[attr="class","backgmin"]

[attr="class","lyric1min"]nothing holdin' me back

[attr="class","lyricbgmin"]

[attr="class","lyric2min"]Pulls me in enough to keep me
guessing, and maybe I should stop
and start confessing

[attr="class","textbodmin"]This had to be the right building. He had been sure to clarify that with the oldest, Anna - but then he had also failed to ask about a buzzer.

Cal had gotten it into his head that surprising Kasey would be a brilliant idea. And it really was. They had missed out on their coffee date, thanks to that Morgana-forsaken epidemic, and Cal had been rather disappointed about that. Because he had had a plan for that particular date. Well, nothing too complex, really. He had really just felt that Kasey should know that she drove him absolutely crazy in the best way possible. And then everything happened. Between Ella being in a coma and Delilah having the worst time with her so-called flu - although Cal thought this was much worse than the flu - things had been tense. And then Kasey had gone and fallen off of a broom. Everything from there on out had been rather downhill. Even if they had gotten to see each other a fair bit while at Pyxis, Cal had felt horrible the entire time and he just... well, it didn't really feel like a perfect time to bring up a conversation like the one that had been swimming in his mind. His room had been packed with his father and two popstars. Kasey's room had one of her sisters. There really hadn't been a good place or time to worry about anything but fevers and rapidly disappearing magic.

And now... it was over. But at the same time, not over. Because Cal didn't have his magic anymore, and the thought of that was absolutely terrifying. He didn't have the fever, he didn't have the cough, he felt perfectly fine... and at the same time, he felt like a part of his soul had been ripped away from his body. It was a horrible feeling and he knew that his father and everyone else in the family was struggling with it just as much. Because what were the Graves going to do without magic? Sure Cal could manage, as could his father, but Delilah was in a bit of a pickle. And either way, magic made up such a huge part of their lives... it just didn't seem natural. Most of all, though, it scared Cal. He hated admitting that, which was why he hadn't really said it out loud. He had to be the stronger one, the one to push through it. Especially with Lyla stuck at Hogwarts worrying out of her mind about everyone else.

The best way to do that, though, was to move on with things. To try to make things as normal as possible because... he had to put on the brave face. Being back in Graves Hall had been eerie, after everything that had happened. Cal had resolved to just stay at home and avoid anything that reminded him of his lack of magic... but that had gone out the window really quickly. He grew restless, and with classes at Lufkin still suspended, Cal felt more bored than ever. And then it hit him... Kasey.

So that was how Callahan Graves found himself standing outside an apartment building in Dublin with paper cups filled with coffee and pastries. And soot from the Floo still covering his shoulders a little bit, because that was the only bloody way he could get around anymore.

They hadn't had their coffee date, because of everything that had gone down, and now Cal thought that it would be a good thing to help both of them look on the bright side of things. And part of Cal hoped he would finally get a chance to talk to Kasey about everything. He liked her well enough before, but being stuck in Pyxis and having to see her sick... it solidified things a bit for Cal. With a deep breath, he stepped toward the front entrance of the building, his eyes scanning the names on the buzzer. There. Peters. Right, that had to be it. Call pressed the button and waited as it rang - then suddenly, it stopped. "Hello?" he said tentatively. "It's... uh, it's Cal. Is this thing even on?" Merlin, what a mess. Had he even pressed the right button?

@kasey | 706 words | outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF GS + WW

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If I Could Break This Spell 

I'd Run To Him Today

And Somehow I Know He's

On His Way To Me

Honestly... whatever it had been that they had all caught... it had really kicked her ass. Kase had lost weight that she couldn't really afford to lose but then... well, it wasn't like she was getting on a broom anytime soon. Even without the phantom aches of her fall there was the crushing weight of the very real situation that held all of them. She no longer had any magic. Without magic, she couldn't fly. No flying meant no quidditch. It had been easy to forget about for a while when they were all cooped up in Pyxis wondering whether they'd ever get better... and it had been that togetherness that had kept her distracted. Bee in the bed beside her. Anna just down the hall. Cal even further down the hall but still endeavouring to see each other. But then they'd recovered and they'd come home and now... 

