Extract Better late than never

[Eoghan Blyth]

Set Y50, Nov.

Eoghan was picking at his food, sat at the Ravenclaw table over breakfast and trying not to feel too put off by the thoughts going around in his head. Lilith had been so nice to Felix when he'd reached out for their help, and while Eoghan didn't have much to give, both the boys knew that Lilith was the one they could go to for emotional support. She was just that kind of friend. What did it mean though, that Felix would reach out to her after the events of last year? "It bothers me that he acts like nothing happened," Eoghan eventually mumbled, quiet enough that only his girlfriend could hear.

Last year Felix had tried to make a move on Lilith, and while he trusted her and what had happened to be able to move on from it, there was still a part of Eoghan that questioned whether Felix could possible respect him if he had it in him to do that to the pair. They'd been through enough already with Demi, without Felix trying to get in the way now too. Lilith was happy to be his friend, and Eoghan wasn't going to stand in her way, but it wasn't always the easiest to pretend Eoghan was supposed to now just be his buddy on the side. "I trust you and I'm not uncomfortable about either of you spending time together," he didn't worry about it happening again. "But, obviously he wouldn't have tried it in the first place if he respected us, so for him to now just ask for your help with it comes to Nia? He's taking advantage of your friendship. The situation was brushed under the carpet and it's never been brought up." For all Felix knew, Eoghan didn't had a clue.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith had been bothered by the fact that maybe her friendship with Felix was cruel towards her boyfriend after the Gryffindor had made a move on her last year. They hadn't talked too much about it, but it was time to get around to it so Lili was glad Eoghan was talking about it too. Staring at her plate Lili didn't feel like taking a single bite of the food, instead she just chewed on the inside of her cheek, something she did all the time when she felt a little anxiety bubbling beneath the surface. "That's fair," She said bringing her hands to her lap and fidgeting with them as she continued to listen and think through the thoughts.

The way Eoghan made it sound didn't sit well with Lilith. She had wanted to just get over the whole situation because in the end she didn't want to lose any more friends, but perhaps that'd been wrong of her, too. The thought that someone was taking advantage of her friendship made the hollowness feel even worse in her chest when it came to the situation. Frowning slightly the Ravenclaw tilted her head. "I don't know. I mean I'd like to believe that's not the case. I don't think he'd take advantage of me but you are right. We never really touched on the topic after it happened, but that was partly on me too of course." There was a tone of uncertainty in her voice, something that was very out of character for the fourth year. In fact it'd only happened a few times, one being the time she'd spoken to Eoghan and Tori about the Demi situation. That situation had broken enough of her trust in those closest to her that when Felix had made a move on her instead of talking about it Lilith had wanted to partially just forget about it. She hadn't wanted to think too hard on it, because if she did she'd had to face all the sides of the situation.

"I don't know. I should have spoken about it with him, we should have fully spoken about it with him. I should have, but I don't think there was any malicious intent either." Perhaps she was blind for not even wanting to consider such possibility, but with her increasing heart rate it was clear as to why she'd just been happy to move on from it as if nothing happened. It'd been easier for once to just sweep something under the rug and call it a day. Obviously it was now coming back to bite her in the arse.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

"You don't need to take blame for it," Eoghan told her sternly. It was bad enough that this had happened in the first place, without Lilith feeling like she was the one that needed to make the move to apologise for it, or that she hadn't done enough to resolve it. As far as Eoghan was concerned, it was Felix that had been in the wrong to begin with and it was up to him to make amends for the pair of them. Lilith had no business taking on that additional responsibility.

"Maybe I should have been the one to talk to him," if Felix wasn't going to come forward, then surely it was up to Eoghan to do what he could to make sure it didn't happen again, that the Gryffindor knew where he stood. He wasn't sure if he considered Felix a friend, he supposed he did, but there was always an element of mistrust between them, especially if he didn't care about Eoghan enough to respect his relationship. "At least no one elses knows," he added quietly, glancing around the room. He would have felt a lot worse about the whole ordeal if he thought anyone else in the school had found out about it. He would have been the laughing stock, the boy that could still be walked all over. Eoghan sighed, laying down his fork. "Don't worry about it." He'd come this far ignoring it, surely he could continue to do so.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith shook her head and frowned slightly. She wasn't trying to take any unnecessary blame but she also didn't feel like it should all be on Felix. She'd chosen to ignore it too. "I know and I'm not trying to, but I did choose to ignore it too even when I shouldn't have." She said as much, turning to face her boyfriend and examining his face slowly. Biting her slip softly she felt bad when he said at least nobody else knew, yeah that would have made the situation infinitively worse.

