After a busy night (Jack and Eva)

[Jack Irvine]

Jack wandered into the Ministry of Magic, ignoring the wizards who sneered in contempt when they saw that he was carrying pistols instead of a wand. Wizard-kind had been forced to accept squibs when the war came along because they needed the man power and squibs were the ones most likely to use guns and other muggle weapons.

As he made his way to the department of mysteries he reflected on the person he'd come to meet. He enjoyed Evangelines company and today he was going to teach her how to play blackjack. He walked through the corridors to the small cafe area for the employees and set down. Placing his cards on the table he waited for Eva.

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline was quite surprised when she had gotten a letter, it was written rather scrufflily and she knew that it would be from Jack, after all who else would want to write her a letter? They'd had enough time to do it before now after all.

When she had been told that she was to meet him in the canteen of the Ministry Evangeline was more than a little worried about doing so because she had not liked being around lots of humans since she arrived here, they tended to stare at her and talk about her when she did not want them to. It was very rude.

Walking through the halls of the Ministry in her ripped denim jeans, black of course, her black corset was partially hidden by her skull scarf, her mohawk making her taller than most of the other people working at the ministry.

Spotting Jack she sat down next to him.

"Hello." she said quietly, after silently sneaking up on him.

[Jack Irvine]

Jack was shuffling his cards as he thought about Evangeline. She was a mystery and Jack was a sucker for a good mystery. It also helped that this mystery happened to be quite an attractive woman too. Oh who was he kidding? Jack was a sucker for an attractive goth girl and Evangeline was a hot goth girl.

The voice behind him made him jump and he turned round to see Evangeline stood there. He relaxed slightly,

"Jaysus Christ Eva!" he laughed a little bit, "Ye scared te hell outa me ter! Good te see ye Eva. Ye like te letter?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline could not help but let her small grin show through, she liked scaring people when she meant to, it was quite fun to see their reactions, and Jack's had been quite good. Patting him gently on the head she sat down opposite him.

When he spoke to her, she tilted her head to one side and she frowned a little bit before asking; "Why do you shorten my name?" she had never had someone shorten her name before, maybe it was too long to say?

The letter, embarrassed to say she had kept envalope and all.

"I did very much enjoy the letter, it was very nice." she said honestly "Have you come to teach me cards like you said you would?"

Noting a few people looking at Jack in a not very nice way Evangelica set her dark silver gaze on them and they quickly walked away, muttering about her instead. "People are silly, they were staring at you."

[Jack Irvine]

The small grin was a large reaction as far as Eva was concerned he knew so he grinned back at her. Seemed that she enjoyed being able to scare people when she wanted to. He pouted when she patted his head before sticking his tongue out at her. Seeing her confusion he chuckled a little bit,

"Well I like te give people I care abou' a lil nickname." he told her before suddenly feeling a bit vulnerable, "Do ye not wan' me te?"

He grinned when she said that she enjoyed the letter,

"I'm glad tha you enjoyed te letter Eva, I had hoped te give ye a good letter fer yer first letter." he told her happily before grinning, "Damn righ I have! We're gunna play some blackjack!"

He shrugged a little bit as he dealt the two of them two hands, open so the cards faced up,

"People don' seem te like me fer some reason." he shrugged again before smiling, "Ye see the cards with pictures o people on tem? Tey're worth ten alrigh?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline noted that he seemed to pout again when she patted his hair, it was strange because now he looked still stupid but in an endearing way, when he explained about the nicknames she was a little bit flabbergasted because she did not know what it was to begin with, she flushed a small shade of grey before recomposing herself.

"I have just never been given a nickname before so...I did not know what it was, I am happy to be given one, and it's not something stupid either like some peoples are." she said, thinking about this for a moment.

Blinking when she recieved the cards she left them face down on the table and she wondered what she was supposed to do with them now, was she supposed to pick them up?

"I think it's because they think you're going to flip out and kill them." she said honestly before looking at the pictures with a happy little smile on her lips, albeit a small one "I understand. I am to keep my cards hidden from you yes?"

[Jack Irvine]

Jack ruffled his own hair to get it back to how he liked it; untidy and with absolutely no sense of direction. When he saw her pale face flush a shade of grey he grinned. His brother had told him what that meant,

"Ye never been given a nickname? Well ten mine will be yer first and yer best now won' it?" he told her with a happy grin before smirking, "I can see by ye blush tha yer like it."

