(A/N): We're back with Leo, Lisbet, Jerremyah, Shari, Herc, and Grey. Oh, and my favorite little surprise visitor! Happy Christmas Eve, everyone!

Leo

The silencing charm was cancelled out the second we opened my bedroom door, but by the ruckus I heard coming from the kitchen, I was guessing that our reappearance was the least interesting thing happening right now. There was music- some kind of catchy Latin thing, and the singing to accompany it- the banging and clanging of cookware, as I assume someone was occupying themselves by making a mostly unnecessary breakfast, and some sort of... weird hooting noise?

As I reached the bottom of the stairs leading into the kitchen- just before, actually, since I could see over Lisbet's head rather easily- I saw Shari sitting on one of the kitchen counters, clearly too tired to be able to help Herc cook; Grey was sitting at the table reading a book but also tapping his foot to the beat, and Herc- yes, cooking- and singing along to the music. Looking around for the source of the hooting, I found a smaller, rounder owl perched on the windowsill, bopping randomly as if it was trying to dance to the rhythm, but wasn't quite sure what a rhythm was. As it saw me, its big yellow eyes widened, and it took a step forward on its spindly little bird legs... only to tip off the windowsill, and tumble into the- thankfully empty- sink.

"Oh, Lord..." I said, quickly moving to scoop the poor bird out of the sink, only to be obstructed by the bedding in my arms. "Uh... help?" Jerremyah came over to me, bundling his share of my bedding under one arm, and I tried to step aside to give him access to the sink- but instead of grabbing the bird, he purloined my burden out of my arms. When I shot him an odd look for it, he shrugged.

"I don't like birds- don't trust 'em. I'll leave the avian rescue to you... looks like it's got your name on it, anyway." I felt my brow furrow, but when I checked the envelope, I found that it did, in fact, carry my name.

Not recognising the handwriting, I took a deep breath in- Oh, God, was that me? Ugh... I needed to shower, like, immediately. Beyond the stench of my sweat and undeniable body odor- brought on by the nightmare, no doubt- there was a familiar, albeit unexpected, scent. Two, actually. "Okay, first of all, why did neither of you tell me I smell like twelve-day-old rancid onions- and second of all, it's from Audrey, I think." Jerremyah appeared confused, and I couldn't tell if it was because of my comment about my body odor, or because he didn't remember who Audrey was.

"First of all," He said, clearly mimicking me. "We can't smell your natural aroma over your more... emotion-related scents, right now." What? Oh. Oh. So they could all-? Oh. Well. All the more reason to shower as soon as possible- although now I knew that even showering wouldn't really help, since such a strong emotional scent wouldn't go away completely, after just one shower. "Second of all- why is Elaine's mother sending you a letter?" Oh, so he did remember who Audrey was. "She doesn't normally do that, does she? Just judging by your surprise, and the fact that you didn't recognise the bird."

Reluctantly, I shook my head, and now that the bird in my arms had calmed down a little- well, it was back to hooting to the music, but it wasn't floundering anymore- I untied the letter from its leg, and set the poor thing in the middle of the table, next to Greygorry. "Watch that, will you? Make sure it doesn't try to throw itself to its death?" He put his book down and eyed the bird far more solemnly than I expected him to. "Uh... thanks, I guess. For... taking the job seriously." He shrugged, and I turned back to Lisbet and Jerremyah. "Let's go... put that stuff in the machine, and then hopefully, I'll have the time to shower before breakfast is ready." I glanced at Herc over my shoulder, but his only response was to wave at me with a metal spatula.

"We'll use a stasis charm, worst comes to worst," Lisbet said, and when I looked at her to flash her a smile, I saw the curious concern on her face- and oddly enough, I knew exactly what it was about.

"I'd prefer to shower than do my laundry by hand- hm... speaking of which, I should probably wait until after I shower to put it on, so I can wash these clothes. Then again... the bedding's probably two loads anyway. Hmm..."

Lisbet's left eyebrows twitched upward, ever so slightly. "Sweetheart," She said, and I perked up at the term of endearment. "You're overthinking this." Add laundry to the list, then... heh- it was a literal 'laundry list'. "We'll put one load on, you'll shower, we'll put a second load on, have breakfast, then if we have to, we'll do a third. It's just laundry." She looked like she would've rather liked to cup my cheek right now, but she was weighed down by bedding as well, so she just settled for an almost painfully tender expression. "It's just laundry."

And in the end, that's really all it was; we dropped everything on one of the benches in the mud room so we could run the first cycle, and then I went upstairs to shower. It was a long, hot shower with as much soap as I could feasibly handle, in an attempt to try to get rid of- or at least deaden- the smell of my nightmare, and when I got out, I felt a lot better... especially after I dressed in my warmest, comfiest clothes that weren't out-and-out loungewear; just in case something in Audrey's letter drove me to need to go over there, or I wanted to do something other than laze around the house today- like train. Once I returned downstairs, I put the second load of washing on, this time including my pyjamas, and sat down at the dining table for breakfast.

This morning, the only person not eating the human food was Shari, but I couldn't tell if they were all just eating because too much food had been made, and they didn't want it to go to waste, or because breakfast truly was the most important meal of the day. I paused to open Audrey's letter part way through, and when I turned my attention back to my plate, I could've sworn it was fuller than when I left it- but I figured if Lisbet was intent on piling food on my plate, she wasn't going to get mad at me when I inevitably didn't finish it all, so I let it slide, and luxuriated in far more food than I should have. In fact, the only reason I chose to start reading the letter when I did, a little later, was because I'd been running out of bacon, and knew being visibly distracted was a surefire way to end up with more- even if the only slices left were already on Jerremyah's plate.

