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Tweak says, "Do you want to build a snowman"

Lena Renaud (lenarenaud) wrote in refreshrpg,
@ 2015-06-24 13:43:00

Entry tags:

1998-june, character: morag macdougal, x-character: lena renaud, x-character: zoe renaud

Who: Lena and Zoe Renaud, and Morag MacDougal (with cameos by Papa Renaud, Matteo and Felix Renaud, and Julien Leclercq, and potentially Morag's family?)
What: Moving day! Lena, Zoe and Morag are moving in to their house, and the rest of the motley crew are helping them move.
When:Tuesday. Basically the morning after graduation.
Where: Truro, Cornwall
Rating/Warnings: Probably low/none as yet
Status:Closed/Ongoing

Lena had probably been up since four thirty on Tuesday morning. Despite the excitement and the emotional overload of the day before, she had found it difficult to get to sleep and all too easy to bound out of bed and across the hall to Zoe's room where she leaped onto her bed.

"Wake up!" she squealed. "We're moving today!"

Most of their things were already in boxes, courtesy of their father and his wand. Their school things they hadn't bothered to unpack, so they were conveniently still in their trunks. "We're going to live in our own house and be our own people and I," Lena declared, deciding on the spot, "am going to cook us our first real dinner tonight. Any requests?"

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zoerenaud
2015-06-24 02:13 am UTC (link)

Zoe groaned, as the bed moved with Lena's weight. While the day before had been exciting enough, she was definitely not too excited to sleep. She slept good and hard, and was abruptly woken up to find Lena's full weight on her. She groaned, nudging Lena off of her. And then Lena's words sank in, and Zoe shot up, because today was moving day. Where they would get to have their own house, their own rooms, finally. "Moving day," she cheered, suddenly wide awake at the prospect. "Well what're you doing lying about, let's get out of here," she said hastily, clawing her way out of her bed.

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lenarenaud
2015-06-24 02:22 am UTC (link)

Lena landed on the floor with a thud and an "oof", but she got to her feet quickly and dashed back into her room. She showered quickly, threw on some clothes - a pair of jeans and a blue sweatshirt - and pulled her hair back out of her face, ready to go.

It was tempting to run back to check on Zoe's progress but Lena had already woken her up, and she didn't want to annoy her too much this early in the day. Instead, she went through to Felix's old room where Julien now lived, and woke him up, rather more gently than she had woken Zoe.

"Are you ready to help us move?" she asked softly.

It was strange, having this new little brother. He was six year old and already a real little person. Lena was still learning about him and his little ways and his likes and dislikes. One thing she had learned was that he was not much of a morning person, preferring to keep his eyes shut and be snuggled into wakefulness. Now, she smiled as he rolled over and into her arms, snuggling against her chest. He was warm, and surprisingly light. Lena bit her lip as she wondered... one day, when she and Morag had children, would it be like this?

"Come on, tiny one," she cooed gently at him. "Up and on your feet. We can pick out some clothes for you to wear and you can show us how strong you are by helping us move some boxes, yes?"

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zoerenaud
2015-06-24 07:07 am UTC (link)

Zoe took a quick shower, shuffled into a reasonable outfit - jeans and an orange t-shirt, and spent ten minutes searching for her missing shoe. She found it in one of the boxes already packed, thanks a lot magic. She imagined Lena had wandered off to tend to Julien - Lena seemed really attached to the kid.

Distantly, Zoe supposed that was probably normal, given he was family. But her maternal instincts or whatever just weren't kicking in. She had no need to go to him and gently wake him up. That should probably change now that she was home. Or else she'd probably really start looking like a dick. Whatever. Today wasn't his day. Today was moving day. Today was the day that they transported their belongings to a totally new house. A house with that dark cloud of their absent mother hanging over them.

"I'm making a cuppa," she called to Lena, as she headed down the hall. "I need some fuel."

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lenarenaud
2015-06-24 07:13 am UTC (link)

"Ooh, us too please," Lena called back as she lifted a fully dressed but still floppy Julien onto her hip and carried him down to the kitchen. Properly, he didn't need to be carried, but the poor little thing had to have been missing their mother, and Lena had come over all maternal even if Zoe hadn't.

"And would you like toast or cereal today?" she asked Julien, setting him in a chair. After deliberating, he asked for toast, so Lena set about making enough for the three of them.

"So... Truro is mostly a muggle town," she said conversationally. "We're probably not going to be able to use a lot of magic to move our stuff in, at least not outside." She spread Julien's toast with jam and handed it to him.

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zoerenaud
2015-06-24 08:46 am UTC (link)

Zoe pulled out several cups to make them tea. She put on a pot, and turned around, to watch Lena make the kid toast. What weird child chose burnt bread over a bowl of cereal? Clearly a child raised by their mother. "Shouldn't be too hard," Zoe said. She heard the front door open, so she added, "our hired labor just have to make sure they don't kill each other by apparating furniture on top of each other, like idiots."

