InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I do it all for you, Mulder!"

Malcolm Baddock (ex_malleable172) wrote in ultrarpg,
@ 2008-09-03 21:15:00

Who: Malcolm Baddock and Jude Dorny
What: Friends reunite?
Where: Jude's Flat in Diagon Alley
When: [Backdated to] Sunday, 31 April. Afternoonish.
Rating: TBD
Status: In Progress

"I'll be there soon" was a little less soon for Malcolm Baddock than it might have been for the average person. Still, he'd been relatively good for himself, not taking too long, mostly because he didn't want to spend extra time when Jude couldn't even bother to come over to say he was back. Why should he put so much into his own appearance? Why should he rush over? But just because he thought that didn't mean he wouldn't go over dressed in just anything. Of course not. That wasn't his style. Besides, he wanted to make an impression and a point, though he had no idea what that point was. Hopefully his jeans and his shirt knew more about that point than he did. If the image in the mirror was any indication (along with his reflection's reaction), they knew. He wished they would tell him what it was, but he didn't have time to dwell on it, so he fixed his hair and headed downstairs, giving a quick good-bye to his mum as he Disapparated, concentrating on the Leaky Cauldron.

Once at the pub, Malcolm double checked the address, headed out the back door of the pub to the little courtyard, and entered Diagon Alley after tapping the appropriate bricks with his wand. He watched the archway turn back into a wall and slowly headed toward Magical Menagerie, glancing at the window fronts of the stores he passed. Should he buy a flat warming present for Jude? It seemed appropriate, but he couldn't think of anything to buy, and nothing in the windows seemed appropriate. Maybe he'd see what Jude needed first and then get him something. He'd also have to make sure his brothers and mum didn't give him something at dinner, like plates, or that Jude didn't also grab anything he had left in his room. He frowned a little as he thought about what he could get, walking right past the store and the flat building. It wasn't until he nearly ran into someone coming out of another store that he realised he'd passed Jude's building, and he blushed slightly, turning quickly on his heel. He moved as quickly as he could without seemingly like he was doing just that and slipped into building eighteen as someone slipped out.

Third floor, he thought, staring at the stairs. He stared for a minute, gathering up his courage, before finally walking up, still moving slowly. He told himself to remain calm and collected, and he raised his chin just a bit. He paused to check himself in a mirror on the second floor landing, making sure he looked calmer than he felt. He nodded once to his reflection and continued upward, stopping in front of the door on the right on the third floor. He studied it, checked the bit of parchment with the information on it, and stepped closer. He raised his hand, knocked three times, and lowered it, putting both hands in the back pockets of his jeans, resisting the urge to bite his lip as he waited for Jude to answer the door.

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judicable
2008-09-03 08:54 pm UTC (link)

So, he'd messed up, just a little bit. Jude had thought about surprising Malcolm at home, but there were a lot of unknown quantities that Jude hadn't wanted to spell out to Malcolm and the truth was, he really hadn't much of a plan when he'd payed for his portkey back home. Jude just knew that three years was long enough in Brazil and he needed to come back home. Partly to say good-bye to his brothers who would be going off to school tomorrow, but mostly to see Malcolm, who after so long was still Jude's main fixation. They'd been at school together, Jude was older though, and Malcolm unsure about his sexuality, so Jude had fallen into the big-brother-annoying-older-friend position for most of their time together. When Jude had left for Brazil, he'd made sure to say good-bye to Malcolm, and when he visited home, he always planned it around Hogsmeade weekends, so he would get to see Malcolm as well as his brothers, but somehow that had not been enough for Jude.

He didn't come back just to find out of Malcolm perhaps returned his feelings, but it was definitely top of the pro-list when Jude had been weighing the pros and cons of coming back to the British Isles. Jude had no idea if Malcolm was dating anyone (though he suspected and hoped he wasn't) and since he himself had never been explicit on his sexuality or partners, Jude didn't expect Malcolm to think he liked him in any way other than close friends since Hogwarts. Plus, Jude knew that he'd messed up this whole 'triumphant return' thing, and that Malcolm was more likely to be pissy and angry at him, than happy. Jude would definitely have to figure something out, to get back in Malcolm's good graces. Hopefully the box of trinkets and books he brought back would mend some of it. Jude had a kitchen counter, with four boxes on top, three still in their half-size shrunken state, he would resize them once they got to his mother's house there was no need to carry them in their normal state and risk dropping them post apparation. Jude's apartment didn't have much more in it - there was a couple of stools in the kitchen to sit on and a couch that Jude would transfigure in a bed tonight. He had a couple other boxes of books in the middle of the room, with two bags of clothes that had been rooted through to find the cleanest and least wrinkled clothes to put on.

