Max Davies (familylaw) wrote in lazarustheic, @ 2017-09-07 13:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: chloe pucey, character: max davies |
who ? max davies and chloe pucey
when ? thursday evening, 7th september
where ? house in cambridge
what ? cambridge debating society reunion
warnings ? recreational drug use
status ? completed in gdocs
The Cambridge Debating Society’s reunion was going about the same as Chloe had expected. There were those too famous/rich/in-politics who were too busy ‘networking’ with everyone else at a similar level, then there were those like Chloe who’d done well but just didn’t care to network and then there was those who didn’t really bother to tell you what you did and rather just offered you a drink. Chloe liked those ones the best and when about half-way through the event someone had asked Chloe if she wanted to go to a less stuffy place than the posh hotel the reunion was in, Chloe had eagerly agreed. And then taken Max with her.
This was how they ended up at a house party somewhere in Cambridge. The house was still very nice, but the crowd of people had changed quite a lot from what the original reunion had been. Chloe felt she preferred this more, because people were... well, frankly, less pretentious. They were, by majority, still Cambridge alumni, so there was, of course, a degree of pretentiousness still about, but it was a great deal of less obnoxious. Chloe had also ran into Evan, whose friends had offered Chloe pot brownies and a bong, both of which she’d accepted with some amusement, not having had an experience of being handed a bong in what felt like almost a decade.
“So I bring you weed brownies or this,” Chloe said with a small grin, setting the bong down in front of Max, before she joined him on the sofa, holding the small plate with the brownie on it between them.
--
Max had felt decidedly out of place all night, which was probably more his own fault than anyone else's. As Chloe had predicted, no one had really asked questions about his life beyond those about work and politics, which Max could answer easily. No one cared about his personal life, and if anyone noticed the wedding ring they simply accepted it as a fact they didn't need to know more about. Max still felt a little like he was lying. He hadn't seen most of these people since he'd graduated, so unlike his friends in the wizarding world they didn't see the life he presented with Siobhan. He could have told them. Unlike the pureblood elite who were still obsessed with bloodlines and inheritance, most of them would even be tolerant. Max just couldn't find a natural way to bring it up, because the conversation was about work and politics.
The house party was, somehow, worse. Everyone was more relaxed, which just made Max more aware of how not relaxed he felt. He could have gone home, but he'd told Siobhan and Higgs he'd be out all evening, and he didn't want to interrupt if they were enjoying some time alone together. Siobhan had been so busy lately that Max knew she'd spent less time with Higgs than she had with Max, just by virtue of their living together, and he wanted to give them a chance to even it out. If that was even what they were doing. So, instead, he'd been sitting on the couch by himself nursing the end of a surprisingly awful bottle of wine. He frowned at Chloe as she sat down beside him, grinning. He was glad she was having a nice time, at least. "No, thank you?" Max said, the response morphing into a question on its way out of his mouth. He'd never indulged in anything harder than alcohol, afraid it would damage his career prospects if he was caught. "Are you having a nice time?"
--
Chloe wasn't exactly surprised to discover that Max declined the drugs and she only gave a small shrug with one shoulder in return, before smiling at him. "I am having a nice time," Chloe replied finding a lighter on the table, before reaching to light up the bong and taking a deep drag before setting it back down on the table. She leaned back into the sofa, giving a small hum. "I wonder how this will work," she commented more to herself than Max, because Chloe was taking her ADHD medication, which was not something she'd ever mixed with weed back in her uni days, for obvious reasons.
"How have you been?" Chloe asked, feeling her body relax against the sofa. "I didn't get to speak to you much at the party, I think your boyfriend was very preoccupied making sure you didn't go off and put proper clothes on," Chloe teased. "You know you didn't have to come in pyjamas?" Chloe really wouldn't have objected if Max hadn't. Reaching for the brownie, Chloe broke a small piece off, popping it in her mouth, licking the crumbs off her finger. “It’s nice,” she observed, because it was a very good brownie.
--
Max raised an eyebrow at Chloe when she wondered how the drugs would work. "I am the last person to ask," he pointed out, because his only understanding came from reading, rather than experience. "Why not ask whoever gave them to you?" He assumed Chloe hadn't brought them with her. If he thought it was an odd time and place to try drugs for the first time, he didn't say so. Chloe could do whatever she wanted without Max's input. "Is that why you took them?" he asked. "Curiosity?" He could understand the appeal of drugs as a way of easing social interaction - but Chloe hardly seemed like she needed that. She was perfectly capable of socialising sober.
"I've been mostly well," Max answered, which felt about accurate. There were still things that were hard, or awkward, or both, but they were balanced by things that were good - Siobhan and Higgs and the kittens. He almost made a joke about how Higgs wasn't all that keen on Max having proper (or any) clothes on, but stopped himself. Higgs would've appreciated it, but it wasn't really the kind of joke Max made with other people. "The theme was pyjamas," he pointed out. To him, that very much meant he'd had to come in pyjamas. "Did you have a nice birthday?"
