Ruby Robins (laal) wrote in acciogoblet, @ 2012-11-15 13:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | jules dorny, ruby robins |
Characters: Jules Dorny & Ruby Robins
Setting: Tuesday 13th November (backdated), after Chess Club
Summary: The usually stoic friends have a conversation of feelings
Status: Complete
Ruby crossed her arms as she approached the table where Jules was beginning to pack up his chess set, having just finished his game. Ruby herself had suffered a particularly crushing defeat at the hands of one of the foreign students (was it bad that Ruby didn’t remember her name?), but then, she was used to losing at chess. It was all just part of the routine at this point, and the next part of the routine was walking to the library with Jules to get some studying in before dinner. So she leaned lightly against the side of the table and waited quietly. Jules was packing up his chess set very carefully in the way that only made sense to him, but was completely organised in it’s own way. He beat one of the fifth years in a way that wouldn’t be called crushing exactly, but when he started across the board at them in that rude, off putting way of his, it wasn’t exactly kind either. But Jules wasn’t exactly kind and if you weren’t used to him, he tended to hurt people’s feelings. “I’m almost finished.” He dead panned at her. Studying for NEWTS was his routine, he studied every single day except Fridays and then he would just do all his weekend homework and had the rest of his free time to study. He debated telling her his study plan, but decided to save his crazy for later, she would discover soon enough what studying with Jules was like. Serious business. “Take your time,” Ruby replied airily, though it did look like he was nearly done. It was hard to tell with Jules, sometimes -- his organizational system for his chess pieces still didn’t make a whit of sense to her, but that was okay. There were probably a lot of things about Ruby that didn’t make sense to Jules, but he put up with her anyway. And she was glad about that. Jules’s seriousness helped her buckle down and focus on her own studies, and honestly, she needed all the help she could get. “So what are you working on tonight?” she asked, stepping away from the table once it looked like he was ready to go. “I am nearly finished.” He replied robotically. His chess pieces were back in his case and he carefully put it into his messenger bag like it was precious cargo. He was very careful with things that didn’t matter and tended to bruise and mar the things that did. Like people’s feelings. Ruby was the only person he truly considered a real friend. She tended to push him on the things he needed to be pushed on and left him alone when she recognised a lost cause. He needed that, a friend who wasn’t trying to “fix” him all the time and just left him to his own devices. “I have to study for at least an hour and a half in History of Magic according to my NEWTS schedule I made for myself.” He told her. “I can fit in another subject later if need be, but HOM is my primary concern at this time. What are you going to be working on?” He asked curious. Ruby made exaggerated “floaty” motions when Jules mentioned History of Magic. She wasn’t sure if the fact that it was a ghost impression came across or not, but she didn’t really care. “So glad I dropped that class. No, I’m working on Charms,” here she made a swishing movement with her hand, though her wand was tucked away in an inner pocket of her robes. “Thought I’d start doing research for that essay while the prompt is fresh in my mind.” “The professor could be better.” He admitted. He really enjoyed the course, it was interesting when he did his own research. In class however, he found he needed to study his hardest just to keep afloat. “I worked on that bit directly after class, but it could use some more work. Perhaps we should work on them together and I can use my Charms slot on my study schedule for History of Magic, then it will all equal out.” He looked pensive, NEWTS were serious business here, he couldn’t afford any screwing around, even if he still had no clue on what he wanted to do once his schooling was finished. See, the fact that Jules was the sort of guy who had a “study schedule” was just what Ruby liked about him. Sure, she pushed herself to study for hours nearly every night, but she didn’t have any sort of schedule -- she just worked on whatever she felt like doing, or whatever was stressing her out most at the moment. “Well, do what you want,” she told her friend. “I wouldn’t mind the help, certainly.” Her last essay in Charms had left something to be desired, probably because she’d stayed up late to finish it the night before it was due. This time she’d be better. “Charms is something I do actively enjoy and it would be nice to get some feedback on the essay I’ve started.” He figured the essay was due