walk slow | [montse]

“You think they’ll add glitter to mine?” she asked, looking at the paints available on the table as well as the other kids that were still crowded around the booth. Montserrat wondered if they would be running into any other adults with face paintings but she figured probably not, only because everyone else around them was probably too cool for things like these but the witch enjoyed them. It was nice to do things without feeling judged for doing them and Jeremy certainly seemed like the type not to judge, something she overwhelmingly liked about him already.

“I like the dragon,” she said her eyes going from one design to the other to the other as she considered the best options, “the dragon matches your hair,” she said with a smile, “or—you could get…two?” she offered, figuring that if they were already getting the face paintings done anyway, they might as well go all out with it. And even then, two paintings were certainly better than one, all things considered. She found his excitement over the entire matter particularly endearing. Moving up in the line, she looked over at him, “Did you decide or you want me to go first?” she asked, nothing there was only one little girl in front of them and she had asked for a heart so Montserrat figured that wouldn’t take much time at all.

“If you look at all the options, it’s going to be hard to decide,” she offered, “but we could always come back later and get more,” she added with a small laugh, watching as the woman drew the heart on the little girls face, very excited for her unicorn.

Jeremy looked at the kid's who were finished getting their faces painted, noting the sparkles, before turning back to Montse with an enthusiastic grin. "Looks like!" He told her, nodding toward the group waiting outside the queue for the last of their party to get the little heart she'd requested painted. "I think the sparkles are magical too..." he said as he watched in awe when the butterfly one of the young girls had gotten flew from one side of her face to the other and left a trail of glimmering sparkles in its wake. Everything was better with magic, Jeremy knew this.

"Dragon it is, it suits my personality best anyway," he told her with mock confidence as he puffed out his chest again like he thought a true comic book superhero might. His theatrics quickly turned to laughter as they moved up in the line and he knew he'd made his choice. "You want to go first?" He asked her with a friendly motion toward the stool that was now empty. The young witch in front of them had gotten a quick heart painted on her cheek and Jeremy moved forward as they reached the front of the line.

"Maybe I will take one more look... just in case..." He said softly, rubbing the fuzz on his chin as she approached the face painting witch.

“Oh, they are, how fun,” Montserrat added, bringing her hands together in much excitement as she thought how much fun the face painting was going to be but also wondering how long it would last. It wasn’t something she could very well wear to work but it was definitely something the young patients at St. Mungo’s would enjoy. Maybe she would bring up a similar event at a future staff meeting to see if there was any interest in it. “Everything is better with sparkles, isn’t it?” she added, realized how very much in synch it had been with his earlier comment about sprinkles. And she had been worried about the sort of guy her mother had set her up with. So far, this date was going quite well.

“Does it? Dragons might be my new favorite magical creature then,” she teased, watching him put on a display and smiling at his pose. She nodded in agreement to his suggestion, moving to sit down on the stool,  bringing the coffee cup down to rest on her lap for a moment. Though she had half expected for the woman to make a comment about her age, she only asked her what design she wanted, “The unicorn, with the sparkles, please,” she said almost as if she had practiced her response, probably the same way many of the little kids had done so. Looking over at Jeremy curiously, she laughed, “You ought to get the one you like best, go with your gut,” she suggested.

It was, after all, how she had made many of her decisions in the past. She forced her face to relax so that the woman could work comfortable, “How does it look?”

When she moved to take a seat and told the artist what she'd like Jeremy made his way to the side of the booth where the painter was. He gave Montse a little wiggle of his eyebrows before he leaned in to whisper something to the witch running the booth. He asked her to make the unicorn fly from one cheek to the other, along the trail of a shiny rainbow, so his date could have both of the things she'd considered. Jeremy thought it would make her happy, hoped it would, and so he couldn't have stopped himself from doing it even if he tried. The artwitch smiled at him and nodded as he laughed a little and backed up. She'd probably smelt the alcohol on his breath, but he wasn't worried about that either.

Turning to look at her beautiful face when she asked Jeremy was giddy at the face painting. It was sparkly and cute and completely childish but in the very best of ways. He was so glad to have managed to get a date with a witch who seemed so easy going. He was having such a fun time with her and he desperately hoped she was feeling the same. He leaned over a little, feeling tingly from the alcohol and reached for a hand mirror to hold up to her. "It looks amazing! What do you think?" He asked her before it was his turn to sit down.

