Dressed for Distress PV Jack Burnett Closed

When Jack showed up at the Rehersal Room door, he seemed to be struggling with a large number of items in his arms. There were a great many boxes, bags, parcels, and packages along with a handsome-looking, brand new trunk that seemed to be for show and another new, larger trunk that looked more suited for travel.

With some difficulty, much grunting, and a determination not to ask Ruka for help, Jack finally managed to get everything through the door. He then gradually began to move them closer to the side of the room where there were dressing areas, starting with the larger packages and moving to the smaller ones until they were stacked neatly and in order by size and contents. The two trunks were kept to another side.

"Hey, Tân," Jack huffed as he worked, looking excited to see Ruka regardless of the strain on his body. "Nice moves, as usual. Those feet of yours, though...you hurt them recently? Those landings seem painful."

Once everything had been sorted, he picked up one of the first boxes of shoes. "Maybe these will help? At least when you're not performing. Those are talented feet you have; can't mistreat them, now."

@Ruka Tân

@Jack Burnett

Ruka didn't immediately notice the Rehearsal Room doors open, much too focused on his routine, so he only stopped when his eyes drifted across what was most likely Jack's silhouette but... loaded with so much stuff it seemed like one wrong movement could cause everything to fall and bury the boy carrying it beneath it.

With a small laugh escaping his lungs, Ruka abandoned his spot in the middle of the room to walk closer to the doors, crossing his arms over his chest as he just watched Jack struggling to keep the door open and get all the bags and parcels - and were those trunks? - into the room. If the Slytherin was too stubborn to ask for some assistance, Ruka was more than entertained to just watch the scenario.

Beyond that, the fact that Jack seemed to manage to finally move everything to where he wanted it without grunting in pain every three seconds filled Ruka with another wave of relief. Whatever this recovery had been for, it seemed like Jack had healed well enough during that week he'd been awake.

Ruka saw that as a good sign at least.

Following Jack across the room to where a couple of dressing rooms were located, Ruka shrugged lightly when the Slytherin asked about his feet. "Had a bit of an accident yesterday," he said lightly, a smile on his face as he took in Jack's excitement, which Ruka assumed to stem from seeing him. "Nothing I can't handle." He offered Jack a confident grin as if to put some extra emphasis on the fact that he was doing alright and the bruises and blisters on his feet were nothing but a minor inconvenience.

Anyway, Ruka wasn't here to talk about his own injuries.

It seemed, however, that that conversation had to take a bit of a backseat for the moment as Jack picked up a box, which Ruka took from him with a thoughtful expression. "What, did you rob a clothing store while you were gone?" he teased as he opened the box to reveal a pair of grey sneakers with white soles. The first thing Ruka noticed about them was that they were clearly new; there were no dirt stains on the soles, the laces didn't look old and frazzled, and there were no holes randomly places across the fabric.

Ruka knew Jack had told him he was going to get him new clothes but that had been before the Valentine's Party, and the Fire Dancer had genuinely assumed Jack to have forgotten all about that. When he'd told Ruka to meet him here to try on some clothes, he had thought that maybe the Slytherin had sorted out some of his own clothes that he didn't need anymore and thought Ruka might be interested in having, but no, it appeared that Jack had actually gotten him... a mountain of new clothes.

"Are you kidding me?" he breathed out as he reached for another box just to pull out a pair of dark brown boots that would have certainly come in handy during the cold months of December and January. 
With an eager look on his face, Ruka slipped his bare feet into the boots, shivering slightly at the unfamiliar feeling of the soft, warm material hugging his ankles comfortably. "One pair of shoes would have sufficed, you know?" He beamed brightly at Jack as he shook his head at the Slytherin in complete disbelief, hoping Jack could see the Thank You dancing in his irises. 

For a moment his mind was distracted enough with all the bags and boxes he now realised were all filled with clothes - new clothes - for him. However, as he reached for a bag and pulled out two plain white dress shirts in different sizes, Ruka remembered what it was that he really wanted to talk to Jack about, and it wasn't clothes.

"So is that why you were away last week? You needed to raid every department store in Scotland?" He raised his eyebrows at the other boy, a deeper question in his gaze, worry creasing his forehead heavily. "Are you feeling better again?"

"An accident? From your practice?" Jack asked, thinking normally Ruka's accidents had to do with burns on his hands and arms, not his feet. Still, he supposed there could have been a first time for anything.

The question about him robbing a clothing store made the Slytherin laugh aloud. "Are you kidding? My mother is already angry enough with me that it took me so long to try to buy you clothes and shoes. If I tried robbing a place, I'd never hear the end of it." He sneered and winked. "Besides, you know that's not my style. No, I bought these from Hogsmeade with money my parents gave me for your clothes. Got it converted to wizard coin and everything."

