The Game is On! (Henry)

[.Alice Vyrei Trev'na !]

--

I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath,
do your research.

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Location : London



The air clung to a pleasant warmth as a soft humid breeze swung through a pleasing little street of restaurants and local café’s . The silken skirt clung to her legs soundly, pulling away only when she switched position to gain a more comfortable view of the bricked square. The sharp tinge of Earl Grey swam over her tongue as Alice wordlessly surveyed the muggles in their insistence to rush about their little lives. Leave bird watching to those to dim-witted to do anything of relevance, Alice far preferred observing the odd mannerisms of the non-magical folk to any other past time. She took another short lived sip from the tea cup clutched by two slender digits, silently pleased to have escaped the social escapades of her mother during her concise visit to the family’s London flat.

Setting the cup down with a decided clink on the table Alice allowed her eyes to drift lazily over the cityscape before her. She herself was nested in the heart of a clutter of tables outside a quaint little café, the perfect vantage point in which to watch the muggles and their vain attempts at living. Men, woman and children passed through the busy little square, some moving with the expected grace of individuals who knew the area well, and others, tourists obviously, were clumsily muddling about with cameras clasped in their sweating palms.

The delightedly light fabric of Alice’s blouse ruffled in the constant breeze as those amber orbs focused in upon a cluster of half a dozen children being poorly controlled by their parents. The mother was certainly not dressed well for her age, sporting a tight skirt that barely covered the appropriate places with an equally taut shirt. The father was the absolute image of boredom as Alice took in the inventory of his appearance and dull mannerisms to easily reach the conclusion that potential only three of the children were actually his. Further inspection paired with another sip of tea narrowed the gap down to two of the children being from his genetic line. At this thought a crooked smirk alighted upon her lips briefly before the blonde witch’s interest dissipated. Alice had a habit of rather quickly losing interest in a puzzle once it had been solved. As expected with little delay her gaze was tracing down another cluster of muggles racing over to pose in front of a modest stone fountain.

It was a rare thing for Alice Trev’na to allow herself such a moment of freedom when her attentions should otherwise be taken up by her family. But it had been a lengthy morning with Vivian dragging her middle child up and down London to meeting with friends of the family and individuals that her mother deemed necessary to entertain with their company. To be blunt Alice didn’t care much for social exploits, nor for entertaining the attentions of others. You see to Miss. Trev’na, people were worth far more to her as little puzzles to solve than as individuals actually worth her attentions.

Muggles continued to drift in and out of the café and about the streets, the witch unmoving as her eyes continued to drift over the swaying crowds. Idly she slid fingertips over stray locks to slide them securely behind her ears. The neat bun she had fixed earlier was a bit disheveled now after several hours of running about London with her mother and briefly with young Anna. Bewitched firmly in thought Alice continued toy with the unkempt tresses, allowing the worries of reality to subside in the distant recesses of her consciousness.

In this moment there was nothing but her little game to be concerned with, that little slice of utopia that would all to soon be but a memory. Until then, the world was a puzzle that required solving.




Word Count: 645
Tags: Henry Longbottom
Outfit: Outfit
Credits: Quote from Sherlock

[.henry john longbottom !]

--------------------------------------I didn't know, I saw

     Henry stepped into the muggle coffee shop, having to side-step out of the way of a rushing business woman as soon as he did so. He breathed in deeply, and looked around. The smell alone would have put him in heaven (if he believed in one, that is), but the business of the shop was equally wonderful. Many people hated crowds, especially in such small places. To Henry, however, they were a gold mine of information. How easy it was to merely sit down next to someone and ask how they were doing. Henry laughed at simplicity. Besides, talking to someone meant having to endure them if they turned out to be less than the people Henry enjoyed to associate himself with. And why bother talking to someone when you can simply glance at their fingernails, or their shoes, their haircut or even the drink that they ordered.

     Yes, Henry was not one to just go up and talk to someone. He had to look someone over first, and see who they were. Henry ordered his drink - coffee, black, two sugars- and walked calmly out of the shop. He turned up is collar a bit more as the morning air pushed by. Henry leaned against the outside wall and watched the cars move down the streets and the people rushing by. He would have sat, but there were no tables available.

