WHO: Rhys & Juliet Nott
WHAT: Caradoc emoing and big decisions
WHERE: Their house
WHEN: Today

It felt like he hadn't stepped inside his house in weeks, months even. That simple thought alone made Rhys' blood boil enough to start attacking the next thing that moved. Well--- the next next thing that moved, because the next living thing he would see was going to be Juliet. His face pulled back tightly to control himself as he walked up their steps. He was going to have to get himself out of this mood he was in; Juliet was enough to deal with on a regular basis, so the severity of what was about to come could possibly get him killed. Who knew how she would be now.

Realistically, it had only been a little bit under a week since he had been home (of course, he had to stay away for Juliet's safety), but since all his days and nights had blended together, turning into a never ending cycle of---- absolute hatred toward and for Caradoc Dearborn. Honestly, Rhys couldn't think of any other way for the traitor to screw over anyone any more than he had Juliet and him.

And no doubt, Juliet was in there upset over his disappearance. Or at least angry about what had happened. Rhys would much rather like her to be angry at her brother; he would be hard pressed to be sympathetic, or any other emotion that didn't concern severe anger.

Well, at least he had a plan. Sort of ridiculous, but the only thing doable at this point to get them out of this mess that he had got them into. Rhys took another deep breath as he walked in, twitching slightly as an old pain came from his chest.

"Juliet," he called through the flat, looking for her as he walked slowly. Rhys paused for a second, waiting for a response that didn't come. "We have to talk."

The past week had been something of a blur for Juliet. Between assaulting the men at the Auror office constantly about their lack of energy in the search for her brother--who was alive, damn it all, she was not about to accept otherwise when there was no body to be found--and locking herself up in the bedroom and otherwise ignoring the outside world, she had barely had a second to think about anything except Caradoc Caradoc Caradoc. Whether dead or not, he was gone, right out of fucking thin air, and the more days that passed, the worse of a feeling she got about it. Why the hell would Death Eaters want her brother, anyway? Sure, he was a complete ass half the time, but that could not be it---her analytical, logical Ravenclaw mind was flailing at not knowing what was going on, and it was consuming her.

Consuming her so much that until she heard her husband's voice outside the bedroom doors, she had almost forgotten that she had only seen him twice between the time of Caradoc's disappearance and now.

As Rhys entered the room, Juliet shot him a fierce glare and jumped up off the bed, stalking over in his direction looking like she would like to do nothing better than to smack him. But then, suddenly, she stopped. Several feet away from Rhys, her feet stopped moving and her hand at her side curled into a fist--Juliet glared at him a few seconds longer, then spun around on her heel and removed herself to the opposite side of the room. She ran a hand--slightly shaky, but she hoped he wouldn't see from that distance--through her hair, then crossed her arms over her chest. She refused to give him a view of anything but her back, even as she spoke to him.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Rhys watched Juliet carefully, ready for nearly every emotion she was capable of. He stood stick still as she began to approach him with fire in her eyes, and stood even straighter as she turned away from him. Oh. He took one step forward to her, then stopped. Maybe it was best that there was a bit of space between them, for now at least.

"Busy," he responded immediately, knowing fully well that a one word explanation would not be enough for Juliet in the slightest. In fact, she would most likely try to hit him again, or worse. The vague image of their dead house-elf on the floor floated through his mind, and at that moment, he decided to give her just a little bit more. Rhys sighed again, shaking his head as he rubbed one hand on his temple. Just what he needed, an excuse to be exceedingly cryptic and misleading at a time like this. Wouldn't this be fun and necessary?

"Looking for your brother," he finished, shrugging his shoulders tiredly as his hand flew from his face in a throwing sort of motion. That was the truth, at least. Looking for, talking about, haunted by. It was all the same, really. Rhys had no doubt spent just as much time over thinking about Caradoc as Juliet had this week, except in two very different ways.

Rhys sighed again. "I didn't think you wanted to be bothered, honestly." Again, not a lie. But not why he hadn't been home all week. His head turned slightly as he watched her, and for a few moments, he actually found himself concerned about her. This was strange behavior, even for Juliet.

Juliet felt the tips of her nails dig into the skin of her arms and forced herself to loosen her grip before she drew blood. But she needed something to do with her hands that wasn't hitting Rhys, because that was just too easy and completely counter-productive because the last thing she needed was for him to leave again right now. She didn't particularly want to speak to him or look at him, but she didn't need to be sitting--in this godforsaken--place--alone for another week while she had no idea where he'd gone right after her brother had fucking vanished off the face of the earth. What the hell was his problem, anyway? It wasn't like they were fucking conventional or anything, but what kind of husband just----for a week, he---

Damn it all, she didn't even know what she was thinking anymore. Damn Caradoc for disappearing, all he'd done was make her crazy. She couldn't think straight anymore. The only thing she could think about was that the excuses Rhys was giving her didn't add up, and that was not helping his case in the least.

