"I don't starve, just not much of a cook. Couldn't let you just take care of me though, expect that you're busy enough." Admete was just starting to truly comprehend just how much work being a Department Head entailed. But she wasn't going to focus on that instead of desserts. "But, I could accept it for tonight. If you insist." Her tone matched Edwin's in that combination of joking and flirtatious, and she watched admiringly as he brought the cheesecake out.

"It looks good. And the last time I baked anything it was just about fodder for your Department. Apparently biscuits aren't supposed to sound like rocks when they hit things." She imitated a tossing motion with one hand. "Even the Jobberknolls wouldn't eat them."

Though with all the slightly toxic art supplies in her flat, the birds were probably wise not to eat random strange things. "Seems I'm much better with birds than with baking." Exposure, seemed like.

"I don't starve, just not much of a cook. Couldn't let you just take care of me though, expect that you're busy enough. But, I could accept it for tonight. If you insist."

"I do insist." Edwin replied with a smirk. He'd have company in early January, until it moved out, a relative moving to Britain from Sweden. They'd stayed before the previous year.

"It looks good. And the last time I baked anything it was just about fodder for your Department. Apparently biscuits aren't supposed to sound like rocks when they hit things. Even the Jobberknolls wouldn't eat them."

"Ouch." Edwin made a face at the thought of biscuits that hard. Rock cakes perhaps?

"Seems I'm much better with birds than with baking."

"I'm sure you're not, just a bad batch." Edwin sympathised, setting about serving. "Have you got jobberknolls, did you say?" He'd never been that into having pets, despite the companionship.

"Are they good company?"

"I do insist."

"I thought you might." Admete couldn't really complain at the idea. Someone wanting to serve her a nice dinner, conversation, when she was this busy? Seemed pretty good.

She laughed a little at Edwin's face about the biscuits. Merlin, what a disaster that had been. "I think I mixed up the baking something with the other baking something. Guess I'd need to make sure everything was labeled next time." A glance towards the table in front of her. "Get them to fluff up a little so they're not as flat as a plate."

"Are they good company?"

"Jobberknolls are quiet, and mine don't make much of a mess. Suppose they're good company." Her eyes shifted back and forth, watching Edwin as he moved. "Suppose I'm used to birds, my mother still sells them. Has a little shop in Diagon."

"Hm, good house birds then, with little mess." Edwin gave a shrug, now seated opposite her again, pudding served. He sipped his wine and made a face.

"Sorry, not sure that goes so well now." He apologised, placing his glass to one side to finish later. "I should have thought about that. Still, I'm sure you don't want a bad head in the morning..." Edwin sliced off a corner of the cheesecake on his plate, his eyes admiring something other than her face for a split second, "... though I've got enough remedies to deal with that, if you don't make it home." Perhaps a bit forward, but he smiled in such a way that it could be perceived only as how he might provide enough alcohol for Admete to fall asleep on the sofa.

"I've never kept birds," He returned to the original subject to save Brown's blushes, "owls are vicious enough with beaks and claws. I'm glad we don't use them for interdepartmental memos, only fear of papercuts these days. I suppose you're not one to keep a cat, for that reason? I don't have pets, can't guarantee to be around to keep them, what with the unpredictable nature of the Department's work."

Admete followed his example and set her glass to the side. No point spoiling the cheesecake. "No worries, good to know you're only human like the rest of us." She winked at him, then cut off a small bite of the cheesecake for herself.

It was, of course, as good as everything else she'd eaten that evening, something which showed quite clearly in her pleased expression. "Mmm. Delicious. Think  you're right about the wine." After tasting that cheesecake, she wasn't going to go back to the wine for a bit.

"Might have to take you up on the remedies. Don't think I should apparate home in this weather." It was still dismal out, from the look of it, and she had no wish to get soaked. "The birds'll manage." Hers were, at least, well-behaved. "And never done much with owls, actually. Or cats. Always had other sorts of birds around instead. Not that they'd be any more sorted to running memos." There was a bit of twitch at memos. More of them weren't something to look forward to.

"Might have to take you up on the remedies. Don't think I should apparate home in this weather." Edwin looked up and out of the window from where they were sat, and in the dark could see the weather howling. "The birds'll manage. And never done much with owls, actually. Or cats. Always had other sorts of birds around instead. Not that they'd be any more sorted to running memos."

"No, you're fine to stay here." Edwin smiled, looking back and thanking the weather internally. "Wouldn't see you go out in that after your long day. Stay, drink wine and whatever else takes your fancy from my drinks cabinet. I'll see you to bed, and the remedies in the morning." He gave her a wink and chased his cheesecake round his plate. Whether that was the spare room, sofa or otherwise... Cheesecake was disappearing at a rate of knots.

"I'd even run you a bath if you were to ask me nicely." He met eyes with Admete Brown, admiring them, rather than other assets. She'd always caught his eye as an auror, and now she was a fellow Head. He shouldn't really, but it was all for the betterment of interdepartmental relations, wasn't it?

"Come join me on the sofa," He tilted his head, "I'll pour us something to finish that wine."

