Destructive Habits [Jaz]

[Edward Johns]

Fuming, that’s what he was, absolutely fuming. Well Edward Johns was that and hurt, betrayed, sad, angry, emotionally drained, betrayed, down in the dumps, betrayed, used and most of all just plain fuming. Of course Silas had had a right old laugh when he’d told Ed, well he hadn't told him directly but he'd figured it out. Walked in on them half way through the act he’d practically said.

Why had he trusted Cassie, why? How could he have been so stupid? Well now he was paying for his stupidity something shocking.

Never before had he’d left his feelings so exposed over a girl and look where it had gotten him. Ed huffed as he worked, cleaning a glass so hard he almost put a nice crack in it. He still couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been, how ignorant and naive he’d been. And of all the people that could have told him about Dacian and Cassie, round two, it had been Silas. How Silas had found out about Ed and Cassie in the first place was a mystery to the barkeep. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been in on it too, after all he was the joke here. The one that Cassie and Dacian had decided it would be fun to mess with.

The whole ‘I love you too’ crap had been a lie, that much was obvious. She’d probably gone off and had a right old laugh about it with Dacian afterwards. Never, ever again did he want to see Cassandra fucking Vimes.

Edward Johns was a very bitter man at that point in time.

Angrily he threw down his dishcloth, needing a break. He stalked to the back storeroom, pulled up a crate and opened a bottle of whiskey, taking a generous swig from it. Setting the bottle aside, Ed placed his head in his hands, wanting nothing more than to smash as many of the bottles around him as he could. As much as he wanted to he couldn’t, just as much as he wanted to fight tooth and nail for Cassie, he was too much of a coward.

He ended up drinking half the bottle of whiskey before sullenly returning to the bar. Both Vivian and his newest vampiric guest, Lenora, were out somewhere and they’d taken Rowdy with them so it was just Ed and a handful of patrons. A girl about the same age as him walked in and instantly Edward was interested. The look on his face betrayed his plot for revenge. If he went ahead with what he was thinking he’d probably destroy all chances he had with Cassie but the alcohol clouded his judgement and he couldn’t care less.

“G’day, what can I getcha?” Ed said cheerily, a flirty smile lighting up his face. Already he'd gotten the girl a glass and his hand was reaching for the firewhiskey. He realised he'd seen her working in the Three Broomsticks and again his interest piqued. Why was she here? "Haven't I seen you in the Three Broomsticks?" no longer could the man maintain his curiosity and the question slipped out.

||OoC: This post is basically Ed jumping to conclusions from hints that Silas dropped after he interupted Cassie and Dacian and got some interesting news from Adrian in a letter. Oh the drama.||

[Jazmyn Hevulen]

Bollucks. Utter Bollucks.

That’s what had come out of her boss’s mouth. For some reason the working day had absolutely sucked. And anything and everything that had gone wrong was obviously Jaz’s fault. Which, in her eyes, was utter Bollucks.

She’d gone into work in a good mood. Christmas was just around the corner. Seth and his new friend, who he had brought to meet her a few weeks prior, were coming home for Christmas and overall it was a better time to be working in the village. It looked prettier with all the snow, the students were in better spirits, so less inclined to bat-bogey curse you if you didn’t move fast enough.

It was home time, normally ensuing Jaz apparating home. Not today, today she needed a drink and could head home slightly later. Her Mum wouldn’t mind, she’d just assume she was shopping or caught up talking to her brother which had happened before now.

Not wanting to spend any more time at the Three Broomsticks, Jaz picked up her small shoulder bag and near ran out of the door as soon as her shift was over.

It was dark outside, the sun having gone down a little after four. The whiteness of the snow on the ground seemed to light up the village with an added pizzazz Something Jazmyn would have noted if she wasn’t in such a mood. She had no questions of where she was going. She hadn’t been there before, but she’d see the manager around and she was in the sort of mood where she wasn’t going to pass up an hour of looking at a ‘sight for sore eyes’ type.*

Upon entering the pub she wasn’t disappointed. Seeing him walk out behind the bar as she came in. Smiling for the first time that day she approached the bar and sat at one of he deserted stools.

