A Thousand Beautiful Things
Disclaimer: Same old- don't own anyone but Cass.
Chapter Three:
The next few weeks flew by in a whirlwind and Daniel found himself looking forward to filming each day, no matter how early in the morning it was. Rupert and Emma were slightly disturbed with Dan's shameless optimism and cheerfulness, but he couldn't care less. Cassandra's presence was fun and lighthearted and they all quickly became accustomed to her. She loved every kind of music from punk rock to rap to pop, and despite Sheryl's protests, she always played music in the make up room and danced and sung exuberantly while Daniel was made up for his scenes, making everyone laugh. Unlike most girls, she didn't seem to care what others thought of her, but ironically most of them had taken to her pretty well. She was getting on quite well with his cast mate Bonnie Wright, who was somewhat of a rebel and while she was friendly with Emma, she didn't really hang out much with her. Emma was girly and flirtatious while Bonnie was more artsy and alternative. Once Bonnie had met Cassandra, someone who shared her taste in music and parliament lights, the other cast mates hardly saw her without Cassandra, and on Daniel's way to the hotel each night he would see them sitting on the brick wall outside the studio smoking cigarettes and talking, silhouetted against the night sky.
One particularly sunny morning, Daniel walked in the makeup room where Cassandra was playing Timbaland's "The Way I Are" and finishing up a stray Quidditch costume. Her outfits were an endless source of fascination for Daniel. She seemed to dress not for practicality but purely for the art of fashion; she nearly always wore heels knowing full well that she'd be expected to climb ladders and stay constantly on her feet, and, while Daniel had seen her grimace more than once, she never complained. This morning, she was wearing little madras printed shorts, a black halter top, and wickedly high espadrilles that laced up her calves. Her ink black hair hung in front of her face like a sheet as she carefully finished stitching.
Daniel cleared his throat and sat down, "Good morning."
Cassandra looked up and smiled. "Hey there. You're the first person I've actually seen this morning."
"Really? I saw people here when I walked in," said Daniel.
"Yeah, but no one's come in here. I've been here since 6 am finishing up this costume and painting some furniture for a set," Cassandra explained, dropping the costume down on the table next to her heavily.
"Wow. Sounds like a lot of work. More than I do," Daniel laughed.
"Not really," she shrugged delicately. "Besides, I'm making money. Maybe sometime soon I can do something with it."
"Like what?" He asked curiously.
"I want to travel," she told him, smiling, as if she just told him a secret. "Have you ever been to the Sistine Chapel in Rome?"
"Yeah, once, with my family." Dan said, not even caring that he sounded like the most boring person alive; she was interesting enough for the both of them.
"I want to go there. I know this sounds stupid because it's probably super crowded with lots of security, but I just want to lie on the ground and look up at the ceiling that Michelangelo painted for hours. I think that it would be the best thing ever." Cassandra's dark eyes seared into his own blue ones and he shivered involuntarily. He suddenly felt that he had missed out on his visit to the Sistine Chapel. He had read about Michelangelo's frescoes beforehand, and he and his family had filed in the room with all the tourists and looked around and listened to his father rattle on about the historical context of the era of blah blah blah… he wished he could go back and lie on the floor of the reverent chapel with Cassandra and not ever get tired of it.
"Morning!" A voice rang out, causing Daniel to jump about three feet off the ground and gasp. Cassandra merely looked up to see who it was.
"Emma," Daniel grumbled.
"Hello Dan, Cass." Emma beamed at them, her wet hair pulled up in a ponytail, and walked up to sit by Cassandra. Both girls were quite beautiful; Emma was tall, pale and thin with sinewy limbs while Cassandra was small and curvy with long legs and rounded hips.
Cassandra smiled, "hey girl. Finally finished this fucking costume. Goddamn stitches took forever since the fucking sewing machine broke earlier this morning. Cheap piece of shit."
Tom Felton just walked in at that moment, looking shocked. Emma caught Daniel's eye and just laughed. Cassandra clearly never made any effort to censor her language and she was often heard swearing like a sailor, albeit good naturedly.
"Oh- sorry Tom. Didn't see you there," said Cassandra cheerfully, winking at Daniel.
