Wild At Heart
Outfit | Beckett Archibald Graves

They had the weekend completely free, and Olivia had had an idea earlier that she had wanted to execute... She knew that Beckett would be up for it, he was always up for it... Little adventures, spur of the moment trips... It wasn't too difficult to make it happen. At least not for them... She had taken Anderson to her mum and dad this morning, and just as always there were no questions asked. Her parents had long gotten used to them asking for last minute baby sitting services, and this time Olivia hadn't proved them wrong. She had packed Anderson an overnight bag, and taken him to her mum, and come home and changed her clothes... The house in the Maldives wasn't something that they kept a secret necessarily, but it wasn't something that they shared with the kids either. It was someplace just for the two of them... It had been since he had brought her there the first time... before they had even known that they were pregnant with Anderson. She thought that he would be surprised at the spur of the moment trip, but she knew that the dress she had chosen would tell him exactly what she intended to do. 

Smiling she wound her way through the house and to his study. She didn't knock, she never knocked, she just let herself in, and made her way over to his desk. Standing behind him she put her arms over his shoulders over the back of the chair and she looked down at what he was doing... She knew that there weren't any major things going on in the Ministry, or the Quidditch world that he was going to need to be here for this weekend, and she had cleared her own schedule entirely... The bag was packed, and in her pocket, just like the very first time he had done this for her, only Liv wasn't going to tell him that they were going out for pizza... No one really needed to show up to a tropical island in a sweatshirt and jeans... That was a bit silly... Though it had made for a wonderful surprise back then. Kissing his cheek lightly she shook her head at what he was doing and then pulled his chair back enough that she could sit down across his lap. 

"Hi." She grinned at him as she plopped down. There was no doubt that he would know that she was up to something. It wasn't all that difficult to assume that Olivia Drake was up to something most of the time anyway, but she didn't often walk around the empty house in a sundress in the winter either. It just so happened that the Maldives were in the southern hemisphere, and that meant that winter was summer and summer was winter... But it also meant that they were coming up on fall there, just like they were coming up on spring in England, and fall brought monsoon season to the Indian Ocean... And for as much as she and Beckett joked about getting blown away in a monsoon, that really wasn't something that she was all that up for risking. Not right now anyway. Instead she thought that this weekend would work out rather nicely for all of them. It was a lax weekend, the world wasn't ending, there were no preseason quidditch matches, and Olivia didn't think that anyone in the Ministry had done anything extreme enough to need her assistance at the last minute... They were safe. There was a mischievous look in her eye though as she smiled at him from her spot on his lap. "I want to take a bath..." 

Wild At Heart
Outfit

The problem, which wasn’t really a problem at all because of how much he loved Quidditch, about his job was that it sometimes did require plenty of work on the weekends. That was when the matches actually took place, after all, and sometimes he found it necessary to be there to make sure that everything went off without a hitch—or, hell, just to watch a good game, particularly during the league season. But there was nothing going on there, since it was March and the preseason was over. There were only qualifying matches to deal with for the world cup, and today there would be two matches—England versus Egypt, in England’s stadium, and Portugal versus Germany, over in Portugal. Obviously the latter game was of no import to him at all. The former more so, but it was a home game. He knew that it would all go just fine, because their department was in charge of making sure that everything was perfect at all of their stadiums. There wasn’t a chance in hell that anything could go wrong there; if it were an away game, and he had to deal with the Egyptian stadium, it might have been a different story. But he wasn’t all that concerned about this game today. He wasn’t even sure if they were going to go.

He supposed that he would ask Liv if she wanted to. It might be fun enough, even if it wasn’t the Tornados. England was doing well in the Cup thus far, and he would like to see one of their teams make it all the way… even win it. They hadn’t done that since Ireland had won in 1994, and he thought this time might be the one… that they might just have a team that could win this time around, so he knew that going to seen England play might be an interesting enough way to spend their day. He had some work to get done before then, so he’d decided to try to get all of that sorted out before he asked what Liv thought about going to the game. There wasn’t too much to get through, thankfully, and he didn’t expect it to take him all that long to sort out. He felt arms around him, and a smirk formed on his lips as he tried to focus on finishing the paragraph he’d been reading. But he knew better than to think that focusing was going to come all that easily now that his fiancée was in the room. She had always made it more than a little bit difficult for him to pay attention to whatever it was he was supposed to be doing. That had been true even when they were nothing, and he watched men in their meetings stumble over themselves to give her what she wanted. He’d always tried to remain unaffected, and while he thought he’d fooled her back then, he’d known better.

