Triangle [Addi]

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Diagon Alley. That was apparently what this magical shopping district was called. Upon entering it earlier in the day, Steve had immediately gotten that kid in the candy store rush of energy and emotions. There was something inexplicably cool about an entire mall-like area dedicated solely to magical goods and resources. He had never seen anything like this before! It made home feel like a dinky, country town. Not that it wasn’t one of those, but the point remained as it was.

He had arrived with the rest of the family, first his parents splitting off to find things they needed for home. Nora had disappeared from his sight only a short while earlier, and it was probably because there were a million different things to catch their attention. Steve had particularly taken a liking to the Quidditch shop, having had now been staring through the glass window and at the display inside for at least five minutes straight. Whether he had blinked or not was also up for debate. The pure spectacle of the dazzling brooms and Quidditch supplies was something he had never encountered before today. Any brooms that were lying around at home were typically either ones used for sweeping the front porch or so battered that they could barely fly anymore – stripped of whatever little magic remained, as well as twine on the end of it.

Being much too preoccupied with staring at the display, he hadn’t noticed it start to get dark out. That kind of thing was normal for him. The house back in Canada was always as dark as possible so that their mother could move about during the day without fear of being struck by rays of light. It wasn’t necessarily harmful, but he understood her pain of getting bad burns. Even if he and Nora were somewhat normal when it came to daylight, it still got them just as good if they weren’t careful. Blinking a few times to moisturize his dry eyes, Steve stepped back into the street and glanced up at a street light as it started to kick on. Pretty soon here the family had to meet back up. Their mom had to go to work after all, even if they had just moved a few days earlier. Frowning, he returned his gaze back to the Quidditch display and sighed. He reasoned that there would be plenty more times to stare at it throughout the summer.

[Deleted]

Addi was actually having a good day and felt like herself. She was upbeat, bubbly, and excited to be out shopping. It was Spring, so she had a tight pair of leggings on and a camisole top, her hair pulled up in a bun with a headband. She had a sweater tied around her waist for when it got cold, but she hadn't needed it just yet. She was enjoying being out in the day, mostly. She didn't buy that much stuff, just little things that could fit in her bag. As it started to get dark, though, she realized that she should be heading back to Claires where she was staying...

She felt bad that she was avoiding her parents house and her brother, but Claire didn't ask questions and was just supportive. That was so much easier right now. She was in the Quidditch store, looking at getting something for Edmund when she looked to the window and saw how dark it was. She also saw someone looking into the window and cocked her head to the side with confusion. Where they just going to stare?

She gently opened the store door, turning to look at him. It was a boy about her age, definitely not someone from Hogwarts, though. "Do you make it a habit of staring in windows in the dark?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow that any Head Girl would be proud to have.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Steve thought nothing of the shop door opening and closing next to him. That had happened a dozen or so times since he had arrived at the window – even more people had stood next to him and left in that same amount of time. Needless to say, he was content with ignoring the person that had just walked out, but apparently they weren’t fine with the way he was looking at the window. The fact that the voice, a girl’s from what he could tell without looking at her immediately, thought he was making a habit out of it was hilarious. He wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be some sort of stab at vampires (not that she would know he was half of one just by looking at him, luckily they could pass easily as a full human without a problem), or if it was because he actually looked weird staring into the window. It wasn’t fair of him to jump to conclusions with the vampire bit though, and keeping an open mind of other witches and wizards in this new place was the only way he was going to make it. He had been telling himself that since they found out about the move.

Letting out a sigh, Steve broke his concentrated gaze with the window and turned to face the person that the voice was coming from. Oh was he glad he didn’t snap back at her. She was certainly something else. “Do you make it a habit of staring at people in the dark while they stare into windows?” he countered back, making sure to keep his voice light and joking. She looked to be about the same age as he was, and that meant she could be a classmate in the fall. Last thing he needed to do was make a bad first impression. “And to answer your question, sometimes. Never see a broom like that before,” Steve motioned at the one in the display. Man that made him sound like a hick.