Well, she'd kind of fallen into a slump. Found it hard to find the energy to eat let alone brush her hair, hadn't really left her bed. She was trying her best for Anna and Bee to pretend that she wasn't doing badly and that she was just glad to be home but... what did she actually have to get up for in the morning besides Lufkin? English wasn't a subject that needed a wand, not that she'd actually put it down even though it wasn't of any use to her. University just didn't have it's gleam anymore yet all the same she was doing her damn hardest to let this get to her completely. She still showered religiously and had kept up eating all the cereal in the house when she did get up eventually. She just didn't know what to do with herself anymore. She had too much time on her hands. And she was going mad looking at the walls of the flat when everyone went to work and she didn't have Uni. 

It was just suddenly so weird not having Cal around everyday. She couldn't just go and find him and wrap her arms around him for a hug whenever she felt like it anymore- something she had been rapidly growing comfortable with doing - and she couldn't text him when he was at work so her phone was sitting pretty silent now. Honestly, she missed him. A lot. A lot more than she thought she had any right to - or that made any sense for her to - for two people that had only been seeing each other for a few months. It... it scared her. He was probably just enjoying himself and here she was getting steadily more antsy with the more time that went past where she couldn't see him. In fact, she had purposefully stopped herself arranging to meet up with him in case she came across as positively barmy for missing him so much. She was at a loss. Didn't know who to ask, as Louis practically lived with Bee at this point they were together that often, and Anna didn't have anyone. So she had just sat in her room, cuddling a pillow and trying to read. She'd already done everything she could for her University class now. There wasn't much else to do.

In fact, she'd just started thinking about the benefits of getting into candle making and sculpting when the buzzer across the hall from her room suddenly went off and she scrambled off her bed in a stupor to get to it. Her feet tangled in a discarded jumper and the straps of her bag in her tired rush and halfway there she tripped, falling out of her door to the carpet. Like a woman possessed she struggled back to her feet and finally threw herself towards it, hitting the answer button with her outstretched hand as she hit the wall. Flipping her hair back from her face and clearing her throat, she listened intently as a slightly distorted voice echoed up to her through the speaker, and her eyes widened in surprise. Cal?! How... what?! Cal?! Now?! She... but she wasn't... SHIT!

"Oh er... Cal! Hey! It's uh... Kase! Um.. hi!" Kasey managed, looking around her wildly for some clue as to what she was meant to do. She had never answered this damn thing before! How was she supposed to know? "Err.." She whirled around to look for one of her sisters before a small shriek left her as her legs twisted in the tangled articles and pulled them from under her, throwing her to the ground in a startled and indignant heap. "One sec! I'm looking for the button to let you in-" she shouted up at it, furiously wrestling with her bag. Finally lurching back up on her knees, she spotted it on the way up and slammed it with the heel of her hand, and then slid back down the wall to the floor. "That should be it! Come on up!"

It took the length of time it took for Cal to get to her door for her to finally rid herself of her shackles and kick them into her wardrobe, and then return to the door to open it for him. Which she did with forced casualness, leaning against the doorframe with her hair wildly mussed and her eyes sparkling from her fight. "...Hey..." Kasey finally managed after a moment, sinking with relief further against the frame as she looked up at the wizard. Holding coffee and pastries. Merlin, was she lucky or what. A grin had sprung at the moment she had opened the door, but it changed to a softer smile as she pulled the door open fuller and stepped out to lean up with a hand on his shoulder to give him a kiss. "C'mon in! No one else is home so we have the flat to ourselves."