"No, I will worry about it. it isn't fair to just sweep it under the rug and pretend as though nothing happened. If we do then there will probably grow some resentment one way or another from this situation, or at least i am not willing to risk that happening." Lilith might have swooped it under the rug before, but she saw that was the wrong decision now. It would linger and probably cause some unnecessary drama under the surface in the long run. "Do you think... maybe we should talk to Felix about it? See his side of it too. I don't know, try to clear the air or whatever?" Was Lili terrified it would all crash and burn? Yeah, but it wasn't like it hadn't started to crash and burn the second Felix had made a move on her. They had some years still to go at the school and she didn't want to ruin them with unresolved issues with those around her, because the fact was given their friend group, and the school set up, Felix would likely be around them one way or another.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

It had been a tense year for both of them when it came to others trying to get in the way. Eoghan had had his own issues with Cassandra too, although at least Cassie hadn't been pretending to be their friend all the while trying to find her way down his throat. "If you want to," Eoghan mumbled, not overly keen at the prospect of confronting Felix about it, but supposing Lilith was right, it was only going to grow if they didn't mention anything, and they still had four years of each others company so it was bound to come up eventually. It was hard not to scoff at the idea that Felix would have his own side of the story, as though there was a way he could somehow justify his way out of it, but he wouldn't stop Lilith trying to bridge the gap if it was important to her.

The fourth year dragged a glance across to the Gryffindor table, Felix immediately spotted amongst the other lions. "Come on," he said quietly, removing himself from the table and heading in the direction of the blonde, hoping this wasn't about to be as awkward as he felt it might be.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith wanted to shake her head and say that she didn't want to have the conversation. Because she didn't, for once in her time at school she just wanted to sweep the issue under the rug and pretend it wasn't there, but that wouldn't work. Not in the long run anyways, so instead of saying she didn't want to she pursed her lips together into a tin line and gave a nod.

Getting up Lilith walked after Eoghan, catching up easily. Though the walk wasn't really that long, it felt like it was dragging on forever, but that was just the nerves and anxiety. Once they reached the Gryffindor table she quickly asked Felix to come with them and the trio made their way out of the Great Hall, yet again. Only this time the conversation wasn't going to be about a certain third year. Finding a place where there weren't many students around and even those who were were far enough to not over hear anything. Turning around to face the situation Lilith's hands instinctively flew up to her necklace as she cleared her throat. "I am going to take the cat right out of the bag." She started in quick succession, looking at the walls rather than anyone in specific. "So, we never really addressed the whole almostbutnotquitekissincident." She had to really kick that one out of herself because the anxiety was overwhelming already.

GM APPROVED

 

[Felix Layton]

"Why do you have a.." Felix looked back over his shoulder, "..cat?" He was sure Lilith hadn't brought Kuu down but he couldn't be sure. He'd followed the Ravenclaws out of the Great Hall when they'd interrupted his breakfast, although he was curious to know what they wanted to talk to him about. Suddenly Lilith jumped straight into it. "Oh, yeah I suppose." Felix thought he'd gotten away with it really. Lilith had never brought it up again, and as far as Felix could tell, Eoghan had no idea. Judging by the glare that the blonde was now giving him however, perhaps he'd been wrong.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan was trying but failing to soften his jaw, relax his features, and not look at Felix as though he wanted to whip out his wand and cast him into a duelling tournament, but that didn't mean he was going to. He'd come this far without saying anything, he didn't expect himself to lose control now. He sighed silently, allowing Lilith to make the first move, although he was keen to make sure she didn't take the blame for what the Gryffindor had done. "You knew Lilith and I were together," Felix didn't need to know how long he'd known for, although if he had any sense Felix would have realised she would have told it when it happened. "You knew but you still tried to kiss her." It sounded even more wrong coming out his mouth.

