Possibilities... (OPEN)

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael tucked his arm tight against his stomach, sighing. "My dad's a Death Eater," he said, not really sure why he was so reluctant to tell when he had told most everyone else. "I didn't have much of a choice when I joined." He looked away from Dare, still unsure of how Dare would react. Most of the people that he had told had had at least a little bit of an idea of what his past had been.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare found himself staring blankly, though the words had penetrated and locked in his mind. You're a Death Eater? he nearly asked. Stupid question, though. All signs pointed to yes, and wasn't that what Michael had just told him? Still, it was one thing hearing it from the kids at SWIM and an entirely different thing being told in the quiet of the forest, where there was no one else to hear, no reason to brag. And it was an entirely different thing hearing it from Michael, whose eyes gave away so much.

"So, like...what about now?" he asked. Michael had been nothing but decent company since they'd met, so now was what counted, it was that simple.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"About a year ago," had it really been that long? "I left, there was an attack, I did some things I shouldn't have done, and I left the headquarters, turned myself in." That was the short story, there was more, always more, but it would only come out if Dare asked. Michael looked up at Dare finally, unsure what he saw in his eyes. He had been threatened for it, he had lived in fear for so long afterwards, but it had all settled down eventually.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's gaze caught on Michael's and held, no judgment in the mossy-green depths, only curiosity, interest, and respect. For as little as Dare actually knew about Death Eaters, he did know the rarity of a Death Eater deflecting, and apparently successfully deflecting. Dare considered himself a pretty good judge of character or he might have written the entire story off as fiction. Dare shook his head slowly, his lips curving just a bit at the ends. "There's just nothing to say to that, man. That's f~ing amazing.You f~ing walked away."

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael's lips parted, he was speechless. He had had quite a few different reactions, but never one quite like that. His eyes fell again down to the blank page, his hair falling down around his face, a wave of something between embarrassment and shyness coming over him. He shrugged lightly, unsure how to react to Dare's words. "I had to, I couldn't do it anymore."

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"It takes a hell of a lot more guts to walk away," Dare said. He set aside the pastels in his hand, put them back in their holder and dusted his hand off on the leg of his jeans before looking back up at Michael. He could feel the tension, so he offered Michael an out. "You want to see my drawing?" he asked. "It's about as done as they get."

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael lay his pad and pencil on the ground and slid over to where Dare was sitting, his left hand holding tightly onto the end of his sleeve. He took the book from Dare, glad for the change in subject, and examined the picture. "It's really good," he said softly, taking in all of the little things. He probably could have said something better, but he wasn't good at finding the words to describe things like the drawing. The way he looked at it showed what he thought enough, though.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Yeah, thanks," Dare said, accepting and brushing off the compliment all at once. He'd always had a hard time really taking compliments, but at least he'd learned not to blow them off entirely. "You're a good subject," he deflected. While Michael was close, Dare took the opportunity to look at his eyes, to see if he'd judged the color right.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael shrugged dismissively, "The subject doesn't matter, it's how good the artist is that makes the piece worth something." His eyes flicked over to Dare but almost immediately went back to the drawing. He loved how Dare had put the two drawings together to make one piece, subtle and yet so fitting. If this drawing, that had taken such a short about of time, was so good, Michael wondered what Dare's more time consuming work looked like.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

That momentary eye contact sent a flicker of awareness at how close they were through Dare. He didn't pull away, though. "The subject does matter," he argued lightly, the words low, due to their proximity. "An uninteresting subject makes an uninteresting drawing." And Michael, former Death Eater Michael, was interesting, to say the least.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"But if the artist is good enough, he can make anything interesting," Michael argued right back, looking up again. He figured that Dare could draw something so simple as a leaf and end up with something so intriguing someone wouldn't be able to take their eyes off of it. Something in the back of Michael's mind nagged that he was really close to a guy, but he shrugged it off, Dare wasn't Emilian, he didn't have to worry about being put down or pushed.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare felt the compliment, knew Michael meant it, but still, he couldn't help trying to deflect it again. His gaze found Michael's and stuck, despite the connection that seemed to be growing. "Why would the artist want to draw something uninteresting?" he asked. "If you can make something uninteresting into something interesting, you can make something interesting into something fascinating."

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Perhaps as a challenge, if the artist could make someone want to stare at a drawing of a quaffle, then wouldn't that be such the accomplishment?" The little nagging voice seemed like it was trying to tell Michael something, but he couldn't put his finger on it, or maybe he just didn't want to concentrate too hard on it. Focusing on it would ruin something, even if he didn't really know what it was.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's lips quirked at Michael's assertion. "To do a drawing like that, the subject still has to be interesting. The artist has to believe it's interesting, at least while he's drawing it." Dare shifted closer, reaching out to flip the page of his sketchbook to an example, an uninteresting subject made interesting because he'd decided it was. The accidental brush of his hand against Michael's brought his gaze up even as the page fell into place, a half-sketched perspective of the corridor outside the library.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

On impulse Michael took Dare's hand, turning it over and looking at it, "I've always thought hands interesting," he commented. It didn't really strike him as odd that he had Dare's hand in his, he paused for a second to look at the drawing, "You are really good," he said, then went back to looking at Dare's hand. He even let his sleeve go, bringing up his left hand to touch the lines in his palm.