Simple Pleasures

Kenna liked to keep The Ugly Pigeon warm during the winter. She couldn't be running around in a coat, and the pub certainly called for her to be running around at all times, so she had her brother place some charms to make it feel as though each corner of the pub had a roaring fire. The pub tended to attract some of the outsiders of the magical world, witches and wizards who lived nonmagical lives or chose unconventional or alternative paths. These were the bread and butter of The Ugly Pigeon, and Kenna wanted to make sure they had a place that felt home-y.

Augusta was supposed to coming in, so Kenna had made sure to hold off her lunch break (she often had to take it much earlier or later than was normal) so she could take it once her friend came in. She had made sure Carlene was in, as she was the manager who could actually keep the pub going for the hour Kenna took off. It seemed, without Carlene, Kenna had to work right through lunch. Which wasn't the worst thing in the world. Not when you had a job you loved and did well.

"Hector, I need those two sides of chips!" Kenna said, popping her head into the kitchen door before stepping back out to fill up a pitcher of beer for one of her waitresses. She glanced up to see Rory descending from the second floor and called out to her brother. "Whaddya think, Ro? Plannin' on workin' one of these days?" Her accent typically exaggerated around her brother, who barely managed to grace her with a glance before he called out with the explanation that he was 'busy'.

Kenna knew Rory didn't owe her anything. He had practically given her their grandfather's pub to heal her heartache with a distraction of honest work. All of that partner-talk had just been talk, just been more balm for her aching spirit. But she supposed there were times when she wished they really were in it together, were helping each other, were real partners. But her brother had bigger aspirations, bolder than hospitality and food and drink. She knew she should too, should want for more, but these days... she spent her time looking forward to little things. An easy day at the pub, a good bowl of pad Thai, a visit from an old friend.

Speaking of which...

"No, please don't put it there." Augusta pleaded another ministry worker who entered her office (without knocking, of course, which annoyed her) with another pile of documents she needed to go through and sort them by next week. She exhaled loudly, expressing her annoyance with fellow colleague and stood up from a chair, bypassed a table and walked towards him.

"Thank you, that's the last pile for today, though," she took the pile away from him, not mentioning she won't touch any of it until the next morninng, "my shift is finishing in ten minutes but I believe Jack is staying a few more hours." Aggy smiled, waiting for him, Billy, she though it was his name but wasn't sure so she didn't say it aloud because she didn't want to offend him if she failed; to leave.

She relaxed her posture when she saw the door close behind him, the main reason she seeked for a job in Department of Mysteries was because she wasn't supposed to interact with lots of people which sounded perfect for her back then when she was applying for internship, but ended being quite lonely, if she was honest.

That's why she was thrillled 'cause she'll see Kenna in half an hour. The thought of going into a bar usually didn't avoke warm and fuzzy feelinga, but she become used to hang out in Kenna's bar. Of course, her friend helped her a lot to achieve that.

Aggy put the pile in the cabinet and locked it twice before linking the key to a chainlet she wore around her neck. She put her coat on and grabbed her purse before leaving her office, locking her doors with a spell.

Augusta Trelawney appeared in a flash of white light in an alley behind Kenna's bar. She put her wand in her coat and walked around the building, gripping a brown paper bag in her left hand. She pushed the door open, greeted by a rush of warm air and entered the bar, her eyes searching for Kenna.

After spotting her friend, she walked towards the bar with a smile on her face. "Hi love," she greeted her and put the paper bag with dounts on the bar in front of Kenna, "I picked this for you in case your cook was experimenting with new reciepes again."

(OOC. I hope you don't mind me mentioning Jack, she was the only other character who works in Dept. of Mysteries I could think of, I can edit that part if you want, though. )

((Not at all! Esp. because we wanted an Aggy/Jack thread. I'm not sure where Jack is at right now but I could post a thread with her in the Dept. of Mysteries when you're up for it?))

Aggy always had a way of standing out in a crowd, though Kenna wasn't sure if that was due to the dark-haired woman's endearing peculiarities or if it was because Kenna admired her so much. Regardless, Kenna was quick to sign over the register to Carlene who was already coming in from the back door off of her smoke break and called their usual order in to the kitchen before making herself an iced tea, absolutely dying of thirst. She placed it on the end of the bar and approached her friend.

