{trickett party} after sundown, before sleeping | • b r i t a

“Oh yes, here you go - cabin thirty four just up on the left there. Yep, just follow that big branch with the red mushrooms and go across the bridge.” Freya beamed at her older brother, her sunny smile reflecting her mood perfectly. The party was going well, everyone was socialising and she’d almost finished giving out keys, which meant she could finally get out of the role of “host” and into the role of “partygoer”. Freya had been going to a lot of parties lately. The summer had been rife with them; almost her entire cohort seemed energised by finally graduating and partying seemed like an obvious choice. She didn’t plan on getting too crazy tonight (she was with family after all), but fun was fun.

The blonde was heading back to the food table for more snacks when she spotted a particular family member she hadn’t seen yet. It was still early in the night, but most of her siblings and a whole lot of cousins had arrived earlier in the afternoon to collect their keys. “Brita!” She called, skipping the last few steps to catch up to her cousin. The two looked quite alike; one might mistake them for sisters.

“You’re late!” She exclaimed, not that Brita was really late at all. Lately, Freya had been hanging out more with her older cousin. Now that she lived in London it was much easier to do her own thing and now that they were both adults it seemed like they had more in common. They’d been working out together, getting the occasional brunch and Freya had stayed at her cousin’s place for about a week while she and Finn were apartment-hunting. Now, though, Freya hadn’t seen Brita for almost two weeks and it felt like a long time. The blonde launched herself into an energetic hug, a wide smile gracing her pretty features.

Brita was running late to her uncle Alberich's birthday party. Now, this wasn't exactly out of sorts for the witch; Brita had never considered punctuality to be one of her strongest suits. After all, no one seemed to mind that much when she was just a few minutes late. She tried to be on time for classes, since customers were paying for them, but other than that, it was mostly fluid. Of course, it worked the other way too. Brita sometimes showed up twenty minutes early to things, you just never knew with her. But! Brita hated being late to see her family. Even though the Tricketts were such a large clan that this happened several times a year, Brita could always use some time with her cousins. Especially the little ones. Well, and her own niece Sunny. So it was rather unusual that she was this late to the event, and she couldn't even blame someone else for holding her up. She'd just misplaced the present, and everyone who knew Brita knew that gift-giving was important to her.

When she finally arrived at the treehouses, she took a moment to stare at the scene in front of them. Everyone and their mother (actually) seemed to have brought a date or a friend. Brita sighed as she caught sight of Ruari and Hal. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried. Not that she and Ben were dating, the way they were! She'd asked him as a friend, not a date. Well, she hadn't specified either way, but it was the same thing, even though Liv kept telling her to be more upfront about it. But in any case, the Healer hadn't been able to switch his shift, and well, his duties in Emergency Medicine rather outweighed her family party. Then she'd planned on asking Gianna, but Gia had a date, and that was exciting. So now Brita had her cabin all to herself instead of sharing with someone since she thought she'd manage to invite someone, but at least she could crash with her hordes of small cousins. Maybe she could just play a night game with all the kids. A game of sardines would work...

It took her hearing Freya's voice to snap out of it, and Brita grinned at her younger cousin. Freya had spent a very fun week with her on their couch while apartment hunting, and Brita was glad to see her at Impervius to work out. Freya was only six years younger than her, but when she was in school it was harder to see her, and they were developing more of an adult sisterly relationship. "Hey Freya!" She wrapped her arms around the younger girl in a tight hug. "Sorry, I spent ages trying to figure out where I found this present. Can you believe I stashed it in the pantry because I didn't want Cinnamon or Puff to find it?" The 24-year-old laughed at herself. "Where's my key, oh family keeper of the keys? Actually, I don't know if I'm actually going to use it...no one could come," she sighed. "But I'm glad to see you! How's the apartment?"

