ROMANIA: Your eyes shine as bright as the stars -- December 1995 (DONE)

Even though I was a few years her senior, I had met Desi while she was having an internship at the veterinary practice that helped mainly wild magical creatures -- meaning we took our injured dragons there, well, the ones that were tame enough for us to do so.  I had been smitten by her the moment I laid eyes on her beautiful smile.  Unfortunately, it had taken me about six months to ask her on a date and six months later, here we were... neither one of us really labeled what type of relationship we had.  I had just turned twenty-three and Desi had turned nineteen in August.  There were a good handful of years there and there was no reason to rush into anything.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if married life was for me -- I had a dangerous lifestyle and I did not want to lose that at all.  And a family would make me settle down and not do what I loved.  It was ridiculous.  I had to shake my head slightly to clear my thoughts; there was no reason for me to be thinking about anything like this.  I was just going to pick Desi up for our date.  We were going to go ice skating and to have some fun in the new fallen snow.  I walked up to her flat and knocked on the door.  I had a small bouquet of red roses for her as well.

I finished putting on some lip gloss and heard the knock on the door.  Charlie was always on time, no matter what.  I smiled as I opened the door and he surprised me wiht some flowers!  "Oh, thank you!" I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside to give him a kiss.  He was such a sweet man, he really was.  "I just have to get my boots and cloak on," I explained.  It always seemed like I was making us late to get to anything.  I did feel bad about it.  At least we didnt' have any reservations that I knew of, so we were okay for tonight.

I could not help but chuckle when she pulled me in.  I kissed her back and let her lead me to the chair.  I took the roses back from her and started to put them in a vase for her so that way she could pull on her boots and whatnot.  I liked to help out.  Besides, I enjoyed trying to keep her on track.  "You look lovely, Des," I told her, grinning at her.  She looked stunning, really.  She always did.  Even when she was covered in some sort of animal fluids... I had felt so bad for laughing at her when she was on her internship there... they had had a bad day.  And we were just adding to it; but our dragons were not what made her get covered in fluids.

I rolled my eyes.  I did not even get as dolled up as usual and he thought I looked lovely.  I had actually finished a twelve hour day... and that was not fun nor did it leave me much time to get cute looking.  I finished donning my cloak and gloves while Charlie put the flower in a vase.  So manly.  It did look funny for someone so muscular and scarred up from dragon burns to be cutting the stems of roses and putting them in a clear vase.  I walked over to him and gave him a kiss.  "You look so handsome standing here and playing with pretty flowers," I teased, but I was being serious about him being handsome.  I grabbed his hand and set down the shears with the other since the flowers were all in place.  I took him over to the door and had to button up his cloak a little bit.  It was chilly out and he did not seem to care.  "Oh Charlie... you're going to make me look like a mother making sure that you keep yourself mostly healthy," I added, giving him a look.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, taking hold of her hand and walking out of her apartment.  I let her lock the door and I led the way down the stairs.  "You don't have to baby me... I am perfectly capable of buttoning my own cloak," I said, giving her a hard time.  We walked arm in arm and made our way to the park that had the pond so we could ice skate.  I smiled at her and saw that she had an interesting look on her face.  "What's up, babe?" I asked her, wondering what exactly was on her mind.

I smiled at him.  "Well... did you really think that I was going to not realize that your birthday was a couple days ago?" I asked him, eyebrows raised at him.  He did not tell me his birthday was in December.  But some of his coworkers thought that I should know.  It was nearly Christmas, too, and I needed to tell him that I had to go back home -- which was now in England again -- to see my family.  We hadn't been dating for a long time, but we had been flirting and hanging out for nearly a year.  His coworkers loved me... but perhaps it's because I gave them as much crap as they dished out.  I wasn't like the rest of the people who worked at the clinic... they were all push overs.  I figured it would be wise to tell him that he would most likely not see me until the new year.

I was going to kill the guys at work.  Only they would have told her about my birthday.  It was not thta I was hiding it from her, I just did not like people making a huge deal about it.  It was just another day in my opinion.  I sighed.  "I wasn't avoiding telling you... I just didn't think about it," I told her honestly, trying to smile at her.

I rolled my eyes a little bit.  "I just have to give you a hard time, babe," I teased, giving him a kiss on his cheek.  "But with it being December... I did have something to tell you," I started, figuring that not seeing each other would not be an entirely bad thing.  I sighed a little bit.  "I won't be in Romania come about the 20th of December, though.  Got to go home for Christmas.  But we could still celebrate or party for New Years."  We got to the lake and I turned to face him as I started to make my boots into ice skates.  I went out onto the lake and waited for him to come out and join me.