He saw her looking at her cards with curiosity and couldn't help but smile. He really did enjoy teaching people how to play cards,

"Well tey're jus' gunna have te wait. I don' kill when I can be playin cards instead." he teased her before nodding, "That's righ. Te number'd cards are worth te number on tem an' te ace, te one wit te A, can be worth 11 or 1, whichever ye want. Now yer supposed te get as close as ye can te 21 without goin over... with me so far?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline was not very happy when she found out that James had told Jack what happened when she blushed, she did not know why she was unhappy about it, she just was. It confused her a little bit but she decided not to dwell on it too much.

"I don't know about the best, we never know what will happen in the future, I might get one that I like better than a simple shortening of my name."

Making a small noise in the back of her throat, she hummed and she looked at her cards, so she needed to get to twenty one did she? Well she had not enough numbers here to get there by far.

"What do you do if you need another card?" she asked with a slightly confused look on her face "Do I just take one?"

Already she found that she quite liked this game, it seemed simple and easy to remember.

[Jack Irvine]

Jack chuckled a little bit when she saw the small amount of anger flash through Evangeline's eyes, thankfully not directed at him. If he had to guess he wouldn't like to be his brother when Evangeline got her hands on him. He pouted a little bit before smirking,

"Who know maybe I'll be te one te give tha one te ye too!" he suggested with a grin, "Ah but tha's in te future. Some nicknames ye have to get through experience after all."

Seeing that she was getting the hang of the game even without him telling her the next steps he grinned,

"If ye wan' another card ye say 'hit' or 'twist' and te dealer, me, will give ye another card." he gave her another card from the deck, "If ye tink ye got a good score, that's 21 or below, ye say 'stick' and ten ye wait fer me to do my go. So 'stick' or 'hit' Eva?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline did not really appreciate being laughed at but she thought that perhaps she had done something that would be funny for Jack to see, in fact she would try to see if he was doing of the things that James told her he would do.

"You make a good point, although I think that there are some nicknames you could give me already, however, I am not sure that any of them would be very pleasant."

Nodding her head, she tapped her finger on the table, what was there to do when you only had eight as a card? With a small sigh she decided that she would have to twist;

"I would like to twist please." she said matter of factly her expression remaining neutral throughout the whole period when the game had 'officially' begun.

[Jack Irvine]

He shook his head a little bit. Despite what Evangeline might think, probably based on everyone elses reactions to her, she was not a bad person so there were not any bad nicknames that could really be applied to her,

"I don' tink ter are any nicknames like tha, not tha can be used fer ye." he told her with a happy smile, "Yer a nice person after all. Ter can only be nice nicknames abou' yer."

Seeing her watching her cards carefully, with her expression neutral, he couldn't help but grin. If he could play cards with Evangeline more often then chances were he was going to be killing less people and he got the impression Evangeline like that. He nodded,

"Alrigh ten." he gave her a card from the deck, "Hows it lookin so far Eva? Ye goin te stick or twist?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline wondered if there was something that she could do to make Jack smile like this more often it made his face look even better than it did before and she liked it very much. Staring at her cards to try and keep her attention elsewhere.

"Thank you, although a girl who meddles with souls and the dead is likely to have very unpleasant nicknames, but thank you for saying so anyway."

When she was given the new card Evangeline looked at it, an ace...so that could be nineteen or nine according to Jack, blinking a little bit while she thought Evangeline decided to go for another card.

"Another card please." she said quietly.

[Jack Irvine]

Seeing Evangeline concentrating so hard on her hards made Jack smile wider, she was going to be a good player he could just tell. And as much as he enjoyed playing cards for the sake of playing cards, it got a bit boring when all he was doing time after time was beating James,

"Well ten tey can all go te hell." he said with a wave of his hand before smiling at her again, "I've taken te time te talk te ye and yer a much better person tan tey give ye credit fer."

Jack shuffled the deck again before handing her the card from the top of the deck,

"Here ye go Eva."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline couldn't help but let her small smile appear on her lips, as shaky as ever, it was something that she liked to be told, that she wasn't as bad as she thought many people saw her as, it was unfair that people thought badly of her...just because of what she was.

"Thank you." she said simply "I am glad that I am not what I appear to be, nobody is I suppose."

