dreaming of revelry;

[Kelly Evans]

Living with a woman who just happened to be engaged to be married to Straw Buckett was not an easy gig, Kelly Evans was beginning to realise. While Straw had more or less lived at her apartment before Kat came back, and they rekindled their star-crossed romance and decided to get married, he had at least bought his own food, or had paid for take away. Now, though, he claimed everything. He ate her food, he used her wand to clean his ears and he did not put the toilet seat back down. It was frustrating for a neat freak such as Kelly Evans, and she was almost at her wits end.

Don't get the witch wrong, though. She loved Straw, he was like the older, annoying, filthy brother she never had. He had been her rock for a very long time, and she imagined that he would remain as such for a very long time. But her food was always gone, and while she had copious amounts of money at her disposal, though she prefered to use only the money she earned by hard work than by inheritance, Kelly did not like to spend lots of it on food not even eaten by her. More than once the witch had approached Straw on the subject, and more than once Straw had laughed her off as being too strict.

He'll see too strict when I curse his jaw closed, came the bitter thought as she recalled that particular encounter. Thus, Kelly Evans, a hard plastic basket trailing after her, apparently hovering through mid air, stalked through Wand Mart for the fourth time that week, looking for food that she knew Straw would not like, and so would not eat. She got hungry too, despite her wraith-like state lately. She got hungry, and when she opened her fridge, she wanted food to be in it. Not wrappers or empty containers that used to hold food. Real food. And she wanted it now.

[Kat Samuels]

She was starving, absolutely starving. Over the last week she had eaten more than enough to feed a small army, having had to, on occasion, steal food secretly from her friend to keep herself satiated. She knew that Kelly was blaming it on Straw, which worked fine for her. Straw ate like a pig anyway, and as long as she kept restocking their quickly diminishing food supply, everything would be fine. She was sure it would pass anyway.

The one real downside however was that Kat had noticed a slight increase in her weight. Having been the same weight pretty much since she hit puberty, the sudden rise had made her alarmingly depressed. She had, however, decided that the best way to work off this new found gain was to partake in some group exercise. Fortunately, Straw had been more than willing, without asking any questions.

Strolling down the aisles of Wandmart for the umpteenth time that week, Kat lazily filled her shopping cart with anything that took her fancy. Chocolate was a must, as were, for a reason she could not yet identify, having never seen a necessity before, prunes. It was her day off, so she had all the time in the world to waste, as she contemplated the future of married life. Just the idea of one day in the near future strolling down these same aisles, bickering with Straw over the best brand of pasta both thrilled and terrified her. It would be okay, she determined, as long as she won in the end. As long as everything remained the same, even if it was all different.

Turning into the next aisle, Kat found herself face to face with her very disgruntled looking best friend. She was standing over various curry powders, and the very thought made Kat ill. Remembering all too well the turn of events that had occurred last time she had had the foul stuff. Not only had she been terribly gassy, much to Straw’s amusement, but she had been violently ill the next morning, and every morning since. She was unable to clear the foul beast from her system.

Feeling particularly green, she looked at her friend and offered a plea for mercy. “Please Kel, anything but the curry. I don’t think I could handle it again. Anything but the curry.” Groaning loudly, she flicked her eyes up and down the aisle. “Take the tandori, that was wonderful the other da—“ wincing significantly, knowing she had let slip her darkest secret, Kat flashed a poor attempt at a disguise towards her friend in the form of her smile. “Or or… spag bol. You know you always love spag bol.” Drats. Her secret was out.

[Kelly Evans]

Her hand paued in mid-air as it headed towards Indian recipes, and Kelly turned her head towards the voice issuing from her best friend. The witch shook her head, chuckling, and withdrew her hand, rolling her dark eyes. "You have the weakest stomach I know of, Samuels," she replied, placing her hands back in the pocket of her jeans as she survyed the shelves of food. "So much for wanting to experience the flavours of the world," Kelly added, poking her tongue out at Kat. The witch grabbed a couple of packets of spaghetti and threw them into the basket hovering behind her shoulder.

