In Case You Didn't Know

@dominickjr | Outfit

It wasn't something new... Trying to get Nick to come and join her team, and now that Susanna had sold the Falcons she thought that she might actually have a shot. Whatever had caused the other woman to sell the team, Olivia didn't know, and she thought that she would have to look into it. She didn't want anything bad to actually have come to her. There were plenty of reasons why the witches hadn't liked one another, but that didn't mean that Olivia wanted her to have come to any harm. Still, she wasn't going to not take the opportunity. And she knew that it was Beckett's team. She knew that the paperwork all had his name on it. But she also knew that if you asked anyone, they would tell you that the Tutshill Tornados belonged to Olivia Graves. They had been a gift, and she thought that it was really one of the best gifts that he could have gotten her. Trips were always fun. She would never turn down a piece of jewelry. And she was certain that children were expected to be the greatest gift she could have received... But she rather liked the Tornados. 

She was a bit selfish like that, and that was okay. It happened. But in the end, she thought that it would work this time. She thought that she might have at least a little better of a shot of convincing Nick that he needed to come and wear the royal blue. that it was time to dislodge his loyalties, they had been to Susanna, and not to the team really. She knew that he had liked the team, Olivia was well aware that the Falcons had long been Dominick's favorite team, and it was a tie to that part of his family, but she thought that really, it might be time for a fresh start, and a fresh start, that involved family on it's own... That would have been a better place than somewhere else. She didn't think that there was any reason that he would turn her down this time. Playing for them made much more sense than playing for Zabini, and she thought that he had to see that. That there was no sense in staying, when the man that he was playing for, was not someone that he owed any loyalty to. Not that he owed loyalty to them... Because he didn't, but still. 

There was something different now. There was something about all of this that was different, and with his birthday and the year mark of Aurora's death, she thought that it might be nice to do something different. That it might have been nice to have something that they could fashion into something that they didn't have before. And so she had decided that it was worth this. It was worth making dinner, and inviting Nick and Ireland, because there was no reason to not invite Ireland. It was amusing, a little bit, that inviting Nick and his girlfriend meant inviting Beckett's assistant, but she had been Beckett's assistant before she had even started whatever it was that she had going on with Olivia's nephew. She had decided on something with a little kick, knowing that Nick had always liked his food with a little more spice than his mother had made it, and she didn't think that Beckett would mind. They ate cuisine from all over the world after all, and a good majority of it was a little more spicy than anything that they normally found here in England. 

She wouldn't attempt anything Czech. She would leave that up to his other aunt, but Olivia thought that she could handle authentic Spanish cuisine. She had found a recipe in Barcelona when they had gone last year that she had fallen in love with, and she had only made it a couple of times since then. It was worth making it for the two of them now. Dinner was over now though, and Olivia had had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at her husband when she had politely declined Ireland's help, and instead had asked Nick to help her clear the table. Setting the platter that she had carried back into the kitchen with her down next to the sink Olivia turned around to pick up her water glass from where she had had one cooking earlier and looked at her nephew. "You can just set it down, I'll get it in a minute." Olivia knew that Nick wasn't an idiot. There was no way that he didn't know what was coming now that she had purposefully separated them, but she thought that she would just test the waters here, and see where she could get with this. Hopefully to the point where she could hand him the contract that was sitting in the envelope next to the refrigerator... Even if it was just for him to read over, and think about it...

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW

OUTFIT

Nick would have very little to do until practices really started up again for Quidditch. It wasn’t that they had stopped training entirely, obviously, but there wasn’t a league cup match for months. There would be no matches until summer and that meant that he was in the off season. There was a lot more time to do whatever he wanted when he was free like this. At first, it was usually difficult for him to adjust to having that much time and all he wanted was to be back on the pitch during the rush of a match. But he got used to the time off and he could spend it the way that he wanted to--that was mostly with Ireland, or his friends. Soon it would be the Easter holidays and LJ would be home too. Nick didn’t have any idea what their plans for that particular holiday was. He didn’t know if his dad had any kind of plans set up, or if Anicka did. He would really go wherever anyone told him to. They just had to tell him the plans and he would be there. He wasn’t going to turn down a holiday meal, regardless of the situation.