--
"No, I've had weed before," Chloe said shaking her head. "Spent a great deal of my undergrad being high." Which was somewhat true. In Chloe's memory she had done that, in reality Chloe and her friends had gotten high whenever no one had assignments due or classes to attend. Still, she was plenty of experienced in what the outcome of smoking weed was. Or rather, what it was if she wasn't also taking ADHD medication. "I took them to relax," she explained shuffling on the sofa, enjoying the way it felt soft against her back. "Last week I started taking ADHD medication," Chloe explained. "I've never tried weed with that." So far, though, it didn't actually feel like a different high. Maybe even more relaxing than Chloe had expected.
The theme had been pyjamas and Chloe knew better than to argue with Max over whether that meant he had to wear pyjamas. Maybe next year, if there was a theme, Chloe would make sure to put down that it was optional. "I had a very nice birthday," Chloe nodded happily. "The day before, my sister, Arran and I threw impromptu Christmas, so I got to open my presents from under the tree, which was exciting," Chloe told Max with a smile. "And all my presents were superb," she added. "Thank you for the book," Chloe smiled again.
--
"Oh." Max hadn't known that, and it surprised him a little. Apart from the debating society, he supposed he and Chloe had gone to very different kinds of parties and spent time with very different kinds of friends. Max had mostly spent time with people on his rowing crew, who'd been more a fan of drinking heavily than doing drugs. At least as far as Max knew. Chloe's casual announcement that she'd started taking ADHD medication also surprised him, and he wasn't really sure what to say. "And that's stressful?" he asked, since that seemed to be what Chloe's statements had implied. He supposed, if Chloe was mixing drugs and medications that she'd never mixed before, he ought to stay with her and make sure she was alright. Not that he really had anywhere to go. He reached for the bottle of wine he'd been drinking, tipping it up over his glass - but it was empty.
Max snorted slightly when Chloe said opening her presents under the Christmas tree had been exciting. "Better you than me," he observed. Max had never particularly liked that his birthday was so close to Christmas, and this year he was aware it was going to make things difficult. He'd have liked to involve Higgs in his birthday, but he also didn't think it was right to take him away from his family on Christmas Eve. "You're welcome," he said, pleased that Chloe had liked it, though he hadn't really doubted whether she would.
--
Of all the things that the ADHD thing had brought along, Chloe wasn't sure she'd pick 'stressful' first, but she supposed it had been. So Chloe nodded. "I mean, yeah, it has been," because that was true. "But I more mean... smoking weed just relaxes you. Like it's a nice feeling," Chloe explained giving a shrug. "You sure you don't want to try? It's not harmful." Well, very technically there were very few people who had adverse effects, but that was rarely.
"I love Christmas," Chloe proclaimed. "Your birthday's at Christmas right? I remember being very jealous of that." Chloe wasn't sure if she'd like Christmas as much if it always was at the same time as her birthday, too much of a good thing and all that.
--
Max had never really thought about what taking drugs might feel like. It had been something he wasn't allowed to do, so he'd never thought about it, though logically he'd heard all the arguments about how it might be less harmful and less addictive than alcohol. "Does it feel like being drunk?" Max asked, looking at his empty wine glass. He didn't feel drunk. In fact, he was sure he'd had more to drink than he'd had at Chloe's party, but he still felt more on edge, rather than less. "I don't feel comfortable here anymore," he admitted, waving a hand at the party around them. That he felt more comfortable with Higgs and Siobhan was both surprising and not, at the same time.
"My birthday's on the 24th," Max confirmed. It didn't, to him, seem like something to be jealous of - but then he was aware that birthdays were handled differently in other families than they'd been in his. "Are you finding the medication helpful?" he asked, not wanting to give the impression that Chloe couldn't talk about it, or that he didn't care for whatever it was she was going through.
--
"It doesn't feel like drinking, no," Chloe shook her head, reaching to light the bong again. "It does feel slightly less light when you have had alcohol, but mostly it just feels... sort of airy?" That to Chloe seemed a good enough explanation and she took a drag from the appliance. "Try it?" Chloe offered holding it towards Max. "It'll be less effective and work quicker than the brownie." It would also wear off quicker.
Chloe did give Max a sympathetic look when he admitted that he didn't feel comfortable here anymore. She assumed he didn't mean the house party and rather the whole environment in which their university friends existed, the environment in which their university existed. "There's a reason why I was friends with some stoners," Chloe said with a small laugh. Not all, or even not most of, her friends from university had been people who attended house parties like the one they were at now, but Chloe had needed those, just to remind her that normal people also existed.
Max's question earned him a small shrug. "Yes, I think so," Chloe replied. it had now been over a week since she'd been taking it and it was still... strange, in how everything just felt so much quieter. "I'm learning," Chloe explained. "It's a new thing. Well, the medication, I suppose the ADHD really isn't a new thing, but me learning about it has been."
