dante esposito (trickriding) wrote in daysthatwere, @ 2012-01-23 00:06:00 |
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Well, this certainly wasn’t the welcome Felix Hopkirk had been expecting when he got back from Egypt. He assumed that it would be mellow and not too exciting. He thought that he’d just sleep on Mafalda’s couch, then get his own flat, win Maggie McKinnon back and live happily ever after. At least, that was the plan. Clearly, that hadn’t worked out too well. Felix should’ve known that there was something behind Kirk Jr’s invitation. It had just seemed way too good to be true, and he’d even expressed his misgivings about the situation, but had gone anyways. He had to hand it to Kirk, he had given him an opportunity to apologise, but with a few other things in addition to that. He’d invited his sister and he must’ve been trying to spring the baby on him. He couldn’t understand inviting his sister, but he supposed he could see why Kirk had done the things he’d done. Felix was certainly frustrated with the situation. Not only had turned his back on his relationship with Maggie, now he looked like the asshole that turned his back on his kid. It didn’t matter that Maggie never told him, that was the perception that her family had of him and that had probably made them hate him even more. He should’ve known she would keep the baby, but he didn’t think she would try to raise the baby on her own. And she had, and that’s what Felix loved about her, how strong she’d always been. Sliding over his empty glass across the bar, he signalled the bartender for another drink. A mug of beer was set down in front of him and Felix took a large drink out of it while he waited for Dante to show up. His mother hadn't liked the fact that Dante only gave her only five minutes' worth of a warning before rushing off to meet Felix at the Leaky Cauldron, but it was Felix. Dante hadn't seen Felix in a long time; surely his ma could understand the urgent need to make sure that Felix wasn't dead and wasn't maimed in any way. A few words scribbled in his journal didn't mean his friend was all right. There was a story to hear, too, and Dante wasn't about to miss a good story. He was running a little late (as usual; he never could manage to get anywhere on top, but at least he was only all of ten minutes late this time around) when he stepped through the front door of the pub, wind swirling around him. He spotted Felix easily and headed right over, clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Didn't I say first round's on me? You got started without me. That's not fair, you prick." “Yeah, yeah,” Felix retorted, turning and grinning at his friend as he felt him come around behind him. “I needed it, let me tell you.” He shook his head, wrapping his hand around the mug and taking another long drink from it before setting it back down, now nearly empty. “Alright, first, let’s celebrate how I’m miraculously alive and made it through the strangest family dinner I’ve ever been to.” Felix had been thinking about it, and he wondered if any of his friends that knew Maggie knew about the baby. They had to, right? Did that mean Dante knew? Probably. Not like he held it against his friend or anything, but he just wished he’d had some warning, instead of a, “Surprise! Here’s your kid!” Turning to look at Dante, Felix grew serious for a moment. “I have a question, though.” Dante waved the bartender over and slid onto the stool beside Felix, asking for two more of what Felix was drinking. Now that he'd gotten a better look at his friend, he could tell that the bloke really did need it, and Dante wasn't quite sure why. He could, however, imagine why it was a really strange family dinner. Dante was pretty sure that Maggie's siblings wanted to toss Felix off a cliff, which didn't exactly bode well for dinner parties. "And I have an answer!" The bartender was quick (it was a Thursday night, which meant the pub wasn't exactly packed) with their drinks, and Dante reached for his mug a split second after it was set down. "Maybe. Depending on the question, at any rate." Finishing off the drink he already had, he moved it towards the inside of the bar so the bartender could pick it up, reaching for the round Dante had bought him. “Cheers,” he said, raising the glass in Dante’s direction and taking a sip. Setting the glass down, he glanced around. The crowd in the Leaky Cauldron was composed of the usual weekly regulars, even before he’d left. It was the same people. “Did you know? About the baby?” he asked. Felix shrugged and took a sip. “It’s not your fault, I know Maggie didn’t want to tell me.” "Uh…" What was the right answer, here? Dante wondered. Of course he'd known about the baby. He was friends with both Maggie and Catie, and though he hadn't seen them a whole lot, he had popped back into their lives from time to time. Just because Felix had mucked things