All I Ever Wanted, All I Ever Needed, Closed Options

[Teagan Rourke]

Hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, Teagan jogged easily up the millions of stairs leading to the Astronomy Classroom. Today's attire was simply a sweatsuit and sneakers - something that Eleora would definitely whine to her about wearing as a single girl - but she was comfortable and decently cute. At least in her opinion, which these days especially, was about all she cared about. With OWLs actually looming, Teagan was beginning to feel the slightest flutters of stress which pushed her into action.

No, teachers and classmates couldn't do it, just the looming annoyance. Even though she really didn't think the OWLs mattered all that much (why on earth would they then have NEWTs?), she did want to do well on the ones that mattered. It still stood to see what fell under this heading, so Teagan was out to see the last of her final grades before deciding on which to study the hardest for. Arithmancy was definitely getting the short end of the stick, but there were several others that she was uncertain about.

Like Astronomy.

Oh how she'd been unimpressed with that class until recently. Now with their spawn containing new professor though, Teagan found herself interested to see what happened next... and possibly learn a little more. Slowing down to a walk, Teagan quietly stepped over to the board near the door and began searching for her name. If it was an O, she might try a bit harder.

Finger tracing down the page, Teagan stopped and frowned at the bottom of the list. Ally Turner. Poor girl, didn't know what she had in store with that wreck of a boy she was flitting around with. A small smile and Teagan shook her head before skimming back up. Rourke. There it was! The door opened at that moment and the current class began filling out. Not paying much attention, Teagan followed the column across to see the individual scores. Really? An EE for that homework? She'd actually tried on that one. An O for that one? Well, it made up for when she had tried she supposed.

[Orson Winchester]

Astronomy hadn't been a field trip to an exotic place that week, but two hours spent in a darkened movie theatre had still been better than two hours learning about Uranus. His feet slammed into the floor along with the rest of the class, most not waiting to be dismissed, a steady murmur of voices quickly getting quieter as they got further away. Orson spared Fogarty one backwards glance to make sure that she was okay and that the portkey hadn't gone and induced labour (and to let Leigh and Valentein get a good, solid head start), and then followed his classmates out.

The hallway outside was empty, or almost. Orson could see the backs of his classmates disappearing around the first bend in the spiral staircase back down to the castle. Then, of course, there was the Hufflepuff stood by the notice board.

Orson hesitated for a moment, a second of surprise, like he'd stumbled across some rare species of...well, badger. Then he raised an eyebrow and crossed the few feet of space separating him from the girl who had once been a friend. Until he hadn't seen her for weeks.

She seemed determined not to acknowledge anything but the sheets of parchment tacked onto the board, but Orson knew she knew that he was there; she tensed when he stepped in close behind her. He reached an arm over her shoulder, effectively penning her in, and ran the pad of his finger down the rough parchment, giving it a cursory glance for his name.

"You've been avoiding me, Rourke," he observed mildly.

Winchester, Orson: O.

"I thought we'd talked that out," Orson concluded with a little bit of heat, taking his hand back and dropping back against the stone wall behind him, leaning against it like was habit. The staircase that led up to the Astronomy Tower was a narrow one, and the corridor right outside the classroom wasn't much better. She probably wouldn't like being so close--it was hard to bolt from someone when they could grab you before you could think it.

[Teagan Rourke]

The class filed the rest of the way out and Teagan waited for the students to filter on by. From the voices she gathered, it was a splattering of older Hufflepuffs and a few other people that she didn't know all that well. Miles was probably in there somewhere, but while it was tempting to torment the boy, in reality that game was far too easy and she could always save it for a patrol when she got bored. Bottom line, it was good for her to wait out the crowd before moving along.

So it was with some amount of shock that someone came up behind her... CLOSE. Tensing up instinctively, Teagan prowled her mind for where her wand was and debated how best to detain this person. It was probably Jaedon. Why that was the person she thought of first, she had no idea. Maybe it was because she KNEW who it was wouldn't be where he was. It made no sense, but when the arm went around her and the voice she knew so well began talking, Teagan couldn't help but close her eyes.

In an instant she was fighting the urge to relax completely or turn and flee - but not without getting some good rips in. But being this close, all she could do was breath in his smell and get lost. That cologne, his hair, it was everything that she remembered from that odd day where she'd woken up on his pillow with Ele by her side. She'd taken it for granted for a long time, never thinking that she wouldn't be around him as much as she liked. They'd grown up, or so he'd said. She'd struggled with it and now she was basically numb to the idea.

