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Please Don't Date Her.

WHO: Murdoc, Eridan and Feferi.
TONE: Heartwarming.
RATING: PG 13
WHEN: Saturday 30th March (What are timezones? Give or take a day)
WHERE: Murdoc's Office.
WHAT: Murdoc acknowledges the possibility that Feferi is his daughter and also remembers he has a son.
STATUS: Ongoing

One child was enough for Murdoc to handle. In fact, one child was more than Murdoc could handle. It had become abundantly clear that he'd dropped the ball in regards to raising Eridan. He had tried to be a good Father, but any doting seemed to become nagging and any attention paid was under the pretence that he expected Eridan to do better.

He had come to Parent's Day with the intention of showing him that he truly did care for him. That...hadn't gone exactly as planned. Especially when he bumped into that old flame from so many years ago. He knew not to trust everything she said. At least. Now he knew that. He used to believe every word from her lips was something of a divine truth, nowadays he was more skeptical. Still, when she mentioned she had a daughter, the same age as Eridan in that sly tone of voice, he couldn't help but feel suspicious.

He's sure he's seen her likeness in the halls. The same facial structure, the same eyes, the same wide smile (though it seemed less malicious) and the same mass of waved hair. He isn't sure if he can pinpoint his own likeness on her, he hasn't had the courage to confront her or even get a good look at her.

How does one go about such a thing? "Hello Student, I believe I am your Father. The one you've never met." It isn't something one can wedge into polite conversation, but he's avoided it long enough. After class, he asks Eridan to meet him in his office after the day's classes and, pretending as though he simply wants him to be comfortable, suggests he brings his friend from hufflepuff with the wavy hair.

Now he's sitting at his desk chair, staring pointedly at the two empty chairs infront of him. He's been mulling over exactly what he wants to say since he decided he'd do this. If he didn't feel like a terrible Father before, he certainly feels like one now.

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Of course Eridan is going to drag Fef along with him. Any excuse to get her to talk to him, now that he'd sort of flown off the handle about the Karkat thing. Not that he didn't believe that his father didn't have some sort of suspicious purpose to all of this, but when he weighed it all he decided that he didn't give much of a fuck about the old man's plans.

And so with a certainly excessive amount of pleading, whining, wheedling, cajoling and possibly a hint of bribery, Eridan dragged Feferi his best friend secret sister not girlfriend fucking Karkat along to meet their mutual parent.

"What do you want now?" No hello, hi dad, how nice to see you. Just barging in and flopping himself down in one of those chairs with the air of somebody dragged to the torture chamber. What Feferi would think of this was anybody's guess.

Feferi had never met the elder Ampora (Was he an Ampora, even? Fef just kind of assumed... But no, apparently he wasn't, which was a little weird, but um. Yeah) before, even during all her years of almost sibling-like friendship with Eridan.

Which meant that she wasn't particularly fondly inclined toward him, even if he was the new DADA professor. And also really kind of handsome. Heehee, if Eridan grew into looks like those, he would have his pick of pretty girls!

Honestly, Feferi had almost said no. But, well, she still cared about Eridan like a brother she'd never had, and (incident with Karkat notwithstanding) he had been behaving himself. So she'd agreed, reluctantly.

Which led to her walking into Eridan's father's office just behind him, sitting in the other offered chair with the delicate airs that had been taught to her since she was old enough to remember. She wasn't sure how formal she was expected to be, but if his views were anything like Eridan's she wasn't exactly going to be keen on impressing him. Still, it was best to be polite. She probably looked even more like her mother, minus the haughtiness.

"Professor?"

He sits up in his chair as the two enter, he supposes it was foolish of him to expect Eridan to knock. He exhales loudly and pointedly, expressing his immense annoyance with his attitude.

He frowns at Eridan as he flops in front of him, watching Feferi from the corner of his eye. There's no denying it now that he's seeing her up close, but he's not going to jump to such conclusions without a few carefully planned questions.

"Honestly, Eridan. Sit up straight." He chides as he shuffles the papers on his desk before tucking them to the side. He swaps his scowl for a polite half smile at Feferi. "Ah. I don't believe we've met formally, Miss...?" He leaves the sentence open, dreading the surname.

Eridan does not sit up straight. Eridan slouches even more, and shoots his father the ugliest look he can possibly summon up. It's pretty ugly. Sharks and deep sea horrors could learn a thing or two from that look.

"Are you serious?" he gripes. "You know her fuckin' name, you only asked her to bring me along, who the fuck do you think you're tryin' to fool here?"

Feferi's lips turn downward when he scolds Eridan, but it's not her place to intervene. She returns his half-smile with one of her own, but before she can answer, Eridan butts in and she looks at him in surprise. She turns back to the terrifying-looking professor.

"Peixes," she says formally. "Feferi Peixes, Sir. I don't think we've met either."

Murdoc briefly returns that look in full force. He knows that look. He invented that look. He only needs to wield it for a few seconds for it to have impact. He doesn't want to scare off the girl, afterall.

"I was hopin' for a more formal introduction. That's all." He hisses that out through his teeth, annoyed that Eridan is interrupting the speech he's been planning for days. He shakes his head, trying not to get bent out of shape. He's totally forgotten how he was going to do this.

"Peixes? That's a name I'm all too familiar with. How's your mother?" Right. Right. He'll ask about her mother. Flawless.