Jack sighed. "Don't think my mom trusted me much in buying clothes for you, especially since she buys most of my clothes for me, but since we didn't know your size, I told her I would have to just try to get you a bunch of different ones and test them out. Can't really do that if she's the one buying, since that would mean a lot of owls going back and forth carrying pretty heavy parcels..." He rubbed the back of his neck with a small, sheepish chuckle. Then he stopped smiling.

"I really am sorry for not getting you these sooner, though. Hopefully they'll be comfortable enough to make up for the time lost. And that's probably also part of the reason I...may have gone a little overboard."

Jack leaned back against the boxes, watching Ruka with a tired little smirk returning to his lips. It was ridiculously pleasing to see someone so happy about a gift, particularly something as mundane as footwear. "There's four different sizes of each type of shoe, so if one doesn't feel right, let me know and I'll switch it out. I got you some new socks, too," he added, handing them over.

"Probably want to make sure those feel okay with these. And after all the time I made you and my mom wait, I figured the least I could do was make sure you had a full wardrobe with something for every possible occasion. At least until summer."

Just as he was planning to explain the trunks, the Slytherin found himself being questioned about his absence the previous week. He paused, his lips slightly parted, as if unsure where to start, what to say, or how much. Then he swallowed to wet his dry throat and beamed brightly. "Heh...no, actually...I just got all of these a few days ago from one store in Hogsmeade. I'm grateful, too; it was hard enough choosing from the selection of things just from that one store alone."

The question about if he was feeling better again, however, gave him pause. "Heh...'feeling better', though? What do you mean?" Was he referring to that time he had nearly broken down around him and Selim in the Hospital Wing? Or maybe he'd heard about the difficulty between Jack and Alan at Hogsmede?

Or...maybe he'd heard something else and was referring to something entirely different; something Jack wasn't sure he was ready to tell Ruka.

@Ruka Tân

@Jack Burnett

Ruka laughed lightly at Jack questioning the accident he'd had involving his feet. There was something strangely satisfying about the way the Slytherin didn't just drop the conversation at the first possible opportunity. It made him feel like Jack had a genuine interest in what had been happening to him, rather than just making shallow conversation.

Not that Jack had ever shown himself as someone who engaged in shallow conversation anyway.

"Got distracted and dropped a torch," he explained with a little shrug as the fingers of his left hand tapped a gentle One, two, three against his thigh. 
With Jack around he felt less on edge, his hands less restless, so it was easy for him to notice when the counting started up again for a moment as every word about accidents and injuries made him think more and more about the suspicions he had. The things he wanted to discuss with Jack.

The tapping of his fingers stopped after the first count as he concentrated instead on Jack's laugh, his own features brightening considerably at the sound. Ruka listened intently to the Slytherin, tilting his head to the side in question. While the Gryffindor was aware of the permission slip Jack was equipped with, there was the question of when he'd been to Hogsmeade considering today was the first day Ruka had actually seen him around school again after his week long absence under the pretence of Not Feeling Well. 

There was, of course, a chance that Ruka had simply missed Jack around the school over the weekend, considering he had skipped most meal times after talking to Selim, and had retreated to his dormitory and the Rehearsal Rooms for most parts of the day, but the thought still nagged him a little.

"You can tell your mom I approve of you as my personal shopper," he said, chuckling lightly as he rummaged curiously through a couple of the bags before looking back up at Jack when he apologised for how long it had taken him to get the clothes for Ruka. Something in his chest tightened a little at the look on the Slytherin's face, the way his smile seemed to dim. 
A part of him thought Jack's apology wasn't merely about the clothes, may have been an acknowledgement of the fact that it took so long because of the way he had been avoiding Ruka for two weeks without explanation, but he didn't dare breach the topic. 

Instead he offered the other boy a wide smile, eyes alight with an enthusiastic sparkle. "Worth the wait," he promised with a small nod before putting his attention back on the shoes he'd just put on his feet. A little absentmindedly he reached for the socks Jack handed him, carefully kicking off his new boots to pull a black pair of socks over his feet before slipping back into the boots with a delighted laugh.

The shoes he'd had so far had all been old hand-me-downs, and none of them had felt even near as comfortable as this new pair of boots. Part of him never wanted to take them off again, but the other part was the one that made him reach for the grey sneakers he'd just looked at. Taking the boots off again, he tried to slip into the sneakers instead, pulling a face at the way he couldn't get the heel of his foot inside without a struggle. 

Sighing to himself he put the too small shoes back in their box and set it to the side to be able to tell them apart from the things he hadn't tried yet. 

Before he reached for more clothes to try them on, he had found his opportunity to steer the conversation the way he had wanted it to go, and his eyes focused on Jack as he watched the Slytherin's reactions. Ruka didn't miss the short moment of uncertainty in the other boy's face, nor the way he swallowed heavily before responding brightly. It wasn't the answer Ruka had wanted yet, but it at least gave him a piece of information he'd been curious about.

