Because We're Important and You're Not

Kendall found a lot more pleasure in hearing he was a main subject of girls' conversations than he would ever care t admit- though he would definitely brag about it if given the chance. Everyone knew Krum was always on girl's minds, but it seemed like Kendall was working his way upward to. He wondered vaguely what Athena contributed to these conversations, but he knew better than to ask. He had just spoke on his two most valuable assets- he did not want to risk losing either.

Her words would have scared him if he had not already been asked such a question by a few snarky girls in the past. He grinned, "I happen to have excellent genes. My father still has a full head of hair, as did my grandfather before he died. I'm not worried about it." He drank some of his tea. "Besides, we're young and invincible. We're not supposed to worry about when we lose our youth, but rather waste it all now and flourish in it while we still have the chance."

At her sarcastic words, he felt a smirk unfurl onto his face and he tipped his head, raising an eye brow. "You know.. I haven't heard that one before. 'Rippling biceps.' They typically save that for the Quidditch goons. I get 'you're a great listener' and 'you have such pretty eyes' and my favorite 'you hair is so soft.' Never so much on my unappreciated biceps, but thank you." He winked, knowing he had just succeeded in irritating her.

It was amazing how creative some girls were. Athena had sat through hours, recently too, of discussion concerning her dinner date and had found herself feeling all the more awkward the more intimate those discussions got. She was rather content to listen to Mira gush about Elijah or Pricilla babble about Tobias but it became a little too much when conversation turned to Kendall; because after all, she did rifle through his pornography and then proceeded to sleep with him. It was a job well done on her part but their encounter wasn’t something she was about to divulge to a gaggle of simpering sixteen-year-olds that should have had something better to do with their time. Athena, smartly, kept tight-lipped and would continue to for fear of being bombarded with questions if she did weigh in on the debate.

“Oh,” Athena feigned surprise. “So you’ll be fluffy forever? How sweet.” Athena tipped her head to the side and pretended to observe Kendall for a few moments before smirking at him and righting herself once more. “So where else do these good genes lie then?” She asked.

Athena slapped her hand to her head when Kendall responded, taking her example as a compliment. “You are an idiot,” she told him with an almost playful smile on her face. “I swear to Merlin if you had half a brain the world would implode! Shall I compensate for my insult and tell you that your eyes are perfectly framed by your eyelashes? Would that make you feel better?”

He grinned at her, giving her a wry look. "My dad's always been one that greatness seemed to cling too, you know? It was just natural. Big and important- that's how he's been seen. So you could saying being big and important runs in the family," he winked at her, giving her a sly face before picking up his drink and tasting it again. "And yes, I'll be forevermore fluffy."

He grinned, even as she insulted him and then grinned even wider as she continued on with a compliment. As the score totalled in his mind, he had received two compliments to the one insult. She had also commented on his appearance. And on how important of a talking subject he was among girls. The end score was 4 to 1. Could he survive? Of course.

"I think I might be able to live with the memory of that cruel and scathing remark.." he said in a pained voice. "Do my eyelash really perfectly frame my eyes?" He blinked a few times, grinning. The waiter appeared and sat down their dishes. "Ah, splendid." The waiter hurried off and Kendall picked up his fork, spearing a piece of chicken before tasting it. He closed his eyes. "That's exactly what I needed." He grinned, swallowing. "I have been craving good chicken."

If Kendall’s head got any bigger then there would be no chance of him getting out of the door by the time they decided to go back to their respective homes – or not as may well be later on. Sleeping with him would be no hardship though Athena didn’t really want to inflate his head to the point of no return. He was good but Athena wasn’t about to tell him that. No, she’d forever remain adamant that he was nothing but simply average. Now that was bound to ruffle his feathers – surely. However, Athena would never be able to bring it up unless he supplied her with an opportunity to do so. She expected he would eventually, the bloody fool.

Forever in for the shock factor though, Athena’s brain churned out some more sarcasm and wit. “So, are you fluffy all over then?”

Athena lifted her arms off of the table and sat back when the waiter came over with their dishes. She gave the waiter a half smile and sat forward once more once he’d scuttled away. Athena shook her head and picked up her fork. She turned it over in her hand and tapped her nails against the handle before stabbing a piece of chicken with the prongs. She brought it to her lips and blew gently on it before closing her mouth around the fork. She pulled it out of her mouth and chewed absent mindedly on the chicken. The flavour soon came through and Athena hummed appreciatively.

“Good call,” she murmured. “But why did you wait until a random date to have chicken? And just to clear it up....I never said your eyelashes framed your eyes ‘perfectly’ – they’re very nice but are far from perfect. Sorry, darling.”

He expected she had meant to embarrass him with her question, to shock or surprise him, or least try and throw him off of his game. Had Kendal been trying to appear like a gentleman to her all evening he might have been; however they had been trading mild sexual innuendos all night and they already had most of that awkward stuff past from the meeting in his dorm.

Instead, he gave her a charming smile, though there was a devilish gleam to his eyes as he said, "Oh, but my darling, you don't need to ask. You would know, wouldn't you?" He grinned. "You have never been unobservant, so I know you don't need the answer from me- you already have it." He chuckled and took another sip of tea.

