Promises, or So They Say (Leo)

Adonis nearly skipped down the hallway, almost bursting with happiness but grateful that he wasn't. The Yule Ball had honestly been dull, save for the bit of dancing that he and Leo tried. It was quite funny, dancing with him, Adonis concluded. He also decided that he wanted to try it again sometime, provided that his partner was willing.

They settled in a corner underneath a window, where the moon shined gently on them. Adonis hadn't really been here very much, but for some reason it felt like he was always there, like he belonged there, especially when Leo was with him.

"So, the tower didn't work out. Is this alright?" he asked. He was genuinely disappointed that they couldn't get into the tower, but it was mostly due to his sex-crazed roommate and the unavailability of the common room. He wasn't sure about the Hufflepuff dormitories, but as long as Leo was okay this corridor would work out just fine.

Leo leaned back against the wall and shrugged, his legs sprawled out in front of him.

"I don't really care where we are. As long as it's not a volcano..." He mused, absently tugging on the sleeves of the very nice gray tweed blazer his mother owled him. The Hufflepuff neglected to mention that he liked hallways...that's where he and Adonis seemed to spend the most time, after all. The moonlight was wintry and blue, which admittedly, looked really nice on Adonis...and it was quiet. Very quiet. The kind of quiet Leo both wanted to ruin and preserve.

So, Leo decided he rather liked this place.

He was already leaning against the wall, but now Leo was relaxing as well as sneaking glimpses of Adonis every now and again. Yes, the first year was decidedly content with being his friend's date to the ball. He couldn't wait to ask Jenny if her prom date grabbed her hands and spun her around.

Adonis had had a thought or two on his mind for a little while now, and it was at this point that he decided to voice at least one of them.

Well, first he reminded Leo to not tug on his jacket because he might dislodge a few threads or something not good, then he got to his point. "So, what sort of people are you into? Guys... or girls... or both...?" His voice betrayed hesitancy, for he was genuinely nervous about finding out. Mostly it was because he had this curiosity in his mind about whether or not Leo thought of him as a date or just as a friend, because they hadn't done much different than they usually did tonight, a fact he realized as he reflected on this point. He swallowed, then waited for the answer while staring at the wall across the corridor.

"Um," Leo flushed and looked down at his lap. "Well I haven't really thought about it...I mean I have...because, um..."

The Hufflepuff's mouth hung slightly open, but no words came out. Leo wanted to say something, he really did, but he simply couldn't will the words to come out of his mouth. The fluttering was almost unbearable, and when he thought over the different ways he could get his point across, his tummy felt as though it would explode.

Leo really didn't want to explode.

Swallowing, and drawing his knees to his chest, he chose to voice his concern.

"Adonis, I think I'm..." Taking a big, shaky breath, he hid his face in his knees. "I mean, well, I think I am, um...I'm g--" What he'd been trying to say suddenly spilled out so quickly, not even Leo himself knew exactly what he said. He was nervous, happy, and scared all at once and he didn't know how to cope with it. He couldn't pace himself, and he really needed to slow himself down enough to say it, otherwise he'd mess everything up.

Adonis had no idea what Leo was trying to say. Well, he almost thought he might have an inkling of an idea, but it wasn't really enough to take into consideration. He opened his mouth to ask Leo to slow down, but some other impulse took over, one that wasn't talented at speaking.

He leaned over and kissed the Hufflepuff lightly on the cheek, hoping that would halt his spluttering nonsense. He didn't want to kiss his lips, as that would have most likely been Leo's first kiss, and it didn't seem right to take that away without permission. It would have been his own first kiss, for that matter.

After doing that his body curled in on itself, as if terrified about what it had just done. His face was hidden behind his knees around which his arms were wrapped tightly. Cocoons were scientifically accepted as one of the safest places in the world (or so Adonis thought anyway), so it only made sense to make one of his own in this moment.

"...explode..." He mumbled thoughtfully, delighted with how the feeling in his stomach rose to new heights and then fell. Leo rested his chin on his knees, looked over at Adonis, and smiled. Whether he was embarrassed of the kiss or shielding himself from the explosion, Leo wasn't sure. Adonis just looked silly, and that was adorable in it's own way. The first year decided, that given the circumstances, his friend (date?) was unsure of the cheek kissing.

