| Details for Breakfast Together Apart |
| Summary: | A chance meeting of Melody and Myrus ends with them eating breakfast together, by Melody Logic. |
| Date: | 10 October 1939 |
| Location: | Hogwart's Grounds/Great Hall |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It's morning. Myrus had already spent the very wee hours of the earliest time of the day (or the latest part of the night if that suits your internal clock) running and doing some physical exercise. He did so in a plain undershirt and some baggy pants with some cord at the ankles to tie them off at the bottom, just above his plain brown boxing shoes.
Rus stands in the training grounds with his arms held over his head, fingers laced and hands resting atop his head. He can hear the far-off chime of a grandfather clock noting the quarter hour before breakfast was to start. He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, the cool autumn air making his breath slightly visible as he closes his eyes and lets the heat siphon off of his exposed skin of his arms and head.
Melody is always up early and ghosting around somewhere outside, eager to be out of the confines of the Hufflepuff space and the windows that are too high to be any real good. She isn't out for exercise like some, but just to be out. With the dew on the grass, her wellies are dampened, and today colored in bold stripes of black and yellow. Her flute is away, but always near to hand in her robes. As she drifts up over a rise she finds herself looking down at the training grounds and the lone occupant. The young witch pauses, her face neutral, eyes wide as they always are, but focused on Myrus. She walks again, unhurried, her path through the grass taking her on a trajectory toward the Ravenclaw boy.
The air is still and crisp enough for someone to hear footsteps even in damp grass. Myrus turns his head to look at the approaching figure. His left arm drops first, and second is his right arm. Hands prop onto hips, but one reaches up to rub his nose and mouth real quick before it returns to where it was on his hip. "Do you ever sleep, Abernathy?" His question lingers on the air before he actually turns to face her approaching.
The forward progress of the girl doesn't stop, but her path alters slightly, taking her so that she'll pass in front of Myrus when she's near. "Do you?" she counters lightly, as she turns and ends up walking a full circle around Myrus. She stays more than arm's length away, and meanders, her attention, miraculously, staying on him, as if the circle is taken to size him up.
The sixth year boy's arms lower to the sides as she nears, but when she changes course ever so slightly, his eyes follow her, returning the gaze as his eyes almost mirror hers in their path across visage and figure alike as she passes in front of him from the left. When she goes behind him, his head stays to the right but when she gets back to his direct left he turns his head again to regain sight of her.
"That doesn't answer my question, and I guess you might find out someday."
Finally, once she's back in front of Myrus, Melody stops walking and turns to face him. There's a proper distance between the pair, and her head angles upward slightly to make up for height difference. Her lips curve in a smile, not quite her usual wide, toothy smile, but more subdued. "I sleep," she says simply. Her attention wanders again, but not far, stopping somewhere about the middle of his chest. "How might I find out if you sleep?"
Myrus just simply replies, "If you ever see me sleeping, then you'll know." Almost a response of Melody's own caliber right there.
"What brings you out this morning?" He asks, crossing his arms over his chest, lifting his chin and pushing his head forward just a bit inquisitively.
As if in answer to the question, Melody's eyes drop, her attention shifting to the process of fishing something out of a pocket of her robes. One hand comes up, to be held out palm up with a small wrapped package resting there. "This is for you." She says it as if she knew she'd happen across him. The paper wrapping the package is from the sweet shop in Hogsmeade. Inside, when and if it's opened, is a chocolate dragon.
Eyes drop to where her hand was retrieving something within her robes, and Myrus looks her in the eye as she pulls the package out of her pocket.
The respectable distance is closed somewhat as he steps forward and one arm drops to his side and the other hand reaches beneath hers to accept it, held up underneath her own so she can turn her hand over to place the package into his.
"What is it and why?" Noone really gets him gifts that often. So the look in his eyes as he spies the package is a mixture of surprise and skepticism. A smirk also tugs at the corner of his mouth.
Her hand is turned, skin brushing lightly against his with the movement, and the small, light package deposited with it's new owner. Then she starts walking again, not away, but once more in a circle around him. This time, at least, she's not staring at him, but she looks down at her feet as they propel her slowly. "It's a present," she says, stating the obvious as to the what. "Because." Would be the why.
Of course it was a gift. It's wrapped, isn't it? He laughs a bit at himself, mainly because her answers were so obvious and simple, that he had to agree that he was overthinking it. Though he wouldn't agree out loud, he begins moving paper to reveal what it was.
