The office of Henry was not his, it was a loan. Or so he told himself anyways. It was still Atticus office, and he only planned to hold onto it untill the smarmy bastard showed his face again or Archibald found a replacement. The latter he didn't want to think about. Veti was raising kids, cutest toddlers he had ever seen. She was radiant now he , the way only mothers could be. Max had not exactly been on his list for potential dads of the year, but Max and Thad deserved a eternal spot in the Fathers hall of fame for their sacrifice and that last little trick they pulled. Had pissed off some wolves he was sure of it. But, with the lupus Natuere being weakened and their revered god dead, Henry had pushed with every resource at his beck and call to get them to back off. His war with the Ice Queen was on the back burner aswell. But the defeat of the Fenrir had managed to shake her as well, and people were leaving her ranks in droves. Like a General, he marshalled his own forces and ready himself for the ineviteble confrontation. But that to, had to wait. He was fighting paperwork at the moment. ”Sir.” A short, fey looking thing called his attention. His new assissant, thrown at him by the higher ups, smiled at him. She was about 4'3, with red, bright hair full of flowers. Her dress was in fact her very own petals. She refused to wear her glamour in the office, stating that it was unbecoming to hide ones true nature. Atleast her true form was adorable, his was that of semitransparent demi-god and nude man with rivers behind his baby blues. He quite preffered his human form. ”Names Henry, I've told you not to call me Sir, Rose. ” Henry rubbed his temples in annoyance while signing yet a another document regarding a new applicant to the company. This one some kind of Mesopotanian Bird man. He didn't even blink when the paper said '4000 years old, unearthed by insurgents in Iraq.' ”Henry.... Sir. We got a another defectee from the Icequeens ranks.” Rose spoke up, undettered by her boss stubborn avoidance of rules and common practices. She had gotten used to it. Instead she sashayed over to him and handed him yet another paper for him to sign. Henry sat up and took the paper in turn. ”As with the others, protective custody. Find out what it knows, new identity in the south, any charms, fetishes or talismans it has brough will be destroyed.” He stated flatly, reciting what he always did in these cases. He was getting good at the whole 'General' thing. ”Sir, you still have a Meeting with Sir Archibald.” Rose said the last part with all due reverence, as if the name would summon the great Vampire. Henry chuckled at this and simply waved her off. ”Reschedule it for tommorow. I am sure he won't mind. Oh. And Rose. Call it a day for now. Go home to your family, take the weekend off.” He spoke the last part softly. Rose stood there like a raindeer cought in the headlights of a hunters Semi. She blinked in such bewilderment that it made Henry laugh. He began laughing so hard he almost fell of his chair. ”Sir?” Rose, looking both bewildered and thankfull tried to get him to listen again. He looked up at her trough brigh, happy eyes. ”Yes?” He inquired, catching his breath. Settling down he wiped a tear from his eyes and studyied the girls features and tilted his head. Waiting for her to speak her piece. ”Thank you.” She simply smiled at him. ”You are welcome Rose.” He said and spun to look out the window. ”And tell your mother I want some of that Nectar Ale of hers again. Human stuff hardly buzz me.” He waved her off, Rose quickly hurrying out to make the most of this rare respite from meetings and work. Henry sighed and leaned back in his chair, watching the sun go down over the city of Boston. The desk behindhim was cluttered with papers. It felt like he was drowning in it. As a water spirit, the irony wasn't lost on him. A half empty bottle of wine tempted him with its presence. He rememembered Atticus educating him in the subtleties of it, and smile forced its way onto his features. ”Heres to you, smarmy bastard.” He filled the empy glass beside the bottle to the brim, then slowly drank it. Enjoying the rich taste, the feint buzz of alcohol running trough him. Only to hear his door slam open in the fashion that always lifted his spirits tenfold. ---- Jay Jay ---- Another year of training was gone and done, and Jay-Jay felt a little ember of pride burning in her chest. Oro-mai had finally admitted that she had learned all she could from him, and that meant their formal contract was over. Over time, Jay-Jay had grown to appreciate the Demi-god, even if he presented the visage of a distant dickhead at times. In truth, the bird was helpful in dealing with loss, and he offered very sincere condolences. The loss of Kata seemed to affect him more than he would admit: perhaps it was the whole 'immortal' thing, but it seemed the raven was fond of the Ifrit. To test out her new skills, she decided to start things off with a bang: and try a spell that most would consider 'reckless, pointless and silly.' Transportation magic was a risky business, because there was a bunch of rules about occupied space and stuff like that: Think 'The Fly' but with more mushy-ness.  