Who: Isobel Egg and Archie MacMillan
What: Birthday blues and stalkers
Where: Magical Menagerie
When: Like right now!



She really had no room for a puppy.

Isobel stood outside the window of the Magical Menagerie with wide, thoughtful eyes as she stared at the little white dog sleeping in the display. It could potentially be the best thing she'd ever bought herself, but on the other hand, dogs did happen to come with a lot of annoyances. Like barking, whining, having to be taken out all the time to do their business.

Maybe a cat. Except you didn't adopt a cat, a cat adopted you, and Izzie wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with that.

This would be a lot easier if someone had just surprised her with the pet. She'd been hinting at it to her family for weeks, but it wasn't unusual for her parents and siblings to basically ignore her...anything. Ignore her with everything, really. The snots.

Maybe a turtle. Yes, a turtle would be good. Nice and easy. Isobel made a decisive nod to herself and turned toward the entrance to the shop, but instead managed to ram straight into someone who was standing far too close for comfort.

"Thanks a lot," she snapped, putting her hand to her head.

There wasn't a lot that Arcturus MacMillan believed about "higher powers" and "fate" and "kismet" and all that nonsense.

But even he found it kind of hard to argue with those theories when Fate went and dropped something right in his lap.

Not that he wasn't expected to work for it, of course, but the possibility was dropped in his lap.

He had seen Isobel Egg earlier that morning, walking along the shops with a determined look on her face. And after investigating the slight nagging feeling that was tugging at him, he processed that today was the 13th of August. Upon a few more moments of deliberation, he suddenly realized that in addition to being the 13th of August, it was also Isobel Egg's 21st birthday.

This presented Archie with two options: run, as fast as his feet could possibly take him and/or Disapparate (if he knew what was good for him) or convince Isobel Egg he wasn't some kind of enemy who waltzed (or, rather, strode purposefully) into her life, took away her illegal magical yoga studio, awkwardly took her out to dinner, and then slept with her. Twice.

Being that he was a glutton for punishment, he chose the second option.

Armed with a bouquet of flowers, a card, and a box of chocolates, Archie spent a good half hour alternately searching for Isobel, in the hopes that she hadn't left, and talking himself out of talking himself out of finding and then approaching her.

He spotted her outside the Magical Menagerie, and in his haste to catch her, walked as fast as was possible in the crowd, all the while muttering things like, "We're in a public area, she can't curse me" and "What's the very worst that can happen?"

But in his haste, Archie didn't notice she hadn't yet gone into the store, and if he kept up his current speed, he would just about cras--

Well. So much for his smooth entrance.

"I--I am so terribly sorry," he began, hastily.

It had to be him, right? On her birthday, right? It was already a bad day, seeing as none of her family had acknowledged it; actually, she was quite sure her younger brothers were shopping around Diagon Alley for school supplies. Izzie was used to this lack of attention, sure, but that didn't mean she had to enjoy it and it was rather frustrating that Archie had to come and literally slam a reminder into her that today was a bad day.

"Are you always intolerable?" she asked, standing back and fixing her shirt. "In every aspect of your life, do you need to find some way to be absolutely and infuriatingly---"

She noticed the slightly squashed belongings in his hands and suddenly felt...bad? He was getting ready for a date, it looked like, and there he was being all nice and sweet, getting the other woman flowers and chocolates and...well, damn. Not only had she just snapped at him and managed to mess up his things, but it also reminded her that her family was absolutely thoughtless.

Izzie sucked in her cheeks for a moment, forcing her to stop berating Archie. He was just being nice, and she was in his way. She felt like that a lot, lately.

"Sorry, I've--I'm going in," she muttered, trying to get past him and into the store.

That was unexpected.

Not the yelling, of course, Archie generally expected that whenever he was in her vicinity, but the--the stopping of the yelling. That was something completely unprecedented. And this time, nobody's lips were on the other person's.

He cleared his throat hurriedly as he let her pass, following her into the store. "No, no, it was my mistake, I'm sorry I ran into you, but I was trying to find a way to get your attention." Which he most certainly had gotten.

Archie cast a woeful eye at the slightly dented, slightly wilted, slightly bent collection in his arms and sighed heavily. "These were for you, y'know, as a... happy birthday... thing. But I, er, squashed them, slightly. Sorry about that." He hesitantly held them out anyway.

Ugh, now Izzie remembered why she didn't have a pet. The smell of the store hit her immediately, and she nearly recoiled. How could the employees work here and did Archie just say---

She turned around quickly, her bag nearly knocking over a display of kneazle collars. Her eyes raced across the gifts, not meant for another woman, but for her and...and...her heart should not be pounding so fast, but it was and she really, really hated him for it. The brilliant idea of someone remembering outside of Mineko was astounding, and with the mental reaming she'd just been doing of her family, this was a pleasant if not utterly confusing surprise.

