THE SECRETS YOU KEEP

THE SHINE UNDERNEATH

Of the diamond I think I just found

When he had first kissed her, it had been merely to get the best of her. That was always his intent. Fitz had no qualms about what he had done, or any real delusions as to why. He knew what he had done, and he had had every intent to do it again if he was going to find the opportunity. She was feisty, and he thought that getting the best of her irritated her just enough that it was interesting for him to kiss her. Then she had come nad kissed him. And he thought that it had turned into some sort of a game. It was a challenge, to try and get the better of her again.

He thought that he just might have done that yesterday when he had showed up at her desk and interrupted her day. It had all been with the intent of asking her to come to lunch with him today. It was worth a shot, after all. If she was going to continue to hold his attention, he thought that he might as well take her on a date. Even if that date was in the middle of the day. And she had to go back to work with the Minister afterwards.

Fitz didn’t know what Adaline’s relationship with the older witch was, and he thought that it was probably just as messed up as his brother’s seemed to be. But he didn’t think that was really any of his business. He had made up his mind to take Adaline Potter on a date, and that was exactly what he had intended to do. At 12:30, on the dot, he had strolled into her office with a cocky smirk on his face and a nod to the Minister through her open door as he stole her assistant away for an hour.

London was not a small city, and there were plenty of options within walking distance of the Ministry. Something that was convenient, given his lack of magic. But he wasn’t too up in arms about that. He didn’t have to stop being an auror because of it. And he was top of the training class now, even without it. He knew that Lestrange had done that on purpose, he had manipulated the standings just because he could. But once he had put him there, Fitz had at least decided that he had to earn it.

He had started training harder, and longer, and he thought that even if someone not quite as biased was going to score them, he would still rank up at the top. Though he knew that there would be others there that should have been there, and weren’t, simply because of who they were. There was no way that everything was going to be completely fair though, and Fitz thought that for now, he would just roll with it. If he worked hard, people couldn’t complain about him being close to the top. Legacy or not, he did have to earn it. At least in his mind.

The whole time that he had had her out of the Ministry he had been smirking. It wasn’t on purpose, it was just who he was. A natural flirt, Fitz thought that lunch with a pretty girl was definitely worth his less than humble attitude. Holding the door open for her, he nodded when the host asked if it were just the two of them, and he pulled her chair out for her when they made it to the table. Slipping in across from her he thanked the host as he took his menu and the man disappeared.

A server set two glasses of water down in front of them, and Fitz looked over the top of the menu at the brunette sitting across from him. “My sister likes this place. I hope it’s okay with you, since I didn’t exactly ask what you liked…” He hadn’t really thought of that, he had just decided that this place had a little of everything on the menu, and without really knowing what she did or didn’t like, he had gone with somewhere that he knew that Kate liked. Even if he wasn’t exceptionally close to his siblings, he did know a good deal about them.

Adaline Lily Potter • 714 • fitzgerald's outfit

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if you don't mind

I'D LIKE TO KNOW YOU BETTER

Take me the long way around your town

When Fitz had showed up yesterday, Adaline had been busy at work. It had been May the second- but Ad had not even thought about that until Emmaline mentioned it later. Was there something to it? A Yaxley asking a Potter out on a date on that date… It did have some significance, because even if he hadn’t given any thought to the fact that he was asking her on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, it was still something to appreciate. A Yaxley was asking out a Potter…And Andromeda and Emmaline seemed to believe this date was to be the first of many—or at least six, based on the number of outfits that Emmaline had given her from Hallie’s closet. So, it spoke to old prejudices overcome. It spoke to new possibilities for a new generation. Both of those were important to Adaline. She wanted to be part of the millennial solution to the blood status problem.

The girl was excited today, though, for her first date. She wanted to change the world, certainly, but for now, she just wanted to spend an hour with a cute, interesting boy…and infuriating one…a fun one. She’d been so excited after he’d left the day before. The squeal she’d let out in Andromeda’s office had made this absolutely obviously. But getting asked out might not have even the best memory she had from the day before. Later when Andromeda had been relaying the happy news to Em when the Avery had stopped by, Adaline had managed to capture a video on her phone where Andromeda had re-enacted Adaline’s excitement. She was sure that she hadn’t been so over the top with the squeal when she had done it…but Merlin, it was amazing and hilarious. She’d be saving that video for a very long time.

