Dinner with the family Who: Christian, Day, Hayden and Mr. Danui When: Seven P.M. Where: The Danui household
Christian was nervous. Beyond nervous really. He was pacing back and forth in the kitchen for about the hundredth time since he came down to help with dinner. Hayden was going to meet his dad. And perhaps more importantly, his dad was going to meet his girlfriend. He had a girlfriend and she was coming over for dinner and his father was going to be there and...
Nervousness.
Much nervousness. "Do you think Dad'll like her?" Christian whispered to his brother, finally stopping his pacing to glance up at the older boy.
"Stop worrying," Day hissed back, setting the table now that the roast turkey was in the oven. "The more you worry the weirder it'll be, so stop worrying." As if Christian would ever stop worrying. Even if he wasn't worrying about Hayden, he'd be worrying about Tilly and the others. It was like a never-ending quest to get the guy to relax, and it always failed, but that didn't mean Day stopped trying.
Their dad was in the living room waiting, flipping through the newspaper in a rare moment of idleness.
"Right..." Christian said, trying to remember a time in his life when he wasn't worrying about something. "Like that's the easiest thing in the world. Do tell me when you find a switch to like flip off worrying because it so isn't going to happen anytime soon for me." he pouted, glancing over at the stove.
"You can start by taking a few deep breaths and trying to think about something else," Day suggested, making sure the forks and knives lay just so, so they were even and parallel. Part of his brain thought back on the spell-casting that morning, and the plans he had written out in his room, but he silently and forcefully told that portion to shut it and be social. There would be time later.
Hayden wasn't at all nervous. In fact, she was pretty excited to be meeting Christian's dad. She never saw him in the house whenever she was there with Christian, though her dad talked about Mr. Danui every now and then. She got to Christian's house around seven, like he'd told her, and she dressed appropriately, a modest summer dress with her hair pulled up into a simply ponytail. All she wanted was for Christian's dad to like her the way her parents liked Christian. Or at least, the way her mom liked Christian.
Smoothing her hair back, Hayden walked up to the front door and knocked.
Christian nearly jumped out of his skin when the knock came at the door. He was torn between hiding and rushing for it before his dad could get to it. Rushing won out. Running towards the living room, he hollered that he'd get the door and pulled it open. "Hey." he said, smiling despite the nervousness that rushed through him. "C-come in."
Rolling his eyes a little at his brother, Day finished with the last fork and followed Christian out much more sedately. "Hey, Hayden," he called, leaning over a little so she could see him around Christian.
Daniel Danui, who had started to stand at the sound of the knock, finished it and started folding his paper, letting the boys greet Hayden so he didn't overwhelm her. After all, he was a workaholic, not a rude person.
She beamed at the both of them when the door opened. "Hey." Stepping inside, Hayden realized maybe she should have brought something. Like... pie! Or ice cream or something. She hadn't even thought about it. Leaning forward she kissed Christian's cheek before grinning around him at Day. "Haven't seen you in a couple of days!"
Christian blushed beneath that kiss. Innocent as it was, he'd never had anyone kiss him in front of his father. "Hey..." he said again softer this time, stepping aside for her to enter and then closing the door behind her. "Dad, this is Hayden. Hayden... my dad."
While Day just shrugged and smiled at Hayden-- he'd had the whole "Tilly missing" thing to worry about, which he had mostly quite firmly put somewhere else tonight in his mind-- the oldest Danui came in smiling. "Evening, Hayden. I've heard a bit about you from my sons."
"I've heard a lot about you too," Hayden said with a bright smile. "I'm glad to finally meet you." And he was definitely good looking! Which had no bearing whatsoever on anything, but she was a teenage girl, so it was definitely noted. "Thank you for having me over for dinner." Hayden definitely knew her manners. Her mom would have whooped her ass otherwise.
Christian just stood there, watching his father and girlfriend interacting. Things were okay so far. He wasn't dying of embarrassment yet. No stories about him in diapers. At least not yet. He doubted his dad would do that either way. Hopefully...
"Not a problem at all," Mr. Danui said, though Day rolled his eyes good-naturedly behind his back. Hayden, he was sure, knew perfectly well how careful the scheduling had been to make this happen.
"Would you like a drink, Hayden?" Day asked, since he was closest to the kitchen. "Anyone else want anything?"
"My usual, David," Mr. Danui said, and Day tried not to look embarrassed at having his full name used.
"Sure... water is fine," Hayden told Day, grinning when their dad called him 'David'. She never ever heard people call him that, and it was kind of amusing. She doubted any of his friends got away with it. Glancing at Christian, she gave him a reassuring smile, since he was being pretty quiet and no doubt he was dealing with a bunch of nerves.