"It's okay. That was nice, you should do it more often." Leo as-a-matter-of-factly assured. He didn't know what else to do about Adonis's state other than that, aside from maybe thanking him for dispelling his own momentary panic.

Adonis looked up, his face red but his smile bright. "That's good to know," he replied simply. "So... have you ever kissed anyone before?" He knew he was asking all the wrong questions right now, but it was all he could think about. His brain currently wasn't capable of functioning past the topic of Leo Donaghue, even though he had tried to consider other things.

The Ravenclaw rubbed his arms a little, as he was rather cold and unaccustomed to just sitting about wearing a suit. It really wasn't very practical at all, a realization he came to later. Much, much later. He made a point to keep an eye on Leo (without making it obvious) to see if he was showing signs of discontent with the temperature as well. If he needed to, he could run and get a blanket or something, or their coats but that didn't really seem appropriate for the indoor setting.

"No," Leo replied without hesitation. He knew bedtime kisses from his mum and the previous peck at the cheek didn't count, as he'd already had the discussion with one of his older, feminine cousins. It didn't take much for him to wonder if maybe Adonis had more experience in that area than him.

"Have you?" He asked, maybe sounding a bit too curious. To Leo, kisses were like the occasional sip of good alcohol, or visiting distant countries. He was, generally, supposed to be older do do both of those things. At least, that's what he was told.

"I haven't," Adonis replied, nodding his head as though accepting that it wouldn't change, at least for a very long time. He wasn't sure how old he was supposed to be for a first kiss, as most of the other students had by now appeared to move on to more intimate things. The startling part for him was that too many of them were barely older than him, or even the same age.

The very thought made him shudder, but of course, being that he'd already barely been able to escape thinking about Leo for more than a few seconds, the subject took its usual twist. Genuinely horrified, he buried his face in his arms again, trying to stop himself from thinking about that. Adonis had never been more grateful for the lack of mind reading powers in the general population. He was, however, annoyed by how much the general population seemed to know about, well, the more private aspects of life.

His next concern was how Leo was going to be taking all of this in, being that he obviously did not possess the powers of telepathy. It took another couple minutes before the Ravenclaw could raise his head and make eye contact again without blushing profusely and losing the ability to communicate properly, even though he knew Leo had no idea what he was thinking about.

"What do you think it's like?" Leo mused, disregarding Adonis's only mildly explicable embarrassment. He let his knees unfurl, and his legs sprawl across the floor just as they were before and nibbled on his lip in concentration. Couples in romance movies seemed to like it, and Jenny had been so excited when that boy kissed her, that she actually told her mother about it. So, Leo concluded they must be nice, especially if people did it in other places, and decided to share beds together and do what his Aunt told him about.

She said people who went on dates did that. Leo began to worry that his bed might not be big enough, which was silly, because if he was going to worry over that, it would do him good to know how exactly to do what his aunt told him about.

Adonis thought for a minute, trying to think of something to compare it to. Honestly, though, he really couldn't think of anything. "Kissing? I don't know, I mean I guess it's... I think it's nice. I mean why would people do it so much if it wasn't. I think some people are better than others though. I heard a group of girls talking about how this one boy was really bad at it, then switched to talking about how someone else was really good. I don't understand how you can be good or bad, but maybe that's just because I don't even know what one is like to begin with..."

He even tried to mesh the feelings of giving and receiving a kiss, but that still didn't feel quite right. It really wasn't describable, and he wasn't sure that he would be able to explain it any better if he ever did get one.

Leo thought on that for a moment. Yes, it must be nice...but he couldn't shake the feeling that it was probably wet and mushy and that saliva must go too many places. He also made sure to note that while most were pretty, and some nice, girls could be really weird.

"I think it's mushy, I mean," He pressed his lips together momentarily. "My lips are pretty mushy."

Almost against his will, but not entirely, Adonis pressed his finger lightly against Leo's lips. "I think a better word is soft. Tomatoes and other things are mushy when they've gone bad. I don't think you've gone bad. You're just soft."

