h e n r y (fictitious) wrote in valesco,
@ 2011-04-12 10:31:00

Entry tags:

Heidi!
Henry was nervous for more than one reason, but mostly he was sure he was going to get hit tonight. No, that wasn't what he feared the most, it was the fact that it was probably going to be Heidi that smacked him but---it wasn't even his fault. He had not done any snooping, he had not exposed what could be a terrible, horrible lie to the person she was dating, he was not the complete moron known as Seth Wadcock.

He was that moron's brother, and whether Henry liked to admit it or not, Seth did seem to have some sort of foundation in his claims against Heidi. How else would he have known those things about her? How had he gotten her last name right when Henry hadn't known it for weeks? It sucked, it was threatening to ruin the perfectly good relationship they'd just started, but Henry could not deal with not knowing if she was just using him just to get close to other quidditch players.

The thought really hurt him. He believed, he really, really believed that Heidi liked him for him, but she'd stalked a player before! How convenient would it be, to date an agent---Henry felt so guilty for the thoughts, but he'd been fucked over so many times before by women who just wanted to get into the lifestyle and Seth had driven him crazy all of his life and----

"Coming!" The sound of the doorbell made Henry jolt out of the kitchen, but he shot back in to turn off the stove top before he burnt his whole flat down. That would just be perfect, wouldn't it? He wiped his hands on a rag and then hurried to the door. He opened the door and let out a breath, smiling at the sight of Heidi, "Welcome to my humble abode."

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-12 04:07 pm UTC (link)

If she'd known what Henry was planning on asking her, she probably wouldn't have come for dinner. She'd have -- made up some excuse, maybe tried to break his heart by just telling him that it wasn't working out -- anything but tell him the truth about the way things were going. She'd been talking more with her therapist, and he'd been encouraging her to try and 'come out' to Henry on her own, but there'd just been no opportune moments - she wanted to make sure that Henry didn't misunderstand, especially considering the position he held as an agent. She wasn't stupid, she knew it would look bad if he found out through other venues, but only a handful of people even really knew about what had happened between Drystan and herself.

As it was, though, she smiled easily in return as she stepped into the flat. "Oh," she said quietly, "It smells good. I didn't know you were a man of many talents, Henry." She leaned in to give him a chaste kiss on the cheek, turning to briefly take in the decor of the flat.

Not that it was all that important, she just wanted to make sure he didn't have any giant orange statues of naked women or something silly like that.

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fictitious
2011-04-12 11:32 pm UTC (link)

He tried to be humble, "Just really good at a few things, I suppose," was the best he could muster, smiling at her compliment. It was a bit nerve wracking, having Heidi over to his flat for the first time. It would have been scary to have her here even if he didn't have some quite possibly relationship-shattering questions to ask her on the tip of his tongue.

He'd cleaned thoroughly, even though the house was usually spotless unless Seth or Leanne were over. Henry really wanted Heidi to like the place, as it would hopefully give them somewhere else to spend time together--not to say--his living room was quite cozy, was all.

"Are you hungry? We could wait, I have drinks."

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-12 11:37 pm UTC (link)

Heidi's own house had never quite recovered from her moving into it, honestly - one of the reasons she hadn't had Henry over so far - so the impeccable cleanliness was slightly intimidating. She felt nervous around Henry because he seemed to be so wonderful ... there had to be something wrong, right? She'd fallen for the 'perfect guy' before, and look how that had turned out.

She pursed her lips at that, not wanting to bring down the mood.

"A drink would be nice," she said with a nod, sliding over to Henry's side so that she was at least a little close to him. "I'm glad you invited me over, I'd probably just have gotten take-away again."

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fictitious
2011-04-17 08:52 pm UTC (link)

"I'm glad to have someone to cook an actual meal for." Henry knew that they could go back and forth with the light, happy compliments all night. It was really nice to have someone over that wasn't his brother or niece, both of which created a hurricane of a mess whenever they came over. The thought of Seth irritated him at the moment, though, and Henry led Heidi to the kitchen to take a look at his decent assortment of drinks and glasses.

From the dates he'd been on with Heidi he poured one of her usual concoctions, figuring that there were already going to be a ton of questions asked tonight---he should try to answer some for himself. The counter in the kitchen was comfortable enough for drinks, and dinner wasn't heating up the room and making it uncomfortable. It was probably the safest spot for the conversation he had to have with her, and Henry waited until they'd both almost finished their drinks to begin to prod.

"So---I don't mean to spring this on you." He was nervous already, he felt his neck grow hot, "But I've sort of----my brother's Seth Wadcock. The quidditch player? The annoying one on the Magpies?"

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-17 09:03 pm UTC (link)

She had thought he looked vaguely familiar when she'd first met him, but he hadn't been forthcoming with his name and she hadn't been with hers - surely they had their reasons and those could be addressed at a much later time - but now...well.

