in the devil's lair (roxanne)

[Scorpius Malfoy]

Scorpius had elected not to bother replying to Roxanne's last message. He knew she was slightly annoyed that he'd taken to long to take her bait, and he felt a little - only a little - guilty about that, since he'd been being deliberately annoying. Although his caution had been genuine - he'd told her what he thought of her living arrangements when she made them, and she knew that he and Dominique didn't get on. Last time he'd been there, Dom had threatened him with both a knife and a frying pan, and banned him from the flat. Which of course, he would not take the slightest bit of notice of, but still. It wasn't exactly his favourite place to visit, and as for sleeping over there... well, he wasn't going to give up sleeping with his girlfriend for the sake of his dislike for her cousin, but he'd far rather she came to his. He thought he'd prefer to keep all his clothes on and his wits about him if Dominique was anywhere around.

However, Roxie had sworn that Dominique was not around, though how long she would be out for, Roxie had decided not to specify. Which probably meant she could come bursting in any minute, which would be fun, he thought grumpily, as he prepared to Apparate over. Even though she'd got annoyed with him, though, the initial impulse that had made Roxie demand his presence was too tempting to resist, so he had conceded defeat. He wasn't going to floo, though - he'd Apparate straight to Roxie's room, and bypass the risk of Ricky or Dominique being in after all. 

So with a loud crack, he appeared in her bedroom, to find her not - as she had told him - in a state of undress, but merely lounging on her bed with a book. As he knew her quite well, this did not remotely surprise or disappoint him, since he'd hardly expected anything else. 

"Hey!  What happened to taking a bath? Were you waiting for me?" he asked, with a grin. "And just so you know, if Dominique bursts through that door brandishing a frying pan, I'm never believing anything you say to me again."

He crossed over to her bed, and stood beside it, raising his eyebrows slightly in question. Was she going to insist on still being annoyed with him, or could he get away with kissing her?

[Roxanne Weasley]

Roxanne wasn't particularly annoyed with her boyfriend, but she wasn't exactly elated with him, either. His reaction to her living arrangements or rather over-reactions were starting to drive her insane. She knew that he wasn't fond of her cousin, but hadn't thought her living arrangements would be this big of an issue. She thought he'd be happier that she was somewhat on her own - well as on her own as she possibly could be consider she still worked for her father's shop. On her own meant that she didn't have to throw her parents some long excuse about where she'd be for the night, nor did it mean she'd have to see her father's looks of disapproval when he knew she was leaving for the night. Plus, she'd get to live with two of her best friends - both of whom happened to be her complete polar opposite, but that was besides the fact. Everything would be perfect, or at least she'd hoped so. But as per usual, things never went the way she'd wanted them to.

So when the flat had come up as empty for the night, it was a no brainer for Roxanne as to what (or really who) she wanted to do. She'd owl'd Scorpius to let him know, but his protests and concerns made her want to rip her hair out. What did he think? That Dominique paraded into her room whenever she felt like? Though it was half true, Dominique was more than apprehensive about stepping into Roxanne's room under the fear - or rather disgust - that Scorpius might be there. But the more he protested, the more Roxanne just shrugged, deciding to cut her loses and maybe spend the rest of her night in her favourite past time, a book. It was strangely quiet in the flat with both Dom and Ricky gone, and for once she could just read.

Sending her last owl off, Roxanne curled up in bed with a copy of "Giovanni's Room", blanket pulled up to her waist, dressed in an oversized Puddlemore Unitd t-shirt, either property of her brother or boyfriend, and pants. She was midway through chapter two when a crack splintered the air, causing her to jump and drop her book. There he stood, grin on his face, and part of Roxanne wanted to laugh; she knew he'd come. Another part of Roxanne wanted to roll her eyes.

