remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-10 04:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-05] may, marlene lupin (née mckinnon), remus lupin |
Who: Remus Lupin, Marlene McKinnon, & NPCed muggle fortune teller.
What: After a long day of stress, Remus shows up for patrol duty, forgetting that he and Marlene are off that night.
When: 9 May 1979, near nine at night.
Where: Ted and Andromeda's house, then a fair near Marlene's parent's house.
Status: Complete
Rating: PG
Merlin, he felt exhausted already, and the day was not even over yet. Remus hoped there wouldn't be anymore stress that night, but despite the company, there was always that constant worry in the back of his mind that something could happen while they were on patrol -- and that something could, possibly, go wrong. All he really wanted was to relax, but he wasn't about to skip out on his patrol just because he's had a rough day. Thankfully, he didn't have patrol with anyone he was at odds with at the moment; at least, he hoped Marlene wasn't upset with him. He hadn't seen her comment on the journals, but that certainly didn't mean she didn't know what happened, considering how close she is with Agnes. Resigned to attempt to just get the night over with, he made sure he had everything he would need on him -- journal, wand, quill -- and then he left the flat, apparating to Ted and Andromeda's place. It wasn't until he was near the door that Remus hesitated -- what if Dorcas answered the door? He wasn't too concerned about Agnes, as she had send him that owl with the drawing earlier that seemed like it meant everything would be okay between the two. However, just because he didn't want to come in contact with Dorcas didn't mean he could not go on patrol duty and so, attempting not to look as frazzled as he felt, Remus knocked on the door. Marlene had definitely seen the ruckus in the journals. To be honest, she'd been watching it all day, forcing herself to leave all forms of writing utensils in the other rooms to keep from saying something herself. The arguing was getting more and more intense, and it was.... well, rather obvious that Agnes was involved now, considering they were in the same house and the girl had never been a quiet person when hacked off about something. It had been awkward enough when Dorcas and Remus had started going off on each other at that Order meeting, still throwing suspicious glances each others' way when they'd wind up in the same room together, and now with Remus "outing himself" as a werewolf to the Order and not everyone taking it very well, this was not a fight that she wanted to touch with a 80 foot pole. She had never had a problem pissing off people she disliked, even people who wanted her dead for some of the things she'd said, but she was so very much not in the mood to potentially get her friends pissed off at her, too. If they wanted to talk to her personally, that was fine. But, just this once, Marlene was holding back from sticking her quill where it didn't belong. And then the knocking happened. Why did knocking always happen when there was no one else around to open the door? "DOOR!!" Marlene bellowed through the house, and waited a few moments for someone else to tend to the butler duties. No dice. "Dammit," she grumbled, sighing and moving to answer the knocking herself. She was a little confused, naturally, when she found a Remus on the doorstep. "Hey Remus!" Marlene greeted him, moving aside to let him in the house, even though she wasn't exactly sure why he was here in the first place. Maybe he and Agnes were going to talk things out face to face? "...How's it going?" she asked after a slight hesitation, knowing perfectly well (at least, as far as she could tell from the land of journalistic communication), that the answer was not going to be a cheery one. Remus stepped inside the house after Marlene had moved aside for him, giving her an uneasy smile, although not quite understanding why she seemed surprised to see him there. Well, at least she didn't seem upset to see him there, which was always a good sign. "I'm fine," came his automatic response, even though he was clearly lying. "Well -- I've been better." He didn't elaborate, however, just wanting to leave before anyone else could show up. He was done with getting into arguments today. "Are you ready to go? I believe we're watching Grimmauld Place tonight," he said, having forgotten that they actually were not on duty at all that night. Marlene had been milliseconds from replying with "you are fucking not fine, don't lie" when Remus corrected himself slightly, at least admitting that he was sort of bothered by the day's goings-on. It was his second statement that threw Marlene for a bigger loop, though. It was Friday. They had the day off (thank Merlin!), which meant a supposed lack of Reggie patrol duty. ...At least, as far as Marlene knew they didn't have patrol duty that night. Had he switched that up on the new schedule? No... that'd just been some shuffling to get Mary onto the list. "Are you sure?" she asked, getting out her wand anyway. Maybe they'd switched nights with someone, and they were going extra this week to make up for... whatever she was going to do while Remus was occupied for the night in a few weeks. "Do Emmy and Dorie know we're switching?" He blinked, confused that she was confused, wondering what she was talking about. Switching with Emmeline and Dorcas? Why did she think that? Oh... had he read the schedule wrong? "No, we're not switching with anyone... don't we have patrol tonight?" Remus frowned, reaching into his ropes to take out his journal and look over the schedule himself. Oh. Well, bugger -- how had he managed to mess that up? He sighed and slipped the journal back into his pocket, looking at Marlene again. "Sorry, I could have sworn -- I thought we had patrol tonight." He was, actually, a little disappointed that they weren't on patrol tonight. It would have been something to distract himself with, to take his mind off his current problems and concentrate on something important. Now he'd have to go home -- no, to Peter's flat -- and there wouldn't be much to do there, except possibly Peter trying to get him to work things out with the others. He knew Peter meant well, of course, and appreciated what he wanted to do, but Remus was in no mood to try and fix things right now. There really was not any other place for him to go, and after a moment he asked, "do you think it would be alright if we did something anyway? Not a patrol watch, but just -- something." Anything, he didn't care, as long as he didn't have to go home. Marlene was, at least, one of the few people Remus knew who was not uncomfortable with his condition (as far as he knew), and he hoped she wouldn't try to get him to talk to other people, either. Marlene had a feeling that if Sirius would've known about this (you know, if he and Remus had actually been talking, rather than seconds from ripping off each-other's heads), he would've been having an absolute field day with this. But, well, what Sirius didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Or at least would hopefully keep Remus from feeling awkward for 2.5 seconds of his life. "Doing something sounds great, yeah. I mean, I've already got my wand and everything ready to go; it'd be pointless to sit around the house doing nothing," Marlene nodded amusedly. "And we should probably start by heading out that way," she pointed at the door, "because while I know you and Dorcas are bestest buddies, I wouldn't want to make her jealous or anything." Or, well, chance any awkward sort of happenings on what had already been shaping up to be a really crappy day for Remus, even though Marlene didn't have the slightest as to if Dorcas was aware of what all had been going on. And there was that uneasy smile again at the mention of Dorcas' name, but at least it had been in good humour. The relief was clear on his face that he wasn't going to have to go him, and he nodded in agreement, attempting to get into the mood to joke back with her. "Yes, I wouldn't want to upset her," he grinned, already heading back to the door again while trying to think of someplace they could go. "Do you have any thoughts on where you'd like to go? It's late at night, I'm not quite sure what's open -- well, I suppose there are the pubs." He hadn't had any alcohol for a while, and at least he knew Marlene liked drinking, right? "I guess that's not very exiting, though," Remus mused, holding the door open for Marlene so she could follow him outside. Bugger, why was he so bad at thinking of things to do? Sirius was right -- he is repressed. Normally, they would be coming up with the ideas and he would just go along with them. 