Felix lifted his arms over his head as he walked down the side walk. His fingers reached to the sky as he starched out his back. A yawn also escaping past his lips. He loved teaching but he could say that as the school year was swiftly approaching it’s end he didn’t love all the bending over his desk grading he had to do.
After his stretching was thoroughly satisfied he shoved his hands back into his coat pockets. Another thing he wasn’t loving about all this extra time put in at Salem was that Harrow also had to do the same. It seemed like their days were slowly becoming opposite. Felix was early to rise and be at the school early to catch up and prepare for the week. He would leave his boyfriend to sleep in. Not only because his other half was not a morning person, but because Harrow was the one who would stay late and make sure all of his magical creatures were set for the night.

That was what was happening now. Felix had already been home, he made sure all the animals there were doing just fine and took the dogs for a short walk. It was nice out so the Ancient Rune’s professor figured it was a nice night for a walk without three rambunctious puppies pulling at his arm.

As he walked down the familure path a growl came from his stomach. His lips turned down into a slight frown and he glanced down at his stomach. Felix had skipped lunch today, in favour of spending time with Harrow. Clearly his stomach did not like that choice and was very vocal about it.

The laughing Gnome came up on his left and seemed like a good opportunity to grab something quick before heading back home. Felix pushed open the door. The last time he was here he had delivered a baby. A visible, but slight shiver ran down his spine as he remembered that day. Hopefully tonight would not involve anything like that.

People were bustling about in the Inn. He walked up to that bar and ordered himself a whisky and coke and took a quick glance at the menu. Felix ordered a sandwich and looked around. There wasn’t a table open and the bar was packed . He let out annoyed sigh and took up his drink. Felix spotted a familure face at least. A blond sitting by herself.

He walked over to the table and waved lightly. “Hej, Laura right? The healer.” He tried his best to get her name right. Felix knew he was probably wrong. Still he smiled the most charming smile he could. “Do you mind if I join you? It’s kind of crowded in here…” He shrugged motioning twards the full dinning area.

As suspected he was wrong with the name. It was close enough and she seemed to appreciate that he had tried at all. Felix was fairly shameless when it came to trying to stick a name to a face. It was better that way, he figured. At least he didn’t avoid trying to say someone’s name only to have it pass the point of no return and he had to find some sneaky way to figure it out.

She nodded and cleared the space for him. So far he hadn’t messed up and the conversation was going as well as it could. Felix was slowly learning more social tact. He had to keep things friendly and light with students. That was something that Felix had trouble with the first year he was at Salem. For most of his life the man was dismissive and would often opt out of conversations with people if he thought they were boring. Sadly that was not an option when being rude to a student could cost him his job. Felix was also learning that knowing his coworkers was probably a good thing. No need to be known as the crazy shut in professor.

He sat, setting his drink down in front of himself. “Tack (thank you),” He nodded. Felix had a habit of using his native Swedish when it came to small common phrases regardless of who he was around. It had recently gotten a little more excessive with Harrow showing an honest interest in wanting to learn the language.

He raised his eyebrows as she asked the question. “Yes and no. I like teaching, but it will be nice to have time to finally unpack,” He laughed. Though it had been a full month most of the new house he shared with his boyfriend was still in boxes. “And traveling will be nice too. Wanderlust is hard thing to keep at bay.”

His food was set in front of him and he gave a quick nod to the waiter. “How about yourself?”

He took a bite of his food as she spoke. Normally small talk would be painful for the man to keep up on. He didn’t tend to care about the lives of others. Now that he had such a positive outlook on his own relating to others was easier. Felix nodded agreeing with Leslie as he chewed his mouthful of food.

“It will be great to have everything in it’s place finally. The puppies have started to chew on some of the boxes but with all the school Harrow and I haven’t had the time,” He shook his head with a light laugh. Luckily the dogs would get distracted and bored with trying to pull over the stacks in the corners so there was no harm done. And the men were smart enough to keep things that weren’t fragile or sentimental in the bottom boxes. Honestly Felix had no idea who knew about him and that Care of Magical creatures professor. Felix was as good as he could be in the school about keeping his giddy teen crush feelings as bay. Outside of those walls all bets were off. “I was just outside of Hawthorne village before, the new house is much closer next to Sanddust.”

He let out a chuckle at her comment about her mother. “Mine does the same. My sister is probably never going to settle down so she is looking to me for that.” Felix shook his head. For having a mother who was so in love with the idea of being a grandmother she sure did raise two children who had quite the aversion to making their own families. Well until recently when it came to Felix. “So mostly traveling around the states then? “ He questioned.

Potions were hardly something he was that good at. Felix was more of a charms and Runes guy. The later being a given. So as far as the herbs that she was talking about he hadn’t the foggiest what they could be. That meant it was best to just let that topic go or he would space out and actually look as bad at connecting with people as he was.

As far as friends went Felix had a small handful , people who were like minded. He generally had a bad attitude towards people that didn’t share in his interests. Very few things actually held his attention, even If these days being with Harrow had made him a nicer person.

He took a bite of his food as she asked a question. The puppies had been just Harrow’s. Now they were both his and his boyfriend’s. Felix never saw himself with a dog, let alone three but he had learned to love them. “Two are pit-bulls and then there is a shiba inu,” He answered after swallowing the bite. All three of the puppies were loveable, and energetic.

Felix was happy that so far this conversation was going well. There was nothing worse than sitting next to someone in awkward silence. That was simply not a situation he would ever let himself be in. In fat that was one of the worst traits Felix had. If a situation was a bad one he would walk away from it, even if a bad situation to him was as simple as awkward silence.

