{trickett party} just those chemicals; the adolescent love • s i n d r i +

It was with some trepidation that Arden Dasher was attending the party tonight.

Years had passed since she’d been to a Trickett event. Sindri and Dash had broken up in April 1999 - almost two and a half years ago now - and for quite a while she dropped out of the Trickett social net. It had only really been in the past few months that she’d reconnected with a few of them. After so long it had been nice to finally be able to be friends with them without picturing her ex all of the time. It had taken her a long time - maybe eighteen months - but for the past year or so she’d really come into her own. She was Arden Faye Clemence Dasher. She was a researcher at a prestigious school of magizoology. She’d spent the last four weeks on a boat in Greek waters with a team of people studying magical marine life, for heaven’s sake, and had the freckles and tan to prove it. That wouldn’t have happened three years ago. It had taken her time, but she’d finally worked out her own identity.

Dash thought about all of this as she checked herself in the mirror. After switching between a bun and a ponytail, the woman decided to let her hair hang loose around her collarbones. She wore something that was short on the bottom - showed off her long legs - but more modest up the top. Flat boots, because she was already pushing 5’9 and didn’t need to tower over everyone. The brunette smiled in the mirror, practising her hello incredibly excitable family face before relaxing and moving back out to the lounge room. Originally Dash was going to go with Ruari, but her blonde friend had needed to go early with Hal to take their things to the cabin they were staying at. Dash suspected that Alaric had perhaps wanted to share a cabin with her, but she hadn’t responded to any subtle hints and he hadn’t actually suggested it out loud. So instead, night had just fallen and she was waiting for him at her house.

Alaric was Hal’s friend from work. He was quite a bit taller than her, which was an achievement in itself, with a jaw and cheekbones cut like blades. Dark hair, light eyes. A bit of a douchebag smirk, if she were honest. If the past few years had taught her anything it was that she definitely had a type. Or maybe two types. Dash liked men who were masculine with broad shoulders and big hands. She was quite tall and liked feeling smaller, so she tended towards taller men with more muscular builds whose hands felt strong on her waist. On the other hand, the brunette also generally liked gentle men. Verifiably nice people who had strong morals and were sweet and soft and willing to be open with her. Sometimes, these two “types” didn’t exactly fit together. Nice people who were 5’9 were acceptable, but douchebags with broad shoulders? Not so much.

She was a little concerned that Alaric might turn out to be the latter.

The pair had met through Ruari and Hal very recently, and they’d all hung out together a few times. He was friendly enough with Hal and a few other Tricketts that he’d been invited to the Trickett party. Dash had been surprised to actually receive an invite from more than one Trickett family member too. One night, with Ruari and Hal and some other friends, after a couple of glasses of wine, she’d walked him to the door and he’d kissed her goodbye, quite passionately. Dash wasn’t used to surprise kisses but it had been nice. They hadn’t been out since then but he’d asked her to go with him to the party and she’d agreed.

Dash jumped as there was a knock at the door, but quickly grabbed her bag and headed to welcome him in. “Alaric, hi!” She greeted with a soft smile, feeling a little flicker of nerves in her stomach. The woman leant forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before stepping back. “Come in, I have the portkey in the living room.” She closed the door behind him and straightened the bottom of her dress before leading him to where their portkey was.

When they arrived, the place was already bustling. Hal had described the setting earlier - apparently this wasn’t the first time the Trickett family had holidayed here for a very special event - but seeing the whole thing in real life was quite surreal. Hundreds of floating lights cast a magical, warm glow on the tree leaves and bark and the whole place smelt like wood and nature. The scale of it was quite astounding. Dash needed a moment to take it all in. They’d portkeyed to a landing. “Do you think we head in there?” She asked her date nervously, pointing to the area that the crowd was congregating and then adjusting her jacket on her shoulders self-consciously.

NPC; Alaric Hadley

He wasn't sure he really wanted to go.