"Water." Christian said, following after Day towards the kitchen. The reassuring smile helped a tiny bit, but the nervous tension didn't flicker.
"Water, water, brandy, and juice for me," Day recited, and wandered into the kitchen to deliver.
"Dinner still has a few minutes in the oven," Mr. Danui said. "Have a seat?" He gestured to the couch.
Hayden watched Christian follow Day into the kitchen, and she tried not to look terrified at the prospect of being left alone with their dad. Not that he scared her or anything, but it was just more comfortable with Christian being there with her. She licked her lips and returned her focus on Mr. Danui. "Sure... thanks." She walked over to sit on the couch, smoothing her dress over her knees. "How are things at the hospital?"
"I'm going to die before this dinner is over..." Christian whispered to his brother, taking it upon himself to grab the water for himself and Hayden, free up his brother to get the brandy and juice. "And now I've left them all alone... what do you think they're saying?"
Looking amused as he poured himself some juice, and smothering the playful urge to tease, Day said, "Probably about work or school or something boring and small-talk-ish like that. You'll be fine, Chris."
Out in the living room, Mr. Danui sat in the armchair so he wasn't crowding her. "Busy, though at least we're low on emergencies today. Everyone's waiting on tenterhooks to see if those kids turn up and need tending to, but other than that, it's business as usual. How are things with you?"
"They're fine, thanks." She smiled, resting her hands casually in her lap. "I've been auditioning for the community theater, though that's sort of come to a crawl because of all the stuff going on with the missing kids and stuff. I know it's been hard for Day and Christian, with Tilly being gone."
Christian let out a little breath and filled two glasses with ice water before carrying them over to the table. "You don't think that dad will bring out baby pictures do you?" he asked.
"Don't be stupid," Day snorted, pouring the double-shot glass with brandy. "I don't think Dad even has any baby pictures, or if he does, he doesn't know where they are."
Christian frowned a little. Maybe baby pictures wouldn't be so bad. It'd mean his dad cared. But he did care... just maybe not in the baby pictures sort of way. "I'm not stupid." Christian pouted, setting the glasses on the table and looking back at his brother. "How much longer before it's finished?" he asked, nodding at the stove.
"You're not stupid, but you're acting like it," Day said, mostly teasing. "Relax. Dad's not going to embarrass you." He added the other glasses to the table, too, and beckoned for Chris to follow him back out.
Said father was definitely not thinking about baby pictures. He was, instead, frowning a little and nodding. "I wish there was something more I could do, but...." He shrugged helplessly. "Good for you, though, auditioning. I know David did, and Christian said something about it, too."
"Oh! Yes, he was going to do some behind the scene stuff... props and scenery? He's a great artist, and I knew they would definitely take him in to help if he offered." He had seemed apprehensive about it at first, but Hayden was pretty sure Christian would have a good time. "He drew a picture of me," Hayden said with a grin. "That's how we met... well, we had already sort of met, since we were in the same class, but it definitely got my attention." Not that Mr. Danui had asked or anything, but Christian leaving her alone meant she had to talk about something!
Mr. Danui chuckled. "Christian draws a lot, I know. He's never done anything social with it, though. I'm glad. --Ah, welcome back, boys. How's the roast coming?"
"A few more minutes," Day shrugged, answering both his father and brother at the same time.
Hayden smiled when Christian came into view again. "I was telling him that you were going to put your artistic ability to good use with the musical this summer."
Christan was torn between wanting to frown at being talked about and wanting to hide so he wouldn't have to talk about it while he was actually in the room, but he put on a smile. "Yeah." Christian nodded. "Guess I won't be spending the whole summer inside this year, dad."
"I'm glad," Mr. Danui said, smiling over at his son, though it was a kind of wistful smile. "You could use some time outside. Come, sit, both of you." He waved them over. "We can chat a little while before dinner."
For his part, Day plopped himself onto the floor and sat cross-legged, leaving the couch to Christian and Hayden. "Posting of the parts is supposed to be in the next day or two, now," he said, mostly to Hayden.
"I'm excited," she told him, determined not to get all bouncy over it. "Hopefully I'll get something worthwhile." Hayden hated auditioning when she only got a bit part.
"You will." Christian said immediately. "You're great." It was then that he flushed and looked down at his lap as he plopped down beside Hayden. Gushing in front of dad made him feel like a dork.
"It's a big cast, and Hayden sang well, so I think she'll get a part, too." Day was a bit concerned about himself, since he wasn't the only person trying out for the narrator and he definitely couldn't double as the Baker's father, the way the actor in the Broadway show had-- but he wasn't saying so, and really? It'd gone to the back of his mind until now, completely forgotten in the worry about Tilly.
"What part are you hoping for?" Mr. Danui asked.
