Closed Battlefield

[Rowan Baros]

There was something about being on her own for the first time in a long time that legitimately terrified Rowan. Her emotions were still frayed from her conversation with Elio and she still, despite what she'd said, had to physically stop herself from seeking him out whenever she was bored, or when she wasn't bored, or when she had a funny joke she wanted to tell someone. He was the person she always wanted to be with, so, depriving herself of that, was like she was chopping off a part of her body. She supposed in a way she was, but she'd made a promise, to Elio and to herself, that she wouldn't allow what had happened to ruin their relationship for the future... whatever they were now, best friends? Was that it? Merlin, this was so hard. Needing some time by herself, away from people, but not wanting to be alone, she'd called a picnic. These were rare when it was all of them. She and Elsie had them all the time for a while, but Zennon only joined them on really rare occasions and she thought now was a great time to implement them again. After all, it wasn't like they weren't all going through stuff and she hadn't had the time to talk to Elsie probably since last time. She had to update her, update Zennon, they needed to not ask her so much about him, because she wouldn't know, that was the point, she needed to limit him in her life and as much as that hurt, she knew it was the only thing she could do at the moment, because they'd gotten so caught up in each other, she'd been willing, for the briefest of moments, to let him give up everything for her. She couldn't do that, she couldn't. So, she'd prepared some food. She wasn't the best cook, any one could notice that, but she had some help this time and she hadn't had to make much. This wasn't Elio's birthday, this was just her siblings. Ouch, Rowan.​

 

[Elsie Baros]

Elsie had to admit she was a little bit surprised to be seeing Rowan twice in one week, but she wasn't actually all that surprised either, she'd been curious to know what had happened after their talk on the cliffs, but she hadn't been able to get Rowan alone for a chat, so this had come as a bit of a surprise. Admittedly, she'd had her head filled with other things too, to pass the time so she wouldn't worry. She worried about Rowan a lot. Her sister was a lot of things, but good with people wasn't it. She had a weird compulsion to obsess over everything until it was all she could think about and that was something she'd noticed with Elio. Still, they seemed happy and she supposed that was the important thing, or, they'd seemed happy until that moment by the cliffs. The breakdown haunted Elsie and she'd wished she'd seen it earlier. She loved Elio, she really did and she knew he'd want to know what was happening with Rowan, because she'd seen the way they looked at each other, anyone would tell there was something between them, which she could only guess would make things more confusing for them. She hadn't realised they'd been in love though, it wasn't something she'd even understood herself until Agnes. Hearing the words come from Rowan had been a shock and knowing that her sister was in such deep pain had hurt her just as much. "Hey, Ro, is this a family meeting or nah?" She looked pensive again and Elsie wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Being summoned by his sisters felt like a nightmare. They occasionally had breakfast together, but they never really talked. Hearing from either of them could only mean something big, and though he didn't want to assume, he couldn't help the unease in his stomach as he made his way to where Rowan had asked him to meet. He felt even worse seeing Elsie also there. Was this some kind of intervention? he shook his head, they wouldn't have need of one he didn't think, especially since they weren't at all across his life. They were almost a glimmer really, so to be all together in one place again, maybe this was exactly what they needed. Zennon was the first to move over to the blanket that Rowan had clearly set up, and dropped to the ground heavily. He could relax around the twins, he had nothing to front, no feelings he had to hide, no persona he had to put on. Even though he was attempting to be more honest with his friends, he still couldn't be completely honest with them, because he wasn't sure how, so being with the twins, on their own, just chilling might be exactly what he needed. He knew they were busy, he had been too last year and he still was, but it was Brightstone weekend, so hopefully this would mean they could take some time for themselves. "This fruit salad looks good Ro, Noni, you want any?" He asked, as he just started dishing it out for them without really caring if they said yes or no.​

 

[Rowan Baros]

The arrivals of her siblings disrupted her thoughts a little and she looked up from where she was sat on the little blanket. It was Gryffindor red, of course, but she knew neither of them minded the so much. None of them were so greatly attached to their houses that something like that would matter and so when Zennon sat beside her, she loosened his tie, pulled it off of him and looped it around her neck. She grinned at him lightly and nodded as he asked if she wanted some of the fruit salad. "Of course, I made it. All vegan, sorry Zippy." She wasn't actually sorry, because he was a vegan so she was going to make vegan food, obviously. The last time she'd attempted not to had gone horribly, even if Elio did end up eating most of it anyway. He was too good to her. The thought sobered her and she looked over at Elsie. The silent acknowledgment told her that Elsie had some idea of what this was about, even if poor clueless Zenn would have no idea. Still, he was bound to find out eventually, or at least, he should do. "So... there's a thing... going on in my life that... that I need to talk to you about." She started, looking down into her fruit salad with a frown. "It's not like it's specifically a bad thing either," she quickly said when she saw that it looked like Zennon was about to say something, perhaps in defence of her, or not, she couldn't tell. "But, it's given me some new perspectives and to be honest I could really use advice."​

 

[Elsie Baros]

