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Eliot
“These cupcakes are shit,” Eliot complained, swallowing down a bite before throwing the rest of it in the wastebasket.
Margo rolled her eyes, continuing to lift them gingerly from the bakery box and arrange them on a plate. “I doubt anyone is really going to fucking care, El.”
He shrugged, wiping crumbs from his hands. “Is the portal behind the garage ready?”
“Yes, it was ready an hour ago, when you asked me last time.”
“Does Kara still have Teddy?”
“And Cordy. They’re fine. Also, you need a blowjob in the worst way.”
Eliot laughed. “Well, my darling husband just had to fit an appointment in on his daughter’s only first birthday, so blame him.”
“You’re here and he’s not, so I’m blaming you.”
Eliot mockingly glared at her. “You know, if it wasn’t also my house, I’d curse your room with pigeons.”
“Go for it,” she dared him haughtily. “Q will clean it up for me. He likes me better than you.”
He smirked. “I’ve got videos that prove you wrong.”
She brandished a dish towel at him. “I haven’t gotten laid in a month, shut up.”
“Aw, is Tinder dry these days, Bambi?”
“Uncle El, will you come look?”
Eliot gave Margo a panicked look over almost being overheard, and pasted on his best adult face before stepping into the dining room. His niece Amanda had asked to help with decorating for the party, and he’d put her to task with arranging the balloons. Each chair at the dining table now had three or four balloons tied to its back, all in varying shades of white, purple, or blue. They were also bumping their way across the ceiling, some with pieces of crepe paper trailing between the strings. He also noticed the girl had taken it on herself to set the table, and it didn’t look half bad. “It looks wonderful,” he told her, and she beamed.
Amanda was eleven now, and had grown a terrifying amount since he’d seen her two years ago. She was taller than Margo, all long limbs and bony knees and elbows. Eliot had taken her shopping the day before, after Kara had complained over not being able to keep the girl in clothes that fit, and she looked far more comfortable today in her new outfit, though her style sadly reminded him of Quentin when left to his own devices. Still, she was going to be stunning; it was there in her face, just waiting for puberty to be done with her.
“Is there anything else I can do?” she asked, her hazel eyes bright.
Eliot checked the time on his cell phone. “I guess we could start bringing gifts down from upstairs?” he suggested. “We should probably check on your mom, too.”
“Oh, she was just trying bows on Cordelia.”
Eliot’s brow arched. “Bows?”
“Yeah. She brought a bunch, this lady at church makes ‘em.”
“Oh, dear God,” he sighed, walking swiftly towards the living room, already imagining his daughter trying to balance something three times larger than her own head on her tiny neck.
Stepping into the living room, however, he saw Kara snapping photos of Cordelia on the sofa, who was only wearing a… moderately sized cloth bow, which was attached to a matching knitted headband. No lace, no ribbons. Eliot leaned in the doorway, crossing his arms. “Well, shit. That’s kind of cute.”
“Papa!” Teddy cried from his seat next to his sister, giving him a scolding look. Eliot put his finger to his lips, eyes wide, and Teddy giggled. He absolutely loved keeping Eliot’s cursing a secret from Daddy.
“It is, isn’t it?” Kara asked. “I brought one in, like, every color she had. I figured the others would be too Indiana for you.” She gave him a knowing look over her shoulder.
“Well. I appreciate you not spending your money on the equivalent of an infant Derby hat. I like it, though.” He crossed the room to look down at Cordelia over Kara’s shoulder, and his daughter grinned before letting out a happy shriek that made everyone in the room wince. They’d been spoiled by Teddy, a quiet baby who had rarely cried, and who now doted on his baby sister like a third, much smaller father. Julia’s genes, he suspected.
Cordelia was… honestly, sent straight from the depths of hell, and Eliot adored her. While Teddy had Julia’s nose and chin, Cordelia could have been magically cloned from his DNA, though Quentin swore she did have Julia’s ears. She’d had colic for eight months, was allergic to dairy and soy, and had the temper of Margo during Welters season. She was also manipulative as fuck, and Eliot now understood the effect his pout had on Quentin, since his daughter wielded it against them both daily. (That did not mean he used it any less himself, though.)