Jeremy asked for a dragon, a red fiery one, and the painter obliged him. He was impressed with how quickly it came along but when she said she was finished he grinned. "Whatcha think?" He asked as the dragon on his cheek flapped it's wings and did a flip inside of a swirling smoke ring. Jeremy set his cup down for a moment, nearly spilling it, as he reached into his pocket to pay for both of them and give the women a good tip.

Montserrat wasn’t really sure what Jeremy and the artist were discussing but figured that maybe he was asking for advice on what to get as a face painting. She felt a little apologetic for not being able to give him a proper answer like he might have been looking for but the witch often struggled with making decisions on behalf of others. She had always believed it wasn’t proper to push her beliefs or ideals onto others, no matter how much they asked for it, and when it came to advice, Montserrat had always been the sort to ask leading questions or talk about her personal experiences rather than to give an answer. Of course, this didn’t apply to her job, there she had to be different.

She couldn’t really tell what the woman was doing with the sweeping of her art brushes but it looked like she was putting forth considerable effort on her face painting, something that Montserrat was very excited for. And what was better was that Jeremy had reacted so positively to it as well, taking a look in the mirror he held out for her she smiled, watching the unicorn disappear from one cheek then appear on the other as it left a rainbow trail. So, that was what he had been discussing with the woman. “It’s perfect, couldn’t have picked a better design myself,” she added excitedly.

Montserrat moved out of the chair to allow him to sit on it, watching with awe as the dragon on his cheek came to life, it had turned out so well. “It suits you,” she offered, instinctively almost reaching out for his cup, though he was able to keep it from spilling, as he paid the woman. “Thanks, Jeremy, let you get you something next time, alright?” she offered, figuring it wouldn’t be right to have him pay for everything, especially if they would be stopping at every booth. “What shall we do next? The games? Or maybe look at some of the small trinket shops?” She sounded enthusiastic because she was, but also a little drunk.

"Maybe," he gave her another playful smile when she said she'd like to pay for something. Jeremy didn't have much experience with the dating scene but he'd seen enough of the late-night romcoms on the muggle television Greg had bought for the apartment to know chivalry was a thing. He wanted to wow her, even if it meant breaking open the cauldron shaped piggy bank he kept hidden in his hamper. It was the only place his roommates wouldn't go sniffing around, literally.

They finished with the face painting booth and ventured back out into the main street of the fair. Jeremy sipped his drink again, it was starting to cool off but the alcohol kept it from tasting too dull. When she brought up ideas of where to go next he took a quick look toward the trinkets booth she was motioning to and chewed on his lip. "Well I'm kind of banned from that booth, since last year when I broke some stuff..... but I can stand back while you look!" He tried to finish quickly, a little pink rising in his cheeks. He truly was a menace when it came to small breakable items. There was an entire glass pipe and bowl graveyard in a shoebox under his bed.

"Or I can impress you with my ring toss prowess?" He chuckled, but really he did want to impress her.

Montserrat was going to pay for something eventually, she wouldn’t argue with him about it because she figured he was just being sweet and polite like he had been thus far. “Well we wouldn’t want you to break anything else,” she said, her tone light as she looked around at the variety of things that surrounded them, having a difficult time choosing what she wanted to do first. Montserrat had never been to this sort of thing before, at least not during her time in London which was ashamed because she felt like a kid in a candy store, debating one thing over the other, trying hard to figure out where they might occupy their time best for now until they moved onto the next activity. “No, no, it’s no fun if you have to stand back, let’s do something we can do together,” she offered. After all, that was the entire point of them being on a date.

The good thing was that he didn’t really make her nervous and though she had learned to control her consensimency much better than in the past, Montserrat did not really feel hesitant about standing close to him or had not even felt odd about holding his hand. She looked up at him with a smile as she nodded in agreement, taking a much more generous sip from her coffee, the alcohol feeling warm as it traveled down her throat.

“Impress me, huh? Well you’re way on your way,” she added as she started to walk in that direction, waiting for him to accompany her. “I’ve never played ring toss before so maybe you can teach me how to do it?” she wondered, “Are you good at sports and things like that?” she asked as a follow up. They had sort of talked about exercise but maybe he had played Quidditch at school or something. She was curious.

He smiled brightly at her, loving that she wanted to do things they could do together. He felt the same way. He wanted to spend the whole day with her if she'd let him, and that made him feel warm and fuzzy on the insides. It had been a long time since he'd felt this way. It had been a long time since he'd been on a date sure, but Jeremy had sort of gotten used to being a bachelor. It was just his default now, so even though he thought about witches plenty, he had resigned to the fact that he was going to be single a while. Now he was tempted to wonder if that was all about to change, and the idea was exciting and terrifying all at once. It was only the first date, and they were only an hour or so in, but he had a good feeling. A romantic at heart it was easy for the wizard to find hope though.

