InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "pop goes the weasel"

Seamus Finnigan (openbottle) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-03-04 14:19:00

Entry tags:

character: dean thomas, character: seamus finnigan

Who: Seamus and Dean
What: Camping out at Dean's place
Where: Dean's flat
When: Monday 2nd March, evening
Rating: NSFW - language (probably)

Seamus felt no qualms about leaving Gobstones club in Blaise’s hands - he didn't usually attend anyway, and the bar was suitably staffed. He was easily able to escape from Finnigan's at the end of his shift. First, he filled a shabby rucksack with everything he might need for spending a night away from home - pyjamas, clean socks, toothbrush, clean t-shirt, chocolate, beer. Instead of apparating straight to Dean's flat, though, he made a significant detour via the chippy in Greencastle to pick up two portions of fish and chips.

Apparating all the way to Ireland and back in the span of twenty minutes meant that Seamus's crack of apparation was louder than he'd really like - and set him stumbling a little on his arrival, having misjudged the exact position of the table. He set his hand on it to steady himself, blinking rapidly to make the world come back into focus. "Dean?" he called hopefully. He'd been avoiding the studio even more assiduously than Dean himself, because running into Ophelia would spell good things for nobody. Seamus had already had to bank his anger that Ophelia was having enough of a lasting impact in Dean's life to trigger new nightmares. She had no right! "I come bearing food," he added. If that didn't entice Dean out of hiding then Seamus would have to go looking for him.

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openbottle
2015-04-01 12:56 pm UTC (link)

Seamus waved a hand in a transparently poor attempt at airy unconcern. "Susan and I were practicing our duelling. She, uh, exploded a door at me. I didn't shield fast enough." If he was going to admit that much, he figured he might as well keep going rather than having Dean have to drag the information from him. "We weren't in the best of moods." He held up a hand, hoping to forestall the lecture - though the way his heart sank into his stomach indicated he knew it wouldn't work. "And I've already admitted it was stupid. And I'm sorry for not telling you, but you were dealing with enough as it was, and Susan healed me up wit some dittany." He really was sorry, but he knew himself well enough to know he'd never have done it any differently.

"I hate that she got into your nightmares," Seamus said as he settled back against Dean. His anger had fled, leaving him more despairing than anything. He hated feeling helpless, knowing that there was nothing he could do to improve the situation other than to be there and help Dean wait it out. "She could have understood if she'd tried," he grumbled. "It's not like it's so fucking difficult." Neither he nor Susan had been through exactly Dean's situation, and neither of them would ever say they understood entirely - but understanding enough to treat him with the respect and compassion he deserved? That wasn't hard. That so many people seemed to fail at it made Seamus want to hit out at something, or give up on the world, or fight harder to make it a better place. Sometimes all three at once.

Propiety could go to hell, Seamus decided and he slung an arm across Dean's stomach in a gesture that was about half as limpet-like as usual. "You deserve better," he said, bitterness surging up from nowhere. "Better than second-hand cake and truffles and me." He wanted to say that next year they'd plan something better - but the whole point was that Deans plans were supposed to be with someone else, and Seamus couldn't do anything to make that happen. He shook his head slightly. "We have to remember the shit stuff or we won't learn from it - or something." He was pretty sure there was some grand psychological reason they couldn't all just wipe the memory of the war from one another's minds, even if he wasn't sure what that reason was.

"One of your strategies had better be me staying over tonight," he concluded. "I brought a toothbrush and everything." And they still had fish and chips to eat, when they could be bothered to apparate their sorry arses home.

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artistdean
2015-04-01 06:45 pm UTC (link)

"You duelled with Susan?" Dean asked pointedly. "Susan, our lovely but rather scary friend who is an Auror and basically takes down dark wizards and the worst criminals for a living? That Susan?" He assumed that Seamus had probably done this soon after he and Ophelia had split up, but even that didn't stop his voice rising in volume at the stupidity of that particular decision. "You absolute idiot. You could have been seriously injured. What the hell did you think that would have done to me feeling shitty about breaking up with my girlfriend when I find out my best friend is in St Mungo's and my other best friend put him there?" Honestly he was fairly sure Susan wouldn't have actually let it get that far, but he was very sure their duel was a overwhelmingly terrible idea. "Join a bloody gym and punch things instead of fighting Susan. Fuck you could get Dominic to set you up a punching bag in the Roost. Just please stop finding ways to hurt yourself?" he said, pleading slightly on the last sentence.

Swallowing, Dean shook his head gently, not sure what to say. "I don't think she wanted to try very hard. Didn't want a relationship where she actually took the trouble to- oh fuck her, it's too bloody depressing to think about," he said. "And yes, I hate that she got into my nightmares too. Maybe this one won't stick around." Not that Dean was too helpful on that front. It hadn't been his experience in recent years.

"Next year we'll aim for actual food," he joked, although that didn't sound like a bad idea if they were both still single. "I'd rather not remember the shit stuff, not that it isn't a life lesson or whatever," he said, waving a hand vaguely, sounding bitter.