He began to focus on eating, twirling pasta around on his fork before spearing a piece of chicken with the end of his fork, popping the utensil into his mouth and sliding it off with his teeth. The perfect combination of chicken and saucy pasta landed on his tongue, mingling and tingling pleasantly. She spoke and he tilted his head as he chewed.

He swallowed and said, "Touche, doll, touche." He grinned before saying, "We don't eat a lot of poultry in my house. My mother and sister are batty about birds- they are everywhere. I'm not too big a fan because I like them just as much on a plate, but they've ruined that for me." He grinned. "So I've been looking forward to getting out and having some."

The food was better than Athena had expected. She was far too used to Brew and Collie’s cooking so the dish before her was a pleasant change to what her dear old House Elves usually served her. She wanted to dig in but she had to have some sort of decorum even if the conversation was going to head straight to the gutter in a matter of time. It was, Athena was finding, virtually impossible for them to have a conversation that wasn’t laced with innuendos. She decided to fill her stomach, for fear of not making it through the dinner. Not because they were going to completely bypass dinner and go and have impromptu sex – but because they’d get locked in a battle of wits again and the dinner would go cold.

Athena glanced up at Kendall’s reply and smirked at him before putting her cutlery down and reaching for her glass. She picked up her glass of water and looked at Kendall curiously, as if in thought, before replying, “I don’t know, darling. You’ll have to see if you can refresh my memory won’t you?”

Athena took a sip of water before setting it down once more and turning her attention back to her food. She didn’t doubt she’d go home tonight and find the house empty bar the House Elves and Apolline’s horrifying cat. Athena wasn’t looking forward to it what so ever. Whatever had possessed her parents to go out gambling needed to be, in Athena’s opinion, dealt with appropriately. They’d fritter away what money the family had left in a matter of hours and Athena would find herself penniless and working in Borgin and Burke’s to scrape some gold together. Athena had considered working there anyway but that was beside the point. She didn’t want to if she had no choice in the matter.

However, the food was good and she could wait and see the condition of her parent’s tomorrow morning. Athena just hoped they’d make it to the hotel in time.

Swallowing her mouthful of pasta, Athena lifted her gaze again and raised an eyebrow at Kendall. “Birds? Oh Merlin...really?” Athena shook her head. “So it’s just birds then that are a no-no at yours? How strange. What do you have at Christmas then? Turkey is foul – no pun intended – after a while but it’s a classic! This year I think Apolline intends on sourcing a cow from somewhere and giving it to the House Elves to sort out so that's not really adhering to tradition. I think there will be some impromptu shopping on my part while that’s going on, though. I'm not sticking around for that charade."

He grinned widely at her words, eyes twinkling mischievously. "Oh, save that for later. Dessert, if you will." He grinned, wondering vaguely if the two of them could ever simply behave. It was always the witty banter between them, laced with sexual suggestions and innuendos, smirking expressions, twinkling eyes, and winks.. Never normal conversation.

Kendall preferred it that way though.

He took another drink of his water and continued eating, imagining his mother and sister chastising him for eating chicken. "Birds are noble creatures. They see what no others can! And now all you are giving them is the sight of the inside of your stomach! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" They were never really serious, they usually just had pouty faces and were just trying to get to him. He usually started calling the birds 'roast duck' and other birdy dishes just to get back at them.

"They're not taboo, per se," he explained. "But we get an earful about it. Chicken isn't so bad, but God forbid we cook pheasant or anything. They're revered at our home. Even though my mother and sister enjoy it just as much, they complain the entire time. We typically have turkey, but the elves make ham too, just to please my mother and Sidni." He grinned at her words, saying, "Ooh, you rebel." He winked. "Didn't anyone ever tell you your parent's know what's best for you?"

Never could they manage a sensible, serious conversation. Thankfully, Athena wasn’t looking for a sensible or serious conversation out of Kendall. She rather liked the exchange of wits; even if that wit was laced with such blatant innuendos. Athena was fairly thankful that they were on a vaguely secluded table because she could just imagine the incredulous looks their neighbours would send their way. Plus, it would be just their luck that it would be a reporter from The Daily Prophet sitting close enough to purposely overhear the comments that were being exchanged. Sure enough their conversation would make a fabulous article but Athena had no desire for her reputation to be tarnished in the way it could potentially be. She had worked so hard to perfect the heartless b!tch routine so any show of emotion being plastered across the front page would have Athena’s father down the Prophet offices at a ridiculous hour to stop the printing and to end the story all together - before it punctured the rumour mill.

Thankfully though, Athena hoped that what could be perceived from onlookers was two ‘friends’ eating dinner together. The smirks were a little bit too telling though, just a little bit.

Athena leaned forward and snapped her fingers. A little flame burst into life at the tips and she brought her hand down on the wick of the candle that was set into a glass bowl. The wick caught alight and she smirked, waving her hand to put the flame out. That was the one thing the Trace didn’t notice in those who were underage - wandless magic. And even if it did go through, Athena knew that someone would see to it that her ‘mistakes’ would be ferried out the back door.

