James McCarthy (justbreezy) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-20 20:59:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #november 2017, james, james x sebastian, sebastian |
Who: James and Sebastian
Where: The McCarthy House
When: After school, Monday, November 6
Status: Complete
James's life had been turned upside down in the last few days and he wasn't sure he wasn't at least partially to blame. His mind swirled with 'should haves' that he dismissed with some annoyance because he didn't like operating on 'what ifs'. Still, he couldn't help but regret not putting up a bigger fight with Brianna about their kids and their inability to learn magic. He had chalked it up to something different back then and it had made sense to yield on this one thing twenty years ago but now... Magic had awoken in his wife and with it his kids had lost all control. The two were obviously related and his whole family might be at risk which made him wonder if Trip was safer away or if he should be putting a stop to his studies for the time being to bring him home for a different sort of education.
If there was anything James hated it was uncertainty and now his life was full of it. Only a few days ago he'd had everything well in hand so this was a shift he was not fond of. He's spent time in his office, more accurately in his private workplace, pouring over the oldest pages in his family's journal to find any clues about their enemies. They had targeted Brianna's family alone so he'd need that particular book but if he could find even a hint in his own before Brianna needed to break the silence between her and her parents then that was far better. He was willing to bet they didn't even have the journal anymore, the bastards, and he'd never resented them more.
He'd gotten in very late on Sunday night and slept late - for him at least - as a result. Brianna was gone to work when he woke up and he groaned when he glanced at the clock and saw it was well past nine in the morning. So much time wasted sleeping. He got up, got himself presentable and headed downstairs for a late breakfast.
It was nice and quiet in the house with everyone gone so he decided to work from home for a few hours. Missing everyone also meant that he had no idea what was really going on with his family and wouldn't until they got home later that afternoon. He spent the day on work - law and magic alike - and kept getting drawn back to his research on The Six. He couldn't say he had other more pressing issues to deal with when his family's safety might be at stake but with everything he needed to get done the day got away from him and he didn't really snap out of it until he heard the front door. Ophelia came home first and he got his good morning kiss a few hours late from her before she scurried to her room. Teenagers never wanted to spend much time with their parents and James knew better than to take that personally. Maybe he too only liked to spend select time with his family, as much as he loved them. Distance made for fonder hearts and all that.
Without an extended football practice, Sebastian had no reason to linger at school longer than normal. None that he thought was good enough to get him out of being grounded on day one. He knew if he didn’t head home, he’d hear about it, especially if Ophelia beat him by too much. So he said goodbye to his friends, hopped in the car, and hurried home, nerves up the second he stepped in the door. His mother didn’t immediately call out to him, so that was a plus. Dropping his book bag by the stairs, he headed to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack before locking himself away in his room.
Unlike his daughter, Sebastian didn't stop by James's office and James listened to him stomping past in his typical teen fashion, dropping his things as he went. Of course neither of them was really used to James being home at this hour so James couldn't blame him. The boys also weren't as affectionate as Phee. He stayed in his office another minute before deciding he could use a pick-me-up, a fruit or something. When he got to the kitchen he almost ran into Sebastian on his way out, looking a little surly and jumpy. "Hold up," James said patting his shoulder. "You rushing off to somewhere?"
Sebastian jumped a little when his father entered the kitchen, literally about to leave with an apple, a bottle of water, and the entire jar of peanut butter. Not that he would eat it all, but it might be nice to have if he decided to skip dinner. He wasn’t expecting his father to be home and had no idea what his mother had shared with him, but he was fully expecting a lecture. It threw him a little off balance that that wasn’t the tone he was picking up. “Just my room. Homework and stuff.”
"Can it wait? I want to talk to you," James said as he grabbed an apple for himself and pulled a knife out of the knife holder. Finding out what was going on with his family included talking to his family and since he knew Sebastian had been practicing magic and Phee likely hadn't, talking to him was a good place to start. For all he knew Trip had been doing something he shouldn't have been doing but he was away at college and Sebastian was right here.
Sebastian sighed, but he couldn’t really argue. He was home too early to claim that he needed to start now in order to finish it all. So he gave his father a nod and instead circled around to the counter, leaning against it as he opened his bottle of water. “Sure. What’s up?” he asked, feeling too casual, but it was his father’s place to identify what he wanted to talk about. He wasn’t going to start throwing things out there for him to choose from.
James gave him a somewhat bemused smile since Sebastian didn't look like he wanted to be there. It wasn't like James often bothered him and he had plenty of reason to now. "Who's been teaching you?" he asked, cutting straight through the chase. It was obvious his son had been learning magic from someone and maybe that someone might have insight into what had happened. The two might not be related but since James was not finding much of use in the family journal he was willing to explore everything else before he and Brianna approached their parents.
Well, at least he didn’t beat around the bush. Sebastian stared at his father for a moment, then looked away. “I’m not answering that,” he said quietly. He knew his father wasn’t going to like it, but he wasn’t ready to put Reagan in that situation. He needed to talk to her first, but that would have to wait till he wasn’t grounded… which he had the feeling was about to get extended. Sebastian didn’t argue with his father often, and almost never defied him, but he’d already decided that was information he was not going to give up.
