potter; EVAN (potterlings) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-05-27 13:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: evan potter, retired character: andrew kirke |
Who: Andrew Kirke and Evan Potter.
What: Adventure 1 of 17: Fish
When: Friday 27 May.
Where: National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth (Video Example)
Rating: PG.
Andrew had given some thought to whether or not it would be possible to get Evan inside the National Marine Aquarium before he realised what it was. After a trip the previous night to find a good apparition spot, though, it didn’t seem very likely. The main entrance had the word ‘Aquarium’ on the nearest wall, along with an underwater scene that gave the game away significantly. So, after a leisurely breakfast on Friday morning, Andrew apparated them far enough away from the museum itself that they’d get to walk along the harbour, giving him time to build up some suspense. The weather was beautiful - far nicer than it was forecast to be for the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.
“Any guesses yet?” Andrew asked, slowing his pace to match Evan’s while he admired some piece of architecture or another (or so Andrew assumed, he’d slowed down and there was no other obvious cause). “There is actually more to the surprise than just a nice walk near some boats.” Andrew wouldn’t even have been all that surprised if Evan just happened to know that Plymouth was home to the UK’s largest aquarium - it seemed the kind of titbit of information he’d have stored away.
--
Evan was very excited. There was a surprise, which was pretty exciting in its own right, especially since Evan knew that a surprise organised by Andrew would be exciting (he had nothing to contradict this, since Andrew’s surprises so far had always been great). But also Evan was just really looking forward to spending a whole day with Andrew. As much as they did spend a lot of time together, it had been ages since they’d actually gone places, which obviously was Evan’s fault because he had exams, but now he didn’t, so adventures could happen! They had apparated to Plymouth, which Evan obviously did know because he had needed to know where they were going, but he didn’t know what the surprise was. Maybe he could have guessed if he tried to but that would kind of beat the purpose of a surprise.
The walk by the harbour was quite nice since it was sunny. Evan hadn’t actually gotten distracted by architecture (for a change), he had mostly gotten distracted by watching a seagull attempt to eat another dead seagull. That probably wasn’t the surprise, though. “Oh,” Evan looked over at Andrew when he spoke. “Is it sailing?” He asked since they were on the harbour. “I’ve never been sailing,” he added thoughtfully, glancing at the boats in the distance. “Do you think I’d like sailing?” Evan pondered not actually expecting Andrew to have the answer to that. He didn’t think he had ever indicated that he might, so he wasn’t convinced that would be the surprise, but then the whole point of a surprise was that he didn’t know.
--
“It’s not sailing.” Andrew should probably have predicted that question when he mentioned boats. “I can take you sailing another time, if you want. We can add it to the list.” Not that Andrew was a sailor by any means, but he’d spent the occasional evening with the Lerwick Boating Club, as had all of his classmates. He looked Evan over at his question, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I never really knew what I was supposed to like about it.” He hadn’t hated it, he’d just felt like there were better things to be doing with his time. It would probably be better with Evan, if only because he’d have someone to talk to about something other than Neighbours. “I think you’ll like this better, though.” He really did - because there were going to be fish and turtles and Evan might learn some new animal facts.
They approached the aquarium from the front, past a little cafe on one side and the harbour on the other, and Andrew had to resist the urge to watch Evan’s face to see the moment he realised where they were going. That would just be distracting, like when someone watched you watch their favourite movie. “This is it,” he said, grinning as he waved a hand at the glass-fronted building.
--
“I don’t feel like I’d like sailing,” Evan said thoughtfully, genuinely having given it a consideration. Sailing seemed rather... boring. It was probably a good thing that that wasn’t his surprise, even, though, Evan suspected that he would at least partially enjoy it because Andrew would be there. But if Andrew didn’t know what there was about sailing that was meant to be fun, then Evan suspected there really wasn’t anything fun about it, because he trusted Andrew to judge fun things correctly. Evan was clearly proved right when they approached the rather big building and Evan’s eyes widened when he realised where they were.
Evan stopped almost completely, staring at the building. “Andrew,” he said slowly, turning to look at the other guy. “This is an excellent surprise,” he informed Andrew very seriously, squeezing Andrew’s hand, before a smile broke across his face. “Fish!” Evan exclaimed more excitedly than anyone his age really had any right to be. “They have sharks,” he told Andrew because now that they were here, Evan realised he did know where they were. He had been to the Plymouth aquarium once as a small child but it had been a lot less exciting, because Harry and Daisy hadn’t really let him stare at the fish for as long as he wanted (not their fault, no six and five year old should be expected to wait for more than half an hour as another five year old stared at a clownfish). “And octapodes and jellyfish and eels!” Evan listed excitedly before he started dragging Andrew towards the entrance. This really was an amazing surprise.