In the mirror, Alaric tweaked his dark hair. He'd spent half an hour sprucing and buffing his casual "just woke up like this" look but it was actually a lot of work to look like he'd just rolled out of bed. He checked his teeth in the mirror and applied a squirt of decidedly and obnoxiously expensive aftershave to his collarbones before rolling back the sleeves of his pale blue dress shirt to reveal a pair of tanned and toned forearms.

He liked Arden well enough,  he supposed. She was a family friend of Hal and his strange girlfriend. Ruby? Roxanne? Rubik's Cube? Whatever her name was, he didn't think she was well matched to his work colleague, even if he seemed to be smitten. That was the thing with girls; they were a bit of a downer. Hal was spending more time at home with her and she was affecting him. For example, he'd stopped by Hal's place to pick something up and stepping in, it was like a different room. It seemed less clinical and manly and more…fluffy. Throw cushions and rugs and candles and framed photographs. Swiftly, Alaric heaved a shudder at the idea of settling down.

Arriving at her door, his large hand knocked on the wood as he fidgeted with his shirt collar. As the door opened, he offered Arden a slow smile that offered a glimpse of his straight, white teeth. Like a wolf, his pale eyes flicked briefly down her figure before coming to rest on her face. Alaric assumed they'd be sharing a cabin at this party. Why wouldn't they be? Surely she wasn't expecting him to sleep alone?

"Hi beautiful," he greeted her, his upper class accent clipped and clear, his voice deep as he stepped forward. Alaric's broad shoulders seemed to fill the doorway. As Arden kissed his cheek, his hand reached out to grip her wrist and he pulled her back to him, twirling her around. Dipping his head, he slanted his mouth over hers firmly. "That's better," he told her softly as he reached up a long finger to brush a curl behind her ear with another lopsided smile.

He blinked.

There were so many fairly lights. Alaric neatly side-stepped a gaggle of small children as they came screeching past him and didn't bother to hide the flicker of distaste that curled his full top lip. Kids were the last thing on his list of priorities and at the moment, Arden easily topped it. His pale blue eyes were distracted by a number of beautiful young women. Were they unattached? Not that it bothered him. Relationship status was sort of a grey area to him most of the time. Unfairly, the moment a man's eyes caught sight of his date, his demeanour changed. Swiftly, he draped an arm around Arden's shoulders possessively as  he pulled her close casually.

Oh right. The party.

"I suppose," Alaric replied lazily as his eyes trailed after a pretty little brunette who seemed to be a little younger than his companion. Casually, they walked down the rope bridge towards the centre of the party. It was his idea to attend the invitation that had been extended to him by Hal but now he was instantly regretting it. People were tiresome. He could small talk like a champ but he was really only interested in Arden. "Did I mention how gorgeous you look?" He said, his voice low as he spoke softly into her ear, holding her back from entering the party as they lingered outside the entrance. "Are you sure you don't want to check out the cabin first?" Alaric asked gently, turning to face her as he ran a finger over the collar of her jacket slowly and gently. "Might be nice to unwind first~"

"You, little, monkey!" Sindri fought the snaking limbs of his cousin, Mellie, as she climbed up the length of his torso with unbridled excitement. "Well at least I know someone missed me!" The tall Trickett man called over his shoulder at his father, voice hoarse from the grip of the little arms that had found a safe-hold tight around his neck. He didn't have the heart to tell the white-blonde child that she may or may not be in the process of completely blocking his air supply.

Most Trickett family gatherings began a lot like this, no matter the setting. On this evening, though, in this setting, the last rays of sun crept through the vastness of the tree line giving way to the intricate web of fairy lights above them that illuminated everything in sight, drenching every one in a pale gold. Even with the tiny human attached to him, Sindri took a moment to himself to appreciate the scene. A dimpled grin erupted, his hazel eyes bright from the floating fixtures. As much as he enjoyed the newfound solitude of his home in the woods, there was nothing quite like being surrounded by your entire, extended family. Especially when that time was spend among dozens of enchanted tree-houses strewn across an ancient and ever-expanding tree.

