InsaneJournal

Fabian, for all he’d tried, hadn’t really been on point when it came to not asking questions, but it seemed Katie hadn’t been doing much better. He felt lighter, a little less thoughtful as he sat in the beach chair he’d brought. His legs were stretched out in front of him and he took a sip from a drink that was perhaps a little too fruity for his liking, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. He glanced over at Katie, a lazy smile forming on his lips. “We’re in very serious danger of very seriously getting more drunk considering our current standing.”

He glanced back out at the water, considering whether or not it was dangerous for them to go into said water at this point. There was always the choice of finding a pool and hoping for the best, but he’d come to enjoy the feeling of the wind blowing in from the ocean and the smell of salt that it brought with it. “Do you want-” he started, cutting himself off and laughing. “So the water is right there. We could finish our drinks and go in it...is what I’m saying.” A pause. “Which might be more dangerous than possibly drinking more, but I believe in us.”

One rule.

They had one rule for this trip and that was to not ask too many questions until the truth nonsense wore off.

Subrule stated that if a question was asked, they would have to buy the other person a drink. Katie vaguely remembered that should have been applied to asking questions that were too personal, but somehow they both forgot, but instead tiptoed around the line by asking ridiculous, funny, possibly a little embarrassing, but otherwise harmless questions. At least now she had a story of the time Fabian had to wear Slytherin robes for a week. She’s fairly certain a bet like that had occurred during her time at Hogwarts, but picturing Fabian and how he very likely used his good looks and charm to his advantage.

Katie grinned back at him. “Don’t worry, if you start to drown, I’ll save you.” She finished the last bit of her drink and stood up, holding her hand out to him. “Come on.”

Fabian stood easily, finishing his drink once he was standing. He set the glass down. “Thanks, Bell. I’d hate to die here.” Because he was trying not to die...again. It seemed like an awful waste of his existence. “Not to bring up depressing topics, but I feel like Sirius would have asked us a bunch of ridiculous questions and then I’d be in trouble.” But he also had a feeling, it would have ended in a possibly questionable state of undress, which would not have been acceptable to company. He didn’t say that, though. “And we’d have become far more drunk than we are now, so I think...it could have been worse.”

He hummed thoughtfully as he looked down at the water. “I expected it to be colder. Can you imagine trying to swim in the waters by England right now? We’d be freezing. I am glad we didn’t go there.”

Katie looked out thoughtfully over the water and let out a laugh. “It’s okay, he absolutely would.” The drunken state they’d all be in, the thought of it made her smile. The fact that Sirius was missing out did hurt, she missed her friend, but something told her that he’d be back, she just had to hope that he would actually remember them. She looked over at Fabian, “I think all three of us would be.”

She moved her legs in the water. “I know. It’s a nice view from the cliffs, but I don’t think there’s a lot that could beat this colour. “ She laughed. “It’d be so cold. We’ll just add England to our list next time, but not the beaches. It’s been a while since I’ve been there,” she groaned. “Oh the fish and chips, I miss proper fish and chips.”

Fabian couldn’t help but agree. They would have been in it together. “At least we’d have been somewhat amused.” Not that he wasn’t now, but he missed Sirius more than he wanted to admit. He was sure if Sirius came back, he wouldn’t remember him and it would have just ended up in a mess of a situation, so he didn’t want to think about it too much.

“Definitely not. It’s part of why I like coming down this way. That and the parties. Amazing nightlife. It’s been nice.” He’d been to Mexico once with Jo, but she was more like family than anything else. Still, he’d done his best to make it a nice time. “I could go for some, but probably later when I know how to make portkeys more effectively and alcohol isn’t quite as much in my body as anything else.” He moved, lightly bumping her shoulder and hoping he hadn’t miscalculated.

“You’ll have to show me the ropes. Filipino and Spanish have some similarities so I can do my best to help navigate.” Thankfully living in Texas long enough that she’s been able to pick up some words that would be different from the Filipino word, but Katie wouldn’t call herself an expert Spanish speaker by any means.