They were working everything out, after all. It had been a difficult year, and he knew that LJ and Ella were not all that pleased about Ares’ new wife still. It was something that was going to take some time to adjust to. Nick’s opinion of it had been a bit simpler, really. He missed his mum every day. There wasn’t a single day that he didn’t think about her and wish that she was still alive. But it wasn’t Ares’ fault that she was dead, it wasn’t Issa’s fault that she was dead. She was just gone and he could miss her but he wasn’t going to fault his dad for trying to move on. It might have been fast, but he also knew that it had been a situation that was just impossible to predict or see coming. No one could have expected that something like that was going to happen. It wasn’t as if he had started going out on random dates and bringing a different woman home every other night. That would be different. What had happened was someone coming back to him that was supposed to be dead. He understood that it was complicated. For a while, he had just thought it was for the best to keep his distance from her.

He was nice when he was there but he didn’t go out of his way to see her or anything like that. But time had gone on. It had gotten a little easier. He had met his half-sister, and he would have no problem going to their new house for Easter if that was what Ares wanted to do. Nick just had no idea what the plan was going to be. He knew that April was going to be a hard month. He was trying his best not to think about it, because it was unbelievable to him that it had been a year. But he was more focused on making sure that LJ was okay. He wanted his younger brother to be all right, and quite frankly… he wanted their sister home too. Ana should be here. It had nearly been a year. He couldn’t quite believe that she had been able to just pick up and leave like that, without looking back. Nick had contemplated going to Armenia and bringing her back for Easter. But he wasn’t sure that they needed a holiday with any drama. As much as he wanted her back, if she did come back for Easter, it would probably be a more dramatic holiday than if she stayed gone. But maybe it would be better to get that over with.

He did want to go and get her, after all. It had nearly been a year and he thought that it was past time that she came home. Nick just didn’t know if it would be better to do that now or wait until April was over. That might be easier, but he also thought that she should be with them for this. It would be a year, and she needed to come home--they needed to be together. She had a half-sister to meet, and they were all family. He thought that it was about time they started acting like it. He wasn’t sure just what he was going to do, not yet anyway, so he had done his best not to worry about it too much. Instead he had been very focused on having a good time tonight. He had been waiting for his aunt to corner him about Quidditch and when she asked him to help bring the dishes into the kitchen, he had expected that she’d found her moment. Still, without protest, he had gotten up to start helping to clear the table. “Okay…” He said with a nod, before setting down the plates he’d stacked up onto the counter by the sink. He could have made it difficult to corner him by going back into the dining room, which would have been funny. But he didn’t just yet. “Thanks for dinner. Always good when I don’t have to cook.”

Olivia thought that her nephew was well aware of the fact that she had an agenda for tonight. It wasn't a secret that she wanted him away from the Falcons, and the fact that they needed a Keeper that could actually manage to do their job… Well it just worked out. She wanted Nick, and she wanted to think that she had a little better of a shot now that Zabini had bought di Rossi out. For as much as they had had a rivalry back and forth, and as much as she had claimed that she had hated the woman, Olivia was a little concerned about what had made them sell. There was no doubt that Anna di Rossi loved Quidditch almost as much as she did. And that was quite the feat indeed. Still, she thought that if Nick was going to play for someone, he needed to play for family, and not Zabini. Particularly because Olivia would never like the Falcons, no matter who owned them, but more because she wanted to look after him. She wanted to look after all of them, and if he was playing for them, then she knew that he was taken care of.

She had made herself a promise, when Aurora had died, that she would take care of those kids. And she knew that she was still at a loss about what to do about Ana. She didn't want to force her to come back, but she had considered going to Armenia more than once to smack the back of her head and drag her little butt back here. Because there were people that needed her here. Nick needed her here. LJ needed her here. She had left them behind, seemingly without a thought, and Olivia didn't think that running away from things was the answer. She didn't think that that would ever really be the answer. But she hadn't been raised to run away from things. She had been raised with the attitude that you met whatever it was head on, and you dealt with it. Something that she hoped that her children had seen in her, and that they would learn as well. That you didn't run from your problems. And really, it didn't make sense. Because if anyone had had the example in their lives to run from problems, it was the young man that was standing in this kitchen with her.