--
Logically, as Chloe had said, there was no harm in it. It wasn't as if his employers were going to drug test him, and the Cambridge police force prosecuted less than 15% of those caught with the drug - a statistic Max didn't know why he knew. He took the bong from Chloe, mimicking her movements and immediately coughing as the smoke hit the back of his throat. It hardly seemed pleasant, but then he supposed he hadn't found the taste of wine or beer all that pleasant the first time either, and he'd got used to those because he'd been expected to.
"I just feel old," Max said. "Like I'd rather be at home with my wife and my boyfriend and my kittens." Some would say Max had always acted old, and he supposed he had, but it felt more acute now. "I'm reading a book about sewing." The book was supposed to be about buttons, but it seemed to have a lot more content on sewing. Max was quite enjoying it. On the other hand, Max knew having friends was important. He offered Chloe a smile. "At least you want to talk to me." Though not, probably, about sewing. It was still nice to at least have Chloe as a friend.
Since Chloe had only been taking medication for a week, it seemed obvious that that counted as a new thing, and Max nodded. "Learning isn't bad," he offered. "Especially if it's helpful."
--
"Second time will be easier," Chloe promised when Max's coughed, turning to rub his back a bit before Chloe gave a soft laugh. "Of course you feel old," she said shaking her head. "You've got a house, a job, a relationship. This whole thing's about reminding you how much better you're doing now," she informed Max happily, before turning more in the sofa and leaning her head against the backrest.
Pulling the fidget spinner Arran had got her out of her pocket, Chloe smiled. "Of course I want to talk to you," she nodded. "I know very little about sewing," Chloe told Max. "Why are you learning about sowing?" Not that Max really needed a reason, it was, Chloe supposed, a thing to learn. Which then made her smile when Max said that learning wasn't bad. "It's informative if nothing else," Chloe nodded. She still hadn't made her mind up about the meds, but as an experiment it definitely was interesting.
--
Max wasn't particularly convinced he wanted to try a second time, but he did anyway and, as Chloe said, it was a little easier. "I am doing better now," he agreed. He was, at the very least, not fighting to convince himself he was straight anymore, nor worried Siobhan would realise and leave him. He was having sex he enjoyed, and was learning how not to be ashamed of that. "And I do love my house," he added, since he did. It was a beautiful house, in a very different way to the way Chloe's penthouse was impressive. "Are you doing better now?" he asked. "You have a house, a job, a marriage. Are you happy?" Chloe always seemed happy.
"I don't know," Max admitted. "I was supposed to be learning about buttons. Roger said it might be good to learn about the history of domestic chores." And Max did think he was learning a lot about that, even if he hadn't yet learned why people had first decorated cakes. "Did you know people used to leave halves of patchwork quilts when they gave babies up for adoption, so they could come and claim them again at a later date?" Informative was, Max assumed, good, so he nodded.
--
Taking the bong from Max after he'd inhaled from it again, Chloe set it down on the coffee table in front of them, before resettling against the sofa. Chloe smiled when Max confirmed that he was doing better, the smile widened when he added that he did love his house. "I am doing better now," Chloe nodded. "Very happy." She was, of her house, of her job and of her marriage.
Max's explanation made Chloe nod. "So like a feminist history approach?" Chloe asked. "One of my mums' friends does research in the history of magical embroidery. I think she lectures on it, too, I can see if she's doing any conference papers soon, we can go?" Chloe offered. "So the quilts were like legal documents?" Chloe asked her eyes lighting up. "That's excellent! Maybe Blanche teaches on that, that'd be super interesting."
--
It seemed to take a long time for Chloe to answer the question, and Max spent it trying to find a comfortable position on the couch. He didn't feel airy, as Chloe had described it, but he hadn't noticed before the moulding all around the edge of the ceiling, and he spent some time trying to dredge his memory for when such architectural embellishments had been in style. "Do you think -" Max started, just as Chloe spoke to answer the question he'd asked. "Good," he said. "I'm glad." He was glad Chloe was happy, because she'd been a good friend to him.
He hummed, in response to her question. "I suppose. History through clothes, through mundane objects." There was quite a lot of feminism, though. "There was a chapter about the various suffrage movements. Shops supported them because they were good customers. And the colours stood for -" Max couldn't seem to remember. One of them, he was sure, had stood for something he hadn't understood. "Yes,"he agreed, because answering a question he knew the answer to seemed easier than remembering something he couldn't remember. "Because they couldn't understand or sign legal documents. The babies never got to see the things, and often their names were changed."
--
When Max seemed to settle into the sofa, Chloe shuffled in closer, making the conversation feel less like going on at a loud party. "Mundane objects," Chloe repeated. "I think it's super interesting," she decided. "To look at how women had to adapt what they had to fight for their rights," Chloe commented and then gave a sigh, a mostly just relaxed sigh as her eyes focused on Max's shirt, suddenly very focused on the patterns it made.
"That's really cool," Chloe informed Max, not actually sure whether she'd just said that already. Nonetheless, it was still cool. "Doesn't Roger do cross-stitching? Maybe he can stitch out my marriage contract," Chloe said excitedly before frowning with deep concern. "Would Arran be offended? He's been learning knitting, but honestly, Max, he's shite." Chloe didn't think they'd know if it was the wedding contract. Then again, Arran himself hadn't really thought he was his blanket whatever was any good.
