[mini plot] syncopate my skin to your heart beating [levi]

Gianna Regan was drunk. Again. After she promised Ruari she wasn’t going to be. Oooooops! Obviously she wasn’t that drunk, because she knew she was drunk, kind of, and the problem here was why wasn’t she drunk enough to not know she was drunk?! Sitting up in the stool where she previously had been resting her chin on, she cast a pleading look in the bartender’s direction. “Just one more drink Ernie, and I’ll prove to you I can put that ice cube down my bra and last for five minutes.” It was a weak attempt at continuing their previous round of dares, and Gianna pouted when Ernie resolutely shook his head no. Party pooper.

Deciding that staying here for the rest of the night was a lost cause, she announced her shaky departure and disappeared from the establishment with a loud crack before anyone could grab her. Bad idea. Gia had always hated apparating lessons while she was still in Hogwarts, and her skills didn’t get any better over the years. She really wanted to throw up, but at least she didn’t splinch herself. This dumb luck better stick with her for a couple more years, because Merlin knew she needed it. Crap, where were her shoes?! The bar had been warm and muggy, so she never took notice of her bare feet, but out here in the still nippy outdoors she felt the cold on her feet very distinctly. 

In another stroke of dumb luck (thank you world), she had managed to apparate herself to an area that she was actually familiar with. Wasn’t The Royal Crown somewhere along these streets? Gia frequented the bar enough recently that she was sure she’d be able to find it even with her eyes closed. But she didn’t. In fact, she’d walked past it twice before she noticed that it was closed for the night, and the venue was totally dark. Her previous annoyance turned into dismay because her dress was useless in the cold, she kind of didn’t remember where she lived, and she wanted another drink, dammit! Well, this left her with no choice. She was breaking in.

Technically, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Technically. Probably? There was an eighty percent chance that she would end up passing out there, and she wasn’t going to do anything bad. Getting in wasn’t hard. She just had to jiggle the knob of the door to the employer’s entrance a little and she was in. Levi really needed better security, although Gia supposed that if he had been here he was security enough. Fumbling in the darkness, she waited impatiently for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting that filtered in from the other brightly lit shops nearby. Everything was spotlessly clean, and chairs that she totally didn’t mean to knock into were stacked on top of each other around the circular tables.

The clear sound of a few bottles hitting the ground as she groped around clumsily behind the bar stopped her in her tracks, but only for a moment. Did she have her wand with her? Most likely not. She’d just wait for Levi to clean up the mess in the morning. Confident that she was alone, Gia went on rummaging for the bottle of wine that she heard him talk about a couple of days ago, not caring that she was making a mess of the place. “Yesssssss, there you are!” Hooting with delight, she cradled the bottle in the crook of her arms. Where oh where was that corkscrew?!

Asha Hobbes was blissfully asleep, eyes shut tight as Levi Hobbes stood in her doorway, his eyes scanning her tiny pink room as he took a deep breath. It'd taken three stories on this particular night to put the four year old to bed. The past two nights had taken two, and Levi was starting to become vaguely suspicious that she might just be asking her father to read so she might be able to stay up past her bedtime. 'All the girls at my daycare get to stay up until 9,' Asha had told Levi earlier. 'And grandmum told me you got to stay up until 10!' Levi'd tried to explain to the girl countless times that she might be able to say up a bit later when she got older, but she was only four now. Four year olds didn't get to stay up until 10, only older kids did, he told her. But she hadn't liked that.

He supposed Aishwarya might've had something to say to the growing toddler - something about how the moon might've missed her if she didn't fall asleep that night, or some crazy outlandish story. Levi recalled a time when his late wife had told her that the wind would blow open her window and make everything cold if she hadn't fallen asleep quickly, as the wind hated when little girls missed their bedtime. Aishwarya was good with things like that - little stories to make Asha fall asleep or behave when she didn't seem to want to listen. Levi was just rubbish at it - she never believed a word the thirty five year old had said, not once.

Levi made his way out to his living room, setting himself down in his familiar, worn, dark-leathered chair as he stared at the papers and books in front of him. He didn't know how many times a night he looked over the blueprints to The Royal Crown, and the numbers that came with running the business. Buying the liquor, selling it, the payments that came with the building - there were so many numbers that Levi had memorized from looking them over and over each time he couldn't fall asleep. Unfortunately for the former Quidditch player, tonight was one of those nights.

He immersed himself in the numbers completely, reading them over and over as he had each night, dragging his finger on the outlines of the blueprint of the building, only stopping when he'd heard a ruckus downstairs. Levi's eyes scanned the room he was in, stopping at the slightly-ajar door that led into Asha's room as he tried to pick up any other sounds that were coming from his restaurant. It wasn't until he heard the unmistakable sound of glasses breaking that Levi stood up, grabbing his wand from the table beside him before apparating down into one of the corners of his bar, hoping that the intruder might not be able to see him. If they had, he might scare them off - and that wouldn't really be fun for the man.

Only clad in sweatpants, with his feet and his chest left bare, Levi snuck around the corner, pointing his wand where he'd heard someone speak. Levi could have sworn he'd heard the voice before, although he'd doubted himself. It wasn't until he'd used a charm to light the tip of his wand that he realized he did know the person that was standing in his bar, dressed rather fancy if he had to say so himself. "Gianna? What the f-" Levi stopped himself as he let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head. "What are you doing here? And why in Merlin's pants are you going around and breaking all of my glasses?! You could have woken Asha up," He told the younger girl. "Are you alright, at least? You haven't gotten any glass in your hands or arms or anything?"