“Oh I have it here,” Freya gushed, digging through the magically big-on-the-inside box to find her cousin’s key. The blonde couldn’t help but beam. From time to time, she got closer to different cousins and different siblings. It just happened. Ingrid, for example, was busy all the time, so even though she was Freya’s actual sister, the girl was much closer to many of her cousins right now - including Brita. At one point Frida had been her go-to girl for sharing gossip and talking about boys and similar topics. Speaking of boys… Freya hoped she could get her cousin alone at some point tonight and have a chat. Maybe soon.

“Aww,” she said, pulling out one of the keys and scrutinising the number on it with her honey coloured eyes before dropping it back in. “Who were you planning on bringing?” Freya gave her cousin a little teasing eyebrow wiggle before laughing to herself. “I’m great! Work is fine. Boring sometimes and awesome other times but mostly fine. The apartment is so cool, you really have to come and check it out sometime. Seriously.” Freya laughed again, sort of dizzy with all of the activity that was happening around her. She’d only had one drink, but being Freya Trickett was always more “tipsy” just by being around so many sociable, happy people. “How about you? How are things? I know it’s only been two weeks, but it feels like so much longer. Do you need a drink?” She asked, her words practically overlapping each other to get out of her mouth.

"Oh, you know...Ben. As friends! I mean, I asked him, but he couldn't get his shift off. And then I asked Gia, and she had a date. And by then it was too late to plan." Brita moved into a stretching position to get out a tingle in her obliques; she often broke into random stretches as a side effect of her work. "I don't know why, but watching Hal makes me feel awfully behind sometimes," she laughed. Hal was just a year older than her, and while there were plenty of slightly older cousins who weren't with anyone, at least some of them were rather happy that way. Brita was just being a silly schoolgirl over it all. "You know what, we asked Dash to come, we started talking again recently. Only I didn't warn Sindri about it in time..." She made a face. She'd forgotten, and then he hadn't been that easy to get a hold of. Hopefully that was going all right.

"I'm so glad Erika got you a job, even though you know my place is better," she winked. "Gone on any superdangerousmissions," she ran the words together like they were some secret spy movie, "with her yet?" Erika's job was way more exciting and way more ambitious, something Brita decidedly was not, than hers. "Well, aren't you going to throw us a housewarming party? You know we'll get you presents and it might liven the place up," she winked. "I'm okay! I got a tipoff to a Summer Search rune, so Ben and I are going to do that next week! Also...as...friends," she said sheepishly. "But it should be fun? I could use a drink, yeah, what do we have? What have you had?" she said, laughing. Freya was probably just happy, but it was fun to tease her.

“Ben!” Freya said, impulsively slapping her cousin lightly on the arm, “Seriously, I need to know what is happening with you two.” Freya laughed. She nodded at the right parts as Brita spoke. “Hal and Ruari are seriously dreamy,” Freya agreed with a sincere nod. “Not that you should be comparing or anything. I mean, you’re not like thirty-five or something.” She shrugged. Freya might have meant what she was saying, but she was also a little hypocritical. She spent a little too much time comparing herself to others - it was a bad habit that she couldn’t kick. Freya thought about her friends with serious boyfriends and she compared herself to people like Finn who knew what they wanted in life. She sighed a little.

“Dash is here?” Freya asked, her eyes widening slightly in response to the idea. The blonde cast a quick look around the room, as if amongst the billion people who surrounded her, one of them might be the elusive Arden Dasher. Freya had been so distraught when they’d broken up. “Maybe they’ll get back together,” she said in a joke-not-really-a-joke sort of way. The two blondes were overlapping each other as they spoke, some sentences getting lost as they rushed to fill each other in on basically everything they wanted to talk about. “I had one champagne. A single one. They’re over here, come.” Freya put a hand on her cousin’s arm and started steering her through the crowd. “I went to Egypt last week and stood outside a pyramid with a sword for three hours?” She offered. That was the most exciting thing so far. “But! Tell me more about Ben.”

