Xander strolled into the mansion and dropped his bookbag.
The sounds of a Irish harp, sweet
and plaintive caught his ear. That could mean only
one thing: his sweetie was homesick. He
found Angelus curled up on the sofa reading _More Celtic
Fairy Tales_ to Xavy. He was half-
way through "Jack the Cunning Thief." The smell
of something baking came from the kitchen.
Xander leaned over and kissed him, breaking his reading. "What's cooking?"
"Soda bread and Donegal pie."
"What's with the sudden outburst of ethnicity, Deadboy?
I like the music, but aren't we
overdoing the ‘more Irish than thou' thing?"
Angelus set Xavy in front of the TV and turned on the
VCR, grabbing the first video that came
to hand. "We need to talk, my love," he said quietly.
He took Xander's arm and escorted him
back to the study as _Riverdance_ filled the living room.
"Xander, this is very difficult for me. I'm homesick.
I want to go back to Ireland. Not
permanently, but for a visit. I know it won't be
as I left it, but I want to see it again. I want you
and Xavy to climb the Hill of Tara. I want to picnic
on the heath under the moon. I want to
show you the fairy forts, and the crags, and Sugarloaf
mountain." He dug in the desk drawer and
pulled out some travel brochures. "I thought if
you wanted to, we could go in October. You'll
take a semester off, we'll register Xavy as a homeschooler
for that semester. In the fall, the sun
rises late and sets early. And the weather is still
fairly mild, if cool and damp."
"Vacation? October?" Xander wasn't processing the words. "Home-school?" he squeaked.
"He's going to be in second grade. Not a terribly
vital year. We'll buy some textbooks and
teach him, plus the travel itself will be educational.
C'mon, sweetheart, say yes."
The thought of travel excited Xander. He'd been
a few places, LA, Tiajuana, San Francisco, and
once, before Xavy was born, to Las Vegas. "Let's
go. Can you make the arrangements?"
"All of them, except turning in some paperwork."
He pulled Xander close and started ticking
off the requirements. "If we're going, we
need to start planning. First: passports for all of us.
I'll travel in a coffin in the hold. Can't risk
the sunlight. Irish money. New clothes, traveler's
cheques, luggage, textbooks..."
"Papa," piped a small voice at the door. "Is the oven supposed to be smoking?"
"Dinner!" yelped Angelus, dashing from the room.
"Hi Dad," said Xavy, coming over for a hug. "Are
we going? Going to see Papa's home? Can I
catch a leprechaun?"
"We're going, Xavy. We'll see everything.
And if you catch a leprechaun, you have to hold him
tight and not take your eyes off him a second."
"I know. Papa told me he caught one. But just
as the creature," Xavy said it ‘cray-tcher,' "was
about to tell him where the gold was, his good friend
Kevin called to him and he looked away.
All he was holding was an old stick. Can I have
riverdance lessons?" Xavy bounced to his feet
and gave a good imitation of the step-dancing.
Xander laughed a little.
"We'll see. Not too many places are teaching step-dancing
these days, the craze has pretty well
died out."
"Xand, Xavy, how do you feel about Chinese take out?"
Angelus asked sheepishly from the
door. He held a cookie sheet with a dark brown
lump and a scorched pie.
"Egg drop soup and pork lo mein for me!" Xavy cheered.
"And egg rolls and crab rangoon and
lots of tea and a fortune cookie!" He ran to get
his sneakers.
"All the dancing makes him hungry," Xander said.
"Is there anyplace still doing step-dancing
these days?"
"We'll find out. I called Panda Garden and they're
expecting us. And thank you for saying yes."
Angelus wrapped an arm around Xander and kissed him softly.
"I just want you to be happy. And it sounds like
fun. Er, could we pitch the soda bread, or does
it make a good doorstop?"
Angelus laughed, kissing his lover again, and together
they went out, turning off the Chieftains
CD, collecting their son, and talking of Chinese food
and travel.
Slayerettes are packing their bags for the trip.