Closed A Visit in Return

[Abian Hunter]

Abian had been jittery and nervous for the days preceding Jacob's visit to his house. He had been unable to really think about anything but the visit, and had cleaned his room twice in the past two days. He had taken out everything that could be considered uncool, dumping all his stuffed animals in his sister's room to her chagrin. He had hesitated over an old picture of him and his dad that he kept next to his bed, wondering if he should put it away for the visit. He looked so dorky in it, with his front teeth missing, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to put it away. He didn't want his dad to think he was ashamed of him, if he could somehow know he had taken it away wherever he was now. He wasn't sure what he believed in, but taking it away even for a few days seemed wrong.

The jittery excitement was still very much present when Jacob arrived, and Abian had to stop himself from jumping up and down on the spot as he met his friend at the door. He hoped Jacob didn't think his house was uncool, or his mum, or his sister. He just really wanted to impress the boy, something he didn't quite want to think about too much. He had been wondering in the back of his mind lately if it could mean he liked Jacob, but he hadn't taken much time to examine that startling thought. He very much tried not to notice how nice Jacob looked as he welcomed him into his house and showed him around. It wasn't as big as Jacob's house, but he hoped Jacob liked it anyway. He gave Jacob a quick tour of the house, chattering excitedly about everything and nothing. He skipped Aisa's room on the tour, partly because she would be annoyed and partly because of the stuffed animals he had hidden there, and eventually ended up at his own room. "Here's my room." He said, opening it and letting Jacob inside. A mattress was made up on the floor for Jacob. Abian tried to take in his room the way his guest would, seeing it for the first time. He winced when he noticed his superhero nightlight, realizing too late that he probably should have hidden that away in Aisa's room too. The rest of the room was okay, there were some posters on the walls of different movies and games he'd liked, and his skateboard was propped up against his desk. On the desk were a few books that he had put into a neat pile, though they were normally scattered around everywhere. There were some toys around too, but only those that he thought were pretty cool, a few that had batteries in them because he figured those would be new to Jacob. He had a small television in the corner with his game console attached, and he hoped Jacob would focus on that instead of the nightlight. "We could play games like we talked about." He told Jacob as he gestured to it. "I put the racing game in already." He wondered if Jacob even remembered talking about that, or if he remembered wanting to play the racing game. Abian seemed to remember everything Jacob liked, but maybe that was embarrassing to admit. "Or we could do anything you want." He added hurriedly.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob had been happy to head to Abian's house for the sleepover, even if he had to do it with his mother in tow. She was his ride, side along apparition only getting them so far before they needed to order a car for the remainder of the ride. Jacob had spent the time looking out the window, admiring the view to his friend's home while his mother peppered him with questions, her own nerves at meeting the mother of one of his friends getting to her. Mostly she was concerned about what to discuss with a muggle woman, being so out of touch with the muggle world. Or that's what he'd gathered anyway. He was only half listening.

Jacob was happy to be swept away by Abian upon his arrival to his home, leaving his mother with a quick wave as she spoke to the woman about her lovely home, the confidence in her tone masking the nerves he'd just heard. Shifting his duffle higher onto his shoulder, Jacob followed and listened though most of it was going in one ear and out the other. It wasn't because it was uninteresting but more so because it was a lot of information in a little span of time. Jacob was happy when they finally made it to his room, moving the bag from his shoulder to his hand as he stood and took in the room in its entirety, his gaze slowly moving across the space. Finally, his gaze landed on Abian again as he dropped his bag near the mattress he assumed had been made up for him. "Cool space" he grinned. He listened to Abian, his mention of the racing game jogging his memory that they'd talked about that one day. "Oh yeah, the racing game. Let's do it" he nodded, settling himself on the mattress to wait for Abian to finish getting things ready. "Do you need help setting it up?"

