[thd] the lost sky [elias]

september 2001

The nausea still hadn’t left her. She was nearly halfway through this whole ordeal and still getting morning sickness. Well, to be more precise, any-time-of-day sickness. She was positively rubbish at brewing potions, but so far nothing that anyone had been able to make for her had actually helped, so she was going to the extremes. Of course, she hadn’t necessarily exhausted her resources, but she couldn’t very well ask her potioneer cousins to make her something for morning sickness if she still wasn’t telling any Regans she was pregnant. So far, it was just her, Oliver, and Alex that knew. It was probably almost time to start telling other people, but for now, Quinn’s usual wardrobe of loose fitting blouses in flowy materials was doing the work for her.

This child was already zapping her of all of her energy, and she hadn’t even laid eyes on it yet. As soon as Quinn had come to the part in the instructions to “Leave for an hour,” she took the chance to lay down on the couch in the next room. She had been using Oliver’s kitchen, of course, knowing that brewing anything in her own house would just leave a lingering smell that only she would react poorly to. This was really her only option.

But she was forgetful, too. Instead of a regular alarm to end her nap, Quinn awoke with a start, sitting up quickly and trying to figure out what that explode-y sound was. It took her two seconds to realize that the explode-y sound was an actual explosion and she looked to the kitchen with a look of horror on her face before managing to convince herself to get herself off the couch and into the kitchen to take care of her mess.

@Elias Dörfler

Quinn was around a lot these days, and Elias had taken to spending his time at home in his bedroom. When Edith was around, it wasn't so bad, but long stretches of time alone tended to drive him a bit mad. He'd been upstairs for nearly two hours, looking over a report he had brought home for some extra weekend work, and had nearly finished reading when a loud explosion made him jump. The sound had come from downstairs, and though Elias hardly wanted to insert himself into anything Quinn and Oliver might be up to down there, he felt he really ought to investigate.

He hurried down the steps that led to the shared spaces of the apartment, looking out over the room for a sign of the disturbance. Quinn was sprawled over their brown leather sofa, looking a bit disoriented. Another bang resounded through the apartment and Quinn seemed to start, pushing herself up into a seating position.

"What's going on? Where's Oliver?" he called to her in alarm, torn between the desire to grab her hand and make sure she was alright (she looked a bit white, if he was being honest) and the concern he had for whatever was happening in the next room. He decided the explosion was a higher priority, as long as Quinn was currently safe, and looked through the doorway to the kitchen to see a pink and pasty-looking potion covering the entire kitchen. "What happened?" he asked again, completely thrown off by the mess covering his normally spotless kitchen.

How had she forgotten that Elias was home? It was always sort of a given, but why did she have to practically destroy his kitchen while he was on the premises? So much for the luck of the Irish. She ignored his questions, still keen to investigate the rest of her potion-making disaster and to stop her head from spinning from standing up so quickly. “I think I forgot to stir it after an hour.” Quinn lifted a finger to point to the remnants of a small countertop cauldron, which appeared to have both exploded and melted simultaneously.

She took a careful step into the kitchen, pulling out her wand to start cleaning up, hoping Elias wouldn’t give her too much grief for the mess. She’d clean it up, or at least stall until Oliver got back and then work on convincing him to do it for her. She remembered Elias’s question then, and offered a casual “Oliver’s in Italy.” She shrugged, deciding it wasn’t important to mention that what he was picking up was gelato, a reddish-pink and green concoction that tasted like strawberries and basil. She couldn’t explain why she wanted it but knew they wouldn’t be able to find it in London and she wasn’t about to apparate or floo all the way there.

But as she stepped farther into the kitchen, the smell hit her nose. Her free hand flew up to cover both her nose and mouth as she held back any adverse reaction to the stench. “Oh that’s foul,” she muttered, chancing a glance towards her friend. “I’m so sorry.” She was no longer feeling embarrassed or upset by the whole thing, but rather quite taken aback that she could feel bad for doing this at all.

Quinn moved past him into the kitchen, and Elias was thankful to see her draw her wand. He didn't mind having Quinn around, not even when he remembered how often he was restricted to certain rooms or how little the pair of them seemed to hang out anymore. In the end, she seemed happy with Oliver, and he took pleasure in knowing he had played a large roll in that. But even so, it was a relief to see her taking some responsibility for the mess, given she had been the one to start brewing a hot pink potion in his kitchen and then abandon it.