--
Max agreed that it was interesting, and he smiled at Chloe for finding it interesting too. Not many people did, though Max was lucky enough to have plenty of people who were willing to take an interest, for his sake. He'd still been doing his best not to go on about buttons to Siobhan or Higgs, though, instead confining it to journal entries where if it bored them, they could ignore it. "I wonder what history books are going to write about us," Max said. He had been wondering, every time he picked the book up. "What mundane objects will we leave that will be interested 100 years from now? Things produced in factories?" It didn't have the same appeal as things made at home. "I hope historians can make it interesting."
He sighed before he answered Chloe's question. "He got bored of it." Which was a shame, because Max wanted to tell him all sorts of new things he'd learned about sewing, but he felt like he shouldn't, because it would bore Roger now. "I don't know what he's interested in now. Maybe knitting." Maybe Roger and Arran were knitting together. It seemed somewhat out of character. "Why is Arran knitting?" Roger, at least, just happened to enjoy such things. Until he got bored of them.
--
"Things we use in protests now?" Chloe offered. "Computers? Flags? Memes?" The last one, Chloe would've been surprised if Max knew anything about, but there was a friend of her mums' who researched that, too, so perhaps Chloe could take Max to one of her lectures as well. "I'm sure some will find it interesting," Chloe said. "I mean, you and I find sowing revolution interesting," she teased.
Chloe got bored of a lot of things, so she sympathised with Roger having gotten bored for cross-stitching. "He might go back to it," Chloe suggested. "I go back to all sorts of things I get bored of." Because she never got bored of them forever just for a little bit. There were just too many exciting adventures. As for why Arran was knitting, Chloe frowned again. "I don't know," she said finally giving a dramatic sigh. "I assumed it's a thing husbands do? But I've never seen any of my married friends' houses filled with sad blankety wool.”
--
Computers didn't seem all that interesting to look at, but Max supposed banners were still used at protests, so those might be collected. "I've never been to a protest," he observed. He knew there had been some, even quite recently, but he'd never felt moved to attend. He felt loose-limbed in the way that usually came with sleep, but without actually being sleepy. It was an odd sensation. He gave a small chuckle, because he did find sewing revolution interesting. And just sewing in general. "Maybe someone will write a book about the journal network," he suggested. "One Chloe Pucey, living in London, used the journal to write about shoes, while one Max Davies used his to convey interesting facts about sewing, buttons, and the bicentennial anniversary of the sovereign." Bicentennial was a surprisingly fun word to say, so Max said it again.
"He might," Max agreed. Roger also might not tell Max if and when he went back to it. So Max supposed he'd just have to keep asking what Roger was interested in, and hope that at some point it might be something he knew interesting facts about. "I'm a husband," Max pointed out. "I have never knitted anything." Maybe Siobhan felt she was missing out, but Max sincerely hoped not, because he wasn't about to take up knitting. "Maybe he's trying to make you an engagement quilt."
--
"I've never been to a protest either," Chloe said with a shrug. "I've never felt passionate enough about something to protest." Chloe supposed she had been to a protest as part of her work stuff, but that, she didn't think, counted, since she hadn't been partaking in a protest. "I don't just write about shoes!" Chloe said with a frown. "Or do I?" Maybe she did. Chloe was sure she had put up a picture of Arran very recently and he was at least as pretty as most of her shoes. "Bicentennial," Chloe repeated after Max had.
Max was a husband! And if he didn't knit things then maybe that wasn't why Arran was knitting. Max's suggestion that perhaps Arran was making an engagement quilt, Chloe paused for quite a long time to think about that. "But we're already married," she decided after what was far too long of a time to have taken to come up with that response. "What do you do as a husband?" Chloe asked curiously.
--
"Not just shoes," Max agreed, but there had been at least two entries about shoes and he was struggling to come up with any other topic there had been multiple entries on. "But in the context of a historical account, they wouldn't be interested in saying people wrote about the events of their lives. That's obvious. So you writing about shoes could be an example, of -" He paused, not really sure what it was an example of and distracted by a sudden awareness that his shoes were tight. He sighed, shifting, trying to get comfortable in a way that failed to have any effect on his feet whatsoever.
Max, too, was already married. "So am I," he pointed out. "But Roger still suggested I make a quilt for Higgs." And if it was acceptable for Max, it ought to be acceptable for Arran. "I'm not going to," he confessed. "But I think Higgs likes me anyway, so it's okay." As for what he did as a husband, Max frowned. "I cook, sometimes. Manage our accounts, take care of pension contributions and insurance." Those were some of the practical things. "Try to make Siobhan happy. Support her when she needs me to."
