Mirek Yaxley

Zahi waited until Mirek had shifted away before arching up into a stretch of his own. “I wouldn’t mind coffee,” he said, figuring that would be a good way to take Mirek up on his offer without actually having to stay for a domestic little scene of watching Mirek cook and being served food. “I have to be at work in about an hour and a half, so I probably shouldn’t hang around too terribly long.”

He raised eye brow as Mirek sat up, sensing the line even as he remembered for himself that they’d moved the potion off the heat before getting into the alcohol. He might have been fuzzy, but not that fuzzy. Apparently Mirek wasn’t nearly as cozy either now that he was awake, or at least wasn’t to save face as he walked away. 

Zahi slid out of bed, going immediately from his robes on the ground. Once he was dressed, he turned and looked back at Mirek with a smirk. “You know I must admit that’s not how most of my potion consultations go.”

Coffee seemed friendly enough that he didn’t feel like he was coming off too strong. “Alright then. Do you mind if it’s a strong brew?” He replied as he got dressed. He had a long day ahead as well. 

Of course, it wasn’t, that would be unprofessional, but Mirek felt the slightest bit flattered. “Much to some’s dismay, I suppose?” He replied, face and tone mirroring the other’s. The more awake he became, the more he worried that he could ruin everything he’d achieved by being suspicious. 

“Correct?”

“Not as old as you’re acting like I am. I’m not that over the hill.” Cas defended himself, flicking his eyes away from the page to look at Mirek for a moment before going back to inking in a skeleton. “I’m still in my twenties and perfectly capable of getting it up, if that’s what you’re worried about.” While Cas might have once had a vengeful ex-lover decide he needed a set of boils to spell out a very particular epithet on his skin, he’d never really hesitated to sleep with anyone he wanted to even if others might have said that it wasn’t a good idea or they might not take well to it. Really, it could be fun to see what he could get away with.

“Is there a reason you’re being so insulting? What’s wrong, need someone to take you over their knee and pay attention to you?” He snarked before handing the sheet of paper over to Mirek, a quickly doodled cartoon of a skeleton holding a bone with the speech bubble above it’s head declaring ‘I’ve got your back!’ The bones in a heap next to the skeleton were, of course, his friend before his backbone had been yanked out. “You didn’t get a single detail of that right, it’s like you don’t pay any attention to me, darling. I feel so jilted.”

“I think everyone with a secret family and a mid-life crisis would deny it.” Mirek replied firmly. He was starting to wonder if he would manage to get anything out of Cas, or if he’d have to give up and just hang out like he was supposed to. Really, this spy thing wasn’t half as heroic as it sounded. It just meant teasing Cas about his dick for half an hour and hoping he’d act suspicious in return.

“This is… strangely supportive.” Mirek said with a tinge of feeling in his voice, as he held up the drawing. Skeletons were to him what cat cartoons were to people, and Cas seemed to have taken notice. “how …gay.” He added, not sure about showing any non-satirical emotion around Cas.

Zahi blinked a few times down at Mirek’s still-resting face as he processed the question. It wasn’t an odd one by any means. The idea of making process for someone on a morning after was commonplace. But Zahi didn’t do this. He didn’t spend the night and he didn’t have breakfast in the morning. When he couldn’t remember exactly what last night had entailed, though, Zahi didn’t want to snap or make assumptions.

“I’m not particularly hungry, but that would be fine,” he said, figuring middle ground was a good step. It would keep him from looking over eager but also from being overly cold. There was still an arm across his waist, and Zahi wasn’t sure he was a fan of it. 

“You seem comfortable,” Zahi continued. Aside from speaking, he kept himself still. No sweet touches, but he wasn’t being rude by shoving Mirek away. “You sure you want to get up and cook?”

While Mirek wasn’t afraid of awkwardness (hospitals were consistently full of it, be it because of ridiculous wounds, having to pretend to care for other people’s most delicate subjects or just random checkup nudity), he realized he was still holding on to Zahi and hoped it didn’t come off as a clingy thing. That’d push Zahi away, and what was the point in working so hard for this intel if he burned the bridge? Not that he was planning on doing this again anytime soon, but if he played his card right, they’d still be amicable and he could come to Zahi when he needed more potioneering advice. Mirek let Zahi go carefully, before stretching his remaining sleepiness away. 

“You can just have coffee or tea if you don’t feel like eating. If you want, but I don’t want to hold you up if you’ve got plans.” Mirek tried to be gentleman whenever he had the luxury to be, but as he woke up, Zahi’s resistance was becoming was evident. He was being nice about it, in his calculated Zahi way, but Mirek gained nothing from making his guest uncomfortable. 

Mirek had been comfortable, sleeping next to someone was objectively better than sleeping alone, but he was awake now, no point in holding on to the more fun parts of last night if he had a long day ahead. “I don’t mind, I’ve got to stand up anyway, I can’t remember if we left the potion brewing.” He did, and they hadn’t, but talking laying down always seemed to send the wrong message.

