Work Text:
0930h – hi
0930h – is this bellatrix black
0942h – What
0942h – Yes
0942h – Who’s this
0945h – um
0945h – rodolphus
0946h – we met last night
0946h – at the party
0947h – you jumped on me and tried to take my shirt off
0948h – then you bit my neck
0949h – and stole my phone
0949h – and put your number in it
0950h – then gave it to malfoy and said to hide it so that i’d have to work for reward
0953h – Oh
0954h – Ok then
0954h – Did he hide it
0955h – no
0955h – he gave it back to me and said you’re crazy
0959h – Motherfucker
1000h – but i like your boots
1010h – You mean you like my boobs
1010h – Asshole
1012h – yeah
1013h – but also your boots
1013h – they’re very cool
1014h – Wtv
1015h – If I tried to take your shirt off you must be some kind of hot I guess
1016h – So what do you want
1016h – Breakfast?
1017h – Lunch?
1017h – Dinner?
1017h – A pity fuck?
1019h – um
1019h – can we do lunch?
1019h – i like milkshakes
1020h – do you like milkshakes
1021h – Lol you’re adorable
1021h – Bring condoms
College, Bella finds, is boring. It’s class after class after goddamn fucking stupid class and if these are the country’s best and brightest, she must be burning like a fucking star.
She wants to leave, really; it’s not like she’ll need any of this to run her father’s borderline legitimate, multi-million dollar, vaguely defined Business. But Andromeda has gone and let everybody down by shacking up with trailer park trash, becoming depressingly liberal and winning a merit scholarship to UChicago, and Narcissa’s off training to be a prima donna ballerina or some shit like that, and so somebody has to actually graduate with a college degree.
But Bella’s majoring in biochemistry – and she could do all her labs in her sleep, to be pretty fucking honest – which has nothing to do with Business, and she already knows that she will not work for some fucked-up-messed-up pharmaceutical giant when she graduates.
So instead of staying home and reading shit she already knows, she bullies Lucius Malfoy into sneaking her into frat parties that she really has no right to be at, given that she’s not actually in a sorority (too pink too giggly too fucking pre-Stepford). Frat parties turn into club nights. Club nights turn into underground club nights.
Underground club nights turn into super fucking shady.
And Bella, drinking and brawling and smoking, is still bored.
But then, she meets Rodolphus, who’s a fucking giant with muscles on muscles but kisses like a butterfly and unwraps her like a peppermint candy drop in church, and she’s not bored bored for the first time in like fucking forever.
He introduces her to Breaking Bad one night when they’re curled up in bed, chain smoking. Bella snatches his laptop from him, squints at the lab bench and the smoking beakers, and says I could do that.
Rodolphus raises his eyebrows.
Challenge accepted.
0201h – babe wru
0212h – this place is weird
0212h – everyone is high
0213h – and not fun high
0213h – this guy just tried to shank me
0213h – i think i broke his elbow
0219h – Lol what a fool
0219h – Sit on him or something
0219h – I’m busy
0220h – Get me a beer ok babe
0220h – but wru
0221h – Actually get two beers
0222h – Lucius is here
0223h – wruuuuuuuuu
0224h – Three
0225h – Riddle wants a beer
0226h – who’s riddle?
0229h – babe????????????
0230h – IM JUGGLING 4 BEERS AND A MOBILE
0230h – WRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
His name is Tom Riddle and he’s basically Lucius’s dealer for all of his frat parties. He’s tall and thin and dark and really fucking handsome, which generally doesn’t do much for her because please she’s a Black and good bone structure is everywhere. So, Bella, who generally doesn’t have opinions on service staff because they’re service staff, ignores him until he casually clicks the safety off on a handgun and levels it at her forehead. “If you deal with me, you deal with me,” he informs her calmly, as if he isn’t threatening to kill her point blank. “No selling to other dealers trying to edge in on my market. You will also look at me when you speak to me, defer to my recommendations should you have any doubts, and basically do everything I tell you to.”