Elsie smiled lightly as Zennon joined, though she stayed where she was. She didn't really think she was going to be remaining sitting if this was about what she thought it was. She had hoped maybe there was so good news updates, but from the looks of Rowan, she had a bad feeling that maybe this wasn't something to be in celebration of. Of course this could have been something else entirely, but looking over at Rowan, sharing in their silent conversation, she could tell that this was exactly what she thought it was and it probably wasn't going to be great, though not as devastating as she maybe had thought on a moment ago. She frowned as Zennon persisted on using that stupid nickname. Literally everyone else had stopped except him. It was stupid, because she was definitely less anonymous than Rowan... although that was debatable since being with Elio probably made her very visible indeed, even if she didn't know people, they absolutely knew her. That was probably the point really. She took the offered bowl of fruit salad, laughing lightly at the cut up bits of pineapple. That was for her, definitely. Rowan didn't like Pineapple since she always cut herself when she was cutting it up, or stuck herself with the prickly bits. She sat a glance over at her before tucking into the food as Rowan spoke. Elsie looked at Zennon as she did so, because it was anyone's guess what he might have thought was going on. Rowan had the floor, this was her they were here for. She'd called this picnic. It would be Zennon and Elsie's turn later, but they dealt with one thing at a time. That's this worked.​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon didn't really know what to say about any of this. He'd been under no illusions about his sisters, after all they had their own lives, but as he listened to whatever it was that Rowan was about to divulge, he felt the beating of his heart quickening. He didn't like the sound of her voice, she clearly didn't have good news, though he thought that at this point telling him she had a boyfriend would not have been considered good news right now. He'd been feeling so much pressure with Sam lately, he was almost ready to just be done with the whole thing. He wasn't cut out to be boyfriend material, so hearing Rowan or Elsie had boyfriends was likely to send him reeling. Whenever he looked at them, despite knowing they were almost sixteen, he only ever was the five year old fairies they used to pretend to be. Well, Rowan would, Elsie was always a toadstool for whatever reason. Merlin, was he turning into his Dad?! He frowned over at Elsie, who wasn't saying anything, maybe she knew? "What's going on?" He asked, calmly trying to move the conversation along. He didn't want to just be sitting there waiting for something. If she had something to say, she should just get on and say it before he started replacing it with the weird thoughts he probably had in his head. There were probably a lot of things she could tel him at this point as he hadn't spoken properly to either of his sisters in some time, a serious oversight and one he would have to correct with Gracie next year hopefully. Perhaps the four of them could make this a weekly thing? After all, she was going to be in the school by herself for a long while. He would be graduating, and then Rowan and Elsie, so then it would be her for the next five years. He hoped she made friends easily.​

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan didn’t want to panic anyone, so she waited for Zennon to calm down before she said anything. “Don’t freak out, alright, I just need to talk to you both about what’s going on and I don’t want either of you to comment or go off or whatever,” she said nodding at Zennon specifically. He was her big brother after all, she didn’t want him to get over invested or anything. That wasn’t what she was going for at all. “So, Elio and me,” she felt Elsie cringe beside her but rolled her eyes and ignored her. “We have... we’ve sort of been... kind of going through some stuff.” She said. Though she was trying to figure out to get this all across without sounding like she had no idea what was happening. Of course she didn’t have any idea what was happening, but she wanted to make it look like she knew what she was talking about at least. Especially since she’d almost lost him. It was all so confusing and she just needed to talk it through. “Okay I’m just gonna... so, you remember that Elio and I were like suuuuper close last year right?” She looked at Zennon more than Elsie since Elsie already knew this much. “When we went to Valentines Dance last year, we stopped talking, we stopped talking because I told him I was in love with him and he told me he was gay,” a pointed look at Zennon told her he knew that part, “what you don’t know, Zenn, is that months later, well, this year really, he told me he loved me back.” She gave a few moments for her brother to process. “It caused us a lot of problems as you probably can guess, since he’s gay and I’m not a guy,” Elsie looked at her and Rowan continued. “But we were working through it and we thought we were doing great, but it turned out not to be so great after all.”​

 

[Elsie Baros]

Elsie kept eating her fruit salad in silence, not wanting to say anything to interrupt. She was honestly so glad that Zennon hadn't been around for Rowan's cliffcident - as Elsie had taken to calling it. It was so much better than heartbreak episode or cliff incident. Cliffcident had a certain mystique to it that she liked. Throughout the whole exchange she kept her eyes on their brother, watching his reactions as he seemed to take in what Rowan had said. She knew that this was really Rowan's moment, she was mostly here for moral support, she would have her moment eventually, but it wasn't right now, right now she had to make sure that Zennon didn't like, blow up, or whatever and honestly as Rowan kept talking, she had to comment her brothers ability to keep his face so blank. Or perhaps he really just wasn't taking in any of this, which was also a possibility. She hoped it was more from her brother understanding that they were adults than him not getting any of it or this would be difficult. Okay, so they weren't adults, but they were certainly getting themselves caught in some adult kind of situations. Who wanted to deal with this at fifteen honestly? And in their OWLs year of all things? It wasn't right.​