Closed Single Parenthood

Graeme Fergusson

chaser for pride of portree & scotland | new dad
 
Messages
666
OOC First Name
Emzies
Blood Status
Half Blood
Relationship Status
Seeing Somebody
Wand
Alder Wand 13 3/4" Essence of Dragon Heartstring
Age
10/2022 (39)
Graeme had his son on his shoulders. He would absolutely make the most of whenever he could do this. With his quidditch training he hoped he'd be able to do it a while longer, but eventually his son's own heigh would become the issue. His son was babbling away about the quidditch practice, one that he'd been watching from the sidelines doing some of the homework he'd assigned him, which clearly his son hadn't been paying that much attention to. Graeme was of course talking back excitedly, bouncing his way along the street. The rest of the team had gone out for drinks but of course with Fraser, Graeme tended to not. If he'd wanted to, he was sure that Rory would've looked after him for a couple of hours, but he wasn't too fussed with it. He was looking forward to grabbing something to eat, and what was a staple of when they came to New Zealand, which admittedly, since he was keeping in closer contact with Rory had been quite a lot. He'd always loaded up his brother's plate, ordering more and insisting on paying, but he was glad to see that he didn't need to do that any more, hadn't for a while. "Duck your head there, Fraser," he said as he walked into the restaurant and only once inside and waiting to be seated did he reach up and lift his son off his shoulders and place him down on the floor.
 
Abby was having a long day. Well, a long few years, if she was being honest. But it was worth it in the end. Life hadn't gone the way she had expected it to, but nothing could ever be more of a blessing than her son. No matter what anyone else thought. She was pulling a double at the restaurant today, but thankfully she had the week off from the hotel so nights were her own for the next five days. The restaurant was packed, and she couldn't help the way her heart sank a bit as she saw the familiar man enter the building with his son. Posting a welcoming smile on her face, she walked over. "Hi! Nice to see you again. Come on in, right this way," She grabbed two menus and silverware, and walked them to the final booth in the back of the restaurant.

Abby set the menus down on the edge of the table, giving a warm smile to the boy sitting there coloring. "Zerrin, baby, I'm sorry. We need this table now, would you mind sitting in the hall for a little bit?" She asked gently, reaching out to tuck his dark hair behind his ear. "I should have another table for you in about ten minutes, darling," she promised.
 
Zerrin was coloring idly. The restaurant was noisy, and busy, but he didn't mind. He had his headphones in. The ipod had been a gift from his mother last week and he was absolutely in love with all of the new music on it. He hummed along softly, coloring in his superhero pages when he spotted his mother walking towards him with menus. He already knew what was coming. He draped his headphones over his shoulders, pausing his music, and gathered his things. He smiled back up at her, leaning into her touch. "Sure thing, Mama." He reached up, squeezing her hand gently in his a moment before turning back to grab his stuff. He glanced to the people with her, smiling shyly.
 
Fraser knew he had lots of important things to say and his dad absolutely needed to hear all of them. He wasn't just doing a play by play of the quidditch practice he'd just watched, not at all caring that he was making it clear that he hadn't been paying attention to the homework. Quidditch was so much more important than all of that. Fraser ducked his head, barely stopping in his story as they went into the restaurant. He was lowered to his feet, disappointed he couldn't spend more time on his father's shoulders. But he skipped excitedly after the waitress, who had a friendly face. He looked as a boy a little older than him was being moved from the table. "He can stay," Fraser declared, if only because now he was trying to see what the other boy had. "What's that?" he pointed to the odd device with the weird ear plugs "I'm Fraser! That's my dad, his name is dad, what's your name?"
 
Graeme greeted the woman with a warm smile and nodded. Fraser was already off before Graeme could stop him, and he was following behind. Just making sure that his son wasn't going to end up causing a waiter to trip and fall. He therefore only caught the end of what the woman was saying to what appeared to be her son. He had been about to say that it wasn't necessary when Fraser blurted it out for him and was immediately asking questions to the boy. "My name is Graeme," he corrected with a little laugh before looking to the woman, "We don't mind sharing, honestly," Graeme tried to assure her. He knew she might not want to, but Graeme with Fraser wouldn't mind sharing the table.
 