'Sindri!' The young witch whined loudly into his neck, squeezing tighter as though she believed that he may disappear if she let up, even for a second.  The wizard returned the favour and pulled her into a hug. "Merlin, have you gotten big!" Sindri exclaimed as he held Mellie at arms length with ease, giving her a once over. "You're almost as tall as Torsten now," He glanced to his youngest brother who wasn't far from them mischievously before tucking Mellie into the crook of his arm so that her legs were wrapped safely around his torso.

’Why haven’t you brought a girlfriend?’ Two brown eyes searched his own expectantly, innocence obvious and impossible to fault. ’I’d like someone to braid my hair, you know!’ Mellie huffed. Sindri’s heart gave a little dive into the pit of his stomach. Somehow the confrontation of his lingering loneliness from a five-year old had more of an impact than that of the complaints of all of his Aunt’s combined. Go figure.

“You can be my girlfriend for the weekend,” The wizard retorted without pause, his finger jabbing her in the bicep. “Besides, I know how to braid hair, you know? Probably a lot better than…” Just as Sindri began to finish his thought, the sound of approaching footsteps from behind the pair caught his attention. He turned to see what family member had arrived after him although time now seemed to move in slow motion. It was as though instinctually he knew that he would want to remember this moment. The two guests that he was greeted with were not family at all. Not by blood.

Arden Dasher. Sindri had almost successfully convinced himself that the image in front of him was simply a figment of his imagination until he heard actual words spoken from the man's lips. Words out of a real, living, and all too present mouth. “Of course,” Sindri muttered under his breath, the statement lost among the bark of the trees before it could reach anyone else’s ears. Of course it was his luck that just as Arden had arrived, with a date, as he was talking about his hair-braiding prowess.

“A lot better than any of your other cousins,” Although Sindri spoke to Mellie, who's attention had also shifted, his eyes could not break themselves away from Dash. It had been over two years since their breakup, but she somehow always found a way to stop the man dead in his tracks, no matter how much time and distance between them. He offered up a wry and dimpled smile in her direction. A peace offering.

A warning would have been nice, Sindri thought to himself as he watched the stranger that she had arrived with make it abundantly clear that they were neither work colleagues nor interested in the same sex. Sindri straightened up and shifted the weight of his cousin under the arm of his flannel. He was determined to not make the same jealous mistakes of his past, and honestly he felt as though he had a real chance this time. Seeing Arden now didn't sting as much as it had the year before. It didn't feel like someone had ripped his heart from his chest so much anymore. Now, it was a different kind of a pain. The dull sensation of an old broken limb that habitually stiffened in the middle of a storm, a reminder that it would never fully disappear.

"Hi," Sindri spoke up with a gentle wave in their direction, turning to face them. Certainly, he would have been the last person she wanted to run into so early on in the evening. Although he was happy to find that Dash felt comfortable to start attending Trickett family events again, he couldn’t help but wonder if her date knew the extent of what he had gotten himself into. The man shook the thoughts from his head just as Mellie piped up again.

’Sin, what is that smell!?’ The girl tried to lift up his free arm to get a whiff of his armpit but visibly struggled under the weight. Sindri helped and lifted his arm a little, now genuinely concerned that along with the fact that he had just publicly boasted about hair braiding, he smelled too. ’Nope, not you,’ She concluded decisively, turning her nose up at Dash and her guest, the source now quite clear to Sindri as well. The man’s cologne practically suffocated the crisp, fresh air of the forest. “Probably just a skunk, you hound,” He flicked her ear, trying to suppress his laughter.

This place - the lights, the leaves, the smell of bark and damp foliage and wood - it ran through her. She was a girl made up of many things; small cottages in spring, swimming in the ocean under the sun, the feel of clay against her hands, the crisp air atop mountains after a hard hike, and this. Despite the present chatter and the busyness, this place called to her. It was also a very Trickett sort of place, she thought. She wondered distantly if Sindri felt the same way.

