Hey, Alexander, fancy meeting you here on At Home

Mab

April 29, 2020 2:12 PM

Hey, Alexander, fancy meeting you here by Mab

They were in Seattle. It was only a few days since they left Sonora, and Bel had pulled through. If Alexander had been in magical care, it would have been quicker, but if he'd been in magical care, this might not have been necessary. Personally, Mab was pretty pleased with how it was going. The extra days gave her a chance to be a part of getting Alexander's room set up.

Bel already had a muggle foster license because Mab had needed one so she could be reunited properly and legally with her mother if and when she turned up. And she had once been a regular Boston police officer, before she'd been an Auror, so she had muggle credentials and everything and a little bit of clout and connections. Amelia, Bel's adopted mother, also seemed to know a lot about muggle foster care, too, and helped them navigate all the hurdles between Boston and Seattle.

And now they were here, Mab and Bel, at a Seattle group home, and there was Alexander, who looked kind of weird not wearing green robes.

"Hey," she greeted him, feeling oddly relieved that nothing terrible seemed to have happened to him since she'd last seen him at Sonora. "This is Bel," she pointed at the woman standing beside her, who wasn't actually any taller than Mab herself, as they both stood five foot even. Bel looked like she could take on a dragon with her bare hands though. Mab didn't think she looked that fierce yet. She was working on it, though. Bel promised her Taekwondo lessons this summer. That should help.

"Bel, this is Alexander," she introduced her friend and soon to be foster brother.

Bel nodded to him curtly. "Good. Nice to meet you. You have any questions you want to ask me? Do you want Mab to wait outside while we talk?" Mab frowned, but she'd been warned this might come up. Confidentiality and all that.

1 Mab Hey, Alexander, fancy meeting you here 1473 1 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

April 29, 2020 3:42 PM

Not as fancy as last time! by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander had been a resident of this little corner of this little room for twelve years and there was hardly anything to show for it. The bed nearest his was empty, as that roommate had been adopted a few weeks prior to Alexander's return, but the others were full and Alexander couldn't say he'd miss anything about it. He hadn't missed them during his time at Sonora. Normally, drawings covered the walls over his bed when they weren't stashed inside a drawer or knapsack, but he'd taken everything he'd had to Sonora because they said they might give his usual bed to someone else and he needed to make it clean. For the few short days - that had felt very long - since he'd been back from Sonora, he'd taken to continuing his comic with him and Nathaniel. There was a new superhero though, too.

The Lady of the Night wore a cowboy hat and a purple mask and she was kind of a Deadpool style superhero; she did the right thing for the people she cared about, and she did the right thing for herself. There was no greater moral calling for this one and she was Alexander's favorite because he thought that she was probably right. Nathaniel's superhero, Sepia Man, seemed sad because he'd seen too much of the bad in the world, and so he tried to sow good and take pictures of pretty things to make everyone a little happier. The Lady of the Night just tried to be good because she was good. She was a vigilante for people who couldn't help themselves, but she'd also probably commit a crime if she had to. Alexander had wondered whether that was terribly accurate, but he thought that Mab probably would commit a crime if really pushed to it. He had a hard time imagining it, but how many kids who'd been on their own hadn't thought of nicking some food, or a pair of shoes that would just be a little warmer?

Alexander was sitting on the side of his bed, one small backpack with his things on his lap and his book bag slung over his shoulder, when a staff member came to collect him. There weren't many clothes he was keeping both because he didn't have many and because most of them were technically state property; he didn't want those reminders even if he'd been able to keep them.
He'd been worried that Mab and Bel (Mabel! That was kind of a fun smush name for the family) wouldn't come and he hadn't been willing to pack his bag until this morning when he'd gotten confirmation they were for sure coming. Even still, he'd been anxious. But they did come. So with Barnabas tucked into his bookbag, Alexander left his room for what was hopefully the last time.

His hoodie was zipped up halfway - Seattle was cool for most of the summer, just like the rest of the year - and his jeans were rolled up and he sort of wished he could look better than this. His suit was folded neatly in his backpack but that seemed like overkill. So he brought his things out and released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when he saw one familiar person and one very small unfamiliar person. Alexander was only half an inch or so taller than either of them but he thought he probably had a good chance of being taller than Mab someday, and definitely taller than this woman who was probably done growing. He didn't actually know how tall his parents were though, so maybe he was done growing too. Evelyn Stones was miniature, after all. He was definitely taller than she was and she was at least like three years older than he was. He had no way of knowing whether she got it from her mom or their dad or whatever else.

