Ink, Interrupted PV Aleks fin

Date. 19/9/25 Dialogue. #1E361C Tag. @Aleks Drašković
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It turned out Aleks didn’t actually know everything about his father’s scandalous and promiscuous past, until he just told him about it. Awkward... Gabriele assumed he had heard of it, if his mother had been a fan girl and gone so far as to talk about him. The actual insinuation wasn’t what bothered the Slytherin the most, but that he’d indirectly insulted Gabriele’s family. Please, did it look like he cared? It was hardly the worst thing that he could have said about his dads. Even if he’d meant it when he said Philippe would have take personal insult to his name being mispronounced and turned into something ugly.

“Whatever,” Gabi shrugged, twirling the quill between his fingers, once again leaning back on his chair until it tilted dangerously. “It was kind of funny, so I don’t really care. It’s not like you said anything homophobic. That would have been pretty bad.” And then he might have to take a stance to defend his dads. Yeah, they didn’t get along all the time now when Gabriele was older, but they’d been nothing but loving parents… Just a bit dramatic and strict sometimes.

Confusion flashed across his face at the mention of some vase, like he should know what he was talking about. It didn’t immediately ring any bells. One thing was for sure, though, and it was that nothing in their house was cheap!

“What vase…?” Gabi wondered slowly. The fact that it was largely forgotten was enough proof that it must have been insignificant enough, that he could with good conscious, move on. Aleks could have not mentioned it at all, really, and still have been fine. Now when he was forced to think back to the summer– the only time he knew Aleks had been in near enough proximity to his house— he remembered his little fall over the fence. The Italian grinned, cracking a giggle while thinking back to the ripped pants. Apparently his pants hadn’t been the only thing he broke that day.

“Oh, that,” Gabi said dismissively, finally remembering something about an ancient piece of porcelain someone had insisted looked great out in the garden for some reason. “Yeah, it was an antique, so probably cost more than your house,” he added in casual honesty. Nothing about Aleks’ screamed wealth, but he didn’t mean it in a bad way necessarily. It was just obvious that he wasn’t near Gabi’s socioeconomic status. Few were, so that just meant he was in the vast majority. “It was ugly anyway, so you did us all a favor. Dad wasn’t very impressed though, but hardly a major loss.” Gabi glanced at Aleks, flashing him a troublesome smirk.

All four legs of the chair slammed back onto the floor when Gabriele leaned back over the empty parchment, determined this time to actually get something done. "Back to his letter though. Maybe I can write that I finally found the culprit who broke into our yard?" He mused. That would be funny.

