wine & dine | cara

[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

february 2028

IT HAD ALREADY BEEN TWO long years of going back and forth with Cara. Two long years and yet..there was no official label tied to whatever relationship the two had. Truthfully Calliope didn't mind labels, nor did she care if Cara would eventually break her heart. All she cared for was that Cara was healthy, happy, and that they could go on as many dates as they could arrange. Although, tonight would be slightly different though. Two long years shared with another person you were infatuated over truly only meant one thing for the Fleming. To...propose a chance for their relationship to go...just a little further. Considering the lack of opportunities to do so in the past. In the last few years anyway, life had been equally busy for the both of them. Calliope had been preoccupied with her apprenticeship and Cara with all her lines of work.

But now she was finally able to get a hands on Cara's schedule and overall free time, allowing the Fleming to decide on another dinner date in the same apartment Cara had dined in various times. In the two years Calliope had been renting the place, she never once had an issue, nor did she anticipate she would move out anytime soon. But regardless, the Fleming felt like making these sort of dates a yearly tradition - a cheesy (but romantic of course) dinner at her place during anytime in February.

This time was somewhat different though, as Calliope went all out with the Valentines decorations. Roses on the table, roses to give to Cara..the works. After finishing up cooking and pouring some wine, Cal waited for Cara to turn up.

| cara june bainbridge |

hopefully this works!

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Spellbucks was trying to kill her. Realistically, working two part-time jobs was what was doing it, but she hated to place blame on Fortescue’s because she had been there so long and her job was basically second nature at this point. Cara refused to believe that she needed to quit one, or both, of them. At the same time, it was starting to look like she needed to move on. Not that she thought she was better than working in the service industry now – if that had been the case she would have left the ice cream parlor years ago – but that it was starting to wear her down. Having a wacky schedule wasn’t fun. She’d lost some of her passion as a writer, her rather explicit stories written for the wizarding web having slowed down drastically over the last half a year. Her readers wanted more. They weirdly paid for it. Somehow, she was starting to think she could make a living off of that. It definitely wasn’t the future she thought she’d have as an author, but if the people paid, she’d take it. So it was technically more like three jobs, if that was included. Four if she wanted to spend any time with her loved ones. Viewing her family and Calliope as a job was so unbelievably negative too. The last thing she wanted to do was to drive them away because of overworking herself. Cara knew she could be a tad mean when she was exhausted. The same thing had happened during her seventh year.

Coming from an opening shift at Spellbucks, she stopped home once she was done and did her best to take a nap. She didn’t want to be miserable for dinner with Cal. Locking her door and setting a strong noise muffling charm, Cara attempted to sleep until evening. Tossing and turning until she had to be up to get ready was what actually happened, and the tired, bloodshot eyes that stared back at her in the mirror before she left was a bit of a harsh reality check. She needed to find a regular day job.

Thankfully getting to Cal’s apartment was easy. The only saving grace of magic, really. Travel meant nothing once apparation came into play. And within a matter of minutes from leaving the Bainbridge home, she was knocking on Cal’s apartment door. She really needed tonight, mostly to relax and forget about work. Something had to change here, and soon.

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

SWIRLING HER OWN WINE IN her glass for a while, Calliope had little sips here and there. She couldn't remember Cara's favourite wine out of nervousness and sheer panic and instead had requested the perfect kind of wine to accompany a Valentines dinner. Was she potentially doing too much for someone that could flat out reject her to become her girlfriend? Absolutely. Did she mind? Not now, but most definitely would if the path led down that way. Being lost in her thoughts for far too long, Calliope almost missed the knocking coming from the front door.

Standing up in a little rush, Cal fussed about, making everything was in top shape, no spillages and ensuring that the oven was indeed on. Heading to the door with the roses she had bought for Cara, the Fleming opened the door with a wide grin, her eye colour and hair colour shifting to reflect this no less. "Hi." She said softly, already thinking how pretty Cara looked. "Come in and these..are for you." She added, stepping aside to let the Bainbridge in, before handing over the flowers.

| cara june bainbridge |

sorry for the wait!