"How'd you know it was my birthday?" she asked, managing to keep an accusing tone out of her voice. This was---this was supposed to be nice, but it didn't make sense because...because she was quite sure that they were supposed to hate each other. At least, Izzie knew that she hated him.

Archie cringed. He hated bringing up their initial meetings now, because she got so defensive. But really, she did break the law and he did have to reprimand her. It was just how that sort of thing worked! But no matter how many times he attempted explaining it, she stubbornly refused.

Which was why he said, very quickly, "It, er, was on your permanent record. For your arrest file. For that time you were--er--arrested."

Well, mentioning it twice was probably gratuitous and Not a Good Idea, but he couldn't help the words now that they were out. He looked slightly apologetic. "I, er, well, I'm not stalking you, if that's what you think, I just--saw you, here, and I remembered it was your birthday, and I wanted to get you something nice and then catch you, before you left, but--" was she planning on interrupting him any time soon?

He stopped himself, looking rather helpless. "Happy birthday," Archie offered weakly, holding the gift out once more.

She couldn't even think of interrupting him because Archie had her completely flabbergasted. He'd remembered it was her birthday from her files? That was weeks ago! Unless he was being...creepy and pulling up her files every so often...which did seem like a likely possibility, but how could she even suggest he not know any personal things about her when they'd already slept together? Which had been a very horrible drunken mistake, but still. You can't really get more intimate than actual intimacy.

Izzie really wanted to be mad. She was nearly holding her breath, trying to make her face red with anger, but the fact remained that Archie had remembered her birthday when the people who were supposed to completely ignored the fact, along with the idea that she even existed. Isobel honestly did hate the fact that she'd become such an outcast in her family, wanting to deal with muggles of all things. Her father's book proved that the main perception of muggles was that they were specimens to study, not integrate your life with, so the fact that she loved the muggle world was just so--strange and odd and---

This was bloody insane. This man drove her insane. He'd made her kick and scream and hit and cry and have sex. Twice! No one person should be allowed to do this to her, and Izzie thought that was reason enough to hate him, but right now she couldn't fathom it. At all. Which was terrifying.

"Thank you," she mumbled, taking the outstretched gifts and realizing the heat in her face wasn't of anger but of flushed embarrassment, maybe excitement and--ugh. She hated him for this.

Archie scratched his neck awkwardly, ducking his head and kicking at the floor a little. "It--it was nothing."

After all, he'd only harassed her, then arrested her, let her go on bail, studied her personal record, asked her out on a date, slept with her (twice!) and was now harassing her some more.

Merlin, he was a stalker.

Looking around the store, he finally registered where they were. He had a kneazle, once. It bit him. He hadn't been terribly friendly to pets ever since. "Were-were you looking for a pet?"

Izzie nodded, but as her eyes cast around the store, she started to see all that could go wrong with a pet. Her flat was far too small for a dog, she didn't like cats, and she'd never remember to clean an aquarium. So--if there was something that didn't require any attention at all, that would be her future pet. Seriously the best kind of pet, if you asked her.

She shifted the gifts in her arms and looked down at the flowers, which smelled rather nice---though she might be allergic to them. Izzie couldn't remember, but if she started sneezing soon, she'd know. But she'd blame it on the cat hair. Actually---why did she think a pet was a good idea? Why was she even here? This made no sense.

"I---I should get these into water," she said, turning to look up at Archie. It was like her mouth had decided to hold her brain hostage, because it was screaming at her not to say this next bit, but her mouth could not be controlled, "Do you--I can make lunch, if you want. If you haven't eaten."

Why, why? She absolutely loathed this man, this had to be some sort of guilt-trip. Don't leave him standing there like a fool after he's given you flowers, Izzie! Yes, yes that had to be it, she was just being nice.

Archie's jaw almost dropped. It really almost did; he could not believe that after all the harassment this woman had given him she was actually extending an invitation to him. Archie wasn't even sure this wasn't some kind of trap she set for unsuspecting officials of the law.

This was not good.

Or was it? Maybe she was finally over whatever aversion she insisted on having to him.

Maybe they could finally have a friendship (relationship? He wondered), or something else that was normal. That, instead of her hating him and him chasing her around like a maniac, waving his hands and yelling, "See! Safe! Perfectly so!"

"Yeah--er--yeah, that would be--great."

If he could spit a sentence out without tripping over himself, it would indeed be great.