Another Night In (Michael/Dare)

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael was surprised by that, though maybe he shouldn't have been, and he looked up at Dare. He sat for a few moments in comfortable silence, thinking over everything that had happened in the past few days. He was suddenly extremely glad he had told Dare what he had told Kane, because would everything have affected them more if he hadn't? Everything jumbled up in his mind then as he tried to play out scenarios, then he shook his head lightly to get rid of it all. "Adara said that if she could help with anything, to ask."

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare arched an eyebrow at Michael, then said, "That's nice to know." Not that he thought Adara could really help, but he appreciated the offer. "Emilian said the same thing, to owl him, but..." Dare looked down at Michael's hand, shrugging lightly. "I don't know, what could he really do anyway?" What could anyone do? Maybe they just had to live through it until it blew over. Maybe they just needed to get used to it.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"I think he knows he can't really help, I think he hates that he's leaving right now and wants to at least try." Michael shrugged and looked back down at their hands, his had moved on to tracing the lines of Dare's palm. "Give some advice maybe." He shrugged again and his eyes caught on the spots covering his knuckles. Ugly bruises already forming outside of torn skin that hadn't yet begun to heal.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Reflexive shivers sparked in Dare's palm from the light motion of Michael's fingers, and Dare's attention was focused on it for now, rather than really noticing the damage Michael had done to himself. "Is it bad that I wouldn't even consider getting Adara to help, but I might be able to talk myself into writing Emilian?" Emilian wasn't even his friend, not really. For all the advice he'd given Dare, though... well, when Michael wasn't around, anyway. They'd had some nearly philosophical conversations, albeit about the importance of sex or drawing nude figures.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael shook his head, "No, Emilian's been through it before, or something like it." And for all that Adara knew what it was like to be ridiculed for her choice of partner, somehow Michael didn't think her experience would help that much. "I would talk to Adara," he said, "But I don't think I'd ask her for advice." He didn't really think he would ask Emilian, either, though if Emilian offered some he would probably take it.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shook his head, mirroring Michael's words. "Me neither," he said. He knew there was more to her than the soft, delicate girl he'd first met, but still, he couldn't help seeing her as such. She just gave the impression of something that needed protected, not burdened with someone else's troubles. Emilian on the other hand... as twisted as he was, he seemed interested enough in other people's points of view--if only for the sake of distanced curiosity--that Dare thought it was reasonable. Or would be, if he actually thought he'd write to a guy that had a thing for Dare's boyfriend about their personal issues.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Remind me to show you my old sketchbook," Michael said, glancing up at Dare. "It has a lot of stuff from years ago, balls and things." He had stuffed the two old books he had in the bag before locking his trunk, not wanting to take the chance of something happening to them, as well. And he thought that Dare would like seeing the old drawings of faceless people. He knew it was a random thought, but it was his mind's way of trying to get away from Emilian.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's brows rose with interest, and his gaze lifted to Michael's. "I'd love to see it," he said. He was really curious about these balls, about the way people dressed, the way a room full of Purebloods interacted. It had to be different from the events he'd gone to, simply because of the amount of money and political power that would have been mixing. "I'll show you one of mine sometime," Dare offered in return. His old sketchbooks were locked deep in his trunk away from the other Gryffindors, but he'd have to go back to the dorm some time to get fresh clothes again.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Most of mine are still back home, I didn't expect to be here for more than two years straight," Michael said. He hadn't expected to have a reason to leave the ranks, hadn't expected to leave them at all and be unwelcome at home anymore. "If I ever get them back we can exchange," he offered, smiling softly. It was interesting to look through his old sketchbooks, it was so obvious on those pages how things had changed in his life through the years, or even months.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare let his gaze drop to Michael's smile, absorbing it and the look on Michael's face. "I'd go for that," Dare said. His lips curved as well as he looked back up into Michael's eyes, thinking absently how much he loved seeing Michael smile. "I have a few of my favorites from the last couple years," Dare said. "Well, back in my trunk, anyway." And there was no way he was leaving this, especially at this hour, to go back to his trunk and fetch them. "But you have some at school too?" Dare asked.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"I have two with me in my bag," Michael said, "One's...you just have to see it." He didn't think it was possible to define what all was in that book, it was from one of the hardest times of his life, but it meant so much to him that he wasn't able to stand the thought of something happening to it, so he had taken it with him. "The other isn't as intense. I've got another one or two in my trunk." Those, while important to him, hadn't been as immediately in need of protection as the ones he had with him.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare nodded, understanding completely why Michael had them with him, especially considering...Dare dropped his gaze to Michael's hand again. "Whenever you feel like it," he said. If it was too much for Michael to deal with right now, then Dare certainly wouldn't push, but he wanted Michael to know that he had genuine interest in seeing his work, in seeing the glimpses into Michael's past. If it was difficult for Dare to see, then that would be his own problem, and something he needed to work on with himself. He loved Michael, and he accepted his past, so he needed to understand it.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael leaned into Dare to pull out his wand, and then aimed it towards his bag. The two books flew out and landed neatly in front of his crossed legs, then he lay his wand beside him and unstacked them. "This one," he said, lightly touching the cover of the book, a creme color that was so at odds with what it contained. "Is from the months just before and after I joined." Dare would know what he meant by that, and so Michael felt no need to explain. "And this one," he said, touching the next with a slightly warmer touch, the deep red color of the cover elegant, just like what was inside. "Is one of my first, mostly balls and outside."

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare didn't know what to say to what he was being offered, more than a chance to see Michael's art and his past, more than a glimpse into balls, but something intensely personal, something Dare couldn't imagine Michael had ever shared with another soul, with the slight possibility of Emilian. Dare's heart swelled with thinking of all that meant, all the trust Michael had to feel for him to be able to do this. And it constricted, just from imagining all the pain, all the emotion that had to be contained in the creme-colored book.

Dare breathed, and his hand around Michael's waist tightened as the other settled on Michael's leg, squeezing lightly in support. Dare didn't want to demand, didn't feel comfortable just picking up one of the books and leafing through, so he waited on Michael's lead, hoping the encouraging look in his eyes would be enough.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael wanted to show Dare the drawings from the ball first, though only to delay opening the other book. He hadn't looked in that creme book in a long time, but somehow it felt right to show it to Dare. Michael's hand hovered over the red book, then his eyes met Dare's, and his hand moved over to the creme one. At least there would be some good things to close it all off with if he saved the red. He took a breath and flipped open the cover, "This is Emily."

It was a simple sketch of a laughing girl with a round face and dark, bouncing hair in a skirt, heels, and fitted shirt. "I met her at a club." Of course, his father hadn't known he went to that club, the man wouldn't have been very happy to know that his son was mixing with lesser types. "She was a pureblood, but an auror's daughter." Though, he hadn't known that she was an auror's daughter at the time.