She couldn’t help but laugh as Adon suggested Gabriel liked his shirt better.  “Of course he does,” she grinned, “the fabric is probably more luxurious,” she teased.  Vanity was not Adon Eleor’s greatest sin (by far), but his shirt was probably a little bit softer than the handkerchief she’d bought for boogers.  Granted, the shirt was not bought for that purpose.  She was glad when he took the fabric square anyway – humored her, at the very least. 

He must have been humoring her babbling too, because honestly it wasn’t the sort of thing anyone outside of the very tiny office would have cared much to hear about.  It was very intellectual at this point – there was no practical use that she could pinpoint quite yet.  The detail about her family seemed to really catch his attention though.

Akiva cleared her throat and breathed through her nose, as though it might have been a little stuffed before she tilted her head to the side, uncomfortable with that connection as of this moment.  It was so early in her research.  “I’m not sure I’m looking at that, necessarily,” Akiva finally put out in the air. 

“You see,” she pursed her lips, “there’s no mention – nothing – in the journal about deportation or anything… a mention of kristallnacht and his store, but…” she shook her head, “I don’t know.  I just – I always thought it was so separate.  If there’s been crossover – well.  It’s just interesting.  It could mean a lot of things, you know?” she asked. 

There were a lot of implications – on a grand scale, and a personal one if all of this was panning out.  “When I’m not filling requests for everyone else, that’s usually what I’m doing – tucked away in Dree’s office,” she smiled a little.   Adon was attempting to be hopeful, she could hear it in his voice. 

Hope was a powerful, albeit dangerous thing.  It hurt like hell when it went unrealized.  “I don’t know what it’s going to turn into – but I’m learning a lot.  It’s the Ravenclaw in me,” she smiled, “always need to have a project.”  Akiva clapped her hands together with the end of the thought.  “What about that food?”

“I’m not sure I’m looking at that, necessarily,” Akiva finally put out in the air.

"It is an interesting consideration, though," he persisted with customary stubbornness.  His curiosity now piqued, he sought to prove further.  "It would mean a lot of things," he said in his clipped, emphatic English. 

Akiva seemed on edge.  Taking a conscious effort to tone down the intensity, he wet his lips and gave a slight sigh.  "Well.  If you ever do need any contacts in Israel, I am sure I can get you in touch with some Gaddol professors."  He did not have the wealth of academic or Muggle Studies or even Jewish resources that Dreogan had, but he had spent all of his career at Beit Gaddol.  And had certainly left an impression on all of the remaining faculty there. 

He wouldn't have been at all surprised if incoming professors had heard of him as well, now that he thought of it.  "And there's Dree's friend.  He may even still be in town. Do you remember Aleron Wilhelm?"  The man had made a whirlwind entry into London--but not much else, from what Adon could recall.  It would probably be worth rekindling that connection, as well.  He could use all the people he could in London to pass his time on this island.

Akiva leapt to a change in conversation--one that was amenable to.  "Sure--whatever you've got is fine.  I'll go get a full round of groceries once I've settled into ima's." This was so surreal.  He followed her into the kitchen, realizing his arms were starting to tire of holding Gabriel.  How did a tiny thing like Akiva do this all day?

Shifting sides, he sidled up to the counter and straddled a bar stool, managing to off-set the weight and redistribute it.  Gabriel had now discovered Adon's stubble, and was patting it experimentally.  Adon gave a big grin, and the tyke's fingers instantly probed and hooked around his lips, pulling.

Yeh, Adon had no idea how she did this all day everyday.  Right now, it was adorable.  Later?

Grinning, he plopped Gabriel onto the countertop to be face to face with him.  "So," he said to Gabriel, "you keep mama busy, don't you? Yes..."

"You know," he offered, projecting slightly so Akiva could hear him over the clatter of cooking, "I am happy to babysit if you ever do need a night to yourself.  I've got some fireworks from Jerusalem--we could have a good time, just the boys." He gave a gleaming smile with just enough mischief in it to keep her guessing as to whether or not he was serious.

 “I agree – it would be interesting,” she made sure to point out.  She didn’t disagree – she’d be fascinated if there was a connection, but, she wet her lips.  “There’s just not enough evidence to make that leap yet.”  The backbone of any decent academic was not leaping to conclusions.  She certainly didn’t want to start looking for something that wouldn’t reap any rewards at all.  Start small, make the big claims later. 

