(Untitled)

[wizard_howell]

Honestly, he's been making every attempt to be respectable but the problem with that, as he sees it, is that he is in fact in no way respectable. That's not to say that marriage and the title of Royal Wizard don't suit him; they do. It only means that every now and again he needs to dust off that little-used dab of silver paint on the doorknob to

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[nitro_is_ace]

"Well, would you look at what the cat dragged in." Ace calls from the bar, cheerfully. "Good lord, thought you'd gone an' abandoned us!"

What is the point of catching up with old friends if you can't rag on them a little?

[wizard_howell]

"Abandoned you! I would never." All mock indignation, he bows so deeply to Just Ace that the trailing edges of his sleeves meet the floor, picking up a dust bunny of irregular size which he dispatches handily with the flick of a wrist. He's long been aware that time in Ingary does not follow the same path as time here, but even he knows it's been quite some time.

"Being far too busy to relax is the fate of a Royal Wizard, I'm sad to say. How the devil have you been?" The words are chosen carefully and they are, he believes, entirely appropriate. Few people can be as impishly troublesome as Ace, and that's no mean feat.

[nitro_is_ace]

"Oh, you know me, can't stay out of trouble long enough t'make it worth notin'." Ace grins, clearly not at all upset by this fact of life. "I've managed t'keep the girls out of it, which is becomin' somethin' of a jugglin' act, but I think Spoon'd skin me alive if I got them into trouble."

[wizard_howell]

"The girls?" Taken aback entirely, he blinks. Time is a terribly untrustworthy beast, always changing, always making things happen differently than he expects and needs.

"What have I missed?" Unless she means the dogs, in which case he can breathe a decided sigh of relief. It hasn't been that long, has it?

[nitro_is_ace]

"... Oh good grief. I lost track." Howl isn't the only one doing a bit of mental scrabbling for facts - remembering what happened where and in what order gets a bit tricky for time travelers too.

"Fact the first: I got married. Fact the second: He has two daughters, both of'm brilliant, neither of them at all meant t'ever do what I do for a pseudo-livin'."

[wizard_howell]

"Goodness! Congratulations are in order, then!" Reaching into his pocket, he draws out a small wrapped box -- being a wizard comes in handy in situations like this -- with a card attached that reads To The Happy Couple. Inside she'll find a perfectly lovely silver shot glass, encrusted with gemstone chips.

"Do tell. How old are they? What are their names?" Selfishly (not that he has a selfish bone in his body), he's glad she's here. They've been friends for a long time, and it's cheering to realize that starting a family doesn't mean one has to leave all of his old life behind.

[nitro_is_ace]

Ace raises an eyebrow at this flagrant display of cheating, but... well. Considering that she's wished more than once that she could do the same, she won't give him grief for it. Though she might snicker at him later for the silver.

"Cheers, Howl. The youngest is... Gordon Bennet, goin' on eight now, name's Cora. The other is Penny, she's a bit older, sixteen. Just old enough f'Spoon t'start givin' the boys threatenin' glares."

Considering that Spoon is a werewolf, those glares put pretty much every boy out of the running.

[wizard_howell]

"Heavens. Eight and sixteen. I hope ours is a boy so I don't have to be that same kind of father. Of course, there's nothing that says it doesn't go both ways, so..."

Yes, he'll take what he can get, and won't be the one to go nosing about in advance to know the baby's gender. A promise is a promise, and he knows a few things about those sorts of things.

"They're a handful, then?"

[nitro_is_ace]

"Sophie's pregnant?" Ace demands, giving him a stern 'and you were going to tell me when?' look. "Congratulations t'you then, though I can't pull a prezzie out of m'pocket on the fly like some people."

She does have the good sense to order a round, however.

"The girls are brilliant, though most of the household order is kept by Annie - Spoon's mum. The woman's wicked fast with a kitchen utensil."

[wizard_howell]

"The nerve of you, not being able to magic up a gift on demand." His grin is smug and pleased, however. "Of course, I would have mentioned that we're expecting but I got a little caught off-guard by your announcement. I think you can hardly blame me for that. Sophie's doing quite well."

Things really have seemed to calm down.

"So you're living away from here the bulk of the time, then, with your husband and children and his mam?" There's still one burning question to be asked. "And the puppy?"

[nitro_is_ace]

"An' his da, and... rather a lot of puppies, but yeah, I've still got Magic. Or she's still got me, one or the other."

There's a slightly awkward moment on her end that she washes away with a hefty dose of her drink.

"An' yeah, I'm not here a lot."

And in relative time, she does spend quite a lot in Yorkshire.

In absolute time...

Well. It's just as well she's a time traveler.

[wizard_howell]

He can't help but notice the pause, but he's gentleman enough not to point it out.

"Then it's fortunate for me I stumbled in here tonight of all nights. Imagine just how much sadder my night would be had I not run across you. Come, I'll buy you a drink. I insist."

They are old friends. It's the least he can do.

[nitro_is_ace]

"Well, y'wouldn't have had a chance t'show off." Ace grins. "Sommat with chocolate in f'me, ta. So, besides gettin' y'wife pregnant, what've y'been up to? Royal Wizardry is such a vague term."

[wizard_howell]

"A lot of nothing." There are reasons there's a mystique to the term Royal Wizard. "Whatever the King thinks is important at the moment. The war is over, and the rebuilding has begun. Still, soldiers are straggling in from all points so we've been creating a large number of Finding Spells, building wagon wheels impervious to sinking in the mud, things of that nature."

He'll bypass the finer points of getting wives pregnant; he's certain she's not interested in those details.

"Something with chocolate in. A chocolate martini, perhaps?"

Why not? He doesn't drink mixed drinks so very often, but at least he's heard of those.

[nitro_is_ace]

"Works for me." Ace grins - she once had a brother who tended bar, and every night he worked she got a new chocolate-flavored drink.

She's never quite stopped, even though he's been gone for years.

"Gordon Bennet. Y'should tell him havin' a Royal Wizard about would be rather more interestin' if he was allowed t'do fun stuff like fire critters."

[wizard_howell]

"Oh, I've done fireworks for him as well. He's got a young daughter, Princess Valeria. She's particularly fond of them."

Beaming, he orders a pair of drinks -- the martini for Ace, a cider for himself -- and never once stops smiling. "One assumes the dragon finally breathed its last papery breath?"