--
“Alright,” Andrew said. “We won’t add sailing to the list. Unless we get desperate.” Andrew didn’t think that was very likely to happen - not with both Evan and himself working on ideas and surprises and having most of the summer to do it in. If it did come down to it, though, they could try sailing and see if it was improved by being older, or together, or not being surrounded by other preteen boys who were a lot more interested in pushing one another into the water than actually learning to sail.
He beamed when Evan smiled. He had probably said ‘I think you’ll like it’ about a dozen times since he’d thought of the surprise, so he bit his lip to keep from saying it again. It didn’t change the fact that he was thrilled that Evan did like it. “Yeah?” he asked, the question not one he actually needed an answer to. “Good enough to celebrate having finished with exams and revision?” That was, after all, what this particular adventure was supposed to be about - celebrating Evan’s freedom. He laughed at Evan’s excitement. “Yes,” he agreed, squeezing Evan’s hand back. “Fish.” He continued to smile as Evan listed the other sea creatures. “Don’t forget the turtle,” he teased, fairly certain that turtles didn’t count as ‘octapodes’ because that sounded like it ought to mean octopus and squid and things.
He followed Evan to the door, stepping ahead of him only so he could pay for their tickets. This was, after all, his surprise and therefore his responsibility to pay for. “So where do you want to go first?” he asked, once they were safely past the reception area.
--
“It is the best,” Evan confirmed with a nod when Andrew asked if it was good enough. An aquarium was definitely more than good enough. Not that Evan would have attempted to argue that he should pay, but really, he barely noticed Andrew even doing so, too occupied with staring around as if the entry bit with the till would suddenly have a shark swim past (it was unlikely since there was only the tiniest of aquariums and even that was, seemingly, mostly a decoration). Once tickets were purchased and they walked towards where the actual aquariums started, Evan felt even more excited, which he hadn’t really thought would be possible. There were so many fish!
He looked over at Andrew, eyes still wide, at the question of where to start first. “I want to see everything!” Evan announced, mostly at this point seemingly holding Andrew’s hand just so he could pull him over to the massive aquarium walls. “Look at how deep it is!” He said almost as if the depth itself excited him (which maybe it did a little because from an architectural point of view, it was a masterpiece). “There’s a squid!” Evan almost shouted, pressing his nose against the glass, eyes focused on the cephalopod. “The hardest part on a squid is it's beak and it it's really hard to break or scratch and they can survive digestive juices, so whalers often will find squid beaks in whale stomachs,” Evan said against the glass, the hand that wasn’t holding Andrew’s also pressed against it, next to Evan’s nose. His other hand, though, pulled Andrew closer, almost as if Evan felt that the closeness would allow Andrew to appreciate the squid more.
--
Andrew had anticipated excitement, and he had anticipated animal (/ fish) facts, so thus far Evan was definitely living up to Andrew’s expectations of the day. “It’s called a beak?” he asked, because he hadn’t known that. He hadn’t known it was hard to damage either, of course. He watched the squid swimming between other fish for which Andrew didn’t know the name. “It doesn’t look very hard.” He wasn’t, he realised, actually sure what part a squid the break was. Presumably not the… tendrils? Tentacles? Some part of the head, then? That seemed more logical. Andrew stood by his statement that it didn’t look very hard.
He was happy enough to let Evan pull him closer, though not quite as close to the glass as Evan. He didn’t have any animal facts of his own, but it was quite calming just to stand and watch the unhurried progress of the sea creatures. Though, Andrew did keep glancing at Evan - not because he wanted him to hurry up because because his rapt attention was stupidly endearing. At one point, when he was quite sure there was no one watching, he leaned in and kissed Evan’s cheek before turning his attention back to the tank.
--
Evan didn’t do much but hum in confirmation that it was, in fact, called a beak. Had Andrew asked which part was the beak, Evan would’ve pointed it out, explained what they used it for, too, but instead Andrew said that it didn’t look hard and Evan frowned. “What does hard even look like?” It was a perfectly legitimate question but as soon as it was out of Evan’s mouth he realised what it actually sounded like. Turning his head to actually look at Andrew, Evan brought their joined hands up to press one of his fingers against Andrew’s lips. “Don’t answer that,” he instructed biting his lower lip to stop himself from grinning in amusement. Whilst technically Evan really didn’t think ‘hard’ was a thing that looked any one particular way, the most obvious answer was hardly going to be appropriate for the situation.
