Amycus Carrow (amycus_carrow) wrote in valesco,
@ 2012-01-12 23:06:00

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OPEN?
He hadn’t even been back for a week and he was already wishing that he was anywhere but there, in the stuffy, cramped apothecary. Why the hell Alecto thought her brother was right for the job of ‘customer service’, he’d never know – actually, now that he thought about it, she had bitched about his attitude losing her business more times than he could keep track of. He had never been a ‘people person’, but it had more to do with him not liking most people than him not giving it a shot. Still, he managed to keep his temper from flaring up around customers who treated him like he was some idiotic underling who didn’t know what he was talking about, and had even managed to keep his snide comments to himself.

He was just glad Alecto didn’t catch him flipping some crotchety witch the bird as he rammed his shoulder into the back door, leading him into the alley behind the shop, a cigarette already dangling between his lips. His back pressed against the side of the building, his fingers buttoning the wool pea coat that he had bought while they were in France.

They were in France a month ago. If it were up to him, they wouldn’t have ever left.

Finding the zippo that was in his pocket, Amycus flicked it a few times before it sparked, creating enough of a flame to light the end of the cancer stick that was hanging from his mouth. Taking in a deep inhale of the toxic smoke, he closed his eyes as he felt the familiar burn in his lungs. He leaned his head back, his free hand rubbing at his brow before he finally exhaled, opening his eyes to stare at the grey, cracked stone that was on the opposite side of the alley.

He got lost in his thoughts, the only thing bringing him out of his own head and back to reality (which was a much safer place for him to be) was the sound of approaching footsteps. A brow lifted, turning to see who else was lurking around behind the shops of Knockturn Alley.

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alectos
2012-01-17 09:02 am UTC (link)

Who else had Amycus expected to be lurking around behind Agrippa's, she wondered, besides the proprietress herself? It wasn't an exactly glamorous -- or even mildly satisfactory -- backdrop for a casual stroll through Knockturn... That was, if you were the type who thought Knockturn itself was a suitable backdrop a casual stroll in the first place.

Well, if one looked at it like that, she supposed... Up until a couple of years ago, the Carrows had indeed run with a crowd that might feel quite at home in the midst of the grime and inadequate lighting.

Just the thought of several choice characters from their former escapades was enough to send a shiver or disgust up Alecto's spine. Such people were nothing more now than a part of their lives she was no less than thrilled to leave behind. Not having wanted her younger brother to be drug into the Dark Lord's ranks in the first place and then having been maliciously blackmailed into fighting beside him, the oldest Carrow had nothing but frigid bitterness and loathing for anything and everything to do with that snake Voldemort and his underlings. It had become little else to her than a game of survival, and she felt grateful to have made it out, with her brother, intact when that vile man's judgement day had finally come for him.

It was her gratefulness that had led her to sweep Amycus out of the country for so long, as she did her best to enjoy each day to its fullest now that she felt she could finally breathe again. Even now, years after the fighting had ended, the feeling of breathing was new and foreign.

Of course, she would never let him know any of that. Even if Alecto had been a more emotive personality, it would do no good to let Amycus know just how deeply the past few years of their lives had shaken her. She had always done her best to be there for him, look out for him, protect him; as his older sister, that was her duty, even when he hated and wanted to kill her for it. So instead, she had excused herself by saying they were going out for supplies, and they had roamed the globe until her money -- all of her stash of money provided by the Dark Lord as support for the work she had done -- had run out and they had been forced to come on.

At least, she thought, all of that was off her hands now. Now they could really start fresh, out from under the shadow of that psychotic monster.

"Your shift's not over."

Alecto pulled her light sweater tighter around her, an afterthought as she had spotted her brother walking outside from her room above the shop. It really was a pity they hadn't been able to stay in a country with warm weather for a few weeks longer. It seemed that ever since they had arrived back in England, the snow and frigid temperatures rarely let up.

"I don't let you live here for free, Amycus. Do your damn job once in a blue moon, for fuck's sake."

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amycus_carrow
2012-01-17 11:50 pm UTC (link)

The problem was that he had no clue who to expect lurking around back there, which was why he was so interested to know as soon as possible who he would be dealing with. He had spent so many years constantly watching his back that it came as second nature to him to snap to attention every time he so much as heard a twig break off to the side while he was coming home. Most of the time it was nothing more than an alley cat or dog who was begging for food that Amycus didn’t have, but he was always on guard, just in case.

