“I still can’t believe you haven’t tried these before,” Cass remarked from his cross-legged seat on the floor next to the bed. He nodded vaguely up at Vince to open up the bag of Bertie Bott’s beans he’d picked up. This stupid enchanted trap commanded his attention for the last ten minutes, drawing a small crease between his eyebrows. “And I told you, there’s a trick to break this thing up, like a specific angle to it…” The treasure inside the trap was usually a ring or some similar silly trinket, though Cassian was really determined to get the marshmallow-fluff chocolates it always came with. Of course, the second you maneuvered to grab the little treasure box the trap revealed, it would solidify to stone all over again.
“Gah…” Exasperated by his most recent failed attempt, the blonde dramatically threw his head back on the bed, regarding his friend upside-down with an eyeroll. “You’re right, obviously. What a waste of a sickle.” Honestly, it was refreshing to see Cassian act this way again, like a glimmer of the carefree boy he used to be. If you asked him, he’d say that it was easy to fall into the rhythm of how things have always been when Vince is around.
For instance, upon learning that his friend had never tried several sweets that were staples of his own childhood, Cassian proceeded to purchase a small fortune of nearly every treat the shop had. So much so that the family’s governor admonished the teen once they arrived: be more mindful of such excess expenses young sir, and money’s not grown on trees, good sir, and you will be the one managing the estate’s finances one day, dear sir... Having Vince around nearly made a saint of Cass, who out of politeness, did not completely lose his temper. Thoughtfully, Vince volunteered that many of these candies were for the kids, Cassian’s brood of five younger siblings. The idea hadn’t even crossed his mind, though Cass agreed as readily as though it’d been their plan all along.
Vince was invaluable this way – a different lens through which to look at the world. Like the way he parsed out what people said and what they really said, and if that input should even matter to them at all. In a world that felt foreign and increasingly hostile to the young new head of house, Vince was the only one he could trust. The only one who knew more about him than he knew about himself.
“Hmm, let’s see,” the boy mumbled, untangling his legs out from under him to stand. He bent down to inspect Vince’s palmed offer, squinting at each one before deftly picking the one on the right. “Milk,” he decided, popping it with confidence into his mouth. Two chews later he made a grotesque face, gagging as he dangled his tongue with a half-eaten greenish white bean on the end of it. “Euck…” he summarily spat it back out. “All the white and brown ones are suspicious. Grab us red ones - the worst of that lot would just be pepper. Mm, or beef, but I wouldn’t mind it.” He snorted with laughter, shaking blonde locks from out of his eyes. It’d grown far too long, but he had no intention of cutting it until the very last day before school.
The young man raised his arms to the ceiling in an overdue stretch, exposing a few inches of his stomach to the softest late-summer breeze wafting through the window. “It’s bloody boiling today…” he grumbled, kneeling beside Vince on the bed to further open his third story window. He leaned his full head and shoulders out to inspect the clouds overhead. Ominous gray clouds, heavy with the day’s humidity, threatened to break any minute now. It looked as if they were stuck here, at least for the time being.
Plopping back onto the bed, now sprawled up against the bedpost opposite Vince, Cassian looked a bit defeated. The unseasonable heat made him want to take Vince down to the stream he’d swim in as a kid, or maybe the park to see new creatures at the zoo. Now they’d have to pick between that or the quidditch game tomorrow…
“So goes our last Saturday of complete freedom,” he announced, clearly distressed by his restlessness but trying to put on a relaxed face. “I’m sorry that we didn’t get around to doing everything we wanted today.”
“Gah…” Exasperated by his most recent failed attempt, the blonde dramatically threw his head back on the bed, regarding his friend upside-down with an eyeroll. “You’re right, obviously. What a waste of a sickle.” Honestly, it was refreshing to see Cassian act this way again, like a glimmer of the carefree boy he used to be. If you asked him, he’d say that it was easy to fall into the rhythm of how things have always been when Vince is around.
For instance, upon learning that his friend had never tried several sweets that were staples of his own childhood, Cassian proceeded to purchase a small fortune of nearly every treat the shop had. So much so that the family’s governor admonished the teen once they arrived: be more mindful of such excess expenses young sir, and money’s not grown on trees, good sir, and you will be the one managing the estate’s finances one day, dear sir... Having Vince around nearly made a saint of Cass, who out of politeness, did not completely lose his temper. Thoughtfully, Vince volunteered that many of these candies were for the kids, Cassian’s brood of five younger siblings. The idea hadn’t even crossed his mind, though Cass agreed as readily as though it’d been their plan all along.
Vince was invaluable this way – a different lens through which to look at the world. Like the way he parsed out what people said and what they really said, and if that input should even matter to them at all. In a world that felt foreign and increasingly hostile to the young new head of house, Vince was the only one he could trust. The only one who knew more about him than he knew about himself.
“Hmm, let’s see,” the boy mumbled, untangling his legs out from under him to stand. He bent down to inspect Vince’s palmed offer, squinting at each one before deftly picking the one on the right. “Milk,” he decided, popping it with confidence into his mouth. Two chews later he made a grotesque face, gagging as he dangled his tongue with a half-eaten greenish white bean on the end of it. “Euck…” he summarily spat it back out. “All the white and brown ones are suspicious. Grab us red ones - the worst of that lot would just be pepper. Mm, or beef, but I wouldn’t mind it.” He snorted with laughter, shaking blonde locks from out of his eyes. It’d grown far too long, but he had no intention of cutting it until the very last day before school.
The young man raised his arms to the ceiling in an overdue stretch, exposing a few inches of his stomach to the softest late-summer breeze wafting through the window. “It’s bloody boiling today…” he grumbled, kneeling beside Vince on the bed to further open his third story window. He leaned his full head and shoulders out to inspect the clouds overhead. Ominous gray clouds, heavy with the day’s humidity, threatened to break any minute now. It looked as if they were stuck here, at least for the time being.
Plopping back onto the bed, now sprawled up against the bedpost opposite Vince, Cassian looked a bit defeated. The unseasonable heat made him want to take Vince down to the stream he’d swim in as a kid, or maybe the park to see new creatures at the zoo. Now they’d have to pick between that or the quidditch game tomorrow…
“So goes our last Saturday of complete freedom,” he announced, clearly distressed by his restlessness but trying to put on a relaxed face. “I’m sorry that we didn’t get around to doing everything we wanted today.”
![[Image: BC4TW0z.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/BC4TW0z.jpeg)
eyecandy by fox<3