Hayden's cheeks flushed under the praise, and she gave them both a grateful smile. "Day did really well too," she said. "He's got great charisma on stage. I'm hoping for Cinderella, but really, I'd take just about anything. It's such a fun play to do and it's on a much bigger scale than the high school productions." Hayden knew she could talk about acting for hours, but she resisted, since she knew it could be boring to some.
Christian was glad that no one was paying much attention to him. Or teasing him. That was definitely making him loosen up a little. "Day always has good charisma." he said, grinning at his brother.
"As long as they don't mind that I can't sing worth beans," Day said, rolling his eyes skyward. "Otherwise, my charisma on stage isn't worth much. But hopefully they won't mind."
"The whole family has that problem," Mr. Danui admitted with a chuckle. "Singing is not in our genes."
"Pfft, believe me, if you've got enough charisma to pull in an audience, they're not going to care if you don't sound like Harry Connick Jr. or something. It's all about stage presence," Hayden said, grinning. "Besides, everyone is good at something, even if it's not singing."
Christian definitely wasn't good at singing. Of course he supposed it didn't matter much either way because if he was good at singing, and wanted to do something with it, that would mean being up in front of tons of people and that just didn't sound like something he would ever, ever subject himself to. Good thing he sucked at singing. "Day'll probably get it. Everyone thinks you're awesome." he smiled, brotherly beaming radiating from him.
Day preened a little under the round of compliments, and his father chuckled at him. "You're going to puff up his head and then we'll have to deal with him strutting around all evening."
"Dad, I do not strut." Except of course he did.
"You do strut," Hayden said with a laugh. "But it's not a cocky strut or anything. It's just confidence." Which was probably why Day had been so popular with people. She never saw him as arrogant, at least not outwardly.
"He does." Christian smirked. "But he can't help it. I could probably strut too if I wanted." Or not. Probably not. definitely not.
"That I want to see," Day smirked, back. "Chris strutting. You should try it sometime, Chris," he added, amused and giving up the pretense that he didn't strut. "It works wonders for the self-confidence, and I bet Hayden would like it." Yeah, okay, he was teasing a bit.
Hayden blushed, and any comment she would have made wasn't overly appropriate with their dad sitting right there. Instead she smiled, since she couldn't imagine Christian strutting at all. He'd be too embarrassed or self conscious. Though she was willing to encourage anything that might help Christian get some self confidence.
Christian flushed a little at that. Well, more than a little. His face practically the color of a beet, but he didn't say much about that. "Dinner's probably done." he mumbled instead.
Taking pity on his embarrassed son, Mr. Danui got up. "I'll go check on it," he said, and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the three in the living room.
"If I'd known you'd get that embarrassed, I wouldn't have said it," Day commented, looking from one blushing face to another and not looking terribly apologetic. If anything, he looked amused.
"I'm not embarrassed," Hayden said, after Mr. Danui had left. Sure she was blushing, but more because he'd said it in front of his dad. "Your dad is really nice," she told Christian with a smile.
"I'm not embarrassed either." Christian said, though he was. "I just can't imagine myself strutting."
"Dad is nice," Day agreed with a smile, half fond and half wistful. Nice but busy.... "He knows you're an elemental like us, by the way. Just so you know."
"Oh!" Hayden looked mildly surprised. "I didn't realize he knew about you two... " Though she wasn't sure why. Maybe the whole 'he's a workaholic' thing, she just assumed he wouldn't know everything about his sons. "Is he?" she whispered, wondering if maybe the elemental thing ran in the family.
Christian shook his head. "No." he said simply. "He's not an elemental, but he can do glamours and stuff." he explained. "Fae-blooded and all."
"He's the one that suggested I look into elementals, though," Day admitted, chin in his hands. "I figured Chris out, myself, but I had my lead from him." Which pleased him to recount, quite obviously. It was one of his favorite conversations with his father, actually. "I've known about the glamours for a long time, though, even longer than the elemental thing."
"Glamour?" Hayden looked confused. "I don't know what that means... what's fae blood?" Fae reminded her of faeries. Was that what they meant? Clearly she needed someone to explain it to her.
"Oh, god, didn't you know?" Day asked, looking both surprised and delighted. He looked between Hayden and Christian with a grin, then settled on Hayden. "We're fae-blooded. That means somewhere down the line, there's one of the fae-folk in our history. We can do this--" He held out a hand, created the image of a rose above it, and made it float towards Hayden. "--create glamours," he said, a bit smugly. "Illusions. You know."
She shook her head, amazed at the rose floating in the air. It looked so real, like he'd conjured it out of air. But he said it wasn't real. Illusions. "I didn't know you could do that," she murmured, glancing at Christian. She wondered why he hadn't told her. Fae blooded? Creating glamours and illusions? That was amazing.
