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+----- Thread: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo (/showthread.php?tid=1305)
fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-22-2026
Saturday, 12 May 1923
Past Curfew
Brighton Seafront
Past Curfew
Brighton Seafront
The past week had been hard as hell. Alice had successfully snuck back into Hogwarts with no issues, somehow, despite being intoxicated. She slept hard, and had a headache when she woke up. She had contemplated telling Tilly about the day before, and what she did the night before, but when she saw her cousin talking to her fiancee, she decided not to.
Tilly was so happy with Dragon and Alice… well, she decided to keep Mateo and her adventures to herself. When classes began on Monday, she found it hard to focus. All she could think about was the following Saturday when she’d seen the man who had changed her life again. Everything she did during the week felt extra mundane and boring.
Instead of focusing on classes, Alice began researching places she could ask Mateo to take her. And that’s when it came to her:
Brighton was known as a very fashionable seaside town, popular to the types of people her father would have sneered at. But Alice, as she stood there, looking out at the seafront with the smell of salt and something frying nearby, just felt like she was finally breathing for the first time ever.
She walked alongside Mateo with a newspaper-wrapped parcel of fish and chips warm in her hands, eating directly from the paper with her fingers because she had no silverware. The batter was crisp and slightly too salty and entirely unlike anything she had eaten at home.
She loved it.
They stopped and took a seat on a bench, looking out at the dark waves. “This week was hell,” she commented, popping a chip into her mouth, then looked up at him with a smirk on her face.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-23-2026
Mateo savoured the cool breeze brushing his face, the taste of salt lingering in the air and the steady sound of waves crashing against the shore. The seaside had always been one of his favourite places, far more pleasant than the thick, grimy gloom of London’s docks. Smelt like shit there.
Things felt a bit less oppressive near the sea.
When Alice had told him where she wanted to go this time, Mateo had smiled a bit more genuinely than he probably should have. A small part of him had hoped she wouldn’t show. Perhaps she’d been caught sneaking back into Hogwarts last Saturday. Perhaps the past week had been long enough to change her mind.
But if anything, she’s stepped out of the shadows looking even more determined than before.
The rest of him was relieved by that.
The heavy pouch of Galleons Goodman had dropped onto the table in front of him last Monday certainly contributed to that sentiment.
Leaning back against the bench, Mateo lit himself a cigarette and let the first drag settle into his lungs. He glanced sideways at Alice as she ate another chip, surprisingly unconcerned about eating with her fingers.
“This week was hell.”
His gaze lingered on her as a small grin tugged at his mouth, and he exhaled, the smoke immediately snatched away by the breeze. He let his free arm stretch along the back of the bench behind her.
“Why?” he asked, his grin widening. “Miss me that much?”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-23-2026
“Why? Miss me that much?”
Alice went very still.
Just for a second. Maybe less. But she felt it: the accidental accuracy of the question landing somewhere she hadn’t expected. She felt a warmth cross her cheeks, knew she was blushing, and registered his arm stretching along the back of the bench behind her. She almost leaned against him, but stopped herself. The cigarette smoke drifted past on the breeze and she became aware of everything, all at once.
She ate another chip.
“No,” she said, which was not entirely true. She felt the corner of her mouth quirk up in a smirk. “The week was just long… Classes, Hospital Wing shifts…” she then sighed and looked up at him. “It was hard to focus.”
She then popped another, smaller, chip into her mouth and chewed, watching him smoke.
“Can I try one of those?” she asked.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-23-2026
The stillness that overcame her was so subtle and brief that Mateo might have missed it if his gaze hadn’t been lingering on her face. Over the years, he’d learned that such moments could mean one of two things: he’d hit the nail on the head and she’d rather die than admit it, or he’d missed entirely and was too polite to say so.
So basically, it meant nothing.
Because unlike most girls he had encountered, Alice rarely gave away exactly what she thought or felt.
It made this whole thing both more frustrating and, strangely enough, more enjoyable. There was something satisfying about it. Mateo opted not to explore those feelings.
His eyes held hers as she answered, the same grin still lingering at the corners of his mouth. He hummed softly, almost a chuckle, before letting his gaze drift back out toward the dark sea.
“Can I try one of those?”
Dragging in another breath of smoke, Mateo glanced back around. Her eyes were fixed on the cigarette between his lips, and he exhaled with a slight frown. “These?”
His eyes dropped to the cigarette between his fingers. After a beat, he shrugged.
“Sure.”
He flicked the ash from the end before leaning slightly closer and holding it out toward her. A soft smirk tugged at his lips. “Don’t think you’ll like it, though.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-23-2026
Alice looked at Mateo, who was now leaning closer. She liked that. She then looked down at the cigarette he was offering her.
