Tweak

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Tweak says, "That's when HE came along"

Lucy Spinks (addingvalue) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-02 14:57:00

Entry tags:

character: lucy spinks, character: wayne hopkins

Sandwiches
Who: Wayne and Lucy
What: Sandwiches, swapping lifestories, who knows?
Where: Leicester Square/Covent Garden
When: Thursday evening
Rating: NSFW - Language (I predict)

Knowing she was meeting Wayne after work, Lucy had worn a t-shirt under he work blouse. It paired oddly with her formal black work trousers, but who could be bothered to carry jeans to work and change properly? When she'd finally wrangled the numbers for the latest bus trip into some kind of order, she unbuttoned the blouse and left it at her desk to take home another day. She always wore flat shoes to work, so at least she was sorted there. The trip to Leicester Square station was easy, and one she'd made before, so all that was left was to stand outside and hope Wayne either used the same exit or thought to walk round and find her. They hadn't exchanged mobile numbers, but Lucy was fairly sure she'd recognise him. She hoped.

She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited, wishing she hadn't skipped rock-climbing yesterday but knowing she'd had to in order to take off from work as early as she had today. She'd have to nag her housemates into a game of football this weekend, or the pent up energy was going to be the death of her. But for now, she was excited to see Wayne again!

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-05 04:24 am UTC (link)

Wayne rolled his eyes and grinned. Hello handsome, yeah right.

It was really good to see her, though. Someone he wouldn't have to explain or justify his actions - or inactions - to. Someone who wouldn't look at him and go, hey, why'd you disappear when we needed you?

"It's good to see you too," he told her, ruffling her hair as she ~~dragged~~ led him to the sandwich shop.

And, wow, that's the second time someone's asked how much he'd heard.

"Well, as it turns out, living in mid-Wales might actually literally be living on another planet. I started learning Welsh from the ground up - the ground in question being what people called me."

She hadn't left for the same reason he had...surely? Her?

"So, did you stay in school, then, or just head straight to work like me? Something in between?" There was really no need to ask why she'd left Hogwarts, he told himself. "Kick ass in upper sixth? Get eleven A-levels?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-05 07:19 am UTC (link)

"Wow, you learned Welsh? More than just the swear words?" She gave him a grin as they reached the sandwich place. Once inside, she gestured to the menu board up behind the counter. "Everything's good. Probably." She hadn't actually tried everything. She tended to stick to the coronation chicken because it was really good, but she'd had the barbecue chicken and the honey-roast ham too and could vouch for them.

She nodded. "Straight to work. I got a job at BHS, though I did have to use Katie's GCSEs..." She hadn't liked it at the time, but the massive hole in her CV was too hard to explain. She stepped forward to order her usual, then gestured for Wayne to add what he wanted. "Turns out I'm good at maths." It had genuinely come as something of a surprise to go from a decent but not extraordinary student at primary school to someone who was better with numbers than most of her peers.

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-10 06:26 am UTC (link)

"Well," he said generously, "I started with the swear words, anyway, and just worked my way out from there. It's still touch and go, but I manage to keep up okay on a good day." With it compulsory in schools, Rhys was learning it faster than Wayne. He couldn't let that happen.

"Maths are a good thing to be good at. I'm rubbish at numbers, myself, but I make up for it in other ways. Like cunning and guile and a strong work ethic." All of the sandwiches looked fantastic, really, and he could probably eat four of them, but decided on the barbecue chicken.

"I headed straight to work too. No GCSE's or A levels for me." His arenas of work hadn't really required them. And anyway, he wanted to work as much as he could and be there for Rhys as much as he could so Llinos could finish school. She'd done well, too. Five A's.

"Unfortunately, it was always the glamourous world of customer service for me. The horizon is bright and beautiful," he finished sarcastically, pulling a face. But, it was his lot, and he was lucky to have work. He tried not to complain about it.

"Til Mam kicked me out, so now I'm in London. Very exciting. She wasn't so fond of my friends, or my habits. Apparently I needed to get a life."

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addingvalue
2014-10-10 07:17 pm UTC (link)

Lucy laughed, nudging him with her shoulder. "Best way to learn any language - as long as you can swear you can make yourself understood." Lucy didn't speak any languages but English but all three of her sisters had taken French at school, so she had a pretty thorough understanding of curse words in that language.

"Cunning and guile?" She asked as she fit their sandwiches, her muffin (she could share, it was huge) and two drinks into a bag. "Since when?" Work ethic she couldn't argue with - she and Wayne had worked together through a lot of school, both feeling like they had to work harder only to get poorer results than others. She still worked hard too, though with better results now.

Once outside, she paused, looping her arm through his. "Leicester square and sprawl on the grass or Covent Garden to watch street performers?" she asked, not having too much of a preference. She liked Covent Garden when she could find a musician, less so when it was packed with 'magicians' and acrobats.