"Yeah." Christian said with a little nod, holding out his hand and doing what Day had done. He didn't think his rose was nearly as pretty and it didn't last very long either, but he could do it. Letting the rose vanish he shrugged. "I'm not like... amazingly great at it or anything. Guess I just never thought about it." he admitted. "But yeah, I can do it." he said, giving a little smile in her direction.
She watched as Christian did the same thing as Day and she was tongue tied for a few moments. She hadn't known people with certain blood types could do that. She thought only witches were capable. And she was mildly hurt that Christian hadn't even mentioned it! Something that huge... "That's really cool," she told them both. "I never heard about fae blood before."
"I'm sorry, I really thought you knew," Day said. "I'm a bit free with my glamours around school, I thought everyone knew." He banished his own rose, which had still be floating there.
"Dinner time, show offs," their father said from the archway into the kitchen. "Or I suppose just show off, David." Since Christian so rarely did anything to draw attention to himself, after all, he could hardly be called a show off.
Christian still flushed a little as he stood up from the couch and reached out for Hayden's hand to lead her towards the kitchen. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." he whispered. "I just... don't do it a lot..." Around people at least.
"It's okay," she said breezily. "It's not that big a deal." She tried to remember ever seeing Day use his glamour around school. Maybe she had and just never let it register in her mind. She gave Christian a smile. "Don't worry about it."
Day led the way into the kitchen, then through the open wall to the dining room. There was a dressed, roasted turkey sitting on the table, along with dinner rolls, several varieties of vegetables, and everyone's drinks. It looked strange seeing four settings at the table. He let Christian see about seating Hayden, since she was his guest, and dropped gracefully into his own usual chair.
"I hope you like turkey, Hayden," Mr. Danui said, a little apologetically. "We don't have much in the way of red meat in the house."
Christian did just that, taking the chair next to his and pulling it out just a little, enough to allow Hayden to sit down before pushing the chair in again and settling himself into his usual place.
Hayden sat, smiling brightly at Mr. Danui. "I love turkey, thanks. I don't eat a lot of red meat anyway. Maybe a hamburger if my parents grill out, but I prefer chicken and fish and things like that." It was kind of weird, sitting there with three people who had fae blood. Who could conjure things in mid-air and make them look so real. She couldn't do anything like that, except manipulate fire.
"Good, good." Mr. Danui remained standing, serving everyone their turkey, since it was still on the bird. "So what were you all discussing in there? I saw the glamours." He shot Day and Christian both smiles.
"I forgot to tell Hayden about that part." Christian admitted. "So we were sort of... explaining." he smiled.
"I never heard of fae blood before," Hayden admitted. "I only recently found out about my elemental stuff so... all of this is pretty new to me, as much as it is to people who never knew the supernatural existed before last month."
Chuckling, Mr. Danui said, "There's a lot out there. I don't know a whole lot about anything that isn't in my family, myself. Unlike David."
"Who reads everything he can get his hands on," Day said with a satisfied little smile. "Yes, I know."
"Do you have any questions the boys didn't already answer?" Mr. Danui continued, sitting down and passing the potatoes to Hayden. "About us. Supernatural, or not."
Christian turned to look at Hayden expectantly. He couldn't help but be curious what else she might be wondering about.
"Uh..." Hayden flushed slightly at the pair of eyes on her. "Not that I can think of... at least not right now. I mean, I'm sure eventually I will. I'm curious about all kinds of things... vampires, werewolves... Day's been great about helping me with my own element. I would still be trying to burn myself on the oven in fascination rather than doing anything more, if it hadn't been for him."
"Well, I'm afraid I can't help you much with vampires and werewolves," Mr. Danui answered. "I keep meaning to learn more, and never seem to have the time." He passed around the green beans and the gravy boat, going different ways.
Day ladeled out a moderate spoonful of gravy, then passed to Hayden. "Is there anything in particular you'd like that you haven't gotten yet, Hayden?" he asked, referring to the food.
Their father never really had much time to do much of anything. Christian really wished sometimes that his father wasn't so busy, but he had the feeling that he wouldn't be the same man if he didn't get to go to work as much as he did. He dished green beans onto his plate and sat them next to Hayden's so she could get her helping of that as well and pass it on.
"I think I'm doing good," Hayden told Day, taking the dish Christian had set next to her to put some green beans on her plate. "This looks really delicious... thanks for having me over." She smiled at Mr. Danui. "If you have time this summer, you should come see the play! With Christian working on it, and more than likely Day, it might be fun for you."
"I am hoping to make it to one performance," Mr. Danui chuckled, and set down the rolls as they came back to him again. Day hoped that would actually happen; his father did try to get time off whenever he or Christian had an important school something, and the play was along the same lins, right?
"All right, everyone," his father said lightly, "dig in."