'What was still open at 9 at night besides the pub?' Marlene wondered as she locked and warded the door behind them. Not that there wasn't anything wrong with going to the pub, of course, but that was also something that could be done even later than that, depending on how late Remus needed to stay out of the house. "Oooh, you know what could be fun..." Marlene pondered, trying to remember exactly where it was. It made her nervous to want to apparate somewhere without having an extremely clear idea of what she was going for, especially seeing as how she'd probably be side-alonging Remus if he didn't know what she was talking about. "Up near my parents' house, they have this fair that passes through in May, so it should be there. I'm pretty sure it's open til midnight on weekends, because muggles supposedly sleep less than us or... something. But they'll have beer and rides and fattening food and muggles in funny outfits pretending to know how to do Divination. I've never had a muggle attempt to tell my fortune before; it could be fun!" "A fair?" Remus sounded a little surprised -- he knew what they were, of course, but he had never actually been to one himself. Thus was the result of having a very sheltered childhood. He had always wanted to go to one, though; or at least, he had wanted to when he was a child. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't go to one now, right? Remus smiled genuinely for the first time that night. "Actually, I think that sounds fun. I've never been to a fair before, but I'd love to go... should we get some money exchanged for muggle money first, before we go. Since he knew how to get to Gringotts, Remus side-along apparated both of them to the bank so they could exchange the money. Once they had taken care of that, Remus waited for her outside, and trying not to think about how not long ago they had been here fighting against Death Eaters in the midst of destruction. No, tonight was not about that -- he would forget the Order, forget the war, forget everything save for pretending that he had a normal life for just this one night. Maybe, for once, he could even forget that he wasn't even human. "Let's go, then -- I'm afraid I don't know how to get there, so you'll have to lead the way this time," Remus grinned at her, and he reached over to gently hold her hand, fingers intertwined. Marlene took Remus's hand and concentrated as hard as she could on the spot in front of her parents' house that they always used to apparate to. The more she thought about it, the safer that was, especially considering the last time she'd apparated in somewhere that she wasn't sure of, very bad things had almost happened. Augh, no, no thinking about battles or attacks or disturbingly tall Death Eaters with green-tinted wand-tips. She was not going to let the war take over her entire life. Tonight was for carnies. And making sure that Remus didn't drown himself in quiet woe. The two appeared with a loud crack behind a tall length of shrubbery, and after a quick wave of "hi house!", Marlene pulled Remus around to the front pavement, steering them in the direction of the fair. Hopefully they'd be heading the right way; she knew it was right on the water and thought she could make out the faint sound of clangy carousel music, so hopefully they'd trek off in the correct direction. "Right. So we do have to walk down a few streets to get into muggle land, going... that way," she pointed in the right direction with her wand, only to realise "oh yes. Muggle-land. These've got to go away now," lest she do something else to potentially get the Ministry on her case. She began leading the way towards the fair, having missed the feeling of feeling comfortable and safe outside after the sun had set. To be honestly, she'd missed feeling like she wasn't seconds from getting jumped just when walking outside. "So uh, not to potentially bring down any moods or anything before we get there," Marlene began a bit awkwardly, feeling kind of like a jerk for making that annoying transition into broaching topics Remus probably wanted to ignore, "but I would feel like a bigger prat for not asking: how're you feeling? Today looked kinda... rough, from what I could see. But if you don't want to talk about it then cheers!" Marlene added in a rushed afterthought. While he had hoped to try and think of something for them to talk about on the walk, Remus hadn't expected she might bring up that subject. He appreciated that she was concerned, though -- he just wouldn't tell her everything. More damn secrets. At least it wasn't a matter of trust that would be keeping him from telling Marlene about the note; he didn't want to worry her with it. Remus doubted she would like it if he started accusing her friends of sending it, either. "I'm just glad it's almost over with. I mean -- well, not that I want right now to be over with. I like right now. Just that -- well -- I don't have to deal with it for the rest of the night. And Agnes apologised, so I suppose she isn't too upset anymore. I just worry what everyone else thinks," he sighed, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to change anyone's opinion. Remus just hoped they would at least act civilised with him so they could all continue working in the Order together as a functional group -- not that they were all very cooperative now, what with all the fighting that's happened today. "And I'm sure whatever happened with Sirius and I will blow over as usual," he continued. "I think we're both just stressed from all this fighting, and there's hardly much time to ourselves these days that it's hard to just catch a break from it all. Merlin, I'm sure the stress is getting to all of us -- at least I don't feel so stressed around you," Remus said, feeling embarrassed as soon as the words left his mouth. "Here, I mean. Since we're not... doing anything related to the war right now." Way to go and make a gigantic fool of yourself, Lupin, he thought, wondering how many more things could go wrong in one day. It would have been really cruel of Marlene to let Remus keep babbling on as he was. She couldn't wrap her head around why in the world he would get stressed out around her in the first place, (she was just Marlene), but not saying anything while he continued to babble on probably wouldn't help things. "Which is good. This, my friend, is not a night for stressing; not about the war, not about the journals, and definitely not about me. Unless you're afraid of heights," Marlene added with a playful smirk, already with every intention of getting Remus on as many cheap carnival rides as possible before the place closed, especially since he'd never been to a fair before. "But yeah, I'm sure that everything will be back to normal soon," she figured. She couldn't really blame Agnes for freaking out like she had, finding out about Remus being a werewolf through the journals, not just because of how she found out, but also considering what had happened when the commune had been attacked. And that had been Fenrir Greyback when human (rather than as a werewolf) who'd lead that attack, which had been terrifying enough -- Marlene still had trouble trying to push some of the things