InsaneJournal

Who: Raleigh and Zachary
What: Hogs Head, talking and Zach checking people out
When: Mid-Afternoon
Rating: PG
Status: Complete/Log

Though he was good at acting like things didn't stress him out, Raleigh was starting to feel like his work load was adding up. And not to mention, Percy had been on him, sending owls and things, trying to get Raleigh to committ to lining up a position at the ministry once his Hogwarts days were over. He was looking forward to getting out to Hogsmeade, just to let things go for a day. And at first he had planned on taking one of his girls and making it into a sort of date, but maybe hanging out with Zach was more what he needed. He opened the door to The Hog's Head and stepped to the side, lifting his hand to indicate that Zach should pass through first. "After you," he laughed walking in behind his best friend. Zach had been suprise that Raleigh hadn't already had plans to go out on a date but he was glad. He didn't get to spend a lot of time with his friend and when he did he made sure to make the most of it, and it might be a little selfish of him but he was allowed to be. "Thank you," he said stepping inside and looking around at the small bar. A boy he faintly recognized was sitting at the bar talking to the tender and his eyes lingered for a moment before he turned back to Raleigh. "Come on, we can get drinks without having to beg finally," he said referring to the fact that they were finaly of age. Raleigh followed Zach into the bar. He sauntered behind him, and scanned the tavern. "I hadn't even thought of that," Raleigh admitted. Yeah, they did have to beg, but they always got what they wanted. There were a few people, some their age but he only recognizedthem vaguely as they made their way to the bar. Raleigh slid onto a barstool, leaving a couple empty, one on either side of him for Zach to sit down. Raising his hand, Raleigh got the attention of the tender, and while he was on his way over Raleigh turned to Zach and asked, "What are you having?" It was second nature for Raleigh to take the lead, order for whoever he was with---which typically was a female he was trying to impress. Zach slide into one next to him, turning slightly so he could look at Raleigh, even though his eyes kept on drifting down slightly. He had accepted he had a crush, and he had accepted the fact that it was never going to be returned so frankly he really did not see in the point in stopping. Especially since Raleigh did it to him all the time. "Just a butter beer," he said looking back at Raleigh, letting the other man take the lead. He really didn't care either way, he just figured it was easier than fighting over it. And besides, even though he knew that Raleigh did it for other people, he was still excited because he felt special. "Two butterbeers," Raleigh said to the tender when they came around. He held up his fingers if for some reason he hadn't picked up on how many it was going to be. Raleigh turned back towards Zach and leaned his elbow on the bar top. "So, this is our last first Hogsmeade trip of the year," Raleigh pointed out. He was sort of fixed on the idea of making the most out of this last year. He had been making a big deal out of a lot of little things so far. "Next year all I'll have to look forward to is a day out of the office," he figured, sighing as he figured that that was where he'd be, whether he wanted it or not. "And you'll be busy busy at St. Mungo's. I doubt our schedules will ever match up," he said, pushing Zach's butterbeer over towards him after the bartender returned and set them both down. "Don't be so depressing, we're not dying," he replied rolling his eyes shaking his head slightly as he looked over Raleigh's shoulder, before his eyes went back to the other man. "Well it's not like you're going to be working weekends are you?" he asked raising an eyebrow before shrugging. "I don't know, depends on where I live and if I'll need a roommate or not," he pointed out, obviously setting himself up for disastar on that front. "Which you could fill as long as you have silencing wards on your room," he said with a smile taking the butterbeer and having a mouthful. Raleigh probably wouldn't be dwelling so much on it negatively if he felt he was moving on to something he could be excited about. Must be nice, he thought, considering that Zach was going to be a healer which is what he wanted to do and was something he was really good at. He had to laught at his ridiculousness though. "That's no fun," Raleigh chuckled. "I tried that once before and it didn't work out so well," he added. Taking a drink from his butterbeer, he noticed Zach seemed to be looking passed him. "What's so interesting behind me?" Raleigh asked, turning slightly to try to get a discreet look at...whatever it was that Zach saw. "Oh it's fun alright, because it means that I'll get a decent night's sleep," he said nodding his head as he did so before shruging his shoulders. "Fine then, I'll cast the wards," he said nodding his head. "Besdies, for all we know I might be working nights and stuff," he said rubbing his nose. The program