They Don't Know Us

[Eduardo Orbon]

Eduardo still had much to do in New Zealand, this much was certain, however he periodically took trips home to visit with his family who were small in size but he loved very deeply. As a boy he had often been surprised at how everyone was meant to be considered sane but he had somehow embraced it since his own school days and was just as odd as the rest of them. He was just glad that his roommate didn’t seem to mind too much. With this thought in his head and a warm plate of bistec de palomilla in his hands, freshly prepared by his mother he arrived with a snap to his new home. Expecting it to have been an uneventful weekend in the Hispanic man’s absence he had not readied himself for the frenzy people seemed to be in. At least that was what he could sense from his roommates thus far but he had never been perfect at reading people so this could easily be the average this early in the morning.

Deciding to leave them be for the moment, Eduardo headed to his room to unpack as he had to leave much of the Christmas presents given to him at his childhood home during the move. Now that he was finally settled, a little too settled some might say if they looked at the state of his bedroom or even his office. Among the chaos would be a few tokens he had from Havana, which were sure to prevent him from being too homesick which he managed to be sometimes. Especially as winter was approaching he would miss the heat more and more. He already had goose hairs on the nape of his neck from the chill in the air so Eduardo put on a large sweater, one that Neveah had given him. He hated he loved the sweater as much as he did but those were the breaks. Finally feeling a little more comfortable he unpacked the small suitcase and noticed immediately his need for a picture frame for a very particular photo his mother had packed away for him without his knowledge. He grabbed it absentmindedly and went into the living room, hoping to find Samuel who was sure to have a very particular ‘aesthetic’ for his bedroom and would be enraged if he just picked any frame that he wanted so as he saw Jon he smiled, hoping that he might know. “Gionata, do you know where Samuel is? I have a question for him.” Eduardo still had the photo in his hands, not keeping it hidden from his colleague but it was an odd thing to go showing about purposefully as it was really just a photo of himself and his father at his graduation. For some reason as a seventeen year old, Eduardo had puffed out his chest and tried to stand as tall as he could to be seen as equals to his father while the man had a smile and poor posture. He looked aged despite his youth in this photo and yet as a boy he had thought there was no one stronger and tougher or more impressive. Still Eduardo sometimes thought this as a man, trying ever so hard to prove his use even in Astronomy.

 

[Jon Phillips]

In theory, Jon's christmas was better that year than in some of his previous years. The model aeroplane he'd received as a gift as well as the promise of eating dinner with Cess, Levi and Sam all in the same room, sharing stories about their lives and reminiscing of happy Christmases past over champagne made the day all the more special. Especially as Levi had been growing on him throughout the years, and where Jon was previously uncomfortable he was now friendly to the man, seeing him as more of a friend than an intruder to the family he'd grown used to. It was of course a twist of fate that the day was entirely ruined by the announcement at dinner as Jon knew he couldn't attend something with his whole family together that didn't involve unfortunate news or his anxieties being triggered at the drop of a hat. What happened changed his outlook of the holiday entirely for the worst, making him unable to view the time spent with his family as anything but terrible, through and through, tainting what would have been happy memories of it with the anxiety of being replaced and the fear of such a big change in everyone's lives.

Since then, he'd done his best to shut it out and act like his normal self so he could spend the rest of the holiday season in much higher spirits, in many more ways than one. This included playing video games from dawn till dusk, smoking indoors and not caring about the smell of the smoke or the ash falling onto the coffee table, as well as shutting everyone out, focusing on the stories in the games he was playing and the relaxing feeling of the nicotine in his system rather than what was happening in his life. A horrible habit and a poor coping mechanism however one he couldn't escape from even if he wanted to. Jon was too entranced by his game to notice someone walk in the front door. He heard footsteps eventually though dismissed it as Sam until he heard the sound of one of his nicknames ring in his ears. It roused his attention from his game, causing him to look up to see Eduardo. He didn't know what question Eduardo needed to ask Samuel that he couldn't also tell him so he quickly moved the cigarette hanging from his lips as he responded "Dunno," before noticing the photo in his hands. "What's that?" He asked, using the cigarette now in his hand to point to the photo curiously.​

 

[Eduardo Orbon]

Eduardo looked at the game Jon was playing with some curiousity as during his youth he was discouraged from any American style toys such as video games and more so muggle ones as well. How his friend played such a thing now as an adult amazed him sometimes but this was not to say that he did not sometimes at least try to play too. It filled his mind as he shrugged off not knowing where Sam was until the photo was pointed out. "Ah just a photo of me and my dad," he said. Knowing it'd be weird to bring it up without explaining how the two were related the man added, "I need a frame and I know Sam would freak if i messed up his 'aesthetic'." He couldn't help but manage a chuckle because he was a very, very messy person and he knew at any given time Sam took it upon himself to clean his room and the rest of the house as much as he could. It wasn't as if he were a slob, it was just that he had more important things to deal with generally and felt that the piles of papers made sense in his internal organization system.

