ryan stebbins has a fanged fact about that (noleprechaun) wrote in may02, @ 2010-09-23 13:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !!complete, !september 1998, laura madley, ryan stebbins, susan bones |
Who: Ryan Stebbins, Susan Bones, & Laura Madley
What: Idle chatting, lunch, basically FRIENDLY FRIEND stuff.
When: Thursday, lunch around 1pm
Rating: PG.
Ryan had been waiting outside the Madley home in Cobham for 15 minutes already. He had not, however, knocked on the door yet. He was still waiting for Susan to show up and wondered if she might be running slightly behind for her lunch break. Truth be told, he was a bit anxious about seeing Laura because he wasn’t sure what her state of mind would be now that she had come back home specifically to see her dying mother. He was a bit glad Susan had agreed to come along as well because he felt she was somewhat better at dealing with the more emotional side of things, in case it came up.
Of course, it wasn’t the only reason he was glad she was coming. He would have been happy with seeing her for any reason, especially since her new training seemed to be monopolizing all her time. It seemed like months since they’d had tea together, instead of just days. When he finally heard the small ‘pop’ and watched her materialize before his eyes, he smiled.
“Hey,” he breathed. Despite an obvious mutual interest, nothing had been acted on yet and Ryan felt as though the air around him had become three times as thick as it was before she’d appeared. Even so, he stepped forward and immediately took possession of her hand. “I thought maybe you’d been set on some frivolous task that was keeping you from our lunch date,” he said jokingly.
Susan was indeed running late. Lunch breaks, among hospital staff, were more like occasional pleasant surprises than actual regularities, or so she was quickly beginning to discover. When she had finally managed to escape, it had already run past the time she and Ryan had agreed to meet, and Susan had been forced to Apparate without so much as five minutes of rest. She had simply thrown off her hospital robes -- no matter in how much of a hurry she was, she wasn’t going to turn up on Laura’s doorstep dressed in garish green -- and had grabbed her bag from her locker.
As the house came into view, Susan blinked quickly against the dizziness that hit her, relieved to feel her feet safely touching the ground once more. Her Apparition skills had much improved since her sixth year, but nevertheless she couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy about it. Letting out a breath, she immediately fixed her gaze on Ryan, unable to keep a smile from appearing on her face. They hadn’t seen each other in person since the week before, and there had been some developments since which had left her feeling somewhat anxious about today. She had given up on trying to convince herself there was nothing going on between them, for one, but even so part of her was afraid to find he might have changed his mind about her.
Any such thoughts were thrown overboard as he took her hand, however, the touch racing up her arm like pure electricity. “Hey,” she said, needing another moment before she trusted herself to speak. “They were keeping me busy, but I sneaked out. This is more important, anyway.” It wasn’t that she thought lightly of her education, but in this case Laura (and by extension, Ryan) came first. “I didn’t make you wait too long, did I?”
Ryan’s fingers curled easily around hers and he wasn’t sure he was going to want to let go when they finally made their way inside. “I waited for a very long time for you, Susan Bones,” he said, mocking a stern face and tone of voice. “I had time to grow a beard and shave it again,” he added, though this time his straight features broke, a smile dancing on his lips.
Glancing at the door, he supposed they should get ready to see Laura. He wondered if Susan had run into her visiting her mum at St Mungo’s at all that week and thought about asking but decided she was likely to say something if she had. Ryan really hoped that Laura was going to be able to deal with going back to school for the second time, since her visit home was only to last a week. He didn’t know what he could do to make things easier for her, but he thought just showing up to spend time with her was a good start - especially since he had not been able to see her since their fight. Ryan hadn’t exactly announced his split from Marietta, with Laura being one of the many not yet aware. He wasn’t even sure this would be the time or place to tell her something like that, but it was on his mind in case it came up.
“Did you get a chance to borrow that camera?” he asked, as he stepped toward the door, bringing her along with him.
