daddy? .:Luke:.

[malfoy]

Isaac waited at the station. It was the last weekend of the school year, thankfully not a Hogsmeade one, and he had arranged to spend the day with Xavier. Your son, Isaac mentally reminded himself. It was still hard to grasp. The train slowly pulled into the station and out stepped Miranda, looking rather haggard, and holding their son on her hip. "Are you sure it's not too much a hassle?" Miranda asked. "Of course not," Isaac replied as his ex-girlfriend put their child down. The kid looked up at Isaac, somewhat wary, but not unfriendly.

"Daddy?" said Xavier. He could not help but smile. "Yep, that's right," said Isaac. Miranda encouraged him forward and Isaac offered his hand. Xavier clung to it tightly. "Daddy is cold?" said Xavier. "Yep," Isaac agreed. He handed Miranda a small velvet pouch, she opened it and nearly gasped, and then tried to hand it back to him. He refused. "No, take it, go to the spa or something," said Isaac. "Xavier and I can have some guy time." Miranda gave him a smile and tucked the pouch away. "I really appreciate it," she said, putting her foot on the step of the train.

"It's no problem, he's my son too," said Isaac. Xavier and Miranda exchanged their goodbyes, Isaac awkwardly watching. He remained in the station, allowing his son to watch the train speed away. For a small child, he seemed relatively unattached to his mother. "What should we do today, Xavier?" Isaac asked of his son. Xavier did not reply for a bit, but double-checked the empty tracks, as if to make sure the train was gone. "Daddy?" Xavier repeated. "Yep, that's me," Isaac replied. They left the station, Isaac walking very slowly, allowing his son to toddle along beside him.

Isaac looked up when he smelled someone familiar, his sharp eyes spotted the figure in the distance. It took him a moment to figure out who it was, but Isaac smiled when he was finally able to make out the face of...

[notabadguy]

Luke, heading in the vague direction of the train station, but without any real destination. He spotted Isaac in the distance, with a small child walking beside him. That was certainly odd, though Luke realized that things could have changed in Isaac life a bit since they last talked. It seemed like the two best friends rarely saw each other anymore. But a kid? Now that seemed a bit much.

Luke approached his friend and smiled at him. "Hey Isaac," he said as he came within a comfortable speaking distance. "Who's this?" he asked, gesturing toward the child that resembled Isaac, but with darker hair. The whole situation seemed a bit odd. Surely Isaac would have told him if he had a kid? But now, Luke didn't quite know what to think.

[malfoy]

"Oh, um, yeah," Isaac began awkwardly. He could have easily made up a lie right then, that he was babysitting someone else's kid, but he didn't want to. Luke was his best friend, he didn't want to have to hide anything from him. "Luke, this is Xavier. My son." said Isaac, and then looked down at the boy. "Say hi to Luke," Xavier managed a small wave with his chubby fist, and tightened his grip on Isaac's fingers. He paused a moment. "I would have told you sooner, but I've only just found out about him," Isaac said.

[notabadguy]

"Hello Xavier," Luke said, smiling at the child and giving him a wave in return. Then he looked back up at Isaac, astonished. "Who's his mother?" Luke asked. It couldn't be Gabriella, or Isaac would have known about Xavier well before this. Plus Xavier seemed older than Isaac and Gabriella's relationship, though just by a little bit. Luke knew that Isaac had done some bad things before, so it was probably one of his old girlfriends.

[malfoy]

"Remember Miranda Castlebrook?" said Isaac. "She was our year, a Slytherin." Xavier inched closer to his leg, letting go of his hand and wrapping his little arms around Isaac's knee. He could not recall having such an awkward moment with his own best friend before, times were changing he supposed, hopefully he could still remain tight with Luke, though.