--
"No, not just shoes," Chloe confirmed and then watched Max start and trail of from saying why it would go down in history as just shoes. "Do you think that writing about my shoes could be an example of how women in twenty-first century were only interested in shoes?" Chloe suggested raising her eyebrow at Max. "Like how, perhaps, if history books were written by men, they might only ascribe me the one thing, which is my love of shoes?" It seemed, to Chloe, a rather good example of how history books had been written so far.
When Max explained that Roger had told him to make a quilt for Terence, Chloe laughed. "But I don't have a boyfriend I'm not married to," Chloe pointed out. "You've never been engaged to Terence, but I have been engaged to Arran." Albeit very shortly but she had been. No quilts had been presented. Max's list of what husbands (or he as a husband) did make Chloe frown. "But I already manage my accounts and Arran manages his, I know about my pension and he knows about his, same with insurance," Chloe listed back. "So how do we decide who the duty goes to?" Because that was important, right, sharing things. "Oh, Arran's very good at that," Chloe nodded when Max concluded with 'supporting her'.
--
"That wasn't what I was going to say," Max pointed out, trying, and failing, to will himself to sit up a little straighter. "But Mrs Blackwell is only in the button book because she won a competition with the WI, even though she must have done other things in her life. And the button book is written by a woman. I only picked shoes because you do write about shoes, and no one else writes about shoes." Or at least, no one else Max bothered to read the entries of. "It's an example of people writing about things that interest them, outside of work and personal events. Which, in your case, happens to be shoes."
Max shrugged. "He also suggested I make a quilt for Siobhan." Or maybe Max had suggested that, because it would only be fair if he did two. It was hard to remember. He didn't really have an answer to how Chloe should decide who did what in her marriage. "Decide based on who's better at it?" he suggested. "I'm good at borings things like pensions. Siobhan's better at picking gifts. So that's what we do." They did split some things, like cooking. "Or just keep each doing your own," he added. "If that works." He didn't know what to say about Arran being good at supporting Chloe, so he just looked up at the ceiling again. "It's very white," he observed. "Do you think they painted it?"
--
The fact that Mrs Blackwell must've done other things in her life had been Chloe's point but by the time Max said it she had already forgotten about it, in favour of tracing her finger against Max's shoulder, over the pattern than was on Max's shirt. "I also like juice and Arran and falling and marshmallows," Chloe listed but then stopped sad that she didn't have any marshmallows right now.
"That would work," Chloe nodded. "Maybe we can make a list. I can make a list now!" Chloe realised she had her journal in her bag, pulling it out with a pen so she could write to Arran, shuffling in closer to Max so he could see what she was writing at the reply, if there was one. "What am I writing?" Chloe said frowning at the page. "Oh yeah. Are you any good at taxes?," Chloe read out as she wrote it and then looked up at the ceiling. "It is very white," she agreed and then wrote that down in the journal, too.
--
Max made a small noise of surprise as Chloe reached out to touch his shoulder, but he didn't move away. "You write about Arran," he confirmed, because Chloe had, "but I filed that under life events." Max didn't really write about Siobhan, or Higgs, though he sometimes wrote to them. "I've never seen you write about marshmallows," Max pointed out, though he still believed that Chloe liked them. "Historians could write about marshmallows. There's probably books on the history of Honeydukes. And you can be in a book about the Returned," Max noted.
He watched as Chloe wrote her note, paying more attention to the way the pen scratched against the paper than to the actual words. "What are you good at?" he asked Chloe. "You buy excellent books, maybe Arran will say you should be in charge of that." Max did not think Arran should be in charge of books, but he also didn't think that was the kind of thing he was allowed to say. "And wine," he added. "You always have wine."
--
Chloe did write about Arran, but maybe she should also write about marshmallows. Arran was less fluffy than a marshmallow. But then he was also less fluffy than Rock, so Chloe could write more about Rock. "The history of sweets!" Chloe nodded energetically. "That sounds interesting. I wonder if women started that, too." Because that was like cooking right? And women seemingly throughout history cooked a lot.
"What am I good at," Chloe repeated. She did smile when Max said she could buy books and wine. "Arran's very good at grocery shopping," Chloe informed Max. "I get confused and the lights are bright, but they aren't for Arran," she explained. "He came to save me from a shop. I had sixteen tomatoes and a pumpkin." A pumpkin that had then gone to Roger and Chloe didn't know what had happened to it after.
--
"Professional chefs are mostly men," Max pointed out, since that - perhaps - suggested that women might not have started the history of sweets. "I read a book about -" But Max lost interest halfway through his own sentence. Of all the boring history books, the one about the female chef struggled to have a cookbook published had not been the most interesting. "It has to do with having women at home to look after the household," Max explained. "Married men can work longer hours, because they don't need to worry about washing or cooking. And chefs have to work long hours."
Max frowned, squinting at the light on the ceiling - in which one bulb was blown. "The lights are the same for everyone," he pointed out. He didn't understand why Chloe would say the lights were bright for her but not for Arran. "Sixteen is too many tomatoes," he decided. "Unless you were going to make soup." Max had never made tomato soup, but if you were making it for a dinner party or something, sixteen didn't seem an unreasonable number of tomatoes to use. Two per guest, say, and that might not even be enough. "You'd need other things too. Onions." Onions, Max was sure, went in basically all soups.