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Cara's eyes darted down to the bouquet of roses that were being held out to her as Calliope opened the door. The immediate chill of realization that she had forgotten this was a Valentine's dinner came over her. 'Fuck,' she mentally swore to herself as she tried to replace the intense fear of forgetfulness with one of appreciation, because she absolutely did like the gesture. It now all made sense why her shift at Spellbucks had been consumed by heart shaped pastries and coffee adjacent drinks magically turned red. Her exhaustion from working both jobs had finally caught up apparently, though she had figured it would manifest in the form of passing out in her bed, not totally neglecting to remember what day it was. At the same time, she also knew she couldn't beat herself up over it. She'd never actually celebrated the holiday before, so there was that too. She was sure she could rectify that someway. Make up something on the spot. Spontaneity with Calliope had yet to fail her, and there were a few tricks she still had up her sleeve.

"They're lovely. Thank you," she accepted the flowers, a grin beaming from behind them as she stepped all the way into the flat. It didn't feel strange being here anymore, like it had the first few times she'd visited. The flat acted as an escape from her work and family, which she supposed was how home was meant to be. Never moving out after Hogwarts had sort of made that difficult to get a feeling for.

Making her way fully into the apartment, she found a careful place to set the flowers down, immediately taking note of the rest of the theming. Cal was going all out for this. Cara wasn't blind to what it could mean, though she had felt like it should have happened months ago at this point. Her own stupidity (and busy work schedule) in not making it known that she was ready for the next step had definitely delayed it until now. So she was going to beat Calliope to the punch. She didn't have a physical gift for Valentine's, and while it seemed the ultimate intention of this dinner was to reach the inevitable that they'd been working towards over the last two-ish years. "Do you think we could talk first?" Cara asked, slightly nervous as she glanced at all of the decorations again before taking a seat on the couch. Right. They definitely needed to talk first.

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

GRINNING AS CARA MADE HER way inside, thanking Cal for the flowers, Calliope closed the door behind her and slowly walked behind Cara. It wasn't the first time Cara had been inside the apartment, but it was their first time around this time of year. Even though it felt like their relationship was at another standstill - not really going that far, the silly idea of making this evening a Valentine's dinner was far from embarrassing for the Fleming.

If Eli could see her now, eyes bright and hair shifting from joy, she wouldn't hear the end of it. Not even after being put six feet into her grave. "Talk? Oh- Yeah, yeah, sure!" The question alone shouldn't of made Calliope nervous in the way that it did - but she had seen the movies. Magical and No-Maj. The question 'could we talk?' usually meant it would end in disaster.

When Cal was young she was definitely more of an optimistic type of person, seeing the light in things even if it was rough. Merlin, where was that optimism now? Taking a seat on the couch also, with her knee barely brushing against Cara's, the Fleming tried her best to show a confident smile - as well as hide the shift of her emotions a little more. "What's..up?.."

| cara june bainbridge |

sorry for the wait!

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

The nap earlier in the day was definitely coming in for the assist right now. A clear and rested mind was absolutely necessary for what she was about to do, and without it Cara knew that she would have been fumbling over her words. Her choice so far had been subpar too, because as she sat and thought about her phrasing, 'wanting to talk first', came out like she was about to end all of this when it was quite the opposite. But the nap prevented her sleep deprived brain from going into a nervous overdrive (or at least more than she already was). She couldn't even begin to imagine what Calliope was thinking right now, especially considering the decorations that had been put up. The last thing Cara wanted to do was confuse her.