“Perhaps,” Athena stated with a mild flair of interest. “The desserts on the menu aren’t nearly as appetising.”

Athena returned her attention to the meal, taking periodic sips from her glass, before glancing up as Kendall mused about the birds. She smirked at him and swallowed a mouthful of pasta before replying.

“Bird fanatics must be interesting to have to live with then,” Athena commented lazily. She cocked an eyebrow at Kendall and allowed a small laugh of acknowledgment to pass her lips before adding, “My parents have little sway over my decisions. If they think I am going to stay there while the House Elves run around trying to pluck Turkeys then they’ve got another thing coming. I’d rather spend the day with Mira and Pricilla than have to try and live through that horror. And besides, if parents knew best then I wouldn’t be sat here now, would I? Apo-My mother would realise that all that is going to end up happening is impromptu sex and she would put me with a lesser wizard who has no idea how to use his assets and makes watching paint dry a more entertaining activity. Truly, if my parents knew what was best for me then their choices would make sense would be far more sensible.”

Athena seemed to conjure a flame out of thin air- which for a wizard should not have come as a surprise, but he had not seen a wand and they were still underage, so it was a surprise to see her conjuring a flame, though he could not deny that it was rather brilliant-- still, he was not sure he would admit it was either. That would make Athena more smug than he thought would be appropriate.

“Perhaps. The desserts on the menu aren’t nearly as appetising.” He felt the lustful part of his strain inside, getting more and more impatient to get through dinner and get to the best part of the evening, the part that had not been orchestrated by their parents. Kendall managed to stay under control, however, and merely smirked at Athena. "Much sweeter elsewhere," he said, sounding professional- if anyone overheard it they would assume they were talking about where to go after dinner.

"Interesting is one word to describe it, though I don't know that it is the right word, per se," Kendall said. Kendall liked animals but his mother Charity and Sidni really had ruined birds for him. The Snidget twittered incessantly, he did not like that they montly silenced the fwoopers, the half albino peacocks acted like they owned the grounds... He was tired of birds.

And besides, if parents knew best then I wouldn’t be sat here now, would I? Apo-My mother would realise that all that is going to end up happening is impromptu sex and she would put me with a lesser wizard who has no idea how to use his assets and makes watching paint dry a more entertaining activity. Oh, so had she given up on putting him down? Because he was feeling his ego swell more and more and more.

"So is it decided, then, is that how all of this is going to end?" Kendall asked, quirking an eyebrow and smirking. "If I knew that, I would have insisted we skip dinner and get right down to the part I'm sure you've been fantasizing about." He smirked widely.

Athena had compared herself to a human lighter, created solely for the smokers of both the Muggle and Wizarding Worlds many, many times before. Athena couldn’t help but smile on the slight look of amazement on Kendall’s face. Athena tapped her fingernail against her fork and smirked before dropping her gaze back down to her food, her cheeks darkening a little with blood. She cleared her throat and pushed some of the pasta around on her plate before twisting it around her fork and bringing it to her lips. She made quick work of the pasta and placed her cutlery down before reaching for her glass of water. Athena took a sip and looked at Kendall over the rim, studying his face as he spoke. The sides of Athena’s lips twitched upwards and she took the glass away from her mouth, her smirk deepening.

“Quite,” Athena agreed absently, tapping her fingers against the side of the glass. She smirked and placed the glass down on the tablecloth that covered the table. She’d given up on the food by this point. Her interest had been diverted and as it was, she’d had a fairly large lunch. Well, the House Elves had distracted her long enough to force some lunch into her - that was lunch for Athena and it had been more than enough. As a rule, she didn’t have an appetite. She’d pick throughout the day but she never went out of her way to sit down and have a meal. She was just lucky that her House Elves looked after her really. Had they chosen to leave their Mistress to her own desires then she wouldn’t have been nearly as healthy as she was now. In fact, with her tendency to shut herself away in the library or hole up somewhere around the house, it was a wonder she wasn’t already dead from starvation.

The little elves weren’t entirely useless after all. Bless their little hearts.

“But no other word can do their...affection for birds justice.” Athena replied, not missing a beat. “It must be weird being around all of that poultry.” It was sort of like Apolline’s newly found obsession with yoga which Athena predicted would last a week before she found out about some Muggle band at a music festival that she just had to go and see. “So why not monkeys or something? Why birds?”

Fantasising? Athena wrinkled her nose at the idea. Hardly. Fantasising was something she did not do consciously. Apparently though, her subconscious had a mind of its own. Though, she daren’t mention this to him. She spent a lot of time day dreaming when she wasn’t occupied - but what teenage girl didn’t? Though, instead of dreaming about the non-existent Prince Charming that she needed to come and whisk her off of her feet, Athena dreamed of things better suited to her. Namely, murder, mayhem, sex and general destruction.

“Darling...is your ego swelling again?” Athena drawled with a smirk. “I thought we came to an understanding about the fantasising and writing on the bathroom walls thing? As much as I ache for you...the dinner was rather nice.” Athena smirked at Kendall and played with the edge of the table cloth. “Besides, if I didn’t know any better, Mr. Rookwood, then I would have said you looked rather...pleased, shall we say, by the possibility of that outcome.”