Not Alone (Hyacinth/Jory)

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo tended to hover behind the other two, and just then he was glad for it. "He's a professor now," he reminded Mari, as though he really thought it would make the guy quiet. He didn't want to do this. He'd rather duck into the cauldron shop and pretend he needed a new one than run into Jory again.

[Jory Addison]

Jory smiled at the others and managed a little wave with the hand that held his bag. Astra squirmed in his arm, twisting to see the new people. "Hey!" he said, his eyes bright. The puppy gave a short yip as they came to a stop in front of the others. "How are you guys?" he asked. He looked between Mari and Castiel, then looked curiously at Indigo. He hadn't seen any of the three other than in passing since school started, but it was Indigo he missed.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo wouldn't meet Jory's eyes. It was too weird, remembering what they'd talked about the last time they'd talked, and what he'd done after. Then there was Mari, who was his boyfriend, a word that still didn't feel real. He stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets. Mari would talk enough for all three of them, and he could just wait for this to be over.

[Marius Reed]

"Great! We wanted to get out of the castle, and we've already done the whole Hogsmeade thing. Indigo helped us get warm stuff so we don't freeze to death before summer shows up," Mari said. Anything else he might have had to say about the wonder of not feeling like a ball of ice was interrupted by the realization that the ball of fluff Jory was holding was a puppy. A little, fluffy puppy. Whose ears were all perked and who looked very excited to see people. "Can I touch?" he asked, reaching out a hand, though he didn't make contact just yet.

[Jory Addison]

Jory nodded and Astra sniffed at the hand before nosing it, giving her own permission to be touched. "I just got her like five minutes ago. Her name's Astra," he said. His eyes drifted to Indigo, hiding away behind the other two. "Want to see her, Indigo? Her and Remiel like each other already." Awkwardness was the last thing he wanted, though he did wonder what had happened after he and Indigo had parted. Had Indigo decided to give Mari a shot? Well, more than he wanted to know that, he wanted to be able to hang out with Indigo like normal.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo glanced at the puppy, then away again. He could see her just fine from behind Mari and Castiel. "Cute," he observed. There were many reasons why he wanted to avoid Jory, and he'd rather not deal with any of them. There was the professor thing of course, but mostly there was that thing he'd tried. Even if Mari wasn't here, it'd still be hanging in the air.

[Jory Addison]

Jory's smile faltered and he looked down at Astra, who was currently enjoying a thorough ear scratching. Why couldn't things ever just be easy? Especially with relationships, even if it was just friends. He didn't respond to Indigo, unsure of what he would even say if he tried, and spoke to Astra instead, introducing her to the others like she could understand names.

[Marius Reed]

Mari released Castiel's arm finally and looked back at Indigo, then reached for him. "Come on, stop hiding," he teased. He liked Indigo, but the guy was so quiet sometimes. Sometimes he even wondered how Indigo and Jory had become friends in the first place, though he never said anything about it. "She's way more than cute, I think adorable might be better."

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo reddened as he was dragged forward, his heart jumping in his chest. He nodded, but he wasn't the gushy type. If Mari wanted him to agree that it was adorable, fine. He didn't have anything to say and if he didn't know it would cause a scene, he'd pull away and go back to the Leaky Cauldron.

[Jory Addison]

"That's Indigo," Jory was saying to Astra. "I met him this time last year, he's one of my best friends." He peeked up at Indigo when he'd rather duck away and hide and a small smile pulled at his lips. They could move on, right? Whatever what ifs that had floated into his mind after their last meeting had been thoroughly examined and dealt with and they only occasionally reappeared.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo didn't want to do this. He didn't want to feel guilty for ditching someone he couldn't be friends with anymore! Had Jory forgotten? Was that what this was? Or maybe Jory thought he could just forget. Well, he couldn't. Every day he was torn back and forth trying to figure out what the hell he was doing and what he wanted, and it was bad enough just trying to figure out Mari when he still wanted Brindle. Adding Jory to the mix was too much.

"I'm not feeling good," he said. "I'm gonna... go." To the nearest bathroom. To the ice cream shop, where if no one followed him, he could set up with his laptop and try to calm down. He turned to go.

[Jory Addison]

Jory hovered for a moment before excusing himself from the other three and walking up to Indigo, leaving his bag with the others on the ground with a request to watch it. "Hey," he said when he caught up with Indigo, hopefully far enough away that the others couldn't hear. His arms tightened briefly around Astra. "Can we talk?" he asked softly.

[Indigo Noble]

Indigo shook his head. His shoulders were drawn up around his neck, and he wouldn't look up except to see how close the ice cream shop was. "We already talked," he told the ground in front of him. "You're a professor, we can't talk any more than we already did."

[Jory Addison]

"We can be friends, Indigo," Jory said. "Brindle and Hyacinth are still my friends. We can't do anything else, but we can be friends. I'll pretend it never happened if you want me to, I just want to be your friend still." There wasn't anything wrong with that, as far as he knew, as long as lines weren't crossed. Astra seemed to sense something was wrong and turned her nose up to lick Jory's chin.

[Indigo Noble]

"It's not gonna work," Indigo said, shaking his head again. Even if Jory didn't see any difference between being friends with him versus Brindle and Hyacinth, he did. He couldn't just get over it. And he didn't want to think about the fact that it was Jory who'd come after him, not Mari. "Pretend all you want, it's not gonna work."