Elliot smiled at her. In opposition to his usual smiles, it was broad and wide and almost dewey in tone — as if nothing bad had ever happened to him.

"I think I love you," he admitted, warm and enthusiastic and practically mooning over her. He did love her, didn't he? He just hadn't known it until now.

---

The following 1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post:1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post
   Temerita Reid

---

avs by Bee!

If they were moving (she honestly hadn't been paying attention) she slowed to a stop.  She'd heard him perfectly and yet it felt like it took an age for the words to travel from his mouth to her brain.  The world around her slowed to a standstill until all she could hear was her own heartbeat in her ears.  She could only looked at him - take in every detail every detail as she waited for the qualifier that didn’t come. 

And then the clues began to piece themselves together.  With a breath she brought air back to her lungs and the world returned to its normal speed.

"I think you are drunk." She returned, matter-of-factly.

---

  

Elliot's brow furrowed. "I can't be drunk," he said. He hadn't drank enough to be drunk. He felt odd, but — surely that was just being in love?

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

She had seen her brother drunk. She may have even seen her father drunk. Neither of them looked like this but she supposed there might be different kinds of drunk for different kinds of drinks. Gently she slid her arm in his and began pulling him back the way they came.

"Let's get you back -"

---

  

Elliot, feeling pliant, allowed Miss Reid to lead him along. But that didn't make him quiet. "You have the most incredible eyes I've ever seen," he said, "Not Inner Eye — your eyes. And you're so stubborn." He would just have to list out the reasons that he loved her until she believed him.

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

"My inner eye is a mess, I'll give you that."  she agreed, half to her self, half to placate him.  She decided she'd let him babble on until they got back Hogsmeade and then she might have to hush him.  She wouldn't let him earn himself a drunkard reputation.

They were soon facing the wall that separated the muggle world from the magical and she looked up at it as if it held some answer to a question she didn't know to ask.  She should've been reaching for her wand to unlock their path home but instead she heard herself speak.

"You're a good man, Mr. Carmichael.  I wish we could speak freely like we used to in letters."  Maybe she was drunk too.  Or simply put at ease by the fact that she didn't expect him to remember any of this. 

---

The following 1 user Likes Temerita Reid's post:1 user Likes Temerita Reid's post
   Elliot Carmichael

"We could!" Elliot gushed. "We could speak freely. If you want to, I mean." And maybe then she would finally believe that he loved her. This feeling wasn't entirely new, after all — it had to have been brewing somewhere.

They were almost back in Diagon Alley, too — if she wasn't going to love him back yet, then Elliot ought to try for something.

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

She couldn't help but smile fondly, daring only to look at him from the corner of her eye. She was still too shocked by her own candor to face him directly. She knew he was not himself but it was still nice to say the thing she'd been thinking for so long.

The brick wall remained still and unimpressed in front of them and yet she felt like they were on the other side of something now.

---

  

Elliot sighed. Temerita's smile made his heart constrict. "I'm not drunk," he said again — maybe this time she would believe him. (He knew distantly that he was not entirely himself — but this feeling was real.)

---

The following 1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post:1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post
   Temerita Reid

---

avs by Bee!

It turned out that was the key to break hrr little reverie. She laughed gently, little more than a quiet huff through her nose, and patted his arm almost consolingly. "Then a potion perhaps."

She found her wand, tapped the expected pattern in the bricks, and watched as they melted away.

---

  

Elliot frowned. (His skin tingled where she'd patted it.) Could this be a potion? He sighed. "I suppose you want me to apparate home," he said, stepping through the doorway and into Diagon Alley.

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

"Merlin, no." she said immediately. "I assumed you had a carriage or something"

---

  

Elliot shook his head fervently. "Wales," he said, as if that explained it. (What he meant was — Wales was too far away, so he could not take a carriage there, although he did not think he had ever told her he was currently living in Wales. Maybe this was why she did not believe him?) "I could take the floo?"

Whatever made her happy.

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

"Wales." she repeated, mulling it over. She hadn't thought this through. Honestly she hadn't planned past depositing him back wherever he came from. She turned to look at him to make sure he was still good as she thought over what to do.

"You could floo, that's how I usually get back to Irvingly. Can you say it clearly?" She hadn't noticed him having trouble speaking but she had misgivings. If he ended up in the wrong fireplace in his current state who knows what could happen.

---

  

Elliot couldn't help but laugh at her. "I'd have to be much more disoriented to forget my own address," he chided, far more playful than normal.

---

  

---

avs by Bee!

She looked skeptical. "You've got to say it right." Which was another thing entirely. "If you get lost I won't know."

---