She pulled his chair back, and dropped down onto his lap, which immediately had his mind wandering to less appropriate places. He raised his eyebrows at her—she was wearing a sundress, and their house… it didn’t always retain heat all that well, what with the sheer size of it, so it was hardly a comfortable time of year for her to be walking around the house in a dress. Somehow, he got the feeling he knew exactly what he was dealing with already. It might not be all that warm here, but there were other places were it certainly would be. “Hi.” He said back, a smirk still on his lips. Yes, he thought he knew exactly what she was up to, and if he were right, they would not be making it to any Quidditch matches that day—and that was just fine by him. Sometimes there were better ways to spend a day, or a weekend… or however long they had, really. “Oh do you? Should we pack then?” Saying she wanted a bath never meant that she wanted a bath… not in the way that most people would think at least. He had long since learned that meant she wanted her bathroom in their villa in the Maldives, with the tub overlooking the ocean, and more importantly with a perfect view of the sunset.

It was funny really, how much their lives revolved around a sport that neither one of them actually played. It didn’t bother the witch, she had long gotten used to it, and if their lives had to revolve around something other than their kids, and themselves she though that maybe Quidditch wasn’t the worst thing in the world. There had been a time, after all, when she knew that their lives had revolved around something else entirely. That no matter what they were doing, that no matter what was going on, that mark on his arm meant that he had to go… She may have been the mistress, but she and Eliza both had played mistress to his master. Back then everything had revolved around that man, that mark… Olivia didn’t think that she truly believed as wholeheartedly in all of it as some of the other wives… She knew that the mudbloods had to go, and she knew that there were those that were worse than others, she knew that there had been a time when she had feared for his safety every time that he had walked out the door. Olivia knew what was in the closet. She knew that that heavy black robe and that silver mask were still there, but they didn’t much matter anymore. Not when the monsters, the men and women that were monsters, walked around in suits, and expensive dresses. Not when they looked just like everyone else… Olivia thought that that was what they had been lacking before. This time the world wasn’t going to look around and see monsters, this time the world would look around and seen people. People just like themselves… That was what truly made them dangerous, and that was what was going to make them unstoppable if they did it right.

Turning the public towards the Death Eaters cause was something that they were going to have to work on. There had to be something that they could do to make them all see the way that things were going to need to go. If they could shift people’s attention. If they could make them see that what they wanted to do, what the Death Eater’s vision for the world was, whatever Wentzell had up his sleeve. She didn’t know what her next move would be, but she knew that they needed to make the public view them as something other than the enemy. They needed to present a case, any case, that was going to get them to see the mudbloods as the enemy. They needed to be seen as a threat, as dangerous, something that would turn the general public against them, because if they could turn more people against them, then they would start to stop sheltering them, and help to get rid of them. That was what they needed, they needed more people on their side, even if they weren’t truly on their side. They needed to scare them, they needed to get them thinking that they only way that they were going to survive was if the mudbloods did not. That was all there was to it. They were the only ones that were going to be able to turn the population in the Minister’s favor with that one, and Olivia thought that there were some notes that they could take, that there had to be some things that they didn’t know yet, but they would get there. There would be research conducted, test groups polled, she would see what she could do to get this up and running, but not this weekend.

No, she had other plans for the two of them this weekend that didn’t involve trying to persuade an entire country to back mass genocide at the hands of the government. Coming into his study to pester him was nothing new, and so she had thought that there was a good chance that she was going to have caught him at a bad time, but Olivia didn’t think that there was such a thing as a bad time when it came to her. She had dropped down on his lap without a second thought to the kind of reactions that she was going to get from him for something like that… “I already did.” She grinned up at him and then pulled the miniature version of the suitcase out of the pocket of her dress and tucked it into his pants pocket a little more slowly than was really necessary. “Our portkey is all ready to go too if I can persuade you.” Olivia thought that that really couldn’t take all that much persuading, but if need be she thought that she could be very, very persuasive. He was the spontaneous one most of the time, but she was feeling particularly spontaneous today, and this was what she wanted to do for the night. They could catch a portkey back tomorrow and be home in plenty of time for work on Monday morning, but tonight she wanted a bath, in their villa in the Maldives, and there wasn’t any point in taking a bath alone…

Qualifying rounds for the world cup were always interesting. It was the one time when he really felt the need to pay attention to what was going on in other countries, because he was curious about their Quidditch teams. Most of the time, he didn’t find that necessary. Beck still knew plenty about foreign teams and players… more than the average person did, certainly, but he wouldn’t consider himself in expert. But as qualifying matches went on, it was more and more important for him to keep up with that. Not just because he was a bit of a fanatic when it came to Quidditch, and he needed to be kept apprised of if any of their teams had a real shot at this. But also because he honestly needed to prepare for that potential. If any of their teams made it to the end, the sheer work involved in getting a world cup finals match prepared… it was going to be unfathomable. Nothing like he had ever had to experience in the position as head of the department. The closest he’d come to having to plan that had been in 1994, when Ireland had made it to the end, and he had not been in the position he was in now. It would be a hell of a lot more work, and he knew it. So it was important for him to keep up with other teams, to see if they really had a real shot. It was going to be a lot of work, once they got past the qualifying stages and they saw who was still left.

