Michael was pacing about the apartment trying to decide whether everything was ready. By the Christmas tree were two neat stacks of presents ready to be summoned away, one with presents for Iden's family and one with presents for Michael's family. On the hob were several dishes keeping warm until brunch at Iden's mum's house. In the refrigerator were several more dishes keeping cool until dinner at Michael's parents' house.
"Iden, are you ready to go?" Michael called from the kitchen.
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Iden was finishing up in the bathroom, trying to get a bit of his hair to lay flat. When his hair was long, he never had this problem. "Almost. Everything in order?" Iden called before tugging on a band tshirt and clapping his hands for Inky. Inky ran over and followed Iden into the main room. "Right, so, my mum's first up. My brother, well, won't be there, I'm sure. He's still not talking to me, but mum loves you."
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Michael still felt a little odd about the problem between Iden and his brother. He knew he wasn't at fault but he couldn't help but feel a little awkward and guilty. His family had taken it much better... well, his mother and brother had. His mum said his father was still working it over in his head, but that he'd come around.
"Yeah, everything's in order. We should be able to summon everything once we get where we're going."
He walked over to Iden. Noticing the patch of hair that Iden failed to get right, Michael licked his fingers and patted the cowlick down until it sat flat like Iden intended. Then he dried his hand on his pant leg and took Iden's hand. "Lead the way."
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After grabbing Inky with his free arm, Iden popped them all over to his mum's. The house was small and had a garden surrounding it. Inky slipped immediately from Iden's grasp and bounded up the few stairs to scratch at the door, which cued Moira to open the door. She was rather tall and thin with dark brown hair lightly streaked with gray. At the moment, her tan robes were obscured by a very happy dog that seemed to be trying to hug her.
"Inky, down," Iden said, following the dog up the stairs. "Hey, mum. Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas, Dear. Good to have you with us, Michael. Happy Christmas," Moira said ushering them in.
The house was warm and smelled of cider and cocoa. In the livingroom was a rather modest tree next to a couch. On the couch was a man about Iden's height and complexion but thinner and in rather conservative robes.
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"Who... He looks like... No," Michael thought, "he's not supposed to be here. This is going to be so awkward."
There was a couple moments of silence while Moira went to check on brunch and Iden just stared at the man on the couch, who just stared back.
After another, long, uncomfortable moment, Michael finally said, "Um, Iden, would you introduce me, please."
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Iden cleared his throat and walked over to his brother, still holding Michael's hand. "Michael, this is my brother, Ollie. Ollie, this is my boyfriend, Michael," Iden said rather stiffly.
Oliver stood up and offered his hand. "My brother consistently forgets that I prefer Oliver. It's nice to meet you, Michael. Mum tells me you work in a library," Oliver said, making polite conversation but not actually acknowledging Iden.
"Excuse me," Iden said and headed for the kitchen. "Mum, what in Merlin's name is going on? Why is he here?" he whispered to her.
"He is here because it's Christmas, and it's a time for family."
"But, Mum-"
"Iden, hush. The only way he'll get over all this rubbish is to see how lovely Michael is and how happy you both are."
Iden sighed, thinking this was a terrible idea, as his mum ladled cocoa into the last mug on the tray and passed it to him. "Go give them cocoa, Iden."
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"Yes," Michael responded, "I'm the Associate Librarian at the British Library, Arcane Books Section. It's a rather wonderful job if you love reading and researching. I think Iden mentioned that you worked for Nott Commodities? That must be a very fast-paced job."
Michael was going to try to make the best of this. He only vaguely remembered Oliver from Hogwarts. He was a sixth year when Michael was a first year. Back then all of the sixth year Ravenclaws, except the Prefects occasionally, spent every non-class, waking hour studying and couldn't be bothered to socialize with the firsties.
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Iden came out with cocoa and offered some to Michael before turning the tray towards Oliver. "Yes, Nott Commodities does keep its employees quite busy," Oliver said, taking a mug without acknowledging Iden again. "I do sometimes envy those whose jobs allow them to slack off most of the day, but then I realize how dull it would be and how useless I'd feel just sitting around."
"Really, Ollie, what job would you be referring to?"
"I think you know which job."
"Tattoos can be very useful, you know. Only you don't know because you don't care to know anything about me except what you assume-"
"You walk about looking like a human pincushion, covered in little cartoons and engaging in deviant-"
"Boys! We have a guest and it's Christmas. I will not have you behaving like obnoxious children," Moira snapped as she came in from the kitchen holding a tray of scones. "Sorry, Michael. I didn't raise them to act so inappropriately. Have a scone."
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"Thank you, Moira," Michael said, taking a scone. "Oh, Iden, will you summon the food and presents, please," he asked with a 'be nice' expression.
Then he turned back to Iden's brother, "Oliver, did you know that Iden is actually making rather impressive breakthroughs in the tattoo industry. He's invented a few charming techniques that may revolutionize magical tattoos. I'm really quite proud of him; he's very dedicated."
Michael was not very sure that he was making things better, but he was trying.
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Iden left the room for a moment to summon everything to the kitchen. It made for a good excuse to disappear and a chance to calm down.
Oliver smiled slightly at Michael, "Breakthroughs? Isn't drawing on people rather straightforward?"
