Come On. We're Going to a Quidditch Match [closed]

[marloww]

It had been a hard few days. Marlow couldn't explain the weight she felt on her heart, the way her body fought against her most of the time, not wanting her to even get out of her bed in the morning. She had her better moments, letting herself become distracted by her students or by her friends and what was going on in their lives. It was easy to

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[plainlypat]

Pat couldn't deny that his surprising-in-more-than-one-way New Year's Day encounter with Marlow had more than lingered in his mind in the weeks since. Bloody Mary orders had indadvertedly become a blush-worthy memory trigger, and he hadn't quite been able to linger in the office for too long without getting distracted by his own runaway mind - he had practically choked on his piece of gum when he had come in one day to find Mark, one of the co-owners, sitting on the couch and going through expense reports.

Still, it had been a few weeks. And after catching himself paying entirely too much attention to every short brunette that walked into the bar, he had just about managed to talk himself into accepting that, despite their parting words, this had maybe just been a one time thing-

He wasn't even really supposed to be here on this particular Sunday. He had planned on spending it catching up on scheduling and inventory checklists, sprawled out on his bed at home, but of course he had realized mid-morning that he had left the entirety of the last period's payroll information back at the office. A quick trip to grab the missing binder had turned into being wrangled up to cover a shift for a sick (hungover, rather) call-off, and so here he was, slinging damned Bloody Marys across the bar in his barely-work-appropriate, worn-out-henley-and-ripped-jeans lazy Sunday attire.

He caught sight of her between two pint pulls. Looking much sleeker and more polished than he had last seen her, but it was unmistakably her. If the looks hadn't done it, the way he suddenly felt torn between laughing and hiding behind the bar certainly confirmed it.

He finished up the order he had been working on, watching as she made her way toward the bar, a grin slowly tugging at his lips as he caught her eye.

[marloww]

Marlow maneuvered her way through the small crowd blocking the bar, politely passing by a group of rowdier blokes, a few even whistling as she walked past. She paid them no attention as she instead focused on the sudden butterflies tugging at her stomach. She pressed her lips together, the flush creeping into the back of her neck as her surroundings brought back more intimate memories from their last encounter.

She reached the bar, her fingers gripping at the edge as she propped herself up, her height doing her no favors as she finally grinned.

She was here now. No backing out.

"Hey there, bartender-"

[plainlypat]

"Hey there, yourself," he greeted as nonchalantly as he could, a stupid grin doing a good enough job of working itself onto his face despite his best attempts to keep some kind of composure in place.

He wiped his hands on the towel hanging from his belt out of habit more so than necessity before leaning against the bar across from her, hitching up an eyebrow.

"What can I get you, then?"

[marloww]

He looked good. Almost better than she remembered him to be, her eyes briefly drifting to the way his shirt clung to his biceps. She leaned forward. A grin tugged at her lips then, as her eyes flickered back up to that adorable grin splayed across his face.

"You, actually-" she said, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "Well, it's a proposition, really-"

[plainlypat]

Pat's second eyebrow shot up to meet the first, a quiet burst of laughter shaking his shoulders as he looked her over, the lip caught between her teeth still looking just as terribly tempting as it had weeks ago, perhaps even more so now that it was dabbed with that touch of pink.

"I should probably let you elaborate on what kind of proposition you have in mind before I say anything potentially embarrassing-"

[marloww]

She liked his response, laughing softly as she reached into the pocket of her coat. She pulled out two rather eccentric looking tickets, little quaffles soaring back and forth from each side. She kept them mostly covered as she placed them on the bar in front of her.

"While I'd love a repeat performance of last time-" she said, a wicked grin flashing across her lips. "I've actually got two box seats to tonight's Ballycastle Bats match versus the Kenmare Kestrels-"

She shrugged her shoulders, her hair tumbling around them as she looked up at him.

"Can I steal you away?"

[plainlypat]

Like just about every child born into the wizarding world, Patrick had grown up on Quidditch. It was, in fact, the only thing he and his father had ever really had in common, even bother the Squib bombshell had gone and shattered their nonexistent relationship for good - any memory he had of ever having any kind of home life involved that little transistor radio crackling away with rambling play-by-play commentary.

And while he had made it a point to mostly distance himself from all things strictly magical over the years, his ingrained allegiance to the Howth Howlers and obsessive tracking of the British and Irish League were first and foremost on the short list of decidedly un-Muggle things he hadn't quite been able to let go of.

His jaw practically dropped at the sight of the extravagant tickets, throwing a quick wary look around to make sure no onlookers were likely to stumble upon that unusual sight.

This was the last thing he would've expected her to be proposing.

"-You're kidding?" he blinked back at her, shock taking a moment to transition into giddy excitement, a smile creeping back across his face. "Box seats? Seriously?"

[marloww]

Quidditch was a Huge Deal in the Linney household, with Sebastian constantly tuning the radios to the WWW in order to catch the matches and play-by-plays every night. It drove her mother a bit crazy but Marlow and Jonah relished in it, eagerly awaiting every new match while practically inhaling their dinners. They'd clean up the table like a whirlwind before joining their father in the den, curling up around his feet as they listened.