She laughed and bumped him in return. “No rush, there’s plenty around here that I haven’t seen so I’m leaving it up to you, Prewett. Keep me entertained.”

Fabian smiled brightly. “I’ll do my best for you, Bell.” Because there wasn’t really any other thing to say. He’d learned a lot of things over the years. Picking up Spanish wasn’t the hardest of those things. But he could also use his phone to translate when he couldn’t manage to figure something out.

“Well, I am, as you can see, very entertaining.” He smiled again, turning around in the water. It was strange to be on a beach of all places when he was pretty sure it was too cold to be on a beach most places. He liked being here. The thing of it was that he liked being away from Tumbleweed and everything. “For one, have you seen my face. And also I look amazing in a swimming suit. You can admit it.” He laughed here, slightly pleased with himself for not forming it into a question.

As Fabian turned in the water, Katie let out a loud laugh. Really by now she should be used to this, how many times had he “modeled” for her, clearly enjoying himself and knowing full well how good he looked.

“If I’m going to be your professional complimentor, I’m going to want some kind of payment,” she said. “I admit nothing.” Thankfully she was able to work around that since he hadn’t actually asked her a question. Not that it really mattered, Katie had complimented him enough through their friendship that it really wasn’t much of a secret that she knew he was fit.

Fabian very nearly asked her what it was, exactly, that she wanted in payment, but he resisted the urge. “I’m not sure I like what it is you’re insinuating, Katie Bell.” He flashed her a smile and winked just to make it as ridiculous as he could. At least if it was ridiculous, he could avoid making it awkward. Maybe. “I knew you could be easily bought, but…” He gestured vaguely as if it was very clear and obvious what he meant even though he did not have any clear or obvious explanation as to what he meant. He was, as the kids called it, winging it.

“If only Sirius were here to see you now…”

“Woooow!” Katie replied. She wasn’t really insulted, but she couldn’t resist the urge to tease Fabian.

She had opened her mouth to say something in return but stopped at his mention of Sirius again. Katie looked at him and touched his arm. “It’s okay, you know.” Katie did her best to give him an encouraging smile though she felt it too. “I miss Sirius too.” Turning the mood into a less happy one wasn’t exactly her plan with Fabian mentioning him again, maybe it did need to be said. “It feels-” She paused. “Strange not to have him, James and George gone. I don’t like it either. It’s okay to still miss them and not be okay. I don’t think I am, as much as I pretend to be sometimes. I came back and I remembered, we just have to have the same hope for the others.”

Fabian hadn’t intended to make things sad. He hadn’t even intended for a serious conversation. So he carefully kept his expression mostly neutral. He didn’t have quite the same skill in it that other higher society purebloods did, but he knew it at least concealed some of it. “We’re definitely here for fun reasons, though, so we should probably get back to having fun.” He considered things, waging the dangers of asking questions and having to buy more drinks. He could deal with it. “Speaking of Hallmark movies…” which they were not at all. “Who would you want to be in a sappy Hallmark movie with? There’s a lot of attractive men in those movies.”

Katie shifted uncomfortably, clearly she had made the wrong move but he was right. She didn’t want to pry and spoil everything that was good about today. Instead she narrowed her eyes, annoyed that he had asked her a question that she would have to be truthful. “Donaghan Tremlett, he’s from the Weird Sisters, not that he’s here.” She laughed. “You and I would have been funny but I don’t know if the world could handle that much beauty at once.” Then she shrugged. “To be honest though, I haven’t let myself think about it.” She turned towards him.

“You owe me another drink. And don’t think I won't get you back for that.”

The who? The question was right there, but he didn’t ask it. “Never heard of him.” He snorted lightly at the mention of them in a movie together. “Yeah. And I don’t even want to think about how Arthur would look at me if that happened.” But he wasn’t really against the idea. “Plus, if we were going to be in a movie together, we might as well be in one that was more exciting. And that likely wouldn’t end with me as the very handsome fiancee you’d leave for another man.” Here he feigned a wistful, look, staring off into the distance. “Such tragedies should not be allowed.”