Brita groaned, shaking her head. "Nothing's happening, that's just it," she laughed. "And yeah, just look at them." She cast a glance at her cousin and his gorgeous girlfriend, sighing. "You know, they're going to have the wedding of the century when they finally tie the knot. There are just so many of us, you know?" Freya knew. She'd dated that Kerr for quite a while. Brita glanced around quickly hoping to catch a glimpse of her dark-haired friend, unconsciously mirroring her cousin. "She should be, haven't you seen her? I guess she probably wasn't planning on staying the night, so she wouldn't have stopped by your spot. I think she brought a date, though," she said, spreading her hands in a what-can-you-do gesture. "We girls can dream though can't we," she winked.

"A single one? Brut or did you get something more delicious? Tell me someone stocked the bar with moscato," she laughed. Brita wasn't ashamed of enjoying a sweet fizzy drink, and she didn't think she or anyone else needed to be. People should do what made them happy. Following Freya as they wove through the crowd, she got distracted halfway through by a glimpse of her niece, Sunny. "Hang on, Frey," she called, and got down to hug her niece. "Hey cutie! Auntie Brita's talking to Auntie Freya right now but I'll see you in a bit, okay?" She grinned at her sister before un-pausing her passage through the crowd.

"You stood outside a pyramid with what for three hours?" Brita's mouth opened a little in surprise and a touch of jealousy. "That sounds perfectly epic," she said, "and Erika should think about bringing me on one. I could get an internship too, don't you think?" she laughed. "Was that the treasure or a tool, anyway?" Did Erika actually use swords regularly? If so, she was itching to get a look.

Grabbing a flute of champagne as they reached the station being stocked ad infinitum with more of the celebratory beverage, she knocked back half of it for the hell of it and then grinned. "I guess this isn't bad. No skimping on the alcohol for your dad, huh?" Twirling the stem between her fingers a little, she shrugged. "Ben's great, you know? I see him at the park, we exercise together when he brings Hank out, he showed me some weird Muggle tea the other day that just steeps in sunlight, he said he'd go on Summer Search with me, he's so much fun and so selfless, you should hear him talk about his patients..." She took another mouthful of the champagne, swishing it around in her mouth to savor it. "I'm practically in love with him but I'm too scared to tell him. I know, I know, that sounds so stupid coming from me..." Everyone knew that Brita was decisive and usually fearless. "But while I have no problems approaching him when I see him and asking him to things, I guess I don't want to ruin anything."

Snapping out of it, Brita eyed her cousin with a sly grin. "Anything new in your life happening these weeks? You know what I mean," she said, waggling her eyebrows.

“We’ll have to all fight to be bridesmaids,” Freya said with a laugh. She was kidding but also not really kidding because if Hal and Ruari picked their bridesmaids and she wasn’t one of them, she’d literally throw things. And she’d boycott the wedding. Seriously, they might have a gigantic family but Hal only had three sisters and she’d been waiting for this since she was like eleven years old. “You can stay in a cabin with me!” She said bumping her cousin with her shoulder gently. “Finn’s with Reagan and everyone else seems to be in pairs so we should stay in one. Lets go check it out after this.”

Freya shrugged at the question about drinks. She didn’t really know what the bar was stocked with, really. And she didn’t know what she was drinking either, other than the fact that it was alcoholic and bubbly and didn’t taste terrible. Freya stopped when Brita told her to. She gave Sunny a wide smile and a little wave - she’d already said hello to that particular adorable little Tricklett. After they’d said hello, Freya led Brita to the drinks station and grabbed them both a drink. With a little less urgency, the pair of blondes started walking back through the crowd. “You are such a coward,” Freya teased with a wide smile. She knew her cousin wasn’t afraid of a lot, and she wondered why telling Ben how she felt scared her so much. “What’s the worst that could happen?” She asked, taking a little sip of her own drink.

The blonde gave her cousin a shady side-glance when she asked if anything had been happening lately. “Something might have happened,” she confirmed mysteriously. Glancing around, not really wanting her dad or brothers to be in on this particular conversation - Freya dropped her volume conspiratorially. “Something might have happened a week or so ago, with a boy. C’mon, lets go check out our cabin.” Freya started towards the deck, and then headed to the wooden bridge separating one of the cabins she’d kept intentionally free and the rest of the party. When they got to the door, Freya fumbled with a bunch of keys before just pulling her wand out and pointing it at the handle. “Alohamora,” she said, but the thing didn’t open. Rolling her eyes, Freya went back into the box and after a moment she found what she’d been looking for. The girl poked the key into the door - finally - and let them both inside.

