Cai Vane. (vanest) wrote in disorderic, @ 2017-10-26 13:42:00 |
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A set of books floated innocuously behind her as Grace bent down to her haunches, frowning at the poorly packed box at her feet. “I’m going to say it because I know we’re both thinking it, but, you have too much stuff,” she teased. “Some say too much stuff, I say just the right amount of stuff for every other purpose, except for moving,” Cai caught socks as the fell out of a cat-chewed box he levitated into his new apartment. “But I think that’s finally it,” he added as he let the box gently float to the ground, looking around at the innumerable boxes filling that made the room look rather cramped. “Now it’s just unpacking them all…” Maybe he should have tried harder to let Gwen talk him out of this move. Grace looked around and made a clicking sound with her tongue against her teeth. “The alternative is building a box fort and just living in it.” She stood, brushing imaginary dirt from her hands and smiled. “This will be fine, no time at all. I’ll start with the living room stuff if you want to yell out directions every now and then.” “I could get on board with the fort idea,” Cai grinned as he moved towards the adjoining kitchen area. “I could play Cowboys and Indians in it like Joey and Ross.” He un-taped a box, pulling out some glasses and then glancing between all his new cupboards, trying to decide which one would be the glass and mug one. “Thanks for helping, by the way.” “Well I’m not doing this for free you know,” Grace called back, voice muffled before she reappeared from behind the couch with a box in her arms. “I’m imagining pizza in my future.” She smiled wryly and began to unload the rest of Cai’s many books. “I’m kidding of course, helping you move totally falls under the Hufflepuff contract. I’m bound by something stronger than blood.” She winked at him before retrieving her wand, the stray, floating books suddenly moving themselves into the empty bookcase beside his tv. “So Tinworth. What did your Mum say?” “Don’t worry, I think I can spring for a pizza,” Cai replied, finally settling on a cupboard and starting to stack glasses. “I guess she thinks having me around will make it slightly safer or something? Even though Robards is already here and that hasn’t made a difference. But I guess the idea that someone will be specifically watching out for Gwen is reassuring or something.” Cai shrugged. “I don’t know, but if it makes her worry a little less then it’s worth the move.” Grace smiled softly at that. Cai was a good brother. It made Grace think of her own well-intentioned, trouble magnet sibling who regularly inspired affectionate exasperation and paralyzingly fear for his safety. There was some measure of relief that he was home with their parents and likely far better protected than herself, if he was a Phoenix. Grace’s self inflicted solitude had its drawbacks. She could understand why Cai wanted to move closer to Gwen, to everyone else. “So what you’re really telling me is you moved here for Robards.” “You caught me,” Cai laughed. “I hear he has a really cute cat, after all.” He stepped back to inspect his work before reaching back in to move the glasses into a straighter line. “What about you? How are you feeling since that quidditch match?” Grace’s smile dimmed and she looked away, suddenly focused on levitating Cai’s movie collection into place. She sighed. “Useless, responsible. I know that’s--” she stopped and shook her head. Those thoughts weren’t helpful. “I just play quidditch. A war is going on and I thought that we could use something with quidditch to help, even if it’s not meaningful and real like what you risk your life to do. And I think we made things worse, so.” She shrugged and busied herself with fluffing his couch pillows with more intensity than necessary. She could still feel the corpse like hand digging into her arm. Cai noticed the change in Grace’s demeanor immediately. He moved to a different box and dug out his kettle, getting the water boiling while he returned to his first box to pull out some mugs and then a third box to find tea bags. Unpacking could wait. He scoffed slightly at the idea that any of the DMLE were really risking their lives these days, with the stupid cases they were assigned to do, but otherwise listened quietly while Grace talked, joining her at the couch once the tea was ready. “That’s not your fault,” he assured her, handing her a mug and taking a seat. “You did a