But that didn’t mean that he had to work all weekend. There were occasions when even he wanted a bit of time away from Quidditch—as much as he loved it, and he didn’t feel like he had to go to every match that they happened to have. Of course, England was playing today, and if Liv wanted to go, he thought that they could certainly make a day out of that. When she had come into the room in a dress, though, he thought that she might have something else up her sleeve. Ever since they had gone to the Maldives for the very first time, and the trip had ended with him buying the villa that they had stayed in, he thought there were always tells when the place was on her mind. The Maldives was in the southern hemisphere, after all, and there was monsoon season to think of, so he knew when it was the right time of year. It was gross, cold, and snowing here when it was the most beautiful there, so on particularly unpleasant days, it wasn’t uncommon for her to want to go on a trip. If she came around wearing something that made no sense for the weather or their massive house, which did not retain heat well at all, then it was safe to say that she had something up her sleeve. But he most certainly didn’t mind. That was why he had bought the place to begin with. So that their spur of the moment trips didn’t require even a bit of planning, really.

They didn’t have to book the place, they didn’t have to make sure that it was available, because it always was. They owned it. They could go whenever they wanted—hell, they had even gone during monsoon season in the past. It wasn’t as if they were particularly dangerous… it was just a hell of a lot of rain. But if Liv wanted to take a bath and look out in the ocean, he thought that the rain didn’t really put a damper on that. Hell, in some ways, sometimes he thought that made it better. There was something different about rain down there and rain in England. It just wasn’t as dreary there. He thought that it was relaxing, and so monsoon season wasn’t always a damper on the trip in his opinion. Right now, though, he was well aware of how beautiful it would be down there, and his mind was already on what work he could push back until later. He could even get Monday off technically… if he really wanted to. A smirk formed on his lips when she said she’d already packed, and he watched as she put the shrunken down suitcase into his pocket. “Well you have this all planned out…” He replied, his grip on her tightening as he stood up, and took her with him. He didn’t think that there needed to be much discussion. If she’d planned it out, then everything was handled, and that meant that they could go spend some time in the sun, and get out of England for a little while. “Then let’s go…” Beck added, waiting for her to direct him to the portkey.

When she had said that they had the weekend free Olivia had meant that she had made the weekend free. She knew that there were qualifying games this weekend, and England was playing one of them, but she also knew that sometimes it was okay to get away, and not go to every single one of them. There would be plenty of games left in the season and really she thought that missing one… Well it wouldn’t be the end of the world, and she had decided that an impromptu trip was far more fun. They hadn’t been to the Maldives in long enough that she wanted to go… She wanted to go, and there was really nothing stopping them from going. Anderson could stay with her parents, and there weren’t any real problems, or cases at work that needed her attention. Right now there weren’t all that many things that needed her attention. There were little things here and there, there were things that those that worked under her could handle, but Olivia didn’t have anything that needed her sole attention, or required her to be in the country for any last second, middle of the night important things… People tended not to mess with the Ministry lately, the Minister had made his position on questioning him rather clear, and she didn’t think that there were all that many that were keen on questioning it right now. She thought that eventually things would pick up again. That there would be some legal hoops to jump through when it came to actually doing something about the mudbloods… But from what she had heard from Aurora, Ares wasn’t quite there yet. The plans that had been discussed, the ones that may or may not have found their way into his paperwork… Well, Olivia hadn’t left a trace…

She had always been good at that. Staying hidden, not being noticed, but still getting the job done. Olivia had a way of making things work out, a way of handling things, and she wasn’t going to say that she was handling the Minister, because Merlin only knew that Ares might not even read what she had slipped into his paperwork last time she had gone to the Manor to see Aurora… But the fact that she was doing something at all was enough to make some people look twice. She hadn’t even told Beckett what she was doing, and she didn’t plan on it. There was no need for him to know about the notes, and the outlines that she kept slipping in front of their Minister any chance that she got. Olivia knew that there were plenty of those that were getting restless… She might not have been a pureblood, and she might not have technically been a Death Eater wife, but she was still who she was, and she was Olivia Drake. She thought that there was a good reason for the things that she was doing and if she could keep Beckett out of it then that was all the better. They existed in the same world, she loved him unconditionally, and nothing was going to change that, but she wasn’t about to tell him this. She wasn’t about to tell him that she had been doing research, that she had been taking notes, and passing them to the Minister… This plan, if he made it the way that she was expecting him to… It was one that definitely had her touch, had her style… But it wasn’t something that was going to have her name on it, and Olivia thought that so long as it was handled… That was all that mattered.

