Katie Bell was puttering. Or rather, she was actively not doing some of the work type things that she should be. Like unpacking and folding laundry.

She'd been out of the country since May with her team. Summers were technically supposed to be their time off, but Katie had yet to find that elusive 'time off' since she'd become a starting Chaser for the Harpies. The past four months leading up to league play had been spent with the team on tour in the Italian Quidditch tournament circuit.

They'd been back in Britain for a whole week and Katie still hadn't managed to do much more than just be home. Her puppies, Kaiya and Pea, were beyond happy to have their very own front yard back, and Katie hadn't done much herself but laze about at her dad's pub and take in hearing English again.

But one could only ignore the tornado of clothes thrown about one's house for so long. Katie had already finished practice for the day and now stood in the middle of her room, knickers and damp hair, hands on her hips and nose crinkled in dismay at the mountains of dirty laundry and half-unpacked bags around the room.

It could wait. She had a few clean things left, and she had plans. Shiny ones. There was a broody boy who she had to check up on. Plus, he gave the best hugs.

Katie dug through a pile and was a bit triumphant at finding her comfiest pair of jeans. She pulled them on, low slung at the hips, tied on her old worn pair of black converse and grabbed a plain white tee. She found her wand bookmarking the latest trashy romance she'd been reading and apparated to Diagon Alley.


It was sunny and the air was crisp, perfect for a fly, but she had things to do, a shiny person to pester into a few smiles. The bells jingled softly as she pushed through the door of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It was relatively quiet, most likely since many of the rowdy patrons were off trying out the products on their professors at Hogwarts, and Katie didn't see the person she was looking for at the front counter. She felt a smile tug at her lips at the little hide & seek game, even though it was just her playing.

Katie peeked around the first few aisles and smiled when she found him stocking the shelves in the very last one, his back to her. "So, what's a girl got to do to get some help around here, hmm?" she asked, leaning against the shelves, arms crossed.

Fred still hadn't figured out the allure of rearranging all the Patented Daydream Charms in the shop, but it never failed that they were all horribly misfiled by the middle of the week. He'd finally gotten a few quiet moments late in the afternoon and decided to start setting them to rights and filling in the empty places, muttering to himself as he shifted boxes to and fro. Noise in the background had nearly distracted him, but most of his customers knew to yell out if they needed him for anything, so he continued summoning the packages of Tropical Paradise from their various locations and slotting them back into the proper place on the rack.

A voice behind him got his attention, and he turned, one box still in hand, to apologize. "I'm sorry, can I-" he trailed off mid-sentence, his habitual neutral expression morphing into something almost like a smile. "Hallo, Katie," he greeted, setting the box he was holding back on the shelf and moving down the aisle toward her. "Only to sing out, as you've just proved. How've you been?"

Katie's face broke out into a full smile, happy to see the twitch of lips that was a real Fred grin, or as close as he got, really. Not that many people picked up on it. Most expected a Weasley twin to be happy, and if he smiled and acted happy, they took it at face value. "Oh, I've been good. Had a decent time taking in all the pretties Italy had to offer the past few months," she answered as she uncrossed her arms and took the last few steps to close the distance between them, standing on tip toe to wrap her arms around his neck in a tight hug. "How've you been, shiny boy?" she asked softly.

"Well, not having spent my summer admiring Italians, I suppose I can't match you," Fred answered, sliding his arms around Katie's waist to give her a gentle squeeze. "I'm here, though. About the same as usual; trying to keep the shop in order, though I might as well take up herding nifflers for the good it seems to do." He leaned back a little to look down at her, producing a genuine smile as he added, "I saw some of the highlights from the Harpies' practice sessions - your dad's about as proud as can be. Has to show you off every chance he gets. Not that I blame him; you've had some bloody amazing bits of flying this year."