A few days ago was a vague time frame, but Ruka placed it to be sometime during the weekend as he'd suspected from the start. After he'd talked to Selim, he assumed. There were a few things that Selim had said, which Ruka doubted he would have phrased quite like he had if Jack had been able to be found around the school already. 

Then, after a short pause that didn't go unnoticed by Ruka either, came the topic he had really been wanting to breach.

The Fire Dancer raised his eyebrows at Jack in question, moving slightly to be able to lean against the wall as he looked down at his socked feet for a moment. "Is there more than one thing I should be asking about?" he asked, keeping his tone as light and free from worry as he possibly could. 

He had an inkling that Jack was suspecting what it was exactly that Ruka was asking him about, but since he didn't know how much the Gryffindor actually knew about what had happened last week, he was simply trying to gauche Ruka's knowledge of the situation before deciding how much more information to give out.

Smart, but unsettling at the same time. 

If Jack needed to carefully weigh his answer to as simple a question as "Are you feeling better", then Ruka assumed he was right to worry about it.

"You said in your letter last week that you weren't feeling well," he said with an almost dismissive wave of his hand, like that letter was old news and he barely even cared about its contents anymore. Slowly he looked back up from his feet to focus his attention on Jack's face again. He liked to think he had gotten quite good at reading the other boy by now, and there was a chance he might be getting more information out of Jack's expressions and body language than of his actual words. "And then I met Selim some days ago."

He paused for a moment to see if Jack would react to that new piece of information in any way or if he was able to keep his face as expressionless as Selim had during their conversation.

"And he's said some things that were a bit... troubling." He shrugged his shoulders lightly, a small smile on his face that he didn't think did anything to hide his concern. "So, are you feeling better again?" 

"'Got distracted'?" the first-year repeated, raising his brows. Then he grinned teasingly. "May I ask who or what distracted you? Or would you rather I not?" He tried to get a look at the other boy's feet between the changing of socks and shoes. "Would you say it was worth it - whatever distracted you? Must have really been something to throw off a seasoned pro like you."

As he watched the other boy try things on, he noticed his fingers tapping a little against his thigh. Had the Gryffindor always done that and Jack just hadn't noticed before? Or was it something new he'd picked up during the time they'd been apart? Did it mean anything? Good, bad...? Did Ruka even realize he did it?

However, it stopped almost as suddenly as it started. Making a mental note to monitor the behavior for patterns and possible causes, the Slytherin allowed himself to put aside the matter for now and focus instead on how Ruka seemed to be doing. Had he always been that skinny? The shorter boy didn't seem nearly as bad as he had on the 28th of February, but Jack didn't think he appeared quite as well-fed or healthy as he should have, either.

He'd probably have to go back to feeding the fire-dancer at mealtimes again if it turned out he wasn't eating enough on his own. As Jack himself hadn't been able to make it to the Great Hall for meals the first few days of March, he hadn't been able to know if Ruka had gone. Asking Selim if the Gryffindor had been present seemed like it would have been asking too much, especially with how the snake had been acting since the start of the month.

"Tch. Like she's going to buy that," Jack laughed at the message Ruka asked him to relay to his mother. "She'd probably claim that you don't have any sense of what boys your age should wear, so of course you wouldn't be able to recognize that I don't have any, either. To her, it'd be like the blind leading the blind." Still smiling fondly, he shook his head. "Mothers...So much unnecessary fussing."

Wringing his hands together uncomfortably behind his back, he felt a little better at the second-year's brilliant smile and approval that the garments had been worth the wait, the tension in his body lessening somewhat. Though he had tried dearly to hide it, his largest worry that day had been that Ruka would have been angry with him for having left the other boy alone again for so long, especially after what they'd talked about on the 28th of February. Fortunately, the understanding, mature young man seemed to forgive him.

More than that, Ruka actually appeared to enjoy the purchases, particularly the shoes, which took a huge weight off of Jack's shoulders. Knowing that the fire-dancer was probably more used to being barefoot than anything else, Jack had worried that the Gryffindor wouldn't want to use any sort of footwear in the end, no matter how beneficial, because he would have felt more comfortable without them. To his great relief, though, Jack's choice of the most comfortable, warm shoes and boots he could find seemed to appease Ruka. The sandals and flip-flops had been bought as a back-up in case the fire-dancer felt the other types of footwear felt too constrictive or closed-off, but maybe those could just be saved for warmer weather after all.

Pulled from his thoughts by Ruka's apparent struggle with the sneakers, Jack laughed again and went to go sit by the other boy. "You have to loosen the shoelaces first," he explained, realizing as he spoke that Ruka probably would have never had to do such a thing before if he hadn't ever received brand new sneakers. How silly of him to have given them to the other boy right out of the box instead of making sure they were ready to actually try on instead.