was only one year and then 2 years of internship so he didn't think that there would be much to worry about on that front. "Oh, just that guy is rather cute," he said making eye contact and grinning slightly when he got a wink in return before turning back to Raleigh. Raleigh could only laugh when Zach so adamently decided that he would cast the wards. He wouldv'e done it. He wasn't that disrespectful to his best friend. It was just so funny how upset Zach seemed to get about it. It was more fun to talk about than to actually do. Raleigh had turned back around before he really saw anyone or anything. He was staring at Zach who still seemed distracted. And he knew for certain that he didn't bring that grin to his best friend's face. Raleigh rolled his eyes. "Can you focus please?" he said. "We're talking about our future," Raleigh said, taking another drink from the bottle of butter beer before setting it down. He knew Raleigh would never do something like that to him, or at least he hoped he wouldn't because that just wasn't fair, but he also knew that his friend could be rather forgetful at times, which he just hoped wouldn't be during those times, because he did not want to hear that sort of thing. He bit his lip and tore his eyes away from the guy and looked at Raleigh. "Sorry," he said without really sounding sorry. "And besides, you do it all the time," he said shaking his head. "And I'm focusing, will you move in with me or not?" he asked. Raleigh sort of scrunched his nose when Zach said he was sorry. He knew him well enough to recognize that it wasn't very sincere. But it wasn't that big of a deal. "What? What do I do all the time?" Raleigh asked. He was actually curious now, and so he turned around, spinning on his barstool to look at the guy behind him. There wasn't anything really discreet about his action. "Yeah, yeah," he agreed. He had pretty much planned on them moving in together anyway. It would be a nice bit of familiarity. After all, they had been living together for most of the last seven years. "Him?" Raleigh asked. "Really?" he continued sounding not at all impressed. "I don't see it," Raleigh decided shaking his head. Zach rolled his eyes not really sure what he was saying as he was distracted a little bit by the other man who was now opening checking him out. He was always a bit embarrased when that happened as he wasn't used to that sort of thing. People tended to focus on Raleigh a little more than they did on him. "Nothing," he said before grinning. "Fantastic," he said nodding his head before rolling his eyes at Raleigh's antics. "That would be because you're straight my dear friend," he said. "So obviously guys aren't attractive to you," he said forcing himself to not sound dissapointed. Raleigh could tell that Zach wasn't paying any attention to him. And if there was someone else for him to get distracted with then he wouldn't care as much, but Zach had insisted that they hang out. He couuld be at the tea shop making out with Alice or someone instead of being practically ignored here. Raleigh didn't like the little reply he got from Zach. He didn't want his opinion discounted because he had happened to never be with another man before. "I can appreciate an attractive man," Raleigh said, arguing with Zach. That made Zach sit up slightly and look at Raleigh with a bit of a frown. "You can?" he said sure this was some new development because he was sure Raleigh would've said something before this. "Since when?" he asked wanting to know because for a breif moment he allowed himself that little bit of hope that something more would come of it, but thn he crushed it down, not wanting to get too ahead of himself because it was not good for him to think like that. He would only get hurt in the end. "What do you mean since when?" Raleigh asked, giving Zach a look. He stalled, taking another drink of his butterbeer, lingering as it slid down his throat. He didn't speak again until the bottle was back to the countertop. "It's extra good today," he said thoughtfully, glad to have attention back. He'd keep it as long as he could. "Since whenever," Raleigh answered with a shrug. It wasn't like he woke up one day and decided that if the opportunity arose then he'd mess around with another man, buthe could honestly say that he felt that way. "Is it that big of a deal?" he asked, eyeing Zack. "Not him though," he added in, to get his point across. "Well I never knew that about you so since when?" he repeated wanting to know exactly everything about his friend, because a)he was nosy and b) it might be good for him in the long run. He watched Raleigh drink, forgetting about the other man for the moment as he shook his head and sighed. "Yes it is, because I did not know this and I am hurt," he said before looking back at the other man. "Why not? He's cute," he said. Nevermind the fact the other man looked a little bit like Raleigh, just with blonde hair. "Well, there isn't really a since when," Raleigh insisted. He saw the sort of hurt or disappointed or just altogether odd look on Zach's face and Raleigh did feel a little bad about not just spilling