"He -- what?" Elias looked at her in confusion, wondering if he had somehow confused the Quidditch season. Was there some kind of scrimmage match with another league? That really seemed like the kind of thing Oliver would have told him about. But once again, before he could figure out the situation, his attention was redirected. Elias looked at her in confusion, wondering what she was referencing. The potion that was covering his normally sparkling-white kitchen was hardly the scent of flowers, but it really was giving off nothing worse than a faint odor of burn. Was this a way of trying to get out of cleaning up? In the end, he felt it wasn't worth arguing over. "You go, then. I will clean," he told her, before beginning to sweep his wand back and forth over the room. The potion vanished slowly, but after a few minutes he had managed to clear the surfaces.

Elias pulled a green cup from the cabinet and filled it with water before bringing it back out to Quinn, who still wasn't looking her best. "Are you alright?" he asked rather seriously.

“Oh, no, really I can do it,” Quinn reassured him, but she was still speaking from behind her hand, her other hand clenching the handle of her wand tightly. But Elias was already working around her, tidying up the mess that she had made in their apartment all because of her lack of skill in anything off the pitch and she felt the now all too familiar burning in her eyes as they brimmed with tears. That was certainly not what she had been trying to accomplish.

She took a step back and leaned against the cabinets, the nausea slowly starting to subside and her eyes finally getting the message that she wouldn’t be crying in front of Elias today. She took the cup from him silently, offering a slow nod before she took a sip of the water. “Yes,” she added a verbal confirmation, trying to ignore the look of worry on his face. It was bad enough that he was cleaning up after her but now to be all kind and caring? He was just making this worse. Maybe this was a good a time as any for her to tell him about the pregnancy. She and Oliver had discussed telling him together, but he was her friend first, wasn’t he? And she was the pregnant one, so really she ought to get to decide who knew and how they knew it.

But it was too many conflicting emotions at once apparently and before she could decide one way or the other, a butterfly escaped from the tip of her wand, large and orange and black. She stared at it for a second with wide eyes, not fully connecting the dots between her feelings and her unplanned magic. When it dawned on her a few seconds later, it just made her situation all the more frustrating.

Pointing her wand at the butterfly, Quinn cast a vanishing charm, only to be left in shock yet again when the one butterfly turned into two, then two to four, and so on and so on until the freshly pristine kitchen was getting clouded by butterflies.

He wanted to believe that she was alright, but there was something about the lack of eye contact that made him feel sure she wasn't telling him something. He knew, deep down, that she was under no obligation to tell him anything at all. But still, he couldn't help feeling a bit sad about it all the same. They had never been best friends, it was true, but she was around often enough that he had liked to think they were quite close these days. They had spent a few evenings chatting in her kitchen even before she had started seriously dating his roommate. He certainly cared about her a great deal, just as he did with any of his friends.

His suspicions were confirmed when a butterfly sprouted from the tip of her wand. He blinked in surprise, unsure for a moment that he hadn't just imagined the whole thing. He was speechless as the butterfly began to multiply, and it took him a moment to realize that Quinn's wand was still pointed at the thing. "Out, out," he urged her, grabbing her by the shoulders as they were effectively chased from the room by the swarming cloud of insects. Standing in the doorway, he waved his wand again and again, doing his best to vanish the butterflies. The spell wasn't one of his fortes, but eventually the room was once again restored to order. What a chaotic evening this was turning out to be.

Elias turned on his heel and marched Quinn back over to the sofa where she had been sitting. "What," he started, putting particular emphasis on the word so that she would know he wasn't messing around this time. "Is going on?"

Merlin almighty, what on earth was happening? She had never conjured butterflies before, neither on accident nor on purpose, and she certainly hadn’t multiplied them before either. But thankfully, Elias’s head was screwed on just a bit tighter than hers at the moment and he shooed her out of the room. She was on the verge of tears again, but that problem was solved yet again by Elias sitting her down firmly and she let herself fall into place on the couch, her emotions quickly turning the corner away from tears.

She wanted to be mad that Elias was practically scolding her, but she was still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened with the horde of butterflies. This was a mess, an absolute, no buts around it, mess. Quinn sighed and buried her face in her hands, not wanting to see the look on Elias’s face when she told him what she was about to tell him, fairly sure that the look would be a smug one whether or not she could see it.

Staring down at the floor, Quinn heaved a dramatic sigh and spoke without picking her head up or moving her hands to unmuffle her sounds. “I’m pregnant.” It was easier to say it this time, especially now that she had told Oliver, Alex, and her mother, but that didn’t change the gravity with which she said it. She peeked up and through her fingers when she didn’t hear immediate congratulations but she was thoroughly pleased to find a smile on his face. She could worry about being wrong about the anticipated reaction later.

