Rebel Without a Cause

Christy quickly entered the apartment behind Felix, reaching for the switch to turn on the light before shutting the door. Once lit up it was plainly evident that someone really didn't use the place for much more than storage. There were books all over the apartment, including the tiny little kitchen table. On the counter was a coffee maker, and a toaster. The oven looked barely used and spotless.

The living room wasn't much too different. Christy had placed a throw on the couch with matching throw pillows. There was a tiny lamp on the end table next to the couch. Unlike a lot of people she knew, she didn't keep a television in her apartment. She thought that they were silly contraptions created by the muggles in power to keep the less intelligent happy.

Her bedroom was the only part of the apartment that seemed a little out of order. Between what clothing she had brought with her and the clothes that Godric had left there the closet was overflowing slightly into the room itself.

She turned and looked at Felix, "Like I said it isn't much but its better than sleeping in the rain for the night at least." She moved to open the door to the bedroom, "You can take the bed in here and I'll sleep on the sofa." she went on to say. "Bathroom is through the bedroom on the other side of the room. Just stay away from the closet...I haven't finished organizing things in there."

She ran her hands through her hair, curls catching in her fingers. She bit her lip and quickly turned around to get the couch ready for her to sleep on. "I hope you at least get a decent night's rest. I would offer to cook breakfast for you as well but I can barely make toast." she added with a small laugh.

Felix felt his body relax slightly when no one jumped him. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light and the first thing they focused on was the amount of books in the room. His eyes grew slightly wider and he ignored everything else, simply moved to a book and carefully picked it up, the look on his face suggesting he was seeing something that internally thrilled him, though he was afraid to show it.

Felix glanced over towards her as she made herself comfortable, and he carefully opened the front cover, looking at the title page and running his finger up and down the spine, his mind blank to just about everything but the fact that he was holding a book. The book itself was a bit musty, and had that smell that books get when they've sat a while in one place.

Felix smiled and carefully set it down, almost nervous he might hurt it. "Thank you.." He said suddenly, his voice full of earnest happiness, his eyes slowly finding hers, and a smile evident on his face, even with his beard covering most of it. He moved to the bedroom door and glanced in at the overflowing closet, before looking back at her.

"Would it.. be okay if I showered? I'd hate to get your bed all nasty with my stink.." He said carefully touching his shirt and wincing, before looking back at her. "Would you believe I used to be handsome.. then life hit hard, and this grew in.. and I had no access to running water, and.. well.. when you have no one to impress you start to forget hygiene..." He said, his eyes finding hers again as he stood there awkwardly.

"I forget what it's like to be clean.."

Christy noticed Felix pick up the book. She could tell from just the way he was handling it that he was also a lover of the written word. "Its really nothing at all." she replied as she continued to get her make shift bed ready.

"Oh of course you'll want a shower." she went on to say. "How silly of me." she rushed past him almost in embarrassment to go grab him a towel. She usually wasn't quite so forgetful of things like that. Under normal circumstances that would have been the first thing she had done was put him straight into the shower. She had done it so many times for Godric when he came home covered in sweat and blood that she was sure was someone else's.

She walked back to her bedroom door handing him a towel and a washcloth. "I'm not sure what I have in the way of soap, but I'm sure there is probably something that doesn't smell too girly in there." she avoided his as she stood there waiting on him to walk by.

Felix slowly nodded to her, taking the towel and washcloth gratefully. "Thank you.. you've been very... kind." He said carefully as he slid past her and into the bathroom. It took him a moment to remember how to get the shower to turn on, it had been so long. It took him even longer to figure out how her specific shower worked, for it seemed no two showers were alike. He had been used to fancy glass ones, and sprawling bathtubs in loft apartments.

This bathroom was small, and used for function not for looks. He noted the different shampoos and soaps, before carefully turning on the water, then the shower head, and finally undressed and got under the steaming water.

He was in the shower for quite some time, soaping and shampooing all of the different nasty dirty bits of his skin, half attempting to scrub out stains that looked as though they'd never disappear, and working to clean from under his fingernails. When finally he was done, he got out of the shower, dried his hair, and wrapped the towel around his waist, tucking it in and opening the door to let some steam out.

The first thing he did once out of the room, was throw his clothes on the bed, and then find the nearest book. He didn't care what it was, how bad it was, even if it was a textbook or not. Books were a luxury he couldn't afford. A nicety that most people thought nothing of, but he couldn't exactly haul around a bookshelf of books everywhere he went. He was a Ravenclaw, but he hadn't quite mastered the charm to make a lot of things fit in a much smaller thing.

Sighing, he fell back on the bed, turned on the table lamp, and opened the book, still dressed in the shower, he held the book above his face, and started to read. Before eventually letting the book settle on his bare chest and his head fell to the side, falling asleep almost instantly.

As soon as Felix headed towards the shower, Christy went to her dresser to change in to her pajamas. It was quite amusing she thought to herself. She really had no pajama pants and almost everything she had was a frilly night gown. Some how she managed to find a frilly top with a pair of matching shorts rifling through an old dresser drawer.

Pulling them out a note fell out of the dresser onto the floor. Christy picked it up after she changed and walked into the living room reading every letter over and over again to make sure she was reading it correctly. She sat down on the sofa not even bothering to pull out the bed from underneath the cushions.

She read her father's handwritting over and over again. She was tired when she arrived home but now. Now there was no way she was going to sleep. She just stared at the note in shock reading it over and over again.