He felt a little guilty that he hadn't told Mab about that yet. Not the details at least. Not Evelyn. But he didn't want to bring it up or think about it ye and he still hadn't gotten anything from Mathias Stones, so who was to say any of it was going to mean anything anyway. What was happening today meant a lot more and he didn't want to screw it up. He'd even tried to smush his hair down a bit.

"Hey," he replied to Mab when she spoke, and he almost sort of smiled. He really wanted to smile; he wished the expression would come easier because Bel would probably like him more if he was more pleasant looking. Bel was, it turned out, fierce in a number of ways, and her bluntness surprised Alexander. He sort of really appreciated it though. People had spent his life beating around the bush and it was nice not to deal with that on this day, when his insecurities and fears were coming to a head. He'd never been in charge of whether someone left the room or not, though, and he wasn't sure how to respond. Was this one of those 'are you going to have the last roll' things where they were really just telling you a thing that was going to happen and they wanted it to look polite? "Mab can stay," he said blankly.

In terms of questions, none came to mind. Part of the problem was that his most recent moods had just been uncertainty. He felt like any number of comic book characters, who would just get a speech bubble with a question mark when something happened instead of any real dialogue. If he could just turn the page, he might have a better idea of what to say. What he really wanted to know - Would Bel keep him? Would she love him? Would Mab get sick of him? Was there anything in particular he could do to screw this up that he should avoid? - were not things that he thought she could probably answer. Other things he wanted to know were things he'd find out. In the course of time. He suspected there were also things that he wasn't even thinking to ask.

None of this came out of his mouth because he wasn't sure how to make it coherent. Instead, he just looked down at his old clothes and two small bags and took it all in. When he looked back up at Bel, he hoped she'd taken a moment to do the same. "Are you sure about me?" he asked quietly.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Not as fancy as last time! 1475 0 5

Bel Pierce

April 29, 2020 6:49 PM

Good use of understatement by Bel Pierce

The boy was solemn looking, not nearly as cheerful as Bel would have expected given what her more Sonora familiar family had told her about Teppenpaw House. It had sounded like a less artsy Caelum but with even more people trying to make friends with everyone (basically, a House full of Derries) and she was kind of relieved Alexander didn't seem to be fitting the stereotype. She could tolerate a Derry for short periods of time. Her and Three had even both survived living with Amelia during the summers until he graduated. But she really hadn't been looking forward to fostering a Derry. He seemed much more reserved and less prone toward optimism. This was good. Bel couldn't stand optimists.

He invited Mab to stay and Bel hoped Mab's frown hadn't influenced that decision. The girl seemed invested in this working out, but Bel wanted the boy to be able to speak freely. From the reports she had heard, they hadn't really met in more than a superficial manner until fairly recently, so they likely didn't have the trust of long friendship to make sharing confidences easy yet. That would come in time no doubt. Mab was an unexpected bleeding heart. Not something Bel would have guessed when she'd made the offer to take in a belligerent thief last summer.

The kid's question was not particularly clear in terms of what he wanted to know exactly, but Bel could guess at the gist of it.

"I was disowned when I was twelve years old," she told him bluntly. "I will never do that to a kid under my care. You come with me, you're stuck with me unless and until you decide you found a better family that isn't me." She frowned between the two former first years and narrowed her eyes and landed the warning gaze on Mab. "This does not, however, apply to any feral cats you might decide to adopt. Are we clear?"

Mab nodded quickly. "Clear."

Bel turned back to Alexander. "I'm not soft and cuddly and I don't know dragon dung about parenting, but I'll have your back and I'll do the best I can for you, same as my cousin did for me. So my question for you is, are you sure about me?"

1 Bel Pierce Good use of understatement 0 Bel Pierce 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

April 30, 2020 12:37 AM

Understated is my middle name. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander thought for a moment, not because he wasn't sure about Bel but because he had had a number of now revelations during her comment. First was that pets were a possibility now. That wasn't even something that had crossed his mind as a possibility - and apparently it wasn't really one - and it served to underscore how different his life was about to be. Second, he realized that he wasn't getting a mother. He was getting a guardian, sure, and a family even. But no one could be mother to someone who had never known such a thing, and Bel, for her part seemed to understand that in some ways. Alexander realized then that he didn't want a mother, he wanted a family and he wanted a home. Those two things were guaranteed with this woman and if she really meant what she said, then this was Alexander's family now. On paper, he had a sister and a mother. That didn't matter; he had a family. He lived in Boston. He lived in Boston with his family who were witches and he was a wizard and he was pretty sure none of it was a coma dream or anything.

