davies; ROGER (rgrd) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-11-08 18:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: daphne greengrass, character: roger davies, location: diagon alley |
Who: Daphne Greengrass and Roger Davies
What: A tough conversation
When: Evening, November 8th
Where: Roger's home
Warnings: Implied discussion of suicide
Status: Complete
Daphne wasn't really eager to have the conversation that she felt she needed to have with Roger. If anything, she would have rather talked to him about a million things, but keeping the information to herself felt a little too much like lying by omission. So, after work, like so many other days before, she made her way to Roger's place. She still had no idea how she was going to tell him, or what she might use to lead up to explaining that she'd found out some information. There was also the possibility that her mother had been completely off base and knew nothing at all about what had really happened. Gossip was, after all, still gossip. Just because she'd heard things didn't make them true. She was still pondering over that realization when she got to Roger's door.
Either way, she was going to have to talk to him and the time to prepare was running out quickly. Knocking on his door, she drew in a breath of preparation and let it out slowly. It was now or never.
--
Roger’s day had been rather uneventful. In fact, so far, the whole of Roger’s week had been rather uneventful, which was somewhat surprising seeing how much had as of lately gone on in the Ministry. Yet most Roger had was ever so often reminding people that gossiping was something they were meant to do on a break not during work time. Still, by the time Roger got home, he felt rather tired. Days that weren’t eventful, he had discovered, tended to feel far more exhausting than the days Roger actually found interesting things to do.
It hadn’t been long since he’d settled on the sofa with a cup of tea next to him and one of Daphne’s notebooks in hand when the knock at the door came. Before Roger had even opened the door, he assumed it’d be Daphne. It usually was, which was--well, something. “Hey,” Roger greeted with a smile, reaching out to place a hand against Daphne’s waist as he pulled her inside the house, placing a kiss against her lips as Roger shut the door behind them. Roger quite liked the way she just appeared at his house in the evening, he thought.
--
Daphne smiled into the kiss, happily returning it. For a moment, the main reason she'd had for coming over disappeared from her mind and was replaced with a hazy warmth that often filled her up when he was touching her. "Hey," she replied once he'd released her from the kiss. "You're in a good mood," she teased, flashing him a smile. "Were you like that before I arrived or should I feel particularly special?"
--
Roger gave a small laugh at Daphne’s question, before shaking his head slightly. “Must be you, I have nothing else to be in a good mood for,” he assured her moving towards the kitchen. It was somewhat true. It was hardly as if Roger had anything to be in a bad mood over, but if it seemed like he was in a good mood, Roger was rather sure it was definitely down to Daphne’s company. He didn’t even any longer feel confused about why his mood improved when she was there, rather just accepting that it did.
“Do you want a drink?” He asked glancing at Daphne over his shoulder. “I’ve got beer, or I think there’s a bottle of white in the pantry,” he added thoughtfully. “Or water, you can always have water,” Roger said with a smile. “Have you had dinner? I have leftovers,” which was true because whilst Roger was shit at great many things, he did manage to feed himself quite regularly.
--
"Beer will be just fine," she told him, smiling. "And no, I haven't eaten yet. Have you eaten already?" It wasn't very late, but there was a good chance that Roger's leftovers were from earlier in the evening. "If you have, don't go to the trouble on my account. I know where the refrigerator is," she assured him, flashing him another little smile.
Deciding that it would be best to lead towards what she'd come there to say, Daphne sat her bag down and put her coat aside. "I had lunch with my mother yesterday," she said. "I wanted to tell her about the holiday trip. She insisted that I agree."
--
“Yeah,” Roger nodded when Daphne asked if he’d eaten already. At her insistence that she could help herself to the food if she was hungry, Roger gave a small shrug, fetching two bottles from the fridge, pointing at the plastic container there with the food he’d made earlier so Daphne’d know which one to pick. Not that it particularly matter what she chose to eat from the fridge. Opening both of the bottles, Roger handed one to Daphne, nodding towards the living room. “Shall we?” He asked but was already walking towards it.