"Just got my hair bleached again," Tom groaned, sitting beside Dan and rubbing at his forehead in pain. "Bloody worst thing ever. Never look forward to it."
Emma made a sympathetic noise. "Your forehead's all red! I'm lucky I don't have to do anything with my hair. Except curl it, I suppose."
"Horrible." Tom grumbled again, after five minutes of whinging about his hair. "Feels like my head's on fire." Cassandra was rolling her eyes and Daniel watched her grab her glass of water from the counter, walk casually up to Tom and fling the water at his head.
"Fire's out!" Cassandra sang, while Tom sputtered and swiped the water out of his eyes. Emma and Daniel burst out laughing.
"Why, you little…" Tom jumped up and Cassandra darted out of the room with Tom at her heels.
"She's crazy," Emma said, still laughing. "But I like her."
"Yeah," Daniel agreed. "So do I." Emma raised an eyebrow, and Dan playfully shoved her.
"Oh shut up."
"Wanna go play the Harry Potter video game? I bet I can get past the zombies before you!" Emma teased, elbowing him.
"Right." Dan laughed, and the two of them walked out together. "You're on, Watson!"
The next day during a break, Dan was walking to his trailer when he heard Nine Inch Nails blasting from a parked car near his trailer. He walked curiously a bit closer, only to find that it was Cassandra. He attempted to walk by the car unseen (he had just done a Quidditch scene and was unforgivably dusty), but he heard his name being called through the open window.
Daniel turned around, sure that it had been a figment of his imagination, when Cassandra leaned out the window.
"Are you just going to stand there like a moron?" Dan half-smiled and shook his head, climbing in the passenger seat. Cassandra was curled up in the drivers seat in a short little black dress and gray leggings, her hair in a twisty little ponytail and a cigarette poking out from the corner of her mouth. Daniel brushed impatiently at the cakes of mud clinging to his trousers.
"So," Daniel struggled for something clever to say.
Cassandra flicked ash off the end of her cigarette and gave him a sidelong glance. "So…?"
"Hiding out in your car, are you?" He asked.
She laughed, "Something like that. How's filming going?"
"Great, great. I mean-" he indicated the state of his clothes, "-messy, but still going well." Cassandra took a deep drag and blew smoke up at the ceiling of the car. Daniel looked around at the simple white car.
"I didn't know you drove around here- Do you usually drive to the studio?" He asked.
"Nope. Just renting out this car for the time being. I've just gotten used to driving it. I mean it's pretty fuckin' hard when you're driving on the wrong side of the car-"
"It's not so hard, I've driven an American car once-"
Cassandra gave him a dark look, "-not to mention the wrong side of the road…"
"Well at least we speak the same language over here," Daniel joked. Cass smiled.
"Right you are. You're on your lunch break, right?" She asked.
"Uhh, yeah-" Daniel replied, confused. Tossing her cigarette out the window, Cassandra started the engine and put her seatbelt on.
"Good. Come on," she said, as if Dan had a choice when he was locked inside the now moving car. The common misconception people had of Daniel being famous was that he had a constant bodyguard. The truth was, most people never even expected a "celebrity" like him to even go out in public, so when he did most people didn't even think it was really him. He did have a bodyguard during premieres and the like, but most of the time he was allowed to be on his own.
Even so, driving away from the studio during a work day without anyone knowing gave Daniel a slight feeling of alarm. "Kidnapping me, are you?"
Cassandra giggled. "It's your lunch break. Don't you want to eat lunch?"
Daniel's stomach jolted, and it had nothing to do with hunger. 'Like a date?' he wanted to ask. However, the only smooth line he could come up with, alas, was "uhh, sure. Yeah." In Rupert's words, Bloody Brilliant.
As she drove, Daniel clutched the sides of his seat tightly. Cassandra was an all right driver but every now and then she would see a car in the other lane passing them in the opposite direction and lose it completely, closing her eyes as if not seeing the car would make it go away. Several times, while Cassandra let out a string of colorful vocabulary, Daniel found himself grabbing the wheel for her to avoid any type of collision. Just as he caught his breath, she swerved into a parking lot. Daniel let out a couple of Cassandra's choice swear words as he smacked his head against his window. Cassandra grinned at him.
"Come on," she said. He followed.
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