James gave him a surprised look because that was not the answer he'd been expecting. Maybe some humming and hawing but not a direct refusal. "Yes you are," he said and while his voice didn't get sharper, it held more weight to it. "As your father and legal guardian I'm entitled to know." He'd started cutting the skin from his apple but stopped now, watching his son with furrowed brows. "This isn't up for debate, Sebastian."
Sebastian raised a brow at that and wondered exactly how much longer that excuse would fly. Well, he’d always be his father. But the legal guardian bit wouldn’t hold up by the time he graduated. Still, he couldn’t make him talk. It was an approach that caused him to only dig his heels in deeper. “No,” he said, completely still as he watched his father. “If you wanted to teach me, you’d have taught me.”
"And I will, but that's not what we're discussing right now, we're discussing who has been teaching you," James said, a little baffled. "They're not in trouble, Sebastian. Neither are you, but I do need to talk to them." He started peeling his apple again, occasionally glancing up from what he was doing at Sebastian. "Discretion is good when it comes to magic, but it is a family affair, you don't keep these secrets from me."
Sebastian’s brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to line up this conversation with the one he’d had with his mother the day before. He was pretty sure he was in trouble. Grounded in trouble, but also possibly being hunted in trouble, which was way worse. Maybe his father was trying to come at it from a different angle, which was smart considering how poorly it had gone with his mother. But that last little bit rubbed him the wrong way. “But mom can keep ‘em from us for years?”
"You're derailing," James said firmly, realizing that he didn't seem to know much about what was going on at home and how much everyone else knew about any of it. So Sebastian knew about Brianna, this put James at a disadvantage and he did not like that one bit. "Your mother isn't a part of this conversation, this is between you and me." He gave Sebastian a calculating look. "She doesn't have to know what we talk about here today."
Sebastian sighed and looked away from his father. He wasn’t good at this. He was a horrible liar and knew that the more he talked, the more likely he was to give himself away. His skill was in avoiding and distracting from the truth, but it was harder to do when the dog already had the bone. “How does that work?” he stalled. “Are you ungrounding me? Are we no longer being hunted? Because I’m pretty sure Mom’s a big part of this conversation.”
James didn't think he could furrow his brows harder, but he did and it almost hurt. Sebastian was grounded, he knew he was being hunted. So much for keeping things quiet until they figured it all out. "Hold up," he muttered, holding his hand up in a motion for Sebastian to be quiet and still for a few second. "You're derailing again," he said then, not eager to admit how little he knew though he was definitely getting pissed off at his wife all over again. "We don't know if you're being hunted, I'm looking into that but right now, this conversation you and I are having right now is not about that. We can talk about that later but right now we're talking about you learning magic. I'll be taking over so I need to talk to your teacher."
“No,” Sebastian said, frustrated that his father kept coming back to the one thing he didn’t want out there. “You can ask me anything you’d want to ask them. I’m not giving them up.” If he decided that Reagan had used him, sure, he’d hand it over to his parents in a heartbeat. But she’d gone out on a limb to teach him when he’d been denied at home. He wasn’t going to make her wish she hadn’t.
"Giving them up?" James asked, bewildered. "Sebastian, what is it exactly that you think I'm going to do when I find out who they are?" He might not be completely honest with Sebastian about his reasons for wanting to talk to his teacher but he certainly wasn't angry or vengeful, merely curious - though his son's stubbornness was definitely fanning the flames of his irritation by now.
“I’m not gonna tell you, okay?” Sebastian said, his frustration starting to leak into the tone of his voice, pulling it higher. “I asked them for help and they were nice enough to teach me. For free. So I don’t want you or mom knocking on their door. If you wanna talk about what they were teaching me, that’s fine, but I can’t tell you or mom any more about the curse until I talk to them.” And he couldn’t do that while he was grounded, so they really weren’t getting anywhere.
There was a loud thud as James beat his fist against the counter. Just once, hard. He'd lost control for a second before inhaling deeply through his nose and gathering his patience. "So don't tell me," he said, straining to keep that control. "Go to your room." He thought better of it after a second and added, "and give me your phone."
Sebastian flinched, gritting his teeth, his own hands in fists by his side. For one second, he was fine with that, since his room was where he was planning on going all along. But then his father demanded his phone and reasonable thought went off the table. “Fine,” he snapped, pulling it out of his back pocket and dropping it on the counter, along with his car keys. “Might as well take those too, while you’re at it,” he added, then turned on his heel and headed for the front door.
James wasn't going to stop him if he wanted to storm out of the house and clear his head outside. He'd get bored without his phone or end up hungry and come back home and then they could talk. Or not. He was mentally going over their conversation already, frustrated with Brianna for telling Sebastian the things she'd only just told James last week. It should have been a family meeting or some such. At the very least she should have told James about it. "That's not the way to your room," he yelled after his son, grimacing when he noticed his damn thumb was bleeding. Punching kitchen counters while holding a knife was not a good idea.
Sebastian didn’t know what to say to that, well aware he wasn’t going where he was told at this point, and instead just grabbed his backpack on the way out. So what if he was grounded? He didn’t see that changing any time soon with the way things were going, so he might as well do what he wanted. He could go… somewhere… and do his homework. Then maybe he’d head home again.