In my day,
Category: Pink Sheep RPG
Green flames shone into the pub as Mandy flooed in. She stepped from the grate into the pub, lit with afternoon sunlight through the stained glass of the corner windows. "Ben?" she called, brushing soot from her top.
"Down here," he called, pushing open the door that led to the basement.
Light steps took Mandy around the back of the bar, and she slipped through the door and onto the shadowy staircase. "Need some help?" she ventured, looking around the cellar for him.
He poked his head around the side of a wine rack and grinned. "No, just doing inventory." He paused for a moment. "On second thought, I would absolutely love some help." He hated doing inventory, but it was a necessary part of life.
She rolled her eyes at him. "You never change, do you, Benny boy?" Mandy traipsed down the remaining stairs and perched herself on a barrel of wine, holding out her hand. "Give me the clipboard then, you slack, sorry git."
He scowled, but handed over the clipboard and bundles of paper. "There's no need for name calling, you harpy," he muttered as he joined her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
She eyed him, unimpressed. Plucking the paperwork from his hand, she shooed him back over to the shelves. "Right. I'll call out a product, you give me the number. Think you can handle the strain of counting?"
"I'll do my best with that," he replied with a petulant eye roll as he walked back. "So, is this a social call?"
"Nup, recon. I'm here to scout out your booze and steal it from right under your aquiline nose," she called. "Right. Stella Artois?"
"You wouldn't be able to carry anything out on your own, Mini Mandy, you're too little," he called over his shoulder, along with the number of cases and barrels.
She shot him a poisonous glare, sure it could be felt through the shelves. "Featherlight charms, genius," she called loftily. She'd show him who was little. Mandy called the next brand out to him.
"Don't be angry, little Mandy, you know I love you. Besides, it never used to bother you when I called you little before."
Mandy ignored his comments on her size, or lack thereof, and decided to seize the opportunity. "What does bother me though, is why you were so pissed off the other day. Nobody killed your puppy, did they?"
"Mandy, my 'puppy' is older than you are, and it would be a blessing if someone would take him off my hands." He was going to ignore everything else she said for the moment, since he wasn't really sure why he was angry. It wasn't like he and Hannah had gone beyond mild flirting, so there was really no reason for him to feel jealous... or whatever it was that he was feeling.
"Mmmm, and that dog's probably the only thing that's spent more time around you than I have." She leaned back against the cool, stone wall. "Confide, Benedict."
"There is nothing to confide, Amanda," he replied, coming to lean against the wall beside her.
"Bullshit," she shot back simply, turning to look up at him. It was so very far up. "You were not your usual sunny self yesterday. I know something's up. They don't let morons be claws, remember?"
"And there's nothing in the rules that say we have to be sunshiney all the time. It was just an off day, love. Don't worry you're pretty little head about me."
She gave him a decidedly unpretty glare. "Don't you dare try to fob me off, Benedict Tobin Bradley. Being so short means I'm certainly not above putting veritaserum in your lager." Folding her arms, Mandy gave him her best no-nonsense look.
"And where were you planning on getting veritaserum, love?" he asked, crossing his arms and returning her no-nonsense look with one of his own.
"I'm small and cunning. I have ways." Realizing the mum routine wasn't going to work, Mandy pulled out her best puppy eyes. "You were kind of a git to my brand new boyfriend yesterday for no reason. Can't you at least tell me why so I can forgive you for it?"
Dammit. "Mandy, please, it's really not important. And besides, someone has to make sure he's good enough for you." And he'd decided to take it upon himself to be that someone.
Her pout became sincere. "My judgment isn't good enough?"
"Obviously it's not, since we're not together anymore," he teased.
"And here I thought my tastes had refined with age. How could I have been so wrong?" She struck a tragic pose.
"We all make mistakes, Mini Mandy. Don't beat yourself up too much." He threw his arm around her, hugging her close.
She slid her arms around him. "Very profound, Bendict. You still haven't told me what was wrong, though." Without warning, she poked him in the side.
She wasn't going to let go of that, his Mandy was like a terrier with a bone when she got an idea into her head. "Girl problems, that's all."
"Really? Because you always used to be more than able to rise to the challenge." Mandy shot him a smirk.
"It's complicated, Mandy." He didn't feel like himself, he didn't even feel like replying with an innuendo laden comment.