At the tone of his voice, Susan cast a curious look in his direction. She was aware Ryan usually used her full name when he was teasing her -- in fact, it was something she found rather endearing. Her tentative smile turned into a laugh at the sheer absurdity of his comment, and with her free hand she reached up to briefly pat his face. “It’s a good thing I left you time to shave it then. I am not sure a beard is really you.”
Stopping just in front of the door, Susan held up her bag. “I even remembered to bring it,” she said, her voice amused as she feigned a look of pride. “You two had better appreciate it, because my mother threatened all sorts of bodily harm before she let me have it.” In all actuality Evelyn Bones had only given her daughter a pointed look and told her to be careful, but if Ryan could exaggerate then so could she. It did made her quest sound rather more impressive.
Lifting her hand up to knock, she gave him another somewhat shy smile before turning her head to face the entrance, waiting for Laura to answer the door.
“Coming!” Laura called at the knock. She had taken advantage of being allowed back in a kitchen again, to test out her baking skills and thus had tomato bruschetta (which was just a glorified way of saying chopped tomatoes mixed with olive oil and parsley and put on toasted bread, but sounded so much fancier in Italian) and a pumpkin risotto, both being alright for Ryan the vampire loving vegetarian to eat. She tugged her apron off over her head and flung open the front door, catching both Ryan and Susan in a lingering hug. “It’s so good to see you both again,” she said, head buried in someone’s - probably Ryan’s - shoulder.
Ryan wasn’t entirely prepared to be hugged so quickly even though he should have been in hindsight. He immediately dropped Susan’s hand once Laura was wrapping herself around them. He wrapped an arm around her in a returned embrace, despite how awkward it was physically with Susan also being pulled into it.
It was almost a strain to actually hear her, since her face was pressed into his shirt but he smiled anyway. “I’m glad we could get the chance to stop by,” he said in return. Indeed, despite the mildly strained relationship between them lately, it was good to see her, even if the circumstances for her return home weren’t ideal.
Susan, too, was surprised when Laura practically came flying out the door, and she let out a short laugh as she was pulled into the rather clumsy three-way hug. The enthusiasm was comforting after the amount of time she had spent worrying over Laura’s situation and the somewhat awkward conversation they had had before, and even though the hug hardly said anything about Laura’s general state of mind, she immediately found herself reassured.
Ryan seemed to be bearing the brunt of Laura’s physical attack, but Susan found herself wrapping an arm around the girl as well, giving Ryan an apologetic smile as her shoulder knocked into his. “Me too. I hope you’re doing okay.”
“I’m doing - I’m doing well.” There was less moisture in her throat as she got out the last word. She had been to see her mother that morning, and while being back at home was reassuring and made her feel more connected to her family than being back at Hogwarts, but visiting St. Mungo’s was always a draining experience emotionally. “Missing removing points from annoying third years,” she added as an attempt at levity, “but other than that, I’m okay.”
She clasped her hands together. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving. Shall we eat?”
Ryan’s eyes locked on Susan’s briefly when she had bumped into his shoulder and he smiled back at her. Once the group hug ended though he straightened up and looked at Laura, glad to hear she was ‘well’. While he was sure there was more do it than that, he was willing to accept the answer for the time being, especially since they were still huddled in the door way of her house.
“I’m sure those 3rd years are appreciative of the chance to commit crimes without your being there to dock them for it,” he said good naturally. The one thing both of the women present knew, however, was that he always appreciated a good meal so Laura did not have to suggest eating more than once for him to get motivated to do so. “My stomach is always bothering me to eat,” he said enthusiastically. He wished he had thought to bring cupcakes for dessert but supposed that it wouldn’t be the end of the world without them.
“I bet you’re hungry after a long morning, huh?” he said, addressing Susan and briefly touching the small of her back as he did so.