When she was passed the card she smiled gently when she saw that it was a Queen, that meant she had nineteen cards, what was the chance of her getting a two? Or another ace? Not likely.

So with that she placed the cards on the table and nodded;

"I shall stick with that thank you." she said and then asked casually "Do you perhaps want to hug me?"

[Jack Irvine]

The shaky smile made Jack smiled wider, he'd come to realise that her shaky smile was the one that meant she appreciated something. He knew that others must treat her badly but to him she was nothing but a person doing her job, and a nice person at that,

"No we're all weird lil mixtures of tings am I righ?" he asked with a grin, "But yer seem te be more good and more cute tan many people."

Seeing her place her cards on the table he grinned and looked at his own cards for the first time,

"Alrigh you stick an' I'll... twist." he took a card from the deck and swore, "Damn! Another king! Tha means I'm over 21 an' I lose, making you te winner."

He blinked a little bit at the sudden question before smiling,

"Yer know wha? I would like te give yer a hug actually!" he smiled, "Yer want one?"

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline thought that Jack was complimenting her an awful lot, and she thought that would mean that he liked her, it would seem that it would fit in with what James told her he would do, and it was making her feel slightly happy to hear what he truly thought of her.

"You are complimenting me a lot Jack." she said simply "Its odd. I have never been complimented so much in one conversation."

When he swore Evangeline couldn't help but keep the shakey smile on her face, that meant that she had won? How amazing, she had never played it before and she had won?

"I won?" she asked "That good. I quite like this winning."

Seeing that he told her that he did want a hug, Evangeline smiled a little more and she nodded her head;

"I would like to experience what a hug is like yes."

[Jack Irvine]

When she mentioned that he was complimenting her a lot he opened his mouth to disagree but closed it as he thought about it. The fact was he was complimenting her a lot. Almost as much as he complimented Aurelia actually. But he liked her so he didn't see any harm in complimenting her, especially when he was speaking the truth,

"I don't see any harm in speakin te truth Eva." he told her with a smile, "Is it a good odd? Cus I gotta say I ain' goin te be stoppin any time soon."

He smiled happily, even though he had lost he didn't really care. For Jack it was the playing that mattered to him and the factt that it was making Evangeline happy,

"Yea ye did darlin! Ye won!" he told her with a happy grin, "Well ye can try an keep it up if ye'd like another game."

He couldn't help but feel a bit sad that this was her first hug. Deciding that she needed to have a good first hug, he stood up and walked round the table. He helped her up by taking her hand before wrapping his arms around her tightly and holding her to him in a nice, warm, hug,

"Her ye go, te best Irish hug ye can get."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline did not understand why people were so different in their thoughts about her, so many people thought that she was creepy, thought that she was the stuff of nightmares even that to be complimented...was very very surreal to her.

"It is different, and different is good." she said quietly "I like being complimented a lot better than being insulted...so I would like you to continue."

When Jack seemed happy she won, Evangeline's shaky smile grew a little bit and she looked at her cards and nodded her head, she would like to play again, she hoped she would be able to win once more.

"I...I think I would like to play again." she smiled.

Seeing that Jack was getting up off the chair she too got up and stood still while he hugged her and realised that many humans wrapped their arms around the person hugging them in return. Very mechanically she placed her arms on his waist.

"Am I doing this correctly?" Evangeline asked, unsure.

[Jack Irvine]

Jack didn't quite understand how anyone could spend more than five minutes with Evangeline and still think that she was some kind of evil creature. She was a lovely person after all and that was coming from him, the most sceptical person in the world,

"Well ten I'm glad te be different." he told her happily, "Ten you'll have noi worries cus it's easy te compliment a beautiful woman like ye."

Seeing her shaky smile grow slightly large Jack decided that another game would be a very good idea. He collected the cards and shuffled when she agreed it would be a good idea. He dealt two cards each,

"Alrigh ten! Yer go ten Eva!"

When she wrapped her arms around him he siled a little bit at her enthusiasm, even if the action was very stiff. Deciding to teach her some hugging technique he grinned,

"Tha's righ but ye hav te relax inte te hug... can ye do tha fer me? Just relax an lean again' me."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline could not help but let the small blush appear on her cheeks again before she covered it, blinking a little when he called her beautiful once more she could not stop herself asking what she knew was quite a rude question;

"Are your eyes functioning correctly?" Evangeline asked "I'm not exactly a picture and I am aware of this, I am not even human."