"I was actually reading," she gestured to the book on the floor. "And if Dom comes bearing frying pans as gifts, well you should probably run instead of worrying about me." She added with a shrug, sitting up on her knees and then reaching forward to grab her book off the floor.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

Scorpius did not consider his reaction to her living arrangements an overreaction, but rather a completely reasonable one, given the way Dominique tended to react to his presence. Part of it, though, was just his own desire for privacy. He didn't mind sharing with Teddy, Teddy was fine, he and Scorpius did their own thing and didn't interfere with each other. But he really preferred not to have to share space with people who weren't his close friends or family - which Roxie was, of course, and Teddy had become, but Ricky and Dominique didn't count as that, which meant he'd rather they weren't in a place he slept regularly.

However, although he wasn't immensely happy with the situation, wanting to spend time with Roxie ultimately beat his reluctance. And now that he was actually here, he couldn't be bothered to be snarky (or not more than gently, which was a given with him really), and was prepared to be extra nice to make up for his grumpiness before.

He sat down on her bed as she retrieved her book. "Oh, I plan on it," he assured her. "I would be out of here very fast, don't worry. And then afterwards, I'd never believe a word you told me. Right now, I'm going to trust you that she's not going to. Or Ricky with condoms," he added as an afterthought. "I think that would be worse actually."

He glanced her over thoughtfully as she straightened up. Naked she was not, but he quite liked her like this too. "Looks good," he commented lightly, looking at the book (which he knew nothing about), then back at her, his expression serious, though there was faint laughter in his eyes. "So am I being punished for taking too long and interrupting your reading, or do I get a kiss?"

((OOC - Sorry it's bleh, love))

[Roxanne Weasley]

As per usual, Scorpius' many clever retorts elicited an eye roll from Roxanne. Some times she wondered how she saw past his snark. Sure at times his retorts were endearing, but other times, like now, she just wanted to hit him over the head with her book. The bed jostled as he sat, causing Roxanne's body to tip towards his. She rolled her eyes at his words and scooted farther back onto her bed, sitting down on her bum, and crossed her legs at her ankles, putting space between them. "I hate to break it to you, love, but RIcky doesn't worry about our sex life as much as you seem to think she does. Besides, she's probably off using her condoms with Lorcan or something," her words trailed off as she placed her book in her lap.

A grin threatened to tug at her lips at his next words, and she felt like asking what he was referring to, her book or her legs, but stopped herself. He was going to pay for his snarkiness in his letters; she was certain of that. "Giovanni's Room, you should try reading it some time," quipped Roxanne, chewing on her bottom lip and looking at him expectantly. The laughter in his eyes didn't go missed, and quirked an eyebrow in his direction. "I've lost my touch, remember." Roxanne answered in response to his question and in reference to his comments in their owl exchange.

---

ooc: mine is even worse

[Scorpius Malfoy]

Scorpius might have come up with another retort, especially as she seemed determined to keep him at a distance, but her statement about her flatmate distracted him for a moment. "Lorcan? As in Lorcan Scamander? I didn't know there was anything going on with him and Ricky. Or did you just make that up?" He didn't know either Scamander that well, but he knew Lorcan slightly better, as he was friends with Seb. How that friendship had come about, he wasn't sure - Lorcan Scamander had always seemed like the typical bumbling Hufflepuff, although Scorpius knew better than to make a remark like that to Roxie. He had nothing against Lorcan, but he wasn't exactly someone Scorpius would have picked out as a good match for Ricky Jordan.

The name of the book meant nothing to him, but he nodded. "Oh, okay. Maybe I will." It wasn't that he never read - he quite liked books, on the right occasions, but he was nothing like such an avid reader as his girlfriend, and was therefore much less well-read, particularly when it came to Muggle literature.

Now he was going to have to work for it, he realised, recognising the expression on his face. Not that he minded that too much. "I don't know about that," he commented. "I'm here, aren't I? Thought that was what you were aiming for in the first place." He kicked his shoes off so that he could move further onto the bed, shifting himself so that he was sitting beside her, her legs no longer between them. "Although," he added, glancing across at her, "You used false pretences to get me here. Again." His lips were twitching upwards as he spoke, by no means serious about her 'false pretences' since he had fully expected to find them false.

