Who: Jugson family
What: Will comes home early and catches Anneliese in the act!
Where: Their abode
When: Right now


Moody had sent them home early.

Will didn't hesitate a for a second; the head auror gave a dismissive wave of his hand and he was out the door and to the locker room. Who knows, maybe it had been a test, but Will honestly did not care at this point. He was tired, he was very tired, and he had a newborn son he didn't get to spend enough time with waiting for him at home. And his wife! He definitely hadn't had enough energy to keep up with Henry and Anneliese lately. Will put on a very apathetic front when it came to most of life's little things, but he really did hate how much time his job took away from his family.

It didn't help that his extra curricular activities were also very good at ripping away his freedom.

He set off to surprise Anneliese with his arrival, picking up dinner and dessert before heading home. Usually, he headed through the back to greet their zoo of animals, but the barking and the meowing and the---whatever sound a chinchilla made---those sounds would alert his wife of his presence, and that would ruin his surprise attack.

Except that the sound of Henry beginning to whine jolted him off course, and Will left dinner on the table and turned into the nursery instead. "Oy," he said with a grin, reaching into the crib and lifting his boy up, "What're you crying about, hm?"

"Hold on---" Anneliese whined as she continued to scribble on the parchment in front of her, now desperate to finish the page. She was this close to being done, so close, just a few more sentences! Maybe? It was surprising that she could focus so well with her baby crying down the hall, but--- well, they both knew that he was just being fussy, because he always got this way once a day, and that time was now. So she wasn't being a horrible mother, just slightly busy right that very second. "---Henry," she spoke in a strained tone in her half standing, half sitting, lunged stance.

A few seconds later, Anneliese flung the quill down as she finished, and raced toward the nursery, hoping that the fact that she was sprinting would make up for lost time. But by the time she got there not only had her son stopped crying, but someone else had apparently been in the house as well.

"Will!" she squeaked, her eyes widening with surprise. Had it really gotten that late? She hadn't even heard him come in-- that was bad, wasn't it? Dinner wasn't started, her things weren't put away, or--- anything. Anneliese would have sworn it wasn't that late. Running a hand through her hair, she glanced from her empty wrist to look around the room for a clock. Which there wasn't, because why would you need a clock in a nursery? Completely unaware that there was ink smudged on the sides of her face and forehead, Anneliese quickly brushed herself off before approaching the two of them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize--- you scared me--- how was your day?" Anneliese slurred together all at once. She reached for the baby after sharing a quick kiss with Will.

Will was hesitant to let Henry go. The last few months had been very calm and relaxing, much different than the last few years of his life had been. Will had decided that Henry was the reason behind it all, even if most people found newborns to be a complete disruption to their lives. The baby had given him...he didn't want to call it an excuse, but he found more of a reason to go to work every day, and to be more careful on the field and under the Dark Lord's service.

Maybe he just felt like an adult with responsibilities, now.

Letting Henry grip onto his finger, Will let Anneliese take hold of the baby while he looked his wife over. She was very good at having dinner ready and being the epitome of a housewife (outside of the occasional freak outs, but Will was starting to think that was normal, with the women in his life), so maybe he shouldn't have surprised her and knocked her out of any routine she might have had. But, he wasn't going to waste any time off, especially with his best friend living in France, now. Will hadn't realized how much he relied on Rhys, but it was certainly showing with his absence.

Well, at least they had some fun planned for soon.

"Moody sent us home early," he said with a grin, reaching out with his free hand to wipe some of the ink off her face. Will showed her his inky fingers before using his chin to point toward the kitchen, "I brought home dinner, are you hungry?

"He sent you home early?" Anneliese feigned shock, going as far as to drop her mouth. "Since when does that happen? Is the world freezing over tomorrow?" she laughed slightly, and continued to laugh as he wiped the ink off her face. Oh. She hadn't even noticed.... that had never happened before. She blinked quickly for a second, and looked down at the baby in her arms to think. Did she have to explain why her face had been such a mess? If she did, then it might look suspicious, so then she shouldn't to make it look like it was no big thing.

Right. Because she, Anneliese, honestly did stand a chance in fooling her husband, an Auror.

A small smile formed on her face at this thought, and Anneliese began to nod her head slowly. "I would love some dinner," she stated, her smile widened as she rocked to stand on the tips of her toes to kiss him again. See, she had no idea what Juliet was talking about when she ranted about how Rhys was useless and unhelpful all the time: Will was always helpful when it came to anything, even without asking.

And believe her, he was being extremely helpful in giving her a night off. She would gladly accept any day off from cooking: after a while, making meal after meal after meal did become tedious to the point where she contemplated furthering her brain child, meals-in-a-box, to actual creativity (maybe that would be her next project after she was done with her current one). And that was just half the battle! Most of the time she had no idea what to make, which made the whole cooking-eating process much more tiresome.

