The Talk [Xayden, and open]

[edwardandrews]

Edward sat quietly amongst the crowd of people that had flocked to the Three Broomsticks. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the small pub was crowded filled to the brim with students, fellow professors, and residents of the magical village, and yet the young professor paid them no mind. He was waiting for a certain someone to come and meet him at the pub so that they could sit and talk about something important.

His dark eyes glanced wearily around the room, making sure that the people that he had intended to speak to the boy about weren't anywhere near where they would be speaking, for that would more then likely ruin his plan.

He needed to speak to Xayden about two people that had somehow managed to have caught his attention, both in an less then positive manner. The first was a new boy that he had seen his younger brother with on a few occasions.

There were rumors going around the school, rumors that had even managed to reach his ears. They were saying that Xayden had become a toy of sorts for this new male, something that had almost immediately caught the young adult's attention as soon as it had been said. Edward knew that his brother had a habit of falling in love too fast, and too hard. Xayden was often blind to the more negative aspects of his lover's personality, which was something that had often hurt him in the past.

Images of Xayden's accident flashed through his mind at that moment, and he felt something flare up inside of him. He would not allow another Matthias to come in and hurt his baby brother no matter what the circumstance, and at that moment just the mere thought of the Lockeheart was enough to make him feel just as he once had felt around the Fin, which was something that made him feel very nervous.

When his brother had finally arrived, he could not see the young man that he was. All he could see at that moment was those big innocent blue eyes that used to stare up at him with such adoration, and admiration that it made him feel like a superhero.A little boy that used to follow him around like a baby duckling, asking him for piggyback rides, and bedtime stories. All he could see was the little boy that he allowed to get hurt, and it broke his heart.

He was torn out of his depressing thoughts when a hand was gently pressed against his arm, and he looked up at his little brother who was giving him a look of concern. Laughing quietly, his hand moved to the top of Xayden's head gently patting it. It lasted for a small moment, before his face grew serious. They really needed to talk about this.

" Xayden. I've two things that I would like to speak with you about. I need you to listen to me completely before you become defensive, understand?"

He waited for Xayden to give his hesitant agreement, before going on to speak again.

" There have been words going around about you and that new friend of yours Xayden. Arsenic is his name right? Anyways, I have been hearing certain things and they are troubling me. What is your relationship with that boy, and how is he treating you Xayden? I know that you have become a magnet for bad relationships, and I don't want you getting hurt again, so as you can imagine, I would like to meet this boy.Before you give me an answer, I just want to say that I have already failed to protect you once, and I don't want to ever have to sit at your bedside at St.Mungos ever again. Please, just grant me this request. I will do or say nothing that might embarass you, I just want to meet him. Also, I will not support relationship of your's until I've met the person. If you refuse, you'll have to deal with father, and Maung by yourself."

He knew that he had dealt a bit of a low blow, and had basically guilted his brother into going along with what he wanted at that point in time, but he was determined and even on the off chance that Xayden said no, he was sure there was another way that he could meet him if he really wanted to. He would go behind Xayden's back if that was what that situation required, and although he was almost positive that he wasn't going to be happy with whatever infromation that he was given, he determined that his brother's saftey was worth it.

" The second thing that I would like to talk to you about, has nothing to do with your relationship with that boy, so you may relax. This is something a bit more personal. You know that there are aurors that are guarding the tournament, well there is one thing that you should know about them..."

Here he paused, nervously glancing around the room. He knew that his brother would be more then just upset when he heard what he had to say.

" Our mother is here, she is one of them."

[Deleted]

Xayden shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he made his way towards the pub to meet with his older brother, Edward. It had been just that morning that Edward had come up to him, asking the younger male to meet him in the Three Broomsticks exactly when the clock tower struck noon, stating that he needed to talk to him about something very important before hurrying off to do whatever -or whoever- it is that Edward did on weekends.

Snickering quietly at his less then innocent thought, he quickened his pace, and hurried through the entrance of the pub. His dark blue eyes glanced over everyone in the shop, before locking on his brother's small form. Giving him a small wave, and a small grin he sat down in the chair that Edward had saved for him, before glancing around wearily. They were in a small corner, somewhere far away from all of the other tables and people that were in the shop. That realization made Xayden extremely nervous. Whatever they were about to talk about, obviously was not going to be fun.

"S-So what did you want to talk about Eddie?" Cursing silently at himself for not being able to keep the stutter out of his speech, he smiled nervously at him. How bad could the talk go, after all it was not like they were there to talk about him, right?