He approached her, certainly smelling like he had had a similar day to hers. Absolutely Bollucks.

”Anything strong and likely to make me do something I’ll regret,” Jaz smiled back. Watching him as he already had his hand out for the fire whiskey – obviously a popular choice amongst the punters. ”Probably,” she replied, trying her best not to think about work, ”Jazmyn,” she said holding out her hand to be polite.

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[Edward Johns]

So far this girl did not disappoint. She liked her hard liquor and was open to do things she’d regret later. Ed usually came under that category, not that he minded of course. “I know just the stuff you need then,” he laughed, pulling out the firewhiskey. Still smiling, he got poured the drink and leant on the bar in front of her, tugging at his bottom lip slightly with one hand, green eyes fixed intently on her. For anyone that knew Edward well (which was not many people) it was a sign he was starting to be a flirt, something that came as easily and effortlessly as sleeping and drinking.

“Nice to meet you Jaz, you don’t mind if I call you that do you? Anyway, I’m Edward or just Ed. Whatever one you like,” the man took Jazmyn’s offered hand gently and reciprocated the greeting. He eyed the bottle of firewhiskey, half tempted to share it with her but the rational part of his brain that was still functioning told him he’d had enough alcohol for one evening. Then it started to bitch and moan about other things but by that time Ed had already tuned out, his full attention on Jaz.

“What brings you up to my neck of the woods? I can tell you’re here for the wonderful atmosphere the Hog provides,” Ed joked and winked before throwing a look at the almost comatose regulars. Yet more flirting. He silently thanked God, or whoever was up there laughing at him, that no one was coming up to the bar for refills so he got to devote all his time to this new and extremely attractive girl before him.

“You look like you’ve had one of those days, trust me I know the type. Feel free to bitch at me, trust me I've heard it all,” he’d noted the look on her face before when he’d mentioned the Three Broomsticks. Ed knew it had meant yes, she did work there and that she didn’t want to talk about it, which in turn meant she’d probably had a shit day. God he was good at reading people, well most people.

“So how come you’ve never been in here before now? I would have remembered if you’d been in here before,” he asked out of mild curiosity, throwing an attempt at a compliment on at the end for good measure. Hopefully she’d picked up on it because Ed was slightly out of practice.

[Jazmyn Hevulen]

Jaz took the glass happily, taking a large sip from the glass. She’d had the stuff plenty of times before but the taste would never hit the palette nicely if she tried a thousand times. She had always been a people person, so reciprocating a smile and fluttering her eyelashes were not above her. Propping herself up on her hand, elbow resting on the bar, she did just that.

”Jaz is fine, Ed,” she had known his name previously anyway. Her boss had complained about him earlier, ‘Bloody Edward Johns’ blah blah ‘irresponsible’ blah blah, ‘bloody Australians’ blah blah. Jaz couldn’t help but find herself enraptured by the accent and his voice in general. A part of her willed him to pull up a pew and talk to her on the same side of the bar, but thee was a strange sexiness o a man stood behind one. He had to make more of an effort to talk then, ignoring anybody who would enquire attention. No that he had done that yet, but it would be interesting to see if he did.

”Hard liquor and good company,” she replied flashing him a toothy grin before smirking at his unsubtle flirtatious demeanour. She wondered in that moment, one Australian to another, if Cassie and Ed knew each other. Stupid to assume, its not like al English people knew each other, and Australia was a bigger place. Wouldn’t hurt to ask – later.

Jaz laughed, ”I’m not the only one, by the looks of it,” she replied, ”And if you’ve heard it all before I shan’t bore you with the details,” she said, another smile. He wouldn’t need to hear it all again if he’d heard it all before. Her boss was an idiot, end of story. Not much to tell.

”I don’t tend to come to the village unless I’m working. And by the end of the day I’m so tired I just wanna sleep ||withyou|| that I just go home.” She blushed slightly, the small amount of alcohol couldn’t be taking effect already, and embarrassment wasn’t something she felt very often. ”I don’t really know why I haven’t been in, if I had known the company was this good looking, I’d have been in a thousand times,” she finished swigging on her whiskey and placing the near empty glass down on the side.