But now, now he was moving away and she could finally exhale. Good, she was free from the obnoxiously intoxicating spell he had over her. Such a thought both infuriated and and intrigued her. It was awful that another person could cause such a response in her and even odder still that it seemed to revolve around being nauseous. She had worked hard to distance herself emotionally from basically all people. Her stomach began knotting up and she turned slowly, her own back against the board where the forgotten grades lay.

All she could do was fixate her eyes on his and lock her jaw a bit. Her words were going to betray her. She wanted to be angry, the idea that she could throw Mallory up in his face was on the tip of her tongue... a familiar thing she could toss in his face and prance away. It was her escape. Attack hard and fast, then retreat. Easy peasy. It was something he should expect from her by now. But he thought they were past it all. The words burned and she stopped. Time for a switch play.

Her face softening, Teagan smiled coyly and shrugged, "Well, after that morning we shared in our underwear, I figured it best to lay low. Don't want to cause any trouble you know." Hands crossed behind her back and bracing against the wall, Teagan bent her knees a few times and smiled. All innocent baby.

[Orson Winchester]

Trouble.

Yeah.

Suddenly it was Orson who wasn't comfortable occupying the same stretch of corridor. He laughed dryly, if amiably, and pushed himself away from the wall, clearly uneasy and clearly contemplating going on his way. It was almost strange--he was a natural flirt, how was it that he felt like he was cheating on Mallory now? Now that they had been broken up for a month?

Maybe it was because the reminder of the crazy day he woke up in Ravenclaw Tower in nothing but a pair of blue and bronze boxers had brought back that it was a day spent with Mallory. Well, and Julian Trice, but things weren't perfect. He frowned, because the memories hurt, but he didn't linger on them, and he didn't offer Teagan the knowledge that they'd broken up in the first place. She hadn't approved of Mallory, and he was tired of his friends not realising that a month ago he had torn his own heart out.

Or maybe it was just because it was Teagan, and laughing with her had always felt a bit different to winking at Rhynn across the Quidditch pitch. They had been friends first, and whatever he felt for her now, under the raw wound that was what he felt for Mallory, he just...well.

"I don't know about trouble," he said, subdued, shifting his weight from one foot to the other just once before stopping. "I just want my friend back, yeah?"

He stuffed his hands into his jean pockets--Muggle wear for the field trip--and raised an uncertain eyebrow, unsure as to whether or not that should be his cue to leave.

[Teagan Rourke]

He was quiet.

Teagan blinked a bit uncertainly at the empty space between them. What had seemed so electric and daring moments ago, didn't seem that way anymore to her. What was going on? Another moment to blink and Teagan casually pushed a bit of hair back away from her face. She knew this hallway was narrow, yet it seemed like a vast canyon was there. At this point he would normally move to corner her again, make her feel controlled... or at least that's what she presumed the movement was supposed to do. It was Orson. Even when he was blazing mad at her, he was still.. well him.

This was different.

What should she do? She had loads of options, but it seemed like he only had two: stay or leave. He hadn't stepped off, all curt and poised, head held defiantly. No, he was standing there... shuffling? An awkward moment of bizarre guilt flooded her brain and Teagan bit her lip. This was her fault. It had to be. She had no right to be such a cow to him over the past few years. If she hated Mallory, it would be easier and less confusing, but well, she didn't. She and Mallory kept getting forced together in those situations. The ones that would make most people friends for life.

When he spoke, Teagan's face softened completely and she sighed. Maybe it was time to grow up, like really grow up. With a sigh, Teagan removed her hands from the wall and smiled. Without saying a word, she walked the short distance across to him and pressed her face to his chest, arms wrapping around his chest. "OK, I can do that." After a moment that she held as long as she dared, Teagan pulled back slightly and looked up at him with a small smile. Not sure what to say, she blinked and put her head back on his chest.

[Orson Winchester]

Some tension seeped out of the muscles in his shoulders, and Orson automatically wrapped his arms around her. She fit against him different than he was used to, but it was still familiar, like nostalgia and going home for the summer. The solid weight of Teagan’s head on his chest was soothing, more healing than anything he’d found with Whitlatch for that second when both of them had hurt and both of them had been there. At the same time, it wrenched at him, pulling and tugging violently at bruised heartstrings.

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” he murmured, his head ducked to her ear. Orson’s arms squeezed her to him for a second, counterpoint to his words of warning. “I’m not a nice guy, turns out.”

Incapable of human emotion, Mallory had said, her words as cutting as the wind on his face as he hovered above the Quidditch pitch and the game they were officiating. Even now, they took root, slicing away at him under his skin. For just a second, memory of his conversation with Juliet flashed through him--the time he’d mistaken her for Mallory just by the colour of hair and, in the end, she’d asked him if she was a horrible person. He was struck by the urge to do the same--lie to me, Teagan, tell me I’m not cold--but that was too…too a lot of things. Instead, he focused on Teagan, and the relief of being her friend again. She didn’t deserve to be compared to the other Hufflepuff, and he was her friend again too.