she'd seen him do during that attack out of her head. And then with Sirius, well... as good of friends as they were, he and Remus seemed to be at odds half the time, and then were back to normal within a few days at most. Guys were lucky -- they could yell at each other, say horribly rotten things, and then play a pick-up game of Quidditch and have everything be right back to normal. "I'm glad we do have tonight off of rounds. I mean, I'm sure we're missing Very Vexing Things at Casa De Regulung, but I needed a night off for sure." Remus could only hope that she was right -- it was only a matter of who would be the first one to apologise. Which, while normally was just a few days, could also last for much longer depending on the severity of the argument. Remus didn't know if he was quite ready to say he was sorry, especially seeing as how he felt it was Sirius who was at fault this time. "Well, I'm fairly certain I'm not afraid of heights... but I can't say I've flown very much, to be honest. Regardless, I'm in the mood for taking chances tonight, so I suppose we'll be finding out how I can handle heights or not," Remus grinned at her, pushing all thoughts of anything bad out of his mind. "I'm glad, too. If I hadn't mixed up the schedules I would probably just be drinking tea, while Peter tried to talk some sense into me to make up with Sirius before turning in for the night, and that's hardly very exciting, is it?" Besides, who knew when the next time would be that he would get to do something like this, take a break from all the fighting and sneaking around? Nevermind just going to a fair with Marlene. He just hoped time wouldn't go by too quickly. The sound of whirring music in the distance began to grow louder as the two made their way closer to the fair, which Marlene took as a good sign that they were heading in the right direction. It'd been years since she had gotten the chance to come to this -- quite literally, as it was usually packing up just about the time that she'd arrived home from Hogwarts -- and it was a relief to know that she hadn't dragged Remus out here pointlessly, especially after talking the place up and potentially getting him excited. It was reassuring that her town never ever changed. "Pete's a good guy. I don't think sitting down and trying to talk things out, especially this soon, would help much. And not nearly as exciting, definitely. Instead you get me! Clearly there is nothing better that you could be doing," Marlene laughed sarcastically, rolling her eyes at herself. Turning to the left once they'd reached the corner, the two got their first up-close look at the fair, despite it still being two blocks down the street. The flashing neon lights illuminated the night sky, the bluster of colours and sounds swirling together in a flood of fun, ferris wheels, and funnel cakes. Traces of laughter spliced in with the joyfilled screams of the muggles on the rides -- wow, happy screaming. It'd been a while since they'd been around that -- the tallest of the attractions already appearing massive and endless from a few streets away. Of course, what was the fun of just looking at it? Throwing a cheeky, competitive glance Remus's way, Marlene readied herself and said, "Race you!", charging off towards the entrance without waiting for Remus to give his consent to the contest. It was rather remarkable what muggles could do without magic, Remus thought as he caught the first full view of their destination. There were magical fireworks and noise-making candies and ceilings that could show you the sky, but even the wizarding world didn't really have anything like this. Why would anyone want to destroy these people, this culture, was something Remus would never understand. There it was again -- why couldn't he think about anything without being reminded, somehow, of the damn war? Thankfully, Marlene had chosen that moment to interrupt the dark thoughts and bring him back to the present. Well, he wouldn't be a Gryffindor if he turned down a challenge. Although it took a moment for him to realise what she was doing, giving her a good head start, Remus grinned and called out in protest, "hey, you're supposed to count to three first!" before quickly gave chase after her, trying in vain to catch up. "You're just saying that 'cause you're loooooosiiiing," Marlene called back, taunting him amusedly as she turned to run backwards for a few seconds. She quickly realised that he was definitely gaining on her now, and with a lighthearted shriek spun back around to face forward, dashing off as fast as her legs could carry her. Something could be said for all the extra training the people in the Order had been doing lately; she was fast. Then again, Remus had been doing the same, and he was also taller. She totally had earned that head start because of height differences alone. She finally tagged the side of the ticket booth as she reached the front of the fair, catching her breath and having absolutely no idea if she'd gotten there first. Not that it really mattered, of course. And either way, she was going to argue that she'd won until the end of time anyway. "Haha, I win," she said between attempts to catch her breath. Remus couldn't help laughing when she caught on that he was gaining on her, glad that she had at least faced forward again before she accidentally tripped over something (and at this rate he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop laughing if she had fallen, which certainly wouldn't earn him any good points). Although it was close, Marlene had managed to reach the booth seconds before he could get there to tag the booth as well. "Only because you cheated -- and at least I'm not out of breath!" he laughed, although he still sounded winded anyway. "I guess it's only fair I pay for the tickets, then. But next time, we do this racing thing right." Remus smirked, turning to speak to the man behind the ticket booth before Marlene could have a chance to protest. He paid for admission for both of them and then turned back to her. "Shall we go in, then? I'm afraid you'll have to take the lead again and show this new guy around." Marlene had just opened her mouth to refuse to let Remus buy her ticket for her when he was already at the window, tickets in hand. She rolled her eyes and took the ticket from him, passing it off to the attendant at the gate and waiting for Remus to follow her through. "Fine, you might've gotten away with that this time, but I am so buying you candy floss later and you're going to eat all of it," Marlene retorted, knowing it was very hard to sound intimidating when you were threatening a person with fluffy pink sweets. Taking a moment to look around her, figuring out the layout of the fair and what would be the best things to hit, seeing as how it was already sort of late (even though they still had a few hours before things began closing up), Marlene decided perhaps it'd be better to let Remus pick and choose what looked fun to him, at least to start with. After all, if he'd never been to one of these before, she didn't want to shove him onto one of the really intense spinny rides right from the start and potentially get him sick. "What looks fun to you?" she asked him. "You point, I'll lead. Or'll let you know if it's boring, in which case you get to pick again." "Candy floss? That's fair enough -- are you sure I can't share it with you, though?" Remus wasn't about to protest indulging his sweet tooth, and besides, he had never tried muggle candy floss before and he was curious to see how different it might be. Following Marlene's instructions, he took a moment to look around at the nearby rides, trying to decide which to try first -- Remus would've liked to try them all, unfortunately not considering that any of them might make him feel ill. Thankfully, he has a fairly strong stomach. "What about that one over there -- is that boring? It doesn't move as fast as the other rides, but..." Remus trailed off as he