[Edward Johns]

Edward’s smile broadened a little when Jaz said his name. He like the sound of it coming from her, always a good thing. Hopefully he’d be hearing more of it. When she leant on her elbow, Ed leant just a little closer, close enough so that he caught whatever pretty perfume she was wearing. Just like every other pretty girl that had stepped through his door, Jazmyn was as intoxicating as the whiskey he’d downed not ten minutes ago.

“Hah, good company. Don’t know about that but I try to be the best I can,” he winked and laughed again. The man’s focus on the girl that sat before him was only broken when another man, sick of waiting for the entranced barman, had taken initiative and had stolen a bottle of whiskey, much to the protest of other customers. If one man was going to get a free drink, why shouldn’t they? “Speaking of hard liquor and ‘good company’. Excuse me for a moment,” Ed smirked apologetically and stalked off to deal with the problem.

After a few minutes of wrestling the bottle of liquor out of the drunken man’s hands, Edward returned to Jaz but this time he was on the opposite side of the bar and was sitting on the vacant stool next to her. “Now where were we? Oh right, you said you didn’t want to bore me. Come on, I don’t think you could bore me, as soon as you walked in the door you had my full attention,” he started in his usual tone but towards the end of the statement Ed’s voice grew softer and his gaze wavered. Green eyes flickered from Jazmyn’s eyes, to her lips and then back again to her eyes.

She had the most captivating brown eyes and Ed couldn’t help but let his gaze linger on them. A blush coloured her cheeks as she spoke and the man found himself wanting to run a hand over them, to feel the softness of her skin with his hand. He smiled and laughed in accordance to what she was saying and, when she was distracted with talking, he subtly moved closer to her.

“I’m glad you did finally come in, I might have missed out on this good company,” he said softly with a flirtatious smile playing on his face. By now he had closed the gap between them considerably and his face was extremely close to hers. Again his gaze flickered from eyes to lips and in his eyes was a look of eager anticipation.

[Jazmyn Hevulen]

What was it they had on the wall in Muggle Doctor’s surgeries to make people feel better? ‘Smile, it’s contagious,’ they didn’t lie. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling wider when he did. When he leant closer to her, she could smell the alcohol on his breath. I didn’t surprise her, maybe I was just her drink she could smell, or her own breath.

”No need to try on my account,” feeling her cheeks burning up as she spoke. Jaz jerked back slightly at the interruption, smiling as she declared it wasn’t a problem and continued to drink from the glass in her hand. She felt herself watching his every movement over the glass. She couldn’t help but giggle at the tussle, two grown men tugging on a bottle of whiskey, it was just plain amusing.

Her eyes followed him to the seat next to her, twisting on her stool she placed her leg over the other and leant forwards on her elbow once again, ”Did I now?” she questioned, a playful smirk on her face and a glint in her eye. She followed his gaze, eyes, lips, eyes. Jazmyn chewed on her lip, slightly nervous, having been working or sleeping she hadn’t had much interaction of this sort for a fair while. Unconsciously her foot was moving, up and down, in contact with his shin.

”You may have missed out on a lot,” she stifled a laugh, turning into a smirk. Nibbling on her lip momentarily before grinning somewhat manically. Biting on the inside of her cheek, she would have had to be a fool not to notice how close he’d gotten. Swallowing the remains on the saliva in her mouth, her tongue darted out quickly moistening her dry lips. Keeping her eyes on his she saw him looking again, so the extra drive to close said gap didn’t need much kicking into gear.

”So might I,” she mumbled on baited breath as her eyes shut, and the small gap between their faces was closed. She, most definitely, wasn’t her brother.

[Edward Johns]

Jazmyn’s foot against his shin definitely did not escape Ed’s notice. Inwardly he cheered, it was a sign things were going well with her. He loved her smile; it was only encouraging him to do the same and fuelling the need for her. Intently he watched her get closer, she was so close he could smell her perfume mixed with the whiskey on her breath, and was that a hint of mint too? “I couldn’t help but try for you,” he breathed softly.