The little head pokes out, then a wing and before Myrus knows it the chocolate dragon is crawling up his arm. He tenses for just a moment before he realizes what it's made of. Then he smiles, snagging it with his free hand and pushing it back into the packaging.
His smile goes away, whether forced to or does so naturally is up for debate, and he says flatly, "Thank you. I'll eat it for dessert after breakfast." He turns his head to watch her walking around him once again. "Because… why?" He loves to pry. Ravenclaw through and through.
With his attention on the gift, Melody's eyes raise to settle on his face as she passes in front of him for the third time. Her smile is pleased, but by the time he has the treat tucked away and looks back at her, she's looked away and might have not looked at him at all. "Does there always have to be a why?" she muses dreamily.
She is looking away when his eyes return to her. But he keeps watching her when he can as she continues to circle. "Why is the most treacherous of questions to ask. It's the only one who's measure is purely concocted and measured within a person's mind, and not the corporeal world. It's the only thing we can ever really choose. Why we do things. And it's the hardest question to answer, especially if one is lying to themselves."
Since the step he took toward her, Melody made no adjustment in her own path, except perhaps to tighten the small circle in matching measure. She listens to him in silence, but for the swishing of her feet in the grass, considering his words. She doesn't lie, at least she doesn't believe so, either to herself or others. So, perhaps to placate the Ravenclaw's need to know, she says, "I saw it and thought it might make you smile." And it did. Mission accomplished.
He grins again, genuinely. "Yes, you coaxed a smile from me. Good job. What's next in your plans for me?" As if he has to ask..
Well, actually he does. He has no idea what she's got concocting in that head of hers.
Myrus starts towards the door, it might be in her way at that time, it might not. He would definitely try to time it that way that he would interrupt her circling and walk right in front of her just as she had him a few moments earlier. "Are you hungry? Would you like to join me for breakfast?" Ensure what you want to ask is asked. Just asking about hunger will get just an answer about hunger.
It's not a question she can answer, because even Melody doesn't always know what's brewing in her noggin until it's happening. He does time it so that he walks right in front of her, but it might have been more successful had she showed any inclination of stopping. Instead she bumps into him lightly, and then stops. "We always have breakfast together," she says with Melody Logic. At least whenever they're in the Great Hall at the same time having breakfast at their respective tables. They're in the same place, so they're together. They're all together. But she does allow, "I am hungry."
Myrus actually laughs as his arms re-actively move out to catch her from falling over after they bump into one another. He laughs a little bit when she says they always have breakfast together. "True somehow. I was talking about sitting together. But thinking on it more-" he realizes he hasn't moved his hands from her sides, and promptly does so. "-it will have to wait until lunch. They don't like people sitting at different tables much anymore at breakfast and dinner. That'll have to wait." And he turns to finally head inside to the corridor leading to the grand moving staircase. "I need a bath."
There isn't a protest from Melody at the lingering of hands, for all the outward reaction she might not have even noticed it. But she did. "I take food up to the towers sometimes," she ventures, falling into step beside him. After his statement as to the need to get clean there's a beat of silence, and then she says, simply of course, "You smell like a boy." There's not a note of offense to her voice in the words, just an observation.
"Alright, I have to get to my dormitory to get cleaned up. I'll see you at breakfast, even if it is the next table over." He peeks over his shoulder, looking like there was something else he wants to say, but the small part his lips had made in preparation to speak closes, and he turns his head to look up the corridor, through which he smartly walks now to get to the grand staircase.
For a moment, Melody stands, other students filtering around her, parting like water over a rock as they usually do. She watches Myrus head for the stairs and start up before she drifts into the Great Hall. Taking a seat somewhere along the middle of her table, she's got her back to the Ravenclaw table on the other side. There's some light chatter with her housemates, her eyes wandering to the door now and then, as she picks at some toast with jam. She's preoccupied, but that's not anything new to her housemates and it goes unnoticed and uncommented upon.
It would be several minutes, but Myrus wasn't one to lollygag (usually), and today was no exception to the majority. It wasn't long after breakfast officially began that someone was looking up from the Ravenclaw table and saying 'Heya Lowe', and Myrus would take a seat while greeting them in return.
Breakfast foods taken onto his own plate, and he starts eating a bite at a time.
Putting her attention firmly on her plate for a few moments, minding a Prefect's light admonition for her to make sure she eats enough to get through to lunch, Melody misses the arrival of Myrus, but hears the greetings exchanged. Her head comes up and she pushes her hair out of her eyes, half turning to look at the table behind her. If Myrus notices, there's a small smile offered, before she resumes her breakfast, now eating 'together'.