pointed at the giant ferris wheel towering over the other rides. If he was going to find out if he was afraid of heights or not, Remus thought he may as well go all out. It was the Gryffindor's way of life. "I wouldn't mind trying a faster ones either, though, like -- that one there," he suggested as he pointed at the Tilt-A-Whirl. "I suppose if you insisted, I could have a little bit," Marlene sighed in epic defeat, even though she'd planned from the very beginning to steal some of it from him. Coming to a fair and not eating yourself sick on sweets was practically a crime in itself. She pondered for a moment, trying to plan out a course of action as to what would be the best order to go on the rides in, and figured that the aspect of getting food later probably should have the biggest hand in it. "Hmm. Okay. Tilt-a-whirl is brilliant, but is really fast and jerky, so we should probably go on that one first before getting food," she explained, already walking toward the ride's queue. "That big one's a ferris wheel, and they're slower, but definitely not boring. You can see pretty much everything for forever; I used to be convinced I could see Hogwarts from up there, but I'm pretty sure now it was just Claypotts Castle. And let it be known right now that if you rock the cart, I will push you out at the very top," she explained matter of factly, then looked around to see what else they could wander off to while they waited for their turn on the Tilt-a-Whirl. "Let's see. They've got the Fun House thing over there, which is this mashup thing where you run into mirrors and clowns pop out at you and the floor spins around, those are... disorienting," she laughed. "Annnd I think there's a fortune teller over there, that can wait until after food, too. And the swings. Then that really tall spinny thing over there... I'm not sure what that's called, but it's amazingly terrifying looking. I've never been tall enough to go on it before." "Oh -- yes, that would be a bad idea to eat first, wouldn't it?" It was a good thing Marlene was thinking ahead, or that might have resulted in a disaster. Looking back up at the ferris wheel as they waited in line for the Tilt-a-Whirl, Remus laughed a little. "Don't worry, I don't think there will be any reason to shove me out. I reckon I'd feel the same way. I'd hope they made that thing fairly sturdy, though -- it'd be hard to stop everyone from rocking the carts." He listened to her go on about other rides they could try, smiling and feeling glad to see her seem so happy and excited. "It's a shame we didn't get here earlier, then. I'd really like to try everything, but at least the fair will come 'round again, yeah? If you've got any favourites, you'll have to point them out, and I'll still point out the ones that I think look interesting. We'll have to try the tall spinny thing, definitely," Remus said, quoting her description of the ride -- but then a mischievous grin spread across his face, and he was unable to hold back from teasing her. "Are you sure you'll be tall enough to ride it now, though?" "Oy, sod off, I'm not Agnes," Marlene scoffed, whacking Remus lightly in the shoulder, laughing as she did so. Of course she'd be tall enough to ride it now... hopefully. She would be, right? Because that would be pretty darn embarrassing if she wasn't. "Maybe I'll push you out of the Ferris Wheel anyway." The line of the Tilt-a-Whirl finally started moving, and Marlene moved along with it, she and Remus winding up the final two people to make it through the gate before the carts were all full. "We'll come back again, definitely. It's faster at night, at least; the lines are so much shorter," she explained, looking for an empty car for them to ride in. "AHA! DIBS!" she exclaimed, diving into an empty one just before another couple stole it away, the car rocking back and forth as she jumped in and pushed the bar up a bit so that Remus could get in. Remus laughed, leaning slightly away from her when she smacked him on the shoulder -- he'd expected it, although she still got him anyway. "You wouldn't! I'm far too nice. I'd never do anything to deserve that." He was struggling to keep a straight face the entire time, but was failing miserably. At the prospect of making plans to come back here again some day, Remus didn't feel the urge to attempt to try everything in one night like an excited child in a candy shop as much anymore. Because there would be a next time... they could make time for it on their nights off, and the world would certainly not be in this state forever. He smiled again at her enthusiasm, quickly joining her to sit beside her in the car and making sure to duck his head a little as he got in so as not to hit his head. Once the attendants had gone through and made sure everyone was securely in their cars, Remus was slightly startled when the ride jerked to a start, gripping the safety bar with a startled laugh. It was one thing to ride on a broomstick and have it completely under your control, but another to sit in a muggle devise that you have no control over whatsoever. Still, as the ride picked up speed, he found it more fun than scary. It had been so bloody long since Marlene not only had been on a ride like this, but had been able to completely let loose, letting the cart toss her around in circles, sliding into the wall -- flipping around the other way and smooshing into Remus -- "Sorryyyyyy!!!" Marlene squealed, trying to pull herself in the other direction against the tilt of the cart so as to not completely smash Remus into the side, knowing that it was a futile gesture. Besides, soon enough she'd be the one getting squashed, as was the way of the Tilt-a-Whirl. "So what do you think?!?! Are you having fun???" Marlene yelled to him over the rush of the spinning, gripping onto the handlebar for dear life, even though there was no way that falling out was even a possibility. While Remus had known the ride would be fast, he hadn't quite expected this -- the ride seemed much faster when you were actually on it. He was trying his best not to slide all around inside the car as it spun, but he was having as much trouble as Marlene was, sliding over to her side despite his best efforts -- and all the while he just couldn't stop laughing. "I -- I think so!" he yelled back to her, nearly calling out that it felt rather like flying on an out-of-control broomstick but remembering himself in the last second. He felt both safe and in danger at the same time; the handle bar was the only thing securing them inside the car to stop them from being thrown out, but that seemed to Remus to be part of the fun. "I feel like we're going to fly out of this thing!" "I KNOW, isn't it GREAT!?" Marlene asked, absolutely cracking up. Not, of course, that actually flying out of the car would be very much fun -- quite the opposite, actually -- but having that feeling that something could happen despite knowing deep down in the back of her head that they were completely safe was incredibly euphoric. This was a much preferably sort of adrenaline, as opposed to the sort that hit when things actually were incredibly dangerous. Not that she was thinking about the war right now, of course! And even if, perhaps, she had been, those thoughts quickly got jilted out of her when the cart switched directions, sending Remus flying over to her side of the ride, and Marlene into the side of the car as it whipped around in dizzying circles. "Let's buy one of these, okay? We can keep it in the basement!" "Ouch -- sorry!" Remus apologised for sliding over in the seat against her side, even though he wouldn't have been able to stop himself. "Okay!" Remus continued to shout over the noise, "but I'm not really sure it'll fit! We can just put it in the --" he realised he was talking too loudly as the ride was coming to the end, not needing to keep raising his voice quite that much. "We can just put it in the backyard at where you're staying. Plenty of room there, yeah?" He