[Deleted]

The boy sighed, turning toward her and she took another step toward him, placing her hands on her hips in true authoritative Addilyn fashion. His counter question, though, made her jaw drop. So she had a joker on her hands, did she? But then he answered her question before she responded, saying that he hadn't every seen a broom like that. She raised an eyebrow at him, "not a lot of brooms shops where you're from, then?" she guessed. She took another step forward and turned toward the window display to get a look at which broom he was eyeing. "Do you play?" she asked, her eyes still on the broom. She meant Quidditch, of course, and it didn't occur to her that this kid wouldn't know what she was talking about. Everyone knew about Quidditch, right? Even someone who hadn't ever seen this kind of broom? She didn't particularly love the sport, but she knew it, of course.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Steve didn’t even attempt to hide the sneering grin that formed on his face as the girl’s jaw dropped upon hearing his rebuttal. It wasn’t like the comment was dripping in sass or anything, but she apparently hadn’t expected him to come back with anything at all. The hands on the hip said it all, if her earlier dig about staring into windows hadn’t already. He wasn’t sure if she was the nosy or bossy type, or a little of both. By not letting him stare endlessly into the window display, that gave her a hint of authoritarianism. If she had simply been curious about what he was doing, she would have said it another way.

He shook his head as she asked if there were broom shops from his hometown. “Not really,” Steve glanced back at the broom again. “Flying something that nice in the harsh Canadian winter wouldn’t end well. We don’t have much use for them there like you guys seem to.” The mere fact that Europeans had a whole sport dedicated to riding brooms around said it all. Obviously there was Quidditch in North America, but with the wildly popular Quodpot taking command in most places, playing the former at any level above a pick-up game was almost impossible. “I wish. Quidditch is like the soccer of magical sports,” Steve mused, not realizing that this girl probably had no idea what soccer was. “Or its football here, isn’t it? That’s going to take a while to get used to.”

This was great. Not even knowing the correct lingo over here was making him seem like an idiot. At least he still had something on this girl. “You never answered my question,” Steve commented, leaning up against the window. “It’s not nice to keep someone waiting.”

[Deleted]

He said that there weren't broom shops, as she suspected. He spoke of the harsh Canadian winter and her eyebrow raised even higher, a corner of her lip joining it, too. He said he wished he played, speaking about 'soccer' and 'football'. "Canada... did you like it there? Aside from the difference in sports," she asked. "No need to worry about calling it football or soccer, we all know what you mean. We just say 'American Football' if we're talking about...well... American Football," she explained.

Then, he said she never answered his question and she had to think back to what question he meant. She didn't like keeping people waiting, so he got her there... but what question was he talking about? Oh, oh. The question as to whether or not she watched people watching things in windows, or whatever that was. "Only if they're as cute as you," she said casually, giving a shrug.

What? Was that... a semblance of the old, not-blacking-out, fun loving, popular girl Addi that she used to be? She was so stunned by her words that she didn't even say anything further, she just got stuck in a look of shock.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Did he love Canada? “Absolutely I love Canada,” Steve responded immediately. Nothing could beat his home there. It was unfortunate that they had to move, and the serious lack of forest wildlife here was rather depressing, but the concrete jungle wasn’t all that bad yet. “You guys have quite the city here, eh?” he said, but not taking his gaze off of her. There were quite a few remarkable things he had seen so far. “Sport names aside, of course. I’m basically a lumberjack back home, so we have all sorts of weird things. Axe tossing, chainsaw carving, target shooting, you name it.” Steve didn’t even care if he was coming off as a hick. Those things were actually fun, compared to team sports. Obviously he would kill to play Quidditch, but only to exercise his abilities and strength as a beater. No other position was worthy of that.

As the girl commented that she only habitually stared back at people staring into windows if they were cute, like him, Steve placed his hands over his heart. “No shame,” he said, grinning at her. “Does being cute get me your name?” Testing the waters had never hurt before. Back home it was just the same girls over and over again, enough that it got boring flirting with them time and time again. To add, that wasn’t what he was really trying over here. A little fun had never hurt before though, and the girl had initiated it after all. If he was guessing correctly, they would probably be classmates in the upcoming school year as well. She didn’t look old enough to be graduated yet. At least he hoped she wasn’t. Continuing this over the course of the year would bring plenty of entertainment.