"So what are you saying, that you just left our house for a full week because you didn't want to bother me?" she asked. "Save the shit, Nott, who do you think I am?"

Had she completely ignored the fact that he had said he'd been out looking for her undeserving brother? Well, 'looking' not in the same sense that she was assuming, but nonetheless he had said it. Rhys crossed his arms over his chest as lightly as possible, finding if he held himself too tight like that then it became painful. A hard frown formed on his face; not that she would know, she wasn't even looking at him. Which was good or bad, he hadn't decided yet. So far, her not seeing his face had probably been a helpful thing.

"No," Rhys snapped, staying where he stood. "I'm saying that I wasn't here, because I was looking for him." He would not say his name, no no. Rhys was fairly certain that a traitor like that did not even deserve to be recognized, but--- he pulled his mouth tighter together, if that was possible, breathing heavily through his nose.

"Look, Juliet---" Rhys stopped, choosing to watch his wife for those few moments than speak. While he wanted nothing more than to dominate this conversation, to tell her what was going to happen and what he wanted to say, he realized that he could not deal with Juliet like that, now. He was going to have to ease her, because as much as he wanted nothing more than Caradoc Dearborn dead, Juliet would not feel the same way. Yet.

"I'm sorry," he eased, despite the fact that it honestly pained him to say that now in this context. There was nothing to be sorry about, he had done nothing wrong. All he had done was try to insure that the both of them lived through January. And yet, here he was, letting Juliet believe that---- Rhys took another deep breath, clearing his head. "I'm sorry I left you here, alone. It was a mistake." Not a lie, either. If it had been up to him, she most certainly would not have been there all week, like a sitting duck with no one watching to make sure she was safe.

The news of Caradoc's disappearance had not taken Juliet by as much shock as hearing Rhys apologize now did. She stopped, words on the tip of her tongue falling loose, as she attempted to process this sudden change in the conversation. This was not normal, an apology coming out of either one of them was not normal---actually, she couldn't recall either of them ever apologizing. For anything. They just didn't, they argued and bitched at each other and eventually just got over it (maybe it took months sometimes, but they always got over it eventually), but never said they were sorry. This was new ground he was treading on here, and Juliet wasn't even sure how she was supposed to respond.

She did know, however, that Rhys saying something so drastically out of character worried her, and made her even more suspicious. Juliet had a very difficult time in the first place believing that Rhys, who hated her brother, would spend a whole week looking for him---even for her on a good day, she could not see him being gone a week for Caradoc. Again, that's just not how they were.

This was wrong, there was something hugely wrong here, Juliet thought as she finally turned back around, looking him straight in the eye as if she could dig whatever his secret was out just by staring at him long enough---actually, she did try, seemingly. Silence fell over the room for a few long moments before she finally spoke the question they both knew was coming. "What are you hiding, Rhys?"


This was ridiculous.

For just once in her life, Rhys wished Juliet would just let it go. Did everything have to be explained? Did everything have to make perfect sense with her before anyone else could move on? For once, he didn't want to have to explain himself. This was where he drew the line, this was where she was going to have to stop. He would not--- he could not allow this to go on anymore. He was sick of always being put in this position, and her always seemingly coming out with doing nothing wrong at all. He was most certainly not the wrong one here.

"Nothing, Juliet," he snapped instantly, finding it very easy at this point to glare back at her without resignation. "I can't express emotion to my own wife about her own damn brother without being accused of hiding something, now?" There went trying to ease her into this. Something of a snarl bubbled in his throat, but Rhys couldn't care less at how he acted. His anger from before had returned. "Would you rather have me rejoice instead?" Because he wouldn't have to strain himself at all for that.

"I am--- trying " Rhys stopped, letting out a frustrated sound. This shouldn't be so difficult to do. Was it really that insane to show her that he had been, he was--- while it was hard, extremely hard, it wasn't like he didn't care. About her. It wasn't like--- alright, Cordie was dead, her brother would be soon once they found him and--- he wasn't acting completely out of line.

"---- to show concern. For you." He felt his head actually begin to throb.

Juliet rolled her eyes at him---not just because now she was certain that he was hiding something from her, but because he was complete shit at doing it.

So say for a second maybe he was concerned about her. Why was he concerned now? Her brother was the one who had disappeared, and it's not like she had been doing something drastic and girly like crying around him that should have caused him to worry about her. And certainly she wasn't going to be attacked by Death Eaters any time soon; she didn't know what the hell Caradoc had done, but he very well must have done something big, and she knew she hadn't done anything recently to piss off any Grayson Wilkeses of the world.

