have another drink, get lost in us • • r a i n e r

If Gabrielle had cared what her parents thought, she would have been home hours ago. She wouldn't have gone to a party the night before school went back. As it was, however, the blonde had let an older friend apparate her to the last party before term went back and now she was returning home, a little tipsy, with one of her closest friends in tow. It was after midnight, but before one. There were plenty of hours before she'd have to be ready for school and besides... her bag was already packed.

Gabrielle and Rainer had been drifting apart over the last year or so. A part of it was probably Max. When Gabrielle and Max had passed the two month mark and things had started getting a little more serious, she'd naturally started spending more and more time with him over her other friends. Now that she and Max had broken up, however, Gabrielle was reconnecting with her friends a little. Rainer was always near or at the top of her list - the fact that their friendship reached so far back meant something. Besides, when they drank, Gabrielle and Rainer always managed to find each other.

"Yeah, Max is great but... Seven months is a long time, you know?" Gabrielle stepped out of her fireplace into the pitch-black room, brushing grey ash from her clothes as she searched for the wall light. She swayed a little, but eventually found the lamp on the wall. The pair were cast in a soft, warm yellow light. It was atmospheric, she thought, meeting his eyes with a smile. Gabrielle had become accustomed to navigating through her empty house in the dark. Her parents had been going away so much since last December. This summer had been particularly bad for it; she'd spent many weekends alone in their big house, and tonight was no different.

Did she hate them a little bit for it? Well, she'd never say as much, but anyone who knew her well would be able to tell that the particular type of politeness she had in her tone when she spoke of her parents these days was crystalline; all sharp, cold edges. The girl ran a hand through her silky hair, checking for bits of ash from the fireplace. It was very soft, like she'd used all kinds of potions on it, but of course for her it came naturally.

It was weird for Rai to think that he didn’t know the girl in front of him nearly as well as he once had. They had drifted apart, partly because she did not seem to need him like she once had, what with all her admirers these days, and he had Emma to spend time with now too. When she had invited him to one her many parties, it was easy to say yes. He might not been the same boy he had been a few years ago, but she was still one of his longest friends, and he missed her.

A part of him worried about getting back to meet Jaspar at the end of the night, since the Travars’ had been kind enough to let him stay with them this summer. He was not spending much time at home with his family these days, he might have not been born into wizarding culture, but he had certainly been influenced by it – enough to where he did not really have much in common with his family anymore, especially with the pre-existing tensions. In fact, as of late the boy was not sure that he fit in anywhere anymore, because he was not a born wizard, either. He was stuck between two worlds, really.

He was thankful for the warm buzz that was running through him right now. He did not drink a ton, but he enjoyed the buzz when he did. It also helped him to keep him from being caqught up on things like his family. Pulling himself from his personal revere, casually looking around the Delacour home, having not been there in a while, either as he listened to Gabby. “It is a long time, I suppose, but you must have liked him for it to go on that long, no?” He said, returning his smile with one of his own.

It was strange to find himself sitting in her house, talking like they had when they were a few years younger, yet plenty had changed in the meantime, like the threads of time that seemed to stand still, but kept moving all the same. "Where are your parents?" he asked casually, expecting them to be off on some extravagant holiday "And how's Fleur?" It felt silly to be wasting his buzz on small talk, but they hadn't had time to catch up properly till now.

"They're at a couple's retreat, pretending they're in love I expect," Gabrielle said, her voice cool and polite but her words biting. Since she'd found out about her mother's affair, Gabrielle hadn't really bought into anything her parents did; especially not when they were abandoning her the night before school went back to do it. Apparently they were going to be back before she left, but at the moment Gabrielle didn't trust them to keep their promises. She knew they still fought behind closed doors, even though they pretended everything was fine when they were eating breakfast together, making awkward small talk. Apolline had also started buying Gabrielle expensive gifts out of nowhere. Things like that might have worked to win Gabby on side when she was a little girl, but they didn't work anymore. She didn't work like that anymore.

"Fleur is fine as far as I know." She hadn't spoken to her sister for a little while either, though there was considerably less enmity there when she thought of Fleur. Gabrielle hovered by the kitchen bench. "Did you want anything to eat? Drink? My father has some very expensive alcohol around here somewhere." He ran a cider business, after all. Gabrielle didn't often drink more than a glass of wine but tonight she'd had a few and she was feeling a little less inhibited and a little more likely to act on the growing resentment she'd been feeling towards her parents. "How about you?" she asked, hanging her handbag on the hat rack by the front door. "How's home?" The pair used to talk about things like this at length, but it had been a while since they'd even been together one on one. The blonde didn't regret asking him to come back with her for a little while. A part of her hoped he'd stay longer than a little bit.