Brita shook her head, laughing. "Honestly, I bet they're going to forgo the idea entirely. Can you imagine having to choose between everyone? They'll probably pick a maid of honor and a best man and be done with it. Maybe we'll all have to come up with dresses in the same color so we can feel like we made it anyway. I could use a new dress," she winked. "Ruari's going to make her own, I'm sure," she sighed in a dreamy kind of way. "It's going to be bohemian and floral and utterly gorgeous and she's going to look like a wood nymph." Brita was a little too loud and bold for that, but she didn't think she was going to look half so magical when she got married. If she got married? When, her romantic mind said firmly and reassuringly.

"Yes! I knew I could mooch off someone. Payback for three weeks ago," she winked and gave her cousin a little punch in the shoulder. She groaned as Freya pointed out the obvious. "I am not! I am a perfect Gryffindor just as much as you, thank you very much Miss Freya Ashlyn," she said in mock indignation. "I guess he could break my heart," she offered casually, mulling it over. "You know I never really dated anyone that seriously. It was all for fun during school, and everything was casual, and then we had the war, and now I actually think I seriously care for someone and it's someone who probably still remembers that the first time he met me he had to save me from freezing to death by the lake when I was twelve and whose first girlfriend just happens to be one of my best friends." Brita's hand gestures were everywhere during this little monologue, as if painting all the facts in the air. Her champagne got close to spilling, but she managed to keep it inside.

"Eh, I guess I'll probably just fall to one of my fits of impulsiveness one of these days, though, don't worry," she said with an air of inevitability. All this brain-reasoning could only hold off Brita's innate personality for so long. Getting interested in Freya's mysterious voice, she raised her eyebrows and followed the younger girl to the cabin she'd mentioned earlier. "Oooh, do tell," she said, equally conspiratorially. Stepping in, she gave another "ooh" over the interior of the cabin. Pulling the door shut behind them, the 24-year-old immediately went to sprawl on the bed. "So?" she said, impatiently. Brita had always been indulgent of her younger cousins' escapades, ranging from Janne and Jari's slightly far-fetched but harmless investigations to Freya's rather more adult concerns. She figured that it was way better that they, particularly the ones with Freya-style things to say, got some kind of adult reaction instead of the protective disapproval they were likely to receive from people like Geri and Ingrid and Leifr.

“Wait, what?” Freya asked distractedly. Ruari and Hal had to chose her to be their bridesmaid. They just had to. The blonde didn’t like her cousin’s ideas about forgoing and same colour dresses. The wedding dress thing did have her starry-eyed though. Oh, yes, She wanted to see Ruari’s handmade wedding dress. The older blonde’s ability to turn material and beads into real clothes really blew her away. Freya would never possess those powers.

She listened to Brita talk about bed with a s sort of impatient understanding. It wasn’t her fault that she wanted everyone to be together and be happy. Brita and Ben included. Bren? Bita? “That’s not a problem though, right?” Freya asked, weaving through the crowd. “I mean, it’s not like they want to date again. And they were together ages ago, hey?” Freya didn’t know every detail, but she and Brita saw each other enough now that she did know quite a few facts about her life.

Freya dived into the bed with Brita, wriggling until she had a pillow to put over her face. The blonde lay on her back underneath it, blushing profusely. She was also smiling a lot. It was hard not to. “Well,” she said, her voice muffled by the pillow, “I might have done a thing.” Freya laughed, having fun with her cousin before elaborating. “You know, like the thing~” The blonde poked her head out. “Did I tell you that Ingrid tried to give me the sex talk like two years ago?” She asked.