Taking one of the shoes in his hand, he undid the tie made by the factory before attempting to pull up the tightened laces set by set. They might still have been too small for him, but sneakers were the sort of shoes that one kind of had to break in before they could feel comfortable. If Ruka had only worn second-hand shoes previously, chances were they had already all been broken in for him, so he might not have realized that new shoes could also seem strange even if they were the right size.

The next question Ruka posed to the Slytherin about if there was more than one thing he should have been worried about didn't draw Jack's gaze from the laces he was loosening. It troubled him more than he was prepared for because it was the sort of probing, careful, clever question his parents asked him when they somehow knew something was wrong but he wasn't directly telling them what. Since he refused to be direct, they would play his game in order to get him to slowly, steadily open up about what the problem was. And they would always, always win.

Was it possible Ruka had the same, unnerving intuition about him that they did? They were the people who had borne and raised him, but Ruka...what excuse did he have for knowing how to get at Jack's weak points? The Slytherin still had no clue and it freaked him out a bit.

"Oh! Duh, the letters I sent you! Right," he chuckled, slapping his forehead with his palm. "Hahaha, I'm doing so much better, I must have completely forgotten I'd needed to send those letters in the first place. Sorry about that."

However good or bad his attempt at keeping up the mood was, however, a chill ran down his spine like a trickle of ice water once Ruka mentioned having met Selim. If he had been nervous before, his mind was now in utter panic. Oh no. What'd they talk about? What he say?

Jack suddenly felt as though he had not only been caught in a trap due to his own lack of caution, but that the one who'd set the trap in the first place was watching him, waiting to see if he would come quietly or put up a fight. Even if that person was Ruka and even if Jack knew he had set the trap because he cared and worried for Jack's sake, the Slytherin still couldn't help but feel like he needed to find some way to escape. It felt to him like he was being cornered by the conversation.

Done with loosening the laces, he passed them over to Ruka and met his vivid green gaze. "What did he tell you?"

@Ruka Tân

@Jack Burnett

Ruka returned Jack's teasing grin with a fond little smile, shaking his head at the other boy like the topic wasn't of any importance. It wasn't, really. There was nothing interesting to the story, but the way Jack tried to get a glimpse at his feet, possibly to examine the extent of his injuries, made Ruka want to share anyway. "This kid startled me," he explained with a little shrug. "Uh, Ross his name was. Ross Stephens?" 

With a little chuckle he put the rest of the socks he wasn't going to put on for now on the floor beside him, a smile on his face when he turned to look at Jack again. "It was nothing, he just wanted to ask some questions. I didn't expect him to be there and he caught me in the wrong moment." He lightly bumped his shoulder into Jack's, eyebrows raised in the Slytherin's direction. "Was it worth it?" he repeated with a small laugh, thinking back on the kid with his strange instrument and his unhealthy curiosity about things that surely shouldn't have been any of his concern. "Not really." With that he just shook his head and decided to focus his attention on trying on his new shoes again.

As he adjusted his socks a little, he couldn't keep the bright smile off his face as Jack talked about his mother with a fond expression on his face. No matter how much the Slytherin thrived of complicated and mostly negative relationships, Ruka felt like whenever he talked about his family he was just a young boy who loved his parents despite their flaws. It was a small glimpse into the fact that Jack hadn't given up completely on positive relationships with people, no matter how obligated he might have felt to keep up this one because of blood ties. 

"Well, I love them," he just said lightly, eyes aflame with gratitude. "Make sure to tell her thank you from me in your next letter." He didn't say it, was quite sure that Jack would have waved off any gratitude directed at him like it was nothing, but Ruka hoped the other boy could see in his face how much he appreciated that Jack had taken the time out of his day to do this for him.

Of course, Jack may have argued that he had done it to pacify his worried mother, but he could have also just gotten one pair of shoes, trousers and a T-Shirt and called it a day. Instead he had gone to the trouble of picking out various items to suit any occasion and making sure Ruka had different sizes to try on as well, when the Fire Dancer would have really been fine with any oversized piece of fabric Jack may have thrown at him.
This was way more than he ever could have even dreamed of asking for, and the Thank You was burning in his eyes as he smiled at the boy next to him.

As Ruka struggled with the sneakers, eventually giving them up and putting them to the side, he was just about to reach for a different pair of shoes as Jack's voice made him stop his search for something else to try on, brows furrowed as he looked back at the Slytherin who'd now sat down next to him, one shoe in hand as he worked on the laces.
Curiously Ruka watched what Jack was doing to the shoe before grabbing the other one to mimic his actions. Loosen the laces? He didn't think he'd ever needed to do that with any of his previously owned shoes, but then again he'd never had new ones and most of the ones he had owned had been old and worn out.
None of them had been sneakers either.

