Who: Kendall and Victoria
What: Quidditch talks
Where: A restaurant somewhere?
When: lmfao end of march I'm pretty sure... whoops
Status: Posting it now before it becomes foever old/forgotten... Finishing in comments? Omg Lettie I am so sorry I dropped the ball on this one <3<3<3



It was hard to believe that March was almost over, and pre season was creeping up rather quickly. Kendall needed to stop putting of the inevitable and embrace his new role as captain. Which meant luring players from their current teams, convincing them that moving to the Wanderer’s was a not only a smart move, but the best one.

As a seeker, he felt getting two phenomenal beaters behind him was the first step. Then Keeper, and chasers last. They would be most difficult, finding three players that worked well together. But, first things first, his fingers tapped rhythmically on the bar top as he waited for Victoria Cadwallader to arrive, still unsure of what he would say when she did.

Whatever second guesses he had about leaving the Kestrel’s, he shoved out of mind. Thinking of all the pep talks Thomas had given him since he signed the contract, Kendall stood from his seat as the bell over the chimed as Victoria walked in. Smiling, he made his way over to greet the beater. “Thank you for meeting with me. I promise I won’t waste your time.”

There were a lot of things that she’d been considering over the past few months. Being overseas had begun to feel so -- unnatural, she’d been seriously considering the very generous offer that the Moose Jaw team had offered her to try and tempt her back home. Now, with her brother’s death … well, she wasn’t sure any more. When she’d returned home for the funeral, her mother had teared up over how proud she was of ‘her girls’ finally getting away from their hum-drum town … and really, could she afford to disappoint her mother?

Absolutely not, not with all the things she’d been through. Besides, Ava’s friends were here, now … and she couldn’t uproot the girl again to move her back to the frigid land of Canada. She pushed a smile across her lips that only felt slightly forced -- maybe a new set of players was just what she needed to get herself out of this rut she’d found herself in. It was flattering, really, to be approached by someone even when her agent was more or less MIA (not that she could blame poor Henry).

“So I guess that means we’re ordering drinks, then.” Regardless of whether he was going to waste her time or not, she planned to take at least slight advantage of his hospitality.

“Obviously.” Kendall said leading her over a corner table. “Whatever you’d like, its my treat.”

After they had settled and each had a drink in front of them, Kendall really wished he had taken more time to pry some advice from Thomas. How exactly was he suppose to convince her to leave the Magpies, a team with a decent reputation for the Wanderer’s who as most had the hopes of not being complete failures.

“So, I’ve been hit by bludgers sent by you on at least four different occasions.” He started without preamble spreading his hands on the table. He was terrible with small talk, figuring it was best to just jump straight into his pitch. It was something he kept track of as a seeker, which beaters had him flying on the top of his game just to stay on his broom. “Which tells me it would be in my best interest to have you playing with me instead of against me. Everyone knows seekers are helpless if they don’t have a good set of beaters behind them.”

He took a sip of his beer, while he let his words settle. “So. I have list of impressive yet boring reasons why flying for the Wanderer’s is worth the switch. We could go through that or you could just tell me what it is going to take to have you on my team.” He shrugged a shoulder offering Victoria a bright smile, hoping that his tactic was going to work. She was the first player he approached, and now he almost wished he tried for a player he wanted a less first, so that way if he ended up screwing up terribly, it wasn’t such a loss. And losing Victoria would be a huge blow.

At least he wasn’t bothering to hide his enthusiasm. Honestly, she didn’t know whether it was good practice to leave the Magpies when they hadn’t necessarily done anything to make her feel unwelcome, but the desire she had to just be able to move out of her current flat and find some place that was more suited to a child. Even better, a place a little more south -- the Wanderers had at least that much on her side. She pursed her lips, trying to look as if she was mulling things over instead of just trying not to sound too eager. She nursed a sip of her own beer, swishing it in her mouth until it was semi-warm.

“I think it’d actually be in your best interests to learn how to dodge bludgers, actually.” Not that she was knocking his technique, because she knew he was trying to serve her a compliment -- but it was the truth, as far as she was concerned. It was fine to support a seeker, but they needed to be able to take care of themselves a little, too.

“This is going to sound super lame, but how’s your childcare situation? Raising Ava by myself isn’t going to be easy, especially now that …” Right, she was trailing off again and looking to the side. Especially now that her favorite babysitter was dead. That sounded -- terribly morbid, so she drowned the desire to say something like that in another long swig of beer. “Especially if we have to move, I mean.”

