potter; EVAN (potterlings) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-04-05 11:38:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !thread, character: evan potter, location: diagon alley, retired character: andrew kirke, retired character: harry potter |
who ? andrew kirke and evan potter, with a brief appearance of harry potter
when ? tuesday morning, 5th april
where ? the potter flat
what ? mornings are pretty awkward, okay?
status ? complete
Despite the six weeks Andrew and Evan had been doing whatever it was they did, at no point had Andrew stayed at Evan’s overnight. It hadn’t been because of any particular reason, mostly chance. The first morning after Evan had spent the night at Andrew’s had been awkward. They had agreed that it had been. They had also talked about it and Andrew hadn’t told Evan not to stay over. So by now they had a routine. Andrew would get up early (too early) and go running, by the time he returned, Evan would sit in the kitchen drinking tea and reading Ash-something’s papers. Since the first time it had happened, the awkwardness seemed to have lessened. Sometimes, especially if Evan was still on his first mug of tea, it could be a bit strange but hardly awkward.
That might be one of the reasons why Andrew hadn’t stayed over at Evan’s. There wasn’t an established routine and Evan hadn’t really wanted Andrew to feel uncomfortable. Which perhaps accounted for why the first time that Andrew did stay over it was through a sheer accident. Andrew had come over the night before and both him and Evan had fallen asleep. Like the first time Evan had stayed at Andrew’s, it just seemed easier than leaving. By the time Evan woke up the next day, though, Andrew was gone. It actually took Evan a moment to even remember that Andrew had been there in the first place, because Evan was used to waking up alone in his bed. Any bed, actually. Once he did remember, Evan looked around somewhat confused almost as if he expected to spot Andrew under (or on top of) one of the many piles of books Evan had around the room. When that appeared fruitless, Evan got up.
There was no Andrew in the kitchen/living room either, so Evan assumed he must have left. It seemed unlikely because Andrew was much more polite than that, but he might have also had something on this morning. Evan didn’t know. Evan wasn’t sure he should be particularly bothered either way, so instead he made tea and pulled his notepad over so he could sketch things whilst consuming the delicious, hot liquid.
Evan was halfway through his second cup when the door to the flat opened and Harry appeared. With Andrew in tow. That was not what Evan had anticipated to happen. He frowned at the two, feeling somewhat confused about the whole situation. Andrew never came back from his runs with other people. Nor did Harry, for that matter. Evan wasn’t sure what to do with this new situation. Momentarily, Evan thought that it would have been easier to comprehend if Andrew had just left.
--
Andrew had taken some time to get used to their morning routine but by now he could reliably get back from his run and kiss Evan and have breakfast before heading off to work. (Or, on days he didn’t have work, before spending the rest of the day with Evan.) He liked their routine, and how it wasn’t awkward. Waking up at Evan’s place, on the other hand, was completely awkward. They didn’t have a routine for that. Andrew didn’t even have running clothes with him and it seemed really weird to either apparate back to Hogsmeade to get them or to apparate back and go on his usual run. But he couldn’t just skip his run. Andrew was strict about that, he had to be.
In the end, he’d slipped carefully out of bed and found a pair of tracksuit bottoms in with the rest of Evan’s clothes. It was lucky they were the same height. With Andrew’s t-shirt of the night before and his trainers, he could at least go jog a bit, even if he didn’t have a route planned. Which was exactly where he was going when he bumped into Harry - who was also off for a run. After establishing that they’d be able to hold more or less the same pace without either of them suffering for it, they’d headed off together.
They hadn’t talked much, partly because it was still too early in the morning and partly because a proper run didn’t leave either of them much breath to chat. It wasn’t until they slowed down to take the stairs of Suncrest Mansion that they could really get involved in a discussion beyond ‘left here’ and ‘home now?’. Fortunately, there were quite a lot of stairs. By the time they made it to the door, Andrew was giving Harry a list of Pride of Portree players who absolutely deserved to be on the Scottish national team and had been tragically overlooked. “Byers is young,” he said as they opened the door, “but he’s faster than Campbell and you know he is!”
He hadn’t expected Evan to be in the kitchen, somehow, and he paused. He hadn’t left a note, because Evan was used to him going for a run now and Andrew had just assumed Evan would know where he was. He smiled, but didn’t go over for a kiss. It felt weird in front of Harry. “Morning.”
