Who: Miranda Dodderidge and Ralph Merridew
What: Questions and Hot Tubs. What you read for, I cannot guess.
Where: Empty room at the Leaky



You know what the best part about working in an inn was? Basically an all-access pass to any and every room in the whole darn place! Miranda, while normally very responsible on the job, tended to lose all sort of sense when a certain redheaded boy was in close vicinity, so the clever and scandalous idea of finding an empty room that wasn't hers (not like Ralph was allowed in her room anyway while someone was in the house) had almost immediately jumped to mind.

Well--when she heard the jingle of the ring of hundreds keys in her pocket, she'd thought of it. Or maybe it was when she realized that she couldn't snog him right in front of all the diners.

Anyway!

Miranda gripped Ralph's wrist tightly as she picked a random room in the middle of a fairly well-lit hallway (brothers would always go and try to find the dark ones in the corner) and with a satisfying click, she pushed the door open.

"Ooh, this one's got a hot tub," she let out happily.

Ralph smiled, despite everything that seemed to mushed up together in his head at the moment. Not that it was... not all of it was bad, some of the things on his mind weren't troubling at all. Like how happy he was that he didn't have to work today. And how, in a few weeks, his parents were going to leave on their first ever two-week-long 'parents only' vacation, leaving him completely alone. Those things were good.

But, there were other things. Like how Moses had just passively threatened Ralph's life just a few minutes earlier over the fact that apparently, he, Ralph, was stopping Miranda from playing Quidditch, her dream, and should be unselfish and let her do it.

Ralph didn't even know teams had scouted her. And he couldn't even know if this was one of those things where she had told him in passing, or not told him at all--- he didn't remember Miranda mentioning anything like that, but she would have, wouldn't she?

"Ohhh, nifty," he smiled, moving to the center of the room to sit on the bed. Should he bring it up? He should bring it up. Maybe he would give her a chance to say something about it first.

Miranda had disappeared into the bathroom to check it out, wondering if anyone could hear if it was running or not. She supposed that they would have set up the rooms to make sure the other guests wouldn't be bothered, so there was really nothing to worry about. Especially since she'd put a fake check in name in the book at the front desk...

...oh, she'd definitely done this before, don't worry.

Her lips twisted into a devious smile as she started toward Ralph. One thing she was definitely missing about Hogwarts was being able to see him all the time. Another thing was being able to spend the night with him. And another thing was all the stuff they could do while she spent the night with him. Or in a broom closet. Or in the quidditch shed. Or behind the greenhouse with the big---ha, well.

"So," she said, pushing herself between Ralph's legs, wrists hanging limply around his neck. "What would you like to do?"

The smile lingered on his lips as he quickly kissed her. Maybe--- Moses had been lying. It was possible, Ralph was fairly certain none of Miranda's brothers liked him anymore after the February debacle. But it occurred to him quickly that, no, Moses wouldn't lie about something like that. He had been thoroughly clear enough, and even gone as far as to hold Ralph by his collar at one point during the impromptu conversation.

Sigh. That meant that he was going to have to ask her and ruin everything.

"Miranda," Ralph pulled back, suddenly very serious because... this was very serious. You didn't just--- she didn't need to give anything up for him. If she did, he hoped she hadn't already. His mouth twisted into a line, and the rest of his face moved to match it.

"Did you---" he stopped for a moment, pressing his palms into her back lightly. This was difficult; he felt like he was interrogating her, or something. "Is there anything new, with you?"

"With me?"

Miranda's bottom lip jutted out quite far as she thought; mmm....no, she hadn't done much since school let out. Other than work and see Ralph and help Gillian with baby things. She was kind of starting to like the idea of being a party planner, but she really had no idea where you would like...learn...to do that kind of stuff, but! It was more of an idea than she'd had a few weeks ago, so it was something to tell her parents when they bugged her about doing something with her life.

Not that they wouldn't let her live in their house forever, Miranda just didn't think they'd like it. Or that she'd like it, that'd be weird.

She shrugged, arching her back gently as her fingers mussed with Ralph's hair. Why did he think something was up? Had he heard something? Oy, Moses better not have told him she was pregnant or something! No--no, Ralph looked way too calm for that. "Nope. I want to get a haircut, though. You?"

His hands dropped to the small of her back, and Ralph listened to Miranda intently. But they weren't talking about haircuts, here. They were talking about-- alright, he was talking about professions and opportunities and she was talking about hair because she couldn't read his mind, obviously.