Dash smiled politely as Alaric slowed to a stop outside the entrance of the large wooden hall. He complimented her again. “Thank you,” she said, her smile shifting from polite to genuine. She could still feel the buzz on her lips from his last surprise kiss and a part of her wondered if he was going to kiss her again. His words painted a picture that gave her nervous flutters. “Ah… I wasn’t really planning on staying tonight,” she said, hating but unable to stop the “sorry” tone in her voice. Dash barely knew the man. They were on a date (sort of, she’d really expected more of a group vibe) and he’d kissed her a couple of times but she wasn’t ready to spend a weekend with him in a cabin. She didn’t feel bad about saying no to him, but reflexively her rejection of his proposal had been laced with apology. Damn habits.

She was saved from his reaction by the sound of a voice. A familiar, unmistakable voice. The brunette turned her gaze away from her date to find the exact face she was looking for. Dash inhaled slowly, pausing for a moment at the apex of her breath before exhaling silently.

Sindri. Of course out of the millions of Tricketts that were here, and their millions friends, it was Sindri Trickett who they saw first. Her stomach turned nervously. A part of her had hoped she’d be to sneak in a couple of glasses of champagne before their inevitable reunion. Then again… Dash remembered a couple of their previous encounters while inebriated and thought that maybe it was better like this. She remembered Sindri basically getting into a fistfight with the last guy she’d brought to an event she knew he’d be at. It had been so unlike him. The thought of it made her a little nervous now, but she returned his soft smile, taking a couple of small steps away from her date to open up their conversational body language.

“Hey, you.” Dash couldn’t help but flick her hazel eyes over him, mentally comparing the man she saw before her with the one she’d seen last time they’d looked upon each other. Had he grown or cut facial hair? Did he look older? Was that a recent haircut? For some reason these things were important. Suddenly, it was easy to ignore the chatter around them. “Alaric, do you know Sindri? Trickett?” Alaric had been ahead of them at Hogwarts but Dash wasn’t sure exactly what the extent of his relationship with the Tricketts was. Maybe he’d gone to these sorts of things in the past couple of years? The girl glanced at her new date and then back to Sindri. “This is Alaric,” she said.

“Hey Mellie,” she greeted with a gentle smile, wondering if the child would remember her. Dash remembered all of his cousin’s names; She could probably recite a decent chunk of the family tree. There had been a point in time where she’d wanted to be a part of it all so badly and had done everything she could to ease the transition. She blinked. There had also been a point in time where Dash was practically a part of the family and Mellie hadn’t even been born yet. It seemed like a lifetime away now. The woman wondered distantly if this was what tonight was going to be like; nostalgia, displacement, memories. Time was such a funny thing, she thought. Marching forward so relentlessly. All she could do was try to keep up.

Dash watched her ex lover and her new date lock eyes and she felt that uncomfortable feeling she’d had before. Surely after two and a half years though, her feelings were unfounded? “I have something for your uncle, Sin,” she said. “Where should I put it?”

NPC; Alaric Hadley

"What?" Alaric replied sharply, turning to face Arden at her response. They weren't spending the night? Why not? His icy blue eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch to rest on a borderline hostile glare. So, he'd come all this way with her and now he'd have to spend the night by himself, in this silly tree with all these girly nights and he didn't even get a thank you?

He folded his lips into a thin line, distaste and annoyance practically radiating out of his pores. Alaric was prone to sulking. As an only child, he usually got his own way, often through underhand tactics. If charm didn't work, then emotional blackmail would. Arden was just a normal girl. She wasn't special or magical, just a pretty girl who could and would be replaced. Besides, why wouldn't she want to spend the night with him? He was tall, he was handsome and he was smart. He frowned at her briefly before his attention was diverted.

Alaric wasn't stupid. The feeling awkwardness settled over everyone like a wet blanket as chemistry and tension crackled through the air like electricity. As if on cute, Alaric stood to his full height. On a good day, he easily topped six-foot-four and he was easily one of the tallest men here this evening. He puffed out his chest, the expensive material of his shirt straining across his broad chest. He eyed the man with trepidation. Arden didn't need to tell him his surname; they all had the same large, oval eyes.

