who ? andrew kirke and evan potter when ? 14th august where ? panquake house and then thorpe park what ? half-versary! (also andrew's face got stuck) status ? complete
It had been, in Andrew’s opinion, a very successful half-anniversary-morning. He’d skipped his run and been rewarded with an Evan who was pleasingly pleased to wake up with him, and demonstrated that fact with many kisses. While Evan showered, Andrew had - after his conversation with Ginny about glitter and rainbows in food - laboured over a stack of only-slightly-burned rainbow pancakes which they’d then, naturally, cut in half to share. Evan had cleared up while Andrew went to have a shower of his own and they were within half an hour of leaving when disaster struck.
Andrew’s little pot of hair gel, the one he used every morning, was nowhere to be seen. Not in his room, not in the bathroom, not anywhere. So, hair flopping unattractively (at least, in Andrew’s eyes), Andrew had to head out to buy more. He’d promised it would be a five minute trip, and then twenty minutes and they could apparate to Surrey. On his way back from the shop, though, Andrew passed a shop window full of mirrors. It should probably have seemed strange to him that he hadn’t passed it on the way towards the shop, because there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed. It should also have seemed strange that he was fairly sure the shop front had been an apothecary three days ago. But, in an effort to save time, Andrew didn’t notice either of those oddities. Instead, he set about trying to fix his hair in the mirror. He could get back to Evan ready to go, and then Evan wouldn’t complain (even teasingly) about how long it was taking.
As he fumbled the hair gel open, smearing the colourless substance on his fingers, Andrew’s attention was drawn to the largest and most ornate of the mirrors. He shifted, moving to stand directly in front of it. It made sense, after all, to do his hair in the mirror that reflected the largest area. He worked a handful of the gel into his hair, tugging upwards to create his trademark spikes. In the mirror, when Andrew’s hand moved away from his forehead, huge clumps of hair were still attached to it. Andrew leapt back, dropping the gel and staring, horrified, down at his hand - which had nothing on it but gel. Cautiously, he peeked up at the mirror, his horrified expression staring back at him, but all his hair in its usual place.
Andrew did not pick up the gel and run home, but he did walk quite quickly, and when he arrived at Panquake House, there was a note of apprehension in his voice. “Evan!” He pushed Axel’s dog’s nose away from the still-open pot of gel just as Evan appeared in the corridor. “Evan! Is my hair all right? It’s not -” He reached up to brush his fingers through it. “It’s not missing any?”
--
There had been pancakes. Gay and delicious. Both of which had been very appropriate, Evan felt. He was quite excited about their half-versary. The morning had started well with cuddles and kisses and pancakes, but then Andrew had discovered a lack of hair gel, which apparently was very important. Personally Evan wasn’t convinced it was, but then he also suspected that him and Andrew had a very different perception of what Andrew’s hair looked like. So Evan had mostly given a shrug when Andrew had announced he had to go to a shop and wished him a fun trip.
Whilst Andrew was gone, Evan had settled down with a book because there hadn’t been much else to do. The book was very interesting and Evan almost missed Andrew calling his name upon his return. Almost. Evan didn’t miss it because the tone sounded... panicked? It definitely didn’t sound like what Andrew normally did. With a frown, and only slightly faster than necessary, Evan emerged from Andrew’s bedroom. The ‘is my hair alright’ made Evan frown even deeper, because if this was a panic over not having hair gel, again, Evan was going to be very unimpressed.
Except then Andrew sounded genuinely distraught as he asked Evan if any of his hair was missing and Evan took a step closer, reaching out to pull Andrew’s hand away from his hair. Both so he could check and so he could stop Andrew from running his hand through it, because if Andrew messed it up they were never going to leave. “No?” Evan offered inspecting Andrew’s hair. “It look fine to me,” he commented with a small shrug, before leaning in to press a soft kiss against Andrew’s lips.
“Your face looks a mess, though,” he added nonchalantly.
--
Andrew didn’t entirely trust Evan’s judgement about his hair. Evan had expressed a preference for Andrew-in-the-rain and Andrew-half-asleep and, generally, Andrew when his hair wasn’t perfect. Clearly, Evan held Andrew’s hair to a very different standard than Andrew did. But he tangled his fingers through Evan’s as Evan inspected his hair. Evan did see him more than almost anyone else. He’d notice if a huge chunk of hair was missing, right? (Andrew would’ve felt a lot better if Aisling was there to reassure him.) “You’re sure?” he asked, beginning to tug Evan towards the nearest mirror, the one at the bottom of the stairs, so he could check himself.