"So I've been thinking a lot," she began, looking down at her hands instead of Cal. They were interlocked tightly, a habit she'd picked up years earlier to keep herself from anxiously picking at the skin around her nails. "I want to apologize first for being busy all of the time. I'm already thinking of leaving Spellbucks because it's such an energy drain..." She was getting distracted from the real reason, using her work as an excuse for everything lately. Cara knew that Cal wasn't bothered by the schedules she had. "Sorry, that's not really what I wanted to talk about, but...we've been doing this for a couple years now and I've been thinking..." She looked up from her hands to see Calliope smiling at her. "I want to make this, us, official. It's felt like that to me for a while now, but we never put an actual label to it. So yeah..." That had to be okay right? She wasn't stupid and knew that Cal would wait until the end of days for something like this. It was more that she felt bad for making her wait as long as this.

calliope ivory fleming ● 328 ● Song by Artist

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

WITH HER HAIR ALREADY SHIFTING to reflect her rising anxiety, Calliope decided her best bet would be to initially nod in respond to Cara, allowing her more time to find the words she might need. The pleads she might need. She couldn't see herself all of a sudden..not seeing Cara, even if thats what this conversation was leading to, to spend less time, to take a pause or a break on it all. They had been friends in the midst of..whatever this was.

"Thinking..mhm.." She mumbled, before going quiet, humming in response to tell the Bainbridge that she was in act paying attention. "Oh.." Cal began, not anticipating Cara's apology. ""No that's fine..sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do..plus you've always made up the time we weren't able to spend together.." Going quiet again as Cara continued, the Fleming's anxiety spiked the moment their relationship was brought up.

Dark colours spiked at the roots through the ends of the metamorphmagus' hair, especially since she knew what to anticipate next. This was it! The 'I think we should see other people' talk! But with what felt like a few minutes of awkward silence between the two of them filling the air, the realisation of what Cara had said hit the Fleming like a ton of bricks. "Huh?" She found herself asking, rather dumbfounded.

Interjecting to not give Cara the wrong idea, while brighter colours shifted through her hair and eyes, Calliope added. "I mean..! Like..a relationship?..Between..you and me?.." The Fleming couldn't hide her grin there, while her cheeks flushed bright red.

| cara june bainbridge |

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Cara could probably count herself lucky that she wasn’t making direct eye contact with Calliope as she spoke, otherwise she would have seen the instantly dark hair colors. Shades she had never seen on the other girl before, and never would want to. Being stuck in her own little world as she talked helped with that and having only looked back up as she finished saying what she had been wanting to say for quite a while now, did she see the almost dumbstruck look on Cal’s face. Had she guessed incorrectly on this entire relationship? Shock wasn’t exactly what she had expected, especially when Cal literally wore her emotions in her eyes and hair. It took a moment, but that eventually did happen, and only then did Cara realized she had been holding her breath as she waited for any sort of response that wasn’t the shocked huh?

”Yeah, like a relationship. I mean…I guess its sort of been like that without us calling it that and I’ve only been seeing you this whole time…” She could tell now that she had asked the right question, Cal’s grinning face beaming back at her as she spoke. ”I’m sorry for making you wait this long. I’ve known for a while and just didn’t want to mess with what we had…if that makes sense?” That and she was stupidly indecisive. Change like this was big for her. Before now, maintaining her everyday order was more important than anything else. Once she realized that changing Cal’s description in her head of best friend that she really liked to girlfriend, it really didn’t sound so scary after all. Cal would still be the same person, just with an upgraded title that Cara felt proud of. ”I take it that’s a yes?” she added after a moment, and noticing the quickly shifting colors across from her.

calliope ivory fleming ● 312 ● Song by Artist

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

SOMEWHERE WITHIN THE FLEMING, SHE was glad Cara wasn't paying attention to the frenzy of emotions she was going through. It was a flaw for the Fleming in her younger years, especially as her father would always note and complain about it - while her mother would always say it added to her charm. Being able to read the middle Fleming wasn't a charm to anyone but her parents, especially whenever she was in trouble.

