Tweak

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Tweak says, "I want to connect!"

Benjy Fenwick (of_the_fen) wrote in beyondthepages,
@ 2010-06-02 19:34:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2023 11, benjy fenwick, dorcas meadowes

RP: Couch ... mmmm....
Characters: Benjy, Cas
Time/Date: Evening, November 2
Location: their flat
Warnings/Rating: None?
Summary: Benjy is tired from training
Status: Complete

He'd known training was going to be rough, that the hours were going to be long, that he was going to be confused to the point of frustration more than once. His predictions had all come true, though he'd had lunch and two other breaks to chill himself out and work out his frustrations.

But the tired ... not so much with the working that out. Today was his second day of training, and he was just as tired as he'd been the night before.

Letting himself into their flat, he made a bee-line for the couch and flopped face-first down onto it.

"Cas, I'm broken," he mumbled into the couch cushion before he tilted his head. "Caaaaaasss..." he called so she could hear him.

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dorcas_m
2010-06-04 03:33 am UTC (link)

"It's ... certainly odd. To me, at least. He's an ex-Death Eater, she's an Order member. He's pushing forty -- I think --, she's pushing twenty-two. But, who am I to judge? She seems happy, and it's better than pining over James, which just would have been tragic. New life is new life, even if its jarring, I guess. Maybe he's different around her. Who knows?" She shrugged, starting in on her own food.

"The real question," she said, swallowing," is what about children? Lily's still young enough; she was just torn from her infant son, basically. I don't know if she wants kids again, but I can't really see Severus Snape in a paternal light. Can you?"

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of_the_fen
2010-06-04 03:43 am UTC (link)

Benjy laughed quietly. "Merlin, no," he said as he shook his head. "I wonder how they're handling that," he mused. Not that it was any of his business, but he was curious. Lily was definitely a very nurturing person and he couldn't see her without children, really. Eventually, anyway.

Maybe he'd ask her next time. See how she reacted to the idea of it.

"Maybe he is different around her, but how different can he be?" Though even as he said it, he wondered. Hadn't the man served as a spy, played both sides? Plus, he was grown up from what Benjy had really known of him, and he hadn't exactly known him that well in school. Mostly had known of him, and what he heard from Lily after they'd come back.

He shrugged and smiled. "Suppose we'll never know. Maybe they've just got one of those relationships that defies time and definition."

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dorcas_m
2010-06-04 11:43 pm UTC (link)

"It's funny," Cas said. "I always thought that'd be Lily and James." She shrugged. "Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned romantic. Too many Muggle films too early, you know?"

"As for children, I agree. I can't see her without them. Or, at least without something or someone to nurture. She's got the little Kneazle, but even they only need so much love. Eventually, I'll guess she'll have great-grandkids, or kids of her own. Either way, I doubt she'll leave her nurturing to stew."

Cas tried to imagine Snape, as she remembered him, as a father. Maybe it was the age she had known him at, or maybe it was knowing more of him than actually knowing him, but the image simply wouldn't come. Then again, she tried picturing James as a father, trying from about the same age as she pictured Snape, and found herself no more capable of conjuring any sort of paternal image; everyone knew had that had worked out, though. She decided it had to do something with teenaged boys as reference points.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-04 11:49 pm UTC (link)

Benjy thought about it, and shook his head before he shrugged. "Maybe she'll take up teaching. Tutoring. Something. Or babysitting. So she can have kids without actually having kids."

He grinned as he tried to imagine Snape as the history books painted him and as Lily spoke of him as his father, and couldn't imagine growing up with a man like that.

"Bet he'd give a kid nightmares," he finally concluded before he grinned and shook his head. But he supposed it took all kinds to make a world, and Snape was ... well, one of a kind.

"So what about you? Your thoughts on kids? Think if we had one, like, ten years from now or something, that we'd lose it in the house?" Sure, that was put the cart miles away from the horse, but he was kind of curious what Cas' thoughts were on things like that. Why not get the tough questions out of the way early?

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 12:38 am UTC (link)

"Snape? Snape would definitely give a child nightmares. And fodder for therapy for life, most likely. But don't tell Lily I said that. He may unnerve me, but she seems to really care for him, so whatever works, I suppose." To be frank, from what Cas knew of Snape, she didn't understand Lily's attraction to him at all, though things seemed to be going well enough for them.

Cas laughed. "Oh god, yes, I want kids. Eventually. Not right now, I mean, I'd like to rebuild my confidence in my ability to brew potions first. And make something of an adult of myself before I try teaching anyone else. But, yeah, in the future. I always liked the ones I knew on ward, and even if we do lose it in the house, I'm sure it'd be resilient enough to find its way back, or at least to food. I'd like to think we'd pass on common sense to this theoretical child, after all."

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 01:40 am UTC (link)

"Can't believe he was a professor," Benjy murmured with a shake of his head. Sure, he'd read the history, and he knew why, but ... damn. "Wonder how many of his students are suffering from nightmares, even now," he mused with a soft laugh.

"How'd we even get onto that topic?" He shook his head and made a gesture of shoving the topic aside.

"Lots of kids? One or two kids? Just so I know what I'm getting myself into if we manage to stick this out longer than a week." He winked playfully at her.

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 01:48 am UTC (link)

"I dunno, but it might give me nightmares. Can you imagine a scarier bloke to teach the little firsties --and everyone else for that matter -- to brew? What if you were horrid at potions? I'd rather fail than go to him for any help; he'd be worse than Slughorn!" She exclaimed.