Jude had taken a quick shower and gotten dressed in his least holey shirt (a dark green t-shirt with a Portuguese joke about digging in the dirt on the front) and his favorite pair of jeans (that definitely needed mending or replacing) because his other clothes were dirty or wrinkled. He had just arrived that morning and spent his time looking for a flat close to work (literally across the street!) and hadn't much time to do laundry. Jude looked at the cat that was perched upon the top of his book boxes and shrugged, "I look alright, sim?" he asked more to himself as he looked at his reflection in the window.

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judicable
2008-09-03 08:54 pm UTC (link)

The cat gave a half growl at the bug that skittered near the edge of the ward Jude had put around his things, and Jude rolled his eyes, "You're going to have to learn to speak English now. The cats here don't speak Portuguese -" Jude was cut off by the knocking at the door and suddenly his stomach was tied up in knots due to a wave of nervousness. What if Malcolm came here just to punch him in the nose for being a prick? What if Malcolm had brought a boyfriend along with him, to show him off to Jude? Jude didn't think Malcolm was that intentionally mean, but it was a possibility. The cat meowed and Jude nodded, there was only one way to find out, he had to open the door.

Jude took a deep breath and pulled the door open, not sure what to expect at the sight of Malcolm at his door. What Malcolm was wearing was definitely not what he'd been expecting, that was for sure. Jude nearly choked on his breath because well, Malcolm was hot. Clearly he'd come dressed to kill and although Malcolm was always smart about his clothing choices, the tight shirt and jeans was just. Nearly too much for Jude. He hadn't seen Malcolm since early this summer when he'd come to visit his brothers after getting released from Hogwarts and Jude was kicking himself now for not doing it sooner. Jude licked his bottom lip and blinked before pulling Malcolm into a tight hug, letting out the breath he'd been holding slowly.

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ex_malleable172
2008-09-03 09:43 pm UTC (link)

For two seconds, panic rose in Malcolm. Had Jude just choked? Why would he nearly choke? Was there something wrong with him? Did he look awful? Had whatever he thought he been doing have a reverse impact? He didn't know, and he would have gone into full panic mode and worried his lip raw if Jude hadn't pulled him into a hug. His panic washed away, and Malcolm wrapped his arms around Jude, closing his eyes and smiling, letting himself enjoy the moment, happy to see his friend again. It was nice and comforting, and even though it hadn't been all that long since he'd last seen Jude, this was different. Because now Jude was back, though he didn't know why. He didn't even know why Jude had to go all the way to stupid Brazil when there were closer places to break curses, like Norway or Denmark or some place like that. He sighed a little and opened his eyes.

"You're a bastard," he said, though he didn't immediately pull away. "You're a bastard who lives in a shit hole." He huffed slightly, looking around at what he could see. Really, he couldn't afford something a little better? He pursed his lips a little and then smacked Jude in the arm with an open palm. "You come and go at your leisure, you know that? And..." He shook his head. What was he supposed to say? He could ask how long he planned on staying and where he'd be next, but if he did, and Jude actually had an answer, it made it more definite, didn't it? He did want to know, but he wasn't about to ask out of a fear he had an answer. "It's not fair," he said instead, keeping the pout out of his voice.

He's a grown man, a voice reminded Malcolm. He's allowed to live where he wants and come and go as he pleases. You don't have any say over that. And he hated that. But he did have a say about whether or not he'd let Jude come and go into his life at his leisure, though at the moment he couldn't find a voice to back it up. He settled for just looking sternly up at him, tucking his hands back into his back pockets.

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judicable
2008-09-03 10:54 pm UTC (link)

Jude smiled, pressing his face into Malcolm's neck and shoulder. He had expected the cursing and hitting, but he contented himself in the fact that Malcolm was here, and hugging him. He smelled insanely good as well, and Jude felt very reluctant to loosen his grip on his friend - he wanted to do more than hug him really, but Jude resisted those urges. He stepped back and put his hand on Malcolm's lower back, letting him come into the flat. He closed the door behind him and kind of hesitated a little bit at the stern look. Jude ran his hand through his hair, messing it up a bit and biting his lip, wondering where he needed to start.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to surprise you but then I couldn't figure out how and I was in town and I'm sorry I didn't plan it out better. I pretty much caught the earliest portkey I could this morning and I was here. I'm here now, for a good long while, I need to get back to speaking English and Gobbledegook regularly and I really missed you. I wanted to see you first. I'm sorry," Jude babbled, frowning slightly and deciding to get the topic off of himself by showing Malcolm around the place. "Yeah it's a shithole, but it'll get better once I clean up the bugs. Here's the kitchen," he pointed to their right and waved at it.

