Finn Lynch lives a quiet, tranquil life in a rural village in the mountains. Her life may lack spontaneity and excitement, but at least it's peaceful. And if it's a little lonely too, then she can't complain too much - she's still happy, after all.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
As August settles heavily over the hills, the mountains come alive with blossoming flowers and heavy greenery. The sun beats down, yellowing the grass and drying up the marshy mud that is usually a year-round feature of the mountains.
In the days following their argument at the shop, Finn had tried to avoid Regulus to the best of her ability. Unfortunately, the house isn't that big and the warm temperature drives them both outside, so they end up being stuck in each other's orbit constantly. It grates on her nerves, but they're not as aggressive with each other as they had been in the first few weeks of their cohabitation so it's marginally easier to cope with his presence.
Most days, they spend the hazy afternoons outside in the warm sunshine. They maintain a healthy distance between them, and manage to exist civilly outside in the garden.
Despite her best attempts at dodging a sun-burn, Finn has been largely unsuccessful. Her love of laying out in the sun has bitten her in the behind, because now she's stuck with tender reddened skin over her shoulders and across her nose and cheeks.
As she smokes in the comfortable shade of the porch, she picks absently at where the burn has started to peel. It's another lovely day, and she looks out admiringly at the blooming greenery over the hills.
"It's hot." Regulus complains. He's laying out on the grass several feet away from where Finn is huddled on the porch, but he raises his voice to make sure that she can hear him. "How do Muggles live without cooling charms? I think I'm going to die."
Despite the complaints, he makes no move to get out of the sun. Finn just rolls her eyes at the dramatics.
"Stop moaning," Finn grumbles, still scratching at her peeling sunburn. "This sunshine is probably only going to last another week or so before it turns back to clouds, so you may as well enjoy it while you can."
She's hoping that he'll let them lapse back into silence again — the only reason they don't argue when they're outside like this is because they usually don't talk to each other at all. But instead of going quiet, Regulus rolls onto his side and squints up at her through the glaring sunlight.
"Hey. I have a request."
"Of course you do." Finn mumbles, a little resentfully. He always seems to be demanding more from her. "What do you want?"
Regulus' nose wrinkles a little when he notices the way she's picking at her sunburn, but thankfully he doesn't mention it; even though he himself has skin like porcelain and despite the hours he spends in the sun, it's as though he's impervious to sunburn. It's very irritating.
"You mentioned, when I first came here, that your uncle keeps an owl here." He says slowly, resting his chin in his palm as his other hand skims over the grass that he's laying on.
"Yeah." Finn says absently, finishing off her cigarette. "Keeps him in the barn out back. Uncle Al sends letters every so often even now — the owls drop them off at the little post box at the bottom of the hill. Uncle Al said that he won't find his way back cause of the spell, so he should just sit at the letter box until someone comes to get him."