[Deleted]

He said he loved Canada, which was nice. It was always good when you like where you came from. Other people weren't as lucky. "I've heard it's beautiful in a lot of areas," she explained, not really knowing much about it but knowing it was a good hiking scene. At the comment about her city, Addi grinned, "oh, it's a wonderful city. I'm sure you'll learn to like it, too," she said. Then he spoke about sports names, and she laughed as he mentioned the fact that he was a lumberjack. She couldn't help the smile on her face, and it was incredibly nice to have one after so many months of not feeling like herself. "You seem pretty proud of that fact, as you should be," she said, still laughing a little. Wow, it was really nice to laugh. Maybe all she needed was a lumberjack to tell her about his weird life back home. Well, weird to her.

He placed his hand over his heart at her compliment, but she still didn't snap out of being stunned. Not until he asked if his cuteness warranted her giving her name "I suppose you could say you've earned it," she said. "Addilyn Slater. Friends call me Addi, so... take your pick," she challenged.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Canada was beautiful in most places. Picture perfect, in his own expert opinion. He didn’t think it was favoritism because it had been home for his entire life, but because he wasn’t wrong. Nothing could conquer the great north, not even humans in some places. The untouched, untapped potential of the wilderness was perfect for almost everything, and that was why he loved it. “Might take a while though. The loudest noises at home were snowplows or chainsaws. And I’m sure you can imagine how often those are going,” he shrugged. The noise of the city was easily countered via soundproofing spells in the house, but that was impossible when he was out and about. The constant bombardment of cars honking, people talking, and general city environmental sounds was too much at times. That was why Diagon Alley was a nice escape from that, even if it could be louder at times. “It’s not like we do that all the time, but it’s still part of our culture up there. Quite the unique identity to have.”

Steve raised his eyebrows at the girl as she said that he earned her name. So Addilyn it was. Or Addi for friends. “Well Addi, nice to meet you,” Steve offered his hand out to her. Of course he was going to go with the friend route. It would be unlike him to be formal. “You can either keep calling me the cute guy, which I’m never opposed to, or you could call me Steve. Take your pick,” he challenged right back at her. This was a fun little chat they were having.

[Deleted]

He spoke about how it was loud in Canada with the sounds of people working and she nodded. Then he said that they didn't do that stuff all the time but it was part of their culture. "Understood. We don't drink tea all the time," she replied, amused. He said it was nice to meet her and gave her the option of calling him 'cute guy' or Steve. She raised an eyebrow at him, "I think I'll go with 'Cute Steve', that seems like a good compromise," she decided.

She looked up at the sky and then back to him, "it's getting dark... do you have somewhere to be or do you want to play hooky with a stranger?" she asked. She was feeling better than ever right now and she wanted to take advantage of every last second of that. Addi was an inventor, an explorer, an adventurer and she hadn't done enough of that this semester and definitely not this summer. "I know some pretty spooky back alleys of London, we could go look for some trouble," she suggested.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Steve looked off to the side as he laughed at her tea comment. Classic. A Brit making fun of their tea. His solid counter would have been something about maple syrup and hockey, but he decided to keep it at that. He found himself nodding his head at her decision to call him ‘Cute Steve’ instead of one or the other. “Hmm…might take me a bit to remember to respond to the Steve part,” he teased. Addi was an interesting one. She clearly wasn’t afraid of speaking her mind, and the way she had approached him while he was standing at the window was something he had never seen before. He still wasn’t sure if she was just curious about who he was, or the absolute nosiest person he had ever encountered. Personally, he didn’t care either way. She was playing along and that was all he could ask for. Finding someone to do that was like finding a needle in a haystack around here.

She pointed out that it was starting to get dark, and he followed her gaze to the sky. It was. While he and Nora didn’t have the nocturnal vision that their mother and other full vampires did, he still felt more at home once the sun dipped behind the horizon. “Stranger?” he asked, looking around. “Unless you have more to tell me about yourself, I’m pretty sure we’re past the strangers bit. You’re Addilyn Slater, Addi for short, who doesn’t drink tea all the time, and likes to stare at cute guys through windows that they’re staring into,” Steve said with a straight face. “But yeah, we can go through spooky alleys.”

