WHO: Cai Vane and Grace Jordan WHAT: A morning run is interrupted WHEN: March 21, morning WHERE: Edinburgh WARNINGS: Dementors
It was a good day for a run, not that Grace let any inclement weather prevent her from keeping with her strict exercise schedule, or the lack of job. She preferred running when it was colder, liked the way her muscles warmed and loosened inspite of it. She used to run with Keaton, not all the time, but often enough that it became routine.
As she stood there, air warming in her lungs, she added it to one more thing on the list of things she would have to get used to now that he was gone. She closed her eyes, releasing the air in a long, steadying exhale.
This was about distraction, of getting out of the house she’d basically been holed up in with Cai, and establishing new habits. Moving forward.
“I won’t go easy on you,” she threw over her shoulder and eased out of her stretch, shooting Cai a look.
Cai laughed softly, letting his foot fall back to the floor, finished with his quad stretch. “Good, so when I beat you you’ll know it’s because I’m the best,” he teased back, shaking his legs out. Getting out for something other than work had been a good idea, even if it felt weird that this felt so normal after everything. “Ready?”
Grace gave him a dubious look. “It’s sweet that you think that and a little worrying since you’re already dating the best. Count of three? One..two…” she leaned in, fisting Cai’s jumper so that she could plant a long, lingering kiss on him.
She took off, laughing.
Grace was off and running before Cai even knew what was going on, his brain finally kicking back in a moment later and he sprinted after her, already at a disadvantage. “You’re such a cheater!” he called after her once he’d caught up enough that she’d be able to hear him.
“I prefer tough competitor,” she huffed, still laughing. “Winners take advan —“ she hadn’t expected him to catch up with her so quickly, and her surprise settled into an arched brow as she knocked her arm against his. “Winners take advantage of every opportunity. Besides, I want brunch and you are absolutely going to be the one paying.”
“Sounds like something a cheater would say to justify her actions,” he huffed out between breaths. His catch up had been aided by his height but, while in shape thanks to work, he wasn’t as much of a regular runner as Grace and even as he settled in to a more steady pace, was already regretting that burst of energy. How long was this race again? Maybe it was his turn to play dirty.
He reached for her hand, slowing to a stop and pulling her towards him, taking a moment to brush her flyaway hairs back while he caught his breath and then leaning in for a kiss.
Grace tripped at first at the change in momentum, causing both of them to stumble back a step as Cai kissed her. She leaned in, despite herself, relaxing into the underhanded manoeuvre.
“Is this going to become a thing,” she asked, arms winding around his back, tone chastising but smile gentle. “Cheat by snogging?”
“You started it,” Cai replied, smiling back at her. “But probably. Kissing you when I land on your hotel-built Mayfair so you don’t notice that I only gave you half the rent. Or when I try to claim a word that looks Welsh but is made up in Scrabble so you don’t look it up. Could come in handy.”
“You’re not that good of a kisser,” she pinched his side, landing a sloppy kiss to his jaw. “But thank you for admitting that you need to cheat to beat me in the first place.”
Cai laughed, the sound coming more naturally this time, the distraction working. “We’ll see,” he said, stepping away from her and starting running again, determined to win this race. “Hope you’re ready to buy brunch!” he called over his shoulder before turning his full attention to running.
Grace meant to start after him, had what she was sure was a dopey tilt to her smile as she watched him, but her first step forward was a clumsy stagger. She felt heavy suddenly, like her limbs were working to pin her to the ground.
Grace’s smile slipped and she blinked in confusion as an overwhelming feeling of dread seemed to drown her. It had gotten so much colder, muscles trembling as she began to shake from the inside out. Her pulse was an angry defiant beat in her throat, but Grace felt her knees give out anyway. She was on the pavement suddenly, vision spotting, unable to work a sound from her mouth.
It didn’t take Cai long to notice that Grace wasn’t on his heels. He slowed and turned, half expecting this to be some trick to get him to stop, when he saw the dementors surrounding Grace. Even from this distance he was starting to feel their effects.
“Grace!” he called out, jogging back to help her without second thought, pace growing slower and slower as he got closer and closer to the creatures. Hands shaking, he pulled out his wand but his mind was a fog of dark thoughts, no room for happiest memories.
He tried to focus on a singular thought - getting himself and Grace out of there - fighting to push it to the forefront of his foggy mind. “Grace,” he called out again, feeling as though the distance between them was only growing greater, more impossible to bridge, even as he managed to reach out and find her arm. He couldn’t lose her too.
Grace couldn’t reach back. She was slipping out of consciousness, and even as she fumbled determinedly for her wand, the guilt, the helplessness was squeezing the air from her lungs.
Hands with flesh stripped to bone, the gnashing of teeth, the pleading screams.
This was supposed to have been good for them, getting back outside, focusing on something other than their grief. She survived two Death Eater attacks but she’d die like this, in spandex, on a road in Edinburgh, her soul sucked out of her body.
Cai gripped Grace’s arm tightly, reaching for his wand with his other hand as he fought his hardest not to give in to the darkness. “Expecto patronum!” he attempted, only the slightest silver wisp emerging from his wand, doing almost nothing to ease the Dementor’s effects. With the last of his remaining effort he focused on his home, apparating them both to safety, shaking even as the darkness lifted in the warmth of his apartment.