Nervousness coiled in his gut, knotting his stomach tight. Aleks waited for the reaction. Inside, he tried to sketch out the possibilities, using mental crayons to draw one especially positive outcome in rainbow colours and deep dark blues. Unfortunately, the Slytherin failed, even in his imagination. His arms rested stiffly on the table, bracing for the blow. Gabriele asked, “What vase?”, but the confusion only made the ending loom all the more ominous. Aleks thought that the moment Gabriele remembered, the relaxed atmosphere would sour into gloom. So far he had gotten away with the accidental remark about his father—but the vase? The Slytherin probably should have let it slip under the table the moment it crept into his head. It should have been ignored, buried with the many other little secrets in his life. At that thought, of all people, it was his best friend Aiden who came to his mind. He swallowed. Little by little, the tension drew itself more clearly across his face. The brows pulled downward in defense—yet then he noticed something shift. On the pale face of the smaller boy, a grin began to spread across those soft lips. A chuckle punched through the dry library air, and Aleks released the breath trapped in his lungs. “Oh, that,” Gabriele began, remarking nonchalantly that it was antique and surely worth more than Aleks’ house. The remark hardly matched the lightness flowing from every flutter of those brown eyes. It was puzzling—and pressed a smile onto Aleks’ face. “You don’t know how screwed our apartment is..or the entire building. It’s probably worth more than my whole district.” If it truly had been that expensive, it bordered between funny and bizarre. Aleks leaned back into the wooden chair, pulled his arms off the table, and let the stiffness drain from his body. Somehow he could barely believe it. His gaze still rested on Gabriele in expectation for incoming judgement. However, then Gabriele added that it had been ugly anyway, and Aleks had perhaps done them a favor. The statement was the cherry atop an ugly muffin. A smirk flared over Gabriele‘s thin face. Aleks’ heart skipped, and the loud scrape of the Italian’s chair broke the silence that had been tenuously fenced in between books and studying students. The boy with eyes as brown as the finest chestnut suggested he should get back to the letter. Then proposed: “Maybe I can write that I finally found the culprit who broke into our yard?” To which Aleks, with half the beginning of a chuckle replied, “That sounds like a good plan. Just lie a little and say you beat me up for it.” That would, in fact, be hilarious. Aleks let his gaze wander over Gabriele’s height, then mentally added it also would be quite unbelievable. The light-eyed Serb watched Gabriele a second longer. The reaction still sat tangled in the back of his neck, refusing to be processed. His young mind simply wouldn’t accept that he hadn’t gotten into trouble. It was as if Gabriele had taken the natural order, tossed it into the toilet with a grin, waved, and dramatically watched it flow down the drain. The knowledge carried a lightness, evident in Aleks‘ body. By now, even the spine had abandoned its upright posture. The boy slouched, in the way troublemakers were meant to. Gaze drifting back to the window, Aleks pulled his eyes off of the dark curly hair. It landed on the light outside, on the trees of the Scottish landscape. The leaves were tossed around the way Aleks’ brain cells felt. When suddenly a thought tore the newly discovered peace apart and dragged him back to the reason he was meeting with books in the first place. It pulled right on his freckles. The smile slowly slipped from his lips, eyes falling to the stack on the table. There was one thing still nudging on the back of his mind. Talking to Gabriele, it had almost escaped the gloomy desire to be explored. “Mhm, you’re probably right,” Aleks muttered quietly, reaching for the one on top. “Back to work…” The Slytherin student set it on the tabletop and pulled the brown, leather-bound omen closer. Reluctantly, he forced more posture back into his body, drew a deep breath, and studied the inscription: Tom Sawyer. The edges were worn down, half loved to death by many curious fingers across generations of students. There was something almost sweet about the thought that so many had read about this boy. Nevertheless that wasn’t the reason Aleks turned to his stories this day. Carefully, he opened the cover and peeked at the first page. Dozen of old English Words welcomed him, together with a dusty scent of paper.

Interaction: @Gabriele Ricci-Armani ──────────── Speech:#84319f 19/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting

Date. 19/9/25 Dialogue. #1E361C Tag. @Aleks Drašković
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Having never seen poverty, or really bad living conditions in general, Gabriele assumed Aleks was just trying to be funny when he said that his apartment complex and whole district were so fucked up, that a vase was worth more than all of the buildings combined. Then again, his dad was no stranger to spending ridiculous amounts of money on useless shit. The vintage Ferarri’s he could understand. At least you could theoretically use them for something — and they were pretty fucking cool – but not the ugly decorations that wasn’t even good enough to make it inside the house.

Gabriele might have been able to beat up some twink like Archer, but Aleks looked much stronger than that bitch… but hopefully not as batshit crazy.

Dragging his gaze over the Slytherin’s physique, most of it was covered by school robes, making it difficult to gauge much of it, but he was tall and relatively broad-shouldered. The likelihood of him actually winning a fight between them was slim. At least by using sheer strength. The once-over Aleks gave Gabriele in return only confirmed that they both knew it. Yet, the sudden scrutinizing attention made him flush.

Before Aleks could beat him to point out his size– lack-thereof – Gabriele scoffed. “No one would believe that, looking at you and then at me.” Without asking, he reached across the table to force Aleks' sleeve up enough to show some of his pale arm, then pulled up his own sleeve to display his noodles in comparison. Holding his arm beside Aleks, the difference was quite striking. Except that they were both quite pale.

