Carlos just shut his eyes and shook his head as Hancock
spoke. No, no, no – Hancock didn’t need to apologize. He tried to keep his arms
relaxed when Hancock took his hands.
“No, I’m sorry… I didn’t think it through and I didn’t… I
didn’t mean that. I… I know you think more of me.” Though Carlos still couldn’t
fathom why. But still, here they
were. And still, Carlos did mess up.
God… what was he going to do?
“The Dingle Peninsula?” Carlos asked curiously. That was
kind of a strange name, he thought. “That sounds great. And… I didn’t know you
spoke Irish.” As Carlos said that though he realized how stupid that probably
sounded. Of course Hancock could know
Irish – Carlos still knew Spanish and he lived nowhere near a Hispanic country
himself.“I know it sounds silly, I’ve heard all the jokes.” He snorted. His smile widened as Carlos went on and he offered a shrug. “It became mandatory to learn in schools around the country sometime after we won our independence, I might’a been sent to Hogwarts when I was only eleven, but I was in a regular school learnin’ with all the other Irish kids until then. It’s not a widely spoken language, almost died out actually, but we’re workin’ hard on tryin’ to revive it. Technically, it’s the national and first official language of Ireland, English bein’ the second, but you’ll find a hell of a lot more folks defaulting to English than Irish, it’s just not used much apart from a few counties and on all our fuckin’ signs, heh.”
Carlos hummed. “Damn the imperials trying to kill other languages,” he joked with a soft laugh. “Never give up – never surrender.” He chuckled and looked back out to the ocean. “I learned Spanish at home, even though we lived so far north from Mexico. I honestly can’t imagine going to a place where all the signs are in Spanish with English as a subtitle. And just about nobody speaks Spanish where my dad lives right now… though of course it has its usefulness.”
Carlos froze immediately. He stared at Hancock, wide-eyed
and uncertain as the dread and guilt from before quickly crawled up his spine
once again. Hancock wasn’t a person who yelled when unhappy, but Carlos still
felt like he’d been snapped at. Shit – and he was doing so well…
Carlos’ hands loosened his hold on Hancock and slowly Carlos
started to pull them away. His shoulders hunched as he tried, unsubtly, to
shrink in on himself.
“Th-that’s not what I…” He cut himself off and gulped,
trying to actually think about what
to say. “I… I’m sorry, Ba… uh, Hancock. I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean…” He looked
to the side of the tub, unable to try to keep eye contact.
Carlos was starting to doubt himself again. He wasn’t ‘perfect’—how
could Hancock think he was? He clearly didn’t know what to say to Hancock
without making him upset.
Carlos looked out the window and smiled. “Oh, that’s amazing,” he said. The sight of the coast looked so refreshing. The blue water looked so vibrant and clean, and there was white foam where it touched the boulders and coast. The ocean stretched out far across flat horizon and Carlos thought he could see an occasional member of marine life breach the surface as little dots of white appeared on the water. “It looks incredible, Hancock. Somehow the water is just… it just looks different from Oregon.”
“Well, it is a different ocean.” He pointed out with a little smile, though he understood that hardly made a difference, ocean was ocean, it was the coastline that changed. “I like to think it’s all the green everywhere around us, makes the water look different, y’know? Less gloomy than some places but a hell of a lot less tropical than others too, heh. I’ll bring ya around to the Dingle Peninsula at some point too, maybe we can take a little boat tour to see Fungie the dolphin, hmm? It’ll be good for ya to go there with an Irish speaker anyway, English is a second language in that part’a the country unlike everywhere else.”
“The Dingle Peninsula?” Carlos asked curiously. That was
kind of a strange name, he thought. “That sounds great. And… I didn’t know you
spoke Irish.” As Carlos said that though he realized how stupid that probably
sounded. Of course Hancock could know
Irish – Carlos still knew Spanish and he lived nowhere near a Hispanic country
himself.
Ironic that the guy
who likes me for my brain is an actual zombie. Carlos almost snorted aloud
at his own joke – he thought it was pretty good and, if he were a ghoul too,
maybe Hancock would appreciate it. But he decided against saying it aloud –
more than once Hancock had jokingly referred to himself as ‘King of the Zombies’
but that was something Carlos was going to stay away from. Too bad… it could
have been a good joke.
“Well, it’s good to know that there’s something about me you like,” he hummed, and he gave Hancock’s jaw
a small kiss.