As he stretched out the shoe in his hand carefully, he kept a close watch on Jack's face which didn't give a lot away for the moment. Ruka wouldn't have paid that any mind usually, but being as focused on the other boy's reactions as he was, the lack of physical response to his question made him feel like Jack was taking extra care to not give the Gryffindor much to read.

The way the other boy responded with an almost exaggerated relief made Ruka fidget uncomfortably. It was the first time, he thought, that Jack hadn't been open and upfront with him about something, and it didn't feel right. As much as he knew that the Slytherin wasn't obliged to tell him anything, a part of him had hoped that Jack trusted him enough not to play him like this.
His words may not have been a lie - maybe he'd forgotten about those letters, and maybe he really was feeling much better - but there was something uncomfortable that Ruka wasn't used to experience when talking to Jack, and he wished he knew how to chase that feeling away.

Mentioning Selim, it seemed, really didn't do the trick because where there was discomfort before, Jack seemed to be genuinely nervous about whatever it was that his dorm mate may have told Ruka during their encounter now.

While that reaction only served to confirm Ruka's suspicion that whatever had happened between Jack and Selim was something that wasn't supposed to reach an outsider's ears - Potentially something dangerous - the Gryffindor hadn't wanted Jack to feel like a caged animal under a spotlight. 

Ruka reached over to take the shoe from Jack, slight surprise flooding his face as he managed to slip it on without getting his heel stuck this time. "Relax, he didn't tell me anything," he said, pressing his lips together firmly for a moment as he struggled to tie the shoe laces back up again. He'd never really needed to bother with that; most of his shoes had already been tied for him and had been so worn out that all he'd needed to do was slip into them.
Once satisfied with the bow he'd managed to turn the laces into, he looked back up at Jack with a small, worried smile on his face. "But that doesn't mean I can't put one and one together. I'm not stupid, you know?" He chuckled lightly as if that could possibly lighten the mood, but he doubted Jack's nerves would ease up until he knew exactly how much Ruka had been able to figure out.

Sighing quietly the Gryffindor took a look at his left wrist, the one Selim had gripped and pinned against a wall so hard it had caused all his freshest burn blisters to burst open and stain his skin with sticky discharge. The skin was still loose, red and irritated where Selim's hand had been, but it was healing without causing any infection so Ruka couldn't really complain. "I'm not asking you to tell me anything," he said calmly, eyes drifting back to meet Jack's gaze, concern darkening his irises. "But Selim acted like I should be happy you're alive." He took a deep breath, shaking his head at himself.

Maybe it had been a stupid decision to confront Jack with this right off the bat, but he felt like the Slytherin deserved to know that Ruka was aware of there being a situation between him and Selim that was far more severe than either of them was trying to let on. "He also told me not to stick my nose where it doesn't belong." He chuckled a little at his admission of poking into business that he wasn't supposed to be concerning himself with, one hand moving up to run through his hair in a nervous gesture. "And maybe he's right. It's none of my business what you do. Or what he did, more like." He lowered his gaze like he was ashamed of getting himself involved in Jack's business like this, his fingers tapping a frantic One, two, three against his left knee. "But I know he did something, Jack, and it's not..." His fingers kept tap, tap, tapping against the fabric of his joggers, and for a moment he felt like he was back in that corridor with Selim, pressed against that wall, frozen in fear. "It's not letting me sleep at night."

"Oh...Stephens," Jack repeated thoughtfully, recalling the boy from his and Flash's potions class - the one very same one he'd met just the day before. Not that Ruka needed to know that. "Cursed Hufflepuffs...always sticking their meddlesome badger noses where they shouldn't..."

He didn't seem any more mollified by Ruka's explanation, but when the fire-dancer acknowledged with a playful shoulder bump that the injury hadn't been worth it, Jack had to laugh. "Guess I'll just have to pay him back for that, then..." Maybe Ross hadn't caused the burn intentionally or directly, but that just made it more of an interesting challenge to come up with a suitable equivalent.

The first-year was drawn out of his various fantasies by the Gryffindor's proclamation of love for...was it his shoes? His socks? Mothers in general? Or Jack's parents? Probably the clothes Jack had picked out for him. Jack looked away bashfully, his hand anxiously rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, alright...wait, why do I have to tell her? You can mail them too, you know. In fact, they'll probably appreciate one from you more than me."

He was fairly certain he couldn't even begin to convey the fiery gratitude emanating from Ruka right then, anyway, especially not for a few items he himself had picked out and bought. "If you write your own letter, she'll also be less likely to think I'm just telling her that you like them and that you're grateful to make me look good and to get her to leave me alone."