     A woman walked out of the café behind him, and he could instantly tell what her whole life was like. She was married to a wealthy man, judging by her clothes. He knew that she wasn't wealthy herself from the way she carried herself and the way she had made-up her face. She had an older sister or a friend that she was jealous of, clearly, and she was cheating on her husband. Oh, and she was pregnant- at least six weeks.

     Henry chuckled to himself as she hurried down the street to get back to her pencil-pushing job. He looked around for someone else to tell him their story.

word count:414
notes: I apologize for all suckiness in this post
quote: sherlock

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[.Alice Vyrei Trev'na !]

--

"Oh, look at you lot. You're all so vacant. Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing."

The tide of humanity surged with a seething current in and out of the café, the scent of coffee and pastries hovering over the throng of Muggles. Her amber flecked gaze drifted lazily over this ripping sway of individuals, eyes flickering over person after person before taking another sip of tea before resuming her work. It was then with a decisive clink Alice set her still warm drink down at the table rather abruptly. There was a young man, his face turned away from her own towards the innards of the café the manner of his posture piquing her interest. He carried himself like a lion among gazelle, so very similar to her own manner when surrounded by the non-magical folk. The faint white tracery of calluses on his right hand just visible, just between the inner thumb and index, potentially from being a Muggle paper pusher, or someone perhaps who had held a wand for some years.

Lowering her gaze as the man disappeared into the café to make his order, the moment of interest passed for Alice, her attentions seeking some new individual to pick apart. Those russet colored orbs settling in upon a pair of individuals, a blonde muggle gentleman and a woman. From a single fleeting glance at the woman Alice deduced that she had potentially just lost her husband, or was perhaps meeting a new lover, as there were clear tan lines ringing her left finger indicating that a wedding band had resided their not so long ago. Miss Trev’na was far more inclined to believe the worst in others and supposed that the female Muggle simply was committing her latest act of adultery.
Pressing her tongue against the back of her teeth in mild concentration the young Trev’na girl watch just out of the corner of her eye as the rather uncommon young man reemerged from the shop with a cup of coffee.

Alice’s consciousness ticked off a mental list of the students she was familiar with at Hogwarts School.
Pale cobalt tinged eyes, a messy shroud of brown hair, and that irksome look as though he simply had to mentally dissect anything in front of him. Alice lost herself on the irony of her own mannerisms as her thoughts were silently confirmed.

Henry Longbottom, something of a distant rival, as they had shared few classes over the last couple years; but even Alice could acknowledge that he was not an imbecile like the rest of the world. At least he was not absorbed in the social meanderings of most others at school, he still had the ability to think properly which was becoming a rare skill it seemed.
Alice considered for a moment the thought of simply ignoring the Gryffindor, but yet again she had turned the situation into another puzzle, a new riddle to solve; and for the moment it was rescuing her from the miserable depths of boredom.

“Henry Longbottom.” She uttered leisurely in his direction, her voice silken yet equally chill with faux disinterest. Those amber, copper flecked orbs snapped abruptly from the disappearing figure of the woman she had been observing, to the young wizard.

“How very curious …”Alice spoke musingly, her gaze focused intently of her quarry, the guise of apathy falling away to be replaced by her classic calculating stare.

She paused then, as though absorbed profoundly in thought before nodding briefly at the chair opposite her, proffering an invitation to take a seat, hardly caring if he accepted the offer.
It was quite odd, here Alice was thinking that for just a moment she was free from the tangles of the wizarding world, and yet her strange bustling little sanctuary had been invaded. Her brows tensed as a myriad of possibilities flickered like a scattering of embers through her mind. Why would one of her own kind seek to frequent a muggle café, aside from reasons such as her own of course? Agreeing to avoid a fruitless drawn out conversation Alice settled on the idea of being quite direct. Her insatiable curiosity was rather notable in her speech, but the young witch hardly gave a care.
The wizard before he was merely another riddle so solve.