He let out a sigh as she scolded him like a mother might scold her son because he didn’t finish his chores. His weight shifted as he took another drag of his cigarette, flicking the ashes off to the side, holding the new bout of smoke in his lungs.

“Tell you what…”

He exhaled the rest of the smoke in the opposite direction, so that he could continue speaking without blowing it right in her face.

“You give me a few minutes every couple of hours to come out here and decompress, and I can guarantee your sales will go up, because I won’t be so tempted to strangle every poor sod who walks through the door. I’ll be promoted in no time.”

His words were spoken with dry sarcasm, though there was definitely a hint of truth to most of what he was saying to her. He extended the cigarette out to her, offering it to her so she could take a pull of the toxic smoke if she felt so inclined. It was then that he noticed that she wasn’t wearing a coat, and thinking that she must have been freezing, he did for her what he wouldn’t do for anyone else – he started removing his coat, pushing away from the brick wall he had been leaning against in order to pull it over her shoulders. He was still wearing a sweatshirt underneath, which provided him enough warmth for the short period of time he planned on spending out there.

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alectos
2012-01-18 05:33 am UTC (link)

Cold she most certainly was, but had she anticipated Amycus taking off his jacket, she would have pushed it away before it was already off of him and on her shoulders. As it were, the warmth it provided from its coverage and his retained body heat was too nice to deny once she already had it.

Resigned to her cozy fate, Alecto leaned up against the wall next to Amycus and took the fag from her brother's fingers without a thought, inhaling deeply and exhaling again before speaking.

"If you freeze out here and catch cold, I'm going to be pissed off," she told him, leaning her head down towards the coat. "I'm not about to run this shop alone for a week while you're put up in bed with the flu."

Resisting the urge to take another drag, she offered the fag back to him and tucked her hands into the coat pockets once they were free. For a moment, Alecto pushed her nose down into the front of the coat; partially to protect it from the cold, but partially to take in the scent he'd left there. It smelled of smoke, but undeniably like him. She might have to steal this coat more often from now on.

She didn't answer his request for breaks during his working hours. They both knew that wasn't happening.

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amycus_carrow
2012-01-18 06:10 am UTC (link)

Amycus rolled his eyes at her words, lifting up his hood in order to trap in some more heat, since he was getting colder by the second ever since he had removed his jacket. Logic told him that was bound to happen, but he’d rather stand there and freeze than have her stand there being this cold, and with her being as small as she was, it didn’t take very long for her to begin to shiver. It had been that way ever since they were small, yet he remembered waking up on countless nights with an extra blanket thrown over him while Alecto continued to shiver through the night. It was seeing her like this that always, even to this day, prompted him to lay beside her, holding her until she stopped shaking and they both drifted off.

“So you seriously came all the way down here just to bitch at me about my work ethic, and tell me how pissed off you’re going to be if I get sick?”

A brow lifted, and he took in another drag, his shoulders hunched a bit more now that he didn’t have the warmth of the wool protecting him from the wind chill. It seemed to slip under his sleeves, as well as the bottom of the sweatshirt, seeing how it was rather worn after owning it for so many years. It was one of those pieces of clothing that he just couldn’t seem to throw away, even though it didn’t have very much sentimental value, aside from the fact that Alecto had gotten it for him the year before shit had hit the fan in their family.

“While I appreciate your deep concern for my well being, I’ll be fine. I’m not planning on being out here much longer anyway. I have work to do, remember?”

He tacked on the last part just to see if he could get a reaction out of her, reaching out for his cigarette in order to take another drag, offering it her again just on the off chance she might inhale another bout of toxic smoke. He could already feel himself relaxing, thanks to the nicotine, although the cold had a way of being rather counterproductive on that front.

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alectos
2012-01-18 07:26 am UTC (link)

Alecto tilted an eyebrow in her brother's direction, finally pulling her face out of the soft black fabric in order to regard him once again. "Maybe," she answered. "You're not working right now when you should be, so I think I have a right to come bitch about such things as much as I feel is necessary to get the message through your head."

He was stubborn, Amycus was. He wasn't a fantastic employee either, when it came down to the times he was actually doing his job and not skiving off duties like at present. Half of the time they were arguing about something to do with his work or her 'slave driving' ways or whatever there was to argue about that day-- That said, she wouldn't have hired another to take his place for the world. As much as she got on his case about practically everything he did, Alecto would have much rather been working with Amycus than a stranger. Family was supposed to stick together.

