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x_moonshine_xTitle: You Look Great When I’m F**ked Up (9/10).
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
x_moonshine_x
Pairing: Rupert/Emma.
Rating: R.
Warnings: Real person fiction, lots of angst, depressed!Emma, off the rails!Emma.
Word count: 2,450.
Summary: After a hard day filming, Rupert offers to take a battered and bruised Emma home, ending up with a little more than he bargained for when they get there. On the face of it, it all seems pretty simple, they’ve wanted each other for years, surely this is normal. But, unfortunately, he soon learns that there’s more going on than meets the eye and he's not entirely sure if he's the one Emma should be turning to.
Other Chapters: Here.
You Look Great When I’m F**ked Up
Chapter 9
Rupert stared aghast at the table in front of him, wondering for a moment if James had gone a tad overboard. Dozens of beer bottles stared back at him, as well as three bottles of vodka, a bottle of Jack Daniels, half a bottle of gin and two full boxes of wine. He was supposed to be having a relatively small birthday party, not the shindig of the year. Admittedly, this would be his last year of celebrating with his fellow Harry Potter co-stars, but that was no excuse for a drunken orgy.
Apparently his brother had different ideas though and thought it a perfect reason to go all out.
‘You did tell me to make sure I got enough,’ James commented, coming up behind him and placing down a bottle of tequila as well. ‘That’s the last of it.’
‘I gave you my credit card to buy a bit of booze, not the entire off-licence,’ he protested, feigning disgust yet failing miserably at it.
Looking at him, James shrugged and handed the card back over with a flourish. ‘Fine, next time you go yourself big brother,’ he responded offhand before clapping Rupert across the back. ‘Shouldn’t you be changed by now?’
Rupert glanced to his watch. ‘Yeah… guess so,’ he murmured before finally making a move to leave the kitchen and head up to his bedroom.
For some reason, two weeks ago, he’d decided that a fancy dress party would be a fantastic idea. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure about it and the second he laid eyes on his costume for the evening, he was extremely tempted to call the whole thing off. It was all in the name of good fun of course, but Rupert wasn’t so sure he was in the having fun kind of mood tonight. Emma’s attitude lately had been getting him down and it had come to the point now where she’d even considered not attending. He didn’t feel much like celebrating if the one person who mattered most to him wasn’t there to see it.
With a heavy sigh, he forced himself not to think about it and changed rather haphazardly into his costume, flinging his jeans and t-shirt onto the ever growing pile in the corner of the room. It wasn’t that he’d picked out anything bad for his costume – in fact, he’d go so far as to say it was brilliant – he just wasn’t interested in even having the party anymore.
By the time he got downstairs, hidden quite happily behind a pair of aviators, people were already beginning to arrive and James was doing a fantastic job of pointing everyone toward the alcohol. He’d lost his own inhibitions well over half an hour ago and was keen to have the other party goers following in his footsteps as soon as. And looking at the state of some of them already, it wouldn’t take him long at all.
For the first twenty minutes or so, Rupert greeted anyone who approached him with a smile and a civil ‘hi’ before making himself scarce once again and hiding away in the conservatory. No one would bother him here; this was one of only two rooms in the entire house out of bounds to his current guests, the other being his sisters’ bedroom on the first floor.
He could hear the party raging inside, but somehow managed to ignore it, drowning his sorrows instead in a bottle of Carling and the possibility that she might show up… eventually.
It was another fifteen minutes before anyone came to look for him and even then, it was only Matt, who flashed him the most sympathetic smile he’d ever bore witness to. That said, it was almost impossible to take him seriously seeing as he was currently trussed up in oversized clothes, a pair of taped up glasses and a lightning bolt drawn across his forehead in black eyeliner.
‘Go on, guess,’ had been his signature line all night.
Strangely, the more people drank, the funnier it started to get.
‘Problem’s not going to go away by sitting out here all night, mate,’ said Matt, flopping down onto the couch beside him. A second later, he plucked the sunglasses from Rupert’s face. ‘What’s this supposed to be then?’
‘Top Gun,’ Rupert responded deadpan as he continued to stare out of the window. He downed his drink in one shortly afterwards and wondered for a moment if he simply ignored Matt, that he would eventually get bored and go away.
