Outfit

Candice was infuriated! How dare he? HOW DARE HE! Who did Kurby think he was? He was so lucky she hadn't written him off all together! It wasn't as though the man had a whole lot of friends left in this world, and he really ought to be doing more to preserve his relationships. Instead he was treating Candice's letters like a joke and sending her tiny replies. And then challenging her? Typically Candice would ignore such a challenge, she wouldn't rise to the bait- but this time, she did.

Without even bothering to to put on proper clothes, Candice apparated to just outside Kurby's door. She tightened her robe, stood up straight, and slammed her fist against his door as hard as she could. Candice didn't give a damn that it was after two in the morning, and gave no thought to his neighbors or whom he might be entertaining. All that Candice cared about was fixing this problem once and for all. He would regret challenging her- oh ho, yes he most certainly would!

It wasn't as though it was her fault that Kurby had decided to meddle in her personal life. What he had said to Dante (she was assuming that he had something, of course) had been uncalled for. And now she was right back to square one. Candice hadn't wanted to admit she might have a crush on the head of the Department of Mysteries, or that she might have hopes higher than a simple friendship, but after their date had fallen through and Candy found herself crying to Declan Murphy (now that had been embarrassing) she'd been forced to realize the truth.

"KURBY ROSTREVOR BAGNOLD! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW! YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS BEFORE I BLAST IT IN ON YOU AND YOU LOSE YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT!" Angry? Candice? Somehow only whenever she was dealing with Kurby.

There were certain things that he expected to be doing at two in the morning.  Sleeping was one of them, and he had, in fact, been doing just that up until the point where there had been a thunderous banging on his door and someone had started shouting in the hallway. 

Kurby was a light sleeper - the constant stress of his profession lent itself to that - but he wasn't used to being awoken quite so suddenly.  He sat up with a start at the noise and promptly tumbled off the side of his mattress, pulling his blankets with him in a desperate, profanity-laden mess.

Swearing fluently under his breath as he untangled himself, he slowly climbed back to his feet.  Grabbing for his wand, he brought it to life with a silent Lumos and then squinted at the clock near his bed.  That brought another fresh round of creative expression.  Kurby shot the nastiest look he could manage at the door, counted to five so that he wouldn't have to explain away any Unforgivables to his landlady come morning, and then shouted back a brusque "Al-right!" as he began to fumble for clothes.

It took him a full minute before he finally made it to the door, wand still in hand, and edged it open.  He stayed firmly planted in the doorway, expression sour as he glared out at the woman, though the effect was partially ruined as he shielded a yawn.  It might be early, but it wasn't too early to bleeding well murder Candice Stevenson if she was stupid enough to actually try and break into his flat again. 

"What the bleedin' hell do you want, then?" he asked irritably, looking Candice over.  Judging by the look of her, he shouldn't have wasted all that time getting dressed.  "Somebody ought to tell you that showin' up at my door at half past two in the morning doesn't make you look any less desperate, Stevenson.  And don't you have some sort of trousers you can put on?"

It was taking him what seemed an eternity to open the door. Her anger was starting to simmer down- Candice wasn't accustomed to maintaining negative feelings for a long period of time- and the witch was nearly ready to forget the whole thing unti he opened the door and made a comment about her desperation. She wasn't dressed for the occasion to be sure, and perhaps that wasn't particularly wise of her, but it wasn't fair of Kurby to try and use that against her in such a way.

Kurby must hate her now. Candy didn't want him to hate her- she wanted him to still be her friend and be like her big brother again. She didn't have any siblings, and he'd always done a good job of keeping an eye out for her. A part of her knew that his meddling revolved around that- but she was hurt. And because she was hurt, she had to find somebody to blame. For all of her attempts at fixing other people and trying to tell them how to run their own lives, Candice wasn't fully capable of running her own or taking her own advice. She was genuinely convinced that he had said or done something to run Dante off because he didn't like him. But Candice had liked him! Kurby should have respected that.

A witty comeback was beyond her grasp. She didn't know what to say. Her brain was muddled, and Candice wasn't exactly the queen of insults to begin with. Her typical reaction to people being mean or rude to her was to cry. Candy's lip did tremble at the comment, and she bit it hard, hoping to prevent him from noticing. If he said something to her about being a crybaby she would start bawling, and Kurby likely wasn't equipped to handle a half-dressed, bawling Candice at two in the morning.

"You are so hateful!" she snapped- and without thinking Candice, and before she realized what had happened, she slapped him- hard- against his cheek. "AND I AM NOT DESPERATE!" she shrieked (quite desperately).

Kurby stared at the woman, surprise and exasperation intermingling in his expression.  It wasn't the first time that a woman had slapped him, and it certainly wasn't the first time that the aforementioned event had happened outside his door at half past two in the morning, but he hadn't done anything this time.  Any patience that he normally had for his younger sister's good friend had disappeared.  If Candy wanted to break down into a crying wreck again, she could do it standing in his hallway after he put a noise-repellant charm on his door and went back to sleep.