Katie's eyes dropped and a light blush tinted her cheeks at the compliment. It was one thing to hear the media blathering on about nonsense, but it was quite another to hear good things from her friends and people she cared about. She never had been good at taking compliments. "Yeah, I'm just having fun. Luckily it results in good things most times. And dad," she laughed quietly, "he's great. Though I don't listen much when he gets going on anymore. It's best for my sanity. I've a feeling I'd be way too embarrassed to show my face in the pub if I actually paid attention to all the stuff he says about me to everyone." She looked up at him then, remembering something she'd wanted to ask. "Oh! Did you get the owlcards I sent? I know I'm horrible at actually writing, but the pictures were pretty, yeah? Rome and Venice and real sunshine," she grinned.

Smirking at Katie's blush, Fred nodded and had to agree with her about her father. "He does get a bit carried away, but that's kind of nice, I'd think. You're his only child, so it just all ends up on you." With a halfhearted roll of his eyes, he confirmed, "Yes, I got your news-free cards. They are pretty, but a quick 'Hi, I'm having a complete lark,' wouldn't go amiss once in a while, either." The pieces of mail in question were, in fact, stacked neatly on the mantle upstairs; one of the few things he'd looked forward to over the summer, despite their seemingly random timing and purpose.

Katie's nose crinkled in a small frown as she thought back to whether she had remembered or not to actually write something on the cards. She'd just wanted to share the pretties as soon as possible. Since she'd obviously not done that part, she smiled up at him sweetly. "Hallo shiny boy, I had a great time, the kind with larks and everything."

Fred imitated Katie's nose-wrinkle and then grinned. "See, not difficult at all! We've had a bit of real sunshine here, though admittedly not much. London seems to be set to 'drizzle' this season, which is lousy for quidditch but all right otherwise. Didn't stop the school rush... Merlin, I thought the first of September would never come!" His fingers danced over Katie's sides in a light tickle and he chuckled as she squirmed. "You'll appreciate this, I think. It is actually pretty funny, even though I was nothing like amused at the time. You know the rainbow bath products I was working on in the spring? They've been on the shelves since about July, and the last week of August I had a bloody moat of the stuff on the shop floor... a couple of toddlers got into it while their mothers weren't looking."

Katie wriggled a bit as Fred started to tickle her, but stopped when she'd heard all his story. Her hands dropped from his neck to grip his shirt in the front, a huge smile on her face, eyes twinkling with quiet mirth. "You're telling me that you had...rainbow babies in here!" she grinned, unable to hold the giggle wanting to bubble out at the picture of different colored little people crawling around with frantic mothers and Fred right in the middle of it all. "I take it the new line was more than successful then, yes?"

"After that, yes, although I considered pulling them from the stock once I'd had to turn all the little terrors back and get those angry women out of here. It's a joke shop, what were they expecting?" Fred asked exasperatedly, shaking his head. "Speaking of monsters, how are your furballs? Glad to be back home?" He untangled Katie's fingers from his shirt, carefully, and shooed her down the aisle toward the center of the shop, following a few steps behind her.

Katie was still chuckling about the picture of rainbow babies as she headed towards the front of the shop. When she came to the front counter, she leaned against it and shook her head to banish the images of colored children dancing around. She turned her attention back to Fred as he came up. "Oh, I think they're more than excited. Raced around the cottage to make sure everything was as it should be and rolled around in the grass, their very own British grass," she grinned. Then something sparkly on the counter caught her attention and she reached out to touch it. She pulled her hand back just before though, remembering whose shop she was in and that it probably wasn't safe. She glanced up at Fred again and blushed for being caught acting so silly. "So, yeah, uh..."

Snickering at Katie's guilty expression and fishing for words, Fred reached down and plucked the silver Whirlagig from the counter, pinching the spindle between his finger and thumb to set it spinning across his palm. "This one won't bite, but I'm glad you learned your lesson after the animated Venus Flytraps." Tugging Katie's arm from where she'd been leaning on the counter, he turned her hand palm-up and tipped the sparkly little toy into it, biting his cheek to stop himself laughing at the adorable way her eyes lit up.