‘Right, yeah, course. You are aware it’s rubbish, aren’t you?’
At that, Rupert glanced in his direction and snatched the sunglasses back, muttering, ‘Better not be, cost me forty quid to hire.’
Matt grinned. ‘Ah, he does speak then,’ he laughed and took a swig from the bottle in his hand. ‘Stop being a miserable sod, will you? It’s supposed to be your birthday, not your bloody funeral.’
‘Really? Doesn’t feel like it...’
This time Matt rolled his eyes and all Rupert received was a jab in the ribs. ‘Fuck off feeling sorry for yourself and come back inside. James mentioned something about a cake or...hang on,’ he trailed off, ‘no wait, it could have been a stripper actually, not a cake.’
He perked an eyebrow.
‘See, that got your attention!’ Matt joked. ‘Bloody perve.’
Several minutes later, Rupert found himself being dragged back into the living room and sure enough, he was faced with the sight of his brother stumbling out of the kitchen with one of the biggest cakes he’d seen in quite a while. Twenty-one candle flames flickered and danced as James placed it down on the dinning room table and for the first time all day, Rupert felt a genuine smile pull at the corners of his mouth.
He didn’t need ushering over, he moved without argument and as he leant down to blow the candles out, he noticed Evanna out of the corner of his eye, who whispered quite enthusiastically, ‘Don’t forget to make a wish!’
Rupert had no intention of forgetting; he knew exactly what he was going to wish for and did so quite happily as the people around him chorused a rather raucous verse of happy birthday.
As he looked back up again, laughter and applause filling the room, his gaze fell onto a familiar figure tucked away in the corner by the door. There she was, watching intently, a gentle smile on her face. He faltered a little, couldn’t help it, a breath catching in his throat as he rose to standing. He couldn’t quite believe how relieved he was to see her standing there.
‘Now get cutting!’ James laughed in his ear, startling him as he picking up a knife. ‘We’re not wasting this!’
Rupert glanced over at his brother, forcing a smile onto his face as he took the knife and cut a rough slice. Then, pushing it back into his hand, he quickly said, ‘You carry on, I need to talk to someone,’ before making a dash for it.
Unfortunately, finding Emma proved more difficult than he’d first thought and not ten seconds later, he found himself caught up in a conversation with one of his neighbours. She’d be busy herself by the time he managed to escape again, that much he knew, so tried his hardest to relax and just go with it. She was here now and she wouldn’t be going anywhere in a hurry, he didn’t need to worry.
‘Have you got another bathroom..?’
Rupert had been in the middle of his second escape attempt when collared by the blonde angel hopping from one foot to the other. She looked desperate; eyes fixed to his in a silent plea, so he relented pretty quickly and lead her in the direction of his on suite to save an argument.
By the time he made his way back downstairs, he found Emma in the hallway, locked in conversation with Bonnie. From a distance it was difficult to tell them apart thanks to Emma’s wig and at first he had to do a double take. She looked a picture in her Daphne costume though and simply gazing at her caused his stomach to do platoon of involuntary somersaults. Christ… that had never happened before.
Swallowing down hard, he was about to approach but found his actions intercepted as someone decided to put DJ Caper on the stereo and the whole place erupted into chaos. He was almost knocked sideways by a stream of people racing down the stairs and by the time he straightened back up again he’d lost her to the masses.
Rupert descended the remaining steps feeling quite dejected and lifted a hand to remove his sunglasses just in time to catch sight of Dan and Evanna having a dance off in the middle of the living room. He watched in bewilderment, laughter bubbling in his throat the longer it went on. Dan was about to get his arse kicked without a doubt.
‘Having fun?’ someone asked him suddenly.
Turning to look at the owner of the voice, his smile softened as he came face-to-face with Emma. She returned his smile and then looked past him, over his shoulder, to what was going on.
‘What on earth is he doing?’ she asked, her soft words laced with mirth.
Rupert shrugged and glanced back to watch Dan. ‘I suspect James has been giving him vodka jelly… it has that effect,’ he said quite seriously. ‘At least, it has that effect on Radcliffe anyway.’
