this world at times will blind you [#gianna]

Gianna wanted a lunch date. Carrick could manage that. He had enough pull, and to be quite honest enough down time with the wizarding world's current fiasco status of zero super pressing evils, to sneak out for an hour or two lunch. And by sneak out, Carrick waved goodbye to all he recognized as he left the Ministry of Magic.

It wasn't far, but it was lengthy enough for a pleasant walk to the café. Where he requested a window seat, two waters, and a cup of coffee. He stirred in some milk and tapped his small spoon against the edge of the cup. As if on cue he spotted Gianna, smiled and flagged her down. Carrick, ever the gentleman, stood and embraced his little sister. Pulled her seat out just a bit and went back to his own.

"Did you work today? I wasn't sure if coffee would be beneficial or if you preferred something else, but I got you a water." He smiled a toothy, genuine smile.  Relaxing back into his chair, he raised his brows. "So, how are things with you?" Carrick asked out of honest curiosity. Growing up meant everyone seemed to be on their own, doing their own thing.

But the question was so ordinary that it triggered him to talk about something a little less so. "You know, someone tried to get me to adopt a puppy on my way here." Carrick arched a brow and then gave a small shrug before refocusing back on Gianna. "I'm about one hundred percent sure he was homeless… and that the 'dog' was a stuffed animal."

Merlin Gianna wanted to stab some of the customers in the eye. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at her own thought, but that didn’t make it any less true. If another brainless chav came up to her just to insult her hair or whatever it was she was going to throw a chair at somebody. Thank goodness she was leaving early today. She sighed and passed the apron over at the other waitress who finally arrived to relieve her, a sympathetic smile on her face. “Good luck Tammy, tough crowd today.” If she hurried she’d have just about enough time to make it back to her apartment and tidy up before she met Carrick for lunch, so hurry she did, and apparated to the little café she said she’d be meeting him at.

It was always nice to see her siblings. Now that they were all doing their own thing and being busy with their lives it was getting harder and harder to track them all down, none of them particularly inclined to go back home to their parents. Which was why when Carrick hugged her she made sure to hold on for just a little longer, and squeezed back just a little harder. He still looked and smelled like Carrick, and she beamed up at him when he pulled out a chair for her. “Water’s good, thanks.” She nodded at him as she sat down, “And seeing how I just came from work, let’s go with how that was absolutely horrifying.”

Gianna’s eyes widened at the mention of puppies. “You should’ve just gone with it,” She nodded wisely, “it’s very good for their self esteem when someone buys their crazy stories. And you could’ve just given it to me.” She never understood why no one thinks she’d be a good pet owner. She’d be a great pet owner, and the five plants she killed in a row totally wasn’t a fair judgement on how responsible of a person she was. “How are things on your end? Been getting promotions, shutting down departments and the like?” There, work talk was very adult like wasn’t it? Now she only hoped Carr picked out the exciting bits to share. Paperwork 101? No thank you.

Hearing Gianna's take made Carrick give a small shrug. Her mind was so open to oddities, and honestly intuitive. Thoughts wandered towards the what-if of him having taken the 'dog' before his focus brought him back to the reality of the moment. He arched his brow, "I could have." But what would a witch her age do with a stuffed dog? Carrick sipped from his coffee paying no verbal mind to that dilemma.

Instead she brought up work. She entitled to know something about what was happening, Carrick thought everyone did. After all, it concerned the wizarding world's well-being when his department was involved. He couldn't help but chuckle lightly though, giving a small smirk and meeting Gianna's gaze. "No promotions, sadly. Still helping with training and some other larger scale cases." Which he would elaborate on in a moment. Right then, his eyebrows lifted and he let out a steady, light sigh. "As far as departmental investigations go, ours no longer gets involved unless more in depth workups are needed. For now, issues go to the Wizengamot."

The thought of Kerr's attack strummed a few small strings inside of Carrick and it shook him back to his initial thoughts on the aforementioned large scale cases. "But right now we are looking into some illegal organization." He couldn't prevent it, his brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of the appeal. "Some fighting league." Carrick stated with a pep to his tone. A bit of confusion mixed with intrigue. "Not much else on that though, other things are just… who needs to be trained next, what's their next level, who is in orientation. Much like everywhere else, so really nothing special." Carrick gave a reassuring nod and thanked the waitress when she came by with fresh breads and dipping oils with herbs. He pressed a piece into the closest mixture and took a bite.

