WHO: Katerina Edgars and Heath Shimpling
WHAT: Edgars family dinners and Katerina's anxieties
WHERE: Edgars home
There was only so much passive aggressive nonsense a woman could take from her mother.
Katerina glared across the long dining room table as her mother continued to chirp noisily about how it was simply a
fact that being in an office, having to work and be on your feet
all day made it much harder to conceive. Proven! She'd read it in Witch Weekly! Katerina had heard it all before and could normally tune her mother's squawking out, but her words seemed amplified by the fact that Heath was sitting beside her tonight. He of course had been over for dinner at the Edgars' place before, but it was different now.
Now, with this arrangement that Katerina and he had, her mother was viewing him as a potential son-in-law. How could her mother speak like that about her in front of someone who could be her husband?
Oh God,
husband.
She was grateful, she was honestly
grateful that Heath had stepped up for her so she didn't have to go through the same stress and---
men that her sister had been subjected to, but the idea was still terrifying! Katerina had thought she'd accepted marrying someone just for marriage's
sake a long time ago, but being someone's wife was a daunting title to take on and....and it wasn't even set in stone! What if her father completely rejected Heath and found some sixty year old man with better business connections that he wished to make and----
"Though we already have an heir with Blaise," her mother said, turning to coo at her only grandchild who sat almost haughtily in his high chair beside her. Katerina lost all color in her face as her mother turned her gaze on her, "I don't suppose it would be too much of a loss if you can't bear any children, Kat."
Her chair skidded back with how quickly she stood, and Katerina gave a quick wave of her hand to excuse herself before darting out of the dining room. She didn't make it far however and put her hands over her face, completely humiliated.
Family dinners were boring at his house. They really only revolved around his sisters and Heath made a point to pretend he was busy for most of them, choosing to eat slimy noodles from that Asian place near his flat. Becoming engaged or on the way to it with Katerina didn't really change much about that. Except that when he knew he could beg off for these dinners with the excuse of work, Katerina would certainly know and he didn't want to use up all his good points with her just yet. They had a long future together if everything went the way it was supposed to and ticking her off at the beginning would only be absolutely terrible for him.
So far, Heath was doing well. He didn't mind Katerina's mother fussing over them and although most of the things were vaguely embarrassing, Heath pretended he didn't hear most of it. It was one of the better things about being male, because even though society was changing and would probably be completely unrecognizable in a few years, some of the things didn't change. His opinion was more important than a woman's. Which he believed, mostly, when it came to Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, but he wasn't one of those men that went around making sure everyone knew it. It was just easier to employ when people were saying things he didn't want to hear.
Like at dinner. He was only partially listening to Katerina's mother, spending his evening trying to avoid the evil look that infant was giving him and keeping up in conversation with her father. Having children was not really a thing on his list other than knowing that he would have to pass on his name since his sisters were doing quite a terrible job at not falling apart and marrying the wrong sort of blokes. It wasn't until Katerina was half out of the room before Heath reacted. He leveled a very unimpressed look at her mother and politely excused himself from the table to follow after her, his manner cool and collected on the outside even if he was mostly bewildered on the inside.
"Er," Heath said as he came upon Katerina sooner than anticipated. Really, he'd expected her to have bolted somewhere he was unfamiliar with, giving himself some time to consider his words and figure out what she wanted to hear. "You're not crying, are you?" Because that would be an entirely different set of rules to play by, or rather, a lack of them. Heath just wanted to make sure.
Katerina whirled around, startled that he'd followed her because it was rare to be sought after when she made her dramatic exits in this house. It was definitely not the first time she had stormed out of dinner, but this had felt more like
fleeing and she was more embarrassed about it than anything.
"No!" she snapped quietly, feeling out of breath. She could still hear her mother talking; it was as if the woman
knew she was only a few feet outside the dining room's entrance, and had raised her voice to ensure her daughter could continue listening to the conversation. Katerina sent a glare to the dining room, then to the floor, and then to Heath. "I don't want to have kids."
She knew Heath didn't particularly want to have children, either, but it felt important to say. As easily as they'd slipped into this negotiation, Katerina was finding it hard to act like she used to around him. She had known Heath since their first day at Hogwarts, most likely even
before they boarded the Hogwarts Express with their social circle but she couldn't recall it was so long ago. He was one of her closest friends, probably her best friend if she was being honest, and now she felt as if she couldn't be herself around him any more. He wasn't just a friend now, he was this
man who she was going to have to serve and obey like the vows said, whose name she was going to have to take, and if one day he decided he wanted children, then what! Katerina saw how Silas was with her sister, he was the man that had stopped the madness that was Natasha's marriages so----
" I---want to travel, and do things I wish to do when I wish to do them and----" Katerina put her hand to her head, eyes wide as her nerves grew. Heath supported these wishes of her before this courtship began, but would he now? She couldn't handle a negative response, she didn't think. She'd barely been able to speak to him these past few days with her growing anxiety, let alone kiss him like she had so freely done before.
