Five days seemed to go by in a flash. The desperate need for connection was easing. They were learning about each other, learning what they liked and didn't like, what their hopes and dreams were, and some of their shortcomings too. What he was learning was that they agreed on more things that not. And there was always room for compromise.
It wasn't she who created anxiety for him. Ruby wasn't to blame for that. It was his own fear of commitment that had risen out of his engagement to what he found out was an entity and not a woman at all. He had no interest in entities or in men. It just was not what he was drawn to.
He could see himself making a life with Ruby, but he wasn't able to see himself at an altar. He could see them raising children, but the idea of a wedding made his blood run cold. He wasn't sure if he was father material, but yet, it was something that had always been on his own bucket list. It wasn't committing to Ruby that made him afraid. It was creating a formal legal tie to someone, anyone.
It was a scar from being defrauded and completely taken in by a creature not even human. He now was insecure in his own ability to judge who was worthy of trust and who was not. Heck, he wasn't sure anymore he had the right stuff to be able to even distinguish between who was human and who what was not. The trauma ran deeper than he had realized until he had wanted to find it in himself to want to give falling in love another try. He had been deeply in love with what he had believed was a woman and had been entirely ready to leap in and marry.
But the other thing that ate at him was that he was really, really tired of being alone. He was tired of being that one person tagged on to a long list of pairs--Robert & Kate, Brian & Khaat, Jack & Jess, and the list went on and on. At the end of the list of all the pairs, there would come Angus, as a party of one, in what had felt for a long time like a pitiful, singular postscript. The others had managed to continue the work--the risky work that never guaranteed they would come home at night, and yet they had all taken leaps to find love, marriage, and family. Why couldn't he have some of those same things? Was his bed supposed to always be empty and cold? Was he supposed to always be just a party of one?
Falling for Ruby was almost too easy. The physical piece had come on strong and impulsively with a drive and a fierce need that he had not had before, and it had been great. The need and the desperation were both fading but the physical connection they had together wasn't fading, not at all. Other things were coming into play now. Things that were deeper and more permanent. So, he had gone from i/me/mine to she/he/it and back to i/me/mine.
Now, with his focus being on Ruby and trying to sort out what was happening between them, was he supposed to be confident in now going to we/us/ours? He wasn't anxious so much about her as he was about himself and whether or not he was making the right choices for his part in whatever it was they were now. He was not a big believer in fate. He believe people carved out their own destinies. He had not seen much doubt in Ruby about the two of them, but did she have any of the same anxieties he did?
What he was seeing was that they weren't just hooking up anymore. This was starting to develop into something more. She was comfortable in calling him her boyfriend, and, he didn't have a problem with that now. They had passed a one night stand status about a week ago. He had had his one night stands--someone he had been attracted to at a pub and had a tumble with for the pure sport and pleasure of it and then moved on. And at first, he had thought he and Ruby were on the same category, but something kept drawing him back to her. This was certainly different.
He wasn't sure where they were headed, but whatever it was, it was more. In the last five days, they had spent most of their time together, but they had both also needed some solitude too. Surely it was healthy to be able to be together and also be just as comfortable with letting one's partner go for a walk to just sort out one's thoughts. Seemed like any decent holiday needed to have room for both.
He remembered a discussion he'd had with Edward when he'd been on summer holiday with Edward before Angus's seventh year at Hogwarts. He'd seen a significantly older Italian woman who had been out beachcombing for shells, and, at that time, he had thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He'd made a comment to that general gist, and, presto, she had deflowered him in a rickety little cabana, their swimsuits left outside on the sand. He had been determined, at the time, that he was going to marry her and had declared his independence from Edward. Edward, for his part, had done two things. He had gone and told the woman that she was not to ever have any contact with Angus again. And, not entirely surprised that Angus was growing up, Edward had had a long talk with Angus to be sure that he knew that any relationship worth having could not start and end with just a physical component. Edward had been crystal clear. The substance was far more important and had to be the foundation of any successful couple. A relationship without substance was not a relationship but a mere infatuation. He could see that he and Ruby seemed to be now carving out some substance.
And back at Khaat's place, Mira was worried. Yesterday, she had been doing the washing up from the lunch dishes when a message had arrived by floo, a message that Edward had intercepted because Robert had been at St. Mungos working. Edward had read the message and had pocketed it, saying Fenrir had news. Edward said he was going to go meet Fenrir in London and that he would be back soon.
This morning, though, Edward hadn't show up for breakfast. Mira had taken a tea tray up to his room only to find the bed had not been slept in. Edward had not come home. She had gone immediately to Gabe, who had sent an urgent message to Robert. The news of Edward's disappearance had brought Robert home in a hurry.
Now, Angus's medallion sounded an alarm. He flew, as fast as he could go, into the house, shouting for Ruby, and he had lit a magical flame in the hearth to try to contact Robert.
Robert's face appeared in the blue magical flames after a long moment.
"What's happened?" Angus demanded, all business now.
"It's probably nothing but you need to know," Robert said. "Edward intercepted a message meant for me yesterday morning that Fenrir had some news. He told Mira he was going to go meet with Fenrir in London but that was yesterday. We have not seen or heard from him since."
"Oh God!" Angus felt his stomach drop, and ice cold terror and panic raced through his veins. Edward was the only family member he had worth keeping. The rest of them simply needed to be chucked. Angus would walk the very fires of hell if that would bring Edward home--whatever it took. "He wouldn't do that. He'd come back or send word. He wouldn't be gone longer than he had intended without..."
"I know," Robert said calmly. "Steady, Angus. I know. I'm going to send..."
"I'm coming," Angus said fiercely. "I'm coming back right now." He was pure adrenalin now, his mind racing, focused on getting home. Home. He had to go home. He had to find his grandfather straight away. "I'll find him. I'll..." he began.
"Now, listen, Lad," Robert said steadily, now taking a strong fatherly tone with him. "Look at me and listen. You are not alone anymore. I know your heart. I know how your family treated you and how it felt like Edward was all you had, but that isn't true anymore. We're here, all of us, and we're a damn good team. We will do this together. You're not to try to do this on your own, do you understand me? I'm convinced this is all tied into the current situation. Gelding can't get to us all at once, so he's looking to divide and conquer. The very worst thing for Edward you could do is to go it alone. Is Ruby right there with you?"
"Robert,..." Angus started, feeling a bit angry and frustrated already.
"The last I knew, I still commanded this team," Robert said firmly. Now he turned his focus to Ruby. "Ruby, you get the bags packed, and you bring him straight home. It's safer to take the boat to Edward's and port from there because there are some serious storms off the east coast of France right now. That would make a long porting difficult and dangerous. You're safer to break it into a few short hops. If you can keep him focused, you should take the boat to Edward's, it's just a little hop to Paris from there, and then make the other little hop home. You should be able to avoid the storm line that way because it should take you around it. If he can't get his mind on the boat, use the portkey to get to Edward's. I'm sure Angus has one, and I'm just as certain Edward would have left a backup portkey in that house somewhere if you can find it. Don't you let him go off half cocked about this, you hear me?"
by 
