Grace Jordan (acejordan) wrote in disorderic, @ 2018-02-14 15:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | cai vane, grace jordan |
WHO: Cai Vane and Grace Jordan
WHAT: Just two friends hanging out on Valentine's Day
WHEN: February 14
WHERE: Grace’s flat
“There aren’t many sports rom coms on Netflix so I had to go find DVDs,” Cai greeted Grace when she opened her door, holding the DVDs up with his spare hand, the other balancing a Starbeaks coffee tray. “Which is not as easy as it should be. Happy Valentine’s Day, by the way.” Grace cocked her head to the side even as she stepped out of the way to let Cai in, narrowing her eyes at the titles. “Jerry Maguire, Love & Basketball, Bend It Like Beckham,” she flicked her eyes back to him rewarding his choices with a teasing smile. “If you’d said hello, you would have had me at it. Happy Valentine’s Day, come in, I have cookies burning in the oven.” “That was a real missed opportunity,” Cai laughed, though was a little disappointed he hadn’t thought of that. He loved a good rom com quote. He made himself at home, putting the coffee down on her coffee table and getting the movie set up for them. “They smell good,” he commented as he put Jerry Maguire into the player, “Like actual, real cookies. That’s better than I was expecting.” Grace scoffed good naturedly, opening the oven to check on said ‘real cookies.’ “I’m not even going to pretend to be offended, because honestly? Same. I’ve had a lot of time on my hands to perfect it,” the smile tightened a little before returning with a self-deprecating glimmer. “And by perfect it I mean make it deceptively edible. Don’t worry, I ordered pizza, I don’t want you sick for your birthday.” “I appreciate that,” he smiled at her over his shoulder. “How are you really doing with that though? Must be hard.” He currently hated his job, yet he still didn’t want to be unemployed. “Well I’m baking, something I’ve never even bothered to do before because hello, packaged cookies.” Grace sighed and leaned against her counter. “Not good. I’m restless and realizing that I really don’t have anything outside of Quidditch. No other skills,” she gestured to the cookies as if that proved her point. “And that was stupid of me because it’s not like I could play Quidditch forever anyway. And even though a part of me is glad we don’t have to continue that farce for the sake of Death Eaters, I love to play Cai.” “Hey,” Cai said gently, standing again now that the movie was set up and ready to go. “You have a lot of other skills, even if baking isn’t one of them. Yet.” He moved to the couch, patting the spot next to him to ask her to sit. “It’s okay to miss it. Or to be mad at the Death Eaters for taking it from you. Or whatever else you’re feeling.” Grace knew that but felt like it was pointless to say so. Not being able to play Quidditch was pretty low on the list of horrors the Death Eaters were inflicting on others. She took a seat anyways. “We need a union,” she said suddenly, like it was something that had been rolling around in her head and she just hadn’t had the chance to voice it. “I mean this whole situation made that clear, but our interests haven’t been protected, muggleborns were kicked out. I don’t think having some sort of support organization would have done much against Death Eaters but it’s necessary. Maybe after…” she trailed off and looked at Cai. “That or I’d like to do some programs for kids,” she smiled, “I miss coaching those summer camps.” Cai gave her an encouraging smile. “I think you’d be great at both those things,” he told her earnestly. “Maybe the union could also help the muggleborns get back on their feet, and their brooms, once this is all over.” If it ever ended. “Yes, exactly,” Grace gave a brief, brilliant smile. The possibility of it all already soothed the uselessness she’d been feeling. Cai’s faith her even more so, but she wasn’t ready to examine why that was, or the heat at her cheeks that accompanied it. Shut up Lee. “How are you doing?” She knocked Cai’s knee with her own, not sure how to tread when Gawain’s funeral had only been a few days ago. “Unless we want to ban all talk of work from now on. It is Valentine’s day.” “Banning all work talk sounds like a really good idea,” Cai agreed, making a face at just the thought of work. “While we’re banning topics, let’s add Death Eaters, how horrible Hogwarts sounds, that people think cats are being ruined as likeable animals and our complete lack of romantic lives to the list. That still leaves…,” he paused, “What did people used to talk about before all this? Other than how much better at board games I am than you.” “You are not better at board games than me,” Grace scoffed and reached forward to grab the sickeningly sweet looking coffee from the table. It was just as sickeningly sweet to taste and Grace grimaced a little. “You keep saying these things and I’m starting to worry you’re delusional. Should I call Gwen? Do you need to go home?” Cai too reached for his coffee, but hesitated to drink it after seeing the look on Grace’s face. “First of all, I’m not delusional, my board game winning skills are almost world famous. Second, is it that bad? They’re only selling them for today so I thought I’d try, but…” he sniffed at the cup, then took a tentative sip, his face mirroring Grace’s. “Literal syrup. Sweet,” Grace laughed at his expression, and somehow her hand had landed on his upper arm as she did. “They’re just very...sweet,” she finished lamely and blinked at Cai, the smile slipping. Her face felt warm. It was hot in here, wasn’t it? She cleared her throat and fumbled shyly with the coffee to take another sip. Physical contact with Grace wasn’t unusual, she was one of his closest friends, but he was suddenly very aware of her hand on his arm. And of it being Valentine’s Day. And of the swelling music playing on a loop in the background as the dvd menu waited for the play button to be hit. He took a large gulp of the coffee to give himself something to do, regretting it as the syrup filled milk his filled his mouth. “So,” he said, eyes meeting hers and then ducking his head with an embarrassed smile, his coffee-cup free hand coming to rest on her knee, “Movie?” Grace sucked in a breath at his touch and tried to blink away the thrill of feelings that seemed to electrify ever nerve ending. Cai was good looking wasn’t he? Well of course he was good looking, that was just an objective fact one acknowledged. She’d always thought so, had been thinking about that even more since he had insisted on checking her over after that last disastrous match. But today? Today he was... Grace loosened her grip on Cai’s arm until she was brushing her fingertips down his forearm, palm resting over his hand. She didn’t think she could sit through a movie. “I’m a fan of not talking,” she said and wasn’t even shocked by her boldness. There’s had always been a competitive friendship, so why wouldn’t their attempts at seduction be a thrown gauntlet. Oh, she flushed again. Seduction. “Cai,” she started. The doorbell rang. “The pizza,” she whispered, staring into Cai’s eyes. His first instinct was to say that the pizza could wait, this was more important, but logic just managed to win over, reluctantly breaking their eye contact to answer the door. He rushed the transaction, forgetting to even thank the delivery person as he took the box and closed the door on their face. He tossed the pizza box onto the coffee table, with his now discarded coffee cup, and turned his attention back to Grace, sitting much closer to her this time, their knees touching when he turned his body towards her. “What were you saying?” he asked, reaching up to play with a strand of her hair then letting his fingers graze lightly down her cheek. Grace sighed, a dopey sound she’d never heard before. He smelled good. The pizza smelled good. She was so glad she’d somehow mustered the courage to stop ignoring the way she felt about him. “We should snog,” she said bluntly. She arched a brow as if to say game?. The way she said it made it sound like a challenge, and Cai never backed down from a challenge from Grace. Nor did he want to when her suggestion was such a good one. That they’d never thought to do it before was baffling, though not something to dwell on when she was right there; just a girl, sitting in front of a boy, asking to be snogged. His hand came to rest under her chin and he leaned in and kissed her, gently at first to see if she’d step up the challenge. Grace ruined it by smiling, laughter bubbling out of her as she pressed their lips together more insistently, hands coming up to frame his face. Her heart was pounding. This was more exhilarating than a game. “We can do better,” she said, and knocked the empty coffee cup over as she pressed forward to kiss him again. |