“Oh no,” Felix stated still with a smile. Luckily, for this situation anyway, Felix was not around his mother when he was around the age that serious dating was something to focus on. That would have been nothing but a mess. Felix never had an interest in dating. Touching people was not something he liked. It took a deep connection to break that shell. It had been a struggle and Harrow was the only one to succeed. “That sounds kind of awful.” He commented and shook his head. “I’m sure someone will sneak into your heart sooner or later though.” If someone could deal with Felix he had no doubt that Leslie would find someone. She seemed absolutely pleasant to be around.

“I plan on going back home or a little while,” Felix smiled at the mention of home. Every time he was able to sneak back to Sweden he was excited. Felix didn’t nessisarly get home sick often but he missed the country side and the familure sights and smell of his home country. “And then hopefully track down Elsa and visit her.” He wanted to take Harrow with him and introduce the love of his life to his family. “And there will be some travel in America too, hopefully we can get it all in there.” Three trips in the summer break would have to be carefully planned. Felix would find a way to make it all happen, there was no way he could get away with dragging his boyfriend around Europe and not be taken to Seattle to meet the rest of Harrow’s family.

As the blond woman shared about her friend and mother Felix are more of his meal. “They are all sweet hearts just energetic,” He laughed. More dogs. If it were just him of course three would be the limit. Felix knew Harrow though not only would there be more dogs if his boyfriend had the chance their home would turn into a zoo in no time. “Well…Harrow loves animals like I love books. We already have a chinchilla as well, but I have the feeling if we don’t get more dogs there will be some other animal that Harrow will come home with…so there will probably be more at some point.” He shook his head with a smile.

He took a drink listening to Leslie, his smile still on his scruffy face. “It’s better to wait for the right one,” Felix lightly agreed. That was the one thing that Felix knew with all his heart. His dating history was abysmal. Before he had found Harrow there was no one who had even peaked his interest. Still he tried time and time again not getting very far with anyone. It was painful, for both parties.

Felix laughed. “It sounds like your Mama loves you very much, and is only a little excited.” With as much pushing as Felix go from his mother, he could only imagine that the string of letters that his sister received was a lot like Leslie’s. Especially knowing how Elsa liked to casually find men, enjoy their time and then be off. That was her life style. She hopped around picking up residence for a couple of months finding delightful people and soaking up the new city she was in and then off to another.

“That would be fun, postcards and everything,” Felix liked the idea of a pen pall of sorts. Even if conversation wasn’t his favorite writing letters was something that Felix always liked doing. It was comforting and quant. “You said Tennessee ja? I haven’t been there, actually I haven’t be far outside of Salem.” The man mused. “Oh and if you find time to go to Europe maybe you can join Harrow and I where ever we are at the time?” He was sure that his love wouldn’t mind, Harrow was infact the friendlier of the two of them and it seemed that the rest of the Salem staff was just as smittin with the Care of Magical Creatures professor as him.

“Ja It will be,” There were grand plans for the future floating about in his head. A life time didn’t seem like enough to have it all get done. All the places they would see, the animals that he knew that Harrow would want. The children he knew that they would have together and raise. More traveling and spending nights in each other’s arms watching the stars. “Full of love though.” That last part is all they would ever need. A life full of love was more than Felix ever thought he was worthy of having.

She seemed to like the idea of joining him and Harrow on their travels. “Bra (good). Hopefully everything will line up so that these travel plans can work out,” He smiled. “I’m not too sure where all we are going to try and be but Sverige (Sweden in Swedish) for sure,” When Felix was happy or mad or excited more and more of his words would come out in his native tongue. For some reason his brain would forget that he needed to translate.

Felix thought in Swedish, he knew that his first year at Salem was tough for him and his students. He would sometimes go half of a lesson in nothing but the language. The children sat and stared at him, confused. He would apologize and then start over. Now it was not as often when he would slip. Only when he was too caught up to care or notice. This was nothing though, only little words.

Felix took up his glass and held it up for a cheers “Att god mat och goda människor, Skål.(to good food and good people, cheers)” He babbled off. This was one of the few times that his heritage was showing it’s true blue and yellow colors. Food and drink were sacred times to a Swede.

The perfect life. That is exactly what Felix had. It had never dawned on how perfect it really all was. Even with the boxes that were still here and there in the home. Even with the layer of dog fur that was already settling over everything. Even with their schedules the way they were right now. Felix had a perfect life because Harrow had decided to give him a second chance. He always knew how perfect Harrow was but he had never understood why. It was because who Harrow was made Felix a better person and made life worth everything it had to offer. The good and bad.

He caught that look, the one that his students got sometimes. “Sorry I get excited and Swedish sort of takes over.” Felix apologized with a knowing grin. Harrow often got that look when Felix would babble on and his mental translator would fail. She still gave his glass a cheer.

There were some things that transcended language. Music was one. Emotions. And there would always be a celebratory gesture. It was wonderful how people could be connected despite where they came from, be it different states or countries.

“Bra is good,” He let her know after taking a bite of some of his food and washing it down with some of his drink. “Sverige means Sweden. And the last part you pretty much got with your own cheers.” Felix smiled happily. He had no clue if she was interested in knowing a thing about his home land, but he did take pride in the country he came from. Sure he might have left but both of the Hedlund kids had wanderlust in their blood it seemed. He still went back at least once a year to roam the familure fields and cities that he knew from his childhood and of course to visit with his parents.