grinned at her, and realising he could actually control where he sat in the car now without sliding back, he scooted over in the seat so he wasn't squishing Marlene against the side anymore. "Sorry. You alright? I think I'm going to have some bruises after that," he laughed. "And I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to stand up. I think it was worth it, though!" he said, as the ride came to a stop and the safety bars unlocked. He turned to look at her, grinning and commenting, "your hair is a bit windswept," despite his own hair being quite a mess itself. "Yep, fine here. Nothing I can't handle," Marlene nodded, knowing that even if she had managed to accumulate some bruises on the ride, there is no way that she would've been able to tell them apart from the few that still lingered from the attack from a week and a half ago. At the mention of her hair, Marlene's hands automatically flew up to her hair, smoothing it down from the multitude of directions it had decided to stick in. "Yours isn't much better, sunshine" Marlene snickered, starting out of the car and dizzily attempting to regain her balance while trying to hold the ride still so that Remus could exit as well without the cart swinging around on him. From what she remembered, it hurt a bit more for guys when that happened... "You're lucky, though. Guys can have their hair like that and it still looks good. I look like I just got hit with a blasting hex to the head." ...of course, that had actually happened recently, not that Marlene had been paying much attention to the state of her hair at the time. "So, where to next?" Remus reached up and run his fingers through his hair briefly, at least to get it a little under control (he always woke up with the worst bedhead hair), then followed Marlene out of the car, using the bar to try and stop himself from falling over as well. He simply wasn't used to these kinds of rides, especially considering how little he flies on brooms. "You think so?" he laughed. "I don't know. My hair sticks up every which way in the mornings, it's awful. Anyway, that's not true, um --" Remus faltered as they stepped off the ride back onto the solid ground, trying to regain his bearings. "Um, girls can still look good with messy hair too -- I think that you still look pretty." Oh Merlin, did that sound as lame as he thought it did? Ugh. "Right. The next ride... maybe we could look for that fortune teller you were talking about, or go on the, er, tall spinny thing." Oh good lord, he'd managed to make Marlene blush. When did that happen ever? Clearly she was still just light-headed from the ride. "Well, thank you," she grinned earnestly, playing with the ends of her hair for a moment and looking up at Remus before adding, "Well, I suppose we could always go on the tall spinny thingy; I'm sure it'll get my hair right back like that again." Again with the flippancy. She couldn't stop the flippancy. "And you should be happy yours does that normally in the morning. From what I hear, some guys spend hours trying to get it to look like that," she laughed, still slowly working at getting her hair back to normal, although doing so a bit more covertly this time. "Hmm. Let's do the fortune teller first, because it's closer," she decided, since, well, it was basically about 10 feet from the Tilt-a-Whirl's exit. "The line up to the tall spinny thingy looks a bit backed up at the moment anyway." Oh, hold on then, was that a blush? Suddenly Remus felt a little less stupid for his attempt at a compliment but he tried not to get ahead of himself -- just because he didn't screw up this time didn't mean he wouldn't if he tried again. Still, she looked cute playing with the ends of her hair like that. "Okay, fortune teller it is, then we can see how long the line is for the spinny thingy -- if it's still too long, we can try the -- ferris wheel you called it, right? The big one. We could get something to eat on the way there," Remus suggested, following her toward their next destination. The fortune teller's tent did not seem to be the most popular location at the fair, and looked tacky with purple colours and fake gold trim on the outside. The sign outside was no less appealing, with the name Madame Fortune painted in script over a crystal ball, offering palm readings, tarot readings, and readings through the crystal ball each for an individual price, or a higher price to get all three. Remus held the tent's flap open for Marlene to step inside, following her into the tent, which was lit with many lanterns and candles on nearly every surface. It was immediately obvious to Remus how fake everything looked, but the style was mimicked fairly well, he had to admit. There was an old woman sitting on the opposite side of a table dressed to look like some sort of gypsy, and she gestured kindly for the pair of potential customers to sit down in the two chairs in front of the table, at which point Remus sat down on one of the chairs. "Come in, come in, my dears -- Madame Fortune has been expecting you," she said, her attempt at a mystical tone of voice sounding entirely too practised. "Ahhhh yes, you two have interesting auras; Madame Fortune will receive good readings. What about you, love?" Madame Fortune looked directly at Marlene, "shall I read your palm?" The tent looked like the remnants of what would occur if the Divination classroom back at Hogwarts threw up, leaving only the tackiest bits of furniture and decorations behind. And this gypsy woman, what was she even doing? Marlene wasn't sure if the overload of tacky, jangly jewellery or her terrible, faulting, fake Russian accent was worse. She had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing at the display, and hoped that perhaps she'd merely come off as hesitant or nervous-looking over this whole fortune-telling ordeal. After chancing a quick glance at Remus, Marlene replied, "Well... okay," with a slightly giddy giggle, plopping down in the other chair and holding her hand palm up out to Madam Fortune. The woman took her hand, and immediately started raving, "Ohhhh, but the eye, it is cloudy. Such horrors and fortunes await you, my child, but alas and woeee, the mysteries of fate are not ones that come without cost!" she moaned, nudging her money cup in Marlene's direction. Marlene rolled her eyes and dug money out of her pocket, placing it into the bowl, which Madame Fortune immediately scooped away. "Ahh, I do believe that the fog is lifting from this place," the gypsy-costumed woman sighed with feigned relief. Had this woman taken lessons from Trelawney or what; this was ridiculous. Marlene hardly had time to react to the absurdity of the situation, as the palm reader had grabbed at Marlene's hand again, half yanking the girl across the table. "Oooh. OOooo, I see," Madame Fortune mumbled, looking both concerned and perplexed by the fact that Marlene's hand had lines on it. Shocking. "What do you see?" Marlene asked after what felt like an extraordinarily long time of "hmm"ing and "ahh"ing without explanation. "You must not be hasty, my child. All will unveil itself in due time," she replied, brushing her long, probably fake, nails over Marlene's palm, which Marlene hoped she would stop soon because it tickled and it made her want to grab her hand away from her. The muggle had a freakishly strong grip on her wrist for something that was supposed to be a subtle and dreamlike practise, though, which Marlene assumed was to keep people from running off without paying. "This is interesting, all so very interesting," the woman nodded dramatically. "Of course, I expected your hastiness before you even joined me inside here today. It says right here," she ran her finger down Marlene's ring finger, "that you have a tendency for impulsiveness. That is why you are here today, is it not?" Marlene wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. Obviously people didn't call ahead to make reservations with a carnival fortune teller, so