RP: Questioning the Rumor Mill Who: Viktor and Gen When: Tuesday, June 13 [waaaay backdated!] Where: Magpies training pitch/facilities What: Viktor's concerned about the gossip and the soon-to-be new addition to the Magpie's staff. Warnings: None?
Viktor hadn't been certain that Genevieve would show up for this practice. Practices in the summer were a lot less strict. Vacations could be taken, and they weren't as hard. It gave him a chance to see who on the back up line up was serious about wanting to be up front, among other things. Even he didn't make all of them, though he did make most of them considering he was captain.
But he was pleased to see her there, especially after all the recent gossip brouhaha. He always viewed it with a skeptical eye - But he always did keep an eye on it. He was familiar with the way the press worked and it could be a barometer of things he needed to know.
It was no secret that she had gone to Australia though, so once they were through with practice he turned to her and asked, "So how was it down under?"
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Genevieve had taken yesterday off to be by herself, alone and miserable at home, though she didn't just sit inside and watch movies and mope - no, she'd spent much of the day outside tending to her small garden. Of course, the miserable part of her plans had been mitigated somewhat by Coop's texts. They were talking again, and that was exciting and scary all at once. And then later that night, when Addi finally told her they would talk this coming weekend, she'd known they would be okay, too.
Of course, she still felt terribly guilty about Oliver, and Terence's texts Sunday night were still weighing down on her. But she was planning to reach out to this Alec Urquhart within the next few days, and she'd gone on her first run with Coop since the breakup this morning, and she was feeling slightly more hopeful about things than she had yesterday. And then she'd forced herself to go to practice. Whatever her swirling thoughts, she didn't want to let her team down, and even though it was summer, she did have an obligation to try to make the practices.
She shouldn't have been surprised when Viktor asked her about Australia, but she was a bit. "Oh, Australia was brilliant," she answered first. "Everything went pretty well to hell when I got back, though," she admitted, sighing softly.
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Well she'd given him the perfect opening, Viktor thought with a bit of wry amusement. He'd expected to have to find a more subtle way to bring up things that the press and such were saying.
It didn't precisely concern him, except that he was her friend as well as her captain, and as both those people he did have something of a right to be worried about her.
"Really?" he said, raising his eyebrows. "Drama with Oliver already?" There was no surprise at all in his tone. He liked Oliver well enough as a fellow player and captain; however, as grateful as he was for finding Melinda for himself he had never quite completely forgiven the way she'd been treated by the man, and the fact he patently let his PR team direct his life while he complained about not having everything he wanted spoke volumes to the older man who had been in the business since he was still technically a school boy.
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At Viktor's question about drama already, Gen couldn't help quirking a brow at him. He didn't sound surprised at the thought that there might be drama with Oliver even this early into things, and she wasn't sure what to make of it. "Not exactly," she answered, hesitating a bit. "It was more drama with Coop and a realization that I couldn't carry on with Oliver," she admitted.
She wrinkled her nose a bit. "I liked him, and we had a great time last week, but I'm honestly not sure things would have worked out between us in the long term even if Coop hadn't come back in my life." Because the more she'd thought on it, the more those red flags from early on became more troublesome. But she had been attracted to Oliver, and she'd gotten to explore that enough that she didn't feel hung up on the what ifs and wondering what it would be like to be with him.
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He let out a soft ahhh of understanding, and he gave his star chaser an appraising sort of look. He knew very well about the influence of past relationships; hwoever, he was almost the opposite -- he wouldn't touch Roxy with a twenty meter pole at this point in his life, and if he didn't have to let Misha see her every so often, he'd have cut her entirely out of his life.
"There would have been problems," he agreed. One major one being they were on rival teams and both were competitive people. He'd seen that ruin more than one relationship in his time. Among other things, Oliver being too married to his job being one of them. Viktor had learned, somewhat the hard way, how to find and achieve balance, and part of that was telling the job they could go jump off a cliff without a broom sometimes.
"You know the Magpies have been talking very seriously with Cooper about coming to work for us," he said, almost casually, but his dark eyes watched her keenly for a reaction, not certain if her ex had told her about it. He'd wanted to tell her while he'd been visiting in France, but there had never been a good time for it, with everyone always around, and it was proprietary information. He only knew because he was captain, and because Finbar was his best mate.
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Gen didn't doubt there would have been problems, and maybe if they'd met before she'd transferred to the same league they might have had a chance, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was consider all of the what ifs. Oliver had even told her that he never went back, just kept moving forward, and she happened to think that was a good mentality to have. Tentatively letting Coop in her life again didn't feel so much like going backward, though, especially not if he'd finally figured out why things had gone wrong and was truly willing to put the work in to fix those issues.
The way he'd casually dropped that bit of information into the conversation didn't get past her, and she shot him a wry sort of look. "I know," she said plainly. "He met with them in Provence a few weeks ago - he chose the meeting place so he could orchestrate a run-in with me." She couldn't help rolling her eyes at that, but there was a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips. That was Cooper - he knew what he wanted, and he was going to do what he could to make it happen, and right now what he wanted was her and the Magpies.
