Susan Bones (suemoo) wrote in cuaditchic, @ 2021-02-01 16:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, -player: hannah, -player: maxi, c: perry derrick, c: susan bones |
Log: Susan & Perry
Who: Susan Bones & Perry Derrick
When: Mid/Late October; a few days after this
Where: Out in London
Warnings: Not really
The morning after Susan’s extraordinary night out, she felt like hell warmed over. Light poured into her room from a crack in the bedroom window curtains, and Susan had winced and groaned at the bright sun shining in her eyes. She usually knew her limit but had managed to bust through that wall in a way she hadn’t in a long while. The hangover cure from Perry had worked for the most part, but she still rested and stayed inside most of the day
A couple days later, she found herself back at work, feeling like her normal self other than the fact that she wanted to crawl into a hole and never emerge. She remembered sending most of the texts she’d sent, but she hadn’t quite remembered the contents of those texts until she started going back through them. ”Merlin, help me,” she’d muttered to herself at the time while she’d scrolled through her phone history and pictures taken. What a night.
So far the Auror office seemed to be more or less slow for the morning, so she took advantage of the downtime to wrap up one or two of her cases that only lacked the final signoff paperwork to be closed out completely. About halfway through the first set, Susan sat back in her seat and brought her mug of tea to her lips, breathing in a bit of its aroma and taking a small sip. When she lifted her eyes, she saw Perry walking over towards her desk.
“Oh, morning, Perry,” she said, setting down her mug. “I’ll have that Ratliff file finished in an hour or so. Shouldn’t be much to review; it’s all been very standard.” He’d said in one of his owls that he’d wanted to ‘talk’ about...well, he hadn’t said about what, but she had a guess or two. Not that it was necessary, nor was she going to remind him. The night had gotten away from her, but it was fine. She felt fine now. Everything was fine.
No matter what Susan said, Perry knew for a fact that she wasn’t fine. The Spinnet-Bamber operation had ended especially messy. He didn’t think it was the fault of the Aurors, although they should have had a better sense of what Bambar might do. He wasn’t going to over think it from that angel. What he was worried about was how Susan was handling things after the operation. He’d kept an eye on her and after the texts he’d gotten over the weekend he knew they’d need to talk, no matter what she said.
He wasn’t pushy about it though, and as he saw her that morning he walked towards her nodding as she spoke about a file. “We’re heading out.” He said. “The file can wait.” It could, there was nothing urgent about it and he knew it was better to open up this conversation elsewhere.
He didn’t wait for her to ask questions he just nodded and headed out of the office, out of Diagon Alley and into muggle London, he didn’t speak as they went, and in fact didn’t say anything until they reached a tube station. “We’re going to Camden Town.” He informed her.
“Wait, wha--?” She’d started to say but was soon up out of her chair and abandoning the file that was left behind at her desk. It hadn’t been a question about heading out, but Perry was more so using his ‘this is your assignment’ voice that she’d heard many times since they became partners. At least that’s what she hoped that this was, a new assignment, and not the talk he’d said they’d be having.
Between the two options, Susan still hadn’t expected to be up and going out of the office and even Diagon Alley so quickly. She followed after him into the station, both boarding after a few moments when the train arrived. She often followed Perry’s lead on jobs, and they’d had a few smaller cases lately but nothing to the level of that case.
“Lead on a new case?” She asked once they started moving. For all she knew, this was just a regular day following up on a regular lead.
Perry could sense she was curious about where they were going, what he had in mind, what the case could be.
At her question, he tilted his head to the side, not really answering yes or no. Perry didn't want to give anything away until they got to where they were going. Luckily they didn't need to change trains, having gotten on at the Bank Station with a Northern Line.
"Angel," the muggle speaker sounded. A few minutes later, "Morning Crescent," it sounded.
"We're the next stop," he told Susan, although he was pretty sure that she knew that. Still not sharing anything as the train pulled to a stop and they existed up into the grungy street of Camden High Street. He turned right on the street and followed it until they crossed the canal, he turned into the West Yard food market and headed straight for The Mac Factory Camden Market.
"Well, order, it's on me." He said, letting her step ahead of him.
She raised a brow at him when he didn’t answer her question without anything more than a look. She let out an audible sigh mostly for show, but started to figure out the general area where they were headed. It was when they stopped in front of the food market that her eyes widened at the sign and then the menu.
“Bloody hell,” she murmured. “Getting one of each would probably be pretty embarrassing, wouldn’t it?” said Susan, kidding. Well, mostly. This was comfort food at its finest. When it was their turn to order, she went for the Hey Mac-Arena and a water.
Once seated, she resisted the urge to ask him again the reason for this outing. Yes, there was food but it wasn’t like Perry to simply pull her out of the office for a lunch and only a lunch. She didn’t ask, but she did give him an expectant look, tapping her fingers a couple times on the table.
He shrugged at her musing about one of each. He ordered a Posh Spice, a nostalgic and water. There was nothing wrong with wanting to try more than one and he tended to go for the same order, not that anyone actually knew that. Perry rarely went to the same one enough for anyone to remember him. He never went with the same people either.