Ah yes... it was nearly Christmas.  I had never even told my parents if I was going to be able to make it out.  I guess since we really weren't that much of an item, it made sense that we weren't going to be with each other for the holidays.  I just hoped we would be.  "Where are you heading now?  They travel all over the place," I said, laughing as Desi rolled her eyes again.  "I should probably head home, too... and since there will be nothing to keep me in Romania, I'm sure the guys could live without me while I went home to The Burrow."

I furrowed my brow slightly as we skated on the pond holding hands.  "The Burrow?" I questioned.  What an odd place... I had never heard of that town or anything.  And I have been all over the world so many times... one reason why I hated my parents.  I really did not want to go back home, but it was Christmas after all... besides, maybe I would be able to stop in to see the Lupins.  Remus and I sort of kept in touch... I wish we were closer, but there was a huge age gap and since I was the product of people he hated, I understood why he had such a hard time.  I actually talked more to his wife, Chloe, about the family.  She seemed to be able to see me as a seperate entity than my mother -- which I definitely was -- but still.  "Oh, and they're back in England this year," I said, answering Charlie's question.  I guess I should stop wondering about a lot of other things that I cannot change and stay with the conversation and the man at hand.

I laughed at the expression on her face. "That's what we call my childhood home. It's not the town or anything, but rather the home. I have no idea where it came from, but I think Bill called it that at one point and it stuck," I explained, spinning her around on her skates. I loved seeing her smile from the unexpected... and that definitely was. She nearly fell and I caught her and pulled her close so she could fall more into me than onto the much harder ice. "And England? Really? The Burrow is out there... perhaps we will see each other after all," I suggested. We were kind of on awkward ground when it came down to seeing each other over the holiday. I wanted to be with her as much as we could manage; I couldn't get enough of her. But was it too soon to be introducing either one of us to each other's families? Perhaps... but then again, maybe not. I swore that I loved her. Even though we had not said anything like that yet. I know, it had been six months since we were dating... but I always found that if you started to label things and put emotions out there like that, that was when things tended to go downhill for me. I did not want to ruin anything with Des.

I was grateful for Charlie's strength, because I definitely would have fallen on my face.  Well, that made sense then, why I had never heard of a town called The Burrow.  I felt like a moron.  I laughed and said, "Ah, gotcha.  And you know... I would like that.  Seeing each other over Christmas."  I gave him a kiss on the cheek and started skating again.  I would love to meet his family; they sounded awesome!  But I was not going to invite myself over there... Charlie and I barely talked about what we were.  I suppose we could safely say we were dating each other.  And i know I was not seeing anyone else and neither was Charlie, so that would mean we were an item.  But without having said it to each other, it was hard to justify meeting each other's families.  Especially over Christmas rather than just a dinner or something.  I figured I'd go slow about it.

I grinned and skated after her. "Hey, is that a vague invitation?" I questioned, catching up to her and grabbing her hand and pulling her closer to me. "Because if it is, the Burrow is no easy place to handle. We'd have to give you notecards," I explained. My brothers would be relentless and I was sure Ginny would be the toughest one of all. I never brought girls home... Mum would probably have tears in her eyes. Perhaps this would nto be a good idea.

I chuckled and shrugged playfully.  I wrapped my hands around his neck and we stood there looking at each other as if we were playing chicken with who was going to officially invite each other to the holidays first.  This was the type of chicken that I would gladly lose at -- that way I could get my boyfriend to go meet my family.  My smile faultered.  "Oh, my family is no treat... Katie is fine and her family.  But my parents are horrendous... you won't need notecards to keep everything straight, but you're going to have to deal with disdain and torture," I teased, even though it was pretty close to that.  "but it might be easier to handle if you went with me... and we don't have to stay there long.  I think your family sounds so much more fun," I added with a grin.  I was up to dealing with a ton of questions from his family.  I knew it was large, though, and I always wanted something like that.  A large, loving family.

I raised my brows and laughed a little bit. "You'll have to study up on my brothers and sister... Sometimes I have to to know what they're doing these days... it won't be too bad, though, I don't think. Just stressful," I explained to her. My family was kind of crazy. It was ridiculous. I kissed her and said, "So sounds like it's time to meet the parents, isn't it?"