“Do tell, what brought you to a place like this?” she inquired boldly, though the woman gave him no time in which to answer before speaking again, running verbally though potential motivations.

Brown eyes darted over his hands, to the cup he held.

"Is it the tea?...no of course not, you fancy coffee." Alice noted as she pursed her lips, silently recognizing the rich and quite detectable scent of black coffee over the other aromas frequenting the cafe.


"But really now, you can get that anywhere..." She murmured with a tug at the edge of her lips, almost allowing herself to be carried away by the little game she had begun.


"So if not the refreshments..." Alice uttered coolly, drawing out her words slowly and unhurriedly.

"Then what did bring you here Longbottom?", Alice inquired, the ghost of a smile departing from her face as her expression hardened slightly. The Trev'na girl would be quite vexed if this train of conversation ended up with a dull result. Perhaps the Longbottom boy would be nothing more than a bored wizard with no proper motivations, or perhaps Alice would find a game worth playing, and even more exciting, a rival worth her time.


Word Count: 944
Tags: Henry Longbottom
Outfit: Outfit
Credits: Quote from Sherlock
Note: Oh that quote just reminded me that its time to watch Sherlock again!

[.henry john longbottom !]

-------------------------------god what is it like in your funny little brains?
-------------------------------it must be so boring

     Just as the woman scurried off down the street, a voice, to his left, came. Softly, casually, it said his name. "Henry Longbottom." Henry turned to see a graceful young woman who was hiding a massive secret. As she sat at her little table drinking from a cup of steaming tea, the only passerbys that glanced at her were men, gawking like turkeys stunned by the rain. Yet the glances she received deserved to be much graver. If only the silly Muggles knew what she was- if only they knew of the massive secret that she, and he alike, hid every day.

     But they didn't. Which is what allowed Henry to stand so casually against the side of the café and Alice to sit mildly care-free at the table. She gestured towards the chair to her right and Henry took a few steps towards it before he sank casually into the cold, metal seat. "Alice Trev'na," he stated her name as a greeting. She responded with a question of what had brought him to the café. He listened politely as she ran through a list of reasons in her head. He wrapped his hands around his cup of coffee to warm his fingers as she did so. He smiled slightly, in a smug sort of way, as she finished her list of questions. This game they played was much more fun during a heated class discussion, but Henry had had such little amusement over the summer holidays that he gratefully played along.

     "Oh surely you know," Henry said, in mock condescension. "Are you not the same wise, young, eagle that you were three months ago? So eager to one-up me?" After several years of this, Alice would know to take everything he said to her as banter- a playful rivalry of two classmates whom far surpassed the intelligence of the rest of Hogwarts.

     Henry recalled the anticipation he had held within him as the days towards his enrollment at Hogwarts became fewer and fewer. How excited he had been to go to a place filled to the brim with intelligent young people- all of them wanting, just as he did, to strengthen their knowledge of the world and of magic. How disappointed he had been on that first day of classes when no one but him knew the answer of the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane, or what would happen if one added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood, or even, simply, where to find a bezoar! Yet there had been one. And that one was now, seven years later, sitting across from him outside of a busy café in London.

     Henry thought about answering the young witch. But how easy would that be for her? No, he would make Alice guess, as, he was sure, she would make him do. Nevertheless he asked, "And what is it that you are doing here? You were never one to just sit and drink a cup of black, no," he paused to smell, "earl grey with nothing else to occupy your mind." He looked at her- studied, rather. "Yet there is something occupying your mind - and its not the poorly pressed tea that you're thinking of- so what is it...?"

word count:687
notes: Do you know how hard it is to find good, relevant, screencaps of this guy? Damn.
quote: sherlock

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[.Alice Vyrei Trev'na !]

You were thinking. It's annoying.

