[Ministère] Sous le ciel de Paris (Fabien)

Vivianne had always loved Paris. There were some great memories connected to the city. However, her life had changed since she had lived here. Her expectations of life had changed, too. When she had lived in Paris, Vivianne had still had dreams, had believed that she was free and could become an artist, live with the man she loved and still profit from her family’s fortune. Things had turned out differently, though. She had had to make a choice.

Her parents claimed that she had finally grown up and was behaving like a proper adult because she was willing to go for a compromise. To Vivianne it felt like a part of had actually died. Sacrificing dreams to make sensible decisions felt grown up, yes, but it was also discouraging.

Now she was back in Paris to seal a deal with the Ministry. Her father had suggested that she should go through some of the paperwork for the cooperation between Courtois Cruises and the French Ministry. It wasn’t exactly an interesting endeavour but since Vivianne had applied to become a professor it seemed to be a good idea to make an appearance at the ministry and take the opportunity to underline her ambitions. However, telling people that she wanted to teach was not exactly an easy thing as Vivianne was not exactly dedicated to the idea.

The meeting had been alright but Vivianne was actually relieved when she left the ministry official’s office. On her way out, she stopped by the caféteria to get a cup of coffee - someone had once told her that it was good. It felt strange to balance a cup on a tray when, usually, she would just call her elf and get it served properly with a fresh cookie on the saucer. Now there was just a puddle of spilled coffee on the saucer and no biscuit at all.

She took a seat at one of the tables close to the counter because she just didn’t want to manoeuvre further through the room in her high heels and olive green tight fitting designer robes and because, apparently, it was lunchtime and most tables were already occupied anyway. On this table there were still some leftovers from the previous guests but at least none of the four chairs were occupied yet. Before Vivianne sat down, the French witch pulled out her wand to clean the chair she chose for herself and then vanished everything from the table.

@Fabien Sanxay

It was a lovely day in late Spring and Fabien would have preferred to be anywhere than work. Ideally, sitting in a park somewhere with a bit of wood and a whittling knife, under a tree where he could relax and not have to think about anything more taxing than where he planned to spend his holidays that year. But no, here he was, only halfway though a particularly busy day during which he had so far rejected no less than five ridiculous patents, three of which were so potentially dangerous he actually wanted to send someone round the the witch and wizards who had invented them to check they were actually capable of taking care of themselves.

He'd already eaten soup and half a fresh baguette and drunk two cups of coffee, but unusually for Fabien he was now craving something sweet. He glanced over to the counter where there was barely a queue at all now and made the decision. Leaving his third coffee half-drunk and rapidly going cold he levered himself to his feet at the same moment the trio from the Games and Sports department also got up to leave, thinking nothing more of leaving an empty table as he approached the desserts. Fresh cream-topped fruit pastries, chocolate cake...his eyes landed on a lemon meringue pie and the decision was made. A moment later he was carrying a large slice back to his seat; fork and spoon balanced on the edge of the plate and held there by means of a simple spell.

Except...was he at the wrong table? Fabien looked around briefly in confusion and then back. His coffee was gone, together with everything else on the table. His colleagues wouldn't have vanished it, not after they'd heard him say he was going for dessert... And there was a strange woman sitting in his seat. Strange, because he hadn't seen her before and also because she wasn't dressed like someone who worked here. Not that the Ministry had a uniform, but nobody wore robes that tight when they intended to do a day's work.

Irritatingly, the only other free table was right at the other side of the cafeteria and anyway, Fabien had been here first. He glared at the woman as he sat down across from his previous seat, putting his pie down on the table. He ignored her as he took a bite and almost smiled, the taste was that good. But she was sitting in his chair (never mind that he didn't sit here every day and certainly hadn't left a coat or sweater over the back of the seat to show it was still occupied) and he couldn't just let that slide. After a moment he glanced across once more. "Excuse me. Did you see what happened to my coffee?"

Vivianne took a first sip of her coffee and wondered why anyone would actually recommend it. It wasn’t disgusting but it wasn’t really good enough to deserve a recommendation. If anything it could be described as acceptable. While she was thinking about that, a young man approached her table and glared at her. That was hardly the usual reaction she got from men but, for some reason, she felt intrigued and offered a placid little smile in return.

He took a seat but didn’t even say anything which Vivianne considered quite rude. Usually when someone took a seat at a table where someone was already seated it was only polite to ask if the seat was empty or not.

With unconcealed interest Vivianne watched the young man, he was well built, tall, brunette hair, piercing blue eyes framed by long lashes. If his aura hadn’t been so negative, Vivianne would have called him handsome. As it was, however, his whole attitude ruined his rather good looks.

He took a bite of a lemon meringue pie and then, quite to Vivianne’s surprise, addressed her after all. She raised her eyebrows a little as she took her time to give him a response. He was polite enough now, but she felt that there was some annoyance in his voice. He was clearly suspecting her and, admittedly, he wasn’t wrong there.

“When I arrived there were a few things on the table,” Vivianne admitted calmly, “none of them gave me the impression that anyone was returning here so I cleaned up. I apologise if I removed your almost empty cup of coffee. I’ll get you a new one, of course.”

Although the witch had not intended to queue up again, especially not for more of the mediocre coffee, she didn’t hesitate and gracefully got to her feet and walked back to the counter, returning with a cup of coffee as well as plenty of cream and sugar and put the tray on the table between them. Unfortunately, again, she had spilled some of the brown liquid on the saucer. It was not as much as it had been with her own cup but still there was a little puddle.

“I brought you extra cream and sugar in case you like it sweet,” she said as she sat back down again and picked up her own cup.