RP: Day trip

[rar_luna]

Date: July 28, 1999
Characters: Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas
Location: The London Zoo
Status: Private
Summary: Luna and Dean go to the zoo.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[rar_dean]

Dean hadn't slept well. The combination of an already stressful week with his encounter with Katie at the party had finally gotten to him, and even having a few pints at the Three Broomsticks with Seamus afterwards hadn't been enough to either get his mind off of things or knock him out. He'd filled the troubled hours with sketches, though, which hadn't been all bad. A couple were even pleasant and worth keeping, and he'd tucked one of them--A Summery Day In the Park, he was calling it--in his pocket to give to Luna.

He had no idea what she had planned for their excursion, but the prospect of a quiet day with a friend was a happy one, and he definitely felt a bit more energised as he dashed down the stairs to answer the door. "Hi, Luna," he said, smiling at her as the door swung open. "Would you like to come in? Or are we leaving straight away?"

[rar_luna]

Luna grinned as the door opened quickly, revealing Dean looking tired but enthused about their day together. She was glad he'd had the time today.

She stepped inside, twirling a bit as she closed the door behind her. "We can stay for a few minutes if you'd like, there are no pressing time constraints. We will be outside, though, do you think you'll be cool enough in that? I packed us some water."

She hadn't meant to keep the trip a surprise, and she would likely tell him in a minute, but the intrigue was amusing her.

[rar_dean]

Dean raised an eyebrow at her as she came inside. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought she was enjoying being vague about this trip. He chuckled a little and decided to play along.

He looked down at the denims and t-shirt he'd chosen that morning. "Yeah, I think I'll be fine," he said, grinning a little. "Water, yeah? We going hiking? Or maybe putting out very small fires?"

[rar_luna]

"Water is essential to staying hydrated and having a good time whilst outdoors," Luna recited, smiling slightly when he teased her. "We're just going to the zoo. It is hot, and a little smelly there, so water will help keep us refreshed," she explained.

"Have you eaten lunch?" She'd packed snacks, too, but didn't mention it for the moment. "And are Seamus and Neville around?"

[rar_dean]

The zoo? That could be fun. Dean hadn't been there since he'd taken his sisters a few years ago, and he always left with images of animals floating around in his head waiting to be drawn. Merlin, a magical painting of a tiger would be brilliant.... "Great. I'm game for that."

He nodded. "Yeah, a bit ago." It didn't seem necessary to mention that he'd been awake long enough to have two breakfasts. "You? I think there's some chicken left still, if you'd like some." Luna asked about Seamus and Neville, and Dean shrugged. "Haven't seen them since this morning, though I can go beat down their doors and see, if you'd like." He grinned.

[rar_luna]

"I'm glad you like the idea," she said. She'd brought a book in case he wanted to sit down and sketch at some point, and judging by the way his eyes lit up after a moment, it might have been a good plan.

"Oh no, thank you. I ate." She grinned then at his offer. "That won't be necessary. I just wanted to say hello if they were around." Instead, she summoned a slip of paper from her bag and wrote a note to them, saying hello, and charmed it to float around the room.

"Are you ready, then?" she asked. It didn't seem like he wanted to hang about, much.

[rar_dean]

Dean grinned as Luna charmed a note for the others, and he knew they'd get a laugh out of it as well. Being around her was very easy, and that was definitely something he needed right now.

He grabbed his bag from the table, nodding. "Yeah, I'm ready. To tell you the truth, I've seen a bit too much of the inside of my room lately. And not because I've been sleeping in." He shrugged. "I figure a zoo rescue is just what I need."

[rar_luna]

"Wonderful. Let's go, then," Luna said, and grasped his arm. "I have a spot picked out to Apparate to." When he appeared ready, she Apparated them behind a building about a block away from the zoo. She took a cursory look around, pleased that it had indeed turned out to be a good spot. The cat curled on the fence looked quite startled indeed, though.

"It's just this way," she said, then smiled, "but you probably know that, don't you?"

As they walked, Luna let go of his arm and watched him for a moment. "So, tell me about what has been going on with you."