"No," Alaric replied coolly with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. Every man he met was a potential threat and this Sindri was no different and thus, he'd be treated the exact same as any other guy in a bar. Possessively, he curled his arm around her shoulder again and pulled her in close to his chest. "Nice to meet you," he lied as he extended a smooth tanned hand out towards the man. Alaric liked to think of himself as an alpha male and so, he didn't think he needed to tell the man to back the Hell off. Arden's warm greeting to Sindri made his jaw tighten as he flicked her an irritated glance. She'd come here with him so he should be her main focus.

Only then did he notice a small child climbing Sindri like a monkey. He blinked. Alaric didn't have any nieces or nephews and any cousins he had were now teenagers. This place was teeming with little people. He'd only walked across the bridge and he'd almost fallen over some of them. Absently, the hand he had resting over her shoulder began to draw slow, concentric circles on Arden's upper arm lazily.

Then the child spoke and he blinked in surprise. "I beg your pardon?" Alaric asked, addressing the little girl directly. Absently, he felt the swell of anger and annoyance when he heard the other man laugh and the hand in his trouser pocket curled into a fist. The mini Hell beast and clearly got her attention on him and he was mortally offended. "This is imported sandalwood and jasmine, hand crafted in Mongolia using centuries' old recipes. It's made by shaman. It's supposed to ward off evil spirits and little annoyances but it seems to be failing," he told the child sarcastically as he blinked at it. Swiftly, he shot Arden a look that clearly said are you gonna do something about this or what?

As she mentioned she had a present, he became suddenly disinterested. Alaric no longer wanted to stand here and make small talk with her ex-boyfriend and that tiny little demon on his hip. "I'll take it," he said swiftly, swiping it from her hand but not before kissing her squarely on the mouth. "I'll be back," he told her, despite it sounding more like a warning to Sindri and the child. He brushed past Sindri as he stepped away, turning back to pull a face at the small blonde child before stepping inside, suddenly in dire need of a drink.

Sindri’s eyes mirrored the deep greens, yellows, and browns of the foliage that surrounded as they flicked between the familiar and the foreign face in an attempt to make sense of the pair as they approached. Try as he might, though, the whole encounter felt counter-intuitive. It was as though there was something he recognised, some grand and teachable truth, but it was just out of his reach. A thousand thoughts buzzed just between his ears and jumped at the first sight of a conclusion but the wizard steadied, his facial expression fixed somewhere between friendly and indifferent. If he was going to get through this night without trouble, the need for control was of the utmost importance now.

“Alaric,” He repeated politely, just as he had been taught as a boy, taking the man’s hand in his own. If there was one truth that his father had imposed upon him that Sindri carried with him into adulthood, it was that a man’s handshake told you everything you needed to know about him before he spoke a word. And in this case, that anecdote rang startlingly true. Alaric’s manicured hand felt like plastic in his grip, and his eyes were no exception. He was looking right through Sindri, as though his presence meant that little to him.

“Right, welcome then,” The wizard attempted a smile but it more closely resembled a grimace. He didn’t dare glance over at Dash now for fear that she could, and most certainly would, see through his niceties. “We’re glad you could make it,” Sindri propped up his cousin so that she could get a better grip around his neck although she was now looking at the two newcomers skeptically, trying to make sense of how this woman knew her by name. Sure, they were a big family, but they made it priority to know even the most distant of relatives.

“This is Dash, Mellie,” He explained, choosing his next words very carefully, pausing to inhale before continuing. As it stood, they all teetered on a very thin line of comfort and he had no intention of disrupting whatever balance was left. “You met her a very long time ago,” Sindri’s gaze travelled the length of Arden’s body before meeting her eye. “Even when you were in your mum’s belly, “ He tore away from the electric contact for fear of being burned and focused back on his cousin, who as it turned out found herself the aim of Alaric’s unfounded aggression.