The Ravenclaw touched his own lips, chuckling to himself before reporting his assessment. "Mine are kind of chapped. My mum always complains that I don't drink enough water." He wondered silently if that was undesirable for kissing. Most people just complained about it, so he decided on yes, although he wasn't concerned enough to do anything about it. Granted, if it bothered Leo, he could try to fix it...maybe.

The word 'soft' and the feeling Adonis's finger left in it's wake were both things Leo couldn't seem to get over. If another person's finger to his lips alone was very nice, there was no telling what other lips could and would be like. Of course, he was picturing Adonis being the one he kissed, and Leo didn't know if that was okay. All of those thoughts were wonderful and daunting, and he wasn't sure what he wanted and didn't.

"They felt a little chapped," Leo admitted with a little bit of color to his cheeks. "But they were still soft too, it was still good..."

Adonis smiled, then slouched so far down that he was lying on the stone floor. He tucked his hands behind his head for a temporary cushion, and stared up at the ceiling and its associated shadows.

He didn't really have anything to say right now. He wanted to simply enjoy this time with Leo, silence included. Out of the corner of his eye he was looking at his date, admiring the ways the moonlight touched his face from this new perspective.

He would have been perfectly content doing just this but for a thought that occurred to him. "Leo, how are we going to take the pictures? It's kind of dark..."

Leo looked down at his date fondly, and then tipped his head back and against the cool stone wall. From there, he shook his head.

"The camera came with my suit, with new film and everything." He explained, trying not to smile at the thought of the shiny device, "But when I tried to use it, it sort of...well when the flash went off there was this terrible crack. It doesn't work here, because it's muggle and it's one of those new electric ones...that's what the book said, anyway. The one on Hogwarts." He wasn't too upset over the whole ordeal, but he did feel bad that his mum spent money on a new camera only to have it break. It was partly his fault, he should've asked for one of those wizard cameras, as Leo did his reading and he had an inkling the one his mother sent wouldn't work.

Adonis choked back a laugh as he propped himself up on his elbow. "You broke it?" he exclaimed. "I hope it wasn't one of those super nice cameras. My parents never ever bought those because of things like this. Well, I mean the incidents were a tad more Muggle, but you know what I mean."

He thought for a moment, then asked if he could see it. Perhaps it was fixable, but he strongly doubted it. It was Hogwarts after all. The interior of the camera probably looked like a contained explosion.

The Ravenclaw also wondered (aloud) how much wizard cameras were. He'd seen pictures, mostly in newspapers, and was thrilled at the way the pictures moved. He would definitely like to have one of him and Leo that did that. Maybe he could scrounge up some money for that, and he could use those pictures to replace the ones they could have had if Leo's Muggle camera hadn't been so brutally murdered by the school.

"I didn't break it!" Leo argued indignantly, "The school did. I don't think it likes change very much. Anyway, it's not with me...we wouldn't be able to take pictures so I left it in my room..."

He was sad to leave it behind. It wasn't really the camera's fault it couldn't take pictures, and it didn't look like a cheap one...but the device was incredibly bulky, and barely fit in Leo's pocket. At any rate, the camera's inconvenience was hardly enough to put Leo in a sour mood, especially in the company Adonis-- who was wondering about wizard cameras. The possibility of taking moving photos with the Ravenclaw delighted Leo, and he vividly remembered his mother's awe when she saw posters, newspapers, and advertisements in Diagon Alley.  

"We could pool money!" he chattered, "and maybe get a photo album or a cork board...Jenny's got one in her room with magazine clippings all over it..."

Although 'delighted' wasn't a word Adonis liked to use to describe himself, there really wasn't another word for how he felt when it came to Leo. He enjoyed the idea of having a photo album, perhaps even a collection of them to mark the boys' years through Hogwarts. They were only in their first year, so they could really make something of this if they wanted to.

He nodded his head vigorously in agreement with the idea of pooling money, but then seriously thought about it. He didn't have much money to begin with, and his parents had many difficulties converting Muggle money to galleons, making this a bit of a tougher task than it ought to be. The Ravenclaw shrugged his shoulders, deciding he could and would find a way to make it happen. If worst came to worst, he could probably ask Armen for a little bit...