He stopped at Evan’s word. “My face?” Evan hadn’t sounded like he was teasing, and Andrew couldn’t ever remember Evan making fun of his appearance, really. “What’s wrong with my face?” He lifted his free hand, to make sure he wasn’t bleeding or covered in gel or - anything.
--
“I’m sure,” Evan nodded but he did give Andrew’s hair another look. It all seemed to be there, just as it had been this morning, maybe with slightly more gel in it. “It looks half-done, but all there,” Evan assured, giving Andrew’s hand a squeeze when their fingers linked together. Following Andrew to the mirror, Evan tilted his head slightly when Andrew asked what was wrong with his face. Evan wasn’t sure he could quite describe it, it just looked... diffferent.
With a small shrug, Evan frowned. “It doesn’t really... move,” Evan said thoughtfully, before attempting to mimic the expression on Andrew’s face. He wasn’t very successful, though, mostly just managing to scrunch up his nose and then frown again. “I mean, you’re still very beautiful,” Evan assured him, leaning in to press another kiss against Andrew’s lips. “But maybe mostly on the inside, right now?” Which probably wasn’t reassuring but then Andrew did look like how Jim had looked that time Evan had accidentally let him eat chillies.
--
“What do you mean it doesn’t move?” Andrew asked, pressing his fingers around his mouth as he spoke. “I’m talking. Of course it’s moving.” His mouth was, indeed, moving to make words. But when he wasn’t talking, Andrew could feel something off about it. His mouth didn’t seem to quite close. “Shit.” Was he having an allergic reaction to something? But the gel was the same brand he alway bought. The food dye?
Approaching the mirror, Andrew stared into it, trying to smooth out his features and lower his eyebrow. It didn’t work. He tried to smile, which sort of worked but looked more like a grimace. Letting go of Evan’s hand, Andrew prodded his face for several minutes, squishing it but making no lasting difference to the horrified expression. “It doesn’t hurt,” he said at last, because it didn’t. “But I don’t know -”
--
What probably wasn’t going to do a great deal to help, was Evan now also making faces as he tried to figure out what Andrew’s was or why it didn’t move. Evan’s evidently moved just fine as he went through a multitude of movements involving his eyebrows, nose and lips before finally giving up with a shrug. Whatever had made Andrew’s face stay the way it was, didn’t seem to be making Evan’s do the same. When Andrew let go of Evan’s hand in order to poke himself, Evan joined him by the mirror, standing just behind Andrew so he could press a kiss against Andrew’s neck as he looked into the mirror with him.
“I’m sure it’ll move again,” Evan said because it was probably true. Evan had never heard of anyone’s face permanently freezing in an expression of whatever Andrew’s expression was. “Or do you want to go to St Mungo’s?” Evan asked wrapping an arm around Andrew’s waist, chin resting on his shoulder as they looked into the mirror. “Though, I think you’re sorted for rollercoasters,” Evan informed him a little teasingly. If Andrew wanted to forgo the roller coasters, however, Evan would hardly object.
--
Evan pulling faces might not have improved Andrew’s situation in any tangible way, but it did make him smile - which his face was still capable of, even if it didn’t last very long. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. If he was having some kind of allergic reaction, maybe he should go and get whatever it was out of his system before it could get worse. But if they went to St Mungo’s, they’d probably be there for ages, and they’d miss their anniversary and their trip to Thorpe Park.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Andrew said again, trying to justify not going to the hospital. He dropped his hands, watching his face. “And it’s not getting any worse. Is it?” He didn’t think it was. He frowned, as much as he was able with one eyebrow raised. “I look ridiculous.”
--
It was good that it didn’t hurt. Evan wasn’t sure what else to say about it. It didn’t seem like something worth a hospital trip. Not when it most likely would go away on its own. Andrew did seem distressed about it, but Evan wasn’t really sure whether he was actually distressed or whether his face was just distressed. “It’s not getting worse,” Evan confirmed with a nod, pressing a kiss against Andrew’s cheek. “You do look ridiculous,” he added with a small smile. “Still lovely, though,” Evan assured, happy to offer all the kisses no matter what Andrew looked like.
“You know,” Evan said thoughtfully, running his hand over Andrew’s side. “If it does stay like that forever, we could shave off your eyebrows?” He offered. “And then redraw them in expressions?” Which really, could be quite fun. “Or maybe make sure you are always justifiably startled?” That might be harder than the eyebrow thing, though. “We don’t have to go out,” Evan said finally, more seriously. “Or we can hang out in the hospital. Whatever you want. Daisy sent us half a cake, we can bring that,” Evan told Andrew. Thorpe Park had sounded like fun, but Evan was sure St Mungo’s could be fun, too, for as long as he got to hang out with Andrew.