The shady nightclub that they’re at is so fucking high on the hub for illegal transactions scale that no one blinks at the armed man aiming a live weapon at a young woman clutching a bag of crystal meth to her chest. Lucius hasn’t moved from his cleverly chosen spot between them, but his knuckles are clenched white around his mobile, and his eyes are fixed on a point somewhere on the far wall. Bella is hyperaware of the fact that Rodolphus is not at her back and probably wouldn’t be able to get here in time to disarm this guy.
So she stays very still and her heart is thumping thumping thumping in her chest and she wishes she hadn’t laced her corset quite so tight, but she manages to whisper yes yes yes and so he smiles, flicks the safety back on, and returns the handgun to a hidden pocket in his coat.
“Lucius tells me that you come from an enterprising family,” he says conversationally, leaning back into the grimy pleather seats. “What else can you give me?”
His smile is illuminated briefly by the flashing lights over by the dance floor, and black spots flicker across her vision.
She’d forgotten to breathe.
1626h – babe
1627h – wanna hang out after your chemistry final?
1627h – i’ve got the new halo
1628h – we can kill some aliens and shit
1632h – Nah
1633h – I’ve gotta cook
1634h – Riddle wants a fresh batch for the after-finals crowd
1635h – He’s thinking of ditching his weed supplier
1635h – I bet the weed I’m growing is better quality
1636h – but babe i miss you
1636h – you’re always cooking
1637h – and meeting riddle
1640h – baaaaaaaaaabe
1641h – You’re whining
1642h – It’s very unattractive
1643h – I bet I can become his main supplier
1643h – Maybe he’ll give me a larger role
1644h – Do you think my father will be interested in this
1644h – I mean
1645h – If anyone can hide us from the DEA it’s daddy
1646h – I followed Riddle the other day to find out who his coke supplier is
1647h – He’s some dude named Wally?????
1647h – You could totally take him
1648h – We could fill in for him while he ‘recuperates’
1649h – And he’ll never get better because you’ll do something like slip one of his spinal discs or something
1650h – And then Riddle will find us to be indispensable
1657h – bella we need to talk
“You want what?” Bella squawks, and almost burns herself with her lighter.
Rodolphus frowns and kicks at the tire of her BMW. “I want a break, Bella,” he explains patiently, still not looking at her. “I think that maybe we should take some time apart.”
She scoffs and takes a drag on her cigarette, blowing the smoke into his face. “Why? Because you don’t like all the dealing? Roddy, we’re earning money. If you’re scared, we could put you to doing something that won’t expose you so much to the cops-”
She’s cut off by Rodolphus, who swipes the cigarette from her fingers, throws it to the ground, and grinds it into the slush with the heel of his doc martens. “It’s not that I’m fucking scared, Bella, fuck; I’m just not fucking fine with coming in last with whatever you’ve got with Riddle and the drugs, ok?”
His eyes are boring into hers, now, wild and angry, and his hands are gripping her shoulders tight and maybe he doesn’t realise how strong he is because it hurts, and she kicks at his shin. “Let me go!”
He releases her like she’s toxic and backs away, hands in the air, expression bleak. “I love you, Bella. But you treat me like shit and I know I’m fucking worth more than being your little guard dog. So let me know when you decide to do more than just throw me the bones that Riddle has chewed on, mm?”
And then he’s gone, ducking into his Land Rover and slamming the door shut. The roar of the engine seems unnecessarily loud, and Bella lights another cigarette and tries to ignore the bubbling hurt that’s eating away at the bottom of her stomach.
Rodolphus pulls out of the car park. She waits until she can’t hear him any more before exhaling into the frigid silence.
2313h – Rodolphus
2313h – Riddle wants to know if you’re still in for the Thursday drop
2340h – Roddy
2342h – I know you’re awake
2342h – I know you’ve read this
2343h – There are two blue ticks
2343h – Your last seen was like a minute ago
0000h – Roddy please
Riddle rolls his eyes at her when he finds out.