"I'm a girl, remember. We do pretty well with complicated." She gave a half shrug. "Besides, you got all the Eddie stuff, and that was the very definition of complicated." Glancing up, she pinned him with a sincere look. "Talk to me, Ben."
"I got all the Eddie stuff because you came crying to me, and I was nice enough to listen for hours on end."
"Don't make me elbow you again, Benedict," her tone brooked no argument. "Could you stop with the whole manly repression thing and please just tell me? It's me. I'm not going to doubt your masculinity because you actually admit to having feelings."
"I'd get chucked out of the club if I told you. It's an unwritten rule, any and all talk of feelings is carefully avoided. And please don't elbow me again. You have sharp elbows."
"You'll get one to the crotch if you don't bloody well tell me what's wrong with you. You were horribly pissed off yesterday and I got to put up with it, so now I get an explanation." He knew she was not above hexing him.
"Okay, okay. There was this girl, and I liked her, but she went and fucked someone else, so that's that." He crossed his arms, pouting. He was still angry about it.
"Oh." Mandy wrapped her arms as far around his broad shoulders as they would go, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ben." That explained a bit. While she and Ben didn't share those feelings any more, hadn't in years, the recurring theme of 'blokes other' had to have grated on him. Mandy sighed. "That sucks," she said blatantly, mulling over the whole situation. Her first reaction was to announce the girl a silly slag, but she knew Ben better than that. It wasn't the type of girl he'd like and he'd probably not appreciate her calling names.
"You know," he said slowly, wrapping his arms around her little body. "It's too bad that you had to go and get a boyfriend. I could use a sympathy shag right about now." He was only partially serious.
Her poke was just this side of vicious. "Watch it, Benedict Tobin Bradley." Mandy's tone softened as she continued. "Did girly-twirl know you liked her?"
"I thought I'd made it clear," he replied, swatting her hands away.
She replaced her hands in a hug once he was done being petulant. Honestly, the boy needed a good prod every now and then. "Sometimes, and if you ever tell anyone I said this I will hex you inside out and deny having said it till my dying day, women are just as stupid and clueless about these things as men are. Did you tell her you liked her? Ask her out on a date? Or did you just ogle her boobs across the bar, hmmmm?"
"I didn't just ogle her boobs, they were magnificent, by the way. I was flirting pretty heavily, and I was going to ask her to dinner." And then she'd gone and shagged Zach fucking Smith.
"Don't wallop me for saying this, but maybe she shagged the other bloke because she thought you weren't going to ask her. Loneliness can make you do things just as stupid as love can." She should know. A long period of loneliness had helped convince her that shagging Eddie had meant more -meant more to him - than it obviously ever could. She was determined not to make the same mistake with Jake.
"Well, it's over and done with now, so there's no point in talking about it anymore." He'd had enough of the touchy feely conversation shite. "Come upstairs, I'll buy you a drink."
"Sure the owner will let you? I've heard he's a total vampire, sucks everything dry for himself and doesn't share."
"You heard right, although you left out the part where he uses his amazing good looks to entrance nubile young women into doing his bidding."
"I lived it, I don't have to rehash it just for your sick amusement. You big debauched fiend, you."
"Compliments will get you nowhere, Mini Mandy. And you enjoyed every minute of that corruption." He took her hand, pulling her from the wine cask she was using as a chair. "Come on, up the stairs with you."
"Yes, sir." She trotted ahead of him to the stairs. "You know, if you were cleverer, you'd've claimed some sort of royalites from the bodice rippers, what with you being responsible for the corruption that led to them." She flashed him a smirk over her shoulder, feeling a vague tinkle of annoyance that even standing two steps below her, he was still on her eye level.
"I don't want my name connected with bodice rippers in any way. Everyone thinks I'm crazy as it is, I don't want to know what they'd say if that came to light." He spotted the annoyed gleam in her eyes and grinned, reaching out to tickle her.
With a squeak, Mandy ran up the last few steps, trying to keep away from his fiendish clutches. "Git!"
"Got you moving, didn't it?"
Oh, she would show him. Mandy ducked around the door to the cellar and shut it quickly, leaning against it with a smug smile. "Ha!"
"Really, Mandy?" he called through the door. "You really think you can keep this door closed?"
"Maybe?" Her voice wavered with indecision; she wasn't going to cheat and use magic, but hopefully her determination would help - a little. Mandy dug her heels in and pressed all her weight against the door.