--
The whole experience would, undoubtedly, have been a lot worse if Evan wasn’t nearby to provide kisses approximately every minute and a half. Andrew couldn’t be dying or hideous if Evan was more interested in kissing him than helping him fix it. Andrew really hoped it wasn’t going to stay this way forever, though. It would be hard to be a rock star if he perpetually looked horrified. Not to mention, Evan would stop finding it amusing eventually. Magic was magic, though. Magic could fix everything. Or at least, almost everything.
Andrew half-turned, wrapping his arms around Evan’s waist and kissing him. “Shush,” he suggested. He really didn’t want to think about shaving his eyebrows, or Evan constantly trying to startle him. “It’ll go away,” he said, more to convince himself than to convince Evan. At least they were going somewhere muggle, where he wasn’t famous enough that people would care about his expression. “I don’t want to hang out in the hospital on our half-versary,” he said. It would just bring back memories of Evan being hurt. Not to mention, waiting rooms were boring. “We should go on roller-coasters and then come home and eat cake. Half cake”
--
“Roller coasters and then cake,” Evan nodded. He was sure it would go away, so Evan was hardly going to insist they go hang out in St Mungo’s instead. There were no fun rides in St Mungo’s. They frowned upon you trying to take the beds for a spin, even though they had wheels on them and Evan felt that that was a very unfair indication that one could take them for a spin. Besides, if Andrew wasn’t going to be bothered about the fact that his face didn’t move, Evan hardly cared. It wasn’t causing him any pain, they had established that, so really, they might as well go and have fun and ignore the fact that Andrew looked like a startled cat.
Turning Andrew around, away from the mirror, Evan smiled at him. “We’ll have all the fun,” he confirmed, both hands now on Andrew’s hips as he leaned for another kiss, this one longer and more thorough. “Do you still need to do your hair?” Evan asked looking up at where Andrew’s hair (still all of it) was sort of done. It didn’t look like what it usually look like but Evan wasn’t sure whether he could really judge how Andrew felt about that, not when he looked so startled. It did make Evan chuckle softly. “I promise all the fun, Andrew. Really,” he assured. “There’s no need to look so horrified at the idea,” Evan teased, biting his lip not to actually giggle at the joke, which he felt was very funny.
--
It was pretty funny, even if Andrew was still annoyed that his usually very attractive face was being so uncooperative. Honestly, he hadn’t really cared about attracting anyone but Evan for a long time now, so as long as Evan still wanted him, he could at least tell himself it didn’t matter. (It still mattered a bit, deep down, but Andrew did his best to ignore that.) “That joke is going to stop being funny really fast,” Andrew lied, the warning undermined by the tone of his voice and the fact he was muttering the words against Evan’s cheek. “It’s definitely not going to be funny after the first rollercoaster, or when the drinks are insanely expensive, or when we have cake.”
He pulled away, because yes he did still need to do his hair. He tried to ignore his face as much as possible while deft fingers worked the gel into his hair, arranging it to his liking. It took a little while, because Andrew did feel like he had to compensate for his face, but eventually he was satisfied. “Okay,” he said, looking around to see if Evan had slipped off somewhere while he’d been concentrating. “Ready to go.”
--
“You are so wrong,” Evan informed Andrew. “This is never not going to be funny,” unless it did suddenly start hurting Andrew, of course. Or upset him. But for as long as neither of those were happening, Evan was pretty sure he wasn’t going to run out of funny jokes regarding Andrew’s startled expression. “Maybe for our anniversary-proper you can look overjoyed?” Evan offered managing to sound far more serious than the question in any way deserved. It wasn’t like Andrew had chosen to have his face stuck in a permanent horror, but really, it was getting funnier and funnier as it kept staying like that.
Patiently, and perhaps a bit too used to it, Evan waited for Andrew to finish doing his hair, smiling widely when Andrew announced that he was ready to go. Reaching out to take Andrew’s hand, both for apparation purposes and for hand holding purposes, Evan grinned. “Can we have candyfloss?” Evan asked locating his wand. “And a balloon?” He added before apparating them near the park, carrying on with his questions as if they hadn’t just travelled. “One of them balloons that has little pretend legs, I like those,” Evan informed Andrew. Giving his hand a squeeze, Evan glanced over at Andrew. “And you can look super startled at all of the things,” he added before grinning again. “See? Still funny,” it was.