On that topic, he realized that he hadn't told Leo about him yet. After apologizing for such an abrupt topic change, he began, "Oh I just remembered, I forgot to tell you about something. I found my brother. He works here, of all places." Honestly he wasn't sure if he'd ever told his friend anything about his brother, but he figured he could get to that later if need be.

Leo's grin didn't falter, as such news was always good. He didn't know much about Adonis's family himself, but that didn't make him any less happy for him. It must be hard, though. Or, that's what Leo figured. He couldn't imagine his own little sister being very nearly a complete stranger, and he had since her birth to get to know her.

"How did it happen?... How did you find him, I mean?" Leo asked, trying to picture Adonis on one of those reality TV shows that put families back together with another person who looked a lot like him.

Adonis chuckled nervously, mentally recounting the story he was about to tell his friend. It wasn't the best family reunion story...

"Well, to make a long story short, I went to visit the gamekeeper, then he held a knife to my throat, and then a few minutes later we figured out we were brothers. It was pretty awkward, you know. I think he freaked out because we look outrageously similar. He might be paranoid as it is, I mean. His childhood sounded like hell, especially for the bit that he knew me. I still don't know why it was like that, though."

His words faded out, accompanying his thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind to mull over themselves, basically forgetting about his real life present company.

"Oh." The Hufflepuff said quietly. His smile didn't feel appropriate anymore, so he let it fall. Leo didn't really know what to say, so he chose to do the (maybe not so) sensible thing and leaned over to hug Adonis. However, hugging from the side was only somewhat snugly, if not more than slightly awkward. There then was the issue of Leo's face, which wasn't exactly buried in the crook Adonis's neck, but came very close...

Leo would've pulled away out of embarrassment, but the warmth of being wrapped around another body was too nice to pass up.

Adonis did his best to look at Leo, but found that that only put their lips very close together, something that he wasn't sure he wanted to do just now. So, he did the only other thing he could, aside from shoving the Hufflepuff away. He turned to make it a bit more comfortable and wrapped his own arms around him. It didn't work as well as he wanted, because a few minutes later they were fidgeting again due to discomfort.

Long story short, Adonis ended up sitting with Leo leaning back against him, his head nestled underneath the Ravenclaw's chin. Adonis's hands were folded on Leo's stomach, occasionally moving to poke Leo's hand for fun. He hadn't realized how nice Leo's hair smelled until then, but he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to comment on it, in case he sounded creepy or something.

Leo didn't realize he'd been somewhat chilly before the amorous turn of events, mostly because he'd been preoccupied with somebody else. Glad he chose not to immediately pull away, Leo watched Adonis poke his hand as if it were the second most interesting thing in the world (the first being how well his date functioned as a radiator). He wasn't sure how much time he'd spent watching and waiting for Adonis's hand to move again, but it was sometime before Leo finally snatched it.

He thought about simply holding it like dates usually do, but without any motive whatsoever, Leo instead turned his friend's  palm up and uncurled each finger one by one. He thought about a few things while looking at it; what kind of shapes it might take to draw a hand, the way every part surely had to bend when flipping through books. Most notably, he thought about the lines on them.

You don't think very realistically, his little sister had said. See? Your head line is really curved. Maybe you should work on that...

"You think realistically," Leo said wistfully, resting a finger on the line adjacent to what his sister and her stupid book called the 'life line'. Adonis's was rather straight, unlike Leo's, which was clearly curved. Adonis also wouldn't have to worry about a seven year-old making fun of a line on his palm.

"What?" Adonis muttered, watching Leo toy with his hands. He had no idea what was going on in that boy's head, but he was sure he didn't mind it. He wrapped his arms tighter around Leo before kissing him softly on the cheek, which was slightly difficult given that he was behind his friend/date. It landed more on his jaw, but that was alright, Adonis figured.

"You make no sense sometimes," he chuckled, poking Leo's hand again. He traced the line that was similar to his, but far from identical. He didn't know what the Hufflepuff was going on about, but he could at least tell the difference between them. "What does yours mean, then?"