Anyway, their family held too many secrets. She couldn't possibly risk letting another in on their day-to-day lives. The last thing she needed was another pompous pureblood blackmailing her with sensitive information until she got involved in some pointless war... or whatever.

"Whatever," she sighed after a long silence, a casual gesture that was altogether foreign to one as high-strung and serious as Alecto. "Just close up when you go back in. It's beginning to snow again, and I doubt many more customers will visit tonight."

Alecto waved away the proffered cigarette and turned her head up towards the sky, watching the tiny white flakes fall. The cold weather must have been getting to her, for her to let him off the hook so easily. He had better not get used to such leniency.

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amycus_carrow
2012-01-18 08:02 am UTC (link)

She may have had a point, but he wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of letting her know that he knew that. Instead, he just went back to staring at the cracking wall on the opposite end of the alley, shifting again against the wall they were both leaning against, trying to get a little more comfortable despite all the factors working against him. It was his own fault, not having a coat, but maybe if she hadn’t been stupid enough to come outside without a jacket on just to yell at him, he wouldn’t have felt compelled to give her something else to wear. Of course, had he known that was all she had come out there for, he might have just kept the coat to give her more incentive to go inside before she could complain about how he wasn’t smoking his cigarette properly.

Still, when she merely dismissed what he had said, he couldn’t help the way his brows creased in the center, giving her a suspicious sideways glance. Was this some sort of trap? Before he could think too far into why she hadn’t demanded he get back inside that instant and get back to work, she pointed out that it was snowing, causing Amycus to mirror Alecto’s stance, with his head tilted back so that he could get a better look at the sky. A few snowflakes got caught in his lashes before he blinked them away, turning to look over at Alecto. She wasn’t giving him a hard time, and while some part of him was tempted to see just how far he could push her buttons, he just gave her a nod of acknowledgement, letting her know what he’d try not to fuck up something so simple as closing the shop.

"I can manage that.”

He continued look at her, switching the cigarette from one hand to the other, extending his newly freed hand out towards the collar of his jacket, moving some of her hair from beneath the fabric so that it was no longer caught there.

“I think this might look better on you than it does on me.”

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alectos
2012-01-18 09:33 am UTC (link)

Unsure as to why even as she did it, Alecto bit back a self-inflated remark about the obviousness of her brother's last words. On any normal day, she would have let him have that insult he had walked himself into, and maybe a little more to top it off. For now, however, she felt inclined to let it go before it began. He had given her his coat, she rationalized. She supposed he wasn't being all that horrible, compared to most days. Maybe he too was still feeling a slight afterglow from their globe trekking.

Or maybe he'd gotten into her stock again and had one too many Pick Me Up potions.

Alecto unwrapped her arms from around herself and slipped them through the coat sleeves, then held them out before her. To tell the truth, the way the garment actually looked on her was more hilarious than anything. The thin alabaster digits of her hands peeking out from under all the excess black fabric made her fingers look quite strange, almost like an alien life. She imagined that the whole of her must have looked like it was drowning in any such thing which fit her brother perfectly.

The eldest Carrow was certainly not short, but what she had in height, she had always seemed to lack in substance. It was the opposite with Amycus, who was of average height, but well built-- at least he looked well-built next to her. The same could be said for any number of other things about the siblings, however... For example, while her younger brother possessed all dark features, she had been born strikingly blonde with eyes of icy blue. Really, to the unknowing passer-by, the Carrows looked less like siblings than anyone. Sometimes, just sometimes she couldn't help but wonder.

Well, it would simply explain so much.

As usual, she brushed the thought away like dust under a rug. No matter what they were or were not, it would certainly change nothing at this point. Some questions simply didn't need an answer.

"I do believe it would look better were it in anywhere near the proper size." Alecto tucked her hands quickly back into the over-long sleeves, hiding them away from the frigid cold like small animals running into hibernation. Why were they still standing out there? She could see the redness on her brother's cheeks from the chill, and felt for a moment guilty for taking his jacket away. "And as much as I enjoy walking around in your clothes" -- true enough, she did have a habit of stealing his shirts for wear around the house or to bed -- "I'm very serious about you not getting sick. Take it back or let's go in."

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