"She says hired labor like we're getting paid," Felix muttered as he entered the kitchen.

"Our indentured servants just have to make sure they don't kill each other by apparating furniture on top of each other, like idiots," Zoe amended, with a cheeky smile.

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lenarenaud
2015-06-24 08:53 am UTC (link)

Lena jumped up from the table to hug her older brothers. "Thanks for helping," she said. "We're just going to eat and get started, yeah?"

It didn't look like Julien had spent much time with his older brothers, because at the sight of these Very Big Boys he hid himself behind Lena. She scooped him up and sat him in her lap, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind.

"And we've got an extra special helper for you boys," she told Felix and Matteo. "You remember Julien? He tells me he's very strong and he'd like to help us move house today."

A look at the time and she stood, hefting Julien into her arms again. "And we should really get started, Zee, because we've got that cocktail party tonight, yeah?"

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zoerenaud
2015-06-25 02:34 am UTC (link)

Zoe groaned. She'd forgotten about that cocktail party. It'd seemed like a good idea to agree to it at the time. A witch group devoted to activism and helping and shit - that sounded good. She wasn't too sure about this wearing dresses bit, though. She finished her tea, set the cup in the sink, and clapped her hands together. "Alright, then, let's get going. Quit scaring the boy with your face, Felix," she added.

Felix made a face at both Zoe and the boy in Lena's lap. He wasn't nearly as stand offish as Zoe was with the child. He and Matteo both just hadn't been around near often enough to put the boy at ease. But they had all the time in the world now. If only the child wasn't so damn skittish.

Zoe was practically skipping out of the room, but she called "Chop chop, let's go," over her shoulder.

"Merlin's beard, the two of you and your rushing. You'd think something monumental would be happening. Like moving day or something," Felix muttered sarcastically, as he turned to follow in Zoe's wake.

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lenarenaud
2015-06-25 02:43 am UTC (link)

Actually, Julien was giggling quietly at the faces Felix was making - but that didn't mean he was ready for Lena to put him down. Lena smooched his cheek loudly. Maybe Zoe wasn't totally enamored of the idea of having a baby brother, but Lena thought he was adorable and loved taking care of him. It was a side of her she'd never really had a chance to explore, and she was enjoying herself hugely.

Just to make the point, she ran - with Julien in her arms - and caught up to Zoe and Felix, to give them their own obnoxiously loud cheek smooches. "You," she said to Zoe, "will love having the chance to get all fancied up and drink free booze. And we don't have to stay long, and then we can come home and I"ll cook us all dinner. And you," she said, directing this next at Felix, "love me, love us, and will love helping and you are getting a free home cooked lunch out of it, so please stop pretending like you're not happy to be here."

She grinned winningly at her siblings then set Julien down so that she could pull out her wand. "We can start shrinking boxes, yeah? Then we won't need as many trips."

She gestured for Matteo to either help her with Julien, or to go help Zoe and Felix, but basically to stop lurking in the corner like a creeper.

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zoerenaud
2015-06-25 03:02 am UTC (link)

Felix made a face and wiped off his cheek while Zoe mirrored the face he pulled without looking at him, as she rubbed her palm across her cheek. "I'm gonna love trying to resist the temptation to get drunk and make a fool of myself in front of all those fancy people," Zoe added.

"Teo's probably waiting for his optimistic pep talk about why he really wants to be here," Felix said.

"I don't need an optimistic pep talk, I'm the optimistic pep talk," Matteo argued.

"Alright, Pessimistic Peter, calm down, this is an argument free day," Felix shot back. He was clearly amused with himself, because of the four of them, Matteo was definitely not the argumentative one.

Teo didn't look nearly as amused. "Shut up. C'mon. We can all show Julien how to shrink boxes. And how not to, if Felix is still Felix."

"You mean with flare?" Felix asked pointedly. "Because magic is text book - it looks like stupid star wars effects without flare."

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lenarenaud
2015-06-25 03:44 am UTC (link)

Watching his older siblings carefully, Julien mimicked Felix and Zoe, wiping Lena's kiss off his face, albeit a little belatedly.

"Oi, you," Lena teased him, poking him in the sides until he squealed with laughter. "No wiping off Lena kisses, you get the punishment!"

"But they did it!" he choked, giggling harder. Lena turned to her sister, caught her eye and silently apologized, then launched herself at Zoe and began tickling her too.

"He's right, you did it too," she said by way of an explanation. Matteo and Felix looked on with amused eyes, then started shrinking the boxes. Lena, letting Zoe get back to her feet, tugged Julien back into her lap and started showing him how to shrink the boxes, even though he wouldn't get his own wand for another five years.