There might have been something to this research thing that Akiva had missed out on a little bit – she was always a bit more scientifically and mathematically minded (unsurprising considering her parents), but she didn’t mind this.  Adon even offered some ideas for contacts and that warmed her heart just a little bit more.  “You know, I hadn’t even thought of that,” she added again, with a smile.  “I might have to do that – I’ve been trying to find more, so I’ll definitely send some owls about it.” 

She imagined, of course, it’d be a lot of inquiries and to lead off with information about her husband would be hard.  Even after this much time, the difficulty did not escape her.  Even seeing one of his friends – after a long time – it would be strange.  But whatever would help her, she’d have to try.  It was good to move locations though, focus on something else.

Walking into the kitchen, Akiva sighed happily as she inhaled the enchanted scent of cinnamon (she just loved it) and waved her hand as Adon suggested he’d buy groceries.  “Don’t worry about that,” she shook her head.  “I think I have a couple of things lying around.”  She poked around, pulling out some  leftovers and a couple of new things, putting them on the counter.

Akiva turned around to ask him what he wanted when she saw Gabriel pulling at his lip and Akiva put her hand over her mouth instantly, trying to stifle the laughter.  She shook her head and turned back to the counter: she could make the choice for him, particularly as he was busy talking at Gabriel who only babbled and squealed with laughter in return. 

She pulled out a pan and started to throw something together.  Adon suggested babysitting and Akiva’s interest peaked, the spatula in her hand slowing to a stop and she glanced over her shoulder, rolling her eyes as he informed her about the fireworks he supposedly (probably actually) had.  “Oh yes, that sounds absolutely wonderful,” she tried to meet his level of snark, “perhaps after you fire them off you might want to try and rob Gringotts.  Sounds like a boy’s night task, yea?” she laughed with a shake of her head.
 
Though, there was something to the offer and she had to be a little serious for a moment: “I wouldn’t mind though, if you wanted to watch him – I don’t think my parents would mind either,” she said realistically while also picking up the spatula again.  They never minded watching their grandson, but it wasn’t easy to ask them when they already did so much for her.  “You know, I have plans in a couple of nights,” she pursed her lips, “I was going to ask my mom to watch him – but if you aren’t busy…”

"I'm a man off the market. What would I be doing anyways?" Well, feasibly case work... surveillance... Skyping Thea...

"You should go. You have your ladies' night, and this little guy and I," he said, bouncing Gabriel slightly on his hip, "we'll have our guys' night." He paused, looking back up at her thoughtfully. "We'll chase after the guys robbing Gringott's.  Honestly, Akiva--Auror," he said in a disappointed tone, adding, "It's like you don't even remember." 

Whatever Akiva was making was starting to smell good.  Adon settled onto one of the barstools at the counter, placing Gabriel atop the counter, facing him.  About two seconds into this plan, Gabriel began to slump forward like a bag of potatoes.  Adon--recovering quickly--gave a light laugh and helped him support himself.  "I bet you don't have a free hand to cook very often," he said, looking around Gabe at his sister-in-law.  "You're welcome," he added cheekily.

"So..." he began, trying to figure out if Akiva knew any better what was going on in the London social scene than he did.  "S'Rosier still the head man on my floor?" he asked.  At the very least, Akiva was a Ministry employee and would know about a hire that big.  Last he had heard of Rosier--well, he hadn't heard much, which might have been an indicator of some movement. 

Ladies night… Akiva’s smile persisted despite the… not quite true nature of that statement, but she wasn’t going to get into it.  After all, it was a just friends situation and it was nice to be around another adult sometimes, one who didn’t know all of the terribly gory details of her entire life up until this point.  Honestly, she liked feeling normal and sometimes with the people who knew her best it was awfully hard to play at normalcy when you were practically a walking one-stop tragedy magnet. 

Things happened, obviously, but it just felt like sometimes it was always happening to her, rather than around her.  At least though, she could focus on other things around Adon and laughed as he suggested that he was an auror.  “Law enforcement – the ultimate cover,” she accused with a teasing smile. 

The cooking was coming together, and she glanced over when Adon said she probably didn’t get to cook very often.  “I’ve made out very well on bowls of cereal for dinner, thank you very much,” she grinned.  Cooking was one of the things she liked the most and she managed when she actually had the energy to, but sometimes it was a lot easier to just pop Gabriel in his bouncing chair and eat some cereal before putting him down and passing out.  That was usually the course of action she latched onto. 

