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Tweak says, "Twinkle twinkle little earth.."

Dean Thomas (artistdean) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-04-10 16:12:00

Entry tags:

character: dean thomas, character: dennis creevey

RP: Miscommunication and not-menaces
Who: Dean and Dennis
When: Friday 10th April
Where: Finnigan's Pub
What: A well-intentioned interruption
Rating: Potential for Language

Dean didn't have a shift today but he'd fancied lunch in the pub and had decided he might as well decamp for the afternoon. He'd grabbed his latest Discworld book along with his sketchbook and pencils and set himself up in the Corner with a sandwich and some chips.

He had a table near the edge of the room. As tempted as he had been to sit outside in the nicer weather he wasn't sure the weather would last so he'd set his back to a wall and was picking at a sandwich and chips while reading. He would move to his sketchbook when he was done with food and hadn't got greasy fingers.

He'd had a quick chat with Seamus when he was ordering his food, but mostly he had just wanted a quiet afternoon in different surroundings.

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dennisthebrave
2015-04-10 04:08 pm UTC (link)

Dennis entered Finnigan's on a whim. He'd spent a large portion of the day at the office in a wide array of stupendously boring meetings, then spent the rest of it trying to calm down his editor, who had gone into hysterics at the sight of the blood stain that Dennis had completely forgotten about on one of his hastily typed field notes. As such, he was looking forward to a quiet pint before going home to whatever weirdness Rose had cooked up for the evening, only to see Dean.

Suddenly, he was rather forcefully reminded of the borderline indecent display of flirting that he'd watched Dean and Seamus go through the other day, one which had been all the more indecent - at least from Dennis' perspective - because of the fact that by all accounts Dean was not interested in Seamus, when Seamus was quite obviously smitten with the other man. It wasn't like Seamus was subtle about it: a blind, deaf, and mute man could have noticed the reaction. From space. As such, it stood to reason that Dean knew this and either was completely stupid, or was dragging Seamus's heart through the dirt for no good reason.

Obviously, something had to be done. So, he squared his shoulders, marched across the room and sat down opposite Dean and smiled mirthlessly. He knew from quite a few Battlescars meetings that the other man had some pretty serious post-traumatic stress issues, and as annoyed as Dennis was, he wasn't going to do anything to cause Dean to break down. "Alright," he said, quietly - a clear warning sign to anyone who knew him that something was wrong. He considered making smalltalk for a moment, but decided to forgo it and jump directly to the question at hand. "So, do you have a thing for Seamus," he asked, lifting an eyebrow questioningly. "Or do you just blatantly flirt with everyone?"

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artistdean
2015-04-10 11:04 pm UTC (link)

Dean was rarely completely unaware of his surroundings outside of a situation where he'd been triggered, so he'd realised that someone was approaching his table. Unfortunately he'd wrongly assumed it was one of the staff looking for glasses or plates to collect, or perhaps Seamus come to have a longer chat while someone else ran the bar. But the purposeful stride made him glance up from Moist von Lipwig's attempts to revive the Ankh-Morpork postal system to discover Dennis approaching and then sitting down without an invitation.

He had barely opened his mouth to greet him when Dennis' question brought him up short. He was fleetingly glad that he'd had neither food nor drink in his mouth as he had a feeling it would have come spluttering out by now. Instead he had become a picture of incredulity with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, mouth half-open but soundless.

"I'm sorry, what?" he said in a rush after several seconds of confused staring. He had no idea where Dennis was coming from or what he was referring to. Why almost every single one of their friends had felt the need to interrogate them about their feelings for one another, or make insinuations which weren't true, at one point or another he didn't understand. And he was pretty fed up of it too.

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dennisthebrave
2015-04-12 11:29 am UTC (link)

Dennis grinned - well, smirked would probably have been a more accurate term, but Dennis was a journalist and he wasn't above a bit of shameless editing - and quirked his eyebrow again. "Look, I'm sure you get chucked shit about this all the time. I mean god knows if Susan's uh 'motivated self-interest' in my love life is anything to go by, then you would've been interrogated to within an inch of your life about it," Dennis said, trying his best to be friendly, well, at least not openly antagonistic. After all, there was the distinct albeit - hopefully - slim possibility that both Dean and Seamus weren't actually aware of how vomit-inducingly flirty they were with one another. "But Seamus is like an older brother to me so I honestly have to ask, do you have feelings for him? Because I'm fairly sure he has feelings for you, and if you don't and you're flirting with him, then that makes you a bit of a shit person really."

