The Benches In The Corner

Reed shifts a bit in his seat, feeling a little uncomfortable. "No. I..leave the house." He has to. He's constantly helping his mother, whether it be helping her at shows, or even going along for bookings. She planned for him to take her place someday. That's why she always booked art shows for him, and made him take photography and design classes. "I'm..actually a bit busy on holidays. It's easier to relax here, oddly enough." He blushed a bit and wondered why it was suddenly so much easier to talk to this boy. That thought made him blush, not that he really had ever stopped.

Kras couldn't help noticing Reed looked a little uncomfortable. Hmm, maybe he should just stop asking so many questions. "Well, I suppose if you're always busy then it would be rather nice to have some place you can relax, even if it's at school...which is definitely somewhat odd cause most people don't relax as much at school cause school work and all that. Excuse my rambling, it happens a lot." He laughed. "I'm usually able to relax more when I'm just hanging out with friends. As easy as it is for me to make friends though, it's kind of difficult coming into a school where everyone has known each other for years already. Makes it harder to make closer friends, especially when you know you'll only be here for a year. Luckily my best friend writes to me all the time." He indicates to the letter he's still holding in his other hand. "You must have at least one close friend here?" He asks.

Reed smiles brightly and nods. "Yeah. I have a friend. Jenna. We're practically like siblings. She's my age and in Hufflepuff too. She's on our Quidditch team. She even kinda looks like me too. Red hair and similar colored eyes. I think people think we're dating but.." He just trails off with a shiver. Then he thinks about the conversation they just had, about dating and how Reed feels weird that he's never had a crush before.

"Oh, I've seen her about! I haven't gotten a chance to officially meet her yet though." Kras and a few of his friends back at home were quite the Quidditch fans, not that Kras ever really played the sport himself. So of course he paid the sport quite a bit of attention here at Hogwarts. He even watched their house's team practice sometimes, just cause it was fun to watch. Kras can't help but notice how Reed trails off after mentioning the dating thing. He can't help but be curious. "Well...I guess it must be kind of odd to think that people think you two are dating, if you're just really close like siblings. Nowadays I guess it's hard to just be close friends with someone of the opposite gender, cause a lot of people don't get the whole 'guys and girls can just be friends' thing. If you spend a lot of time with just one girl or just one guy then suddenly everyone just starts to assume things. That's happened to me before, but I usually just shrug it off. It's usually pretty laughable anyway between me and my friends." He chuckles. Yeah, cause all of his close friends from home know he's gay so for them it's kind of funny when people assume Kras is dating one of his close girl friends.

Reed's never really had problems with it, since Jenna is his only friend, so he was a little confused by something Kras said. "What do you mean if you spend to much time with one boy people would assume things? Boys hang out all the time, right?" Not that he would really know. "So, since we're hanging out, someone might assume we're...." he trailed off with a blush and wished he had never asked. Now was another one of those times when he just wanted to disappear.

Kras blinks then laughs. "Oh...well, you never know. I mean, sure boys hang out all the time, but I guess it would look kind of suspicious if you spent a lot of quality time with just one boy in, like, private areas or something. Don't worry, I'm sure if anyone looked over here they'd just think we were two friends hanging out. Nothing to worry about." He chuckled. Kras thought it was kind of silly that anyone would have to worry about others assuming stuff like that just because they were hanging out with someone or other, but if it made Reed feel better than he had no problem reassuring him that there was nothing wrong with just them sitting together and talking. Even if Kras himself was gay. It wasn't like he had been really secretive about it so far this year. He didn't run about shouting it out loud, but being gay wasn't something he hid from, and if someone wasn't able to accept him for who he was than he'd rather know that than just let them say mean things behind his back.

Reed just nodded silently. He didn't really know what to say, so he started picking at his fingernails, some of which had little speckles of paint still on them. He was still so confused about so many things in his life and he didn't really feel like he had someone to talk to. Sure there was Jenna, but she was a girl, and things were different for her. After the silence stretched on, Reed started feeling really bad for Krasimir. "S-sorry I'm not much fun to hang with.." He was biting his lip again, a nervous habit he didn't remember picking up.

Kras didn't mind the silence that much. At least he wasn't alone. When Reed apologized for apparently being 'boring', Kras shook his head. "No need to apologize. Believe me, I've hung out with some people who spoke less than you have so far. I should be apologizing for talking your ear off." Kras laughed. He unfolded Andrei's letter and skimmed the last few lines quickly before folding it up again. "Looks like my friend plans on visiting sometime. That'll be fun. Oh! You really shouldn't bite your lip like that. It's not really healthy for it. I use to do that when I was younger. One time I bit so hard my lip started bleeding." He chuckled, but only a short second before he looked off to the side and quieted - he didn't like talking about when he was younger, so he shouldn't have let something like that slip. "Anyway...maybe we could go watch a Quidditch practice sometime and you could introduce me to your friend Jenna."

Reed stopped biting, mumbling something about a bad habit. Then he looked up at Kras, a bit shocked. "You...you wanna hang out with me again? Why?" Instantly, his eyes widened and he blushed all the way to his roots. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. Ignore that. I'm sorry." He lowered his head again and wondered what the boy would think if he just sprinted out of the great hall, then hid in his room until the year was over.

"You apologize quite a bit, don't you? I thought I was the only one who did that." And Kras does apologize a lot for things - even if he's not even involved. He's kind of surprised Reed is wondering why he'd want to hang out with him again. "Er, well, if I'm gonna be friends with someone then I generally like to hang out with them more than once. But if you don't want to than that's okay, I guess." He shrugged. Heck, he's had people not want to be friends with him before. It hurt, but it wasn't foreign to him. He's learned to deal. Maybe Reed was just so used to not really hanging out with people that he just preferred it that way or something, so Kras was being too pushy or votever. He could tone it down if Reed wanted him to. Being friendly was just how he was.