"Thank you," Anneliese supplemented quickly, remembering that it was important to vocalize her appreciation for his thoughtful act. Also in her spare time, she had been reading marriage books. Not that she and Will needed it, they were fine, just that... well, there was only so much of the day she could spend writing, and there had been nothing else to get at the store, so, it couldn't hurt. Plus, whenever Will stopped being helpful, she could always make him read her books.

Will grinned and gave Anneliese a sloppy kiss on the side of her face. He patted Henry's hair down and tugged at the collar of his robes, the universal gesture of getting a new change of clothes. Being an auror during the day wasn't much fun at all; what kind of half-assed death eater caused trouble at lunchtime? It was the random late night floo calls that kept the job exciting and nerve-wracking---there had been times when Will wasn't around to answer, because he was one of those they were going after. That took a lot of explaining to do, but he had the help of Christopher Loftus to get him out of those kind of jams.

He hurled his clothes into the laundry bin and rummaged through his dresser for some comfortable clothing. The auror robes were specially charmed with protection spells, and while you couldn't really feel the weight of them, there was still some strain. So getting into muggle casual wear was always welcome, and he was glad that his brother-in-law was a famous quidditch player that got a ton of free shit; Erin had dumped a bunch of free endorsement clothing at their home a few weeks back.

Will was trying to decide if he wanted to actually save the jersey for another time when he spotted the scattering of parchment on Anneliese's desk. He usually wasn't one to snoop or be nosy, but it looked like a tornado had rushed through the surface of the desk. Were they important documents? Letters from Juliet, maybe? Rhys was here often enough, what did women need to owl for when they had journals and frequent visits? Probably giving her pregnancy advice...maybe Will should warn Rhys to stop any owls from their home.

"Hey, Anneliese?" Will called, forgetting about finding a shirt as he picked up a random piece of parchment, slowly making his way to the kitchen, "Who're Eva and Carter?"

Anneliese had, by the time she reached the kitchen with Henry in her arms, completely forgotten about her little mess in the bedroom. Her mind had quickly moved on to situating the baby, and the dogs for that matter, in the kitchen. Henry was no where near eating real food yet, but it was still important to have him there with them when they ate--- which unfortunately left the dogs plenty of room to stick their noses right onto the table. It was an annoying process that they went through every night, but most times she came out victorious: it was all in setting boundaries right before they sat down. Hence why her mind was so preoccupied until Will came into the room, asking about a very big secret she had been holding in for a while now.

Doing so shirtless, she might add. A obviously blatant attempt to further distract her. "I---" Temporarily stunned by all of this, Anneliese froze as she blankly stared at her husband for a few long moments. She--- had not thought of an excuse for when someone would happen upon her story. Anneliese blinked quickly, willing her brain to catch up and move forward.

"Where did you get that!" Anneliese finally squeaked, despite knowing the answer. As she spoke, her grip on the cups she had been pulling out from the cabinet failed, and they awkwardly fell onto the table with a loud thud, sending the dogs flying and making her jump as well.

"They're--- it's---- nothing!" she rushed, wanting nothing more than to rip the piece of parchment right out of his hands. Maybe she would try to. No, she would because that story belonged to her from the beginning to the end, every sentence, word and thought. Well, sort of anyway. And--- and, she was allowed to not want people to look at it yet, or-- she didn't even know what she was doing with it, it was barely finished and--- Anneliese's cheeks suddenly turned bright red as her hand went to her cover her forehead.

"It's just---" she tried to start again, embarrassed enough to look down at the table in a vain attempt to calmly rearrange everything. "---something."

The second he'd noticed the terror on his wife's face, Will knew that he had to keep the parchment out of her reach. His arm had gone high in the air as his head tilted up to read the words, and from what he was reading, this wasn't a letter at all, not even some recount of something she'd witnessed in the street. No, this was an actual page from what looked like a greater story---were all those other pieces of parchment scattered on the desk a part of this?

"Are you writing a book?" Will asked, jumping to what would be the most out-there conclusion. She could just be writing to write, because she was bored, or--there were short stories, too. Vance had written short stories for a bit, maybe Anneliese had taken up on the idea? She was sure his wife's writing could make it into a literary magazine, but what did she need to keep it a secret for? Did she think he would laugh at her?

Well, if it was some gushy sickeningly sweet romance story, he might, but. She still could have mentioned it.

Will looked down at his wife, his arm still stretched high above his head to keep the parchment out of reach (he hoped that her wand wasn't anywhere near). He grinned, though, eyebrows going up in curiosity as he waited for the answer. This was definitely something he hadn't expected.

Would she let him read it?

Sweet Merlin, why was he doing this to her? Anneliese stopped moving everything around on the table to shift both hands to her forehead, since now a massive head ache had begun to form. Stupid, stupid, it would have taken three seconds to rush back into the bedroom before Will and clean everything up before he even noticed a thing (that's what she gets for not carrying her wand around with her all the time--- but who did in their own home?). But no, she had to be the scatter brain that she was and completely forget so now here she was stuck having to explain everything because she it was a lost cause when it came to lying to her husband.