It was nice, just hanging out with Ruka like this. Like they were a couple of regular boys, not magical kinds in some wizard boarding school with very different backgrounds and previous lifestyles. Jack had almost forgotten how comfortable it was to just be around the other boy. He was usually much too preoccupied with how others perceived him and what he perceived of them, but with Ruka...none of that seemed to matter somehow.

Well...unless one of them was worried about the other, which sadly seemed to be the case too often, especially just when they were beginning to relax around each other again. Jack could tell by the way Ruka began to fidget that his own performance had been lackluster. And what else could he have expected? Even at his best, the second-year could see through Jack's act in an instant. It was no use when one of them tried to keep the other from worrying because, naturally, that just caused the other boy to worry that much more. Jack had known from the start that he'd have to tell Ruka sometime, he just...hadn't thought he would have to tell him so soon. He didn't feel prepared enough; especially since, thanks to Selim, Jack wasn't sure how much Ruka already knew.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to calm himself, as he often tried to practice doing, and exhaled slowly. When Ruka told him to relax, he couldn't help snorting with grim amusement.

"Don't lie," he teased playfully as he opened his eyes back up to cast Ruka an indignant smile. "You just told me he'd said some things were a bit troubling and then you say he didn't tell you anything. How does that make sense?" His gaze returned to the boxes and packaging material removed from the shoes, his smile fading once more. "He must have told you something to trouble you."

He sighed again, then turned to look at the bow Ruka tied. "Looks good," he remarked, patting the side of the shoe before pushing himself back up onto his feet. He had begun to feel restless, like he needed to pace in order to get the gears in his mind properly turning.

As he began to walk the perimeter of the room, he continued to listen to Ruka's voice echo off the walls. Yes, of course he knew Ruka wasn't stupid. In fact, he was so far from stupid, it unnerved Jack and it always had since the day he'd met him. That same intelligence was also intensely intriguing, though, so Jack couldn't get himself to ignore it - like a fire you knew was dangerous, but you couldn't help staring at and trying to get closer to all the same. In talking with Ruka, had Selim found an interest in the other boy as well?

Well, that didn't matter. What mattered was he had been willing to do whatever he'd had to to regain Selim's trust. He wasn't about to lose Ruka's over a silly little secret like this. The Gryffindor would understand, right? He had to. He seemed to mysteriously understand everything else about Jack's reasoning and motives. Why would this have been any different?

Eventually, Jack had walked right back around to where he first started, hands neatly clasped behind his back. He smirked at his upperclassman.

"So much for him not telling you anything," he said, his gaze grazing those tapping fingers again. Then he briefly closed his eyes for the duration of another deep inhale and exhale. It seemed both boys each had their own methods of coping with tough situations, and if it was difficult for Ruka to confront him about this, the least Jack could do was try to meet him in the middle.

"I guess if it's keeping you from sleeping, I have no other choice, do I? That's one way to make it your business, I guess..." he continued with a forced laugh. "I was going to tell you eventually, I just wasn't prepared to do it right this minute."

"First things first, though." Jack gestured toward the things Ruka had already tried on and liked the fit of. "All the things you want to keep, you can put in that travel trunk. The smaller, fancier one is for you to keep all your dad's things in from now on. We can get them magically locked later so they can't be opened with a simple spell. As for the rest...you can just keep them in their boxes and put them against the wall there. I'll return them when I get the chance." As he spoke, he nodded toward each trunk to indicate the ones he meant and opened them to make it easier for Ruka to put things in.

That finished, he seated himself back down across from Ruka and amid all the other boxes, bags, and parcels that hadn't been touched yet so he could pass them to their potential owner as he opted to try them on. No sense in wasting time while they could multitask. Besides, maybe keeping his attention divided between the task of trying on new clothes and listening to Jack talk would make it easier for Ruka to take in what had to be said.

"A while back, near the start of February, Fangs disappeared from our dorm without a word; spoken, written, or otherwise. I expect he was trying to take precautions against whatever mayhem the new month had begun to bring, what with the candies going around and him spouting some nonsense about fearing crazed fan girls. Of course, this wasn't enough of a reason for me.

I was angry because I felt that in running away, he wasn't really thinking about anyone else. For all I'd known, he could have been kidnapped like he said he had before right from his own home. Because he'd grown up pretty much left to his own devices, he wasn't used to being considerate of others. He didn't think about things like the possibility of him having a panic attack while he was around other students. He'd almost strangled our other dorm mate the last time that happened and he might have succeeded if I hadn't been there to calm him down, so you can probably understand why I was worried - not just for his sake, but for the sake of anyone he might have ended up encountering." Jack sighed, remembering Selim's state of mind after that incident had occurred in the showers. "He had been pretty hard on himself, too, once he'd realized what he'd almost done. Called himself a monster, asked me what he should do, talked about how maybe everyone would be safer without him around. I couldn't let a repeat of that happen again."