When he dealt her two more cards, Evangeline kept her neutral face but she was grinning inside, placing her cards back down she nodded at Jack; "I am going to stick."

The fact that she had hugged Jack back was a feat in itself, seeing as she had never had a proper hug before, and did not like her space being invaded. Trying to lean against him in a more relaxed manner she was still rather stiff in his arms but she was trying.

"Is this right now?" she asked curiously.

[Jack Irvine]

The small blush that appeared made Jack grin, it made her look all the cuter with her grey cheeks darkening slightly as she blushed. Although she didn't seem to think she was beautiful. He frowned slightly before jokingly waving a hand in front of his eyes,

"Yea my eyes are workin jus' fine." he told her with a grin, "Which means ye mus be beautiful, regardless of whatever anyone else says. What can I say, yer got tha gothic beauty goin fer yer."

When she immediately said that she was going to stick, Jack was one his guard, this could turn out to be pretty bad for him,

"Alrigh, confident are ye?" he chuckled before checking his own cards. 18. Not a good number. He hummed before deciding to chance it, "Stick. Wha' yer got ten Eva?"

She relaxed ever so slightly in his arms so that she didn't appear to be made out of solid wood. He smiled a little bit as he gave her a small squeeze in the hug,

"Yer're doin very well." he told her before smiling, "I'll hav ter give yer some hugs randomly te check how ye progressin."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline looked at Jack and she could not help but let her cheeks darken again he really knew how to ellicit emotions out of her and she was not sure that she liked it, it was strange to her and it made her feel out of control.

"Gothic beauty?" she asked "You mean my mohawk, and my clothes? I just enjoy the style, that is why I wear them. I am glad you think they suit me."

Seeing the cards Jack had Evangeline laid her hand down on the table, two Queens, and she let the shaky smile keep coming back on her lips, she had won again.

"I won?" she asked quietly.

Gently, Evangelica looked up at Jack while she hugged him and moved one of her hands to his face, placing it on his cheek, blinking she allowed her smile to return and she stroked his cheek slightly with a small chuckle.

"This is the closest I've ever been to a person when they're alive...you're warm, I find it nice."

[Jack Irvine]

Jack grinned when her cheeks darkened in her lovely little blush again, it made her look even more beautiful to him. Of course it would probably feel strange to Evangeline if it turned out that this was the first time she had flirted with someone,

"Aye gothic beauty." he said again with a grin, "It's those lovely features of yerself but also yer unique an' beautiful skin stone and te smoothness of ye skin."

When she laid her cards on the table and smiled at him again he grinned in response and showed her that his total was below his,

"Ye won yet again Eva!" he shuffled the cards before handing her the deck, "Yer wan' te try ye hand at shufflin?"

When she was the one to move her hand up to touch his cheek, Jack was a little surprised but he recovered enough to smile and nuzzle his cheek into her hand,

"Well all ye hav te do is ask an' I'll be ter to hug ye nice and tight."

[Evangeline Webb]

Evangeline found herself pressing her hand against her skin and she wondered if it was really something that anyone could find attractive, it was strange that he was going to be able to enjoy such a factor of her own appearence.

"I suppose my skin is smooth because I don't have any intake of food or drink to make my complexion poor." she said with a small frown as she thought about it.

Taking the cards Evangeline looked at the deck before placing one card behind the back of the deck, one card in the middle, then one card at the end and one card in the middle.

"This seems to be taking a while, is this right?" she asked confusedly.

When he told her that she could have a hug whenever she wanted, Evangeline coughed a little and wanted to suggest something but she was too worried about what Jack might think.

[Jack Irvine]

The way that she touched her skin in disbelief made Jack smile a little wider, he did find her skin tone and smoothness something very attractive about her but then again he was strangely attracted to everything that he knew about her,

"Well now tha would explain it." he agreed before gently reaching up and cupping her cheek. He stroked her cheek slightly, "Ye have an amazing complexion."

Seeing her shuffling rather slowly, Jack smiled a little bit before shaking his head a bit,

"Here let me show yer." he told her before showing her how to shuffle the deck by sliding two piles of cards together, "Much faster righ?"

When she coughed she looked nervous so he smiled and gave her a reassuring squeeze in the hug,

"Yea Eva?"

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