There was a jolt of concern that ran through her body when he admitted that his brother was Seth Wadcock. She finished her drink in one last rather large gulp and then set the glass on the table, trying not to appear as panicked as she was beginning to feel. When everything with Drystan had happened...Seth had been there. An overwhelming sense of dread started to form in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh," she said with a half-nervous laugh, "Well, he is annoying, isn't he?"

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fictitious
2011-04-18 12:03 pm UTC (link)

Henry nodded, but as much as she tried to hide it he did see the change in her demeanor. But it could be annoyance at him. It could be that she was annoyed at him for not revealing that he wasn't just an agent, but he's been stuck in the quidditch world for the past nearly decade of his life, that the papers sometimes wrote about him because of his brother, because of his job.

But he had a horrid, twisted feeling in his gut that the slight look of panic that flitted through her eyes was not because of Seth's occupation. Henry felt his own shoulders sag slightly as he forced himself to continue this dreaded conversation.

He was a Slytherin, damn it! He should know how to get through this conversation on the winning side, without feeling like shit, without feeling like he was about to lose the one girl he'd actually started to care about in years, "He said you had a run-in with one of his teammates last season. Drystan Fawcett? That's how he knows who you are."

Henry forced himself to keep his composure, to act as if her acknowledgement of the events was not a big deal to him, that he was willing to accept---things, because he wanted the truth from her. He'd get the truth and from that he'd react. Just not yet.

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-18 03:01 pm UTC (link)

There was only one way this would come out that would be acceptable. The moment that he mentioned Drystan, though, she felt very much as if she couldn't bring herself to bring up that one way. Her hands were shaking something terrible, her breath was coming in uneven bursts. What was it that her therapist had been saying? She wasn't emotionally equipped to deal well with stress, the lack of particularly stressful situations in her youth had caused her not to have developed ... something.

It was really hard to listen to him ramble when she was pretty sure he wasn't very much older than her. She looked down at her hands, tried to quell the feeling that she was going to pass out.

No, she thought, someone had to find out eventually.

But why had it been Henry? Why couldn't she just have told him at her own pace? She frowned to herself. If she was going to tell Henry about what had happened with Drystan, he deserved some sort of backup knowledge.

"My name is Heidi Twilfit. But before that -- it was Heidi Barnes." She wondered dully if the name meant anything to him or if he was going to assume she was just making this up. "My husband ..." She couldn't say his name, it was caught in her throat and if she said it she was going to vomit all over Henry's countertop, "...Ellis. He was ... neutralized by the Aurors." She spit those last three words out -- that's what they'd said in the papers, neutralized. Like he was some sort of animal.

Henry was probably beginning to wonder what on earth this had to do with Drystan Fawcett. "I didn't deal with it well. They took me to St. Mungo's, and --" she swallowed thickly. "And Drystan had the misfortune of being one of the first men that I saw. I had ... what the healers call ... a psychotic break." Merlin, this all made her look so terrible, but at the same time everything was coming out in a rush of feeling and emotion.

"And I thought that Drystan was my husband. I needed to believe that he was my husband because I couldn't process the thought of Ellis being dead." He'd been such a good man. "And I did some terrible things and now his wife hates me and..." She trailed off, unable to do anything but look at her hands (which were now folded in her lap).

"And I'll understand if you hate me too."

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fictitious
2011-04-18 04:50 pm UTC (link)

"I don't hate you."

Henry felt terrible, so, so terrible. The last thing he'd expected was a story about her ex-husband who was---aurors, did that mean he was, had been a----Henry had managed to stay far away from the Slytherin friends that had joined You-Know-Who's side, so the idea of a death eater in your own home was...Henry didn't know how Heidi was still standing, and the idea of a psychotic break was not...well, crazy in the slightest. He felt like he was going to have nervous breakdowns over stupid, unimportant things, so to have something so serious and tragic happen---

He felt like such a jerk. He felt like he'd been staring at her, gawking and just looking pitiful for an hour, and Henry shuddered back to life as he tried to fix what he'd obviously gone and broken of their relationship. He had to explain, she---she thought he hated her.

"He only told me because I've been fucked over before," Henry blurted. He knew that Seth had no prior knowledge about his recent (or not so recent) relationships, and that his invasion of Heidi's privacy was more to be a snot and nosy, but it hit way too close to home for Henry, "I've had girls date me and get close to me to get to my brother, or one of my clients and---I just----I really didn't want you to be like them, so I had to---ask, I'm sorry, I never would have brought it up if I knew I---I didn't want it to be true, I don't even know what I'm saying right now I feel like an idiot and I'm so sorry for making you---putting you through---this."

Henry ran a hand over his face, "I'll understand if you hate me."

