Playing Games (Abe)

[Jacaranda Mulciber]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]It had been two weeks since she’d seen Abraham. Christmas had been and gone, New Years had been entirely non-eventful and his birthday had passed a few days ago without a peep. What was he playing at? She might hate him, but that’s didn’t mean he could just ignore her. Christmas he should have been pestering her with cheerful wishes, New Years he should have at least had one drink with her, and she was utterly flabbergasted when he didn’t seek her out on his birthday to beg for presents. That man was entirely unreliable. It didn’t count that she had been shut up in her office with mountains of paper work that seemed to intensify with every important holiday or date, her lack of time to abuse Abraham was entirely his fault. And she had due cause to abuse him. Kissing young girls that just happened to be Silas’ long-lost daughter, and buying prostitutes for his birthday? She knew Abe was a little deprived, but seriously, he could do better. Had slapping him all those weeks back put him off his futile attempts to woo her? She would never reciprocate, but she did love to see him try. It was a guilty little thing to be pleased when a man you detested chased after you, but she just couldn’t resist. So now he’d succeeded in making her find him. Outrageous. She’d let him know just how displeased she was. With his present neatly wrapped in light blue paper under her arm, she strode up the lane from the Three Broomsticks toward Hogwarts. That ridiculous castle really needed a floo entrance. All this nonsense about security for the children? She huffed. If they were stupid enough to get caught by dark wizards, they probably deserved what they got. The sun was waning, clinging to the horizon and spreading a pale haze of light over the path up to the castle. She was cutting it a little tight. She didn’t like to be out in the dark these days, not since she had been attacked by a vampire in her own workplace. She shuddered and stepped up her pace. She felt relieved when the old oak doors of he castle’s main entrance shut behind her. Term time meant there were children rushing about, squealing and shouting, but she waded her way through them and to the stairs, taking the familiar route to Abraham’s office. Once outside, she knocked and waited, toe tapping impatiently on the floor. The idiot better not be out of his office, she refused to waste a trip to this godforsaken place not to get at least one insult out.

[Abraham Grey]

The first days of term after a school holiday were always a little bit hectic, as Abe remembered he actually had to grade his student’s homework instead of letting Pickle use the ever-growing pile of scrolls as a nest and that lessons generally tended to go more smoothly if he actually planned them rather than showing up to class and chatting enthusiastically about whatever new theory he was working on. Keeping busy had some advantages though, namely distracting him from his ever increasing foul mood about being thirty.

He hadn’t had much time to dwell on it on the day of his birthday, as he’d been otherwise preoccupied with reliving his activities of the night before with a dopey grin on his face. Then he’d gone and found Idris and recounted said activities in great detail. Abe had considered doing the same to Connery, but the man was such a prude it almost took the fun out of bragging. He hadn’t told Cait either, he didn’t think she’d appreciate the tale and would probably have floated through his coffee to make it stone cold, or something equally mean as revenge. Anyway the birthday gift had been greatly appreciated and he would definitely have to send Silas some ridiculously expensive liquor as a thank you.

When it came down to it grading essays by the third years on their favourite Arithmancy theory wasn’t nearly so enjoyable a distraction. With a sigh he set his quill down, leaning back in his chair and scooping Pickle off the desk to pet the soft, purple-hued guinea-pig for a while. It was disheartening to read 12 essays all detailing how much his students admired Mulliner’s theory of applied calculation, which just so happened to be the last thing they had studied in class. It was almost as if they hadn’t done any research. Besides, everybody who knew anything about Arithmancy knew his own paper on the subject was much better.

Abe was just well and truly getting his grump on when there was a sharp knock at the door. For one dreadful moment he considered that it might have been McGonagall come to fire him and he scrambled to his feet, setting Pickle back onto the desk and trying to straighten his shirt a bit before he crossed the room in a couple of quick strides to open the door. The person on the other side of the door wasn’t McGonagall, no, it was much worse than that. ”Jacaranda!” He said, voice embarrassingly close to cracking into a yelp. ”I already paid my tab for last month.” Abe babbled quickly, thinking it best to get his defence out of the way before she could lay into him.