[Roxanne Weasley]

"Because I constantly tell tall-tales?" Roxanne asked, though the question was more rhetorical than not; with a raised eyebrow, her tone signaled that he should chose his next words carefully. She tilted her head in his direction, watching him with her dark eyes as he rambled on, clearly astounded by the fact that Lorcan seemed to have a sex drive, though in all honesty Roxanne had been slightly surprised when Ricky had told her, too. Until that moment she'd never quite imagined Lorcan as anything other than the kid she used to play in the mud with at her grandmother's burrow. Certainly he'd thought the same of her, too, though. "Apparently he's pretty good in bed - well, not bed, whatever, too."

Her goal to place a certain amount of distance between them was cut short as Scorpius repositioned his body so that he was next to her. The perceived nonchalance in his words garnered another roll of the eyes from Roxanne as she leafed through the book in her lap, pretending to read. "It's not my fault that I have to talk in hyperbole in order to get you into my flat. You're the one afraid of Dominique, not me. Besides, I told you to forget it - to stay home," she added definitively, turning the page of her novel for effect. If he could play hardball through letters, she could play hardball in person.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

"I was thinking more that you might have been joking than that you were telling tall tales," Scorpius replied, raising his eyebrows back at her. "As far as I know, the only tall tales you tell me are the ones about what you're wearing..." He shrugged. "I just wondered - they don't seem like... the most obvious couple, but hey, whatever works for them." Truth told, he didn't really know Lorcan Scamander well enough to know whether he and Ricky would make a good pair or not, but from his vague impressions, they didn't seem all that similar. Then again, he and Roxie probably didn't seem that similar to most people, because they weren't in many ways. Similarity didn't really mean anything. "Thanks for that information," he added, pulling a face. "I'm glad Ricky shared it."

He made a noise of protest at the idea that he might be afraid of Dominique Weasley. "Justifiably wary of Dominique," he corrected her in pained tones. "Last time I was here, she threatened to take a knife to me if you didn't get me out of her flat, remember? And I know you did," he went on. "I didn't take any notice of you. Though I shall sit here quietly while you finish your book if that's really what you want me to do," he informed her, though he had no real intention of doing that, if she should happen to take him up on it. "Can't promise no other distractions though." He casually slid an arm round her waist and let it rest there.

[Roxanne Weasley]

He was being deliberately irritating, Roxanne could tell as she cast a sideways glance at him, opening her book and glancing down at it. Anything she said he was certain to challenge in that special way that made her both love and hate him. She considered smacking him over the head with her book, just plonking it down on his head of blonde hair that she loved to muss whenever she had the chance. Nonetheless, his comments still solicited him a roll of the eyes. She began reading her book, hardly paying attention to what she was reading as his words filtered through her head. "I decided to put them back on since you were talking too long; not sorry," she quipped, turning her page for effect, though she hadn't read a word on the page. She'd read the book enough times to know it by heart, though. She ignored the face he pulled at the mention of Lorcan and Ricky, shrugging instead. "Table-top, just in case you're wondering. . ." she added, playing with the edges of her book.

When his arm slid round her waist, she glanced down, a chuckle escaping her lips as he insisted he wasn't afraid of Dominique. "Do you really think I'd let her stab you?" she asked incredulously, pulling a face this time. "Merlin," she huffed, blowing her hair out of her face. "Maybe you should suit up in quidditch gear then, if you insist on staying and waiting. Wouldn't want Dom to come in and stab you, would we?" She turned another page of her book, once again not paying any attention to the words on the page.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

Carefully watching her face rather than her hands, Scorpius became fairly sure that she wasn't actually as engrossed in her book as she seemed. For one thing, she was still hearing and replying to what he said, and for another, her eyes didn't really look as if they were reading the words in front of her properly. Taking this as something of a positive sign, he settled in to wait for her to relent.