[Deleted]

He said it would take him a bit to respond to the 'Steve' part and she rolled her eyes a little, chuckling. He was funny. That was nice. It was a nice change to talk to someone who didn't know anything about her, because then she could just pretend to be her normal self and they wouldn't know the difference between what she'd been like recently. She could be her bubbly, forward and investigative self and everything could seem normal for a while. She needed that. She could only pray that she didn't black out while they were together...

He looked up at the sky as she did, then questioned her choice of the word 'stranger', claiming they no longer were such. He talked about who she was, and she couldn't help but grin as he kept his face stoic. "Guess you know enough to start with," she agreed. Then her eyes widened for just a second with excitement, bright as he agreed to check out the spooky places with her. "Great," she started to talk, past him so he could turn and walk beside her. "Diagon Alley is pretty well searched for spooky stuff, we're better off going to the muggle world," she explained.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

Good. The joke worked. Sometimes he questioned whether to continue on with the flirty comments and jokes or if it was better to try and work towards what he really wanted to be. This time it had rolled off his tongue naturally; Addilyn had set him up perfectly for it. There were certain things that were always going to exist despite liking who he was or not. At least here he didn’t have to pretend to be anyone, like he did back home. This girl wasn’t going to judge him for anything he had done prior to their meeting, aside from maybe staring into a window for a little too long. Who could blame him though? The broom in the display was freaking cool. Anyone that had never experienced a professional grade broom before would be gawking at it like an idiot for hours just like he had been.

“Having a start is the only way to move forward,” he teased again. She was pretty easy to line up. Steve was sure that some of it was on purpose, especially considering the way she had approached him to begin with. If there hadn’t been an initial interest, then they wouldn’t be having this conversation. Addi stepped by him and started down the street. Steve gave the broom one last look and turned to follow her, jogging a bit to catch up. “Muggle?” he asked, immediately remembering that the word was the same for no-maj. “Yeah, like normal people world?” He could still argue against witches and wizards being ‘normal people’ because he was half-vampire. That was always a fun conversation to have.

[Deleted]

Having a start was the only way to move forward... It was a true and simple statement that somehow seemed to reach deeper for her at that moment. She had to start trying to figure out what was wrong with her in order to move forward. She had only been moping about it, not doing something...

She left her thoughts behind as he spoke again in response to her, questioning the term 'muggle', but then he seemed to figure it out. "What do you call 'non magic' people in Canada?" it was North America, so the American term was likely. They got out of Diagon and she turned left, walking up the street.

@steve

[Deleted]

@addilyn

What did he call non-magical people…it wasn’t a strange question, more that it had a lot of different phrases and concepts to it that some didn’t think about. At least in his opinion. There was the French way to say it, and since he wasn’t keen on sparking up a conversation about speaking a Canadian dialect of French, Steve kept that one to himself. If Nora was here, she would have been going on and on about speaking French. Steve didn’t really care all that much for the language since English suited him better. Thankfully their dad hadn’t tried to teach them Norwegian after a certain age – having three languages to learn would have been tough, and outside of speaking to his dad in Norwegian, there really wasn’t much use for it. At least French was useful in both Canada and France. “No-maj, non-magical. Same as Americans,” Steve explained. “I guess it depends on where you are in Canada though. Different areas, whether they’re French speaking or native peoples, will have other ways to say it. But your muggles are my no-majs.”

He assumed they were walking towards the exit from Diagon Alley. Despite not caring much, he probably should have told someone in his family that he was heading off into London. Then again, there was never a ton of oversight by his parents so it wouldn’t matter. What was the difference between running around the woods and a concrete jungle? Nothing from what he could tell. Nature and wildlife was replaced with people and industrialization. An even split as far he was concerned. “Is the place we’re going to close by?” he inquired. “I need to make sure I can make it back home if it gets too late. Doubt you would want me spending the night.” Steve flashed her a grin, glad for once in his life that he didn’t have the vampire fangs that his mother had. That would definitely come across as creepy if he did.