[Jacaranda Mulciber]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]She was already scowling as the door opened, and the use of her full name caused a twitch in her cheek. “Don’t call me that,” She snapped. “You sound like my mother.” She brushed past him, not waiting for an invitation and carefully set the medium-sized parcel on a corner of his desk, trying not to overbalance the piles of paper. She shrugged off her coat and hung it over the back of his desk chair and after making sure her skirt wouldn’t be crumpled, she sat in it. She looked with distain over the mess on his desk and the overspill around it before looking up at Abraham with one raised brow. Could he simply not keep anything clean? After a brief hard stare, she leaned back in his luxuriously comfy chair and waved a hand at the gift-wrapped box. It was a rectangular cuboid, square on top and a third of its width high. It was fairly heavy to handle, suggesting wood or denser, and something rattled when shook. Under the paper was an ornate wooden box with one drawer in its centre. On the top was a chequered playing board, and in the partitioned drawer were hand-carved chess pieces in ebony and ivory that were getting a little restless. It had cost a pretty penny, but Jac supposed she had missed a fair few of his birthdays and she hadn’t got him anything for Christmas. Plus, proving she was inventive enough not to buy him yet more socks and scarves should hopefully stir up some guilt about his recent behaviour. “Happy Birthday, Abraham.” She said dryly, the congratulations lacking even a smile. “Well, don’t stand there gawping. Open it for Merlin’s sake.”

[Abraham Grey]

Abe may have been surprised by the sight of Jacaranda, but that didn’t stop him from shooting her a wry smile and bowing his head in mock apology. ”My mistake, Ms. Mulciber.” He said with the kind of formality Abe knew Jacaranda liked to insist on. The kind of formality he usually bypassed in favour of the more familiar ‘Jac’ just because he knew it would annoy her. It occurred to him that no matter how he chose to address her he’d be wrong. Probably because he was a man, or some equally unfair reason.

She muscled past him into the room, not that Abe tried to stop her, he’d learned the hard way that when Jac wanted to go somewhere that was where she went and getting in the way was a bit like getting between and irate dragon and her egg. Not that he’d ever accuse Jac of being that maternal. He didn’t protest as she proceeded to make herself comfortable in his chair either. Okay so maybe a little silent protesting went on as he stuck his tongue out at her when her back was turned, unafraid to do something frightfully childish so long as she didn’t know about it.

With a frown he made his way over to his desk too, levitating a stack of dusty old books out of the chair usually reserved for his students so he could sit in it. The reason for her visit was playing heavily on his mind. He hadn’t failed to notice the neatly wrapped present she’d placed on his desk, but that couldn’t surely be the only reason for her visit. He’d never once seen Jacaranda without her having some reason to snap at him.

Even when they’d worked together and eaten lunch at the same table every day (more out of convenience as all the other employees seemed to hate them, than due to any real friendship) she’d found reason to scorn. But perhaps that had just been because he’d done a lot of stupid shit when he was nineteen. Still, there were at least two things he could think of that he’d done recently that would easily fall into the category of ‘stupid shit’ and earn him Jacaranda’s scorn. He hoped to Merlin she didn’t know either of them.

Cautiously at first, Abe lifted the gift, resisting the urge to shake it to try and determine what was inside. Instead he turned it over, running a finger under the join of paper to loosen the spellotape holding it closed. The reserved behaviour didn’t last long, though, and he was soon tearing the rest of the paper off with the excitement of a child at Christmas. Abe didn’t get presents that often any more, at least not ones that weren’t pairs of poorly wrapped novelty socks from his Hufflepuffs. He certainly hadn’t got one this year. Well… One of the women Silas had sent his way had been wearing a bow, which he’d taken great pleasure undoing with his teeth, but that hardly counted.

”Wow, thanks Jac.” He said, genuinely pleased as he examined the chess set, drawing his hand sharply away from the draw as one of the pawns took a swing at his fingers with their sharp little sword. ”What do you say? Time for a game?” Abe asked, already sweeping a few more of the ungraded scrolls onto the floor with an elbow and readying the board with a flick of his wand. ”Ladies first, of course.” He added, twisting the board so that the white pieces were on her side and plucking up the black King, who had been trying to sidle away without anybody noticing.

[Jacaranda Mulciber]

It was a good thing really that Jac hadn’t heard about the bow, or she’d have thrown the box at his head as soon as he opened the door. Lucky for Abe, she was only mildly annoyed currently. The walls of her office could contest to how annoyed she had been and if they could they would have blushed at the language she’d used as she cursed the birthday boy.

There was a certain sense of glee that one felt when giving a gift to another, though Jac subscribed to the masculine train of thought that if you were going to buy a gift, make sure they had to share it with you. Abe could play wizard chess alone, but she knew he couldn’t resist a game. Though come to think of it, the last time they’d played more than ten years ago there had been stripping involved, and they hadn’t played long enough to discover who’d win. Jac pursed her lips and sat forward in the chair. Abe better not get any ideas.

She ushered the white pieces into place, smirking at the black pieces shuffling nervously. They had a right to feel nervous. Each of their faces was a miniature Abraham and standing across from them in white was an army of miniature Jacs. Unlike the woman herself, the chess pieces were not holding in their anger at the man opposite and if they could talk, they would be readying the battle cries.

