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Crescent City Institute - Pre-Thread
11:42 pm August 13th, 2010
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Pre-Thread
Characters: Rowan Cabot and Keegan Howe
Setting: Rowan's home in Danvers, Mass, some day in mid August, afternoon-ish
Content: PG-13/Safe for work, possible swearing
Summary: Keegan gets to meet Rowan's rather large familiar




It was one of the only rainy days so far that summer. Her parents and brother were gone for the day, and Rowan had made plans with Keegan to hang out at her house. She was a little nervous as this was the first time that she was planning on inviting Keegan up to her room. Merely to hang out - and maybe make out later - but it was her planning on bringing him into what amounted to her inner sanctum, so to speak. She had a surprise for him, of a kind, and hoped that this would go well, and so she was a tad nervous. Coming down to the kitchen to wait, she set about making a pot of coffee as she thought.

He was already welcome in her home according to her parents. He had met both her mother and father, and they had both rather liked him. He had yet to meet her brother, but she wasn't concerned about his reaction at all. There was one other being in her life that he had to pass inspection on, so to speak. She knew that he and Meka got along well, and she was starting to get rather close to his best friend Michiko. Things were moving along nicely as she thought about it, much better than she had ever thought the whole 'dating' thing could go. Se started up the coffee pot and made herself busy as she waited for the knock at the door.

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Thread started by Keegan Howe
howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 16th, 2010 10:19 pm (UTC) (Link)
It might have been the afternoon already, but that didn't mean Keegan hadn't just rolled out of bed. Getting up before two in the afternoon was rather difficult for him over summer breaks, both because he was lazy and he had a habit of staying up rather late. On this particular rainy day, he was up only an hour before the time he was due at her house because he'd been up with a few Muggle friends the night before.

Keegan only remained at the house for a short time before heading out; just long enough to shower and get dressed before he had to leave. He hit a Dunkin Donuts on the way to Danvers and somehow managed to pull into Rowan's driveway right on time.

He learned rather early on that it was preferred for him to go around to the back door. So after locking his car, he shoved his keys and cigarettes into the pockets of his jeans and headed around to the kitchen door, knocking lightly with a knuckle to announce his presence.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 17th, 2010 05:37 pm (UTC) (Link)
Rowan set down the coffee mugs she had gotten out of the cabinet when she heard the light tap at the door. Smiling, she went to open it for her boyfriend. It was still so strange to her to be able to call him that. This whole experience was so new to her she found that she was being caught off guard more often than not.

There was something really nice about having someone in her life who wanted to see her, and get closer to her. Someone who she could learn to open up to. Rowan smiled as she opened the door for him. "Hey! Ugh it looks terrible out there. Come on in, I just put coffee on." She stepped out of the way so that he could come in to the house.
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 18th, 2010 03:11 am (UTC) (Link)
As if it was rather natural already, Keegan smiled the moment Rowan came into view. He stepped in once she stepped out of the way, taking a glance behind him at where he once stood, moving to close the door out of habit. "Yea. Definitely not one of the best days of the summer."

Keegan turned back to see her and smiled again. Before Rowan could manage to get away from him to fetch the coffee, he moved in to give her a brief kiss in greeting. "Coffee is the best idea I've heard all day... though I've only been up for an hour."
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 18th, 2010 06:48 pm (UTC) (Link)
This was going to take some getting used to. Not that it was a bad thing, but she still started to blush - just a faint hint of pink in her cheeks now - whenever he kissed her so casually. Rowan kissed him back with a smile, making a low hum of enjoyment at the simple show of affection. She doubted that would ever get old.

Moving over to the coffee mugs, Rowan poured out two cups, and then moved to get the milk and sugar out. She was almost sure at this point how he took his coffee, but didn't want to assume anything yet.

"An hour? I envy that. Most of the time I just... wake up early and get up. I don't really sleep in unless I really need it." She smiled at him as she made her own coffee, adding milk and sugar to hers. She paused then, as if she were weighing her next words a little carefully. "If you don't mind, I thought we could take these upstairs? It's more comfortable to sit in my room than in the kitchen, and there's... something I wanted to show you."