When Jaz licked her lips, Edward almost sighed in relief. Even after all the distraction (Cassie) and lack of practice (Cassie again) he still had it. Her eyes were closed as she leant in so she missed Ed’s devious smile, who said revenge was a bad thing? To steady himself, the man stretched out one hand to the bar and then other was placed gently on Jaz’s cheek. Eagerly his lips met hers, as he’d thought before there was mint on her breath. Barely detectable over the fresh taste of firewhiskey but it was there.

“Indeed you did,” he whispered only pulling away for a second to answer her question. As soon as he’d finished talking he went back to kissing her. Eagerly he deepened the kiss, moving the hand that was previously on Jaz’s cheek to the nape of her neck. Like her skin, her hair was so soft and Ed found he had been unconsciously running his fingers through it.

There was definitely nothing like alcohol fuelled kisses, and maybe more?

[Jazmyn Hevulen]

Jazmyn silently thanked herself for spending her time munching on Sugar Quills, the minted flavour. Had she known it would end her day like this, she would have done it a long time before now. She also couldn’t help but thank her boss for putting her in a bad mood, a bad mood and alcohol led to this? She would never complain about her boss again.

Well, not for the next five minutes at least.

Edward’s breathe smelt stronger of firewhiskey this close than he had across the bar. He certainly tasted of it, not that she had noticed due to the freshness of the liquid in her own mouth. His hand on her cheek urged her to trace her own hand up his resting arm and onto his shoulder.

The question of should she really be doing this hadn’t really entered Jaz’s mind. Despite the fact that she hadn’t spoken to Edward before today, she really couldn’t bring herself to care. The guy was a token hottie, and he was kissing her in his pub. For somebody not much older than her, that was quite impressive.

Pushing her fingers through the tuffs of his hair, she smiled into his kiss. One he was taking further and she wasn’t about to deny. Through alcohol and the fact that she was pretty much now in the opposite mood she had been when she had walked through the door ten minutes previously, she was onto a winner.

If she had known he was anything to do with Cassie, or the fact he was pretty much using her to feel better, she’d have slapped him. Hard. But she didn’t know any better, and the blonde friend she had made would just have to believe her.

[Edward Johns]

Into the kiss Edward smiled, he was thoroughly enjoying himself. For too long he’d been busy drowning in the complicated thing that was love. Jaz was just who he needed, a very, very welcome distraction. Or was she a tool of revenge? Ed wasn’t entirely sure anymore but the alcohol in his system meant he didn’t dwell on it for more than about a fraction of a second, his mind was focused on other, more important things like Jaz’s fingers in his hair.

He let out a soft, pleasured groan and kissed back even more eagerly then before, only stopping to breath. Trying to get in a more comfortable position on the stool, Ed shifted himself and lost his balance, falling forwards. He caught the stool to steady himself but still ended up bumping gently into Jaz. The man chuckled a little before kissing her yet again. He eyed the door lazily. The revenge thought had once again resurfaced and he was subconsciously willing for Cassie to come through the door. To see him with another girl. To feel the same pain he did.

Ed was standing above Jaz and not-so-subtly glanced towards the stairs that led to his place. His thoughts were clear on his face. He wanted more, he wouldn’t be Edward Johns if he didn’t.

[Jazmyn Hevulen]

When Edward pulled away to move, Jaz panted lightly. She as starting to get slightly oxygen deprived. She felt him fall forwards before she opened her eyes, him lightly gripping her. She laughed lightly before being cut off by his lips back on hers.

They parted again and she saw his gaze flick from the door and suggestively towards the stairs. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew where those steps would lead her. She bit on the inside of her lip again and pressed a small kiss to the corner of his mouth. Something in her, covered by only a small amount of strong alcohol, was telling her it was wrong. That her Mum was expecting her and that she really wasn’t thinking things through. But really, who cared?

Her gazed flickered around the pub, a few people, nobody seemingly staff like, ”Who’s gunna man the bar?” she asked, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. Who cared if she had only just spoken to the guy today. Who cares that the only reason they were both doing this because they were slightly drunk and had had shitty days. He was amazingly good looking and about kissing her. She wasn’t about to complain.