Jac appeared to give it some thought and then moved her first pawn. The figure couldn’t move forward fast enough and stood straining at the edge of its square. Jac sniffed and sat back in her chair. “So Abraham,” she asked nonchalantly, “What else did you receive for your birthday?” The way she peered out from under her brows and that slight predatory glint gave no doubt that she knew exactly what Abraham had been given. She’s found the receipt for one Abraham Grey on her desk for ‘services rendered’ and she knew exactly what that euphemism was for.

[Abraham Grey]

This wasn’t the first time he’d played chess with Jacaranda Mulciber, although the circumstances of their last game had been very different. They were older and wiser now and Abe knew Jac well enough to know that she hadn’t had nearly enough beer for him to have any chance of persuading her that they should take a trip down memory lane. Although... There had to be a reason she’d picked that particular gift, she had to remember what had happened last time they’d played. Maybe it was all part of the present. In which case this was, hands down, his best birthday ever and he was vowing to turn thirty every year from now on.

Abe leaned forwards eagerly in his seat, his eyes obviously following the plunging neckline of her top and his grin not unlike a child in Honeydukes. ”If I recall correctly, last time we played using a rather unique interpretation of the rules.” His brows quirked suggestively as he watched her wave her pieces onto the board. He couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for his own motley crew, who looked about as battle ready as his Hufflepuffs. ”Do those rules still stand?” He asked hopefully.

He sobered somewhat as she asked him about his birthday, swallowing guiltily and focusing on the board so he didn’t have to respond immediately. The way she said it suggested she knew exactly what Silas had got him this year. She couldn’t know, Silas had promised him discretion and putting him on the receiving end of Jac’s wrath definitely wasn’t discrete. Not that he should really care, they were all adults here and what he did in his free time should be none of Jacaranda’s concern. That didn’t seem to stop the guilt and shame prickling over his skin though... Damn conscience.

Abe nudged a pawn forwards a square waiting patiently as it dropped its sword and had to scurry back to pick it up. ”Oh, you know,” He said casually, his high-pitched tone revealing the lie. ”The usual; whiskey, theatre tickets from my parents for a play I have no interest in seeing, a tie from my Hufflepuffs.” Abe fished into the pocket of his robe for the crumpled tie he’d removed as soon as he’d finished classes. It was bright canary yellow with a badger skulking around the knot.

[Jacaranda Mulciber]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]Jacaranda’s peaceful façade began to falter and she shoved a second pawn forward, giving no thought to strategy. She’d been here for five minutes and he was already fishing for an invitation into her knickers. Unique interpretation of the rules, indeed. Her advancing pawns put their swords in the air and silently jeered at the black pawn out on the battlefield. She scowled, pushing a few escaping hairs back from her face where they had escaped the bun. It wasn’t quite so tight today. “You just don’t know when to stop, do you? No, Abraham, I will not be bending the rules for you. Even if it was your birthday.” He’d been bending the rules enough recently. She was fairly sure McGonagall wouldn’t be pleased to hear about the one birthday present he failed to tell her about. Kissing minors she was sure was not high on the list earlier. Her fists clenched and unclenched, her teeth grinding. He was blatantly lying to her. He didn’t seriously thing she couldn’t tell? “So aside from the whiskey, I suppose this chess set has been the best of your gifts, has it? Or maybe it would be if I played by special rules for you, hmm? Would that be better than all of your gifts put together?” She bit out, anger and something like humiliation tinting her cheeks red. She snatched the tie and brandished it at him so forcefully that the badger toppled over. “And what else have you been getting from your Hufflepuffs? I know exactly what your usual is now.” Now she was bordering on not making much sense. Hearing about his little encounter with teenage Lilith had conjured all sorts of horrific images and if Abraham could stoop to that, what else would he stoop to, suggested her irrational anger and jealousy.

[Abraham Grey]

Abe pushed another pawn forward too, realising that this wasn’t going to be the game of quiet strategy between two brilliant minds he’d been expecting. Their pawns stood face to face, or as face to face as they could get while his little black foot-soldier was cowering in the back corner of the square. Something was clearly distracting Jacaranda, more accurately it was pissing her off royally and he had a few inklings as to what it might be the cause.

”I wasn’t aware I’d started.” He huffed, too disappointed at being rebuffed to consider that it might not be the best time to be disagreeing with her. Since when had Jacaranda been a prude about these things? Perhaps Silas was into some really kinky shit and it had put her off good clean fun. Abe wouldn’t put it past the man; he did run a strip club after all. It couldn’t possibly be that she just didn’t want to sleep with him, they had far too much history for that to be the case.

