Slow Motion

[Aodhan Kaelen]

It was breakfast time and even though he was normally still in bed around this time, the fifteen-year-old had gotten up early because he couldn't stay in bed any longer with the thoughts currently roaming around inside of his head. He had asked his Uncle about his thoughts before leaving their house just to be sure that what he was feeling was actually what he thought it was and ever since the man confirmed that it was indeed just that, Aodhan was finding it difficult to come up with the words to ask his friend the question that was continuously finding its way into his private thoughts. Hoping that she was eating breakfast at the moment because he did not know where else she could be at this time of day, the young teen walked towards the great hall and sighed deeply before walking towards the Gryffindor table. He sat down at the table opposite of his friend and smiled brightly at her. He had enjoyed spending his time with her over the winter break and hoped that they could keep the good times going whilst being back at school. ''Hi,'' Aodhan said, helping himself to a slice of toast while waiting for a response from the girl.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory found herself in an extra good mood this morning, and she was pretty sure it had to do with the fact that she was having cream with her waffles for breakfast this morning. Cream and maple syrup. It almost felt like she was doing something that would get her in trouble, her mother would never have let her eat anything so excessively non-healthy for breakfast. Rory had even tried looking across to the Hufflepuff table to see if her sister was there to make faces at, knowing she would disapprove but be absolutely unable to do anything about it - but Sophia had likely been and gone already, as Rory couldn't spot her. It was a bit of shame, really. She had been too hungry this morning to wait for her friends to wake up and eat with her, so she was a bit bored sitting down at the Gryffindor table by herself. So bored that she had actually resorted to eating her waffles one little square at a time in a vain attempt to liven up her breakfast experience.

Thankfully, Rory was soon saved from her not-so-great idea (cutting off each square one by one was annoying) by the arrival of one of her friend Aodhan. She didn't see him at first, frowning as she was at her geometrically dismantled waffle, but upon seeing movement in front of her Rory looked up just in time to see him give her a wide smile, and she couldn't help automatically sending him one back. "Hey." She leaned slightly towards Aodhan over the table, failing to notice that the end of her hair dragged a little in the pool of maple syrup on her plate. "You're not usually here at this hour of the morning. And you're eating toast," she smirked, flicking her eyes down to the food item in question before returning her gaze to Aodhan's face. "How sad and boring, are you sure you're feeling alright?" Despite her teasing, Rory truly was happy to see him. He was fun and interesting, and she always seemed to have a great time whenever they were together. Even if it was just doing something as mundane as eating breakfast.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

He grinned at the teasing and nodded his head. ''Sad and boring, eh?'' he said whilst looking down at the girl's plate, frowning at the cut up waffle. ''I could go back to bed and leave you to torturing that waffle again if you want?'' he added. ''No, I... uh... I actually came down here to ask you something,'' the fourth year said, getting a little nervous and completely unaware that what he was about to ask his friend was actually something one would do in private and not with a ton of people around you. ''So obviously whenever we're around each other fun things happen, right? Well, I was thinking that because we like spending so much time with each other that maybe you would want to try going out with me?'' Aodhan asked. He had lost his appetite in the process of coming up with the words to say this correctly so put down the slice of toast still in his hand and waited anxiously for Rory to say something.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory snorted at Aodhan's description of her breakfast eating methods, and decided to be done with the 'waffle torture' as he had put it. Shallowly spearing a larger piece on the end of her fork, she had it halfway to her mouth when Aodhan suddenly decided he would like to drop a complete bombshell on her out of nowhere. Rory froze, and the waffle tipped off the fork and back onto the plate with a definite splash into the maple syrup. She'd... she'd heard that wrong, surely. Right? Her hearing was... totally bad these days. No it wasn't, her hearing was fine. But going out? Rory couldn't seem to look away from Aodhan's face, and in their newfound silence she suddenly grew more aware of the noise from people chatting around her. "What?" Pushing her plate aside, she once again leaned over the table towards her... friend? Could she even still call him that while he was in the process of asking her out? "Do you mean like... dating? Dating dating?" Rory didn't even think of trying to hide the shock in her voice. What world was she living in right now?

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan didn't avert his gaze from his friend while he waited for Rory to say something to him. A bit discouraged by the way she was looking at him and how quiet it had gotten, he watched as she leaned over the table again and nodded his head at the question. ''Yeah, like you and me together - without the kissing and such though because kissing is gross,'' the Gryffindor answered. And then, whilst looking at his friend still, Aodhan started to regret his decision of asking her out. What if she didn't want to go out with him and things would get really awkward between them? What if she would stop talking to him because of this? He did not want that to happen. However, it had been said already so the only thing left to do now was waiting for the other Gryffindor to talk again.

 

[Aurora Night]

Though Rory was a bit relieved by the fact that Aodhan apparently didn't want to deal with the kissing thing either, she was still a bit lost for words as to how she was going to proceed now. The reality of it was, there were only two answers - yes, or no. 'Yes' seemed big and scary, an answer that meant having to deal with some teasing from her friends, and suddenly being one of those people with a boyfriend. What did you even do with a boyfriend, other than the kissing that had thankfully already been pushed off the table? But 'no' meant... hurting Aodhan's feelings, probably. She didn't want to do that. And what was she even saying 'no' to, anyway? She'd never really thought about the prospect of dating anyone before, but didn't people seem to enjoy it? Wasn't it supposed to be fun? Rory bit her lip in consideration. Trying this dating thing out with Aodhan... might not be so bad. "Okay," she said. "Yeah. We can do that. With the no kissing," she hastened to add, pointing a stern finger at him. "But... yeah. Yes." She looked across at her... okay no, that word was too weird to suddenly begin using right this very second. But she wasn't sure what was supposed to happen now - Aodhan should know, it had been his idea after all.

 

[Aodhan Kaelen]

Aodhan was about to speak up to tell Rory that she should just ignore this and continue torturing the waffle on her plate when she said yes to going out with him. He stared at her with wide eyes for a moment before collecting his thoughts, and asked just to be certain that she was saying yes to this because he didn't think that she would, ''Really?'' He was not sure what he was supposed to do now that she had said yes and looked down at his own plate with the slice of toast on it, his appetite still lost though now he wasn't as nervous as he was a few moments earlier. He was trying to think of something funny to say to her but the pressure of having to say something anyway because he assumed that she expected him to say something now made it difficult for him to think about what he could say to his... girlfriend. ''So,'' Aodhan said, looking back up at Rory. ''Do you want to talk about classes or something?'' he asked awkwardly though immediately regretted asking her this. This was Rory he was talking to, of course she did not want to talk about classes, she probably wanted to talk about fun stuff, stuff that would make her stomach hurt because of how much it made her laugh.

 

[Aurora Night]

For a moment Rory stared at Aodhan, unblinking... and then she laughed, relaxing. "Yes, really. Why, didn't you think I would?" She felt better now that she had laughed, and scooped some of the temporarily abandoned waffle into her mouth. This didn't have to be super serious - it was her and Aodhan, after all. That kind of threw 'serious' out the window. All she had to do was mention centaurs to him and that would provide enough entertainment for an hour. The thought settled Rory's world thoroughly back on its axis... even if it was tilted a slightly different way now. "Classes?" she snorted. "Not as boring as they could be, but you know. Homework, reading stuff." She pulled a face, and then pointed her fork towards Aodhan. "Why, is there something about your classes I should know about, being your girlfriend?" Oh, she'd thought she was okay, but apparently it was still too soon to use that word. Rory could feel her cheeks heating up, but she continued to point the fork determinedly. She wouldn't be this weird about it forever, surely.