"I hadn't thought about it, really. Just kids. Not a brood full; I'd like to be able to retire with some money to my name and some presentable furniture. Maybe two, or one. I dunno," she giggled.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 02:11 am UTC (link)

He chuckled softly before stepping aside from that topic. Lily would probably fuss if she heard about it. It was a situation, that was for certain, but not one he had to understand. She was happy, and that was what mattered.

Grinning, he shook his head and made a show of pretending to write that down. "Maybe two ... or one ..." he intoned before lifting his head. "Years and years from now," he decided.

This, after all, was assuming a lot. It was assuming they liked dating and wouldn't rather be friends. Assumed they'd be together years down the road. Assuming she still wanted kids then. He was content enough to take it one day at a time.

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 02:20 am UTC (link)

Cas grinned. "Years and years. I feel weird even labeling myself as an adult now; to have to explain rules and common sense and cleaning to a younger shorter person would just seem like a joke. I can't even fill out paperwork on time! "

Years. That was an odd thought. It was a thought with a lot of assumptions too: assumptions about this working out, about still wanting kids (though she doubted that would change), assumptions about another war not blossoming to take more people out. Still, it didn't hurt to talk about it.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 02:27 am UTC (link)

"Oh, shit. We have to explain things to them? We are so screwed." Benjy sighed and gazed down to his mostly empty plate. "How 'bout we let them pick up common sense at school, and just get a house elf to cover the cleaning part?"

He looked thoughtful. "Think we should practice? If Lily goes into babysitting or teaching, maybe see if we can borrow one of her scamps for a few hours and give it a practice go?"

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 02:35 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, you actually have to teach them stuff. I mean, reading and writing won't be bad, but I am in complete agreement on the house elf for the cleaning and the common sense at school bit; I still have difficulty with the cleaning bit ... and I suppose the common sense bit too."

"Yes, definitely. We can get an older one, so they're not as much mess and then go from there. We'll work our way down to the younger ones, so that when ... if we've got one of our own, we actually know what to do," she nodded.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 02:47 am UTC (link)

"Sound plan. Now all we have to do is convince her it's a good idea to put a minor in our hands ..." He tapped his fingertips on the table and nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem there."

He tipped his head. "Come to think of it, maybe you should field that one. You know, once she has access to short, young people. Think if I tried, she'd laugh herself sick."

He nodded. "So, we'll start with ... what, seventeen? Work down to fourteen or so, then venture into the eleven-twelve range? Think by then we'll be ready for the before school crowd."

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 02:53 am UTC (link)

"I've got some experience with shorter younger humans ... she might rent me out a kidling for us to practice with. Besides, for where we're starting, seventeen isn't really a kid. I feel barely past seventeen. She only has to worry when we work our way towards the three year olds; they're nutty, y'know. Can't let them near sweets at all or they bounce all over," she said, nodding.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 02:57 am UTC (link)

"See, those sorts of things? Those are the things you don't tell me, because I would try it to watch it happen. Now I want to find some neighbors with a toddler, sugar him or her up, and see if they really do bounce or if it's just an expression."

He nodded. "So we'll start with ten then?" Grinning, he added, "you know, a ten year old right now is probably smarter than us. What with the changes in times."

Well, that was an exaggeration, he was sure. Either way, he began to clean up his dinner mess, tossing the cartons into the trash before he glanced toward the couch.

But if he went to the couch, he'd fall asleep there. So he should probably do the shower and flopping in bed thing. Soon.

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 03:02 am UTC (link)

"If you try it, just make sure that you've got band aids, and that nothing fragile's about," Cas said, standing up, and gathering her cartons. "The last thing either of us need is a short squabbly thing with injuries on a sugar rush. The noise would be atrocious!"

"Ten ... ten sounds good. They're old enough to have sense, and, sadly, there probably are things they know more about than we do. But we could trump any of them in seventies' culture. And how to work a record player, I bet."

Cas was, admittedly, still getting used to not being one of the more knowledgeable people about. Sure, she'd done her reading, and continued to do so, but it still didn't replace having it imparted at school from a young age.

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of_the_fen
2010-06-05 03:26 am UTC (link)

"Don't think there's anything around here I'd worry about being broken," he decided. "'cept the telly, but that'd take some skill, wouldn't it?" He grinned over to her before flicking his wand lazily at the table to finish cleaning up any crumbs he'd missed.

Amused by the tangents their conversations tended to take, Benjy shook his head as he grinned. "Think I'm going to have a shower and go read in bed 'til my eyes decide they're done being open," he said.

Crossing over to her, he rested a hand on her shoulder before leaning in to brush his lips across hers gently. "Though you're welcome to come in and pester me if you want," he added with a wink.

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dorcas_m
2010-06-05 03:35 am UTC (link)

Cas brushed a finger down his cheek, smiling at him. "Think I'll take you up on the offer. We all know that, future or not, pestering's still my specialty, 'Specially where you're concerned," she teased.

If not being the sharpest tack on the ward and playing catch up with forty years of everythingwas the trade off for this, Cas would take it. This was the sort of thing she had, largely, missed out on the first time around and, unlike lots of other things she'd missed, this was one of the things that actually mattered.

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	of_the_fen 2010-06-05 03:40 am UTC (link)
	"Excellent. See you in there in ten minutes or so," he said with a wink before he turned to head toward the bath. A nice hot shower, then some reading and some chatting with Cas, and then ... sleep. Because he had to go back to work in the morning. Sigh. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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