Stuck in Second Gear

This was so strange. Not because she wasn't sure why she was there, of course, but because she didn't know him very well, yet she was moving in with him. Perhaps she would be expected to find a place of her own once the trouble with Kaiden's parents was over. She had never lived on her own before, but she was self-sufficient enough, she supposed. Still, she tried to push that away and focus on what he was saying. Adrienne considered pointing out that she had a couple more bags in her pocket, but those were mostly toiletries and clothes, so she figured there wasn't a point, really. Being pedantic right from the start wouldn't help, so she did as he suggested and set her bag down against one of the walls.

There was something funny about the way he was explaining his flat, as though he wasn't used to explaining what he had within his home, or where anything was. Well, he had been at Hogwarts for a while, she mused as she moved over to stand next to him and let him lead the way.

"Oh, um, yes. Technically, I have." Adrienne replied, nodding. "Dinner was when I brought it up. So I was nervous, I guess, which didn't help my appetite. I might have overreacted to his mother's reply, I suppose. I just sort of took off. But I think it's better not to be there when they now know I want nothing to do with it," she added with a slight shrug, glancing over at him. "I'm rambling. Sorry. I'm... I'm just a bit embarrassed is all."

"This whole situation is awkward."

Selwyn left the room, led the way up the hall to the kitchen, before leaning on the island to confront her.

"I'm not interested if you technically sat down to technically have dinner.  I want to know if you ate a real meal; if you're hungry."

He knew he was blowing her words completely out of proportion, but he kind of wanted to get into an argument and make himself feel justified for how awful she'd made him feel three times in the last hour.

"You know when you get defensive like that it makes me think you trust me about as much as you trust Kaiden?" he couldn't help the way his voice hitched at the end of the sentence.

Adrienne was immediately grateful that his kitchen had that island there to separate them once he spoke. It perhaps shouldn't have done, but it almost felt like she was a child being scolded. Her face fell and she looked down at her hands as she fidgeted. "I was just..." She faltered, paying to let him continue.

When he did, though, Adrienne felt her own anger flare before she could tell it not to do so. "Did you expect otherwise?" She snapped, looking up at him finally. "I don't know you that well. I'm in someone else's home. Why should I feel comfortable or try to make you feel sorry for me? I was trying to explain, but I don't want to sound pathetic. I may be in a hell of a mess," she admitted, surprising herself with her decision to curse, "but that didn't mean I want to be pitied! I'm tired of people pitying me. Particularly if I don't know them all that well.

"So I'm sorry, but I can't help it."

Selwyn swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Yeah. Yeah, I thought you trusted me more than him," he said roughly.

He turned away to find a frying pan in one of the cupboards.

"I haven't had anything," he told her. "I can make you an omelette if you like."

There was a bit of a pause, while he gathered his thoughts, and gathered ingredients.

"There was a lot in that," he finally said. "I know you know why I asked you here. And it has nothing to do with pity."

Ironically, being completely blunt felt so much more comfortable than trying to tiptoe around the issue.

"I know you're in trouble, you're here so we can get you out of it, remember? But you're allowed to eat and be comfortable and I'm not going to think that makes you pathetic. Not even a normal Slytherin would think that. What on earth were they doing to you there?"

"But Addie, I need you to believe me when I say I'm not judging you. I've been through traumatic things as well and I'm not going to be able to cope with having you here if you act like I'm your enemy."

Adrienne let him say all he wanted to, deciding it was smarter to temper her frustration by giving herself a moment to collect herself and appear more calm than she felt. The points he made were valid, of course, but she realized belatedly that it would be easy for him to misunderstand her meaning.

When he finished, she hesitated before releasing a chagrined, "An omelette would be nice."

With a sigh of slight disappointment - granted, it was directed at herself, Adrienne leaned forward on her arms, facing him from across the island. "The pitying comment wasn't expressly about my current situation, actually. I mean, it sort of applies because I feel like I should be able to handle this without having to ask for help. But still.

"There's something... troubling that I should mention." She admitted finally, both in an attempt to convince him she could be open as well as in hopes that he might tell her she was wrong. "My brothers- I have to of them. One younger, and one older. Asher was the first of us to have magic, and now Wyatt does as well. My parents are awfully confused, to say the least. But Asher came into this world first, and quite rapidly got caught up in things he shouldn't have.

