Evelyn Stones
October 07, 2020 6:29 PM
I guess we're adults now. (Heinrich) by Evelyn Stones
It wasn't the first time Evelyn had seen Heinrich all summer, but it was the first time she'd been an adult going off to see her adult boyfriend. Considering all the things they'd both survived to get them here, it was a pretty exciting milestone. Considering all the freedoms she'd had over this summer that she'd not so long ago been convinced she wouldn't have even if she survived, it was a pretty exciting milestone. Survival was, arguably, a low bar, but Evelyn felt safe saying she was even thriving now. She was healthier, without most of the signs of a girl who seemed very small in her mind now.She'd taken advantage of her new advanced age to do random little bits of magic all day. Annoying as CJ could be sometimes, it filled her with a surprising degree of love for the boy to see his excitement when she changed his toys' colors. No matter how much her magic improved, she suspected that spell would always be the one that came easiest. Which was sort of fun, because maybe someday she'd get to threaten someone with turning them chartreuse and it would be a sincere threat. Although she rather hoped she would never have to threaten anyone.
In any case, she was meeting Heinrich in a kitschy little area of town that was sort of the local Hawthorne street. Since no one outside of Portland knew what that meant, she hadn't bothered to acknowledge the similarity out loud, but still. It was the sort of place that young people wanted to be just because it was the place to be, and there were shops exclusively owned by local folks here. Plus, the food was to die for. There were also options, including a German restaurant and a diner with milkshakes and fries and another place that specialized in goblin cuisine which . . . well, it was popular with goblins. Evelyn was thrilled to see a little more of the wizarding world and have a little more independence, and also to get gifts for the people who mattered the most to her even though it wasn't their birthday; the McLeods' deserved to be thanked for everything, and her seventeenth birthday was her bittersweet graduation from being their foster child after all.
It was summer, so Evelyn wanted to take advantage and enjoy the warmth that curled the air around her. She had also gotten a hair cut, so she was feeling especially . . . cute maybe was the word. She was feeling cute. She wore a sundress and old converse, which didn't really contribute to her looking like an adult but it was comfortable and she felt good in it. Her shoulders were bare, but a fake denim button-up hung over her arm. She'd considered wearing a sunhat but decided that it would be a bit of a barrier between herself and Heinrich with as big a height difference as there was between them, so she opted out of it.
She felt fluttery in her stomach, like the sunshine had made its way in and was warming her all up from the inside. Right now, everything seemed really really good, and on a day like this, she thought that maybe everything would be really good after graduation too. When Heinrich arrived and Evelyn spotted him, she thought that somebody also looked really really good, and dang, did she really get to be the one he was coming to say hi to? She couldn't help grinning, and made her way towards him to close the distance a little sooner.
"Hi," she beamed. A simple handbag hung across her diagonally and she reached into it to retrieve a small wrapped box. Inside was a carved wooden desktop clock. She wasn't sure whether the tradition of giving clocks to people for their majority birthday was true in Germany, but she thought that the most common choice was a pocketwatch anyway. This way, Heinrich could have something to keep at his desk. It was also charmed so that he could spin it around and say the name of a specific place and it would show him the time there, which she hoped would appeal to his international life experiences, but also may be sweet if they ended up spending much time in different time zones (which she really hoped they wouldn't). "Happy birthday."
22
Evelyn Stones
I guess we're adults now. (Heinrich)
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Heinrich Hexenmeister
October 13, 2020 11:22 AM
I guess so. Do we get official 'Adult' badges? by Heinrich Hexenmeister
Yesterday had been busy. He'd had to make two birthday cakes, one to celebrate with his family, and one to celebrate with Evelyn. He'd been efficient by making them the same cake and just splitting the batter into two different cake pans. After baking, he'd then frosted the larger one in plain chocolate, and the smaller one in alternating stripes of blue and brown. The larger one, he'd left out with eighteen unlit candles before going to bed, and when he woke up as a seventeen year old, they'd already been lit (he guessed Karl was the one who'd gotten up early to do it). Heinrich had not slept in either. He'd had to make rolls and sausage for his birthday breakfast. It wasn't the first time he'd made breakfast this summer, so at least he knew what he was doing. He'd invited everyone in to celebrate once they were done, and after adding some cold cuts and jam to the spread. It wasn't the fanciest of breakfasts, and it lacked the sweet pastries he associated with Sonora breakfasts, but it was good.Hilda gave him a book about History of Magic that she said Professor Schmidt had recommended as a good read, Hans had given him a new potions supply kit with a better knife and mortar and pestle than the ones he'd been using since first year, and Karl had given him the traditional pocketwatch given to a newly minted seventeen year old. Karl had also said this particular pocketwatch had been Vater's, and he'd been saving it for this day to pass it on. Heinrich hadn't really known how to handle that detail, as his feelings for Vater were a bit complicated these days, but he'd thanked Karl politely anyway, and had the watch in his pocket now.