“Joey and Alice are here!” Margo called from the kitchen, and Eliot smirked, stepping around Kara to lift Cordelia into his arms.
“Let’s go scare your uncle, does that sound fun?” he asked her. Cordelia grinned wickedly, not understanding, but she didn’t have to. Once she set eyes on Joey, the fun would begin. Cordelia knew five words, and had spoken them in this order: “fuck” (which was why Eliot had been put on cursing probation), “Da” (for Quentin), “Pah” (Eliot), “Poo” (the cat), and “Eeeeeeee,” which they’d learned meant Joey fairly quickly, since she only said it when she was leaning eagerly towards the man, her tiny hands opening and closing.
The fun part was Joey was terrified of Cordelia. Eliot was certain he was terrified of babies in general, but he was also sure Cordy was the only one currently obsessed with him.
Eliot entered the kitchen just as Joey and Alice were stepping through the back door, and Alice smiled warmly when she spotted him. He hadn’t seen her in over a year, and had been surprised when Joey had told her she was trying to make it for the party. He and Quentin still didn’t know what the fuck she did for a living, but he’d honestly given up at this point. “You cut your hair,” he said in greeting, and she nodded, touching the strands that ended just under her chin.
“Eeeee!” Cordelia squealed, tilting herself forward, and Eliot stifled a laugh as Joey’s eyes widened. Without asking, he handed the baby off to the man, who took her reluctantly, settling her above his hip.
Eliot embraced Alice for a long moment before pulling away. “Now, remember. There are muggles among us,” he told them, taking the gift bag from Alice’s hand. “You really didn’t have to bring a gift; Margo covered everyone, I’m sure.”
“Fuck off,” Margo laughed. “She’s only gonna turn one once.”
“It’s a book,” Alice explained with a slight cringe. “So, she’s probably not really gonna care anyway.”
“She loves ripping the pages out, if that helps,” Eliot chuckled. “Have either of you met Kara and Amanda?”
Joey nodded, wincing as Cordelia smacked his chin. “Last time. Alice wasn’t here, though. Will you please take your kid?”
“But Joey, she likes you. Besides, don’t you need the practice?”
Alice wrinkled her nose at that. “I can’t keep a fish alive, Eliot.”
He shrugged, gesturing for them to follow him to the living room, where he made introductions. Julia and Kady showed up in the middle, with their current foster son, Max, who was four years old. And his service dog, Cody.
“Um, Amanda? Would you be a dear and lock Prudence upstairs?” he asked. The girl nodded, taking off out of the room. Prudence had given the poor black labrador a good scratch on the nose the last time they’d visited, which had upset Max, who had autism. Kady and Julia had still been learning how to best handle his behaviors at the time, and it hadn’t been a pleasant afternoon. He wasn’t looking to repeat it because his eight pound cat felt the need to prove something.
A whole new round of introductions were made, and once they were complete, Eliot took the gifts Julia handed him into the dining room. Checking the time, he sighed, dialing Quentin’s phone.
“El, I’m on my way, I swear,” he answered it.
“Just checking. Everyone’s here except your dad.”
“Oh, I forgot. He can’t make it, he texted me earlier.”
“Oh?”
“He caught some virus; he didn’t want to chance the kids getting anything. He’s gonna drop by when he’s feeling better.”
“Okay. Don’t forget to use the garage portal.”
“I won’t. How is everything going without magic?”
“Well, I remembered to keep the ice cream in the freezer and no one asked how the balloons are floating without helium, so… good?”
“Okay. I just have to save a few things and I’ll be right there. Love you.”
“Same.” Eliot ended the call, making his way upstairs to find Amanda in the stairwell with Prudence in her lap.
“She wouldn’t let me by, so I sat down. And when I try to get up, she growls at me.”