good thing, and I’m sure a lot of people, your muggleborn teammates included, appreciated that you made a statement instead of ignoring what is going on.” Grace nodded, accepting the mug and feeling guilty that their unpacking had been derailed by this. “It just isn't good enough,” she said frankly, “and I wish I knew what to do without putting anyone else at risk. Merlin, I’m sounding like a broken bloody record. Sorry. I don’t know and that's all I’ve come up with.” She held the tea closer to her chest, breathing in the steam. “What about you?” She knocked her knee gently into his. “What's going on with the DMLE?” “You don’t have to apologise,” Cai replied. “I don’t think anyone knows what to do, so you just have to do what seems right at the time.” He looked down at his mug, wishing he’d had some milk to cool it down quicker. Apartment moving problems. “We’re, you know, busy rescuing cats and finding out what people did wrong to deserve the dark marks over their house or business, because they’re clearly not the victims in those situations.” Grace blew out a long breath, shaking her head in disbelief. “That’s shit, I’m sorry. I can't believe Death Eaters are basically sanctioned by the government. Though I suppose they run the government…” she trailed off, curbing the bitterness. “You still want to stay?” “What else am I meant to do?” Cai replied, keeping his eyes focused on his cup of tea. “It’s my job, I can’t just leave and become a vigilante.” He sighed. “Anyway. At least most of our department aren’t death eaters so we’re still trying to do what we can.” You could she nearly said, again think of her probable vigilante bother. She didn't think it the safer option, in fact quitting was suspicious and doing exactly that was likely a death warrant. “And we’re all very grateful,” she said seriously. “Some of us are just kept up at night thinking about you and Chelsea and Owen, sharing desks with the occasional homicidal terrorist. If you tell me not to worry, I’ll do my absolute best to believe you, but there's a high likelihood of failure.” She sipped her tea. “You could open a board game shop.” “I think all of us are up at night thinking about everyone,” Cai replied honestly. “You and quidditch, Gwen and the Prophet, no where seems any safer right now.” That depressing thought almost made him wish his life was one of those scary movies that Gwen loved so much instead. At least the horror in those was slightly more predictable. He brightened up again at the idea of a board game shop, glad for the change in topic. “If things get too much worse, maybe I will,” he agreed with a smile. “But no discounts for you or Rhys because I think you’d be my main customers.” “Pfft,” Grace knocked her knee into his again, also glad for the change of topic. She hadn't meant to divert them onto unpleasant things. “Like I’d ever go to your shop. I don’t buy things from cheaters,” she said loftily, hiding her smile behind the teacup. Cai laughed, nudging her lightly in return. “Just because you’re a bad loser doesn’t make me a cheater,” he declared, “But since you obviously need more evidence that I’m better at board games we can have a rematch over that pizza I owe you.” He took a sip of his tea, looking around at his partially unpacked boxes. “I think we’ve done enough unpacking for today anyway.” “You’re right, two...three whole boxes. Thank Merlin for magic, or else we might not be able to properly bask in our undeserved sense of accomplishment. By the way? I’m an excellent loser,” she retorted, easing back into the couch so she too could survey the barely unpacked living room. “Or I assume I would be, since I’ve never actually lost anything ever.” “Guess we’ll see how good you are at losing soon,” Cai teased. “But we might have to unpack at least one more box to actually find the board games…” Grace laughed. “Next you’re going to tell me we need the blankets and your best wine glasses until everything is unpacked anyways.” She stood and made for a stack of boxes that were the likely culprits. “I’m on to you, Vane.” “I mean, if we accidentally unpack a few extra boxes because we missed the clearly labelled board game box then I’m not going to be upset,” Cai replied. “But either way, I’m sure we’re deserving of a pizza break by now.” “Sounds like a plan. You order the pizza and I’ll grab a game? We can pop open those beers I brought too. We deserve it.” “Deal,” Cai replied, digging his phone out of his pocket. “Just start mentally preparing yourself to lose, Jordan.” |