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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 18th, 2010 09:47 pm (UTC) (Link)
"Oh yea, I'm sure to totally envy the fact that I'm a lazy ass," Keegan replied with a snicker, standing idly in her kitchen with his hands in his front pockets for a moment. He watched as she went to grab the milk and sugar, waiting until that point to walk over to where the cups were set so that he could fix up his own.

He went for the sugar when she was done with it, pausing partway through dumping a good portion in. That's how he liked it: black with plenty of sugar. "I don't mind at all. I'm more than willing to see whatever it is you want to show me." Keegan had to admit he was interested and curious. More so than if she had said it was anywhere else in the house.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 12:02 am (UTC) (Link)
"Sometimes it's nice to just lay in bed though. More often than not if I'm awake though, I need to be doing something, not just laying there. So I get up most of the time. So yeah, in a way I do envy that sometimes." She smiled and watched him make his coffee. Just as she thought. She would make a note of that for next time and just make it for him herself. It was easy enough, certainly. Smiling up at him, and with her coffee in hand, she said simply "Then follow me" and lead him out of the kitchen and up the stairs that were just on the other side of an archway.

The top floor of the house was a long hallway with rooms off of it. Her own was at the top of the stair, facing the back yard. She let him in the closed door, letting him precede her inside. The room was on the small side, a full sized bed on one side, a desk and chair, and many, many bookcases filled the room. It wasn't cluttered and everything seemed to have its place within the room, but there was a sense of a lot of stuff being packed into a room that was almost too small to hold it. Shelves on empty areas of the wall held books, but also small trinkets and figurines, and what appeared to be her altar was over beneath one window. A large grey mound sat atop her blue comforter. She looked almost anxiously over at him as if waiting for a reaction.
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 12:16 am (UTC) (Link)
With his coffee in hand, Keegan followed Rowan up the stairs. It was, perhaps, an odd thing to do, but he noted on the way up what stairs creaked and groaned under their weight. He'd found, in the past, that knowing such things made a silent getaway much easier. It was habit.

He entered her bedroom ahead of her, taking several steps inside before he stopped to take a look around. Her room was much smaller than his own and the items within it were fairly unsurprising. In fact, he would have been more surprised if there were less books in Rowan Cabot's room.

His eyes traveled over what he could see of some titles as well as those trinkets and figures as he said, "Nice room." Once his eyes finished the glance over, pausing for a moment at the gray mass on her comforter, he turned to grin back at her. "Naturally you have a miniature library."
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 12:36 am (UTC) (Link)
There were standard 'girly' things around, but not many and mostly they looked rather old. There was a small snow globe on one of those shelves, as well as some standard collectible things that one might find in the room of a 16 year old girl. A couple of feathers, a cool looking shell, a flat and smooth stone, an elephant shaped ceramic bank. Nothing out of the ordinary. But also no pictures around. On her nightstand was the flower he had charmed for her birthday.

"Thanks" she said to the first, and then, "Ha, are you kidding me? I wanted to put free-standing ones in the middle of the room for the rest of my books, but mom and dad won't let me." The titles ranged from obvious school books, to history books, to a very decent number of fantasy stories and fiction, including several leather-bound collections of fairy tales.

She moved toward the bed, a look of excited anticipation on her face as she did. "Ok, so I have something for you to see... or rather, someone for you to meet."
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 12:38 am (UTC) (Link)
He couldn't help but laugh at the mention of free standing bookshelves. It was both so typical and with a room like this, she'd barely be able to move around. His eyes went to the flower on the nightstand again for a moment while he sipped the coffee in his hands before nodding.

"Alright. Introduce away," Keegan's gaze shifted to the gray mound on her bed. Something told him that mound was who he was supposed to meet. But, for all he knew, she could surprise him with something else.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 12:45 am (UTC) (Link)
Rowan smiled at his laugh, and then again when he asked for the introduction. She indicated the very large, furry grey lump on her bed with her hand, saying "Grimalkin, this is Keegan. Keegan, this is Grim."