“She’s fickle that way.” Eliot leaned down to pick the cat up, tossing her gently to the floor where she scurried her way towards Teddy’s room. “Help me with the presents?”
Amanda nodded, standing and following Eliot up the rest of the stairs to the third floor, which was effectively Margo’s, although Quentin had turned one of the smaller rooms into a home office. Eliot hadn’t bothered; he was needed at work too often.
The other tiny bedroom was where they’d been storing the ridiculous amount of gifts Margo had purchased for Cordelia, along with the few items he and Quentin had bought for her. She was one, how much was she really going to remember about any of it? Putting his back to Amanda to shield his hands from view, Eliot pretended to unlock the door while he did a small tut that actually unlocked it, and he stepped inside, smiling at the small gasp he heard from his niece.
“Jeez, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this many presents!” she exclaimed.
“Have Bambi adopt you,” he replied dryly. “Also, you could visit more, now that you’re older. Your mom would probably let you fly solo soon. That would mean more shopping trips.”
Amanda grinned. “Visit you just so you can buy me stuff? That sounds… wrong.”
“Oh, please. Like you wouldn’t do anything to get out of that shithole more often.”
She blushed at his language. “I wouldn’t want to be in the way, though.”
“Nonsense. We have two small children; there’s no such thing. You’d be more help than anything, and we could actually show you around, instead of going to all the tourist traps Kara loves so much.” He lifted several gift bags into his hands without the aid of magic, and Amanda chose a box to carry that was wider than she was, but she made it back down to the dining room with no difficulty.
They made two more trips, clearing the room, and by that time, Eliot heard Quentin’s voice in the living room. He walked in to see his husband seated next to Kara on the couch, both children in his lap. “Finally,” he teased.
“Yeah, Daddy. Finally,” Teddy said, giggling. Quentin gave him a playful look of warning.
Eliot turned to Margo. “Ice cream?”
“I just set it out; we’re ready to go.”
“Teddy, can you let me up?” Quentin asked, and their son scrambled off the sofa to allow him to stand up with Cordelia.
“Let’s party, then,” Eliot announced.
The dining room was loud as they all made their way in, everyone trying to figure out a seating plan, since there were no set arrangements for either the regular table or the smaller plastic one that had been set up that morning. It would have worked to have simply set the children at one table and the adults at the other, but Max didn’t do well being far from Julia or Kady. It was decided that the two women would join Max at the smaller table, along with Amanda, leaving everyone else space to sit at the larger one. Teddy decided at the last minute that he wanted to sit with Max, though, and Quentin assured him that was fine.
After singing to Cordelia, which she appeared justifiably confused by, Eliot allowed himself to relax as his husband took over for a bit, feeding their daughter her dairy-free cake and ice cream. She promptly smashed both into her bow and smeared it through her curls, much to the delight of everyone with a camera phone. Margo began dividing out food for everyone else, and it was hard for him not to laugh as the lulls in conversation started almost immediately.
They literally couldn’t talk about anything in front of Kara or Amanda without planning for a lot of omissions first. It was easiest for Joey, who’d just been cast in an off Broadway production, which was brought up by Amanda gushing about how she wanted to see Aladdin on Broadway. Julia couldn’t really bring up teaching without risking Kara asking what subject she taught. Kady couldn’t really talk about her job at all, no one knew what the fuck Alice did, and Kara already knew a more mundane version of Quentin and Eliot’s professions. Conversational topics stuck to the kids, more or less, along with Kara’s opinions on the few places Eliot and Quentin had taken them to visit this time around, with Joey and Julia suggesting a few more she should see.
After the table was cleared, Margo helped Eliot start passing gifts to the end of the table, where Quentin helped Cordelia open them whilte Margo and Julia snapped more pictures and recorded videos of the baby’s reaction to each item. Considering it was mostly clothes, she typically just threw them aside, more happy with the gift bags and tissue paper.