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artistdean
2015-04-12 12:57 pm UTC (link)

It took Dean a few seconds to parse exactly what Dennis was saying to start with and then he sighed, setting down the chip he'd just picked up. He looked at Dennis and took a couple of seconds to work out what to say. Thankfully he wasn't being shouted at, as that would have managed to really piss him off.

He decided to skip over Susan's involvement, frankly that was too long a story to share with a nosy berk like Dennis. "I'm kind of fed up of having this conversation with one friend or another," he said. He held up fingers as he counted off his points. "I do not have feelings for him, he does not have feelings for me, and we do not flirt. We're friends, we're close. We hug sometimes, big whoop." His words were dry and pointed, fed up of the general theme.

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dennisthebrave
2015-04-12 01:57 pm UTC (link)

Dennis tilted his head and gave a smile that would have probably be disarming to someone who wasn't annoyed with him. He did, however listen to what the other man had to say without interrupting him. "That's a very logical answer," he said, nodding in approval. "But from a purely logical standpoint - which is to say, if my assumption is as wrong as you claim - then why do you think people keep bringing it up with you," he asked. "A wide array of people, including by your admission, people who know you well have brought up the situation, and no doubt been shut down as succinctly, though possibly less curtly than I just was. What's the common denominator?"

He clicked his neck and plowed on. "Do you think it could possibly be that to people not used to your 'special' relationship, that perhaps it looks less 'special' and more 'on the verge of being romantic'," he asked, definitely overusing the sarcastic air quotes. "I mean, I was sitting in the pub the other day when those bloody Weasley products were about, and you two were definitely sounding - to the no doubt mistaken onlooker - like your conversation should be rated 15 or more." He sighed, and smiled tightly, glad that he'd kept his voice calm as an un-accusatory as possible. "But let's forget all that and focus on the thing I actually care about - which isn't you, or whether you like Seamus or couldn't give two flying fucks - but about the fact that he is very, very obviously smitten with you, and if you don't like him, then flirting with him, even mock flirting, is kind of a very shit thing to do."

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artistdean
2015-04-12 02:35 pm UTC (link)

Dean was about to reply to Dennis' first round of points when he continued, which made him nearly bite his tongue in the haste of shutting his mouth again. He was trying very hard not to shift slightly uncomfortably in his seat by the time Dennis was finished.

"Look, mate," he said, laying a rather pointed and not-so-friendly emphasis on the word. "It's not just a logic thing, it's a thing where we're best friends and comfortable with each other. I've known him since the first train ride to Hogwarts and I trust him with my life and trust isn't something I manage easily these days," he said, sliding slowly into a heartfelt tone.

He closed his book, bookmark slipped in only just in time, and set it down. The use of silly quotation marks was really a bit much in Dean's opinion, but that was the least of his concerns. The day Dennis was talking about he'd been in a good mood, and thinking back he had to admit that he might have laid it on a bit thick with his greeting, but they'd just pulled back to cheerful banter after that, hadn't they? He frowned slightly, trying to remember the contents of the conversation. He remembered jokes, and some awkward phrasing on Seamus' part, being a little bit silly himself maybe, but nothing that unusual.

"I'll admit that my greeting might have been flirty," he said. "But it was also a running joke." Why he was having such a hard time justifying his behaviour he didn't know. He was just happy for fuck's sake. "I... look, I was happy for the first day in quite a while, so maybe I was a bit more enthusiastic and touching him more than usual - which sounds wrong but really isn't - am I not allowed to be tactile? Don't get me wrong if I thought for a minute Seamus had feelings for me I'd not have done the flirty thing to start with," liar a little voice in his head protested. "But he doesn't!" he insisted, ignoring the the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach at the words.

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dennisthebrave
2015-04-15 01:44 pm UTC (link)

Dennis felt his lips twitch at the definite lack of friendliness pressed into the term 'mate' but let the other man finish. "I've known my flatmate and other best mate since the train as well," he pointed out politely. "It doesn't mean I flirt with them."

He lifted his hands as if to fend of invisible blows. "Look, I get it okay? I'm glad you were happy - you must think I'm some giant prick for confronting you like this, but Seamus looked out for me after my brother was murdered at the Battle of Hogwarts, so I have a bit of a soft spot for him yeah?" He tried not to visibly wince at the way he responded to the other man's pity party with a little bit of his own. Instead he steamed on. "Maybe you don't like him. Or maybe you're so far into denial that you're totally unable to see how ridiculous you both are - because seriously, if I could get a videocamera to work in this damn place and showed you a recording... But I mean who I am I to know? It's not like journalists are good at reading people or anything." He tilted his head and smiled. "I just want to look out for my friend."