She gave Wayne a look at his comment about friends and habits, but didn't say anything. It didn't seem quite right somehow to just assume she could still get away with taking a firm line with him the way she'd sometimes had to in school. Still, even if she didn't feel she could outright pry into his business she wasn't going to hold back her thoughts on anything he did tell her. "You should come hang out with me and my friends, then. We all come pre-mother-approved."

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-11 01:47 am UTC (link)

""Aw, come on, Spinks," Wayne whined. "I could totally be cunning and guileful if I wanted. Probably. Ok, you got me there. Um, Covent Garden?" He suggested, tugging her in that direction by their linked arms.

Wayne considered Lucy for a moment. They had a lot in common-- always had. Neither were gifted with a great amount of talent with magic, both from Muggle-ish backgrounds. Both left school. Wayne briefly weighed the pros and cons of the idea of dating Lucy, deciding, after a moment...no. It wasn't like that between them. Plus, the last thing he wanted right now was a relationship .

"Mother-approved. Sounds...like a great time." Wayne pulled a face. To be honest, he hadn't had friends in ages who hadn't thought that a good time was accompanied by drinking.

"Why would anyone lounge around the PS2 playing games and getting baked when you can...what do you guys even do? Talk about...politics? Tupperware? The price of tea in China?"

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addingvalue
2014-10-11 05:59 am UTC (link)

The walk to Covent Garden wasn't long, and since it was a weekday evening it was only sort of busy. They walked past two living statues and a guy on a unicycle before they came to a square with a musician - and steps to sit on. "Here?"

She shoved at Wayne lightly, making a face. "I can't believe you think I've gotten boring, Wayne Hopkins! Do I look boring?" She waved a hand at herself and her 'The Libertines' t-shirt, not sure whether to look offended or horrified. She was actually much less boring now than she'd been at school, since she actually had time and mental energy to be social.

"We go out, we dance, we play football, I go rock climbing. And it's possible to lounge around playing PS2 games without drugs." Not that Lucy had no friends who liked to smoke - she had some, and she was pretty sure her youngest sister's boyfriend was a little too into party drugs for her liking. She'd just never been a huge fan herself. She fixed Wayne with another look. "You think your mother would disapprove of any of that?"

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-11 10:18 pm UTC (link)

Wayne grinned, shaking his head. "Nah, I know you're not boring. I was just fucking with you." The stuff that she was listing, actually, sounded pretty fun. Though the way she said drugs made him a little defensive.

"Well, thankfully, I don't have to worry about my mother's approval, being out of the house and a functioning adult now." Well. "Semifunctional adult." Well. "Adult-ish."

Honestly, it wasn't like he smoked that much anymore now, since he was alone, and it was way more fun in a group setting. Plus, since he was technically in the trade now, he'd been trying to limit his consumption.

Rhys liked football. Maybe he'd like rock climbing too. He always was a little bit of a spider monkey. There was that one time when he'd left the room for five minutes only to come back and find him on top of the fridge--

"I always sucked at PS2 anyway. Ended up chucking the controllers at the others, or at the tv, or out the window...."

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addingvalue
2014-10-11 11:57 pm UTC (link)

Lucy sat down on the pavement with no obvious concern for her work trousers. She'd regret that when it came time to do washing, but for now she was happy and in good company and it was hard to care about clothes instead of just being comfortable. She laughed at Wayne's continued clarifications. "It's great, isn't it?" she asked. "Being a semifunctional adultish person?" She felt about the same, really. She certainly didn't feel all grown up or properly functional. She had a grown up job, yes, but there wasn't even a hint of a grown up relationship or anything.

"Out the window?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "On purpose? Because I refuse to believe you have that good of an arm by accident."

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-12 07:53 am UTC (link)

"Jury's out," Wayne replied regarding being a semifunctional adultish person. "On the plus side, I get to have ice cream for breakfast at the weekend if I want, and no one tells me not to. The downside is, it doesn't make the best of role models." That was probably too close to the truth for comfort - he didn't want Lucy to know about...well, she probably suspected anyway, but he didn't want to confirm his poor life choices.

"And of course out the window on purpose. The only things I accidentally break are hearts and the odd mobile phone face plate. Granted, the windows were usually open, so it's not like I broke the glass -- I wonder how hard you'd have to throw a plastic controller to break glass, anyway." Wayne pondered it a moment, taking a large bite of his sandwich.

It was very good.

"So," he asked, mouth still partially full, "are you just half-in, half-out of the Wizarding world now, or just coming back into it, like me? It's not fun without qualifications, but...I think it has more to offer me than the Muggle one. Tends to get easier to...slip through the cracks." Although...slipping through the cracks was how he'd avoided antagonistic eyes in the first place. No one makes the effort to hunt down a half-blood who left school and blended seamlessly into the glamour of Muggle poverty.

