InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Baby poop!"

”Alright, Jason King, product tester alpha reporting for debrief,” he said by way of announcing his arrival. The pièce de résistance slung carelessly over his shoulder in way that might worry a lesser man, but this was his broom. It was a thing of beauty, yes, but it was a practical tool and held up quite well at the Solstice Sprint. The broom also brought him here today. So much better than apparating, but he still needed to figure out a better way to bring Mandela along.

“How are you?” Jason asked going to give Jamie a hug in greeting. Even with the push back on his the movement, Jason was in a good mood. And he wasn’t going to be ashamed or hide that.

Jamie embraced his friend with a smile. “Doing fine.” He’d been at the race to support Jason and observe the broom in action. It was late enough now that the warehouse was empty save for the two of them. Jamie’s sleeves were rolled up and his undone bow tie dangled around his neck.

“I want to hear all about how she flew. And,” Jamie pulled a bottle of whiskey from a cabinet, “are we celebrating? Inaugural flight, new store?”

He grinned at the bottle of whiskey. Now, that was what he was talking about! “Undefeated season. The birth of a movement.” Jason added, although that last bit a becoming more and more complicated now. “I think there is plenty of reason to celebrate.”

“You clear us someplace to sit and I’ll round some glasses and I will regale you with my field report.” As happy as Jason was to give feedback on the broom, he was more excited to spend some time with friend once they finally had a chance to breathe from everything else in motion around them.

Jamie’s workspace was cluttered with wood samples, broom designs, and a couple drawings Euan made for him. He’d never been tidy when he was building and finishing Jason’s broom while preparing the store hadn’t helped. Ana would probably run him out the house if his office at home looked like this so all of the chaos of the last few weeks was here in the warehouse. Jamie cleared away the mess, taking care not to wrinkle any of Euan’s drawings.

Jason returned and Jamie poured them each a healthy drink. “Cheers, mate.”

He raised his glass. “Cheers,” he said simply. Jason was happy to not feel the need to give any big speech or statement. He assumed Jamie knew -- although busy with the business, he had been there for a lot of it.

“But let us begin.” Jason started in on an in depth review of how the broom handled over the six hour and three minute flight. Luckily, he was a good storyteller and knew how to summarize or else it would have been quite boring. Well, boring if you weren’t them and trying to improve and inch closer to perfection.

The one big thing they needed to improve was the cushioning charm and perhaps thinking of improving issues with the grip -- especially ahead of the big race in March. But handling? The broom was a dream. It was just the more practical side of racing a broom for hours on end in the freezing cold.

Jamie scrawled a few notes while Jason spoke, adding them to his own observation of the race. He hadn’t been able to stay for the entire event but he was glad to get a chance to see the broom perform in person. He was full of follow-up questions about the broom’s performance - Jason had to grab hold of him at one point to keep him from going to make adjustments on the broom right away.

Jamie swallowed down his whiskey. “You don’t mind the result of the race?”

“I’m not a full time racer anymore. Coming in fifth with the field we had is brilliant. Technically even puts me in the ranking for the majors.” He was still somewhat smug of the last half-mile battle with Leduc and Ström. Not to mention his family at the finish line celebration trying not to freeze had really been all he wanted and didn’t know he needed. “Besides, the real test is always the Annual Race.”

“We make some tweaks to the broom and you should be in a good spot.” Jamie’s notes were still in front of him and he doodled idly. “How’s...well, everything else?”

Jason shook his head, pouring himself a second glass. “Now that is a wide and dangerous question. I’ll assume you’re not talking about quid-stuff, but maybe more of the quid-adjacent things.”

He leaned back, Mandela resettling in his lap. “It turns out starting a movement is actually just as challenging as I thought, and people have lot of opinions over the color of my attire.”

“I like the pink,” Jamie said with a laugh. He paused before continuing, taking the time to refill his own glass. One of his nails tapped against the side, rapping out a series of tinks. “I’m here if you need anything with that. Or if there’s something to be done with the business to support, I’m fine with that.”

“I don’t think so, I am donating the majority of my share to fund to help muggleborns, and there might be a market to sell some neon pink t-shirts and accessories, but I don’t want it to detract from the business model.” It was one thing if it was in the plan all along, but Jason never planned to become such a figure head.

