When Marlene poked her head through Frank and Alice’s bedroom door at five-thirty on Sunday morning, she was surprised to find that Frank was still in bed. How a man who routinely woke up at four-thirty every morning, and whose wife was cooking him a luxurious breakfast in the other room that could be smelt all the way from China, could still be fast asleep, was beside even her, a girl who had known said man for the past twenty-three years.
No, make that twenty-four.
Once she had caught the breath she’d lost in the run, pounce, and tackle, and had made sure that Frank was finally awake, she spoke. “You forgot your own birthday, didn’t you?”
Gives nose/forehead kisses; Both, though Alice more frequently (when she can reach his nose and forehead at least).
Gets jealous the most; Frank, without a doubt. Alice rarely gets jealous, though admittedly she did in the beginning of their relationship, particularly when Marlene could be so openly touch Frank, even with simple gestures where as she had to be mindful not to touch him at all unless alone with him.
Picks the other up from the bar when they’re too drunk to drive; More often than not, it’d be Alice picking up Frank. Though admittedly, I don’t see either of them frequently getting that drunk in public.
Takes care of on sick days; Alice takes care of Frank, though he tries to do his best in return.
Drags the other person out into the water on beach day; Alice drags Frank out, for sure. Probably on one of their few weekends away, where they’re intended to relax and simply be together, something she’ll remind him of while splashing him with a bit of water.
Gives unprompted massages; Frank. Eventually Alice realizes it happens on the nights where she’s so wound up that the moment after work, she starts baking and knitting, shutting herself inside her mind, trying to cope with everything going on around them.
Drives/rides shotgun; Frank always wants to drive, and Alice always allows him.
Brings the other lunch at work;
Has the better parental relationship; Alice. Her parents only wanted for her to do her best, and to be the best person she could be. No where near as complicated as Frank’s relationship with his mum.
Embarrassingly drunk dancer; Dear god, Alice. Just another reason to only get drunk at home.
Still cries watching Titanic; Alice. Frank would probably be sitting there seething over the fact that the ship wasn’t required to hold enough life boats for everyone on board, and that certainly more could have fit in the first few boats to leave.
Firmly believes in couples costumes; Alice. Though I’d imagine getting Frank to dress up as anything for Halloween would be a challenge in itself. Honestly, she should just dress up with Marlene and give Frank a headache for the night.
Breaks the expensive gift rule during Christmas; Frank, and oh how he’ll hear about it, even if Alice is crying with happiness the whole time.
Makes the other eat breakfast; Alice, even if she has to bend and learn to get in the habit of using pepper on eggs. *sigh*
Remembers anniversaries; Both, though Frank’s more apt to “forget” simply due to life getting away from him, and the day arriving much sooner than he’d anticipated.
Brings up having kids; ........... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHA haha.... ... ha.
Marlene didn’t need a signature to recognize the handwriting. She knew who it was before she what it said. Purse down, boots off, denim shorts exchanged for a shorter, fringier pair, and Marlene was poised to reply.
Well, almost. She tore a corner of parchment from Frank’s letter. When it was rolled and lit and puffed, she scribbled across the back---
Home. Come over. I’m too high to apparate on my own.
It wasn’t a lie, really. By the time he arrived, she would be.
Place one of these words and a character/pairing/series in my inbox and I’ll write a drabble about it.
Terrae : Earth
Ragged breaths drug in rapid paces as the couple stood back to back, holding one another up behind a particularly thick row of trees and bushes.
“Ten,” Frank finally managed to get out.
Alice needed no explanation, and instead simply corrected him, “Twelve. Trees.” She knew he’d need nothing more than that to make sure to keep his eyes to the sky as well. They’d been so well hidden, she’d nearly missed them as well. They were so far out numbered, she hadn’t a clue in the world how they could manage to pull this one off. She’d recognized two of the voices, but it did them no good to know that information right now.
A patronus had been sent the moment they realized their mission had been found out, that they were being ambushed, but Alice recognised that they couldn’t depend upon it reaching help in time.
Wand still in hand, Alice reached it back to grasp Franks, giving it one final squeeze before pushing off of him and shooting a spell off through a gap where she’d seen a Death Eater approaching their hiding spot.
A blaze of light went off to her right, Frank joining her in their attack. Better to get the upper hand while they had fraction of a second. Hearing attacks coming their way, Alice rolled to the ground, shooting another spell off as she did before seeking another gap to shoot off again more pointedly.
