Two plates landed on the table, complete with cutlery. The noise punctuated the conversation over the top of the rumbling background noise of lunchtime in the crowded space.

"Can I get you two anything else?" She asked before she left them. Johann's blue eyes followed her a moment, recalling the time in early July he and Adelia had come for lunch[1], and the very same waitress had made the assumption they were a couple. Addie had found more amusement in playing along, ribbing her 'big brother' of sorts, as they had defined their friendship. The server's hair was still dyed black and Johann had noticed she'd gained a new piercing in one ear. He wondered how her Mathematics degree was going at Kings College, she had shown recognition and had remembered how he liked his coffee. Either way, little did the Muggle know that she had both served two wizards.

There were a few people outside the door smoking in the Autumn air, and inside was busy enough - the space packed full of more tables than Johann remembered, business was doing well he presumed. Half a dozen students in the far corner were glued to their laptops discussing a film script. Otherwise the place was as ever, a handy walk round the corner from the Ministry. Both magical and muggle worlds collided without the latter ever realising. Wizarding types mixed well with the strange attire of London students, though they could be easily spotted for their lack of proficiency handling Muggle coins, and the way they looked at Muggle technology with a childlike fascination.

Johann's eyes averted back to Omari the other side of the table to him, and he reached for his cutlery.
"Good call this." He told Omari, "I've missed you mate. Sorry I've been out of touch." He apologised in reference to vanishing the night after his father's death. Omari had told him to reach him at the hospital if he needed him. He had needed him, but he had also wanted to run away and be alone.

Underneath the table he rearranged his legs, accidentally nudging his friend with his knee as he did, uttering a quick apology, eyes running over Omari's expression. He still found the other wizard incredibly easy on the eye, but that hadn't been what had drawn him to Omari's friendship but a happy addition. The two had fallen into a natural friendship, it had taken no conscious effort that he could recall. It had been as if the two had always been friends when they had become acquainted at the Ministry.

"What's been going on for you? Tell me about normality." Johann asked in a bright tone. He smiled and made a start on his all day breakfast. His appetite had begun to return with returning to more of a routine and the company of people he trusted, though this would also make up for missing breakfast. His stomach had been looking forward to it since about eight o'clock that morning.

"Or 'normality' in terms of your floor eh?" He clarified in a lower voice, knowing things rarely were as they seemed on Level 2.

1.	July 9, Run Away from All Your Boredom

They were the most curious things - they looked like books made out of metal, and the young muggles surrounding them seemed to be pressing on its pages, and evidently getting results. Omari had never understood how they worked. He had heard some of the younger muggle-borns at the Ministry refer to them as ‘Come Peters‘, but he had never gotten a lengthier explanation. And he wasn’t sure if he would understand even then. Somehow they managed to get information out of those things, without ever turning the page, and Omari was almost certain that they all had come across charmed books without realising there was actually magic involved.

“Good call this.”

Johann’s comment made Omari snap out of his train of thoughts, and look away from the youngsters. He hadn’t realised his food had come in, and the smell and sight of his steaming hot steak pie and big glass of dark ale made his mouth water. He was starving, so without waiting for Johann, he grabbed his fork and took a big mouthful.

“I’ve missed you mate. Sorry I’ve been out of touch.”

For once Omari was happy that he couldn’t respond straight away. Chewing on his food he gave Johann an unreadable look. He knew and understood why Johann had been so M.I.A. His last month had been a complete train wreck. But at the same time Omari felt hurt. He felt hurt that his best friend hat felt that he couldn’t come to him for comfort. Or maybe that was an egocentric way of looking at it?

“What’s been going on for you?”

“Well,” Omari begun, as soon as he had swallowed. “After the Hearing, all hell broke loose. Level Two got swamped by angry owls an’ orders. It was not a pretty sight. I’ve been workin’ with tha’ ever since.”

He fixed his eyes on Johann, trying to convey both hurt and concern in them.

“But how are you? How are ye holdin’ up?”

"… It was not a pretty sight. I've been workin' with tha' ever since." Omari fixed him with a gaze. He didn't sound best pleased, and Johann could understand why. Though as Pratt had told him a few days before, his father's death was not an auror issue. However, he was undoubtedly not the only person who thought it definitely was.

"But how are you? How are ye holdin' up?" Johann swallowed the piece of bacon he'd been chewing, blue eyes raised to meet Omari's dark ones.
"Back at work," he replied in an upbeat tone, trying to convey it was nothing, "Not full time, I er," he put down his knife and reached for his coffee, taking a sip, "I've er, resigned. It's for the best." He plonked down the mug again and shrugged his thin shoulders, swiftly pushing aside the subject.

"Who were the angry ow- letters from? Pratt told me Monday[1] that what happened wasn't an auror matter." The correction was on remembering they were around muggles. He dug at his bacon, the knife squeaking on the plate as his frustration with that conversation reflected in the force he was using to slice food.

Omari never quite got to say. Duty even interrupted lunch with a good friend it seemed. There was an apologetic look from his broad-shouldered counterpart across the table as his hand went to his pocket. For a glancing Muggle, perhaps a mobile phone, but Johann knew too well what that face was. It had interrupted many a work-hour conversation.

"Go, go!" He exclaimed, "Don't explain, I know you need to go. I'll er, see if they can do you a doggy-bag." The chair opposite scraped back, and lofty Omari made a quick dash from the place with a heavy clap of his hand to Johann's shoulder that made the thinner wizard exhale noisily in surprise. Merlin! The waitress from earlier looked alarmed and came over, thinking something was very wrong.
"He's er... had a call." Johann explained vaguely, and adopted his brightest, most persuasive smile, pushing aside the disappointment of an interrupted lunch. "Couldn't box that up for him, could you?"


End

1.	Oct 4, Well Aware of How It Aches