before the HOM exam, so it only made sense to work on the essay over the general HOM studying. “I’ll work on my essay and then with the time I have left over I can start rewriting my notes.” He would recopy all his notes and then he would makes of what seemed to be important and then incorporate information from the books into a new set of notes, his studying techniques were always far too complicated and in the end he stressed more than he should have. “So, I feel that an emotionally healthy person brings this up again, on that moronic French girl’s journal, are you sure there is nothing you want to tell me?” He wondered if his harsh and robotic nature had put a wall up between his friends, well friend and himself. Ruby instinctively ducked her head, trying to make her hair fall into her face and separate her from this conversation. “Merlin, Jules, I said I didn’t want to talk about it.” And it was true. Ruby’s primary strategy for dealing with feelings was avoidance -- Jules wasn’t the only one here who was merely pretending to be emotionally healthy -- and right now she had way more feelings than she knew what to do with. Infatuation, of course, and then embarrassment that the object of her affections was “that moronic French girl.” A desperate need to keep it all a secret from Jules and everybody else who wouldn’t understand. And now anger at her friend for pushing the issue. “Maybe an emotionally healthy person would wait for me to bring it up in my own time.” Which probably meant never, Ruby thought. “All right, I won’t press you, talking about one’s feelings is mostly uncomfortable anyways.” He wasn’t going to push it, what if she cried? He would seize up like he always did and make things work. He was all ready silently freaking out just thinking of such a thing. But Ruby was pretty all right as far as girls went, she never seemed too emotional or wanted to talk about girl like things. He was gay and all, but wasn’t good at being a gal pal like some of the gays he knew from boring society things. Putting together colours and patterns and knowing what shoes to wear when, just a waste of time. People had better things to think about and he was probably looking all blank eyed. “Probably, how do people even get to be such a thing? I find myself so confused on these social rules, this must be why no one likes me or the fact I keep insulting people to their faces.” that was probably it, he really should work on that. But most people were moronic or boring or both, that wasn’t his fault. “Hey now,” Ruby objected loudly, “I like you! And so does Ava.” She couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk up her best friend even despite her nagging feeling that Jules and Ava might not be well suited for each other. “But yeah, I don’t really know how normal people do it. I’ve always just tried to fake it ‘til I make it.” And at seventeen, she was still struggling. “That is true, you two must have incredible patience.” He pointed out as he slung his messenger bag over his skinny torso. Ava, he had a nagging feeling she may like him as more than a friend, but he wasn’t really ready to ask Ruby such a thing, he wasn’t ready to face that answer. He never liked to talk about these things, human sexuality was tricky and messy and complicated. There were usually feelings and people got hurt and it just was something he chose to generally separate himself from. “At least you try, I’ve long give up on even trying. I just don’t get it and more than likely never will.” He figured that’s why cats were bred, for strange sorts like him. “Right, well...” Ruby suddenly found herself uncomfortable with the turn their conversation had taken. There was an openness to it that she wasn’t used to feeling except with her sister and sometimes Ava. She desperately -- and awkwardly -- tried to steer the conversation back to safer topics. “We should probably head to the library, yeah? Get in some good Charms work before dinner...” She trailed off, looking a little lost. “This conversation had too many feelings.” He blurted out. Jules always wasn’t so good at the not blurting out every little thought that came into his head. That also tended to backfire on him and make everyone uncomfortable. He didn’t talk about feelings, Dornys didn’t talk about feelings, none of them, he was going to be screwed up the rest of his life. “Yeah, we should, that would be clever.” He looked at her confused. She looked lost? She was usually the one that helped him navigate things and now she looked lost. “It will be fine.” He reassured her robotically. Ruby simply nodded her agreement, not really trusting herself at the moment to open her mouth -- more feelings might come pouring out, and she didn’t think that she or Jules could handle that at the moment. But what they could handle, what they would handle, was Charms. She nodded again and took off in the direction of the library. |