 

[Jon Phillips]

Jon placed the controller he was holding onto the coffee table in front of him as he raised his eyebrows curiously. Family photos were always interesting and sometimes more embarrassing than anything. Jon usually avoided being in family photos himself simply because of that fact though he was not opposed to seeing someone else's family photos. If not for the sake of his own curiosity, so he could laugh at them and feel better about how unphotogenic he was as a kid despite not yet meeting someone who was equally as unphotogenic. He had a feeling that the photo in Eduardo's hands wouldn't be embarrassing in the slightest but regardless he wanted to see it. "Is it embarrassing? Hand it over." He said, chuckling as he held his now free hand out to his roommate, expecting to be given the photo. He returned his cigarette to his lips as he waited and nodded at Eduardo's comment about Sam's 'aesthetic' knowing more than anyone how true it would be and admiring how considerate Eduardo was being to Sam in that sense. If Jon was the one with a family photo to frame he wouldn't have cared less about a particular frame and furthermore less about framing it in the first place. But nevertheless he wanted to see Eduardo's photo and waited patiently for the other man to hand it to him.
​

 

[Eduardo Orbon]

Eduardo managed a chuckle at how excited Jon was about a possible embarrassing photo from his childhood. There were plenty of humiliating ones that his mother held near and dear to her heart that he simply would not put in his home. This one, though, was different because he had so few photos of his father as he seemed to be so camera shy. "Sure," he said as he passed the photo from his small graduation over. As he had been homeschooled by the man it had mostly been a celebration with a few of Eduardo's friends and his parents as there really was no strong familial connection on his father's side any longer and he could hardly explain to his Aunts and Uncles the truth about magic.

 

[Jon Phillips]

Jon smiled playfully as his colleague turned friend, now roommate handed the photo to him, fully expecting to laugh at Eduardo looking so youthful. But what he actually saw was something entirely different that caused his mouth to drop open and his eyes to blink repeatedly as he questioned whether or not he was hallucinating. The young person in the photo was unmistakably Eduardo at a much younger age but the other man pictured was a face he knew all to well and hadn't seen in a new photo in years. He frowned at what he was seeing as he blinked again, then put his cigarette lackadaisically on the coffee table as he turned to Eduardo and asked. "That's your dad?" He looked back at the photo and shook his head slightly in disbelief, suddenly feeling the urge to stand up and dig through the many photo albums he had from his childhood to find a photo of his father looking way too similar to Eduardo's father in the photo he was holding. He then stood up in that moment, continuing to stare at he photo, feeling both confused as he wordlessly walked upstairs to his room, opening his closet and kneeling down to retrieve the photo albums he knew where there. That moment was so surreal, almost too surreal for Jon to be able to handle it. He now wished that Sam was somewhere to be found so he didn't have to deal with this alone and could help him figure out what on earth he would do when he found the photo of his own that he was searching for.​

 

[Eduardo Orbon]

Eduardo was surprised to see Jon's reaction but more then that he was confused. Of course that was his father standing in the photo beside him. He knew enough to know that the last thirty-three years he had one father and that was all. Secretive as the man was this was certain to the Cuban professor who now stood wordlessly as he watched his friend walk away and go upstairs. Hesitantly he followed Jon to see what the big deal was about all of this and saw him digging through his closet. "What are you doing?" he asked, genuinely uncertain of what was happening at the moment because in truth he really could not guess in the slightest what the photo of his dad had to do with whatever Jon was looking for in his closet.

 

[Jon Phillips]

As Jon searched through his closet, he attempted to do the math in his head so he could find a photo taken in the same year. The photo album on top of the pile was from when he was a toddler so he immediately picked it up, throwing it to one side and opening another one as it had photos from Sam's teenage years. If his math was correct Sam would have been around fourteen and he would have been ten around the time of Eduardo's graduation. While most of the photos of their lives from this time had been destroyed, Cess managed to keep her own albums and made the copies he was now searching through. Jon was more thankful than ever for this fact in that moment as he soon found a photo of him as a ten year old, appropriately dressed as batman and climbing on his father's shoulders. He pulled the photo from the album and cast it to one side as he put both photos next to each other, comparing them himself and feeling furthermore confused, even nauseous at such a coincidence before handing both photos, side by side, to Eduardo. He hadn't found the words to respond to the other man yet but he hoped that the two photos could explain everything for him as he was too shocked to say anything, searching for an explanation in his head and again coming up with nothing. Eduardo was a much smarter person and Jon hoped that now that he could compare both photos and the similarities between their dads, he would be able to explain it because Jon really was clueless, drawing a blank of what to do or how to react and if this really was a coincidence or something more confusing and sinister about their pasts.

over dramatic afffff​

 

[Eduardo Orbon]

Watching on as Jon seemed to be going through what Eduardo might have called an emotional breakdown if he wasn't also somewhat bemused by the younger man's wordless actions. Perhaps he should have been concerned or worried over all that he was seeing but he saw no need to be even as things were thrown about but he had thought this too soon. If he had some warning of what Jon was digging through Eduardo might have called Samuel who was more equipped to calm him or even explain things in an easier way because despite being a professor who had to explain difficult things to those with less emotional stability than any adult.

At the moment, though, Eduardo didn't quite understand why he was being handed two photos and why Jon looked so dumb founded so with an amused smirk he took them. This expression quickly fell and suddenly Eduardo understood the panic Jonathon had. Two identical looking men with their younger son's at what must have been around the same time. If it weren't for the fact that Eduardo had been privy to just basic enough information he would have been equally as horrified. As a teen he had found an old photo of his father as a child. Barely six years old but unmistakably the same person from mannerisms alone. Only there had been two other identical boys surrounding him in the picture. His mother, honest and sweet as she was, had told him that his father was a part of a set of triplets and they had all lost contact with each other long ago. As the Cuban family had never heard them mentioned Eduardo had presumed that it was because of some long feud that had scorned and separated them. Still he had never expected to find them - never mind so far away from Cuba or Guatemala. "My father had two brothers - triplets," he said quietly. Unsure where to go from there with this knowledge as he had never approached his own father with this knowledge out of fear that it would cause an argument and he wanted only to respect and revere the man. It seemed that talking to him about his private past was the perfect way to do the opposite.