Susan’s glance lingered slightly, but considering they were looking over Laura’s head she would hopefully be none the wiser. Pulling back from the hug, she cast a smile at the girl. “If it’s only the third years you have to worry about, it shouldn’t be too bad. And in any case, I don’t think Azah will let the castle turn into a zoo in your absence.” The thought, however, was rather amusing.
That Ryan was hungry was indeed no big news, and Susan gave a soft snort, surprised to find the mention of food was making her stomach let itself be heard as well. “I could do with something to eat, yes,” she said, letting Laura lead the way inside. She had some time still until her break was over, so fortunately they didn’t really have to hurry.
“Actually, I’ve hardly taken points off anyone since I got my badge,” Laura admitted, leading the other two towards the waiting food. She’d set up three places on the breakfast bar in the kitchen, which was catching the early afternoon sun and much cosier than the dining room, and since there were only three of them, there wasn’t really any point in using the large table. The kitchen was still warm from the stove she had used to prepare the food, and she shut the door behind them. “Mostly it’s just first years asking me where their classrooms are, or reminding some of the boys to make sure that their ties are properly done up so they don’t lose house points over something stupid like that. I don’t remove points for that sort of thing.”
Ryan fell into step behind Susan and Laura as they paraded their way into the kitchen. He -was- a little surprised to hear that Laura had not actually caught anyone breaking the rules yet. He knew he had certainly not wasted in any time in sneaking out of the common room past curfew, even in the early weeks of school, back when he had been attending. It wasn’t really that he was trying to be a rule breaker, but his hunts for vampires had been more important than some silly bed time.
“I’m glad I wasn’t ever a prefect,” he mused. “I wouldn’t have had the time - do you know how much effort it was already, just looking for vampires? I couldn’t imagine bothering with other students too, especially if they weren’t fanged.”
Once he saw the little set up Laura had made for them, he smiled, saying, “It smells good in here.” Noticing there were only 3 place settings he asked, “Did your father already eat lunch?”
Susan remembered from Hannah’s occasional complaints that being a Prefect indeed was no picnic, and that was even without oddballs like Ryan running around in the night. Laura seemed to take a level-headed approach to her position though, which was exactly what Susan had hoped for when she had first learned she had received a badge. “Everyone develops their own style of applying justice,” she said calmly, hoping to reassure Laura if she was still fretting over handling things the right way.
“Can I help with anything?” she asked, hesitating about taking a seat just yet. Offering came natural to her, and it wasn’t like they could expect much help from Ryan’s direction anyway. She smiled a bit. They really should teach him to properly look after himself. All joking aside, he couldn’t actually kidnap her to do his evil (or at least hungry) bidding.
Laura hesitated. Did Susan think that she should be removing more points from students? She would ask Azah Demsky about that when she returned. “My father’s at work today, and he’s going to eat there,” she said. “I made him a salad sandwich, though he’ll probably go to the Three Broomsticks and order chips or something anyway,” she added, wrinkling her nose. “Thanks Susan, but I’m just about done. I’ve just got the risotto on the stove to get the last of the excess liquid away. And then kettle’s on, so what would everyone like to have?”
While Susan hesitated to sit, Ryan did not. And since he got to pick the first seat, he chose the middle. He knew very well he was being selfish but he had to congratulate himself on being clever enough to quickly put himself into a position to sit between his two favorite people. He did turn in the chair so he could continue to follow the conversation the girls were having. “Whats wrong with chips?” he asked, a little baffled by Laura’s apparent dislike of them. “They’re not as tasty as cupcakes but for not being a sweet they’re actually decent.” Ryan’s two food categories were “sweet” and “non-sweet”, with a preference for anything in the former.
“Susan likes tea, and so do I, so that should make it pretty easy, I’d say,” he replied when she asked what they would like. “It was good of you to make lunch, Laura,” Ryan went on to say. He had wondered whether or not they should have volunteered to bring anything but he supposed it had given her something to do in her free time. He knew that visiting St Mungo’s was probably a little depressive.