Sindri listened on to the taller man’s tirade, unable to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. It was in this moment that his father’s take on handshakes reached a whole other level of accuracy.  A shaman? Sindri couldn’t hold it in any longer. He involuntarily let out a single impossibly high pitched laugh, a noise he did not know was possible coming from his own lungs. He slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes now wide and shocked by the visceral reaction to the nonsense that Dash’s date had just unloaded onto them. Either the dating pool had become entirely too small, or this was some sort of practical joke that Leifr had put her up to.

He stood for a moment, mouth agape and unable to find the words that would accurately portray just what he thought of Alaric without veering from his now impossible crusade for civility. It was right when he opened his lungs to speak that a little rumbling voice from his side cut him off. Mellie. “Well, it smells like Bundimun,” She huffed, citing the magical creature best known for it’s foul stench of decay. With one hand securely plugging her nose, the five-year old
returned the stranger’s face with an eyeroll of her own so dramatic that only she could get away with it.

“He’ll be back,” Sindri repeated in a ghoulish voice to his cousin who had now slid down his torso so that her feet were firmly planted on the ground. “You better get out of here, little one,” He teased before giving her a pat on her head and sending her on her way to explore their base for the weekend. Just then, as he turned back to Arden, his smile fell. He could feel the hundreds of eyes in the room now on them and reading very closely into every ounce of body language between the ex-lovers. Majority of his family had always assumed that the two of them would find their way back to each other, and he was sure that they thought that the day had finally come.

“Hi,” He repeated the greeting and immediately wished he could take it back. No part of this evening thus far had gone according to plan. “Alaric seems…” Sindri drifted off. Perhaps it was better that he keep his mouth closed. Lying had never been his strong suit. "I had no idea you'd be coming out," Sindri confessed as he absentmindedly straightened out his shirt. “Everyone will be thrilled to see you,” He gladly changed the subject, now speaking earnestly as his eyes searched her own curiously. Despite the amount of time put between them, her gaze would never feel unfamiliar, even when everything else did.

Dash watched the two men lock hands and wondered which one was gripping more tightly. Alaric had that sort of vibe - the kind of vibe that had him cutting off her sentences and puffing out his chest when she spoke to other men. It was very quickly dawning on her that agreeing to come with him tonight had been a terrible idea. She didn’t want to stay in a cabin with him; she didn’t even really want to be around him at all. A part of her thought neither of the men were being very sincere in their greeting, but one of them was out for blood.

“A very long time,” Dash agreed softly, giving Mellie a little smile. The child obviously didn’t remember who she was, and Dash thought that was probably appropriate. Too many Tricketts had been invested in their relationship. Their breakup had been about so much more than two people stopping being together. She felt rather than saw Sindri give her a once-over and shifted uncomfortably under Alaric’s overprotective arm. She wondered if Sindri noticed her new tan or that her hair had grown longer. She wondered if he scrutinised her for changes like she was trying - and failing - not to do with him.

The following exchange was absolutely flooring. Did he just…? Oh. Yeah, he did. Dash wondered wildly how Hal had come to be friends with this man and thought that it must have been a work thing. The two healers were obviously extremely intelligent - maybe that was what they’d bonded over. In group situations she’d never seen him quite like this. Arrogant, yes. Self-absorbed? For sure. But he’d never seemed quite so rude or aggressive in the small handful of times she’d interacted with him. For a moment she was wordless, unable to form a sentence under his expectant gaze. “I-“ he cut her off with a quick, possessive kiss before disappearing into the crowd.

Shit.

How embarrassing.

The girl turned her doe-eyes back to Sindri, bewildered expression on her face. “Terrible,” Dash finished for him, firmly. This isn’t like Lucas, she thought, willing him telepathically to understand I don’t really know this one. “He’s terrible. I’m so sorry,” She gave an apologetic half-smile, hazel eyes flicking behind Sindri into the crowd, wondering how much time they had before Alaric would make his grand reappearance. “If it makes you feel any better, he’d be here anyway - Hal invited him.” She’d never really been close to Hal while she’d been with Sindri. She’d spent more time with Sin and his brothers. Leifr used to be like a big brother to her. Nowadays, Hal was the Trickett she spent most time with. In between long trips out to sea and extended research hours in the lab, Dash hung out with Ruari and, naturally, Hal too.