She took it carefully, knowing she could easily get burnt by the lit end. She looked at it for a moment in her hand, the curl of smoke rising from the end. Her father didn’t smoke cigarettes. He didn’t like them. He said they were disgusting. That alone felt like a point in its favor.
Alice brought it to her lips and breathed in.
The cough was immediate, before she even had a chance to properly exhale. Short and undignified, the sound came from her core, and she held her fist to her mouth to try to stifle it while not dropping the fish and chips in her other hand, or burning herself with the cigarette.
Her eyes watered. The back of her throat burned in a way that was entirely different from whiskey.
Alice held the cigarette back out to Mateo, wanting nothing to do with it anymore. Her face held an expression of regret, her eyes still watering.
“You were right,” she said, with as much dignity as she could manage. “I don’t like it.”
She reached for a chip once he took the cigarette back.
“I… can see the appeal though,” she added, after a moment. There was something in the ritual of it, the lighting, the holding, the slow exhale. It wasn’t for her, but she could watch Mateo smoke.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-24-2026
The image of Alice, his cigarette between her fingers, burned itself into Mateo’s memory.
He couldn’t have said why.
Perhaps because the idea itself was so absurd.
Alice Ravenstone—pureblood daughter. Sitting on the Brighton seafront past curfew when she should have been back in her common room at Hogwarts, trying a cigarette for the first time. The eldest child of a man so wealthy and powerful, Mateo could barely wrap his head around it.
And yet, here she was. Here they were. Mateo watched with a knowing grin as Alice brought the cigarette to her lips and breathed in.
Her cough came almost instantly.
Mateo didn’t try to stifle his chuckle as he accepted the cigarette from her. He brought it to his own mouth and lounged back against the bench, taking another drag.
“Don’t worry,” he said, amusement glinting in his eyes as he exhaled. “Just a matter of time. We all get used to it eventually.”
His own first attempt hadn’t gone any differently, and look at him now.
For a moment, he simply watched her, a small grin tugging at his lips. Dropping his gaze, he lifted the arm he’d stretched along the back of the bench.
“What do you wanna do?” He reached into her parcel, plucked out a piece of fried fish, and plopped it into his mouth before looking back at her. A soft curl returned to his lips. “Your night.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-24-2026
Alice smirked slightly at the thought of getting better at smoking cigarettes. Perhaps she’d try again soon. Perhaps after some drinks.
She watched as he stole a piece of fried fish, her fried fish. (Well, not really. But she had fallen in love with it and didn’t really want to share.)
“My night,” she repeated, turning the phrase over. Like it was a foreign concept. Which, she realized, it mostly was. Until recently, anyways.
Her brown eyes settled on the water momentarily, the sound of the waves steady underneath everything else. The breeze was cool enough to be pleasant after the warmth of the chip paper in her hands.
“I want to walk,” she said. “Along the water.”
She turned and looked at him, her head tilted to the side slightly.
“And maybe another drink at some point. Whiskey.”
A much quieter night is what she had in mind. She’d loved the jazz club, but this was… more intimate.
Alice popped the last piece of fried fish in her mouth and then stood, folding the newspaper neatly out of habit, then looked down at him still on the bench.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy looking at him.
“And maybe you can tell me something true about yourself,” she added. “Since apparently this is a weekly thing now.” She tossed the trash into the nearby bin and then looked back at him.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-24-2026
His brows rose.
Walking.
Dancing, drinking, music. That was what he’d assumed Alice would want. An outlet for all the pent-up frustration and exhaustion of the previous week, something to let loose.
Not walking along the water. That was the last thing he had expected.
When she glanced around, his expression was still faintly surprised. After a moment, though, he opened his hands in a small gesture of surrender, the easy smile returning to his lips.
“Walking along the water and whiskey it is.”
His gaze followed Alice as she stood. It briefly dropped to the newspaper in her hands, watching silently as she folded it into a neat square, before lifting again to her face.
“And maybe you can tell me something true about yourself. Since apparently this is a weekly thing now.”
And for some reason, that left him reeling.
Something true about himself—he hadn’t expected that either. It felt too intimate, too personal. Not what he’d signed up for when he’d agreed to get Alice Ravenstone to sever ties with her own family and run away into the unknown. This wasn’t part of the job. It wasn’t something he did. Ever.
For a moment, Mateo could do little more than sit there and stare at her, feeling entirely out of his depth. Regaining his composure took him a second longer than it should have.
At last, he drew another breath from his cigarette and rose from the bench. He exhaled slowly as he fell into step beside her, his free hand slipping into his pocket.