Laughing melodically, she turned back to him and playfully tugged on a lock of her wig. ‘Look, we match,’ she teased.
He smiled, casually moving to fold his arms across his chest. ‘You’ll make a Weasley yet, Em.’ he responded lightly. ‘But it still looks better on me.’
‘I suppose you’re right, yes,’ said Emma, nodding thoughtfully.
‘Thanks.’ Rupert chuckled as he cast his gaze in the direction of the drinks table. ‘So… can I interest you in a drink or something?’
With a nod, she offered her arm and let him lead her over, where he quickly grabbed another beer for himself and an orange juice for Emma (‘Better safe than sorry, right?’). They circled the party several times together, chatting absently to friends, but never daring to stray more than five foot from each other.
Eventually they found themselves at the front door and Rupert pushed it open, following Emma out onto the steps and taking a seat beside her. Above them, the sky remained clear, stars dotting the inky black as far as the eye could see, making it the perfect evening to sit and simply be. He wrapped his arms around himself and stared up into the abyss, bottle of Carling clutched tightly in his hand.
‘Happy birthday by the way,’ she murmured eventually and he looked her way just in time to see the warm and contented smile dance across her features. ‘I still need to give you my present at some point. Don’t let me forget.’
‘I won’t, I’m looking forward to it,’ he told her truthfully.
Emma beamed, although her gaze dropped to her hands where she anxiously began to pick at her nails. ‘Let’s hope you like it then,’ she responded softly. ‘I’d hate to disappoint.’
‘Yeah, that’s never going to happen…’
It wouldn’t either, he knew Emma too well and she, in turn, knew him just as well, if not better. Some bonds were unbreakable and more importantly, unforgettable. There was no one in the world he knew as well as Emma… aside from the possibility of Dan anyway, God love him.
Rupert let a breath go gently, realising that the silence had gone on a little longer than he may have liked. ‘So, you know… how’re things?’ he questioned, forcing himself to break it.
‘Oh, they’re…’ Emma paused and shrugged. ‘They’re fine, really. The teasing’s stopped, so I think they’re all ignoring me out of shame now.’
At that he looked back to the party inside, a small frown crossing his features. He hated to see her down like that, especially when the pain had been caused by people they regarded as friends, too. Sure people could point the finger all they liked, but as for actually putting her through that hell? Well, if wasn’t fair and he was a tad disgusted by it all really.
‘They’re all idiots,’ he supplied eventually.
‘Yeah, they are…’
They shared a fleeting look before Emma burst out laughing, hiding her face away behind her hands. All he could do was watch as her entire body shook with mirth. He just about managed to refrain from joining in and took her drink away before she dropped it, shaking his head in amusement.
By the time she recovered again, he’d placed his beer aside too, and regarded her with a warm smile. ‘Thank you for coming tonight, Em, I really--’
‘Don’t say it!’ she shot, cutting him off and placing a finger to his lips. ‘Of course I’d be here. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be to be honest, and know sometimes you find that really hard to believe…’ She sighed, dropping her hand down again. ‘But you’re – you – Well, you’re one of the only people who has stuck by me and I don’t think I’ve ever really thanked you for it.’
‘You don’t need to…’
‘But I do!’ Emma exploded. ‘I treated you like crap and you’re still here and--’
‘Em…’ This time it was his turn to cut her off, his voice gentle as he leant into her and reached out to cup her chin in his hand.
As the pad of his thumb brushed across her cheek, their eyes met very briefly and then before he could chicken out again, he closed the gap between them and kissed her sweetly. It didn’t take him long to lose himself to the moment and she responded enthusiastically, arms coming up to encircle his neck as she pressed her body up against his. Her soft sighs and moans echoed in his head as he trailed curious fingers over her skin.
Emma was first to pull back, eyes alight and cheeks flushed as she bit down impishly on her lower lip. ‘I still need to--’
‘No you don’t,’ Rupert argued softly, cutting her off once again, his eyes searching her face. ‘Apology accepted, OK? Just… I don’t know, don’t say anything else. Please.’
‘I think I can manage that,’ she murmured, embarrassment beginning to show.