He took a bite of the Posh Spice and glanced up at her as she tapped her fingers, Perry didn't say anything. Instead, he just took another bite. His eyes drifted to watch a couple of friends arguing over which they thought was the best. They appeared to have ordered one of everything and no one agreed on the best one.
Perry still didn't speak when he turned his gaze back to Susan as he took a bite of the Nostalgic.
If she was on the outside looking in, instead of being the one waiting to hear what he had to say, Susan would probably find this whole scene amusing. Why was Perry Derrick so frustrating? She narrowed her eyes a bit, staring at him as they both ate their mac and cheese, and she fought the urge to throw a noodle at his stupid, annoying face.
Fine. If he wanted to play the silent game, so could she. Maybe this was just a lunch; not a very leisurely lunch, but still, a lunch. Staying quiet wasn’t in her nature as much anymore, but she could do this. She could. She took another bite from her cup, not even looking down at the table when she picked up her water for a sip.
’What is it? What do you want? And why won’t you come out with it already?’ Those were the questions Susan wanted to ask, but she kept in her head for now. In a contest of who could stay quiet the longest, she knew he’d win every single time, but that didn’t stop her from staring at him for the moment.
There was no indication at all that Perry noticed her staring or that she was waiting for him to speak. His demeanour didn't change, he sat relaxed eating slowly, watching people here and there glancing back at Susan sometimes but there wasn't anything urgent or even remarkable about it, it was almost as if sitting in complete silence while eating was comfortable, and nothing was bothering him.
Perry glanced to the left when heard someone drop something and smirked at the fussed reaction people standing nearby had. His attention moved to a couple trying to wrangle in a puppy before looking back at his two bowls of mac & cheese as if trying to decide which one he wanted a bite out of next. He still showed no irritation or even curiosity in what Susan was or wasn't doing.
With the urge to flick a spoonful of pasta at him growing stronger and stronger with each little glance her way, Susan inwardly rolled her eyes. Well, alright then. She took another bite of her food and then put on a brilliant smile, looking at him again.
"How's yours?" She asked, breaking the silence but making mindless small talk. For all she knew she was being paranoid and all he'd wanted to do was go to lunch. She didn't actually believe that, but crazier things had happened, right?
Before he could answer - or purposely not answer - Susan spoke again, "Mine's wonderful. I can't believe you haven't suggested this place before now. The weather's a nice day for going out too." Still going with her quick chatter, she kept on. "You know what I was thinking? I was thinking of getting a tattoo. Right here," she said, pointing to her wrist. "I don't know what of yet, but I bet I could come up with something fun."
Not missing a beat, she continued, "Or maybe I should color my hair instead. How'd you think I'd look as a blonde? No, wait - what about something wild like... purple. Or pink. That's still in the red color wheel." This time she did break long enough to take a sip of her drink.
Leaning back he raised an eyebrow as he watched her go on the illogical trail, he'd wondered how long it'd take for her to snap. He wasn't going to allow himself to look at his watch to see if he'd guessed it right or not.
"You'd probably wash out with blond hair. I'd suggest magenta, or fuchsia. Either would stand out." He responded calmly, although there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Food good, really think before you get a tattoo, and make sure you get a good artist." He offered, answering to the other things she'd brought up.
"Anything else on your mind?"
“Ahhh, the purple/pink combination.” Susan pointed her finger at him approvingly, even if she was a tad impressed he had an opinion on the color of her hair or whether or not she’d be washed out. . “I like the way you think.” A couple more bites finished off her bowl of mac and cheese, and she mulled over his additional responses.
She’d never considered getting a tattoo before now, and she wasn’t seriously considering one now either, but talking about it made her wonder what she could get if she did get one. She did hear his last question but half pretended to be distracted. “Hmm, what? Oh, no not really. Except maybe what in my wardrobe would go well with magenta. Although, now I’ve started thinking what sort of tattoo I’d get. A symbol, a word. A random picture that’s supposed to mean something symbolic.”
It didn’t take long for the consideration of tattoos to get old, so she looked back to him again. “Anything in particular on your mind?”
"It'll match your drink of choice," he added in an off handed sort of way before taking a drink of his water and carefully setting it back down without a sound.
"So you'd do a coloured tattoo?" He asked although he highly doubted that she was likely to get a tattoo or that the conversation was serious. He was playing along to see if she'd talk about anything a little bit more serious. He got the impression she really didn't want to talk about it, but he knew it was important.
"Ice cream." He answered, if more food would help, he'd push it.
“Colored tattoo?” Susan wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No, just the hair. I’d rather do something more simple with the tattoo and leave the excitement up here,” she said, pointing to her hair. He wasn’t wrong about it matching her drink of choice, but she simply narrowed her eyes the tiniest bit at him without commenting on that.
“Ice cream.” She repeated his words in a deadpan. “Really.” They’d gone back and forth talking about, well, nothing and now he was going to bring up ice cream. Sure, ice cream sounded delicious right about now, but something in the way he answered and seemingly refused to talk about what he brought her out here to talk about, had finally gotten underneath her skin more than she could bear.
