Jealous (Dare/Michael)

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael didn't feel like going all the way out to the forest, or searching out the Room of Requirement, and so he just walked with Dare, slightly behind him to the side, down the corridors. His arms remained crossed tightly over his chest and he kept his eyes down, his mind obsessively replaying both the conversation, movie quotes, that Dare and Anna had had, and the visual of Dare carrying Anna.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's thoughts, though they were of the same incident, were entirely different. He'd overplayed his hand and he knew it, and now, with Anna out of the picture and Michael skulking in his wake, Dare wanted nothing more than to curl into a fetal position somewhere. His head was bowed, his shoulders hunched slightly as they walked, the silence a relief and a distraction all at once. Dare let it eat at him, let it feed his growing self-hatred over the way he'd assed everything up.

It took quite a while for things to build enough that Dare even thought of speaking. He didn't want to; he wanted to just immerse himself in nothing, drown in it. But he couldn't forget Michael's presence, even if he wasn't visible with Michael walking half a step behind him. "I'm sorry," he blurted, the words soft, but still backed by emotion. Dare stopped in the corridor, but couldn't seem to raise his eyes to Michael's. Michael had to be pissed at him, and Dare could understand why.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael stopped and looked up at Dare, forcing himself as he did to bite down a low it's fine which he knew would have been followed by him walking off. He didn't speak for a few long seconds that seemed to stretch for days, then he took a breath, "Why?" He searched what he could see of Dare's face, "Why did you pick her up?" He didn't see why Dare had done it, couldn't figure out where the joke had turned into reality.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shook his head, his brow creasing as he tried to think of an answer. "I don't know," he said softly. "I just...I wasn't thinking, I was just going! I had to do something..." And then he had, and look what had happened. It would have been better to have just made her walk back. It would have taken longer, but maybe, just maybe... But no, Michael had already been upset, before Anna had even fallen. Was there anything he could have done? Not told Anna who you were. Asked her to leave.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael looked away from Dare, shaking his head, "Had to do something? You had to do something so you picked her up and carried her halfway to the castle?" He glanced back up at Dare then back down at the stone floor in front of him. He uncrossed his arms and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He wasn't angry, though he knew it wouldn't take much to turn the stress and discomfort into anger.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shook his head again, his free hand rising to rub against the back of his neck. "I know, it was stupid!" Dare didn't know what to say to make this better, to lighten the mood. He was the problem here, he'd caused it! Dare shifted, unconsciously turning his body away from Michael as his hand lowered again, stuffing down into the pocket of the shorts he was wearing. "I just...panicked, is all. I'm sorry!" And yet, he was trying to make excuses for himself. He was such an idiot!

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael sighed and looked up to see Dare turned away from him, however slight it was. "Most people don't carry their boyfriend's ex when they're panicking," he said softly, realizing as he said it that he had never verbally called Dare his boyfriend. He hated the whole thing, he felt so insecure and he knew that it was going to be uncomfortable to try and explain why he felt the way he did, especially since those quotes were supposed to be harmless.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare grimaced at Michael's words, no matter how soft they'd been. He didn't have any kind of defense for what he'd done. He couldn't even remember what he'd been thinking when he'd done it, aside from taking the game a step further, not having to think. He hadn't wanted to think, so he'd poured everything out, and he'd done it in entirely the wrong way. "I'm not most people," Dare said at last, and left it at that. Most people could handle nerves without exploding. Dare just couldn't seem to handle tension.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael watched Dare, a soft I know slipping from his lips before he looked away again. He still couldn't let himself move past it, though, not with his mind constantly moving back to the conversation by the lake. He looked down in front of his feet, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, wanting to ask, but afraid to at the same time. "Would you explain about the movie quotes?" he finally forced out, though he focused his gaze on the design of the stone floor under his feet.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's gaze jumped to Michael at that question. Everything had started there, hadn't it? He took a deep breath, tried to think for a second, then did his best to explain. "The movie is about a British spy from the 60's...a spy is kind of like, an Auror, only they're stopping Muggle villains. Anyhow, he's this massive Muggle stereotype of a ladies' man. I...randomly picked his name, and...Anna randomly picked the name of a female spy who's the..." Female lead was probably a bad choice, so Dare tried again. "They basically hit on each other..." Damn, that didn't sound much better. Dare dropped his gaze. "It's all just a game to them, anyway. They don't actually do anything." Until the end of the movie.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's explanation didn't help calm Michael's nerves, if anything it made it sound like Anna had been the one to want to flirt with Dare, though, if Michael remembered correctly, Dare had went right along with it. "There has to be something else you could have chosen," he said, searching for an answer. He didn't see how an answer would help, but perhaps Michael had the thin hope that it had been all Dare had to pull from, however idiotic that idea may have been.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare grimaced again. "The only other name I could think of was Inigo Montoya, and he's all, you killed my father, prepare to die. I didn't think threatening to kill her would help anything, and I didn't expect her to come up with Felicity Shagwell." Though perhaps he should have, considering what had happened at the masquerade. Dare shrugged lightly as he looked down the empty corridor, then back down to the stone floor. "I should have just kept my mouth shut," he muttered.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

At first Michael wasn't going to argue that point, but some part of his brain nagged that it would be a bad idea to fall back into silence. "Then we would have had an awkward silence, and they're so much worse than awkward conversation." That could be hypocritical, though, considering the big deal he was making out of that conversation and the following actions. But an awkward silence wouldn't have had such bad aftereffects, Michael reasoned with himself.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shook his head. He appreciated Michael's attempt, but he knew better. They both did. "She'd have left, though; you wouldn't have had to get out of the water, I could've gotten back in, and..." Dare let out a heavy breath, then looked back down the corridor. He shrugged. "When my blood gets going, I just get stupid," he finished lamely. It was how he'd tried to kiss a boy he'd just met. How he'd alienated someone he loved without even thinking about it. You're such a tool, he told himself.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"We all do," Michael said, pausing before looking back up at Dare. He licked his lips and took a breath, then uprooted his feet and stepped closer to Dare. He knew the corridor they were on, and he was fairly certain no one was going to walk down it, and if they did, he or Dare was sure to hear them. "Have a different quote prepared for next time," he said, attempting a small smile, if there was a next time.