First Day of the Rest of Your Life (Boys and Moreaus)

[Andy Moreau]

Andy stood in the doorway for some indeterminable time. He didn't want to ruin this, not when there was so much on the line. A place to sleep, a chance to learn magic, a place where his brother might be safe. He didn't want to interrupt, and glanced back to make sure that Rhys didn't see him loitering.

Finally he stepped in and put himself where Matthew would hopefully see. "Uh, Rhys said you could wash these? My brother's taking a shower, these are his."

[Matthew Moreau]

Matthew looked up from his skillet, then nodded. "Yeah, sure," he said. He knocked his spoon on the side of the pot to free it of extra bits, then set it aside before he stepped toward the teen. "Here, this bin..." he opened up a cabinet along the wall connected to his bedroom to reveal a deep basin with a spout, along with a wringer to dry the clothes. "Drop them in there." He reached to run a bit of water. People who were more experienced with house matters could probably do it all much more easily, but he knew the basics, and that worked.

"I could teach you how, you know, that way if you're ever here and need clean clothes and I'm not around you can do it." It might have been presuming a bit too much, but he had the feeling he and Rhys would have these kids for a while. He added in some soap, then pushed in a brush and washboard.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy nodded at the offer and watched avidly. It wasn't that he was interested in laundry, but if it was a chore, he expected to be doing plenty of it. He dropped the clothes in, and then his brows knitted. "I was going to take a shower too. Should this, like, wait? So it can all be washed together?" A tiny pair of jeans, socks, undies, and a little shirt weren't anything like a full load of laundry.

[Matthew Moreau]

"Well, I can show you now, and then maybe you can try it on your own clothes," Matthew said. "It won't take long for these to wash up; by the time you're done with your shower they'll be clean and you can give it a try. Here, look." He pointed out the brush and washboard. "I bought these as a set, it was a tad more expensive than just learning to do it all on my own, but then I'm kind of lazy."

He grinned and gently nudged Andy with his elbow. "Basically, all you're doing here is activating the charms put on these pieces so they wash the clothes. It's not a difficult spell, but it may take a few attempts since you've not had much training." He demonstrated, explaining the movements of his wand and the pronunciation of the spell before actually performing the spell. The small set of clothes were immediately picked up by the other items, and washing began.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy hadn't been sure about that nudge, but any over-thinking he might have done was prevented by the sheer awe of magic. He was in a magical house, and he was going to do magical laundry. "Should I get my wand now? Will you show me when I get out of the shower?"

Andy suddenly realized that he had one pair of underwear, he was wearing them, and you could kind of watch the laundry get cleaned. And he couldn't just get Rhys to help him instead, because Rhys was a Muggle.

[Matthew Moreau]

"I can show you," Matthew assured the teen. "For now, it's already started. I could show you the wand movements, though, if you want to go grab your wand." The wand movements were the hardest part for Matthew, who tended to ignore the subtle parts and go for the larger, attention-grabbing areas. The words were easy, but then he knew people who always struggled with the words, so maybe he shouldn't decide which part was easy and which wasn't.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy nodded and hurried away in all haste. His backpack was exactly where he'd left it, and he knelt to dig through, pushing aside his skirt and tights to find that box from the wand shop. He tore off the lid and reached inside, only remembering how good it had felt to hold it when he was holding it again. There was nothing sexual about the feel of pent-up magic settling, looking for release, but it felt good enough that he stayed on the floor trying to fight it rather than get right back up.

[Rhys Moreau]

When Rhys reappeared, he'd changed into soft cotton bottoms and draped himself in one of Matthew's shirts. The scent helped keep him calm when he wanted to jump around, or scream, or something. In his arms he held a few items. Not enough for a wardrobe, but enough to potentially clothe the brothers for tonight and the next day until some real clothes could be gathered. "I've got some things," he said before he noticed Andy, then he tilted his head. "You alright?" He dumped his small load onto the nearest seat to free his arms.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy shook his head determinedly, then set his wand back in its box. What was he going to do? He couldn't avoid using it forever, couldn't walk around with a stiffy every time he used it, and couldn't try to solve the problem by wanking because his brother was in the bathroom.

"I'm just looking for something." He started to poke through his bag, though there wasn't much to poke through, just to buy time.

[Rhys Moreau]

Rhys raised his eyebrows at Andy's reaction, and glanced between the kitchen with its soft music and the bathroom with its sporadic water sounds. "You know, you don't have to hide anything from us," he said. "Especially Matthew. I spent ages hiding, but Matthew's good with awkward things." He wasn't sure what Andy was worried about, but it didn't seem like the boy was actually just looking for something.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy didn't even glance over his shoulder, but kept looking in his bag. He'd moved aside the same pencil bag three times and mixed up a few wadded pieces of paper until the edges started to tear. But his problem was going away.

"I was just looking for... uh, this," Andy said. He grabbed one of the wadded pieces of paper and pulled it out, smoothing it against one thigh. Then he folded it as quickly as possible into a square and stuffed it in a hoodie pocket. Please don't let him ask to see it. There was really nothing special about a half-assed attempt at math homework he'd never need to turn in.

[Rhys Moreau]

Rhys' eyebrows couldn't raise any higher, but his eyes widened slightly and briefly. "Right, well, you can look through these clothes and see if anything will fit you or Tam. It's not the best selection, and a good bit of it is church related, but I know I'd rather not wear the same thing two days in a row, even if it's been washed." He'd been around enough teens at the shelter to know that they had some odd habits and that often it was best not to press, so he continued on with his prior plan of getting the brothers something comfortable to wear.

[Andy Moreau]

Andy nodded, still refusing to look directly at Rhys. When he stood, he continued facing the wall as he pulled the hoodie over his head, leaving his striped shirt and heart necklace showing. The hoodie got tied around his waist, and the dangling sleeves were placed strategically before he zipped up his backpack, then grabbed his wand box. "Matthewsteachingmetodolaundry," he said, and made his way as quickly as possible back toward the kitchen.

[Matthew Moreau]

Rhys' oh, that's useful drifted through the open doorway between the two rooms. Well, honestly, most of what was said drifted into the kitchen, he just tended to remain silent most of the time. Matthew grinned when Andy returned to the kitchen. "Are you ready to start?" he asked. "It took my mum ages to teach this kind of thing to me, I just didn't want to clean."

[Andy Moreau]

Andy wouldn't meet Matthew's eyes. His problem had eased quite a bit, but doing laundry would require holding his wand again, and he was pretty sure he knew what would happen if he touched it. "Can I like... not?" he asked awkwardly. His wand remained in its box, which he held with both hands. "I love the wand, it's great, but... I dunno..."