there had to be some degree of that, anyway. Lucky enough guess. She shrugged and looked over at Remus, curious to see if he was buying this lady's crap. Remus, too, could not help rolling his eyes at the display the fortune teller was putting on for them. Did muggles actually fall for this kind of thing? Although, they didn't exactly have experience interacting with real Seers, so it was hardly their fault for not understanding how it was really done. Then again, Remus never cared much for Divination -- he'd avoided the subject like the plague during school, and as someone who had such huge secrets to hide, was it really any surprise? He didn't want anyone accidentally finding out where he really vanished off to once a month just by reading some bloody crystal ball or tealeaves at the bottom of a cup. This fortune teller probably could do no better a job at reading palms than Remus could, so it was all he could to do assume the woman was making up everything on the spot. Still, Marlene is impulsive... but he shrugged it off with just a lucky guess. He was tempted to call the woman out on it, but he didn't want to ruin the fun. He continued to watch skeptically as Madame Fortune examined Marlene's hand, cringing a little at the thought of those fingernails on his own palm. Remus wondered why the woman had to be so bloody dramatic, but he supposed that was just all part of the act -- and had she not been trying to overact, he would have thought she was taking the job far too seriously. Noticing the glance Marlene threw his way, Remus raised a sceptical eyebrow, but said nothing -- still, it was a little obvious he wasn't falling for this, either, but the smile on his face at least said he was amused. Thank Merlin she wasn't an actual Seer, for he certainly wouldn't want to hear anything of their futures now with the state of the wizarding world as it is -- especially if the news was bad. "Let us seeee, let us see," Madame Fortune continued to hover over Marlene's palm, letting out the occasional shocked gasp as she discovered something new and fascinating. "Your Head Line is narrow and wavy -- much more of a physical person than a thinker, are you not?" Marlene looked at the woman blankly, biting her tongue to keep from asking if she was trying to be insulting. Despite the fact that she was somewhat right again. "There are a few breaks in your head line towards the edge here as well; are you troubled, my child? Has there been a traumatic event recently, something you are wishing to forget?" "Oh come on!" Marlene scoffed, moving to pull her hand back. Madame Fortune had no intentions of letting that happen, holding tight to her hand. "It is all right, young one, if you do not want to admit such things; the trials of our life can be somewhat upsetting when they are first made open for others to see. But not to worry, I have foreseen that this would not be the easiest of information for you to hear. Your palm speaks volumes," she mused. Suddenly the woman's eyes went wide, her similarities to Professor Trelawney absolutely uncanny at the moment. "Oh dear, oh dear oh dear. My child, your life line..." Marlene stared blankly at the woman, already waiting for the predictions of woe and misfortune that the palm reader got paid to see. "Let me guess. It's really short and I'm gonna die tomorrow, yeah?" she asked sarcastically, ready for her to be done with this. Weren't things like this supposed to guarantee her the promise of meeting a tall, dark stranger and 2.5 kids and an obscene amount of money? This was a muggle, this was supposed to sound extraordinarily fake. Well, faker. Of course it was all fake. "Not tomorrow, my dear, no no. Not you..." she trailed off, which struck Marlene as rather eerie. Madame went on, "You are feeling, perhaps, out of control of your life; is this correct? And once more, these breaks in the line... that is not what you would like to hear, though. There is grief, but it will pass in time. And there is much space between your head and life lines -- you shall enjoy much luck in the future!" Madame Fortune replied excitedly, as if overjoyed to be able to report some sort of good news Marlene's way. "There are many more mysteries that Madame Fortune shall discover for you if for a nominal fee, the eye grows weary. So first," she said, dropping Marlene's hand and setting her intense stare on Remus, "the boy. Your palm, my child." Remus was starting to feel uncomfortable with where this was going. How could this woman know so much about Marlene? Was she actually a Seer -- or was everything she was saying just a mere coincidence? Even so, the words were hitting awfully close to home and Remus wondered if this was a good idea after all. They were here to forget about the war and death (although, so far, neither of them were doing a very good job not thinking about it). Madame Fortune was not helping matters in the slightest, and Remus almost felt a little ill at the thought that perhaps her words are true... but no, they couldn't be. She was a muggle, only witches and wizards can do real Divination, and even then they can still be wrong. Just when Remus was about to change his mind about having his own palm read, Madame Fortune was finished with Marlene and looking, now, expectantly at him. Slowly, he placed his own hand down on the table, palm up, while dropping in the appropriate amount of money to pay for the reading into the bowl to avoid the inevitable mentions of 'cloudy vision' needing to be cleared for the right fee. It was his turn to cringe at the fake nails on his skin, and he tried not to pull his hand back from her as she touched the lines on his palm. "Oh my, you poor boy," Madame Fortune gasped, shaking her head. "Your head line... do you see, boy, where it fades in the middle? Yes... do you struggle with many things in your life, dear? You are unsure of your future, and what it may bring," the woman explained, and Remus had adopted the same blank expression on his face that Marlene had, allowing the muggle to continue without interrupting her, neither to deny or confirm her readings. Madame Fortune did not seem put off by Remus' unresponsiveness, and she continued speaking. "Your heart line, my dear, oh my -- the three lines that connect here at the start... you have been through a traumatic experience in your life, have you not? Yes, this experience will stay with you for your entire life," she said, unaware of how uncomfortable and tense Remus was starting to feel. "You have many secrets... some you keep from even your closest friends; is this correct? They are dark secrets --" But what Madame Fortune had to say about his secrets, they would never know, because Remus had decided at that moment he did not want to hear anymore, and interrupted her, pulling his hand away from her strong grip. "Thank you," he said, a little coldly. "We have to get going, but thank you." Remus was already standing up, avoiding eye contact from the startled muggle woman and looking at Marlene. "Let's go do something else, okay?" Remus asked her, but with a gentler voice. Yeah, so that had been kind of a bad plan right there. Marlene hadn't expected little miss fake muggle psychic lady to start saying things that would put a damper on their night of Forgetting How Shitty The World Is, and felt rather guilty for suggesting that she and Remus stop in there, especially given how uncomfortable Remus looked now. It was a rare thing for Marlene to catch that tone in Remus's voice -- in fact, she was pretty sure the last time she'd heard him sound like that, it was during the Event with Dorcas at the Order meeting -- and that was not something that she wanted to experience again. "Yeah, I think we're done here," Marlene nodded, jumping to her feet and already moving toward the tent's entrance. "Thank you, Madame. May your... aura continue to shine henceforth," she said on her way out, figuring that was farewells and thanks enough for whatever it was that had