Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Fifty Five

"I look bad... Do I always look this bad?"

Esme tugged at the neck of her jumper and added, "Don't answer that."

Piper folded her arms across her chest, trying to come up with the best way to say what she was thinking. Esme didn't look bad. She never looked bad - the girl was stunning.
It was just... She didn't realise it.
Esme wore the same rotation of old baggy jumpers over and over again and never did anything to her hair other than brush out the knots.

"Maybe try a nice top? That jumper looks about sixty years old." Piper suggested, standing beside Esme and checking out her own blonde hair in the mirror.

"It is about sixty years old." Esme grumbled, "I don't think I have any nice tops."
Piper laughed, "Want to borrow one of mine?"
She sighed, "But your clothes are so... Bright."

"Well we can't all dress in exclusively shades of grey." The older girl muttered under her breath, "Besides, I probably have a black top somewhere."

Esme turned away and collapsed backwards onto her bed, sighing dramatically, "This is the worst."
When she initially agreed to a first, official date with Regulus, Esme hadn't quite thought it through. In the moment, she hadn't considered what she was getting into. Sure, they'd practically been dating for almost a year, so at this point a date would just be the two of them hanging out and having a nice time.
Yet... Esme and Regulus had seemed to do the whole relationship process backwards, and this put a lot of pressure on their first date.

Or so Esme thought.
Regulus, honestly, just wanted to have lunch.

Standing outside in the cold, spring air, Regulus was beginning to regret not wearing a coat.
Though he couldn't get the thought of a warm lunch out of his mind. He had spent the whole week fantasising about having a bowl of chips and a Butterbeer, and now the only thing between him and lunch was Esme.

For some reason, that had at no point been explained to the boy, Esme had insisted upon meeting outside the Three Broomsticks instead of walking down to Hogsmeade together.
It didn't make much sense, but then again not a lot of what Esme did made any sense to Regulus.

"Okay, it's not my fault I'm late, I promise!"

Regulus turned to see Esme jogging towards him.
He had to take a deep breath to stop from choking on the air in his lungs.

"You-I... Oh-No, I don't-wow, you..." He struggled to even form a coherent sentence as he tripped over his words. He had seen Esme dressed up at parties before, but never had she looked like that.

"Piper insisted I try on every single item of clothing she owns." Esme grumbled, tugging at the bottom of the skirt she was wearing.
Regulus tried not to stare too much, but it was difficult, "Piper knows what she's doing." he mumbled.

"What?" Esme asked.
"Nothing. I just... You look unbelievable." The words fell past his lips.

She groaned, "Is it really that bad? I feel like people are staring."
"Possibly because they don't recognise you."