Reaching for a bag with a series of coats on hangers, he moved them to a place that would be easier for Ruka to reach when he was ready to try those next. Then he continued his story. "I didn't want to draw anyone's attention to the fact that Fangs was missing lest they tried to seek him out themselves and caught him in a bad state. So instead, I asked around for one of those maps of the school; the ones that let you see where everyone is at any given time. An upperclassman in my year - Kurt - let me borrow his enchanted map, so I gave him a favor in exchange. I soon discovered Fangs had holed himself up in one of the unused classrooms on a higher floor. When I got there, I thought about how to confront him, but I was so irritated with him, I couldn't think rationally. I decided to try to 'teach him a lesson' with the Valentine's Day card I'd just acquired, especially since you had already given me another for back up."

The Slytherin ran a hand over his face and groaned, feeling stupid now for his curiosity-influenced and emotionally-impaired choices back then. "I ripped it open and slid it into the room under the door like a smoke bomb. He didn't come out, so I went in. Guess the first thing he saw after being affected by the scent was sushi, because then he became devoted to the stuff all day after that." He tried to chuckle. "I suppose it was better than him falling in love with his various knives or poisons or needles, and while it was bizarre to see him so...cheerful and happy, I didn't think it was so bad." A soft, small smile played on his lips. "I gathered all his stuff - must have been planning to stay there the whole month with how much he'd stored in that room - and managed to coax him back to our dorms. I stayed with him the whole day, making sure he had as little contact with other people as possible. But when he came to, Fangs wasn't pleased."

Jack glanced over at Ruka, his expression impassive. "He said that when I exposed him to that potion, it made him all the more paranoid as to how vulnerable he actually was and that he realized he couldn't trust me like he'd thought he could. He said I'd put him in danger by messing with his mind as I had, and even though I countered that I'd stayed with him the entire time he was under that spell, the fact remained that I'd subjected him to it in the first place, especially without knowing its full effects." The Slytherin shrugged, eyes drifting to his own hands. "So I told him I'd give him permission to do whatever he wanted to me for a full day...so long as it meant I could earn his trust back."

@Ruka Tân

@Jack Burnett

Ruka raised his eyebrows slightly when Jack called Ross a Hufflepuff, which was information enough to know that the Slytherin had had personal contact with the other boy before. Maybe they had shared some classes, or maybe they had had in-depth conversations before, but Jack seemed to know more about Ross than Ruka did, because the Gryffindor really hadn't cared to figure out which House the other day's nuisance had been in. 

Snorting quietly, Ruka rolled his eyes fondly at Jack's words of having to pay Ross back for the injury he'd caused the Fire Dancer somehow. It was just like the Slytherin to demand equivalent payment for caused harm; wasn't that essentially what the prank on Flash and Slug Boy had been about? Of course, in this instance, Ross hadn't intentionally caused Ruka to injure himself like he had, and he was pretty sure Jack understood that, so he didn't bother speaking up in the boy's defence, simply hummed in faint curiosity. 

"Pay him back?" he repeated, amusement lacing his voice. "It wasn't your feet that got injured, was it?" He realised that that probably wasn't argumentation enough to keep Jack from whatever it was his mind was already working on, but he wanted to point it out anyway.

No matter what Selim had suggested the other day, he didn't need Jack to fight his battles for him.

Deciding that Ross was far less important than all the boxes and bags around him, Ruka decided to drop that subject for the moment to instead focus on all the clothes he would have to try on to figure out what fit him and what didn't. With all this choice, he realised with another spark of enthusiasm, he even had the freedom of deciding what to keep based on whether he liked it or not, or whether he felt it suited him or not. It was a strange new feeling, and for a moment he felt far too spoiled to be comfortable, but Jack's words distracted him from that thought almost immediately.

"I can?" he asked slowly, eyes glistening with an emotion he couldn't quite pinpoint. He had never considered the option of sending Jack's family a letter; It would have felt like overstepping some invisible boundary. The last person outside of Hogwarts Ruka had ever sent owls to had been his dad, and since then the Gryffindor had simply surrendered to the fact that outside of these castle walls he was all by himself, without any remaining support.

The permission to send an owl to Jack's parents himself, he thought, also made the fact that Ruka actually had somewhere to go over the summer more real than it had been thus far. While the Gryffindor had never doubted Jack's sincerity of inviting him to stay at his family's place over the summer, there were so many things that could easily disrupt plans like that; During the two weeks Jack had been avoiding him after the Valentine's Party, Ruka had already resigned himself to the fact that he was going to spend his summer back on the streets again after all.

"Alright," he said, excitement brightening his features even more than the sight of all of his new clothes had. "I'll write them. I'll make sure they know how much I appreciate your fashion taste." He laughed brightly before reaching for yet another box of shoes, pulling the unnecessary paper out just to leave it on the ground next to him, a small pile of waste already forming to his left.