Edited 2012-04-06 11:38 (UTC)

Eridan is not impressed with the look because as far as he's concerned it's his. And his father has never done a damn thing to earn his respect and now he's interrogating his best fucking friend about her life and he doesn't like what's going on here, not at all. His father has no right to go butting into his life now, and especially not where Feferi is concerned.

"Did you call us here for a fuckin' social visit?" His voice takes on an unpleasant, grating edge, and it's got him sitting on the edge of his seat practically hissing at his father. "What do you want, what's your fuckin' angle here, since when did you give a fuck about her or me or anythin' relatin', who do you think you're playin'?"

Overly jealous? Oh yes. Resentful? Definitely.

Feferi does her best to ignore Eridan's negative attitude in lieu of being polite to the professor. Since she wasn't related to him (that she knew of), she had no right to be as crass as Eridan. "Eridan, it's okay," she tried to soothe, reaching over and touching his knee gently. "I don't mind, really." She turned back to Dualscar.

"Mother is...well. She showed up to Parent's Day to make one of her appearances so that she can pretend to care." She smiles and shrugs a little. It doesn't bother her that her mother doesn't actually care about her. She has her nanny.

"Since Eridan is so terribly concerned that we get to the point of this meetin', I'll be honest with you."

He pretty much blurts that out, sounding so annoyed that his clever little ploy is having holes poked in it. He takes a deep breath and lets it hiss through his teeth as he thinks of a way to say it.

"I've reason to believe I might be related to Miss Peixes."

If there had been something in Eridan's hands, he'd have dropped it.

"What," he said, breathless and furious and horrified all at one time, his eyes going as big as saucers behind his glasses. Oh no, oh no, no way was his father going to add that kind of humiliation on top of his already fraught courtship of Feferi, no way was she going to turn out to be his- cousin, first or second removed, or something.

Feferi was surprised, too. Not as surprised as Eridan, though. She generally figured that most of the old pureblood families were interrelated at some point. That was what she'd heard, and learned from looking back through the old family archives.

Still, something about this told her that it wasn't just second cousins once removed or whatever. That wouldn't be a big deal at all. Definitely nothing to call them both together for. "Related?"

Murdoc can't recall a conversation quite as awkward as this one. Though, it can probably be considered on the same level as his conversations with Cyrus and Sybille. He doesn't feel as though he's going to remember his endeavours in teaching with much fondness. Who knew Hogwarts would be where all of the mistakes he made in his life would come back to slap him with a dose of reality.

It was starting to hit him now. Two kids. Thirty five with two kids. One that he never talked to and one that he'd never talked to ever. Frustration coloured with guilt twisted through him. He was already a horrible Father to one child, he didn't deserve to even attempt to raise a second one. Alas, it's too late for him to backtrace, he's already mentioned the relation and it would be stupid to act as if he was her uncle. That was a lie that would unfurl quickly.

"Your Mother and I were..." He lets out a long breath, not sure if he wants to teach sex-ed or casual relationships to his estranged children. "Fairly close. Before I married Eridan's mother, that is." It's very important to him that he adds that.

"She has a habit of bein' vague, but, I think there's a rather large chance that perhaps you are my daughter. Maybe. But I don't know."

That sentence was packed full of awkward pauses and space fillers. His denial was as obvious as his anxiety.

The silence that followed was enough to send several different expressions flitting one after another across Eridan's face. First was outright disgust- the last thing he ever wanted to think about was his father getting his business on with anyone, least of all Fef's mom. And then he actually thought, about that, about the words his father was trying to put together, and his mouth fell open. Worked a few times, thinking of words, before the angry swept through him and his face grew dark and furious.

"ARE YOU FUCKIN' JOKIN'." It came out much louder than he meant it to, but goddamn it he'd- they'd- weren't they supposed to get married, or something, how could she have lived next to him all his life and been his sister and nobody ever said a damn thing-

Feferi was having the same kind of thought process about her own mother, and she was in the process of putting the facts together herself when she was interrupted by Eridan's outburst.

...And frankly, the realization came as a bit of a relief to Feferi. For much the same reason that it was a source of pique for Eridan, probably. Recently, she'd started to fear that their parents were arranging a marriage between them, that there were machinations going on behind her back that she wasn't meant to be privy to. She had pulled away from Eridan, partly because she knew that he wouldn't understand why she didn't want to get married, and so if she pulled away before it was announced then maybe he would agree that it wasn't...a good idea.

But now! "You mean...Eridan's my brother?" she asked.

"Why would I be jokin'!?"

Murdoc reels back ever so slightly as Eridan reacts. His hesitation is apparent in the way he cringes at Eridan's raised tone. He despises the fact that he's left here to pick up the pieces, yet he can't seem to pin any blame on the Mother. Perhaps if he hadn't been so quick to rush into his marriage, things could have gone differently.

Though he wouldn't say it out loud, the idea of not having Eridan didn't fly with him at all. While he hasn't been as...attentive as he should have been, he still has fond memories of Eridan's childhood. He wonders if there's a way back to that, a way to bridge the gap he selfishly formed. Now, he's starting to wonder if the gap was Feferi.

"Yes. If it helps any, I wasn't aware myself until quite recently. So I suppose I owe you both some sort of an apology."

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