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zoerenaud
2015-06-26 01:34 am UTC (link)

Tickling was actually the bane of anyone's existence. You laughed, but you also the instinct to elbow the tickler in the face, because how dare they make you laugh. Zoe bit back the instinct, but couldn't resist the way she choked out laughter.

She climbed back to her feet, cheeks reddened from the laughter. They spent a good bit of time shrinking down their boxes, shrinking down the furniture, and nearly shrinking down eachother. Then they began the tedious process of transporting their now shrunken belongings all the way to their new house. "Don't lose anything," Zoe called after Matteo. "If you lose my box of underwear, there will be hell to pay, I'm not kidding."

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lenarenaud
2015-06-26 01:47 am UTC (link)

"How you've amassed an entire box of underwear is beyond me," Lena remarked. Apparating with Julien was not something she'd done before, but after a bit of wobbling and a "sore tummy" he was running around the new house and checking out all the rooms.

He quickly figured out that the purple room was for Lena and the orange room was for Zoe, so Lena kept him nice and busy running up and down the stairs with the little shrunken boxes, helping him to read the labels (he could recognize his letters, and a few words) and watching him zoom away.

"It's sort of nice, having him here isn't it?" Lena said tentatively to Zoe. "He's having a nice time, I think."

Matteo and Felix were making similar trips up and down the stairs and back and forth between the new house and old, so Lena had set herself up as "mission control", in the new living room where they had set up the apparition point.

"He's a fierce little worker," Matteo remarked, watching Julien hurtle up the stairs for the umpteenth time with a box bound for Zoe's room - possibly the all-important underwear box.

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zoerenaud
2015-06-28 07:58 pm UTC (link)

Underwear was clothing - there needed to be variety there. Them ore variety, the longer she could go without doing laundry. Clearly there was a system in place here. Zoe made the journey to the new house, carrying a few of her boxes. She cleared the apparition point, drifting near Lena as they watched Julien race himself up and down the stairs.

The tentative tone of Lena's voice made zoe glance at her. She knew what Lena was trying to get at - that it was nice to have Julien here, that he was a good kid, and Lena of all people probably wanted to become a semi permanent fixture at their house. She was the one who'd gotten most attached to him. "Are you trying to tell me that you want to have a baby or..." Zoe hedged, purposefully dense.

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lenarenaud
2015-06-28 08:07 pm UTC (link)

"Yes, Zoe," Lena shot back in a deadpan voice. "And what's more, I'd like to have that baby with you. You know, because we're not already freakishly close enough." She summoned a bottle of fizzy lemonade and three glasses from the sparsely stocked kitchen, poured a small glass and snagged Julien when he ran by, handing it to him.

"He's our brother," Lena said, deliberately speaking in English for the first time that day so they could carry on talking without upsetting the boy. "And she just dumped him on Papa - Papa, who literally has nothing to do with him. And yet Papa has stepped up and agreed to take him in and raise him. We, on the other hand, are his actual flesh and blood..."

Suddenly she heard herself and made a face. "Ew, I hate how sanctimonious I sound right now. All I'm saying is, I want to be part of his life, and you and I share a house now. It'd be cool if you'd make a bit of an effort with him. I know it's hard for you though. We both have complicated feelings about... her. It makes sense that we'd deal with them differently. We're different people."

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zoerenaud
2015-06-28 10:18 pm UTC (link)

It did sound sanctimonious, and it was clear on Zoe's face. "I don't plan on stopping you from being part of his life," Zoe said, speaking in English now too. "I'm not gonna regulate your visits with him to the front yard, Lena. He can come over whenever he wants to. I don't care. We've know about his existence for like two months. Not all of us can get over it and pretend like he's lived with us for the last six years. Or that the only blood we share is the blood I wish we didn't come from. I've been making an effort. It'll take time." Zoe sounded mildly annoyed - but she always sounded mildly annoyed when it came to Julien. Which was probably better than complete indifference. "He looks like her."

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lenarenaud
2015-06-28 10:22 pm UTC (link)

Surprised, Lena eyed the little boy critically. He offered her a smile, and she couldn't help smiling back. "I guess you're right," she said finally. "I can see her in him, around the eyes mostly, but I was trying not to think about that."

She sighed. "I'm not looking to push you into anything you're not ready for or comfortable with, Zee. I'm just so used to us doing things together. I'm going to have to shake that, especially now when we're going to have different jobs."

Felix and Matteo bounded back down the stairs and into the living room, and Matteo resized the sofa so they could plop down on it. "Hey, little sister," he said. "Didn't I hear you promising us lunch? We're all but finished moving your crap in, you just need to resize and unpack."

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