He nodded, playful smile on his face as he slid his other hand skilfully over her thigh and leant in to silence her one final time.
.x.
Author:
x_moonshine_xPairing: Rupert/Emma.
Rating: R.
Warnings: Real person fiction, lots of angst, depressed!Emma, off the rails!Emma.
Word count: 2,450.
Summary: After a hard day filming, Rupert offers to take a battered and bruised Emma home, ending up with a little more than he bargained for when they get there. On the face of it, it all seems pretty simple, they’ve wanted each other for years, surely this is normal. But, unfortunately, he soon learns that there’s more going on than meets the eye and he's not entirely sure if he's the one Emma should be turning to.
Other Chapters: Here.
Chapter 9
Rupert stared aghast at the table in front of him, wondering for a moment if James had gone a tad overboard. Dozens of beer bottles stared back at him, as well as three bottles of vodka, a bottle of Jack Daniels, half a bottle of gin and two full boxes of wine. He was supposed to be having a relatively small birthday party, not the shindig of the year. Admittedly, this would be his last year of celebrating with his fellow Harry Potter co-stars, but that was no excuse for a drunken orgy.
Apparently his brother had different ideas though and thought it a perfect reason to go all out.
‘You did tell me to make sure I got enough,’ James commented, coming up behind him and placing down a bottle of tequila as well. ‘That’s the last of it.’
‘I gave you my credit card to buy a bit of booze, not the entire off-licence,’ he protested, feigning disgust yet failing miserably at it.
Looking at him, James shrugged and handed the card back over with a flourish. ‘Fine, next time you go yourself big brother,’ he responded offhand before clapping Rupert across the back. ‘Shouldn’t you be changed by now?’
Rupert glanced to his watch. ‘Yeah… guess so,’ he murmured before finally making a move to leave the kitchen and head up to his bedroom.
For some reason, two weeks ago, he’d decided that a fancy dress party would be a fantastic idea. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure about it and the second he laid eyes on his costume for the evening, he was extremely tempted to call the whole thing off. It was all in the name of good fun of course, but Rupert wasn’t so sure he was in the having fun kind of mood tonight. Emma’s attitude lately had been getting him down and it had come to the point now where she’d even considered not attending. He didn’t feel much like celebrating if the one person who mattered most to him wasn’t there to see it.
With a heavy sigh, he forced himself not to think about it and changed rather haphazardly into his costume, flinging his jeans and t-shirt onto the ever growing pile in the corner of the room. It wasn’t that he’d picked out anything bad for his costume – in fact, he’d go so far as to say it was brilliant – he just wasn’t interested in even having the party anymore.
By the time he got downstairs, hidden quite happily behind a pair of aviators, people were already beginning to arrive and James was doing a fantastic job of pointing everyone toward the alcohol. He’d lost his own inhibitions well over half an hour ago and was keen to have the other party goers following in his footsteps as soon as. And looking at the state of some of them already, it wouldn’t take him long at all.
For the first twenty minutes or so, Rupert greeted anyone who approached him with a smile and a civil ‘hi’ before making himself scarce once again and hiding away in the conservatory. No one would bother him here; this was one of only two rooms in the entire house out of bounds to his current guests, the other being his sisters’ bedroom on the first floor.
He could hear the party raging inside, but somehow managed to ignore it, drowning his sorrows instead in a bottle of Carling and the possibility that she might show up… eventually.
It was another fifteen minutes before anyone came to look for him and even then, it was only Matt, who flashed him the most sympathetic smile he’d ever bore witness to. That said, it was almost impossible to take him seriously seeing as he was currently trussed up in oversized clothes, a pair of taped up glasses and a lightning bolt drawn across his forehead in black eyeliner.
‘Go on, guess,’ had been his signature line all night.
Strangely, the more people drank, the funnier it started to get.
‘Problem’s not going to go away by sitting out here all night, mate,’ said Matt, flopping down onto the couch beside him. A second later, he plucked the sunglasses from Rupert’s face. ‘What’s this supposed to be then?’
‘Top Gun,’ Rupert responded deadpan as he continued to stare out of the window. He downed his drink in one shortly afterwards and wondered for a moment if he simply ignored Matt, that he would eventually get bored and go away.