Nick had the greatest example for what it meant to run away from something. That was exactly what Dominick had done, and while Olivia only knew Aurora's side of that story, she didn't think that running should have been the answer that he had chosen. That didn't' explain why Ana had run though, that was something that Olivia was constantly trying to figure out. Though she didn't know how many times that Beckett had told her to worry about the things that she could change. And so now that's what she was doing. She was worrying about the something that she could change. She was worrying about Nick. And trying to get him to finally, truly, consider what it would take for him to join the Tornados, and start next season wearing blue instead of black. It was something that she thought that she could work on, this was a project that could distract her from everything else, and hopefully give him something to think about too. They were coming up on Easter, and April, and everything that that particular month was going to bring. Though she knew that it did end with Nick's birthday.

She watched him for a moment when he put the stuff down in the sink and she was glad that he didn't immediately leave the room, even if he had to know what was coming. She thought that he had to know that she was going to ask, that now, more than ever, she was going to try and convince him that the Tornados were where he needed to be. She could promise him that he wasn't stepping down a caliber when it came to quality of team. There had to be teams all over the league that were after the Falcons players now that the di Rossi's had left, right after they had won a championship. It wasn't ideal for Zabini, but she thought that it had possibility for the rest of them. "You're welcome. I enjoy cooking… Though I'd say you're not too bad of a cook. You're doing well enough not to starve anyway." She smirked a little bit and then shook her head, because they both knew that she wasn't going to let him get away with not talking about it for too much longer. "I have something for you…" She thought that she might as well just hand it to him, it was better to know that she had gotten it in his hands at least. He could take it with him, read it over…

in case you didn't know I can't count the times I almost said what's on my mind

Olivia and Beckett had always been the one relationship in his life that he’d witnessed that had been stable and healthy and… normal. She had been his mum’s best friend and that had meant that he’d seen plenty of them growing up. They were the one family that he’d really known of that had just been happy and normal. He was glad that they could still be close even though his mum was gone. They were just pretty much family too at this point. So he hadn’t thought all that much into going to dinner at their house when they’d invited him. He hadn’t needed to. Nick had just figured that it had been a while since they’d gotten dinner and had really seen each other and that obviously he had more time until the league season started. Liv and Beck knew that better than anybody since they owned the Tornados. They knew how his schedule could get, so the fact that the invitation to dinner had come to him while he was bored out of his mind in the off season was not something that was all that surprising to him. But he had been glad to get the invitation nonetheless. He didn’t know if it was odd for Ireland to be there though. If she had thought that him being close with her boss was strange, she had never said anything about it. He thought that it might have been at first, just a little bit. The Graves had always practically been like family to him, but before she had started dating him, Beckett Graves had just been her boss and Olivia Graves had been her boss’s husband. Now she was coming over to their house to have dinner with them, and maybe that had been a little strange at first, but he thought that she might have gotten used to it by now. At least, he hadn’t heard otherwise. He assumed that she was able to balance that out when she had to be at work with him too. It wasn’t something that he knew for sure either, but he was confident enough that they had figured it out. Nick didn’t necessarily think that Beck would be all that hard to work for anyway, at least not as far as he could tell. Ireland had already seemed to have a good opinion of him when they’d first started dating, before she had even really known that he had known the family--and she hadn’t talked about how much she hated her boss or anything like that. Still, he was glad that they got along and that they were able to do something like this without it being completely strange for any of them. It was something that he’d needed tonight regardless, just because it was a nice distraction from how bored he was. Nick didn’t know if there were any motives behind them being asked to come to dinner here tonight, but he figured that he’d find out soon enough if that was the case. It was a rare occasion for him to be around the Graves without them trying to get him to transfer to the Tornados. Usually it was at least mentioned in passing and he didn’t think that tonight was going to be any different. But as of this point, it hadn’t happened at all. So he had to wonder if something was up when Liv asked him to help clear plates and bring them to the kitchen--after she’d denied Ireland’s offer for help. He didn’t mind them continuing to ask about it. It was a joke at this point. Of course, he knew that they were also being completely serious. They would accept a transfer in a heartbeat should he take them up on the offer, it just so happened that they mostly joked about it at this point. “I try.” He chuckled, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. He really wasn’t a half bad cook, he just didn’t like to spend all that much time cooking unless he had to. It was much easier to get takeout or to get someone else to cook for him--if they didn’t mind anyway. And most of the time, they didn’t seem to mind all that much. He had a lot of family that actually liked cooking, so it ended up working out all right for him. “Oh?” He didn’t really have the slightest clue what she could have for him unless it happened to be dessert, in which case he had to hope for some kind of cobbler maybe.