Of course Aggy had brought something for Hector. Kenna grinned and took the bag. "Hector will love these!" She suspected he would probably be more inclined to enjoy the donuts in their full form than break them down into a new recipe, but she'd have to trust his culinary instincts. She flagged down the other bartender, Hudson, and handed him to bag to take back to the kitchen. "Anything to drink, dear?"

She sent off Aggy's drink order and settled into the seat at the end of the bar, patting the seat next to her for Aggy to take a seat. "So, how's the job going? Are they treating you well over there?" Aggy certainly wouldn't be the sort one might imagine in the Department of Mysteries, but it seemed to make sense to Kenna. Aggy had a special perspective, a skewed view, and it was exactly what the Ministry needed.

Merlin knew they needed something knew.

(Sounds good!)

Augusta pulled down her coat, her freezing fingers stumbling over the buttons. The breeze outside combined with low temperature and occasional snowflake almost turned her into a snowman during those couple of minutes she spent outside before apparating here. If she only remembers she was planning to walk over to Kenna's before the weather forced her to take a more magical way of transportation.

"I hope he would." Augusta looked towards the door that separated cooking area from the bar and blushed, hoping Kenna won't notice that. She sat on offered barstool, placing her coat and her purse in her lap. Usually, she'd hang the coat on a hanger, but since her wand was in the pocket she skipped that today. Although she was sure she won't need it, Augusta Trelawney always loved to have her wand close to her. "A warm tea would be perfect, thank you. Or anything else, the only thing that matters is that the liquid is warm." She smiled before continuing. "The weather is awful, I can't wait for summer to come." It was an old story she told Kenna's every winter, of course, every summer she'd just change some parts of the story, complaining about heat and wishing for snow and low temperatures.

"It's suprisingly dull, to be honest." She picked a thread on her sweater and started playing with it, she'd never admitted this to anyone, since working in the Department of Mysteries has always been her dream job because she didn't need to interact with lots of people, and with her departmmen being one of the smallest ones she met evry single worker during her first month. However, she had no troubles admitting any of this to Kenna's, knowing the other woman won't judge her. "I'm even thinking about picking another job just for the sake of spending some time surrounded with people." That part wasn't entirely true, she also needed some extra money so she could continue to buy the potion for blocking her seer abilities but she didn't mention that part aloud. "How's the bar doing?"

Kenna passed along her friend's drink order and settled in, trying to ignore the fact that one of the waitresses was heading in the wrong direction and that a large group had just entered demanding a table without a reservation. Carlene could handle it, Kenna didn't need to get involved. But it was so outside of her nature to trust her own work to someone else. With her grandmother's heavy words ringing as a constant reminder in her head to do something great, it was difficult to hand off anything that had her name attached.

But she also believed in trust. She trusted as far as she could, even if she guarded herself in the inevitable that said trust was betrayed. Without trust, she would be destroyed.

Rory didn't trust.

She didn't need to go into that right now. That was a rabbit hole that would certainly sour what was meant to be a good day. She hitched on a wider smile in time to catch her friend's complaint about the weather, causing a tinkling laugh out of the red-haired witch. "I'm sure you can't wait," she said, knowing all to well that Augusta's tone would change once the sun became tiresome.

Aggy's tea was delivered and Kenna turned to listen as she detailed her frustrations with the department. Kenna's bottom lip rose into a frown, displeased to hear Augusta was not happy in her long sought after position. Kenna glanced into the depths of her drink, swirling her straw and watching the bubbles of air and ice cubes chasing after in the created whirlpool. She chewed it over a moment before glancing up. "Are there any coworkers you like? Maybe you can talk to them about how you're feeling. Maybe they have some advice."

Augusta asked after the bar and Kenna's face smoothed over, the topic always one of comfort to her. "It's great, as always. I mean, food and drink industry isn't easy. Bad days, good days. But it's good. If I could just get my brother to care more about his investment, it might be great." She smiled, buttoning the moment by taking a drink from her tea.

