Closed a place at the table

Elio didn’t really know how to approach a Nightray, approaching Mikael had happened completely accidentally, but this was Ai. Sure, he knew her, had known her since he was younger, one of his Mother’s friends, Bryce’s too, as far as he knew, but that didn’t make talking to her about something like this any easier and he wasn’t sure why it would have honestly. Quite made it worse really. He stood outside the door to her study for quite a bit longer than he needed to, since he had floo access to their manor now (Mikael really was serious about that whole protection thing) he could come and go as he pleased, but he wasn’t about to just burst into Ai’s office, he wasn’t an idiot - he was pretty sure he knew what she could do with a wand after having seen what Mikael could do with one.

This was probably stupid - she probably was alerted to his singular presence the moment he stepped through the fireplace, but it somehow still felt like maybe he wasn’t right here. He was uninvited after all, even if he had an open invite, it and it wasn’t really uninvited or something. After everything with Laurent’s threats, and the way Mikael had reacted to them and talked about it, he couldn’t exactly keep pretending that he didn’t feel it. There was a coil of fear about a mile long in the base of his stomach and some kind of guilt burning at the back of his throat. It took him another several tense moments before he finally managed to knock, and then gave a small shiver of fear, almost ice cold down his spine.

He held out the pastries he brought from Honeydukes (as if he knew how to cook) as the door opened and he stepped inside. “I brought you some pastries,” he said, holding them out like a peace offering.​

The moment Ai was alerted of Elio's presence within the wards, she knew that he was here to talk to her and Liam. After all, Mikael and the others were still in school at this point. Perhaps one or the other but she had a feeling he was here for her rather than her husband. Which is why despite the two of them being engaged in a discussion pertaining to the family business, she decided to shoo her husband away. He'd given her a nonplussed and offended look for it, but she'd made sure to soothe his ego with a kiss before sending him on his merry-way. Now that had been minutes ago. Like a while minutes ago. The floo Elio would have had access to would have been the one in Mikael's suite no doubt. She doubted she'd removed Elio's access to the main one as well since he'd been a frequent guest at the manor growing up. He wouldn't be surprised if Elio also had access to the one where Mikaela's family wing since Elio was a close friend of Theodore. So yeah, Elio had been a fixture in the manor even before he had ended up in a relationship with her third son so Ai was not in the least bit worried that Elio had gotten lost on the way to her study. Or perhaps she'd thought wrong and he was here to see Liam in which case she would have been excited for nothing. She'd been about to give up and storm Liam's study when there was finally a knock on her door.

The door was opened with a simple wave of her hand - a swift spell of dizziness overtaking her that was easily dismissed - perhaps she should start getting used to using her wand and incantations again. Ai stood and quickly walked over to Elio, bypassing the treats and encasing him in a hug and standing up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek for good measure. "Look at you all grown up," she said with a grin as if she hadn't just seen him during school break. "Fine young man - graduated and all," she sighed as she finally took the treats from him and opened it with a beaming smile, popping a treacle fudge into her mouth and then offering one up to Elio by basically placing it against his lips. He may be all grown up now, but she'd watched over him as a child and that wasn't about to change anytime soon. "So what finally made you visit little old me?"​