"Oh really?" he said, not believing a word. "You decided against the bath then... And if your cousin didn't have an irrational hatred for me, I'd have been here straight away," he added. "Pants or no pants."

"I wasn't, but thanks," he commented wryly. "Now I never need to wonder. I want to say I bet that was Ricky's idea, but I don't really know Scamander, so maybe not. Was it a one time thing or do they have something going on?"

"No..." he replied thoughtfully. "Not if you were quick enough to stop her. At least, I hope not. Not unless you were very angry with me." He grinned at her, not really serious, since he was fairly confident that she'd never be quite angry enough with him to want him actually stabbed. Maybe angry enough to think about it, but not to let it happen. In actual fact, he saw too much of Dominique as part of the team to actually be scared of her, but the fact remained that they did not get on well, and he preferred not to see her if he didn't have to. "Maybe I should," he agreed jokingly. "Depends how long you're going to make me wait..." He leaned closer to her, ostensibly to look at the book over her shoulder, though he didn't read any of the words,instead speaking quietly beside her ear, his tone not quite as flippant as his words. "Do I have to grovel even to get a kiss?"

[Roxanne Weasley]

Keeping up her poorly executed charade, Roxanne turned the page of her novel once more. Never mind that she hadn't read a single word since about four pages back. She was determined to stay mad - or rather peeved, for as long as she could. Though the thing with Scorpius was that, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't really stay angry with him for long, not unless he really pissed her off; something he hadn't done in a while.

"I decided to sit and read - in peace." She stressed the last word and gave him a pointed glare, although she was certain that he wasn't intimidating in the least since she wasn't truly angry. "I'm wearing pants, by the way." She returned her eyes to the book in front of her. Another turn of the page, her eyes not even remotely scanning the pages.

His next question caused her to shake her head, and roll her eyes in amusement. "Lorcan is an undercover freak. Ricky is a very blatant freak. Maybe they decided to table top together. And I'm not sure, I haven't asked. But knowing Ricky, she could make it a more than one time thing." Shrugging, she brushed her auburn brown hair from her face. His next set of words caused her to shut her book; she chose not to comment on the conversation in regards to his possible stabbing, but instead turned to face his direction when his warm breath hit her ear.

Leaning in even closer, so that there lips were centimeters apart, Roxanne spoke, "Yes," a grin tugging on the corners of her mouth.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

He was sure now that her annoyance was largely a pretence - he might have irritated her by taking too long, but she was messing with him now. And he supposed he deserved it a little bit, but he was fairly sure he could coax her out of it, even if he really did have to grovel.

"You didn't send me that owl because you wanted to spend the evening sitting reading," he told her, meeting her glare with raised eyebrows and a carefully serious expression. "Yeah, I kind of worked that out," he agreed ruefully at her words about what she was wearing. "Though there's always the option of changing that..." A faint grin appeared on his face as she turned the page after only a few moments on it, most of which she had spent glaring at him, not looking at the book. "Wow, that book must be great," he commented. "You're racing through it."

Details of Ricky's sex life - whoever it was with - wasn't really a topic Scorpius was that interested in, so he merely commented jokingly: "Well, I hope Scamander knows what he's doing. Ricky Jordan's almost as terrifying as you..." Actually, Scorpius and Ricky got on pretty well these days - once he'd got used to her overwhelming Gryffindor-ness - which was why he figured snarky comments about her were allowed, since Roxie would know he didn't mean them.

He allowed a smile to cross his face as she answered his question - her reply was no more than he'd expected, since he'd pretty much walked into that one. "Hm..." he murmured. "Well... what if I said please?" As he spoke, the hand that was round her waist slid lower onto the bare skin of her thigh.

[Roxanne Weasley]

Some how she managed to wrangle her book in between their bodies, ignoring the feeling of his hand as it skimmed to the bare skin of her thigh and used it to bonk him on his head, a grin on her lips as she did so. Not waiting for his reaction, Roxanne wielded her book to clonk him on the head once more. Her eyes then bore into his as she waited a few moment to let her actions seep in, then spoke. She didn't bother to discuss Ricky, or even his accusation about her reading - or rather lack thereof. Instead, she raised her brow pointedly.