At the information that Daphne had gone to see her mother, who had insisted that Daphne accept Roger’s invite to spend the holidays with him and Max and Siobhan, Roger raised an eyebrow at Daphne. “Your mum’s a big fan of skiing, is she?” He asked jokingly, taking a seat on the sofa.
--
Settling onto the sofa with Roger, Daphne took a sip of her beer. "A big fan of you, rather," she said. "She's hoping that we're engaged by the end of the year. So, when shall I be expecting my ring?" she teased, nudging him with her elbow so he didn't take her words all that seriously. "She's heard of your family," she went on. "Was a bit bothered that I didn't choose the elder son of someone appropriate, but apparently you'll do." Not that she really cared much about what her mother thought of Roger. She liked him and that was all that mattered.
"She said some other things," she said, sipping her beer once more before setting it on the table in front of her. "And I want to tell you about them not because I expect you to want to talk about them but so you can affirm or deny them and we don't have to talk of them again. I just don't want to not tell you," she said, realizing then that she sounded a little silly and should just get on with it. "About your mother."
--
Roger choked on his beer when Daphne said her mother expected them to be engaged by the end of the year. “Shit,” Roger swore but mostly as he coughed up the beer. “That’s funny,” he concluded despite most of his efforts at laughing having been overcome by coughing. “So glad I’ll do,” Roger added teasingly when he’d finally caught back the ability to breathe. “Though she’s probably right in that Max would be a better choice,” for many reasons, really. “Unlucky for you, I think Siobhan would take you,” he told Daphne with a smirk. “She’s invested a great deal into making Max behave like a human,” he added. It was somewhat unkind to his brother, but definitely very truthful of Siobhan. Sometimes Roger was really amazed by her patience.
The at the mention of other things Roger frowned. The way Daphne spoke around it, Roger was rather sure he knew where the conversation was going. “Right,” he said when Daphne told him what the things she’d heard were about. It was only a little surprising that the Davies family tragedy (Roger was quite sure that’s what it had been referred to in the world of upper class gossip at the time) was still discussed, though he did suppose that Daphne’s mother would bring it up, since--well, Roger wasn’t actually sure what relevance his own mother’s death had to their relationship.
--
Daphne felt bad for mentioning the subject, especially with that frown and the simple, one-word response that he'd given to the mention of it. It certainly shifted the mood from laughing at her mother's ridiculous assumption that there would be an engagement somewhere in their future when they barely knew what they were doing. "I know that I probably shouldn't mention it, I just didn't want you to assume I didn't know about it if it comes up at some point later on," she explained. "I'm not even sure how much of what she said is true, but if you do want to talk about it, I'm here for that. I'm also here if you don't want to talk about it," she sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. "And I'm sorry that you had to go through it in the first place."
--
“It’s not going to come up,” Roger replied almost automatically. He honestly couldn’t imagine in what fucking situation that particular topic would come up. Roger didn’t talk about his mother, there seemed little point in doing so. If someone asked, he did tell them she was dead, which was accurate, and then moved on, because Roger had very few memories of her having been alive. Maybe Max had more, Roger had no idea. Even they didn’t talk about it, so Roger really didn’t think this was likely to come up ever.
When Daphne leaned into him, her head against Roger’s shoulder, his hand came up automatically, fingers running softly against Daphne’s hair. “Yeah,” he agreed when she offered her condolences. Roger had heard plenty of those. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he settled on finally, because Roger didn’t particularly want for Daphne to assume that she was somehow magically going to make him feel better about the whole thing. What made Roger plenty of happy was ignoring it.
--
His response was one that she had expected. There were few things that Roger didn't talk about with her and because of that, she wasn't going to force him to talk about something that he genuinely didn't want to. It wasn't an important detail, at least not where their relationship was concerned. If he wanted to keep it to himself, she couldn't blame him for that. She could say that she was sorry for his experience a million times, but she would never know how it felt on the other side because she'd not experienced it herself.
"Okay," she said. "Then we won't talk about it." Daphne let her hand come to rest on his thigh and she gave it a little squeeze as if that would somehow convey all the words she didn't know how to say to him. "Did you have a good day at work?"