Much less concerned about who might or might not be watching, Evan had been about to lean in and properly kiss Andrew for his efforts of pecking Evan’s cheek but then he noticed something on the aquarium floor and stopped rather suddenly. “Look, look, look,” he said excitedly, almost forcibly turning them both to look at the incredibly slow moving sea cucumber. “It’s eating sand for nutrition and then it poops out clean sand,” Evan explained. “And there’s this fish,” he added utterly engrossed in watching the sea cucumber move, offering it far more attention than the slow moving thing really deserved. “Pearlfish, and they're parasites to sea cucumbers. They eat their gonads and live in their anal pores. How cool is that?” Evan said perhaps misusing the word ‘cool’.
--
Andrew had been about to respond, under his breath, until Evan stopped him. “Spoilsport,” he muttered, but he grinned, as much at Evan trying not to as at the actual comment. “I meant it looks… boneless.” That wasn’t much better, but Andrew was really trying to talk innocently about the squid and not about anything else. “As in, it doesn’t really look like it’s got a skeleton,” he clarified, before Evan could accuse him of having his mind in the gutter. “Even the head looks like you’d be able to squish it. So… I don’t know which bit the beak is.” Evan had never minded that Andrew didn’t know things before, and it seemed unlikely he was going to start with expecting a full knowledge of squid anatomy. Andrew was reminded of Hermione’s comment about Evan expecting to be disappointed, and found it just as confusing as he had at the time.
At Evan’s urging, Andrew turned and looked at - well, it looked like a big underwater caterpillar and Andrew wouldn’t quite understand why Evan was so excited about. “It -” It was quite a lot of information to take in all at once, and Andrew honestly didn’t know quite where to begin with all his questions. “Is it eating the sand, or is it eating whatever’s on the sand that’s making it not clean?” he asked, wrinkling his nose slightly. It wasn’t a particularly appetizing thought. “If it’s eating the sand, how does it produce more sand?” And what, indeed, would that point be? After a second, he laughed at what Evan thought was ‘cool’. He could sort of see Evan’s point, even if he wouldn’t have used that word to describe it himself. “I like that you think it’s cool,” he said, because he did.
--
Evan squinted at Andrew suspiciously when he said that he thought squids looked boneless. Both because it sounded like an innuendo and because they were. “Squids have no bones,” Evan said. “The beak,” he continued when Andrew pointed out that he didn’t know which bit even was the beak. “Is sort of in the middle of it? Like in the middle of the arms and tentacles?” He explained, making his free hand into a rather pathetic imitation of a squid and bringing both his and Andrew’s hands up to point at the middle of his palm, where, if it was a squid the mouth and the beak would be. “And it’s head is squishy,” Evan added as an afterthought. “It can squeeze through a hole the size of a coin,” which was very impressive, Evan thought, especially since even huge squids could do that.
“It swallows the sand and takes like algae and stuff from it and then discards the rest of it,” Evan said. “It’s very important for ecosystem. Like recycling,” he noted, before looking over at Andrew thoughtfully when he said that he liked that Evan found it cool. “Sea cucumbers are very cool,” Evan informed Andrew seriously, before smiling slightly. “Come on,” he said before moving away from the glass. “I think there’s a bit next door where you can walk under the aquarium,” Evan told Andrew. There had been a map of the aquarium at the entrance, not that it really mattered because no matter which way they went next something amazing would be there.
It turned out that Evan was right and they did, in fact, walk through a tunnel with fish swimming across them. There was a rather loud ‘oooh’ as Evan spotted a stingray. “It’s so big!” He commented because it was, head tilted upwards as he watched it swim across them. “Stingrays,” Evan said, looking back down at Andrew. “Swim over sand and they can sense electric signals given out by muscles in fish,” he informed Andrew, letting go of Andrew’s hand so he could bring his palm to rest over Andrew’s heart. “And if it’s above a beating heart, it attacks,” Evan concluded, leaning in to press a kiss against Andrew’s lips as if that in any way emphasised the word ‘attacks’.
--
Evan’s imitation of a squid may not have been very lifelike, but it did help to explain why Andrew couldn’t see anything that looked like it would be hard enough to survive a whale’s stomach. He nodded, to indicate he understood, then went back to looking at the squid. “Really?” he asked, trying to imagine the squid before them squeezing through a gap the size of a sickle and not quite managing it. “That sounds pretty incredible.” Sadly, there was no coin-sized hole in the deep tank for the squid to go through. “Have you seen pictures?”
Eating the algae on the sand made a lot more sense to Andrew than eating the sand itself, but he still had questions. “Why is it important to have clean sand?” he asked. It did occur to him that maybe Evan wouldn’t actually know, because Evan couldn’t possibly know everything, but he still asked. “What would happen if the algae just stayed there?” Evan’s smile - which was absolutely The Most Charming, no matter what Witch Weekly said - made Andrew’s stomach flip and he returned it with one of his own. “I’m glad I brought you to see them, then.”