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"Well, one would think that were the case. I certainly did when I first met Iden. The tattoo design is effectively 'drawing on people', but making the ink move in exactly the right way takes a great deal of skill with charms. And Iden's been working on interactive tattoos, ones that can store and recall data or interface with magical features of a person's environment. I find it all very intriguing on a theoretical level, and it's just simply amazing that he's been able to make some of it actually work on real people."
Michael paused for a second to eat a bite of his scone. "Currently, I'm in the process of convincing him to write his research up into an article and submit it to a journal. Some of the really important art and trade journals are looking for articles about new practical applications for Charm Theory." He paused again and took another bite. "Moira, these scones are amazing."
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Moira smiled and took a seat on the couch. She'd heard all about Michael's tattoo, but was going to let her older boy walk into any embarrassment he felt like causing himself by discounting Iden. Oliver had become a bit of a prat lately, and he needed to be taken down a peg.
Oliver looked skeptical. "Real people are letting him experiment on their skin? Has he been paying them?"
Iden arranged the food on the kitchen counters and put the presents in a manageable pile, preparing to carry them to the livingroom.
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Michael laughed softly at Oliver's comment, trying to make it seem like he took it to be a joke.
"No, not at all," he said. "Now that he's a professional, people pay him for his time and talent. His current, ongoing project involves a tattoo that is capable of providing reference data on any book in the British Library. It's quite amazing and quite useful. I believe the next phase of the project is to upgrade the tattoo to identify and catalog all other magical books within a certain vicinity of the user."
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Oliver smirked. That was rather interesting, but who the hell would need it except Michael, who looked entirely to respectable to have something tattooed onto himself. "Is he going to put that on you, then?"
"I already have," Iden said behind the pile of presents he was bringing in. "Had to travel to China and California to consult with other artists, took about a year of planning before I'd put the first phase on him." Iden set the presents down and sat next to his mum on the couch, gesturing for Michael to join them, which would fill the couch and leave Iden in the middle.
Oliver blinked a few times. He would ask if Michael if he realized that tattoos made people look less professional, but that didn't seem to matter since he was already a pixie (which made people think oddly enough) and the tattoo was work related. He wasn't actually sure what to say.
"Pull in a chair from the kitchen," Moira said to Oliver, who used that as an excuse not to respond. Moira smiled, "I think you won that round, Iden. Now stop fighting."
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Iden set about tapping his tattoos with his wand. The stars stopped twinkling, the badger too a nap, and it was all still. He looked in the mirror for a moment. That was always odd looking. Shrugging, he pulled on a dark blue dress shirt, dark grey slacks, a light-weight robe as Michael requested. "Need me to do anything to your tat before we go? I mean, your sleeve should cover it, but I can make it non-functional for a few hours."
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"Naw, It's never done anything odd. It should be fine," he said, as he double checked the food in the kitchen and the presents in the living room.
They had a few minutes to spare before his mum expected them. So, Michael 'snuck' up behind Iden and wrapped his arms around Iden's waist. He leaned his chin on Iden's shoulder and said, "So, do we want this evening to be more or less exciting than this morning?"
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"I'm hoping for a completely uneventful time with your parents, but after that, I could go for some excitement," Iden said, laying his hands over Michael's. "Is this a hint about what you under the tree for me or did you have something else in mind?"
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Michael giggled a bit. "Let's just say that we can only take on of your presents to my parents' house tonight. You'll definitely have to wait for the other."
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"You're horrid, you know that? Making me this sort of curious before seeing your parents. Not at all fair," Iden said and lightly hit Michael's hands. "Not I'm al distracted," he continued, turning around and kissing Michael sweetly.
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"Distraction is good. Then you don't have to be all tense about Christmas with my parents," he responded. He released Iden's waist and rubbed his shoulders a bit.
"You'll survive: both my family and the wait."
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"If you survived this morning, I'll survive this afternoon. Speaking of, I'm sorry again about letting Ollie get to me. It was really childish of me, and, yeah," Iden said, checking his robes in the mirror to see if Michael had wrinkled them.
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"No harm. With a bit of luck, he'll come round. If not, well it's not like you have to see him regularly," Michael responded.
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Iden laughed. "Very true... It's not like I'm applying for a job at Nott Commodities anytime soon. So, should we be off?"
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"Yeah, we should go," he responded, adding, "You know, Theodore Nott was in my year. He's a decent guy, for a Slytherin, that is. We studied together a lot." Michael thought about owling Nott, maybe putting a good word in for Oliver or something.
"You best grab a hold. I'll apparate us over."
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Iden often forgot that Michael, as a Ravenclaw, would have spent more time with Slytherins than he would as a Hufflepuff. Not that it mattered, school was too far in the past to have interhouse friction anymore. He took Michael's arm and checked his clothes once more when they arrived at Michael's place. He didn't know why he was nervous, but he was. He was being quite silly, and he knew it. "Do I look all right?"
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"Yes, of course you do," Michael said, taking Iden's hand and tugging him toward the door.
Michael's parents lived in a respectable looking house, not too big, not too small. It looked a lot like the other houses on the block and the block after that, etc. They lived in a residential area in the London area.
Michael knocked and then let himself in without waiting. "Mum, we're here," he said.
A tall, thin, middle-aged woman in an apron came around the corner. "Oh, just on time, dear. Come in, come in, take off your robes," she said.
Michael hugged and kissed his mother. "Hi, mum. You remember Iden."
"Yes, of course, nice to see you again," she said, smiling politely and offering Iden her hand.
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