“Wow,” she said again, shaking her head to really convey that she agreed with the things Sindri wasn’t saying. He’d always been easy to read for her - after two and a half years, that seemed to be something that hadn’t changed. She could see the disapproval and dislike sitting behind his foresty eyes. “Did you want to get a drink?” She asked weakly. Tentatively, she watched the shapes his mouth made and the dimples in his cheeks. Was he the same man she remembered ? Time didn’t just heal things, she’d learned, time changed things. As the space between them had shifted from months to years, Arden Dasher had shifted with it. She’d learned so much, had so many new experiences. That was just how time worked. She wondered who Sindri Trickett was now.

“Brita invited me, sorry, I thought she might have told you,” Dash said apologetically. She’d been seeing more of the blonde in recent months, hesitantly stoking the fragile connection once more. It felt like it had been a long enough time now that she could do so without her mess of emotions getting in the way of it all. That being said… The brunette could feel eyes on her and while she wasn’t sure who was watching them, her tummy gave a nervous flutter as she realised she could probably guess why they were looking. Her eyes met his and he seemed like he was looking for something. She smiled softly, insecure about the distance and unsure about his feelings but comforted by his presence just the same. “So… How are you?” She asked, tilting her head to the side and following the usual routine of catch-up people often did when coming together after a long time apart. She was teasing a little bit; starting a conversation with how are you after all they’d gone through seemed so strange. “I heard you’re not living in Diagon Alley anymore?”

Sindri tilted his head. He was trying desperately to make sense of the situation but the twists and turns of the interactions were making it far easier said than done. One moment Arden's lips were pressed against Alaric's and the next they were speaking of his terrible temperament. That much he could agree with. He willed himself to smile to in agreement but he wasn't even convincing himself at this point, let alone the very person who had understood him the best, at one point in time. That time felt impossibly far away now but the old and assumed forgotten connections that Sindri's brain had once fired were finding each other yet again.

"It's okay," The wizard attempted to diffuse the tension that surrounded them, even in the open air of the forrest, but hardly made an impact. If it makes you feel better. Sindri paused for a moment, his mouth agape, searching for the right words to convey how her statement made him feel. Arden had no responsibility making him feel better after all of these years, and in fact the truth only made him feel guilty. If he hadn't been such a prat every time he had seen her with other men after their breakup, maybe she wouldn't be so hesitant to be open.

"You still haven't stopped apologising," A smile caught in Sindri's chest and spread across one corner of his mouth sheepishly. "It's fine," He reassured as his hands found the comfort of his own pockets. "You don't owe -," He fumbled over his words with an incoordination that always reared it's ugly head whenever this woman was around. "I -," He paused again, then sighed in resignation. It seemed after all this time he hadn't gotten any better at conveying his thoughts. Perhaps time didn't change everything.

"I would love a drink," He followed Dash's lead. There were a few bars spread across the space and no doubt filled with an unlimited supply of cider and other sweet, Trickett favourites. There was a particular type of cider native to these woods that Sindri had dreamed of getting his hands on for months, and he could practically taste it on his tongue at the very thought. Their feet led them, unsurprisingly, to the bar situated the farthest from the majority of the crowd. It was quite clear that all of the attention of hundreds of eyes watching their every move was not ideal for either of them.

There were no staff at the bar that had seemed to made of the very tree itself, just an old spigot and wooden steins that appeared next to it, as if reading the minds of the patrons when they approached. Sindri held up a mu and waited for confirmation from Dash before pouring her a glass, then his own. "You heard?" The man couldn't help himself, grinning over his shoulder at her in jest. With every laugh and smile, they were chipping away at the invisible exterior that had been built up around them both over the years.

Sindri leaned his back against the tree, now fully facing Dash for the first time in the evening. Until now, they had been plied with enough distraction so that he was able to avoid the very feeling that currently sank deep in his chest. It was both exciting and nostalgic at the same time, equal parts happy and sad. He took a breath to try and fill the space underneath his lungs, to no avail.