--
Harry waking up to find Andrew in the living room was precisely the reason he’d needed to make sure that there wouldn’t be any issues between Ron and Evan and Andrew if Ron moved in. He himself wasn’t really surprised--the only thing that surprised him was that it had taken this long for him to run across Andrew in the morning. And honestly, he wasn’t bothered by it. As long as he wasn’t seeing any displays of affection. Not because Andrew was male, but because Evan was his brother. He didn’t want to see any of that from Daisy either. Eventually he’d get used to the idea of his younger siblings being in romantic relationships and all that, but for the moment, he just didn’t want to think about it. It was weird.
At the same time, however, Harry didn’t know anything about Andrew, not really. They’d been in the same House at school, but had never really spoken about anything other than in passing. He wouldn’t admit to his siblings that he felt a little protective of them, but that was the truth. Not necessarily their physical safety, but their emotions, yes. Evan especially. From what Harry could see, Andrew had shown the youngest Potter a new side of himself or something, and Harry just didn’t want his brother’s first relationship to end poorly enough that it spoiled things for the rest of his life.
So, in order to get to know his brother’s boyfriend a little better, he invited him to go running with him, as it appeared that was what Andrew was set out to do as well. Naturally, they didn’t talk much on the run, because if you’re able to hold a conversation while running then you’re not pushing yourself enough, but they were able to talk a bit toward the end of it, on their way back. About Quidditch, of course, because that was always a safe bet for someone who played professionally.
“Speed isn’t everything, though. Byers can’t handle the pressure of playing on a national team yet; he cracked in that match against Tutshill.” Obviously Harry cared a bit more about the English team than the Scottish, but that wasn’t why he dropped the conversation when he saw his brother in the kitchen; he dropped it because Evan wasn’t in any way interested in Quidditch.
“Hey Evan. D’you want juice or something, Andrew?” Harry had practice to get to eventually, but not quite yet. He’d probably shower first, maybe pick up breakfast for Parvati if Evan and Andrew were going to be around. He didn’t like to intrude, after all.
--
Quidditch. Of course they would be talking about quidditch. Evan honestly failed to understand what the fascination was. It was just a sport. He knew the rules, had even played in at school briefly. That, of course, had only been so he would have things to put on his university application, but even so, it wasn’t like Evan didn’t understand the game. He just failed to understand why people seemed so interested in it. For Harry, it was a career. That Evan got, but then for Evan what he did at uni was also a career and no one ever engaged him in a conversation about that. Because people weren’t interested, which was okay, except that Evan was pretty sure that in comparison to kicking a ball about whilst flying, magical architecture was a lot more fascinating. But of course, maybe it wasn’t, because quidditch seemed to always come up as a conversation topic and architecture never did.
He stilled briefly when both Andrew and Harry greeted him. Not so much to reply to the greeting, which Evan did with a nod, but more because he had expected Andrew to kiss him. That didn’t happen. Rationally, Evan knew that it was because Harry was there; back in the pub, Andrew had pulled away from Evan when Daisy had reappeared, so Evan knew this was probably a similar reasoning. Still, there was an uneasiness that settled in Evan’s stomach. He would have liked a kiss, he thought. Seemed redundant to bring that up, though, so instead Evan just sipped his tea. Evan hadn’t even known Andrew liked quidditch. That was probably something he should have known. But now Andrew could talk about it to Harry, so that was fine.
It was probably nice for Harry, too, Evan pondered. To have someone around who was actually able to talk to him about the things he liked. Or, well, the one thing he liked, because Evan didn’t think his brother was interested in much else. Quidditch and Patil, seemed to top the list of exciting conversation topics in Harry’s life. Neither of which Evan had any idea how to engage him on, because he knew nothing about either. Seeing how Andrew and Harry clearly had something in common to talk about, they would probably prefer to do that, so Evan went back to drawing a rather elaborate reimagining of one of Escher’s towers.
--
“Sure,” Andrew agreed, the word sounding more doubtful than it ought to have done. “Whatever you’ve got is fine, cheers.” If he was at home, he’d make breakfast of some kind, offer Evan a share of it. He didn’t feel comfortable doing that in someone else’s kitchen, which left him uncertain what he was supposed to do. There was no point going back to Evan’s room, not when Evan was here. Eventually, Andrew walked over to where Evan was sketching, propping his hip against the back of Evan’s chair. He looked - accurately - like he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. “I borrowed your tracksuit bottoms,” he said, mostly out of a lack of anything else to say while Harry located juice and glasses. “Figured you wouldn’t mind. I’ll wash them before I give them back.”