[rar_dean]

Luna apparated them into London, looking quite pleased with herself when they got there. He followed her out of the back lot. "Can't say I've ever come from this particular direction, but yeah, I think I could probably find the place. Daisy used to have birthday parties at the zoo, when she was little."

Dean could feel her eyes on him, and her words didn't surprise him. He sighed, because he somehow simultaneously did and didn't want to talk about it all. "Everything was going really well," he started, "but then a few weeks ago I went over to Katie's, ready to celebrate her making the Quidditch league...." He glanced over at Luna, then back at the ground, kicking a small stone on the pavement. "And not only did she not make it, but she didn't tell me, and instead got pissed with someone else."

[rar_luna]

Meeting Dean's eyes when he glanced at her, Luna smiled bracingly. Her smile turned into a bit of a grimace when she registered what he said and what it could possibly mean to Dean.

"That probably made you feel rather taken for granted?" Luna asked, trying to think of how she might feel in that situation. Insecure, perhaps.

[rar_dean]

Dean shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Maybe. Made me wonder why she wouldn't want to talk to me, at least. She said she just didn't want to be cheered up, that she needed to do something reckless. So she went out drinking on her own." He kept kicking the same rock as they walked.

"That wasn't the whole problem, though, unfortunately. If that had been everything, then we'd be fine. I can get past a bit of a bruise to my ego." He gave Luna a wry smile. "But she ran into this bloke...." He paused but ultimately decided that mentioning Marcus wasn't necessary. "Well, a bloke she's always claimed to not even like, despite having paid him a lot of attention in the past. I'd always just brushed it off before, but this time...he ended up kissing her. That was all that happened, I guess, and she did tell me about it, but

[rar_luna]

Luna was quiet, having had a few things to say but wanting to wait until he was done. If she'd thought he'd rather not talk about it earlier, she was convinced otherwise now. They came to a stop not far from the zoo and Dean finished explaining what had happened. She took a moment to process it.

"That sounds very confusing, for both of you, Katie especially. How are you feeling about it now?" she asked, wanting to withhold other comments until she knew that much.

[rar_dean]

"Now?" Dean thought about it for a moment. A hundred different emotions had played through his head over the last week, some of them so different that he'd thought he might be going barmy. But there was one feeling that had been pretty consistent. "I think that I did what I had to do. It was bloody awful to see her face, what it was doing to her when I walked away, but...I don't deal well with the kinds of doubts I was having. And if she couldn't even see where those doubts were coming from for us to properly address them, then, well, I guess I didn't see any chance of getting past it."

He started walking again. He'd already been talking more than he intended, but that was Luna's fault, he guessed. She was far too easy to talk to. "There's more to it than that, but I think I'll leave out the grisly details for now, if that's okay." He laughed shortly, with little humour. "I'm not even sure if that story even made any sense, honestly."

[rar_luna]

He seemed to still be upset about it, which made Luna frown. She hadn't wanted to upset him. "I see," she said. "So, essentially, it was impossible to communicate what either of you were feeling? I can see how that could be bad for a relationship."

When he turned back to the zoo and began walking, Luna followed. "We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. It sounded like you needed to, though," she said. "Let me know if I can help. It may not be pleasant but I don't mind."

She grinned a little and linked her arm with his, wanting to cheer him up. "It made sense- once you explained yourself," she said.

[rar_dean]

"I think that was a big part of it," Dean said, nodding. "And I didn't want to end up in some sort of strange half-relationship where she's trying to make it up to me and I'm wondering if and when she's going to screw up again. That wouldn't be fair to either of us, and, frankly, I'm not sure I even want a relationship right now if it would be that way. I know I don't. It's not the way things are supposed to go

[rar_luna]

"Hmm," she thought about it, and then sighed for her friend. It seemed to make sense, but she was sad that it had to be like that. People were so strange about their emotions. Luna never really understood all the drama about who fancied who and problems like that, and she was grateful that it felt so easy with Greg.

She grinned a little when he joked about Seamus, nodding when he said he'd let her know. "I'm all for having fun," Luna said, not forgetting that she wanted to take him here to get him away from it all. His problems could wait until they got home.

"Would you like to see any particular animals first? Or shall we just go in order?"