effie yaxley (euphemia) wrote in cultureic, @ 2016-11-28 18:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | euphemia yaxley, jonah yaxley |
WHO: Effie Yaxley & Jonah Yaxley
WHEN: November 28, late morning
WHERE: St Mungo's
SUMMARY: Effie visits Jonah's new hangout spot.
WARNINGS: Day drinking
With no warning, Effie dropped a bag of sweets on the paperwork spread across her brother’s lap and seated herself in the chair next to his. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Evan just yet, not with Elsie’s recent St Mungo’s visits so fresh in her mind, so she looked at Jonah instead. She hated that it would be days of this, Jonah sitting there while Evan laid there. And the sheer stupidity of the whole thing was on the tip of her tongue again, but she held it for Jonah’s sake. “They’re expensive,” she said, nodding at the bag. Then, she reached into her handbag and pulled out a flask, which she held out temptingly, dancing it in the space between them. “This wasn’t, but I think it’ll do.” Jonah looked up at Effie, his eyebrows rising towards his forehead. It took a while to get there but a grin slowly pulled at the corners of his mouth. He didn’t force it to be bigger or brighter than he felt, because it was Effie and he was exhausted. Not too exhausted, however, to reach for the flask she offered him. The whiskey was definitely expensive and it burnt in a not altogether pleasant way as he took a huge sip. He was a DMLE head and therefore definitely not meant to drink in a hospital. He took another huge drink. “It will definitely do,” he said, wiggling the flask a little before handing it back. “In fact, as well needed beverage go, I’d give it an eight out of ten.” He reached for the bag of expensive caramels, plucking it off the top of a draft of some legislation he didn’t really care about, and tore them open with abandon. “Considering how much these cost, what do you think their rating should be?” “Hmm,” Effie hummed as she brought the flask to her lips. She took a large drink of her own and shook her head to shake off the burn. Once she’d capped the flask and laid it across her knee, she nicked one of the caramels to hold it out in front of her, considering its wrapper. Her eyes caught on Evan, though, and the edges of her mouth went tighter. “I think at least a twenty out of ten,” she said finally, unravelling the wrapper from around the caramel. They were the sort of expensive sweets where the already heady scent of chocolate grew even stronger. “But anyway, I only bought these ones because the wrapper is so reflective. I thought it might be further incentive for Evan to wake up.” The last part was directed at Evan, who she waved the wrapper at like she might catch the rays of the sun. Jonah laughed, loudly, even though he wasn’t sure how funny it was. It was still better to laugh. He picked up his own caramel and started to unwrap it. Popping the sweet in his mouth, he smoothed the wrapper out and held it up, mimicking Effie’s gestures. For a moment he felt young again, copying his big sister, following her lead because she knew what to do. She’d already done everything he wanted to do. His throat felt tight so he laughed again. “I can practically see myself in it. Maybe in his subconscious he’ll see himself and know how terrible his hair looks right now.” Jonah pointed his wand at the wrapped and froze it in mid air, before flicking his wand at Effie’s wrapper to join them together. It was stupid, but it made something slightly warm settle in his chest. Effie laughed behind her hand as she chewed her own caramel. She was a brat through and through and had no qualms with silliness. Especially now. Especially where they were. “This is much nicer than your other idea.” To Evan, she stage-whispered, “He wanted to leave the wrappers in your bed. I was deeply offended on your behalf, of course.” “I thought maybe he’d move and the crackling noise would wake him up,” Jonah said, with a slanted grin towards Effie. “It’d make him long for sweets. He loves sweets.” Jonah took another one and sent the wrapper flying to join his makeshift mirror. “What would wake you up?” “I don’t know if I should tell you,” Effie said, reaching for another herself and folding the wrapper so she could slide it under Evan’s hand. “I think you’d use it against me. Like if I were sleeping in on a Saturday morning and you had a sudden urge to commune with nature together. You’d do it. I know you would.” “Going out into nature is very good for you,” Jonah said, his voice bearing all the hallmarks of a well-worn trail. “You really should come hiking with me sometime — a gentle one! You could bring a liquid lunch.” He grinned at her and then crooked his fingers, asking for the flask again. “But I promise not to use it against you. It’d be for emergencies only. Like if you ever end up — you know. Comaed.” Effie passed off the flask, but made a show of eyeing him suspiciously. But after a moment, she relented with a shrug. “Well, I think whiskey would wake me from a coma,” she said, gesturing at the flask. “Which is ironic, since it’s responsible for some of my deepest sleeps!” She aimed a wide grin at him and took two caramels now. A flick of her wand sent another wrapper up to join the others. She knew it wouldn’t actually work, but she couldn’t help but sneak a peek at Evan. “What about yours?” she asked, hiding a mouthful of chocolate behind her hand. “I’d buy the most expensive whiskey,” Jonah said, gaze drifting back to Evan’s prone body. His