His question about Rosier though… that was something that blew her mind – something she’d totally forgotten.  “Oh no, Rosier left… weeks ago?  Maybe a month or so?” she wracked her brain.  As a person who worked primarily in the MAO and the library, she didn’t quite keep up with magical law unless it was about her husband – or a close friend.  She supposed though Tamis did have a special place in her heart (despite their distance now) and this did have to do with her. 

“Tamis Raynor is head of the Department of Law Enforcement now,” she explained, “It was a big switch, but it makes sense in the long run.  A shame about Rosier, I know he wasn’t the most pleasant, but there’s a rumor the position is as cursed as the DADA position when I was at Hogwarts.”  Akiva reached up and grabbed two plates down from the cabinet and put them on the counter next to the stovetop.  "Dree wasn't always her biggest fan, but I think she'll do a fantastic job."

"The Adon Diet," he said, flexing his free arm. "That's why you look so good. I should get that trademarked." 

The fact that Adon rarely subsisted on cold cereal was irrelevant.  Facts were fluid and were easy casualties when there was a joke on the line.  In all truth, Thea and he had been cooking together more.  While he had been spending less time at the gym--instead favoring late nights at work, and even later nights with Thea--he'd hardly be considered a schlub.

"Shame," Adon said about Rosier.  "He was the sort of cranky bastard you loved to hate." He looked anxiously at Gabriel. "He doesn't understand... swearing yet, right?"  He'd savor the moments of free speech until then.

"If I recall," Adon said, shaking his head contrarily, "it was Tamis Raynor that wasn't the biggest fan of Dree." He shrugged and gave a smirk. "Just saying. I am bound by fraternal loyalty on that one--so just know where I stand." He gave a slight smile. "But I'm glad. Raynor had it coming." He paused. "Let's hope it is not truly cursed."

Gabriel squirmed, and Adon began to walk the floor of the kitchen a bit, shifting him around so that Gabriel could look out at the world.  With this newfound freedom, Gabriel instantly lunged for a fork, which he then proceeded to attempt to ram into his mouth.

Adon, the Master of Interception, managed to prise the cutlery from the chubby fist with some protest.  Which was instantly quelled when Adon handed the tyke his badge to chew on.  Those things were magicked to be indestructible, right?

"So you're saying the Head Auror position is open..." Adon said with a devious smirk, rubbing his stubbled chin thoughtfully.

"In all honesty," he continued, "I've been considering what I want to do--if I am staying here in London... Do you think I'm cranky and stubborn enough to be a lawyer?"

“He doesn’t,” Akiva snorted at Adon’s fear over the swearing thing.  “Though that doesn’t negate the obvious: I do,” she glanced over her shoulder with a smirk.   She wasn’t chastising him for real, of course.  Gabriel wasn’t going to be picking up any complex vocabulary any time soon.  The gibberish noises he made now were not indicative of real language cropping up in full sentences in the next month.  She didn’t curse, in general, but… that hardly mattered. 

Adon was, of course, right about Tamis.  “Perhaps the dislike was more mutual,” she smiled in agreement, and nodded too.  “The curse thing – it’s a joke,” she offered weakly.  “It just seems like we’re always hearing new people coming in and out.  Maybe it’s just the stress,” she shrugged.  Akiva wasn’t truly familiar with that department anyway, so it was sort of a foot in mouth moment, especially at the fraternal loyalty bit. 

If guilt had not already played a large part in her life, it certainly didn’t help that the word loyalty was being thrown around.  She focused back to the food and separated the plates – she’d eat something too, it’d been several hours since she’d eaten.  Putting the food out, Akiva grabbed both plates and turned, laughing as she saw Gabriel gnawing on a shiny object. 

“Haven’t heard of it getting filled,” Akiva laughed and crossed the kitchen with ease, putting the plates down.  “You can put Gabriel in his seat,” she motioned toward the bouncing seat that he loved so much, a little set of rings and a duck hanging from the bar in front of it so he’d have something to play with while he was sitting there.

The question though, it caught her off guard.  She went to grab cutlery – raising her eyebrows as she saw a fork on the counter.  Had that always been there?  Pursing her lips she tossed it into the sink and then grabbed a few new ones from the drawer before returning to the table, still considering what he was saying. 

“Perhaps stubborn enough,” she smiled at him, “but I believe you’d have to work on giving up all sense of decency before you took up that line of work.  I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  Though, I suppose if you put your mind to it – you’d be rather good at it.