--
"They are mostly men," Chloe agreed. "But don't you think that maybe they are mostly men because they took the good recipes from women and then didn't allow them to become professional chefs because that pays and money gives you liberties?" Chloe said raising her eyebrow at Max. When he stated that men could work longer because they didn't have to worry about the washing or cooking. "But why do the men get to go do work with long hours and women have to do the washing?" Chloe asked.
Chloe shook her head when Max told her that the lights were the same for everyone. "No," she told him. "They're not. I read about this in the ADHD stuff," she explained. "It's sensory awareness. My sensory awareness is hypersensitive, so the lights are brighter for me." Chloe felt better about that now than she had when she'd first learned about it. "Onions," Chloe repeated not really sure why they were talking about onions.
--
"No?" Max said, not sounding particularly certain of his answer. "I think they're mostly men because men were allowed to work long hours, and women were expected to take care of the house." Hadn't he just said that? The question of why men were allowed to work and women weren't was, naturally, rather more complicated, and Max would have explained it except that he was pretty sure Chloe already knew the answer. "Patriarchy," he reminded her.
He frowned and looked away from the light, which left green spots glowing in his vision where the bulbs had been. It was oddly pretty, and Max sighed. "I'm sorry," he said, not sure if that was the right reaction. He knew nothing about ADHD, so at least he'd learned something from what Chloe had said. "So Arran should go shopping, then," he added, trying to bring the point back to whatever it had originally been. "But not for books. Does Arran read?" Max assumed not, but perhaps that was unfair. "Higgs has lots of books on military history." And cookbooks, but Max was less interested in those.
--
"Patriarchy!" Chloe exclaimed loudly and then shook her fist. "Damn it!" That seemed appropriate. "Buttons are cool though," Chloe decided, getting distracted with the button on Max's shirt. "It's a nice button," she said possibly to Max but also possibly to the button.
Chloe looked up when Max said he was sorry, giving a small nod. "Me, too," Chloe admitted before a giggle escaped her at Max's question. "He does read," Chloe promised. "But mostly about quidditch." Which Chloe was sure would not surprise Max. She nodded when he said that Terence had a lot of books about the military. "Yeah, I've seen," she commented. "It's interesting. I wouldn't expect many soldiers to be interested in military history," Chloe admitted.
--
Max snorted, leaning away from Chloe as she shouted, but letting her get close again to look at the button on his shirt. "It's not very interesting," he said. "Or maybe it is. I think I'm still in the chapters after the 30s." Maybe his book would talk about modern buttons, and maybe Max would find that interesting, too. It did seem rather unlikely. It also only covered muggle buttons, which was a shame, but Max was sure he could find a book about magical ones if he tried hard enough. "Do your mums have button boxes?" Max asked.
It didn't surprise Max to learn Arran mostly read about quidditch. He supposed he might even have known that, from Roger or Higgs. Since he couldn't really think of anything nice to say about Arran's lack of interest in books, he didn't say anything at all. Instead, he shrugged. He didn't really have any opinion on what most soldiers would or wouldn't do. He'd met some, but mostly officers."Higgs isn't most people," he said, since that seemed fair enough. Max thought both Higgs and Siobhan pretty exceptional, though he might be a touch biased.
--
"Maybe interesting," Chloe said. "Like what if the history of your shirt buttons is the history of suits? Or part of it, right? Or is that fashion history? Is button history a subsection of fashion history?" Chloe asked (and asked) and then sighed. "Mama has a box for buttons. Is that different from a button box? Like hat boxes? A box for a hat or a hat for a--wait," There Chloe mostly just trailed off, having confused herself.
Chloe laughed when Max informed her that Terence wasn't most people. "These Higgs brothers, eh?" Chloe joked. "What's made them so appealing?" Chloe was sure the looks helped, but it was hardly like she loved Arran for just his looks and she assumed Max felt the same about Terence. "They're very good looking," she decided outloud.
--
"I think it could be," Max said. "But the book I'm reading is more about the manufacture of buttons? And the history of women… living?" It wasn't really a history of fashion, and Max wasn't sure how much he wanted to read a history of fashion. "A history of suits might be interesting," he conceded. "How did we come up with this particular set of clothes?" he waved a hand at himself, though he wasn't actually wearing a suit. "If there are buttons in it, I think it counts as a button box," he said. If his own mother had had a button box, Max neither remembered it, nor knew what had become of it. He didn't really know what had become of any of his mum's things. His father had, presumably, dealt with them. Returned them to her parents? Max didn't know his maternal grandparents at all. He'd never asked whether that was their choice or his dad's. It could reasonably be either.
He laughed, because he and Chloe had commented on the oddness of their both being in relationships with Higgs brothers before. As for what had made them so appealing, Max wasn't sure he could answer that. "They seem very different," he said. Perhaps that was unfair, because Max didn't really know Arran. He frowned slightly, because he'd never thought about whether Arran was attractive He did definitely think Higgs was, though, so he hummed, feeling warmer than he had. He ran his hands over the knees of his trousers, feeling the material beneath his fingertips.