fingers flexed and he stared at the bed as he talked. “And the cheapest. I’d have to buy both to properly wake you up — not sure what vapours would really get you.” He took a swig of the flask and passed it back. “I think the smell of grass, maybe. Blueberries. Coffee.” Jonah wrinkled his nose. “Of course, hospitals always smell like coffee so it’d obviously never happen to me.” Watching Jonah watch Evan made Effie feel like she needed a drink and so her next gulp was a long one. She pressed the flask back into Jonah’s hand, then, and managed not to look as concerned as she felt. “I think you’re onto something with the whiskeys,” she said, after a beat. “I’m not sure which would wake me either.” But then she snorted. Or forced a snort. “And of course grass would wake you up. You’re such a nature nerd.” The burn of the alcohol was starting to lessen, which Jonah knew meant he’d had a fair bit of it. Still, he was glad to feel it tickling along his throat and he flexed his fingers around the flask, forcing himself to look away from the hospital bed and back at Effie. “I am a nature nerd. I think if I ever coma you should drop me into the middle of a forest and just leave me there, protected, and see what happens.” There was a moment during which he let silence sit and then Jonah said, in a quieter voice, “I don’t want to ever do this to anyone.” Effie waited a moment to see if he’d expand. And then it took her another moment to decide what to say. What she decided on, though, was to reach out and grasp the wrappers still floating in midair, balling them up in her fist. They were distracting. They also ended up in Evan’s bed anyway, carelessly discarded there for the time being. “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice just as quiet. “I just don’t want any of you sitting waiting on me, I guess.” Jonah wanted a cigarette suddenly, with a sharp, fierce need. “People die from skull fractures. People go into comas and they die. If it happens — I just don’t want to hang around.” He put another caramel in his mouth. His answer felt like a punch to the gut and Effie exhaled sharply like she’d been hit. “So…what?” she said, a sharpness to her tone. “You drop into a coma and you want me to put a pillow over your face? Is that what you’re saying?” She didn’t mean to, but she was glaring down at Evan. It wasn’t Evan she was angry with, though. It wasn’t Jonah either, really. “I don’t know,” Jonah said, after a moment. “I guess it depends. And I wouldn’t ask you to do that anyway.” He looked at Effie, at her familiar profile, and he could see emotion tugging at her. He reached out, fingers brushing against her shoulder and then grasping at it. “Sorry. I didn’t — sorry. Are you all right?” “I don’t think you should ask anyone to do that, Jonah,” Effie said, looking at him now, utterly stricken. “I can assure you it’s not the waiting for it to happen that’s the issue. It’s that it’s happening at all. Because I’d wait. I’ve waited.” “I know.” He swallowed and looked at her, tilting towards her, hand squeezing first her shoulder and then her hand. “I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have! And I’m going to try and make sure you don’t have to wait anywhere for me. Train better.” “That’s not —” Effie snapped, starting to jerk her hand away. But she caught herself. And then she turned in her chair to face him, covering his hand with her other. “That’s not my point.” She took a deep breath. “My point is that I think all of this is pointless if you’re just dead at the end of it. I don’t want you to train better. I want you to take a step back and stop caring about the ‘Inner Circle’ or whatever. I know you won’t, but…whatever. That’s what I want.” Jonah looked at Effie, blinking slowly, a hundred words rising in his throat before he said, “They said he’ll wake up but if he doesn’t, I don’t think I’d care about much at all.” He squeezed her hand again, then looked away. Effie was surrounded by Death Eaters and he knew she didn’t understand and didn’t really approve. He scratched his jaw, because it wasn’t going to change, because he didn’t know how to offer her anything that wasn’t a balm, soothing words that weren’t any guarantee that this wasn’t going to keep happening to people she knew. He couldn’t give her that. Jonah looked at the shape of Evan and said, “We don’t have enough wrappers to go under the whole outline of him.” Now Effie snatched her hand back, torn between getting the fuck out of there and staying put because she didn’t want to abandon her brother to a basically empty room after that conversation. “We’ll use Gemino obviously,” she snapped, swivelling in her chair to face Evan again and crossing her arms over her middle petulantly. “It’s not the same,” Jonah said, “especially because I really do like these chocolates.” Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Effie and then he leaned closer, shoulder against hers as he debated whether he should say anything else. He wasn’t always so great at words. Instead, he turned his face, slumping down to rest his head against her shoulder. “If you don’t move I’m hugging you in 5 seconds.” “Of course you like the chocolates,” Effie said, not ignoring his hug threat by ignoring it, “they were expensive.” “I’m a kept man, now. I like expensive things,” Jonah said and he turned fully towards her, enveloping her in a hug, petulant arm cross be damned. “Thanks for sitting with me, Eff.” Effie shrugged, still petulantly, but uncrossed her arms to hug him back. |