Friendly Mistakes PV Willow Finished

@Willow Anderson

Ruka leaned forward just a little bit as he listened to Willow talking about her own Green Witchery. For the first time in a while he actually felt his interest sparked by something someone else was saying, and he absorbed all the given information like a sponge. "I like that," he admitted with a small smile and a nod. "Altering the energy of the Universe. Using what nature gives you for the betterment of lives." He hummed thoughtfully, looking down at his own hands for a second as if to contemplate in which way he himself would alter the Universe's energy if he could. 
Before he could ponder it for too long, Willow offered showing him a spell sometime and he bit his lip as he looked back up at her with a suppressed smile. "Yeah, that'd be nice," he agreed even though he could tell that she was quite frustrated with how difficult he was making this conversation.

Well, it was really her own fault for not realising that he hadn't wanted anybody to make conversation with him in the first place, wasn't it?

Her frustration was possibly just growing as she gave up on the topic of Muggles and Wizard relationships, admitting even out loud that she didn't know enough about the topic to argue any further. He was tempted to chastise her for starting a topic she couldn't contribute much to, but he couldn't bring up the energy for it, so instead he just shrugged and nodded lightly when she pointed out that she didn't want to hide forever.

He wasn't sure exactly what to say to that; As a magical orphan without documentation living on the streets he had to find the perfect balance between being visible enough to have people pay him for his fire performances, but hidden enough to not alert any authorities. Hiding was a form of self preservation to him that was simply unavoidable, and from what he could tell of people in general was that they would rather destroy things they didn't understand than coexist with them.

Willow's wish was pure but naive, and Ruka didn't think anything he said would make her abandon her views on the matter.

If Willow had been frustrated with him before, however, she had to have reached her final breaking point once the conversation had turned to Flash and his fake, manipulative ways. He could see it in her face as he was talking, the plain denial, the desperation to cling onto the picture she had of her friend, and, for a second, it reminded him of himself.

How many people had warned him about Jack already? How many people had painted him a picture of this selfish, cowardly boy who left nothing but hurt and resentment in his path? How many times had he disregarded warnings and defended any and all of the Slytherin's actions to preserve his own view of him? He didn't even know if he could still count the times, and for some reason it made him even angrier.

Jack was no Flash, because Jack had always been upfront about his ways, whereas Flash was trying to hide his true intentions behind pretty words and lovely smiles.
A petty part of himself wanted to prove that he was right about Flash as if that would prove that he was also right about Jack, and it only fuelled his determination to throw everything he had at Willow, no matter how much it visibly hurt her.

He saw her resolve crumbling, could see the doubt in her, her desperate eyes, her rushed words, and then...

Something must have happened inside her when he grabbed for her wrist, something he hadn't seen coming. Her reaction wasn't quite instant, like a short delay as she was processing the fact that someone else had a grip on her, like his touch sparked something inside her that she didn't usually let surface like this.

And then it hit him.

Literally.

There was a stinging pain in his jaw as her fist collided with his left cheek. The pain shot through the whole side of his face and all the way to his teeth. A burning hot flash pulled itself from his gums to his ear, and it rattled him so much that his grip on Willow instantly slackened, and he slumped back in his seat in shock.

The pain itself wasn't too bad; He'd gone through much worse before, but the action still pulled him out of his state of anger and pettiness. He blinked as if coming out of a trance, his hand moving up to hold his cheek. He looked at Willow in blank disbelieve, heard her voice asking him to stop talking, and for a second he wanted to just stand up and leave.

He'd gone too far, he knew that.

He'd completely lost control of his emotions and he'd let them all out on this girl who was probably nothing but a victim herself.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, averting his eyes. He didn't know what Willow was doing or thinking at this moment, didn't dare look at her for fear of seeing in her face exactly what his words had done to her. He'd never thought of himself as a cruel person, never thought he'd be able to inspire enough anger in someone to result in violence, but there he was, sitting across this sweet, friendly girl, and his cheek was still tingling from her punch. "I'll just..." 

Shuffling awkwardly he got off his seat, grabbing for a piece of bread to stuff it into his cloak. Maybe he would just go down to the Lake and feed the squid in order to drown his sorrows. 

He hung his head in shame for a second before finally looking at Willow again, her eyes burning cold in the same way he knew his own had been many times before. Maybe they weren't quite as different as he'd first thought they were. "I just wanted to warn you," he said quietly, offering her a sad, apologetic smile before turning on his heel again.

As he left the Great Hall in an ashamed slump, he found himself thinking that fear of interactions like that was exactly why he'd locked himself away in his dorm room for months.

Maybe he should just return to that again.

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