Dear Leo,

My daughter- her name's Elaine, you may know her-

Oh. Now I know where Elaine got her sense of humor from- as if there was ever any doubt.

told me to address you with any concerns I may have. Well... here I am. Addressing you. Literally. I wasn't quite sure how else to get in contact with you- the necklaces seemed a bit extreme for something like this, and I thought going outside and yelling into the trees for any vampire that might listen would be a bit of a tip-off, for Jay.

Yeah, maybe a little bit of a hint, there. And even so, Jo and Danniel would've had to run home to fetch me, anyway, so really, a letter was the best option. But... what sort of concerns did Audrey have?

I should be clear, it's not a safety concern,

Well, that was a relief.

but it is a... well, it's an issue of guilt, really.

Huh?

I expressed as much to Elaine, and she instructed me to ask you or Lisbet to advise me on the matter.

Maybe I should just hand the letter to Lisbet now, then, since I really wasn't the person anyone should go to for advice.

You're young. A teenager.

Thanks for the reminder, Audrey.

You told me Jo and Daniel aren't much older, and I feel bad that you all feel the need to protect someone my age.

Why? Did she think a person's right to feel safe was contingent on their age?

I want to do something for you all in return, to repay you for watching over my family- but seeing as I have no idea how I might go about doing that, I thought it best to ask you directly.

This, I understood- that desperate need to not feel indebted to someone, even if they've only given you a basic human right, as you deserved. The problem was, there was nothing I could ask Audrey for that could come anywhere close to the gift she'd already unwittingly provided me- Elaine's very existence.

I don't know what you might have need of, other than the obvious,

Uh... that wasn't a pointed remark about me drinking from Elaine, was it?

but I want to help. Let me know if I can?

Thank you,

Audrey

PS: I was considering telling you that I know you're not simply half-vampire, but I fear saying that sort of thing in a postscript would be a bit insensitive. Thoughts?

Oh, she- God, she might actually be funnier than Elaine, if a little scarier. I set the letter to the side, and eyed my once again suspiciously full plate. "So, Audrey knows I'm not just half-vampire," I said, and Lisbet froze mid-chew. Then, slowly, she swallowed and set her cutlery to the side.

"Is that... going to be a problem?" I shrugged and slid the letter over to her, which she seemed slightly surprised by.

"Other than giving me a mini heart attack with her sense of humor, I'm going to take a leap and say 'no'- but she does want your advice." She blinked at me, then continued reading the letter- and I assumed, when she rolled her eyes, she'd reached that part of the letter.

"No," She said. "She asked you to advise her-"

I cut her off with the biggest, most shit-eating grin I could muster, and she seemed temporarily stunned by the sight of it. "It's called 'delegating', Lis- maybe you've heard of it?"

(A/N): Leo: 'Make sure the owl doesn't yeet itself off of the table, okay?'

Greygorry: 'I am all that stands between life and death for this poor creature, which clearly doesn't possess a single thought behind its eyes, nor ever has.'

Cecil: * ~0v0~ *

Cecil: 'They call me Cuban Pete! I'm the King of the rumba beat!'

So when Lisbet says they'll use a stasis charm on Leo's breakfast, if worst comes to worst, she means something similar to the spell Danniel used in 'Big Brother, Little Brother' (Manere Frigus), that can be used to keep food at the correct temperature, as well as other things.

So, apparently, the 'most important meal of the day' thing is just propaganda by Big Breakfast (particularly John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg's fame, who is... well, um, YEAH, and Edward Bernays, who worked for the Beech-Nut company... and was apparently Sigmund Freud's nephew, so... yeah...), but it was a popular notion at the time this part of the story takes place, so, here we are. (TLDR: Breakfast is a meal like any other, for some people it's healthy to eat a big breakfast, for other it's healthier to skip. These are vampires, they can handle a big breakfast like the one depicted here.)

Also, the bacon was on Jerremyah's plate- Jerremyah being on one side of Leo. Lisbet was on the other side of Leo, so you would think, if she tried to reach over Leo to steal Jerremyah's bacon to put it on Leo's plate, Leo would have noticed, right? He would have- but he didn't, because it wasn't Lisbet giving him the bacon... it was Jerremyah himself. Sneaky sneaky.

I thought it might be more realistic if Audrey misspelled Danniel's name, given that she's only ever heard it said, rather than written- and Danniel (with two n's) is the far less popular spelling of the name. But then I realised- since Elaine has mentioned Danniel in a letter to her mother (when she explained that she'd 'met' Danniel and Jo, briefly), Audrey WOULD know how to spell Danniel's name, so I left that line out. It was basically just Leo saying that he wasn't surprised that she misspelled it, because the extra 'n' could be 'a real bitch'.

You may have seen me use both 'half vampire' and 'half-vampire' at various points throughout the story. To me, they mean two different things- which I will, invariably, mess up at some point and use the wrong one. But what I WANT them to mean is: 'half vampire', someone who is half of a vampire. 'Half-vampire', someone who is designated as being half vampire. Basically, Herc is a half-vampire, who is half vampire, and half human. Leo is a half-vampire, who is half vampire, quarter human, and quarter veela. (+the same sort of thing happening with the veela stuff). If that makes any sense. Maybe it should technically be 'one half vampire'/'one quarter veela'? IDK.