"The bathroom is next to that and then my room, which is pretty big and has a view over the Alley which I like and then there's the living room, I guess, which has the most bugs so we're just staying out of it, and then there's a second bedroom there, and a closet and here's my stuff," Jude pointed at each of the doors, only the ones to his room and the bathroom were open. "I have a couch, too, it's in my room. And that's it! Oh, here's my cat. Well, he wasn't really mine, but he decided to come with me. He's named Maceió, from where I got him. He's less than a year old I think, I don't know much about him, he just started following me a couple of weeks ago." Jude reached down and picked his cat up and held him loosely - they were still trying to figure out each other and he didn't want to get scratched again. "Say hi Maceió, this is Malcolm."

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ex_malleable172
2008-09-04 09:38 am UTC (link)

"Could have asked someone how to go about surprising people," Malcolm said. Surly someone in Brazil knew how to properly surprise a friend. He didn't say anything else on the matter, though, and turned his attention to where Jude directed. He thought it wasn't a shit hole, but he couldn't find a term for something worse than a shit hole, so that would have to do. He also thought it'd need more than getting rid of the bugs to make it get better. It needed a construction crew and then maybe a design crew, and then maybe it'd be livable. He kept his thoughts to himself, however. After all, not everyone was as... refined as him about some things. He also didn't have a lot of room to talk since he still lived with his parents. He just nodded a little, taking the little flat in.

Malcolm quirked a brow at the cat. "Aren't animals supposed to be in quarantine or something when they come over from another country," he asked, sounding more curious than malicious. He thought they were supposed to, but he didn't really know. He'd never traveled with an animal before, so maybe there wasn't a rule about that in Britain. He looked at the cat and slowly extended his hand for him to sniff. Hopefully he wouldn't decide he smelled like danger and attack him. He wondered if he'd been de-clawed, and he figured probably not. Not that the cat didn't still have teeth. "Hi Maceió," he said softly, trying not to frighten the cat. He closed his eyes half way and then opened them again, still calmly watching the cat.

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judicable
2008-09-06 02:58 pm UTC (link)

"I'm sorry, alright? I totally messed up and it was really stupid of me to tell you I was back," Jude said, biting back a sharper tone, because he wanted Malcolm to stay and to come to dinner with him at his mother's house. He'd missed Malcolm and knew how stupid he had been not to go with his first instinct of showing up on Malcolm's doorstep with his bags and cat and tell him, but that's not what happened and Jude sort of wanted to move on from that. He gave a small smile as Malcolm looked around the flat, he could tell by the look on the other man's face that he hated the place and now that he'd seen it, Malcolm would totally help him find some stuff to fill it up. Jude was definitely looking forward to that. He loved shopping and even more, he loved spending time with Malcolm and doing both at the same time was something to look forward to.

Jude shrugged as the cat sniffed daintily at Malcolm's hand before butting his head against it, apparently deigning to allow Malcolm to pet him, while digging his claws into Jude's arm. "Perhaps, I don't know. I didn't really tell anyone he was coming along with me. I'll take him to get looked at though, just in case. He's not really lived in a city before, so I don't know how well he'll take to apartment living, but we'll figure something out. He likes you," Jude smiled at Malcolm softly, noting that the cat had started purring lightly. "Do you want to open your gifts?"

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ex_malleable172
2008-09-09 12:36 pm UTC (link)

It just hurt, all right? he thought ridiculously, but he wasn't going to voice it. Instead, Malcolm patted the cat and nodded quietly, thinking about how completely shallow he was. And cheap. Clearly he could be bought with presents. He mentally sighed and then sat down on the first available surface that didn't look infested with bugs or anything else disgusting. Silently, he went over spells in his head to get rid of the vermin, thinking he should have also brought a potion or something to be safe. He also thought after he opened his presents, he'd take care of the bugs for Jude so at least the cat wouldn't be alone during dinner and having to deal with the bugs. He tilted his head lightly and looked over at the cat.

"Oy, Maceió, you know you're a cat, yes? Why not scare the bugs away," he asked the cat softly, more curious than anything. "You're a big, ferocious cat, and they're just bugs. You could eat them or squish them at least. Threaten them with it anyway. I'm pretty sure the bugs here understand a cat that means business even if they're English bugs and not Portuguese."

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