Sleep had been as difficult as choosing between the jean jacket and blue dress with the amazing navy boots and the cream and khaki dress with much more comfortable pair of cowboy boots. It had ultimately been the shoes that made the decision for her. She had to work all day. Comfort mattered at the Ministry, and cushioning charms really only went so far. She knew that Em had recommended the possibility of maybe wearing something a little dressier than what she would normally wear, but she still wanted to be herself—and with her own style. The dress was something cute—and short—enough to keep Fitz’s attention…and the boots were her. She liked the combination and she comfortable in it.

The morning was one of her least productive at the Ministry even though she arrived at six thirty. She had begun to worry Andromeda was standing her up for their agreed upon breakfast, when the Minister wasn’t there by exactly seven, but she’d shown up a few minutes after the hour and Adaline had shown off her outfit choice. Then, she’d filled the next few hours responding to meeting requests and prepared replies to owls from constituents for Andromeda to sign later. She could normally write a dozen or more done in an hour. She wrote six…in two hours.

But she made herself look busy when Fitz showed up, making him wait just a minute as she finished up a paragraph. Of course, she apologized as she stood up, flipping her long curls over her shoulder as she gave him a bright smile. Adaline liked him. She didn’t want him to doubt that, but she didn’t want him to think she was falling all over herself for his attention either. She had little experience with boys, but already knew that it was something of a game. He’d bested her that first day, when he’d seen her pro-con-kiss list…and he’d kissed her. That had set off all this…and she was glad for it.

The small talk out of the Ministry was inconsequential. Fitz had that damn smirk on the whole time. It was distracting. She wanted to call it annoying, but she liked it way too much to say that. He had a confidence about him that made him all the more attractive—and she hoped that she did, too. She wasn’t nervous walking beside him out of the Ministry. Even as eyes lingered on them, she didn’t flinch or put any distance between them. Her hand brushed his arm as he held the door for her exit out onto the street and she’d given him a look that made it clear to any who saw that she didn’t just have friendly intentions for the wizard.

Adaline had no idea what sort of restaurant that Fitz would choose to take to her to. She didn’t flaunt her vegetarian tendencies, and really wasn’t about drawing attention to them. She would eat fish sometimes—and maybe a little bit of chicken every now and again, though that was a very rare occurrence. But she avoided red meat all the time. It tasted like metal. She wanted to like burgers. That was a normal teen thing to like, she just didn’t. She liked eating fresh vegetables. She liked fruit. That was what she enjoyed.

The spot Fitz directed her to was one she and Andromeda had eaten to a couple times. It was nice, but not stuffy. The menu was diverse. It was a good choice for a date with someone who you didn’t really know the preferences of. She thought it was a nice choice. He gave the reason for his choice and she smiled, cataloging away the information that he had a sister. She knew, of course, about his brother—and apparently some secret complicated relationship between them. But she hadn’t known he had a sister. She had not been at school at with them, so she had to be older. Perhaps closer to Griffith’s age. It was odd in her mind that Griffith and Fitz were brothers. The age gap was huge. She had assumed that meant that Fitz was not a planned pregnancy. That wasn’t polite lunch conversation, though. She might learn about all about Fitz’s family one day, but today was probably that day.