Admete's cheesecake was disappearing at a similar rate, and she was starting to feel quite full. "The sofa sounds good. Best to not take you up on that bath immediately." Her stomach wouldn't respond well to that.

A bath did sound pleasant. Especially with her current company. This had gone far better than she'd expected, with how much Edwin seemed to yell at the other Aurors.

Not that she could blame him much for that.

"What was it like, when you started? More yelling? Owls scratching you up over the memos?" She winked, her expression teasing. The wine didn't hurt, but she was certainly enjoying herself.

"What was it like, when you started? More yelling? Owls scratching you up over the memos?"

Edwin watched her continue with her cheesecake with passive interest.
"A bit sudden, actually," He admitted, folding one hand over the other and propping his elbows on the edge of the table as he finished. "The former Department Head was lost in a catastrophe of his own doing, and I was his deputy. Had to go to the scene to deal with the accident, then be summoned by the then Minister to be told I had to take charge with immediate effect as an Acting Department Head. Not the way I'd imagined it happening at all, but I rose to the challenge I feel." He gave Admete a smile, and his eyes creased at the side as he remembered the date of the occasion.

"It'll be eight years come February that I was asked to take charge, and then August when they knocked Acting out of the title. I'm not sure how many years I have to serve before people start wishing I will blow up my own house and take me with it." He gestured to the room around them. "I hope I don't, rather like it here."

Well, that had rather put a damper on the mood, talking about his own possible death!

"I never yell." Edwin teased Admete. "Not at my own Department anyway. Come on, get yourself comfortable on the sofa." 

"Seems much more stable then MLE, then. Exploding houses aside." Admete gave Edwin's abode a rather lengthy look. "Be a shame to see this place go. Let alone you with it." Made her a bit curious, how someone would pull that off, but it didn't seem the time to ask.

"I never yell. Not at my own Department anyway. Come on, get yourself comfortable on the sofa."

With the cheesecake now gone, she stood, and started towards the sofa. "At this rate, I might end up tempted to find a better flat. One where I can have guests over and pretend I can cook." She sounded amused. The wine certainly hadn't hurt so far as relaxing went. "Think right now I've got a bed, the birds, and a little alcove to paint in.

Her eyes looked towards her fingers, but it seemed that she'd managed to avoid having paint stuck on them, this time. "That makes my life sound rather dull. At least it's not cats."

"I'm sure you can cook very well, given time and a kitchen." Edwin replied encouragingly. "You're always welcome to borrow mine, if I'm invited to the dinner party that is…" He gave her a genuine smile and let her settle on the sofa, admiring her figure as she moved.

"That's all you need when you're on your own though, a bed, some easy company and space to be yourself?" Edwin reasoned, "And what's wrong with cats, or are you afraid you'll be a stereotypical spinster?"

Gently he settled on the sofa beside her, rather than across. Not only was it easier to gaze into her eyes, but it showed he considered this a social meeting. He propped his elbow on the back of the low red sofa and rested his head against his hand, giving her his full attention.

"Your life isn't dull by any stretch of the imagination, Admete." Edwin assured her with a soft tone. "Your rise through the ranks on level two caught my eye enough times to know. I admire you, and having you on board as a Department Head only continues that." He reached forward and touched his fingertips to her leg, "Dull, you are most certainly not."

"A proper kitchen? Might have to take you up on that, at least once I'm all settled in with the new job. Expecting to be swamped at first." Admete settled into the couch, leaning back and folding her hands behind her head. "But not forever. Hate to start being a workaholic after avoiding it this long."

Her social life wasn't exactly buzzing, but she didn't spend every possible moment at the office either. Add in a few hobbies,  the occasional family antics, and well, she couldn't complain. Too much, at least. "Cats tend to eat birds, bit of trouble there. Might try to eat my paints too, and that's a cruel end for a pet there. Don't buy paints for eating, after all." That was very much not the point.

Edwin's compliments made her smile, as did his touch. "Thank you. Can't say that I'm unhappy with it. Little lonely sometimes." She straightened up and moved her hands to her lap, letting one of them brush against Edwin's as she did so. This was a better welcome than she'd expected, not that she had any intent to complain.

"Thank you. Can't say that I'm unhappy with it. Little lonely sometimes."

"Can't have that," Edwin replied, not having paid entire attention to her words about cats and workload a moment before, more preoccupied by the way her hands had brushed his. He closed in ever so slightly by leaning a little further towards her. Despite her day, and the rain, he could smell the notes of her perfume lingering.

His gaze turned from their hands to look up at her eyes, and then her lips, his hand still on her leg, past the time that it should have lingered to be polite.

"It is lonely at the top," He admitted softly, every word clearly enunciated despite the volume, "But I know exactly how it is. I've been there a while. If there's anything I can do, to make it easier..."

Admete was already feeling a bit less lonely, in truth. She turned towards Edwin and smiled, her gaze lifting to his face. "Think that we've the entire night to find that out. I'm up for trying." She grinned and moved her hand back to touch his.

"Might start with that bath, if you don't mind." That sounded relaxing. Something which she didn't think she'd have much time for over the next few months. Starting to seem like there'd be a few things of that sort.

Good time to enjoy it while she could, then.