put your faith in my stomach [adrian]

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There were some days that Jamie didn't sleep well for no particular reason. Today was not one of those days. She knew why she hadn't slept well: she had spent the night with a restless redhead and a slightly annoyed cat. It had been worth the poor sleep, though, to comfort Lily. Having to bid her sister goodbye that morning had hurt Jamie more than she cared to admit, but now she was wandering around the base of the Gryffindor tower, trying to figure out whether or not Lily had returned there. There was also someone else in Gryffindor that she wanted to talk to, of course. Her brother. She didn't know if Adrian was planning on telling anyone else about his possible move to America, but Jamie was hoping that Adrian would tell her, that he wouldn't have just up and ran an ocean away without telling her if Lily hadn't told her already. Pacing around the Gryffindor tower normally seemed to work for Jamie, but now she wasn't sure if it was of any use at all.

@adrian

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Adrian... felt weird. Numb, but also hurting at the same time. How did that even happen? It was a total contradictions. And yet that was exactly how he felt since he got that letter yesterday. Would his mother really move to the other side of the world for work? Leave her home, her friends, and her family behind in Germany? Did... did she expect him to be able to go with her? He was half way through his sixth year. Transferring for his last year.... Leaving behind his friends... It felt wrong. It hurt. And when he thought about Lily, when she found out... He knew he'd hurt her with the news. Since he'd left Dan the night before he'd just gone about life without much thought, almost like a zombie. Just going through the motions but having no heart into it. Like stated before. Numb and hurting.

He hadn't slept at all that night, just stared vacantly at the ceiling above his bed and listened to his dorm mates' breathing. He wasn't restless though. Just... couldn't sleep. But couldn't muster the energy to move either. When morning finally came it took all his will to move, forcing himself to go through the motions of getting ready but feeling absolutely nothing about them. Heading out of Gryffindor tower to do.... something, he didn't really know what yet, he stopped at the sight of his sister pacing outside the tower entrance. Like a restless cat, waiting for the mouse to come out of it's hole. But what was her prey? Lily? Or him? He didn't say anything to her though, just stopped just outside the entrance and stuffed his hands deep in his pockets, an almost unreadable look in his eyes as he watched Jamie.

@jamie

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For all the time that she had had to figure out what to say to Adrian if he eventually appeared, when her brother actually did step in front of her, Jamie was speechless. She could lecture him, or she could ask him questions, or invite him to tell her how he was feeling, or – or she could just hug him. When she had been at her lowest point, just having her brother’s arms around her had made Jamie feel better. Maybe Adrian wasn’t the same way as she was, but Jamie could hope that her presence would make Adrian feel better, and, if not better, at least not worse. Jamie took a few steps to close the space between them and threw her arms around her brother, squeezing him tight against her. The situation didn’t really need words – Adrian probably could assume that she knew about the potential move with the way she was behaving. Despite the fact that words weren’t needed, though, Jamie decided to say some anyways. “Lily told me.” She said, even though it was just confirmation of what he might have already known. “I’m here for you, Adrian.” Even if she couldn’t be unbiased and want her brother to stay desperately, Jamie could be supportive. “I love you.” He was her little brother, after all.

@adrian

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They were hugging. Why were they hugging? And why had his arms raised to hug Jamie back? His body moved on its own, returning the gesture despite fervent protests from his mind. Not because his sister was hugging him. Or that his sister was here. But simply because Adrian had a tendency to run away when strong emotion were involved. He was good at it and this was ruining his track record.

She had to know, otherwise she wouldn't be acting like this. Her explanation put the pieces together. Lily. Of course. Lily wouldn't have kept it from Jame. "Its fine, Jamie. You don't need to worry about me." he answered. Despite saying that he didn't let go of her, his arms refusing to release his older sister.

@jamie

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Jamie was a little surprised that Adrian was hugging her back. This was nice, but she wished it didn’t have to happen under such sad circumstances. “You’re right, I don’t need to worry about you.” Jamie agreed with Adrian easily. “But it is an older sister’s responsibility to be worried anyways.” And since Odette had a hundred other things to think about without worrying on Adrian’s behalf, Jamie was going to take on the burden. This month was going to be all about becoming a better person and whatnot, and part of that meant dealing with her insane family – not that she had minded dealing with them before, but now she was going to make sure that she…was a better sister? Jamie didn’t know if that was possible, but she was going to be there for Adrian. She knew that Lily didn’t want to see him go, of course, and Jamie wasn’t going to pretend that she wanted him to stay more than Lily did…But Jamie didn’t want to let her brother go.