Moving down the road with her he put his hands back at his sides and grinned at her questions. "Oh yeah I can show you how to play it." He told her with another sip of his liquid courage. "The trick is to overshoot it since the whole thing is rigged." He whispered to her, his free hand cupping his mouth toward her like he was giving up state secrets or something. Laughing he nodded to her next question. "Dunno' if I would say good, but I did play Quidditch back at Hogwarts." He felt right saying it this way, even though he'd of loved to puff up his chest, he felt comfortable telling her real things.

"I played keeper for five years. How about you?" He asked as they made their way through the crowd and toward the little tents that housed the carnival type games.

“You’d think they want people to win, but I suppose the draw of cheating people out of sickles is much stronger,” she noted in response, a smile on her face as he divulge the information as if he were telling her something very secretive. Montserrat didn’t like the idea of people preying on innocent folk for their own financial gain, especially if those people were mostly children, as was made obvious by the crowd they were surrounded by. It was a quality that she had gotten from her father, who for many years ran a program at his private practice that charged based on the family’s ability rather than the actual cost for treatment. But Montserrat reminded herself to lighten up because they were just at a fair, not protesting for the medical rights of others.

“Did you really?” she looked at him in surprise, though it made perfect sense, he did seem to have the build for athletic activities, “No, I never played, unfortunately,” she replied, though her reason was more related to her consensimency rather than her desire. Montserrat kept to herself a lot at school, and with a brother that often shined in the sport in his own right, it felt like even more pressure to try to keep up with his talent. “My brother plays for Braga Broomfleet, though, so I’ve more or less always been a big fan,” she added casually, it always seemed like a normal thing to express to others as it had been such a normal part of life.

But she didn’t want to come off as a braggart, either. “Not that I’m trying to brag or anything,” she laughed nervously, “But it’s hard to want to play when there’s so much pressure to be at a pro level from the start,” she added. “You never thought about going pro?”

Jeremy agreed with her assessment, hating that the games were rigged against them, it kind of took the fun out of it. At least at first, but he'd spent so many sickles on these things over the years he had learned his own way to game the system. And he supposed that was fun it's own right. Like learning a new strategy, and he was eager to show off for her. "Sure did." He answered quickly with a smile and just as soon as he;'d said it he was thankful he hadn't exaggerated too much. "Wait, he does?" Jeremy asked, immediately interested but kicking himself for seeming so. He loved the Broomfleet, not as much as his Falcons, but they were good in their own league. He wondered who her brother was but he stayed quiet.

Though he didn't have any real experience with what she was mentioning he did have an older sister who, like her father, had always had such a back for the family business, and even though Jeremy was just as good at herbology as they were it never felt like enough. He did his own sort of gardening of course, and that probably had a lot to do with it. He always felt like he was letting his father down, which was why he tried to not think about it too much.

Answering her question with a shrug and tossing his empty cup into a can dramatically he spoke, "Nah, I wasn't great or anything... also they have to get up like... really early for practices." Jeremy shuddered at the idea. Getting up twenty minutes before he was supposed to be at work for the ministry was hard enough and most days he failed. He gave her a glance, stealing another look and smiling, as he returned her question in a sort of way. "How about you? Did you always want to be a healer?"

“He does! His name is Joan, I don’t think he plays as much as he used to, he can be a bit difficult,” she said, happy to give him more information if he wanted it, at least that way she could talk Quidditch things with him. For someone that had played for so long, it only made sense to assume that he enjoyed the other aspects of the game as well, like watching it or going to games. Things seemed to be headed in the right direction and if they were, Montserrat made a mental note to remember to take him to a game once, if she could convince Joan to give her tickets like he often did with all his other friends. There was also Harlan, but the witch didn’t feel they were close enough for her to start calling him in for favors.

“Oh don’t say that,” she replied almost immediately, hitting him lightly on the arm as if to emphasize that she didn’t believe it when he said he wasn’t great at it. “You don’t have to be humble about it or anything, if you played for so long you must’ve been pretty good,” she offered instead, “Anyone that can stick to anything for that long must be pretty good at it,” she explained her reasoning further. It took a lot of work to be motivated enough to do anything for longer than a year, even if he was indeed not the best on the team, the fact that he stuck to something for so long only made her believe that he had ambition. And that was always a positive thing in her book.

