RP: Morning Flight

[shh_orla]

Date: 3 february 2006
Character(s): Orla and ?
Location: Streets of SHH
Status: Public
Summary: Orla takes a spill
Completion: InComplete

It had snowed that night, and Orla woke, delighted, to see a dusting on everything. She bundled up and went out after breakfast, wanting to walk around and see things glisten before they got slushy. She stopped on

Comments

[shh_orla]

She bit back a laugh and snickered quietly at his impression of an admiring female. "Whatever did the women of your town do without you to keep them company?" She asked, teasing a bit. "Really, I can't imagine you being so caught up in anything like that. You're very laidback for a workaholic." Unlike herself. "But it was good work you were doing, then, for the refugees. I'd have done the same, but for slightly less noble reasons." Avoiding the husband you weren't sure you should have married was far from noble.

"Thank you." She stirred and took a sip, smiling at him. "Yeah, for the most part. Quiet. Which is generally the story of my life, when I'm not having flying incidents, or run-ins with the river. I visited my parents very briefly in London, but we're very thoroughly estranged anymore. Being the changeling child that I am." She shrugged. Ainsley needed their attention more, so she was willing to just fade from the picture.

"I never got to apologize for my bad behavior last time we met." She began, wanting to at least acknowledge what she thought might be a bit of awkwardness, at least for her.

[shh_wayne]

"Eh, the women in my town were functioning quite well without me, love. Same as they are now." He snorted. "I might be laidback but it doesn't mean that I can't get consumed by work. Spent a lot of time traveling before. Now, it's mostly paperwork and balancing a few things. Figuring out what to do with myself. That sort of thing."

He sipped his coffee while she spoke and nodded. "Yeah, don't have anything much to do with most my family anymore. Made choices they don't approve of, ya know? It's okay, though, and it'll get better as time goes on. Life always does."

"No need to apologize, Orla. Forgot all about it, actually." He shrugged and grinned. "So, how's your new year going so far? Happy and all that?"

[shh_orla]

"And what conclusion have you reached? On what to do with your free time?" She asked, curious. He wasn't the type to just sit around and wait for things to happen, that's for sure. She rather envied him that ability to be a go-getter. She had tried, and it had gotten her, well, someplace, just not someplace she wanted to stay.

"It struck me as being a bit sad, this time." She said contemplatively. "Maybe its being single over the holidays but I missed there being a spirit of camaraderie. I was ok being alone, because I most often am, but I just wondered if it was going to be the trend for the next few years or so." She was confiding in him things she hadn't been willing to voice to anyone else, but he was so calm and able to take things as they came, she couldn't help but be more open than normal. "Family's so easily a burden as well as a blessing. I just wonder how long til it swings towards them being a good thing in our lives, you know?" She wondered if she'd ever be able to build a second family for herself. At the moment, it seemed very unlikely.

"Oh." Relieved and nonplussed, she sipped her coffee. She had to set it down at his last question, or else she might spill on herself. She laced her fingers together. "Well, its eventful, but I don't know that I could call it happy. You know how sometimes you make a stupid decision, thinking you can handle the consequences? Well, I don't think I can, least not the way I hoped to handle it." That very thoroughly summed up the situation with George, sadly. They might get back to being friends, but knowing how settled he was to his life, and how unsettled she was, it didn't seem likely she should ever approach him again. Her feelings would just have to take the hit then.

[shh_wayne]

"Nothing positive yet," he said, shrugging. "Been hearing talk at the Centre about them rebuilding Hogsmeade, maybe trying to rebuild Hogwarts eventually. Thought about maybe popping up there to see if they need a pair of hands."

He nodded. "Yeah, being single over the holidays can be bloody rough. Have been every year, though, so used to it by now. Way life goes sometimes." He grinned. "Doubt you have to worry 'bout it being a trend, love."

When she mentioned stupid decisions, he nodded. "Been there, done that. Just don't have the bloody t-shirt." He smiled wryly. "Almost fell for my stupid decision, before I caught myself and realized it wasn't gonna go anywhere on his part. Too much baggage, maybe, or I just wasn't what he wanted or who knows. Doesn't much matter. I ended it before it got worse, enjoyed it while it lasted, then realized I wasn't ready to handle the aftermath."

