Temper, Temper
Title: Temper, Temper
Fandom: HP
Pairing: Alicia/Katie
Rating: PG-13 for mild language.
“You want me to what was that?” It had been a long day, with a long practice. Not to mention the fact that she’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Alicia had gone early, leaving an ‘emergency team meeting’ scrawled on the back of a crossword puzzle stuck to Katie’s forehead. It wasn’t even like five o’clock in the morning - the time Katie’s alarm was set for - could be called late.
Also, she had ink marks that wouldn’t wash off on her forehead. She hated that. She made a mental note to tell Alicia to tell the posters in their bedroom to let her know next time, like any normal person would.
“Bell, it’s for the team. You know that Quidditch is as much a mind game as anything else. Focus is really important.”
“So…you want me to go…”
“See a counselor. Yes. To make sure that there aren’t any issues in your life that could be affecting your play.”
“Affecting my play?! What’s wrong with my play?!” Katie spluttered. “I thought I’d been doing alright. An 80% accuracy rate isn’t really all that bad…sure there’s another twenty or so percent that I’d prefer to have, but it’s the second best in the team, and I’ve never professed to be an accuracy shooter anyway, you know I’m more about the passing and-”
“Bell, shut up before I have to jinx you.”
The team captain, a man of rather considerable tolerance, had been reduced to a throbbing, quivering corporal form of a headache. Katie Bell wasn’t exactly the first person through his office today to protest this.
He took a breath and decided to try once more. “Look, it’s new regs by the people upstairs. If it makes you feel any better the entire league has to go, including myself. The Quidditch Board has noted that many players are stressed and over-tired-”
“Only if we beat them!”
“-and that Quidditch is encroaching on their personal life-”
“What personal life?! I don’t need no damn personal life!”
“-and they’re querying whether the new longer seasons are too much of a drain. So, whether you like it or not, you’re going to see the goddamn counselor, Bell. Shut up and put up.”
“…Go fuck yourself.”
“Bell.”
Katie sighed, her hands clenching and unclenching around the top of the chair she’d petulantly refused when the offer had been made for her to sit. She’d known from the outset that this would be bad - it was never good when Blue wanted to talk in a formal setting. Usually he chatted better when he was slightly pissed down at the pub.
“I’ve set you up with the counselor tomorrow. Be there, or the Board will kick you off the team. I’m not making idle threats here, Bell, they mean serious business. No skin off my nose if you don’t show up, but you might as well retire from the professional league altogether if you aren’t capable of enduring a weekly counseling session for the chance to play the sport you love, and get paid by the board to do it.”
Ouch. I won’t squirm, I won’t squirm, I won’t…
“And you’d be letting the team down, Bell,” he added, softening his tone slightly.
Katie shifted. It wasn’t a squirm. Her feet were just losing their circulation; she’d been standing too long.
“So when do you want me to set up the appointment?” He asked brightly, dipping a quill in the ink pot on his desk and poising it over the diary before him. “Two okay for you?”
Katie glared at him, knowing that he was deriving some sort of sadistic pleasure out of manipulating her so effectively. He kept his gaze even and pleasant, and eventually Katie rolled her eyes. “Two’s fine. Whatever.”
She couldn’t resist slamming the door on her way out.
***
Alicia was waiting for her when she got home. Katie opened the door, took one look at the scowl on her face and said “I know” before stomping to the fridge and getting out two butterbeers.
On second thought she replaced the bottled butterbeer, taking out a bottle of firewhiskey and two shot glasses instead.
“Angelina’s shitted too, she popped in just before her counseling session thing to get changed and have a shower, though I told her she shouldn’t bother. That lot got to go today,” Alicia called into the kitchen from her unmoving position, sprawled over the couch. She was still red faced from her earlier practice, her shirt up to expose as much as skin as possible to the cooler air.
“Oooh, lucky them,” Katie said, sitting down on the couch and sighing. Her head thudded backwards against the pillow, then twisted sideways to look at Alicia.
“Better her than me. Us,” Alicia amended rather hastily, though Katie clearly wasn’t paying all that much attention. It was hard for Katie to multitask on more than three things at once, and she was already managing to take her shoes and socks off with her feet, open a bottle of firewhisky, and look in Alicia’s direction all at the same time.
“How’d you take the news?” Katie asked cautiously once she’d got herself settled, having discovered first hand plenty of times the sort of temper that Alicia possessed. Alicia was trying to control herself better, and to give her her dues, she had been improving. Slightly.
“Ugh. Not so great. Honestly, Kat, when Kim told me that I felt like telling her to go fuck herself.”
Katie cleared her throat self consciously.
“But I restrained myself. Managed to be semi polite about it, I think. Well, I didn’t slam the door on the way out or anything…”
“Huh. Well, good for you. I’m proud of you, babe.” She kissed her on the cheek, then went back to pouring out the firewhisky.
“How’d yours go, or need I ask? You’re like, the epitome of calm cool and collected when you get off the field, y’know. I really admire that in you.” Alicia sighed somewhat wistfully, accepting the shot glass and looking into it with a slightly depressed tilt to her shoulders. “I just wish I could do it.”
Katie managed not to choke on her swallow. She hated to prove Alicia wrong, and saying ‘Well, I got threatened with expulsion from the team if I didn’t stop yelling’ would probably do that. Just a little.
“Er,” she said instead.
What was she saying? She loved proving Alicia wrong.
“I told him to go fuck himself and slammed the door on the way out.”
Alicia looked at her, raised an eyebrow and clinked their shot glasses together. “I love you.”
Katie nodded, smiling tiredly and putting an arm around Alicia’s shoulders. “Cheers, m’dear.”