Kendall couldn’t help but laugh at her brash honesty. “Valid point. Dodging is the list of things I plan to improve on.”

He paused mid sip of his beer as she continued on and put down his glass. Honestly he hadn’t a clue what the childcare situation was like at the pitch. He suddenly felt very dumb for not looking into it. “That is not remotely lame.” Kendall assured her quickly. He had no idea what it was like to be a single parent, but he was sure it wasn’t an easy task. “Family is important and should come first.”

He shuffled through the parchment he brought with him, hoping to find anything on what the Wanderer’s had to offer. He had contract options, and salary limits but nothing along these lines. Finally giving up he shoved the useless papers to the side. “Honestly? I don’t know and I don’t want to lie to you just to tell you what you want to hear.” He spread his hands out on the the table. “But if that’s what’s important to you, I will personally make sure that it is the best we can offer. Or rather you can be as involved in making it sure its up to par as you want to be. I wouldn’t know what I was doing.”

She was pleased with his response. He was honest so far, and that was more important than a great deal of other things...especially when it came to getting a new team. If she was going to uproot her life for a group of strangers, she wanted to know she'd be able to be happy with them. It didnt't hurt that Kendall was a very nice man to be protecting, and a nice backside to be behind.

"You don't know anything about kids? They're pretty easy, actually. I mean, I guess I've got a lot of practice with all my siblings. I hear that some of those skills can also transfer over to helping out with running drills around Quidditch pitches." She knew that it did, actually. Yelling at other people was a good stress relief, especially when it was productive for everyone involved.

"I'll be honest with you too, since you've been so good about it so far. I don't hold any grudges with the Magpies, but I feel like after everything that has happened in the last few months I just ... need a fresh start."

“Can’t say I’ve had any experience.” Kendall’s sister was only a few years younger than him, so it wasn’t like he had any chance to herd small children around. He didn’t even know how he felt about kids, having never been around them. He supposed they were cute, even if a potential handful.

“Well, I hope you chose to make your start with us. I’m not really looking for an answer today, you can take your time to think it over. I just wanted reach out to you myself.” He finished off his beer. “Do you have any other questions? Want another drink, some food?”

"I should probably eat something," she admitted with a small purse of her lips. Since Scott's passing, she hadn't really had an appetite for anything -- she'd been more or less just trying to feed Ava whatever she'd actually consent to eating and avoiding feeding herself. "So long as you don't have any other work-related business meetings that I'm keeping you from." She'd been glad that Kendall had been the one to approach her and not the managers of his team -- that had always felt intimidating, and she'd never have gone without Henry (and would never have asked him to do anything work-related for her this soon after his wife's death).

"I have to say, it's flattering to have someone from the actual team approach me about joining them. I mean, a lot of teams have their managers leading them around and -- it's not like they know what it's really like being out on the pitch most of the time, you know?" Best to actually keep their conversation partly work-related, if only to keep her mind off of things that weren't relevant to the pitch.

“I have plenty of time, talking to you was the only plan I made today.” Kendall waved the waitress, letting Victoria order before him. While he should really get on talking to more players, he felt making sure he had plenty of time was more important. How rude would it be for him to half to cut talking with her short just to go speak with another player. That certainly wouldn’t make him want to switch teams, that is for sure.

“”I’ve always felt it should be this way. All managers seem to want to do is hope that if they throw enough money your way, you’ll abandon everything you know. Well, I guess that would work for some players.” He shrugged a shoulder before leaning forward on his elbows wishing he had his food so at least his hands would be occupied. “I can only imagine the sort of team chemistry that builds. That’s why I asked them to let me do come out instead. If I suppose to be turning this team around, I need to be involved in the rebuilding stages too.” Then again, he was almost certain that Wanderer’s management was desperate enough to let him do whatever he pleased, as long as he provided winning games when the season came around.

She wasn’t surprised to hear that the Wanderers’ managers were letting Kendall take the reigns on this so far. It wasn’t as if the team had had much experience with success with them running things, after all. Victoria nodded, ordering herself a greasy bacon cheeseburger to go with the beer. If she was going to order food, she’d just have to order as many calories in one go as possible.

“That’s pretty clever, you know. I was starting to wonder if it wasn’t an overseas thing, people not really being too friendly with their teammates. I think it has something to do with all your media coverage here, really. Nobody wants to go out and do anything fun because they’ll get caught and get into trouble.”