“Are you really considering a career change?” she tilted her head as she sat.  “Because you could do it, if you wanted to.  I imagine your attention to detail might carry you farther than your winning charm might with an elder, at the very least,” she started to dig around her plate, making sure to keep things completely separate (weird habit). 

"Though that doesn’t negate the obvious: I do."  Adon grinned, pounding the counter lightly with his fist to show appreciation.  Kiva threw a zing. Who knew she had it in her?  He shook his head, amused as hell--and, quite frankly, and very apparently, impressed.

“Haven't heard of it getting filled. You can put Gabriel in--” Adon's eyebrows shot up, expecting Gabriel to be the most recent nomination for the Head Auror position. 

"Oh," he said, slightly disappointed at the mundane turn of events.  He settled Gabriel into his seat, tussling the whispy locks before sitting down properly before the meal.  "Thanks," he added, picking up his fork. "It smells great."

"Obviously need to improve my crank-game," he muttered under his breath before taking a bite.  She'd mentioned the stubbornness, but nothing on the crankiness.  "I don't mean methamphetamine," he pitched in, once he'd swallowed.  "You already thing I go about burgling banks--I'd hate to add substance abuse to the list of fictitious indictments."

"See that's just it.  If I was halfway decent, I could take a clean sweep of that place.  I mean--three weeks to get a subpoena? Ridiculous." He shook his head in disgust.  Catching himself, he added, "Sorry. Shop talk. Out of the shop."  He shrugged.  "I don't know.  I'm just testing it out.  I'm not really sure what I'm doing here, for how long..." he shrugged.  "Raynor should take a few pointers from Musallam.  No way he's getting run out of that place.  He runs a tight ship--with an iron fist.  If he wants me out, I'm out." He shrugged.  "I don't know if I have a place waiting for me in Jerusalem so, I think it's best to move forward with the assumption that..." he gave a miserable sigh.

"I thought we were adults.  Didn't this mean we... you know, knew what we were doing?"  He leaned in conspiratorially. "Or... do you think our parents had no," he began to whisper, "idea what they were doing?"  He broke away, giving a slight chuckle.  "I mean--I exempt yourself of that. I can only imagine the day you gave birth, a magical, cosmic transformation took place--turning you into a true and proper know-it-all."  He gave a crooked smile before adding wistfully, "You seem like you always have things figured out, though."

The quick engagement. The dream jobs.  The picture-perfect family. 

Adon'd struggled for near 5 years to get engaged to Thea.  And even now, he felt terrified those 5 years would yield nothing.  This far away from Thea--anything could happen. 

Adon's eye widened as he realized exactly how this sounded. "I don't mean--I mean, I am fine. I don't want you to--" he waved his hand dismissively. "We're all fine, I think.  I just... I didn't think I'd be reinventing everything at 30, you know?"

“My pleasure,” Akiva grinned as he thanked her for the meal.  That was one of Akiva’s primary ways of showing love – cooking.  It was a task that she enjoyed, but to feed someone else, it was caring for them and well – she was happy to do it.  She liked making people happy with food. 

Food, of course, did not solve every problem that came across her circle’s mind, however (even if it was a great medium to talk things over).  Adon seemed to be taking advantage of that and Akiva was nothing if not a good listener.  Watching him talk, she tried to gauge his face and actual interest in doing what he was talking about.  Dreogan had always talked about the things he wanted with certainty: he never really doubted what he was doing. 

He had a point, she knew some things were a bit slow and backwards in the bureaucracy (an understatement), and Adon would certainly go in and shake things up.  “You don’t need to apologize,” Akiva grinned after swallowing, “I think having a plan is a good idea, since it sounds like there might be a lot of unknowns up in the air.”  She had been there before, she felt there on a daily basis most of the time. 

She realized, however, it was not a comfortable place and felt even worse when it was new.  Being torn from something that was comfortable and recently established… Akiva understood that a little too well.  Being an adult was no excuse for any of that.  Shaking her head, Akiva laughed lightly and put her fork down.  “You can be an adult and have zero clue of what you’re doing,” she assured him, “thirty or not.”  After a pause, she smirked, “and mom or not too.” 

She pushed her fork around on the plate for a second and looked up.  “I can’t even tell you - I worry I’m going to screw him up every day,” she stole a glance toward Gabriel who was grabbing at the little fuzzy duck on the bar in front of him.  “I can do the basic stuff, I can read to him and change him, I dress him and feed him, but…” she shrugged, “I know what it feels like to have your first plan go awry.  “It, for lack of a better word, sucks.” 