Daisy nearly bolted upright at the thought of Mirek carrying her, and she flushed as she wondered what that had looked like to him. “I can stand,” she promised. “If I’m weak enough that I can’t walk, we have bigger issues.” She hoisted herself to her feet, and while there was an unsteady second, Daisy was fine. “See? Just fine.”

She nodded as she followed Mirek toward what she assumed would be a floo. She’d been warned that while there was no proven problem with late stage pregnancy if apparation was done correctly, it was still considered a risk she should avoid. “I have meant to,” she admitted. “Poppy gave me a list of names to check with. I think Oddpick might have been on it.” She frowned. “What kind of chatty do you mean?”

“Good, then this will be over quickly don’t you worry. Though I’d recommend against coming back here, the trail is probably what’s stressing you out.” Plus, her work as a character witness was pretty much done. The best thing would probably be having her in bed rest for the rest of the day, but he’d need a second opinion in that. 

“He’s annoying,” Mirek said bluntly, before remembering who he was talking to and quickly trying to correct it. “He’s not a bad guy, but he talks a lot. About any topic. Some people find it comforting, I guess. But he’s a good healer, I can see why he’d be recommended.” They finally reached the fireplace, where he offered his hand to Daisy so she’d step in without worrying about her balance. 

“I mean, half wrong is half right.” Rowan shrugged, though even he didn’t believe that. Thing was he didn’t believe the Prophet either, and that one people seemed to take as gospel. “Aspirin’s a muggle medicine, you can buy it in any shop. It was originally made from brewing willow bark, but they’ve probably got some chemical version now. It, um, thins the blood, I think. They use it for aches and pains. My da was, um, he was a wizard but he worked as a muggle chemist.”

Mirek decided to ignore Rowan’s first comment, because just the thought of putting together a list of reasons why that mentality fucked people over constantly, he felt like going back to Russia. Not home, mind you, but straight to Siberia, off to live as a hermit until his brain froze and he didn’t have to think of the Quibbler ever again. “That sounds practical. Muggle chemistry is at a good moment right now, right? They’ve figured a lot of interesting things out.”

“Oh, really? I’ll need to keep that in mind for the next time I’m wondering if it’s too late to pay you a visit.” While Cas flirted with just about anything that was legal and breathing, it didn’t mean there was any intent to and that was certainly the case with Mirek. Not even a blind man could deny that Mirek was attractive, but Cas didn’t so much as glance away from his paper to see Mirek’s reaction to his flirting, utterly unconcerned with how Mirek was responding. Unless he got embarrassed, because that would be entertaining and seemed to be turning into a rare prize lately.

“You remember that you’re younger than I am, don’t you? You still have the time to enjoy your twenties, if you want. I can even take you out for a night on the town to cause trouble if you need a push out of the nest. Or the brewery, whatever.” Really, Mirek made it sound like Cas wasn’t also interested in potions and didn’t spend a good chunk of his time doodling, either on people or on paper. Still, trying to derail Mirek’s line of questioning instead of denying it would work better for making Mirek think he was imagining things as Cas mentally reviewed just what percentage of his hook-ups lately dealt with the same person.

Cas wasn’t even looking up from the newspaper, which was a bit offensive to Mirek. Not that he’d ever want to anything with Cas, but not being a novelty anymore was a bit tragic. It made thinking of comebacks harder, at least. It felt less like a game and more like a chore. Even more so when he couldn’t just imply intercourse with Cas’ mother whenever he was uninspired. He finally settled for a boring. "The door is always open.” 

“Ew, I am? How old are you?” Not that he thought that Cas would ever stop being his wonderful self, but all of his energy and disposition to be annoying spoke of a younger soul. If you asked Mirek, at least. But then again, Mirek had always been an old person at heart, even it wasn’t until he realized he might not live to be an old person that he realized it. “So then, all this is, like, a midlife crisis thing? Like, you serial date and buy magic carpets and join organizations because your old friends are now boring parents?”

“You don’t actually want to piss. You just want me to go back there because of that strip club. We have a schedule, asshole.”

“[ dialogue equivalent of the following emojis because I can’t write cas for shit:😆😈 🤪😈🤤😈😎😈🤜😈🍆😈]”

“Ugh, you’re the worst.” *Turns the car arround.*

The air left Daisy lungs in a rather quick sigh of relief, and for a moment she smiled up at Mirek without any reminders of why things should be awkward between them. Too soon that feeling was replaced with awkwardness and even a sense of shame that Daisy didn’t think she deserved when she hadn’t known. She hadn’t been any sort of other woman, just a woman Walden felt worthy of becoming single to pursue. But what could she said about all this anyway? I’m sorry he left you when he met me? That sounded so callous. I’m sorry I gave an adorable little Spanish speaking Scotsman a chance? No need to remind Mirek. No, she didn’t think she could bring up anything at all. How could she?