"The Death Eaters practically claimed him, and he disappeared right before I went into my first year. I never had him to show me what to do like Wyatt has me, now. But we didn't know... We thought something had happened. Until Audriana looked for him. Kaiden knew her, which now doesn't surprise me. But he didn't want to see us."

Shaking her head, Adrienne stepped around the island and crossed her arms over her chest for lack of an idea of what else to do with herself. "He's one of the men I was so surprised by at the Leaky. It was strange to see him, but I realize now that Kaiden knows him, too, now. I don't want to think he'd ever sink so low as to use him against me, but I just don't know. His parents are a massive influence over him."

Selwyn poured the egg concoction into a pan and then turned back while it sizzled.

"So the inability to accept help is a habit," he surmised. "I don't like that any better, but at least it means they weren't actively trying to brainwash you."

He dithered over their meal while trying to think of what to say next.

"It doesn't matter how low Kaiden would sink," he said. "His family are Death Eaters. They would use him against you, if you let them."

"Do you think your brother cut you off because he wanted to, or because he had to? I know some things about the Death Eaters and he might have been trying to protect you, especially if he's not really pureblood."

Her mouth lifted in a sort of grimace, able to stomach the fact that he was right, but also feeling slightly awkward that it had been laid out in front of her. She had never really had someone try to figure her out before; she was too independent to listen and too concerned with taking care of others to bother asking.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. She had given teaching a go, and that had not gone well. "I did ask for help when I was teaching at Hogwarts," she pointed out unhelpfully. "But I suppose you're right. I avoid having to do so."

She nodded at his reminder of the company that his family kept, but didn't know quite how to answer his question. "He never said. It sounded like he was trying to protect us. Mother is a witch but a self-proclaimed poor one. So they didn't expect to have children with magic, nonetheless a Death Eater for a son. Perhaps he really is just trying to keep us safe," she said, her tone a bit too hopeful despite her knowledge that she could be quite wrong.

Selwyn finished making up their dinner and gave Adrienne hers.

"Perhaps," he allowed.

His fingers finally clawed through his hair, something he'd been repressing all night, and he knew he'd have to come clean.

"No. I wasn't asking to give you false hope. I was interrogating you. Come through to the dining room?"

It was just off the hall to the right of the kitchen, dominated by a table made of some dark stained wood.

"We need house rules or something," Selwyn explained. "And we can start with no lying, but everything we say stays between us, right? Because I think I'm going to have to tell you a lot of things that I can't afford to have floating around the Wizarding World. Not to mention what you've just told me."

"Do you always interrogate your visitors?" she asked automatically, unable to help herself. "Or is it that you trust me less than you would have me believe?"

As you can tell, reader, Adrienne is an absurdly skilled conversationalist. Really, she was just more concerned with avoiding any further attempts made by Selwyn at figuring her out. It wasn't that she didn't want to get to know him or that she wanted to hide who she was. Instead, he seemed too skilled at discerning the parts of her that she wouldn't have simply mentioned under other circumstances.

She hesitated to follow him, but he seemed to be trying to change tack and settle things down. She could definitely understand that desire, so she did her best to seriously calm her temper. "House rules," she repeated slowly, nodding her head once. She didn't understand what he could have to tell her that was unpleasant or secretive, but it must have been true for him to seem so concerned about it. "Okay. No lying. Not that I really like to do so usually, mind. But I agree. Um. While we're discussing it... I don't think you're the type, but I'm really weird about people touching or moving my things. I doubt that's really relevant, but I don't know, really, what else to say. What other rules did you have in mind?"

It was hard to take offence at her semi-accusation.  He was kinda surprised she hadn't screamed at him or hit him or stormed out.  Although, she only really knew two rooms in the house, so she was at his mercy in that department.

"Not usually.  I don't usually have visitors.  I'm not usually..." he trailed off.

"I'm part of the Order, Addie.  So when I say secrets, I mean some of them aren't mine to be telling you.  But I think I might have to, to get you out of this fix.  Especially if Audriana's involved."

Adrienne mentioned people moving her things, and for no reason Selwyn could readily identify, that reminded him of the other rule they needed.

"You remember I told you veela could shapeshift?" he reminded her.  "If I tell you to get away from me, you run, you close the door behind you.  It hasn't happened by accident since I was about fourteen, but just to be safe."