Shooting Candice the nastiest look he could muster, he turned on his heel and vanished back into his flat, slamming the door shut and locking it behind him with a wave of his wand.

That Kurby had not really reacted to her attack was surprising- and as soon as he shut the door, Candy's heart sank into her stomach and she groaned loudly. That might have been a bit melodramatic- Candice could admit that, but shutting the door on her and walking away didn't make her feel any better about. The witch would have preferred him to yell back at her instead.

She slumped, leaning her head against the door and sighed deeply. "Kurby," she called out quietly- in as pitiful a tone as she could imagine. "Kurby, open the door. It's cold." She had come all this way already- and Candice knew they had some problems to discuss. They had been avoiding each other since her last little blow up- and she knew that had been her fault. Candice had pressed the wrong buttons- but so had he. Which was her fault. Kurby just didn't know the extent of things with her ex fiancée, so of course he would think he could use it against her.

"I'm not openin' the bleedin' door!" Kurby shouted back through it.  "Go apparate to the feckin' desert if you're cold!  You're not comin' in!"

Even as he said the words, though, he knew they were a lie.  He was a pushover.  Candy, Dolly, Margo, even Rosheen - it didn't matter.  As soon as there was an upset woman outside his door, reason flew out the window and suddenly he got stuck dealing with the resulting mess. It was as if the entire female half of the universe was out to get him and there was no fighting it.

At least the sooner he got this mess over with, the sooner he could go back to sleep.  Swearing fluently under his breath, Kurby stomped back over to the door and unlocked it, his expression dark and furious as he pulled it open.

"It's two in the morning," he growled at her through clenched teeth.  "What the hell do you want, Candy?  If you came all this way to hit me -"  He put a hand indignantly to his face, still glowering.  "- you can damned well come back once the sun is up.  I don't want to listen to you.  I want to sleep."

Candy genuinely thought he wasn't going to let her in, and had pulled out her wand to apparate back home whenever he opened the door again. She tucked it away quickly- lest Kurby thing she was going to hex him or blast his door down.

When Kurby asked what she was doing here, she shoved the letter in his face and pushed him out of the way to gain entrance to his flat. Which was definitely still in disarray- but she ignored the itch to clean it. "We need to have a very serious talk, Kurby. About our friendship and setting up the proper boundaries so this," she waved the letter again, "doesn't happen ever again. You're the one who told me to go ahead and try- and apparently the locks didn't stop me, now did they?"

She flicked her wand at the door, slamming it shut. "No sleep for you, Bagnold, not until we sort this out and you learn that you can't go around treating me- or any of your other friends- like crap. Because you're a better person than that! And I hate feeling angry and I've been angry at you for nearly two weeks now. And you get to listen to me for a long time- and if you don't want to listen, I'll tie you up and make you listen. I am serious! Don't you dare underestimate me when I am angry!"

"Now you are going to sit your little behind down on that couch, you're going to stop grumping around at me, and you're going to pay attention to what I have to say and you're not going to complain until I am done talking, is that understood?" Candice crossed her arms and tapped her foot at him impatiently. She meant business.

Kurby's jaw dropped lower and lower as Candy prattled on at him.  She wanted to talk.  It was two in the bleeding morning and she wanted to talk!  Proper boundaries.  Sorting things out.  His brain felt like it wanted to explode out of his ears just to escape.  What the hell was she thinking?  This wasn't some sort of goddamned relationship!

"What the hell are you thinking?!" he demanded, his flabbergasted expression quickly being replaced by consternation.  He was shouting at her and he didn't care.  If she wanted to turn this into a hexing match, then let her try; he already had his wand back in his hand. 

"I am not going to sit here and talk to you at two in the morning!  It's two in the morning!" he shouted, flinging his arms up in the air.  "I just don't want you cryin' at my door, Stevenson!  If someone's not in the process of dying, right now, this instant, then we can talk about this tomorrow," he finished in a furious snarl, baring his teeth at her.  "Because that's what normal people do!  No wonder your fiance went and dumped you if you acted this crazy!"

He was yelling at her. It seemed to be one of Kurby's favorite things to do anymore- yell at her. Why was she friends with him? What his damage? She was going to let him have it- again- when he he told her it was no wonder that her fiancée had dumped her. Her mouth snapped shut, and she crossed her arms over her gut. His words had hit her hard, and she felt physically ill when he mentioned it. This wasn't the first time he had thrown Bradley in her face to defend himself. And the bastard didn't even know the whole story.

