Elle "hates thestrals" Abercrombie (abandonedheart) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-12-14 14:06:00 |
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Eight days. Eight days since Alastor Gumboil had been killed for doing work for the Ministry. Four days since his friends and co-workers said goodbye to him. And on Sunday morning, Elle Abercrombie woke up obscenely early for her day off, and with a headache that borderlined on migraine.
That first drink on Wednesday night at the Red Fox had opened a door. She'd allowed the tension to drift from her shoulders, and she mentally opened a room, threw the feelings she had for Alastor into it, and then locked the door. She couldn't forget him, of course not. But she had decided that she needed to forget everything he had meant to her. If the feelings she'd had for him didn't exist, then she wouldn't be so devestated by his death.
And liquor helped ensure the devestation kept at bay.
Thursday morning she'd woken up with a bit of a hangover, but was at work on time and ready to work. She felt better, despite the hangover, than she had in months. She remembered the days in April and May... when she and Kate would go out dancing and she'd drink, and despite the fact the war was getting colder - they were living. She'd missed it. She'd missed it a lot.
After getting off work the night before, Elle came home and made herself some dinner and curled up near the fireplace with the Prophet, but not to read the articles. She was looking through the housing ads, looking for somewhere she might want to move to - and somewhere she could afford. This place had grown stale for her and with a new life she wanted a fresh start.
She started with a glass of wine at dinner, and then as the evening rolled on, a second. She then decided she was done sitting around the house, and went to her closet. She threw on some nice clothes and made her way back to the Red Fox.
It was packed, despite the fact that it was after curfew. The doors were locked and warded, but the floo was open and ready. She laughed, and drank, and drank, and drank...
...and now she was here. She picked up her wand from the bedside table and charmed the blinds not to let the sunlight in. Merlin, she'd had a lot to drink the night before. She slid herself out of bed and slipped into a silky bathrobe that felt icy along her skin. She winced at that too, and then headed into the kitchen. She set some coffee to start brewing, and then went into the bathroom to get a hangover potion. It probably wouldn't get rid of her hangover completely, but at least it would take the edge off it.
She went back to the kitchen, poured herself a cup of coffee, and then slid onto one of the kitchen chairs. She sat leaned against the wall and curled her legs up under her, her hands wrapped around the steaming mug. The night came back to her in flashes, and a small smirk curled at the corner of her lip. It had been a good night, and well worth (in her opinion) the hangover that now plagued her.
Kate arrived at the outside of Elle's flat, and took a moment to straighten her hair. She was going to keep checking in on her best friend until she was absolutely convinced that Elle was all right. Kate was determined, and she was loyal, and her best friend needed her right now. It did not hurt at all that Gawain was in the same flat building and she would no doubt end up at his flat after she had checked on Elle - assuming that Elle did not want to go shopping, or to do something together. She would ask and find out. It was difficult, and she wasn't actually certain what to always do for her friend, but Merlin knew she would do everything she could to make it better.
She knocked on the door and then waving her wand, she quickly moved into the flat, and called out. "Elle? Are you awake yet?"
The door into the flat opened into a small foyer that led into the living room which opened into the kitchen. Elle heard the switch on the lock and winced at Kate's voice. Not that she was unhappy to hear it, but it was just... so loud.
"In here," she said quietly, but loud enough for Kate to hear her, "And keep your voice down, will you? My head is killing me." She smiled as Kate walked into the room and waved with her fingertips, "Morning, friend."
Kate came in, and shut the door, possibly a bit more loudly than Elle would have appreciated, and she quickly moved away from the foyer towards the kitchen where Elle's voice was. She gave her friend a quick smile, followed instantaneously by a concerned look.
"Your head is killing you?" She asked with concern. "What's wrong? Do you have a headache?" That was actually probably a mild understatement, it was fairly clear that's what was wrong with Elle. Or was it? She looked at Elle curiously. "Do you have a potion?" she asked a little more quietly and she sat her purse down on the table and walked towards the cabinet to see if she could find something that Elle might be able to take for it.
"I took one already," Elle waved Kate to sit, "it's okay. I just had a lot of scotch last night. And tequila. And I started off with wine." She squinted her eyes for a moment as she thought if she'd had anything else. Probably. Much of the evening was a blur.
"I made coffee. You want any?" Elle ran a hand through her hair, which was not a great sight to see, and then sipped at her own black coffee, "I can't guarantee it's any good thought."
She stifled a yawn and gave Kate a lopsided smile, "how're you?"