Felix woke with a start sometime in the night, his hearing picking up the rustling of paper. He felt his body jerk awake and he nearly fell out of bed. He looked around for the source of the noise, half ready to attack whatever was trying to get him, before realizing where he was and slowly straightening himself up, rubbing his eyes he opened the door to the living room a crack.

"Christy? You awake? I heard something rustling and just wanted to make sure you were okay.." He said softly, not poking a bit of bare skin out from behind the door in case there was something on the other side prepared to attack him. He had no idea if she was ready to pounce, or had indeed called aurors while he slept. He didn't even know how long he had been out, but he knew he had heard noise, and he had no idea why she would even be awake.

"Christy?" He called again, softly before carefully peaking his head out from behind the door and looking into the living room, letting his eyes adjust to the light. "Everything okay?"

Christy was in tears at this point. She had read the letter probably a good twenty times by now. She quickly wiped her eyes and tried to hide the letter as she looked up, "What? Oh yes I'm awake." she replied trying to hide how upset she was in her voice.

"I'm...I'm fine..." she lied. She knew Felix was tired and probably didn't care about the emotions falling someone who as he claimed 'had everything' in life. "I didn't wake you...did I?" she asked curiously.

She quickly stood up off of the couch and made her way into the kitchen. She reached in the cabinet and grabbed a glass. Avoiding looking at him she asked, "Are you thirsty? I could get you a glass of juice or milk if you'd like?" She reached in the fridge and grabbed the apple juice, pouring herself a glass. "I even have bottled water if you'd like that."

Her mind was going a million miles a minute and she was trying to do everything she could not to break down and cry in front of this man. Don't you dare start crying Christabelle. she thought telling herself over and over, Remember you don't even really know this man that well. He doesn't need to see your brand of crazy. Remember what your mother said as you were growing up. You better hide your crazy and start acting like a lady. DON'T YOU DARE CRY!

Despite her self thought mantra tears started flowing down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away. Despite everything in her life she had faced she was still trying to be the brave girl she was taught to be, when in reality all she wanted to do was curl up with a teddy bear or someone who cared for her and cry her eyes out to them.

Felix immediately noticed how upset she was, and stepped out of his room quickly, forgetting that he hadn't put clothes on, and stood only in a towel. He took a step towards her, but she immediately headed into the kitchen, speaking about getting him a drink. "Err... no, don't worry about it, I don't sleep very heavily.. and er.. I'll take a bottle of water.. if you don't mind." he said, coming into the kitchen with a look of concern on his face.

"Christy.. are you.. er.. okay?" he asked, carefully coming nearer to her and seeing her face covered in tears. "Oh shit.. I er.. is there something I can do? I mean.. did I do something wrong? Er.. do you need me to leave? I'm sorry." he said, suddenly flustered and completely caught off guard by the tears he saw on her face. He wasn't sure how to respond to crying women, he had never been good with it. All he could do was pat on the shoulder and say 'There, there' and try not to look too bad at it.

Now that he had quite literally walked in on his host trying not to let him see her cry. Well he felt awkward to say the least. All he could do was stand there and try not to get in her way. If she wanted to cry, well she could cry, but he had no idea how to handle it. He didn't even know if he had caused it. At that moment paranoia set in. What if she was crying cause she had called some aurors to get him, and felt bad about it?

Felix found himself glancing around him suddenly, his eyes taking in any dark corners of the room, before finally landing back on her. No.. she wouldn't do that, he was sure of it. If she had wanted to turn him in, she'd have done it by now. Not waited till he was asleep and then cry about it. "Can.. I help you?"

Christy pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to him. She glanced over at the letter sitting face open on the sofa from where she had quickly jumped up trying to hide how upset she was. She just looked at the letter and pointed.

"Its that." she said looking at her glass of juice before taking a sip. "A note my father sent to me and Godric that Godric never showed me...Its about my brother..." she broke off and laughed alittle. "Sad thing is I wasn't aware I had a brother."

She chided herself silently, You better get it together Christy. He probably thinks you're bat shit crazy the way you sound. Do you even hear yourself? she thought as she took another sip of juice. It wasn't like her to be this emotional. She hadn't acted like this since her father died. When that happened she was in and out of burst of hysterics and laughter for weeks on end. She actually wondered if she would be mad for the rest of her life when it happened then.

Then again she was crazy wasn't she? Here she was with a wanted criminal in her apartment and she was offering him her friendship. Some screws obviously had to be loose in her head for her to consider that. But he reminded her of her cousin...no her brother. She turned and looked at Felix wiping her eyes, "You can feel free to read it if you want."

Felix had no idea how to respond to this at all. He was not experienced anymore in the complex social lives of normal people. It wasn't he thought she was crazy, it was more he thought he was completely out of practice on how normal people acted. Not that was normal, being on the run from the government for over two years didn't quite make you normal. He watched her for a moment before taking the bottle of water and opening it, bringing it to his lips and swallowing a large mouth full.

He glanced over towards the couch as she pointed, the water bottle still to his mouth before carefully lowering it and nodding, closing the gap between him and couch and sitting down on it, he picked up the letter and let his eyes scan over the words printed on it. He had always been a fast reader, and finished it quickly before glancing up at her with a frown. "So er.. are you gonna be okay?" He asked, slightly concerned with his lack of emotion towards the letter, but other then that just curious as to how she was feeling.