"To be honest," he told her, "I don't even really know if I belong anymore."

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addingvalue
2014-10-12 08:21 am UTC (link)

Lucy tilted her head a little as she looked at him, but didn't say anything. As far as she remembered, he didn't have any siblings, which ruled out nieces and nephews, but there were any number of other ways Wayne might have a child in his life to be a role model for. A girlfriend who had a child, a new younger sibling, a boyfriend's younger sibling, his own child. Lucy wouldn't assume until she had more information - and if Wayne wanted to tell her by dropping small indirect hints, that was fine too, she could piece them together over time, she didn't need to know everything right away.

"Double glazed or not?" She asked with a shrug, pulling the tap on her can of diet coke before biting into her own sandwich. "I mean, kids break windows with tennis balls and footballs, don't they? They're much softer than a PS2 controller."

As she chewed her mouthful of sandwich, she considered. Wayne was basically the first person to directly ask - but then, if he hadn't been in the magical world he obviously didn't know that she hadn't been there. Still, whatever the reason, this was her first chance to really talk it through. "I'm still deciding, I guess," she admitted, taking a sip of her drink. "I left because I knew I couldn't defend myself well enough, and then I was told I couldn't go back to Hogwarts, so I had to make a life for myself. I got a job, I made friends." She'd felt so good, being able to do things for herself.

"When I got word it was safe again, that I could take seventh year and do my NEWTs..." She made a face. Wayne knew very well just how she'd fared at school work. She'd honestly doubted she would even pass. "It didn't seem worth it." Which sounded cruel, now. Like her friends hadn't been enough reason - but she'd been so tired of always depending on those friends. It had never felt like an equal relationship, except maybe with Wayne.

She glanced at Wayne, not sure how much she wanted to say right now. Because she didn't feel like she belonged in the magical world either. "I know that feeling," she agreed. "But on the other hand, I hate that I have to lie to my muggle friends about six years of my life."

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-13 04:14 am UTC (link)

Wayne shrugged about windows. Honestly, he didn't have a bitch clue.

"I know what you mean about NEWTs not seeming worth it. THere's just so little work, you know, in the wizarding world? And a chunk of it is service anyway, so either way, we're...well, you're more qualified than I am for a bunch of stuff, and I'd never wish janitorial arts upon you. But I guess when you don't finish school, whatever school it is, you just...it's the same doors that are open, it's just some go to one world, some to another."

He paused to swallow his mouthful of sandwich, chugged some coke, and took another bite. His mum and Llinos were always getting on him about talking with food in his mouth, but they weren't around, were they?

"I just seem to have found myself with too many burnt bridges. Like in those old Mario games, no way to go but forward, so. One thing that I've found?" he continued, looking back at Lucy.

"One thing that I've found is that in both worlds, school is just a tiny chunk. From what I've seen, the only school stuff that's stuck around is positive house loyalty. Like 'hey random Hufflepuff meeting,' or 'he's such a Gryffindor.' But like I said before, with work?"

Wayne swallowed, drank some coke, and cleared his throat. He didn't tell many people about this, not even his closer friends like Justin and Ernie. And definitely not the blokes back home.

"My mum's not Muggleborn either. She's half-and-half like me. But she raised me in the Muggle world because it's a lot bigger, and in a way, there were more opportunities? At least that's what she thought. I don't think she was banking on me bollocksing up everything at age fifteen. But..."

He swallowed. "This new Monument Alley thing. It's chock full of job openings, at least from what I can tell. The only reason I'm still at my shit job is because they're so flexible with hours, and I get weekends off. I have this thing where I need the first weekend off a month, non-negotiable. But the point I was making was...even us, with our ever-so-strong skills in magic, and our fantastic academic qualifications...there's a place for us now. I think."

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addingvalue
2014-10-13 11:53 pm UTC (link)

"We're as qualified as each other," Lucy objected, leaning over to pull one stripey sock up where it had started to fall down. She didn't know what OWL grades Wayne had received, he'd left before they had a chance to talk about that, but at least in broad terms they were exactly the same. "I just lucked out, being able to use my sister's GCSEs."

His words were just a little too like her sister's - Jennifer was always telling her no one cared about school. It was true that it wasn't a topic that came up often, but Lucy still found that after a few months of knowing someone she started to feel weird about having to make up details of a fake boarding school, or else avoid the topic in increasingly obvious ways. She chose not to argue. Wayne was in a similar situation but just because he didn't feel the same didn't change her feelings. She knew that.

"You haven't burnt your bridges with me," she offered instead. "I wasn't kidding about being happy to see you." She nudged him with her elbow. Still, she wasn't necessarily convinced by his words. Wayne hadn't been the most academic, but his magic hadn't been anywhere near as fallible as hers.