He found himself nodding. His eyes weren't rounded, his mouth wasn't agape, and his shoulders weren't creeping towards his ears. He nodded, comfortably and confidently accepting a new life with this strange tiny woman and the strange tiny-ish girl. As it turned out, Nathaniel had been correct in saying that a date to the Ball was important; it had done him a whole world of good.

"I'm not soft or cuddly either," he said simply, not quite sure what would be an appropriate situation to cuddle someone. He couldn't imagine Bel ever having a good reason to cuddle him. "And I won't take in any feral cats."

He wondered about Bel's cousin, a person who had apparently changed a number of lives just by changing one. Mab and Alexander would have completely different futures now because of the kindness a cousin showed Bel. For a while, he'd been contemplating whether he wanted any part in any of the things Teppenpaw supposedly stood for, but he thought that maybe he'd like to be the sort of person who grew up and made life better for other kids. He wasn't really sure he'd ever know what parenting was meant to look like, but he thought the gist of it was probably to stick around and treat your kid well. And give them soup sometimes when they're sick or something.

Alexander looked from Mab to Bel and all the hope he'd been refusing to acknowledge he'd been feeling blossomed in his chest. He even managed a small smile. "I'm sure," he said firmly. "And thank you." He was ready, really truly ready, and he would not even look over his shoulder at this place a woman who was not his mother had left him twelve years ago, because Alexander was going home now.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Understated is my middle name. 1475 0 5

Mab

April 30, 2020 8:28 AM

Mine is "Lorcan" but let's not share that around, alright? by Mab

Mab supposed she deserved the dig about feral cats. She'd used feral cats as leverage to get herself a foster brother. So that was fair. Still, she couldn't help feeling just a little chastened and disappointed about the lack of feral cats in her future as Bel adamantly refused their welcome. Maybe she could just feed them a little without bringing them home?

But it was looking more and more certain that she would be bringing Alexander home today.

Bel made an approving sound as he informed them that he was not soft or cuddly either, and Mab was fairly certain she didn't fit that description either. They were a well matched group, she guessed. Though soft and cuddly wasn't a bad thing. Mom was much closer to that description than any of the three of them. Weirdly, a passing though darted in Theo Spurn's direction, too, but she dismissed it.

"Good," Bel said, sounding pleased, when Alexander promised to leave the feral cats to their fates. "I like you, kid." She sounded maybe just a little surprised about that.

"She doesn't like most people," Mab whispered to Alexander so he didn't feel offended.

Bel pretended not to hear her, because Bel had good hearing and Mab had no illusions that she'd been quiet enough to avoid Bel's notice with her standing right there, but the older witch made no effort to deny the accusation. She just moved on with the practicalities. "Alright, let's get this paperwork signed so we can be on our way."

It took hours. Bel had warned it would be boring and tedious and it was, but it was better than sitting at in her room, just waiting and worrying that something went wrong and they weren't coming back at all.

But eventually, they were back in Boston, stepping out of the floo in the living room of their apartment. Mab went first, to demonstrate, then Alexander, and Bel took rear guard. They tumbled out, Mab feeling more than a little disoriented after the magical journey from literally the other side of the continent. Bel was nothing if not practical and prepared, and there were buckets already waiting for their return, and Mab used one to catch her vomit. Even Bel herself looked a little green upon arrival but she managed not to upchuck.

Once they were recovered and the buckets were cleaned up and put away, Bel turned to her. "Mab, do you want to give the tour?"

"Yes!" Mab agreed instantly. "This is the living room," she declared, spreading her arms and spinning around once to indicate the couch that was up against the half wall that separated it from the kitchen, the large-screen TV mounted on the wall, the Wii hooked up under it (Super Smash Brothers was the only game case in sight, but there were more in the cabinet under the TV), the book cases filled with comic books and mysteries, the shelves covered in DVDs for Superhero movies and television shows (ranging from the traditional Marvel and DC productions to less obvious 'superheroes' like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural hunters), police procedural shows, and television shows and movies about magic (including but not limited to Charmed, Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, the Dresden Files, and Merlin).

"Over here is the kitchen," she continued, leading the way around the half wall to show a small kitchen. It had basic appliances, and three stools pushed against a countertop protruding from the half wall, so you could watch TV while eating if Bel allowed it (which she usually didn't).