Even though he could never be quite as excited about fish as Evan was, the tunnel under the aquarium tank was pretty amazing to Andrew as well. It was surreal, walking underneath so many fish, as if they had learned to breathe underwater and were strolling along in the ocean. When Evan drew his attention to the stingray, Andrew looked up - until suddenly Evan was pressing a hand over his heart and kissing him. “It’s not trying to attack us,” he said. “Can it not sense anything through the glass? Or are we too big?” Sometimes, he wondered if Evan actually enjoyed all Andrew’s follow-up questions to his facts. Wouldn’t Evan prefer it if Andrew learned some amazing facts to share?
--
“Yes,” Evan nodded when Andrew asked if he had seen a picture of a squid squeezing through a tiny hole. “I’ll see if I can find some to show you,” he added with a grin. It was a pretty awesome thing to see! But so was the squid swimming past them. This really was an excellent surprise. “They break down organic materials through digestion so bacteria can then continue doing things with it,” Evan explained. It was a touch more complicated than that but it involved words like ‘detritus’ and ‘degradation process’, which seemed rather unnecessary for the current situation. “I’m really glad, too,” he confirmed, and Evan was, too, the aquarium was really, really great and being there with Andrew made it so much better.
Evan wasn’t actually sure whether the stingray could sense anything through the glass but it seemed rather unlikely. It seemed unlikely, though, since the glass was very thick and it probably wouldn’t be very good for the stingray to constantly feel heartbeat beneath it. “I think maybe our hearts are too big?” Evan offered thoughtfully. Stingrays ate tiny fish and tiny fish had tiny hearts. Humans did not have tiny hearts. “But I promise to protect your heart if a stingray does decide to liberate it from your chest,” Evan added with a slight grin, before leaning in to kiss Andrew again. It wasn’t a very long kiss, though, mostly because there was a shark swimming towards them and that was just awesome.
--
“There’s probably books in the gift shop,” Andrew suggested, because there was sure to be a gift shop, and he couldn’t imagine that it didn’t have books in it. One of them might very well have pictures of a squids. “We can have a look when we get there. I’d like to see pictures.” He’d like to see it in person, too, but that seemed a lot less likely. “It’s a pity muggle photos don’t move.” There probably were magical books on squid. Andrew had never actually looked to see how much research wizards did on non-magical animals - maybe they left all that to muggles. Evan’s explanation of the sea cucumber’s role in the environment didn’t exactly clear up much for Andrew, but he was happy to accept it as enough information. On the whole, Andrew didn’t think the sea cucumbers were as exciting as the squid, and there were likely to be lots of more interesting things to talk about in the next room.
Andrew laughed at Evan’s promise. “My hero,” he said, making his best attempt to sound like a swooning damsel in distress. “I thought I was supposed to be the - brave one.” There were enough muggles around that it was probably best not to mention Gryffindor directly, even if they would just think it was a nonsense word. Evan would probably know what he meant. “Shouldn’t I be offering to save you from the attacks of vicious sea creatures?” As Evan pulled back from the kiss, Andrew could tell by his expression that he’d seen something amazing. Andrew turned, catching sight of the shark and letting out an ‘oooh’ of his own. “Awesome,” he said, looking up at it as it neared them. “How do they keep it without it eating all the other fish all the time?”
--
“Ugh,” Evan sighed dramatically, scrunching his nose up. “I’ve told you, Andrew, bringing that up in a conversation is never sexy,” he informed Andrew. Andrew being a Gryffindor was not something that Evan felt he had to be reminded of. Not that it really mattered (at all), but whining about it certainly made Evan feel better. He had never really spent any kind of time in thinking of who he might date but even if he had, that would never have involved a Gryffindor. Which, clearly, was probably a good thing that Evan hadn’t thought about it, because that would be a ridiculous reason not to date someone. Especially seeing how Evan could definitely overlook Andrew’s Gryffindor-isms (and maybe, maybe he even liked some of them, but he wouldn’t admit that). “But, yes, I would probably like it quite a bit if you did, in fact, protect me from attacks of vicious sea creatures,” Evan added as an afterthought.
When the shark swam fast, Evan watched in in fascination. It wasn’t a big shark or anything but it was still quite sizeable. Having been to an aquarium before, Evan had seen sharks but that didn’t really make him any less fascinated in watching the creature. At Andrew’s question, though, Evan looked over, almost puzzled. “They feed them, Andrew,” Evan replied trying to establish where the question had been a joke since the answer seemed so very obvious to him. “Sharks only eat things when they’re hungry, which they’re not in the aquarium because they’re... fed?” He added. “Is this like when you couldn’t imagine a small elephant?” Evan asked suspiciously.