‘Right, yeah, course. You are aware it’s rubbish, aren’t you?’
At that, Rupert glanced in his direction and snatched the sunglasses back, muttering, ‘Better not be, cost me forty quid to hire.’
Matt grinned. ‘Ah, he does speak then,’ he laughed and took a swig from the bottle in his hand. ‘Stop being a miserable sod, will you? It’s supposed to be your birthday, not your bloody funeral.’
‘Really? Doesn’t feel like it...’
This time Matt rolled his eyes and all Rupert received was a jab in the ribs. ‘Fuck off feeling sorry for yourself and come back inside. James mentioned something about a cake or...hang on,’ he trailed off, ‘no wait, it could have been a stripper actually, not a cake.’
He perked an eyebrow.
‘See, that got your attention!’ Matt joked. ‘Bloody perve.’
Several minutes later, Rupert found himself being dragged back into the living room and sure enough, he was faced with the sight of his brother stumbling out of the kitchen with one of the biggest cakes he’d seen in quite a while. Twenty-one candle flames flickered and danced as James placed it down on the dinning room table and for the first time all day, Rupert felt a genuine smile pull at the corners of his mouth.
He didn’t need ushering over, he moved without argument and as he leant down to blow the candles out, he noticed Evanna out of the corner of his eye, who whispered quite enthusiastically, ‘Don’t forget to make a wish!’
Rupert had no intention of forgetting; he knew exactly what he was going to wish for and did so quite happily as the people around him chorused a rather raucous verse of happy birthday.
As he looked back up again, laughter and applause filling the room, his gaze fell onto a familiar figure tucked away in the corner by the door. There she was, watching intently, a gentle smile on her face. He faltered a little, couldn’t help it, a breath catching in his throat as he rose to standing. He couldn’t quite believe how relieved he was to see her standing there.
‘Now get cutting!’ James laughed in his ear, startling him as he picking up a knife. ‘We’re not wasting this!’
Rupert glanced over at his brother, forcing a smile onto his face as he took the knife and cut a rough slice. Then, pushing it back into his hand, he quickly said, ‘You carry on, I need to talk to someone,’ before making a dash for it.
Unfortunately, finding Emma proved more difficult than he’d first thought and not ten seconds later, he found himself caught up in a conversation with one of his neighbours. She’d be busy herself by the time he managed to escape again, that much he knew, so tried his hardest to relax and just go with it. She was here now and she wouldn’t be going anywhere in a hurry, he didn’t need to worry.
‘Have you got another bathroom..?’
Rupert had been in the middle of his second escape attempt when collared by the blonde angel hopping from one foot to the other. She looked desperate; eyes fixed to his in a silent plea, so he relented pretty quickly and lead her in the direction of his on suite to save an argument.
By the time he made his way back downstairs, he found Emma in the hallway, locked in conversation with Bonnie. From a distance it was difficult to tell them apart thanks to Emma’s wig and at first he had to do a double take. She looked a picture in her Daphne costume though and simply gazing at her caused his stomach to do platoon of involuntary somersaults. Christ… that had never happened before.
Swallowing down hard, he was about to approach but found his actions intercepted as someone decided to put DJ Caper on the stereo and the whole place erupted into chaos. He was almost knocked sideways by a stream of people racing down the stairs and by the time he straightened back up again he’d lost her to the masses.
Rupert descended the remaining steps feeling quite dejected and lifted a hand to remove his sunglasses just in time to catch sight of Dan and Evanna having a dance off in the middle of the living room. He watched in bewilderment, laughter bubbling in his throat the longer it went on. Dan was about to get his arse kicked without a doubt.
‘Having fun?’ someone asked him suddenly.
Turning to look at the owner of the voice, his smile softened as he came face-to-face with Emma. She returned his smile and then looked past him, over his shoulder, to what was going on.
‘What on earth is he doing?’ she asked, her soft words laced with mirth.
Rupert shrugged and glanced back to watch Dan. ‘I suspect James has been giving him vodka jelly… it has that effect,’ he said quite seriously. ‘At least, it has that effect on Radcliffe anyway.’
Laughing melodically, she turned back to him and playfully tugged on a lock of her wig. ‘Look, we match,’ she teased.
