December 31st, 1892 - Wizarding London

Elliot hadn't left the party before midnight for any reasons related to a vision, but rather because he'd gotten slightly too tipsy faster than he'd wanted to. He felt odd, but New Years Eve usually made him feel odd. He felt like by now he ought to have figured his life out, the point of it or the point of his Sight — and he hadn't.

So he was wandering. He'd ended up in Diagon Alley mostly on accident, and the street felt more lively than usual — full of people hoping to see fireworks or make a last-minute impulse purchase. Elliot had just about decided to turn around and go back to the party when he spotted her.

"Miss Reid!"

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Temerita Reid

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   Daffodil Grimstone

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avs by Bee!

Meri was one such person out making impulse purchases. She wasn't one to romanticize New Years Eve to the extent some might but she couldn't help but get a little pulled in by the excitement for a new year and the potential of good things to come. She'd left the wandshop through the front door out into the street rather than her usual floo home, looking for something 'new' to buy. She wasn't sure what just yet, hence the impulse, but she trusted the merchants of Diagon Alley to give her inspiration with their window displays.

She strolled past a few, some still adorned with Christmas decorations, looking at each for only a moment or two. Her impulse was beginning to wane when she found herself gazing at a window full of quills, papers, and all manner of writing supplies. It had been so long since she'd written a letter... and something about that made her a little sad nostalgic.

She turned her head to find whoever was calling her name and it seemed like the age old lurch in her chest hit as fast as recognition did. She did understand why it still happened - it had been years since he was any kind of authority figure to her and had been months since she'd last embarrassed herself in front of him - but that didn't stop the easy smile that came to her face.

"Mr. Carmichael - Happy new year!" after a beat she added "And I should add Merry Christmas as well."

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She was so pretty when she smiled like that. Elliot grinned at her, and the expression came easily and unguarded to his face. He half-trotted until he was closer to her, so that they could actually have a conversation. "Happy Christmas to you as well," he said, still in this bright mood. "Where are you heading? Walk with me?"

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"Well I - Sure." She said with a tone that was slightly perplexed but not at all hesitant.  He'd caught her off guard with his bright energy and decisive manner and she'd answered with out thinking but even when she took a moment to take stock she realized she still wouldn't have wanted to say no.

"I was just window shopping after work."  She offered with a shrug.  "Where are you walking?"

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Elliot shrugged his shoulders at her. "I hadn't decided yet," he said. "Perhaps destiny brought me to you!" It was the sort of thing he would normally say flippantly, but right now, tonight, Elliot believed it. Destiny wanted him here, with her. Hadn't it always?

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"I didn't know you believed in destiny." she said with a skeptical squint.  She'd expect it as a joke from him but when she searched his eyes she'd found none of his usual humor there.  Destiny meant something different for people like them, at least she'd thought it did.

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"Why wouldn't I?" Elliot spoke, without any of his normal irony. "And maybe destiny can be kind to us, sometimes." It certainly wasn't kind normally. But it had brought them together tonight.

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avs by Bee!

He always did that.  He'd say something deceptively simple that would get her thinking more than a statement with such few words had any right to.  And she never saw it coming.  She supposed he might have a point.  But the notion that it could be kind... or unkind... or anything but blind and uncaring was more than she was ready to consider.

"Well, if ever there was a time for destiny it might as well be New Years." she conceded, still skeptical.

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Elliot laughed, as if she'd said the most delightful thing in the world. "Come on," he said, insistent. "Walk with me."

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His laughter surprised her - she thought her comment about destiny had a twist of humor to it but she wouldn't call it funny exactly.  Still, when he laughed it lit his whole face, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that left her feeling a bit giddy.

"Well, alright."  She agreed, looking at him expectantly. "Where does destiny say we should walk?"

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Elliot considered. He wanted to take her to Wales, to a level of privacy they'd never had. He wasn't sure she'd agree. "Do you want to try muggle London?" he asked. At least there, they'd be — somewhere else. He could try telling her everything, honestly. Hopefully she would hear him.

He looked more earnest than usual; a little desperate, maybe.

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Her brow turned quizzical for a moment.  It was an unexpected suggestion and she didn't have anything against muggle london but she couldn't help a slight misgiving about straying there on this sort of holiday.  But she wasn't going alone, she reasoned with herself, she'd be with him.  She was safe with him.

She nodded decisively.  "Alright, but not too long.  I'm expected home."

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They popped out from Diagon Alley through a side entrance. Snowflakes had started to fall, very gently, from the sky, and Elliot watched them melt on Miss Reid's hair. "You're something else," he said.

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The lazy drift of snow drew her gaze up like the little flurries were a question and the sky held the answer.

"Me?" she ask in defensive amusement.  "You're the one who's acting awfully -"  She hadn't had a word for  it at the start of that sentence and still didn't by the end of it.  He seemed buoyant and somehow a little intense at the same time. It was infectious but confusing.  Maybe she didn't know him all that well.

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"We've known each other for a long time, Miss Reid," Elliot said. "I'd like to think that we have an understanding." But what was that understanding of? They understood each other, yes, sure, but Elliot was never sure that they understood what they meant to each other, what their relationship meant, what their Sight was. "And I find myself feeling strange tonight."

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avs by Bee!

It had been a long time.  It was almost a relief to hear it put to words like that because sometimes it felt like she'd known him forever.  For two people in such different social standings they always seemed to run into each other, much to her chagrin when she was younger and still shaking the power dynamic of student and teacher.  It was a mark of how far she'd come that she could now smirk at the memories from that shudderingly awkward time in her life. 

"I think you may have a better understanding of me than I of you."  But she didn't disagree.  The embarrassment of her youth had turned to something of a curiosity lately.  She'd always chalked up this thing between them to the shared experience of being a Seer but having met others in recent years she wasn't sure that was exactly the case anymore. 

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