Scrounging up whatever courage he had left, Basil jutted his chin forward as Gus parroted his own words back to him. He hated when the other boy did that; Basil knew he sounded a bit academic but there simply wasn’t an easier way to express what he felt! Even worse, the other completely misconstrued what he’d tried to express. Basil grit his teeth together and prepared to counter-attack. “I never said you were incapable of love!” He barked. “I only meant that it’s not possible to… to feel that way for us!” Basil felt his anger dip as he tried to articulate what exactly he believed. “It’s not possible to love someone in the way you mean unless it’s a spouse! The love between husband and wife… i-it’s … different!” He didn’t know how or why, it simply was! Overwhelmed, and trying to force out anything to articulate himself better, Basil took a shot in the dark.“It just—!” Isn’t done.
And there it was. Basil’s all-consuming fear laid bare between them.
Blinking, the Ravenclaw realized what it was he’d been about to say and snapped his mouth shut with an audible clack. Was that it? Was that where his opposing argument really lay? In the coffin of the Victorian Era etiquette book, hiding behind the phrase “it simply isn’t done”? That question resonated through Basil’s bones in a way the Ravenclaw was entirely unaccustomed and he realized, he didn’t know the answer.
Gus spoke again before he could process and complete that thought, saving Basil from having to reason with it. The following comment however felt like a slap in the face.
Taken aback, Basil appraised the fiery red-head before him. There wasn’t a hint of relent in those bright blue eyes. “T-That’s not fair…” he replied, shaking his head. Gus could not, would not, force him into an ultimatum. He would never ask his friend to give up a career, a dream, when Basil himself wasn’t allowed to pursue the same. And for what? A speculative nothing that couldn’t happen between them anyway? On the inverse side of the coin, how could Lissing pull away from him so dramatically, terminating all contact between them? There had to be some middle ground!