Who: Elsie Branstone and Noah Boot
What: BOOT/BRANSTONE FUN TIMES? aka Lunch
Where: A...deli
When: Today!
It wasn't that Elsie didn't enjoy working at Flourish and Blotts. It really wasn't. She enjoyed her job a
lot, because she was a the bookish sort who liked curling up with a good novel, and so she liked her retail job just
fine.
And it wasn't that she didn't like Gilderoy Lockhart and their qausi-half-on-the-sly relationship business either. It was slightly peculiar than most, to be sure, and she really disliked all the attention he got because it meant
she was dragged into it as the nameless blonde he was
recently with, which meant he was a ladies' man too, and she didn't know if she was supposed to tell people she was seeing him or not, so she just made up vague excuses about "a man" after their initial date and it was just--very confusing. And she really, really hated confusing.
Which was why she looked forward to her lunches with Noah much, much more, because his droll attitude and sardonic appraisal of her life events was something she could generally count on. Even if he really was a big softy with the cutest adopted kid she'd ever seen.
She sat cross-legged on the bench, too distracted to actually read the book that was in her hands. Besides, he'd caught her off-guard while she was reading for how long now? So it was about time she started paying attention.
He was probably going to have to invest in a stroller. Noël had stated this in her flurry of sending over baby products and helping set up Terry's nursery, but Noah had refuted the ideas, stating that he liked carrying the baby around, it made him feel safer, closer.
But holy crap, who thought that a little thing like Terry could be so heavy/need to have so much luggage? Sure, charms helped make his diaper bag lighter, but that didn't mean it wasn't constantly smacking people in the side, or getting caught on random hooked places on route to wherever he was going. Adding onto the fact that Terry was strapped to his chest, making Noah feel like any sudden move might
break the baby, it was becoming rather difficult to maneuver places.
But he really did love it.
Terry let out a couple of loud coos as he reached Elsie, ruining his attempt at startling her. Noah let out a breath and grinned, shifting the strap of the bag up a bit more before it slipped entirely to the ground.
"Right, well---" he started, looking down at Terry, who blinked slowly up at him. Noah was sure the kid thought he was having a conversation with
him, no matter what the books said. He looked back down at Elsie. "Ready?"
The sight of Noah and his various baby things never failed to make Elsie crack a smile. Perhaps it was the fact that he pretended to be a hardass but he very obviously has a much softer side, or just that any man fawning over his newborn baby was a sight for even the most cynical of sore eyes.
She cocked her head to the side and tried not to laugh while she slipped her book inside her bag and stood up. "Let's go."
As they were walking, Elsie cast a glance to him while he smacked somebody in the side with his diaper bag and bit her lip. "Here--do you want me to take that? I feel like you're going to get caught up in it and go flying--and that probably wouldn't be the safest thing for the baby strapped to your chest."
He didn't have to think twice about it, and immediately let the bag drop and handed the strap over to Elsie. See, he was attempting to socialize. He didn't
have to meet her for lunch nearly everyday, but it was better than working through his lunch hour and starving and rushing and spilling milk over his parchment. He'd been told from numerous sources that he should probably consider a babysitter, but--but that didn't sit right, with Noah. Terry had already been abandoned once, he didn't want to leave him with a stranger just because it made his work ethic a little hectic.
And it wasn't like the planetarium was busy,
anyway, he could deal with learning the tricks of properly raising a little boy.
"Hot or cold?" he asked Elsie, falling into the normal routine of deciding. Cold usually meant the deli, hot meant something to sit down with and wait around for. He didn't have a particular craving for anything (he was just
hungry), and with Terry just drinking formula, hell--not like any of the Boot boys were being picky, lately.
"Mmm," she said, hitching the bag over her shoulder. It was a nice routine, what they had. And as much as she loved her solitary time, it was usually healthier for her to actually socialize with people. It certainly made the lunch hour pass over much faster. "It's such a nice day today, and none of the hot places have nice outdoor seating. I think cold."
Except it wasn't usually
cold cold, because sometimes they did these things with their sandwiches that melted the cheese and toasted the bread to perfection and she didn't know
how they did it, but they did, and nobody ever gave her a straight answer when she asked, but it was--
Hmm. Apparently Elsie was a lot hungrier than she had thought.
"Besides, there's a lot more room for Terry's stuff outside," she mused, looking at the bag on her shoulder. "And I think he likes outside more, personally. Or at least, he should. Restaurants are so usually so
stuffy.
