Open Shapes of The Sea

[Conan Burke]

Conan wasn't sure what to think of his break... It was definitely... something... He didn't really want to talk about the separation of his parents, maybe later, but not at the moment. Conan sat on one of the tables in the common room, his shells all spread out on the table. Even though his break hadn't been one of the greatest he managed to make up for it a little by finding some new shells in his collection. Conan wasn't sure how many shells he had in his collection now, but he knew it was a lot.

 

[Gregory Friend]

The weather had not been great today, so whatever plans that Gregory had had for going and spending time outdoors had been scrapped. Instead he was just looking for a place that he could hide away a little, or at least be out of the way. Walking around ran the risk of running into people which he was trying very hard to avoid. He walked into the student lounge and in amongst the around people in this room he spotted the one person he wouldn't mind spending time with, with a collection of shells out in front of him. Gregory still had the shell which Conan had given him. It was tucked away, protected and safe. "Hey Conan, can I sit with you?" he asked, his body still tensing in case he was rejected.

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan smiled wide when he saw his friend, Gregory. Conan liked spending time with Gregory and considered him to be one of his close friends. "Hey Gregory," Conan says with a smile. He nodded enthusiastically as he gestured to the seats around the table. "Yeah totally!" Conan says with a smile, happy that his friend would like to join him. "You get up to anything interesting during your break?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory took a moment to pick a spot to sit down in. Picking to sit on the side of Conan where he would be able to best hear him. He wasn't able to keep an eye on the door which made him a little nervous, but Conan seemed like he wasn't being picked on, like he didn't get picked on, so maybe it would be fine...Gregory shook his head lightly. "Not really, just the usual, games and hanging out with my dad. You?" Gregory asked.

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan nodded as Gregory spoke a little about his break. "That sounds good. My break was... fine. Yeah, fine" Conan says with a small smile and nod. To be honest, it was worst than fine, but he didn't really want to go into the details just yet, and he didn't think Gregory would want to hear his problems. "I collected a whole bunch of new shells though. Did you wanna see what new ones I got?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory glanced at Conan and noted how he picked and said the word fine. A part of him wanted to ask about it, but another part didn't want to force his one friend to talk about something he didn't want to and possibly worsen the friendship. "Oh yeah!" he replied, latching on to the fact Conan had moved on and always keen to hear about the shells which his friend had collected. "I'd love to see the new ones,"

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan smiled happily as Gregory agreed to look at his new additions to his collection. The Ravenclaw pulled out the recent ones that he had collected. Each one he had taken out had different shapes and colours, some having unique patterned lines while others had the usual straight lines and swirls. "These ones are my recent ones at the moment. A few of them look similar but they look cool. I think this one here might be my favourite one though" Conan says with a smile as he points to a yellow one with unique lines and shapes on them. "Most of these I collected by the lake that's near my house. Its quite cool to find shells there. But it takes a bit to find some different shells" Conan explains, he tries his best not to get duplicates or similar duplicates, but usually he collects those anyways as he always wants to add more to his collection.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory shifted a little in his seat so that he could actually really look at the shells that Conan was showing him. He looked at Conan's new favourite. "Wow," he said appreciatively. He didn't necessarily get the appeal of the shells, while not the same as each other, he wasn't as drawn to them as it was clear conan was. He thought they were cool enough and enjoyed looking at them with Conan, seeing his colleaction. "Yeah, I can imagine," he replied. "Have you asked to go to a different beach to look for more?"

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan smiled and shrugged a little. "Yep, but we were... a little busy during the break so we couldn't really go to a different beach this time around" Conan said with a shrug. It wasn't a total lie though. With the atmosphere at home, it was hard to really do anything and it was just rough to be at home for a bit. However, he had hoped that he wasn't boring his friend with the shells he had collected. "Are there any hobbies you like to do? Or anything you are interested in?" Conan asked his friend curiously. While he appreciated Gregory listening to him talking about his shells, he too wanted to listen to what Gregory was interested in. Even if he didn't really understand it, he was happy to listen to his friend talk about it.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory wondered why he was busy, and was debating whether or not to push and ask more about it. "Oh...how come?" he said with a light tone. He didn't want to force Conan to say anything, and didn't want to not give him the space either if he did. "Oh no, I liked muggle things that you can't do here, and here, I just try and keep out of trouble," he said. He didn't have any hobbies and was at school mostly trying to not end up as the most disliked person ever.