"It's not--exactly," Brita admitted. "I know @Eden Finley won't mind or anything. But there is the freezing-to-death-at-twelve thing." Brita was being silly. She was perfectly aware that @Ben Fletcher didn't think of her as a twelve-year-old, but it didn't help that she was acting like she had the courage of one around him lately. Brita was very good at putting up the act of everything being normal, though. "You think I should just tell him?" She grabbed another flute for good measure as they left the drink area.

In the cabin, Brita turned over to raise an eyebrow at the pillow which had replaced Freya's face for a moment. "Ohoho, that embarrassing, hey?" She prodded the pillow laughing. "You did a thing? Goodness, I'm so shocked, I thought you sat like a rock for three weeks," she teased. "The thing, huh? I see someone's bought into the this-is-a-huge-deal hype," Brita laughed, taking another sip from her bubbly glass. "Well, I'm sure it wasn't helped by Ingrid trying to give you the talk. Merlin." Ingrid was Freya's oldest sister so it wasn't unexpected, but Brita shuddered to imagine what kind of a talk her older cousin had given. "What did she even tell you? Was this like a "you must be so innocent you're only 16 I have to inform you about the ways of the world" kind of talk?"

She blew in the direction of Freya's emerging face, just because she'd been hiding. "So are you going to tell me about it or just about what your sis would think of it?"

“It feels like a big deal,” Freya said through the pillow. Once she’d emerged however, after blowing a strand of messy blonde hair from her face, she amended her statement. “I mean, It feels like it should feel like a big deal.” In most ways, nothing had changed. Freya supposed that she wasn’t scared of doing that particular thing now, and in fact had learned a few things about herself that night. Now she felt more confident about being able to actually do it if or when she wanted to. The girl was glad that Brita wasn’t judgemental at all, but she supposed she should have expected exactly this.

The Gryffindor rolled her eyes when they started talking about Ingrid. Her older sister really wasn’t very good at those kinds of talks. She’d led in with awkward questions about who-liked-who-at-school that she’d never asked before. “Something like that,” Freya agreed with a nod. “It was the most awkward thing ever, really.” Freya slid the pillow down to her neck, her blonde curls fanning out around her face like a halo. “I don’t want Ingrid to ever say the word penetrative to me ever again, I swear.” Freya snorted, then bounced up into a sitting position, reaching for her glass before taking a quick sip.

“It was…” Freya paused, her cheeks still red but her tone a little less laughy. “I don’t know. Really fun?” Freya’s mind went back to that night for a moment. All skin and lips and sweat, but in the good way not the gross way. “Better than I’d thought it would be. Not like uncomfortable or horrible or whatever.”

Brita laughed and reached out to muss Freya's hair for a second. "Aw, come on. It kind of is, but it mostly isn't. It'd be said if it was as big a deal as they made it out to be, it's not always nice the first time, you know," she grinned. She made a face when Freya told her about Ingrid's talk. "Oh dear. That's just not a word anyone wants to hear. You know, it's like you're a first year, and it's fine, and all of a sudden everyone starts giggling when they hear anyone say it? I reckon she missed that whole part of growing up." It wasn't completely fair of her. Brita had always been sympathetic about what had happened with Ingrid and her horrible fiance. But she still didn't agree with her older cousin's attitudes towards this type of thing, personal experiences or no.

Sitting up with Freya, she nodded attentively and grinned at "really fun." "Good! Just what I like to hear. I bet you feel more confident about it now then?" It was a bit of a question. Brita figured she was right, but she also wanted her cousin to know that she could air any concerns she had. "Was it with a friend? No awkward fallout or anything, right?" Sometimes that could be an issue, even if the thing itself went fine. She hoped the guy in question was mature. If he harassed her in any way he was going to be on the receiving end of a talking-to from a rather fit woman if she said so herself. Putting on her big sister hat for a second, her eyes twinkled in Freya's direction. "Now, I can trust you to be smart, but just know, you still know how to get into our place, and if you're ever in a pinch you'll find a certain protective potion in the med cabinet." Pivoting away from any uncomfortableness she might have elicited for a moment, she lay back and twirled a strand of hair. "So was it just a one-time thing? Do you want it to be?"