The nervous smile immediately fell off of his face when Edward asked him to listen before defending himself, and he felt as if his stomach had fallen. Giving a rather nervous laugh, and glancing back at the exit, he wondered if he could either quickly escape or make up a believable excuse that would allow him to leave right away. However, as Edward stopped speaking, and gave him an expectant look he simply sighed knowing that he was trapped.

"Yeah I promise I'll listen Eddie." As soon as the words left his mouth and he heard Edward began to speak, he immediately regretted making his promise. Edward began talking about Arsenic, and his relationship with the younger male.

His face immediately became flushed, and he felt as if the temperature in the pub had risen a few degrees. Unbidden, images from the last time that they had been together flashed through his mind and he had to restrain a groan before shaking the image out of his mind, and sending a rather nervous smile at Edward, he waited until he was done speaking before answering his question.

"Eddie, you're right about that. His name is Arsenic, and we have started seeing each other....he's my date to the Yule Ball and everything." It was at this point he paused, thinking about just what he was and was not going to tell Edward about. His face flushed at numerous memories of the two of them together, and immediately threw those things into the " Do not tell Edward" pile. A frown marred his lips as he realized that a good portion of their experiences together consisted of them doing things that he knew Edward would not approve of, and he gave a short nervous laugh.

"He's a really good guy, he actually helped me a few times when it came to dealing with Mattie. If it weren't for him, I would probably be in the urgent care unit at St.Mungos by now."

He paused when Edward said that he wanted to meet Arsenic. His heart beat quicker at the idea if the two of them interacting. Would they get along, or would they argue and despise each other? Would Arsenic bait Edward by telling him that they had done some not so innocent things together, or would he spare his brother's fragile mind by keeping it to himself.

He frowned as he heard Edward's reasoning, knowing that he could not deny his brother's wish after him wording it that way. Even if he did, he knew his brother well enough to know that Edward would just go behind his back in order to meet Arsenic. At least this way, he knew when and where they would be meeting. If he got too nervous, he could always send one of his friends to interrupt them.

"I'll talk to Arsenic about meeting you and see what he thinks Eddie. If he agrees, when should I tell him that you want to meet? And you'd better have my back with this after this Eddie!!! I can't deal with them by myself, no one can.. "

Images of his dad, and his happy-go-lucky brother passed through his mind, and he all but groaned. He seriously hoped that it would be a very long time before he would have to introduce Arsenic to them. While they were his family and he loved them, his father was overprotective, and brother could be a bit much to someone who wasn't used to him.

When Edward spoke his next words, Xayden felt as if his whole world had come crashing down. His heart started pounding, and he felt as if he couldn't breathe. His eyes narrowed with darkened anger, and he growled out as he felt pure rage seep into his veins as if it were a type of poison.

"You have got to be kidding me...You have got to...What the hell is she doing here Edward? For what reason? To stand here and mock us? To laugh at us in front of our faces? I want her as far away from me as possible. That stupid whore has no reason to be here. No reason."

He was beyond angry, and upset. He was absolutely furious. He was pissed. Why was she, a woman that had abandoned him, that had left him crying on the floor as if he were nothing more then a piece of trash, allowed to watch the tournament while the two that had spent their entire lives raising him could not? It wasn't fair, and he could feel his anger steadily rising with each passing moment.

"Why?!" At that last syllable, he choked and his eyes watered slightly. His pride refused to let them fall however, and his lips were pulled into a frown. His eyes glanced at Edward with such an intense look, filled to the brim with such heartbreaking emotions that betrayed the poker face that he tried so hard to keep up.

[edwardandrews]

There are certain times in life when even the most oblivious of older siblings can tell when their younger sibling is hiding something from them. Edward's sharp brown eyes silently observed Xayden's flustered reaction to his question, and dread immediately settled itself in his stomach. He had a very bad feeling that what he was about to hear would not be pleasant, and for the first time ever the protective brother bear inside of him seemed to faulter making him reconsider himself.

Part of his mind told him to stop Xayden before he answered and to move on to another subject, he wasn't ready for the image that he had of Xayden to be destroyed yet. The other more responsible part of him told himself that it was his duty as an older brother to protect Xayden, and that he had to find out the details, no matter how uncomfortable the idea of what his little brother may or may not be doing made him. In the end, the more responsible part won and his attention was directed back to Xayden just as he began to give a rather feeble answer to his question.

