After The Storm

[Asaiah Murphy]

He inhaled deeply before knocking on the front door three times. It had been a while since he had last seen his sister so couldn't help to feel a little nervous as he waited for the door to be opened. He hadn't spoken much to her either after what happened a year ago apart from the occasional back and forth to let his sister know that he wouldn't be coming home for the winter break. He knew what was going to be discussed once he would be at hers so instead he had decided to stay at his girlfriend's place rather than going to her or their older brother. It had taken his friends some effort to convince him in spending the Christmas holidays with his sister and so had written her a letter asking if she would let him come over to spend the holidays together. He had hoped that she would have turned him down seeing as he had done so every time she had asked him to come over but there he stood, waiting outside of her flat with an overnight bag hanging over his shoulder.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Jennifer had been trying to get ready for her younger brother's arrival all day - really, she had. But between remembering that she hadn't made up the spare bed yet, and trying to decide what they were going to eat tonight, grimacing at the piles of just... stuff, all sorts of random stuff in the sitting area that was supposed to live elsewhere, and washing wayward strands of hair out of the bathroom sink - well, there was almost too much to do to get any of it done. She'd covered the main things though, Jennifer thought, the hair and the bed predominantly, but the question of dinner was still up in the air. Screw it, they could just order take-out. She was sure Asaiah wouldn't mind. He would be at the door any minute now, she'd literally just buzzed him up before and had spent the criminally short interim trying to clear enough space on the table for two people to sit, rather than the usual one. Hearing a knock however, she just gave up and shoved everything down to the other end of the table before leaving to answer the door.

The thing about the cleaning and preparing, Jennifer realised as she pulled the door open to reveal her brother, was that it even amidst the reasoning for the activity to take place it had been a good distraction. She had been so caught up in trying to get everything done in time that she hadn't been able to think about... well, everything. The fact that she hadn't seen Asaiah since... the fact that he had been spending his holidays since then on an entirely different continent in all that time - she still wasn't too happy about that one. But she wasn't going to dump all of that on him just yet. If she was going to broach that particular subject she needed to lull him into a false sense of security and make sure he couldn't run away before giving him a piece of her mind about that one. But Jennifer didn't just want to yell at him, either; she was glad Asaiah was here. As hard as it might be spending time with him and without... others, this Christmas... it was inifintely better than spending it practically by herself. "You didn't get lost," she said by way of a greeting, standing aside to let Asaiah through the door. "Already doing better than me, damn." She'd often ended up on the wrong floor the times she'd come home after a night out. "You can dump your stuff wherever, but that's your room through there." She indicated with a casual flick of her hand before shutting the front door and squeezing past him back into the main space. "So, what've you been up to? School still suck? Friends still good? Quidditch - that one's a no-brainer, tell me everything." She leaned up against the counter of the kitchen bench with her arms crossed, waiting patiently for her brother's reply.

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah frowned a little at her comment and looked at his sister with a questioning look while he entered the flat. "Who gets lost?" he asked, wondering what she would be doing while making her way up to her apartment. He walked over to the bedroom where he would be sleeping during his time at his sister's and dropped his overnight bag onto the bed before turning back to answer Jennifer's questions. Asaiah had to admit to himself that he was slightly surprised by how he was welcomed after such a long time of not seeing one another, as he had expected her to release every bit of annoyance she felt towards him over the past year, but instead, she stayed rather cool. "School still sucks," the teen stated, not going deeper into it because he didn't think that she would appreciate him lying to her about how well he was doing thus far because he wasn't doing great at all. His grades had seen better days and the Professors were now noticing his absence from their classes. "Marisol and Wyatt are fine, and Tess wishes you a Merry Christmas," he told her. "Did I ever mention to you that Mari and I are dating now?" Asaiah asked excitedly, momentarily forgetting that he had not told his sister this bit of information yet. And then she went on to ask him about Quidditch which made him a little more irritated than he would have liked. "You don't want to know," the seventeen-year-old said grumpily. "Slytherin lost the first and second match, and I couldn't even play the second match because I wasn't feeling well." He was still annoyed about that one, thinking that perhaps if he had been able to play he might have made a difference, as he was told that the Beater replacing him had done a very poor job. "Anyway, enough about me, how have you been doing?" he asked.

 

[Jennifer Murphy]

Jennifer chuckled, using her free hand to draw a couple of invisible circles around her face. "Uh, me, I do. When you're, you know -" she wiggled her hand back and forth in a gesture of tipsiness. "All these floors look the same, I swear. But don't -" she started, then broke off sharply. It was scary how sometimes the impulse to say certain things still came back without her even realising, and she was glad she had managed to catch it in time. Don't tell Mum and Dad. She couldn't let Asaiah realise what she'd almost done though, she had to put on a strong face. Trying to look the part, Jennifer pretended to joke with her younger brother. "But don't try experiencing that for yourself, okay? Ha." She trailed off, turning her face away to wince at her lame cover-up attempt while Asaiah was busy putting his bag in his room.

Settling in to listen to her brother's news, Jennifer merely nodded in agreement with the boy's opinion of school. She had never much recovered her opinion of the local Hogwarts after hearing about some of Asaiah's experiences there, and she wasn't surprised that the school hadn't managed to shape up yet. She murmured a quick "Good," upon hearing that her brother's friends were well, and not stressing him out, but her lips did quirk up at the mention of Tess. "Oh cute, you should tell her Merry Christmas from me too." She was about to make another comment, one more along the lines of merciless teasing, when her brother's next statement brought her up short and she snapped a hand out in front of her in a 'stop' motion. "Wait, hold up." Jennifer stared at Asaiah accusingly for a moment, then moved away from her position leaning up against the counter to come stand in front of him. God, it was so annoying that he was taller than her. "No, you never told me that. When did this happen?" She did take in the rest of what her brother had said, but it all paled in importance next to this bombshell. She'd always thought that... but whatever. "But this is good, right?" she said, grinning. "I mean, judging by that dumb look on your face you're clearly thrilled about it, and now you can move back home with me! Or Thomas, but, you know," she made a face. "Who would choose to live with Thomas?" she finished with a snort and a grin. Their older brother had been bad enough to co-habitate with when they were kids, he was even worse now that he had his own place to rule over. Jennifer was clearly the obvious choice to live with during holidays now that Asaiah was dating the daughter of the people he was currently staying with - she couldn't imagine they'd be too happy about letting that continue. "So when are you going to bring the rest of your stuff?" she asked excitedly.