InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You expect too much."

Tracey Jane Davis (disadorable) wrote in tinworth,
@ 2009-10-23 17:00:00

Entry tags:

!complete, character: terence higgs, character: tracey davis, date: october 2003, place: m: polzeath

Characters: Terence Higgs & Tracey Davis
Locale: Dana's Diner
Date: 23 October 2003
Warnings? Slightly dirty jokes only!

Tracey had never enjoyed preparing food for herself, which translated as often into skipping meals all together as it did in paying someone else to make them. There was something about all of the measuring, the precision, the heat, the washing up, that turned her off the whole production. A show, that was worth the hours you put into it. Dinner? Hardly.

Dana's offered cheap food that didn't make her want to sick up afterward, so she wasn't too fussed about eating there often enough that the whole Ackerley clan knew her name, not to mention her food allergies.

She didn't need to look at a menu, sliding onto a stool at the bar and allowing her coat and knapsack to pool on the floor beneath her. Mr. Ackerley was ready for her behind the bar, rattling off her order before she could.

"Ham and egg sammie, toasted, no cheese."

Tracey grinned.

"And pomegranate juice, if you've got it."

(Post a new comment)

terence_higgs
2009-10-23 09:37 pm UTC (link)

Terence's parents had shown up at Terrortours on the afternoon of his first day of work, ostensibly to show support for his new career. They'd booked an extended dragon safari--the photographic kind, his mother being an avid conservationist--and promptly left the country. It was hardly coincidence that they'd left behind the Daily Prophet reporters demanding interviews and the flurry of owl-delivered hate mail. Surely the tizzy over their son's parole would die down before their return.

His mother had left behind a month's worth of dinners, all preserved in stasis and ready to be reheated with a simple charm, but sitting at home alone each evening had quickly lost its appeal. Terence was restless by nature. Thus he found himself opening the door to Dana's Diner, dressed in nondescript Muggle attire, the better to blend in. If the unaccustomed garb made it more difficult to identify him, so much more to the good.

He hesitated on the threshold, briefly considering taking a seat in a corner booth. No, Terence decided. Skulking in corners... How stereotypically Dark Wizard-ish. He might as well put on a black robe and cowl and mutter hexes under his breath! He stepped boldly up to the counter and took a seat on a stool.

"Fish and chips, please. With mushy peas. And..." What was it Muggles drank? Oh, right.

"And a diet Coke."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-23 10:28 pm UTC (link)

Glancing up from the Witch Weekly she'd brought along for company - or, as Tracey liked to call it, Bitch Weekly - she noticed someone else sidle up to the counter, looking half as though he owned the place, and the other half seeming to want to run back out into the street.

If it isn't Terence Bloody Higgs.

She wheeled around without thinking, eyes darting about the diner for the sight of the hit wizards she knew had to be tailing him, not because she feared he might do something, but because the idea of having one's own personal hit wizards - even if they were there to protect other people from you - had novel appeal.

"Your boyfriends got you on a diet, Higgs?"

She smirked at the somberly dressed pair who'd taken a seat by the window, and whose attention seemed diverted more by their charge than the menu. Gotcha.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-23 11:04 pm UTC (link)

He glanced over at the ginger-haired girl, then followed her gaze to the other side of the room where 'the lads' had seated themselves. Terence wasn't sure yet which was worse: when the Hitwizards blended in so well that no one, not even he, could tell they were even there, or when they made themselves conspicuous. Like now.

He turned his attention from the dour, unwanted escort back to the young witch. Of course she was a witch--why else would the lads make their presence known, if not to reassure the wizarding public? Besides, he wasn't in the habit of being addressed by Muggles.

"Boyfriends? Afraid not. A mere five years in prison was scarecely long enough to turn me into a poof," he deadpanned. "Miss..?"

There was something familiar about her. It teased at the corners of his mind, frustratingly elusive.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-23 11:28 pm UTC (link)

Closing her magazine, which was discreetly sandwiched between a frustratingly stationary Muggle publication, Tracey put her elbows on the counter, chin slouched against her fist.

