been extremely easy compared to usual.

Once he was thoroughly scrubbed, Sam told Aidan to stand up as she wrapped the warm fluffy towel around him and dried his hair with the end. She picked him out of the bath, cradling him in her arms and sat on the lid of the toilet with him on her knee. Taking his little hands and feet into her hands one by one, she dried in between his toes and fingers, then brushed his hair with the soft brush that sat on the side of the bath.

"There we go," she reassured the little boy gently, "I think it's bed time now." She smiled, smoothing his hair behind his little ear and leaning down to press her lips against his head, before standing once more and carrying Aidan out of the bathroom and towards the bedroom bundled in his towel.

She picked up the pile of bedclothes from the chest of drawers and helped Aidan stumble into them before tucking him up next to Lewis. She bent down and gave both boys a goodnight kiss - not that they had any idea, as they were both already in the blissful land of chocolate frogs and quidditch.

She grinned as she stood up and turned to Jason, realising he had been waiting and she had been taking her time about everything. Tonight was supposed to be about Jason making it up to her; well, she wasn't about to let him off lightly. But she decided that maybe she could help him along a little bit.

"So," she started, facing Jason and letting her hands snake their way underneath his shirt and around his sides. "I think there was something you wanted to ask me, but maybe you need my help?" She grinned and stood up on her tippy-toes, pressing her lips against his momentarily.

Sam gave a slight pout as Jason leant against the doorway, clearly content with just watching her struggle to get the clothes off her son and being used as a bed by his. It didn’t take long, however, for the healer to decide he would help, and eventually Lewis was being helped into the bath and cleaned by Jason’s skilled hands. This left Sam free to help Aidan, so she heaved him up onto her knee and attempted to start undressing him around his thumb-sucking and intermittent yawning.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Sam looked away as Jason raised an eyebrow at her. “I did,” she said simply, biting her lower lip gently to stop herself from laughing. “You asked me what I thought, and I said I thought the boys needed a bath and bed.” She chanced another glance at Jason as she took Aidan’s little socks from his feet and tossed them in the pile with the other discarded clothes in the corner of the bathroom.

Cuddling Aidan close to her to make sure he was kept warm while he waited for his turn in the bath, she shot an endearing smile in Jason’s direction; the kind of smile that would suggest she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

“Or was there another question you wanted to ask me?” She wiggled her bare toes in the warm, plush bath mat, leaning her cheek against Aidan’s soft hair, more so that she didn’t have to watch Jason’s expression as she teased him. She had never been good at keeping a straight face.

She sat quietly, hands clasped gently in her lap and keeping her eyes on the gently snoozing boys, waiting for Jason to put to her a solid statement or question. She smirked, however, when what she actually got was a generic “Wha’do ya think?”.

She left a momentray pause for dramatic effects, pursing her lips to the side as though deep in thought with her eyes still fixed on the kids. "I think," she started slowly, a smirk creeping across her lips, "That it's time for a bath, a story and bed!" She stood up abruptly and clapped her hands together, the boys opening their eyes lazily to see what the commotion was about.

Sam made her way towards them and lifted them both from their booster chairs. "Come on little men, we'll get you washed and ready for bed." Taking each boy by the hand, she led them easily to the bathroom with not so much as a hint of complaint from either of them - they must have been that tired.

She turned the taps onto full, ensuring that the water was a lovely warm temperature before sitting on the edge of the bath to undress the little boys. Aidan snuggled into her side with his thumb in his mouth as she pulled Lewis' tee-shirt up over his head, resulting in a little whine when the elastic around the neck caught his ears.

"Some help would be greatly appreciated," she called through to Jason, grinning to herself as Aidan pulled his thumb from his mouth in order to yawn, then replaced it and started to fall asleep standing up and leaning against Sam's thigh.

Sam allowed herself an indulgent smirk as Jason’s expression conveyed his disappointment at her dismissive response to his statement. She found it adorable that he allowed his displeasure show so much – she was so used to hiding her emotions. Having a father who was under the impression that ‘children shouldn’t cry’ and a young son to look after, Sam had learned long ago that it was best if she kept it all under cover until she was on her own.
 
She smiled as he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, feeling the tickle of the very slight whiskers of his chin against her cheek. A little fight? One eyebrow rose with amusement. If that was 'a little fight', she hated to think about what a full-blown big fight would be like. It had seemed pretty big to her, but then she wasn't used to fighting with anyone. At least not fighting with someone who wasn't Lewis trying to eat chocolate before dinner.
 
Jason seemed to want to brush the whole thing off, and in honesty, Sam was more than happy for the last two weeks to become ancient history. They were together now, happy, with two sleepy little boys lolling their heads against each other for slumbering support.
 
With an expert flick of his wand - which suggested he had done this many times before - Jason sent the small pile of dishes away to the kitchen, discarded them in the sink and allowed magic to perform it's right of passage by washing them for him. The rest of his conversation ensued, and Sam listened whilst keeping her eyes on the boys and sipping from her glass of wine. Slowly, however, her lips pursed to one side as she considered what Jason seemed to be trying to hint at. "Mhmm?" she probed, half agreeing and half goading him into carrying on. If this was going where she thought it might be going, she was damn sure she wasn't going to do any guess work. Jason would have to spell this one out properly - she didn't want to get mixed signals, or end up offending him in some way.