“Well, yes and no,” she explained, gathering her thoughts for a moment before continuing, “My father used to teach at Jehenne, the medical school in Andorra then did some private practice work for a bit, my mum is a Botanist, so in a way, I was always pushed in that direction. But I’ve also always wanted to do something in which I could help others, and healing seemed a perfect way to do that,” she explained. “What about you? Did you always dream of working at the Ministry?”

"Well, I mean, I wasn't good enough to go pro like your brother or anything," Jeremy added with a little bit of a shrug, but he wasn't ashamed about it. He hadn't been outstanding, but he hadn't tried very hard either. The Gryffindor had been just good enough to be the keeper for his house team a few years, but not remotely close enough to get scouted or offered a job. And his heart wouldn't have been in it anyway, so it all worked out for the best. He had loved playing on the team, it was one of his favorite parts about Hogwarts, but that wasn't what he wanted to do when he grew up. If he ever grew up. "But it was fun, so much fun." He finished with a smile as they kept walking.

Jeremy lead them toward where the little shooting games and ring toss were set up as they spoke about their jobs, and she told him about how she had become a mediwitch. He nodded, really listening, and waited for her to finish before he commented. "That's such a nice thing to do." He said with another little grin. Maybe it was the alcohol, but the redhead felt like things were going well. There was a vibe between them, he thought, and that made him feel tingly too. Jeremy never really got the chance to show it, but he was a romantic at heart. He was a lazy goofball with a meaningless job who only had vegetables when they came on top of nachos (and barely then), but he was also a thoughtful softie who wanted nothing more than to make someone happy.

"No, not really," he smiled so big that the corners of his mouth nearly reached his eyes. There was a glimmer in them at Montse's question, because he thought it was an adorable thing to ask. "Kind of just landed there, I suppose, it's great, but I won't be there forever." He was probably going to fired at some point, but also because he wanted to do something else eventually. He didn't have any grand plans, but he'd like to make a real living off of his botanical expertise, not just as a drug dealer. "Would love to become a herbologist, but that's like... waaaaay off in the future." He waved toward the distance as he said it, accentuating his point and giving her another grin.

He was absolutely amazed by how pretty she was, but the fact that she was intelligent, and kind, just tipped the scales forever in her favor. She was picture perfect, and he was not worthy. Jeremy watched her for a moment, memorizing how she smiled and the way she carried herself because he didn't want to forget if things went south. "Ring toss or the shooting game first?" He asked her abruptly as they arrived at the game booths.

“To be honest, Joan isn’t really that good of a player, to begin with,” she said with a smile, it was only half a joke after all. It wasn’t that Montserrat wanted to rob her brother of the hard work and dedication he must have put forward to even be considered by a professional team, or the national team he participated in once in a while. But at the same time, the witch found it difficult to praise her brother when he was so careless about everything related to his career, only paying special attention to the parts he enjoyed about it: the partying, the girls, and the bad publicity. While Montserrat wasn’t really sure about how well he played Quidditch to begin with, Jeremy didn’t seem the type to take on a job for the sake of image or to meet a ton of girls. But maybe he was just as popular with girls as Joan was, he was handsome and charismatic enough.

Montserrat was often asked about why she had chosen a career in healing and often felt that her response was never really up to par with the adventurous journey others might have been expecting. If talking about her condition were any easier, she might have added that, in addition to her family background, a career in the field of healing was only second nature. In her field, her condition, one she often found to be more burdensome than anything, was a blessing in disguise. This was especially true working with children who often had no one advocating (or even to understand) their needs. But Montserrat had planned her life out meticulously, Jeremy on the other hand, seemed to have a much better approach to pursuing a career. “A herbologist?” she looked at him curiously, “That sounds fantastic, Jeremy,” she added, her smile widening. “But I like the approach, you know, of going through a job or two just to experience it,” she continued. “I think if I wasn’t so focused on becoming a healer I might have liked to work in a shop or maybe even at the Ministry as well but politics aren’t really my strong suit,” she added.

She hadn’t really noticed that they had arrived at the booths until he pointed it out, very interested in the conversation the two of them had been having. It was just general conversation so far, as was often the case on first dates, but Montserrat already felt as if she were starting to see little glimpses of who he was and that, for her at least, felt as if things were going rather well. “Oh~” she looked to both booths with much interest, pointing at the stuffed toy Kneazle above the booth. “The shooting game?” she suggested, “I’d like that one,” she added with a dimpled smile. Montserrat would try her best to get it herself but in case she wasn’t any good, maybe Jeremy would come through and save the day by getting it for her.