“Fine. Let’s go get ice cream,” she said and immediately stood up from her chair. Her lips were pursed, and an eyebrow raised; the flippant and casual tone Susan had been using was more or less gone now. On the surface maybe it appeared as an out of the blue change, but in her mind, she’d been stewing for a while now. She was finished with her meal, but she hadn’t paid attention to whether or not he had when she abruptly picked up her trash so they could set off to find him some bloody ice cream.
He allowed himself to smirk slightly as she jumped up and left, he indeed had not finished both of his. He picked them both up, dumping the one he had finished, pushing his bottle of water under his arm as he continued to eat and walk.
Perry didn’t say anything for a little while as they walked. “So a simple tattoo?” He said bringing it back to the meaningless conversation of a tattoo that he really doubted would ever happen. “Just don’t go for a butterfly.” He commented with a shrug before taking another bite.
He let her take the lead in what direction they would go to find said ice cream but didn’t say anything else as he appeared to focus on his food alone.
“Maybe I like butterflies,” mumbled Susan in a clipped tone, not bothering to look in his direction as they walked. She was thankful that they were in a part of town that didn’t take long to find somewhere that served ice cream, so she stopped and made a ushering gesture for him to have at it. “Go ahead.” She leaned against an open spot on the side of the building.
“What? It’s your craving not mine. Ice cream makes me tired, and I have work to catch up on when we get back.” If he was going to keep up the senseless chatter act then she would wait and be glad to be on their way. After all, if he wanted to talk about something then he could come out with it, right?
Nodding his head in thanks he walked into the shop and stepped up to the counter. He finished his mac & cheese tossing it away in the bin. When she spoke again he looked up. “It makes you tired?” That seemed a bit, well odd to him but he didn’t say it. Instead he turned to look at the counter again. He took his time taking a few samples before ordering mint, bourbon, and a chocolate caramel scoop in a cup. “Get a coffee at least,” he added as he looked up, he was after all offering to pay.
Once they both had their things he held the door open to go outside and insisted on walking slowly. “Don’t think you need to go back today.” He said after a moment. Perry was starting to wonder if he’d get her to talk or not with this strategy or not.
Susan ordered the coffee, a simple black coffee, and started off with him once he was set with his ice cream. The truth was, a giant bowl of ice cream with a god-awful amount of toppings would have been perfect right about now -- but only if she was at home, in her pajamas, and curled up on her couch with her cat. That might end up being her dinner later tonight, actually.
“Well, Perry, I say that I do need to go back in today. There’s enough to keep me busy well into the night, and I don’t want to be there well into the night. Or even later tomorrow night. So, I need to go back.” If was brief, but she did cast a glance over at him this time. “If you aren’t planning to go back then maybe I should go ahead and go.”
Perry glanced over at her, already there was a bit of an edge to her need to go back, that was good. He didn’t say anything again for a moment. “No, you have the rest of the day off.” His voice was kind but firm. He knew she needed to take the time even if she didn’t. Work could be a good distraction but what she’d been through bottling it up wasn’t good for her or for work.
“Should have gotten the ice cream.” He shrugged before taking another big bite of it. Perry chewed the chocolate chips slowly waiting to see what her next reaction would be.
“You’re kidding, right.” Susan stated, not asked, with an incredulous expression. She stopped and turned to look up at him. “You can’t order me to go not work. I’ll be sitting at my desk going over files, not on assignment.” She assumed that this was part of the reason he’d gotten her out of the office for lunch in the first place, but she was hardly going to let him tell her what to do when she was fully capable of making her own decisions.
“See? You’ve already caffeinated me up.” She held up her cup of coffee. “If you want to take the rest of the day, have at it and I’ll see you tomorrow, but I want to get back.” If they weren’t out in public in the middle of Muggle London, she would have had half a mind to apparate back to the office then and there.
“So, are you coming back on the train with me or are you taking the rest of the day yourself?”
“Yes, I can.” He said simply. Sure, there might not be set rules, but as the senior Auror he was going to run with it. Perry had a feeling he was starting to push her to that breaking point, or so he hoped. He could be wrong but she seemed to be almost there.
“Can’t take the ice cream on the train,” he nodded to the not finished open bowl of ice cream in his hand. “Gotta take the train back either way, but let’s sit.” He nodded to a bench. He really wasn’t supposed to eat on the tube and even though people broke it all the time it wasn’t something he felt comfortable breaking.
"No. You can't," said Susan, firmly. At this point, she was just fed up at how he was more or less treating her like a child. "I'm not going to sit on a bloody bench while you eat your bloody ice cream. From the moment you brought me out on this little excursion, you've barely spoken anything of consequence. I might have played along with whatever this is at first, but it's done and I'm done."
She dropped the half-full coffee cup into a nearby bin and shook her head at him. "Unless you can say whatever the hell it is that you want to say to me, then you can take the train back by yourself and I'll see you tomorrow."
Raising her eyebrows defiantly, she waited just a couple of seconds before turning on her heel and heading back to the train to ride back without him.
“Remember to check in with the therapist,” he called but didn’t get up. “Protocol.” He added taking another bite of his ice cream.