Alright, he could do this, it wouldn't be that bad. It was probably just all some big misunderstanding, which he could happily report back to Moses to by the end of the day, if everything went well.

"Nothing's new with me, I work at an ice cream parlor," Ralph rushed immediately, shaking his head. He waited a few seconds, just enough to take a breath, but not long enough to give Miranda reason to respond.

"Miranda," Ralph stated again, shifting to square his shoulders as he talked. He was determined to talk about this, and they would. Right now. He would be firm, and they would have a serious conversation where they would be honest. Though, much was left to be desired as his voice came out soft, and gentle. "Why didn't you tell me the Applebys wanted you to try out?"

Oh--he...he wasn't supposed to know about that. Miranda's eyebrows knitted together tightly and she looked away, but didn't move from her spot. Well, obviously one of her brothers had told him, because Miranda hadn't told anyone. Really! Honest. She'd wanted to, but then--well, no, not really. She hadn't wanted to tell a single soul, and Moses only found out because he'd gotten to the post before her.

It had literally taken her five minutes to figure out she didn't want to be a professional quidditch player; if she had even made it through the tryouts. Okay, maybe more than five minutes because she'd received the letter in the morning and had waited until after classes to actually open it, but when she initially got it, she'd definitely thought no way.

Miranda let out a breath and finally moved away from Ralph, but only to sit tightly beside him, arm, leg, pressing against him. She didn't want him to feel bad, because it was her decision, you know? She wasn't feeling any great loss at not flying around on a broom all day or being rich and famous---which was really...she thought that was good.

"Because," she let out softly, dropping her head nearly to her right shoulder, away from Ralph, "I didn't want to do it and---I didn't want to get anyone upset, I dunno." She twisted her neck down oddly to look at Ralph, an exaggerated pout playing on her lips, "Sorry."

"Oh."

That was... it? Ralph wasn't sure what he had been expecting from her as an answer, but that certainly hadn't been it. She just... didn't want to do it? His brow knotted for a second as he thought. But that wasn't how Moses had put it; he'd made it seem like she was giving up everything not to do this. Although he was happy that wasn't the case (and now Moses wouldn't want to kill him even more), Ralph still felt-- like she should do it. Why not?

Ralph moved his arm so it could wrap around her waist, and he cocked his head to look down at her. "That's all?" he asked, temporarily put off by her face. Was she--- she didn't need to apologize to him. It wasn't as if-- alright, this was getting too confusing, maybe a serious conversation wasn't really what they needed. He didn't like seeing her upset, and now it just reminded to avoid things like this.

But he still wished that she had told him. He could understand why she hadn't wanted to, but. "You don't need to apologize," Ralph mumbled, shaking his head slightly as he reached other to brush some hair away from her face and behind her ear.

Ooh, see. Maybe she should of just told him from the beginning. Miranda smiled--she felt as if it was a bright smile, but her lips were tight and scrunching her cheeks and--yes, it was bright. You could definitely radiate brightness without showing your teeth.

Right, she wasn't making sense anymore. Well, she was, but she was rambling. Mentally. Silently. Right--

Miranda pushed forward and kissed Ralph, hand going to cup the side of his face. A lot of the time she wouldn't bother being gentle or sweet or any of that cutesy stuff you read in romance novels or magazines, but right now she kind of just felt like...felt like...enjoying this moment. Not that Ralph really knew it was a moment, because she hadn't exactly told him he was why she didn't want to do it, but. She felt like she was being mature, being an adult. Moses was happy about staying home because things with Harmony were getting more serious, right? So--Miranda was doing this for their future. Yes.

Because, really. Ralph was way more important than being famous.

See? She was totally growing up.

"We are wasting valuable hot tub time," she mumbled against his mouth, lips turning up into a wicked grin.

Something of a laugh came out of his mouth and Ralph pushed his lips onto hers again. See? No problem. Now he could be justifiably aggravated with Moses for making him think he was ruining Miranda's life. Or something like that. Well, maybe not aggravated, now Ralph could rest in peace over the fact that this wasn't his fault. Miranda just.. didn't want to do it.

Now that he thought about it, he probably wouldn't want to do something like that if the opportunity came up, either.

"Weellll," Ralph sighed dramatically, pulling away from her to stand up. He crossed his arms over his chest to watch her, and then smiled again. "Let's go," he rushed, bending his knees to grab both her hands and pull her up. Ralph thought, for a moment, then continued with a grin. "I'll even carry you in," he stated and steadily held out his other arm for her to jump into. They were totally going to christen this hot tub the right way.