[mp] one that suits [will]

"Something like that," Will replied with a smile that made his eyes crinkle, avoiding Honey's gaze in the pretence of using a chip as a makeshift spoon to scoop up some ketchup. Which he almost dropped at her next comment.

His dark eyes widened momentarily as he choked on a mouthful of his pint before managing to swallow. At the redhead's direction, Will looked over his shoulder to see a pretty brunette sitting by herself. With a shake of his head, he turned back to Honey. "Probably distracted by your jumper," he mumbled as he drank, though not unkindly. He didn't think anybody had checked him out before but he turned his head to peer over his shoulder before snapping it back to Honey abruptly.

"What?" He asked stupidly, surprised by her tone but standing up to swap their seats as instructed, unsure as to why he'd agreed. He cleared his throat, sliding his glasses up the bridge of his nose to sit more comfortably on his face. "Why do I feel like a prize cow at a country fair?" He grumbled, suddenly losing his appetite as he distractedly wiped his fingers on a paper napkin.

He appreciated Honey's efforts but he'd tried the "casual" thing before and it had blown up spectacularly, in both of their faces. He also didn't want to come across as a creep but he also needed to stop being stick in the mud. Wasn't this what normal people did? Meet one another in a pub? Accidentally staring at the poor woman, she looked over and caught his gaze. Quickly, Will smiled and waved instinctively before he gave a groan and winced. "If I hadn't scared her off then, I have now."

Will turned to look behind him and Honey rolled her eyes; she didn’t think she had needed to tell him to not be obvious but clearly she should have. He looked at her again and she shrugged before she looked down at herself, at the jumper Will had gifted her. “This isn’t even close to my most distracting jumper.” She looked back up with a grin, just in time for Will to look over his shoulder again; if that hen hadn’t been looking over here before, she definitely would be now.

They switched seats and Honey switched which hand was holding onto her pint, resting her forearm on the bar. “Oh, but you’re the prettiest cow at the fair,” she said sweetly, hoping he would lighten up a bit. She didn’t want to talk about them; that had been where he was heading, talking about how they had gotten to ‘this point’. She thought they could be friends, but the last time they had reminisced about their relationship-- it was better that she send him home with someone else.

Honey had another few chips, taking advantage of Will taking a break from them. Her mouth was still full as she watched him lift his hand in a wave and she didn’t stop to consider if she shouldn’t turn to look behind her before she already had. She turned back to Will quickly with a wide smirk, though her expression fell as soon as he opened his mouth.

“Why are you being so hard on yourself?” Honey wiped her hands on her napkin and titled her legs a little farther away from him, hoping it was clear to whoever--and that one woman in particular--that they weren’t together together. “You’re not completely hopeless, you know.” Obviously-- he and Honey had hooked up after half a drink together and she wanted to believe her standards weren’t that low.

Honey glanced over her shoulder again, trying to be as sneaky as ever. “I don’t recognize her,” she said as she looked at Will again. That was significant because they were in the Leaky Cauldron and even if she didn’t know someone, she could at least recognize them; she was much better with faces than names, and that face had never been in Honeydukes. “Maybe she’s new in town,” she continued, eyebrows raised. “Needs someone to show her around.”

"I don't doubt it," he commented lightly with a smile that soon turned into playful grimace. "I better go and win that rosette, then," Will stated with a weak joke, appreciating Honey's willingness for him to couple up but she was overestimating his ability. The woman was very pretty, though. She was his type, petite and brunette and he dated those sorts of women almost exclusively.

At Honey's question, Will gave a short sigh. "It makes me uncomfortable," he told her plainly. She and him were not alike. While Honey was effervescent, charming and confident, Will was decidedly more...well, not. It was a case of "wouldn't" rather than "couldn't" but he could tell that Honey was growing frustrated. "I don't do this kind of thing," he said as he flicked his eyes over to her and frowned. In reality, he didn't do anything.

