Play in the dirt

Erik chuckled. He wasn’t sure how to answer that question politely. “I’m a social butterfly,” he said, “butterflies like plants, don’t they?”
 
Lou looked up, surprised. "Oh... I-i..." He blushed, glancing away again and trying not to smile. He swallowed nervously, glancing back up. "Well, plants like butterflies," he offered shyly. "Do butterflies ever come back or do they just wander from garden to garden and never look back?" He asked.
 
Erik beamed, knowing he’d caught onto something. Blushing a little himself, he tore off another piece of bread. “Depends on the butterfly,” he said, “but I think they always like to come back to a nice garden.”
 
Blushing, Lou looked back at his soup and took a few more bites. He wasn't sure what was really going on, or what he was supposed to say. "Bettie is taking a while," he murmured, picking up a roll. "You've met her before?" He asked.
 
Finishing his soup, Erik pushed away the bowl. “Lovely. I’ll have to bug you for the recipe sometime.” He smiled. “Yeah, but it’s been a long time. I bet she wouldn’t even recognize me anymore.”
 
Lou blushed as Erik mentioned bugging him for the recipe. Did that mean he was coming back? Lou quickly finished the rest of his own soup. "Well maybe I might give it to you. Eventually." He chuckled, moving to put their bowls in the sink. "You said you're a potioneer?" He asked.
 
Bettie had taken a lot longer at the shop than she’d expected. Whilst she generally preferred to buy her supplies at the magical shops, she also had a life in the muggle world that she needed to fuel by being seen at the muggle shops every now and then and because that meant she needed to drive or catch public transport, it also meant she had to wait like everyone else when the bus broke down. That had taken a whole extra hour than it had needed to and then when they’d finally got to her stop, which was a good ten minutes walk from the farm, she’d had to walk all the way since someone had decided they wanted to walk with her and hadn’t been able to ward them off.​
​
By the time the woman had continued on her way, the usually ten minutes had extended by another half hour because she kept talking and stopping and so by the time Bettie had finally been able to apparate, she’d already been at the house and there’d been no point.​
​
Her feet ached with a fierce aggression and as she stumbled unceremoniously through the doors leaning on the wall holding her now probably ruined supplies. She was glad she’d not bought anything that needed to be kept cool or that wouldn’t have worked well for anyone.​
​
It took her a moment to realise Lou had company in the house and she frowned as she moved to drop the bags on the counter not quite sure if this was a magical person or not. She felt like maybe the person was kind of familiar, but that could have meant she’d seen him at a store before on either side of the magical world. “Sorry… what’s happening? Who are you?” She wasn’t impolite, but it was clear to everyone she was tired and a little frustrated. Her feet were absolutely killing her and she couldn’t just take her shoes off with company here so now she was a little annoyed a Lou too, because she didn’t want to be rude.​
 
Erik laughed. “Ooh, the suspense.” He handed his bowl to Lou and might have watched a little too closely as the other wizard turned to clean up. “Mhm,” he started to say before they were interrupted.

Erik waved at Bettie and grinned. It was clear she didn’t remember him, not really. She had aged well- he wasn’t sure he could say the same for himself. He waited for Lou’s response. Bettie seemed like she was in a mood. While Erik was usually good at cheering people up, he knew the time and place.
 
Lou was surprised by the voice. Bettie. He turned, his entire stance softening visibly. He strode to her quickly, gently taking her things from her. "This is Erik," he told her. "He stopped in a while ago and I found him wondering the grounds. He's a potioneer, he came by for some supplies. I don't... Actually know anything about your system and I didn't want to undersell or oversell or mess with your records." He went about putting away the things she'd bought as he spoke, before eventually turning back and walking behind her. He rubbed her shoulders, hoping to help ease some of her tension. "Are you alright? You've been out a long time," he asked softly.
 
Bettie tried not to let the annoyance in her voice out as she spoke, but honestly it wasn't easy. It wasn't even them she was annoyed at, so she knew it wasn't fair, but lord did that make things even harder than they needed to be. Honestly, she'd not even meant for it to be this bad, it shouldn’t be this bad - she knew it wasn’t fair to them, but she was in so much physical pain that it was hard to think straight.

She was never wearing wearing shoes like this again.

She was done.

She looked at Lou as he moved around to massaged her shoulders and shook her head, moving away from him. She was in too much pain right now. “No, it’s fine. I’m alright… or I will be alright eventually,” she said, sighing. She recognised the man’s name a little, he must have been a client of there’s at some point and that thought seemed to be backed up by what her brother just said.

“Oh… yes, client,” she looked over to where she kept her books. “Do you want an order or something? We would need at least a week per kilogram but that depends on what you want specifically.”

She tried not to wince as she made her way over.
 
Bettie looked like she was in some serious pain. Erik thought to recommend a hot bath or a nap, but he already knew that his suggestion would not be well-received. He stayed in his chair, watching the exchange between the two. When she asked him what he wanted to order, he reached for his list again. The list that wasn’t there. What a dummy.

There was one very specific potion he needed to make, but he didn’t want to advertise it. “Fluxweed, knotgrass, moly, and leaping toadstools. I would be happy to take some Alihotsy leaves as well.” He racked his brain, but couldn’t remember if there was anything else he needed. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be kicking himself later.
 
-godmods approved-

Lou winced a bit at Bettie's reaction. He knew she would be sore for a bit, he wondered if he should try to help or if he should just give her space. He ended up doing what he did best- retreating to the edge of the room, leaning against the wall and putting his hands in his pockets, watching as the two went about the transaction. He would glance to Erik and look away, not noticing that when he looked away Erik would glance to him.

It wasn't that much longer before everything was wrapped up, and just like that, Erik was gone with little more than a nod from Lou and a goodbye to them both before he was out the door. Lou looked to Bettie. "I should get back to work," He murmured. "There's soup on the stove- fresh, if you're hungry." He gave her a soft smile before turning and heading out the door- back to the fields, back to work, Like he always did.
 
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