Sweets For My Sweet // Dora

Fussing turned to full on tears as Pansy pulled herself into a standing position at the edge of her cot, her cries unheard by her mother who was still passed out in the dress she’d worn out the night before. Nappy soaked and belly hungry, Pansy wailed loudly, not recognizing the sounds of a visitor entering downstairs. At nine months old, the dark haired girl was plenty accustomed to all manner of people coming and going, feeding her and passing her around as they admired her large dark eyes which were currently filled with tears. Mimi bounded down the stairs with an attempt at a ferocious bark, meeting Fin in the downstairs hallway and jumping excitedly at his heels. She too was used to company in the home, but she knew Fin best of all her owner’s mates and knew that he would certainly feed her if she barked enough at him.

Dora breathed heavily in her sleep, pictures of herself dancing on clouds and surrounded by a dozen men who all looked oddly similar to Hunter, though none exactly like the real thing. Fangy smiles surrounded her, complimenting her, adoring her. Everything had an ethereal glow around it. She knew she was in heaven though none of the Hunters had expressly said as much. The clouds were the giveaway, and the smiles, and the BANG!

Dora jolted awake and groaned under a pile of blankets, not comprehending what is was that had woken her or where she was. It took a few minutes more to recognize that the noise she was hearing was crying – Pansy crying – and then someone was talking. Several seconds passed underneath her groggy blanket fort before she could make out who was talking. Fin. He was yelling. Her head was splitting. Then it was quiet and Dora took a moment put all of the pieces together; she was in her home, Pansy was crying, and Fin was here.

She cursed slowly as she pulled herself out of her cocoon and winced at how bright the room was. She looked to the clock but her vision was blurry with morning haze. Dora sat upright on her bed for several minutes, looking at nothing in particular but feeling an awful sensation in her extremities. Her muscles ached and there was a sharp pain in her joints along her arms and wrists. Massaging them seemed to help minutely but the real issue was the splitting headache that made her want to pull her eyeballs out. Pansy was no longer in the room, but her crying still rang in Dora’s head, intensifying the throbbing behind her eyes. A shower might help, but she currently could not summon enough strength to stand, let alone walk the four meters to her en suite.

Idle threats made their way up to Dora’s bedroom and she groaned. Chocolates and champagne sounded delightful most days but at the moment she simply wanted an elixir to curb her pains and maybe a little something to ease the edge that was coming on now that she was awake. Mustering what energy she could, Dora pulled herself up to her feet and trodded slowly to her en suite. The tile floor was cool against her bare feet, helping to wake her up a bit more and snap her into action more quickly. She turned the bath faucet on and let the water run while she unzipped her dress and wiggled out of it. With the temperature pleasurable and the tub slowly filling, Dora slipped into the tub with a heavy sigh. Running her hands along her soapy skin, Dora inspected the new marks on her body. She would need to hide them before Fin saw them and began asking questions she didn’t have any logical answers for. Cutting had been simple enough to hide, she thought. She could control where she used the severing spell and ensure it was somewhere covered or easily hidden. Hunter was not so considerate of the marks he left on her, but by this point in her life Dora was something of an expert on vanity charms.

She could have stayed in the bath for eternity but Fin was waiting, and more importantly, Pansy. She had clearly slept through the morning and proved herself the horrible mother her own mum had insinuated she would be, but she felt justified in knowing Pansy had been cared for throughout the night until Dora had made it home, so there wasn’t too much damage done. Not really. Pulling herself out of the tub, Dora wrapped a thick towel around her waist and padded back into her bedroom, looking for where she might have left her wand and finding it tangled in her sheets under her plush purple comforter. Wand in hand, the brunette made her way back into the bathroom to begin the task of hiding the fun she had had the night prior. Skin perfectly smooth and creamy once more, Dora dressed and headed down stairs; make up done and hair curled perfectly as if she hadn’t been neglecting her infant daughter all morning. “Wotcher,” she said with a cheery smile as she entered the kitchen nonchalantly. “Morning, love.” She gave Pansy a kiss on the head, noting that she’d been given food. Good. One less thing Dora needed to worry about.

Pansy gnawed on the toast, turning it into a soggy mush that made Dora’s stomach turn. She looked away and looked toward Fin who was asking after her night. “Nothing spectacular,” she shrugged, avoiding eye contact as her gaze continued on toward the cupboard where she kept her potions. She could do with a pain elixir at the moment, but then Fin might get suspicious. Fin’s baby blues were trained on her, she could feel it even without looking directly at him, so she turned toward the cabinet where she kept her glasses instead and pulled one down. “A little dancing. A little socializing.” Let him assume what he would of her socializing, he'd be wrong no matter where his mind went. Fin was one of the few people who had never called her a whore, mostly because he’d been a bit of a whore himself before Jovian came along, but then again, blokes didn’t get the same sort of labels as girls did. Dora moved to the sink, glass in hand, and turned on the tap. Water wouldn’t curb the ache she felt in her bones, but it might help with something. She felt wretched this morning…erm…afternoon.