His brow rose as Xayden told him that Arsenic was a good person, and that he had actually saved Xayden a few times from that demonic little bast-Matthias not because he doubted the authenticity of what his brother was telling him, but because his brother looked so embarassed,flustered,and downright uncomfortable as he told him. A silent groan almost left the older sibling's lips, and his hand moved to rub at his head.

Did Xayden really expect Edward not to notice how he was acting when he was making it so damn obvious that he was hiding something? Did he really expect Edward to look the other way, and just ignore it?

" You seem to be very flustered, Xayden. Is there something going on between the two of you that you aren't telling me about?"

Honestly, he didn't know why Xayden was so uneasy. As long as they weren't sleeping together and as long as Arsenic wasn't hurting him, Edward couldn't care less about what those two were up to in their free time.

" At any rate, I am glad that you have finally managed to find yourself what seems to be a fairly normal guy to be with this time and though I do wish that I would have found out directly from you instead of from a rumor that the other students were spreading, I am happy for you. Yes, you go ahead and speak to him. Tell him that if he is interested I would like to speak with him here this coming Saturday afternoon here at the Three Broomsticks. I am interested in seeing just what kind of person this Arsenic is for myself. You are more then welcome to join us if it will ease your nerves Xayden."

When he spilled the news about their mother being there, he had expected Xayden to have a number of different reactions. He had expected him to blow up, to scream, to even throw something. That had been part of the reason why he had dragged him out to the Three Broomsticks, he figured that if he acted up he could just blame it on the amount of alcohol that Xayden had been drinking, and quickly drag him out of the bar. He however, did not expect this.

His younger brother was not angry, he was furious. His normally innocent eyes were clouded by anger, and hatred. His face was emotionless, but his eyes were burning. When he hissed out his response to Edward, he did what he could at the moment, and placed his hand on Xayden's in an attempt to comfort, and calm him. He had been about to tell Xayden just how he had found out about their mother's presence but after seeing his brother's reaction, he wisely decided to keep that information to himself for the moment.

He did not want to be the one held responsible for ruining the relationship between his older and younger brother.

" Xayden. Relax, and take a deep breath. I promise you that I will make sure she is nowhere near you throughout the tournament. She is here to do her job, and nothing more. I will make sure of that. You will never have to see her, alright? I promise you. So please just calm down."

He could hear the pain in his brother's voice, and he could see the hurt in his brother's eyes. A frown marred his lips, and he gently grabbed Xayden's hand, squeezing it. He hated when his brother was in pain, and he hated that he had to be the one to tell him such stressful news, but he knew that it had to be done. Xayden had to know, and it was better that he hear it from him now, then hear it from someone else, or even run into the woman herself later.

He wasn't sure how he was going to keep the promise that he made to Xayden, but he was going to do it. This was his moment to shine, and he was not going to allow that indecisive woman to ruin him. Not now, not ever. His hand moved to his baby brother's face and gently wiped away the tears that had gathered there, and he gave him a small sad smile.

" Don't worry, it will be okay. I promise you. Don't cry, and don't be sad. She will not interfere in your life, not now and not ever. I will protect you from her, and from anyone else that wants to try and hurt you. I always will. So just relax, be happy, and smile."

[Deleted]

Xayden knew that he was in trouble the very second Edward looked at him with those seemingly all knowing eyes. He knew that Edward knew that he was hiding something from him, and that was making this little outing all the more nerve wracking. The funny thing was that Edward was normally so oblivious when it came to most things that it was more often then not that Xayden was able to get away with hiding certain facts from him. It was only as of late that Edward seemed to be catching onto to the fact that he was actually able to hide things from him, something that annoyed the male to no end. If Edward kept it up, it would only be a matter of time before he would be able to see through any other tricks that he -or anyone else for that matter, he knew that Edward was less trusting of his classmates then he was of him- had.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Eddie. I'm not flustered, not flustered at all. Why would I hide anything from you? Me and Arsenic just have a normal relationship, there's nothing to hide. I've told you everything that you need to know about us." He wasn't really lying to Edward, after all the relationship that he and Arsenic shared could be considered normal depending on who was asked at the time. And he did tell Edward everything that he needed to know without going into far too much detail. This was his older brother and he didn't want to mentally scar him by going into detail, so in all reality he was doing a good thing. It would work out better for the both of them if Edward stayed ignorant in the matters of his love life, right?

