Rediscovering Reality

Suits You Better

"So he just.... asked you out in the library?" Blaise set down a rather heavy box on the floor of Theo's new walk up. 

"Yeah- very wholesome, or at least it seemed so at the time. Looking back it seems like it might have been uninventive. When we met at the ball...he was so different than he had ever been before. I think being in the spotlight changed him more than he let on... but even so... he seemed so... so..." Mariella couldn't find the words. 

"Obnoxious?" Blaise called now in a different room. 

"Vexatious?" Theo chimed from the front door.

"No, No!" Mari stifled a giggle. 

"Garish." Draco chimed without hesitation as he unwrapped a lamp and set it down gently on the end table. 

"You all are awful." Mari hid her smile by pulling out a few more cups and placing them on the counter of the kitchen. "He was just- talkative." 

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Blaise rolled his eyes so hard Mari felt it in the other room, "Someone should call Pansy and tell her they changed the rules." 

Theo let out a light snicker before opening up another box and pulling out some plates he had stowed away. 

Hours went by like this, a light exchange of stories and banter as the house went from boxes to something resembling a place where someone could live. 

"I've got work early tomorrow morning so I hate to bail but," Blaise said standing up unceremoniously. Over the past few weeks he had been slowly incorporating himself into fathers work life to the point where he was fully involved now. "Theo, great place. Seriously. Remind me to let you house hunt for me." 

A quick hug to Theo was followed by a kiss to Mariella's cheek and just like that, he was gone.

"I need to head out as well." Draco stood up shortly after Blaise's departure, "I've got a meeting over breakfast tomorrow morning." Mariella couldn't help but notice he was little too much joyous for someone who was most likely going to be discussing overtures and profit margins over  coffee and cheese danishes at merlin's hour of the morning.

A hug to Theo, a nod to Mariella- and he too was gone. Leaving the two remaining characters to suddenly realize how quiet a house could get. 

Mariella

Theo straightened up some stray pieces of packing paper that were decorating the floor before offering up the new sofa as a place for me to sit. 

This place seemed more like Theo. Though i hadn't known him that long i couldn't help but feel id known him a lifetime. 

As the summer had slipped into fall, and now the fall into winter we had grown impossibly closer. Every moment i spent speaking to him, it made my heart at ease. At least for a few moments before i went back to analyzing every bit of information i had about myself and the new context i found myself in. 

His old house had been daunting, looming, ominous if i could be quite frank. 

And though no one in their right mind would dare call Theodore Nott Jr. anything remotely adjacent to unassuming, his new home gave an air of acceptance that the old manor had not. 

This was a home, it seemed like a place where you could make a cup of coffee in your pajamas, read a book on the couch, build a fort with kids. This was a place Theo had filled already with objects and things that seemed....homey, there was no other word for it. 

The manor was not that. It was cold and distant, it was made for business and intimidation.

This house was made for memories and ease.