Augusta chewed on her lip as she thought about Kenna's words. "he never considered approaching any of her coworkers because of her innate distrust. The idea of doing something like that, of speaking with other unspeakables about something not strictly related to the job they did fill her with nervousness. Or it was narrowness? She couldn't pinpoint the exact emotion. "To be honest, I've never considered doing that." Aggy finally replied when she realised her silence has lasted for too long, thinking Kenna's probably expecting an answer. People usually expected one when they asked a question.

"I' m not sure I want to let them know I'm not as thrilled with my position as I ought to be," she shrugged, it was easy to say her thoughts to Kenna since she was utterly sure the other woman is trustworthy, but telling something like that to her coworkers? Although she was fairly sure they all worked for the right side and seemed to interact more than members of other departments (not that she was sure about that one considering she never actually worked in another department), they never organized tea parties or hung out outside of work, not with her anyways, she was quite sure she wouldn't even get the job if it weren't for her condition that could have made her a vulnerable asset in the Ministry if she didn't do everything in her power to suppress it.

She raised her cup, blowing on her hot drink to cool it down. The scent of strawberries and cinnamon filled her nostrils and she smiled. It was her favourite tea, and it was wonderful to know someone cared for her enough to memorise it. Aggy carefully took a sip, not wanting to bury her tongue with warm liquid the same way she did earlier today with bitter coffee from the cafeteria at the Ministry. "This is heaven," and it was perfect, despite a wide range of beverages the bar offered this tea remained her number one ever since she tried it for the first time.

While they were at Hogwarts, Augusta always predicted they'd both end up working some job connected to Quidditch they both adored, but thinking about that now, those days seemed so distant and she could say either of them would fit into those job positions anymore. Somehow, seeing the glint in Kenna's eyes she was able to see everytime the Gryffindor spoke about the bar she ran, Augusta could even say her friend did the right thing when she decided to run the Ugly Pigeon along with Rory, although it wasn't what Aggy thought Kenna ever planned to do, this bar, that job, it was shaped for her.

"I guess that means you're still working extra hours to make sure everything is running smoothly?" Unlike Kenna, Aggy wasn't sure Rory would ever start thinking about the bar as a business rather than the toy he remembered only when he was bored. "Working that much must be tiresome, you need to have some time for yourself as well," she smiled looking at Kenna's eyes that appeared darker blue under this light,"if you ever need any help, call me, any time of day or night", it was true that Augusta knew nothing about bars she was willing to learn if that meant she'd be able to get Kenna to get some, Aggy believed, much needed rest.

"You're sleeping at least 7 hours every night, right?" The Hufflepuff arched her eyebrow, she could remember many times Orianne Trelawney asked her the same question and Augusta hated it every single time, but somehow, many years later Augusta realised that sleep was quite important and used every opportunity to tell that to Kenna when she thought the other woman looked more tired than usual.

It hardly made any difference, but it was worth to try.

Kenna shouldn’t have been surprised that Augusta had planned on just persevering without help. Kenna tended to attract the personalities that insisted on taking every burden onto their own shoulders, and she had noticed in her short life that women tended to accept challenges as status quo, choosing to adjust their expectations rather than demand change. She knew she was guilty of the same, always considering her ability to adapt stronger than whatever she was up against.

But it didn’t mean she had to be the one to settle.

She lifted her lips from her straw, having taken the length before Aggy’s answer to quench her thirst. “You know Jack, right? She’s my best mate’s sister – well, half sister. You should talk to her. She comes in here on the weekends, sometimes, if you wanted to talk to her outside of a work setting. She’s had some… difficulties. With the higher ups, that is. She may be able to empathize with you.” In truth, Kenna knew only what Kip had divulged about the Ilvermorny incident, and hadn’t spent much personal time with the other redhead. But she trusted the blood of Kipling Parsons, and Jack had always been good enough to her.

Aggy complimented the tea, causing a sincere smile on the Scottish woman’s face, but of course she turned it back on her. “Anything for you, love.”

Kenna leaned forward and caught Carlene’s arm as she walked by, quickly putting in an order of chips for the two of them to share. There was always something more comfortable about having a plate of fried food to split between friends. “Yeah, I am, but like I said – I really don’t mind all that much. The patrons are all the social life I need, and it keeps me out of trouble.” She laughed at her friend’s concern, tapping her brow in a salute of sorts. “Yes, mum.”