Candy sucked in harshly between her teeth, and took a step back. She hunched over slightly, and let out a long sigh. "For your information I dumped him. We were supposed to have dinner for my birthday. I got off work late, and when I got home he wasn't there. He left me a note saying he was out with the boys. I fell asleep on the couch waiting for him. And when I woke up the next morning he was sneaking my best friend out of the house. Because he had brought her home and sex with her in my bed while I was in the other room. "

"Do you know what he told me when I caught him?" she asked- not giving him time to answer before pushing on. "He told me I wasn't 'Grade A Prime Choice Meat', and that I was lucky to have him. That he deserved a treat because he had to come home and look at me every day. For three years he had his other women, and he came home and treated me like a second rate citizen. And he made me believe I deserved it. I put up with it from him, and I'm not going to put up with it from anyone else ever again."

"And I am sure as hell not letting someone who claims that he is my friend treat me like that. So you know what, Kurby? If you think I deserve to be screamed at, that I deserve to be single, and miserable, and lonely- and if you think that I deserve your screwing up the only chance I've had with a man in the last five years then that's on you- it's sure as hell not on me."

In Kurby's mind, getting into an argument largely meant shouting over the other person until they either went deaf or gave up and left.  He was prepared to do just that with Candice, and was in the process of opening his mouth to shout "I don't care if you dumped -" when the full weight of her words sunk in and he shut his mouth with a surprised snap.

For the second time in less than a minute, Kurby was left with his jaw hanging open.  He had never really been an active observer of the younger woman's relationship - he hadn't liked Bradley on the rare occasion when he'd met him, but then, he didn't really like anyone - and if Rosheen had known anything about her friend's break up, she had kept the information to herself.  For an instant, he felt a flash of guilt race through him.  Despite how irritating she could be, particularly when she showed up at his door at two in the morning, and despite the fact that he would never admit it to anyone so long as he was clinging to the slightest slivers of sobriety, hearing that Candy had been treated so poorly made him want to hit something, hard.

But Bradley wasn't here, and the only other person present was Candice, who was still scolding him.  Getting angry at her was far, far easier than dealing with the unsettled feeling that her words had created, so Kurby glared at the woman, his hands clenching into fists and his expression darkening.  It wasn't his fault that she'd been in such a ridiculous relationship.  Where the hell did she get off throwing it at him like her suffering was some sort of weapon?

"You would've bleedin' well screwed it up without me anyway," he shot back, his voice brittle and his teeth clamped tightly together.  "And why the hell do you think I even did anything, Stevenson?  Maybe you should take responsibility for your own goddamn failures."

"Then you should have just let me screw it up!" she shot back at him. "At least I wouldn't be left high and dry wondering what the hell went wrong! It's a lot easier to deal with rejection when it's your own damn fault!" He should know that. Kurby got rejected all the time, didn't he? "Just because you don't give a damn about romance doesn't mean you have the right to go nosing into my love life!"

"I wouldn't have to be here right now, at two in the morning, if you'd keep your fat trap shut instead of flapping your gums about me! I know you said something to Dante to send him running. You threatened to do it so many times- and I guess you finally found your perfect opportunity to tell him I needed a good shag and send him running for the hills, didn't you?" She didn't even know if it was true- but Candice had convinced herself that it was, and it wouldn't surprise her if he had.

"Do me a favor and stay out of my personal affairs! If I want to have a pointless crush on a grumpy old fart at the ministry it's not your business!"

But Candy was quickly losing steam now- she never was one to stay angry for very long, and it was so late and she was just so tired and miserable and she wanted Kurby to tell her that he had ruined everything and say that he was sorry so that she could hug him and quit feeling like crap and just go home and go to bed. Why did he have to make that so difficult?

"If you're jealous you can just say so," she finally offered lamely. "I'm not going to stop being your friend or Rosheen's friend or anybody's friend if I happen to find a boyfriend."

There was certainly a hierarchy to emotions in Kurby's world.  Being angry beat being uncomfortable, which was how the information about Candy's fiance had made him feel.  The werewolf hunter did not like feeling as if he were at fault, and so he had latched on quickly to shift the discourse.  But Stevenson was not even satisfied with that - she kept pushing and pushing, and then made the most ridiculous statement of his week, which was quite a feat considering that it was two in the morning.

She really, honestly thought that he was jealous?  This conversation had moved well beyond even anger.  Without thinking about any possible consequences, he threw back his head and burst out laughing.

"You think I'd be jealous of you?" Kurby demanded incredulously, sounding as if he weren't sure whether to continue laughing or just dissolve into hysterical tears.  "Really?  Stevenson, believe me when I say that you could walk out of my flat forever right now, and I wouldn't even bat an eye," he informed her nastily, shooting the woman a pointed smirk.  "I'll be ecstatic if you ever find a boyfriend.  At least you'll have someone else to burst in on at two in the morning, then.  I should shake the poor bastard's hand."

"So that's how you feel?" she repeated, obviously deflated. That hurt. Candice had genuinely believed that she might mean something to Kurby. No- not romantically, but at least as a friend. She had always thought of him as her big brother! She'd hoped that he would look at her like his sister. Apparently she had been wrong. She was nothing more than an annoyance.

"Fine then. If that's what you want- then you can damned well have it!" she snapped before disapparating with a very loud "pop" as the punctuation to her sentence.