Kate blinked. She wasn't actually surprised that Elle had been out drinking. It was not actually that unusual for Elle to be out drinking, and certainly she had reason enough to be frustrated and want to simply go out right now. It just, did worry her a bit. Not the going out and not the drinking so much, but rather her friend's health in general. She wanted Elle to slide back into her life, but Kate didn't want her doing so too quickly - so that she did not have time to heal.
"I'm all right," she said, stepping across and looking to pour herself a cup of coffee from what Elle had made up. "I certainly did not drink so much last night, and do not have a headache, thankfully. But I will take coffee. You're certain you don't need anything?"
After a moments thought she turned around, leaned against the counter and sipping from the cup of too hot liquid. "Where did you go last night?"
"Back to the Red Fox," Elle said, rather simply before she sipped at her coffee. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and adjusted her glasses back on her face, "You would not believe how packed it is in there on a Saturday night. It was incredible." Elle actually looked the most relaxed she had been in quite some time, though she also looked like she hadn't slept at all.
"And I don't need anything, Kate. Other than the hangover, I'm fine. I might go for a jog tod-" Elle was cut off by another presence in the room, whom she eyed for a moment before she remembered that, yes, she had woken up with someone else in her bed.
He wore dress slacks and nothing else, and headed straight for the coffee. He was very tall, muscular, and blonde much like Elle, though his eyes were a dark brown. He eyed Kate for a moment before looking at Elle with a bit of a smirk, "Morning."
Awkward. The idiot should have stayed in bed for awhile, not come out when her best mate was leaning against the counter looking quite worried. "Morning," Elle gestured to Kate, "This is Kate. Kate this is..."
Shit.
"Ethan," he supplied and nodded his head to Kate in greeting. He then looked to Elle and pointed to the coffee cup, "Mind if I take this-?"
"Go ahead," Elle waved him off. Ethan. She needed... no, no she didn't actually need to remember that. He turned and headed out of the room, but not without giving Elle a rather... lascivious glance. Apparently the night before had been good.
Elle cleared her throat and picked up her coffee, "So, erm, like I was saying... I think I might go for a jog today. Get some Christmas shopping done. The basics. What, erm, are you doing today?"
Kate could not have been more startled when a - admittedly handsome - man waltzed into the kitchen to get coffee. Merlin's beard was Elle absolutely insane? Kate stared at her friend, stared at the retreating form of Ethan, and stared at Elle again. ETHAN? What about Alastor? What about her fiance? What was Elle thinking? Had she just forgotten about Al? Kate was so busy being startled that she forgot about the coffee in her hand.
Additionally, it seemed she'd forgotten how to speak. She couldn't think of a thing to say to her friend. What did you say to your best friend with a man in her house a week? Two weeks? Hardly any time after her fiance had been buried, and not even a week after his funeral. So she stood there, gaping, and utterly unaware of anything that Elle had been saying.
Elle took a sip of her coffee; the look of horror on Kate's face was enough to tell her that her friend was not exactly accepting of Elle's brand of 'moving on'. She put down the cup and folded her hands on the table, and looked at her hands for a long time before looking back up to Kate. Fucking Ethan and his fucking coffee in her bedroom.
She swallowed, "Kate? Are you okay?"
"Uh," Kate snapped back to herself, and she quickly took a sip of the coffee, hoping that she'd covered up her utter horror at the situation she now found herself in. "Right, no, I'm quite fine. Ethan, hm? I suppose you met him last night?"
It was odd to even be considering talking about him, while he was still in the flat - possibly listening to their conversation.
"Well, that's good. Um," It was bad. It was very bad, and Kate couldn't think of how to tell Elle this in any polite way. Particularly not with the very bad part of the morning lurking somewhere else in the flat, possibly within earshot. "'Nice."
Elle rubbed at the back of her neck, suddenly uncomfortable with the situation. It wasn't that she, herself, disapproved of the fact that there was a man here. If anything, she thought it helped. And based on the look Ethan gave her as he left the room, it had helped a lot. It was a pity she only remembered flashes of it. Maybe after Kate left they could--
--she needed to deal with the situation at hand. Kate was obviously not comfortable with the idea of Elle sleeping with someone, and Elle needed to do something to fix it. If she could. She was about to take out her wand and silence the room, when she heard the shower in the bathroom turn on. Wow... that was an arrogant man she brought home the night before. Who actually stuck around the night after and took a shower?