A single coffee hued brow arched up sharply as Alice allowed a teasing smile to cross her narrow features. It had been quite a long while, ages it seemed since the previous school term, when Alice Trev’na actually had a reason to wake every morning. The continual rivalry between Henry Longbottom and the Ravenclaw girl was the only thing in the world to keep the dredges of boredom at bay. Oh he was clever indeed, perhaps as clever as herself, and that of course was the fun of it all. Someone intelligent enough to play her game, to make all the right moves and keep the round going and her mind entertained. Others at Hogwarts had been pale shadows compared to the duo of them, their minds pathetically slow and filled with monotony. Really now, who didn’t know what Shrivelfig was? The bloody point of the herb is plainly stated in the name. And Dittany, honestly, it would seem that the majority of Hogwarts was composed of dimwits, the silly flower was constantly used in the hospital wing.

But Alice was relieved of her boredom on those rare occasions when she shared a class with the Gryffindor now seated across from her. Evidently he saw the world in at least somewhat in the manner she did, and he actually had the ability to think properly.

Gently Alice crossed her legs and leaned forward to set her elbow upon the table, setting her chin in her palm, pressing her lips tightly together as she listened with interest. All the while, out of the corner of her eyes in the fading edges of her peripheral vision the witch continued to watch the surging crowds. The Ravenclaw girl waited with patience, the softest mirage of a smile still tugging at her features.

“Eager to one-up you?” She scoffed almost playfully, her sarcasm evident. “Please, little lion, you talk as if you were a challenge.”
The murmur of a smile broke fully as she predictably avoided answering her question, and the game between them began unhindered by idle banter.

Alice was finally submerged within her element, the glory of being absorbed by a proper puzzle. In all truth she guessed well enough that he was there for the same reason she was. They both sought excitement and conundrums, the very thrill that they craved at all hours of the day. Even if it meant visiting a Muggle café, it would stave off tedium and keep their clever little minds from gathering dust.

Her sharp edged smile faded in a clipped second as Alice’s musculature grew tense with anticipation. Copper hued eyes leaving the wizard before her to glance towards a duo of children holding open the café door for a young man in a wheel chair. His hands still a delicate pink, lacking the calluses of a an individual who had spent years wheeling themselves about.

Nodding vaguely in his direction as the door closed behind him, Alice spoke, a subdued yet roguish gleam in her eyes.

“Spine damaged in a car accident, you can see the bruising from the whiplash effect at his cervical vertebra.” Alice articulated with ease. . “But his inability to walk is at the very least somewhat psychosomatic. Predictably he moved as though to stand before the children opened the door. ”

“Oh and he is an alcoholic and quite the chain-smoker.... Burning the candle at both ends it would seem.” She added idly, as though it was naught but a side note, potentially knowing that the flushed face and yellowed fingernails was a dead give away to the latter statement.

Miss Trev’na paused, her gaze flitting back to Henry, the answer to his question evident in her eyes as she revealed the game she had been playing prior to his appearance.

“It has been rather lackluster…this summer. Nothing to keep the tedium away, nothing worth your attention…” The witch noted, her words touching upon the unending hours of dullness she had also endured over the summer away from school.

“But now I believe I have engaged it again, haven't I?
Hardly giving him an chance to reply, knowing that at the least she had his interest, she spoke again.


"It's your turn Longbottom.” Alice noted, glancing at the muggles passing by, the last words she spoke layeres with the whisper of a challenge hidden amongst her speech. Three months of being trapped in a gilded world of wealthy socialites, moving pitifully slow about their lives was now ending as time raced back into a sprinting gait.

The game was finally on.
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Word Count: 787
Tags: Henry Longbottom
Outfit: Outfit
Credits: Quote from Sherlock
Note: You wrote a fantastic post

[.henry john longbottom !]

------------------------------- You're an idiot.
----------------No no no, don't be like that, practically everyone is.

      Henry's smug smile grew slightly larger as Alice observed the crippled man, telling Henry nearly everything that he already knew. He had not deduced that the man was both an alcoholic and a chain smoker. And that was the great thing about Alice- as much as Henry knew, as much as he was able to see and observe and deduce, Alice brought something else to his mind. Something, he would never admit out loud, that he didn't have. While Henry did truly enjoy these little games between the eagle and himself, part of him continued to play them so he could, hopefully, find out what Alice had that he did not. He was sure, though, that there were things that he knew that she did not, and one of the reasons that Alice played the game was to know what those things were.

