Work Text:
Having a job was hard on Pansy, she had to admit that. It was hard to get up in the morning to start with. She loved her bed and the warmth of her duvet. She loved her cat, Mittens, who always curled up with her in the early hours when she couldn't sleep, and leaving her was never an easy thing in the first place. It was then hard to make herself get ready. Putting on fresh clothes and brushing her hair took a lot of effort that she didn't always have.
But every morning, Pansy did it anyway. Not because she needed the money - her parents had made it clear to her since she was a small child that she would never have to want for anything. No, Pansy had a job because she loved it. Once she was there, she was generally the happiest that she had ever been. She liked to think that her job was beneficial, not just to herself, but to the children that were in her care.
Pansy had stumbled into the profession more-or-less accidentally. Her cousin Dru had needed someone to go with her daughter to an open day at her nursery and Pansy had found that she had enjoyed it so much that she went back a few times to help the class out before an official position had opened up. Pansy didn't know why she had jumped at the chance to apply, but she was never going to look back now.
After her meeting with Theo, Pansy was definitely looking forward to an afternoon at work the following day. She was looking forward to getting her fix of toddler snuggles and just generally feeding off of their energy. It was an adrenaline rush to her, but to begin with it had been all about the comfort as well, as weird as that sounded.
The only other place that she felt like this, the only other person that made her feel this way, was Neville, and so in order to prepare for work the next afternoon, she was more than happy to spend that evening in his company after the catastrophic date that she had shared with Theo.
She had been humming and hawing about telling him about the date, about what she knew was coming soon, when Neville broke the silence that had fallen between them.
"I thought you could give these to the kids." Neville handed her a box.
A frown of confusion took over Pansy's face as she looked at the box and found that it contained sugared violets. "Have you ever actually tried these?" She asked as she looked up at him. She couldn't help but be amused by his total lack of knowledge.
"Uh, no." Neville admitted with a slightly sheepish smile. "But they look nice?" He sounded unsure now, but Pansy just shook her head at that.
"They're definitely a grown up sweet." She told as she opened the box. The kids at work wouldn't not appreciate these so she wasn't going to make them eat them. "Here." She offered the box to him. She chose not to warn him about the taste of soap and instead simply waited for his reaction.
Neville popped one of the violets into his mouth while eyeing Pansy up in a way that told her that he wasn't expecting anything bad to come from it, but also not entirely trusting her either, which she supposed was fair enough considering that these sweets were a less surprising version of Bertie Botts. Pansy let out a gleeful laugh as she watched his face wrinkle up as the sour taste hit him.
"Why are these even sold?" Neville asked after swallowing the sweet and all but washing his tongue off with his hand.
Pansy laughed at his actions. "They taste good with chocolate." She told him, "Especially dark chocolate. So if you don't mind, I'll keep these for later?"
Neville glared at the box, as if it would understand his resentment. "No, I definitely don't mind." He said, his tone a little short before he tilted his head to look up at her again. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "You alright, Pans?"
Pansy blinked a couple of times. She didn't know what that question meant, especially when he had seen her that morning and knew that she wasn't quite alright. She hadn't managed to explain then what had triggered her and she didn't think that she would be able to now either. And she definitely didn't think that she could tell him about Theo, not without him thinking that her intended was the problem - which Theo certainly wasn't when he was as much of a victim as she was.
"I'm getting by." She went with, instead. It was the best way to answer him without raising too many suspicions and without lying to him. Pansy never wanted to lie, let alone to Neville, but she knew that it couldn't always be avoided. Today, however, she would do her best to use avoidance tactics instead.
Neville let out a sigh but he nodded. He knew Pansy well enough by now to know that there was no point in pushing her into telling him what was going on.
Pansy just gave him a soft sort of smile before she pocketed the box of sugared violets. An honest talk was coming, but she was still trying to recover from the party the night before, and that was without taking that morning and her date into consideration.