“It’s alright - I miss cooking when I’m back at school, though of course the food there is very good.” Laura removed some oven mitts from a side cupboard and set the risotto down on a wooden chopping board, ready to serve. “And chips are bad for you. Plus Dad prefers the skinny kind, which have much more concentrated fat than the chunky ones from the oil that they’re fried in.”
”All right, if you’re sure.” Taking her seat at Ryan’s right side, Susan decided to stay out of their little discussion of tasty vs healthy. She definitely thought he could do with some sort of change in his eating patterns, but she had never bothered to delve too deep into the science of which foods were good for what. As long as there was a reasonable amount of fruit and vegetables involved she couldn’t care less about indulging in some “bad” food choices every once in a while. It was hard to, with Hannah regularly tempting them with all sorts of goodies.
“Tea is fine,” Susan agreed, hiding a smile at the fact Ryan had already taken notice of some of her likes and dislikes. While Laura fussed over the food, she chanced another look at him, mouthing a silent “Hi.” when she caught his eye.
“It smells lovely,” she continued out loud, breaking away from his gaze to glance at Laura. It was good to see her bustling around as usual even through the personal crisis she had going on. “I’m afraid the canteen at St Mungo’s is rather horrible -- I think they are leaving all the proper food for the patients.”
Ryan couldn’t really care less that chips were ‘bad’ for him. The health value of food was something he never considered but he didn’t really see a point in trying to argue with Laura about it. She, obviously, took that sort of thing very seriously for herself and others. He just turned to look at Susan and grinned at her when she mouthed at him. While she looked over to continue talking to Laura, he reached over to take her hand now that she was sitting next to him.
“You could always start packing your lunch if it’s terrible,” he mused. Ryan never did that for himself but he also didn’t work at Mungos and have to eat their apparently bad food. He always indulged his cravings at various cafes in Diagon, or at the Leaky. “Mungo’s isn’t even that far from home, you could always stop at the pub to eat something,” he added, deciding he liked the idea of running into at her lunch.
Talking about eating was only making him hungrier though, and he glanced back at Laura hopefully.
“Alright, Mister Stomach, it just needs to sit for a while,” Laura grumped, but only half-heartedly. “You can eat this while you’re waiting.” Reaching for the warming tray, she pulled out a plateful of bruschetta, then paused, her eyes flitting from one friend to the other. “What is going on?” she managed.
Susan wasn’t all that focussed on the conversation anymore with Ryan claiming her hand. She was rather pleased to find he apparently intended to follow through on his plan of ‘only partially behaving’, and although she was rather nervous about Laura noticing, it wasn’t enough for her to pull away from the touch. “I suppose I could,” she said, inclining her head at his suggestions. It was probably a bit too early for her to pull away from the rest of her group, but she could always suggest it to the others and hope someone might be willing to accompany her. She definitely wasn’t the only one who had some doubts about the hospital food.
She looked up expectantly when Laura pulled out the plate. While she wasn’t as vocal about it as Ryan, she was rather hungry herself. Following Laura’s gaze, it wasn’t hard to figure out what had prompted her question, and Susan found her face flushing a bit as she cast a glance at Ryan, unsure of what to say.
Susan’s response - or lack of it (which was a response in itself) - did not satisfy Laura. She set the bruschetta down and slouched back against the sink, arms folded and watching the couple (couple, really?) expectantly, looking for all the world like a parent who had just busted her two teenagers from sneaking out after curfew.
Ryan was most affected by the lack of Laura’s bringing over the snack plate. He frowned at that, not bothered whatsoever by the fact she had noticed he was holding Susan’s hand. Although it was rather hard to avoid Laura’s rather blunt question. Looking at Susan he noticed her flush which caused him to chuckle a little to himself. He did not, however, let go of her.
Looking at Laura, he said in a rather amused tone, “Well, I think it’s clear I’m just continuing to lead Susan on, awfully.” He then shrugged and said more seriously, “Are you going to bring that plate over here?”