"He's attractive, at least," Elle said, finally, "And yes, I met him last night." She looked at Kate for a long time before sighing rather heavily, "Kate, I don't ask you to agree with how I choose to move on, but can you at least respect that this is my choice?"
"What makes you think I don't approve?" Kate's voice was a little bit more tight than she intended for it to be. "I mean, it's good that you're moving on. You need to move on," she sighed, not certain that she was making much sense, and certainly thinking she was coming across slightly rude.
"I-" She sat the cup of coffee down on the counter and looked at her best friend. "Elle, it's only been - it's not been..." She wasn't helping. But Kate didn't really know how to be helpful. The fact that Elle was just shagging the first handsome bloke that came along, really didn't seem to be healthy, but Kate yelling at her about it, was likely as unhelpful as the original act.
"Did it help? Do you feel better?" She asked the question carefully, trying very hard to not sound remotely accusatory as she asked the question.
"Kate, the look of horror on your face and the fact that you have no colour gave it away, even if you didn't say anything," she sipped at her coffee and calmly looked at her friend. She knew Kate was much more emotionally accessible than Elle was, and she didn't think that her friend quite understood how Elle best functioned under emotional stress. Al... had been an exception that proved the rule.
"I-" she paused and thought about it. Had it helped? It probably would have helped more if she could remember all of it, but she didn't think Kate would exactly accept that kind of answer. She idly scratched at her arm and then nodded, "Honestly? Yes. The past couple of days have been the best I've felt not only in the past week or so... but in the past few months. I don't function well being overly emotive. You know that. I'm just," she shrugged, "Me, I guess."
Kate reached back and picked up the coffee cup again. It gave her something to do with her hands which she really needed right now, she hoped it would distract her from how obviously bizarre this entire situation was.
"Right, well, that's good," she took a sip and looked up at Elle. "Look, Elle, i didn't mean to be - I mean, I was just very startled. I didn't expect you to have someone here, you know?"
She did know how Elle was, and she worried about her friend sometimes - how much Elle tended to close off, and Al seemed to have made it past that, and she'd been so happy, because she felt as if Elle needed that love, that support, and now it wasn't there, and she was just pretending that she didn't need it - as she'd always pretended before. Kate supposed that there was always the possibility that someone else would make it past Elle's defenses... Possibly.
Elle, as emotionally distant as she could be, smiled at her friend, "I appreciate the concern, it really means a lot. And I don't know if it makes it better or worse, but I didn't anticipate bringing someone home last night. It just... happened." Elle didn't think that was probably the best argument, but not all her brain capacity was with her yet, and she just wanted her friend to believe her.
"I'll get rid of him when he's out of the shower," she said as she finished the rest of her cup of coffee. She would... though maybe not right away, "If you wanted to join me for shopping, you're more than welcome."
"Well, if you'd had wine, and scotch, and tequila, you probably didn't even remember doing it," Kate pointed out practically. She had drunk enough wine before that it had made her proposition Pepper - something that she was still uncertain how she had been that brave, or what on earth had made her think that was a great idea. It seemed particularly odd now that he was married to Jo.
Kate nodded. "Why don't I leave and go down and visit Gawain," she pointed out practically. "You get rid of Mr Ethan whose name you in no way knew before he supplied it," a look directed at her friend. "And you knock on Gawain's door when you're ready. I think shopping sounds good."
She didn't confirm it vocally, but the look on Elle's face was confirmation enough that she did, in fact, not remember much of it at all. She ran a hand through her hair and nodded, "all right. I may be awhile. I have to get rid of him and then shower myself." Elle stood and put her coffee cup in the sink, "should we say noon?"
"That should work fine," Kate said. At the moment she was thinking that she simply needed to escape and regroup her thoughts, so that she could be the friend Elle needed later on in the afternoon. "It will give time to have a cup of tea with Gawain then. I'll be back around noon," she added, putting the cup of coffee aside and stepping across to pick up the bag she'd left on the table before she headed for the front door, her mind still whirling from how utterly wrong the entire situation seemed. Elle really needed her right now, perhaps more than her best friend even realised.
Elle nodded and watched her friend go before she got up and headed toward the bathroom. She opened the door and Ethan peeked out with a wicked little smile, "Nice of you to remember my name. Remember any of last night?"
Elle gave him an unamused look, "Not really," she said and approached the shower, "But I'll remember this morning." She pushed him lightly into the shower and dropped the robe she was wearing and then stepped in after him.
Noon was over three hours away. She might as well remember something before she kicked him out.