Not Him... The Other One

“Somehow I am positive that’s not true.” Peter frowned at the change in mood. “For who? Kaylor’s kids?” He thought he remembered meeting the hellions at some point and Aries having a part in their childhood made sense.

“Cheers.” He smirked and carefully grabbed his glass to take a sip.

“Maybe,“ he shrugged. “Ronan and Kaylor and a few of their mentees that had children too. Kaylor and Bee’s oldest girl is older than I am. She had them when she was 4 or something.“ He joked.

Peter snorted. “You do? Why is this the first time any child has been put in your care in the entire time I’ve known you?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.”

“Your guess is as good as mines.” Duke scratched the back of his head and shrugged. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about his curse and how his family believed it was coming to an end. “Aries and I were always stuck babysitting.”

Peter looked at her sleeping peacefully and sighed. “Well that’s never been in the cards for me; I put that dream to rest a while ago.”His next comment brought a wide smile to his face. “But think of all the ways you could use that excuse to get away from Anonymous.”

“Thank God,“ Duke sighed. “Coming from a large family, I’ve never seen myself as the father but I enjoy being the cousin and hopefully an uncle.“

“Hey now, don’t take this away from me.” He joked, while carefully dropping down on a chair; mindful of not waking the little warlock. “I’ll take one out of two.”

“You’d make a great father,“ Duke smiled, he never wanted kids but his cousin look great in Peter’s arms. “Let's not tell Ronan or Ishtar. We’ll never have a free day to ourselves.“

@ his and Duke’s home

“I think it’s a good sign that they like me. Or maybe they’re just exhausted.”

“It’s either that or they were threatened to a week worth of sleep from their father.“ Duke smirked. “I think Tayla took a liking to you but Altair is a little more reserved.“ He gestured to the other kid sleeping on their couch. 

Peter dropped down into the spot and rested his free arm on top of the couch next to Duke. He took a large swill of his beer as he tried to place the movie. “Have we seen this before? That girl looks familiar.”

“I don’t think so but yeah girl does look familiar,“ Duke agreed tilting his head to the side for a better look. “I think she might be on that TV series we started a few months back.“

“Yeah, and I’m Titania queen of the fairies,” he joked sarcastically. 

“Nice to remake your acquaintance, Titania. I knew Owayne didn’t fit you correctly.“ Duke winked with a straight face.

“I actually don’t know what it is. I just turned on the TV, it was already on and playing.“ Duke said, patting the seat next to him as he continued to watch the movie playing.

Assignment Prompt 

“Or we could go sit in the back, not scare any customers and let Simone and Selene deal with everyone. Or I don’t know get Garrett to come behind the bar to do shots instead of being by the door.”

“I’m too old for this shit, Peter!“ Duke growled, turning on his heels and making a beeline for their office which was in the back. 

@ Anonymous

“This is a craft brew, I’m not putting green dye in it.” He set the stout in front of the person with a stare, challenging them to say anything. 

Duke pulled on the back of Peter’s shirt to get him away from the customer that looked like they were about to say something they would regret. “If you’re not calm, I’m not calm. If I’m not calm, I’m tossing people. If I’m tossing people out, we’re not making money and I have to start sending people home... Are you seeing where this is leading?” Duke explained, already having a shit time himself.

“Okay.” Talia looked away and straightened the pens and papers on the desk. “Never mind that. Do you want me to visit every night, every other night?”

“Every other night.“

“Alright but just know I see right through this innocent act,” he chuckled, rather  amused. 

“I am nothing but innocent.“

“Do you think that we are going to get very many people in here tonight?”

“Maybe a few of those that aren’t affected by the extreme weather.“

“He does share his tips, he’s given me some before. He’s a great coworker as well, nothing horrible has happened.”

“Okay.“ Duke nodded. He couldn’t fire Garrett if he wanted to. He never hired him anyways.

“Oh I think you know exactly what you said,”

“Oh,” Duke eyebrow shot up but he continued to play dumb. “If you say so.”