Who: Justin and Wayne When: Backdated to Sunday (I think?) Where: Outside What: Walking/Talking Rating: G (No, really!) Status: Complete
As soon as Justin read Wayne's suggestion that they take a walk in his journal, he packed up his bag in the library and did everything but run back to the Hufflepuff dormitories. The thought of being outside was amazing in its own right. Spending the time with Wayne, sharing a casual walk around the lake, hand-in-hand over the snowy grounds...it had all the makings of a romantic fantasy.
He threw his bag on the bed once he reached the dorm. "Wayne?" He called as he tugged on boots and retrieved his black winter cloak and Hufflepuff scarf from the wardrobe, completing the theme by mashing down a virulently yellow knit cap over his medium-length blond hair.
--
Pulling his Superman hoodie over his head, Wayne grinned at Justin. "Hey." It was amazing how his life had improved in a matter of days. Seeing Justin gave him butterflies.
He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend for a quick hug. Their relationship had been private. Wayne hadn't been quite comfortable being open about who he was dating, but now he didn't care. "Ready?"
--
Justin paused to give Wayne a brief kiss to go along with the hug, grinning ear to ear. The thought of Wayne always made him happy, these days. There was nothing, nobody in the world better. "I am absolutely ready," he said, taking Wayne's hand in his. "Will...you allow me to hold your hand, once we leave here?" He asked, for the very reason that this hand't come up, yet. It had been private, up to this moment. But once they left the room, there was no going back.
--
Wayne lace his fingers tightly with Justin's and squeezed lightly. He walked them right out of the dorm and down the steps. He figured showing Justin was better than anything he could have said.
As they were walking through the common room, Wayne leaned in to whispered against Justin's ear. "Worried I'm going to get lost?"
--
"Worried that I will," Justin returned lightly. "That I'll drown in you and never return." He grinned like an idiot and kissed Wayne's cheek. Yes, right in front of anyone who cared to look. "Oh, I suppose that wouldn't be something to fear after all, would it?"
--
Wayne's smiled only brightened at the kiss on his cheek. He walked out of the common room first and waited for Justin to follow before taking his hand again and heading for the door to the castle.
He knew Sally was going to be outside. Hopefully not in a tree. But he was having trouble caring, at the moment. "Maybe people will stop being so pissy now that we can go outside."
--
"I think it has already begun," Justin said thoughtfully. Of course, he hadn't been anything but ecstatic since he and Wayne had gotten together, but he remembered seeing Nicky earlier in the day, how happy the usually-dour boy was. He tightened his fingers around Wayne's. "Of course, all I have to do anymore to be happy is to think about you," he sighed.
--
It warmed Wayne all over to hear about how much Justin cared about him. He had never felt anything like this before and it was still so new and exciting and overwhelming. Wayne didn't know if he'd ever get over the fact that Justin loved him.
"It's like a superpower," he said with a laugh. "I can cheer you up without even being in the same room."
--
"This much is true," Justin conceded, sighing with contentment as they exited the castle onto the grounds, tipping his head up toward the sunlight. "But I still do miss you terribly when you are not around. When you are here...my world is the most happy place I could ever wish for or dream of."
--
"Then it's a good thing we spend so much time together," he said as they walked towards the lake. Life would be perfect if they weren't trapped in a bubble, but at least they could go outside again. "I wouldn't want you to be miserable because I wasn't right next to you." Wayne laughed and kissed the top of Justin's head lightly.
--
Justin laughed softly."It is not that I am...miserable, without you," he said slowly."For after all, the mere thought of you puts me in such good spirits. It is just that, Wayne, actually being with you just makes the mere thought pale in comparison," he explained.
--
Wayne shook his head and squeezed Justin's hand. "You can't talk like that. You're going to set up all these standards that I'll never be able to live up to." Wayne worried about letting Justin down. He didn't want Justin to realize in a few days or weeks that he had made a mistake by being with him.
--
Justin squeezed his hand in return. "As long as you're always going to be Wayne Hopkins, with the mussed hair and the inkstains on your hands, who loves comic books and raiding the kitchens for sandwiches and Star Wars...there's nothing to live up to. That's my Wayne."
--
Pulling his hand from Justin's, Wayne inspected them for ink stains. He had thought he did a good job of washing them this time. No, there was some ink. And there. And hell, he had a big spot of it on his palm.
"I wasn't even using inks today," he exclaimed. "How did that happen?!"
--
"Probably left over from yesterday, or the day before, or whenever," Justin laughed. He took Wayne's hand back because he really wasn't a fan of not holding it. "My point is...it's you. And you make me happy." He kissed Wayne's cheek. "And I cannot wait to leave this place and really...have our life together. The one I know is waiting for us, out there."
--
Wayne was still baffled that his hands were covered with ink. He bathed! Every day! Yet he was still a mess.
But Justin distracted him with talk of their life together. A life with Justin had such a nice sound to it. "My mum will love you, you know." Wayne hadn't thought about telling his family he had a boyfriend, but he suspected they wouldn't care. So long as he was happy. "You'll have to meet her."
--
"I can't wait," Justin said, and he meant it. He wanted to be part of Wayne's family. Have a place to belong, since his own family would not have him anymore. "Meet your family, see where you grew up, debauch your childhood bed, you know."
--
Wayne snorted. "I have a bunk bed," he said. "Sally shared it with me after she left home." Odd. That feeling of longing wasn't there this time when he mentioned her name.
"What about your family?"
--
"Oh." Justin felt a little awkward at the mention of Sally. He still worried about what Wayne had told Justin. That he loved her.