Will couldn't help but feel like he'd been put on the spot. He was boring her. He wasn't taking initiative, he wasn't charming in the conventional sense, he wasn't funny or witty or dapper or --

"You don't?" He asked Honey, his eyes resolutely on the bar, lest he look at the poor woman again. He shrugged. "Or maybe she's just trying to have a quiet drink," he reasoned. He didn't know why Honey was pushing it. Maybe he'd made her uncomfortable. He sometimes forgot not to slip back into the past because Honey made him feel comfortable. Being with her was easy, so much so that he let his guard down too far. But he also didn't have a date for New Year.

"I'm going away in a couple of days," he sighed, taking off his glasses to rub his left eye. "I can't imagine she'd be keen if I trot on over and then ghost her for two weeks." As soon as he said it, he pulled a face. "I'm making excuses, I'm sorry," he lamented. He did need to meet new people. As of late, his only friends were his dog and Write Hand's cleaning lady, Pam.

"I'm gonna do it," he announced, holding a hand up to the bartender to politely signal his intention. "Once I've downed this," he assured Honey, swiftly ordering a double measure of whiskey. He turned to face the redhead. "How do you do it?" He asked her, his dark eyes wide in curiosity. "Just walk up to someone and ask them out? Do you not feel like your legs have turned to jelly?" Will pressed her, like Honey was some sort of sports coach. All she needed to do was smack his arse and send him onto the field.

It made him uncomfortable, but it wasn’t crystal clear what he was talking about: Honey being the one pushing him to do it, or just the whole concept in general. He didn’t do this kind of thing, he clarified, and Honey frowned. He did do this kind of thing, with her. They had known each other for maybe an hour before they were snogging in a pub and half an hour after that, they were back at his place. She didn’t want to bring it up or point it out, that that was the sort of Will she had been attracted to-- it wouldn’t do to mention it now. She swallowed and peeked over her shoulder again.

“I don’t,” she confirmed with a small shrug, taking another drink. “Maybe she is.” She rolled her eyes. “Or maybe she isn’t.” If it were Honey and she didn’t want any attention--it happened sometimes--she would have brought something with her to work on rather than sit and stare into space while nursing a drink.

Will made another excuse, saying he was going away in a couple days. Honey shrugged again, thinking better of suggesting that the woman might like spontaneous holidays with men she hardly knew-- that hit a little too close to home for them, Will surprising her with a trip to Florence by literally just taking her there without telling her. She opened her mouth to say something about that, however, that maybe the woman didn’t want Will to leave for two weeks after-- but he realized how stupid that was and apologized. Honey didn’t think he had the same line of thought as she did--that not every woman was looking for that sort of commitment right off the bat--because wasn’t that the opinion he had formed about her from the start? And look how that had turned out.

But Will was going to do it. Honey raised her eyebrows before she grinned, watching him order a harder drink. “What?” Was he really asking her how to talk to a woman? Merlin. She ignored the jelly-legs question and smirked as she offered, “Just ask if she likes dogs.” That’d been the line with them. She shook her head after another second, however. “Just ask if you can buy her a drink. She’s nearly due for another, anyway.”

He didn’t look nearly confident enough. “Look, I can talk to her for you but I don’t want her to get the wrong idea and want to go home with me because I need to work tonight.” She smirked again and nudged him with her knee. “If she says ‘no’, I’ll buy you another pint. Or an ice cream cone.” Mid-December, but whatever would cheer him up.

He was a thirty year old man. He could talk to a woman without wanting to throw up. It was easy. People met in pubs all the time. Will couldn't even blame it on being upset over Nice any more. Was he ever really even upset? Or was his pride just bruised? It had been so long ago now, it seemed immature and besides, he was more upset than it involved Harlan than his ex's actual infidelity. That was weird.

He found himself not-so-surreptitiously peeking over at the brunette woman again, wondering what her name might be. She looked like a Lucy. Then he realised he could literally go over there and ask her himself. "Probably a bit overwhelmed with Christmas shopping," Will sympathized with the stranger.

His whiskey was placed on the bar and his fingers closed around it before he paused. "Dogs," he echoed Honey. It seemed a pretty safe bet. If she didn't like dogs, then he was wasting his time. Will being so awkward wasn't cute. Didn't women like strong, decisive men? There was a fine line between confidence and arrogance or in his case, uncomfortable awkwardness. "Genius," he announced to Honey's simple plan of buying her a drink. Why hadn't he thought of that? Oh yeah, because he was a tit.