On their way inside, she bit her lip with indecision. "You have to promise to stop me from ordering dessert again. I just realized that for the last
four times we've been here, I haven't had anything substantial. Even if I use the argument about how pie contains your daily fruit servings and can be healthy."
"Maybe making sure you have proper brain food will keep you from spending time with un
savory blokes," Noah said with a straight face, eyes on the menu even though he knew his arm would be punched or pinched in a moment. Elsie really did make it too easy, picking Gilderoy
Lockhart of all people to associate with. It wasn't as if Noah didn't find the bloke...well, he supposed his adventures were a bit impressive, but Noah had read the journal entries and the
pompous and moronic way he held himself, it--yeah, Noah couldn't help but tease.
She seemed to be having somewhat of a good time with him, or at least, that's what Noah was assuming since she kept seeing him. He wasn't anyone to try and analyze relationships. They reached the counter and Noah's fingers wrapped against the tiles.
"Two turkey wraps and---" his nose scrunched greatly as Terry sneezed against his shirt. "And--" he looked toward Elsie to finish the order while he cleaned up the mess.
She shot him a look and flicked the back of his head. "You have a pretty high opinion of yourself if you think you don't fall under the category of '
unsavory'"
Elsie turned back to the counter and sighed before ordering dessert and paying. Oh, the comments from the peanut gallery had been
endless with Noah. And it wasn't something that was completely obvious, it was just little jabs that miraculously worked themselves into the conversation. And
yes, perhaps he wasn't really the most sensible of people. But he was entertaining, right? And clearly he liked her, at least somewhat, if he kept seeing her for this long. Besides, what was so wrong with passing time now? It was nice having someone.
She crossed her arms. "Well, lead the way, then, Mister Boot. Clearly my judgment leaves something to be desired." The idea of sticking her tongue out at him was appealing, but she settled for simply making a face at him.
Noah grinned cheekily, ripping off a piece of his wrap and popping it into his mouth. Chewing noisily only helped with the annoying factor, but it annoyed
him as well so he only did it for a moment before settling into the table. Motioning for Elsie to hand over the diaper bag, Noah unzipped it and pulled out a seat for Terry. Ah, the beauty of magic.
Putting the chair on the table (it was more of a...little tiny cot...thing), Noah carefully unstrapped Terry and managed to set him in the seat without much stress; Noah had come to find that the baby got very fussy when he removed him from the carrier. Not really sure if that was a good habit to get into, but it could be the real reason why Noah couldn't switch over to a stroller or playpen. It didn't
bother him to carry Terry around everywhere, so why should he?
"How old is he!" a shaky voice asked, and Noah turned to find an elderly witch at the table next to theirs, pointing a finger at Terry, but---haaa. She was looking at Elsie for an answer. Noah leaned his hip against the table and watched for an answer, wondering how much attention his friend had been paying these past few weeks.
Elsie had been too busy reaching her hand out for Terry to grab to realize the witch had been talking to
her, which was why she looked up in surprise when Noah hadn't jumped in with an answer, being the doting father he was. She raised her eyebrows and looked back at Terry, his tiny fingers wrapped around her own slim one and smiled.
It wasn't rocket science, after all. Noah had found him on the first of September, and October was almost over, so.
"He's going to be two months on the first."
She hoped she wasn't supposed to give it in days. He wasn't
her kid any-- Oops.
Elsie laughed, shaking her finger and Terry's hand up and down. "Oops. I guess we look kind of cozy to strangers, hmm?"
Noah felt his whole face twitch upwards as Elsie answered the question, an unexplainable gladness that she'd answered the woman's question correctly. He'd been a bit fuzzy with the details when people asked about Terry, so the fact that she did recall the exact date (and his two month birthday) was interesting.
He cleared this throat as he sat, shrugging. He supposed that they did look a bit couple-y, what with the baby and the...being of the opposite sex, thing. Did every woman he stood by become the mother of his child, to strangers? Was it so unbelievable to see a single dad nowadays?
No, he really didn't think so, hell--Macon had done it, and though Noah never wanted to compare himself to his brother-in-law, it
was a rather common occurrence. Caden! Caden had done it for years,
see. It was totally plausible and a regular part of society to be a single father.
"Well---" he tilted his head toward Terry, "at least they believe we'd make one good looking kid." Noah leaned his face closer to Terry's, scrunching his nose in a very unmanly matter, but it made the baby's eyes light up and that was all that mattered.