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix had spent long enough feeling guilty for his actions immediately after they'd happened. Guilt that he'd tried, shame that he'd even wanted to, and sad that it might have cost him more than one friendship. Hearing Eoghan choose now however to bring it up, practically out of the blue when both he and Lilith had seemed to move past it, only made Felix returned to those initial feelings he'd had back in the Owlery. "Yeah, but I didn't plan on it," he said truthfully, giving the Ravenclaws a shrug. "It just sort of happened in the moment. It was just a few seconds of.. thinking there was something there when obviously there wasn't." It had been so long ago, and so much had happened since, that the idea that Felix would have any feelings towards Lilith was now absurd. No offence to his friend.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Of course Felix didn't plan it, but that didn't make it okay. His actions reminded him a lot of the time Demi had tried to hurt them on purpose, using Tori against them to drive Eoghan and Lilith apart. Felix should have known better to think he had any chance at all of coming between them. He could feel Lilith getting increasingly tense beside him. He was torn between trying to comfort her, and getting to the bottom of whatever it was with the Gryffindor to stop it from happening again, not that Eoghan thought he was actually stupid enough to repeat it. "Why would there have ever been something there?" Eoghan hated how strained his voice sounded, but it was true, what on earth could Felix have possibly seen or felt to make him think Lilith could ever be interested in someone like him?

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix hadn't realised it, but the adrenaline of the situation was making his muscles shake. He wasn't used to getting into arguments or even having disagreements. It wasn't his style. The only time he'd ever fought with someone had been his sister or his aunt, so that didn't count. Eoghan was being ridiculous now, Felix knew he'd made a mess of things but surely he could understand where he was coming from. "That's how just it felt at the time," Felix didn't have anything magical to say, nothing scientific that would appease Eoghan's train of thought. He shifted his eyes to the brunette beside them, Lilith demeanour much more unusure than he'd ever seen of her before. "I can't believe you actually told him," he said under his breath, trying to lighten the mood with a whiff of humour. Of course she would have, they'd been together forever, what had he expected?

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Maladaptive Daydreaming ID#122747

Lilith shifted uncomfortably as the conversation began, she'd tapped out unable to really talk over the hum in her ears. She'd always hated confrontation and that'd been the very reason she'd wanted to bury this whole thing. She was constantly clenching her hands into a fist and releasing, in an attempt to release whatever hormone it did in her brain to calm the anxiety, desperately hoping her robe sleeves were covering the little tell. Her eyes kept going back and forth, she was hearing the conversation, but it felt like she was miles away from it. As though there was a whole ocean between them maybe, she was physically there but mentally somewhere else entirely. "I had to, I'm sorry I don't keep secrets from him." She said quietly, giving the Gryffindor an apologetic if not even pleading look.

There wasn't much she could say or that she could even think, not with the way her own brain was freefalling into the abyss, completely devoid of any reasonable things to say. "I- maybe it the situation was not only him, maybe I did something or shouldn't have something to give him the idea?" It didn't feel right putting it all on Felix, Lilith had been there and she'd probably given him the impression of there being something between them, whether she meant to or not. Her eyes were losing focus completely, which wasn't ideal but it never was. It happened every time she needed to stay present the most for those around her. The Ravenclaws hands stopped moving under her sleeves as she let her mind fall into the daydream.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan rolled his eyes as Felix tried to blame Lilith for telling him in the first place. It was bad enough as it was without Lilith admitted she may have given off the wrong signals too. "No, don't you dare," he warned. He wasn't about to let Lilith take the blame for Felix, not before and not now either. Felix had to face up to what he'd done, it was about Lilith making his accountability easier for him. Eoghan softened his tone slightly, noting the way Lilith was pulling back, "It's not on you."

Unfortunately for the Gryffindor however, Eoghan had now opened up in a way that was much harder to close. "Do you have any idea how any of this looks?" he said, resuming the shooting of daggers at the other boy. "We try to help you because you're our friend," at this point friend was a stretch, but he wasn't above resolving this if not just for Lilith's sake, "but you act like our friendship means nothing at all if you can go and do that to us too." He didn't care that they'd tried to help him with Nia after the event, they'd been friends or at least friendly since first year.

 

[Felix Layton]

Even now, Felix could see the way Lilith was trying to diffuse her boyfriends frustrations, not to let Felix be burdened with it all. It had been his fault, and watching Lilith even now try to make things easier for him only made Felix more determined to get Eoghan off his back, so that they could go back to making this right again. "You didn't do anything Lil," Felix admitted, not wanting to drag her into this any more than she already was. He knew it hadn't been fair on either of them. At the mention however that he was seemingly taking advantage of their friendship, Felix bristled.