"He told me he was meeting with several teams over the next few weeks, he never specified the Magpies, but we're his team - it's always been the Magpies for him, so I highly doubt he's actually meeting with anyone else. Not to mention Finbar coming to us, as well. I know he's wanted to work with him for a while." And it would put him around her more, even if he wouldn't be involved in coaching the Chasers.
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Viktor had talked to Cooper seriously a little bit back. He'd had to make certain that this moved wasn't based purely on his former relationship -- and apparently future relationship -- with Genevieve. A move like that wouldn't work out for anyone and could actually ruin a team very quickly.
But he'd felt from the heart to heart he'd had with Coop that it was, firstly, a career move, with an enormous side benefit of Gen being roughly in the picture. He liked the man and always had but he wasn't about to brook drama on his team, once the season started. Not if it affected his players. Which was why now he had to address it with Genevieve, to make sure it worked. Because he had enough power to put the nix on the entire thing, and she was his star Chaser.
"I highly doubt he's meeting with anyone else," he said. "Especially with Fin on our team. But if he does come over, I need to know if the two of you can make it work for the team. I know he won't be coaching you, but you would both be part of the team. If things do get started again and then go south, I need to know that the team isn't going to suffer for it." He was blunt and frank; he didn't tend to beat around the bush with team things. Subtlety profited no one.
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Ahh, this was a captain-to-player talk, not a friend-to-friend chat, though it didn't surprise her terribly much. Gen wasn't upset by it, either. Why would she be? The team was important--it wasn't the obsession that it was for some players, but they all did take it seriously and put in a lot of hard work toward being the cohesive team that they were. She didn't want to see that disrupted any more than Viktor did.
"Absolutely. Whatever does or doesn't happen between Coop and I--I'm not going to let it effect the team," she promised him. She couldn't promise the same for Coop, but as deep as his love for the Magpies went, she couldn't imagine he would be any different.
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It wasn't just a captain to player talk. He was her friend as well, and he was concerned about the entire thing. But he also had a responsibility to his team to make sure something like this wouldn't tear it up along the seams. Maintaining a professional veneer when your personal life was in shreds was difficult, and even more so if your former significant other was on the team. He'd been there once, too.
He gave her a warm smile tinged with approval. "Good. I know it isn't easy, Genevieve, trust me on this," he said quietly.
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Well, Gen definitely didn't intend for Coop to ever be her former significant other again. If they got back together, she wanted to make sure that it would be forever. She didn't want to just jump in blindly without some reassurance other than his words that the things that had put a wedge between them before wouldn't be issues for them again. But even on the very slight off chance that things went sour again anyway, she knew that she didn't want to play Quidditch forever. As much as she loved the game, she knew that when she started having children, she was going to want to be around to actually raise them herself. It was something she was going to have to figure out how to navigate with the team.
And working with the Little Quidditch League more this summer had thus far served to drive that goal home for her. She absolutely loved the children, and she wanted to do more with them. There was an idea already starting to brew in her mind for it, but she wanted to wait until she had a clearer vision for her future before broaching that topic with him.
"But speaking of romances... are you ever planning to make an honest woman of Mel?" she asked him teasingly. They were such a strong, solid couple, and she adored them both tremendously.
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Viktor was one of the few who had found some sort of balance between family and the sport. He worked hard at it. His family was spportive and helpful. And, he knew, in a few years he wouldn't be able to play anymore like he was now, and he'd have to settle back into a coaching position or something like Finbar had done. When the time came, he hoped he could do it with some grace, though he knew he would enjoy the less strict schedule and the time it would afford him at home.
Especially if he and Melinda deicded they wanted children.
He chuckled warmly. "It depends on if I cure myself of my marriage phobia," he joked wryly. He worried about changing something like that, it was true. They were strong. They worked. And he didn't want anyone else by his side. It was a matter of time, he knew, and he would ask her. But the time wasn't quite right -- yet.
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At his wry joke, Gen laughed shortly, rolling her eyes. Oh, certainly she knew enough of his disastrous first marriage to understand any reticence on his part to get married again, this was Melinda Bobbin they were talking about, and she had no doubt at all that Mel would never put Viktor through even a fraction of what his bitch of an ex-wife had. She also knew that they didn't have to get married to solidify their relationship.
It was one thing she admired about her friends' relationship. It didn't matter if they got married or not, but Gen did know that marriage was something she hoped for in her own future. She wanted what her parents had, and she made no secret of it. "Well if there's anyone worth curing yourself of it for, it's probably Melinda," she said, taking on a too-serious tone briefly before breaking out in a wide smile. "No pressure or judgment though. You two are lovely together regardless."
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"Oh, I completely agree," Viktor said. And he did. Melinda was worth curing himself of it. He was simply incredibly lucky that Melinda was willing to give him the time he needed to work through his past issues. He couldn't imagine a life without her at this point. It was jut a matter of working past that instinctive balking after what he'd been drug through the last time.
It had truly been a form of hell.
"I appreciate that, truly," he said with a smile. "She is wonderful and I don't plan on letting her go any time soon."
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Being friends with both Viktor and Melinda, Gen felt she'd done her duty here. She definitely wasn't going to push or pressure them about marriage, but she couldn't help asking, her curiosity getting the better of her. But getting married had to be a decision they made together, not something they were pressured into by well-meaning friends. She merely smiled at him as they continued on toward the locker rooms.