He put his waving hand down on top of the arm Seamus had got slung around him and chuckled. "'Course it does. I'll even wear pyjamas!" Frankly right now a second body in his bed would be a huge comfort. Well, providing said body was Seamus. Susan might have managed in a pinch.

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openbottle
2015-04-01 07:43 pm UTC (link)

Seamus cringed, his face falling into an expression of total dismay. Dean yelling at him when he was trigged by something relatively inoffensive was bad enough, Dean shouting purely because of things Seamus had done was ten times worse. "I know," he whined. He was only too aware of how much worse things could have gone if Susan's spell had hit him rather than the door. "I didn't think she'd really try to hurt me, but she went into battle mode." He didn't feel right blaming it entirely on Susan - the duel had been his idea, and he'd drawn first blood (granted, it had been an accident). "Believe me, I don't want to go back to St Mungo's anymore than you want to see me there." He held up both arms so Dean could at least sort of see them. "I'm fine," he said quietly. "All healed up. But... I'll try." Somehow, no matter how obviously stupid the idea, he could never quite talk himself out of it.

He settled his arms back down when Dean's hand dropped onto one. "Best we can do is not think about it, I suppose," Seamus said, aware this went against his maxim of talking things through. But there was a time for that, and the rest of the time they just had to distract themselves as much as possible. Fortunately, Dean seemed willing to go along with that school of thought - Seamus didn't want to cut him off if the talking was helpful.

"Pyjamas!" He clasped one hand over his heart. "My prince." With a grunt, he hauled himself to his feet and held his hand out. "Come on, there's fish and chips waiting if you're ready."

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artistdean
2015-04-01 08:20 pm UTC (link)

He sighed heavily. He hated making Seamus feel bad and his face fell too, biting his lip because he felt guilty. He looked at Seamus' arms, relieved to see a lack of marks. He doubted that anything anybody said would stop him doing some of the daft things he thought of, but maybe sometimes he'd resist the urge. Maybe if Dean had a word with Susan too that might help, although there was no guarantee. "If you could knock off the duels with Susan I'd appreciate it," he said after a bit of a silence.

Snorting at Seamus' dramatic moment he groaned slightly and pushed himself up far enough that Seamus' hand up would help. "Fish and chips sounds bloody brilliant right now," he said, shaking himself a bit to re-settle himself. "You bringing your broom back to my place or are you dropping it off at your Mum's?" he asked, bending and retrieving his own broom from where he'd fallen off it.

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openbottle
2015-04-01 09:06 pm UTC (link)

Seamus nodded seriously, pushing his curls back from his face a muddy hand. "Yeah, I won't be doing that again," he agreed, wincing. "It... got a bit out of control." He really did hope he'd remember, or at least that he'd pick someone with more restraint to duel against. He wasn't going to make it any worse for Dean with more details, though, so he pushed the thought aside for the moment.

"I'll bring it back to your place, for now," he decided. If it was there, maybe they'd going flying together again sooner than they'd been averaging lately. Realising that going home meant apparating, Seamus sighed and tried to steel himself for the return trip. The flight had certainly cleared his head, but he was still expecting to get back to Dean's pretty drained.

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artistdean
2015-04-01 09:27 pm UTC (link)

Dean resisted the urge to comment on Seamus' definition of 'a bit' out of control, because he had a strong feeling that it probably wouldn't match his own definition. "Yeah, well, I've seen Susan mad, I can't imagine her duelling is any less... intimidating."

He nodded in agreement and offered Seamus his arm. "You want me to apparate you back are you good?" he asked. It had been a while since they came and he wasn't sure if Seamus was recovered enough to get himself back. Especially since Dean would be Side-Alonging someone back again without a huge amount of recovery time if he wasn't ready. At least there would be reviving food at the other end whatever the decision.

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openbottle
2015-04-02 12:56 pm UTC (link)

Maybe next time Seamus would have the patience to wait until duelling club, with its healers and its safeguards and the higher chance of being paired with someone less deadly. For now, he was content to drop the subject and hope Dean would be able to forget it. He was fine now, that was what mattered, and no trip to St Mungo's had been necessary.

After going to pick up his broom from where he'd left it, he returned to pat Dean's arm but shook his head. "I'll do it. No use tiring the both of us out." He knew he was in good enough condition that he wasn't likely to splinch himself, especially not when the destination was somewhere so familiar. "Let me go first, just in case." Otherwise Dean would have to apparate back to find out what happened to him and then they'd both be stuck. He screwed his eyes shut and concentrated for a long moment before finally disappearing with a far louder bang than he usually liked.

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artistdean
2015-04-02 03:47 pm UTC (link)

"Oh good," Dean said with quiet relief. He knew he technically could take Seamus back he had a feeling it wouldn't be the best plan. "Sure, sure," he said, waving Seamus off and wincing when the sound of his disappearance was rather louder than expected. He hoped he was okay.