He hadn't planned any party games after the breakfast or presents, so he blew out the candles then they ate the cake, earlier in the day than was traditional, but he was meeting Evelyn later so the family celebration was all taking place before lunch. For the first adult birthday party he'd been responsible for coordinating, it hadn't been terrible. Next time, though, he thought maybe he'd just buy a cake. His attempt had come out a bit dry. It was still edible though, so he carefully packed up the blue and brown one and charmed it against falling over or getting squished (it was not the first magic he'd cast as an of-age wizard today, but it was quite satisfying not needing to ask Karl to do it), put it in the bag with his present for Evelyn, then flooed out to Vermont.
He had accounted for getting-lost time and needed it, but he found the right spot at roughly the time they had arranged to meet.
"Hi," he returned her greeting with a smile of his own. She held out a wrapped box to him, so he rummaged in his bag for the small wrapped box meant for her. Finding it, he made the exchange, present for present. When she opened hers, she would find a silver celtic knot necklace with an August birthstone set into the center of it. He had contemplated other symbols of time or adulthood, but decided the birthstone denoted 'birthday' well enough, and the symbol was traditionally used to call upon strength and inner wisdom in tough situations, which he felt was a symbol that well suited Evelyn and her life journey so far. “Alles Gute zum Geburtstag," he returned warmly.
He looked about for a park bench or something to sit on if they were going to be peeling paper off of boxes, "Do we want to open them now? Or after cake? I made cake for us."
OOC: Necklace
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Heinrich Hexenmeister
I guess so. Do we get official 'Adult' badges?
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Evelyn Stones
October 13, 2020 11:48 AM
Probably. I bet they're adult shaped or something. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn doubted she'd ever get sick of Heinrich's smile. There was a time, not that long ago, that she never got to see that, and then when it was rare. She wouldn't say he was exactly free with his smiles now but it wasn't unusual to see the expression and it made her feel very warm whenever they were directed at her.They exchanged gifts and Evelyn couldn't help a small giggle. She'd gotten very used to the idea that men didn't do nice things like this for women. In fact, she wasn't sure if she'd ever seen her father give her mother anything for her birthday. He would for Christmas sometimes, but that was sort of different because everyone was giving everyone else gifts for Christmas, and Christmas gifts could be things that were really meant for the whole family anyway. "You're sweet," she beamed at him. Her expression changed into something more like shock though when he said he'd made cake for them.
"You made cake?" she gasped. She wasn't really sure whether that was a German tradition or a Hexenmeister tradition or what. She was pretty sure no one expected her to make her own birthday cake and she certainly hadn't done so. "That's literally very sweet."
She joined him in looking around for a place to sit, pointing when she spotted somewhere that might work. "Maybe open them first?" she suggested, thinking. "Before we risk having frosting on our fingers."
They moved to a bench and Evelyn took a seat, crossing her ankles since a full cross-legged position wouldn't be appropriate in her current outfit (it was one benefit of the robes they wore at school, although she still liked this dress better) before holding up the package. "You first or me?" she asked. Her stomach felt sort of squirmy. She generally didn't mind attention, and it was especially nice that she got to share her birthday with Heinrich and she didn't have all the attention anyway, but it felt like a lot somehow to be thought of like this. The McLeods always thought of her, but she hadn't always spent her birthday with them either and this was generally a new feeling. Not to mention the fact that her previous birthday had happened only after an extensive dose of bruise balm. Birthdays could be bittersweet, and she wasn't sure what to do with them when they were just sweet.
When it was her turn, she held the package in her hands like it was very precious. Which it was.
There was probably a way to open the packaging by magic, but the odds of vanishing the whole gift were a little too high and it was habit to do things manually anyway, so she left her wand alone as she opened her gift and found . . . "Heinrich," she breathed. "It's beautiful. Thank you so much." She'd never been gifted anything like that before, or owned anything like that. It was the prettiest thing she'd ever seen.
Not sure whether she could manage the clasp when she was feeling fumbly, and when she hadn't ever really had to figure one out before, she held it up to Heinrich. "Would you help me put it on?" she asked.
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Evelyn Stones
Probably. I bet they're adult shaped or something.
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Heinrich Hexenmeister
November 24, 2020 2:14 PM
Like gingerbread people?
by Heinrich Hexenmeister
Co-written With: Evelyn Stones
“I made cake,” Heinrich confirmed. He knew it wasn’t an American tradition, and he also knew, even in Germany, the cake did not need to be made personally, but he had still felt it was an important part of his coming of age, just being able to make the cake, even if it was imperfect. “It is more heavy than sweet,” he admitted warningly, in case she was expecting light fluffy American cake.
Evelyn beamed. “I’m sure it’s perfect. I don’t think I even know how to make cake, so I’m not going to be one to judge anyway.”
“Gifts first, then,” he agreed with her logic about the order of events as they took seats at the bench she had noticed and pointed out.
