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Tweak says, "Hummingbird heartbeat"

Dean Thomas (artistdean) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-05-07 17:11:00

Entry tags:

character: dean thomas, character: lucy spinks

RP: Splish, Splash, Splosh
Who: Lucy and Dean
What: A slightly surprise meeting
Where: Susan's house, pool room
When: Thursday 7th May
Rating: SFW for now

Dean cleaned up as usual on a Thursday and headed for Susan's pool room. It was far easier now he could just come here rather than going to the public pool. For one thing he could be far more flexible now he didn't have to stick to the regulated swim times, and also it was a bit of a saving on his wallet too. Especially since he could drop in for extra time if he wanted. Of course he'd built up enough of a routine that he still arrived somewhere around six most weeks and swam for at least an hour.

He'd dumped most of his stuff on one of the chairs before ducking into the cubicle to change just in case of visitors. He started with a few leisurely lengths before pushing back out of the pool, deciding he could do some diving practice. As usual he dived in from the deep end, going as far underwater as he could before surfacing to breathe and then swimming the rest of the length and back normally mostly sticking to front crawl. He was already leaning over to dive in for his third round of this exercise when he heard the door opening. He looked up, not realising he was basically at the point of no return and promptly belly-flopped into the pool with an "Oof!" and the vague sense that he'd seen a small woman in the doorway.

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artistdean
2015-06-10 09:06 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure too. My apprenticeship shared a lot of the shit food type experiences but a lot less of the alcohol and socialising," he said and shrugged. His apprenticeship had also involved balancing PTSD issues and his future career so it hadn't exactly been normal. "No owls aren't the same, I admit, but they work if you need them to."

Dean was making some headway in the first half of the race but he'd decided against the tumble turn because of his tendency for a flailing limb to catch something, and that meant that he lost his advantage as he turned awkwardly, almost at a standstill. He was definitely getting an advantage from his longer limbs and regular swimming though and he gained back his lost distance by half way. Lucy was swimming fast though and giving him a decent race. He kicked hard trying to get ahead and silently cursing the fact Lucy's size didn't totally seem to be working against her. Long limbs weren't always the blessing people assumed.

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addingvalue
2015-06-15 01:22 pm UTC (link)

Even without googles, Lucy could keep her eyes open underwater - and could see that she was within an arm's length of the wall when Dean pulled ahead to one side of her. There was no time to make up the distance. By her next breath, Dean had already won. Lucy pulled her way to the wall and slapped it with one hand in a proper racing finishing anyway. "Well done," she said, when she'd lifted her head and blinked the water out of her eyes. "It was close, at least."

She grinned, stretching her legs out below her. "This is officially my new favourite pool." She hadn't had a chance to notice before, but the fact that the pool was cleaned by magic rather than chemicals meant it was much nicer to swim in - and wouldn't even wreck her hair.

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artistdean
2015-06-15 11:15 pm UTC (link)

Dean was almost surprised that he'd won, regular swimming and limb length aside Lucy had definitely made him work for it, but those two things still definitely ran the odds in his favour. He touched the wall, and looked up to see she was only a stroke or so behind him, and he relaxed his legs down, breathing hard. "It was," he agreed. "Well done to you too."

He grinned at her, nodding. "Yeah, it basically became my favourite as soon as I tried it out." He held onto the side to save really treading water and his smile softened with fondness. "I mean my only real complaint is the occasional sudden appearance of my best friend interrogating me about my life choices, or the lack of appearance if I'm expecting her!" he joked. Both of those had happened since Susan had moved and both options were rather unnerving. He rather suspected that was the point.

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addingvalue
2015-06-17 02:03 pm UTC (link)

"Thanks," Lucy said. She wasn't the type to lose badly - growing up with two older sisters and an affinity for the boys' company she'd lost more often than she'd won. Still, she grinned at him. "I'd have beat you if I'd warmed up," she teased. She wasn't sure that was true but it might have been. On the other hand, if they'd been racing from shallow to deep rather than the other way around it might not have been enough to make up the difference.

Recognising the innate Susan-ness of Dean's description, Lucy laughed. "Oh, so she does that to you too?" she asked. "I thought that was just me because she'd taken me under her wing and made me her little project..." She kept her face light, but it was grating on her nerves a little. Fortunately, she wasn't really home enough for it to be a huge problem - and when she did get some spare time she was thinking about finding a place of her own. Maybe in the muggle world, but closer to Diagon Alley. She missed her TV and her internet, even though she had it at work.