The presents were nearly all opened when Amanda stood from her seat with an empty glass in hand, heading towards the kitchen. Eliot saw her trip on the edge of the area rug, her long legs tangling momentarily before she righted herself, but the glass didn’t make it, and he winced as it shattered against the floor. He started to tell her it was fine as she stood, but before he could speak, every balloon in the dining room burst at once.
Cordelia screamed and immediately began sobbing, Cody barked, and Max began to cry, rocking slightly in his chair. Teddy looked incredibly concerned, but remained quiet.
Amanda’s eyes darted to her mother and then all around, and it was clear she was terrified before they all watched her flee the room. The back door slammed moments later. Exchanging a quick look with Quentin as he lifted the baby from her chair to comfort her, both of them looked towards Kara, who was studying the surface of the table, blinking furiously.
“Um, Kara?”
She gave a trembling smile as she met Eliot’s eye, looking pained. “I… she’s fine. She’ll be fine.”
He did a quick, silent check in with Joey, Alice, and Margo, all of whom shook their heads, though he already knew it hadn’t been any of them. Julia and Kady were focused on calming Max, and Teddy looked to be recovering from the sudden noise.
It had to have been… There was no way it wasn’t, especially with the way Kara looked like she might start crying. “Has this happened before?”
“Um. I mean, little things? I-It’s ridiculous to think… I can’t even say.” She squirmed in her seat.
“Let me go get her,” Eliot offered. “We’ll, um. Talk.”
He stepped over the broken glass on his way towards the back door, and found Amanda seated at the patio table, her head bowed and hands clasped in her lap. “Hey.”
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled, not looking up as he took a seat across from her. “I didn’t mean to scare the kids.”
“They’ll be alright,” he promised. “You wanna talk about it?”
She looked up, her eyes large and glassy. “What’s to talk about? I don’t know… why. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s me. Mom says it can’t be, but…”
“Oh, sweetheart. It’s you.”
Amanda looked at him with a strange mix of suspicion and absolute trust. “What do you know about it?”
“We’ll get to that in a second. What else has happened?”
She worried her lip between her teeth. “I… I guess it started on the last day of school? I thought it was just a freak thing, but I fell on my way down the steps outside, and Marie Simpson laughed at me. She’s always calling me a stork.” Her brow furrowed. “A branch fell and almost hit her. A-And I thought it was kind of funny, because it’s not like I did it, you know? It was like… karma, or something.” He nodded. “But… a few days after that, I was mad at mom because she wouldn’t let me go swimming until I cleaned the kitchen… And the faucet broke, and water was going, just, everywhere. And I thought that was just a weird thing, too. But when she started yelling because everything was getting wet, the window on the back door broke, too. There’s been… other stuff, since then. And I kind of thought it had to be, like, a ghost or something. I didn’t say that to Mom, because of Dad, but… The other day, these guys I go to school with were following me home, just talking and being mean. And I got so mad…”
“Did you hurt one of them?” Eliot asked quietly.
Amanda’s lip trembled, but she shook her head. “Not… not really. One of them wrecked his bike. And when I got home, my nose was bleeding. So, that’s not… that’s not a ghost, right? I didn’t tell Mom about that, though.”
“I think you need to,” he said.
“Why? She doesn’t… it scares her. She doesn’t know anything about it, she can’t help.”
“No, but there are people who can.”
Her brow furrowed deeply. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen anyone doing things like this, it’s crazy movie stuff!”
Eliot looked to the crystal ashtray in the center of the patio table, usually empty these days. With a thought, he lifted it into the air, causing it to spin in slow circles before looking back to his niece.
Amanda’s eyes were large as she watched the ashtray rotate between them. “Are you…”
“I am.” The ashtray settled back to rest on the table. “There are some things we’ll need to talk about, and your mother should be included. Come back inside?”
“What about… everyone else?” she asked as he stood from his chair.
“Amanda, every adult in the house besides your mother can do things like you’re doing. Honestly, you’re a bit young for it, but it happens. Alice wasn’t much older than you, but I really thought that’s because she grew up knowing about it.”