--
Roger wasn’t sure if he appreciated Daphne telling him she knew. He probably did, he figured. Or rather he appreciated that she told him rather than hiding the fact that she knew, Roger would’ve much preferred her not knowing about it at all. He knew that the whole thing made him... damaged. Of course it did, that was what happened in these sort of situations. But Roger had told Daphne plenty that he wasn’t a good person to date, he wasn’t very great with offering, well, whatever it was that people in relationships offered. Her knowing of what had happened with his mother somehow made Roger feel like Daphne now had proof that he was--perhaps, ‘broken’ was a bit of a push, but Roger wasn’t sure what other word to use.
The squeeze she gave Roger’s leg, the question about how Roger’s work had been, startled a small laugh out of him. What Roger definitely appreciated was that Daphne didn’t seem interested in pushing the issue. Which was a good call, really, on her part, since Roger was rather sure he would’ve just asked her to leave if that had been the case. Reaching out, Roger pulled Daphne in closer, easily lifting her into his lap, hands settling on each side of Daphne’s waist. Pushing his face against her neck, Roger brushed his lips against the skin there, a touch almost too gentle. “Work’s as boring as ever,” Roger replied softly, unsure what else to say, but also rather clear that the mundane sentence held far more meaning that the words implied. Or so he hoped, at least. Whilst Roger wasn’t going to thank Daphne for both telling him and then not pushing, he certainly meant to.
--
Daphne went easily into his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The gentleness of his touch and the softness of his tone made her heart ache for him. He might not have thanked her verbally for not pushing him, but the touch alone spoke out even more than those words would have. "Sounds like you need a hobby," she teased, her tone just as soft as she let her fingertips brush through his hair. "All that boring work and no play makes Roger a dull boy." She let out a tiny laugh and kissed his temple.
"I think my mother is going to invite your father to dinner," she said, realizing that was probably going to be important to mention. "I apologize in advance if she torments him with all those wedding bells she thinks she's hearing."
--
Shifting on the sofa so he could actually look at Daphne, Roger smiled. “I think you are my hobby, Daph,” he pointed out not untruly. She, herself, certainly took up a great deal of Roger’s time and he had no complaints about it, but also reading her writing had become a habit by now. Roger tended to do at least some of it each evening, which in turn meant that Daphne could write and show him more of it. There was a shocking level of enjoyment Roger found in that, the ability to actually be helpful (or at least have her assure him that she did find his comments helpful, and really, the proof was in the writing which had steadily improved in Roger’s opinion).
The announcement that Daphne’s mother would invite Maximilian for dinner made Roger actually laugh. “I’m sure she’ll be devastated when he turns it down,” which Roger was rather sure his father would. If there was anything good to say about Maximilian’s limited interest in his sons’ lives it was that he never seemed to care very much for their romantic lives. Especially with Max now engaged to Siobhan, Roger was so low on the priority list that he honestly couldn’t picture Maximilian bothering to meet the parents of someone Roger wasn’t at least engaged to.
--
Daphne grinned. Being someone's hobby sounded very important, after all. Besides, it was good to see him smiling and she was honestly glad that the elephant in the room had been shoved out the door so easily. If they never talked about his mother and her sad exit from his life, Daphne would probably not complain. Already, though, the wheels were turning in her mind to somehow make his next birthday a good one so he would have a memory of a birthday that wouldn't be so depressing. She had plenty of time to plan, thankfully.
She laughed at the thought of her mother's reaction to being turned down. "I'm sure if he does tell her 'no' that I'll get an earful about it," she said. "It's probably better than he refuses, though. Wouldn't want to subject him to my mother until I absolutely have to." Which could be never, honestly, but she wasn't going to jinx their relationship by saying something like that. She was hopeful that it would continue on its happy little route like it had been.
--
“Well,” Roger said shifting again, but this time in order to reach for his beer, not doing anything in order to move Daphne off his lap, since he was perfectly content with the current seating arrangement. “Let me know if there’s colour-coded boards with wedding plans,” he told her. “If nothing else, maybe I can hand them over to Siobhan and Max, save them some time on planning,” Roger joked before taking a sip.