"And that was not the answer we were looking for," he replied, giving the knob a twist. It gave easily and he pushed the door open.
She let out an indignant squeak, scrambling to push it back shut. Mandy turned, putting her shoulder into the move, managing to push it back a scant few inches. "Never surrender!" she announced.
She was cute when she was feisty, Ben decided, and that was the only reason he was letting this go on as long as he had. "Seriously, Mandy. Move."
That was his Serious Voice. Still, didn't mean she was going to jusst give in. "Magic word?" she prompted with a grin, even as she slackened her effort against the door.
"Now."
"You're no fun at all," she responded sulkily, stepping away from the door. Truth be told, she was secretly glad he hadn't stopped applying pressure to the door and made her trip over herself. A definite plus.
"Aww, poor widdle Mandy isn't having fun anymore," he cooed as he came around the door. He reached out and pinched her cheek gently. "Want mean old Ben to let you have a drink?"
"Can I sit on the big bench too and have a pretty umbrella?" she asked in a little girl voice, feigning bouncing excitement.
"You know I only keep the umbrellas around for you. Go on then." He nodded toward the bar.
With a decidedly more grownup smirk, Mandy lifted herself up onto the bar. "So what dangerous concoction are you making me today, then?"
"How about a screaming orgasm on the beach?" he asked, returning the smirk with one of his own.
Her jaw dropped for a moment in shock. "S'what I have Jake for," she recovered sassily.
"Not what I meant and you know it."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Course not. And there aren't even any nice beaches around here."
"True. And sex on beaches isn't as much fun as you might think; you get sand everywhere." He leaned forward to whisper the last part.
Her green eyes rolled. "I remember. Yet another brilliant Bradley idea that never quite worked out as planned." Cheekily, she poked her tongue at him.
"Sweetheart, I wanted to bring a blanket, you're the one who said no to that." He patted her cheek condescendingly and reached under the bar for a cocktail shaker.
His enormous hand was batted away. "I was young and stupid. Obviously, since I was with you."
"Yes, you were young and stupid, but you did have excellent taste."
"I maintain my tastes have improved with age."
Green flames shone into the pub as Mandy flooed in. She stepped from the grate into the pub, lit with afternoon sunlight through the stained glass of the corner windows. "Ben?" she called, brushing soot from her top.
"Down here," he called, pushing open the door that led to the basement.
Light steps took Mandy around the back of the bar, and she slipped through the door and onto the shadowy staircase. "Need some help?" she ventured, looking around the cellar for him.
He poked his head around the side of a wine rack and grinned. "No, just doing inventory." He paused for a moment. "On second thought, I would absolutely love some help." He hated doing inventory, but it was a necessary part of life.
She rolled her eyes at him. "You never change, do you, Benny boy?" Mandy traipsed down the remaining stairs and perched herself on a barrel of wine, holding out her hand. "Give me the clipboard then, you slack, sorry git."
He scowled, but handed over the clipboard and bundles of paper. "There's no need for name calling, you harpy," he muttered as he joined her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
She eyed him, unimpressed. Plucking the paperwork from his hand, she shooed him back over to the shelves. "Right. I'll call out a product, you give me the number. Think you can handle the strain of counting?"
"I'll do my best with that," he replied with a petulant eye roll as he walked back. "So, is this a social call?"
"Nup, recon. I'm here to scout out your booze and steal it from right under your aquiline nose," she called. "Right. Stella Artois?"
"You wouldn't be able to carry anything out on your own, Mini Mandy, you're too little," he called over his shoulder, along with the number of cases and barrels.
She shot him a poisonous glare, sure it could be felt through the shelves. "Featherlight charms, genius," she called loftily. She'd show him who was little. Mandy called the next brand out to him.
"Don't be angry, little Mandy, you know I love you. Besides, it never used to bother you when I called you little before."
Mandy ignored his comments on her size, or lack thereof, and decided to seize the opportunity. "What does bother me though, is why you were so pissed off the other day. Nobody killed your puppy, did they?"
"Mandy, my 'puppy' is older than you are, and it would be a blessing if someone would take him off my hands." He was going to ignore everything else she said for the moment, since he wasn't really sure why he was angry. It wasn't like he and Hannah had gone beyond mild flirting, so there was really no reason for him to feel jealous... or whatever it was that he was feeling.