"My family disowned me earlier this year when I refused to leave school. I think taking you home would not precisely get me back in their good graces," he said. "But it does not hurt to try. I miss them, somewhat." Not an awful lot. They had never been close. But on a purely material level it would be worth it to go back and try.
--
Wayne looked sideways at Justin for a moment. He couldn't just not talk about Sally when he mentioned his family. His mother considered Sally the daughter she never had. Leaning in, Wayne kissed Justin softly. "I'm with you. Don't worry."
Wayne had known all about the falling out, but he didn't think Justin was as all right with it as he pretended to be. "It wouldn't hurt to just go and say hello when we get out of here. You don't even need to bring me with."
--
"I will," Justin said. "I do want to know that things are...at least not entirely awful between us," he said. "It wouldn't hurt to see if they would like to write me back into the inheritance, after all. But you are all I need, Wayne." Truth was, he had more than enough to live on.
--
He wanted to tell Justin that he could take care of them. Wayne was use to taking care of people he loved. Of course he only had a part time job in a comic shop and didn't have the OWLs to do much besides wait tables.
"I can be your family," he offered. "Just the two of us. I think that if I had you I could be happy with living in a car."
--
Justin had a sudden memory of Anthony asking Justin to marry him. "We don't have to live in a car," he said. "Even without my family's money, I'm quite well off." Not that he could get to any of his money due to this ridiculous quarantine, but it was still going to be waiting there once it was lifted. "But I would still be pleased, as well as honored, to have you as my family, Wayne. Should we get married, do you think?"
--
Wayne nearly tripped over his own feet. At the least he did miss a step and stood, slack jawed at Justin. What was he supposed to say to that?! He started to stammer and rub the back of his neck.
"Uh. Uh."
--
Justin stopped and took both of Wayne's hands in his own, facing him. "You do not have to answer that. You never do, Wayne," he said. "That I'm together with you is enough. It doesn't have to be called anything, though convenience's sake I do hope I can at least call you my boyfriend."
--
There must have been a cooler way to answer that question. Wayne wasn't the romantic sort of person. He didn't think about things the way Justin did. Thankfully Justin had rescued him from looking like a complete idiot.
"Well, I am your boyfriend so I hope that's what you're calling me."
--
Justin leaned in to whisper in Wayne's ear. "I would not let someone who was not my boyfriend do the things to me that you have," he said, pulling away with a sweet, purely innocent smile on his lips. At one time, that statement was, to be perfectly honest, not strictly true. But he really had learned the folly of his ways.
--
Wayne felt a tingle travel right down between his legs and blushed. "Well good. Because I don't want you to do that with anyone else."
Wayne wrapped his arms around Justin and pulled him close. Not caring who was watching, Wayne held Justin. He just held him.
--
Justin sighed and melted against Wayne's body, slipping his hands into the pocket of Wayne's hoodie, just to keep warm and close to him. "Are you still wanting to go to university?" He asked, after a few moments of silence.
--
"Maybe. I want to learn more about art. Techniques and styles. Stuff like that." Wayne knew his life included art. He wanted to be the best he could. "What do you want to do?"
--
"Aside from being your model, inspiration, and occasional canvas?" Justin asked with a smile. "I have always been fond of the sciences. Museums, and the like. Perhaps...something in that direction." Justin had always been at quite a loss as to what sort of magical career he would excel in. He was very smart, but his talents were very balanced, and he wasn't any sort of specialist.
--
Wayne could see Justin working as a curator. He had such a sense of beauty and intelligence. He could present history in the most gorgeous way.
"Whatever you do, you'll be brilliant."
--
Justin sighed and took Wayne's hand once more to resume their walk. "Whatever I do, I'll be brilliant because you'll be there with me," he corrected his boyfriend. "And I think it is important we both finish our NEWTs. I am going to speak with Professor Sprout about what accommodations Hogwarts makes for pupils wishing to pursue University studies, but I am certain doing well on NEWTs is required."
--
"Is that your way of saying we should spend less time in bed and more time in the library? Because I don't know if I'm going to agree with that plan or not." Wayne was grinning and starting to picture what a life with Justin would be like. A small flat and happy mornings and holidays together and it was all so perfect in his mind.
--
"Not at all," Justin said. "I am just saying...we have to be practical about things. An hour here, an hour there...all right, so perhaps that is what I am saying. But not very much. My favorite subject is still going to be NEWT-level Wayne Hopkins."
--
Wayne laughed and leaned down to kiss Justin again. "I suppose I can be distracted from you long enough to study. Maybe." It was a bit scary how badly he wanted Justin all the time. When he woke up, when he was in class, when he was sleeping. He wanted Justin every moment of the day.
"So that's the plan then? Study hard and make a nice little life for ourselves?"
--
"That does sound very nice," Justin agreed. "Though if I could get back into the good graces of my parents, well, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a little life, you realize." He knew people could be touchy about money, but if Wayne wanted to be with him long-term, it was something that he felt needed to be discussed. "Not that I expect you to live the lifestyle I've been accustomed to, Wayne. We can...have very nice things, though," he explained.
--
Wayne shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. If you want. I don't really care. I mean, it's just stuff." Wayne had grown up in middle class family. He had never wanted for anything, but there weren't holidays in Paris. Still, he was happy. "Though, we can get a big telly, I suppose." Wayne had always wanted a big telly.
--
"You can have a big telly," Justin promised. "The biggest, best one that is out there. You and I need to take quite the shopping trip, when we leave here," Justin decided. Wayne would have a room of his own to do his art, with the best paints and materials and everything. "I still owe you a proper Christmas present, after all."