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-18 05:04 pm UTC (link)

Well, this was a right mess that the two of them were in. As Henry spoke, though, she had to -- sympathize. He did have a famous brother, and she could see how if he'd only known that she had stalked Drystan that it would look terrible from Henry's point of view. It hurt her that he thought she was capable of something like that, but at least he'd been up front about it and hadn't tried to sneak around like his brother had. She finally looked up from her lap just in time to see Henry running a hand over his face, looking at least properly admonished.

He felt bad, she felt bad ... and now at least both of their secrets were out. She didn't feel like she had to run out of his apartment in shame like she was sure she'd want to after she started telling him what had happened. In fact, the more that Henry rambled about how he was sorry, the better she felt. She bit her lip, shifting enough that she could reach out for his hand and hold it in hers. It was funny how calm she felt, suddenly.

Was this why Euan had wanted her to tell Henry about this? Had he somehow known that she'd feel better? She supposed it was his job to know those things, but she'd really -- seriously -- doubted that he really knew what he was doing until just then. She turned his hand over in hers, brushing her thumb absently over his palm.

"I don't hate you," she said, her voice still a little panicked so that the words came out too fast, "Part of the reason that I didn't want to tell you was because I know you're an agent and I didn't want you to think I was trying to get to one of your stupid, boring clients." She made sure he was looking at her before she spoke again, really looking at her, "I haven't felt happier since Ellis' death than when I've been with you and I didn't want to ruin it. But I'm glad you know now." Logically, they could just -- work through this, right? Neither of them was screaming or shouting, that was definitely a good sign.

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fictitious
2011-04-19 12:31 am UTC (link)

As much as he felt like they should talk about her past, about her husband, and about how everything ended, Henry couldn't get his mind past her simple statement. She hadn't felt happier than she was with him, right now. He felt that childish excitement in his chest that he usually felt around Heidi, and he couldn't help but smile hopefully. She wasn't some girl that was just trying to get to the quidditch players. She was someone who wanted to be with him, because of who he was. She liked him. She didn't want to ruin things.

Henry couldn't find any other words, nothing that would encompass how he felt at this moment because his emotions were all over the place. He felt guilty for briefly thinking she might be crazy, sad about her past, elated that she felt so good about being with him and---Henry just slid off the stool and took Heidi's face in her hands and kissed her.

He wanted to help her get through this. It must have taken a lot for her to get out to that singles' event, and Henry wanted to be worth the effort.

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-19 12:41 am UTC (link)

The moment that Henry took her face into his hands and pulled her into that kiss, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed close to him, sliding off her own stool in the process. Although this wasn't the way that she'd wanted all of this to come out, she felt so much better now that Henry knew about her past. She wouldn't have to keep hiding him from -- well, he could meet her brother, at least.

She held on a moment or two more than really necessary before she pulled back from the kiss, slightly out of breath, "Henry," she said quietly, glancing over his shoulder toward the stove, "Would I be a terrible person if I said that dinner could wait?" Even when he'd been trying to ask her about something that he was worried about, she could tell that he'd been trying to be delicate about it. And now, knowing that he wasn't upset about her not telling him all this sooner ... well.

She was feeling a lot more comfortable with the idea of taking things to the next level.

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fictitious
2011-04-19 02:02 pm UTC (link)

He enjoyed the stretched out kiss, something that they hadn't really done in these past few weeks. Henry now understood, of course, Heidi's need to keep things chaste and slow moving. So he was glad that their conversation seemed to bring on a new level of trust and...Henry flushed slightly at the implications of her request and tried not to look too shocked. Dinner could definitely wait. He wasn't even hungry anymore, at least, not for food.

"No," he gulped, "I think that's a good idea."

Henry smiled, feeling really happy for the first time this evening. He and Heidi had just made a very big step in their relationship, and he no longer felt shy about his strong feelings for her. They'd worked through something difficult like adults, and while he was sure this wasn't the last they'd have to discuss her ex-husband, he was glad that there was a foundation ready for the healing process.

He kissed her again after a moment, his hand going to her waist as he deepened the kiss. Yes, dinner could definitely wait.

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iseeyoubaby
2011-04-19 03:47 pm UTC (link)

Chaste and slow-moving be damned. Honestly, she'd been worried about telling Henry about her past -- that had been the biggest obstacle in trusting him with anything further. She hadn't wanted to become attached emotionally and sexually only to be tossed out on her arse a few days later.

Her year-and-a-bit up to this point had been so filled with things like work and trying to figure out her problems that it was nice to be doing something that didn't necessarily require hours of prep-time or too much thinking. She sunk happily into the kiss, keeping her arms looped lightly around his neck. She managed a smile for him, attempting to look coy and seductive.

"Well, in that case ... I don't believe you showed me your bedroom in your little tour, Henry. That needs to be remedied."

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