The mound of silver-ish grey fur uncurled its tail and stretched. Grim was a large cat... thing. Still on the young side, as was evident by his overlarge paws and ears and young looking face, Grim easily weighed 20 lbs already. The cat regarded him with an intelligent look in its green eyes as it came over to the edge of the bed, his eyes on Keegan's the whole time.
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 12:49 am (UTC) (Link)
Keegan's eyes remained on the cat... thing... while its eyes remained on him. The way his eyes went a little wide marked that he was a bit surprised by the size of Grim already. Still, this was probably Rowan's familiar, thus intelligent, and he shouldn't start going "Here, kitty, kitty".

"Well, nice to meet you Grim," he said with a smile at the large cat. Keegan remained still instead of moving closer to the bed for the moment, remembering the temperament of his own familiar. If it was a good idea, Rowan would say so.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 01:05 am (UTC) (Link)
Two things happened at once. Rowan said to Keegan, "It's alright to come say hello with a proper pet if you want. I have a feeling that you both are going to get along fine."

At the same time, and as Rowan watched, Grim yawned and then looked up at Keegan with a deliberate feline look of sizing up competition before arching his neck out toward the newcomer, looking to sniff his hand.

Once Rowan saw him do that, she arched an eyebrow. "Well this is a good sign, anyway."

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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 01:10 am (UTC) (Link)
"Oh, that's comforting," Keegan looked back at her with a smirk at her comment about the sign as he went to move over towards the bed, and therefore closer to Grim. He hoped she was right. Even though Grim was only a cat, or at least cat-like, maybe one of those Kneazle things he heard about, but it was important to her. Or so he assumed.

Keegan knelt down in front of the bed, one leg on the floor while the other remained bent so he could use it to rest his coffee on while still holding onto the hand. Then he hand went to Grim, hovering within the cat's reach for the necessary sniffing test.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 01:18 am (UTC) (Link)
Oh it was very important to her. Grim was a rather important part of Rowan's life, and to have him like Keegan would be a weight off her shoulders. Even just for the reason of if they were spending time in her room and grim was there, the two of them being friendly would make things calmer.

Grim reached over to sniff at Keegan's hand, looking at his eyes as he did. It was only a few seconds before the large grey cat head-butted Keegan's hand in an attempt to get some scratches out of him. Rowan laughed aloud, clearly happy that this was going well. She moved to sit on the bed with her coffee. "Well, he definitely likes you. Last time someone he didn't like did that, there were sutures involved."
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 01:25 am (UTC) (Link)
Oh, that made him so much more comfortable about the situation. It was always fun to find out that you were just in a situation where your hand could have gotten mauled.

Still, Keegan looked happy enough that Grim seemed to like him, no sutures aside, and let the smile show on his face. Grim wanted scratches and petting, and so Keegan was happy to provide plenty of attention as he shifted to sit on the bed. It made it so much easier.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 01:44 am (UTC) (Link)
Grim submitted to the attention as any cat would, really. With dignity and poise, for the most part. Until apparently he had enough with that part and wanted some other attention.

The large cat/kneazle hybrid dropped his poise and rolled over to in between the two high school students, only to roll onto his back, looking for tummy rubs. Rowan laughed again. "Oh yeah. I mean, I would have warned you if he started growling, but as he didn't I knew you would be fine. I've never seen him do this before though."
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 01:48 am (UTC) (Link)
Keegan couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the display of 'pet me' between the two of them. It was horribly cute and, well, a little unexpected. "Well, I'm glad he likes me," he answered with a small shrug, "Even enough to do this."

In a small way, he felt a little flattered. An important part of Rowan's life liked him, and liked him enough to do something even she had never seen. Still, he took a sip of his coffee before he proceeded to give Grim those desperately wanted tummy rubs. He was a sucker for cute.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 02:00 am (UTC) (Link)
The vibrations from Grim's purring could be felt on the covers of Rowan's bed. Raising one eyebrow at her familiar, she looked up at Keegan with an expression that was partly one of amusement and partly one of surprise. "I'm really glad too. I was almost worried for a moment... but that was silly of me. I mean, how could he not like you?"