He watched as Evan added to the sketch, interested as he always was by Evan’s uni stuff. Sadly, he didn’t have much to say about any of it beyond telling Evan for approximately the fiftieth time how cool it was. Andrew was pretty sure Evan didn’t want to hear that again, especially not this early in the morning, so he didn’t comment. “You want to do something today?” he asked. As far as he knew, they didn’t have any set plans. Evan was still off uni for Easter and had told Andrew he’d done all his work, so unless Evan had plans with someone else, they probably had time to do something.
Glancing up at Harry, Andrew felt like he should at least try to include him in the conversation. “You off to practice?”
--
For a moment, as Harry was looking in the icebox for the pomegranate juice he kept in there, he considered making eggs and toast, enough for all three of them if they wanted, but a glance back at them made him think that maybe he should let them have alone time. They didn’t look especially like they wanted to be alone, but Harry wasn’t that great at reading his brother, and he didn’t know Andrew well enough to make that kind of a guess; and he didn’t know if this was the first time Andrew had stayed over, but it was the first time Harry knew about it, and that could get awkward.
“Yeah, in a while,” he responded, pulling out the juice bottle and pouring two glasses and handing one to Andrew. “I was thinking I’d bring Parvati breakfast first.” He stayed for a moment to down the juice, looked back and forth between the two of them, and made the decision he was going to do just what he suggested.
“We need more milk so I’ll run by the store on my way back from practice tonight, Evan. If there’s anything else you think we need or want me to pick up, let me know,” he said as he went back to his room to shower and change.
--
When Andrew walked over, leaning against the back of Evan’s chair as he spoke, Evan looked over. It took him a moment to realise what Andrew was even talking about. Tracksuit bottoms, right. Evan looked down at the piece of clothing in question, almost quizzically. Right, of course, Andrew had worn them to go out running, because he didn’t have running clothes here. This made sense. “Sure, whatever,” Evan replied with a shrug, oblivious to how he had essentially just mimicked the response Andrew had given Harry in regards to the juice offer. It didn’t matter to Evan that Andrew had borrowed them and it mattered even less whether Andrew wanted to wash them before returning them. Evan could have washed them, none of this was very important.
The question, though, that made Evan look up at Andrew less confused. Things to do, yes, those were a lot less confusing that the current situation. Evan did want to do things today, things with Andrew. “Yeah,” he nodded with almost a smile. “There’s a special exhibit in the British Museum on the Terracotta army,” Evan said almost too quickly. He had seen the advert for it in one of the papers that Ash-something left around for Evan in the Panquake house, it had sounded very interesting. Except now that Evan had said it, he wondered whether it was interesting to Andrew. He had sounded excited about quidditch, and Harry had sounded excited about quidditch, and no one but Evan had sounded excited about the British Museum.
Evan wanted to come up with an alternative. A different thing that probably would sound more exciting to Andrew, more adventurous, and usually, Evan was very good with those kind of suggestions. Right now, though, right now he had none. Not a single other idea what he could suggest. So instead he shrugged, almost nonchalantly. “Or we can do something else,” he offered, not that that was really an offer. You didn’t offer ‘something’ as an alternative to an actual idea. Evan was half tempted to just offer Andrew to stay here and talk to Harry, but that sounded petty even to Evan.
And then Harry was leaving with words of potential milk acquiring that got a nod out of Evan, and suddenly Evan knew even less what to do with the situation. Going back to just drinking tea and drawing now that he was the main source of entertainment for Andrew seemed pretty rude. “Did you know that American buffalos display signs of democracy? Individuals can show which way they would like the herd to go by standing up and looking in that direction and then lying back down,” Evan said because when in doubt go to animal facts. “But only adult females are allowed to vote,” he finished biting his lip. A isn’t that interesting? died somewhere before it could make its way out of Evan’s mouth because, no, it probably wasn’t.