When she asked who should open their gift first, it was on his tongue that she should go first, but then he worried that her association with Ness would make her take offense at chivalry, so instead he stated, “I would think the older should go first. I was born at 4:44 pm. In Germany. So that is,” he frowned as he did some mental arithmetic, and his fingers moved slightly as he used them to count backwards, “I think 7:44 am in Oregon? Give or take an hour? Do you know if you were born before then?”
Evelyn grimaced and shook her head. “No,” she said. “But probably after that, since that’s pretty early in the day.” She smiled, not wanting to make this weird and sad just because she didn’t know that much about her own birth, other than that it had taken place in a Muggle hospital. “You can go first.”
Heinrich nodded, and decided it would be bad to suggest that if her father hadn’t complained about losing sleep, she had probably been born at a convenient time. “Okay,” he agreed, and pushed that thought aside in favor of opening the gift given to him. The paper fell away, and he opened the box. He pulled out the wooden desktop clock. “Thank you,” he said genuinely. “It is a good gift. I like it.”
Evelyn sighed, relieved that he liked it. She had been completely unsure of what to get him and was glad that she seemed to have picked something that he did like and that did make sense.
Then she took her turn and he smiled as she appreciated the necklace he had found for her. “It is no more beautiful than you,” he stated, then blushed slightly because he hadn’t entirely meant to say that out loud. “I will help,” he promised and did so, his fingers slipping on the delicate clasp a few times before he got it to catch properly. He stepped back and said, “It is set.”
Evelyn blushed too, although she looked a lot more pleased with the compliment than Heinrich did. “Thank you,” she said softly. She wanted to return the compliment, but wasn’t sure that leaping from beautiful to handsome was going to land right, so she just let him help her with the necklace instead, resisting the urge to shiver at the feeling of his fingers on her neck. It was a nice feeling, much nicer than she’d expected it to be, and her thoughts momentarily wandered off before remembering that she should not let them do such things and turning back to face him.
“It’s perfect,” she said, looking down at where it hung on her chest now. Then, looking up at him, she smiled a little more . . . whatever. She was aiming for cute maybe? Or . . . something? Flirty? What did flirty smiles look like? She felt melty inside, and hoped her smile reflected as much. “Like you. It’s a good gift then,” she said.
It took Heinrich longer than it should have to realize Evelyn was calling him perfect, in part because he didn’t think he was, but mostly because words were hard when Evelyn was smiling like that. It was kind of distracting him from his language comprehension. By the time his brain sorted that out instead of just smiling besottedly back at her, he felt they had passed the interval during which he could object to the characterization, so he just said, “I am glad you like it.”
He looked around. It was a nice street, almost picturesque. There were people about but not a lot of them, and none were really looking their way. He looked back at Evelyn. “I have something else I would like to give you,” he began tentatively, uncertainly, “but I need to ask consent first. Would you like a birthday kiss?”
Evelyn smirked to herself a little bit, pleased as Heinrich merely accepted the compliment and then turned his attention to the world around them. It seemed like a very very good day so far; if adulthood was going to be like this all the time, it was going to be really good. Her fingers lingered on the pendant, feeling happy and mushy, and she looked up at Heinrich when he looked back at her.
She raised her eyebrows, curious what else he intended to give her for their birthday and wondering why he was this nervous about cake if that’s where this was going. But then it was not where this was going and she blinked, surprised. Before she could help it, she found herself nodding eagerly and beaming, automatically drawing a little closer to him.
“I’d like that very much,” she said, feeling a bubbly mix of excitement and nerves as she looked up at him. His eyes always seemed to have a lot to say and she watched them closely.
Heinrich looked at her with nervous anticipation, and then tried to figure out how to move his head to meet hers that wouldn’t be completely awkward. He was kind of a lot taller than Evelyn was. Hesitantly, he leaned in, hoping for the best.
Not sure what to do with her hands, Evelyn reached up to put one of them on Heinrich’s shoulder. She wasn’t generally a clumsy person, but it didn’t seem safe to aim at as small a target as a mouth without some sort of stability. A lot ran through her mind, including the worry that she was going to end up afraid. The last thing she wanted was for this to be terrible.
Heinrich took a page from Evelyn’s book and put an arm around her when she reached up for his shoulder. It helped, and their lips successfully found each other after only a minor nose bump got in the way. A slight adjustment later, and they were kissing.
As it turned out, it was very not terrible and she was very not afraid. Pressing her lips against Heinrich’s, Evelyn wondered how anyone ever found the self-discipline to do anything other than kiss people they liked. She wasn’t sure how long kisses were supposed to go on, but she was perfectly happy to let Heinrich decide that; she would be perfectly happy to do that all day, just being as close as he would let her be.
When they did separate, Evelyn took a breath, feeling more mushy than ever as their shared taste lingered on her mouth. “We should do that all the time,” she said, laughing a little breathlessly. “And thank you,” she added. “That’s my favorite birthday gift.”
Heinrich smiled back, still feeling the tingles her lips had left on his. “Good. I’m glad. It was my favorite to give you.”
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Heinrich Hexenmeister
Like gingerbread people?
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Evelyn Stones