"Mmmm, and that dog's probably the only thing that's spent more time around you than I have." She leaned back against the cool, stone wall. "Confide, Benedict."
"There is nothing to confide, Amanda," he replied, coming to lean against the wall beside her.
"Bullshit," she shot back simply, turning to look up at him. It was so very far up. "You were not your usual sunny self yesterday. I know something's up. They don't let morons be claws, remember?"
"And there's nothing in the rules that say we have to be sunshiney all the time. It was just an off day, love. Don't worry you're pretty little head about me."
She gave him a decidedly unpretty glare. "Don't you dare try to fob me off, Benedict Tobin Bradley. Being so short means I'm certainly not above putting veritaserum in your lager." Folding her arms, Mandy gave him her best no-nonsense look.
"And where were you planning on getting veritaserum, love?" he asked, crossing his arms and returning her no-nonsense look with one of his own.
"I'm small and cunning. I have ways." Realizing the mum routine wasn't going to work, Mandy pulled out her best puppy eyes. "You were kind of a git to my brand new boyfriend yesterday for no reason. Can't you at least tell me why so I can forgive you for it?"
Dammit. "Mandy, please, it's really not important. And besides, someone has to make sure he's good enough for you." And he'd decided to take it upon himself to be that someone.
Her pout became sincere. "My judgment isn't good enough?"
"Obviously it's not, since we're not together anymore," he teased.
"And here I thought my tastes had refined with age. How could I have been so wrong?" She struck a tragic pose.
"We all make mistakes, Mini Mandy. Don't beat yourself up too much." He threw his arm around her, hugging her close.
She slid her arms around him. "Very profound, Bendict. You still haven't told me what was wrong, though." Without warning, she poked him in the side.
She wasn't going to let go of that, his Mandy was like a terrier with a bone when she got an idea into her head. "Girl problems, that's all."
"Really? Because you always used to be more than able to rise to the challenge." Mandy shot him a smirk.
"It's complicated, Mandy." He didn't feel like himself, he didn't even feel like replying with an innuendo laden comment.
"I'm a girl, remember. We do pretty well with complicated." She gave a half shrug. "Besides, you got all the Eddie stuff, and that was the very definition of complicated." Glancing up, she pinned him with a sincere look. "Talk to me, Ben."
"I got all the Eddie stuff because you came crying to me, and I was nice enough to listen for hours on end."
"Don't make me elbow you again, Benedict," her tone brooked no argument. "Could you stop with the whole manly repression thing and please just tell me? It's me. I'm not going to doubt your masculinity because you actually admit to having feelings."
"I'd get chucked out of the club if I told you. It's an unwritten rule, any and all talk of feelings is carefully avoided. And please don't elbow me again. You have sharp elbows."
"You'll get one to the crotch if you don't bloody well tell me what's wrong with you. You were horribly pissed off yesterday and I got to put up with it, so now I get an explanation." He knew she was not above hexing him.
"Okay, okay. There was this girl, and I liked her, but she went and fucked someone else, so that's that." He crossed his arms, pouting. He was still angry about it.
"Oh." Mandy wrapped her arms as far around his broad shoulders as they would go, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ben." That explained a bit. While she and Ben didn't share those feelings any more, hadn't in years, the recurring theme of 'blokes other' had to have grated on him. Mandy sighed. "That sucks," she said blatantly, mulling over the whole situation. Her first reaction was to announce the girl a silly slag, but she knew Ben better than that. It wasn't the type of girl he'd like and he'd probably not appreciate her calling names.
"You know," he said slowly, wrapping his arms around her little body. "It's too bad that you had to go and get a boyfriend. I could use a sympathy shag right about now." He was only partially serious.
Her poke was just this side of vicious. "Watch it, Benedict Tobin Bradley." Mandy's tone softened as she continued. "Did girly-twirl know you liked her?"
"I thought I'd made it clear," he replied, swatting her hands away.
She replaced her hands in a hug once he was done being petulant. Honestly, the boy needed a good prod every now and then. "Sometimes, and if you ever tell anyone I said this I will hex you inside out and deny having said it till my dying day, women are just as stupid and clueless about these things as men are. Did you tell her you liked her? Ask her out on a date? Or did you just ogle her boobs across the bar, hmmmm?"
