2/2
Calloused fingertips began to tap a muted rhythm on Will’s mug. It wasn’t an agitated or bored fidget but one that came out when he was thinking about something exciting. “It would be nice to have one official sport everyone loves. There are lots in America. They’re pretty different and kind of confusing to me. What are the teams like? Do you have a favorite?” He hoped his disinterest in non-magical sports was not nakedly apparent. Perhaps Arcturus would forgive him but Will did not want the other boy to think that this was a boring subject to him. Baseball had not been appealing but there was something captivating about what he had heard of Quidditch. And Will had always tried to take interest in whatever people he cared about liked. (See: baseball.) Maybe he had just needed to find the right sport to kindle his feelings. Though the particulars had not been shared yet he felt sure that they would be interesting.
It was a little startling to hear that something so elevated in his own world as sports was frowned upon in the other. His own father had been convinced that if he pressed sports and hunting on his sons hard enough it would stamp out their artistic ambitions and make them ‘real men’. Weren’t British gentleman into those outdoorsy pursuits? Perhaps they were too dignified to get dirty and out of breath. He really needed to brush up on his world history. Will wanted to say that he was sorry Arcturus’ desires would not be pursued but restrained his intrinsic empathy; it did not seem to bother the other boy and he didn’t want to cast a pall over the conversation.
That final smile was infectious and Will found his mouth curling into a lop-sided version of its own. It looked a little like the two sides couldn’t agree on whether to allow it. Smiling was getting easier by the day and his present company was proving particularly helpful. “Sounds good to me. What’s his purpose in the story going to be? Would he be more of a fighter than the others?” An apologetic but good-natured wince twisted his features. “I might be thinking about Dungeons And Dragons too much. Sorry.” Running everything through the narrow canyon of his media consumption was probably a faulty system. Arcturus was definitely not writing the next Sword Of Sorcery.