“This is totally fine. I pick up things from here sometimes for me and Andromeda. It’s always good.” She had not been nervous leaving the Ministry, even when she had the potential to run into her father… but now here, sitting across from Fitz, she had those little butterflies doing a dance in her stomach. She’d stolen glances at him on the walk, but now he was sitting across from her. He made for a great view, but he made those damn butterflies so much worse. She didn’t have any experience really sitting across from a man that wasn’t her kin, except for Teddy…and fuck Teddy, he’d been a total wanker since she had started at the Ministry and even before that he’d stood her up multiple times.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” she commented before taking a little sip of her water. Fitz had brought up the woman, so it seemed as safe a topic as any. Plus, Adaline was genuinely curious about learning more about the wizard she’d been stealing kisses from. At least he knew some things about her—like how inexperienced in all this she was. He might not have known for sure that this was the first time she had been out on a date, but he knew that she hadn’t been kissed before he kissed her how ever many days ago that had been now. So, he knew she didn’t know things about that kind of stuff---possibly more dangerously, he knew that she was curious about it. This all could have been a game to get her to shag him, but she wasn’t really worried about that. She would leave those sorts of worries for her parents. Plus, lunch didn’t really leave a lot of time or opportunity for messing about. It was just a chance to talk and see if they even actually liked being around one another.

@ i want your blushing stories  • 1339 • outfit & boots

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THE SECRETS YOU KEEP

THE SHINE UNDERNEATH

Of the diamond I think I just found

If there was one thing that Fitz Yaxley had been accused of in his life, it was that he had always been a flirt. From the time that he was little, he had had people say that about him. ‘Quite the charmer’ had always been something thrown around when his mother’s friends had had something to say about it. Between him, and Cal, he thought that they were probably going to get in more trouble than it was worth. But his best friend was better at keeping things quiet than he was. Fitz had never been one to mask what he was doing, or whom it was that he was doing it with.

He hadn’t made much of a secret of the fact that he had kissed Adaline Potter, and he didn’t care that she was Adaline Potter. He liked her. He liked her spunk. And he liked her wit. And he liked that she didn’t let him win. Maybe it was the soft spot for Gryffindors, but there was something about her that had intrigued him, and he had run with it. He had kissed her, because he had wanted to kiss her. And he had told her that he was taking her to lunch, because he wanted to know her outside of that office.

Outside of sitting outside of the Minister’s door. He wanted to know who she was. Not who everyone said that she was. He wanted to meet the person that she had become. Because everything that he remembered of her was of this spitfire of a seeker that was doing her damnedest to beat them. And he had sent a bludger at her a time or two. She was only a couple of years younger than him. They had played against one another for a few years. But other than who she was, he didn’t know anything about her. And he wanted to change that.

He wanted to know her. The actual her. He was interested in Adaline. Not in who she was for the rest of the world. He thought that he wanted to know what she was actually like. Who she was when she wasn’t someone’s daughter. Who she was when she wasn’t someone else’s secretary. Because he knew that he had never had that much pressure. He knew that he was the younger, second son, of a second son. He wasn’t anyone that people cared about. Not when Conall and Aidan were both just fine, not when Griff was alive. He had been fine with being nobody his whole life.

That hadn’t changed his attitude. He was still cocky. He was still smirky. He had always been that way. He had always had that air of confidence that he hadn’t really had anything to shove it into for a long time. And now he did. Now he was the top of the auror class. And he had decided that he was going to earn it. That even if Rodolphus was going to score them biasedly, he wanted to have no one question whether or not he actually deserved to be there. Whether or not he was going to be good enough. He was going to be good enough. Fitz had it in his head that he was going to be better than Griff…

If that was even possible, it had yet to be seen. But there was something that he wanted more than anything, and that was to prove that he was good enough. That he had a reason to be there, where he was. He wanted to prove that he had a purpose too. And his brother was stuck behind a desk, leading a department that he didn’t want to lead at all. But there he was, and now here Fitz was. Earning his place to work for him. And taking people that tried to best him in the halls, on dates.

She had impressed him when she had come and kissed him back that day. And he thought that he might just have met his match for the moment in Adaline Potter. She was going to give him a run for his money. “Good, I’m glad. I don’t even know what you like, so something less specific seemed like a bad call.” He had had no clue what to pick, and he had done something that he never did, and he had asked his sister for advice. She didn’t hate him quite as much as Griffith did. But he knew that she didn’t particularly like him either. “I do.” He nodded. “I have an older sister, Kate. She works for HOME.” He thought that the entire Ministry was well aware of the fact that he had a brother, he didn’t need to go into details there.

@ sass and spunk • 796 • fitzgerald's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0