“Hamish MacFarlane and many inside the Ministry certainly have rather vocal, but politically correct opinions, that what I’m doing is not only misguided, but inappropriate.” Jason shook his head, still not sure how they might arrive at that opinion, but there it was.

“He can shove it up his arse,” Jamie said good naturedly.

Jason laughed. If only it were that simple. “I think it’s a good measure of what I’m going to be up against. And honestly, for my part, I’m willing to take the hit if it comes to it, I just worry about the younger people following behind me.” It was the the burden of leadership. Jason wasn’t sure he was ready for it, or had right to it, but he there he found himself.

“You’re doing a good thing,” Jamie said. “It’s not easy but it needed to be done and you’re the right man for it. But try not to be too hard on yourself? Nobody expects a saint.”

“Well, if you can’t do something smart, do something right,” said Jason with another raise of his glass in a silent salute. He took another drink. “I do say that I feel like I have been slacking in the friendship department lately. I feel like we haven’t had any time that wasn’t about my broom or the store. How are you and Aureliana handling everything with her new role?”

Jamie’s face scrunched up into what was answer enough. “She hates it,” he confessed. Jamie trusted Jason enough to know that this was friend talk and not to be used in Jason’s official role on the quidditch team. “I keep telling her to quit and she won’t.”

Jason did his best to be honest and transparent, but that was limited to his own business. He wasn’t one to gossip. “We had an interesting conversation last week. And she seems divided, perhaps even between doing something smart and something right -- but also to her family. Both of her families.”

Jamie nodded, not surprised. “She wants to make everyone happy. She doesn’t want the job but she thinks her mum’ll throw her out of the family if she quits.” Jamie reached for his glass. “Ana actually said if she just got pregnant she’d have a reason to quit without hurting anyone.”

He scrubbed his face at that comment. Of all the reasons to have a kid, Jason’t wasn’t sure that was the best play. He shook his head. “I still don’t get if that’s a pureblood thing, or what, but you guys do have your own family to worry about and certainly Aureliana needs to worry about her own happiness too.”

“Pureblood thing...rich kid thing…” Jamie shook his head. “No handbook for marrying into these families. I like Mel and Lex but sometimes I want to give their Mum a piece of my mind for having Ana convinced that if she doesn’t do what she’s told, she’s going to throw Ana out of their family and cut her out of Gringotts.” He took a big drink. “I wasn’t a big fan pregnancy plan to fix it.”

Ah the burdens of privilege. “I don’t know how you navigate it.” Jason often struggled to feel sympathy. It was also just so far out of his normal, that even the Lex and Micah relationship was difficult to parse sometimes. “But I’ll stand by you on that one - not the best reason to have another child.”

Jamie grimaced his agreement. “And on that cheery subject, are we seeing you for tea on Boxing Day this year?”

“As long as I’m still invited,” said Jason. They were supposed to be celebrating, and this didn’t feel particularly celebratory. “So, I might have finally followed through with Elena Quesada.” And Maddock might be more proud after their basketball game and pep talk, and Jason wasn’t one to brag, but it was more a sign of how far his personal recovery had come. Plus, Elena was gorgeous, brilliant on a broom, and who wouldn’t want to have a night with her?

“From the race?” Jamie gave his friend a grin and then a whistle, glad the conversation turned to lighter subjects. He was starting to feel his whiskey now, warm in his belly. “Jason and Elena sitting on a broom,” Jamie chanted, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

“Yes, la bella de Argentina,” he said in best approximation of Spanish, which was pretty decent. The things you learned from international broom racing. “There might have even been more than kissing.”

Jason grinned taking a sip. “Probably not talking about wedding bells or anything too serious any time soon, but as I keep thinking what type of future I want to be building, I keep thinking about my future family, and to get there I gotta get back in that game.”

Jamie couldn’t stop himself. “Didn’t say there wasn’t any broomstick riding.” He was still smiling. “Good for you. Don’t rush into anything but my lot could use some company to run around with. I would also make an excellent godfather.”

He groaned. God, that was awful. “Elena was the first person I did more than hold hands or kiss since before the war.” It was just part of that process of Jason getting back out there. “Plus lovely and wonderful as Elena is, our lives are very different things right now.”

TBC...