up didn't mean he wanted to stop seeing them, and the… situation was impossible to ignore. Dante wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, mate…" He winced a little, expecting some sort of backlash. "I knew about him. I thought it was weird you never mentioned him." In retrospect, that should have been a sign that Felix didn't know, but Dante hadn't questioned it, and now he wasn't sure why. "He's pretty brilliant, for a little guy." Felix had figured that Dante, and a few of their other mutual friends would’ve known about the baby so it’s not like it was a surprise that Dante knew. In fact, he should’ve figured that. That felt worse because now he knew everyone thought he was the biggest piece of shite for running away from his own kid. “Yeah, Maggie never told me, never wrote me. I mean, I guess it was easier to assume that she’d gotten rid of the baby, but at the same time, I wish she would’ve told me that she did keep the baby, you know?” That was definitely a two-street way, he thought. “Is he?” Felix chuckled. “Yeah, he kinda looks like me, I think. What do you think?” "I assumed…" Dante wrinkled his nose, thinking it over. No, he hadn't exactly assumed that she'd told Felix, because he knew Felix would have mentioned it if he'd known. He couldn't remember ever asking her, either. He remembered thinking that Felix ought to know, and that Felix ought to be around. He also remembered reminding himself that it was Maggie's business, not his. He'd been tempted to ask Felix a handful of times, but each time, he had to remind himself that it wasn't his job -- even though Felix had been his best friend since they were eleven. He hoped that wasn't a sign of a bad best friend, but then again… Maggie was his friend too. Dante shrugged. "I guess I must have convinced myself that the letter got lost in the post or something. She should've told you from the start. It's your kid too." He smiled a little at his friend. "Yeah, mate, he looks like you. What are you gonna do?" Felix would never blame Dante for this situation. This was strictly Maggie’s and his business and he didn’t want Dante to feel like he should’ve said something or anything of that matter. This was partially his fault and partially Maggie’s fault and no one else’s. Plus they were all friends and Felix would’ve never asked any of his friends to choose between the two of them. That, he felt, wasn’t right. “Oh well, it’s in the past, you know?” Felix finished off his drink and looked over at Dante’s. “Your glass is looking quite empty, which means the next round is on me.” Signalling the bartender for two more drinks, Felix pondered Dante’s question quite seriously for a moment. “Well, I’m gonna try to be in his life. Definitely. I mean, what else would there be to do? That’s my kid, that’s also my responsibility.” Felix wasn’t always the most mature person, but he could be where it counted. This was definitely one of those moments. "Yeah…" Dante nodded his head. Even though he could argue that there was another option (run away from his responsibility), he didn't really think that Felix would actually do that. His friend was a stand-up sort of fellow, and Dante knew that he'd do the right thing by Maggie and Leo. He just hoped Maggie would believe that now. "That's your kid," he echoed. "You're a da. I never expected either of us to have wee ones yet. I thought we'd have years before we settled down and did that whole… thing." Instead, Felix had a son out of wedlock. It was the last thing that Dante had expected, but that was life. “Right? I mean, best mans at each other’s weddings. I marry Maggie, you marry some Circus bird. I suggest we be neighbors but you insist that you need an elephant in your backyard.” Felix chuckled at the thought, grinning at his friend, then his grin faded slightly as he realized that that probably would never happen. Maggie would never want to be with him again, and that made him sad. But at least they had a child together and would be in each other’s lives for the next 17 years. Maybe they could both move on, or move past this and be together, but Felix had no idea how this was going to end. “Anyways, tell me how you are, mate. Enough about me, I’m sick of hearing about me. How’s that crazy circus family of yours?” "The elephant sounds about right, at least," he commented light-heartedly, not wanting to dwell on the look on Felix's face. Felix's plan didn't sound so outlandish to Dante, despite the history Felix and Maggie had. Maybe it was because of their history that Dante still thought there was a chance for it to work out that way, and that maybe a few years down the road, Dante would be bringing this conversation up at the reception as part of his best man's speech. If Felix wanted to change the subject, though, Dante couldn't let him down. "As mad as ever," Dante replied with a grin. "My sister's up to her neck in planning this