TAG: @callahan | WORDS: 976| NOTES: <3

MEL @ ADOXOGRAPHY

[attr="class","backgmin"]

[attr="class","lyric1min"]nothing holdin' me back

[attr="class","lyricbgmin"]

[attr="class","lyric2min"]PULLS ME IN ENOUGH TO KEEP ME
GUESSING, AND MAYBE I SHOULD STOP
AND START CONFESSING

[attr="class","textbodmin"]Cal knew how to solve things. He was good at that. He had always been the student to spend hours on an Arithmancy question that everyone else had given up on near the beginning. He was the person that found loopholes. Cal didn't give up, not until he got things his way--or, at the very least, good enough that he still benefited. He could handle things... anything. He could handle anything. That wasn't just a Cal trademark. It was a Graves one. Being a Graves meant coming out on top, no matter what. It meant taking what you deserved. Cal had always had big dreams, and he had never been afraid to follow them. He had a plan--and he was adaptable. Cal had always been prepared to change with the tides. To adjust when needed, because the important part was getting to the same ending, not necessarily how he got there. What was the record age for the youngest department head? Thirty-one? Cal had been certain he could beat that--and he had twelve years to do it. Plenty of time.

Then the epidemic had happened, and for the first time in his life, Cal felt like he had no idea what he was doing. How in Merlin's name was he going to adjust his life to this? Cal couldn't even begin to understand any of it, let alone try to solve the issue. This wasn't a math problem. He couldn't just attack it with every theory he knew--never mind the fact that he knew next to nothing about medicine. People tended to say that math, economics... numbers, in general, it was all dull. But Cal had always enjoyed it. Partly because he was good at it, and everyone liked doing the things they were good at. But also because numbers were straightforward. There were paths he could follow. It wasn't always entirely straightforward, but at the end of the day, it was all the same thing: point A to point B. The path could take half a foot or four feet of parchment, sure, but the essence of it was the same. A start and an end. It was simple, and ordered, and logical.

This was not.

Cal had been trying to take his mind off of the things he couldn't control, though. The sleepless nights were definitely getting to him, and Cal knew he needed to get it together again if he was going back to work on Monday. And then Lufkin, whenever classes officially started... well, there was plenty that Cal could still do. He just had to focus on that.

And Kasey. Because Kasey was... amazing. Cal felt comfortable around her. There was nothing complicated about spending time with Kasey. Talking to her, making her laugh--whether it was with him or at him--all came naturally. Seeing his father sick, and everything that had happened with Delilah and Ella... well, that was tough enough. Kase had been someone that had put a smile on his face, through it all. Losing his magic, feeling so helpless--this was foreign to Cal. But in the middle of all of that, he still grinned when he thought of the girl that had danced the night away with him. She was like an anchor.

"Oh, good," Cal let out with a sigh of relief as Kasey's voice came through the... speaker thing. Merlin's beard, this was complicated. "I'm just--oh, all right, I--" A loud buzzing cut him off, and Cal tentatively reached for the building door and pulled. It opened easily. "I got it!" he exclaimed, glancing back at the speaker thing. Was Kase even still... there? Now he probably just looked crazy, talking to himself.

All complications aside, the smile was quickly returning to Cal's face as he made his way through the building and towards--oh, hell. What was the apartment number again? He swore Anna had told it to him. Definitely first floor. Had to be. Cal glanced around for a moment, then simply shrugged and went to knock on the first door he saw. Trial and error. But as the door swung open and revealed a very familiar face, he realized it wouldn't come to that. "Hey..." Cal replied, the grin on his face only growing. A sort of buzz filled him as Kase stepped towards him and he didn't even have to think about it to return the kiss. That was it. It all just... flowed. Even at the library, that day back in August, things had just fit. "Yeah? Thanks." Cal stepped into the apartment, glancing around for a moment before his gaze settled on Kasey again, the same wide grin on his face. "Well, with everything that happened, we missed out on our coffee date, and, uh..." Cal trailed off, his smile turning a bit softer, before he finally finished, "And I missed you."

@ kasey | 807 words | outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF GS + WW

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