"There's drinks in the fridge, and snacks here in this cabinet," Bel added, pointing out the two points of interest. "Feel free to help yourself so long as you don't spoil your meals."

Mab continued past the kitchen, pointing at a door, "That leads out the the apartment complex hallway. We're on the the third floor, apartment 3A." She pointed at another door, "This was a coat closet, but we moved the training room here so you could have the third bedroom." She opened the door to a room that was decidedly larger than a coat closet.

"Extension charms," Bel explained. "If we get muggle visitors, there's a glamour on it so it just looks like a closet of sporting goods." The room did, in fact, have a number of sporting goods. Brooms, Quaffles, a few deactivated practice snitches, plus two pairs of roller blades sat beside the bench on the far side of the room. Bel pointed toward those. "We can get you a pair of roller blades, too. I didn't know what size you wore, or what your favorite color was, so you'll have to pick them out." Along one of the side walls were folded mats. The other side wall had what could only be described as weapons hanging upon it. Swords, both metal and wooden. Axes. Stakes. Bos. Nunchuks. On the wooden floor, a large circle was taped out in white and a long rectangle was taped out in black, with red stripes across it at measured intervals. The closest wall, with the door in it, had a rack with a small array of weights and jump ropes and resistance bands.

Moving on, they moved back past the kitchen to the first door off the living room. "Bathroom," Mab said shortly, opening it up, so Alexander could briefly see the toilet, sink, and bathtub/shower combination. "We'll be sharing that one," she added, but it was otherwise uninteresting, so she kept walking after barely a pause. "Here's my room." The next door was closed and said MAB on it. She walked passed without opening it. "Bel's room." Another closed door, this one unlabeled. Then they reached the last door. "Your room." This was a third closed door, with ALEXANDER marked on it in the same stenciled letters that Mab's name had been made in.

Mab stepped back, and invited Alexander to open the door himself. "That's your room. Only you get to open it." Inside he would find the basics: a bed, a dresser, an empty bookcase, and bedside stand. A digital alarm clock. A ceiling fan and light. Less basic was the big banner hanging over the bed that read "WELCOME HOME, ALEXANDER MASON!" and the few other decorations that Mab had made and scattered around so it didn't look completely drab and impersonal on first impression.

"When we go out shopping for roller blades, you can pick out a bedspread and some other things to personalize your room and make it yours," Bel added.

1 Mab Mine is "Lorcan" but let's not share that around, alright? 1473 Mab 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

April 30, 2020 1:47 PM

Now that you're my sister, I have exactly no non-family friends. Who would I tell? by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander was surprised that Bel said she liked him because not many people had ever seemed to like him, and certainly they didn't say so out loud. He supposed, upon reflection, that he should accept that Mab probably liked him. While her vigilante justice meant she would act when she realized he lived in a crappy situation, she had done enough by buying his suit, and certainly could have only offered to find help getting him into a magical group home instead of this place. Instead, she'd brought him home. A new story came to him and it kept his mind occupied as the paperwork process droned on and on. So far, he'd depicted himself as Sepia Man's sidekick, which left the Lady of the Night sort of on the outside (to be fair, she probably didn't mind), but that no longer seemed accurate. In his new conception, Alexander thought that he might be best depicted as a feral cat, except one that Bel didn't mind keeping.

So far, his experience with Floo powder was severely limited. He felt a bit better about his own sudden need to vomit when Mab did so, but he hadn't actually eaten anything yet and mostly felt woozy, as there was nothing in him to throw up. When he got his mind to stop spinning, it picked right back up again.

This was where he was going to live? He wasn't exactly sure how these things worked, but he was pretty sure kids could touch stuff and play and do whatever so long as they weren't breaking anything, right? So he could watch all the movies he wanted? And he could play video games?
And there were so many comic books! He'd for sure get better and be able to follow a whole story through if he didn't just have is to stand in the store reading as much as he could before the shop owner kicked him out. Plus they had superhero movies, so he thought maybe they wouldn't mind his own drawings that he normally kept private. He wondered a bit at what private would mean here anyway. There was a large range between his single-person dorm at Sonora, a place which didn't at all feel like it was his despite spending the better part of a year there, and the shared room at the group home. He was more glad than ever that Bel and Mab's home was not just magical, because he was very excited to play with some of the electronics he was being offered.

He followed Mab through the house and forgot to look apathetic as they went. His eyes grew and his mouth opened and he was utterly shocked at the luxury of all this. Mab had said Bel was rich but he hadn't really had any way of knowing what that looked like inside a house, and he'd rather forgotten that that meant he sort of had a lot of luxuries now himself. So long as she didn't mind.

