if you leave the light on { d a n j e r }

Jeremy could have told them every single detail of the night he was so excited about it. Clear on his face and brightening up the room by the second, the smile still wasn't fading. "It was great," He told both of them, answering nothing in particular but continuing to gush. He felt like he could sigh and just die happy right now; he was on such a high. It was even better than the cloud nine achieved from smoking a little too much 'the boy who lived,' and Jeremy hoped he didn't come down anytime soon. He patted Freya's soft curls as she settled close to him and nodded to everything they said. "She's a healer, fancy that." The redhead told the blonde with another big smile. Jeremy was so far from being a 'successful adult'; it was laughable. He had a meaningless job that was going nowhere fast, and it wasn't like he aspired to be more. It was crazy to think he'd had a real date with a witch like Montserrat. They weren't even in the same social class, and yet, it happened, and he had walked away with a kiss! Wow!

"Oh, I will bring her to trivia," Jeremy said, matching Danny's tone and shooting him a look that he thought meant business. "I mean if she wants to," Jeremy remembered Veronica and the drama that had followed. He felt defensive at Danny's reminder and at the idea that Montse might not be real but not so much that he would sign Montserrat up for Trivia without asking her first. He'd love for her to meet his friends and the other way around, and for more than just to rub it in Danny's nose (okay, that was a big part of it though...) "She's super friendly too," he began to gush again, looking off in the distance as he recalled the good old days (of three hours ago) when he'd first seen her. "So pretty, seriously, the best smile." And other things, but Jeremy wasn't the sort to brag about that. They would not believe him anyway, he wasn't quite working with Greg level abs or anything.

"Six years, eh? Still quicker than some.." Jeremy teased, the feeling of giddiness about his date overflowing into the second part of their conversation. He looked down at Freya and then back up at Danny before speaking excitedly. "Is anyone gonna' tell me your answer, or do I need to guess?" Laughing as he demanded to know what Freya had said to Greg's question, Jeremy shook the bed a little.

Danny grinned as Freya smacked him and kind of had the urge to be even more ridiculous to get her to do that again. Brain was hard at work trying to think of something so he defaulted to his standard mode of eating everything in sight and grabbed a handful of nachos instead. "These are really good, can we get some tomorrow?" he asked around the mouthful. Good nachos were always worth repeating meals. He munched away as his eyes lingered on how Jere patted Freya's hair with her head in his lap.

"A doctor? No, stop lying," he said immediately, his eyes wide with disbelief. A real doctor? That was like a real job. She probably had real food at her apartment and hobbies other than eating. He still couldn't quite believe it. Danny felt the need to keep ribbing his friend, that's just what they did, but as he spoke more, Danny just got happier. Happy for Jere, happy that it had went so well, happy that the universe had decided to grant him a date that had gone well. Given their combined lack of success, he still couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. "Still doesn't sound real, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, mate," Danny said with a laugh, patting his friend on the shoulder. Then his eyes widened and he glanced up at Jere as an idea came to his mind. "But she'd probably be really good at trivia. You have to invite her. We need the win," he urged, thinking of the trio of old biddies who kept beating them.

'Still quicker than some.' "Oh shove off," Danny said shoving at his friend this time with his foot and rolling his eyes. Not that he wanted to venture down that particular line of conversation just now. Danny glanced at Freya and then shrugged. "She said yes. Just as 'friends' though. Gonna break his little heart all over again. Think he'll go into that tailspin like he did that one time? Only eating ice cream? Might have to say goodbye to those abs..." The thought made him smile a bit.

A healer? Freya raised her eyebrows. Did he mean a healer in training or a proper one? “What was her name again?” she asked. It hadn’t been anyone they’d known, so she had to be foreign, but Freya couldn’t remember where she was from. Freya was jostled a bit as Danny shoved Jeremy. “Mmmm!” She complained.

Jeremy’s comment and Danny’s reaction reminded her of something Danny had said earlier. She’d sort of forgotten about it one they’d gone inside, but even though her head still felt pretty foggy, both from sleep and other things, she did remember that part. She and Danny met eyes and Freya resisted the urge to glance away too quickly.