Women. Who needed them, anyway?

Orson lifted his head up and loosened his grip on her, no longer nuzzling into her neck like was habit, no longer clasping her to him. He didn’t step back, though: he’d leave that to her--he’d never been much concerned with personal space.

“So no more avoiding,” he reminded, finding a small smile from somewhere. “Have you had dinner yet? There’s a seat at Gryffindor with your name on it.”

[Teagan Rourke]

It was as if her heart was unwrapping from barbed wire as he hugged her back. She didn't realize that the wall they'd put up had made her so rigid against the Gryffindor boy. A stifled sigh escaped from her lips, only to be pulled back in as he placed his face near her ear. As much as she wanted to act like everything was the same, there was something about him being this close to her, his smell, everything about him was so familiar and desirable. Recent times had taught her not to be a spazzy freak about it, but it never failed to switch something into her brain. Something that urged her to stay exactly as they were, so she could soak up everything about him. It didn't mean she liked him, just that she... needed him. In what capacity she couldn't ever tell, but as newly rerecognized friends, she was more than thrilled to take anything she could. Anything that would fill this hole that was gaping in her heart apparently.

When he spoke, the sound of his voice jolted her back to the moment and the very real fact that they were in the Astronomy Tower and not in some fairy land. This was really happening. Refocusing on his words, Teagan smiled into his chest before turning to the side so her words wouldn't come out all jumbled sounding. "I'm not worried, and besides, if you're not a nice person, then neither am I." She let a hand reach out to his arm and held it there for a moment before returning it to his side. With his hands loosening on her, Teagan reluctantly stepped free from his embrace. That had been plenty for the moment and well; she didn't want to look like a fixture on the boy or test her good fortune. Adjusting her ponytail, Teagan looked over at him, and nodded solemnly. "No, no more avoiding." At his last comment she found herself beaming with a bright smile. "Really?! I mean, of course, I'd love to sit with you at dinner."

Mallory wouldn't kill her, would she? Wait...

Looking up at Orson she suddenly realized what must be different. Did she dare ask? It seemed an obvious thing to ask... now that they were friends, right? But now that the WERE friends and after the way things had been, she was slightly terrified to ask the simple question. What if she was wrong? What if she was right? Biting her lip against the now potentially lose/lose situation, Teagan looked down at the ground for a moment and then back up.

"That is if Mallory's ok with it..." A feeble attempt at a smile and Teagan waited, her mind and body slightly limp as she waited to see if everything would go brutally south.

[Orson Winchester]

It was that or he ate at Hufflepuff.

The prospect suddenly made him reevaluate how hungry he was, stomach abruptly feeling leaden. When Teagan’s bright smile finally registered, Orson was well on his way to wishing he’d requested a duel instead, and he wondered for one quick moment whether she’d still smile so brightly if he tried to stamp down a raincheck and drag her off to the chamber. Was she smiling because he hadn’t spent much time with her over the past two years or because they hadn’t eaten together in even longer?

As though recognising Orson’s train of thought--or at least the root of it--Teagan’s own mood seemed to dim, and Orson raised an eyebrow at her.

That’s if Mallory--

Orson actually snorted. Outloud. Rejecting the statement on principle for how it was worded before he could even let the deeper meaning filter down and take hold. If Mallory was okay with it. Like he needed that woman’s permission. Like he’d ever needed that woman’s permi--had he? He raked a hand through his hair as he admitted to himself that, while he wouldn’t have put it quite like that, maybe he had. At least, when it came to Teagan.

“To Hell with Mallory Lyons,” he replied staunchly, words which didn’t hurt so much as they might have done had he said them at any other point in the past month and change. “You’re my friend.” Orson said firmly, “Whatever she is, she has no say in that.”

‘Whatever she is’ clearly wasn’t his girlfriend--he wouldn’t have spoken about her like that had it been otherwise, nor with the same tone of disparagement. The latter was mostly aimed at himself, Orson realised, fighting back the annoyance and pinning a smile to his face. It felt more natural the longer he kept it there, broadening into a grin as he remembered why he was smiling, and who at, and added, “Besides. You were my friend first.”

He shook his head then, uncomfortable talking about it, and backed a few strides towards the staircase downwards. “C’mon,” he said, reaching out and waggling his fingers enticingly in Teagan’s direction, “Gryffindor gets the best lamb chops, I heard.”