She nodded a couple of times, letting that resonate.  It was hard to talk about most of the time, since no one else really seemed to get it – and people who thought she had it together were the hardest to tell.  “I think if I can manage to fix things and improvise, you can too.”   She smiled with warmth and picked up another bite of food.  “And if that means you’re going to stomp around and demand subpoenas or put bad guys away in another capacity, I think you’ll do it – like I said, 30 or not.”   

"Everything's unknown," Adon reiterated with quiet emphasis.

As tired as he was, as hungry as he felt, the food on his plate shifted, and shifted, without ever quite making it to his mouth.  Listening seemed more important, and he mulled Akiva's words over carefully.

"You are doing fantastically.  Honestly.  You've held it together like--like no one else I know could. Trust me." He had seen his family go to pieces enough to value the emotions that she sacrificed into smiles for her son.  "And... you know. I'm here--I don't have any plans to leave," he said, with mixed emotions. "Please. Know that."

Ages ago--had it been a year? Two? Adon had been put into a tailspin when, new to London, his partner had--unbeknownst to either of them--killed a man right under his nose. Taken abrupt leave.  Just in time for Adon to find out shortly thereafter that he was destined to die violently, and that Dreogan had been spending nightmarish evenings seeing it play out again and again.

That had been bad.

Worse than bad.

But even then, Adon had known--more or less--who he was.  He was there to protect his big brother.  He was there to clean up the Runespoor mess.  And to finally dote and lavish affection upon his mother.

Now, he just didn't know.  He had no case, no partner, and he had a fiancé a continent away, not knowing if he would return.  His mother was there, too.  He was uncertain if she planned to relocate to be closer to her son, or if she intended to keep a close eye on the investigation into her other son's disappearance.

Someone had better.

Adon felt wholly, inextricably, and utterly rootless. No brother. No mother. No fiancé. No job to hide behind and fill his time.

Just big, empty nothing.

Akiva had finished talking. And Adon knew that.  But the tightness in his throat didn't currently permit easy conversation.  Directing his attention in earnest to the thoroughly mixed-up meal before him, he indiscriminately shoveled a fork-full into his mouth.

He attempted to clear his throat as he swallowed to relieve the pins-and-needles feeling.  Causing a coughing, which eventually morphed into a bitter, throaty laugh of disbelief.  This was a new low. Choking on his sister-in-law's cooking, unable to stomach unanticipated disappointment.

Once he'd finally managed to swallow, he sniffed. "It's not your cooking, Kiv," he said, somewhat embarrassed.  "It's just an off day."  He twirled the fork in his hand.  "I just miss..." he shook his head angrily, rubbing his eye with a knuckle. "I miss... everything."

Giving a lopsided, watered-down smile, Adon added, "I know I don't need to explain. You get it."

There was a pause before, finally, "Thanks."

It seemed like the appropriate moment to reach across the table and put her hand over his.  Akiva appreciated the support.  It was good to be recognized for what you were doing and to have someone else tell you it was going to be okay and that you were doing a good job.  There were, of course, no lengths she wouldn’t go to save her son from just a few of the bad things in the world if she could. 

If that meant she smiled instead of crying most days, she did it.  There was always time after she put her son down that she could attend to her own emotional wounds.  It was getting better, anyway.  She felt like she could get better.  There’d been a moment where she just had to start accepting this was the way her life was going to be, and if that was the case, she was going to make the best of it, even if it was really hard.

That moment took a lot to come to and even more than that – it’d taken a lot of pain to get to.  Adon wasn’t there yet, she could see it by the look on his face, the way his jaw tightened but not because he was mad.  It looked like he was hurriedly trying to cover something over but he started to cough like he was choking and Akiva sat up straight, a little shocked.  She heard a burble from Gabriel, but she didn’t look. 

She squeezed his hand again and chuckled a little as he said it wasn’t her food.  “Of course it’s not,” she said softly, a hint of humor and softness in her voice, “it’s bloody delicious,” she quirked a smile at him, not trying to take away from the moment, but also to lighten things for him.  It was a heavy conversation.  There were things they were both missing. 

In response to his eye wiping and weak smile, Akiva nodded.  “I do,” she nodded feeling a lot of pressure on her chest.  It felt right to scoot her chair closer and wrap her arm around his shoulder, hugging him from the side. 

She didn’t really know if there was anything to say, necessarily, but she leaned her head against his and hugged rubbed his shoulder.  That was definitely better than saying anything, even you're welcome didn't seem to fit.  The quiet was right.