How Was Your Day? (Tag Dean)

Belle figured a little visit couldn't hurt. She had some free time on her hands and she didn't feel like finishing her romance novel yet. Besides, she had enough romance going on around her, what with Evaine being caught between two boys and Jayden falling head over heels for Eli. Just thinking about it all made her head spin a little bit, and talking to somebody level-headed like Dean would probably set her right. Besides, she wanted to ask him how his first class went. She managed to find his classroom without any trouble and knocked softly against the door. "Dean?" she called. "You in there?"

"Doors open!" Dean called, he was sitting in a chair with his injured foot propped up on a second one. He was trying to get up the nerve to realign his ankle but it was proving difficult. He had decided against the hospital wing once he remembered how bad the potions tasted. He had seen his father realign bones several times so he understood the procedure, but he wasn't looking forward to the pain that went with it.

He had a bucket of ice next to him, to ease any bruising or swelling that may occur and a thick piece of cloth so that way he wouldn't bite his tongue off.

Belle opened the door, wondering if Dean was swamped with grading papers or something. It had sounded he was at his desk or something. But instead, she saw his foot propped up on a chair, and from the looks of it, it looked like it had gotten hurt or something. Even from a far distance, she could tell how much it had swollen up. "Dean, what happened?" she cried frantically as she hurried over. "Why on Earth aren't you at the Hospital Wing? The doctors there aren't scary, honest."

Dean grinned and rolled his eyes, "One, its nothing I can't fix, two, this is what I get for introducing low contact sports to angst ridden teenagers."

He shoved his foot into the bucket of ice to numb it before he actually did anything more to it.

Belle's brow still furrowed in worry. "Are you sure? I mean, it looks pretty bad from what I can see..." She was tempted to poke Dean's swollen foot, but no doubt that would cause him some pain. "Sports? Ugh, kids always play too rough when it comes to that kind of stuff. You should see them at Quidditch matches. They can turn downright vicious out there. Do you have something more mellow to show them next time, like...I don't know, a rubber duck or something?"

He gave her a dry look, "A rubber duck, really? If I showed them that the muggle borns would kill me in my sleep."

"And yes, I'm sure its fine, I've seen this done hundreds of times," he was exaggerating, But Belle tended to worry a lot. He pulled his foot from the ice and placed a firm hand against the spot where he could feel the out of place bone.

"Now talk, what brought you down here?" having her talk would be a good distraction, he put the cloth in his mouth and prepared to bite down.

Belle laughed a little. "It's safer than whatever sport you were showing them," she teased. She hoped that none of the students had gotten injured. That would be a great way for them to start off their first Muggle Studies class. She sighed, but didn't stop Dean from fixing his foot on his own. He was stubborn that way. She'd probably have to knock him out cold if she wanted to get him to the Hospital Wing. "Well, I was gonna ask how your class went, but I guess this is obvious enough," she said, gesturing to his foot. "Seems like if people around here are either getting hurt somehow or having love troubles. That's all I've been hearing about for a while now."

He grinned through the mouthful of cloth, then bit down on it as he shoved the bone back into place. He clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth as the pain swept through his body. When it subsided he spat out the cloth and put his foot back in the bucket of ice.

"Love troubles huh? Since when have you been the love guru?" he asked with a shaky grin, "And it was just football, it supposed to be a low contact sport."

"Good God Dean, don't hurt yourself more," Belle fretted, putting her hands on his shoulders to keep him steady. She felt tempted to pull out her wand and try a spell or two, but she was no doctor, and there was a good chance she could do something dumb, like remove Dean's foot entirely. She vaguely remembered things like that happening to students when they first learned to Apparate. "You'd be surprised," she said, glad to see that Dean was still his snarky self, despite his foot being in pain. "I've already had one girl ask me for advice because she liked two guys at the same time. It seemed to worry her a lot." She blinked for a moment. "Football...is that the one where they kick the circular ball at each other? Or is it the one where they throw a tiny ball and smack it with something that looks like a Beater's club?"

"Belle," He looked up at her, "I want you to think about that really hard for a second. Which one of those would have the name FOOT-ball."

"Its all those damn romance books you read, I swear," He poked her gently, "When are you gonna get married and finally start living one for yourself?"

She had been a romantic for as long as he could remember, and although she had dated during school she had always broken it off claiming, "He wasn't the right one."

"I don't know, okay? You're the expert here," Belle laughed, giving him a playful shove. Coming from a Pureblood family did have its disadvantages sometimes. She hardly knew anything about Muggle stuff, despite taking the class for a little while in school. She rolled her eyes. "You're the third person who's asked me about my love life, you know. Is it really that fascinating of a subject? I'm still young, Dean. I've got plenty of time." She gave a little smile. "Maybe I should ask you the same question. Impressed anyone with your vast knowledge of Muggle objects and motorcycles?"