“I think you need to register your wand,” Carlos said. “So that in case you do something you are documented and can be tracked. And, yeah, I guess it’s pretty strict. But if you’re not planning on causing any trouble, then I think you’re okay. I don’t know… I haven’t traveled to America while living in a foreign country, so I haven’t experienced it.”
“Of course, heh, I guess I shouldn’t expect you to really know when you don’t exactly have to worry about that kind of thing. It does sound pretty similar to traveling around here though.” He shrugged, then smiled and let out a happy little noise as their destination finally came into view. “Ah, almost there! Ya can’t see the Causeway from here, but you got a nice view’a the coast at least while we drive down to the visitor’s center.”
Carlos looked out the window and smiled. “Oh, that’s amazing,” he said. The sight of the coast looked so refreshing. The blue water looked so vibrant and clean, and there was white foam where it touched the boulders and coast. The ocean stretched out far across flat horizon and Carlos thought he could see an occasional member of marine life breach the surface as little dots of white appeared on the water. “It looks incredible, Hancock. Somehow the water is just… it just looks different from Oregon.”
Carlos hummed, his nudging turning into nuzzling. He didn’t
feel completely there at the moment with his head hurting, but he was vaguely aware
that Hancock’s response was in a slightly different tone from previously. He
wondered if he said something wrong, but for the life of him couldn’t think of
what it was at the moment.
“It’d be fun to figure it out,” he told Hancock. “Figuring
out the components and how to distribute the heat… I could totally do it, I
think. We should keep an eye out for home and living books or something that I
can study. Maybe an instruction manual too – that’d be great.”
Carlos hesitated to answer. “Eh…” he started, “I dunno. At
this point there isn’t any cooperation between the American and No-maj
government. And there’s still even some stiffness between the Native American
wizards and the ones descended from immigrants, so it’d be tough to even start
doing a reveal. And America is full of so many different kinds of people… I
have no idea what it’d be like if they found out about magic, but I’m honestly
a little scared of what might happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Westboro
Baptist Church decided to start a new anti-witch crusade or ‘blood atonement’ thing because we’re ‘all
going to hell’ or something like that…”“Oh shit, I forgot all about those shitheads.” He replied softly at the mention of religious radicals, a frown tugging at his lips. “I suppose around there you’re probably quite a bit more outnumbered than we are here, maybe some big reveal wouldn’t be such a good idea just yet. What’s it like for magical tourists there? Are the restrictions pretty strict or could I do pretty much whatever I want as long as muggles don’t see if I came to visit? I’m just curious, heh. I haven’t been outside of Europe before.”
“I think you need to register your wand,” Carlos said. “So that in case you do something you are documented and can be tracked. And, yeah, I guess it’s pretty strict. But if you’re not planning on causing any trouble, then I think you’re okay. I don’t know… I haven’t traveled to America while living in a foreign country, so I haven’t experienced it.”
Carlos snorted softly. “Of course you would,” he teased, nudging Hancock’s cheek with his chin. Honestly, that sounded dangerous to Carlos. It’d be tough to find a hold on something, and then with wet hands trying to work a bottle of oil (because God knows water wouldn’t be enough)… just seemed like a bit of a hassle. “Honestly, I’ve never heard of that. It seems… weird.”
Carlos nodded. “Yeah, of course,” he agreed. “It’s just that we had a big scare with the Salem Witch Trials back since even before the United States became a thing, and then there was another scare in the 1910s or so… so MACUSA tried to get a handle on everything and keep children from performing magic when they were too young. I guess… we have enough issues with accidents. Then again, the US is a big country so… maybe the government is a bit stricter because there’s more wizards to deal with?”
“Ah, yeah, that’s right, I always forget about that shit.” He sighed, shaking his head slightly as he thought back to history lessons about the plight of American witches and wizards being found out by their muggle neighbors. “I s’pose it makes more sense considering that past, but I’m still not sure I could handle having my wand taken. Not sure so much secrecy is needed anymore either, I think muggles would be ready to accept magic these days, don’t you?”
Carlos hesitated to answer. “Eh…” he started, “I dunno. At
this point there isn’t any cooperation between the American and No-maj
government. And there’s still even some stiffness between the Native American
wizards and the ones descended from immigrants, so it’d be tough to even start
doing a reveal. And America is full of so many different kinds of people… I
have no idea what it’d be like if they found out about magic, but I’m honestly
a little scared of what might happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Westboro
Baptist Church decided to start a new anti-witch crusade or ‘blood atonement’ thing because we’re ‘all
going to hell’ or something like that…”
The Perfect Scientist 