Fandom: HP
Pairing: Alicia/Katie
Rating: PG-13 for mild language.
“You want me to what was that?” It had been a long day, with a long practice. Not to mention the fact that she’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Alicia had gone early, leaving an ‘emergency team meeting’ scrawled on the back of a crossword puzzle stuck to Katie’s forehead. It wasn’t even like five o’clock in the morning - the time Katie’s alarm was set for - could be called late.
Also, she had ink marks that wouldn’t wash off on her forehead. She hated that. She made a mental note to tell Alicia to tell the posters in their bedroom to let her know next time, like any normal person would.
“Bell, it’s for the team. You know that Quidditch is as much a mind game as anything else. Focus is really important.”
“So…you want me to go…”
“See a counselor. Yes. To make sure that there aren’t any issues in your life that could be affecting your play.”
“Affecting my play?! What’s wrong with my play?!” Katie spluttered. “I thought I’d been doing alright. An 80% accuracy rate isn’t really all that bad…sure there’s another twenty or so percent that I’d prefer to have, but it’s the second best in the team, and I’ve never professed to be an accuracy shooter anyway, you know I’m more about the passing and-”
“Bell, shut up before I have to jinx you.”
The team captain, a man of rather considerable tolerance, had been reduced to a throbbing, quivering corporal form of a headache. Katie Bell wasn’t exactly the first person through his office today to protest this.
He took a breath and decided to try once more. “Look, it’s new regs by the people upstairs. If it makes you feel any better the entire league has to go, including myself. The Quidditch Board has noted that many players are stressed and over-tired-”
“Only if we beat them!”
“-and that Quidditch is encroaching on their personal life-”
“What personal life?! I don’t need no damn personal life!”
“-and they’re querying whether the new longer seasons are too much of a drain. So, whether you like it or not, you’re going to see the goddamn counselor, Bell. Shut up and put up.”
“…Go fuck yourself.”
“Bell.”
Katie sighed, her hands clenching and unclenching around the top of the chair she’d petulantly refused when the offer had been made for her to sit. She’d known from the outset that this would be bad - it was never good when Blue wanted to talk in a formal setting. Usually he chatted better when he was slightly pissed down at the pub.
“I’ve set you up with the counselor tomorrow. Be there, or the Board will kick you off the team. I’m not making idle threats here, Bell, they mean serious business. No skin off my nose if you don’t show up, but you might as well retire from the professional league altogether if you aren’t capable of enduring a weekly counseling session for the chance to play the sport you love, and get paid by the board to do it.”
Ouch. I won’t squirm, I won’t squirm, I won’t…
“And you’d be letting the team down, Bell,” he added, softening his tone slightly.
Katie shifted. It wasn’t a squirm. Her feet were just losing their circulation; she’d been standing too long.
“So when do you want me to set up the appointment?” He asked brightly, dipping a quill in the ink pot on his desk and poising it over the diary before him. “Two okay for you?”
Katie glared at him, knowing that he was deriving some sort of sadistic pleasure out of manipulating her so effectively. He kept his gaze even and pleasant, and eventually Katie rolled her eyes. “Two’s fine. Whatever.”
She couldn’t resist slamming the door on her way out.
***
Alicia was waiting for her when she got home. Katie opened the door, took one look at the scowl on her face and said “I know” before stomping to the fridge and getting out two butterbeers.
On second thought she replaced the bottled butterbeer, taking out a bottle of firewhiskey and two shot glasses instead.
“Angelina’s shitted too, she popped in just before her counseling session thing to get changed and have a shower, though I told her she shouldn’t bother. That lot got to go today,” Alicia called into the kitchen from her unmoving position, sprawled over the couch. She was still red faced from her earlier practice, her shirt up to expose as much as skin as possible to the cooler air.
“Oooh, lucky them,” Katie said, sitting down on the couch and sighing. Her head thudded backwards against the pillow, then twisted sideways to look at Alicia.
“Better her than me. Us,” Alicia amended rather hastily, though Katie clearly wasn’t paying all that much attention. It was hard for Katie to multitask on more than three things at once, and she was already managing to take her shoes and socks off with her feet, open a bottle of firewhisky, and look in Alicia’s direction all at the same time.
“How’d you take the news?” Katie asked cautiously once she’d got herself settled, having discovered first hand plenty of times the sort of temper that Alicia possessed. Alicia was trying to control herself better, and to give her her dues, she had been improving. Slightly.
“Ugh. Not so great. Honestly, Kat, when Kim told me that I felt like telling her to go fuck herself.”
Katie cleared her throat self consciously.
“But I restrained myself. Managed to be semi polite about it, I think. Well, I didn’t slam the door on the way out or anything…”
“Huh. Well, good for you. I’m proud of you, babe.” She kissed her on the cheek, then went back to pouring out the firewhisky.
“How’d yours go, or need I ask? You’re like, the epitome of calm cool and collected when you get off the field, y’know. I really admire that in you.” Alicia sighed somewhat wistfully, accepting the shot glass and looking into it with a slightly depressed tilt to her shoulders. “I just wish I could do it.”
Katie managed not to choke on her swallow. She hated to prove Alicia wrong, and saying ‘Well, I got threatened with expulsion from the team if I didn’t stop yelling’ would probably do that. Just a little.
“Er,” she said instead.
What was she saying? She loved proving Alicia wrong.
“I told him to go fuck himself and slammed the door on the way out.”
Alicia looked at her, raised an eyebrow and clinked their shot glasses together. “I love you.”
Katie nodded, smiling tiredly and putting an arm around Alicia’s shoulders. “Cheers, m’dear.”