     "Oh, you are so eager to one-up me," Henry said playfully. "It's the only challenge that you face, is it not?" he asked her. It was somewhat rhetorical, but he was interested in what answer she would give. Henry sipped his coffee as he waited for an answer, but a pristine opportunity appeared. Alice would have to answer after Henry played his turn.

     A young couple turned around the block and began walking towards them. "Late twenties," Henry stated. He always started with the obvious. "Both come from wealthy families- both are trust-fund kids. Her glasses indicate that she's a lawyer or a journalist- her shoes conclude that it's the latter." Both female journalists and lawyers opted for style, as they were often publicized, but journalists also went for comfort. Henry glanced at Alice to see how well she was following along.

     "He will be inheriting a business that he doesn't want to do. The business currently belongs to his father, but it was started by his great-grandfather- you can tell by his tie. The business is..." he ran through a list of a dozen or so businesses in his head before the man's watch linked with,"Insurance." The couple turned in front of them and entered the coffee shop. The male held the door open for her, but he didn't enjoy it. This led Henry to his next observation.

     "She genuinely enjoys his company, loves him, even- you can see by the way she holds onto his arm. He also enjoys her company, but there are others that he would rather spend his time with." Henry looked back towards Alice as he concluded his observation. "Gay."

word count:571
notes: D'awwwwww. Thanks. Yours was awesome. Again.
Also, the quote is not directed towards Alice.
quote & image: sherlock

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[.Alice Vyrei Trev'na !]

Look at that... quiet, calm, peaceful. Isn't it hateful?

The thin line of her lips turned up in a half manifested smile as Alice leaned back fully and crossed her arms, turning her chin at an angle as though inspecting a piece of merchandise before her. The world was such a dismal place, choked with the slow thoughts of simple minds and dreary dreams of the ordinary. Though Alice Trev’na would have never admitted it to his face, Henry was that one single breath of fresh air, the one wizard who could manage to keep pace with her own gait.

A smug expression crossed her angled features, with the faintest tracery of teasing, he knew the answer to that question, of that Alice was certain, still as always she played along with the game.
“Oh Henry.” She uttered with a false sense of drama “Wouldn’t you like to know?” She snipped cynically with a smirk, her fingertips laying across her arm drumming away with a sense of delicate impatience. In truth, the young lion was one of the last worthwhile challenges Alice had found in the world. Unlike others, Henry Longbottom continued to teach the Ravenclaw girl new lessons, whether she would admit it or not. What she did not notice or gather at first, he always seemed to. They were a strange pair, like a set of twins who finished each other’s sentences at peculiar moments, yet at the same time constantly at odds with each other.

Allowing a warm exhale of air to leave her lungs as Henry completed his turn, the details of the couple delighting her most when the wizard noted the idea that the male Muggle was indeed gay. She had caught the bit herself that the woman was a journalist, it was easy enough to tell, and the details of the man’s profession, but yet again Henry had noted some little element that she had missed.

Again an expression of genuine delight, though dampened by her classic smugness appeared in her eyes. It could hardly be said how much Miss. Trev’na has missed the fun of her games with a proper opponent. And as of yet, Henry was the only one to have any true mettle within him.

Once more Alice leaned forward satisfied with how their meeting was proceeding, gradually setting her elbow on the table once again. Wordlessly she took another sip of tea whilst her eyes glanced out into the crowd, daring Henry to follow her line of sight towards another table just off to their left. A man was seated there alone, his shoulders set straight against the back of the chair as a sipped a cup of straight black coffee.

“Early forties.” Alice proffered, following exactly in the form Henry had in his performance, daring him to surpass her. “Well traveled in the south, you can see the tan lines at his collar and wrist, so he has been abroad.” She paused, inhaling a slow breath, taking her time before the finale. “The way he is dressed, straight laced, neat, perfectly shined shoes. So, military of course.” The witch noted easily. Once again she pursued her lips tightly, amber orbs flickering over the man’s close clipped hair. “He has finally been sent home, but he is a different man to his family, his wife on the verge of divorcing him... There look. ” Alice nodded towards a reed of a woman with a puff of auburn hair arrayed about her face, her wrinkles deepening as she returned to take a seat and slide a lovely iced pastry in front of her husband. her movements typical body language indicating another peace offering following in a long line of other attempts.