Gabriele knew he was the whitest in his fucking family, but seeing it this black and white in front of him honestly came as a surprise.

"What the fuck. Have I always been this pale? I'm basically as white as you!" The words came out without thinking, laced with disbelief. When he looked at the other boy, he saw someone basically see-through. It was not an insult towards Aleks, whom he thought looked good in ivory. Obviously, Gabi knew he wasn't some heavily bronzed Adonis on a beach in Ibiza, but that was far from the image he had of himself, until two seconds ago. Scowling, he pulled his arm back and shoved down his sleeve.

What he lacked in body - and tan- he made up with unhinged audacity. “I got pretty sharp knees though… and I know where to hit where it hurts. So don't piss me off,” he threatened with a smirk. There was probably no need to clarify exactly what he meant by that. Not that Aleks needed to worry, unless his name was Archer Duncan and wore a long-haired wig. In this case, it was just playful banter.

The words cartwheeled from the pages straight into his head, shaping the first sentence like a stage play upon the theater of imagination. It would be warm, there would be a white fence and horses, old and young. Albeit Aleks got no further, for then he felt something touch his arm. The Slytherin boy lifted his head in surprise. The eyes tore away from the old book’s pages. For the moment, they stared in confusion at Gabriele.

His sleeve was being forcefully rolled up along his forearm. Although the already-crumpled fabric seemed eager to try scratch against the freckled skin, it failed. The uniform was too smooth. The thinner of the two boys leaned across the table, pressing Aleks’s arm firmly against his own. The sudden change of pace felt overwhelming. All thoughts of books fell, bewildered, from the mental tabletop and joined Aleks in staring down at the two arms pressed together.

It was obvious they were nearly the same shade of pale. However, while Gabriele’s skin carried a smoother warmth, his own still struck Aleks as jarringly flawed in contrast. As if every little white lie of his life had been burned into his skin as a brown speckle! Perhaps the freckles were karma—and the principles that made life in England possible nothing but trash his mama had told him. It wouldn’t surprise Aleks if even she had fallen back on little lies when it came to promising they do the right thing, in the same way she had taught him to do. The rest of Aleks’s already stiff cheerfulness froze completely, at Gabriele’s next words: “What the fuck. Have I always been this pale? I’m basically as white as you!”

The word sounded as though it had been emphasised like a curse. Of course, somewhere inside, he knew it had slipped from Gabriele’s lips too casually to mean more than a cheeky side note, but Aleks’s lungs disagreed. They pressed tightly down into his heart, refusing to let air return to his body. Speechless, he stared at the ivory colour of his skin and how it gave the brown specks a stage to perform upon. Mabye not even just that, but a whole opera house with glittering lights and a shouting boy at the door whose only task is to bring attention to his freckles. Nobody liked freckles on a boy, not if your hair wasn‘t dyed by Cheetos.

The focus on skin twisted Aleks’s stomach. Strength drained from his face, yet the last scrap of his conscious slipped into his cheeks to imitate a smile. Gabriele’s voice broke the silence that for Aleks had suddenly grown unbearable. The boy with the warmer pallor remarked that he had sharp knees—and knew exactly where to land them. A threat followed. Aleks lifted his face, the false happiness still tugged across his freckled lips as he observed Gabriele‘s features. “So don’t piss me off,” the Hufflepuff shot with a charming curve to the mouth.

Aleks couldn’t feel his tongue, yet it began to move. The words reached his ears almost like a rehearsed play—one he usually only performed in front of adults: “I certainly won’t. But I think I’d better leave now, homework is calling and all that.” Another white lie. Instinctively, his stomach cramped in fear, as though it might stamp more freckles onto his skin— more karma.