....Merlin he was such a bad little brother....

He could feel the guilt eating at him, only growing as Edward began to speak about how proud, and how happy he was that Xayden had finally found a good relationship with a good person, and in the very depths of his mind he could almost swear that Edward knew exactly what kind of relationship he was having with the other male, and was simply messing with him just to see if he could get the other male to come clean. A silent curse was directed at his brother, before he was given a smile. He was not going to confess to anything, instead he was going to play innocent for as long as he could possibly get away with it.

"Yeah, Arsenic is a good guy alright. Saturday afternoon, here at the pub.Got it, I'll talk to him about it the next time I see him. I'll let you know what's up after I get an answer from him." He paused. "Again, I'll talk to Arsenic about it and see what it is that he wants to do...if he wants me to come, I will. If not, I won't."

When Edward began to comfort him, speaking promises of protecting him and keeping him as far away from that vile woman as he possibly could, he felt as if he were a small child again. He remembered that Edward used to comfort him in very much the same way whenever he was upset, or hurt by something when he was a child and the very thought caused a small smile to break out. Edward had never changed, even after all of these years.

He was still the doting older brother that he could remember having back when he was a child, and while it was slightly embarrassing to be doted on in such a manner, a secret part of him was still very pleased.

"I know you will Eddie...Thank you. For everything. I know I must annoy the hell out of you sometimes...."

[edwardandrews]

A thin brow rose in silent question as he listened to his brother's rather strong objection that he was hiding anything. His eyes stared calmly at the other male as he thought about the information that he had been told, for his brother seemed far too nervous, and there was something in the story that he was told that seemed off. How had the two of them gotten close so quickly?

It seemed as if Arsenic had appeared out of thin air,at one moment he had been just another generic face in the crowd and in the next he had been seen with his younger brother as his lover of sorts. This was moving far too fast, even if Arsenic had saved his brother from Matthias in the past. There was no way that two people could bond so quickly. He needed to know if Arsenic was serious about having a relationship with his younger brother, or if he was merely playing games with him. If it was the later option, then he had to make sure that this twisted game was ended immediately.

He would not allow Xayden to be made into yet another person's plaything, he would not allow him to get hurt yet again.

It was because of this reason that he was so determined to find out whether or not his brother was telling him the truth, or if he was instead hiding some facts from him in a vain attempt to keep himself out of any trouble both in and out of school. With that thought a small smile made it's way on the older male's face. Xayden could try and hide whatever it is that he wanted to, but in the end Edward would find out the truth, of that he was sure.

" Mmm....Whatever you say Xayden. Just know that whenever you try hiding something from me, I will eventually find it out whatever it is. One way or another, I will always find out the truth in the end."

Xayden was rewarded with a very small, and brief smile; the kind that were only given to people by Edward when he was completely serious about something. He chuckled quietly as Xayden questioned why he would feel the need to hide anything from his older brother, and he was given an incredious stare.

" Perhaps because you know that I will not approve of whatever it is that you are up to, and because you know that you will get in trouble when I find out whatever it is that you are trying to hide?"

He smiled again, and nodded.

" Precisely. I'm glad that you're actually listening to me for once. Alright, that sounds good. I hope to see you here as well on Saturday."

Sastified that Xayden had agreed to let him meet Arsenic, and happy that he wouldn't have to sneak around and do things the hard way, he reached across the table and ruffled Xayden's hair affectionately, something that he hadn't done since the other boy was younger. He was glad to see that his brother had calmed down a bit from the news that he had given him.

" Yes, you can be quite annoying at times. You're brash, you rush into things, and at times you can be a bit insensitive to the situations that you put others through. But you are also smart. You are brave, and you are kind. You have a big heart, and you have this ability to brighten up other people's lives just by smiling. I wouldn't trade you for anyone else in the world. You are my little brother, and I love you. Nothing will ever change that. Now come, It is getting late. We should head back to the castle."

With that, he stood and waiting a moment for his brother to gather himself, they both left the pub. Once reaching the castle, the hugged each other before going off in their seperate ways.

======= A week later=======

Edward sat again in the Three Broomsticks a week later. His hands were folded in front of him, and his chin rested neatly on the top of them. It was the day that he would apparently be meeting Arsenic, according to his younger brother. The clock had just struck noon, and the pub was surprisingly empty for it being a Saturday afternoon. His dark eyes stared ahead boredly as he waited for the boy(s) to arrive.