Potions & Charms

Swimming

The two wizards traveled to Texas to visit Scott's family and during their stay (Avi had been welcomed with open arms and lots of good food) they started working on finding Esther.

Avi was currently on the couch with his feet tucked under Scott's thighs while he held a pen and had a sheet of paper resting on a book on his legs. The baritone was holding his mother's laptop and clicked through Facebook before he switched to Whitepages.

"Here, another one. Esther Kaplan, New York. But she's 43 already, that seems a little too old."

Avriel looked up and stopped writing before he couldn't hold back a sigh and crossed out the name. "Yeah. 43 is too old. Scott, this is pointless. We will never find her that way. It's been three hours and we have two results that could be somewhat promising. But if she got married or moved away, maybe even to Canada or— I don't know, somewhere in the world, we won't have the slightest chance."

"Still, we have two. That's better than none and it's a start." Scott pushed the device away and reached out to touch Avi's knee. "We'll find her. I don't know when, I don't know how, but we'll find her."

Connie entered the living room. She was holding a tray with two cups of iced tea, plates with homemade cheesecake, additional berries and napkins. "Boys, take a break." She put it down on the coffee table and touched Avi's shoulder, rubbed it slightly. "How are you doing, Avi?" the woman asked and smiled lightly.

"Doing alright, thank you. It's just— it's exhausting." Avi returned her kind smile. He felt good with Scott's family. The first two days had been rather awkward, at least for him, but they had welcomed him with open arms and now he felt as at home with them as he felt in California. Even though Connie was a witch they lived in a rather non-magical way and neither Avi nor Scott where bothered by it. 

"I understand. Rick and I are going on a walk, there are leftovers in the fridge if you need a snack or something. We'll make dinner tonight." 

Scott smiled. "Thanks mom. Enjoy your walk." 

While Connie and Rick were out, Avi wrote letters to the two Esther Kaplans they had found on the internet. One was going to Miami, Florida, while the other one would be delivered to Seattle, Washington. Both his and Scott's owl were delivering the letters and he had written down his address in Visalia in case the women would try to get in touch with him. 

After that the two men found themselves in the backyard at the pool. Scott was coating his skin in sun protection while Avi was already close to the water and sat on the edge. He was wearing black shorts and his curls covered his shoulders while sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose. His shoulders were wide, wider than when Scott had met him, and his pale, with scars covered skin showed visible borders of where the fabric of shirts had protected other parts of him. 

"Nice tan lines!" Scott said and walked over to him. Just months ago Avi hadn't been comfortable taking off his shirt outside of his four walls, but now he was sitting on the edge of Scott's parents' pool in Texas and enjoyed the sun. 

Avi chuckled softly. "Thanks. Been working all summer on them."

"They suit you." He sat down next to his boyfriend and reached out, touched his lower back. "You good?"

"Yeah. Pretty calm at the moment. Excited to find Esther? But a little anxious too." 

Scott nodded. "Understandable" he said. "You know, if she's somewhere in Europe you might have to go there at some point."

"I know. I thought of that before. But for now I want to focus on the ones here in the States." He slipped into the water and shuddered slightly. 

Scott followed and then swam over to him. "You know, I was wondering why your parents sent you to Durmstrang."

"My family was living in Greece at that time and Durmstrang was just the closest school. My dad was a wizard and he was quite busy, he didn't really have the time to care about my education and— I don't know. Maybe things would've been different if I had attended Hogwarts, but he chose Durmstrang. Sometimes I like to think that he wasn't aware at what was happening there, just to make it easier for me to deal with it." 

"He probably would've sent you to a different school the second he had found out about everything." The tall baritone leaned against the edge of the pool and looked up at the sky. "He's your father. He wanted you to be happy." 

Avriel sighed softly before he swam up to where Scott was and joined him. "Probably. I don't know. I hope that, once we find Esther, she can answer some of the questions I have. For now I'm just enjoying being with you and your family." 

"Are you having fun? I was worried that it could be too much for you." 

"No, not at all. They're giving me a lot of space and I just— they're so easy going, Scott. Just welcoming and open and friendly. I don't have to worry about playing some kind of role for once and— it's funny, cause you're the only connection I have to what happened before I left. Aren't you struggling?"

"No, why? What kind of question is that?"

"Well, you— I'm changing. I've changed a lot, actually."

"But change isn't bad. I don't know why you're concerned about that. You're making progress and you're healing and why would I dare to punish you for that by leaving you? I still love you, Av, I will forever love you. Maybe not as much as now, or even harder and deeper, but I will always love you in some way or the other." 

Avi smiled lightly and leaned his head against Scott's shoulder. "Thank you. I hope we can settle on loving each other forever but I'm old enough to know that things can change faster than we are comfortable with. I still don't know if I'm the right person to love and to be with but I trust your judgement." 

"Yeah" Scott just said. He knew that Avi had gone through a lot, from the loss of his parents, his family, to abuse at school, to playing a role for most of his life while he struggled to handle his own memories and thoughts. But he also knew that the man was comfortable with where he was that moment, and that they would take whatever life would throw at them day by day.