“Everyone?” Eliot nodded. “Um… okay. Mom’s going to freak.”
“She is, but I’ll be there, okay?”
Amanda nodded, looking pale as she joined him to walk back into the house. When they returned to the dining room, only Quentin and Kara were still seated at the table. Eliot took his seat again, with Amanda taking one next to her mother. “Kara, we need to talk.”
Kara looked at him with fear in her eyes. “Okay. I-If you want us to go, I know that--”
“No,” he interrupted, giving her an affronted look. “It’s just… we may have withheld some things? What’s happening with Amanda... I was fourteen when it started with me.”
Kara’s brow lowered in confusion. “Wait. I-Is this some kind of weird family thing?”
“No, not usually. It can happen to anyone, but it does tend to run in some families.”
Kara was looking very overwhelmed, and Eliot reached across the table with both hands, silently requesting she take them. After a moment, she did. “Kara, we’re magicians. It’s a… talent that some people have. It’s how everyone here met, aside from Q and Julia. We went to school for it.”
“There’s schools?” Amanda asked, her brows climbing.
“Not until you’re older, but yes.”
“I… What is she doing, though?” Kara asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, based on what she’s told me, she’s doing exactly what I do, which is telekinesis. But there are different types.”
“So, what do you do? Just… move stuff? Break things?”
Eliot laughed. “I mean, for awhile, yeah. You have to learn to control it.” He looked towards Amanda. “It can be incredibly dangerous if you don’t.”
Kara laughed uneasily. “This is all some Harry Potter bullshit. Jesus. Did Alex keep this from me?”
“No,” he assured her. “As far as I know, I’m the only one who had magic. And I’m not really sure where it came from. No one else knew. My parents didn’t exactly pay enough attention to attribute all the broken things in our house to me.”
“And she can learn to… not break things?”
Eliot nodded. “For the most part. Shit still happens, though. Even now.”
“O-Okay,” Kara said with a short nod. “So, how do we do that? Control it? How does she learn?”
“Well, I can give her some things to do at home, but the best thing for her…”
“She should be around people who can teach her,” Quentin finished.
Kara looked to Eliot, confused. “But you… you didn’t do that, did you? You didn’t leave Whiteland until you were older.”
And here it was. Eliot took a steadying breath, forcing himself to hold Kara’s gaze. “I also killed someone,” he told her. “Remember Logan?”
Kara gasped softly. “But… the accident?”
“It was, mostly. An accident. I didn’t know I could do it. But he didn’t step in front of that bus, Kara. I put him in front of it. I’m not… I don’t want to scare you, but this is serious. Not every type of magic is dangerous, but this one can be.”
“What… what do we do, then?” Kara asked him.
But it was Quentin who spoke. “She could stay here, for the rest of the summer? I-I know that’s a lot to just put on you out of nowhere, but... “
Eliot gave him a grateful smile before focusing on his sister-in-law again. “She could. And I could teach her ways of controlling it that will work better than things I was trying when I was younger.”
“Mom, can I?” Amanda asked quietly. She looked stricken by Eliot’s confession, and he knew she was remembering what she’d done to her own bully. “I-I swear, I’d call you every night, I’ll do everything they tell me to, I just… I’m freaking out. I don’t wanna hurt someone. Or you.”
“God, I don’t know,” Kara sighed. “You two both have jobs, and the kids have to be a handful, a-and this city, I just--”
“Margo is here all day,” Eliot assured her. “And she wouldn’t be leaving the house without one of us, I can promise you that. It’ll only be for a few weeks.”
“And Eliot is due a lot of vacation days,” Quentin said pointedly.
“Pot and kettle, love,” Eliot threw back quickly. “So, why don’t you take the afternoon to think on it? You’re not scheduled to leave until tomorrow afternoon, and if you decide against it, we’ll try to figure out a plan B.”
