The flight went relatively smoothly. Well, as long as you didn't take into account the ever-changing and demanding attitudes of his two beautiful wives.
Everything had started off wonderfully. During the first few hours of the trip, Hestia and Flora kept themselves thoroughly entertained by gazing at the vast ocean of clouds through the small window of their seats. When they grew bored of the scenery, they moved on to politely pestering the flight attendant, asking for every snack, dessert, and extravagant drink the in-flight menu had to offer, marveling at the constant attention.
But, inevitably, as the hours passed, the novelty of the Muggle flight began to wear off, and the twins started to grow restless. After all, it was a long, monotonous eight-hour flight from London to New York. Looks of annoyance and sighs began to grow more frequent, threatening to ruin the peace of the cabin.
Seeking a quick solution before either of them decided it was a good idea to curse the plane out of boredom, Aurelian managed to calm them down by introducing them to some technology. He pulled a pair of headphones out of his pocket, along with the MP3 player he'd acquired on the sly, and patiently explained how to use them.
Aurelian couldn't help but smile broadly at their reactions.
Watching their beautiful faces light up with amazement as the sound burst directly into their ears was fascinating. His witches were completely captivated by the little device. They lost themselves entirely in the music playlists, sharing the headphones and marveling at how such a small metal box could contain so many melodies without a single drop of magic.
Thanks to them being so engrossed, Aurelian was finally able to relax. He leaned back in his comfortable seat, closed his eyes, and managed to sleep soundly for most of the journey. Praying that nothing would go wrong.
He woke up hours later when he felt someone shaking his shoulder excitedly.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Hestia's beaming face.
"Aurelian, this is incredible!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper, pointing to the headphones she was holding. "The variety of sounds, the instruments… it's fascinating!"
Flora peered over her sister's shoulder, wearing a sweet, relaxed smile. She leaned across the seat and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"We didn't want to wake you up, my love," Flora confessed, stroking his tousled hair. "You looked so cute and peaceful sleeping there that we decided to let you rest."
Aurelian stretched out in his seat, yawning slightly, and smiled back at them.
"I'm glad you liked the device," he murmured, sitting up straight. "Do you know how much longer until we get there?"
Hestia nodded quickly.
"A lady who stopped by a little while ago told us it would be about an hour until we… land."
Aurelian nodded, satisfied. They chatted animatedly for the rest of the hour, with the girls bombarding him with all sorts of questions about how the Muggle contraption he'd given them worked. Time flew by, and soon the captain's voice boomed over the loudspeakers, asking passengers to fasten their seatbelts for descent.
Knowing that the moment of truth had arrived, Aurelian grew serious. He held out his hands and took one hand from each of his wives.
"My darlings, listen to me carefully," he asked, looking them straight in the eyes. "I need you to promise me that you won't get angry at what I'm about to tell you—it's important."
Hestia and Flora exchanged a confused glance for a second before smiling affectionately at him again.
"Please, Aurelian, we would never get angry with you," Hestia assured him, intertwining her fingers with his.
"You can tell us anything," Flora confirmed, nodding.
Aurelian closed his eyes, took a deep breath, bracing himself for the impact, and dropped the bomb on them.
"When we get off this plane and go through Muggle security… you must introduce yourselves strictly as my sisters."
The warm atmosphere froze in an instant.
The smiles vanished from Hestia and Flora's faces. In an instant, the gentle grip they'd had on his hands turned into an iron vice. They squeezed his hands so hard that the twins' fingers turned white. Their eyes darkened, flashing with a fury that threatened to set the plane ablaze.
"Why on earth would we do something so stupid?" Hestia hissed, baring her teeth in offense.
"But we're your wives! We're wearing your damn rings!" Flora protested, raising her voice a notch higher than was prudent.
Aurelian didn't flinch at the pain in his hands. He remained calm and explained to them in a lowered voice.
"Because it's the best way to go unnoticed in this country," he told them firmly. "Listen, under Muggle law in this country and in almost every other country, polygamy is a crime. If we get to customs and I tell U.S. border authorities that I have two wives, alarm bells will go off immediately. They'll detain us, interrogate us, and start investigating our entire history. I need to do something very important in this country, and for that, I need them not to investigate me or you."
As they understood the logic behind the humiliating request, the fury in the twins' eyes began to subside, though their indignation lingered. Both let go of his hands, but instead of stepping back, they threw themselves at him and hugged him tightly, burying their faces in his neck as if someone were about to tear them apart.
Aurelian wrapped his arms around them, gently stroking their backs to soothe their anxiety.
"I love you more than anything in this universe," he whispered in their ears, kissing both of their heads. "You know who you are and what you mean to me. This is solely and exclusively a temporary security measure to deal with those idiotic Muggles. As soon as we're in magical territory, you'll be Mrs. Gaunt again. Okay?"