his guts as things developed. But what was he supposed to say? "Well, you know..." Raleigh said lifting his hand and sort of poiting at Zach. "Nothing's ever happened. I've never acted on anything. So it's irrelevant information," he shrugged. "There was nothing to really tell you," he added, trying to make Zach feel a little better. Or maybe try to make himself feel a little less guilty about withholding something from Zach. "Maybe like the end of fifth year?" Raleigh shrugged, trying to find an answer. "And no. He's not," Raleigh laughed. "He's ...he's...no. He's funny looking," Raleigh said, not sure why exactly he was so set on making out the other man to be so ugly. Raleigh wasn't attracted to him. That part wasn't exaggerated. But really, he wasn't that bad looking. "You should be glad nothing's happened as I tell you everything and really it's only fair I hear everything else, from both genders," he said perhaps a bit happy that the other man liked boys, maybe there was a chance. Except for the whole since fifth year so obviously Raleigh wasn't attracted to him. He ran a hand through his hair and whistled. "Fifth year," he said nodding his head before shaking it. "I'm hurt, here I was holding back from telling you of my immense love for you because I thought you were straight and we could've been riding off into the sunset long before this?" he said jokingly, even though he was completely serious. "And yes he is, he's got a cute face," he said chewing his lip as he was suddenly distracted by the other man again, especially since he seemed to be talking in a low voice to the bartender and looking their way. "I wouldv'e told you. If something happened, I would've told you," Raleigh insisted. "I just didn't think about it," Raleigh kept trying to play things off. He had thought about often. But he just didn't know if he was as smooth with the same sex as he was with the opposite and then there was that whole mess of finding out if someone was really actually interested or not and it just never seemed to work out naturally. So Raleigh didn't bother with pushing it. Besides, women kept him busy enough. "Oh shut up," Raleigh said rolling his eyes when Zach talked about riding off into the sunset. "You're so full of shite," he said laughing with Zach's joke. Because he was joking of course. And if he wasn't then Raleigh was completely oblivious. He shrugged since Zach seemed pretty interested in this other guy. "I guess it's what you like..." Raleigh said not very confidently. He wasn't going to give the other man any credit. "I wish you wouldv'e said that you were going to be scoping out guys on this trip," Raleigh said, notcing again Zach's waning attention. "I couldv'e made a backup plan for when he scoots over here and the conversation turns to what he likes to do in his freetime and why haven't we seen him around Charms.." Raleigh rolled his eyes. "Good," he said nodding his head before he grinned. "Why not, it's fun t think about such things," he said nodding his head as he finished up his butterbeer and watching Raleigh. Truth be told he wasn't that smooth with either gender and so the fact that he wasn;t stuttering right now was nothing short of a miracle. He laughed when Raleigh did and shrugged. "Well it was worth a shot," he said nodding his head, of course if Raleigh had done something else he would've accepted it and moved on because there was really nothing else he could do. "It is, so shush," he said winking at the other man before he sighed. "What, like all the times you told me 2 seconds before you went off that you had a date and left me here alone?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "Like all those plans I never got to make because you neder told me so shush you hypocrite," he said the smile tugging at the corners of his lips lightening the harsh blow. Suddenly another drink was in front of him with a note that it was from 'Chance' the Bartender told him. He grinned and looked at the other man who was watching him and took a sip. "I've seen him around, he's in our Transfig class." "Did you just wink at him?" Raleigh asked totally surprised. He followed Zach's gaze and saw the other man again and then looked back at Zach. He hadn't really seen much of this side of Zach. His expression was still sort of confused. His best friend did have a point, though he wouldn't admit it. Maybe there had been a handful of times that Raleigh had left abruptly when opportunity arose. He just had never been on this side of it. Raleigh's eyes were large again when he saw the drink that was placed down in front of Zack. He looked over at the other man, Chance was it? And Raleigh puffed out a sigh. He should plan on finding something else to do this afternoon, he figured. "He's not in OUR Transfiguration class, because I'm not taking Transfiguration this year. You probably didn't notice though, with Chance there to distract you," Raleigh laughed, teasing his friend a bit. "Yes, problem?" he asked looking back at the other man. He usually wasn't this open, but he felt he needed to prove something to Raleigh, that the other man wasn't the only