Jason's hand moved across and began working its magic against the tense muscles in her shoulders. Her eyes closed momentarily as she enjoyed feeling his fingertips knead into her flesh. She opened one of her eyes lazily as he mentioned pancakes in the morning, allowing the lashes to abandon their sweeping motion against the apple of her cheek. She loved pancakes, with raspberries and strawberries, melted chocolate, sugar and lemon - anything sweet. Lewis equally adored pancakes, though it wasn't immediately apparent, as he carried on with his gentle breathing as he dozed in his chair.

Her eye closed again as she thought for a moment. "You're staying the night?" she questioned gently. She refrained from adding 'what if I don't want you to', because obviously she would be lying. She could think of nothing better than ending a lovely evening with the two boys tucked up together with their cuddly toys and Jason keeping her warm in bed. She was maybe a little surprised, considering the problems they had faced in the last week, that he wanted to stay over so soon. She grinned greedily as his fingers worked at her shoulders, relieving them of the tension they had held for nigh-on two weeks now. "I'd like that."

Sam knew what would be going through Jason’s mind without even having to ask. The way he chewed thoughtfully on the chip that she had ignored as she poured out the juice was almost as though he couldn’t comprehend something, couldn’t fathom out the answer to a particularly difficult problem. Thomas was the problem in this scenario. Jason would be imagining what it would be like if Fiona ever stopped him from seeing Aidan. What would Sam say then? Would she say it served Jason right, that he deserved it? Or would she say that he should be allowed a second chance at being a dad? And why should there be one rule for Jason and a different rule for Thomas? Thomas had made mistakes – big ones, and lots of them – but he was back, and he was claiming to want to make things right. But there was one screamingly huge difference; Jason had never abandoned his son.

She didn’t even wait to see Jason’s response to her comment about potty-training, knowing that the thought of helping a child before his own probably horrified him. Sam guessed that he was probably still mentally preparing himself for having to go through all of that with Aidan – having Lewis thrust upon him desperate for a pee and with no pull-ups on would probably make him pass out right there and then. Sam smirked to herself. Lewis was pretty much trained anyway. There was just the odd accident on a night, and since she’d completely taken the pull-ups out of his life, he was a lot better than he used to be. Plus his little underpants were just too cute.

Sam picked some of the fish away from the batter and savoured the taste, chuckling slightly as Jason tested his son’s patience when it came to food. Over the last few months, Sam had come to learn that Aidan took his food very seriously. Lewis liked his food too, but he had a tendency to kill whatever was on his plate before he would contemplate eating it. Thus, the fish on his plate looked more gutted than battered.

Sam swallowed and nodded in agreement that the fish was delicious, as she plucked her wine glass out of mid-air and allowed Jason to chink them together in a toast. It was even better than the fish and chips they got from Signature, but maybe Sam was biased because it had been made by the loving hands of her boyfriend.

After enjoying their fill of dinner and watching the kids play with their food, eat their food, play with their food a little more, contemplate eating, play with their food whilst eating, stuff a posh chocolate into their little mouths, then nod off into their plates, Sam sighed. It was a sigh of content. She had missed this over the last week. She had missed them all spending time together, and Lewis having a friend to play with. Lewis had missed having Jason and Aidan around, too. Aidan was a little younger than he, and he enjoyed having someone who looked to him for guidance. But, on the same side of the galleon, Lewis looked to guidance from Jason, so it was obvious that the little boy was pleased the man was back.

She glanced at Jason out of the corner of her eye, but quickly averted them back to the tired boys. Moving her hand across, she let her palm rest on Jason’s knee, smiling slightly. “Thanks for this,” she offered squeezing his leg gently. “It was really nice.”

Jason was doing a good job of hiding his expression. She had known when she asked that he would be torn. Like Sam, Jason wanted Thomas to pay for what he was putting her through. But deep down, she knew it wasn't fair on Lewis. She was using the little boy as a tool to get back at Thomas without even realising it. She heaved a slitent sigh as Jason said what Sam had predicted. She allowed her hand to tilt slightly, pouring the juice into the two small plastic tumblers  and the two larger glasses.

"We don’t know how they really interact anymore, right?”

Sam almost snorted. "I don't know how they ever interacted. Lewis was only a couple of weeks old when Thomas decided to up and leave," she pointed out, "so there was never really the chance for quality father-son time." It was sad, that Thomas hadn't been man enough to take responsibility for his actions. Afterall, it took two to duel - as much as she now wished it, Sam hadn't been able to perform the immaculate conception.

“Though maybe we should try and potty-train him first.”

Sam cast a sidewards glance at Jason. He'd used the word 'we', suggesting it would be a joint effort in helping Lewis with his toilet habits. Sure, Sam had started trying to train him, but it got hard as a single parent trying to do everything as well as run around after a toddler who was...well, let's just say better at aiming his broom than his wand.

"Be my guest." She flashed Jason a grin as she moved past him to take the drinks out to the table. As she set the glasses down on the table she could hear the little boys making growling noises at each other -- clearly they were playing dragons, one of Lewis' favourite games. She called back through to Jason in the kitchen from the table, "Is it time to let the little dragons in? I think they might be hungry." As though he had been waiting by the door for his cue, Aidan suddenly appeared with a toothy grin, Lewis close behind.