Gulping it down, the food seemed to hit the bottom of his hollow stomach and whirl around the drain until it entered the bowels of his being. "Have you had any luck of having much time away from working? It's hard to remember to make sure you have time for you and your hobbies." Ding, ding, ding! Carrick's protective, genuine, and kind brotherhood-ness turned to suffocation mode momentarily with his words of loving sappiness. But, truth be told, there is a lot of realness to the point he was making.

“It’s ok, next time you’ll know better.” Gianna shrugged a slim shoulder and smiled beatifically at Carr. Why not stuffed dogs? They were all she could get her hands on, since she was no closer to the real thing than she was ten years ago. A girl who knew to take what she could get and not put blind hope into what she couldn’t was a smart girl. She nodded satisfactorily at the little moment of epiphany she just had and made a mental note to write that down later. Moments like this were too far and few between for her to just let slip!

She hemmed and hawed politely as Carr went on about something to do with the Wizengamot that she didn’t totally follow, fidgety hands looking for something to toy with as she tried to pay attention. Aha! She grabbed a couple of sugar packets from the woven bowl on the table and began emptying them into her water, watching as the little crystals fell prettily on the surface before disappearing into nothing. She was well into her fourth packet before she spilled the remaining half on the table. “Fighting league?” Her eyes widened in excitement; finally something interesting! “Will you be going undercover?” She wanted to laugh at the thought of the normally dignified Carr in a fighting ring, but she managed to hold it back, save for the little smirk that was only for her to know.

Gianna was about to reach for a piece of bread but dropped it back into the basket with a sigh. “What hobbies?” She asked gloomily, propping her chin on one hand and slumped over the table, the ends of her hair dangerously close to the dipping oils. “Between working and getting drunk to forget about working I don’t really have time for anything but sleep.” It was sad how true that statement was, she didn’t even have to embellish anything to make herself sound more pathetic. She also wanted to launch into a tirade about even her “dating” life was suffering, but the more sensible side told her that her (lack of) sexual exploits probably wasn’t what her older brother wanted to hear over lunch. “Please tell me you have a steady girlfriend you’ve neglected to introduce to us and that you’re giving me nieces and nephews soon so I can live vicariously through you.”

Undercover? Carrick tried to control the immediate brow raising his body wanted to make happen. Instead he couldn't help but actually smile and let out a single, breathy laugh. "No, I won't be going undercover. At least, not as of yet." There, let that dance around in her head for a bit that his job was actually exciting, which it was! Just not every waking moment.

As he soon found out, that particular issue seemed to be the same for his younger sister. He leaned forward off of the back of his chair as he listened to Gianna chatter away about how uneventful her life was. Keeping in mind not to dive right into lecture mode of how she could change it if she wanted to, all she had to do was put her mind to something a little more confidently and completely. Oh, and accept that in order to do something exciting it might mean more schooling. But, Carr had learned that some things were best left for later or even unsaid all together.

"That does sound rather tasking on the body." There, that was a light enough answer. A moment of pause in which Carrick seized and grabbed another slice of bread and oil, but what came out of Gianna's mouth had Carrick immediately succumb to coughing. And mild choking. And reaching for his water once more. And struggling to get everything down without toppling to the floor and listening to Gia screaming like a banshee for help. Yes, thankfully the water worked. Slowly but efficiently.

Still. "Me?" Now his brows were raised, his hand pathetically pointing to himself and he could feel a blushing happening on his cheeks that wasn't because of his recent lack of air. "I -" His hand lowered and grabbed hold of the armrest on his chair as he leaned back, a small attempt to distance himself from this conversation. Nieces and nephews? The Regans were already a family of rabbits. Carrick didn't need to add more to their numbers. Right? He didn't realize it until just this second that his gaze had fallen and was looking anywhere but at Gianna. "Unfortunately, that answer is a no." He was looking at Gia now, the reality of what he was saying was a known weight to him. He missed the companionship he once had. He missed having a person at his side he could trust wholly and completely. Someone he could love and who loved him back. But with his life the way that it was, it was hard. Or, that's what he told himself. "I'm busy a lot, women don't like that." Justification of some sort. "Granted, I haven't really been giving the whole dating thing a solid effort. I'm not so sure you want to pursue the vicarious living through myself."

Time to get the focus off of him. "But certainly you've been able to meet someone? People? People drink… together…" His hands were palm up as if he were offering up Gianna's turn to speak. His head  gave a few small nods as he sorted through his verbiage. People drank. All the time! This made sense. And they weren't talking about him.