WISHLISTS: Better Company (Rose/Cormac)
Author: a_gypsys_dance
Recipient: drcjsnider
Title: Better Company
Character Pairing: Rose Weasley/Cormac McLaggen
Prompt: "Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs." - Alice Hoffman; When Rose can't be with the man she loves (maybe Teddy L.?), she loves the man she's with.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 917
Summary: Rose is not a happy drunk - especially when Teddy Lupin is ignoring her.
Author's Notes: All of your prompts were tempting, and I hope you like what I’ve done with this one!
Rose leaned on the bar, trying to get the bartender’s attention, her tits popping out of the dress she had worn to catch someone else’s eye. It wasn’t working for either case. She felt invisible - if her breasts couldn’t get her laid or drunk, what good were they? They were all that made her even slightly outgoing.
She kept glancing to her left, sneering as she watched Teddy and her cousins laugh at whatever outrageous thing Hugo was telling them.
She really ought to stop coming to these things, but she couldn’t ever manage to say no when they invited her after Sunday dinner. For Merlin’s sake, it was Sunday. She had to work in the morning, and here she was, getting sloshed and throwing herself at a werewolf who was completely oblivious.
Embarrassing.
“Oi, can Ah buy ye a drink?” she heard someone asking a girl to her right. Rose clenched her jaw as she imagined the girl - tall, blonde, long-legged, French. The kind of girl Teddy Lupin would take home, she thought, still staring in his direction until someone ran into her right shoulder. For the love of Ravenclaw, does no one notice me standing here?
Rose turned her head to the right, preparing her best glare; she bet it was that awful, gorgeous Victoire clone who had knocked into her. She was probably too drunk to walk properly. Trashy.
To her surprise, there were no women near her; the person she thought had walked into her had actually just nudged her shoulder in an effort to seize her attention. “Oh, sorry, am I in your way?” she began, scooting over.
“Nay,” he said, smirking at her. She couldn’t help but notice that he was excessively tall, and his shoulders were very broad. He looked vaguely familiar, actually. “I've only bin tryin' tae catch yer attention since ye walked in. Who’s that ye are lookin’ at?” He nodded in the direction of her family.
She scowled. “That’s my family, is all.”
“All ay them?” he asked. “Ach, guid. An’ here Ah’d thought Ah’d had some competition. If ye are related to all ay them, Ah’m surely mistaken aboot yer besotted stare.” He was still smirking, and it was infuriating.
“Well, no, not every one of them, but you are still mistaken about my besotted stare, as you so eloquently put it,” Rose said haughtily. As she spoke, he gestured to the bartender, who immediately brought them two Firewhiskeys. She glared some more. How could that not work for her? “I’m just brassed off they made me come here again.”
“Ach, is that all? Let me take ye home then.” His grin was clearly meant to be charming, and it only irritated her more.
She knocked her drink back quickly, and he followed suit. “Absolutely not,” she said decisively, feeling the liquor warm her from within.
“An’ why nae?” he asked. “Ah’m rich, good-lookin’, and a terrific lay.”
“You’ve got to be at least forty. I don’t even know your name!” she protested. “And you are not that good-looking.” She avoided eye contact as she said it.
“Liar,” he accused. “If Ah werenae, would Ah be on the cover ay all those Quidditch magazines?”
She slapped her hand on the counter, pleased to have finally made the connection. “You’re Cormac McLaggen! What on earth are you doing here?” Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was glad she was too pissed to swoon over him just for playing for the Falmouth Falcons.
“Tryin’ to find a lass to have a bit ay fun with, but the one Ah have mah eye on is pure ornery. Come on, why nae?” Cormac cajoled her, unwilling - or unable - to give up.
“I - I have a boyfriend,” Rose said, but even she was unconvinced by her tone.
He laughed at her outright, and she drew back, stung. “Bullshit. Ye might fancy one ay th’ lads o’er yonder, but Ah’d bet mah broomstick he doesnae feel th’ same way.”
Her hand was swinging towards his face before she even realized it, but Cormac caught her wrist before she made contact. “How dare you!” she screeched. “You don’t know anything about me! Let me go!” Rose struggled unsuccessfully to extract herself.
Instead, he pulled her closer to himself. “What have ye got tae lose?” As his lips descended towards hers, Cormac murmured, “Unrequited love is sae borin’. Weepin’ under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.” When his lips met hers, she could taste the remnants of the whiskey there, and it seemed to warm her, making her mouth tingle. Ordinarily, Rose would have been ashamed for how eagerly she reacted to him, but he seemed able to coax the most passionate of responses out of her. She stood up on her tiptoes, pressing herself against him, her hands trapped between his chest and hers.
Cormac pulled away momentarily, “Weel, ye might be a maniac. But tha’s a different story.” He smirked again, and she pursed her lips, trying to keep herself from smiling back.
Rose pulled away from him regretfully, and turned to snatch her purse from where she’d set it on the bar. As she pulled it on, he asked, “Ach, are ye leavin’ already? We just started havin’ fun. Have one more bevvy wi’ me.”
“The only drinks I’m interested in are the ones you’re pouring me at your place,” she informed him, cocking an eyebrow in challenge.
He grinned triumphantly. “Ah think tha’ can be arranged.”