"I didn't just ogle her boobs, they were magnificent, by the way. I was flirting pretty heavily, and I was going to ask her to dinner." And then she'd gone and shagged Zach fucking Smith.
"Don't wallop me for saying this, but maybe she shagged the other bloke because she thought you weren't going to ask her. Loneliness can make you do things just as stupid as love can." She should know. A long period of loneliness had helped convince her that shagging Eddie had meant more -meant more to him - than it obviously ever could. She was determined not to make the same mistake with Jake.
"Well, it's over and done with now, so there's no point in talking about it anymore." He'd had enough of the touchy feely conversation shite. "Come upstairs, I'll buy you a drink."
"Sure the owner will let you? I've heard he's a total vampire, sucks everything dry for himself and doesn't share."
"You heard right, although you left out the part where he uses his amazing good looks to entrance nubile young women into doing his bidding."
"I lived it, I don't have to rehash it just for your sick amusement. You big debauched fiend, you."
"Compliments will get you nowhere, Mini Mandy. And you enjoyed every minute of that corruption." He took her hand, pulling her from the wine cask she was using as a chair. "Come on, up the stairs with you."
"Yes, sir." She trotted ahead of him to the stairs. "You know, if you were cleverer, you'd've claimed some sort of royalites from the bodice rippers, what with you being responsible for the corruption that led to them." She flashed him a smirk over her shoulder, feeling a vague tinkle of annoyance that even standing two steps below her, he was still on her eye level.
"I don't want my name connected with bodice rippers in any way. Everyone thinks I'm crazy as it is, I don't want to know what they'd say if that came to light." He spotted the annoyed gleam in her eyes and grinned, reaching out to tickle her.
With a squeak, Mandy ran up the last few steps, trying to keep away from his fiendish clutches. "Git!"
"Got you moving, didn't it?"
Oh, she would show him. Mandy ducked around the door to the cellar and shut it quickly, leaning against it with a smug smile. "Ha!"
"Really, Mandy?" he called through the door. "You really think you can keep this door closed?"
"Maybe?" Her voice wavered with indecision; she wasn't going to cheat and use magic, but hopefully her determination would help - a little. Mandy dug her heels in and pressed all her weight against the door.
"And that was not the answer we were looking for," he replied, giving the knob a twist. It gave easily and he pushed the door open.
She let out an indignant squeak, scrambling to push it back shut. Mandy turned, putting her shoulder into the move, managing to push it back a scant few inches. "Never surrender!" she announced.
She was cute when she was feisty, Ben decided, and that was the only reason he was letting this go on as long as he had. "Seriously, Mandy. Move."
That was his Serious Voice. Still, didn't mean she was going to jusst give in. "Magic word?" she prompted with a grin, even as she slackened her effort against the door.
"Now."
"You're no fun at all," she responded sulkily, stepping away from the door. Truth be told, she was secretly glad he hadn't stopped applying pressure to the door and made her trip over herself. A definite plus.
"Aww, poor widdle Mandy isn't having fun anymore," he cooed as he came around the door. He reached out and pinched her cheek gently. "Want mean old Ben to let you have a drink?"
"Can I sit on the big bench too and have a pretty umbrella?" she asked in a little girl voice, feigning bouncing excitement.
"You know I only keep the umbrellas around for you. Go on then." He nodded toward the bar.
With a decidedly more grownup smirk, Mandy lifted herself up onto the bar. "So what dangerous concoction are you making me today, then?"
"How about a screaming orgasm on the beach?" he asked, returning the smirk with one of his own.
Her jaw dropped for a moment in shock. "S'what I have Jake for," she recovered sassily.
"Not what I meant and you know it."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Course not. And there aren't even any nice beaches around here."
"True. And sex on beaches isn't as much fun as you might think; you get sand everywhere." He leaned forward to whisper the last part.
Her green eyes rolled. "I remember. Yet another brilliant Bradley idea that never quite worked out as planned." Cheekily, she poked her tongue at him.
"Sweetheart, I wanted to bring a blanket, you're the one who said no to that." He patted her cheek condescendingly and reached under the bar for a cocktail shaker.
His enormous hand was batted away. "I was young and stupid. Obviously, since I was with you."
"Yes, you were young and stupid, but you did have excellent taste."
"I maintain my tastes have improved with age."