Kara agreed, and the four of them joined everyone else in the living room to try to salvage what was left of Cordelia’s party. Max appeared to have calmed, putting together a puzzle with Teddy in the middle of the floor, and Cordelia was in Margo’s lap, cleaner than she’d been when he’d left and currently fascinated with his friend’s many bracelets.
With the secret out, Kara and Amanda had a mountain of questions, and the living room was soon full of talk regarding magic. Eliot was thankful no one decided to throw a spell, worried it would startle the women, but when Quentin reached for one of his many decks of cards from an end table drawer, he couldn’t think of a better way to ease them into it. Amanda smiled when Quentin pulled a card from behind her ear, his tricks growing more and more impossible until Kara was laughing.
“So, you’re not doing just regular magician tricks, right?” she asked.
Quentin shook his head, holding a card between two fingers to show her. It popped out of existence and appeared a moment later on top of Amanda’s head. Kara grabbed it and Amanda giggled.
After that, everyone wanted to show off, and Eliot was thankful that they stuck to harmless spells, things that were fun to do but mostly useless. Julia made a rainbow and Alice used one of their crystal taper holders to make an animated glass horse, which Joey then turned into a turtle with a transmutation spell. Kady lit all the candles in the room, and Margo encased one of her bracelets within ice, handing it to Amanda to inspect.
“So, is it all… none of this seems all that bad, but…” Kara trailed off, looking unsure as to how to continue.
“Well. There’s a couple that could have gone wrong.” To clarify, Eliot called fire into his hand, letting the flame roll harmlessly over his palm before shaking his wrist to dissipate it. “And it’s not as easy as we’re making it look. It takes a lot of studying and a ton of practice. And even then, there will be things she can’t do. Everyone’s different. At the school we went to, they separate magicians by a discipline; everyone here but Julia was what they called Physical. We all excel at that type of magic. You too, most likely,” he told his niece.
“I guess… I guess it would be good for her to stay,” Kara said, looking uneasy but resolute. “You won’t teach her that thing you just did with the fire, though, will you?”
“I promise.”
She nodded, looking relieved.
Kara seemed calmer after the decision was made, and once the party was over and their friends left for the evening, Quentin stayed inside with the kids and Margo while Eliot took Amanda and Kara to their backyard to test her abilities. She couldn’t do anything on her first few attempts, not until Eliot coaxed her magic to the surface with spells of his own, but after an hour, she was moving a rock he’d picked up from the driveway across the patio table in fits and starts, looking amazed with herself.
“I don’t get it,” Kara spoke, her arms crossed over her ribs. “She’s done stuff way more powerful than this at home.”
“She was emotional,” Eliot explained. “It’s worse with stress. That’s when I slip, too.”
“But you haven’t…”
“Killed anyone else?” he supplied, giving her a forgiving smile when she flinched. “No. These days, it’s mostly glass; it just breaks so easily anyway. And Q just puts it back together, so no big.”
“He does? I thought he made things disappear.”
“He likes doing that, but his discipline is repair of small objects.”
“That’s… specific.”
Eliot chuckled. “It is. He was so annoyed when he found out.”
“Mom, did you see it that time?” Amanda asked, looking over her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. Do it again?”
Amanda sighed dramatically, but looked back to the small rock, which slid smoothly across the glass table this time, almost toppling over the edge.
“Will this get… worse?” Kara asked after Amanda slid the rock back and forth a few more times.
“You mean will she get more powerful?” She nodded. “Most likely. She’d probably have to, to be accepted into school for it.”
“So… I’m just trying to understand…”
“Kara, it’s fine. Ask me whatever you need.”
“Well, you moved a person.”
“You’re wanting to know how powerful I am?”
“Yeah. Something to prepare myself for would be nice.”
Eliot’s lips twisted thoughtfully; this wasn’t the time to worry about sounding full of himself. “Honestly? I could lift the house off its foundation and turn it backwards. With everyone in it. And probably with minimal damage to anything inside.”
Her eyes bulged. “Fucking… fuck,” she whispered.