--
Given the circumstances, Andrew’s face wasn’t capable of ‘overjoyed’, but he did smile rather broadly. He liked that there was an assumption that there would be an anniversary proper, that Evan wasn’t reconsidering because Andrew hadn’t said he loved him yet, that the first six months had been good enough to merit a second six months. “Maybe for our anniversary, you can look overjoyed and I’ll have my usual full range of emotions,” Andrew teased back. “See how you like it.” That was definitely a more amusing thought - Evan, who claimed he didn’t smile (even though he did, all the time), being overjoyed at everything all day. Much better than Andrew being horrified by rollercoasters and too much sugar.
With his free hand, Andrew pulled the pre-purchased tickets out of his pocket as they walked hand-in-hand towards the gates. The ticket-collector did give Andrew a puzzled sort of look, reminding Andrew to consciously push his face into a smile. Judging by the expression mirrored back at him, it didn’t help much. “I liked your sea-creature balloon,” Andrew said. “Until Jim popped it.” He smiled, more naturally. “I’d like to see Jim’s reaction to a balloon with pretend legs. Maybe we should get two.” He snorted, because Evan finding it funny made Andrew feel a lot better about the whole thing. He stopped once they were through the initial concourse of shops and loos and were standing in the park proper. “What ride do you want to go on first?” he asked, turning to Evan, eyes excited no matter what the rest of his face was doing.
--
Well, Evan would have agreed that for their actual anniversary he could look overjoyed but seeing how they didn’t actually know what had forced Andrew’s face to be one expression, Evan wasn’t sure how well that plan would work. “I’m sure I can manage to look overjoyed all on my own,” Evan decided out loud. Chances were that celebrating a whole year together with Andrew was going to make Evan happy enough to look joyous without some weird face-freezing incident. Unless they had to go camping again. Evan didn’t think he could pretend to be overjoyed with another camping trip.
At the reminder of Jim popping Evan’s sea-creature balloon, Evan sighed dramatically. “Jim’s such an asshole,” he said, because the cat was. Jim hadn’t liked the balloon and Evan was pretty sure it was because he had thought it was a pet and had felt jealous. If they did get one this time, Evan was just going to keep it at Andrew’s house. Though, he suspected that Jim could probably still hunt it down. “Ooh,” Evan said looking around when Andrew asked where he wanted to start. “The swings?” He asked giving a nod toward the massive swing near them. It really only was a swing in as much as it looked like it functioned as one.
--
“I suppose that’ll have to do,” Andrew said, pretending to be put out that Evan wasn’t willing to endure frozen facial expressions for his amusement. He had a whole six months to figure out how to make it happen! (And Andrew was pretty sure that Evan could figure out just about anything, given enough time.) On the topic of Jim, Andrew laughed. “He’s got glowing eyes and fangs and you’re surprised he’s an asshole?” Andrew asked. “I still wish we could’ve watched it. Do you think he bit it? Or just tore the hole with one claw? Did it go pop and startle him?” These were all questions Andrew had asked before, when he’d found the deflated balloon on the floor under Evan’s bed, with a sizeable tagged hole through it.
Following Evan’s gaze, Andrew surveyed the ride in question. “That,” he declared, with an air of finality, “looks deadly. Let’s go.” He’d been with Quake before, of course, but they hadn’t been on everything, and besides, Andrew wanted to go on things with Evan. “And then the one in the dark,” Andrew added, unable to remember the name. They should grab a map, so Andrew could find the rides he remembered being particularly good. “And later, one of the log flumes.”
--
Evan wasn’t convinced that glowing eyes and fangs necessarily meant that someone was an asshole. Sure, Evan had never met anyone with fangs and glowing eyes who wasn’t an asshole, but there ought to be nice, evil looking creatures out there. Probably. “Oh, yeah,” Evan said rolling his eyes. “It’s all fun and games, Andrew, until we discover that he pierced the balloon with his fucking eyes,” Evan told him as they walked towards the swing-thing. “And what then?” He asked turning to give Andrew a look. “We’ll never be able to sleep again,” Evan said determined. He didn’t actually doubt that Jim probably could murder a balloon with just his eyes. The worrying thing was that he could probably murder them with just his eyes, too.
“This will be so much fun,” Evan confirmed when Andrew said they should do the one in the dark and then one involving fumes (fumes!) after. It did sound like fun. “This is an excellent half-versary,” Evan announced happily. “Even if you look terrified at the idea,” he added teasingly with a small giggle that he couldn’t stop. Yeah, literally never not funny.
