naomi blackall (suzu) wrote in cultureic, @ 2015-12-11 15:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | caradoc dearborn, suz dearborn |
WHO: Caradoc and Suz
WHEN: Backdated to Wednesday morning, December 9
WHERE: Caradoc's abode
SUMMARY: Waking up!
RATING: G for gross
Caradoc Dearborn was currently splayed on the living room sofa, head resting on the couch back and one foot still up on the end table next to a tray of partially eaten brownies from the night before. It wasn’t until the phone that had slipped from his trouser pocket had been vibrating for 5 minutes incessantly that he stirred with a surprised inhale. Immediately feeling a weight on his side, he looked blearily down to find Suz Macdonald’s head resting haphazardly against his shoulder. He blinked, once, twice - brought a hand up to rub his face and then froze, peeking at her between his fingers once more. She was adorable and waking up next to her even if it wasn’t like that had him warm around the ears as soon as he realised that was in fact what was happening. He clumsily reached over to silence his phone as the night before came back to him, the headache, the flirting-that-totally-wasn’t-flirting over the journals with Suz, his lame response to her offering to make him brownies before finally taking her up on it. They must have zonked out? It had been close to midnight when she showed up, there had been Christmas music, brownies… Suz... he grinned to himself dopily as he thumbed his phone unlocked and then blanched. “Oh bollocks - Suz? Suz, wake up...” They were one hundred and ten percent late for work. The significance of waking up next to Caradoc on Caradoc’s sofa in Caradoc’s flat was lost on Suz at first. She stirred, mumbling something unintelligible as she considered just going back to sleep. Her alarm didn’t sound like Caradoc, after all. But there was something off about her pillow and the smell of chocolate wafting from the table was distracting in and of itself. So she blinked her eyes open to find a very pale, very cutely sleep-rumpled Caradoc and couldn’t stop herself from smiling sleepily up at him from his shoulder for a very long moment. But then reality struck and she remembered she probably had morning breath. She jerked back with an embarrassed laugh, covering her mouth with her hand as she put some distance between Caradoc’s nose and her unbrushed teeth. “Good morning,” she said from behind her hand. “What time is --” But a yawn cut her question off. Doc almost forgot they were late again as he gave her a lopsided grin. She was really bloody cute - “Morning…” Get a hold of yourself, Dearborn. “Oh uh! like - like we’re late for work o’clock?” he offered her, quickly, but apologetically, wishing he didn’t have to move away from their current set-up. “It’s like - it’s 9.” He cringed exaggeratedly for her as he held up his phone. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” she breathed as her wide eyes darted from Doc’s phone to his face, jerking both of her hands to the middle of her lap. She was determinedly not thinking about how awful her hair probably looked or how badly she also wanted to stay right where she was. “That’s really late!” Eyes going a bit wide now in response, Doc nodded. “Yeaaaah - uhhh - you can - use my bathroom - or - i mean you could go home quick too but if you need…” he stammered a little bit and his brain started firing. “I’m so sorry, oh my god, my phone alarm was on vibrate - stupid phone -” He was starting to realise how late they actually were, but he still wasn’t frowning - not by a long shot. Moving to stand and turning to offer her a hand, he continued sheepishly. “I’ve got granola bars?” Suz stared at Doc’s hand for a beat too long before taking it and getting to her feet herself. And then, for another too long beat, she held onto his hand before finally letting go to drag her hands over her hair, like that was somehow what she’d hoped to accomplish by holding his hand for too long. “Ummm,” was all she could manage as she glanced around his sitting room, unlooping the hairtie holding her hair in a disheveled ponytail so she could redo it much tidier. That seemed to clear her head enough for her to be able to laugh about the whole thing. “Oh well,” she said, giving him a smile. “I’m sure this wasn’t the first or the last time we’ll be late.” In her head, there was a small, punctual voice insisting there was nothing ‘oh well’ about it. But she’d just woken up next to Caradoc. “I should go home, though. But cheers for making breakfast!” Figures they’d have to be in a rush after such a nice night. “I still owe you coffee!” Caradoc said with jerk of his pointer finger. “Granola,” he reminded himself and spun to pad over to the connected kitchen area, his step quicker than usual but limbs still moving clumsily with his grogginess, scratching the back of his head and causing his already ruffled hair to stick up in odd places as he looked for the boxes he wanted. “I have uh - apple cinnamon or peanut butter chocolate.” Okay maybe they weren’t the health-food sort of granola bars. Mostly Suz just wanted to smooth her fingers over Doc’s hair until it lay flat, but she tore her gaze away from his head with a slight shake of her head to meet his eye. “Apple cinnamon sounds nice?” she said hesitantly as she, too, padded over to the granola bars. “And…” She paused, giving him a sheepish smile. “I actually feel pretty well-rested. Maybe you should buy me coffee another day. One where we aren’t late and can enjoy them.” “Right!” he corrected himself. Obviously there was no time for coffee. He grabbed a few of the foil-wrapped snacks and handed one to her, leaning a hip on the edge of the counter. “Do you think you’ll get in much trouble?” he asked with an apologetic wrinkle of his nose. Doc would feel awful if she did, but at the same time couldn’t imagine anyone would be furious unless some huge tech emergency was going down in which case she probably would have had owls by now. “I don’t know,” she said, toying with the wrapper of her granola bar. She gave him a smile that was a little panicked around the edges because she’d actually been trying not to think about getting in trouble, especially since she couldn’t seem to make herself leave. She scrubbed the palm of her hand over her cheek, the one where she could still feel the press of Doc’s shoulder. “I’ve never been late to this job.” But then she waved her hand, waving off her anxiety. “I’m sure it’ll be fine!” “Yeah, I mean, you usually get a few passes here and there,” Doc replied, hoping he sounded reassuring. “I’ve