Daisy cleared her throat and nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.” No matter how awkward she felt, the safety of her child had to come first. Just because things should be fine didn’t mean an exam was unnecessary. “I actually don’t have a regular healer at St. Mungo’s,” she admitted. “Poppy Pomfrey at the school has been seeing to most of my needs, and I’ve seen whoever is available when I’ve gone in. We’d met to arrange a regular healer to see things through to the birth during the second trimester, but with all this going on, I hadn’t gotten there.”

Really, Daisy was an annoying concept, but from what he’d heard and seen she was a nice human being. And sometimes, when he was feeling objective, he knew not being in a relationship with Walden had done wonders for his spy work, and not having to break up with him in an angsty “I don’t want to hurt you” way was also great. They were happy, and Mirek wasn’t, but when had he ever been? When had he actively tried to be? Really, Daisy had unknowingly made his life easier, even if it was more boring and more depressing at times. Even if that meant things were undoubtedly awkward. The kind of awkward that won’t stop being awkward by adressing it. “You think you can stand up, or should I carry you?” Awkwardness was a small price to pay in exchange of not getting Murdered by Walden for not taking care of Daisy correctly. 

“Anyone qualified for Quidditch wounds is undoubtedly qualified to help with a birth, but you guys should check someone else out.” Really, working Hogwarts Hospital wing must mean the woman is up to anything, and yet most of her work would be brewing headache potions. That would probably be Mirek’s dream job, dealing with protagonic healers was getting annoying.  “I’ve heard healer Oddpick has helped with some births in Hogsmeade, he’s pretty experienced, a bit chatty, though.”

Poppy had warned Daisy that she should avoid too much excitement, especially when she’d gotten light-headed teaching a few times and had to sit the rest of the lesson. Still, the circus of a trial wasn’t something Daisy had been able to miss. She’d testified yesterday as a character witness, although part of her still disliked the look on the lawyer’s face when he realized there was a pregnant woman willing to help him with emotional appeal. It made Daisy feel a bit like her baby was being used, but baby or not, she had known Alex for a long time and could even speak to him at Ilvermorny.

Today she had meant to just be emotional support, one more friendly face in the stands. When everything went crazy through arguments, Daisy had been standing on the edge fretting. She hadn’t paid attention to her headache or the slowly creeping dark at the edge of her vision until it was too late.

Slowly Daisy became aware of the world around her. The sound wasn’t as extreme as it had been, and she wasn’t sore as she started to shift. She never would have expected, however, to blink awake and find Mirek Yaxley of all people looking down at her. “What? I-” Daisy trailed off, looking around the lobby and thankfully finding it less full than it had been before. Her cheeks burned as she put the pieces together.

“Did I faint?” she asked. Her eyes widened as she thought of the baby, and Daisy held tight to her stomach. “Oh my god, did I fall forward? Is the baby okay? Please tell me the baby’s okay.” Her voice had dropped to a near-whisper as she stared up, pleading with her husband’s ex-boyfriend. Perhaps some people would have found it ironic, but Daisy had bigger concerns.

New mothers were always nervous about things that weren’t that big a deal, but while that usually peeved Mirek off, but even in this nerve-wrecking situation, Daisy was being pretty reasonable, which he couldn’t help but appreciate. “The person behind you caught you, you didn’t hit your head or your womb. o the baby should be perfectly fine.”  He was going to leave it there. Partly because this was awkward, partly because he was sure there wasn’t a problem. But this was Walden’s wife, with Walden’s kid, and he wanted to make sure they were okay, just in case. “Is this the first time you’ve fainted since the pregnancy started?”

“But I can give you a checkup at Mungo’s… if you want.” Wanting to help someone you’d rather avoid was pretty awkward, but in this sort of circumstance, Mirek couldn’t really be his usual avoidant self in good conscience. “Who’s your healer? Maybe I can take up for them if you’d rather see someone that knows you guys better.” 

“But you get hilariously wound up when I do, and it’s still worth the giggles.” Walden said with a smile. Things between Mirek and himself had been… strained ever since he’d told him about the baby. Some part of him knew that he ought to leave Mirek alone, give him more time and space. Honestly he had tried, he had. Walden just didn’t have many people left that he trusted that weren’t in jail. 

The baby news had been much harder to process than Walden’s wedding. Probably because a living human was much harder to avoid than an eight hour long social event he didn’t want to be invited to. He’d initially thought of avoiding the McNairs for the rest of his days, but with the birth nearing, there was a chance Walden would be too occupied with parenthood to make Mirek anxiously laugh at comments like ‘still worth it’, so he could probably hold out a little longer. “Nope. Now I’ll have to send another letter to the editor. You’ve just ruined my weekend plans, McNair.”