She tugged at her sock again, then said, "I haven't touched my wand in years." There. She'd said it, told someone. "I don't even know if it still works. I don't... I like having a job I'm good at. Professionally, my life is going great. Except I have no money, but -" But that was to be expected, really. Her parents weren't rich either. "Professionally my life is great, and my social life is fine, but I'd like it to be more. I want both, and I'm not sure I can have both because it means telling everyone here that I haven't touched my wand in years."

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-14 02:01 am UTC (link)

"I'm pretty sure your wand will still work," Wayne told her. "Unless - did you take out the batteries? They may need new ones." He braced himself for the playful shove he'd deserve.

"One of the things I've discovered," he told Lucy, "there's secrets you can tell some people but not others. And there's times to keep things to yourself, and there's times when they just really should know." He'd told Llinos about magic before Rhys was born, so she wouldn't be caught off guard in case of accidental magic.

"I guess like, if you're close enough to a muggle, you might have to tell them. But one of the reasons I've had trouble with groups and meetings in the muggle world...you gotta be able to open up. You can't recover if you're always holding back something so...foundational. Does that make any sense?" Wayne hoped his brain hadn't been skipping around the point too much.

(This sandwich was pretty good.)

The kicker was, of course, that while Wayne knew all of this intellectually, knowing it in his core being was another story entirely. It was natur instinct by now to hide things. He'd bet no one knew all of the big stuff he was hiding.

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addingvalue
2014-10-15 01:27 pm UTC (link)

Instead of shoving him, Lucy laughed. It actually helped, Wayne making light of it. Perhaps it wasn't as huge an obstacle as she'd built it up to be in her head. Maybe she could have both, and not doing much (any) magic wouldn't be a big deal.

"Yeah, but how do you make that decision?" Lucy asked. Other than her family, she'd never told anyone. She wasn't sure of the exact wording of the Statute of Secrecy, and it wasn't the kind of thing it was easy to get caught doing, as long as it went well... But there were other concerns. "Anyway, it's a catch 22. How can you get close enough to tell someone while you're holding such a big thing back?"

She filed away his comment about 'meetings and groups', adding it to her private stock of evidence. She wondered if he even realised how much he was telling her. People didn't sometimes, or else they thought they'd told her officially when they hadn't.

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waynecymraeg
2014-10-16 12:54 am UTC (link)

Wayne nodded. She was right about the catch-22, though he hadn't thought that much into it. He supposed it was easier to justify telling a Muggle about magic, a Muggle you weren't related to or dating, as long as she was bearing your offspring.

"I guess you can't, really," he sighed. "I mean, since I left school and the Trace was still on me, I was used to not living with magic that entire time. After that, it just seemed...excessive. Plus, most of the stuff we learned in classes didn't seem that...useful in an everyday setting? Like, who cares if you can brew a perfect draught of living death if you don't know what dish soap is the best one for your money, right?"

Not that he was a dish soap snob by any means.

"Or why Goblin Wars are so important versus 'just tell me a good rule of thumb about calculating the exchange rate between galleons and pounds sterling.' That'd be great."

Wayne polished off the sandwich and brushed his hands on his jeans.

"I guess I decided to come back into the magical world because it's hard enough to live honestly, but why make it harder by hiding something like 'where you went to school' when it's the key that opens the door to the rest of your identity?" Wow, that sounded deep. Wayne was proud of himself for that.

"You should come back too. There's tons of jobs, and they won't ask for A-levels or your sister's GCSE's. Most people know what the war did to kids our age, and are willing to work with us, however we turned out as a result of all that shit."

At least, he was pretty sure that's the way it was.

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addingvalue
2014-10-17 04:24 pm UTC (link)

Lucy nodded, in perfect agreement that potions had been pretty much entirely useless to her everyday life - even though it was one of the things she had been better at. "You can buy potions anyway," she said, remembering what Ernie had said about pepper-up potion. "And who wants to give up electricity to use magic?" Having lived without television or phones or a hairdryer for six years at school, Lucy wasn't keen to give them up again.

"Galleon's five pounds, give or take," she said immediately. She'd looked up the exchange rate the second time she'd popped into Finnigan's on her own. "It's the sickles and knuts that are a little more difficult." Wizarding money was really inconvenient - had they never heard of the decimal system?

Lucy broke into her muffin as Wayne spoke, setting it on the step between him and gesturing for him to help himself. "I don't know..." She wasn't at all sure that it had been the war that had derailed her wizarding education. She just hadn't been very good at magic, and she figured most jobs were going to require more use of her wand than she'd be capable of. "But I can come back to socialise, at least. There must be wizards who have jobs in the muggle world, other than the two of us."

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