Brushing away childhood thoughts and simply returning to reality that had Calliope incredibly tense, she felt a stomach pain arise, especially as she felt awkward, anticipating Cara's reply. The 'huh' was not supposed to be the first thing that left the metamorphmagus' lips but considering most things in her life went badly, she had figured she was reading into this relationship...friendship...somethingship all wrong and that Cara didn't want anything to do with her.

As Cara spoke, Calliope couldn't help but grin happily while the colours in her eyes and hair shifted through all sorts of bright hues. She couldn't contain her excitement nor her happiness for a moment longer. Though there was truth to Cara's words, the Fleming knew she would wait a thousand years more if she needed to. "You had..your things to deal with..and I had mine. Even if we started a relationship back then..it probably would've been all rocky with the stuff we both had to deal with.."

Nodding as Cara spoke though, Calliope truly felt like a child in a candy store. Her cheeks were flushed red and soon began to hurt with the wideness of her grin. "A million times yes!" The Fleming exclaimed, cupping Cara's face before pulling her into a tight embrace. "I'm so glad..I would've waited even longer but..thank you.."

| cara june bainbridge |

im so sorry...

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Of course Calliope was fine with all of this. It literally showed on her, with the way her hair and eyes were rapidly changing colors. Not to mention the grim that was plastered on her face. Cara had no idea why she had been so nervous about committing all this time, especially when she knew deep down that it was what she wanted. The uncertainty between work and whether she was going to keep living at home with her family, to not knowing if more education was the right route to take. All of it at once, on top of what she had going with Cal, made her not want to budge on the relationship aspect. While she had always wanted more from it, she was sort of afraid of trying to move too fast with everything going on. Cal said as much, confirming that she had similar feelings on the waiting part.

But none of that mattered now. Cara felt hands wrap around her face as she was pulled closer. The wave of relief that came over her quite literally felt like a weight lifting off her shoulders. The warm comfort of being so close immediately made her worries evaporate. She never should have been worried to begin with, this was Cal after all. "I know you would have. But it still wasn't fair to make you wait so long without any explanation." She nestled her face into Cal's neck and let out a deep exhale. All she could see was the ever-changing hair of her now girlfriend. The thought of that made her heart feel like it was skipping. She had known all along that this was how it was going to go. The journey to this point was the hard part.

What came next though? She hadn't really thought about it much, at least not past this point. Cara's goal had been to make it official and she assumed it would continue on as it had been, just with an actual label to it and a lot more seriousness added in. "I've never had anything like this before...but I'm glad it's with you," Cara added, squeezing Calliope a little more.

calliope ivory fleming ● 364

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

WHILE IT MAY HAVE TAKEN them a long while for such a conversation, Calliope knew she would've done the wait all over again. Even being able to spend time with Cara was more than enough, even if Calliope felt selfish at time for wanting to do more or simply be more. Everything had panned out in the best of ways. As they embraced tightly, colours shifted through the Fleming's hair and eyes, even as she squeezed them shut. Her cheeks flushed a deeper red as she felt Cara somewhat nuzzling her face into her neck.

"Explanation or not..we got there in the end right?.." She added, using her free hand to gently pet at Cara's hair. With the way the Bainbridge was resting, she could probably feel the multiple skips the Fleming's heart felt like it was doing. But it was obviously clear how happy Calliope was. Her emotions literally played out in her features with every minute passing. "Never?.." She questioned, feeling herself grin as Cara squeezed at her, tightening their embrace.

"You're my first...adulty..relationship I guess..you know..people don't always count high-school romances.." Calliope then slightly leaned back to look down at Cara, gently brushing the hair away from her eyes. "We don't..have to move at any kind of lightning pace..We can stick to holding hands..things we did on our..'dates'?.." Calliope felt like she was bad at this, but considering most of the time she was nervous to even bring up such a thing, she felt proud for not stuttering over her words. "I mean..you can stay here whenever you feel like it..you know I don't mind..'

| cara june bainbridge |

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

”Never,” Cara repeated. Hopeless crushes and a half-assed previous relationship, while technically they did count, weren’t anywhere close to this. The comfort of it all, how she felt she was where she needed to be when it came to Calliope, was what made this different than the rest. It was funny too, how Cal verbalized all of it too. Not that past relationships weren’t important; they had to their own successes and failures, which led both of them to this point. Maybe that was why it had been so unofficial until now. Cara had certainly been nervous about breaking that seal and moving on to whatever came next. She didn’t want to ruin what they had either, despite knowing that it would have never turned out that way. Cal had always been so easy to read, she always knew it would end up like this.