"The first bonk was for making me wait, the second was for being an arse. Ninety-five percent of the time I wonder what it is I love about you so much that makes me put up with this much sass. I swear, your awful," she commented, shaking her head as she tossed the book down to the other side of him. "And it's a quite fascinating book about American ex-patriates in Paris. You should really try reading it. Poor Giovanni never has a chance once David gets his hands onto him, kind of like me." Roxanne commented, roll her eyes as he began to murmur something about saying please.

She grabbed his hand, to stop it from trailing any lower and let the grin fall from her lips. "Maybe," she offered, licking her lips and waiting.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

"Ow!" he protested, attempting to duck away from her book, although in fact it hadn't hurt all that much. He grinned at her, still holding up an arm ready to defend himself should she try to hit him again. "Okay, I'll admit to being awful and an arse, but I still think physically injuring me is uncalled for." He lowered his hand as she tossed the book to one side.

"Sounds interesting." He nodded without really taking in much of her description, apart from the 'kind of like me' at the end. Not that he wasn't mildly interested; he might, in fact, pick it up at some point when he didn't have anything better to do, but he wasn't really concentrating on books right now. Picking up on the words he had taken in, he lifted an eyebrow at her. "I don't know about that - which one of them are you claiming to be? Because I'm the one sitting here just because you sent me an owl saying you weren't wearing pants - untruthfully."

He looked down at her, his own expression growing more serious, although his eyes were still dancing as he tilted his head to one side. "Okay then," he said with mock meekness, twisting his hand that she'd grabbed so that he could lace his fingers with hers. "Please can I have a kiss...?"

[Roxanne Weasley]

"You'll live," she commented jokingly, watching as he lowered his arm as her book hit the bed. She'd almost - almost clocked him on the head once more, but stopped herself. Her mind drifted to the other day when she'd jumped on Fred's back and she considered just how violent she'd been the last few days. Jumping on Fred, hitting Scorpius with a book, oops.

His mild dismissal of her book report caused a roll of the eyes to saunter from Roxanne. She knew he'd probably not read the book, but it didn't matter. Maybe one day she'd tie him to a chair and read it to him. She felt that everyone should read the book, it was by far one of her favourites. "It does, doesn't it?" she agreed, mere centimeters from his mouth. "I'm technically not wearing pants, in the American sense, so . . ." she trailed off, letting her eyes drift down his torso and then back up to his face. His hand reached out and he interlocked their fingers, causing her heart to flutter. Strange, it was, how they'd been together for two years now and he could still make her heart flutter with simple touches.

She squeezed his hand, furrowing her brows together as she turned her entire body further into his so that she was all but in his lap. "I guess," she answered dramatically with a roll of her eyes and then followed it up with a grin, waiting for him to kiss her. She was indeed going to make him work for it all.

[Scorpius Malfoy]

Scorpius ignored both her comment about him living (it would possibly be a tad over dramatic for him to claim otherwise) and her insistence on recommending her book to him. It wasn't that he didn't like to read, or that he was uninterested in the things she loved - he just had other things on his mind right now, one of them being that, as she had just pointed out, she was not wearing any trousers.

"So you're going to pretend to be American and say you were telling the truth?" He laughed, knowing that he was now winning this game - although as he was pretty sure that this was what she'd intended all along, she couldn't really be said to be losing.

Her dramatics weren't really very convincing, but he decided not to waste any more time by telling her this. Instead, he lifted his other hand and trailed it up her neck, then, cupping the side of her face, he lowered his lips to hers. It wasn't quite the brief kiss of greeting he'd have given her when he first came in, if she hadn't been pretending to be angry with him; he kept it light, but lingered against her lips for several moments. When he pulled away, he replaced his mouth with his thumb, brushing it across her lower lip.

"Am I forgiven yet?" he asked her with a slight smile.