So no, no Rhys couldn't show emotion (which she was just more than a little taken aback to recognized as genuine) to her, about her, without being accused of hiding something. Because he most certainly was, and if he knew her at all he should have known that this would not drop until she got her answers.

Juliet crossed her arms again and stalked over to him on the other side of the room, this time not bothered enough by some idiot weak emotion to stop before she was just inches from him. "I swear to Merlin, I am in no mood to play this game, Rhys Nott," she hissed. Bloodshot eyes glared up at him with an angry, determined fire despite the story they told of the past week. "Drop. the. shit. Now."

If Juliet thought that she was intimating him, she was sorely mistaken. From what Rhys had experienced in the last week, well-- least to say, Juliet scared him just as much as much as an overly moody kitten that just needed to be pushed away would. Though that didn't exactly stop his temper from flaring up even more. In fact, it had all but consumed him at this point. "Holy shit, you're unbelievable!" he blurted out, throwing his hands into the air as he skidded away from her. Honestly, honestly had she---

Fuck this. If she wanted to--- then fine. What did he care? Rhys suddenly had no idea why he had felt the need to keep the truth from her, because what the hell did he care about Caradoc anyway? Why did he care what she thought about any of this? She deserved to know how much of an asshole he really was. "Fine--- fine, you want to know what's really happening here?" he hollered, hands shaking as his whole body seized up. "Fine, I'll fucking tell you, because fuck if you don't know!"

Rhys took a deep breath, only waiting a few seconds before diving in. "You're fucking brother was a death eater. That's right, a fucking death eater! That's why they attacked him, because he pissed them off so badly doing who the fuck knows what!" Being a traitor. As he spoke, Rhys' feet didn't move from their spot, but the rest of his body jerked accordingly as he spoke. "So I'm so sorry for going out and trying to--- find him." And killing him himself. "What the fuck was I thinking? Trying to find my wife's brother? You're right, why ever in the world should I try to protect you from getting caught up in that!"

Then, Rhys began to laugh because this was so ridiculous; he really wasn't unable to control himself, and frankly didn't care to. "And you---- suspect me of hiding something!" He pointedly flung his arm in her direction, continuing to laugh until his anger died back down.

Finally, his arm fell, and he went to press his hand against his face. Taking deep breaths, Rhys directed his gaze back down to the ground, knowing that if he didn't have to look at her for a few seconds, these murderous thoughts would stop. When he spoke again, his voice was much softer, and restrained. "Will---- told me. Everything."

Juliet was a quick thinker by nature. It was something that she prided herself on, her ability to take anything that came at her and quickly come back with some kind of answer or sarcastic retort or witty comeback that left the other half of the conversation with their mouth flopping open like a fish out of water---or at least largely annoyed and frustrated that she'd found a way to prolong the argument or wound their ego. But all she could do in response to her husband's angry flailing and crazy claims--because they were crazy, she was sure they had to be--was stand there stiff and still and listen to him go off.

After he finished, a tense silence blanketed the room, and Juliet was surprised to find that her whole body was shaking with the impact of the words he'd just sent screaming out into the open. Quickly, she tightened her hands into fists to try to stop herself, but even as her knuckles turned white she could not seem to take control over herself. Juliet's throat burned and she felt her cheeks flush and she knew that she had to get away from Rhys right now before---before---he could not be allowed to see her lose it, of all people, she was not about to lose all of the self-control she'd honed for herself over this past week in front of Rhys. Her personality would just not allow it, to let anyone see her anything less than either completely composed, or determinedly angry.

She needed to get out of the room, but her feet stood frozen to the ground, unwilling to budge an inch. She knew she at least had to do something to brush this off, to---fuck, what did she do, she didn't know what to do, she didn't know what the fuck to do about any of this! Bullshit, it was all bullshit, everything with Caradoc, with the Death Eaters, with Rhys, with---the whole fucking world, it was all so---she didn't know why she didn't just fucking forget it all and move to fucking Siberia.

"How---" Juliet swallowed painfully, attempting to will away the pitifully telling hoarseness in her voice. It disgusted her, to know she could be so weak. "How can you say that---Caradoc? You've got to be---" A bitter laugh bubbled up from her throat, and to her dismay collapsed into a choked cough. Why couldn't he just leave, for fuck's sake-- "A moron like my brother can't be---How can you even---are you serious, how can you even---say that seriously?"