[shh_orla]

"Really?" She perked up. "Do tell me if there's anything I can do for that. I'd love to help." Hogwarts held a special place in her heart.

She looked at him, surprised. "Really? I never would have thought that about you. I'd ask what was wrong with the women you know, but, well, I might know." If they were anything like her, they chased the unattainable instead of the lovely man in front of her. She shook her head, lifting her cup to take a drink. "That's lovely of you to say, Wayne, but I have it on very good authority I can muck up a relationship faster than most. But thats the way things go, as you say."

She smiled at his comment, though she empathized, feeling much the same way. "I'm sorry to hear that. Must have been a rather idiotic fellow, or some such nonsense." She smiled at him again, a bit shyly. "Any advice for the lovelorn who didn't quite protect their heart as well as they could have?"

[shh_wayne]

"Eh, I've not found out anything yet, but will likely ask around more. Hadn't heard anything official, ya know?"

He snorted. "Don't mind, really. More to life than relationships, yeah? If it happens, it happens. Will at the right time, I figure. And if I'm not intended for that sort of thing, it won't. Too many good things in life to worry about that sorta thing."

"Nah, I was the idiot. Bloke wasn't sure what he wanted, and I made it too easy for him to have a little of both worlds, ya know? Live and learn." He took another drink of his coffee and shook his head. "Don't usually offer advice, love. Only advice I know is that nothing's the end of the world so long as you're alive and keep living every day as well as you can."

[shh_orla]

She looked at him askance. "I find life is all about relationships, albeit not all romantic. I mean, I could have the most thriving therapy practice there was, but if I didn't have friends and people I can share it with, its pretty empty indeed. Though you're right that the world shouldn't revolve around romance as much as it does. Sadly, I tend to buy into that on occasion. Especially when lonely." And as much as she didn't begrudge her friends their own romances, she rather envied them their ability to have them, successfully.

"So if you could do it over, would you have been firmer about what you'd allow, or would you not do it at all?" She was curious, though for her part she'd as soon not do it at all if she could manage. "Funny, its what I was trying to tell the person in question. That I was trying to live day by day. Only I'm not made that way. Takes a person of more substance and character to live and let live, I suppose." She sat back in her seat. She was unable to look away from him, especially since he was still shirtless. She wished distantly that she could have fallen for someone like him. Steady, friendly, but reliable, and willing to risk in a way George just wasn't.

[shh_wayne]

"When you get lonely, that's when those friends you're on about can come in handy," he pointed out. "Thing is, you can't base your entire happiness on having other people or having them 'round. If you can't be happy on your own, then it won't matter how many people are there. Ya know? Once you can reach that good place, though, then you're ready for all that romance nonsense."

He considered her question and remembered those weeks with Zach, how his kisses had tasted and how it had felt just to have someone who seemed to want him. "Think I'd have still done it," he said honestly. "People make mistakes and not everything works out the way we want, but that's part of life. Can't ever learn anything if we don't bugger up, yeah? How else can we figure things out about ourself if we don't take chances, knowing full well that sometimes we'll make mistakes."

[shh_orla]

"True." She sighed a bit ruefully. "Now if only I would take advantage of it." She knew she wasn't a burden to them, but so many people had drifted away, and she didn't know what happened, if she had done something or if it was just life, as he put it.

"Happy, or content?" She asked, wanting to get to the heart of the matter. "Because one isn't the same as the other. I'd place contentment above happy, because my happiness can be effected more externally, or more easily, than my contentment. For the record, I am content. I love my life here in Stoatshead. I think that bouts of loneliness are a signal we need to examine ourselves, and see if we're really content or not. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I could go on as I've been. Just seems like it would be richer, somehow, to not have to go it alone." Hopefully it didn't sound like she was trying to convince herself. If she never saw any of her friends again, she'd be richer for having known them, but she'd miss them nonetheless.

"That's reassuring." She thought back to throwing herself at George, and conceded she probably had to make the mistake in order to get over the mistake. "Well, we learn from a mistake. Doesn't mean it has to be our mistake, yes? I don't have to taste poison if someone told me it'll make me ill, you know. But it does depend on whether it was worth the risk." She set her cup back down, giving him a rather contemplative look. "I'd like to be able to just risk without having to weigh it all. I'm about as far from impulsive as they get."