--
Chloe thought that history of fashion might also have a lot more history of women, but a lot of the very famous designers were male, so maybe Max would disagree. Rather than saying that, Chloe got distracted by Max's next question. "I don't know," Chloe commented, eyes widening as she looked at Max's clothes and then at her own. "Convenience?" It was very convenient to wear trousers. "I don't have a button box. Do I need to get one if I have a kid?" Was that something all mums were required to have?
"Sometimes," Chloe said when Max commented how Arran and Terence seemed very different. "I think sometimes they're quite similar." In quite different ways, but there was still something in the core of it that Chloe thought was quite similar. "Is he very good in bed? He looks like he is," Chloe informed Max. "Arran's very good," she added, since that would be a similarity.
--
"I've always worn trousers," Max said, frowning slightly. Even under robes at Hogwarts, he'd worn trousers. He supposed as a very small child he might have worn shorts, but even those were basically trousers. "But a suit isn't very convenient." A suit was rather more involved than just trousers, Max thought. "And when did we decide we needed waistcoats?" He knew a little about the history of hats, at least enough to know they'd fallen out of favour when life had become generally more casual. "I don't know," Max said, frowning at Chloe's question. "I don't know a lot about mums. Higgs' nan had a button box." She was the only person Max had asked, and she had been a mum. On the other hand, Max thought Gladys would have had a button box even if she'd had no children.
Max couldn't really think of any ways in which Higgs and Arran were similar, so he shrugged. "I've had about three conversations with Arran," he said. "I only really know him through you, and through Roger, and through Higgs." Maybe Max would ask Higgs whether he thought there were similarities. He blushed at Chloe's question, trying to frown at her before getting distracted by a need for water. He took some, wetting his throat and then forgetting that Chloe's hadn't been a question he'd usually answer. "I don't have anything to compare him to," he said, since comparing him to Siobhan hardly seemed fair. "But yes."
--
Chloe hadn't really considered the fact that Max wouldn't wear dresses until he pointed it out and then it felt very obvious. "I don't know about waistcoats," she said honestly. "I've never worn one," she added and then frowned because that was just like how Max had never worn a dress. "Such gendered clothes!" Chloe announced. "Like suspenders. Why don't women wear suspenders? But men have those little sock suspenders! Women don't have those." They did have proper suspenders, though!
"Oh yeah," Chloe nodded when Max reminded her that he didn't know about mums because his mum had died. "I don't know anything about dads," she offered, though that was obviously different. As for Max only having had about three conversations with Arran, Chloe paused. She wanted to suggest topics they could talk about but then sort of got stuck in her head not actually coming up with anything. "You can talk about how great I am," Chloe decided finally with a wide smile. "You don't need comparisons," she shook her head. "Like if it feels nice then it's nice." Chloe did strongly believe that if you could recognise what you liked, you had no need for a comparison.
--
Max had only worn a waistcoat a handful of times. He was pretty sure he'd had a child's-sized one at his mum's funeral, but that wasn't a memory he cared to dwell on at all. Instead, he finished off the water and put the glass down on the table next to the discarded brownie. "I don't know," he answered, uncertain why women didn't wear suspenders. Honestly, Max didn't either, really. He didn't think they were very current. "I assume women don't need them? I don't think men really need them anymore, we have belts." A lot of women's clothes didn't have belts, though, which struck Max as odd.
"No," he agreed, because it made sense that Chloe wouldn't know about dads. "You know other people's dads." Just like Max knew other people's mums, and had a few memories of his own. More than Roger had, which Max had never felt was really fair. Not, of course, that there was much he could do about it. It was easier just not to talk about it. "You are great," Max agreed, even if he doubted that he and Arran thought Chloe was great for really the same reasons. "And Higgs is great." Maybe they could talk about that, too. And sex with Higgs definitely did feel nice, so Max nodded, without actually adding anything.
--
Chloe also didn't know and she also didn't really remember what she hadn't known about. So instead of trying to figure it out, Chloe pushed herself back from the sofa to pick up the bong again, taking a drag once she'd light it and then offering to Max. "How's your first experience with recreational drugs?" Chloe asked teasingly. She thought they were doing really well, with their fashion-button conversation.
"I do know other people's dads," Chloe agreed with a nod. "Not very many, though," she felt. It was true, Chloe only knew a few people's dad's. She liked Arran's dad, he was great to talk law with. "Terence is pretty great," Chloe agreed. "I think he likes me," she told Max. "Like I'm eighty percent sure." Which was a lot higher than when she'd first met Arran's brother.
--
Max had sort of forgotten about the drugs, until Chloe mentioned them, and when she did he started reassessing his reactions, wondering how much of the conversation had been drug-influenced. He still didn't feel airy. He had forgotten about the rest of the party, though, which was nice. "Good, I think," he decided, still frowning a little. "I don't know if I'd want to do it again." Mostly, because Max didn't often attend parties that he'd rather forget he was at. He inhaled carefully, managing not to cough this time, though the smoke was still far from pleasant. "I feel comfortable. Like when you buy a new duvet."
