[mousehole] tiresome paper dreams. [tag; theoren]

It was so good to be home!

There was just something about Cornwall. Everyone was close knit. People still got their milk delivered in bottles in the morning. Everything was blue and white. Gorgeous. Despite it being November, it wasn't cold. The south coat was never really cold. It was like something out of a story book. The houses were small but bright. The roofs were painted dark navy, white, yellow, duck egg blue and pastel, all piled up on the surroundings cliffs of the harbour front. The sea air was rolling in, bringing salt with it. Erika was spending the week back at her family's home in the small village. It was her first night home.

The arrival of Erika might as well have come with trumpets. Everyone knew everyone in this quaint little place. She'd already been invited over for tea at Mrs. McAllister's house tomorrow. Meredith, as she insisted on being called, made the best scones with nothing other than jam and locally made clotted cream. She was with her friends and they'd been in the pub for a few hours now. The sun was just starting to set, the previously blue sky now looking like a watercolour of orange and pink, the clouds tinged with deep purple. It was permanently summer here. As a custom, every year, the harbour master wound lights around everywhere he possibly could. There were fairy lights wrapped around the wrought iron railings that kept people away from the harbour edges. Lights around the lamp posts, shop fronts, everywhere. Once they were on, they cast everything in a pretty warm little glow.

The harbour was lovely. The crystal clear greeny-blue water beneath wasn't filled with little boats tonight. The tourist season was over and the only people left now were just the people who lived here all year round. Erika wasn't drunk. She was…merry. Yeah, merry was a nice way to put it.  She'd had a nice tea of fish and chips with mushy peas and a good pint of local ale that made her feel comfortable and warm as she came tumbling out of the pub, arm in arm with her best friends Annabelle and David. They were childhood friends of hers but they still lived locally but with Erika now living in London, the times they met were just few and far between.

"You should really do it," David said, giving her a nudge in the ribs. David was tall and handsome but a little bit dim. His girlfriend was an overbearing weirdo who liked to have her spices aligned "just so" and would freak if anyone moved the little jars. "It's gonna be freezing," Erika said as they walked along the harbour front, the breeze kicking up the ends of her long blonde hair. "Oh don't be such a chicken!" Annabelle, a pretty petite brunette chided her with a laugh, their voices soft as they wandered slowly around the parameter of the place. Annabelle and David lived further away than Erika's family, perhaps another ten minute walk or so from the gorgeous sea.

"Shut up," Erika grunted, wrinkling her nose at her friends as they proceeded to cluck like chickens and poke her repeatedly, their voices loud as they jeered and laughed.  "I haven't done that since I was a kid," she mumbled, chewing her lower lip as they reached the very edge of the harbour wall. The drop of the edge was sheer and long, right into the cold waters below. It wasn't that dangerous. It was sheltered because it was in the harbour but no less appealing. "Oh shut up, you bunch of losers," she grunted. "Fine. I'll do it. I don't like being dared and especially not by you." Heaving a sigh, she slipped off her shoes and hastily unbuttoned her jeans and wiggled out of them, yanking her sweater over her head to leave her just in a pair of matching navy blue underwear.

Erika backed up, the damp, worn stone slabs were rough and uncomfortable beneath the soles of her feet. "Gimme your bra," David insisted, holding out a hand and he rolled his big dark eyes as she frowned. "A dare's a dare," he reminded her as she grunted and removed it, throwing it hard at him and grumbling under her breath. Taking a deep breath, she backed up a little more and took a running jump off the end of the harbour wall. "Geronimooooo!" Erika yelled, her friends cheering as she leapt off the edge, pulling her knees to her chest as she canon balled into the crystal clear sea beneath her with a loud and echoing sploosh!

Skinny-dipping?  He’d come all the way out to Mousehole because someone was swimming with their clothes off?  Harmless fun, in Theoren’s opinion, but work was work.  The Squad was a bit short-staffed today, and he and Astley had elected to split up in order to be more efficient.  Astley was off handling a noise complaint in Diagon Alley, which wasn’t anything to envy, though between the two, Theoren might have chosen that one.  Every job came with its downsides, but scolding someone for having a good time always felt like the worst part of his.