--
“Uh,” Andrew said, as they headed towards the swings. “Even if he could tear holes with his eyes, he can already tear holes with his claws and fangs, and we sleep fine.” If Jim wanted to murder them in their sleep, he probably could. Or at least, he’d be able to maul them a little before they woke up and overpowered him with strength and/or magic. “Maybe laser eyes would make it a little worse,” he acknowledged, because Jim might then be able to do more damage before they could wake up. “But so far, he just watches.” Which had been unnerving enough, until Andrew had become used to it.
They joined the queue for the ride, which wasn’t too long, and Andrew nodded his agreement. It would be fun, and it was an excellent half-versary. “I’m not scared of rollercoasters!” Andrew insisted, looking - this time relevantly - horrified at the slight on his Gryffindor bravery. But Evan’s giggle was adorable, and Andrew pulled him closer as they waited. “At least one of us is still cute,” he observed, brushing a kiss high on Evan’s cheek.
--
Andrew was, of course, right. In the grand scheme of things, Jim’s fangs and claws were probably scary enough without the addition of piercing laser eyes. Still, Evan wasn’t sure they needed to find out that he could kill with them (balloons or otherwise). Evan did give a dramatic sigh when Andrew pointed out that so far Jim just watched. “I’m sorry my cat’s a pervert,” Evan offered but there was very little sincerity in the apology. Evan didn’t really care for Jim’s insistence to watch him sleep. He kind of thought it was rather sweet. Protective. And the eyes worked great as a nightlight.
Well, Andrew said he wasn’t scared of the roller coasters, but his face disagreed. Still, Evan did grin when Andrew called him cute and followed it up with a kiss. “Nonsense,” Evan replied, turning to look at Andrew. “You’re still exceptionally cute,” he told Andrew, completely sure of his words. “Prettiest boy in the class, promise,” Evan added with an amused smile. Andrew was always going to be cute. Even if his face looked ridiculous.
--
Andrew smirked at the apology. “Like owner like demon cat,” he said, the joke too obvious to resist. Of course, he didn’t think Evan was a pervert, but Evan did like to watch Andrew - as he’d demonstrated at the festival. “I think I prefer you watching me to Jim,” he informed Evan in a very serious tone. “Even if Jim wouldn’t make fun of my poor face.” If Jim could speak human, he almost certainly would make fun of Andrew’s frozen face, but Andrew thought that was hardly the point.
The praise really shouldn’t have been able to make Andrew feel a flush of warmth. He knew Evan thought he was attractive. It was not at all surprising by this point, and yet Andrew did give Evan a softer smile, pleased beyond what was reasonable. They were nearing the front of the queue now and Andrew looked up, watching the swings slow so the previous riders could disembark. “Ooh, do you think we’ll get on with this batch?” He hoped so. Standing around waiting was obviously part of coming to a theme park, but Andrew wished it wasn’t.
--
Evan did not think he was anything like Jim, but he did like watching Andrew, so perhaps that did count. He was pretty sure that his eyes never glowed when he did, though. And hoped that it was also less creepy than when Jim did it. At Andrew’s claim that Jim wouldn’t make fun of his face, Evan snorted. “Jim would probably make fun of your face even when there was nothing wrong with it,” he told Andrew honestly. “Jim’s an asshole,” because Jim was, in fact, an asshole. Evan had many a broken mug to prove it, too.
Watching the people get off the ride, Evan gave Andrew’s hand a squeeze. “It’s lots of spaces,” he said trying to count them all. The people were moving too quickly for that effort to be very successful. “So I think we might,” Evan confirmed with a nod. The queuing wasn’t a great deal of fun, of course, but Evan felt that it was made much better by the fact that they were doing it together. Still, actually getting on the ride would also be pretty fun.
--
Andrew grinned at the way they’d had the same thought, while simultaneously waving a hand to dismiss it. “Not the point,” he insisted. He’d sort of forgotten what the point was, but he’d definitely had one. Unable to locate it, he kissed Evan instead. “I like watching you too,” he informed him. “Except when you’re studying.” Because, as it turned out, that was both incredibly boring and tended to make Evan chase Andrew out of the room.
The queue moved forward quickly, carrying Evan and Andrew toward the ride. It was a close thing, but they both got seats and settled themselves in securely. Once everything was fastened and the ride was ready to go, Andrew found Evan’s hand again. “Don’t worry,” he teased. “I’ll hold your hand if it gets scary.”