"I'm not," He finally answered her, the relief of no longer being confined to the city visible across his features. "I'm in Bolderwood," He explained. "New Forest," Sindri continued dreamily as the sweet cider trickled through his blood stream. "Finally made the cabin," His eyes met her tentatively, sure that no explanation beyond that was necessary. For so long, that had been their dream. A cabin, made with their own hands, in a small village somewhere, surrounded by nature. But now it was only his. "And yourself?" He happily changed the subject. "Still enjoying the sea?" He leaned an elbow against the bar, relaxing into their conversation.

@Arden Dasher

"Ah - " Dash stopped speaking as he pointed out her incessant apologies and her pretty face broke into a conceding smile as she glanced away. He was right, of course. "No, no," She said, shaking her head and cutting him off as he fumbled his sentences. "It's not about owing, it's about that guy being an asshole." The brunette actually laughed here; a light melodic sound. Sindri should know - or, at least she hoped he did - that she hadn't changed so much in the past couple of years that she wasn't still a little defensive of the Trickett family. That she loved kids. That she wasn't the kind of girl who would bring a guy like Alaric to a party like this and be fine with the way he'd just acted. Dash shook her head again, still smiling a little. "Drinks, then," she agreed.

Dash took a few steps down some stairs, then slowed a little and let slowed to let Sindri lead the way. She followed her ex out to another landing on the opposite side of the large branch she'd apparated to. The woman spotted their destination, glad that it was a little further away from the noise and the crowd. "Yes, thanks," she said, as he held up one dark wooden stein questioningly. After passing her her drink, Sindri leaned up against the tree so Dash leaned against the wooden railing opposite him. She felt him take her in - glance her over with the strange intimacy of someone who'd once known her very well. She smiled again, ducking her chin and looking down into her drink. Sometimes the strangeness of it all had been bad and hurtful, and sometimes it was sort of nostalgic and pleasant like now. Either way, she wasn't sure she'd ever really get over it.

"Bolderwood?" She repeated, her eyes widening just a little in surprise as she glanced up. "Nice." London was too crowded for him anyway, she thought. After spending two years in the city, the parts she'd disliked about being somewhere so busy had slowly worn away. Sindri had always disliked cities a little more than her though. She was glad he'd moved. A sentimental smile made its way across her lips when he mentioned the cabin, knowing exactly what he was thinking as their eyes met despite the gulf of years between them. She took a long sip of her drink, raising her eyebrows a little as the liquid touched her tongue. It was good.

The brunette wiped a rogue droplet of liquid from the corner of her lips with her thumb. "Yeah, I've been spending most days out on the water recently, actually," she told him with another smile, this one a little childlike in its mix of embarrassment and wonder, "It's amazing - the world under the sea is just so big." She couldn't help but let a little spark of awe creep into her eyes and her tone. Most people weren't so interested by the sea, so she didn't talk about her work in great detail. Despite all of the walls between them, this was something where she felt she could share a part herself with him. "I've done a lot of diving lately. Gathering lots of data on things like giant squids and moon whales and ocean drakes of all kinds. I've been writing a lot, too. Lots of research papers."

She paused for a moment. "I suppose I'm an academic now." Dash added a well-natured snort at the end of her sentence. She'd achieved great scores in Care of Magical Creatures and Divination for obvious reasons, but she'd never been particularly academic. She'd never thought she'd be going for a higher learning degree or anything like that. She'd only taken four NEWT classes, and only the ones she'd already been good at. Dash had a characteristically Hufflepuff work ethic, but she wasn't exceptionally brilliant or anything. "Three weeks ago I saw a whole pod of Charybdis Seahorses at night." The creatures were endangered, and rarely seen by anyone at all. Dash and her team had been trying to find a pod so they could track their migration habits. Charybdis Seahorses looked a lot like their non-magical relatives, leafy sea dragons, but each one was almost as big as her from nose to tail and they glowed, luminescent in the ocean depths.