Theoren’s ideas on right and wrong didn’t always align with those of the Ministry, but he wasn’t at liberty to pick and choose which laws he would enforce.  It was all or nothing, and while he would have rather let this one be, it wasn’t an option.  True, it was easier to be more forgiving where his friends were concerned and while he wasn’t on duty.  As long as nobody was getting hurt, what did it matter?

He managed to find the harbour easily enough, which was a bit unlucky as he was eager to give the delinquent enough time to escape, and lucky considering he’d never visited Mousehole before.  Charming place.  Warm for the time of year, smelling strongly of the sea, and with the same sort of atmosphere that all such small communities seemed to possess; one that reminded him of Godric’s Hollow, though the two were different in almost every other way.  He’d have to come back sometime to visit when he wasn’t on duty.

Sliding his hands into his pockets, Theoren approached the edge of the harbour.  The sky overhead glowed in soft shades of orange and pink as the sun approached the horizon.  The deep blue of his robes would surely give him away as he peered over the edge, searching half-heartedly for a naked culprit.
 
 

The instant Erika's smooth, pale skin hit the water, she regretted it. The calm, clear turquoise coloured water was freezing and she meant freezing. Painfully cold. Baltic, really. It could freeze the balls off a brass monkey. She was struggling to breathe. Her alabaster skin had turned a rather shocking shade of livid pink as the blood vessels pushed to the surface of her skin. After a few seconds, her head broke the surface of the water with an almighty gasp for air.

It hurt to breathe. The air came in thin, ragged pants as her chest rose and fell quickly, eyes unfocused. Her friends ran to the edge of the harbour wall, Annabelle looking concerned as she leant right over the chain railing but Erika trusted a fist in the air triumphantly.

"I'm p-p-pretty certain I've got hypothermi-a-a-a," she gasped, teeth chattering together as she treaded water for a little bit before deciding enough was enough. This wasn't Morocco. This was Cornwall in the middle of winter as she was a damned idiot for agreeing to this. Her body was screaming in protest but her best friend, David, was dying with laughter. From the water, Erika could see him, doubled over, hands on his hips as he fought for his breath. "You are such a colossal ninny!" his loud, deep voice echoed off the stone walls and it made Erika grunt.

The treasure hunter wasn't adverse to nudity. In fact, strip poker nights were her favourite thing. She was pretty sure that most of Mousehole had seen her lady parts, accidentally or not.

Erika swam swiftly to the iron holdings that had been fixed to the harbour walls, her grip slipping a little due to her wet hands as she climbed upwards towards her friends, awarding the sleepy costal village with a view of her backside in all its wet, shiny glory. "If I could feel my fingers," the tall blonde said through violently chattering teeth, "They'd be wrapped around both of your necks and I'd just keep on squeezing." David and Annabelle's laughter soon stopped at the sight of a stranger dressed in blue.

Her friends stared at the man and then back to her and Annabelle was the first react. "Bye, E! Have fun!" With that, the petite blonde yanked her bra out of David's hand before throwing that and her clothes at her, grabbing David's hand and turning, pulling him as they broke into a jog and she could hear their giggles. Erika's mouth dropped open as she saw her best friends laughing and hurtling away from her, throwing rude remarks over their shoulders as they disappeared. Oh shi--take mushrooms.

Her bright blonde hair was plastered wetly to her forehead, ice cold drops dripping from the ends of her hair and snaking slowly down the centre of her spine, causing her to heave an almighty shudder. She wasted no time in wrapping her arms across her chest to try and preserve some of her modesty before she managed to take a good look at the man. Tall. Broad. Blonde? Odd. He looked like a Norse god.

He was cute, too. Regardless, Erika was still shivering, a lock of hair covering her left eye as droplets of water snaked lower and lower and pooled at her bare feet. "Well," she said briskly, offering the taller man a swift smile. "I usually insist a man buy me a drink before I let them see me in such a state of undress," Erika said with a slow, sly grin, eyes twinkling before she offered him a cheeky wink.

"I'm freezing and I think my foot's fallen asleep," she said as she looked down to where her clothes had been chucked, a big fat water droplet sliding off the edge of her nose as she did so. "Be a love and turn around while I get dressed?"