“‘I know. It’s a lot. That’s why I want her here. And right now, she’s having a blast, and I can let her do this part of the time. I can teach her the silly rainbow spell. But mostly, she’s not going to have a good time here. She’s going to have to learn control before she learns magic. And learning control is a bitch. There’s not going to be a lot of magic this visit at all. Maybe not for a couple of years, really.” His brow furrowed as a thought occurred to him. “Do you still talk to anyone in the family?”
“Well, yeah. You do remember how small the town is, right? And there’s church to deal with.”
He nodded. “I was just wondering what you should tell them, if she starts spending more time here.”
Kara’s brow arched. “I’ll tell them she’s with her Uncle Eliot. And his husband. Fuck ‘em.”
He chuckled. “Don’t forget our girlfriend,” he added.
Kara gaped at him. “Are you serious?” she hissed.
“No,” he laughed. “Not that kind of girlfriend. But it would just make it so much better, don’t you think?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re too much.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Once Kara and Amanda retreated to the guest room for the night, Eliot performed his nightly ritual of walking the first floor, checking the locks on the doors, making sure no candles were burning, and turning most of the lights out before heading up to the bedroom. He found Quentin in the armchair near the window, shirtless, and with a cigarette in hand. They only smoked before bed and after sex now, and each cigarette tasted like absolute heaven because of it.
“You started without me?”
Quentin shrugged. “You took too long.” He offered Eliot the pack and he snapped it alight, inhaling deeply.
“Fuck, what a day.” He waited for Quentin to meet his eye. “Thank you for offering to let her stay.”
“It’s not like I was just gonna send her back with no help. I mean, at this point, what’s one more person in the house?” he laughed.
“You have a point. And before you nag me, I’ll take some of my vacation days.”
“I don’t nag you,” he said with narrowed eyes.
“Darling, please.” Eliot tapped ashes out the open window, leaning against the wall. “You could stand to take a few yourself.”
Quentin nodded. “I will. I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but… I just don’t want her going through what you did, El. Not if we can help it.”
Eliot glared adoringly at him. “Stop being wonderful; I’m too tired to have sex with you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Quentin chuckled. “I was being serious.”
“I know. I don’t want that for her, either. Did the kids get to bed alright?”
“No. Your daughter was involved.”
“Oh, she’s my daughter again. Okay.”
“When I somehow get wetter than she does during a bath, yes. And she screamed at the monitor for half an hour before she passed out. There was eye contact. I told you she knows exactly what that thing is.”
Eliot laughed. “Well, if you think she’s so defective, we could always try for a third,” he said with a suggestive tilt of his brow.
“You’re so gross. Besides, I thought you were too tired.” He shot Eliot that bratty look that always went straight to his dick.
“I’m a grown man; I can change my mind.” He crushed his cigarette on the window sill, tossing it down to the yard to be picked up tomorrow before he reclined on the bed, waiting.
Quentin took his sweet time unfolding himself from the chair, taking one last drag from the cigarette and tossing it outside with Eliot’s before stripping at the side of the bed, almost within touching distance, but not quite.
“Are you going to take your clothes off?” he asked, looking Eliot up and down. He was still fully dressed, except for his shoes.
“Do it for me?”
“You are too tired, aren’t you?” Quentin laughed.
“Just for the clothes part. I’m saving all my energy for the fucking.”
“Jesus.” Quentin leaned down to catch Eliot’s lips with his own. “I don’t know why, but I love you.”
Eliot smirked, using his magic to move Quentin onto the bed to straddle his hips. “Well, it’s appreciated,” he purred.
A piercing shriek rang through the room, and both men winced before looking towards the baby monitor on the nightstand, seeing their daughter bouncing up and down in her crib with a huge grin, staring directly into the camera.
“She’s psychic; I’m calling it now,” Quentin groaned, his forehead resting against Eliot’s before he rolled away to lay at his side.
Eliot laughed softly.
He fell asleep in his clothes.