Too Cute

[Marius Reed]

"See! You'll have to wait to get one, looks like," Mari said, nudging his friend back. "But it'll be super cool when you do get one. I mean, unless you think you can hide it in your room or something. Maybe I'll get you one for graduation, how's that? Then you can have the first letter carrying raven ever."

[Brindle Sterling]

The door opened again and Brindle slipped through, still blonde from being home over Christmas. "Hey guys!" She grinned at Jory and Indigo, then threw a softer smile at Hyacinth before noticing the others. "I'm just stopping through, we're supposed to sit at the front and take prefect duties." Well, Jory knew that, but the others might not.

There was a flurry of greetings and introductions. Brindle pet Remiel briefly and showed off her pygmy puff, Dog, and her gaze lingered a moment on Indigo before she had to leave again. It all happened quickly, but she was Head Girl now, and it didn't seem right to hang around with her friends when she was on duty.

[Jory Addison]

It was always good to see Brindle and Jory was glad they had become better friends since the wedding in the summer, but it was that last lingering look on Indigo that interested Jory the most. "Hey, Indigo, why didn't anything ever happen with Brindle?" he asked. He grinned, knowing the likelihood that Indigo wanted to talk about that particular subject was small. As he waited expectantly for an answer, he started playing with his tongue ring, his current favorite piece to play with.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo reddened, and suddenly his notebook was the most interesting thing in the compartment. He shrugged. "Just didn't," he said. He'd never gotten the nerve to talk to her alone, no matter how many times Jory had prodded him to just ask her out.

[Jory Addison]

Jory heaved an exaggerated sigh. "She was totally into you, and we all saw that look she just gave you," he said matter-of-factly. It wasn't anything he hadn't said in the past, but that didn't make it any less true, and now there were witnesses other than Hyacinth who could back him up if he needed the help.

[Castiel Catalyst]

Castiel nodded from his place curled against Mari. "You'd have to be blind not to see it." She was pretty, too. She looked so much like an elf that he bet even Marius liked her. "You could totally tap that." Indigo was hot. It was funny seeing him so quiet and shy all of a sudden, though.

[Hyacinth Duprel]

The conversation was interrupted again, but only briefly. A Ravenclaw third year with a kitten stopped by hoping for a playdate with Remiel. She had no brothers and sisters, and so the cat had been alone quite a bit during the holiday. Hyacinth was interested in the conversation, but he excused himself all the same, and soon he was gone.

[Jory Addison]

Jory looked over at Castiel. He wasn't used to things like that being said anymore, but it didn't bother him. It was likely good that Hyacinth had left, though. "I mean, her brother's all the way in New York, you don't even have to worry about that," he said. "I'd say there's like a 99.99% chance she wouldn't say no to a date."

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo had moved on from staring at his notebook to disassembling his pen. He wouldn't be tapping anything. He'd only ever kissed one girl! "I'm in the friend zone," he said. He was always in the friend zone. It was comfortable there.

[Castiel Catalyst]

"Then get out of the friend zone," Castiel said. It didn't occur to him for a moment to ask who her brother was, though that would have easily distracted him. "You don't have to just sit there and hope she asks you out." Girls were all talk when it came to being independent. They still wanted guys to do the work.

[Marius Reed]

"If you want her to make a move, then find out what she likes and do it, that's how Castiel got his girlfriend," Mari said. He kind of liked what the thing had been, too. Not that he had any urge to have a relationship with his friend, but kissing was fun. A lot of fun. "It kind of looked like she likes you, didn't look like friend-zone, I wouldn't blame her if she likes you." Sure he had only known Indigo for a couple of hours at best, but so far he liked the guy.

[Castiel Catalyst]

Castiel grinned, despite his best intentions, and gave Marius's arm a friendly swat. "You have to have really, really good friends to get a girl that way," he said. He paused, then declared, "My girlfriend's really hot." She was nice and everything too, but that wasn't something you bragged about.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo looked up from his half-restored pen, surprised for a moment before he decided he wasn't sure he believed it. He'd thought for sure that Marius and Castiel were a couple, the way they hung off each other. "You've got a hot girlfriend?" he asked. Surely he could have phrased that better, but it was hard to believe.

[Castiel Catalyst]

"Yes, I've got a hot girlfriend," Castiel said, annoyed at the implication. He sat up and put his feet down, then reached for a photo he kept in his inner breast pocket. It was Cheyenne posing like a pinup girl for him, with her hair in rolls and curls. She was wearing her school uniform, but her shirt was unbuttoned, and she was holding her skirt up. He handed it over. "That's Cheyenne," he said.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo didn't know what he expected to see, but she actually was hot, and showing off her underwear. "Okay, what did you do?" he asked. Mari had said something about finding what she likes and doing it. Brindle liked karate and being a vegetarian, but he'd failed horribly at attempting vegetarianism, and he doubted he'd have any luck trying to get good at martial arts.