It was strange, because Freya knew that if he’d said something similar a few weeks ago, it wouldn’t have mattered very much at all. So what if he had a crush on her in fifth year? So what if he didn’t believe she would have said yes if he’d asked her out? That stuff had happened years ago. But since they’d been spending so much time together, falling asleep cuddling, not to mention the whole making out thing that had happened the other night, it felt… different. More weighty, somehow.

“I said, like, a low pressure thing,” Freya corrected, looking up at the boys from her resting place in Jeremy’s lap. “Not as friends, necessarily, just… Low pressure. A drink or something.” She turnde her gaze to Jeremy. “Anyway, I’m so excited to meet her, Jer.” She hoped his impression of the date was right, and that the girl had had just as much fun as he obviously had. It had only been one date, which Freya thought was a little early to be committing to meeting friends, but whatever. It felt like a win for them all.

"You know it," Jeremy replied to the nachos suggestion. The boys would eat nachos every day if they could, (actually they already sort of did...). One day it would catch up to them but today was certainly not that day. Jeremy followed his best friends lead and took a bite, careful, but maybe not careful enough, to drop any crumbs on Freya as he chewed. "Yeah she works with kids at St. Mungos," Jeremy told them, answering each of them in time, he turned his gaze down to Freya and spoke once more. "Montserrat Fábregas," While her first name rolled off his tongue Jeremy absolutely murdered the pronunciation of her last name. He'd only heard it once, and he was far from a linguist, but it wasn't like either of them would be fact checking. Jeremy loved the sound of her name though, it was so fancy, so foreign.

"I bet she would be, she's super smart." Jeremy told them and realized in that moment (and assumed it was entirely his own original idea) that Montse was just what their team needed to win against the crazy old ladies that always beat them. Sure if even one of the Dingles could stay sober long enough to actually answer the questions they would have had a better chance, but it wasn't their fault the pitchers of beer were so cheap. A little less cheap now, after Freya had broken what-his-name the waiter's heart, but still. "I will ask her!" He said excitedly, shaking them a little again, but they were probably used it by now. Jeremy never sat still, not even when there was an adorable half asleep Freya holding him down.

"Oooooh, a low-pressure thing, got it," Jeremy said as if he'd ever been in that sort of a thing. He couldn't get a zero pressure thing going most of the time, let alone low or high. "Poor Greg, he has no idea what's coming his way," Jeremy joked easily alongside Danny and gave Freya a little smirk. "Just don't have your date at trivia, I don't think Duncan could take it." The wizard said as he remembered Duncan's name with another laugh.

He smiled in apology at Freya as she complained when he jostled Jere. Maybe if he did that again she would change spots. He was more comfortable to lay on anyway in his opinion. Not that that thought had any basis of facts. But then her eyes were on his and he couldn't quite read the expression he saw there. It was almost a relief when she glanced away, but at the same time, it wasn't.

"What now?" Danny said immediately after Jere had said her name. He tried to make his lips form the sounds that he had just heard but even he knew he had completely butchered it. "Please tell me she has a nickname or something," he asked, knowing he would probably never remember how to say her full name correctly.

"Oh right, yeah, sure, low pressure, mhm," Danny agreed, his voice mingling with Jere's as he corrected himself, amusement coloring his tone. It was a guarantee Greg didn't see it the same way as Freya did and Danny wondered if he should warn his roommate. Dude would probably blow him off anyway but maybe he should at least try? Then again if he was in Greg's spot and someone tried to warn him off, he wouldn't listen either. "Yeah, poor Greg. Doesn't know what he's getting into with our little heart breaker," Danny said on a laugh as he glanced at Freya and threw a chip at her.

“What is that, Spanish?” Freya asked. So, a Beauxbatons girl then? Interesting. The blonde recalled a conversation she’d had with Ari about a hundred years ago now, about how it was better to date people who were either older or from other places because they hadn’t seen her in her weird preteen stage. She’d never say it out loud, but privately, Freya thought that the whole not-from-Hogwarts thing was probably working in Jeremy’s favour. She agreed with Danny about the name, though she wasn’t rude enough to point it out. She patted Jeremy’s arm when he got excited about asking his new girl to trivia.