wedding of hers, which by the way I'm inviting you to, right now. I'll just have to ask Ma, but I deserve to have a mate there. Ally's agreed to let me ride Inferno, but she said no to the elephant. Why would anyone say no to an elephant at their wedding? I don't get her sometimes, I really don't." And he honestly didn't. He loved her, but he didn't always understand her. “Oh yeah, that’s right, to Sturgis Podmore, yeah?” Felix grinned. “I would never miss an opportunity, especially to a crazy circus wedding! I mean, who wouldn’t ride an elephant at their wedding? I may just have to do that at my own, you Circus folk and Indians have it pretty spot on.” Talking about anything other than Felix’s recently sad existence felt a lot better. Frankly, at this point, he just wanted to distract himself. “Any ladies in your life? I mean, I know there’s probably a lot, but any specific ladies.” "Yeah, yeah, that's the one. Joanna's brother." It was a bit weird, knowing he and Joanna would end up related by marriage one day, but luckily he'd never dated her or fancied her. That would have been much worse. "Ma wants them to go all out and wild, but I think Ally's keeping it toned down. I assumed so, anyway, but I don't really talk to her about the details too much. That's what Ma and Viola and her mates are for." Dante was just hoping there'd be a good party at the end of it all. Dante thought about pulling Felix's leg for a bit and pretending like there was some great romance that his friend had missed, but instead he chose to stick to the truth. "Nah, not really. There was this one French bird over the summer, she was visiting us with her family, and we've written back and forth, but it's nothing serious. What about you? Anyone at all I should know about?" “Your mum would. Are clowns going to be at the wedding??” Felix wanted to know because he didn’t really like clowns. That was the one thing about the circus that freaked him out, though he was sure a lot of people shared his fear of clowns because look at them! They were freaky. “Good ‘ol Ally, the one that broke away.” He’d always commended Dante’s sister for being brave enough to leave the family business. There was nothing wrong with it, but he could imagine that if that wasn’t your kind of life, how you’d want to get out of it. Felix shrugged, sipping from his glass instead of downing it like he had been. “Nah, mate. No ladies for me. Once I went out of the country, I was pretty focused on training. Travelling around to all the different ruins and vaults was bloody brilliant!” "No clowns as far as I know. Ally would be so angry she'd probably hit someone." Dante didn't think he was exaggerating, either. Unless someone had a surprise up their sleeves (and a really awful one at that, given Ally's feelings towards clowns), he doubted they'd be invited. "Aside from Vi's boyfriend, anyway." Dante took a long swig from his glass, smiling from behind it. That was what he wanted to hear more about: Felix's travels. He was nomadic, too, although he never got to go anywhere as exotic as Egypt. "I'll bet it was. What was the best place you saw? The letters probably don't do any of it justice. You think I’d like it? In Egypt? Bet they’d have a market for circuses and the like, we could perform with the gypsies and stuff.” “Is she still with that same bloke, the clown??” Felix was now just remembering this. The Esposito family was an extremely interesting one, certainly more exciting than his rather normal parents and his rather normal (but somewhat lovable) sister. He’d always loved to hear Dante’s interesting and crazy stories. Though, at least he also now had some interesting stories. Being on desk duty wasn’t fun for Felix, but he’d start picking up more assignments once things started to settle down around here. “Egypt is fucking brilliant, Dante! I’m telling you, it’s insane there. You’d love it. The culture is bloody crazy with all the gods and shit, and the people are just trippy. And the places you see, holy hell.” "That's the one. He's a good bloke… for a clown." It wouldn't come as a surprise to Felix that Dante thought clowns were questionable sorts of people, but Iwan wasn't so bad. At least, Dante didn't think he was, but if he'd learned anything since leaving school, it was that you never could tell. "Yeah? Like what? I want to hear about everything." Dante meant it, too. He was looking at his friend earnestly, ready to hear about every detail. "We've only got…" He pretended to look at a watch, and then looked up again, grinning. "All night." All night, they did have. While Egypt and traveling around for a year had been brilliant, this sort of stuff was what Felix had missed. He was prepared to tell Dante every story he had, and he definitely had a lot. Though things with Maggie had initially been rocky, these were reasons why Felix had decided to come back, and they were definitely worth it. |