“Maybe I should just hex it at you,” Laura said archly, but brought the plate over and set it down with a solid clang in front of him. “You’re not leading her on,” she declared. “She would hex you to pieces if you were.”
Ryan’s joking explanation only served to make Susan’s blush worse, although she was unaware of the conversation that had spurred that particular sentence. Much as she wanted to defuse the situation before Laura got herself too worked up, she had only just begun to admit in the privacy of her own mind that she and Ryan were involved in something, no matter what that ‘something’ might be. To say it out loud would feel too much like inviting this thing to be cursed before it had even started, and so she kept her reply short, wishing they could just continue on to the eating. “Let’s hope that won’t be necessary, then.” She gave him a slight smile. “But I suggest we don’t let the food go cold.”
Ryan was probably more amused by the entire situation than he should have been. But he couldn’t help shaking his head at Laura’s insistent nature or Susan’s strangled attempts to be vague about things. Although he knew the younger girl wouldn’t really be placated by Susan’s attempts to sweep it under the rug, he still turned to look at her and offered a playful smile. He didn’t doubt her ability to hex him if she wanted, after all he knew for a fact she was a capable witch, but he didn’t think he was in any danger of being on the wrong end of her wand just yet.
Looking back at Laura he said, “Of course I’m not. I am, however, holding the hand of my future girlfriend. So if that’s alright with you, I have to agree about not letting the food get too cold.” He squeezed Susan’s hand and looked up at her, grinning.
Future girlfriend? Really? But she had been wrong about things before, and... The risotto all but forgotten, Laura gaped for a moment, then gave a shriek and threw herself across the room to give both Ryan and Susan a hug in quick succession. “You two - well - I am going to kill you both!” she declared, the broad smile on her face somewhat nullifying her words.
As it was, the only danger Ryan was in was of being kissed. There were several reasons why she had never kissed anyone before, most of which had to do with her personal boundaries and her slowness in trusting people. Perhaps most significant, however, was that she had never really felt the need to. Sitting here now, though, her heart in her throat at hearing him refer to her as his ‘future girlfriend’ and her brown eyes warm as she stared at him, she was sorely tempted. It was only her sense of propriety that kept her back, as well as Laura’s rather enthusiastic hug, which forced her to break eye contact as she patted Laura’s back.
“I’d really rather you didn’t,” she told Laura as the girl pulled back to attack Ryan next. She was quite unable to wipe the giddy smile from her own face, and she shyly lowered her eyelashes as she glanced at him again. “It would be rather unfortunate to die now.” Only a few weeks ago she had been lamenting her awful luck when it came to her (lack of) love life. It was funny how quickly things could change.
Ryan wasn’t really expecting to get aggressively hugged once more by Laura. Only her attacking Susan first remotely prepared him for it, allowing him to keep steady on his stool as the younger girl put her arms around him. He laughed slightly at the unexpected burst of affection and returned the hug with one arm.
“I’m glad you approve,” he said bemusedly though his gaze had drifted back to Susan. He was glad to see that she seemed pleased at his bold proclamation, despite the fact that they hadn’t really talked about anything remotely serious. He was in no real rush to do anything except snog her but with Laura there, it wasn’t an option. So he dropped his eyes back to their ‘daughter’ and ruffled her hair with his hand. “Hey kid, where’s my lunch? I’m not sure how much I like you holding it hostage. I’m starting to think you’re starving me on purpose.” Ryan offered Laura a bit of a grin, turning to face the plate she’d clanked down in front of him moments before.
“Do you want some?” he asked Susan.
”And I should probably head back before too long,” Susan joined in, a bit mournfully. She hoped the Healer-in-charge wouldn’t be too upset with her if she arrived slightly late, considering her lunch break had been postponed a bit in the first place. Even so, she wasn’t very much looking forward to leaving either of them behind -- she was perfectly content with Ryan holding her hand and sitting next to her, and when it came to Laura there were still some worries that hadn’t been put to rest. “You should come find me sometime after you’ve visited your mother,” she said to Laura as she went back to serving them lunch.