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan was silent for a moment, unsure if he wanted it to mention what had happened during his break, but he also guessed that maybe it would be better to mention it to something. "Well... my parents... split up during the break, I guess you could say, so... it's been a bit difficult. It's been a bit hard to do things really" Conan says with a shrug, trying to seem like it wasn't a big deal, but it was for sure a big deal. Conan tilted his head to the side a little. "Out of trouble? How do you mean?" Conan asked his friend curiously. Gregory didn't seem like the type that would do anything bad. Though Conan didn't want to push his friend if he didn't really want to say.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory felt bad for asking, and felt bad about what the answer was. He couldn't imagine dealing with a parent's divorce. Especially in his scenario where maybe the parent he was left with, or the situation would put him back into care. "That....that sucks," he said without really looking at Conan, not wanting to draw more attention to it. "I'm adopted..." he then blurted out, unsure of if Conan might've already known that. before shaking his head a little. "I'm always getting into bother...like bumping into people, knocking things over, being accused of things, people stealing my glasses, so just trying to avoid being where that could happen,"

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan nodded in agreement. "Yeah... It really sucks," Conan said sadly. He was glad to get it off his chest, though, glad that he had spoken about it to someone who wasn't his family. Conan's mouth was ajar when Gregory spoke about how he was adopted. The Ravenclaw didn't know about that fact about his friend, but he was glad to learn about this new fact about his friend.

"Nah, you're not a bother! Not to me, anyway," Conan said with a smile, hoping that it would somewhat make his friend feel a bit better. However, Conan's face went all puzzled when he registered what Gregory had been saying. "Wait- Stealing your glasses? Whose been stealing your glasses?" Conan asked his friend with concern. Conan was curious about who was doing this to Gregory because he was happy to be looking out for his friend if he needed to. "Accused of what?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded slightly, he didn't know that it sucked, but could imagine that it had. He didn't feel bad sharing the rest of the information about how he'd been doing and his family until Conan seemed to find what had happened to him bad. He knew he was a bother, Conan was just nicer about it than most others. He just gave a little smile and then shrugged. "I don't know. I never found out, Professor Carter just gave them back to me," Gregory had his suspicions but he didn't dare say it. He had been having a good year and didn't want to bring the wrath of that girl upon him. "Of writing letters that I didn't write," he said nervously, opting for that, rather than like being accused of being a waste of space.

 

[Conan Burke]

Conan frowned a little when Gregory was unsure who had stolen his glasses. It wasn't nice for his friend to go through, and he wished he had been there for his friend more. Conan had gotten more confused as Gregory had continued to speak. "That's odd. Did you know what the letters said?" Conan asked curiously. He knew Gregory wasn't a mean person, so he believed him, and he wanted to be there for his friend. "Do I need to fight anyone for you?" Conan joked as he knew he was clearly not going to fight anyone, but he would defend and protect his friend somehow if he needed to. "No, I'm kidding, I won't fight anyone. I'm not a good fighter, but I'm here for you if you need me," Conan said as he reassured his friend.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory shook his head. He hadn't ever questioned what the letter said, just tried to plead his innocence, it hadn't really worked. Gregory knew some time had passed since that incident. He was a little surprised that Conan was offering to fight someone. He didn't seem like the fighting type, though not in a negative way, just not someone Gregory could picture really fighting. "It's okay, I'll just keep staying out of the way," he said, knowing that it would just be easier to continue as he did. "I appreciate it, though," he added, since it was nice to have someone offer to defend him.