When Quinn buried her face in her hands, Elias braced himself for the worst. Surely something dreadful had happened: a break-up, a death, the loss of a job...the ideas poured into his head so quickly that Elias was flooded by worry before he had even given Quinn a chance to speak. There was something in her posture that suggested utter defeat; that in combination with the absurd displays of magic she had thus far demonstrated made him quite sure that whatever was going on, it was bad news. He was on the verge of wrapping an arm tightly around her when she finally spoke.

It took a moment for Elias to register what she had said, but as the words sunk in a smile slowly crept over his face. Two of his friends, having a child together? This would surely mean Quinn was moving in, that there would be a wedding, and then, best of all, a sweet little child that he had played a role in bringing into the world. It was hard to see what on earth she was so upset about.

"That's wonderful!" He grinned down at his friend, trying to figure out why she was sounding so dejected. But then, a horrible thought occurred to him. "But -- " he hesitated, wondering whether he dared ask the question on his mind. "Rather, Oliver knows, of course? It is...his?"

Quinn had been so close to smiling, to accepting his words of praise and offering some of her own in return, hormonal enough to maybe offer him thanks for setting her and Oliver up in the first place. So. Damn. Close. But then he had to ask that question, the question that seemed to keep popping up every time she made this announcement. They all seemed so interested in this baby’s paternity, first Alex, then Oliver, and now Elias, skipping right to that question before asking if she felt okay, if perhaps she needed anything considering the depth of the news. She dropped her hands from her face, blinking in quick succession as she willed herself to keep this conversation as civil as possible.

Plus, her wand was sitting on the table and Elias was just a tad closer to it than she was.

She took a deep breath. “No,” she started slowly, building up the suspense as best as she could. “The baby is yours.” She repeated the answer she had given Oliver, naming the man across from her as the father with a grand roll of her eyes. She hesitated for a second before adding an exasperated “Of course it’s Oliver’s.” She sighed, waving her hand through the air at nothing in particular. “You know better than anyone else how often we’re,” she brought her hands together in front of her, interlocking her fingers and catching Elias’s eye as she added, “together.” She dropped her hands with a shrug before leaning back to sink into the sofa cushions.

“I would love to not regret telling you, you know.” She was no longer upset, once more close to smiling, feeling much better now that one more person knew and seemed at least somewhat pleased with this whole thing.

Even though Elias knew full well that she was being ridiculous, the words still made him tense. He knew perfectly well that it was impossible for Quinn to be pregnant with his child, but the thought of what Oliver and Edith (and really anyone) would say was so horrible he couldn’t help cringing at the thought. Although -- and he hated himself for even thinking it -- his parents would probably be less upset about that than some of the other news he would eventually have to share with them.

“Well,” said Elias, looking delicately away from her gesturing hands, “you could be a bit happier about it, then.” After all, even if the pregnancy was an accident, it was sort of an amazing thing. Even if it wasn’t really the proper way to be going about things, at least Quinn was moving forward in her life.

In response to her quip, Elias leaned over on the sofa and pulled her into a tight hug. “Oh, you will not be sorry you told me.” He already had ideas of how to be the best help he could to his two friends over the next few months. Once Oliver got home, he would have plenty to say to him, but until then Quinn was his priority.

“First of all, you need some rest. Clearly.” He eyed the wand that was still sitting on the table in front of them, not yet forgetting all the disasters of only a few minutes ago. He stood up, half-pulling Quinn with him to show how serious he was. "Get up to bed and I will bring you a warm drink," he promised, steering her toward the stairs before she could argue.

[out]

“I’m perfectly happy, thank you.” Quinn wasn’t about to let him tell her how to feel about things, especially since a part of her still blamed him for everything in the first place. She rolled her eyes again, but her expression softened into a smirk as she shrugged. She was happy, really. Oliver had taken the news much better than she anticipated; they had even agreed to start looking for a house together. He had the responsibility of telling that news to Elias, though. Telling him that today would surely be too many life-changing things happening all at once.

She gladly returned the hug, nodding into his shoulder as he reassured her, yet she was already making a mental list of the things she did not want Elias to interfere with. All the same, the promise of support was incredibly touching and it took every ounce of restraint that she had left not to tear up.

Quinn was prepared to argue as he told her to get some rest, but the act of standing up was more than enough to remind her how exhausted she was. She nodded slowly as she smiled to silently agree. “Tea would be nice.” She nodded again, being steered toward the stairs. “There’s a box with a big Q on it in the kitchen,” she added as an afterthought, not wanting to go into the explanations about what she could and could not drink now or why she felt perfectly comfortable keeping her own tea in the house.

“Thanks,” she lifted her hand into a wave but quickly moved it to stifle a yawn, shifting her attentions back to heading upstairs.