With a glance around the shop, which had been deserted for a fair while before Katie had shown up to visit, Fred decided he deserved an afternoon off, and turned back to his guest. "How about ice cream? It will probably spoil your dinner, but I think it's all right, just this once."

Katie watched the little silver Whirlagig dance around on her palm a few moments, grinning as it caught the light and sparkled. Closing her hand over it, she smiled up at him. "It's almost as shiny as your hair. And ice cream sounds good. Before dinner makes it even more exciting. Makes me feel all rebellious and stuff," she laughed wryly. "Oh! And you can try gelato! It's Italian ice cream. Very fluffy."

"Keep it," Fred insisted, nodding his head at Katie's hand to indicate the toy. He flicked his wand at the register to lock it and started for the door of the shop, turning the sign there to read 'closed'. "Somehow I'm not surprised that you spent all summer in Italy sampling desserts. Lucky for you, I walk past an Italian deli in muggle London all the time, and they advertise an amazing-looking chocolate gelato."

"Chocolate. You sure know how to sweet talk a girl, Fred," Katie grinned. "And thanks for the Whirlagig. It's pretty," she said as she put the little silver bauble in her pocket. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she bounced a few times on the balls of her feet. "Okay then shiny boy, where to? how to?"

Fred considered Katie's question for a moment, then held his hand out to her. "Apparate, then walk, I think. It's nice outside for once." He checked that the door was locked and smirked at the comment about sweet-talking. "Between you and Ginny, I get enough practice that I ought to be swarmed every time I open my mouth," he teased.

Katie waved her hand and shook her head, dismissing the very idea. "Like you ever needed practice. When you've a mind to, I've seen you charm any person you fancy pretty effortlessly." Then looking up at him, a wicked little twinkle in her eye, she added, "I personally think it's the shiny ginger hair though. They're all so dazzled that you could be speaking Gobbldegook and they wouldn't care."

"It oughtn't to work on Ginny, then," Fred countered, Disapparating them both to the alley alongside the Leaky Cauldron in the muggle part of London. He steadied Katie as they reappeared, giving her a little smirk. "Really, so long as I'm getting my way, I don't think I'll ponder it too much." Towing her to the mouth of the alley and onto the pavement, he steered them in the direction of the deli and set off at a stroll. "Not many gingers in Italy, I'd wager... Get any farther than 'taking in the pretties' while you were abroad?" he prodded, used to her own nosiness in the direction of his personal exploits.

Being that it was probably one of the last semi sunny days before the rains set in for good, there were quite a few people out and about in Muggle London. Katie kept close to Fred, seeing as he made a bit of a wake through the people, and unconsciously danced and tip toed around people that did happen to step into her path. "Not really. They kept us pretty busy. You know, practices and games and a seemingly never ending stream of press conferences. That's the worst part of it all. Everyone wants to see your face and know all about you and...well, sometimes I just want to be my dad's Katiegirl and that's it," she finished a bit quietly. "But it's not all as bad as I make it sound. I mean, there's one girl on the team that's close to my age and we get on well. We have a bit of fun together, and of course, I had the monsters with me. All the company a girl could need." Then looking up at him, she said, "though, I am really glad to be home. I missed everyone."

Reaching out to ruffle Katie's hair, Fred nodded in sympathy. "You're too good at what you do for people not to notice and recognize you, though. Even though it's a dead pain when everyone knows who you are and entirely too much of your business." He frowned then, thinking of the weeks after George had died, the endless litany of apology from people who didn't know enough to really be sorry but thought they were welcome to say something. The huff of a short sigh escaped him, and he looked up in time to notice they were at the deli. "Here we are," he announced, holding the door for Katie and nudging her toward the counter, "Go figure out what you want. My treat."

"Yeah, okay," Katie said as she headed towards the counter. She glanced back over her shoulder and gave him a quick smile, worried that she'd said something to remind him...well, that had caused that frown. Fred could fool a lot of people, but she wasn't one of them. She ordered and said her thank-yous as the server handed her a chocolate cone. She took a lick, savoring one of her favorite bits of Italy, and grinned up at Fred when he looked down at her while he was waiting for his sweets.