“He is a different man, living in a different world, she hardly knows him anymore, and she hardly wants to. Besides.” She muttered.

“The wife has been getting a tan herself. Though for quite different reasons.”

Another drawn out teasing pause passed between them.

“She’s been shagging the pool boy.”

With a half attempted laugh ended by a second sip of tea Alice set the cup to the table with a soft clink, slowly looking back up towards the Gryffindor.

“Really now Henry, Perhaps you manage well enough to provide entertainment” She spoke with an excited glimmer in her eyes. “But still I must hope that one day, you will rise to the occasion, and be a proper challenge.”




Word Count: 705
Tags: Henry Longbottom
Credits: Quote from Sherlock : The Great Game
Note: Oh I love this brilliant banter between them, and this unwritten respect and appreciation they silently have for each other. This could defiantly get interesting. This is one of the greatest, most entertaining threads I have been in, in quite a while.

[.henry john longbottom !]

------------------------------- 1. I observe everything.
2. From what I observe, I deduce everything.
3. When I've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it might seem, must be the truth.

     He smiled softly as she finished her turn. It was a good one- though not very interesting."Tell me," he said, " 'Shagging the pool boy'- do you know that, or was that just a shot in the dark?" Henry asked her. It was obvious that she was having an affair, and the woman's tan could be related, but Henry wasn't sure.

     Henry looked around for someone else to observe, though no one in particular caught his full attention. As he sipped his coffee he saw the usuals- people who hate their jobs, people who are cheating on their spouses, criminals, and angsty teenagers, to name a few. It suddenly seemed as if something that he enjoyed so much- racing through the knowledge he had of people to deduce every last detail of another's life- was put on the back burner, and something- someone- had come up front.

      It was Alice- the girl that he had known for years, but had never been able to fully figure out. It struck Henry as odd when he realized that this was possibly the first time that they had spent a significant amount of time together, alone. They had usually had at least one class together every year at school, but that was with two dozen other students. But now, even amongst the bustling London street, they were completely alone.

     In the Wizarding world, that would never be the case. Everyone in Britain knew of Hogwarts, and of its Headmaster. And, being his son, Henry was known amongst the vast majority of Britain as well. But here in the Muggle world, no one gave a second glance to the two. And if they did, it was only because they were both rather attractive.

     Henry looked around the street once more, but couldn't find anything interesting enough that would take the question that was in his mind, off of his mind.

     "A 'proper challenge?'" he asked Alice with a raise of his eyebrow, "I was under the impression that most things were challenging for you," Henry quipped. He was, however, genuinely curious as to what Alice meant by 'proper challenge'? There wasn't much else they could do other than point out other's lives and have ruthless debates, was there?

word count:527
notes: You just put so much pressure on me. Why did you do that? Oh lawdy.
quote & image: sherlock

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[.Alice Vyrei Trev'na !]

"Why does anyone do anything? Because I'm bored.
We were meant for each other."

A smirk sent a twinge through her well crafted façade as Henry spoke, Alice obviously quite entertained if not silently impressed by his own deductions. She set her hand down upon the slick surface of the table, drumming her nails twice as though absorbed completely by deep introspection. Finally that copper laced gaze shot boldly back up to his own with a smile breaking over her lips. She allowed the silence to lengthen between them until the moment could no longer stand the suspense.

“A shot in the dark.” Alice admitted with confidence still glittering amid her words as though she had found amusement in the fact that the wizard had caught her in a bluff. Few if any had ever succeeded in that exceedingly rare feat and yet she delighted in discovering an individual clever enough to do so.

“Still,” She quipped, taking another sip of tea mid-sentence. “If there is no risk, the game is hardly worth playing” The witch noted with an arch of her brow as she shifted her weight briefly, crossing her legs in a smooth tumult of silken fabric. Alice was well certain that Henry was well aware that hardly anything was worth doing unless there was hazard involved. Otherwise you fell into the inescapable vault that is boredom, that is until someone happened to liberate you.