In Case You
Didn't Know

There had been a time in her life when Olivia hadn’t thought all that much about having a family of her own. She had been so focused on her career, and her life, and everything that had she had to offer, and everything that she wanted to do, and then Beckett had happened. And he had changed her entire outlook on life without even trying. And that wasn’t something that she had expected. It wasn’t something that she had even really thought was possible. Because for a long time it had just been them trying to avoid one another. It had been them trying like hell to make sure that they didn’t end up alone in a situation where things could escalate. Because he had been off limits. And she had been just fine on her own. Until they had crossed that line. Until it wasn’t a secret anymore. Those were the moments that she thought he had changed everything. Because before that it had just been a kiss, and this guy that she couldn’t get off of her mind. This guy that had just been everywhere, and he was annoying, and frustrating, and everything that she hated. But he had been everything.

That was the problem. From the moment that they had gotten alone together, until now, until here, in this house, twenty-three years later… He had become everything to her. Their family had become everything to her, and Olivia back then, the Olivia had that kissed Beckett Graves in excitement that night, had never thought that a family like this would even be a possibility. She thought that the closest thing that she was ever going to have to a kid was the young man that she had invited over here tonight. His mother had been her best friend, and without any siblings, Olivia had thought that she would just have to settle for being the best aunt in the world. Something that she thought that she had at least succeeded in. She was aware that she wasn’t Nick’s only aunt, but for a while in there, when Aurora had walked away from the rest of Nick’s family, and she had left her own behind long before that, Olivia had been the only aunt. She had promised herself, when they had lost her, that she would do her best to take care of them now. And she knew that she couldn’t really do that. Or that she hadn’t.

She worried about Ana. She worried that she never came home. That she never wrote back more than a handful of sentences to tell her that she was still alive. Whether or not the boys heard from her at all she didn’t know. Olivia didn’t know which one of them would have initiated conversation… Though she had to wonder what it was that had kept LJ from following her? He had Ares’s name, she knew that. But she didn’t know what it was that had made it so easy for him to give up being a Vesili. And maybe that was what had caused the rift between them. Maybe that was why she didn’t come back. She didn’t know. All she did know was that all three boys were here. And that she loved all of them. Orion, so little, and unknowing about all of the horrors his family had gone through. LJ, struggling with being at school, and dealing with the fact that he hated it there, as he had told her multiple times now. And Nick… Nick, who she had invited here, with his girlfriend, at least, Olivia was assuming that there were labels now, seeing as she had heard about Ireland for the first time over a year ago. Back when Aurora had been alive.

Ireland had been around before that though, just not associated with Nick. She had been Beckett’s assistant, and Olivia had always seemed to like her. Beckett seemed to like her, or she didn’t think that he would have kept her on this long. And she knew quidditch, which was something that Olivia could always find herself liking about a girl. Still, she didn’t know what Aurora had thought, or what she would think now that over a year had gone by, and she was still around… But in the end, all that mattered was what Nick thought, and it wasn’t Ireland that she wanted to ask him about right now. She wanted to talk about him finally making the leap to the Tornados. Olivia handed her nephew the manila envelope with the offer that they had put together to come and join the Tornados this season. She didn’t know if he would open it right away or not, but she thought that it was better for him to have it than not have it. Either way, she handed it to him and moved to get bowls down for dessert. “Just something for you to think over, seriously this time. I’m not asking nonchalantly as your aunt anymore.”

@ nick - 835 - olivia's outfit

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