@adrian

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Adrian could count on one hand how many times he'd 'hugged' his siblings. Most of them he hadn't even hugged once. He just... wasn't that sort of person. Not touchy feeling (okay... he was with Lily but she didn't count). It was a grand total of two times. And both times it'd been with Jamie. The first time because she'd been hurting and come to him and he couldn't help it. This time though it was because... he was hurting. What was up with that? What was with this terrifying ability of her's to get hugs out of him? To somehow drag out a decent brother out of him whether he wanted it or not!

He swallows hard as she spoke, saying it was her Responsibility to worry. Now she was just being sentiment and Adrian, being the anti sentimental fellow he was, mentally squirmed. "You're not that much older!" ah, there was normal Adrian. Defiant and easily flustered as always. Obviously he failed to remember that Jamie had almost a whole year on him. And the fact that he still hadn't managed to let go of her. Eh, he'd remember his predicament eventually.

@jamie

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Jamie chuckled when Adrian said that she wasn’t that much older than him. Leave it to Adrian to think that nine months constituted ‘not that much older’. “How much older would I have to be for you to take me seriously?” She teased. From what she knew, Adrian and Odette didn’t get along well, and she definitely qualified as older than him, the difference in age numbered in years instead of in months. Not that Jamie could blame him for his relationship with Odette. Jamie loved their sister dearly, but she was…abrasive, sometimes. Since they had been hugging for at least a minute now, Jamie decided to release her arms from around Adrian, since she wasn’t sure he would willingly be the one to let go first. “I guess your mum wants you to go with her, if she moves?” Jamie asked. Because if Adrian’s mother was willing to let him stay without her, then maybe this didn’t have to be a problem at all. She could just find a way to keep him there. She would be getting a paycheck, and a paycheck meant a home, which meant a place where Adrian could stay, which meant that he didn’t have to go. If only it were that simple.

@adrian

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Adrian made a face at Jamie's demand to know how much older she'd need to be for him to take her seriously. "I don't take that old hag seriously. Age doesn't matter." he finally answered. That 'old hag' happened to be their older sister Odette. Who had a very strained relationship with Adrian. That tended to happen though when the first thing you ever said to the person was 'clumsy old hag'. One guess to who said that. Clue, their name started with an A and ended in drian.

Jamie was the first one to pull away. Holding back a sigh Adrian took a step back and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he shrugged. "I can't exactly let her move to the other side of the world alone. I'm all she has." why his mother had never married Adrian didn't know. But growing up it'd just been them. After raising her alone how could he let her move so far away without him?

@jamie

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Jamie wasn’t sure whether she ought to laugh or cry when Adrian referred to Odette as an old hag. There were some of her siblings that she wasn’t as big of a fan of, but she didn’t outright hate anyone anymore. “Why do you still listen to me, then?” Jamie teased. She was pretty sure that of all of the Greybacks, she had the best chance at making Adrian do what she wanted to, even if that still wasn’t that big of a chance.

Jamie watched Adrian’s body language, and she felt bad for pulling away, especially when immediately shoved his hands in his pockets. Her heart broke a little when Adrian said that he couldn’t let his mother go alone. He was all she had…Jamie wished that she was selfish. She wished that she could tell Adrian that he was all that she had, too, but that was a lie, and furthermore it was a lie that she would only tell because she wanted him to stay. “I see.” She said with a sigh. “Was worth the asking.”

@adrian

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That was a very good question. Not just because he had to stop to thinking about why he listened to Jamie, but also try and figure out when he'd started listening to his sister. Adrian frowned as he mulled it over, trying to come up with a pair of answers adequate to explain himself. Falling short, of course. Because Adrian wasn't eloquant enough with words to get anything out correctly. "Who knows. Maybe because Lily would beat me if I didn't." Such a typical Adrian response as he shrugged.

"Her English isn't that great either." So moving to the United States would be an... interesting transition. Adrian was used to speaking English everyday. It was his primary language at Hogwarts. His mother though? Not so much. She had little opportunities to maintain her skills in the language. How could he let her move somewhere when she struggled with the native language?

@jamie

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Adrian was frowning, and Jamie wondered if she had done something wrong, to warrant such an expression. He answered her question by not really answering it at all, though Jamie couldn’t help but chuckle when Adrian said Lily would beat him if he didn’t listen to her. “She’d be a hypocrite if she did that.” Jamie said lightly. Lily, for all her positive aspects, was not always the best at obeying rules, or obeying Jamie. Her disobedience was charming, though, not defiant the way Adrian’s always seems to be. “It’s not like I ask anything that bad of you, anyways.” Jamie said with a shrug. She didn’t often pull the ‘big sister’ card with Adrian, mostly because there was never a reason to, so she thought it was forgivable to bring it up once.