Reed was still looking down, but he did smile a bit. Yes, he did apologize too much. Then he shook his head, sending some curls into his eyes, he brushed them away and locked eyes with Krasimir again. He froze for a moment then tried to smile. "No I..I'm sorry I just, am not really..used to it is all. I'm sorry. I can...I can be your friend if you want.." He smiled a little more genuinely this time. He noticed how pretty Kras eyes were and..wait, were guys allowed to have pretty eyes? Was that okay? Reed made himself think it was okay for him since he was an artist, and he liked looking for pretty colors. Yeah, that was it.

Kras' brain definitely blanked out again for a second when he locked eyes with the younger boy again. Reed had some really pretty eyes. "You just apologized again." He chuckled. "And yes, I would like us to be friends. And as your friend it's my duty to make sure you don't stay shut up in your dorm all the time, so you'll just have to deal with me dragging you out to hang out or votever on occasion. Okay?" He grinned, nodding in agreement with himself.

Reed smiled a bit more. "Okay?" He said it like that, as a question because he's never actually been forced out of his room. "It may be kind of hard to tear me away from my paintings though." Oops. Another slip. Oh well, his new friend would have to find out eventually that Reed was a painter. And if they were to be friends, it shouldn't be a big deal, right?

[OH. PLOT IDEA. *will PM you after this reply* XD]

"Ooooh, you paint?" Kras smiled. "That's awesome! Can I see some of your stuff sometime? Only if you want to show me, anyway. You don't have to if you don't want to." Kras definitely couldn't paint or draw, himself. He definitely lacked artistic talent.

[YESSSSSS ANOTHER PLOT IDEA!! hehe ]

Reed giggles. "Yeah you can. I have shows all the time, so I don't mind people seeing my work. I like it because then I can get better." Sure the shows were stressful, but he really loved painting and really wished he could do it professionally. "J-just lemme know whenever you wanna stop and see, and I'll pull some stuff out for you." He smiled a little, he was always a bit more confident when he was talking about painting.

Kras can't help noticing how much more confident Reed sounds when he starts talking about his painting. It must be something he really liked doing. Kras smiled and nodded. "I'll definitely let you know. Sounds like you really like painting, so I bet you're pretty good at it. I have the artistic ability of a four year old, soooo...I'll spare you the horror of seeing my stick figures." He laughed.

Reed smiled and thought that was rather adorable. Wait. No. Boys weren't adorable. Right? Yeah, that's right. His smile faltered a little and he hoped his mother wasn't right about him being easy to read. "Well, I'm sure they aren't that bad. But you've got to have a hobby, right? Something to keep you busy? I'm sure whatever you can do, I probably am not very good at that." Then again, Reed was only good at painting and fashion.

[Meanwhile 2.0 Reed is begging to see the drawings Kras sent ]

[aww hahahah XD]

"Oh they're pretty bad." Kras laughed. Most of the kids that he helped teach at the primary school he worked at could draw better than he could. "And I have my music, that's about it." He shrugged. Well, actually he had more than just his guitar playing and singing for a hobby. He actually kind of enjoyed flower arranging, baking, and exercising too. Er...could working out be considered a hobby? Kras figured he enjoyed it and did it enough to consider it so. Ah votever.

Reed was intrigued. "Oh. Do you play an instrument? Or sing or something?" He had always loved singing, but he never told anyone, not even Jenna. He had once told his mother how much he enjoyed it, and that he had a rather good voice. But she told him it was a wasteful talent and it wouldn't be useful in the practical world, so he had stopped letting anyone hear him sing. He really missed it too.

"Oh, something like that." Kras just shrugged, not really answering Reed's question. He didn't really share his musical talent with anyone. Well, besides Andrei anyway. "Music is always a great way to relax, don't you think? I mean, I'm sure you use your painting for that, but music can help too. You sound like you'd have a good singing voice."

Reed blushes, again, and looks back down. "Yeah, painting is relaxing, when I'm not working with a deadline...but..h-how would you know if I had a good voice? You've never heard me sing...I..I played piano for a bit, but it's been a long time and I don't really remember." He shrugged because he stopped playing piano when his mother told him singing was a waste.

"Oh, well, I can just sort of tell from listening to you talk." Kras shrugged. "You have a nice voice." He wonders why Reed stopped playing piano, because he can sort of tell that there's more to the story than just Reed deciding to stop playing one day. He's not going to badger him into talking about it though - he's not like that.

"Oh." Reed doesn't really know what to say. "Um, thanks?" He starts picking at his nails again, another nervous habit but at least it's better than biting his lip. "Do you...I mean, if you play something, can you play for me sometime? You don't have to. Just, if you want to, or whatever." He didn't want to admit that he really did miss having music in his life.

Kras thinks about it, then shrugs. And then he sees Reed picking at his nails again and is glad he can use that as a distraction so he doesn't have to really answer. "Hey," he reaches out and grabs Reed's hand gently, "picking your nails is a bad habit too, silly." He chuckles.

DEFLECTION!!! *can't wait for that fight either*

Reed freezes when Kras grabs his hand again. "Uhh..I...Erm." Real intelligent there Reed... Try again. "I uh." Fail. Reed was blushing again and now went to his other habit of biting his lip. He had never met someone that was just so, easily comfortable around complete strangers. Nor has he ever met a boy that was comfortable with holding hands with another boy.