A Birth day

Angus listened as Edward read the letter. He didn't say anything for a long moment after the Edward finished.

"Angus?" Edward asked gently.

"Apologies. That's a start," Angus said, not sure how he felt, and that, of course, made it hard for him to find words.

"Yulong thinks she put a lot of thought into it," Edward said. "I have to agree."

"She did," Angus said. "And I appreciate that."

"Give yourself a bit of time before you do anything more. If you've demo'd the house, you probably need to just sit for a bit. I'm sure Rosaria will have breakfast for you, so get some food before you come back. We'll keep the kids if you like."

"I don't mind the kids, but the baby sometimes is tough with one hand," he replied. Ginger pointed to herself, a silent gesture of volunteering to step up to care for the baby.

"We'll handle that. Or Ginger is volunteering to step in and help."

"I appreciate that," Angus said. Anise went over to the fireplace.

"We miss you--Dad," she said to him. Being called Dad by Anise meant the world to him in that moment, and it brought a bit of a smile to his face.

"I miss you too," Angus said.

"Just come home. They don't love you there like we do, so just come home," she told him.

"I will. Thank you,' he told her. He ended the connection.

"Breakfast is ready," Simone told them putting the fruit, frittata and the hot blueberry scones on the table. "Come eat."

Rosaria had indeed fixed breakfast, and she mothered Angus like she had when Angus was a small boy, coaxing him to the table and luring him with is favorite breakfast dishes. She gave him a small hug and a kiss on the cheek. He appreciated the efforts everyone was making to help him past some of this. He was not going to try to stay stuck in his pain. He knew he would need to reply to Ruby, but for the moment, he just didn't have words. He needed to think.

"

Jessie and Yu smiled as Angus spoke about what Ruby had said in her letter. But hearing breakfast was ready Jesie moved to get a scone, cutting it he spread some butter on the two halves and bit into it " wow delishious" he said as he ate his scone. Yu took a frittata and sat at the table to eat it next to Jessie. " okay I'll send a message to the butcher Angus uses to send over some steaks when they are due home , Anise , Ginger if you want help with the banner?" he asked "just no glitter, it gets every where." Jessie said chukaling as Yu nodded his head.

"only becuse you got it in your fur that once" he said chukaling " and it was pink glitter too." he sat and ate his breakfast as he looked to the girls " he looked cute though with sparkles in his hair"

Angus and Marcus ate breakfast, and then Marcus took him home.

Anise heard Angus and Marcus port in, and she couldn't restrain herself. She dashed out into the yard and wrapped herself around him, wrapping her arms around him in a big hug. He kissed the top of her head affectionately, glad to see her.

"You'll work it out, you know," she told him. "Whatever is for the best, but however it works out for the two of you, I'll still be here, and I'm sure Ginger will too."

"I'm sure you will," he smiled.

"Did you eat? Can we get you anything?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he smiled.

"Then come sit, Come inside and sit. I'll get you coffee," she said, insisting on leading him inside. He sat down in his chair, and Anise brought him coffee. He picked up some paper and started to write.

"Ruby," he wrote, "I appreciate your note and the apology. However this resolves itself, I want you to be happy. Please don't take what I'm going to say the wrong way, but if you have become someone you don't want to be, then what's changed in your life, largely, is me. I'm not saying I'm leaving, so don't read into it. However, I think you have to decide if it's me that's causing you so much unhappiness. If you're better without me, then please be honest enough with yourself to figure that out and to figure out who you want to be. If I am what's unhealthy for you and what's making you miserable, then something has to change, and I don't even profess to know what that is, but if it means you need to go on with your life without me, we'd work things out about the kids and the rest of it. I think you have some serious things to think about. Just make sure you're making the right choices for you. that has to come first before we can ever think about an 'us.' A."

He sent it through the floo, hoping she wasn't going to think he was breaking up with her, because he hadn't said that at all. But something had to change somehow.

Jessie smiled seeing Angus home "Welcome home" he said opening the door as Anise walked with Angus into the house. He saw him sit and start writing a reply to Ruby and he again smiled knowing he was working things out. Yu finished his breakfast and placed his plate in the sink before moving to the door.

"We should get on patrol, good to have you back Angus," he said smiling as he ahd Jessie headed out the door to patrol leaving him to relax. Jessie poked his head back in.

"Oh Anise I'll come back after my run to help with the banner," he said and chuckled as he then headed out on patrol with Yu at his side.

"Thanks, Jessie," Angus said, glad to be home.

"Wait, Jessie," Anise frowned. "You do know they're not going to be here for a few more days, right? We don't need to do it all today. Ginger and I will do the banner. We want to get some supplies for it first."

"What banner?" Angus frowned.

"We haven't had a chance to discuss it with you yet," Simone said to Angus. "Take your time, and get settled, and then we'll catch you up. We were just brainstorming some ideas about how to welcome Sam and Victor home in couple days with some sort of graduation celebration."

"Oh yeah. That is coming up," Angus said. He wasn't ready in the least. He knew what Edward would surely do as a gift to them both. But he had no idea what he himself would give them. "What were your thoughts?"

"Maybe, for now, just a small family dinner with you, the girls, Edward and I, and Jessie and Yulong. We discussed a nice steak dinner. We thought about a nice decorated cake for them, and we didn't know if you would want to try it yourself with your shoulder or if you'd want to hire someone to do it. We know there's been some thought about a big family gathering here this summer, and we thought perhaps we could let everyone else celebrate Sam and Victor's graduation at that time, so they'd actually celebrate twice."