Wanting to change the subject off her night out, mostly because Fin could read her like a sodding book and would know she’d been out with a vampire somehow, Dora looked pointedly at Fin and smiled. “So where are you taking me this weekend for Valentine’s? I was thinking we could go to Greece again. Who knows, Pans might fancy a baby brother." She gave no thoughts to where her infant daughter would go while she and Fin gallivanted around the little peninsular country, even as Pansy let out a particularly unladylike burp that seemed to scare her, and cause the baby to give a little wail before stuffing mushed toast in her mouth again. "Remember that one year we went there and got lost in Delphi and had to ask the Oracle for directions back to our hotel?” Dora smiled, a slightly pained expression visible in her eyes for a brief moment as an ache swept down her neck and across her shoulders. “She was such a doll. Total fraud though. She thought we were romantic, do you remember?” She wanted to laugh but couldn't; the memory was hysterical to Dora, who would only intermittently find Fin attractive in the romantic sense. Yes, he was an Adonis and he couldn’t not be sexy if he tried, and given the chance she would most certainly shag him into next week, but most of the time Dora really only thought of him as her straight-gay BFF. She drank her water to soothe the pain but it didn’t help. Her hands shook the teensiest bit with the effort of holding her glass up.

The idea of showing up to the Oracle with Fin and a baby in tow was mildly amusing, and Dora smiled briefly at the thought which triggered another pain in her head. Her smile quickly faded, timed perfectly with Fin blowing off her suggestion in favor for spending time with his girlfriend. Dora rolled her eyes and turned back toward the sink where she placed her nearly full cup down. The thing felt like it weighed a stone and her arm was straining to keep it upright. The water wasn’t doing her aches any favors anyway. Fin suggested they go away next week instead, but she was put out by the conversation already. She watched him walk out of the room, leaving her and Pansy to fend for themselves yet again. “Maybe,” she answered in a slightly raised, cold voice so that he could hear her, which only made her wince. “I might have plans.” Nothing concrete just yet, but if Hunter were available she knew he wouldn’t leave her out to dry like Fin was doing now. How stupid Fin would feel knowing his friendship was being bested by a sodding vampire, not that she was going to let on about her new relationship. Fin wouldn’t understand and he’d just go off and moan about it to Jovi who would take it as another excuse to come at Dora again like she had at the night club. Really, they were made for each other, weren’t they? Heartless monsters.

Pansy was making a mess of herself and Dora sneered as she grabbed a tea towel and began wiping the baby’s hands. Pans pulled away from her mother and fussed, but Dora kept on until at least a bit of the mess was wiped away. The edges of Pansy's sleeves had flecks of mushed bread on them but Pansy didn’t seem to mind and Dora was annoyed, so she didn’t bother with it. “Ta-Da.” Dora turned around to see flowers, chocolates, and champagne, with Fin and his stupidly handsome smile plastered on bright. She instantly felt guilty for her sour mood but in her defense, she was in the midst of a spectacular hangover and he’d left her with a messy infant to clean up after. “Oooh, goody! I’ve got some juice, let’s have mimosas!” A little hair of the dog would help perhaps, though the aches she was feeling was the absence of vampire venom or whatever the fuck it was that made her feel so good, but alcohol helped everything. Right? She gave Fin a quick peck on the cheek, then moved toward the refrigerator just as Mimi came bounding in, having heard her name and thinking she was going to get a treat. Pansy squealed, Mimi barked, Dora shoved her head in the fridge and briefly considered slamming the door on her neck but instead said, “orange or cranberry? I’ve got both.”

Fin opted for a traditional mimosa so Dora pulled the jug of orange juice from the fridge and set in on the island counter as she bumped the door of the refrigerator shut with her hip. “I dunno,” she remarked almost defensively as Fin questioned what plans she might have that he didn’t know about. “You’re not the only one with a social life, you know. I may have a date.” She wanted to tell more, to rave about Hunter and how well he treated her when they were together and how the whole world seemed to stop at his touch, but she knew Fin would never understand. Dora pulled her wand from a garter on her thigh as Fin took Mimi over to Pansy and the high chair, and summoned a pair of champagne flutes from the cupboard. She filled Fin’s nearly half full of orange juice, with her own glass having a much smaller portion of juice, before reaching for the champagne bottle and popping the cork. “I’m sort of seeing someone,” she admitted cryptically, though followed it up hastily with “it’s not really anything serious.” Not that he would assume otherwise. Dora didn’t actually date, she had a rotation of regular guys she would meet up with but there was very little dating involved there, and certainly never anyone who would consider her something more than a good shag. She knew where she stood, and she knew Hunter wasn’t going to marry her, but their nights together were magical nonetheless. “Cheers,” she said as she passed Fin his glass, lifting it out of Pansy’s reach as the baby tried grabbing at it. “No liquor until you’re drinking from a real glass,” she teased Pansy before taking a sip of her own drink and praying it helped to ease her throbbing head. Dora made no attempt to take Pansy off Fin’s hands – he woke them up, he could mind the baby.

Valentine’ Day was a sappy holiday that Dora only cared about because it meant that Fin spoilt her a little more than usual, though since he got serious with her cousin that was apparently not the deal anymore. Last year she’d not made a fuss, she’d been so excited at the prospect of Fin and Jovi getting together, but the novelty was wearing off and Jovi had started acting as though she was better than Dora because of her relationship with Fin. Not that Dora was jealous. She had her own men to spend time with, though they were either not the sort she’d want to settle down with (the idea of which was a horrid thought for someone as young as she) or they were the sort who would never see Dora as worthy of anything more than a few rolls in the hay. “Eww, no.” She pulled a face that showed her distaste for the idea of seeing Hunter on Valentine’s day. Not because she didn’t want to or didn’t fancy him, but because it was too coupley. It was very much unDora like. Valentine’s Day was for the loveable and now that Fin had Jovi it seemed there was no one left to love Dora, and thus no point in trying to lock down a date for Saturday. She might as well stay home with Pansy and become a spinster. It seemed her destiny.