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artistdean
2015-04-16 03:27 pm UTC (link)

Dean opened and closed his mouth, wanting to reiterate his point, that he'd given a flirty greeting because it was funny, but then he'd reeled back and just acted normally. People had commented on their behaviour before, but he'd just brushed it off as normal for them. Which it was. And Dean knew for a fact he was terrible at flirting, he was awkward and laughed at all the wrong things, and got nervous. Although of course he was also awkward and twitchy when meeting new people. He had just known Seamus long enough that he was relaxed around him. "I don't flirt with him, I am patently horrible at flirting, and I'm pretty sure I can find half a dozen people who will tell you that." He didn't flirt with Seamus, did he? Shit, did being relaxed with people mean he got flirty? Did he do that with other people too? Susan maybe?

He couldn't exactly argue with Dennis about Seamus taking care of him after Colin was killed, hell Seamus had helped look after him too, and frankly still did. "I mean, you're not exactly my favourite person right now," he said with a massive sigh, "But I understand you trying to take care of Seamus, even if I think it's totally unnecessary." The videocamera comment actually made him laugh slightly, before rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm an artist, we're pretty observant too. After, what, over ten years of friendship you'd think I'd have noticed he was in love with me!" He would have done, right? Seamus loved him, of course he did, but in love with him? Obviously not. He scrubbed a hand across his face. Half of him wanted to tell Dennis to get lost, but there was a squirmy feeling in his stomach that couldn't quite make him do it.

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dennisthebrave
2015-04-17 03:28 pm UTC (link)

Dennis tried not to smile too noticeably, but the fact that the other man seemed to be getting slightly less sure of himself filled him with a certain amount of satisfaction. "You didn't look like you were horrible at flirting to me," he suggested with a shrug. "You seemed pretty good actually: subtle, not at all douchey, just the right amount of sass. I made a note of a few of your lines, actually." His smile grew wider as Dean grew even more
"Half a dozen people eh," he asked drily. "Can I find them in this universe or do I need to bring out my nine-dimensional hyper-cardigan to get the job done? Because that thing is a bitch of a thing to pack away, let me tell you, and I always end up with a bunch of weirdos running around with me, and inevitably one of them dies and then the whole day is just ruined."

He smiled with much less mockery, and something approaching warmth at the other man. "I understand that, and I am genuinely not trying to be a dick. I mean I probably am being a dick, but that's more a general personality fault of mine than any conscious decision to descend into dick-like behaviour," he replied, before pausing and making a face. "I have also managed to make the word 'dick' redundant, which is worrying. But yes, I'm glad that you get where I'm coming from." He paused, and waggled his eyebrows. "If nothing else you can at least rest assured that since Seamus has - in a possibly spectacularly unhealthy fashion - the position vacated by my dead brother, that I harbour absolutely no romantic feelings for the dork, so you know I'm not motivated by jealousy." He was glad when Dean laughed at his comment, and listened to what he had to say without interrupting. He felt torn for a moment, because while Dean's point was fairly logical, it somewhat fell down in the face of how masochistic Seamus could be. "I uh," he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I think sometimes Seamus can be very good about being thick headed about things that freak him out," he responded at last.

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artistdean
2015-04-17 04:19 pm UTC (link)

Dean's mouth worked a few times, trying to run over the conversation he'd had with Seamus that day in his head. The problem was it didn't really stand out in his head. They'd talked about their respective word-restricted situations, and had a bit of fun with it, but they hadn't been doing anything out of the ordinary really. Then he heard what Dennis was saying about his cardigan. He had a feeling they shared taste in books, but that wasn't something he really wanted to focus on right now. "Don't be ridiculous!" he said. "I can provide my ex-girlfriend, two former colleagues at the café I worked at, the ex boyfriend who actually laughed in my face before agreeing to go out with me, I'd say Seamus but I don't think that would really work for this point, but I'm sure Susan would back me up..." he trailed off, realising that he couldn't think of a sixth distinct person because he honestly didn't try to flirt very often, and that Susan might well be more likely to back Dennis up than him, given past behaviour. "Ummm. Merlin, I don't flirt very often," he said, actually concerned now.

"Dick." he said obligingly, with as little inflection as possible. Although he rolled his eyes at Dennis the fact that he was affirming his lack of interest in him made him feel oddly relieved in a way that made him shift in his seat slightly. He swallowed, having a feeling that he always had a similar reaction when he heard similar things, and there was the constant slight discomfort when Seamus was seeing someone, even when it was just Justin who he'd been avowedly not serious about. He looked at Dennis not really seeing him, or hearing the rest of his points, too lost in thought. Shit.

"I've gotta go," he said abruptly, gathering up his things, leaving a half-eaten sandwich on the table and sweeping out of the pub without even waving to Seamus.

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