--
Andrew’s smile over Evan wanting to do something was short-lived. He had been cautiously optimistic about playing hide’n’seek in a museum, because hide’n’seek with Evan sounded great but Andrew wasn’t sure he’d actually be very good, especially not if they were working from museum clues. The idea of just going to a museum for its intended purpose was… definitely less appealing. Andrew couldn’t remember the last time he’d been to a museum, but he knew he hadn’t enjoyed it. He’d really tried. He’d read all the information on the little signs next to the exhibits, but he still just hadn’t been able to care very much.
But going with Evan would probably be better than that. Evan managed to make things interesting that Andrew hadn’t know he could be interested in. So he nodded as he took a glass of juice from Harry. “Sure,” he agreed. “We can do that. Maybe if the weather clears up later we can find a park or garden or something after.” It hadn’t been raining during his run, but it had been pretty grey. If it improved, it might be nice to spend some time outside.
Harry leaving made Andrew feel definitely less awkward, and he pulled out the chair next to Evan’s and sat, close enough for their knees to bump under the table. He was about to ask about what he was sketching when Evan surprised him with another animal fact. “Really?” he asked, instantly interested. “That’s amazing! Why only the females? Are male buffalo like lions, you know kind of useless except for defending territory? What happens if there’s an equal number of votes each way?” He paused, biting his own lip in subconscious mimicry. “Sorry. Too many questions too early in the morning, I guess.” He and Evan woke up differently. Andrew came awake easily, ready to go on his run and face the day. Evan took a little longer, needing his tea before he was really ready to have a conversation. Sometimes, that difference slipped Andrew’s mind. He reached out, brushing his fingers briefly against Evan’s wrist. “Can I make myself some toast, or something? I’m hungry.”
--
Evan smiled somewhat in relief when Andrew said that they could go to the museum. Not because he felt in any way better about whether Andrew really wanted to or not, but just because it meant that Evan didn’t have to figure out an alternative. Except that maybe he did also feel a little bad, since now maybe he was making Andrew go and do something Andrew had no interest in. Evan didn’t know how to ask, though, how to point out that Andrew didn’t have to pretend to be interested just because Evan was. So instead Evan tried to concentrate on all the buffalo questions, to which he felt he didn’t actually know all the answers.
“I’m not sure why only the female buffalos are allowed to vote,” Evan admitted. “I think maybe because of their fertility? They are the ones who need to consume enough to reproduce,” he said thoughtfully. Evan could only really speculate on that matter, but he did know what happened if the votes were split. “If the vote splits, they separate for the night and graze in both places, then meet up again in the morning,” he explained. Evan honestly had no idea why he even knew this, but like majority of the animal facts he knew, they seemed to just stick in his mind until a convenient, or inconvenient, time came to bring them up.
And then Andrew asked if he could have food and Evan felt like a terrible host. Usually they were in the Panquake house in the mornings and there Andrew never had to ask for a permission to have food, so it hadn’t even occurred to Evan to offer now that they were elsewhere. It should have done, though, would have been the polite thing to do. “Yes, of course,” he replied almost too quickly. “There should be some eggs and bacon in the fridge, too,” he added. There was a small pause as Evan stared at the fridge, before he shrugged slightly. “I would offer to cook for you but I’m not actually allowed to prepare anything but tea on my own,” he admitted. Evan was quite sure he could make a mess in the kitchen by just thinking about cooking so it really was safer if he wasn’t in charge of feeding Andrew.
--
Andrew smiled at the idea of the herd splitting to do what both sets of buffalo wanted and then coming back together. “That’s nice,” he said. “I was chatting up this guy in a pub once, and he told me about a football match he’d played in where one team was just scoring all the time and they were loads of goals up - I think they were a better funded school. Anyway, at half time the team that were losing didn’t really want to play anymore. There was no way they could win, so the better team offered to swap two of their best players with them. They started over and the better team still won, but it was a much closer match.” Actually, the guy in question had been telling it as an example of how he thought it was awful, an example of ‘participation awards’ gone mad that would lead to underachieving adults and all sorts of awful things. Andrew had disagreed, and said so openly. “I thought that was a pretty cool solution.”