been late and the Ministry hasn’t fired me yet!” He stood up straighter now, still finding it hard not to just smile a wide smile at her. Then he remembered: “Oh! And thanks. For last night. The brownies helped the headache - obviously - wouldn’t have been able to nod off otherwise - but yeah - thanks, Suz,” he managed to not stumble over his words too much, but now he was starting to analyze things again. Last night he’d been so tired and headachey and they’d spent time flirting (sort of) in the journals it had all felt so natural and he’d been relaxed and - now his brain was starting to spin the more he woke up and he wished he could shut it down. Not that this didn’t feel nice, but Doc found it hard to feel natural at a lot of things. Especially blushy flirty things. “So - yeah.” “Oh, of course!” Suz said brightly, not even bothering to suppress her own urge to smile widely at him. “I know exactly how you feel about all of…that.” She pulled a face down at her granola bar, thinking about William Rosier and Rabastan Lestrange and how she wished they’d leave Jordy alone. And all of Benjy’s baggage, too. “Thanks for the granola bar.” She wasn’t sure she’d actually be able to eat it, but she was smiling at him again. “The things we do for mates, huh?” he joked with a laugh. And he was joking, mostly, because he’d do pretty much anything for Benjy, but it was still a sore enough topic to deal with that his chuckle came out slightly flat. There was a long pause and he stared at the granola bar Suz held for a little too long before inhaling sharply and straightening. “If we didn’t work for the Ministry I’d say we call in sick but our friends would have a bloody field day.” he said with a casual eyeroll before his heart stopped. Wait. Shit. Abort. What did he just say. “- uh - giving us shit. For taking the day! For brownies.” BROWNIES?? What the hell was wrong with him? “I - uh - did you want to use my floo?” he asked quickly, bridge of his nose feeling far warmer than comfortable. Mayday, mayday, danger you fucked up, cried the back of his brain as he tried to concentrate on what he was saying. But Suz was oblivious. Their friends didn’t pester her about Caradoc the same way as they did him so she could find the humor in the idea of their friends having a laugh over them missing work because of brownies. Still laughing herself over the idea, she shook her head and said, “I’ll apparate. I think I’m awake enough not to splinch myself.” She dragged the back of her hand across her eyes to wipe the remaining sleep from her eyes to prove her awakeness. “And with the floo, I’d get all sooty and I don’t have time to shower.” “Right! Yes. Makes sense!” breathed Doc, words quicker than was natural with his relief that she was either playing it much cooler than he was or that she hadn’t noticed. Christ he wished he could just… “You look fine though. I mean, good. You look good! So. You’ll be good. For work.” He’d been telling her she was gorgeous the night before - which she was - but now he was in his more neurotic mode, trying to cover his own ass. He smoothed down his own hair, realising now he probably did not look good for work, as he had eloquently put. “Um… hext me when you grab lunch?” he offered. As manic as he felt inside, it was actually very difficult to do anything that would result in her leaving any quicker than she was… not doing. “Okay!” Suz said with a vigorous nod, her cheeks warm because him saying she looked good was just as flattering as everything that’d been said the night before. She rocked on her heels for a beat, similarly aware of the fact that she wasn’t leaving yet. Why hadn’t she left yet? But it felt like something was missing, like they hadn’t done something they were meant to after a night of baking brownies and waking up next to one another. Biting her lip, she searched his face, her eyes lingering on his lips for a moment when she finally realized the something missing was that she wanted to kiss him. Her eyes snapped back to his and she smiled nervously. “I should go!” She stepped away from him and the kitchen to grab her wand from its perch next to the tray of brownies. Part of him was slightly relieved that he’d be unable to continue making a fool of himself when she left, but mostly he almost surprised himself at how much the rest of him would have been happy to just grab her by the arm and pull her back to him and not let go. His fingers flexed as he followed her over to the living room after a beat. “Okay, well - thanks again, Suz,” he told her earnestly, eyes studying her as she moved, the way her hair fell over her shoulders as she retrieved her wand, how different her small hands moved than the long bony ones he had, covered in piano and pen calluses. Before he could stop himself, he was bending down to brush his lips against her cheek - his movements were awkward and it was quick, but the smile he gave her when he stood straight again was about as big and goofy as they got. “Have a good day?” That’s what you said when seeing someone off to work, right? Her smile, on the other hand, was completely and utterly smitten and she only just managed to resist the urge to brush her fingers over her cheek. “Thanks,” she said softly. And then she cleared her throat and smiled even wider, sounding much louder when she added, “You have a good day, too! And I’ll hext you when, you know, lunch!” Saluting her with his granola bar, Caradoc stepped back to give her room to apparate and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Lunch!” he echoed happily, rocking on the balls of his feet as he watched. “Talk to you then, Suz,” he said, voice softer, knowing he’d be left in an empty flat with the wireless tuned to quiet Christmas music and a sudden need to change into work clothes and hap-hazardly throw on a tie, but he wasn’t about to move until she was gone. Suz could only nod, waving her fingers around her granola bar in farewell. And then with a pop she was back in her own flat, where she could finally brush her fingers over her cheek, pressing her fingertips exactly where he’d kissed her and grinning stupidly down at her cat. She was still late and getting later, but she needed to savor the moment before the real world rushed in and she had to worry about working with purists and purebloods. Caradoc had kissed her on the cheek! And his bedhead was adorable! She scooped up Clove, who was threading herself around Suz’s ankles, and dropped a kiss between her ears. With that the moment was over and she moved away from the door to start getting ready for the day. |