The kitchen had snacks and drinks, which was almost completely foreign to Alexander. He'd had them before of course, but they were rare occasion type things. Even Sonora had set meal times and not a lot by way of food or drink in between. What stood out to him the most, though, was the three stools. They were pushed together like they belonged there. They didn't look odd, or like one of them had just been added on as an afterthought. They belonged. He belonged.

Discovering that they were on the third floor was a shock, as Alexander hadn't considered the fact that Floo travel went up and down as well. He wondered how often the neighbors saw them come out when they hadn't seen anyone go in, or vice versa. This was Muggle Boston after all, right? His head snapped around when Mab said he would get the third bedroom. They had moved an entire room of stuff for him? So he could have his own room? He'd never had his own room, again, save Sonora's borrowed accommodations. The contents of the coat closet were enough to make him hold his thoughts for a moment, which was just as well. He'd never seen a room like this, and it was terrifying. He hadn't been picked on particularly badly and had no real urge to learn how to fight, but he supposed that it wouldn't be the worst thing for him, and bulking up wouldn't be so bad. He certainly didn't want to be notably weak among his fierce new family members.

He was going to get rollerblades? Bel said he'd have to pick them out like she was apologizing, or like she was trying to explain the reasons she'd let him down in some regard, and that wasn't a bit true. He didn't know how to rollerblade, and he'd never thought of trying.

"Green," he said softly. He doubted that a color he associated so strongly with Sonora would ever not be his favorite anymore. He didn't remember his shoe size off the top of his head and thought that picking up his feet to show her the bottoms would not be the best way to handle that, so he didn't say anything else, although he resolved to take a look when he took his shoes off.

He was going to get to share a bathroom with just two people. Granted, those two people were both girls, but that was probably fine. He'd never shared a bathroom with girls, but it wasn't like they could do anything in there that boys couldn't, except maybe be less gross about it. He wasn't worried. And he was even less worried is they continued to the bedrooms.

Anxiousness filled his chest up and he adjusted his backpack a little for something to occupy his hands. They didn't look in Mab's room or Bel's room and Alexander was both grateful and surprised. A house that respected privacy was the sort of place he'd like to be. And a house that had people in it who had taken the time to make him a door name thingy and given him his own room and were going to get him rollerblades and a bedspread of his own choosing was almost enough for him to think maybe he'd lost his mind after all. But that was okay if this was the result.

He looked at Mab with some apprehension, and then over his shoulder at Bel. He hoped his relative silence was interpreted as shock and surprise rather than ungratefulness because he just really didn't have the words to express the level of gratitude he felt. He sort of understood why sometimes adults cried when they were happy now, because he thought that he might do just that.

He put a hand on the door knob to his room, committing the feeling to memory. This was the first day of the rest of his life, and he'd had a few first days over the last year. He'd been silent then, too.

Looking back up at Bel and then to Mab, taking in the faces of his new family, Alexander put as much of his sincerity as he could into a phrase he hadn't had enough reasons to use before: "Thank you so much."

Then he opened the door.

It was perfect. It was also very spacious, at least to him, and there was wall space for all the pictures he could want to hang up. There was a desk and he thought that he would spend hours there drawing. He could see it already. There was a bed, one much nicer than his had been at the group home, and there was a closet. He thought that that implied he might have enough clothes to fill it up someday. There were little signs of life and home and love around, and there was a big sign that answered all the rest of the questions Alexander had had since that morning, or since the Ball really.

He was home. This was his home. Everything was going to be okay now. Whatever happened with Evelyn Stones or Mathias Stones or Claire Mason or any other person in the world didn't matter, because Alexander had everything he could ever need and then some.

Entering the space with careful steps, Alexander spun slowly in place to take it all in. His eyebrows raised in what was almost disbelief, except that he was pretty sure he was starting to believe it. His voice hitched in his throat as he looked at Bel again. This was a view he'd get to see a lot from now on. He'd get used to having people around that he liked and he'd get used to having a room and a home and a family, all because he'd had the great fortune of meeting the Lady of the Night and her foster mom, two of the nicest people in the world. He took a breath to clear his emotions from stopping his words this time and spoke quietly, as if his voice might shatter the entire illusion he was so happy to enjoy for at least one more moment. "For me?" he asked. "Really?"

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Now that you're my sister, I have exactly no non-family friends. Who would I tell? 1475 0 5