Who: Juliana Travers & Christopher Loftus
What: LOL awk
Where: Ministry!


Juliana Wilkes had never felt so out of control in her own life.

In one year's time she'd been forcibly betrothed and married to a man she hated with every last fiber of her being, had gotten him thrown in Azkaban for life over a completely insignificant and largely blown out of proportion marital dispute, found out he was a mass murderer, slept with her cousin on the night he was arrested, and was now six months pregnant with a child she was passing off as her very locked-up husband's while using it to keep her Gringotts vault growing.

Really, in some twisted way, it sounded like she was set, like there was nothing in her own life that she didn't control. She had been through a lot in the past year, but Juliana had more than many women in the world. She didn't even need to work, and as she got up from her desk and grabbed her coat and purse to head towards the Ministry lift, she wondered why she was even bothering.

The truth was, she didn't have anything else to do. After she had this kid, what did she do? Parade her around every once in a while and call her Travers and go sit at home and be content for the rest of her life living just like that?

No, she couldn't be satisfied with just that. For as privileged of a childhood as she'd experienced, Juliana hated the most feeling like there was no purpose to what she was doing. And while translating and traveling and writing up paperwork was hardly a purpose, at least it was something---it was one important step away from uselessness. Or, well... at least that's what she told herself when she stepped out into the ornate Ministry atrium every night, so tired of living in the monotony her own life that drowning herself in that annoyingly large fountain looked like a good---

Oh, for Merlin's sake.

This would happen to her.

Jules had just barely registered the flash of dark hair in her mind before meeting eyes with him, standing next to the fountain she'd just been contemplating a better use for, that person that she didn't want to see at all if she could avoid it. Not that she had been avoiding him for the past six months, per se, just... choosing to not see him when she could at all help it. But there he was, standing there like he had nothing better to do, and---who just stood there in the Atrium after work was over?

This was going to be fun. Just how she wanted to end her day.

"Good evening, Christopher."

You stood in the Atrium after work when you had a lot to think about. Which currently, Christopher most certainly did. It wasn't every day that you were secretly waiting for your cousin to give birth to your own child. And it didn't exactly help that it wasn't even a boy, but a girl. He supposed that was better in the long run, so he wouldn't have his own son under the name of Travers but--- a girl didn't exactly ease the pain of the situation any more. Christopher would have thought that keeping their secret would have been much harder, but it seemed that even after all these months no one had found out. Even if they did, he was not above making sure that they would stay permanently quiet.

"Mm--- good evening, Juliana," he stated, waiting the longest amount of time possible to drag his gaze away to look at her. Seeing her was an unpleasant feeling. He felt like he had to look at her if he knew she was walking by or near him, but then actually doing so was definitely not something he want to do in the slightest. Every day she grew bigger and bigger, effectively tormenting him to the point where he had even put off his next intended next steps for Sebastian Goldstein's demise.

Yes, that was how serious everything had become.

"How have you been?" Christopher asked quietly, unable to stop himself as his eyes flashed down at Juliana's stomach before hitting the floor.

How had she been? Really, Christopher? Juliana had to stop herself from opening her mouth to hand out some sarcastic, venomous answer about how she'd been just fabulous, that she loved being pregnant with her cousin's daughter and wanted to do it for the rest of her life. She would tell him about how she hadn't just spent an afternoon watching her older brother raid her house for alcohol so she would stop getting drunk off her ass while she was carrying said child, because he wasn't the one that had to do the carrying and thus didn't understand what kind of a hell it was and why she needed the liquor to make her feel just a little better about things once in a while.

That's what she wanted to say. But the hustle and bustle of Ministry men and women shuffling around them reminded her of their current location, and she wisely kept those fine details of how she had been to herself.

"Wonderful," Juliana answered deadpan, not missing the path of his eyes. "Positively joyous and glowing. And what of you, dear cousin? What has you hesitating on your way home tonight?"

He caught her tone quite quickly, finding it as unpleasant as ever. Probably just as much as seeing her in public. Of course she wasn't positively joyous and glowing, he didn't need to be an Auror to detect that, no matter how much it actually helped. Christopher was fairly certain Juliana wanted nothing more than to take out all her anger about this situation on him, despite how much they obviously avoided each other during the day. And--- he was fairly certain she would just get on with it already, because at least then he could have a clear conscious about the whole thing and begin to get over this strange sense of semi-obligation.

Because he was now, and effectively forever, always going to be obligated to her in one way or another. In spite of how much the both of them wanted to avoid that little fact, it was the truth. They were now going to have to deal with each other for the rest of their lives--- or until one of them died. Except with a child involved in the equation now too. Though even that for him was a fuzzy subject. Since they most certainly were not going to tell anyone who the real father was, as being the real father, what would be his role, exactly? Juliana hadn't stated what she expected of them (they barely talked), and at this point he would rather she just tell him. He would do anything.

"Fine, as always," he answered simply, pulling his eyes from the ground back to her face. It was quiet pathetic, actually, how he seemed to be unable to handle this. Christopher had endured worse, much worse-- so of course something like this threatened to break him down entirely. Wonderful. Just what he needed.

"Oh--- you know. Always enough to think about to make you stop for a few moments."

"Oh good, I'm so glad," she answered in monotone, making it clear--if it wasn't already--that she didn't really give much of a flying fuck about how he was doing. In fact, the only way that she would ever care how he was doing was if he was doing terribly, in which case, she would find the time to be elated for a moment, knowing that the person who had put her into this situation (for it was hardly her fault) was suffering as well.

Juliana shifted her weight, feeling her legs tire underneath her rather quickly. Standing up, while no exercise, was becoming more and more difficult to do at length--it was just another curse that went along with all of this, and another reason to be angry at life and snap at people. If there was one good thing about being pregnant, it was that at least no one seemed to have the balls to talk back to you when you bitched at them. Only her siblings, as far as she could tell, knew that she was making this all an excuse to be overly pissy and demanding---and even they obliged her most of the time.

So what was she standing here for again? It certainly wasn't all the insight she was getting out of the heavy silence between the two.

"Well, it was lovely to see you again, Christopher," she said, hoisting her purse back up on her shoulder and turning to leave. That was enough torture for one day. "We'll have to do this again sometime."

He wouldn't have stopped her from leaving if her life depended on it. Well--- figuratively speaking. The few seconds of exchange was torturous enough for Christopher to last him well into the day, week, month even. And while that only delayed the inevitable to doom's day next month, he could delude himself into thinking that by leaving now, this would end eventually and the both of them could go back to blatantly avoiding each other at all costs.

Christopher was alright with that. And perhaps a stroke of luck would fall upon them, and the baby would die in childbirth or something equal to that effect to end this whole unfortunate business cleanly.

Doubtful that he could be so fortunate, but it was worth making himself feel better to think so.

"Likewise," he responded as she turned away from him, bowing his head slightly. "Yes, of course we must." Not.