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That last mission had been exhausting . Two months of diplomacy off realm. In theory it sounded quite nice. Being wined and dined in a well heated castle for two months in a fascinating realm with a lovely climate. In practice he had had to stop six separate assassination attempts in one day, and now he was ready to collapse into bed.
Term must have ended for both the Wundrous Society, and for Graysmark School, and Jack hadn’t gone to orchestra camp this year, at least as far as he knew, so they should both be at home, and in bed, since his pocket watch was telling him it was gone two in the morning.
He missed them both so much. He missed the hotel so much, and everyone who lived there. Two months was a long time to go without seeing one’s family, and the best part was that none of them were expecting him home since the mission finished early and he rushed through his own report at the League of Explorers, because it was an unholy hour, and he wanted a nap, so he could surprise them all at breakfast. Or whenever he woke up, actually.
At this rate it might be mid morning before he saw anyone. Or mid afternoon.
He woke up at six pm. This was not promising for his sleep schedule but, granted, he hadn’t had one of those since he was probably ten years old. The Wundrous Society did not believe in sleep schedules or circadian rhythms, he was fairly sure.
So he wasn’t exactly a breakfast surprise, but he could be a dinnertime surprise.
No one noticed as he walked to his study, and Fen wasn’t napping inside, although she very clearly had been quite a lot. That rug was going to need to be lint rolled a thousand times or outright replaced at this point. Honestly, she could just bring her own napping rug if she absolutely insisted upon it, or clean up after herself. She was lucky he didn’t have a cat allergy. So was he.
She was the best housekeeper he could ask for. Unironically. Even though she didn’t have opposable thumbs. He still didn’t know how she managed that, frankly.
He knew he would have a mountain of messages to get from Kedgeree and deal with, but that could wait until after dinner at least. He was on the verge of filing for leave with the League for at least a month after all that .
He couldn’t wait to see Jack and Mog though. They had both been on the verge of growth spurts when he had left, he could see the lines on their bones, ready to burst with potential energy. Jack had always been a normal height but it had taken Morrigan a while to catch up. She had been so short when she’d been brought to Nevermoor. She had been the height of a child two years younger than she was, and lithe as well.
He had his own thoughts about what had strictly been the reason why - it could be genetic given that Ornella Crow was hardly of a tall stature either - but he couldn’t be sure. He hadn’t asked Morrigan though. He had wanted her to let go of being a Cursed Child, but it was starting to occur to him that it was maybe a good idea to get her to talk to someone - a professional, preferably - about it, as well as all she’d gone through once she was here.
He made a mental note to research therapists in the Wundrous Society for her. If she wanted to, of course.
The paperwork on his desk didn’t look any higher than it had but he suspected Kedge would have whatever had been delivered for him in the time he’d been gone for. It was just like this to lull him into a false sense of security before destroying his psyche with bureaucracy.
Eventually he made it into the dining room. He saw Jack there, his head in a book, as he shovelled soup into his mouth. He looked well, maybe a few centimetres taller than he had been when he’d left. There was a purple aura around him, he was concentrating hard on this, and a slight greyness at his temples. Stress . Of course, he remembered, his nephew had a heavy set of exams coming up once term resumed. Shame really that his school had done that, completely ruined the holidays for him, in Jupiter’s opinion.
“Uncle Jupiter! You’re back!” He dropped his spoon into his soup and it splashed against his jumper. He ignored this, which was astonishing because Jack usually took great care of his clothes, and that was cashmere, but he supposed it was sweet how he came over to hug him instead.
“I actually got back last night, but I was asleep.” He grinned guiltily and swung his hands in his pockets, “How have things been? Has Frank thrown any ragers since I’ve been gone?”
“There was one party that got out of control,” Jupiter could see on top of his head that he was remembering something and he was equal parts amused and horrified by it. “Fen shut it down before it got too much though, in case someone called the Stink.”
He dropped into a seat and grabbed a dinner roll from the centre of the table, “Details. Now.”
While Jack was recounting dramatics involving two halves of an almost divorced couple who hadn’t been expecting to see the other there, someone else’s mistress starting a loud argument with her partner about when they were leaving their wife, and three people that had drunk too much and vomited down that self same mistress’s dress, someone came in the room.
He noticed the shadow, before the person, and it was the fact that he didn’t recognise the outline right away that he turned around, in case it was a lost guest or something.
But it wasn’t a lost guest. And really, he ought to have recognised her already. It was Morrigan.
“Mog!” he cried out at the same time as she said,
“Jupiter!”
It was only when she was hugging him that he realised something. Something quite annoying actually. His head was only reaching just above her shoulder. He pulled back, staring at her face. Which he had to look up to do. He looked over her shoulder, which he could only just about manage, and over at Jack, who’d removed his eyepatch was positively gleeful about this.
“Had a growth spurt,” Mog said. “How was the mission?”
“I can see that you’ve had a growth spurt,,” he said. “The mission was terrible, but I lived.” She raised an eyebrow, “Just.” He covered his mouth with a hand, “What are they feeding you? You were about yea high when I left.” He held his hand somewhere between his shoulder and elbow. She pushed it up, to what might have been more honest, but he was more than happy to be in denial for a little longer.
“I’ve been fed the usual stuff, thanks.” She shrugged out of the rest of the embrace. “I don’t know either, honestly. My bones hurt for ages about it before it kicked in.”
She sat down, and started munching on rolls. He could see that she was hungry, but also that she was using it as a method to get out of explaining it.
Jack piped up, “It was like she came down one morning, and was just tall.” Jupiter could see that he found this, his reaction to it, funny, but also he was slightly put out not to be as tall. He wasn’t even short, coming up to Jupiter’s own shoulder, but there was something in being outgrown by one’s peers he could relate to. Or one’s candidates, in his case.
“I had to get all new clothes. Like that . Literally nothing fit me for like three days, it was very annoying, really.”
“You wore pyjamas until Dame Chanda made you get fitted, you mean.”
She bit off another hunk of bread and glared at Jack.
Jupiter sighed and sat back down with the kids at the table. At least some things never changed around here.