"Oi Rus, you aright?" Another voice raises from the Ravenclaw ranks, likely enough for one to hear from the Hufflepuff table. "You look like you starin' off into space, like you tryin to make your eggs turn into chicken's by starin' at 'em." Some chuckling at the explanation, and Myrus seems to wake up and look at him.
"Oh, just-" he turns his head just in time to catch Melody right after she had looked, so it seemed as if she never noticed him enter, or didn't worry about it. So he looks at the one across the table, "Just.. thinking is all." And he continues to eat, not another look over his shoulder the rest of breakfast.
Her smile goes unnoticed, as do the two or three additional times Melody turns to look over where Myrus sits. Finally she stops looking and picks at what's left of her breakfast. Her appetite seems to have waned, but she apparently has eaten enough for the Prefect, who stops on his way out, laying a hand on her shoulder and leaning to say something quietly to her. The reward for this is her bright smile. "Wow…" the tiny word drawled out for several seconds before she goes on, "alright. Thank you." The Prefect moves on, and Melody pushes her plate to the center of the table, standing.
Only when Melody's voice catches his ear behind him does Myrus actually look. Mostly what he heard was 'thank you'. He turns just in time to see the Prefect leaning down whispering something to her.
Why did his throat tighten just now? Oh, ok. He realizes just then that he sort of likes her. But that chance is all for naught, as it was probably her aloof personality and his own lecherous attitude that caused all this confusion in his own head how her actions added up. Yeah, it all makes sense somehow, and Myrus sees her stand, and turns back to his food. Luckily, nobody around him noticed him looking or even staring while the Prefect was leaning over her with hand on her shoulder, nor the tiny proverbial raincloud above his head that just lobbed a bolt of lightning at the crest of Myrus' skull.
So now he thinks she's taken by someone else, and will act accordingly.
The lives of teenagers are fraught with misconceptions and misunderstandings. Melody is having some of her own at present, wondering why it matters to her that Myrus never turned to smile back at her. But, she's been a non-entity in his life for six years now, so it's no real surprise. Through his dating and heartbreaks, she's just been a distant observer, and there's no apparent reason for that to change now. Lost in her thoughts, she walks the length of her table, not really consciously shifting her hand as she passes behind Myrus, her touch barely skating over his back as she continues on to the door.
Confusion. Then false understanding. Then concern. A bit of distress. Then her touch across his back. His head lifts and looks the direction towards which the gliding of her hand was moving. He sees her walking down the length of the aisle between the tables of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
Now more confusion sets in, but fortified by that previous false understanding a second later starts to cause frustration from believing he's either being led on, or she doesn't realize what she's doing, and it needs to stop so noone perceives she's leading him on. Because if she's leading him on, then people will think he's following. And taking a prefect's girl?
Oh that would just look wonderful, considering Esther was taken by a prefect last year from him, or so his side of the story goes, and this could be sticking it to someone else in the position as some sort of petty payback. Maybe. There's a chance of that, tiny as it is, that someone would believe it, then rumors spread. Need to tell her this needs to stop next time he sees her, Myrus has now decided, looking at his place with some bit of concerned thought on his features.
At the end of the table, Melody takes one look back before Myrus looks back down at his plate. Big brown eyes find him unerringly, and she pauses for just a moment. Her smile doesn't come, but rather a soft frown as she sees what seems to be something of a stormy look on his face. Pale lips press fully closed, and the frown looks entirely out of place on her usually sunny, if somewhat vacant, face. She's not got his experience, boys are more boggled by her than interested romantically, and she's never minded that before. So, with Melody Logic, that should not bother her now. She nods, barely, acknowledging her own train of thought as she turns to resume her retreat from the Great Hall.
Myrus resists the urge to look up from his table at her. Ok, he can't help but lift his eyes toward her right as she was turning. If she was still looking at him in the middle of turning around to leave the hall, he didn't see it.
The gut-wrenching urge to get up and run after her was oddly.. strong.
Why though? It's not like there was anything really real between them, right? … Right?!
Myrus takes a deep breath, and staring at his plate, he can't finish it, having this taking up the forefront of his thoughts so much that he just can't eat. Why does this bother him so much was the question wrecking his brain when he stands up, he knows not how long after she had left, and walks quickly to exit the hall himself, holding a hand against the side of his head and even audibly (but not really understandably) muttering to himself.