--
“I wasn’t aiming for sexy,” Andrew said, lowering his voice a little in case people happened to be listening. “And you’re going to give me some kind of complex, if you’re not careful,” he teased. Andrew was proud of being a Gryffindor - always had been. It didn’t mean he thought the other three houses weren’t great in their own way, he’d just never doubted that Gryffindor suited him the best. He smiled, very pleased, when Evan said he’d quite like it if Andrew did protect him. “I’ll be gallant and everything,” he promised, already imagining the disgusted face Evan would make at his choice of word. “Chivalrous? Dashing?”
His question hadn’t, in fact, been a joke at all. Andrew didn’t have much experience with aquariums, but he’d been to a zoo and they didn’t keep the lions in the same enclosure as the gazelles. Andrew had (wrongly?) assumed that was so that they wouldn’t eat them. He frowned, trying to find a hole in Evan’s logic. There didn’t seem to be one, but Andrew still felt as if his question hadn’t really be answered. “What about the other fish?” he asked, trying a different tack. “Aren’t they scared?” He tried to watch the shark as it moved, see if the other fish were trying to hurry away from the shark, but everything looked remarkably placid.
He did laugh when Evan reminded him of their conversation about the elephant. He’d forgotten all about it. “I didn’t say I couldn’t imagine a small elephant!” he insisted, not for the first time, “I said I couldn’t imagine eating a full-sized elephant. There’s a difference!”
--
Evan stilled slightly when Andrew said that he’d give him a complex by complaining about just how Gryffindor Andrew could be. As much as Evan did realise Andrew was teasing and perhaps not actually serious at all, it did make him wonder if he was being mean about it. Besides, if Andrew hadn’t been a Gryffindor, he’d probably be different and Evan didn’t think he wanted that. He liked Andrew just as he was, even if it did mean being a Gryffindor. “Dashing,” Evan repeated skeptically. “I hope it’s going to involve you wearing a cape and riding in on a horse,” he added, before pausing. “A sea horse,” since it was sea animals he was going to be protected from.
The question made Evan give a genuine laugh. It was almost too sweet and perhaps Evan was rather biased in his affection for Andrew with that thought, but it didn’t stop him from reaching down to link his fingers with Andrew’s again, pulling him in closer to press a soft kiss against Andrew’s cheek. “I don’t think fish get scared,” he replied almost too softly. “Not unless they are being attacked,” Evan added. He couldn’t really say for definite what fish felt, not when sometimes Evan didn’t know what he felt, but he also didn’t think that fear was necessarily experienced by animals the same way it was by humans.
“That’s not how I remember it,” Evan told Andrew determinedly. “In my memory you can’t make animals littler when you think about them,” he said. “Which,” Evan paused dramatically. “I find incredibly ridiculous but also,” there was another small pause. “Stupidly endearing,” because he really did. Evan knew that if other people had said that, he would’ve just found it confusing and possibly irksome, but not with Andrew. With Andrew it was just adorable.
--
“You’re obsessed with me on a horse,” Andrew said, grinning as he thought back to Evan’s drunken ramblings after the party. Or maybe it had been him who suggested the horse? He couldn’t rightly remember, but a horse had definitely been discussed right before Evan was sick in a bush. “Maybe we should have done horse riding lessons as one of your summer projects, or one of our adventures.” Andrew had never ridden a horse, but he’d be willing to try. “Aisling has got a picture of me in a matador’s outfit somewhere,” he added, remembering one of the many and very weird outfits he’d worn in photoshoots. “No cape, though. Still, I can probably find it for you sometime.” Aisling would let him borrow the scrapbook, he was sure. “I’m not sure a cape would be very dashing under water. Just… wet.” He gestured with his free hand at the way a wet cape would hang in a manner more ‘limp’ than ‘dashing’.
Andrew continued to frown, not at Evan linking their fingers or kissing him, but at the idea fish didn’t get scared. Andrew didn’t know a lot about animals, but he had seen some documentaries while he’d been living in the muggle world and he had a vague idea that prey animals (like gazelles, and mice) were easily startled and nervous. It seemed strange to him that fish wouldn’t be equally wary of a big predator. “They know the shark is there, though,” he objected. “And they know it eats fish, right? So don’t they think they should stay out of it’s way? Wouldn’t that be -” he paused, trying to recall the right combination of words that he was sure he’d heard somewhere - “evolutionary whatever. An advantage, to pass down to their children?”
Andrew was about to object that Evan remembered it wrong, but Evan cut him off by saying it was endearing. Andrew huffed. “I suppose I can let you keep thinking that, then,” he teased. “Since it ends up being good for me in the long run.” Besides, Andrew had found the conversation hilarious, and would probably smile every time Evan brought it up. “Come on,” he urged, tugging Evan by their joined hands. “There’s more fish over there.” They weren’t even halfway under the tunnel yet, so there was definitely more to explore.