When Jonah was scouted, and by the Bats no less, the entire family was proud of him, if not a little too eager for the access he'd be able to give them to all the best matches. So when he shoved the tickets into her hand, practically saying, "Have a good time or else-" it was incredibly hard for Marlow to say no.

He thought it would get her head out of the sand properly and she almost agreed with him.

"Seriously," she said, nodding her head. "I sort of know a guy-" she added with a small grin. "Anyway- it's all very nice, there's even a open bar. Give you a proper chance to judge the poor bloke running it ruthlessly on his bartending skills while we watch the Bats crush it. What do you think?"

She only hoped whatever nerves she felt awaiting his response wasn't so obvious on her face.

[plainlypat]

Talk of the Bats and her explanation of 'knowing a guy' finally had something clicking in his head, the mild recognition that had itched at the back of his mind since she had referred to herself as 'Professor Linney' those few weeks ago falling into place.

"Wait a second- Linney? As in Bats Keeper Jonah Linney?"

He was most certainly not on the verge of breaking into a fit of fanboy excitement. No he was not.

"What do I thi- seriously? As if turning this down was even an option?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the befuddling hesitation on her face. Nevermind the fact that the idea of being anywhere or doing anything that very straightforwardly dropped him in an all-magic environment generally set his nerves on edge - this was Quidditch they were talking about. If ever he'd be tempted to make an exception, this was it.

[marloww]

"Really?"

She tried to hide her own excitement, those butterflies in her stomach back in full force as she grinned widely, the idea of spending the rest of the day with him doing little to diminish her nerves. Though, she was more than a little amused by his reaction, somehow not quite expecting him to put two and two together. It was still a bit weird for anyone to know who her brother was- Jonah Linney being some big time professional Quidditch player not quite something she was used to.

Even if it apparently worked in her favor.

"Good- oh, right, yeah, Jonah's my baby brother, actually-" she said, as she raked her hand through her hair. "So, you know, every once in while he sends along tickets-"

[plainlypat]

Right, okay. No big deal. Box tickets to games for one of Britain's top-ranked teams. Little brother one of the brightest up-and-comers in the league. Run of the mill stuff, really.

Pat shook his head, a laugh shaking his shoulders as he struggled to keep his giddy, childlike excitement under control. "Short of everyone else you know having stupidly turned down the offer already, I have no idea why you've gone and picked me to tag along, but I'm not complaining-"

Quidditch fanboying aside, he certainly wasn't opposed to the idea of spending some unexpected time with her, especially after he'd all but given up hope on seeing her again-

He snatched the towel out of his belt, tossing it under the bar and signaling his exit to the other bartender at the other end of the counter. "I'm not even scheduled to be here right now, so to hell with it-"

Paperwork, shmaperwork...

[marloww]

There weren't too many faces that came to Marlow's mind when Jonah shoved those tickets into her hand. Honestly, Patrick was the first one, that smile immediately popping into her vision when she saw that second ticket. She didn't even know why. Alright, well, maybe she did. She had been thinking about him an awful lot lately.

But she'd all but given up on the idea of going to see him again, figuring that maybe what happened had been a fluke.

Not to mention it'd had been hard enough to leave the castle in the last three weeks.

"I um- well, I figured it might be fun, you and me-" she said, feeling a little sheepish all of a sudden. It was entirely random now that she thought about it.

She watched him, the smile creeping on her face probably as eager as she hoped it wouldn't be. She had a terrible poker face.

"I suppose being an owner of this place has it's perks, then," she told him.

[plainlypat]

If nothing else, they had certainly established that 'fun' was a thing that they could definitely get on the same wavelength about, whatever random coincidental sort of happenstance had happened to get them there in the first place.

Either way, there were so many points against which he wasn't about to argue or protest. Quidditch, ridiculously enticing and attractive girl, day off from tedious accounting and scheduling and spreadsheets-

A crooked grin pulled at his lips, the sheepish look she threw his way doing nothing to calm the compounded squirming tugging at his stomach. "They can't quite fire me, at the very least," he half shrugged as he ditched the bartending side of the counter.

[marloww]

She grinned, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she took a step back, her eyes following him as he ducked to the other side of the bar. She straightened her posture, his height looming over her once again, the scuffed Chuck Taylors she wore doing very little to help with their height difference.

Still, she couldn't ignore how pleased she was that he was going to be spending the rest of the day with her.

"Good to know-" she said, then, catching his eye. "Now- um, think you can find us a dark, secluded area?"

It was an odd request, she knew, but Side-Along Apparition was really the only way this was going to work.

[plainlypat]

He pressed his lips together to muffle the cheeky grin that threatened to take over as a response to her unintentionally-not-innocent request. He flicked a gaze back over her shoulder toward the door she had already been lead through once.

"The office is generally empty on Sundays-"

[marloww]

The office.

She was quickly becoming rather acquainted with that room. She briefly wondered if that same bartender who was working on New Year's Day was here again- Marlow becoming this fixture that slipped into the back of the bar.

She laughed, a flush hitting her cheeks.

"Ah, I remember that room," she said, playfully, raising her eyebrows briefly. "Yes- that should be perfect actually-"