“Oh my god,” he intones, efficiently counting out freshly-minted bills, “You’re all such children. Find another fuck buddy. Let me know where Rodolphus lives so that I can silence him.”
She pauses in the process of packaging weed into ziplock bags. “You’d kill him for breaking up with me?”
Riddle snorts and runs his thumb over a wad of a thousand dollars in ten dollar bills before tying it together with a rubber band and starting on the next set of a thousand. “Um, no. If he talks to a cop, we’re all fucked.”
Something in Bella - the something that had been comparing Riddle’s dark eyes with Rodolphus’s blue ones and Riddle’s clever fingers with Rodolphus’s infrequent, infectious laugh - freezes and flops over, dead.
“Lucius needs Sunday off,” she finally says, mechanically weighing another load of marijuana. “It’s Narcissa’s birthday. They’re going out for dinner.”
“I gave him the Friday off last month,” Riddle murmurs, visibly displeased. “Your sister is beginning to be quite a liability.”
Bella shifts to hide the shake in her hands. “Lucius loves her, Sir. But I’m sure they’ll be amenable to changing the date if you have one when you can spare him.”
Riddle waves at her impatiently. “Ugh. Let him go. I’ve got another guy who can do the drop on Sunday, anyways. Fucking whipped.”
Bella seals the last bag, puts it all aside in a cardboard box for Riddle to check, mutters a goodbye, and leaves as quickly as she can without being outright rude.
1824h – Roddy I’m coming over
1825h – Only let me in ok
1825h – No pizza boys no nothing
1826h – And if Riddle is at the door you RUN
1830h – what makes you think im letting you in
1852h – I’m already here
1852h – I’m in the boots you like
1853h – And Riddle might kill you and it would upset me
1900h – Fucking let me in before I call Lucius and tell him that you wanked into his mother’s koi pond
“He’s a psychopath,” Bella announces when Rodolphus warily – finally – lets her into his apartment.
He shuts the door and leans against it, arms folded and expression surly. “So, no more meth? No more weed?”
She takes a deep breath and reaches up to carefully cradle his face in between her palms. “I don’t mind working for a psychopath,” she tells him, and slips her hands down to wind behind his neck when he tries to push her away. “I don’t mind working for him - but I want you with me. All the time.”
He’s still frowning, but he settles his hands on her hips anyways. “You haven’t dealt with how I’m always coming in at second place.”
Bella purses her lips and looks him in the eye. “I’m probably going to take you for granted a lot,” she tells him, and holds on tighter when he flinches. “But you’re going to have to remind me, because I probably won’t mean it. My work is important to me, Roddy. But so are you.”
“Is that the best I’m going to get?”
She shrugs. “You said you love me. How much do you love me?”
He kisses her forehead, and her eyes slide shut.
0832h – Roddy
0832h – Check your mail
0942h – what’s a vitamix
0953h – It’s expensive
0953h – Don’t break it
0954h – ????
0955h – why did you buy me a blender
0956h – i take all my protein in the form of chicken and fish
0958h – Please
0958h – I know your protein powder’s hidden under the kitchen sink
0959h – ok but i HAD to hide it after my brother tried to snort it
1000h – Wtv
1000h – the vitamix is for milkshakes
1000h – omg
1001h – You’re always talking about milkshakes
1002h – YES
1002h – I want one
10002 – YOU’RE A FUCKING STAR
1002h – I’m coming over later
1003h – After I convince Riddle not to kill you
1004h – I expect a milkshake
1005h – ok babe
1006h – Chocolate ok
1007h – vanilla
1008h – i fucking love vanilla
1009h – Ok wtv both chocolate and vanilla
1010h – yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas
1013h – But don’t make too much ok
1014h – I don’t want to feel all sloshy
1017h – ?????
1020h – I’m bringing condoms