Higgs was great, Max was happy to agree with that. "I've never asked him if he likes you," Max admitted. "I think he does?" He had seen Higgs and Chloe interact a few times. Mostly, Chloe did a lot of talking and Higgs didn't, but that was pretty common for anyone's experience of Chloe. "I am sure he likes me. And Siobhan." Higgs had been very clear about those things, and Max was pleased with that. "I know Arran doesn't like me. But I don't think he hates me anymore." Which was good, if for no reason other than that it would be awkward for Higgs' brother and Chloe's husband to hate him.
--
Chloe smiled when Max said it was good but she did also now when he added that he wouldn't want to do it again. "I think if it was legal it'd be easier," she commented. "Like I might buy weed instead of wine for my parties if that was an option." Chloe thought it was kind of sad that it wasn't, because wine was definitely worse for people. Max's comparison to having a new duvet made Chloe laugh. "That's good. Duvets are good," she announced and then giggled. "I'm so fucking high," she told Max shaking her head. "We should probably get the Higgs brothers to pick us up," she said reaching for her journal.
There were, Chloe was sure, plenty of people who didn't like her, but she was usually very good at deciding that they didn't. With Terence it had and still was quite hard. Which, Chloe supposed, in its own right was quite interesting. "Terence definitely likes you and Siobhan," Chloe agreed with a laugh, because that seemed like a pretty safe bet since he was dating them both. Chloe wanted to say that she didn't think Arran had ever hated Max, but actually she wasn't sure she could say that with confidence. "I think he's trying very hard to learn how to not jump to very instant conclusions," she said in the end.
--
"If it were legal," Max mused, and tried to follow all the various repercussions, and the ways that would change things. It was hard to keep his thoughts from spiralling off onto tangents, about how bringing a bag of drugs didn't seem as classy as a bottle of wine, or how hungry he was. "Did we eat?" he supposed they must have, Max wasn't someone who skipped meals. It certainly felt like he hadn't, though. "I don't need -" He stopped, realising that he couldn't really apparate home, and he hadn't seen a floo fire. Maybe he did need Higgs to pick him up.
He hummed, happily, at the confirmation that Higgs liked him and Siobhan. Higgs was, Max felt, very good at showing that. "I like him, too. And Siobhan." Presumably, Chloe knew that, but Max felt it was necessary to say anyway, because it was true. "And you," he added generously. "Differently." He did like Chloe, but not in the same way, which was fine, because she was married to Arran. Max gave a slight nod, because Higgs had also said Arran was trying very hard. "He's very proud of him," Max said, in a way that probably only made sense inside his own head.
--
They had eaten Chloe was quite sure, but she did feel that they could probably eat more. "I will tell them to meet us by King's College," Chloe said writing a ward to Terence and Arran in her journal before she stuffed it in her bag. "And we can find food on the way!" They could! Now that Max had mentioned food, Chloe wanted food, too.
Getting up from the sofa, Chloe gathered her things before giving Max a wide smile. "I like you, too," she informed him happily before her smile softened when Max said that Terence was proud of Arran. "I am, too," she commented, because Chloe was. She could see how much the things Arran tried were becoming easier for him, she hoped that Arran was proud of himself, too.
Once they'd made it outside, Chloe reached out to take Max's hand as she led them through the side streets and towards the bustling crowds of Cambridge (which was mostly students who'd come back for uni early). "There! Pizza!" Chloe exclaimed pointing at one of the takeaways.
--
Max smiled, pleased at the thought of Higgs being there. Chloe's company was excellent, but he still wanted to see Higgs. Chloe, presumably, felt the same about Arran. He didn't quite know how to respond to Chloe being proud of Arran. It was all a bit emotional, and Max didn't really do well with emotions. It made him think of Roger, who thought Max was disappointed in him. He hoped Roger didn't think Daphne was disappointed in him. If he couldn't believe Max, he at least should believe his girlfriend.
The night air seemed to clear Max's head somewhat, and he blinked as Chloe reached for his hand, but didn't pull away until they reached a takeaway. He patted both hands down his suit trousers until he found his wallet, pulling it open to make sure he had muggle money. "Okay," he agreed, since he did. "Pizza." He really was quite hungry. "We can get enough for Higgs and Arran," he added, not realising they'd probably eaten.
--
Chloe nodded, even though she wasn't sure Arran and Terence would require pizza, but if they were coming to pick Max and Chloe up, it could be their payment. So once Chloe had ordered whatever as ready, she took the boxes and led them back out and towards the benches outside King's College. Once they'd settled, Chloe opened one of the boxes, picking up a slice of pizza. "This is so good," Chloe commented after taking a bite, before settling more comfortably on the bench so they could eat whilst waiting for the Higgs brothers to come to their rescue (not that they needed a rescue).