“Noooo,” Freya whined, smacking away the chip that had been thrown at her face. It fell into the sheets somewhere, probably to be crushed into bits by the three people hanging out in the bed. The blonde patted the mattress until she found a pillow, and she brought it up dramatically to plop over her face. “Maybe it’ll be good,” she said, her voice muffled through the pillow. Most of the time she saw Greg it was with the other guys, and they were always giving him shit. He’d always been nice to her though, and hey, maybe if she ended up dating him then they could go to the gym together. To work out! Not just to look.

"What? I think it's pretty," It was obvious Jeremy was already smitten. There was a glow about him, his eyes had that sparkle and his words were all dreamy and excited when he had spoken her name aloud. It was also a point of pride, because everyone in the room knew exactly how long it had been since Jeremy had a real proper date. And they all knew who the last one was with and how it had turned out. "Mon-ser-at," He repeated but fumbled over the fanciness of it with another smile. "But with the rolling R's. I can't do them," And yet the red head tried again, saying her name once more and quite nearly getting it. "Yeah I think Spanish, she said she went to Beauxbatons." He answered Freya and grabbed another nacho chip. No nacho left behind.

"Well, just do us a favor Tricky," Jeremy started as his smile turned into the more classic Dingle smirk and he shot Danny another look. "Just let him down easy alright?" He looked awkwardly down toward where her head was still laying in his lap and gave himself a double chin doing so. "He pays like..." Jeremy did the math on his hands, but it was wrong. "One-third of our rent a month." It was more like half, at least, because Jeremy and Danny were prone to blowing most of their rent money on things like fake trophies and summer floaties in the middle of winter.

"Don't break his heart too much, it's probably the only muscle he doesn't work out." Smiling Jeremy knew Freya never really set out to break hearts, she was a good person, but he supposed that was just the curse of being so attractive.

His hazel eyes roamed over his best friend's face and he couldn't help but smile in return, his shoulders shaking silently. He wasn't sure quite how it had happened but dude was a goner. He saw that slightly dazed look that was usually reserved for nights with a joint, but Danny knew it was all about this girl who had his friend all spun around. He wondered if he should try to meet this girl sooner rather than later to make sure that this girl wasn't going to break Jere's heart. The thought gave him pause and while he was half sure that Jere was hopeless with girls, he was really hoping this would work out just to see his friend happy.

Danny glanced down at Freya as she covered her face with one of his pillows so he tried to pull it away from her for no reason at all. He missed Jere's look completely, but laughed at little at Jere's joke. It was easier to assume that the whole Freg thing wasn't going to work out. He wondered if he should be happy for Greg like he was happy for Jere, but because it was Freya... it just seemed different. "Yeah, you can do the whole 'it's me, not you' thing. I'm sure he'd understand," he volunteered, joking, his voice a little tighter than he thought it would be.

He reached over Freya to the crowded bedside table and found a glass that was half full with what he assumed was water and chugged it down, patting his chest after. Then dove back into the chips that Jere had brought home. Danny could never resist nachos.

“Beauxbatons,” Freya repeated, nodding slowly. So, Prosper’s school, then. After a beat, she sighed; as she’d suspected, dating people from other countries was clearly the answer here. Maybe she really just needed to up and move to America or something, like she'd imagined when she and Jeremy had been talking about something similar.

“Yeah, yeah,” Freya said, a bit done with the teasing. It was just casual drinks, after all. Not like, a wedding or something. Or even a candlelit dinner, for that matter. She pushed herself up to be sitting like the others. She wasn’t feeling so groggy now, but it occurred to her that she had no idea what the time was. Was she going to crash here? Go home? She felt sober enough to apparate. She didn’t want to leave, though, didn’t want to break the trio atmosphere that they’d naturally fallen back into. She’d missed it, those few days when things were awkward.