His expression quickly changed to something a little more amused. “I had a strategy and it worked.”

“Wait, what about Arthur?” For a moment she forgot about the whole questions ordeal.

Katie then laughed. “Do you honestly think that there would be any situation where I’d leave you for someone else?” She bent down slightly and splashed him with water. “Where’s that famous Fabian Prewett confidence?”

“Well, the joke was that he was probably going to set us up because he’s married to my sister and she’d have done something like that, but I realize that he’s not my sister, so I’m actually probably in the clear. He might give me some strange looks from across the room, though.” Fabian frowned at that. He hadn’t wanted to say any of that, but there it was.

And then the other questions came. “I’m not even sure there’s a situation where you’d be with me in the first place, but those movies aren’t reality.” He splashed her back. “It’s mostly an act. I prefer to put my confident foot forward, but there’s not always a lot of confidence. Especially in scenarios involving relationships. Never really had anything long term and I’m not sure it’s going to change.” He was quiet for a long moment after the answers as he tried to find his footing and play it off as something less serious emotions and more hilarious hijinks.

“Three drinks, Bell.”

“Oh merlin, right.” Her hand went to her face as she smiled. That day Molly was trying to set up her children was amusing. While she didn’t imagine herself with any of her children, it did make Katie happy to know that Molly would’ve loved to have her in the family. A Molly Weasley approval was the highest approval anyone could ever achieve.

“Good thing too.” Katie commented. “They’re entertaining for an hour or so but I’m glad real life isn’t like that, sure sometimes it’d be nice if life wasn’t so complicated but you’re right, they aren’t reality.”

She shrugged. “You do you. Some people are looking and that’s fine, some people aren’t and that’s okay too.” Katie looked out into the water and grinned. “As long as your honest with yourself and happy.” Katie groaned. “Yeah, you’re right. At this rate we’re both going to be drinking so much anyway, the deal’s nearly pointless now.” Since she wasn’t too far out, Katie felt comfortable enough to fully emerge herself into the water, and because she had been drinking she made sure she stayed in the shallow end so she wouldn’t actually have to tread water.

Fabian wasn’t immediately sure of how to respond to anything, so he just shrugged his shoulders. Part of him wanted to go get his drinks and go back to his room so he could just avoid any further conversations, but he made quick work at trying to get his act back in place. He could be the cocky, over confident version of himself and drag himself out of where he was. He didn’t need to explain that why he didn’t think he would was because he didn’t know if he would find anyone that wanted to be with him long term and was it worth the risk here? At least there weren’t any more questions to get the truth out of him, so he would just have to focus on something else.

“Yeah. I don’t know what we were thinking making that part of it. We definitely should have thought about that more.” He looked out over the water. “I’m going to regret those drinks in the morning, but that’s probably not going to stop me.”

“I won’t hold you to it,” Katie replied. She stood up and turned towards Fabian. “New deal, how about we both try harder on avoiding difficult questions, but if that fails then whatever’s said goes without judgment and it’ll stay just between us.” She held out her hand for him to shake. “Deal?”

Fabian looked over at her. Even still, he was liable to drink more to avoid the side effects of thinking too much. He nodded at her words, taking her hand and shaking it. “Once we get home, at least we’ll have more things to focus on. Here we’ve just got a lot of relaxing.” He offered her a quick smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, but he made sure to only look for a brief moment of time before squinting out at the water again. It was a moment before he dove into the water, trying to avoid any more conversation.

Katie’s smile faded when he hit the water. Had she started to touch a nerve? Was there something more he wasn’t saying, she tried her best to act cool before, it was bad enough neither of them could lie, she didn’t want to make him feel more uncomfortable. Katie thought for a moment and decided to head back to her seat on the beach. Might be better to let Fabian cool off alone for a while.They both needed to, so they could catch a break from accidentally asking questions.