“What do you want to know?” He glanced around, a hint of amusement colouring his tone. “I’m not that interesting.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-24-2026
Alice watched him, noting the way he hesitated, sensing the surprise he was feeling at what she wanted to do that night. The fact that she caught him off guard made her feel less out-of-water than she really did. Perhaps she wasn’t as dull as she thought.
They began walking and she tilted her head slightly.
“That’s not an answer,” she said. “That’s what people say when they don’t want to answer.”
Alice fell into step beside him, the water to their left, the breeze coming off it cool and salt-sharp. She loved the smell.
“I’m not asking for your life story. Just something true. One thing.” She shrugged slightly. “Like… you carry your mother’s book everywhere but can’t make yourself read it. That’s already something.” She turned her eyes from him, looking ahead. “So you’re not as uninteresting as you want me to think.”
She glanced back up at him. “So try again,” she said, smiling slightly.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-25-2026
“That’s not an answer. That’s what people say when they don’t want to answer.”
Mateo couldn’t help but grin a little.
Grabbed him straight by the throat with that one, didn’t she? By now, he probably should have known Alice wasn’t one to play around, always straight to the point, open and direct. It wasn’t the harsh sort, either. Not the aloof, condescending tone he’d grown accustomed to hearing from the people in her world.
Somehow, it felt gentle.
Still, his insides seemed to crawl with every further word she said.
He didn’t give up information about himself easily, if at all. Mateo kept his work and his personal life cleanly separated—even his closest coworkers knew next to nothing about his life beyond the walls of Goodman & Sons.
He hadn’t planned for that to change. Alice knowing about his mother’s book already felt like a breach.
Mateo looked ahead again, falling quiet as they walked. His eyes drifted across the dark sea, smoke escaping his mouth as he considered what exactly he was willing to give her.
Eventually, he sighed, a quiet breath through his nose, before glancing sideways at her.
“I have two younger siblings.” A faint smile touched his lips. “Rafael and Julieta. He’s eleven. She’s eight.” He looked back toward the water, his voice growing imperceptibly softer. “They’re good kids.”
Mateo took another drag. He let his crooked smile return, and then looked at Alice again. He nodded toward her. “Your turn.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-25-2026
Mateo was quiet for a moment, probably considering the options of what he felt comfortable giving up to her. His sigh drew her attention and she looked at him.
“I have two younger siblings. Rafael and Julieta. He’s eleven. She’s eight. They’re good kids.”
She noted his faint smile, genuine, and how soft his voice was when he spoke about his younger siblings. The age gap was large, but that could be for any number of reasons. None of them were really important at the moment.
She smiled and then looked at the water, her face falling a bit. “I have a younger sister. Everleigh.” She said the name soft, like she was the most fragile thing on earth.
In a way, she was.
“She’s at St. Mungo’s. Has been for… about a year now.” Time had flown. Alice hadn’t seen her as much as she wanted to. “She’s… getting better… slowly…” But was she? It was the small things; the smiles every once in a while, the drawings that actually made sense.
“She’s the reason I wanted to work there some day…” Alice added, still frowning, not looking up at Mateo. “I don’t… think that’s going to happen though.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-25-2026
Alice’s sister, Everleigh. Admitted to St. Mungo’s sometime last year and living there ever since. Something wrong with her mind.
Mateo already knew all of this.
Not only because he’d had to do at least some basic research into Alice and her family before approaching her, but because it had been plastered all over the papers. Mateo hadn’t paid much attention when the story first appeared—a glance here and there—just another piece of information filed away and forgotten.
It felt different now, listening to Alice. Real, somehow. Personal.
His gaze lingered on her profile as she spoke. There was this sadness about her again, the same kind she had carried last week when he had first talked to her. Melancholic, too thoughtful for someone her age.
He briefly wondered what it must be like to find your name and life discussed for everyone to read, subject to everyone’s opinion, private matters dissected for others’ enjoyment.
The thought only struck him then.
His eyes remained on her for a moment before he looked ahead.
He decided not to press.
“Why wouldn’t that happen?” he asked instead.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-25-2026
Alice was quiet for a moment, watching the water. His answer hung in the air, her thoughts touching on everything that had happened in the past couple of terms.
“My grades have slipped,” she said simply, shrugging. It hurt, but she was good at pushing her emotions aside. She was a disappointment, she knew that. “I wasn’t selected for prefect this year. I’ve been… distracted.”
She didn’t want to elaborate on the reason. He could possibly guess some of it.
“St. Mungo’s requires the best. I used to be the best.” She frowned slightly. “I’m not sure that I am anymore.”
She looked up at him, her eyes on his face.
“And my father has other plans for my future anyway,” she added. “Which don’t include me choosing my own career, or… anything, really. It’s in his hands.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-27-2026
Mateo hummed quietly as he took his last drag, then flicked the butt away.