Freya liked it when people played with her hair, so Brita mussing her curls affectionately was well-received. She smiled. Freya was really lucky to have someone like her older cousin to give her advice and support in situations like this. Talking about Ingrid made her wrinkle her nose. She really loved her older sister, but the woman really had no idea how to relate to people outside of her immediate age and interest brackets. She was like a teacher or something. Lived in a different world.

"I do feel more confident," Freya said, a little embarrassed but pleased all the same. "Yeah," she said, "thanks." It was a bit weird to be talking about birth control and stuff, but at least with Brita it wasn't too awkward. She imagined vaguely the way that Ingrid had approached the subject and almost snorted; it was so funny and silly. Freya decided that she wanted to be more like Brita if any of her younger cousins ever came to her with this sort of thing. She'd be cool and informed and give all kinds of supportive advice. It just made sense. "Pretty sure it was just a one time thing," Freya said, staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, not ruling any future things out, but you know. I think it was just that sort of thing. It was a guy I had a crush on when I was in fifth year," she admitted, "And I saw him out, like out at a club."

Freya thought about it for a moment, then added, "I wouldn't mind having a boyfriend again. Not him, probably, but someone. Someone new. I'm not exactly on the hunt or anything, I just think if something happened I'd be open to it."

Brita grinned. See, this was why she took this approach with her younger cousins. A talk like Ingrid's only bred embarrassment and a certain contrariness; they would do what they wanted anyway, and Brita would rather they did it positively than with shame. Confidence in oneself and one's abilities was important. Unless they were putting themselves in serious physical or psychological danger, Brita would much rather encourage them than not. Plus, it only strengthened her relationship with her cousins, and she liked that.

She nodded. "Makes sense. As long as you're okay with that, than that's okay!" Freya wasn't quite as enthusiastic during these few sentences as she wished she was able to be, but she seemed to be doing all right, so she let it go. The way she talked about it made it sound like he wasn't the right sort of person to hope for something more than a one time thing with, so she let it go.

Propping herself up on her elbows, she gave as much of a shrug as she could in that position. "It's been a while since you broke up with Kerr, so it kind of makes sense?" She and Gianna had talked about it briefly after it had happened; Brita had assumed she would have known about her brother and Freya, but she had been surprised to hear that her friend had heard about it only afterwards. Brita didn't know everything going on in her family tree, of course, there were just too many people; but she could twist Jesper's arm about it if she hadn't heard anything in a while. "Met anyone cute at Gringotts yet?" she teased. "Is there anyone else in your class you could see yourself dating, or are you mostly thinking of people you haven't met?"

The weird thing about the wizarding world was how small it could feel. Because of Hogwarts, people generally knew people within a few years of them, and they might have heard of people up to six years away if they occupied positions of prestige or power. Just look at her, 24 and still crushing on someone she'd known half her life ago.

Freya and Kerr hadn't been together for ages. While she'd harboured feelings for the boy for a while after they'd broken up, Freya had never acted on it. She hadn't had a boyfriend in her seventh year, despite sort of wanting one. "There are a couple of cute goblins at Gringotts," Freya said before bursting out laughing, unable to deliver a line like that with a straight face. After shaking her head, she added, "Yeah there are a couple of guys that I've seen working around there that are handsome or have nice smiles or whatever." Freya had always been the sort of person to quickly fall in and out of crush with guys. She'd had lots of whimsical crushes in school. "But I don't know. Sometimes I think Danny would ask me out, if he thought I'd say yes. But I think he's just a friend." She'd crushed on Danny before, but at the moment that wasn't where her mind went with the boy.

"Maybe someone I haven't met," she said, wondering if there were many young wizards in England that she didn't know. "Maybe someone foreign," she said dreamily, only half kidding. "I could probably transfer to Paris or something if this internship goes well," she mused out loud, before laughing at herself again. "You know, adjust my career goals to have a better chance of finding a boyfriend." Freya shook her head at herself, amused. She was glad that she could voice all of these silly thoughts with Brita without being judged or taken too seriously. She was a lucky girl.