I can't become my mother, is what she wanted to say, but she couldn't get out the words.
"I don't wish to be a
wife," she let out, knowing it was a pointless argument. If Heath decided he didn't want to deal with her, then she was just going to be forced into another match, and another and another.
Undeterred by the glare, Heath shrugged at her statement. It was pretty obvious that neither of them actually wanted to change the way things were, and really, who said they did? Heath touched her elbow lightly, in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. At least to calm her down, because there was no need to show her mother how much this clearly effected her, he didn't see the point in making a big deal about things unless there was an actual goal to be reached. Dramatics weren't always necessary.
"Well, that is sort of what happens when you get married. They even say it, I haven't gone over the exact procedures, but there's something about husband and wife and kissing the bride?" Heath offered a light joke, hoping to derail her from her maddening train of thought. He shrugged slowly, trying to choose his words correctly. "But, we don't have to? Get married that is. You would probably have to marry
someone in any case, I thought this was the better option rather than run the risk of you carrying on an affair with that handsome rogue from the Ministry while your husband had no idea where your children got their luscious ginger locks from."
Really, it made sense to him, that they would have kept going whatever they had been doing, even if Katerina got married to some old guy. Especially if he was really old. "You can still travel though, you just have an extra bag of luggage to pack and it has to be around the quidditch schedule, because you're still getting me tickets for my birthday right?" Heath wasn't trying to make fun of her, he just wanted her to see that it wasn't as serious as she was taking it. "Look, we both know, in every Slytherin relationship, there's the mouth piece and then there's the one that plans everything. Unlike some of our fellow classmates, I am fully capable of looking like I run things while totally kowtowing to the fact that I really like having sex with you and will do everything I can to not jeopardize that."
She punched him in the arm for his first remark, but let her hand rest there as he continued on. Katerina knew that Heath would know exactly what would happen to her if they didn't get engaged and married, and she was so, so glad that he was saying everything that she'd wanted to hear.
Needed to hear. The idea of marriage was still terrifying, but marriage to Heath was better than any alternative she could think of. He was telling her that their relationship wasn't going to change, and even though he couldn't
promise that, it was a start. They'd have an even playing field. She would bring up this conversation every night if she had to, to drill into his head that she was not to be treated like most society wives.
Ugh, what a title. As much as Katerina could hate her job, she loved that it gave her something of her own.
"Handsome
rogue?" she drawled, her other hand going to the front of his robes to fix a button as an amused smirk crossed her face. Katerina shook her head, though she was pleased at his admittance of enjoying their time together. It
would be difficult to not see Heath if she was married to another man; after being together in this fashion for so long, certain habits became very hard to break. There was a certain excitement to carrying on a long lasting affair, but having to deal with a husband, especially one of her mother's choosing, was not worth the stories she'd have.
Her hand crept further up, resting on the back of his head against his
luscious ginger locks, "Can I get that in writing? Notarized, the whole works?"
"You know it, going off on my own, saving the world from criminals and creeps and all that. Untouchable they call me at the office," Heath said with a smirk. He definitely wasn't called that, but he could pretend and make sure that Katerina knew that. He just grinned at her, placing one hand on her waist because although they were very familiar with each other, Heath knew he was in her father's house and was at least attempting to
appear like he was playing by the rules. Well, the rules he liked anyway. Buying stuff for Katerina and making it seem like they were simply friends from school and nothing more was easy, but the whole idea of a house and children and all the stuff his own mum was going on about when she knew he was in earshot, well that was only easy to ignore not to think about.
"You don't need it in writing, you've already got my bollucks in your clutch purse," Heath rolled his eyes but leaned his head into her touch just slightly. "We don't have to have children, if you don't want. We can travel, I'll put in for a sabbatical, say I want to go learn laws in India and China and all that nonsense and we can see places. And if we have a kid, that's cool. I don't do poop though, never have, never will, not even for my niece."
India, China, and all that. Katerina liked the sound of those plans, and gave Heath's hair a little tug before kissing him softly. Tender little kisses were definitely not of the norm with the two of them, but she wanted to say thank-you without actually saying it. Even if it was hard to put trust and faith into this man, even if her chest still twisted nervously and tightly at the idea of being a married woman, she knew that Heath was her best shot at living a happy life. Wasn't that something? She wondered for a brief second what those non-society girls did when they couldn't actually
arrange a marriage that was beneficial to themselves and their partner, but those thoughts quickly disappeared at the sound of her nephew shrieking in the dining room.
"King Blaise grows anxious for our return it seems," Katerina said, though she had no desire to finish off dinner and wait for dessert. She pouted greatly as an idea struck. Well, since Heath had already
admitted she had a tight grip on him (in much vulgar terms, of course)... "
Or, you could go in there and tell him that I'm
just not feeling too well and you're going to escort me back to my flat."
She batted her eyes, looking innocent of any devious ploys that may be up her sleeve, though her hand on his chest had drifted down, "You'll be rewarded handsomely."