Evan had previously mentioned that he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to cook so Andrew really hadn’t expected him to do so. He was fine with getting his own breakfast, as long as he knew he was allowed to go rooting through the cupboards. He downed most of his juice and leaned in to brush slightly-damp lips over Evan’s temple before he stood up. “You want anything?” He really would have been happy with the suggested toast, but if Evan wanted something cooked then Andrew was willing to prepare it. “And then I guess I need a shower and some clothes.” He definitely needed a new t-shirt to wear, and probably new boxers. Should he apparate home before his shower? Or borrow more of Evan’s clothes. Evan had proved a tendency to borrow Andrew’s, so he probably wouldn’t mind. In fact, he might even have some in the flat still.
--
“That is a pretty cool solution,” Evan agreed with a nod. It made sense in many respects, he decided. Firstly a team that was worse did not want to play, but also the team that was better did want to play and not just to win. Exchanging players and equalising odds seemed a far more productive way to proceed with a game than to win in a way that might appear unfair. Evan wasn’t too sure what else to offer to that story, though. He almost felt like maybe if he did know more about sports he could have contributed, but quite realistically, it hadn’t even been a story about sports, just an example using sports. Maybe it was just too early, Evan decided. Sometimes (more often than not) he found it very hard to concentrate on things when it was early.
Concentrating on whether Evan wanted food or not seemed much easier. “I’ll have some eggs if you’re making them,” Evan replied, slightly more pleased with the peck against his temple than he thought he should be. Evan was used to morning kisses now, it felt strange not to get one when Andrew was just right there. “You can borrow some of my clothes,” Evan commented starting to draw again. It seemed okay to do that now that Andrew was preoccupied with breakfast making things. After a moment, and a large sip of his tea, Evan looked back up.
“Did you have a nice time with Harry?” He asked unsure of why he was even bothering. Of course Andrew had had a nice time with Harry, because it was Harry and everyone but Evan seemed to always have a nice time with Harry. The reasoning for why Harry was so popular had always escaped Evan, but he had always assumed it was because Harry was good with people. Had to be. Which was good. It was nice that Harry could easily talk to anyone and connect with them and have a nice time, Evan was genuinely okay with this. He knew he wasn’t like that but people were different and it didn’t really matter that everyone always liked Harry better. Except suddenly it kind of did. Evan had never cared for people preferring Harry over him, just accepted it as a fact because that was what it was. No point in getting upset over something he couldn’t change. But right now, for the first time ever, Evan was almost jealous of how easily Andrew had spoken to Harry. What was most confusing, though, was that Evan wasn’t all too sure who he was jealous of.
--
Andrew hadn’t really given much thought to whether or not Evan would agree with him or not - but he was pleased that he did. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if he’d argued that the winning team should have kept winning and the losing team been forced to continue the game - Andrew didn’t have any good, academic arguments for why he preferred the solution of mixing the teams. He just did. “Eggs and toast coming up.” Andrew spent a few minutes opening cupboards and finding everything he’d need before he started cooking. When he looked up, Evan was sketching again so Andrew just hummed a vague acknowledgement of the offered clothes. They could sort that out later. Right now, Andrew was hungry.
“We went for a good run,” Andrew answered, because that really was almost all of what they’d done. As a professional quidditch player, Harry was fitter than he was (much as Andrew hated to admit it), but they hadn’t done too badly on Harry’s shorter route. “It was good, better than trying to figure out a route as I went along.” He’d been able to run faster and harder with Harry as he didn’t have to worry about landmarks or finding his way back or making sure he didn’t hit a dead end. “Still prefer Hogsmeade, but if I wake up here again I should be able to remember where he took me.” Which was good, because it seemed fairer if both their homes were at least options. Now Andrew could stay over without things being too awkward. Hopefully. Especially if he left some running stuff here.
He carried two plates over to the table, refilled his glass with water from the tap and then sat back down. “What’re you drawing?”
--
Right, running. Another thing Evan didn’t really get. Honestly, what was the point? Getting out of breath and sweaty the first thing in the morning seemed awful, especially when you could just stay in bed, or drink tea in the kitchen, do anything, really, that didn’t involve going outside in the cold morning air to run. But obviously, both Harry and Andrew were of a different opinion when it came to running. Evan did also scrunch his nose up a bit at the ‘if’ in Andrew’s waking up here again, but he did realise he was just being pedantic and of course Andrew would wake up here again, because why wouldn’t he? As much as Evan felt odd about the whole thing, that didn’t actually stem from Andrew being here, it was mostly the fact that Andrew was hanging out with Harry the first thing in the morning, whilst Evan was having tea on his own.