"No," Anneliese replied in a small, unconvincing voice, her face now bright red as it could ever be. She dared to look up from her intense staring contest with the ground to notice that Will was holding his hand up as far as he could in the air, no doubt having already read it. Meaning that there was no point in trying to get it back from him now. And she couldn't even run back upstairs because her wand was up there, and then the hustle would set the dogs off again, not to mention Henry would be lost in the entire thing!

Her eyes quickly darted away from Will to the door behind him in one last vain attempt. Not to mention she was very sure he could run much faster than her. Not even run, just get from point A to point B faster in general.

Letting out a short sigh, Anneliese looked desperately at her son for a few moments, as if he would start spewing out a good answer for her. Of course, when he didn't, she was only forced to look back at Will, and his smirk that drove her up the wall (in both good and bad ways).

"It's not--- I don't even--- something I--- honestly I don't--- know what I was thinking." Her hands made a feeble grabbing motion, but Anneliese surprisingly made no attempt to move toward him. "Please?" She asked suddenly, wanting nothing more than that piece of parchment out of his hands and safe in hers. With it, he could.... he could.... do things with it, like ask her to see more, or read it, or even--- send it somewhere.

It had become quite clear that this sheet of parchment was actually important to Anneliese. If it was some doodling, or random thoughts plastered onto the page, she would have shrieked and jumped on him to grab it away. But, her nearly calm response (as calm as Anneliese could make a response) made Will's eyes widened in the slightest fashion, and he lowered his arm to give his wife her parchment. Her page, because even though she had denied it, it wasn't hard to figure out that this was just a small portion of some story she had concocted in her days at home.

He wanted to read it eventually, if she'd let him, so he definitely needed to play nice right now.

Will dropped down to a seat at the table, winking at Henry before putting his arms out and reaching for Anneliese, tugging her onto his knee. This was definitely not something he'd expected from her, but it wasn't hard to believe. Anneliese was always telling him stories, yammering on and on about things she'd heard and things she wished would happen. Really, with the way she told her tales with such flourish and detail, Will was already sure that whatever it was she was writing about would be interesting and a good read.

Hell, he could write her first review, with the thoughts running through his head.

"No reason to be embarrassed," he said, pressing his chin into her her arm. Will pressed a smile together, arms tightening around his wife. Well, at least this was one surprise that didn't involve death eaters or a baby. Not that a baby was as nearly traumatic as a death eater attack could be, he would know. "I think it's kind of cool that you write. It's a talent."

Anneliese felt herself calm down dramatically once her fingertips touched the parchment and the page was curled safely in her palm. With a content sigh, she let Will pull her to him, and she sat on his lap in a relaxed manner, her back curled with her arms limp.

It wasn't that she was embarrassed about her story (it wasn't like it was--- well, she didn't think it was stupid) it was just--- well, it wasn't finished and a complete mess of a first draft so why should she want him to read it! She really didn't want him to read it, period, but she supposed she would have to get over that if she was actually going to go through with sending it to a publisher. But somehow that was much different: strangers reading your writing and your husband reading it were very much different, thank you very much!

Ah, now she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Which she didn't.

"I'll tell you what," Anneliese started, leaning in toward Will's face as she talking. "If I get published," at this point she rolled her eyes, unable to keep a steady face because okay, like that would ever happen, "then you can read my book." That sounded like hell of a win to her. A light smile appeared on her face as she looked at him.

"With Henry as our witness, do we have a deal?"

"Deal."

Will grinned, twisting his arm to shake Anneliese's hand for the deal. That was definitely fair; Will wouldn't want anyone watching his final quidditch plays until they were perfected, or a duel technique until he was sure it would work. And besides, if she didn't get published (which Will thought she would, because who would turn Anneliese down?), he could always break into whatever box or safe she hides the story in and read it himself.

Might get him a few months or years on the couch, but he'd wait until the publishing business got started.

Will turned toward Henry, who was watching them carefully with an utterly confused look on his face, "Henry's got that locked down in his steel trap of a memory," hesaid with a nod.

He gripped onto Anneliese, attempting to reach across the table to grab the bag of food he'd brought home at the same time. Now he really didn't want to move from his spot (or, well---he wanted to move to the bedroom, because they had a bet going on, that he would win--), but there was food to be eaten. He or Henry could never deny food, and while Henry was stuck with the baby mush, Will's stomach was growling from the smells that had filled the kitchen.

Will pulled out a tub of mashed potatoes, popping open the cap with one hand. He slyly looked up at Anneliese, making sure he still had a good grip on her, "So, what's it about?"

Never said he wouldn't ask for a synopsis.