It seemed Jacaranda wasn’t done berating him either and Abe was beginning to wonder how he could ever have missed her company in the past few weeks. Nor did it seem to occur to him that continuing in his rather weak lie, when it was quite apparent that she knew about one or the other or both of his recent discretions, was just going to make her more irate and generally pissy with him. ”It was the most thoughtful.” He said in a way that at the very least he thought was quite diplomatic. It wasn’t technically a lie either. While a chess set could hardly beat two hookers in the pleasure stakes, it wasn’t like Silas had really had to think long and hard, nor stretch his resources to provide his gift. And if Abe was any judge of quality, which he was, the board had probably cost more than the women too.

So far he’d just about managed to keep up with Jacaranda’s furious rant, but at her final comment he finally found himself utterly baffled and more than a little affronted. ”Jacaranda I would never...” Abe shook his head furiously, looking quite agitated. If there was one thing people knew about him it was that he took his job seriously. Sure, sometimes he might be a little lax with his teaching style, but he looked after the kids. Hell he had to, as Hufflepuff Head of House a day didn’t go by that he didn't have to rescue one of his students from the Slytherins. ”With a student!”

[Jacaranda Mulciber]

[atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_bg.jpg,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/jac_foot.jpg][atrb=style,background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 2px 30px 88px 150px; text-align: justify;]Jacaranda fairly snarled, jabbing a finger at him over the board. “You are the most depraved man I have ever had the misfortune to meet!” She picked up a pawn and rather than moving it to another square, she brandished it at him. “I don’t know why I bothered to come here. I’ve always know what you’re like but I thought maybe you’d changed. Ten years later and you’re still an insufferable jerk! You’re even worse!” She came dangerously close to poking his eye out with the angry pawn, and she stood to glare down at him. She sneered, leering at him as if he were some dragon dung she’d just stepped in. “She might not have been a student, but she may as well have been. Lilith Tippet. Ring any bells in that dirty mind of yours? You must know the one. Young, brunette; the most whoring little tramp ever to walk the Earth?” She huffed, crossing her arms. “Oh yes, I see you remember now. Eighteen. Eighteen. A teenager for Merlin’s sake! And you’ve been sticking your acid tongue in her mouth and groping all over that anorexic body! Did she join in your little birthday present to yourself? Have a nice little fucking threesome with her did you?” Livid with anger, the tears brimming she blamed on her absolute rage. The pawn in her hand – after having been almost crushed as she clenched it was suddenly hurled at him and bounced off of his shoulder. “What were you thinking? My mistake, you weren’t thinking were you? For all your brains, you’re the stupidest man I know.” She turned on her heel, picking her coat from the back of her chair and fighting bravely not to let those tears spill.

[Abraham Grey]

”Oh please!” Abe protested in spite of Jacaranda’s wrath, clearly his sense of self preservation was severely lacking as he never had been very good at backing down when it came to her. Or perhaps her accusations were just completely unreasonable and he wouldn’t stand for having his name slandered. Yeah, that was probably it... He was a man of principle! ”I know for a fact you’ve met Driscoll and you work in a strip club, I can’t possibly be the most unsavoury character you’ve ever come across!”

He shrank back in his chair as she stood, having to lean back to avoid the pawn brandishing it’s sword at his nose, who was in turn being brandished by the irate Jacaranda. ”And you were hardly a saint yourself ten years ago.” Abe shot back, realising it rather detracted from the accusation as he was cowering in his seat while she sneered down at him. He just hoped she didn’t upset board in her agitation. A lap full of angry chess pieces would not be fun. ”You haven’t been exactly civil to me recently either.” He complained, referring to the time she’d slapped him across the face and then glued him to a table.

Abe had almost been preparing himself for Jac to give him hell about his birthday present from Silas and in the process he’d sort of forgotten about Lilith. However Jacaranda’s less than complimentary rant about the girl did wonders to jog his memory and he winced, looking up at her with a rather pitiful expression on his face. That wasn’t even the worst of it, though, what really made his jaw drop was the revelation that Silas’s daughter was only eighteen. Of course she couldn’t have been much older without Silas being some kind of midget Casanova, but he’d somehow convinced himself that twenty was okay. Eighteen really, really wasn’t.

”I-“ Abe stuttered, flinching as the chess piece ricocheted off his shoulder and landed on the floor. The pawn picked itself up and scurried off to hide behind a stack of books. ”No, I didn’t...” For somebody who prided himself on his eloquence he was making a right pigs ear of voicing his defence. He stood as she backed off to retrieve her coat from his chair. ”It was just a kiss. I didn’t know she was so young!” Abe protested, reaching out to grab her elbow and try and stop her from leaving. ”Please Jac, just let me explain!”