Closed Attempts at Comfort

[Ezra Ito]

Ezra had been surprised at the sudden end of Dorian's duel, and had to grab his things in a hurry to catch up with him. He ran out of the duelling chamber, looking around for a moment before he spotted Dorian. "Hey, wait up!" He said, running to catch up with his friend. He felt bad for him, it must be embarrassing to lose so quickly in the tournament. It was one of the reasons Ezra simply didn't sign up for things like that, he wouldn't lose if he didn't try. He put his hand on Dorian's shoulder. "You alright?"

 

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

Dorian flexed his fingers angrily as he walked stiffly down the corridor, keen to get out of the dungeons as quickly as possible. The last thing he wanted to do was get stuck on the stairs with Anisha right behind him. He only slowed when he heard Ezra's voice behind him. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now but Ezra didn't really count as a person in his mind like everyone else did. Ezra was always the exception.

"I'm- It's fine," Dorian said shortly, switching to rubbing his fingers to try and chase out both the lingering embarrassment and weird tingly feeling that had reminded since the jinx had been reversed. "She just got lucky, I mean. She was distracting me on purpose, dirty tactic since she knew she couldn't beat me on one on one- Like it's not a big deal anyway I know I'm a better wizard than her I just- Everyone's watching and I can't focus," he started, unable to corral his thoughts outside of the cycling waves of disappointment and frustration. Why was it always so hard to put what he was thinking into words?

 

[Ezra Ito]

Ezra was glad Dorian didn't seem angry at him, at least. He knew his friend and knew he had to be very disappointed, but he rarely took it out on Ezra, which was nice. He fell into step next to him and listened as Dorian worked his way through what happened. "I do think she was distracting you a bit." He admitted. "But I guess that isn't against the rules?" He glanced at Dorian sideways. "She's also uh, kind of good, I think?" He wasn't sure if that made the loss better or worse in Dorian's eyes. Probably worse.

 

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

Dorian threw up his hands as if to say 'you think?' at Ezra's astute observation. "It should be," he said darkly. "Aren't duels supposed to be formal things? She's so disrespectful, it drives me nuts," he continued, eyes cutting over to Ezra at his next comment. "I think she just got lucky," he said stiffly. Ezra always wanted to see the best in people, it was big reason he'd been able to see past Dorian's own many major social faults to become friends, but it did tend to mean he was overly kind to people who definitely didn't deserve it. "If she hadn't been trying to heckle me, or if I wasn't distracted by people in the audience," he said broodily. "You don't have to be nice to everyone, she probably wouldn't spare you the same courtesy," he added, more sharply than he'd intended.

 

[Ezra Ito]

Ezra shrugged a bit as Dorian questioned if duels should be formal. He guessed they were more formal when adults did it, but they were kids. He decided not to say that. "I mean, she probably got lucky this time." He admitted. "But wasn't she champion last year? Maybe this is just something she's good at." He said with a shrug. He wondered if Dorian realized he sounded like a really sore loser, but he wouldn't say that either. "I actually talked to her cousin a bit, he was sitting near me." Ezra said lightly. He wasn't a fan of either of the Khatri cousins, but he didn't really dislike them either. He saw Raafe around quite a bit because Dorian and Anisha often seemed to run into each other.

 

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

Dorian huffed, someone soothed by Ezra’s admission, though the feeling quickly passed when he brought up Anisha winning last year. “Sure, she’s competent, but if she was actually good she wouldn’t need to spend the whole duel chatting to distract me,” he snapped, face sour as his stomach twisted with something akin to betrayal. It wasn’t fair of him, he knew, to hold Ezra’s simple observation against him, deep down Dorian knew what he was saying was at least partly true, but he couldn’t help feeling stung regardless. Ezra was his friend, he should be on his side of this. “Oh, is he as frustrating as Anisha is, then,” he said, not particularly interested. He’d not ever really paid the other Khatri’s much mind outside of knowing Anisha’s sister had been their head girl somehow. If Anisha ever made head girl Dorian would eat his cauldron.

 

[Ezra Ito]

Ezra shrugged, he personally thought trash-talking was a pretty valid strategy in a duel, but he wasn't going to tell Dorian that. He wanted to remain his friend, after all. "I guess that was a bit immature." He admitted. "But she did know some pretty sick spells..." He shrugged again. "But I'm sorry you lost, that sucked." He added quickly, not wanting to be disloyal. Ezra considered Dorian's question and shrugged again, aware that he was doing it a lot in a short period of time. He just wasn't entirely sure how to handle this situation, and it showed. "He's... fine? He's a bit strange, he has a weird sense of humor. And he just kind of follows her around everywhere." Ezra said. "I've talked to him before-" he stopped himself before he could add: 'while you were busy fighting over books with Anisha'. "In the library, a while back." He said instead.