person who could do something, and franky he was hoping to get some sort of response from him that leaned towards good, or maybe somethind at least resembling a crush, even though he was rather fishing towards it. "I noticed," he said taking a drink as he looked back at Raleigh. "Less things blew up," he said nodding his head before shaking his head. "And honestly I never really got a good look a the other man before today," he said. "And why, I don't know. I'm rather dissapointed in myself, I could've been telling stories of my sordid affairs to you instead of the other way around for once," he said nodding his head. "And be able to give you a few pointers." Was there a problem? Yes. No. Raleigh wasn't sure exactly why he seemed to have this unsettled feeling at the moment. "No. It's good," he shrugged casually, not really looking too convincing that he thought it was good. Then again, he seemed bored with the situation . He turned to grab the bartender's attention to order a drink for himself. A bottle of butterbeer slid towards him and Raleigh grabbed it. He lifted it to his lips and rolled his eyes---which was happening a lot this afternoon. "Yeah yeah," Raleigh said against the bottle before taking a drink. He didn't want to hear about Zach's 'sordid affairs' with Chance or whoever. Then he felt bad, because that seemed rather unfair. Of course, feeling bad flew out the window with Zach's last comment. "I don't think so," Raleigh laughed. "I don't think there's anything you could show me that I haven't perfected," he grinned. "Alright then," he said nodding his head as he drank a little more, relishing the drink as he rinned at Raleigh and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, ever sucked someone off?" he asked wanting to know. "I'm assuming no so there is somethign I could teach you," he said nodding his head. Nevermind the fact that he hadn't done that before but he'd read the books and it didn't seem that hard so he might as well give it a shot. He looked up when he heard the sound of a chair scraping to see Chance standning up and stretching and really, was it his fault if his eyes drifted down to that little peice of skin. He was 17. The question caught Raleigh off guard. He hadn't really thought much about what he was saying, but okay, maybe there were things that Zach had experience in that he didn't. Things were sort of competitve with them, and Raleigh wished he had something to say to prove he was equally as skiled, but he wasn't. And Zach knew it. And what was odd was that even though Raleigh knew that Zach dated other men, he had never really thought about what Zach had down physically. And the fact that he hadn't mentioned sucking someone off just meant that there were things that Zach had skimmed over too. Then with all of that, why was there a sort of knot twisting in his stomach when Zach said he could teach Raleigh. Teach him how? Now there was something that he shouldv'e have even let cross his mind. It sort of surprised him also that he would let his mind wander in the direction when it was his best friend. Raleigh heard the chair as well and he turned to look out of habit. His eyes caught sight of Chance too and he didn't have to follow Zach's gaze to know he was staring. He laughed, in a forced breathy way, turning back to focus on his butterbeer. "Maybe I'll run off and see what Gia's doing. At least one Pritchard might want to hang out with me today...." Zach watched Raleigh carefully, attempting to read into everything he did so that he would be aware of it and so that he would know how to respond. He was interested, excited about this new development and he realy wanted to know more. Of course for himself and because he did care that his best friend was like this suddenly and so it was his job to be supportive. "I think she's searching for some ink so she can lose it later on," he said with a grin as he slid of off the stool when he caught sight of the raised eyebrow from Chance and the jerk outside. "And besides, you know if you ever need to experiment, I can help of course," he said finishing off the last of his drink, attempting to play it cool and ignore the twisting in his stomach at that. Funny how Zach didn't seem to care about the slight annoyance in Raleigh's voice or his suggestion to find his little sister. Any other time he'd have had soemthing to say. How could this Chance guy be that distracting? Raleigh looked over at him again and still didn't get what was so great. Zach was off the stool first and Raleigh stood up quickly after. "Right well...uh..." Raleigh wasn't sure what to say to Zach's offer. Was he joking? He had to be. Zach was always making a joke of, well, everything. "I'll remember that," he said coolly, making sure to sound as if he was giving it no thought one way or another. "Have fun with Charles. Tell me about it later..." Raleigh suggested. Getting the name wrong was no honest mistake. He waved a goodbye to Zach before slipping outside. He could find someone to hang out with. He wasn't worried about that. He was more worried about where this gnawing feeling in his gut was coming from.