Hestia and Flora pulled back just enough to look at him. Both made adorable, dramatic pouts, showing just how much resentment they felt toward those stupid human laws, but they ended up nodding. If their beloved, brilliant Aurelian believed that was best for the success and safety of their journey, they would accept it. Reluctantly, with their pride wounded, but they accepted it.
Minutes later, the plane's tires hit the runway at John F. Kennedy Airport with a loud thud, screeching to a halt.
As the twins looked out the window at the vast city of New York looming in the distance, Aurelian smiled wryly.
By Merlin, how he loved his intense and possessive wives. He knew that convincing them to hide their rings and their status had been a risk, but it was an absolutely necessary sacrifice to fly under the radar of the most paranoid country in the world. His investigation of North America—and his vacation—had just begun.
The hubbub in the arrivals terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport was deafening, filled with lights, voices in multiple languages, and the constant clatter of luggage carts.
Hestia and Flora made their way toward the immigration checkpoint. On the other side of the thick glass, a customs officer with deep dark circles under her eyes and an expression of profound boredom held out her hand, asking for their documents.
The woman took the passports and checked them very reluctantly. Without even bothering to look them in the eye, she asked the routine question in a monotonous voice.
"What is the purpose of your visit to the United States?"
Hestia lifted her chin and smiled broadly; she parted her lips and replied with complete naturalness and haughtiness.
"On vacation with our husb…"
Bam!
Flora didn't let her finish. With a quick movement, she covered her twin sister's mouth with her hand, stifling the forbidden word before it could fully escape. Hestia's eyes widened, deeply offended by the interruption, but Flora shot her an icy, warning glare before turning to the officer with a tense, perfectly rehearsed smile.
"Please excuse her," Flora interjected quickly. "We'll be on vacation with our brother. Yes… our dear older brother."
The officer looked up from the documents and raised an eyebrow, assessing the strange, intense, and slightly unsettling dynamic between the two beautiful, pale young women standing before her, who seemed on the verge of silently starting a fight right there on the spot. However, her salary wasn't high enough to warrant prying into other people's family dramas.
She looked down and stamped the entry stamp on both passports with a sharp thud. She pushed them back through the glass slot.
The twins took their documents and headed toward the exit. As they walked away, the immigration officer shook her head, rolled her eyes, and muttered under her breath in a tone laced with annoyance and weariness:
"Brits."
Next in line was Aurelian.
He walked up to the booth with a relaxed yet commanding demeanor, a polite smile on his face. The woman, without changing her bored expression, held out her hand and asked him the same routine question.
"Family vacation," Aurelian replied, his deep, calm voice causing the woman to blink a couple of times, shaking off her lethargy slightly.
The officer took the British passport and read the name. Gaunt.
She frowned slightly upon noticing that the handsome young man had exactly the same last name as the two strange girls she had just processed a moment ago. For a second, a spark of suspicion and confusion flashed through her mind as she tried to make sense of the behavior and find similarities in the appearance of this particular group, but the exhaustion from her twelve-hour shift won out. She said absolutely nothing, stamped the pages firmly, and handed the passport back to him.
Aurelian took his passport, gave her a slight nod of his head in farewell, and began to walk away. But, of course, he wasn't going to let chance or curiosity lead the woman to investigate anything.
He made sure he did his job.
Just as he passed the blind side of the glass booth, without slowing his pace, Aurelian moved the index finger of his right hand in a subtle gesture.
A tiny wave of magic shot directly into the clerk's mind. It meticulously erased and rewrote her memories of the last ten minutes, eliminating any trace of the name "Gaunt" or the peculiar British twins from her short-term memory.
Behind him, inside the booth, the woman blinked sharply, disoriented. She touched her forehead with a look of annoyance, feeling a sudden, sharp twinge in her temples. She sighed deeply, closed her eyes for a second, and then shrugged, noting that the discomfort had passed as quickly as it had come.
Paying no attention whatsoever to the brief mental lapse, she pressed the intercom button.
"Next in line!" she called out, in her usual bored tone.
Aurelian, who had already caught up with Hestia and Flora a little further down the aisle toward baggage claim, heard the shout and nodded to himself with a satisfied smile. It was best not to leave any loose ends. He always watched his back, because he knew that those small, insignificant details were the most important of all.
"Everything in order, my dear older brother?" Hestia whispered sarcastically and with frustration, crossing her arms as she saw him arrive.
Aurelian let out a laugh that echoed over the noise of the airport. He slipped an arm around each of his wives' waists, pulling them tightly against his sides, and continued on his way toward the exit, ready to claim his piece of the land of freedom.
----------------------------
I have a Patreon account. If you would like to support me, I would greatly appreciate it. You will be able to read up to 15 more chapters, listen to all chapters as audiobooks, and view images of the characters in the story for free. Thank you very much for reading my story :D
patreon.com/Daoistrg