This weekend though, she didn’t want to handle anyone but Beckett… She wanted to disappear for a little while and she thought that that was something that she was very much looking forward to. It was easy to get a little lost in what they were doing. And it was more than a little tempting to run off, just because they could, a lot of the time really, but this weekend Alicia had made sure that it really was a good weekend. She had made sure that things were going to be covered and taken care of here, and she knew that she had told Beckett’s assistant that she was going to get him out of the country tonight and tomorrow, and that if there was some dire emergency to see if she could handle it, but if not, then that they would be in the Maldives. It wasn’t something that she thought that the young woman would need to come after them for any reason for though, and so Olivia was prepared to talk her way to the Indian Ocean, but it hadn’t been all that difficult really. “I’m rather good at plans,” she smirked up at him as his grip on her tightened and he picked her up with him. Automatically her hands tightened behind his neck to help hold herself up, “And I’m pretty decent at getting my way.” She raised her eyebrows once and then nodded towards the front hallway. “By the front door. There’s a worn leather belt…” Portkeys were never something that you could actually want to have laying around, but they were handy nonetheless…

The first time that they had gone to the Maldives, it had been a surprise for Liv. He hadn’t told her that they were even going on a trip. He had just said that they were going out for pizza, which hadn’t even been a lie since he’d also provided pizza. Since then, and before then too really, it wasn’t uncommon for him to just surprise her with that sort of thing. He wasn’t one that liked planning when it came to their lives. They were sort of just playing it all by ear. They weren’t necessarily very traditional in any definition of the word. They’d had a messy start—one that people would argue could never end the way that it had… with the house, and marriage, and a family. And it had. Well… almost, at least. They had gotten just about everything that people wanted out of their lives, but they had never really been in all that big of a rush toward the actual marriage part. Liv had worn that engagement ring on her finger for a long time, and they were no closer to getting married now than they had been when he had first proposed. But he didn’t think that there was anything wrong with that. They weren’t traditional. But they were happy—as long as she wore that ring on her finger for the rest of her life, what did he care if another ring went with it, and if a piece of paper said that they were married?

They were still a family. They still had the house, and the kids, and they still had each other. He didn’t think that a piece of paper needed to validate anything, but he knew that some people didn’t see it that way. Some people didn’t see it as real until they were actually married. Plenty of people had probably judged them because they hadn’t seen fit to plan a wedding and do the actual getting married part, but they had just never seen the point in it. Well, Liv more than him, really—he could admit to that. There were some times when he just wished that they would have just done it, so that he’d stop having to correct himself when he accidentally called her his wife. But he knew that she didn’t see much point in planning it all out and since he was also well aware that she’d be stuck with doing most of the plan—all of it, more likely, he hadn’t pushed the subject. And what they had worked. They had everything that most people could ever want, and they could judge it all they wanted. Marriages failed every day, and they had been together longer than some people had been married. They had lasted, and they didn’t need a piece of paper to prove that to anyone. They didn’t have anything to prove to anyone other than themselves and the people that they cared about, and the people that cared about them understood their logic behind it.

But even though they weren’t married, Beckett still didn’t want them to get bored. He didn’t think that he had to worry about that happening, but he did like to surprise her sometimes when she was least expecting it. There was no feat that had been more impressive than surprising her with the Maldives, and to this day, he was glad that he’d decided to buy the place afterwards. He liked it when they could just go there whenever they wanted to. He always knew when Liv was feeling in that sort of mood—walking into the room wearing clothes that didn’t suite England at this time of year was a good indicator, as was any mention of taking a bath. He thought that bath in their villa in the Maldives was probably one of Liv’s favorite places in the world. It didn’t matter the weather down there, the view was always beautiful. So when she mentioned a portkey, and he knew that she’d planned this all out, he wasn’t about to hesitate. Once he’d picked her up, he headed out of the room and in the direction of the portkey. His grip on her didn’t loosen as he walked down the stairs, and he showed no indication that he was planning on letting go of her at all. Instead, he just picked up the portkey and let her grab it as well, before they disappeared from view.