"I think they'd actually prefer that as to coming home to a big blast on the same day they arrive," Angus said.

"Well, that's what we thought too," she nodded. "So that's what the banner is for."

"Of course," Angus said.

"Besides, none of us have gone shopping for gifts," Anise said.

"I suppose doing a cake and whether I could physically do it right now depends on how I ice it. It isn't really possible to neatly use a pastry bag with one hand. I don't know how much movement I'll have in my shoulder to do it."

"Well, let's not push that, then. Why don't you do the design yourself, and we'll find a pastry chef to do the cake itself?" she replied.

"Sounds like a plan Robert would like better," Angus replied.

Jessie laughed at Anisde and nodded " I only was going to put the order in " he said and chuckled pausing he heard Angus and Simone talikg about a cake and Yu stepped in beside him.

" I could help you," he said " I helpped my mother cook at home" he added " we used to make Wagashi Sponge Cake." he said with a smile" I still do for Jessie as desert, Fluffy and tender castella cake is a classic baked dessert, yakimono wagashi, its delicious without being overly sweet." he added hoping he could contribute to the party some how even by helping Angus " I could be your aprentice."

Jessie looked at Angus and tried to make puppy eyes at him but only sucseeded in making Anise and Gnger giggle at the face he pulled.

"I don't have an issue with a castella cake. It's a fine choice," Angus said, "but the boys are going to want chocolate cake. I can tell you that right now. They're both nuts about chocolate."

"So do chocolate then," Simone said. "Maybe with a dark chocolate ganache filling in between."

"I would probably use a chocolate mousse. I have my own recipe that, although I don't use it much, I do really like it. When I first made it, I called it a Midnight Mousse because it uses my own blend of the darkest chocolate I could find. It isn't nauseatingly sweet, but it really is deeply dark."

"Oh, Edward's told me about that," Simone said. "You did it one year for his birthday, and he's always remembered it. He says its probably his favorite filling. I think you really should do that if you can. How are you with a pastry bag and with sugar sculptures from fondant, Yulong?"

"I think I could do some of the fondant sculpting with one hand, maybe. I'd need help with the bigger bits, but the little things I cold maybe manage," Angus said.

"What's fondant?" Anise asked.

"It's like edible modeling clay," Ginger replied.

"That's actually a very good explanation," Angus smiled.

"What's it taste like?"

"Sugar," Simone said.

"Well, yes, but fondant can be flavored, actually," Angus said. "I could flavor it with whatever we want."

"I think it sounds like fun. Maybe we can help too," Anise said.

"Well, the boys helped with Edward and Simone's wedding cake, so I don't see why not," Angus said. "Besides, one thing for sure is that I'm not going to be able to do it all by myself."

"Sounds like it's set, then," Simone said.

Jessie and Yu smiled at each other and the girls. You moved and brought Angus his sketchbook "If you sketch it I can build it for you?" he said placing it open to a fresh page with a pencil on his lap. " I'll get the cakes started , do you have a shape idea or will it be just a simple round cake?" he asked needing to know how many layers he needed to backe for the cake.Jessie looekd to Ginger and Anise as he smiled.

"let me know when your ready to go gift shopping I'll go with you." he said and looked to Angus " got to look after the neices" he said and chuckled as he moved to kiss Yu on his cheek " see you back home" he said then headed out the door for his patrol leaving Yu sat next to Angus patiantly waiting for an idea or two.

"I'll work on a sketch but let's wait a couple days to bake so that it's good and fresh when we do the rest of the icing and sculpting. What you could do, though, Yulong, if you want, is to go see Marcus's father and see if he can get ahold of some really good quality bittersweet and semi sweet chocolates so that I can make my own blend, but I want the best quality he can get. I'd like to end up with a pound or two of my own blend for our house but if I need to get bigger quantities, we can use it at the main house, I'm sure. I'm not concerned about cost. Quality is far more important. I have a charge with Jonathan, so have him just put it on my account."

"He's going to the candy store in Hogsmeade!" Ginger said to Anise.

"Not without us, he's not," Anise said, only half teasing.

"Subtle, aren't they?" Angus said, amused, as a letter fluttered from the floo. Marcus caught it and handed it to Angus. It was from Evan.

"I just talked to Edward a little bit ago, and he told me Ruby's gone for a month. No wonder you were upset. I'm coming. Just me, not Tara and the girls for now. Just me. I'll be there in an hour or two. E."

"Evan's coming back--by himself," Angus told them.

"That might be good for you. Might be good for him too," Simone said.

Yu listened to Angus and glanced at the girls smiling " of course not with out you two" he said then watched the letter flutter to Angus and heard him mention his brother was coming. " I'll make up the spare room for him here" he said standing as he looekd to Angus as Simone spoke " I agree, I'll go Honeydukes after I have set the room" he said to Angus and headed up towards the stairs " though if any one wants to help it would go faster" he addded glancing at the girls with a smirk.

Jessie did his patrol and returned finding everything was normal even the wolf pack had gone quiet for now. Jack left the barn after the efternoon feed and smiled seeing Jessie walking towards the duplex " everything okay?" he asked Jessie chukled and nodded.

"yep , no issues" he said " but were doing a welcome home dinner for the boys." Jessie asked and Jack nodded he would do that.