Because of her innate desire to not end up a mutated lump of flesh, Jay-Jay decided to use the simplest solution: Fire-walking. It had the same basic principals as scrying: Use a flame, be able to see through a second flame: be that a natural one or a crafted one, as was the case with Fenris. With Fire-walking, you just took a step through...easy really. Except for the seven different incantations in two dead languages as well as the rune stones and the... Never mind. Either way, from one moment, Jay-Jay was stepping inside the fireplace of Oro-mai's home, and the next, she was in the grand hall of the Bain and Hoyle agency. One of her favorite tricks she'd learned from the Raven was her ability to keep her clothing from incinerating...The amount of times she'd been naked in front of people, you'd think she'd develop a phobia or a fetish.  Stepping out of the fireplace, Jay-Jay took a moment to stare at all the slack-jawed people who watched a woman step out of a previously empty fireplace. "Seems like there are a lot of new people, huh?" None of the new-blood moved close to her, either too scared or too awe-struck at the sight. She pointed out one particular newbie, a small looking girl with flowers coming from her everything and conveniently showing nothing. "Hey...Uh..." The fire-witch paused, trying to think of the race she might be: A dryad maybe? "...Flower power, where is Henry?" The rose-petal lady pointed up the stairs, seemingly half-aware who she was. She bowed and offered the dryad-thing her thanks, before skipping up the stairs in a good mood. She stood outside the door of Atticus' old office for a moment, lost in nostalgia. She remembered first meeting the Incubus, and then the rancor of the following meeting. She'd accidentally set someone on fire, if she remembered correctly. Back then, she had been an embarrassment of a magic-user: out of control at the best of times, useless at the worst. She had been carried by Katagogi for such a long time. A slight smile crept onto her face, she felt a certainty that the Ifrit would be proud of her. Shaking out the memories and nostalgia, Jay-Jay decided it was time for her entrance. She turned the handle of the door as silently as possible, twisting the handle slowly, slowly, slowly until she had the latch free of the door: then she shoved the door open and walked into the office with a smile on her face and a skip in her step. "I was promised fan-fare and pomp: Where is my party?" She looked around the room until her eyes fell fondly upon the man behind the desk. She felt her breath catch in her throat, the same way it did every time she saw him: at first, it was just his charm as a Siren, the desire that a water spirit could inspire in a person. Nowadays, it was just because of the romance and the honest astonishment that she was going out with a watery-Adonis. "Suuuuup?" She stood in the doorway, waiting for Henry to unbury himself from his begrudging Mistress: Paperwork. "Why, hello my little Flame." Henry said and grinned widely as he put down the wineglass and moved over to her with swift strides. He pulled her in for a tender, but none the less heated kiss. There was steam pun waiting to be said with the two of them together. No doubt Atticus would have made it if he saw them. He buried the thought underneath the mountain of happyness that Jay caused him to conjure. He quickly led her out the room, not turning around to look at the mess that was his desk. "You look amazing. But smell of charcoal. Firewalking again?" He asked as the door closed behind him. "Let's have dinner shall we? I know just the place, the cook has a temper and two kids. And Ireland is great this time of year." She happily melted into the heated kiss with Henry, ignoring the puns or the innuendos just waiting to happen. Jay-Jay couldn't hide her obvious pleasure at the attention the Siren offered: after all, he was more than a little scrumptious. She shrugged away the accusation of smelling like charcoal. "Dinner sounds great, although I've never heard of angry cooks or children as a selling point." The fire child was a bit out-of-the-loop in regards to Veti, after the whole Max-and-Thad-saved-the-world thing that she had to deal with. It turns out that studying with someone like Oro-mai had the effect of making a recluse of near enough anyone.  "After dinner, we can talk about a certain Ice-bitch who needs a fist full of fire shoved down her throat. I can't think of many things that might distract me from that." She wraps an arm around the Siren's waist, pulling him closer as she offered a salacious grin. She may have become some sort of semi-recluse, but that didn't stop her from wanting the perks that came with dating a Siren. "We'll need to swing by my old apartment though, if I smell like charcoal, I simply must have a wash." She playfully pushed the siren back, before turning around and walking towards the doorway. A more adept woman might sway her hips enticingly, but Jay-Jay simply offered a playful skip as she turned the corner. "You coming?" Henry made a the face of a man who just knew he lost all say in the matter. "I know a few things to that distracts you well enough." He countered her enthusiasm with a wide, knowing grin and a wink. Then he followed her out the door, away from the company, away from paper work, off to enjoy life, if only for today.