"Muggle prisons do that to you, you know. Turn you into a poof."

She considered, eyes rolled upward a moment.

"Though I bet they deny it when they get out, too," Tracey continued, not waiting for a laugh before sniggering herself. "It's Davis."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	terence_higgs 2009-10-23 11:51 pm UTC (link)
	"Delighted." He fell back on the classic Slytherin drawl. "Have we met before, Davis?" Terence couldn't figure her out. Calling a man's sexuality into question seemed a bit confrontational, yet she didn't strike him as hostile. His expression softened, becoming frankly curious. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-24 12:01 am UTC (link)

"I don't expect you to remember, you were drunk," she unwound the tie that held her hair, clutching it between her teeth a moment before pulling her hair back more securely. "I'd forgotten about it, actually, until you were all over the papers."

It wasn't a lie, but Tracey rarely gave much thought to things that had happened to her nearly ten years ago. Ten. She'd be an old, fat hag in that much time over again.

Ugh.

"We met at a funeral. You gave me a drink. We went for a ride on your broomstick," she winked, brows exaggerating the sentiment. "I was fourteen, you should be damned ashamed of yourself. Though you've got loads else to lose sleep over, I suppose."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	terence_higgs 2009-10-24 12:33 am UTC (link)
	The Muggle proprietor was serving up plates of food but Terence ignored him, raising an appalled eyebrow at Davis' recitation. "I must have been really drunk." Hold up a second... Terence recovered himself. "And if I was that drunk, my 'broomstick' wouldn't have provided you with much of a ride, I'm afraid. Sorry about that," he smirked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	disadorable 2009-10-24 02:19 am UTC (link)
	Tracey rolled her eyes, picking up the sammie Mr. Ackerley had placed before her and taking a large bite. She chewed slowly and swallowed. "I said broomstick, not matchstick, you tosser." She took a drink of her juice. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-24 02:37 am UTC (link)

Your mother never had any complaints was probably crossing the line, wasn't it? Terence mirrored her eye roll and turned his attention to his own meal.

The Coke came complete with a plastic straw, an inch or two of the paper wrapper still covering one end--the Muggle indicator that the drink was of the diet variety. Why did they do that? Perhaps the paper cover deterred dieting Muggles from imbibing. Terence removed it and took a sip.

"So we've established that I was drunk, and you're obsessed with size," he said, using a chip to scoop up some peas. "Anything else I should know about you?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-24 02:49 am UTC (link)

Obsession was rather a strong word. Preference was more like it.

"I'm not sure you should know anything," Tracey chirped, pulling the crusts from her bread and popping them in her mouth. When she finished her sandwich, there was a piece of mince pie with her name on it. "Though if there's something you want to know, I'm the expert."

Throwing a casual glance over her shoulder at the hit wizards, Tracey turned back to Terence, curious.

"What's that like?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-24 03:06 am UTC (link)

Potatoes had never tasted so good. The ginger witch's banter wasn't unwelcome either, even tinged with snark as it was. Prison inured one to subtle jibes.

This time, he didn't bother to look back at his security escort. Score one for insouciance.

"The lads? Great fun. Barrel full of manticores," he said brightly, and shoveled more peas. Terence had privately nicknamed the pair Blagger and Stooge after Quidditch fouls. He was convinced that they listened in on every word he said.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-24 03:52 am UTC (link)

Mr. Ackerley had anticipated Tracey's plans for dessert, and put a handsome wedge of pie in front of her with a knowing smile. She knew she came here for a reason.

Savoring a forkful, Tracey sighed contentedly. It was remarkably easy to unwind despite having spent the day chasing and chastising pre-pubescent girls, and the occasional boy.

"I guess they don't let you fly much," she observed several minutes after Terence's jest, as though the conversation he'd begun about Quidditch with her at the funeral were as fresh in his mind as it was suddenly in hers. How did one give up something like that to lick You-Know-Who's boots? Or worse, his snake?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-24 04:08 am UTC (link)

"Not at all. MLE consider me a flight risk." Terence grinned at his little play on words. He missed being able to fly, but right now stepping outdoors whenever he pleased was enough to fill him with a wild, unrestrained joy.