When Andrew brought the plates over, Evan pushed his notepad to one side so he could eat instead. The food looked lovely. “A tower,” Evan replied before digging into his eggs. “It’s based on a sketch by Escher,” he explained after chewing the first bite. “The staircases in the castle I gave you, they’re based on Escher, too,” Evan added since he wasn’t sure Andrew would know who Escher was. “I like how he draws because it’s all about patterns and making things connect,” Evan explained, tapping the back of his fork against the tower he had been drawing to illustrate the point. All things linked together and created optical illusions, it was very impressive, Evan thought.
Moving his leg, Evan bumped his foot against Andrew’s, waiting for him to look up. “We don’t have to go to the museum,” Evan said softly because he really didn’t want to make Andrew do something that he had no interest in. Boring Andrew was something Evan didn’t want to do as much as he was petrified of doing it. He could come up with other things for them to do, Evan was sure.
--
Careful not to even risk getting food on Evan’s notebook, Andrew studied it while Evan explained. He could see what Evan meant about everything connecting, even if he wasn’t quite sure what kind of patterns Evan was talking about. “It’s awesome,” he said. He really did marvel at how Evan could produce such intricate and amazing things so easily - or at least, it seemed to come easily from the outside. Andrew was sure a lot of work went into it really, just like he practiced for hours to be able to pull off a complicated new song for a gig. “Is it for uni, or just for fun?” He was guessing the latter, because he knew Evan was done with his uni work, but he couldn’t be completely sure, maybe he was working ahead.
He looked up from his eggs when Evan nudged his foot. “I know,” he said, puzzled. He’d never thought they had to go, Evan had phrased it as a suggestion, and Andrew was happy to give it a try. He hadn’t enjoyed museums in the past, but then no one he’d ever been to a museum with was like Evan. They’d mostly stood in silence just looking at the exhibits and Andrew had grown completely bored. Andrew couldn’t imagine Evan standing silently anywhere, which meant he could almost certainly keep Andrew from drifting off into boredom. “I want to.” He did want to, even if his motive was less ‘see interesting things at the museum’ and more ‘find out if going to museums with Evan can be fun’.
--
“Fun,” Evan replied taking a sip of his tea. The stuff he had to produce for uni was mostly blueprints and essays. There were a few artistic classes here and there but majority of them were very technical requirements. “I like having something to do in the mornings,” Evan explained with a small shrug. Doodling, this was not, but in many ways to Evan it felt like it was. He wasn’t particularly good at doodling, but sketching something, that Evan found relaxing and easy, even if the subject was rather complex. It did please him that Andrew had called it ‘awesome’, though. Personally, Evan never thought terribly highly of the things he produced, always seeing the flaws rather than the positives, but he was hardly stupid enough not to see it in perspective. Whilst Evan’s work to him had a lot of flaws, he knew that in comparison of what other people could produce, it actually looked very good.
When Andrew said he did know that they didn’t have to go, Evan nodded. There was a small part of him that still worried that maybe Andrew didn’t really want to, but Evan also had nothing to go on but Andrew’s words, so when he said he did want to, Evan decided that would have to be enough. “Okay,” he nodded. “Do you want to go home and change before we go?” Evan asked before having some more of his eggs. Washing them down with some tea, Evan grinned at Andrew. “Or you are welcome to dress as me for the day,” he said almost teasingly. As much as Evan thought that Andrew’s wardrobe was more expensive looking than his own, Evan didn’t think his clothes were awful or anything. As much as Evan didn’t tend to admit it, he did put thought in how he dressed.
--
Andrew laughed easily at Evan’s suggestion. “I’m not sure I’d make a very good Evan,” he teased. “But if I can borrow some boxers and a t-shirt that’d be great. And socks. Can I wear trainers to the British Museum?” Andrew wasn’t sure, couldn’t remember what he’d worn last time. He was probably worrying about nothing. “And I definitely need a shower.” And to do something with his hair. That might prove tricky since he didn’t know if Evan or Harry did very much with theirs. He’d manage somehow though, he’d managed after one night stands where he hadn’t even been othered clothes or a shower.
“Right,” he said, finishing off the last crust of toast. “Shall we get ready, then?”