His glance to the side was just the thing to shake Fred out of his momentary gloom, a burst of laughter preceding him reaching over to swipe the smear of chocolate from the end of Katie's nose with his thumb. "You're supposed to eat it, princess, not wear it." Still chuckling, he accepted his own cone from the server and paid for them, tilting his head in the direction of the outdoor tables as he licked an almost-drip from his gelato. "Let's sit in the sun," he suggested.

She could fly around the hardest obstacle courses at frightening speeds with agility and flare...and yet she still managed to bumble along and make a silly little fool of herself on a regular basis. Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Katie gave into the childish urge that prompted her to stick out her tongue at Fred's back as he walked outside. She couldn't stay indignant for long though. Fred had laughed, a real one, and at times, those were far and few between. Sitting down in the chair across from him, Katie licked all the way around to stop her cone from melting over the edge, and then turned her attention back to the man across from her. "So tell me Fred, did you do anything scandalously exciting while I was away? You know I live vicariously through you. If I do anything even remotely exciting, it ends up all over the front page of the Prophet. And somehow at the end of the day, I'm dating a hippogriff or something," she frowned, nose crinkling.

"Hmm..." Fred considered, keeping his cone from dripping in the process, "Well, no hippogriffs to speak of, or any other major scandals. Aside from the 'rainbow babies' incident, it's been a pretty dull summer." He shrugged, figuring he needn't go into too much detail since Katie was familiar with most of his pursuits since the war. "If I'm not at work, the flat, or G- the churchyard, it's usually either drinking or dancing, neither of which takes place on our side of London. Too many nosy people, though luckily not the press."

Katie bit into her cone as she leaned forward. "You didn't socially ostracize yourself too much then," she asked, eyeing Fred warily. "I mean, since I wasn't there to pester you into being a social bugger instead of just a plain old crotchety one," she grinned, eyes twinkling. "Yeah, I did say old. Old man. And crotchety. I don't see much dancing in your future, actually."

Nibbling at the edges of his ice cream, Fred arched an eyebrow in disbelief. "Oh? You might want to retire your robes then, since I've got all of a year and a half on you." He knew she was only trying to rile him, and he always gave as good as he got. "Though on that end, at least I've learned that food goes in my mouth, not on my face. Ron had trouble with that for a while, too. I'm sure you'll get it eventually." Grinning cheekily, he asked, "So how is it? Any comparison to the real thing?"

"If I'm being compared to Ron, I must be terribly hopeless. A lost cause," she said a bit forlornly. "I've actually grown up, not that many people seem to have noticed. I mean, I'm short and occasionally silly and, okay, food goes in my mouth, but still," she finished a bit indignantly. Though a smile was never long around the corner for Katie and she couldn't hold it in, in the end. She grinned back. "It was good. Not quite as fluffy, but hey, I'll have to take you to get the real thing sometime. Then you can experience one of the best things Italy has to offer. Oh, and all the pretties!" She finished off the last bite of her cone and licked the drop of chocolate that had gotten on her thumb. Then she looked up at him and said, "and thanks for the treat, shiny boy."

"Not a lost cause," Fred soothed, "and you're welcome." He squeezed his eyes shut in momentary pain as he swallowed too much of the cold dessert at once, his own fault for trying to laugh and eat at the same time. Rubbing the bridge of his nose as he pitched the soggy end of his cone into a nearby bin, he looked a question at Katie. "What now? I've no desire to go back to the shop this afternoon, and I haven't seen you in months. Let's ditch responsibility for the rest of the day, shall we?"

Katie spread her hands. "I'm responsibility free. I've already had practice and," she shrugged, "there's nothing and no one else that needs me. I'm yours for the rest of the day," she grinned.

Fred smirked in response, standing and offering Katie a hand up. "Well now, that has a nice ring to it. I think we're overdue for some mischief."