Rhys' face was hard, but he did not look up to watch Juliet's reaction. While he knew he should, he didn't. He actually wanted to; this was what Juliet wanted to know, and he had laid it all out for her, so he should have watched her catch herself and falter, because all along he knew that this had been coming. But--- he didn't. For reasons beyond him at this point, the urge to watch his wife possibly begin to crumble suddenly didn't seem to appeal to him. What the fuck, he should want to collect his rewards, but--- honestly, he really hated his morals sometimes.

"Juliet," he started softly, finally picking his head up to look at her. Ah. Maybe--- starting slowly, Rhys began to move his way to her. Slowly, slowly, very slowly, all while he now began to watch her intently, looking for any signs of--- anything. A sudden burst of sanity, perhaps. Or just a burst of anything in general.

"Juliet," Rhys sounded again, now as close to her as she had been to him just a few moments ago. He raised his arms cautiously, pausing long before placing both his hands on her shoulders to hold her where she stood. Seeing as she didn't immediately thrust him away, he clutched her tighter.

"Because it's the truth," he reaffirmed in a clipped tone. Well--- no, it was. Perhaps it wasn't all of the truth, but that was all Juliet needed to know at this point. Nothing else. Rhys took another deep breath, locking his eyes on her face. This was--- very challenging, and while he pushed himself into every motion, he knew in the end it was necessary.

What was he doing? Juliet still couldn't bring herself to move away even as she felt his hands on her shoulders---it was a... weird, unnatural feeling, but she didn't budge an inch, only stared at the carpet at her feet, away from the eyes that were watching her. Whatever was going on right now, she didn't like it one bit. What did she need to do to get herself out of it, for crying out fucking loud---this was just---it was foreign. It was the most displaced she'd ever felt in her life, standing there with her husband touching her while she lost her composure. Maybe normal people didn't find this weird, but Juliet Nott was more out of place than a fish on dry land.

"No, I'm---that's not---That's not possible, you don't understand," she said and for fuck's sake why she was still talking, she needed to just---shut up. Shut up and run away. "You don't know him."

Juliet shook her head back and forth, feeling and looking more confused than she ever had in her life. The still sane part of her imagined with horror that she looked something like an idiot child, lost and unable to understand what was going on around her. "You don't know him. How could he do..." her voice trailed off, but did not pick up again.

Rhys was fairly confident that he knew the real Caradoc better than Juliet ever did. But he would keep that little tidbit to himself for now. It wasn't necessary to be said, and really would only hurt what he was about to say next. Which, really was the whole point of this confrontation, because he had been thinking of ways to get them out of this fucking situation for almost a week now. While his plan was weak, it still would achieve--- they would still be out of the sight of the Dark Lord, which was really all that needed to happen.

So, taking another deep breath, Rhys bent his chin slightly to get a better look at Juliet as he spoke. It was very important that he only had to say this once, and that she understood the words coming out of his mouth. "I think it would be best--- if we moved away," Rhys stated in a calm tone, using everything at his disposal to ease Juliet into this.

And honestly, if she didn't agree, then fuck with that because they were doing it whether she wanted to or not. He had the house in France that his biological father had left him, that was plenty big enough. As soon as this conversation was over with, he would go right to the Ministry for a transfer... it wouldn't be hard at all to push it through quickly.

"From England, from--- everything," he finished slowly, deciding to keep it short. One--- life changing piece of information at a time. Unconsciously, Rhys felt his hands grip tighter on her shoulders.

"Move away?"

The suggestion seemed to come out of the blue, what when she was still trying to comprehend---hell, couldn't he give her a minute or two to let it all sink in before suggesting something so huge as leaving the bloody country? That was so sudden, so drastic, so... fuck all, it was right.

For once in his life, Rhys was right. Of course it made sense, with her brother in trouble and missing, with Death Eaters after him, they weren't in a good situation here. Voldemort was known to go after families of people who had upset him, examples were plastered all over the Prophet front page on a nearly weekly basis. Really, how long would it be before Death Eaters were blowing down their door? If Caradoc was alive, she and Rhys would make an excellent bait to lure him out of hiding... If he was dead, they could be seen as potential threats or accomplices to whatever he'd done. Merlin's fucking beard---just like him to not think about something like that before he decided to go and piss off the bloody Dark Lord.

So... alright. That meant that she now didn't just need to snap out of this emotional weirdness, but she needed to, if she wanted the possibility of living much longer. That was---okay. Okay.

After a long moment or two, she finally raised her head, the cracks in her composure carefully mended. "Fine, then let's go," she said, forcing that signature edge back into her voice. Juliet shrugged away Rhys' hands. "And stop staring at me like I'm some god damned kicked puppy. What the hell's gotten into you, Nott?"