Her tone was even. Pragmatic. As though she were talking about nothing more than a minor inconvenience—a bit of bad weather forcing a plan to be rescheduled. But he could hear the pain beneath it, subtle as it was. She sounded like someone who had come to terms with disappointment. Like unhappiness was just a fact of her life.
It made something in Mateo's guts squeeze uncomfortably.
When he looked back at her, Alice’s eyes were already on his face. A sly smile crept across his lips.
“Is it, though?” He let the question hang between them, a knowing glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “It looks to me like you’re already taking things into your own hands, no?”
She didn’t want this. Whatever her father had planned, Alice wanted to get away. The urge to break free from that cage was there, and being out after curfew, far from Hogwarts, only proved she was already halfway to where he needed her to be. All she needed now was a little nudge.
Mateo's smile widened as he raised a brow. He pulled one hand from his pocket and held it out to her, palm up.
“Let’s get that whiskey, hm?”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-27-2026
Alice registered the sly smile and she furrowed her brow slightly.
“Is it, though? It looks to me like you’re already taking things into your own hands, no?”
The furrowed brow softened, her mouth twitching into a bit of a smirk. Was her father really in control of her life? He had no idea she was not at Hogwarts, and would probably lose his mind if he knew she wasn’t.
Or he’d do to her what he’d done to Everleigh and she’d join her sister at St. Mungo’s. Permanently. Not in the form she wanted to be there.
She tilted her head slightly as she peered up at Mateo, wondering just how much she could get away with without her father finding out anything.
“Let’s get that whiskey, hm?”
She didn’t even look down at his hand, but knew it was held out for her. Alice placed her hand in his and nodded, a smile returning to her face.
“Lead the way,” she responded.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-28-2026
Saturday, 19 May 1923
well into the night
a pub in Whitechapel
well into the night
a pub in Whitechapel
At some point, a patron had pulled out his fiddle and begun to play. A jaunty tune, quick and infectious, that seemed to catch the entire pub in an instant. Feet stomped, hands clapped, and couples danced on the tiny makeshift dance floor, spinning between tables amidst laughter and cheers, heedless of who they bumped into.
A smoky place. Crowded, noisy, and cheap. The sort of establishment where nobody gave a damn who sat beside them at the bar.
Mateo spun with Alice at dizzying speed, one arm wrapped around her waist and holding her close, the world forgotten for a moment. The song peaked, then ended in a howl of jovial clamour and applause, and Mateo barely managed to keep them both upright as they came to a halt.
His other arm shot to Alice’s waist to steady them as he stumbled a step forward. Once he’d caught himself, he met her gaze and grinned. His eyes twinkled playfully, his breath coming a little short.
“Careful. You’re making me look bad.”
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-28-2026
Alice laughed, breathless, both of Mateo’s arms around her waist and the pub still roaring, and spinning, around them.
“I’m not the one who nearly fell over,” she responded, though that was a lie.
The only reason she was still standing was because he was holding her up. The spinning from the dancing had made her world feel completely off balance and the whiskey that she’d drank before the fiddle came out didn’t help.
Alice was still laughing when she looked up at him. The fiddle had stopped but the room hadn’t settled yet, energy still crackling through the air, warm and loud and entirely anonymous. Nobody in this room knew her name, and that was addicting.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-28-2026
“Are you sure about that?” Mateo’s lips tugged just that little bit wider, his eyes sharpening with something distinctly mischievous. “We can see what happens if I let go.”
For merely a fraction of a second, his hold on her waist loosened.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Alice Ravenstone - 09-28-2026
Alice narrowed her eyes momentarily when she saw the mischievous look on his face, but then widened and her hands grabbed his arms.
“Don’t you dare,” she said, which came out much less dignified than intended given that she was already gripping him.
She was laughing again despite herself, her fingers curled into his sleeves, the pub spinning pleasantly around them. She looked up at him, the mischief in his eyes, the width of his grin, and felt something warm settle in her chest that had nothing to do with the whiskey.
RE: fish and chips and bad decisions // Mateo - Mateo Wesley - 09-28-2026
A chuckle slipped free as her hands gripped his sleeves, panic widening her eyes, though his hold on her had already tightened again.
The whiskey sat warm and lazy in his blood, and Mateo felt himself growing loose. Too loose.
He really shouldn’t.
Around them, the music had started up again, filling the room with noise as couples resumed their dancing, but Mateo paid no attention. Instead, he guided Alice a few steps backwards through the tight crowd until they reached the quieter shadows along the wall.
He stopped there, still grinning, and tilted his head.
“What?” he murmured. “Thought you trusted me.”
His eyes flicked over her face as the voice in his head told him to stop, but Mateo barely heard it.