"No offence to either of you, but what happened didn't mean a thing," he told them, the frustration rising in his voice although he supposed to deserved it. "I wasn't trying to destroy anything, or ruin what you had. I just hadn't been thinking, okay?" It was far from okay, but what else did Eoghan want him to say.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan scoffed at Felix's comment, as though that was going to make it any better. "So what exactly was the plan? You'd kiss her, and suddenly you'd be an item? What did you want, Felix? What was the end goal there?" Eoghan was more angry than he'd let himself be about this, he hadn't realised just how much of it he'd supressed over the last year. "And now what? You're just distracted with someone else?" Eoghan didn't believe that Felix saw Nia in any way differently than he did everyone else he seemed infatuated with, and it just make things even worse that he'd run into people and ruin what they had, only to immediately leave them in the dirt once he'd found someone else to spend time with.

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix could understand that Eoghan was angry, but he didn't need to lay into him the way he was now, out in the open with the other students that no doubt would be nosying in. "I didn't, have, a plan!" Felix started to yell back, taking a few steps away from the couple as though he could just move away from this argument all together. Eoghan just wasn't getting it. "I'm not.." Felix was stunned to hear Eoghan suggest that he was distracted with Nia, "what are you..?" Felix had come to the pair of them for advice on what to do, they knew he wasn't playing around. They were his friends and he trusted them, or he had done, to tell them what was going on. "Mania had nothing to do with this!" Felix continued to protest, ignoring the others in the corridor but hoping Nia wasn't in vicinity to hear what was going on. "You make it sound like some rejection, rebound, thing, as though the only way I could possibly be interested in her is because there's no one else." He hated the idea that anyone would think that, even more so because if his friends could think that of him, would Nia?

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

"Lilith rejected you, so you went to Cassie," a shiver went down the Ravenclaw's back at her mention, and not for a good reason, "Now Cassie is gone, you're interested in Mania." Eoghan raised his eyebrows, "Surely you're not blind enough to see that's unhealthy?" Maybe it wasn't his place to say, but if he'd asked for his advice, well he was going to get it. "You're lost, Felix. You haven't got a clue what's going on anymore," he wasn't going to let the Gryffindor believe that it was okay to swan around the way he was without facing the consequences.

 

[Felix Layton]

It showed how little Eoghan actually knew of him, given that he'd failed to mention Ella or Amelia, although Felix didn't think that was exactly going to strengthen his cause. He may have been right when it came to Ella, and maybe even Cassie, but not Nia. This right here was how Eoghan really felt about him. Despite Felix asking the pair for advice, it should have been just Lilith he'd turned to, although right now she more or less disengaged herself from the conversation. He didn't blame her, it wasn't exactly her fight to compete in. "It wasn't like that," Mervyn, he sounded pathetic. The fourth year was embarrassed and ashamed, not only that he'd done what he had, but that he'd been called out, questioned and now not listened to by people he thought were his friends. He wasn't lost, he wasn't confused. Just because he had acted through emotions back then didn't mean how he felt about Nia now was in disrepute, and those he'd grown close to couldn't see that. "What do you want from me?" Felix's voice was low, as he hoped this was almost over.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan was certainly that Felix didn't know what he was doing these days, but he wasn't about to watch and wait to see how he hurt Lilith again too. He could deal with his own anger, of feeling like he'd been disrespected and keeping the boy at arms length, but if Lilith wanted to be his friend, Eoghan wasn't going to let him trample all over her. "An apology would be a good start," he told him, crossing his arms over his chest. He only seemed to anger when it came to protecting others, but stopping a fake friend from hurting his girlfriend seemed a pretty good reason.