He smiled, casually moving to fold his arms across his chest. ‘You’ll make a Weasley yet, Em.’ he responded lightly. ‘But it still looks better on me.’
‘I suppose you’re right, yes,’ said Emma, nodding thoughtfully.
‘Thanks.’ Rupert chuckled as he cast his gaze in the direction of the drinks table. ‘So… can I interest you in a drink or something?’
With a nod, she offered her arm and let him lead her over, where he quickly grabbed another beer for himself and an orange juice for Emma (‘Better safe than sorry, right?’). They circled the party several times together, chatting absently to friends, but never daring to stray more than five foot from each other.
Eventually they found themselves at the front door and Rupert pushed it open, following Emma out onto the steps and taking a seat beside her. Above them, the sky remained clear, stars dotting the inky black as far as the eye could see, making it the perfect evening to sit and simply be. He wrapped his arms around himself and stared up into the abyss, bottle of Carling clutched tightly in his hand.
‘Happy birthday by the way,’ she murmured eventually and he looked her way just in time to see the warm and contented smile dance across her features. ‘I still need to give you my present at some point. Don’t let me forget.’
‘I won’t, I’m looking forward to it,’ he told her truthfully.
Emma beamed, although her gaze dropped to her hands where she anxiously began to pick at her nails. ‘Let’s hope you like it then,’ she responded softly. ‘I’d hate to disappoint.’
‘Yeah, that’s never going to happen…’
It wouldn’t either, he knew Emma too well and she, in turn, knew him just as well, if not better. Some bonds were unbreakable and more importantly, unforgettable. There was no one in the world he knew as well as Emma… aside from the possibility of Dan anyway, God love him.
Rupert let a breath go gently, realising that the silence had gone on a little longer than he may have liked. ‘So, you know… how’re things?’ he questioned, forcing himself to break it.
‘Oh, they’re…’ Emma paused and shrugged. ‘They’re fine, really. The teasing’s stopped, so I think they’re all ignoring me out of shame now.’
At that he looked back to the party inside, a small frown crossing his features. He hated to see her down like that, especially when the pain had been caused by people they regarded as friends, too. Sure people could point the finger all they liked, but as for actually putting her through that hell? Well, if wasn’t fair and he was a tad disgusted by it all really.
‘They’re all idiots,’ he supplied eventually.
‘Yeah, they are…’
They shared a fleeting look before Emma burst out laughing, hiding her face away behind her hands. All he could do was watch as her entire body shook with mirth. He just about managed to refrain from joining in and took her drink away before she dropped it, shaking his head in amusement.
By the time she recovered again, he’d placed his beer aside too, and regarded her with a warm smile. ‘Thank you for coming tonight, Em, I really--’
‘Don’t say it!’ she shot, cutting him off and placing a finger to his lips. ‘Of course I’d be here. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be to be honest, and know sometimes you find that really hard to believe…’ She sighed, dropping her hand down again. ‘But you’re – you – Well, you’re one of the only people who has stuck by me and I don’t think I’ve ever really thanked you for it.’
‘You don’t need to…’
‘But I do!’ Emma exploded. ‘I treated you like crap and you’re still here and--’
‘Em…’ This time it was his turn to cut her off, his voice gentle as he leant into her and reached out to cup her chin in his hand.
As the pad of his thumb brushed across her cheek, their eyes met very briefly and then before he could chicken out again, he closed the gap between them and kissed her sweetly. It didn’t take him long to lose himself to the moment and she responded enthusiastically, arms coming up to encircle his neck as she pressed her body up against his. Her soft sighs and moans echoed in his head as he trailed curious fingers over her skin.
Emma was first to pull back, eyes alight and cheeks flushed as she bit down impishly on her lower lip. ‘I still need to--’
‘No you don’t,’ Rupert argued softly, cutting her off once again, his eyes searching her face. ‘Apology accepted, OK? Just… I don’t know, don’t say anything else. Please.’
‘I think I can manage that,’ she murmured, embarrassment beginning to show.
He nodded, playful smile on his face as he slid his other hand skilfully over her thigh and leant in to silence her one final time.
.x.