Abby smiled at her son, pulling back to give him room. She was surprised then when the man and his son started talking to Zerrin. She smiled a little shyly, looking between the boys and the man. "My name is Abigail, call me Abby," she introduced herself, looking down and brushing her sons' hair back again. "This is my son, Zerrin. Baby, would you like to stay here?" She asked softly, leaving the choice up to him.
 
Zerrin smiled at the little boy, holding out his ipod to show him. "This is an i-pod, my mom just got it for me," he explained. "It has songs on it, and I can listen to them. Do you want to sit with me? I can show you," he offered. He nodded at his mom, smiling. "I'll stay Mama, I don't mind, you get back to work," he reassured her. She nodded and brushed his hair back again, smiling and setting the menus down before taking off to bring them all drinks. As soon as she was out of sight, he fixed his hair, letting it fall into his eyes the way he liked it. He smiled softly at the man and the other boy.
 
"Silly dad!" he exclaimed with an laugh before his attention was taken by the older boy. Zerrin. He nodded, "YES! Ah wanna see," he didn't know what an ipod was, or how the songs could get on to it, but it seemed pretty cool. He was already too preoccupied looking at the boy and waiting for him to begin explaining what the thing was.
 
Graeme smiled at the waitress, Abby, asked her son, and when he agreed, he ushered Fraser to sit with this boy. He watched as his son immediately was more interested in this boy than in the menu, but he'd just get something for him. "Zerrin, do you want anything? A drink or something to eat or both?" the scottish man asked with a friendly tone. He knew that it was maybe a bit odd, and he wasn't sure what sort of deal the waitress had for her son getting something to eat or drink, but in Graeme's mind it wouldn't be too much extra to just put it on his tab. "Fraser, gee the boy some space," he then added, knowing that his son would very much be entirely in this boy's space if he didn't remind him to not.
 
Zerrin smiled, scooting over to make room for Fraser. He turned his ipod on. "It's okay, mister, I don't mind." He offered an earbud out to the boy. "Put this in your ear. Like this, see?" Zerrin put the other in the ear closest to the boy. "Then I press this button here, and it will play music." Zerrin pressed play, smiling as 'Payphone' by Maroon Five came on. It was a fun song. "Do you want to color with me?" He asked, opening to two fresh pages and sliding the book and the pencils between them. He looked up as he remembered the man asking him something. "Oh, that's okay, mister. Mama will bring me something to eat when she brings your food, if I ask." He reassured the man.
 
Fraser took what he was handed, and then watched the other boy showed him what to do, but when Fraser attempted to do it, it just didn't seem to manage, it took a few attempts of jamming it into his ear but he eventually got it to fit. He immediately cringed as tinny sound came in his ear. "OH WOW!" he shouted speaking over the music in his ear. He looked at the colouring pages and nodded. He grabbed a pencil, holding it tightly in his hand and colouring, going super over the lines. "Da, I want chicken nuggets and juice!" he spoke loudly in gaelic to his dad he hadn't noted that his dad had spoken to Zerrin, too pre-occupied with the music in his ear and the colouring. "How old are you Zerrin?" he asked, loudly switching back to english as he looked at his brand new friend.
 
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Graeme laughed a little at his son's reaction to the music player, in reality Graeme knew that he hadn't really shown him much of the muggle world, there was no need, they lived amongst wizards, his family was all magical bar his mother, he played a magical sport, they just didn't really exist in muggle spaces. "That's what ah was gonna get you bud," Graeme replied. "Okay, no problem Zerrin, you do let me know if you want anything else," Graeme tended to get the same thing, and he watched the two boys interact in front of him. Graeme knew that his lifestyle wasn't always the best to allow Fraser to have another kid to hang around with, the closest in age was Graeme's half sister and she wasn't the best influence.
 
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Zerrin tried not to laugh, starting to color more on his own. "I'm nine. How old are you, Fraser?" He asked. He looked up at the man and smiled softly. He shrugged, picking up a different color. He heard his mom come back without even looking. "Mama, can I have dinner too?" He asked, focusing more on his coloring than he was on her this time.
 
Abby tried to hurry back to the others, drinks in hand. She set stuff down in front of each of the boys in turn, smiling shyly at the man and his son. She nodded, scribbling Zerrin's order down on the check just so the chef would make it with the other food. "Of course baby. Do you boys know what you want?" She asked, looking to the boy and then to Graeme. Her pen was poised, waiting to scribble down what they asked for.
 