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix could understand why Lilith had closed off, and he felt once more like he was eight years old, being scolded by one parent or another for not doing what they thought he should be doing. "I'm sorry," the Gryffindor blurted out, realising it was the first time it said it to either of them about the whole thing. "I didn't mean to, and I didn't want to make anything weird between you or me or us or anything," Felix was rambling now, but he had to do what he could to fix it before he left there. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he said, looking straight at Lilith even if she wasn't going to say anything to him. It only made him feel even worse but he probably deserved it. He couldn't even be good enough for his friends, how was he supposed to be good enough for anyone else. He'd managed to let everyone down in the space of a few thoughtless seconds.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan had to admit he did believe Felix when he said he was sorry, and if Lilith wanted to hang out with him again he wasn't about to get in her way. He knew it had been important to bring this up, not to let it settle between them unspoken only for the resentment to build, and while it hadn't exactly been a pleasant conversation to have, Eoghan was feeling a little better about things for it. That being said, he still wasn't convinced the boy knew what he was doing. Eoghan stood a little straighter, "It's no wonder you're suddenly obsessed about Mania," he dug, unable to stop himself, whether that was from the feeling that he needed to rebalance things after what he'd done or because he thought he had the experience behind him to tell Felix how he saw his relationships.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith was vaguely aware of the growing tension around her which made her just dig further into the depths of her own mind. She hated when people she loved argued or there was any disagreement between them. She'd never been able to handle those situations at home and ever since she was a kid whenever a disagreement happened and there was a confrontation she'd distance herself from the situation because it was easier. In this moment it sucked though, because she was aware of the raising tones of both the boys and she so desperately wanted to be useful. Say something and not just stand there like an empty vessel with her mind so far gone to distant lands of her own making, the feeling of her own uselessness only making it worse, but even through that Lilith was clawing at the edges to try and refocus.

She wanted to refocus, be there for the two boys she cared for in different ways. No matter what had happened between her and Felix she still cared for the Gryffindor, she'd been happy he'd trusted her to ask for advice. She only wanted to see him do well and be happy and she loved Eoghan. He was her safe place and the person she turned to when things got difficult, so that was the thought and feeling she focused on. She put everything she'd learned about managing the daydreaming into use as she focused on the feeling of safety and caring she had for the both of them. Little by little Lilith's vision refocused, her mind still in a haze and ears buzzing but she was there. Enough to hear Felix apologize to her, which made her want to sink back in but she wouldn't. "I'm sorry we didn't talk about it sooner and that we let it get to this point," Lilith managed to get the words out, surprising even herself, but she wanted to speak up.

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix wondered whether Lilith had been sitting on this since it happened. Maybe she'd told Eoghan right at the start, maybe even immediately, and they'd just been looking for a good time to bring it up. He felt like a fool, feeling as though he should have expected it. Felix hadn't taken Eoghan for being someone that would be so confrontational either. Couldn't he just go back to being the meek boy that said nothing in the corner of the room and let everyone else be happy and go about their day? "Why?" Felix wasn't quite as tall as Eoghan, but that didn't stop him from squaring up to the Ravenclaw. He wasn't even going to deny it. He braced himself for whatever he was about to throw at him, because the fourth year was quite certain that whatever it was, it was going to hurt.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Lilith was right, they should have spoken about this a lot sooner. It was almost a year later and it had clearly eaten into Eoghan more than he'd let himself realised. "Because you thrive off attention," it was obvious in the way that he acted around everyone, it was like he loved to be at the centre of it all. In long term relationships, you got comfortable with the person you were with, Eoghan knew that. Felix probably couldn't handle that when he'd been with Esme, not when there were other people around the school. "And now, someone is giving it to you." Felix liked things to be exciting, he liked to make sure all eyes were on him and while he may have tried to come across as someone just wanting to be everybody's friend, he wasn't fooling Eoghan. Cassie had hit on Eoghan too, but he hadn't read into it. Felix was so weak he couldn't help but reciprocate her advances. He'd tried to hit on Lilith because she was a close convenience, probably Tori, too. So now that Mania was here it was obvious, she was a girl who from what Eoghan could tell, loved the attention as much as he did. They would be perfect for each other, at least for the next few weeks.

 

[Felix Layton]

Felix couldn't believe his ears. He thought Eoghan was his friend! He remained motionless as the Ravenclaw more or less crushed him on the spot, his mind flooded with self doubt. He'd spent years trying to come out of his shell, of feeling invisible and forgotten by those around him, all now for his friends to think he was just an attention seeker. He didn't know why Eoghan was saying this to him now, he thought he'd been happy for him, to have finally found someone that he was genuinely interested in being with, but by the looks of things he couldn't have been more wrong. There were prickles behind his eyes, but Felix made no indication that Eoghan's words had stung him they way they had. "Are you done?" was all he eventually said. He was finished wasting his time and friendship on someone that only saw him as a burden, someone who meddled and got in the way. Just because apparently Eoghan and Lilith had it all figured out, didn't mean that Felix didn't know what he was doing.