Hands and knees grew caked with mud and pine needles as she crawled and then pushed to her feet to run back towards Frank.
“Seven,” he gasped out as they reached one another again. “Trees down.”
Better. More a chance to survive this. Alice could have kissed him, but a spell narrowly missed the both of them, grazing each of them as it blew through, making both jump apart. Alice gave him one last meaningful look before getting back to fighting, only just dodging spell after spell, the trees and bushes thinning too much to provide the protection and hiding ability they’d been good for initially.
Soon, however, it seemed the Death Eaters had caught onto their pattern, and began to use it against them before the two could change things up. Alice fell back, slamming roughly into a tree, her left shoulder popping out of place. As she let out a whimper, she heard Frank not far off, letting out a gasp of his own.
Their eyes met for a brief moment before Alice forced herself up, refusing this to be the end. The vision of Frank with a stream of blood forming down his chin was enough to drive her to shoot spell after spell out, her aim being ever so slightly off as pain and anger mucked her mind up.
The Death Eaters laughed, throwing their taunting jeers towards the pair. How could such pureblood families go so incredibly wrong? Raise such weaklings?
“Alice,” Frank bit out from behind her. “It’s time.”
He wanted to leave. To let the Order come in greater forces to take care of the rest of them if they were foolish enough to linger. The reasonable part of Alice knew he was right. They couldn’t keep fighting against these odds while injured and weary from over an hour of fighting.
The laughter kept her feet planted firmly in the mud that clung so heavily to her feet. Forced her wand to keep moving in a frenzy until an arm wrapped around her waist. “Enough.” It wasn’t the tone he used as her lover, partner, or friend. No. In this moment, he was her mentor, and he was giving his mentee a direct order.
Alice relented, and not even a fraction of a second later, Frank had recognized having won the battle between them and took them far away, into the street before the Order’s meeting home.
“We could have won,” Alice snapped, hackles still very much raised as she slipped out of his hold, ignoring the searing pain of her shoulder, despite very obviously holding herself in the wrong way due to the injury.
Frank fell in step beside her, a limp to his walk. “We could have died.”
The pair were silent as they neared the door, until Alice couldn’t hold it in anymore. Hand on the handle, she added one last final barb before entering.
“That’s every day of our life, Frank.” And it would continue to be, until the day they died, of that she was certain. Even should the war end, Alice was very much aware every day held the potential for life and death now.
It was simply a matter of the world deciding it was time for them to become one with the earth.
falls asleep on the couch; Alice, typically while knitting, leaving Frank to carefully extract the needles from her grasp so she doesn’t hurt herself while sleeping.
makes friends with the neighbors; Alice, who cannot go to any new place without attempting to make a friend or ten. Also very likely to find out if the friendly ones are allergic to anything in case of baking something for them later. And of course, makes sure Frank knows who is who and what she thinks of each.
is the adventurous eater; Alice without a doubt. Not that she goes out of her way to do so, but lets be honest, Frank isn’t stepping out of his box of what he knows and likes any time soon.
hogs the covers at night; Listen this is a complicated one, because Frank likes the cold, and Alice likes being warm. But Alice also loves snuggling to Frank, who probably does not want the hoard of blankets on him, so the covers probably end up on the floor with Alice shivering or giving up and grabbing the blankets in the middle of the night.
forgets to do the dishes; Frank is more likely to just because Alice is so in the habit of cooking/baking and cleaning as she goes.
tries to surprise their partner more often; Alice, but Frank succeeds more often. Alice is not the best at keeping surprises/secrets when it comes to the people she loves (note; almost everyone had a feeling she was seeing Frank before she told them, oops).
leaves dirty laundry on the floor; Alice. She really tries not to, and isn’t often bad about it, Frank’s just much better about it than she is out of habits that Alice was never forced to have.
stays up til 2 AM reading; Staying up late to read specifically would be Frank, but staying up until 2 doing something in general (likely knitting) would be Alice.
sings in the shower; Alice, mainly because she often forgets the walls are not sound proof, generally meaning she’s a bit louder than she would like.
takes the selfies; Alice, and often tries to sneak pictures of Frank, because who doesn’t want to see the handsome creature that he is?
plans date night; Frank. But he always asks and discusses with her before setting it in stone. Seeing as they’re an actual 80 year old couple though, they tend to stick to the same pattern anyway. If it comes to a group outting however, Alice takes the lead.