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artistdean
2015-06-17 09:43 pm UTC (link)

"Really," he insisted. "I thought you had me there for a second. The warm up might have done it. Although if we started the other end I'd have managed a decent turn. Six of one..." he said and shrugged. He was competitive, sure, but it wasn't really that big of a deal.

Dean laughed too and nodded. "Oh yes, the benign meddling is a constant," he said and then paused to consider. "Well, it's mostly benign," he allowed. "Pretty sure the thing with how well she reads people will always be alarming though," he said. The fact that Susan always worked within his triggers meant that Dean was a lot more forgiving of her behaviour than he might have been with someone who didn't.

"As a tip: she rarely responds badly to bribery by food. I mean, mostly it's Seamus I end up feeding, but he can't always handle his spices so well, so Susan is the one who gets things when I get over enthusiastic with chilli or something," he said. He had a feeling his talking about Seamus had sort of sounded a bit overly fond and was hoping to yank the conversation back away from him by bringing the tale back to Susan.

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addingvalue
2015-06-22 03:30 pm UTC (link)

Lucy kicked away from the wall to tread water. She'd come out to swim, after all, and she was going to make the most of the time she had in the water. "It is a bit surreal," she agreed. She wanted to think that Susan wasn't as good at reading her - because they'd been apart for years after school, but it was more trying to convince herself than accurate.

"I'm not above bribing her," Lucy said. "I already treated her to my best recipe, but I'll see if I can come up with anymore." The name Seamus rang a bell, but it took her a moment. "He owns the pub, yeah?" she asked. "Susan's mentioned him. And I think we were in classes together at school." She turned her attention on Dean again, trying to picture him younger and in robes instead of swimming trunks. "Which means I was probably in classes with you too..."

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artistdean
2015-06-22 10:38 pm UTC (link)

"Stay away from the weird combos, she gets enough of that from me when I'm half asleep," he suggested. He couldn't help but grin when she brought up Seamus' name again, no matter that he'd tried to change the conversation. "Yeah, he owns the pub. He'd be my other best friend," he said. "And yeah, we had Herbology together at school, all of us. Seamus and I are both Gryffindors," he said. "If you're trying to work it out I've been tall since about third year, but I was skinnier then and didn't grow my hair out quite so much," he said, recognising the look.

"Anyhow, if you don't mind I'm going to swim," he said. "We can chat when we're done if you like." He was getting a bit restless, wanting to get back into the soothing repetition of laps, no matter than he'd been diving when she arrived.

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addingvalue
2015-06-25 11:47 am UTC (link)

Laughing, Lucy shook her head. "I can't promise. I mean, I mostly use recipes so the combinations have in theory been tested by someone else, but if I get a new pairing of ingredients in my head, I'm likely to just try it and see how it goes. Especially if I'm in Susan's kitchen with no access to the internet..." Lucy continued to purse her lips as she looked at Dean. She could sort of picture him and Seamus from school, but there was something else. "I must have seen you somewhere around since school," she said, but she sounded uncertain. It didn't feel that recent, to her, but she couldn't think where else she could have seen him... She supposed it didn't really matter.

"You go ahead," she said, nodding. "I'll try not to get in your way. Shouldn't be a problem as long as you swim straight." Susan's pool didn't have lane markers like a communal pool would, but there was more than enough space for them both.

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artistdean
2015-06-25 02:56 pm UTC (link)

"Eh, fair enough, but it's worth the warning if you find stray food arrive early in a morning too. I usually try and include a note of what stuff is, but sometimes I forget," he said. He hadn't done any late night baking lately, but once he eased off his potions again it seemed likely. Her continued confusion didn't bother him, after all he'd aged quite a lot since school, her comment however, was confusing. He bit his lip, wondering where the hell she might have seen him. Then he remembered the coffee shop. It had been a while, but Susan had said she'd been in the muggle world. "I, er, I did work in a muggle coffee shop for a while during my apprenticeship. Still have art there sometimes," he said after several seconds.

"Thanks, I'll do my best," he said and paddled a few feet to the side, took a breath and set off across the pool, first pushing off under the water but soon rising and his arms sliding into a smooth front crawl.

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addingvalue
2015-07-02 12:51 pm UTC (link)

Thinking of the coffee shops she'd visited regularly didn't help Lucy place Dean, though there was still something nagging at her, as if the pieces were almost all in place. She shook her head - deciding she preferred swimming to mystery-solving. It would come to her, if it was important.

She let Dean get a few laps in, to gauge his pace, then struck out herself, timing it so she'd stay a little ahead of him, provided their speeds stayed consistent.

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