just happened in there. Once they were outside, Marlene looked to Remus again, a concerned expression on her face as she tried to gauge whether or not to ask if he was okay or to try her best to change the subject. She couldn't help being somewhat curious as to exactly what it was that Madame Fortune had been referring to -- not that anything she'd referred to was true, of course -- but if Remus didn't want to talk about it (which he very obviously didn't), then it really wasn't any of Marlene's business, was it? "So," she began, fiddling with the ends of her hair again. "The tall spinny thingy's line looks shorter now! Wanna hit that?" Yep. Subject changing it was. Marlene was good at that; it kept things less ungodly awkward. Remus felt a little guilty for getting upset over a little muggle palm reading, and hoped Marlene wouldn't blame him too much for wanting to get out of the tent. Now out of the tent -- and Merlin, that felt better, finally some fresh air that wasn't muddied by burning candles and powerful, overwhelming incense (he always felt more comfortable outdoors) -- he glanced at Marlene apologetically. "Sorry about that." It seemed he would never be able to escape from his secrets. Remus also hated that loss of control, however small it was, the anger getting the best of him that almost made him feel like snarling. He felt rather like he was spinning out of control, lately. Glad for the change of subject, Remus nodded. "Yeah, let's go on that," he agreed, hoping the daunting looking ride would be enough to keep their minds off of what had just happened. If it were anything like the previous ride, it ought to work well enough, right? Although, this one looked just a little more intense than the last. Hoping to lighten the mood, he attempted to joke again, "hopefully they'll let you on, then. How tall did they say you had to be to ride?" Remus grinned, taking a preemptive step away from her to avoid getting lightly smacked again. Then, he challenged, "I'll race you," taking off in a run before she could protest, just as she had done to him when they first arrived. It took Marlene a split second to realise what had just happened, accidentally giving Remus even more of a head start than he would have had otherwise. "Oh you bitch!" Marlene scoffed, laughing that Remus would pull something like that. Only SHE was allowed to do such things. This was highly unfair. She took off running after him, dodging between drunken old folk steadying themselves on canes and little kids with dripping ice cream cones who were out long past their bedtime, trying and failing to catch up to Remus's lead. This had been a much easier task when there weren't obstacles in the way of their destination. "You're going to regret this, Lupin!" Marlene threatened between giggles, nearly smashing into an extremely large tattooed fellow with a pony tail who was waiting in line at the beer and corn dog stand. "Whoops sorry!" she yelled her apology back to the fellow as she squeezed between him and the person behind him in line, nearly taking their box of popcorn with her. Popcorn could be replaced; Remus needed to be stopped. With so many people around, Remus didn't trust himself to turn around and run backwards to see if she was closing in on him, so he only spared a careful glance back when he was sure there wasn't anything (or anyone) he might run into in a short distance. "You have to catch me first!" Remus yelled back, laughing when he saw her nearly run into the large man in line. However, what with the effort Remus was making to avoid everything in his way to his destination, Remus couldn't help noticing that she did seem to be catching up on him a little. Picking up the effort, Remus jumped to the side to avoid running right into a funnel cake stand, and made a dash over the few feet left between himself and the line. Unfortunately, once he did arrive at the line, he had built up too much momentum and while he had managed to slow down, Remus still ran into the back of a very tall man standing at the end of the line. "Er, sorry," Remus stumbled back a bit, trying not to laugh when the man turned to glare at him. Luckily, he didn't seem to be in the mood to give anyone a black eye that day, and Remus attempted to stifle his laughter when the man turned back around to ignore him. Marlene stopped short when she saw Remus crash into the man at the back of the line, skidding to a halt and nearly doubling over in laughter once it was clear that the irritated smashed wasn't going to deck him. "Yeah, okay, you win this round," Marlene snickered as she ducked into the line behind him, just cutting off two other cigarette-smoking teenagers who fell into line behind them, figuring that if Remus was really that desperate to get there first, then he could take the victory this time. This time. She would get him back for that later. Now that she was in the queue, Marlene had her first chance to really look at the tall, spinny thingy up close. The "Zipper," eh? It certainly didn't look like any zipper she'd ever seen, but the muggle world was one of many strange and nonsensical objects that Marlene wasn't used to, despite growing up as close to muggle neighbourhoods as she had. She wasn't sure who in the world had deemed that tossing people into spinning multicoloured P-shaped cages and rotating that on a freakishly fast loop was a good idea, but the people on the ride certainly sounded like they were enjoying themselves. Or were absolutely bloody terrified. Probably a little bit of both. "You still want to do this one?!" Marlene asked loudly, attempting to talk over the cries of the people on the ride and the rock-and-roll music that was blasting from the speakers next to The Zipper. "Yeah -- I'm not sure it was worth it. At least we're even now, though!" Remus laughed, moving to stand a little closer to Marlene and away from the man he had run into. Watching the ride in action, Remus felt he might be having second thoughts, but none he would admit. He was a Gryffindor, he couldn't just back down because of that. Besides, if it wasn't safe, would muggles be using it for so long? Then again, it wasn't as if he knew anything about the injury rates on these rides. "It is just a bit loud here!" he yelled back. "Maybe we should try someplace a little quieter? We can come back to this one next time!" Between the noise and the strong scents from inside the tent, he could feel a slight headache coming on, and he didn't think a ride this intense looking would help much. "For now, yes..." Marlene noted, leaving the sentence to hang in the air. She hadn't quite figured out yet what she was going to do to regain back her earlier victory -- clearly she'd have to wait until after there were less people all over the place, the last thing they needed was to literally run into any more people. "Yeah, the Zipper will still be around for us to conquer later," she nodded, stepping out of the line (but not before glancing at the "You Must Be This Tall To Ride" post. Good. 54 inches. She was fine.), pulling Remus along with her and away from the extraordinarily green girl who'd just moved out of the ride's exit. "Food, then ferris wheel?" she suggested, already starting towards the candy floss booth and taking out her money before Remus could pull some more sneaky shit. "You look like you need to eat something anyway." Oh, Remus knew the competition would not end with making things even. He expected her to try something else before the night was over, it was just a matter of what and when. He caught her glancing at the height sign and grinned, but declined to comment this time -- he had made enough short jokes for one night. Remus wasn't about to start pressing his luck. "Sounds brilliant," he said, following her to the booth. It was difficult for him to just let her pay for the food, but he resisted reaching for his own money. He had said he would let her buy the candy floss since he had purchased the tickets, after