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Albus flashed her another grin, reassuring this time. "Yeah, I figured as much. Frankly, I'd have been very, very surprised if you accepted advances from me that quickly. Pleased, of course - you do strike me as a gal I definitely wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with - but surprised." Of course, he made sure not to give away the small but steadily growing feelings he'd been getting for her, or the disappointment that she might not choose him; he would be the first to admit that being a blind orphan with no recorded origins didn't exactly make him a magnet for good girls, knight or not. Sure, he had a fan club consisting of girls who thought the whole "dark and mysterious past" thing was alluring, but he was fairly sure that didn't count, since some of them seemed pretty shallow.

Albus relaxed at that and smiled slightly, though it turned a little rueful at the mention of his parents. "Yeah, well, their problem with me isn't exactly something I can help; I'm still on good terms with my brother, though, if that helps," he quipped; he then seemed to hesitate slightly before continuing. "See, being a Mage always runs in families. Oh, there's the occasional Mage with no magical ancestry at all, but a child of even one Mage is always going to be a Mage himself. As such, there are certain spells usable by any Mage of enough skill to tell what a child's magical affinities are once they're formed." Albus then grimaced. "That's where their problem with me is; see, most mages are of the school of thought that certain magical affinities are dark, evil, from the Devil, sin against nature, et cetera, et cetera, and that having said affinities automatically makes you evil... and unfortunately, all three of my magical affinities fall under that category. Basically, they checked for my affinities, didn't like what they saw, declared me an evil hell spawn, and disowned me. Then my brother found out, so as soon as he was a legal adult, he disowned himself and left... and if his account is actually true instead of being grossly embellished as usual, he even flipped them and several members of the Mage High Council off on the way out. I could certainly see him doing that, anyway; he's very spirited." Then Albus blinked, as if just realizing how much he'd been talking, before doing the mental equivalent of a shrug before waiting for her reaction to his little explanation.

Albus blinked, but chuckled. "As much as I agree with you, perhaps you'd better calm down before you end up trying to murder those two," he quipped; he did notice the slight wind, but didn't say anything, instead making a mental note of it to investigate once she was calm... and making a similar mental note that Jewel was surprisingly sexy when she was angry.

Albus blinked. "Huh... you learn something new every day." He smiled slightly. "Well, since you were nice enough to tell me your affinities, I suppose I could show you at least one of mine." He unsheathed his sword, muttering something; almost immediately, intricate, pulsing red runes became visible all over the blade. "Say hello to Blood Runes - one of the most well-known and efficient ways to use blood affinity magic."

Albus chuckled and smiled to her. "It is; you'd be surprised how much you can do with Blood Runes... though admittedly, some of the more powerful runes aren't exactly nice. I don't use them, myself, but they're why blood magic as a whole has been labeled forbidden by the High Council." His smile then turned into a smirk. "Fortunately, they kicked me out, so I don't have to give a rat's a** about their laws."

Fortunately, it seemed Albus hadn't forgotten, because he muttered again, once again hiding the blood runes from view, and sheathed his sword before opening the door so they could go in. "Don't need rules for that - even if I was as evil as the mage propaganda says I supposedly am, I am neither stupid enough nor insane enough to go near those particular blood runes - as a group, they're called the Forbidden Runes, by the way. Hell, I wouldn't touch the Forbidden Runes with a hundred-yard pole if you paid me a million bucks." He then shook his head, smiling again. "But enough of that - anything in particular you want for dinner?"
It was at that point that a small black cat with blood-red eyes came over, rubbing itself against Jewel's legs and purring.

The cat purred happily, obviously enjoying the attention as it laid there in her arms.
"Fair enough; I think I have some chicken, we could cook that," Albus suggested with a small smile.
At the word "chicken", the cat perked up, wiggling out of Jewel's arms and literally dropping through Jewel's shadow, only to come out of the shadows in the corner of the kitchen with an empty gray food bowl labeled "Shadow" in its mouth. It then walked back in front of the two humans, laid the food bowl at Jewel's feet, and sat there, looking up at her with the most adorable eyes and mewling pitifully.

"Eh, I came by Shadow in... interesting circumstances. Let's just say he's not your average shadowcat." Albus then blinked owlishly as he suddenly realized his kitchen had been taken over. "Er... buttery and flaky is preferred, and yeah, pasta sounds good..." he answered, looking around uncertainly in an attempt to find something he could actually help with.
It was at that point that Shadow literally flew up to the kitchen counter with the once-again-empty food dish in his mouth. He set it down and stared at Jewel cutely, meowing again as it licked the last of the fish off its face and acting as if there weren't now a pair of small, black, feathery wings sticking out of his back.