--
“Your career choices have led you down some very different paths from mine,” Evan observed. He had no photoshoots, much less any that required him to dress up for them. But then, Evan also didn’t really like the idea of being in photoshoots, or having those photos then splashed across papers and people’s walls. It seemed too... visible, really. Andrew, though, seemed to like the attention, which was one of those things that seemed to differ between them so much and Evan never knew if it was a good or a bad thing. So far, though, they hadn’t had any disagreements over it, so perhaps it was good? Differences seemed like the sort of thing people needed to have in order to be able to converse. It would be difficult to keep up a conversation if you agreed on everything the same way.
Well, no, Evan did think that the fish knew the shark was there. Probably were quite aware of exactly where it was. Which is why he raised his free hand, pointing at the shark but looking at Andrew as he did so. “They are out of its way,” Evan said, struggling not to grin as he did so. This conversation seemed so ridiculous because how were all these things not obvious? And more importantly, why did Evan mostly just want to smile and kiss Andrew and tell him repeatedly that he was ridiculously adorable?
When they started walking again, Evan turned back to stare into the vast aquarium wall. “Can we sit?” He asked carefully, almost shyly. Evan really did want to sit and just watch the fish swim past but he knew that Andrew didn’t do all too well with staying still. “Last time we came, Harry and Daisy wanted to run and see everything,” Evan explained. And sure, they had been very little, but still. “I like watching the fish,” he added with a small shrug. He didn’t mind if Andrew didn’t want to sit, that would be fine, too, but it seemed silly to not at least ask.
--
“Well, yes,” Andrew agreed. “I haven’t built anyone a model castle yet.” Nor was he likely to, unless it was a very, very bad model castle for Evan as a joke, but Andrew wasn’t convinced that would actually be funny. “Maybe I could go as a matador to Ginny’s party. Or a dashing hero in a cape.” They were both good options, and Andrew really hadn’t committed to an idea yet. Even if Evan didn’t want to dress up, Andrew was still going to. He assumed that wasn’t going to be a problem, though they hadn’t really talked about it.
Andrew turned his attention to where Evan pointed. He had to admit, there weren’t any fish right near the shark, but nor were they hurrying away from it as frantically as Andrew had imagined. “Alright,” Andrew said, sounding not at all put out. “You win this one.” Evan just knew more than he did, and it really didn’t bother Andrew in the slightest. He actually appreciated it, because Evan was always willing to answer all his questions. If Evan had found Andrew’s questions stupid or annoying, that would have been another matter entirely, but he never seemed to.
It was true that Andrew didn’t do very well with staying still, but the problem was mitigated quite a lot as long as he was allowed to talk - and so far, Evan seemed able to both look at fish and carry on a conversation (admittedly, about fish). “Sure,” he agreed. “Out of the way, so people don’t trip over us.” He pulled Evan towards one of the walls and then sat down, tipping his head back to watch the stingray pass above him. “It would be cool to just lie here,” he observed. “They do sleepovers, but you have to have a kid.” Which was a shame, because Andrew would have liked to bring Evan to that. “You’ve been before,” he picked up when they were both settled. “To this aquarium?”
--
At Andrew’s comment about dressing up as a matador or maybe a hero, Evan gave a small shrug. He didn’t really get it, the fascination people had with dressing up. It wasn’t like he objected to anyone else doing it, but dressing up in a costume himself just made Evan feel rather uncomfortable. He was, though, quite sure that no matter what costume Andrew picked, Evan would like it. There wasn’t any doubt in Evan’s mind that Andrew would be excellent at dress-up. Maybe that, too, came with a particular career choice. “Yet,” he noted teasingly, though. It wasn’t like Evan was going to write a decent song ever, so it seemed fair that he’d be filling the model castle making nieche in this relationship.
It made Evan incredibly happy when Andrew said that they could just sit and watch the fish. They had plenty of time to still walk and see all the other things (Evan was very keen to see the jellyfish and the turtles), but just watching the fish, that to Evan seemed really exciting, too. Perhaps he wouldn’t just sit and watch the sea cucumber, but this bit had sharks and stingrays and loads of different smaller fish and was that a catfish? “What?” Evan asked turning his head to look at Andrew once they had settled down against the glass. “Oh, yes. Mum took us when we were little. Five-ish?” He said, leaning into Andrew so he could put his head on Andrew’s shoulder as he watched the fish.
“Could we get a child?” Evan asked thoughtfully as he watched the fish. “Do you know anyone with a child we can borrow?” Because sleeping in an aquarium sounded rather amazing but Evan wasn’t sure he knew where to get a child to be allowed to.
