Closed felt like breathing

[Jonah Edogawa]

It was only recently that Jonah had discovered that he preferred hanging around the Garden - but only if it was fairly unoccupied. He didn't really like to hang out there when the Wild Patch was doing its thing, mostly because it was too many people for his tastes. There were only a few people that he currently didn't mind lurking about on his... good days. And there were even less when he wasn't particularly having a good one. Lumos, Felix, and William went without saying. The three had seen Jonah at his worst during his time at Hogwarts, and granted this was only the fourth semester since, it was a ridiculous amount of time. Elijah - Eli - and Rose were people that Jonah didn't mind on his good days but would cautiously accept the presence of on his bad... in theory at least. Family counted for people Jonah didn't mind on good days. The rest were... people Jonah would prefer he be left alone but he understood he couldn't always have that. Today was... it wasn't really a bad day. It had just been, it was frustrating that he was still having a tricky time with the Charms right at the end of the semester on top of having a bit of trouble with the History material. And his brain was also stuck trying to figure out Eli and Eoghan and not to mention if... if he... if he and Lumos... well... if Lumos was his... argh! The sound of frustration as he closed his History book in a huff wasn't something he intended at all. At least the flowers surrounding him as he sat on the grass was relatively calming.​

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix wasn't sure why Jonah was so adamant to come out to the gardens of all places. He didn't assume the Hufflepuff had chosen on it specifically to make life more difficult for his friend but couldn't deny that sneaking around the bushes trying not to be spotted by his sister who practically lived in the greenhouses these days, wasn't challenging. Sometimes he'd wondered what it would have been like if his friend had made it into Gryffindor, would he have been a different person to who he was now? It would have been nice to share a room with him, and maybe it would've given them a chance to talk more. "Joe?" Felix called toward a boy sat near the flowers, that was him, right? "Hey, Jonah," he could finally address him properly as he got a little closer. He was surprised to see him holding a textbook, although Felix supposed it was probably better than he was focused on his work than how he was feeling with his brother, if such things could have been mutually exclusive. "I didn't see Ten, I think we're clear for now," he announced, before plonking himself out on the grass beside him, leaning back on his arms now he was out of sight of the windows.​

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

"Hiii," Jonah called out to his friend in a half-whisper with a toothy grin. With all the sneaking around that Felix was doing, he was reminded that he wasn't the only one who had people they were trying to avoid, which made him look around to see if Felix's sister around. He wasn't sure if the girl hung around her but Jonah also didn't tend to hang around if he deemed there was too many people in a particular spot. He especially liked to sit on the ground in an area surrounded by flowers so he could be in the middle of them. It was great because most preferred benches and some of the plants were tall enough to hide him just so when he was studying. Only four people knew to find him here. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, "I didn't see her around earlier either. You okay?"​

 

[Felix Layton-King]

"What are you sorry for?" Felix asked his friend, confused. "Yeah I'm okay, I think. Ten's trying to be friendly with me which is concerning to say the least," the Gryffindor said, knowing that Jonah knew the history of the siblings, "I don't know if I trust it." Ten had certainly seemed to be adament she wanted to get to know him properly, but it was hard to tell that it also wasn't some kind of a joke. "What about you?" he asked the Hufflepuff. He hadn't really spoken to Jonah properly one on one for some time, and even though he saw his best friend around the castle quite a lot it was still different when it was just the two of them.​

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Jonah shrugged, it felt like an apology was always at the tip of his tongue these days so he couldn’t even tell you what he was apologizing for half the time. “Oh,” he mumbled as he closed his book so he could focus on what Felix was saying better. Jonah had only met Ten very few times, and for good reason. He understood why Felix would have been hesitant to accept anything. As a younger sibling to five others, Jonah didn’t think he would have been able to accept it if Jericah or Yukiko would have been as mean to him as Ten was to Felix. “I get it. Do you wanna talk about it?”

Jonah’s eyes went from Felix to the flowers around him when he the question was thrown back at him. The last time Felix and him had talked, Jonah had been hiding in the Tower and could barely feel anything other than the raging anxiety in him. Now. “Better, I think,” he said softly. There was still a lot of things he needed to figure out, including the whole thing with Lumos. That probably wasn’t Felix was asking about though. He turns his gaze back to Felix though he looked down quickly as he fidgets just a little. “Eli’s been spending time with me lately every now and then. Not… Not really studying, which is nice,” his brother’s nickname almost felt foreign on his tongue after a year of him being Elijah. But it felt right recently to try. Especially when Eli was trying too.​