Taking a fortifying breath Dean concentrated on his bedroom and stepped out into the nothingness, arriving moments later and feeling a little unsteady. He was basically fine, just feeling slightly tired. He set down his broom and called out to Seamus. "I'm good, are you good?"

He quickly kicked off his boots and headed back to the main room, shucking his jacket and dropping it over the back of the sofa.

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openbottle
2015-04-02 05:13 pm UTC (link)

It was probably only Seamus's imagination, but the apparition seemed to last far longer than usual, like he had to actually fight his way through the blackness that briefly consumed him. Again, he stumbled on arrival, this time tripping over nothing, or his own feet, and breathing hard. He felt dizzy and had to lean against the wall for a moment to keep from falling.

Dean arrived before Seamus had totally recovered himself, but he nodded anyway. "Fine." He wasn't really hurt - the food and some rest would definitely fix it. "Might skip the cider, though," he made a face and crossed the short distance to Dean's couch, collapsing onto the whole length of it. He could easily fall asleep right now, except that it would be rude and he'd miss out on chips.

"I brought food all the way from Ireland, so you're in charge of bringing it over here to me," he decided, looking at Dean from where he was lying on the couch. "Please," he added for good measure.

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artistdean
2015-04-02 09:30 pm UTC (link)

Dean rolled his eyes, taking in the flopped status of Seamus on his sofa. "Yeah, okay. I've got coke, which could reasonably have come from the chip shop," he said. He stood over Seamus, shaking his head at him. "Sure, I'll be your servant, just for a minute," he said.

He went over to where Seamus had left the magically warmed food and grabbed a couple of cans of coke from the fridge, the two packs of fish and chips and two plates just in case. Not that he expected Seamus to want to use them, but sometimes the fish and chips were a bit floppy.

"Budge over," he said, looming over Seamus again, brandishing the retrieved items. "I need to sit and you need to sit up to eat, we are not Romans."

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openbottle
2015-04-05 10:36 am UTC (link)

"I'd be a great Roman," Seamus grumbled as he sat up, though his knowledge of whatever muggle Roman culture Dean was referencing was exactly zero. He'd covered Egyptians, Tudors and Celts in his muggle primary school, but not Rome. "I can lie here and you can feed me grapes."

Once he was properly sitting up, he made grabby hands until Dean gave him his magically warmed food. Then, once Dean had taken a seat himself, Seamus slumped companionably against him as he munched on chips. He watched Dean's hands as they unwrapped his own portion, not able to look up at his face from this position. "We should do that more often," he said.

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artistdean
2015-04-05 02:14 pm UTC (link)

Dean snorted, he honestly couldn't imagine Seamus staying still long enough for anyone to feed him grapes. He'd just fidgit. "Yeah, that'll happen," he said, sarcastically. The whole lying down to eat thing really wasn't appealing, although at least the Romans generally aimed for recline on the side not 'will choke yourself if you're not careful' aka on your back.

Passing over Seamus' food and drink and sticking the plates on the coffee table since they seemed likely to go unused he glanced down at Seamus as he spoke again. "Flying or me needing to get out of my head because I got wound up? Because if you mean the second one I'll pass, but the flying was good." He waved a chip briefly before putting it in his mouth. "Although I could have done without the crashing, but it's my own fault."

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openbottle
2015-04-07 01:29 pm UTC (link)

Seamus stuck his lower lip out at Dean's sarcasm. "What?" he asked, reaching for a chip to pop into his mouth and then realising he had to finish it before he could continue. "Am I not pretty enough to have adoring companions looking after my nutritional needs?" He didn't know why 'pretty' came into it all of a sudden, though it did occur to him that Dean more or less already filled the described role, what with the leaving him food and prompting him to eat regularly.

"Flying, obviously," he added, through another mouthful of chip. "I don't want the other thing." He poked Dean's side with salty fingers before licking them clean. "And I have no pity for your self-inflicted injuries." This was palpably untrue, but it sounded like the kind of thing Susan would say. Seamus was just as capable of getting himself worked up over something Dean had done to himself as something that had been the work of outside forces.

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artistdean
2015-04-07 05:45 pm UTC (link)

The exaggerated pout made Dean's face break out in a grin, eyes lighting up at his ridiculous friend. "Oh, no," he reassured with amusement after he'd finished his mouthful. "Plenty pretty enough, look at all these curls," he said, blowing slightly through Seamus' hair. Normally he'd run his hands through it, but with greasy hands that seemed like a horrible plan. "No, what I meant is you'd never stay still long enough for someone to feed you grapes!" he said, very pleased with himself.

Dean twitched hard to the side as Seamus poked him, batting vaguely at his hand. He was about to say something but was distracted momentarily by Seamus licking his fingers, not quite sure why it was suddenly so fascinating. "I really enjoyed the flying," he said, slouching down more into the sofa. "Maybe another time we could do a little less furious racing, take a quaffle with us and toss it around." He wouldn't suggest a full blown quidditch game but the two of them messing around would be fun. Not that he couldn't imagine them possibly ending up wrestling over the ball, but slightly less crashing into either trees or the ground would be good.

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