He couldn't help it, he laughed, "Belle most muggle women think Im a dead-beat. And most witches think I'm crazy for preferring muggles over magic."

He shook his head, "Romance is not in my future but you just need to stop being so damn picky."

Belle smiled. "That's because they don't know you like I do," she said, patting him on the head before laughing again. "Maybe I should get all potential suitors to bring you some coffee. I bet you'd like that." She knew how much of a coffee addict Dean was, and it never failed to amuse her. "Better to be picky than unhappy," she said, giving a little shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, it's not like I desperately need a husband now. I'm pretty content here with the students and my job. It's when those two things stop being enough for me that I'll start worrying about my love life."

"They do that and Ill end up with a harem," he joked. He took his foot out of the ice and carefully wrapped it.

"speaking of coffee..." he got to his feet and limped to the coffee maker, "do you want a cup?"

"Well, that would be an interesting thing to see whenever I stop by to visit you," Belle teased, smiling. Of course, Dean would probably be the last person to have something like a harem. He wouldn't know what to do with himself. Although she thought that Jayden would be the type of guy to want something like that, if he was interested in women in the first place. "Sure," she replied, but as soon as he started limping over to the coffee maker, she gave him a look. "Dean, come on, you shouldn't be walking on it like that," she said, fretting like a mother hen as she walked over to him. "You'll just hurt yourself."

He pouted slightly before complying and sitting back down, "But Belle, I need my caffeine."

He tried reaching over to turn on the machine, but it was too far for his arms, "Dammit," he muttered taking out his wand from the long pocket he had sewn onto his jeans, "I hate asking the house elves to make me a cup. Its never strong enough."

"Oh stop it, you sound like a child," Belle said, a smirk on her face. "Just tell me how to work the darn thing and I'll make us some coffee." Of course, Belle had no idea how to work the coffee machine. She usually used her wand to make drinks, which was usually a tea of some kind. But she figured it would be a good thing to learn how to use it. Her brow furrowed as she looked it over. "Does this have one of those electric chord thingies that you stick into the wall?" she asked, looking at the machine like it was an exotic animal.

"It's already plugged in," he pointed to a water jug next to the machine, "first you pour water into the top just until the line that says 'max'. Then pull out the basket, the handle sticks out, and put one of the paper filters in the basket. Add 3 scoops of the coffee grounds, replace the basket, then hit the red button."

As he explained he pointed to several items on the shelf next to the machine.

"Okay, I got this," Belle muttered, getting pumped up like she was about to watch a Quidditch match. To her surprise though, the instructions weren't too hard to follow. It vaguely reminded her of when she would mix plant stuff together to make a potion of some sort. She did knock over the coffee grounds once, but with a flick of her wand, they swooped back up as she muttered "Five second rule," under her breath. After she pressed the red button, she gave a little whoop. "Ha ha, in your face!" she yelled at the coffee machine like it was an opponent she had just beaten. Of course, she turned beet red as she remembered that Dean was in the room.

Dean snorted in amusement as she cheered, "That wasn't so hard was it?" he teased.

"It tastes better made the muggle way," Dean commented, "Everything does. Not that the house elves' cooking isn't top notch, there is just something to be said about doing it yourself."

Dean liked cooking, barbecue most of all, and during his student years at Hogwarts he always misses his neighbor's homemade cookies and biscotties. Since his father was a single man raising a son the women of his neighbor hood tended to spoil them.

"Surprisingly, no," Belle commented as she flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. "I guess I know what you mean," she acknowledged. "My mother rarely used magic when she made her tea. She said it tasted better that way, and I have to agree with her." The idea of making everything without magic though boggled her mind. How on Earth did people have free time to do anything when they didn't have wands? It was an interesting thing to think about sometimes.

"Well it looks good," Dean complimented as the amber liquid started to trickle down into the empty pot, "now we wait and in five minutes I'll have something better than any pain killer." he grinned eagerly anticipating his drink.

((OOC: I'm off to bed, I shall be on again tomorrow.))

Belle laughed. "Are you sure I can't convince you to drink a tea of some sort? They say it's better for you and can help you relax a bit. Don't want you to become too much of a caffeine addict." Plus, she could actually make tea without yelling at inanimate objects, which was a plus in her book.

((Good night! ))

"You'd be surprised to know that black tea actually has more caffeine than coffee, not to mention, I've been an addict since I was ten."

He had arrived at Hogwarts addicted to coffee, making his teachers wonder just how his muggle father had raised him, and he had graduated with a coffee cup in hand.

Belle laughed. "I prefer jasmine tea," she simply said, tossing her hair back a little. "Relaxes me before I go to sleep. And it keeps me warm when the snow rolls in. And you know how much I hate the cold. I'm like a plant that way, you know?" Belle was infamous for bundling up like an Eskimo when the winter months came around. "Ten? I didn't know that. Although I do remember you drinking coffee ever since we first met in school. You were always the one who could stay up the longest when final exams rolled around."