“But” Alice noted as that tell tale glint returned to her eye, suggesting that she was not quite done with her turn at their game. “It was a shot in the dark, at first of course.” She noted with a short nod over Henry’s shoulder, her lips curving just so into a smirk.

“The boy there, at the street corner, he has not moved since the beginning of our little game.” The witch uttered blithely, her eyes returning to her rival.

“Tan lines at his arms, chlorine damaged hair, bleach spots on his clothing. So pool boy, potentially in his early thirties or late twenties. And his eyes have not left her all this time.”

“So affair, he may very well love her, while she considers him merely an entertaining past time.” She paused for a moment then, reconsidering the woman seated with her recently returned husband.

“ That, or, this is some twisted way of punishing her husband for his absence, whether or not he had a choice in it.” Alice concluded, her nails drumming one by one on the surface of the table, proffering exactly five taps.

“Divorced in….what would you say? Five months?” A smile tugging at her features. She was a bit smug about the whole thing, Alice Trev’na would hardly rely fully on an insubstantial bluff when dealing with the Gryffindor, she knew far better than that. Though to be quite honest, it was a bit disheartening that he was getting far more skilled in riddling out when she was playing with risk and chance. But, in the end, it only made their game all the more interesting.

The girl allowed a pause then as Henry struck with his last words her expression going a bit tight before returning to her typical relaxed expression.

“If everything were a challenge to me Henry, then I would be no different than the rest of these dim-witted apes walking the earth.” She shot back swiftly.

“But then if that were so, who would be here to play the game?”
Her eyes narrowed in all seriousness while the same confident rimmed smirk remained at her lips, a conflicting expression that seemed to be unable to make up its own mind.

“I do think, you would be so very bored…little lion.”



Words: 696
Credits: Quote from Sherlock : Jim Moriarty
Tags: Henry
Notes: Checkmate!

[.henry john longbottom !]

-----------Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish,
---------------- and that makes it hard
---------------------------------------to get at the stuff that matters.

     "Oh, yes. That couple will get divorced in no more than four months, I believe. But she'll file the papers within one," Henry commented on the cheating woman. Alice was sharp to make the connection between the young man standing across the street to the couple near them. Henry wondered how often Alice shot into the dark- were most of her deductions simply lucky guesses? No, that would be too utterly boring for her, he thought to himself. He tried to hide a grin as he recalled something.

     "So the man over there..." Henry nodded to the opposite end of the street. "Did you not notice him, or did you simply leave him out of what you described to me of your observation? Surely it's the second," he said, his facetiousness tumbling into sarcasm."I mean, someone as bright as you, little eagle, would never not notice the pool boy's gay lover..." He continued, "And you did, of course, merely not mention the woman's kinky fetish, correct? Were you just embarrassed to verbalize to me how much she loves to see the pool boy work in a Speedo? Because really, Alice, we both know that I am perfectly capable of hearing something of that sort - just look at what we're doing for fun." Henry couldn't help but smile as he turned Alice's deduction- and possibly her mind with it- upside down.

      Henry chuckled in his mind at Alice's mention of the game. Had everything between them always been a game? It definitely had not always been them dictating the lives of others to one another- no, that was something quite new. "Alice, despite our clear difference in ability," he said, referring to the pool boy scenario, I know very well that you are not one of these 'dim-witted apes' as you say. No, Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish, and that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters- something that you are beginning to learn how to do, I'll admit." Henry paused for a moment. Was he being too snarky? No- Alice would just dish it back to him. "Good try, though, Eagle. I'm sure you'll get better with practice."

      Henry found himself leaning on the table- it seemed that as he bit more and more out of Alice's observation, he became less and less bored. Now satisfied, he sat back in his chair, crossing his legs, and picked up his cup of coffee. He took a sip without looking at Alice- only, hopefully, adding to the idea that he thought that he was better than her. This was, of course, not true- but would Alice pick up on that?

word count:600
notes: Checkmate? Try again.
cred: Quote and Image from Sherlock

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