Fun and adventure. Truthfully, Natty's sense of adventure was confined almost entirely to his writing. He'd penned epic tales of journeys and danger, rarely reflected in his own life. So he was curious to be swept along on one of Winnie's making, quietly entertained by the young man's enthusiasm.

They were cast in fell shadow as they stepped into the forest hand-in-electric-hand.

Natty nodded as they looked up at the canopy. "Hm. A darkling frontier", he mused without thinking. He'd written an entire novel on vampires of the forest — and yet had not met one. At least... not as far as he was aware.

  

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Winny liked the feel of the older mans hand in his. It was so warm! So he was rather inclined to keep it there though he would let go if Natty desired that.

He smiled over at the other as Natty spoke. "You sound like a poet," he said. As it was, he was glad that he had thought to neatly tie his hair back with a ribbon that morning. It fell a little past his shoulders and he knew from experience that branches of a deep forest could snag at it if left loose.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

"Thank you", the writer decided to take the compliment with grace.

And besides, he didn't have a wittier retort. For Winnie still held his hand, as carefree as the ethereal sprite he often seemed to be.

After a moment's more walking beneath the dark canopy, Natty could not help but speak the question plaguing him. "Do you often... hold the hands of men?"

  

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Winny smiled as the other man thanked him.

Winny was taken by the forests interior. It was all so wild and free. He then turned to look at the older man instead when he was asked if he held the hands of men often. He glanced down at their joined hands before shaking his head with a carefree smile. "Not really, I must confess. Does it bother you?" As it was, he couldn't really say why it had came upon him to have done so in the first place. In the past, he had briefly tugged on friends hands when the need arose but he had never really kept his hand in theirs like he had done now.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Natty knew Winnie well enough now to predict that the question would not make him retreat and collapse in on himself, exploding in a shower of anxiety and uncertainty. No, the younger man simply took it in his stride, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

And it did feel natural... despite laws insisting the contrary.

"No, it — it doesn't", he replied. Even though he knew it should.

  

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Winny smiled as the other expressed that it did not bother him. The darkness and privacy of the forest was the pairs atmosphere along with the typical sounds of a forest teeming with life. "I'm glad. Your hand just feels so nice in mine. Safe and warm," he said, without thought that these were words he should filter. "Look at the difference." He moved to spread his palm against Nattys so that he could better compare how much larger Nattys was, how much smoother that the Groundskeepers Winnys hand was with his slender fingers that had not seen actual physical labour for any long period of time.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Safe, said the fellow. Did that truly matter to an adventurer so flighty and active? An explorer with an eye for risk? Natty could not help but wonder quietly if there was something in Winnie's life, perhaps deep down, that made safe an attractive quality.

"I am safe", he confirmed simply, and watched as Winnie blithely compared the differences in their hands. But Natty wasn't watching their hands — he was watching his friend's oblivious, pretty face. He couldn't keep his eyes off him.

  

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"You do have that aura about you," Winston said, as if this confirmed this fact as well. The colours of Nattys aura were a wonderful hue, Winny felt. Natty wasn't saying anything so Winny looked up at him and smiled.

"Are you memorizing me? Or maybe trying to figure out my eyes? They're two different colours." The latter he said because it often seemed to be something people were either curious about or bothered by so perhaps that was the case here.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Looking at Winnie, who looked back up at him with such innocent kindness, Natty felt a sudden urge to reach out, to touch his flawless face, to...

Then he felt a painful surge of guilt and concern. He looked away a moment.

"Hm? Yes, I noticed. I've never seen eyes like yours before."

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   Winston Umbra

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Even Winny, as oblivious and without a clue as he often was, could sense that there was an impenetrable something in the air between them. It made him blush. "I've never seen someone like you before," he said in counter to the others words.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

When it came down to it, his fusion of emotions was conclusively... negative. He felt a strong infatuation, an admiration he couldn't shake; but that in turn sparked a moral panic that made him feel cold and sad.

And yet he couldn't step away as he should. They stood so close together, there beneath the trees.

"You haven't?" Natty asked, quietly surprised. "But I look much like any other man in Pennyworth."

  

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"But they are not you and you are not them. So no you don't. Not to me," Winny said with a determined nod of his head. Besides, he had not knowingly met many people of Pennyworth though he did at least know where that was.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Natty was not quite sure what Winny meant — but appreciated the underlying sentiment. They were friends, and that made Natty different from other passing everymen.

He could only give a brief nod. A brief, vague smile so not to seem standoffish. Though inside he was still struggling with warm feelings and cold alike.

  

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Something felt off but Winston couldn't figure out what. Acting on impulse, he leaned up to kiss the older mans cheek. He had never really done that with a friend before and it had him feeling fluttery. "Let's continue our exploring, we won't find much just standing here," he said as he pulled back.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

The thing he'd been thinking, the thing he'd been wanting, all of a sudden happened — Winny stood on his tip-toes and kissed his cheek, leaving Natty there with that unkind mixture of warmth and cold.

Subconsciously, he touched the place on his cheek where the young man had kissed him.

He went along with the adventurer as guided, having fallen quiet.

  

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It was silent as they kept moving deeper into the forest. He had gotten a D in his  Herbology OWL as a boy. So he had no idea what half the plant life he was looking at was. 

He released Nattys hand as he moved a little ahead to peer at a growth that drew his interest. "Look how friendly it is," he commented as one of its vines curled around his curious fingers.

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Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.