She knew Keegan to be well-intentioned. Somehow, deep down she knew that he would never hurt her, despite his outwardly troublemaker demeanor. Which she loved. It gave him an air of mystery and excitement which frequently made her. She knew though that he was a sweet boy at heart, and she could see now that her instincts were right for once, doubt them though she may. If she were wrong, Grim would have taken a swipe at him at the very least.
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 02:07 am (UTC) (Link)
He was amused, and certainly enjoying himself, and it was visible by the smile on his face. Keegan shrugged again in answer of her question, though. "I was hoping that was the case. I like to think I'm easy to like."

Keeping one hand busy paying attention to Grim until either his hand got tired or Grim decided he had enough from him for the moment, he used the other to work on his coffee. He hadn't had any before he left the house, so it was certainly helping.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 02:17 am (UTC) (Link)
Rowan worked on her own coffee as Keegan and Grim became better acquainted. She smiled at the image of her boyfriend and the other close male in her life as they stayed there on the bed together. "I think so too. I had been hoping you would get along with each other. I think that you'll get to like him, honestly. You two are rather alike in temperament sometimes."

Grim stayed there, purring like a fiend for perhaps another half a minute more, before getting himself up, and moving from between them. He moved to rub his head against Rowan's elbow and then continue on behind her as she spoke to Keegan.

"He's fun to have around. Although sometimes it seems like he gets some rather interesting ideas of what I should and shouldn't be doing at any giv-- oof!" She moved as if propelled forward toward Keegan's face, not far enough to accidentally hit into him, but close enough to make her blush after a moment. Grim was standing on his hind legs, his front legs up on Rowan's shoulders, looking directly at Keegan for a moment.

"I, um... I..." She blushed a little deeper, inches from his face. For his part, Grim politely looked away it seemed.
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 02:23 am (UTC) (Link)
He was about to ask what she meant by being alike in temperament, and if that was a good or bad thing, when she suddenly came towards him. The hand previously used to pet her familiar shot out to catch her, though she managed to stop herself before she actually needed it.

Keegan's eyes glanced from her to the cat pushing on her shoulder for a moment before he smiled again. Well. This was just convenient.

"I like Grim," was the only thing he said, in amusement, before he moved to kiss her. He only stopped smiling when his lips touched hers, catching her in a lingering kiss. It was pretty clear to him what Grim's cue was, and as weird as it was for a cat to push her into it, it was an opportunity he wasn't going to miss.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 02:32 am (UTC) (Link)
She kissed him back with a kind of embarrassed scrunching up of her nose and forehead. The pressure on her shoulder eased almost as soon as she was kissing Keegan. This was an activity that she was sure that she was never going to get tired of, so she kissed him back, losing the embarrassment in place of the sheer joy she got when his lips touched hers.

When the kiss did break, she looked up at him with pink cheeks but a playful smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "I rather like him too..."
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howemuchtrouble From: [info]howemuchtrouble Date: August 19th, 2010 02:40 am (UTC) (Link)
There was no need to move away much when the kiss broke, and the smile reappeared on his face once they pulled apart. A light chuckle escaped at her words. He would have looked to see where Grim had gone, as he didn't see the gray mass on her shoulder in his peripheral, but he really didn't care to look away from her at the moment.

Keegan's free hand came up to gently move over her cheek as he moved in yet again. Their relationship was still on the newer side and as many times as he had kissed her thus far, it was never going to get old. He was never going to stop taking every opportunity he had to do it, either.
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cabotine From: [info]cabotine Date: August 19th, 2010 02:54 am (UTC) (Link)
Rowan was still getting a thrill in her stomach every time her lips touched his, even in the slightest. She never figured she would ever get used to that, and so far, almost two months together and she hadn't gotten used to it yet. Some part of her never wanted to have this wonderful feeling become average, everyday, normal, the usual. It felt too good to her to ever be commonplace.

The hand moving on her cheek was a new one too. Rowan wasn't quite used to the casual touches either, and she silently blessed her familiar for doing this and pushing her forward.

Grim for his part, gave the pair an approving look as he jumped from the bed and left the room. They didn't appear to need his help anymore.
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