“Ah.” Jamie said when Adrian admitted that his mother’s English wasn’t that great. “Well…I’m glad that she cares for you. And you for her.” As someone whose mother had made questionable choices that had ended their relationship, Jamie thought she was probably a little too touchy for her own good when it came to mother-child relationships, which was why she was being so…weird about this. And this whole situation was making her think that maybe, she ought to write her mother a letter. But she wouldn’t.

@adrian

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Adrian chuckled softly at Jamie's statement. Lily was much worse at following direction then he was, that was for sure. "I don't think that would stop her." he answered. It really wouldn't. Lily was an uncontrollable force, like a hurricane. As insane as it sounded that happened to be one of his favorite parts of Lily.

He couldn't help but smile just a little at the mention of his mother caring for him. He had his mother had always had a good relationship. They'd gone through a lot together after all. "She's my mom." Even when they didn't get along it didn't change the fact. She raise him by herself. Not because she'd get anything out of it. But because she loved him. Even after he was turned into a werewolf.

@jamie

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Jamie raised her shoulder in a shrug when Adrian said being a hypocrite wouldn’t stop Lily. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t, but not because Lily didn’t care about hypocrisy, but because she wouldn’t think of it enough to realize that she was being one.

The Hufflepuff saw her brother smile at the mention of his mother, and she tried to smile back, but couldn’t, especially when Adrian just said that she was his mom. “I know, but –” Hot tears began to prick at the back of Jamie’s eyes, and she stopped the sentence before she could finish it and begin to cry. She didn’t want to scare Adrian off, and her inexplicably bursting into tears probably wouldn’t be the best way to achieve that end. And this wasn’t about her and her own ruined relationship with her mother. Even if she had wanted to talk to Adrian about that, now wasn’t the time. Jamie looked down at her feet so that she could finish her sentence, and if she did cry, her brother wouldn’t see the tears. “But sometimes mothers aren’t…” Once again, Jamie couldn’t finish. She didn’t know the word she was looking for. Sometimes mothers weren’t good? That just seemed…wrong.

@adrian

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Adrian's whole body went so stiff you'd have thought he turned to stone when Jamie cut herself off to stop herself from crying. It was as if a million alarms went off, blaring in Adrian's head of the incoming emotional attack. If his muscles hadn't locked up so tightly he probably would have been backing away faster then you could follow, fleeing before the waterworks began. Adrian, while being a hot head was also a coward. Especially when it came to the women in his life. He just couldn't handle their emotions, and it was much better to run away and let someone else deal with it. Alas, his body was having a moment of complete and total unresponsiveness and he remained rooted to the spot with a look of growing horror.

Thankfully, the tears had not begun to fall yet. Almost as if Jamie seemed to realize how he might react (or was currently reacting) to crying. Okay, it didn't take a genius to know how Adrian would react. He was unfortunately predictable like that. And even when the tears didn't come immediately he remained stoic and still as stone, as if waiting, to terrified to risk moving even an inch. His fear, thankfully, did not blind him to what his sister was saying. But... what? What was making her so close to crying? And then she continued. Sometimes mother's aren't... what? What weren't they? "Aren't.... what...?" He managed to squeak out, forcing himself to voice his thoughts. Though a part of him knew this may only bring on the tears he was terrified of.

@jamie

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Jamie was still looking down, but she could feel the tension in the air, presumably all radiating off of her brother. Jamie wondered if she ought to be the one to walk away, so that Adrian wouldn’t feel bad when he eventually did run off. It was too bad that the Hufflepuff wasn’t much good at walking away from anything, let alone from her brother. When Adrian prompted her, asking what mothers weren’t, Jamie knew that there wasn’t going to be any escaping on either party’s end. Instead of struggling to choose an adjective to describe what had gone wrong, Jamie decided to do the simple thing, and explain why she was so pessimistic when it came to her own maternal relationship. “My mother let our father bite me.” She whispered. Despite how quiet her voice was, Jamie swore that it echoed through the entire castle. She took a deep breath, feeling the tears beginning to recede now that she had finally told Adrian. Of all of her siblings, she had only managed to tell one other before this point what had happened with her mother, preferring to be vague instead with everyone else. It wasn’t something that needed to be flaunted, but since Jamie was obviously distressed by this conversation of family, she didn’t think that brushing it off would satisfy Adrian. “And that’s why I…think that you should go, if you need to.” Not everyone was guaranteed what Adrian had, and giving it up wasn’t something that Jamie wanted to encourage. She could only hope that her brother could follow that fractured path of logic.

@adrian