A spoonful of Sugar (Markise/Anna)

[Annabelle Hennessy]

It had been a while since she'd seen him, since she'd found out about Chase to be exact. At first Anna had been hiding from him. She wasn't sure if it was because she didn't want to burden him with her drama, or because she was afraid he would just tell her to move on. Whatever the reason, she stayed away from the places they normally met for their afternoons.

After a while, she'd finally come to her senses and knew that she needed Markise. She didn't know what she was doing, and felt completely hopeless just going through the motions day to day. She wasn't sure how Markise would make everything better, but she knew that she couldn't stay away a moment longer.

After going around the places he might be in the castle, she headed outdoors. Anna spotted him from a distance but was still able to recognize the familiar head of hair. He was in their spot, reclining in the spring sun, and she practically ran to greet him. By the time she approached, she was out of breath.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise had found the perfect patch of new spring grass to lie in. The sun heated his face and body as he lounged, looking idly up into the clear blue sky, unaware of his surroundings. His lips remained at the same curve they'd had all morning, and now and then his body heated further with his thoughts. He felt peaceful, more peaceful than he could remember ever having been at Hogwarts, and he was metaphorically wallowing in it.

He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, his mind going over last night. His shirt lay carelessly rucked up a bit, and one hand rested against the sun-warmed skin there. His other hand had found that tempting spot that Ariel liked so much, and was making small, lazy circles. It had all felt so good, and he wanted the mental and physical comfort to last as long as it could.

He was half dozing when Anna approached, and was too lost in his little fantasy to even hear her. His mind was somewhere else entirely, and that innocent motion of his hand was only helping to keep him there.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Annabelle let herself drop to the ground with an oof. She brought one arm up, tucking her hand behind her head before really looking at Markise. Her eyes traveled his whole body, starting with the smug look on his face, and ending with the hand laying on his exposed skin. She wondered what on earth could make him so....at peace.

She went back to the last time that they had hung out, how they both had been so depressing in their failed attempts at relationships. Although her situation had gone completely downhill since, it appeared that the opposite might be true for Markise. She couldn't think of anything else that might account for his mood to be uplifted so much.

Her second arm rose to mimic the first and she stared up into the cloudless sky. An ache rose within her, a longing to fell even half as content as Markise looked. She was so sick of alternating between locking herself away crying, and subjecting herself to meaningless conversations with people to convince herself that she was okay. Without looked back over at him, she begged, "Markise, please distract me with whatever is going through your head."

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's lips curved further at the question, though he knew he should have pretended to some kind of discretion. He didn't bother opening his eyes, but the motion of his fingers so low on his hip stopped. Being in a state of half-interested pleasure wasn't appropriate with company, except under far more private circumstances.

"I can distract you," Markise said, his voice slightly husky, "but you don't want to know what's going through my head." Ariel, attempting to save Markise from himself and being unable to resist any more than he could. Ariel's face, his touch, his weight as they had lain together.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"What would distract me more than a story of whatever has made you so, so, blissful?" She looked back over to him, not able to come up with any better word to describe his current state. She was curious about what was going on with him, what he had been up to in her absence, and it showed in her voice. Her primary goal was to let Markise distract her in any way, although she was much more interested in his current thoughts than whatever other distraction he was offering up.

[Markise Sterling]

"Mmm," Markise hummed, buying time while he tried to think of something. She didn't need to hear about what he'd done last night, especially after all his talk about not settling. He hadn't settled, not really, he'd only taken comfort where he could and he didn't intend to let it happen again. He could rationalized once to himself, especially when it had all been so nearly perfect. It would be impossible to explain the difference to Annabelle.

"Are you going home for summer?" he asked, changing the subject. It wasn't as huge a leap as it might have been, but it worked. And it kept him from directly saying that he intended to go home and not return. He had intended to go in the next couple days, but someone had gotten a promise out of him that he'd try to hold out for May. "I hear a lot of people are staying in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley," he explained, his voice airy and half-distracted. Ariel had actually convinced him before the part of the night that had him feeling so undeniably... Blissful wasn't exactly the word, but it was close enough.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"I'm definitely going home. I'll have to find someone to run the shop or close it for the summer, but it beats the alternative." Anna answered with only a moments hesitation to wonder why Markise had brought it up. She didn't want to think about running in to Chase and the woman he was marrying. A scowl came to her face and she put on a fake smile to hide it. She turned the tables back on Markise, hoping he would provide some answer to distract her. "What are your plans?"

[Markise Sterling]

"I'm leaving," Markise answered simply. "I'll hire someone to keep the shop open, and I'll have time to make things. I can send them to London." He paused a moment, a thought crossing his mind that came out mostly because of how little attention he was paying. "When I've paid back what I owe I can open another store in New York."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Rather than distracting her, the news only added to her state of misery. Anna had completely forgotten for a moment that New York was where Markise called home, and the reminder saddened her even if graduation was still a long way off. She sat up and began to pick at the grass, the relaxing pose of lying back was too much of a farce to maintain. "Sometimes I wish we never had to graduate. I forgot that you're eventually going to leave me for America." She said the last bit as if it left a bad taste in her mouth, trying to make light of the situation.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise blinked at that, and for the first time since Anna had sat down, he realized how upset she was. It cut through his pleasant thoughts and he felt as though he'd just woken up. He decided not to tell her that he didn't intend to come back after the summer. "What's wrong?" he asked. The hand at his abdomen started up a slight, pleasant motion of comfort against his skin. He wanted to help Anna, but he wasn't ready to give up on how nice he felt.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna shook her head, not wanting to spill her heartache about Chase at the moment. She didn't want to make Markise pity her, and she didn't think she'd be able to get through it all without breaking down again. She had to swallow hard to try and get the lump out of her throat before she attempted to speak, the words coming out quietly. "Not now. I don't want to think about it."

She had originally asked Markise for distraction, which is exactly what she wanted. She didn't care how, she just wanted to forget about that Slytherin and all the mixed emotions that came with him. No matter what she did in her normal routine though, her thoughts always seemed to stray to Chase.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise blinked again, but didn't press. If she didn't want to talk, he couldn't force her to, and he didn't want her getting upset and leaving. His mood was already more or less broken anyway, so it wouldn't do either of them any good. He didn't know what to say. His mind kept sticking on Ariel, and on leaving. It kept skipping ahead to Friday and wondering what he was going to do, if he really wanted to hunt Ariel down so soon. None of which he could tell Anna.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna sighed at the silence, and wasn't able to keep her thoughts from forming words. "My life is just so boring and predictable." Which doesn't help my wandering mind from dwelling on every little thing. "I wish I could just get away and be someone else." She wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, her focus was directed on the blades of grass that her fingers were tearing into thin strips.

[Markise Sterling]

That was something Markise understood, even more than Anna knew. "That's what Friday night is for me," Markise said softly. He'd told Anna that he went to escape, hadn't he? That he let out everything he held in during the week? She couldn't begin to know how much, even seeing him that one night. He hadn't been dressed to the hilt that night, and she'd seen him coming back, not at the club letting go.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna blinked, realizing that she had been thinking out loud, and wondered how much she'd said. It took her a moment to process what she'd been thinking, and relate it to Markise's reply. "I wish I had something like that." She knew their situations were completely opposite. Markise went out Friday nights so he could let out the secret part of him that he hid all week and be who he really was. She on the other hand wanted a temporary break from who she really was to pretend that she was someone else.