{I’ve had my share of s a n d kicked into my face} Rod

It had been a pretty excellent maneuver, Roderick had thought. Lying! Ingenious invention, whatever trickster god who invented lying was a saint as far as Roderick was concerned. He had gotten off at 6, not 8, and had apparated directly home from the walk-in freezer. Mother yelled at him for smelling of grease, which, fair enough, he did rather stink of it, but it wasn't a payday so that was the worst of the bullshit at home. He had splurged for cheap Chinese from a takeaway place, eaten it at a park table with a warming charm around it with the kids. Kelsey played with the toad, Roderick gnawing on a spring roll and half supervising while going through a car magazine with Archie. Overall, it had been a good evening.

On the third day, Roderick was hoping against hope that Ben would just leave him be. It was, apparently, too much to hope for.

Colin was the one who warned him, this time. "Your boyfriend is back," he said good-naturedly, and Roderick spent a moment wondering how a double homicide would look on his application to Healing school. It took far too long to conclude that it would be a) bad and b) not worth it.

He looked down – with the joint, Colin was passing him a weird little note. Roderick unfolded it and stared. Stared and stared, finally giving up and rolling his eyes. "Guess my break's over," he muttered. The back door slammed behind him.

Roderick took over bar shift for Griffin for a moment. "Go piss," he hissed. That would be five minutes. He wiped down the bar until he came to Ben. "I have a half hour lunch that may or may not start on time at three in the afternoon, because working service is a goddamn nightmare," he said by way of greeting. "That work for you, Danvers?"

He wasn't entirely prepared for Roderick to suddenly appear, and definitely not with an agreement on his lips. He blinked, surprised, before a dimpled grin broke over his face. "Three-ish is fine. I'll be here on time and just wait for you. We can get whatever you want." he agreed hurriedly, sort of afraid he'd change his mind. He probably still could he supposed but he was feeling optimistic about this. The other boy was probably tired of seeing him everyday, he mused, pleased his persistence seemed to be getting him somewhere at least, even if that somewhere happened to be in pieces once Roderick was done with him.

"I'll be back." he added, again, as he got up from his seat in rush. "Have a nice few hours." he tacked on, his fingers coming up to wave, as he made it out of the shop. He was suddenly in a good mood, the rush of work put in being met with success gratifying. He supposed there was always room for being disappointed, of course, but for right now he seemed to be on track. He'd have to plot this out carefully, though, couldn't ruin lunch with something stupid. Rod could be volatile so he had to work to give him reasons not to be. Somehow he'd have to convince him that he was being sincere, though he had no idea how to go about it in a way that didn't result in being cut to bits or cursed into an irreconcilable mess.

He had a few hours, at the least, to come up with something viable.

Whatever you want. Roderick narrowed his eyes – he couldn't be that stupid, could he? Or maybe he was just that rich. How irritating. "Right," Roderick said, gruffly. Benjamin sounded a little... desperate. Roderick almost wanted to say pick something fancy, but that seemed a bit girlish of him. It wasn't a date, he was entertaining this child so he would be left alone.

Ben seemed to be satisfied with his business here, and got up in a hurry. I'll be back. "Right," Roderick said again, brow furrowed. Surely it couldn't be this easy. "I'll meet you out back." His hand came up halfway as if to wave. Roderick brought it back down heavily on the table. Merlin and Mordred. He watched Ben disappear out the front door, quizzical expression not melting off his face until Griffin tapped him on the shoulder, wanting his bar rag back.

–––

He slipped out the back door at three thirteen pm, only off his estimate by a quarter hour. His apron was neatly folded under his arm, Sasquatch pin gleaming. "Wolf and Hound? D'you know it?" he asked, slipping his wand out for Apparation.

He made it back at a few minutes before three, ever the punctual one, and he resisted the urge to fidget. He'd agonized about what to wear for what felt entirely too long a stretch, finally deciding on a nice button down but a green sweater overtop and some lined chinos. He wasn't sure where Rod would end up wanting to go and he was prepared for anything at this point. Maybe he'd choose somewhere awful, to make him squirm, and he didn't want to be overdressed. Maybe he'd pick somewhere posh, since he was paying anyway, and he didn't want to be underdressed. Hell he didn't even want to appear to be flaunting anything, either, so his choices were limited.

What was more is that to a point he just simply dressed a certain way. Still he took care anyway, not wanting to ruin this chance to talk, by being careless enough to ruin it before he opened his mouth to speak. Part of him definitely wondered why he was putting this much effort into this. He had nothing to gain from it, truly, and he couldn't understand his own motivations. His best guess was that, if he'd been in Rod's shoes, he'd want someone to just be there. To make the effort, maybe, make it feel like he mattered. He doubted Rod would take it like that but at least at that point he'd put his best foot forward. For good or ill this really was his last attempt. He wasn't so much a masochist as to keep getting dumped on and he figured he'd given Rod enough opportunity to get whatever animosity or doubt was still lingering in his system.

If there was more to it, after, it wasn't something he felt like he could resolve by that point. Sometimes things just were what they were and he'd need to accept that, no matter how much it rankled if this resulted in just another failed attempt. It didn't make it any easier to wait, though, and as the minutes ticked by the more disappointed he felt until, miraculously, Rod did show up. "Yes, I'll follow you then." he managed, looking both surprised and relieved, as he flicked his wrist and took his own wand out to apparate. At least he felt in-the-middle enough to skate by, in terms of dress code. Not what he'd be wearing if he'd gone with his father but easy enough that he didn't stand out at all. He wasn't going to mention his father had a open tab he cleared every month so Ben didn't really have to worry about what they'd be getting, despite the fact he'd loaded his pockets with galleons to be safe. He really had meant that Rod could have whatever, even if the whatever cost him several weeks of actual work he'd put in at the Vineyards.

Say what you wanted about his father but the elder Danvers made sure his sons worked for their galleons. He provided the essentials, quite graciously provided, but anything that Baylen and he wanted to spend money on they had to put the time and work for. His father, quite unlike his mother, wanted to instill the value of a galleon on his sons.