Kelly's eyes narrowed at the guilty experience on Kat's face, and she raised an eyebrow. "What did you do? I know you did something, I can tell, it's written all over your face." Kelly frowned gently though, as an after-thought. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought it was my turn to shop? Neither of us should have to; Straw Buckett should be replacing all the food he continually eats from the cupboard. You would think that he didn't have his own house full of food," she ranted. Kelly walked as she chatted, and picked up bottles of pasta sauce, placing them a tad more gently in the basket than the spaghetti.

Since Kat had stopped her buying curry, Kelly peered into the trolley that was following her friend. She quickly wrinkled her nose, though, and shook her head. "Okay, if I can't bring curry into the house, you cannot bring prunes. Prunes are disgusting, you do not want to eat prunes. They will make you sicker than the curry." The witch rolled her eyes again with a grin. "The chocolate can stay, though."

[Kat Samuels]

Pouting in mock upset at her friend, Kat chuckled at her flavours of the world reference, muttering coolly back a reply. “I’m all for the flavours of the world, I’d just like to spread out the experience across the rest of my life. I think I’ll save curry til last.” Lounging against her trolley, Kat lazily grabbed at anything that took her fancy, trying not to notice the size of her shop, and what this was going to do to her bank account.

As Kelly questioned her about her slip, Kat attempted to feign ignorance, knowing that it wouldn’t work. The raised-eyebrow look her friend had plastered on her face always made her crack. “Okay, okay, I may have possibly eaten your Tandori, but it was really really good. That should satisfy you, at least a little bit, right?” However as the topic turned to why she was doing the shop, Kat’s face went beetroot. “I.. err.. I… I felt bad, Straw always eating everything and that, and I just wanted to make amends. Yeah, that’s it. He is my fiancé, he should eat my food, not yours.”

Smooth move Samuels. Biting her lip slightly as she noticed Kelly peer towards her trolley, Kat swallowed hard. She expected Kelly to realize how the trolley was filled with all her own favourite foods, and none of Straws, but the only comment that her friend made was on her prunes. Kat actually spluttered. “What’s wrong with my prunes, I mean, you don’t have to eat them, I’m just really really really craving prunes right now.” She was ridiculously worked up over the damn prunes, but this wasn’t the first occasion this week, so Kat was used to it. Whether Kelly was however, was another question. “Prunes are what I need right now” she added, determined. “I’ve been rejecting everything else."

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly rolled her eyes again and laughed, turning away from the shelves of food, her hands on her hips in mock defiance. "Just admit that you are a weakling, and all will be fine. What happened to the Kat Samuels who could eat the boys under the Gryffindor, and one Slytherin, table, huh?" she posed, smiling at the memory. She shook her head, as if trying to shake away the very thought, and turned back to her shopping. She threw a couple more tins of random ingedients into the basket, glad that she didn't have to carry it herself.

The witch's eyes narrowed again as Kat caved, and she sighed. "You know, it's okay. I probably didn't cook it very well anyway. Jack has been opening my eyes to many different flavours, but I have to admit, most of them are out of my culinary reach," Kelly calmly answered, though she bit her tongue as the words left her mouth, knowing they were about to be misconstrued. Kat may have been brought up in a conservative household, but that didn't mean her mind had stayed there.

As Kat flared up about the prunes issue, though, Kelly lost her playful defiance, and frowned. "Kat, it's okay. I was kidding, you can have your prunes. All I'm saying is, they aren't going to make you feel better if you've been sick. And, don't ask me how I know you're sick, I have ears, and if it's not you and Straw prematurely celebrating your marriage keeping me awake it's you throwing up," she said. Kelly shook her head and turned away from Kat again, her friend's words repeating themselves in her head.

"Besides, I swear you've told me you hate prunes on more than one occasion," she added as an afterthought, still unsure as to what they were arguing about. I’m just really really really craving prunes right now...The prunes were, in all essence, immaterial, as pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. One pale hand shot up to cover her mouth as Kelly whipped back around to look at Kat, her hazel eyes very dark and very wide. "Oh my..." she said, her voice muffled by her hand. "You're throwing up, and craving weird things, weird things that you normally hate."

"Oh Merlin. You're pregnant!"