--
Andrew hummed an acknowledgement when Evan confirmed he’d been here before. It would have been a little disappointing, but Evan’s enthusiasm about being here now seemed entirely genuine and Andrew couldn’t really imagine how Evan could possibly be more excited than he was right now, even if he was visiting for the first time. As he sat with Evan’s head on his shoulder, he focused his need to fidget into stroking the hand he he was still holding, stretching his fingers out between Evan’s and then curling them in again.
The question startled a laugh out of him. “I don’t think so?” He considered, working his way through his friends, and then friends of friends. “Oh, Xavier’s friend has a kid, but she’s really little.” Andrew was pretty sure it was a ‘she’, though he couldn’t remember her name. “I think the sleepovers are more for children who are old enough to walk and talk, otherwise there’s not a lot of point.” Also, babies were pretty prone to crying and you probably wouldn’t voluntarily open your aquarium to that if you could help it. “A few of the children I teach are around the right age,” he added, “but I don’t know if their parents would want me to take them to an aquarium overnight.” Especially, Andrew thought privately, if they knew he was going with his sort-of boyfriend. “Do you think we’d be any good at looking after a child?” Andrew taught some, yes, but he didn’t have to actually care for them very much - didn’t have to worry about food or sleeping or making sure they weren’t hyper or any of that sort of stuff.
--
It was disappointing that they wouldn’t be able to come and camp overnight in the aquarium, but also not particularly surprising, because Evan hadn’t really thought either of them would know people with kids, they were probably too young to. Evan moves his hand with Andrew’s, fingers moving in a pattern to match Andrew’s. “Well, yeah,” he replied half shrugging his shoulder. “I mean, you just need to feed them and water them, right?” Evan said. As far as he could tell, the most important part of keeping children was making sure they stayed alive and like, that couldn’t really be all that hard. He had managed to keep himself alive and Evan was sure he was much more of a handful than a tiny human. “And maybe keep them entertained?” Evan guessed. “But that’d depend on the kid, right?” He added thoughtfully.
“I was a very easy kid to entertain,” Evan said watching the fish swim past. “I liked books and exploring things,” he explained. “I was very shy,” Evan told Andrew softly. There were plenty of reasons why Evan had been a shy child, having a stutter and overly extroverted siblings were on that list, but it wasn’t like Evan thought being shy had been bad. Sure, Daisy had pretty much been his only friend, but she had been an excellent friend to have. Tilting his head up slightly, Evan looked at Andrew, his nose brushing against Andrew’s cheek. “What were you like as a child?” He asked curiously. Not like Evan, he assumed.
--
Andrew laughed at Evan’s description. “You make a child sound like a plant,” he teased. “I think it’s more complicated than that. Depends on the age, but if they’re babies you have to change them and carry them and make sure they go to sleep enough.” Andrew, as an only child, had no actual experience with babies, but he’d seen enough television shows to know the basics. “And then, when they get older, you have to take them to school and introduce them to hobbies and comfort them when they’re sad. And make doctor’s appointments and dentist appointments.” He considered for a moment before amending, “healers appointments, I guess.” Andrew had never really thought about what it would be like to raise a child in the magical world. It wasn’t particularly likely to ever be relevant to his life.
“Books and exploring things,” Andrew echoed, smiling at their joined hands. “You pretty much still like those things now. You’re not shy, though.” At least, Andrew didn’t consider Evan to be shy. The way he’d acted the night they met definitely didn’t count as ‘shy’ in Andrew’s opinion. Which was a good thing, because if he had they’d probably never have ended up in bed together, and then Evan would never have stolen Andrew’s shirt, and then they’d never have met up again. He had to consider the question of what he’d been like as a child. “Dramatic?” he answered. “I liked being in plays, and singing, and mum taught me the piano. I had more girl friends than boys, but I played football sometimes. I was in cub scouts.” He paused for a few minutes, eyes on the shark that had circled back towards them. “I didn’t know I was magic.” He couldn’t remember how much he’d told Evan before. “Mum didn’t tell me dad was a wizard, because he wasn’t around.”
--
Well, yes, Evan knew those things. Babies were all fragile and needy, but they had already discounted baby as an appropriate age rage for taking to an aquarium, so Evan had more meant kids from age five and up. “We could do all those things,” Evan said. “I mean, you know what they are and I can be excellent at following instructions,” he informed Andrew with a small smile. Evan definitely could take a child to school or to a healer or a dentist, those didn’t seem like very hard tasks. Introducing them to hobbies was probably again quite dependant on what the child liked. Comforting them when they were sad, though, that Evan wasn’t sure he could do. “Do kids like tents? I could make a child a tent. A tiny tent, because they’re only little,” Evan said thoughtfully. He didn’t think he would be much use with emotional support but if kids liked tents, Evan could definitely provide that. It had worked for Andrew.
