The waiter who had been Johnny on the Spot once they had both taken their seats wrote down the two orders and disappeared back inside.

"My father was Scottish, Mother is English. We had a little place up in Hexham. Have you heard of it? Might not have... Londoners like you don't usually travel that far north."

The menu was folded and set back onto the middle of the table as he pondered over why he had left. It wasn't a subject he spoke very much about not even with his family, but now the words fairly tumbled from him.

"I think I just wanted to get away. I had spent so long trying to do what was expected, getting into the right schools, trying not to disappoint anyone... And knowing I was going to fail at that as soon as the family found out the things I was doing in my free time... I just needed space. America seemed to be the place to go for that. There are all those road trip movies. It looked like fun."

He frowned and drew himself away from the table as he looked at Mr. Fell like the man had cast some sort of hex on him.

"I've never told anyone that before. Not even Lilith when she finally caught up with me in New York."