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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 17:16:20 GMT -5
Dare, who had sought safety behind the counter with Michael, found his lips parting in shock. There was a moment's confusion where he wondered how she knew before offense filled his eyes. ...Plenty of young men out there that aren't like him... He might have been able to brush aside a comment about Michael finding a nice girl, but he never would have expected that. His brows drew together and he looked to Michael, silently asking a thousand questions. Had Michael been talking about him? He was in too much shock to have registered the phrase I read.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 17:25:39 GMT -5
"Dear I read all about it," the old woman repeated. "That nice young lady that took over that woman Gaby's column in the paper wrote all about it." She paused to think, her wrinkled eyelids coming together. "What was her name...Darla...Diana..." she shook her head and waved a gleaming hand towards Michael. "It doesn't matter, either way, she wrote all about how," she paused, her eyes darting to Dare again, "He has been treating you."
Michael's eyes hardened and he hit the button finishing the price a little harder than needed. "He's been treating me just fine," he said. "And even if he hadn't, it's no business of yours, Mrs. Werts."
"Please, call me Mabel, I've told you a hundred times," she said absently, as though she hadn't even heard what he said, then continued searching in her purse.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 17:38:43 GMT -5
Dare was clenching his teeth almost painfully now. It was that or explode, and he had so little self-control lately that he didn't trust himself to say so much as an I'll be upstairs. So he stayed, and he was torn between anger at this woman and whatever nameless emotions Michael's response brought. He hadn't been treating Michael well. Just fine, his mind interjected. And even if he hadn't... Dare was reduced to observer.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 17:46:00 GMT -5
"You know you don't have to lie to me, dear," Mabel said, finally pulling out her purse. "You know, I have a grandson about your age, he's not open right now, but I'm sure I could get him to drop that dirty little man if you'd like." As she spoke, she started slowly counting out the money with her knobbly fingers.
"No, Mabel, I wouldn't like that. I've told you before that Dare and I are engaged, and you should know that the Prophet makes up lies," Michael said, probably a little more harshly than he should have to a customer. He had the feeling that it wouldn't stop her from making her weekly run, though.
She waved his comment off again, "She doesn't need to make them up. I mean just look at him, with those colors in his hair and that hunk of metal in his lip-"
Michael interrupted her, "I think he looks just fine. Now, please, ma'am, pay and leave."
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:11:32 GMT -5
The look in Dare's eyes could only have been lending credence to whatever the hell it was that Mabel had read. Dare had never wanted to physically harm the elderly before, but his hands were clenched with the effort of not doing so, and his eyes blazed. Michael's words didn't help much. He couldn't handle this. He broke from behind the counter without a word and took the apartment stairs two at a time. Then the sound of the apartment door opening and closing heavily sounded, followed by silence.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:18:38 GMT -5
Michael's eyes hardened when Dare left and he threw the little odds and ends into a bag along with the change. "Get out," he said, ignoring Mabel's comment on how rude it was for Dare to storm out like that. And when she looked up at him with a pitiful little hurt look oh her face, his features hardened more. "Get out, and you are not welcome back in my shop again." The old woman humphed and turned on her heels, muttering something about how she wouldn't want her grandson involved, anyway, and left. Michael glared at the door for a few moments and then waved his wand angrily toward the door, roughly locking it and flipping the sign before rushing up the stairs to find Dare.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:29:49 GMT -5
Dare was pacing the floors, talking angrily under his breath. His hands speared up into his hair and he let out a sharp expletive as his right protested the movement, pain spearing up into his wrist. He didn't hear Michael over himself, didn't catch sight of him past the curtain of his hair. He wanted to pull at that hunk of metal in his lip, but he couldn't stop long enough to. As enormous a leap forward as he and Michael had made in the past day, his self-regulation skills were still next to nothing.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:36:03 GMT -5
Michael shut the door harder than he usually did, even when he wasn't in the best mood, and barely even paused to watch Dare. "She's gone, I told her not to come back." He didn't know how well it would work, or if it would hurt business, but he didn't care, he couldn't even begin to care, not with what that woman had said to him. She usually wasn't that bad, just the normal old gossipy woman, but she had crossed the line.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:41:13 GMT -5
Dare heard the door, and he stopped his pacing, making an effort to listen to Michael through the diatribe running continuously through his mind. He shook his head, his breaths coming a bit quicker now. "You didn't have to do that," he said. "I'm just... it..." He shook his head again, then looked up at Michael, his brows knitted, though the tension of anger hadn't left yet. "Don't you need..." He couldn't finish a thought before another one came! I'm just upset, it hurt a little is all. Don't you need the money?
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:48:33 GMT -5
Michael breathed hard through his nose and shook his head. "She had no right to say those things. I can't even believe the Prophet is still on about us!" They had been staying away, staying out of trouble. They weren't even around other people, where was the woman getting her information? It wasn't even the same woman! He had half a mind to go out and buy a paper just to see what had been written.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 18:57:07 GMT -5
Dare shook his head again, more emphatically this time, though he was beginning to develop a tension headache. "You'd think they'd have something better to write about," he muttered. Wasn't there anything happening up at the school? Since when had the Hogwarts gossip column followed students through Diagon Alley to London?
Dare looked up at Michael from where his gaze had dropped to the floor, and he couldn't look away. Michael was so obviously angry, and though he knew it wasn't anything he'd done, it had been for so long now that he felt his chest constricting and his shoulders hunching all the same. He jerked slightly as his body tried to go to Michael and retreat all at once. He grimaced, and his hands rose to rub at his face, despite the slight abrasion of the cloth at his palms. Then he looked at Michael again, and when he couldn't ask, held out his arms and gestured lightly in the hope that Michael wouldn't be too upset to hold him.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 19:24:15 GMT -5
Michael paused, unsure of his own emotions. He was angry, so angry. How could she have said those things? Especially with Dare standing right there so close? She obviously hadn't cared that he could hear. He sighed softly and stepped up to Dare, putting his arms around his waist. "I'm sorry that happened, she's usually not so...well, she's usually not like that." She gossiped, yes, but he had never expected that she would be so extreme.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 19:29:37 GMT -5
Dare wrapped his arms around the back of Michael's neck like a lifeline, turning his face into soft, red hair to breathe it in. "Thank you," he whispered. He wasn't entirely sure what he was thanking Michael for. Likely a combination of things, Michael defending him, caring more for him than the shop when he'd been unreasonably worried for so long, comforting him even when he needed comforted. "I love you."
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 19:40:11 GMT -5
"I love you, too," Michael said softly. He didn't know what to do then, it just seemed like everything was going wrong. He had pushed away his fears of the happiness going away only to have it proven true, though not in the way it normally happened. "I promise all the old ladies that come in aren't like her," he said, hoping for at least a little smile, even if he didn't give one himself.
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Post by Dare Blackwood-Hardt on Mar 20, 2009 19:47:28 GMT -5
Dare gave a rather pathetic attempt at a chuckle, though he couldn't manage a smile either. He didn't try, since his face was hidden anyway, but he did breathe Michael in and try to think of something better. "Can we still look at that book?" he asked. He didn't so much as suggest finding a copy of the Daily Prophet. He didn't want to know what it had said, not in the least. He didn't think he could handle it at this point. He wanted to keep getting better, not get thrown right back into depression.
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