In spite of himself, he laughed as he sipped his whiskey and then decided he didn't feel like it. He toyed with one of the beer mats under his tumbler, under no illusion that Honey could steal whomever she wanted from anyone she wanted. "No thanks," he said politely as the tips of his ears turned pink. He appreciated Honey's offer but he also couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than have someone put in a good word for him.

Will wanted both options when he inevitably crashed and burned. "Another pint of Welsh Green," he instructed Honey as he got to his feet and hesitated over his glasses before he decided to leave them on his face. His long legs squeezed through the crowd as he approached the woman, taking a second as he rolled his shoulders back and stood tall.

"Hi," he said with a smile as the woman turned around to face him, uncertainty and mild confusion on her face. Ask her if she likes basset hounds the voice in the back of his head piped up and he bit the insides of his cheeks in an effort to get it to cease. As carefully as he could, he turned his head to glance at Honey for approval before turning towards the brunette.  "I'm Will," he said as he extended his hand out. "And you look thirsty. Can I buy you a drink?"

Genius, he said, and Honey nodded as she agreed. It was a rather basic idea but she could let him have that one, as long as he kept calling her a genius.

But he didn’t laugh at her joke--about the woman going home with her instead of him--and Honey shrugged it off. He could go for another pint, at least; she could manage that, she supposed. “Aye, another pint.” But then he was standing, and that was good. Progress. She raised her eyebrows expectantly at him--it seemed better than a thumbs up, anyway--before he stepped through the crowd.

Honey watched him as he made his way over, anxious that it went well because she hadn’t thought it through-- if he wasn’t successful would she have to hear about it for the rest of the evening? Merlin help her. He looked back at her and her eyes went wide; she pointed her finger in the direction he ought to be looking, rolled her eyes with a sigh as he turned back.

But it seemed to be going well; the body language was good and she hadn’t obviously told Will to go away, which was a good enough sign for Honey. She swiveled back to the bar, sliding a galleon to the bartender to cover Will’s next pint (or two) and whatever that woman was drinking. She finished what was left of her own pint and stole another chip before she got off her stool and slipped her coat back on. She needed to collect her ornament and Will’s wreath and get home at a reasonable hour. Will could manage.

[[ out ]]

At least the woman hadn't recoiled in horror at his extended hand. In fact, she'd offered her own in greeting and Will shook it. A short sigh of relief was exhaled through his nose and he smiled again. He tended to hold most of his tension in his shoulders and he visibly relaxed. "Lydia?" He repeated her name, just to make sure he'd heard it correctly. And she wanted red wine.

It wasn't a big deal. Lydia didn't seem particularly threatening. In fact, she seemed rather cute with her bright eyes and the freckles on her nose. "Are you waiting for someone?" Will asked as he turned to order their drinks. I was but I've just reconsidered. Oh. She was flirting with him and he grinned, his dimples showing as he forced the blush back down. "I'm a lucky man," he responded and he earned a smile back in response.

With his hand in his back pocket, he was about to pay for the drinks before the barman nodded his head towards the door. Confused, Will followed the line of his finger, just in time to see Honey don her coat and slip out of the pub's door; she must have already paid. That was a nice gesture and he appreciated the fact that Honey had ducked out and had given him some space. Without prying eyes, a weight was lifted off his shoulders but he hadn't managed to wish her a Merry Christmas before she disappeared into the afternoon, like a ginger Cupid.

His gaze lingered for a second on the back of her head with a faint frown before turning back to Lydia with an easy smile. "Do you want to be my pool partner?" Will asked her as he nodded at the vacant pool table. Half expecting her to refuse, he was mildly surprised as the woman stood up and he was quick to follow, the hand on the small of her back as they walked.

Can I be reds? Lydia asked with a grin over her shoulder as she placed her glass down on the edge of the table, a cue in her hands as she chalked up the tip like an expert. Will was momentarily dumbfounded. "You can be whatever you like," he found himself saying as he laughed and picked up his own cue.

[done!]