all. "I don't look that bad, do I?" he asked. His lycanthropy tended to give him fairly high metabolism, and Remus knew that denying himself the meat he always craved was not helping the condition any. But it didn't matter -- he was different from them. "No, you don't. But everyone always looks like they need candy floss, especially when they've never had it before," Marlene quipped, figuring that was an honest enough answer. They reached the front of the line quickly, what with most of the carnival-goers done eating sweets for the night, the younger set filtering out of the fairgrounds for the night and the older folks determined to jump on as many last minute rides as possible. "One please!" Marlene ordered as soon as they reached the window, sliding a wad of money towards the person attending the booth almost immediately, letting the cashier deal with making change for her. She didn't want to worry about fiddling through the muggle money and accidentally not giving the person enough, as that might've looked vaguely suspicious. It was a bit difficult to feign being foreign when you had the local accent. "Here you go," Marlene passed the stick of swirly pink sugary stuff off to Remus as she stuck the money she'd gotten back into her pocket. "Aaaand the ferris wheel is... that way," she pointed, heading in that direction, grabbing a bit of the candy floss before leaving Remus to follow. "I'm almost positive food is okay on there as long as you promise not to throw it at the people on the ground." Luckily Remus had not noticed how much money Marlene had given the man working at the booth, or he would have said something when he didn't give back quite enough change. He had also forgotten how Marlene had mentioned to him before that she was not familiar enough with muggle money to know how to count it properly. He accepted the cone when Marlene handed it to him, pulling off a bit for himself to eat. "Thanks," he said, popping the piece into his mouth and remembering just how long it's been since he'd actually had sweets other than chocolate. Merlin, this was pure sugar -- suddenly he wondered if it was a good idea for hyper girls like Marlene to be eating pure sugar. Oh well. "Darn. Here I was hoping to work on some target practise," Remus said, feigning disappointment as they walked toward the ferris wheel. "What a silly rule. Why would anyone want to go on a ride that takes you so high if you're not allowed to throw things from it?" "Well, I suppose what they don't know won't hurt them, yeah? Unless, you know. They get hit. Then it might hurt," Marlene snickered, wishing she'd grabbed something that she could toss at the people who'd be walking underneath the ride. Maybe some of these stupid muggle money coins, although those could always get changed back into real money later. The line for the ferris wheel was almost entirely abandoned, which Marlene didn't quite understand. It seemed to her like if you were going to pick a ride to go on at night, it'd be really cool to go on this one, what with all the multicoloured bulbs lighting the wheel and the chance at being able to see all the lights on in the houses for miles around. The two were able to able to get onto the ride almost immediately, the wheel only needing to turn a few times to let riders off and to load more on. "Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times," the tired-looking pock-marked bloke running the ride ordered Marlene and Remus in a bored monotone as he brought the safety bar down over the neon orange cart, and the ride soon jolted to a slow start, halting again before it'd moved far in order to let some more riders out. "STOP IT AT THE TOPPPP!!!" Marlene yelled back at the carnival worker, only knowing to do so from hearing practically every other rider on the wheel under the age of 30 scream the same thing. Ah, this was much nicer -- the fast, exhilarating rides were certainly fun, but it was nice to be on something relaxing now. Remus understood Marlene's earlier threat about rocking the cart as soon as he'd stepped on, and he stifled a laugh at the thought of shaking it anyway; but he wouldn't. He would behave himself this time. He'd already put the incident with the fortune teller behind him, although there was no doubt he would start thinking about it again later. No war, no war, no war, Remus kept having to remind himself, but the frustrating thing about trying not to think about something is that you inevitably did anyway. Well, at least they were still having fun, no matter what thoughts might be running through their heads at the moment, right? Despite the request of the man running the ride, once their cart was up a little ways Remus rested his arm on the edge of the cart after taking off another piece of the candy floss to eat. "Do you think he will?" he asked after Marlene had shouted down. He was certainly not familiar with how this ride worked, so for all he knew, people could do that all the time. Marlene held tight to the handlebar of the ferris wheel car, not feeling nearly as secure inside this one as she had in the other ride, despite the fact that this one moved much slower. It wasn't that Marlene was afraid of heights, of course. Not in the slightest. Her worry lay with the fact that they had farther to fall out of this one should anything happen, and while they probably wouldn't get terribly hurt if something did happen, trying to explain to the muggle carnival workers as to how they'd bounced would be an interesting occurrence indeed. And considering the last time she'd been on one of these, she'd been six years old and crammed in with all her siblings, it seemed like there was a lot more room in the car this go-around. (Ha! Go-Around! Wheel!) Nevertheless, even though she had a death grip on the handle bar, the ferris wheel was much more relaxing, and she leaned back, letting herself enjoy the ride. "I dunno; he might!" Marlene answered, the cart jerking to a haunt a few more times to let riders in and off the cars behind them before the wheel began to make slow, complete loops, spinning all the way frontwards and up then backwards and down. "So, your first fair. What do you think so far?" Marlene asked Remus as they began to swirl back up towards the top once more. "I only ask since, you know, I'm supposed to be pushing you off the ride now; figured it'd be good to get your opinion first." "Giving me my last words? That's very kind of you," Remus grinned. He had been slightly concerned at the height of the ride, at first, but he still felt very at ease even once they reached the top. Marlene had been right about the view, and he took a moment to look outside the cart, down at the fair below them. "Overall? I can't remember the last time I've had this much find since leaving Hogwarts, honestly. After school, it was right into the Order -- well, nevermind that. Really, I'm glad we snuck off out here. I almost don't even want to go back," he admitted. Once they left the fairgrounds, what would happen? There would be fighting, secrets, going on patrol... once they left here it would be back to a much darker life. Still, you had to take these moments when they came to you, right? He reckoned if they didn't catch a few days like these at all, he'd go mad with stress. "I'd definitely love to come back here again though -- you know, if you decide not to push me off. Except next time, maybe come a little earlier, and maybe -- I don't know," he shrugged awkwardly, his eyes staring at the fluffy, pink candy floss that he was holding as if it were absolutely fascinating, "maybe ask you here on a date, proper like." Okay, now he was starting to feel uncomfortable on the ride. Maybe he should have waited to say something like that until they were both on the ground instead of a little car that was very, very high off the ground. Not that he was actually afraid she would push him off, but if that made her feel awkward, well, then they'd be stuck there until the ride was over. |