Nine seemed very old to Fraser, but he knew it wasn't, not in the way his dad was ancient! "I'm six!" he replied loudly. As the pretty waitress came back he called out in gaelic without thinking, "Chicken nuggets!" before immediately turning back to Zerrin. "Do you like in the restaurant?" he asked, tripping over the word restaurant as he rushed to say it. "Dad and I live in Skye," he was still speaking much louder than he needed to.
 
Graeme rolled his eyes at Fraser in a fond fashion before looking at the waitress, Abby, and then smiled, "Sorry, we discuss food in gaelic most of the time, he wants chicken nuggets," he explained somewhat unnecessarily. She didn't need to know about it but Graeme felt like he should explain the shouting. "I'll have a burger with fries, and some juice...some like orange juice and a...," he'd been thinking about maybe getting a drink of some kind but decided against. "Water just some water, and obviously whatever Zerrin wants can be on my tab...or...I don't know how it works, but I'm happy to pay for it," he said, he made too much money anyway to not occasionally spend a tiny amount of it on something like this.
 
Zerrin smiled at Fraser's question. "No, mama just works here. We have a flat in Wellington though." He answered easily. He looked up at his mother when the man spoke. "Let him buy my food, mama. I know you've been giving me your free work lunch and going without." He scolded her lightly. "Can you sit and eat with us?" He asked his mom, a little hopeful.
 
Abby listened to what the man said, scribbling down his order. She looked over at Zerrin and blushed at his words. "Baby..." She sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll put in the orders and be back with food for all of us, alright?" She looked to Graeme, giving him a shy smile. "I'll go put this order in," She turned and started to walk away.
 
Fraser looked towards Zerrin briefly as the older boy spoke, but almost all of Fraser's concentration was now on this colouring. He put down the colour he had in his hand and pondered for a good moment before picking up the next one and continuing to colour in, though he was getting a little hungry now. Well he was already pretty hungry but he knew he'd be soon very hungry.
 
Admittedly Graeme felt a little awkward by Zerrin's words, he wouldn't mind Abby joining them but he knew it wasn't like she'd have an option to say no when he'd asked in front of other people like he had. He could admit, the woman was pretty so it wouldn't be a bad thing, he just didn't want to get her in trouble or anything. But as the woman walked away Graeme turned back to the pair of children and gave a little smile. It was always fun to watch him play.
 
Abby returned not too much later, one of the other servers following her. She set the chicken nuggets in front of Fraser, the burger and fries in front of Graeme, and the hot chicken strips in front of Zerrin, with his side of ranch. She set a nice grilled fish and chips down for herself, giving the tray to the other server. She slid in next to Graeme with a bit of a shy smile, turning to Zerrin. "I brought you extra napkins, baby." She set them by his plate, turning to give some attention to the man beside her. "I am sorry about this, Graeme, I doubt you really had a group meal in mind today," she apologized quietly to him.
 
Zerrin settled in easily, passing colors to Fraser and swinging his feet a bit under the chair beneath him. When his mom appeared again with food, he gently gathered his things back, hoping it wouldn't upset Fraser. He set it all to the side, smiling brightly as his mom set their food down and actually sat with them. He dug in, ignoring the adults as he tore apart his chicken strips and dipped them in his ranch.
 
Fraser took the food as it was handed to him. Thanking the pretty waitress as he did so. He took one of the chicken nuggets and began eating. "Do you go to school?" he asked curiously. He did want to know more about Zerrin since he seemed so cool.
 
Graeme thanked Abby as she passed them food. He was quick to cut up Fraser's food so it was a little easier, but he knew his son wouldn't struggle too much. He glanced back at Abby and gave a little shake of his head. "We're more used to it than you'd think. It's nothing, really," he assured her with a warm tone. He knew how difficult it could be to balance a child and a job and also how to manage the whims of a child. "Fraser doesn't get many opportunities with kids his own age, so this is good for him," Graeme gave a little smile as he glanced towards Fraser and Zerrin.
 
Abby smiled a little, picking up her fork and toying with her food. "Oh, I understand. Zerrin is usually by himself," she sighed. "I work two jobs, and it's just us. Either he's with me here at the restaurant, or he's with me at the hotel." She gave her son a small smile as he chatted quietly with Fraser, offering the smaller boy a bite of his hot chicken. She took a bite of her own food. "He's a good kid," she murmured.
 

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