Reaching up with his free hand, Roger tangled his fingers in Daphne’s hair. “What about your day, then? Anything particularly eventful?” He asked realising only after that he genuinely cared for what the answer was.
--
"If she starts that up, I'll thieve them all immediately and you can pass them on to the happy couple," she laughed. She had no intentions of getting married anytime soon. She was far too content with just enjoying the relationship that she hadn't expected to end up in. Though her mother thought she was going to turn into an old maid, Daphne was still young and there was really no rush down to the aisle.
She leaned into his touch, liking the way his fingers tangled up in her hair. "I talked to my sister this morning," she said. "She's given you her stamp of approval, by the way. You should be very proud. All of the women in my family think you're just splendid. Then I went to work which was dreadfully boring. But, now I'm here. This is the highlight of my day." Which was true. Daphne always looked forward to just seeing Roger's face. Even if they just sat around not talking, he usually brightened her otherwise fairly dull life.
--
“Good, good,” Roger confirmed with a smile when Daphne assured she’d nick all the wedding planning books so Max and Siobhan could make good use of them. Roger, similarly to Daphne, felt that he was definitely too young to even entertain the idea of marriage. That and he wasn’t quite sure what the point would be. It made sense for his brother and Siobhan, who had been together the better part of forever, and Roger was excited for them to get a house and marry and have babies. He was especially looking forward to spoiling their kids rotten, but Roger was very far from being able to imagine himself ever being in their position (in fact, he did suspect he never would be).
The approval by the Greengrass women also made Roger laugh. “Well, I am splendid,” he assured Daphne with a teasing grin. Then, letting his hand drop lower, fingers softly brushing against Daphne’s arm, Roger’s smile became more gentle. “I think seeing you is also the highlight of my day,” he admitted, the words coming far too easily. “Your sister find a job yet?” Roger asked recalling his last conversation with Astoria.
--
"Yes," she agreed. "You are splendid." Daphne smiled because she really did think that he was. That warm feeling inside of her started up all over again when he touched her so gently and returned her compliment with one of his own. It was sweet. A sweetness that she was still getting used to.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "Not yet. She's still looking. I'm sure she'll find something that works perfect for her if she searches long enough. I just hope she finds something that makes her happy. It will feel less like work then."
--
Roger hummed in agreement when Daphne said she hoped Astoria would find a job that made her happy, the way it’d feel less like work if that was the case. Personally, Roger couldn’t really confirm or deny whether that was true, but he did presume it was. Roger knew there were plenty of people out there who enjoyed their jobs. Whatever their reasons for that was, Roger had no idea, but evidently there were both jobs and people who were happy doing them. “Best of luck to her,” he said truthfully. Astoria, from Roger’s brief encounters with her, was rather sweet, so he hoped she’d find something suited to her.
“Do you want me to warm some food up for you?” Roger asked taking a sip of his beer before frowning slightly. “I sound like a housewife,” he told Daphne. “Congrats,” Roger added almost mockingly.
--
"I'll make sure to pass your well wishes along to her," Daphne said with a little smile.
That smile broke out into a laugh when he commented about sounding like a housewife. "Such a lovely housewife, though," she teased, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "How about I warm up the food and you get back to reading?" She didn't move just yet, though, content to stay where she was on his lap for at least a moment longer. "Hopefully you think it's getting better." She nodded over her shoulder at the notebook he'd set aside when she'd arrived.
--
“I do think it’s getting better,” Roger confirmed, putting the beer down on the side table, before running the now-free hand over Daphne’s side, settling over her waist. “You do very well with incorporating my suggestions,” he added truthfully. Roger was impressed, both with her writing but also with her ability to adjust it the way he suggested it. It didn’t feel like he was telling her how to write, which was part of what made it so pleasing.
Bringing his other hand down to Daphne’s waist, Roger lifted her off of him, just as easily as he had picked her up in the first place. “I’ll warm the food for you,” he said slightly more determinedly. As much as Roger did feel rather housewife-y at his insistence to provide Daphne with warm food, there was also something quite... nice about it. “Do you want another beer, too?” He asked heading towards the kitchen.