“I do like books and exploring,” Evan agreed. “And no, I’m not as shy as I was when I was a kid, but that’s--” Evan paused unsure whether he knew how to explain it. He never had tried before, which was odd because it seemed like the sort of thing that might have come up in a conversation before, but it really hadn’t. “I had to convince myself that there was nothing scary about talking to people. When I got sorted into Ravenclaw and Daisy went to Slytherin, it was--” hard. It had been very hard. “Challenging,” Evan said instead. “But I think it helped me a lot,” he admitted. Not that Evan had necessarily made friends but he had gotten much better at talking to people who weren’t his twin.
Evan gave a chuckle when Andrew said that he had been a dramatic child. That didn’t surprise him at all. “Of course you were,” Evan said with a grin, pressing a kiss against Andrew’s cheek. There was no doubt in Evan’s mind that as a child, he would’ve found the child!Andrew too extroverted. Evan had liked quiet and silence and stillness and Andrew was none of those things. As a child, Evan would’ve hated it, and perhaps been a little jealous of it, too, but now it made him smile. It was nice. Like watching fire. “Oh,” Evan said when Andrew mentioned his dad. He had always assumed that Andrew was Muggleborn, the way he spoke about his upbringing (which, technically was a Muggleborn one), especially since all Evan knew about Andrew’s dad was that he had left when Andrew was little. “Do you know your dad?” Evan asked curiously.
--
The idea of a tiny tent - more honestly, of Evan, specifically, making a tiny tent - was almost frighteningly cute. “I’m sure kids love tents,” he said, because he couldn’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t love Evan’s tents. Evan’s tent that he’d made for Andrew was spectacular and cosy and made Andrew smile every time he opened the drawer it was currently stored in. Now that the weather was nice, he and Evan should find somewhere to put it up again. “That’s how you learned to make blanket palaces, right? When you and Daisy were kids.” It only stood to reason, then, that other kids would be equally enthralled.
He squeezed Evan’s hand when he talked about being separated from Daisy. “That must have been hard,” he said. “I know it’s not the same, but I was so homesick for mum. I would be first down to breakfast every day, waiting for a letter from her.” Letters that had been painfully infrequent, and had petered out entirely by Andrew’s second year. Facts he wasn’t going to volunteer. “I missed my friends too, but I made new friends.” Honestly, Andrew hadn’t been too bothered by that. He’d liked his Lerwick friends well enough, but he’d got along with his Hogwarts friends much better. “Did being in Ravenclaw help?” he asked, curious. “Were there other people who liked books and exploring things?” He’d found a lot of kindred spirits in Gryffindor, Ginny not least.
Evan’s question tipped Andrew off that maybe he hadn’t spoken about this as much as he’d thought. It was easy to assume Evan knew most things about his life. It felt like they’d known each other longer than three months. “I met him once,” he said, shrugging the shoulder Evan wasn’t occupying. “He took me to Diagon Alley to buy my school supplies my first year.” It had been a weird day. Andrew had been fascinated by all the new things everywhere - owls and wands and broomsticks - and all the people in London, but simultaneously hadn’t really felt able to talk to his dad about them. He was a stranger, someone Andrew had only the dimmest memories of.
--
That was true, Evan had learned to make blanket forts as a kid and had taken great delights in having them, so maybe kids did like that sort of a thing. Which in turn meant that Evan might be alright with comforting kids when they were sad. This pleased him, because Evan disliked the idea of not being able to help someone when they felt sad. When Andrew said that he had been homesick, Evan nodded. He recognised that. He had missed Lily a lot when first arriving at Hogwarts. Obviously he had had Daisy and Harry there but they both had made friends easily and quickly and Evan hadn’t wanted to ruin that with being needy, so he had tried to give his siblings space, even if making friends had never come as easily to him as it had to them.
Being in Ravenclaw had sort of helped. It had been nice to discover that there were people who enjoyed reading as much as Evan did, but majority of them had still been--well, not challenging enough. Evan had preferred studying and exploring the castle on his own more often than with some of the housemates he did become friendly with. “I don’t think I really made friends,” Evan admitted and it did feel like an admission. There had been people who Evan had gotten on with well, people he had enjoyed spending time with, but he wouldn’t call any of them his friends. Most of the friends Evan had even now weren’t really his friends, they were Harry’s or Daisy’s. The thought sent a sharp pang down Evan’s chest and he frowned.
“Lets go find the jellyfish,” Evan announced, pulling away from Andrew slightly so that he could pull Andrew up. He filed Andrew’s comment about his dad away, something to ask about at a different time because that, too, didn’t seem like a particularly fun topic and this adventure was meant to be about fun not--whatever else. Jellyfish would make everything more exciting and less... serious.