While living with her parents didn’t mean they watched her every move, they did have questions occasionally about why she was out late or why she didn’t come home some nights. They probably already knew there was someone, her blasé response to ‘staying at a friend’s’ could only get her so far with naming names or giving more details. That was the next step, of course. Telling her family. She’d get to it eventually though. Relishing in her second secret of the last few years felt sort of nice. The rest of the family all had their own secrets that they never told her, it was only fair that she have a few things to her own.

Cara nodded her head to show that she understood Cal’s offer of staying whenever she wanted. She had forgotten about dinner, though that wasn’t hard to do. Sometimes there were more important things at play. ”So…I can stay tonight then?” As if she was ever planning to do anything else other than that to begin with.

calliope ivory fleming ● 318

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[calliope ivory fleming]

━ if you ain't busy take a walk with me ━

FEELING HER GRIN WIDEN IN the midst of their embrace, flurries of colours continued to rush through the Fleming. She couldn't help the feeling, she felt nothing but sheer joy and giddiness after all. Nothing truly compared to the sheer joy the Fleming was enduring, nor could any pain or shadow mask over the feeling. It was funny, considering the middle Fleming had been teased by her siblings for so long, having a crush that was seemingly 'going nowhere'...She couldn't wait to shove the result in Eli's face.

Dinner was easily forgotten about, and with her knee brushing against Cara's once more as the Fleming pulled back from their embrace, a flush of red filled her cheeks. "I was kind of hoping you would...friendly or not..however tonight ended up.." It wasn't the first time Calliope had offered such a thing anyway, knowing slightly about Cara's living situation at home, she knew the Bainbridge wanted an escape at times. Cal simply hoped she could be that escape.

Feeling like a weight lifted off of her chest, the Fleming then let out a dramatic sigh while squeezing at Cara's hands. Looking up at the Bainbridges' eyes, Cal waited before randomly asking. "But are you still hungry?..I think I heard the oven timer go off like..a few minutes ago.." She couldn't help but crack at such a serious situation with a little joke or two, but here the Fleming was, sat across her girlfriend with the widest smile on her lips.

| cara june bainbridge |

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Cara already felt like kicking herself for taking this long to reach her conclusion. Making Cal wait all this time…it was inconsiderate. And while it didn’t seem like her now girlfriend ever felt like she had been getting strung along, Cara still felt guilty. Especially in the moment with all of these heightened emotions starting to run wild. Calliope was obviously over the moon, the vibrant flash of colors reverberating through every part of her that typically indicated her mood. At least she knew that everything was okay now, and that her long decision-making process had the correct end result.

And to be able to stay over immediately? Cara had had long nights here before, and the times she had stayed the whole time, she had easily waved it off to her parents as waking up early for work before them or passing out from watching a movie here. They weren’t stupid though. She was sure they knew something was up, just not what or with who. Which made her realize that she was going to have to set up some sort of meeting now. She could feel her face start to burn more, both from Cal saying she was hoping this would eventually happen, and because she felt an excited embarrassment in eventually having to introduce everyone. There were a lot of Bainbridges to get through.

”I-I am,” Cara said in surprise as dinner was brought up again. Right! That was why she was here in the first place! It was almost better for the sequence of events to happen this way. She didn’t think she could sit through dinner and eat, with all of this weighing her down. Now it was out of the way, and they could happily eat. ”Probably don’t want to let it get any colder, yeah?” she asked as she got to feet, still holding onto Cal’s hands.

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