Turning back to Ryan, she smiled and said, a bit teasingly, “Yes. You’re not hogging all of that. I’d fall over from hunger later and then where would we be.”
“Risotto’s ready, so stop complaining,” Laura told Ryan, not ill-naturedly. She removed three pasta bowls from the cupboard and began serving. “I suppose this is what you two get up to when I’m away?” she asked, trying to bite down on a smile.
“I get up to a lot when you aren’t around,” he replied. “I’m pretty much on the verge of proving my neighbor is a vampire. I think I might try to finish up the article I was writing by next week. The rough draft, anyway.” Ryan beamed with a bit of pride and excitement. It was going slower than he had planned but with everything that had happened lately, his mind had been on other things besides Terence Higgs. It seemed like his life had hit a fast forward button ever since the attack in Diagon Alley. “I was looking at puppies yesterday during my lunch break but when I pitched the idea to Megan, she didn’t seem very interested,” he added, a little bit more mournfully. “And hand holding, maybe some of that too. You should try it sometime.” He gave Laura a slightly pointed look before finally turning to attack the pasta she’d served up.
”She’s probably scared she’ll have to be the one to walk the dog,” Susan commented in good humour, lightly squeezing Ryan’s hand. Nothing more was said for a while as they all focussed on eating, the task made somewhat more difficult as the both of them seemed unwilling to let go of each other’s hand long enough to clear their plates. With some more casual conversation and a few very subtle attempts on Susan’s part to inquire into the health of Laura’s mother, eventually cutlery was put down and plates were pushed aside.
“That was delicious,” she complimented, getting up from her seat to help Laura clear up. “It’s really a shame we don’t get to see you more often, and I’m not just saying that because you made lunch.” Susan was, in fact, very much capable of putting together a decent meal herself, even if at the moment she barely had the time for it.
Moving over to where she had put down her bag earlier, she reached for it. “Ryan suggested we ought to use the opportunity to take a picture of the three of us together, so I brought a camera, if you’re willing?”
“Sure,” Laura said with a smile, transferring the leftovers (truly miraculous that there was anything remaining from the meal, since Ryan had been at the table) into a container to be stored in the refrigerator. She noted the look he had given her at the mention of handholding, but as she was still annoyed at Wesley and not really inclined to ruin a good afternoon by discussing him, she was grateful that her friend hadn’t pushed the matter further. “Can you time it to go off, or do we need someone to take the picture?”
“I’m good at charms,” he said. “I could produce a mean hoover charm if Susan can work the timer.” He glanced over at her, eyeing the electronic she was holding. He didn’t own a camera himself though it was something he wanted to get one day. Unfortunately he was strapped for cash already, so such expenses were more of a lofty dream than anything likely to happen any time soon. Ryan did love pictures being in them and seeing his friends, so the suggestion to take a photo wasn’t unusual. It had been awhile since he’d exchanged updated ones with Laura and he didn’t possess any with Susan in them. “And you better be fixing to make copies for us as well,” he added in his best ‘lecture’ tone, though his smile certainly gave him away.
Susan wasn’t usually the family’s go-to person when it came to taking pictures, but she had observed her mother often enough to have some idea of how it was done, and had asked for a few pointers as well in preparation for today. It would be a shame for the picture to turn out horrible, and in any case she had wanted to spare herself the embarrassment of looking like she didn’t know what she was doing.
Nodding in affirmation at Ryan’s suggestion, she fiddled around with the camera for a moment, tapping her wand to the side gently. “Get ready, then. This should do the trick.” Putting the camera down on the floor, she moved over to where the other two were standing, waiting to activate the charm.
Laura naturally zipped in between the two taller ones, sliding an arm around Susan’s back and hoping that there was no food stuck between her teeth. I wonder if this will be one of the last photos I take while Mum is still alive, came the unwanted thought, and she braced herself with a grin.