Freya shifted around so she could lean against the wall, and stretched her legs out, ending up touching them both. She pulled some blankets onto her lap even though it was already a little too warm. "Anyone know what time it is?" she asked, before yawning.

Jeremy still felt giddy from his date and he expected the floaty feeling wouldn't be going away anytime soon. It was better than being high, he thought, but he didn't mention it out loud. Watching when Freya sat up and pulled the sheets onto her lap Jeremy couldn't help but yawn. He held it back the best he could, her yawn bringing his own on, and his face pulled into a weird look as he tried to cover his mouth with the back of his hand. If he had a watch he'd tell her the time but he was never in charge of that. Even when they were at work it was Danny's Harry Potter alarm clock that told them what time it was and when it was time to do things. Not that they ever finished their daily tasks.

Instead he pulled back the sheet that acted as a curtain in the bedroom and peeked out into the cityscape. "No sun yet," he mentioned, which was apparently a precise measurement of time to the redheaded wizard. "Got somewhere to be?" He asked her with another playful smile. It occurred to hm that before tonight he'd had no where else to be than right here, with the Dingles. Now there were all sorts of new, couply things he could look forward to doing.

Jeremy had always been the type who dove straight in, full force, so even though he was basically allergic to planning ahead, he was already looking forward to more dates with Montserrats. And more nacho debriefs with his best friends afterward.

Danny shifted as Freya did, watching was she moved around, tucking his covers around her. He rather liked seeing her here and wondered if she'd still hang out with them like this if her and Greg really did become a thing. But that wouldn't happen right? He was all wrong for her somehow.. not that he could explain that little thought.

Her question about the time had him immediately looking toward his desk, asking "Where's Harry Potter when you need him" with a grin toward Jere. The two of them used their charmed Harry Potter bobble head who conveniently and rudely shouted the time at that more than they cared to admit while at work. It was a good thing Aurors didn't visit the mailroom much. The Boy Who Lived probably wouldn't take a fancy to his little desk decoration.

"I'm still hungry," he announced and shifted to get off the bed. "Can we get some more food?" he asked, eyeing up the nachos that they had decimated in just minutes.

/end

“Nah, just sleepy,” Freya replied, her words quickly followed by another yawn, this one more smiley than the last. “Should probably head home I guess,” she said, being as casual as possible about it. Usually in moments like this, she’d just stay over. But last time she’d stayed over… Well. She glanced at Danny as he spoke, trying not to be weird about it.

He said he was still hungry. “Oh, me too,” Freya replied, feeling a touch relieved. “Can we go make something maybe?” Poor Greg, she thought. Who knew what time it was, and she was suggesting they go make food in the kitchen. He must have been back from his gym session by now, surely. She smiled anyway, waiting for the boys to get out of bed before she followed them to her feet. She stretched her arms up over her head, her body appreciating the sensation.

She let the other two go out of the room first, and followed them out to the kitchen. Her honey-brown eyes lingered on the back of Danny's head for a moment, and she wondered what he was thinking, and if it was anything like what she'd been thinking. For now, though, she could replace all of those thoughts with thoughts about food. That would suffice.


/end

Jeremy pulled himself off of the bed (with some effort!) when it was decided they were kitchen-bound. As suddenly as it had been mentioned the high-on was hungry again. Sometimes it felt like he was endlessly hungry, one day it would catch up to him and his waistline, but that day was not today. "I could go for some cheesy pasta," He offered, partly because anything covered and smothered in cheese was always a good idea, but also because he wasn't sure what else they had in the kitchen. Milk, cheese, noodles, that as pretty easy to come by but anything complex (or vegetable related) and they would probably be out of luck,

The wizard followed them out of Danny's room and bounced down the hall way. It was the middle of the night but as always he felt energetic, hyper even, like the second wind that never stopped. He had meant to grab the empty and messy container off of Danny's bed before they left but naturally he'd forgotten.

Turning into the kitchen he started opening and closing the cabinets louder than was considerate at this hour. He searched for crisps, something salty, or sweet, honestly, just something he could snack on. Who needed proper meals when there was highly processed, prepackaged food at the ready?

/end