Montserrat looked over at the person handling the booth who nodded when she paid him, “I’ll get the first round,” she insisted, and handed her over the guy, not really sure how to hold it. “Could you—show me how to do this, exactly?” she turned to look up at Jeremy with a nervous smile.

Smiling at her confession about what she might have done if she hadn't become a healer Jeremy thought that was a really cute thing to say. He would never have the patience to be a mediwizard, but he could certainly be impressed by those who had stuck it out and made it into the field as she had. He only assumed it was a lot of hard work, and tough decisions and his job had neither. Just the way he liked it. "Same," he commented quickly after she mentioned not being a big fan of Ministry politics. "Luckily we're pretty much removed from them down in the mailroom, I just deliver the messages and packages, don't have to make any decisions or anything." It was nice, it was tedious and sometimes felt meaningless, but at least it wasn't complex.

Watching as she pointed to the stuffed animals hanging at the top of the little game tent Jeremy felt motivated, galvanized even, to make sure she won (or he won) that stuffed kneazle before the day was out. It was going to happen. Even if he had to bribe the tenant later, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. "As you wish, milady," Jeremy said goofily with a little bow, playful as ever, and a wide smile. As they stepped up and he moved to pull some sickles out of his pocket but she was beating him to it, "Thanks," he said, still grinning and then saw her holding the gun awkwardly.

Taking a step or two toward her when she asked for help Jeremy felt nervous but also excited to stand so close to her. It was silly, he was an adult not some shy teenager, but he still felt it. He really wanted to impress her, for her to have a fun time, and to leave happy. He was really hoping for a second date too, and Jeremy never thought more than an hour or two ahead, so that was a big step for him. "Well you hold this end, to start," he chuckled as he moved to stand somewhat behind her but also to the side. Enough that he could rearrange the gun in her grips and then keep one hand on top of hers as he helped her aim it. Jeremy had never shot a real gun, nothing like that, but he'd played enough muggle video games to know how they worked. And this was just an enchanted squirt gun, nothing crazy.

"So you see that little pointed part on the top of the barrel, you line that up with what you wanna shoot." Standing so close to her his chest was nearly touching her shoulder, and the closeness gave him a chill. It had been a long time since Jeremy Edwards had been on a date, but he has to have so much fun that he'd nearly forgotten that for a little while. He leaned outward a little, to see her face from where he was standing and then gave her a quick nod. "Give it a go," he said with a smile, finally bringing his hand down and side-stepping back, the pleasant scent of her perfume lingering with him.

Although Montserrat found his humility endearing, she found it difficult to believe that anyone could work at the Ministry of Magic without even an opinion on the world of politics, even if he was in the mailroom delivering messages and packages. However, the witch was grateful that he didn’t use their time together to engage her in that sort of conversation, and figured it was simply his politeness that was shining through. Which in turn only made her like him even more, the fact that he could read the air as some said a gift even the healer had trouble with at times. But she made a mental note to remind herself to read the Daily Prophet more diligently, even the pages she often skipped over for the more entertaining gossip sections. 

Even if he was serious underneath all of this silly charm, Montserrat was very impressed with this side of him already. He seemed to enjoy having fun, not caring as to what others thought of him or his actions, he seemed to live freely. She was a little envious of it; the healer had always had difficulty expressing her true feelings to others for fear that they would reject what she was saying or how she felt about certain issues. She was the type to constantly look around, wondering if others were paying attention to what she was doing and had an opinion on it. But with Jeremy, Montserrat had felt herself truly relax, her cheeks already feeling a little sore from all the smiling she had done since they had met up at the coffee shop.

“Oh—” she giggled a little nervously, feeling silly for holding up the gun at the wrong angle, to begin with, he probably thought she was stupid for doing so. But Montserrat prided herself in being a quick learner and because of this, followed his directions as best as she could, trying to ignore the mild tingling sensation that buzzed under her skin every time someone got so close to physical contact. “You’ve done this before?” she asked softly now that he was closer. She wasn’t familiar with guns at all but the closer she inspected it the more she realized how intricate its structure was, though she wasn’t really sure what came out of a real gun, probably not water.

She turned her head to the side a little to look up at him, giving him a dimpled smile and nodding with a brief thanks before she attempted to aim the best that she could, taking a deep breath before pulling the trigger, the water just missing the target. Montserrat pouted playfully, “Ah, that was so close!” she lamented, “You try it!” she insisted, “I usually don’t win anything at these sorts of things, money is better spent on the professionals,” she teased, handing the gun over to him and moving to the side to let him go for it.