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian looked over at Jacob as he was sitting on the mattress, watching him in his room. He perked up when Jacob said it was a cool space, though he also wondered if that was really what Jacob thought of it, and if he liked it. He hoped he didn't think it was childish, but he had no idea how to ask that without sounding childish. He had no magical stars or cool dragon figurines, though Abian supposed those wouldn't be very special to Jacob anymore anyway as he had them himself. He was glad the boy remembered them talking about the game, and quickly started to set it up. He turned on the tv and console easily, handing a controller to Jacob. "It's not that much work, I got it." He said, taking a seat next to him. "I can help you figure out the controls." He added as the game was starting up. "Then we can play, is that cool?" He looked to Jacob for confirmation, ready to do something else entirely if Jacob decided he didn't want to do this anymore. He wondered vaguely what their mothers were talking about. He hoped his mum wasn't asking too many questions about school, especially not about Abian's grades. He didn't take Ancient Runes so Jacob's mother didn't teach him, but that didn't mean she hadn't heard anything from other teachers.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob took the controller and looked at it, turning it over in his hands as he took in all of the buttons. There was no way he was going to be able to figure out what they would do on his own, so he nodded quickly to Abian's offer. "Thanks, Abian" he grinned at the boy, happy that he was always this nice. Jacob could hear noise below and wondered if his mother was going to stay around for a while or not. His mother had a muggle parent, so he hoped she wouldn't be too embarrassing, but it was always a guessing game with her. "Mmmm...yea, yea. Sorry...I'm just distracted because my mom is still here. She gets a little over eager when she's around muggles sometimes" he admitted with a small blush, but his attention was drawn back to the game as images began to appear across the television. "Whoooooooaaaa" he breathed, the noise of the cars racing each other overpowering anything he might have heard from where their two mothers had settled. "Cooooool" he added, elongating each word in awe.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian smiled as Jacob said he wanted his help with the controller. It felt nice to know something better than the older boy and to be able to help him. Abian looked up as he heard a noise from below, and then listened to Jacob. He laughed a little. "It's alright, my mum is very curious about wizards... I hope she's not asking too many questions, especially about Hogwarts." Abian was kind of trying not to think too much of what might be said between their parents, but it was a bit of a relief to see that Jacob was worried too. The look of amazement on Jacob's face as the game started and images started appearing made Abian grin widely. He felt like he had succeeded in something, making Jacob look like that. He excitedly leaned a bit closer. "It'll be even cooler when we get to play." With his own controller, he navigated to the main menu of the game. "Okay, let's do a test round so you can figure out the controls." He started a new race, and their two cars appeared on the screen. "This won't count as an actual race so don't worry about that, we'll just figure out how to drive." He gestured to Jacob's controller. "If you press and hold this button, your car will start driving forward. Try it!"

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob was being a little more quiet than usual as he took everything in. He grinned and nodded after Abian explained what they were going to be doing and looked at the two cars side by side. Jacob took the controller in hand and pressed the button that Abian had told him to, watching as his car shot forward and then veered to the right, promptly crashing into a wall. Jacob busted out laughing at himself, slapping his knee with the controller at what he had just done. "Did you see that?" Jacob asked, though it would have been hard for Abian to miss it. Happy that this was only practice, Jacob righted the car, getting the hang of what the controls did quickly even if he couldn't exactly get the car to do what he wanted right away. Little by little he began to get the hang of things, and he figured he could both talk and play at the same time. "Did you go to the Yule ball? I didn't see you there" he asked, his gaze still firmly on the game to make sure he didn't crash again.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian watched Jacob's car crash with some alarm, immediately feeling bad for not teaching him better. But when Jacob laughed, Abian felt relieved. Clearly, he didn't mind too much. "I did!" He said, grinning in response to Jacob's laughter. "Pretty spectacular crash." He said, relaxing a little. He was happy to see Jacob got the hang of the game fairly quickly. "Good job!" He said, happily encouraging his friend. Abian faltered at Jacob's sudden random question, and his own car crashed into one of the obstacles in the road. "Uh, I did." He said, suddenly feeling nervous. "I mostly went for the food... I went on my own." He said, glancing at Jacob from the corner of his eye. "Did you... have fun?" He had been about to ask if Jacob had gone, only to realize the boy had pretty much said so in his own question. He wasn't sure why Jacob had asked, and was curious to see if he would say more about the topic.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob snickered as Abian crashed. They'd both been driving pretty smooth up until then and Jacob was happy at how quickly he seemed to be getting the hang of things. Listening to the reply, Jacob nodded quickly. "Is there any other reason to really go?" The teen had gone with a date but really he went for the food too. The house elves always made good food, but for the parties they seemed to kick it up a notch. Especially with the sweets they made. Jacob was a fan. Though he wasn't sure he would keep going to these events if they kept ending up so complicated for him. Jacob couldn't understand why a guy couldn't just go to an event without someone confessing feelings for him. "Yea, it was pretty cool" he replied a little distracted as he continued to race. " I went with Kengi. He's...oh you probably know him yeah? He's a Hufflepuff like you" Jacob continued just as he crossed the finish line. Jacob figured they at least knew of each other. He knew a fair amount of Gryffindors that way, people he recognized just from seeing them in the common room and about the castle. "Woooo!" he let out even though a computer player had crossed first.