The chips were long gone. He'd cut up the fish into bite-size pieces and was currently pushing them around on his plate with indifference as he eyed Davis' rapidly-diminishing slice of pie.

"How about you? Ride many broomsticks?" his expression was completely innocent... For all of two seconds.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-24 04:20 am UTC (link)

Tracey grinned around a mouthful of mince pie.

"Not as many as I'd like," she snorted, not buying the innocence, not even for a minute. He'd been a Death Eater after all, though Tracey wasn't sure what that meant for anyone, let alone the man sitting next to her. She'd been at school during the height of the war, and as Hogwarts was nothing if not a microcosm of Wizarding Britain, she imagined that outside the castle gates it was as much Winners and Losers as it had been within. You picked a side, or suffered the consequences of a fight on two fronts. One, at least, you could predict.

"Perhaps you could introduce me to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern over there. I bet they get around."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-24 06:16 pm UTC (link)

Say one thing for Davis; she was a good sport. Or perhaps girls had given up slapping as a response to innuendo. Somehow, Terence doubted it.

"You're on your own," he informed her, raising a hand to flag down the white-aproned Muggle as he passed by.

"I'll have a slice of what she's having. I daresay flirting with those two would be like flirting with the ceremonial guards at Buckingham Palace," Terence went on as the man bustled away. "Except the Hitwizards are permitted to retaliate if you annoy them too much." Now there was an intriguing thought.

"You're welcome to try."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-25 04:48 pm UTC (link)

Nodding approvingly at Terence's dessert choice, Tracey grinned.

"Once you get them out of the uniform, they're all the same."

Her eyes pinched shut in mirth at her own joke, and she took another bite of her pie. She had no interest in the Hitwizards or the guards of Buckingham Palace, for that matter, for all they were each dramatists in their own way, and dressed for the stage. She just liked to talk.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

terence_higgs
2009-10-25 09:42 pm UTC (link)

Terence chuckled even as he raised a brow at Davis' crudity. Proper young pureblooded witches didn't joke about dalliances with Muggles... Nor did half-bloods whose families aspired to polite society.

Miss Davis was a Slytherin alumnus, he was sure. That detail stood out among his fragmented memories. He had an image of her hiding behind a sofa somewhere... In the Slytherin common room, perhaps. Or perhaps the murky underwater quality of the recollection was due to him being drunk off his arse at the time.

His dessert arrived and Terence tucked in with relish.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

disadorable
2009-10-25 09:50 pm UTC (link)

Tracey had rarely had cause for propriety regarding her blood status or anything else, and even less now that the Wizarding world had an invested interest in shaking off such things. She didn't like censoring herself and wasn't good at it, and plowed ahead with her dessert, oblivious.

Sucking her fork tines clean, she watched Higgs.

"How do you like it?" Tracey asked, indicating the pie.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	terence_higgs 2009-10-25 10:11 pm UTC (link)
	Her scrutiny was the only thing keeping him from picking up every last crumb and licking his fingers. Terence let his eyes drift closed, exaggerating the blissful expression already plastered across his face. "Unngh... S'delicious." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

disadorable
2009-10-25 10:19 pm UTC (link)

Tracey smiled broadly, and without her usual affect.

"There are few ills it cannot cure," she intoned dramatically, placing the last bite in her mouth with haste, knowing she'd dallied too long in the diner already. Atwell had prepared a one ghost show and would, if he could, die again for an audience.

Rounding up her coat and her knapsack, she stowed the abandoned magazine securely within.

"Behave yourself, eh, Higgs?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	terence_higgs 2009-10-25 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	It took a slight effort of will to set down the fork and turn as Davis prepared to take her leave. As if I have a choice. He gave her a jaunty wave. "Watch out for those matchsticks, Davis." (Reply to this) (Parent)