It was ridiculous. He knew he felt like a sensitive clown, and yet his hand, trembling more than expected, slid over the book’s edge and closed it. The inscription Tom Sawyer laughed briefly in his face before the worn volume quickly found its place on the stack beside him. Aleks, trying to stretch his cheeks and summon some semblance of ease back into his features, smirked. “I’ll definitely not be picking a fight with you and your knees.” A trace of a grin crept onto his lips, blocking for now the lump nesting in his throat. “We see each other again soon, I am sure. Good luck with your letter”

The lump rolled downward—deeper into his throat—until Aleks had nothing left but to leave without waiting for an answer. He thought he heard a goodbye, though he couldn’t be sure whether it was imagined or had truly slipped from Gabriele’s mouth. The young Slytherin hefted the books from the table. With one arm he pressed them tightly against his body, partly seeking steadiness and out of practical intent. Not wanting them to fall from his hug and cause a scene.

Aleks stepped away from the table in as faked confident strides as possible. He drew as deep a breath as his mind allowed and walked the short path back toward the entrance.
Unfortunately the books had to be officially borrowed, that much was clear. With a glance down at the thick leather bond stories, he swallowed uncomfortably. The uncertainty loomed, not being able to tell how well he’d be able to wash the stress from his face before standing in front of the librarian. Gabriele‘s word had to be swallowed once more. It‘s best he tried forget them until he can wallow in his own bed, private like a shameless loser.

Speech: Me #84319f, Others Mentioned: @Gabriele Ricci-Armani 19/09/25BABYSHARkDUhDUhDUHDuhDUhDUHMOMMY SHARKDUDUH

Date. 19/9/25 Dialogue. #1E361C Tag. @Aleks Drašković
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Not sure what exactly, or when it happened… but something in the air changed. Previously about to dive into the pile of books Aleks has brought, which probably would take a while to finish, Gabriele hadn’t expected him to leave so soon. Immediately after his little banter and joke — mostly on his own expense (Gabi didn’t know why someone conventionally attractive and obviously popular would have been offended by anything he’d said) —the Slytherin had to bounce because of homework. “Um, okay?” The Italian looked at him dumbly, blinking in confusion. A fair reason overall, if they hadn't been in the fucking library already. Wasn’t that – studying– the reason he’d come to the library in the first place? He was just beginning to warm up to this bitch and have some fun, first of all, and now he was leaving?

Packing his stuff and wishing him good luck with the letter, the guy was indeed leaving. He didn’t understand what the fuck was going on, the seemingly confident grin on the others’ face didn’t make it much clearer. At the mention of letter though, he glanced down at the largely empty piece of parchment, quickly remembering one thing: “Hey, what happened to helping me with this letter?” Gabi called after him, but by then, Aleks was already gone, leaving Gabriele staring at the spot he’d occupied like a complete question mark. Abandoned, looking kind of dumb, and honestly very disappointed.

He glanced around at the empty space around him, somehow feeling lonlier than ever. Great. Now what?

Defeated and pouting in a frown, he slumped back with a huff. Had he just been abandoned for homework? Or was it something he said? Trying to rack his brain for what could have been the turning point, unless it truly only was homework, he still didn’t have a clue. The menace usually didn’t give a fuck about offending other people, he suited himself most of the time, but he couldn’t help but feel like Aleks had baited him with something resembling genuine friendship, only to reject him when he’d (reluctantly) latched on. That, folks, was the reason he didn’t let people in. Everyone was a fucking disappointment. Worst of all, Gabriele had been kind of excited for the opportunity. But as usual, nothing good lasted. No matter how much he contemplated the situation, on his own, he wouldn’t get much wiser anyway.

The piece of parchment was still taunting him on the table. Fuck it. That’s it. Scrunching it up and tossing it fuck-knows-where, Gabriele flung his bag aggressively over his shoulder and stormed off. The letter to his parents, if he ever got around to writing it, would have to wait. They wouldn’t mind waiting for another few weeks.