With the mood this light between them, it was even more obvious how much it fell once Ruka had started to stir the topic to something much more grim than parents and letters and clothes, and for a long while the Gryffindor regretted the fact that he hadn't given Jack more time than this after his return from whatever recovery he'd been in. 
Maybe the Slytherin would have come to him with whatever had happened himself if Ruka hadn't immediately jumped at him like this, but how was he supposed to wait when Selim's voice was still crawling across his skin like a rash each time he tried to close his eyes?

Ruka gnawed on his bottom lip lightly as he watched Jack taking a calming breath, confirming his feeling of the Slytherin's nerves flaring up over the subject the Fire Dancer was breaching. He almost wanted to reach out to do something, maybe pull Jack into a hug or pat his back or squeeze his hand, but he held himself back, concentrated on tying his shoe laces into a bow instead.

The tease directed his way made Ruka roll his eyes slightly, but the words stung into his own pride as he quickly shook his head. There were many things he thought of himself as, most of them anything but positive, but he didn't think he was a liar, especially not around Jack. Still, how was he supposed to explain the extend of his conversation with Selim to someone who hadn't been there without making it sound contradicting one way or another?

"He didn't tell me about anything he did to you. Better?" he corrected himself quickly as he watched Jack get off the floor, probably to walk off some nervous energy. "Didn't tell me he did anything to you either, but it didn't take a genius to figure that one out." Brows furrowed he kept a close eye on every single one of Jack's steps, almost as if to examine him for any signs of physical discomfort. Was he limping? Did he wince every few steps? Roll his shoulders a little too much or pat his hands over certain body parts a little too often? However, for now the Slytherin wasn't giving much away, and either it was because whatever harm Selim had inflicted on him had already healed properly, or because Jack was trying hard not to show any discomfort.

The thought that maybe he was making things out to be worse than they actually were didn't even cross his mind; Jack had been gone for a week, and Selim had stared at his hands like he had committed a gruesome crime, which was already evidence enough to Ruka that whatever had happened had left more than a few bruises here and there. 

Ruka didn't move from his spot on the floor as he watched Jack pacing the room, waiting patiently for the Slytherin to come to a halt in front of him again. 

Where Jack was already a good deal taller than him when they were both standing, in this moment Ruka felt towered over as he looked up at the other boy with a clouded, apologetic gaze, fingers tapping against his thigh nervously, a constant echoing of One, two, three, One, two, three. The Slytherin's words made his lungs fill with guilt instead of air each time he tried to take a breath, chest burning uncomfortably. 
He should have known that he was supposed to give Jack some time to talk about this - whatever this was - but he had been so caught up in his own curiosity and worry most of all, he didn't think to consider the other boy's needs in the matter.

It had been selfish to push Jack into cold waters like this, but now he had opened this box and they would both have to deal with whatever monsters would be crawling out of it.

The forced laugh that accompanied Jack's words made Ruka cringe inwardly. It was such a contrast to the way they had interacted with each other just a few minutes ago, when they could both pretend like there wasn't some grim secret between them that was supposed to darken their features and muffle their laughter. It made Ruka want to get off the floor and apologise for bringing this up, made him want to throw himself into the bags of clothes surrounding him to distract from the topic they were about to dig into, but he knew that it was too late to turn back now, so he merely hugged his knees close to his chest for a moment, fingers carefully tracing the fabric of his new shoes.

He didn't feel like he deserved them.

His teeth caught his bottom lip once more, the metallic taste of blood grazing the tip of his tongue as he finally broke the skin where his teeth had been digging in too much, too hard and for too long. The temporary change of subject caught him a little off guard, but his eyes found the trunks Jack was talking about anyway and he managed a slow nod to show that he understood. His gaze followed the Slytherin as he opened the trunks as if to prepare them for when Ruka wanted to fill them.

"Thank you," he said gently, unsure for which part specifically he was showing his gratitude; For opening the trunks? Getting the trunks in the first place? Maybe it was a belated thank you for the clothes? Or maybe it was gratitude for the fact that Jack was willing to talk about this despite the fact that he had hoped to have some more time before needing to deal with this conversation.

Either way, Ruka offered Jack a weak smile as the other boy sat down again, this time across from him rather than next to him. 

Sensing the start of a flood of information that was most likely going to be a lot to take in, Ruka reached for another box of shoes, nodding gratefully at the way Jack helped out by handing him the things that were a little too far out of his reach. While it kept Ruka from consistently tapping his fingers against his leg, he imagined that the activity of going through all the new clothes they were seated amongst might also help Jack with getting through this talk.

Listening to Jack's words intently, Ruka slipped out of his new sneakers - not without loosening the ties first - and instead tried on a pair of black loafers just to immediately put them to the side against the wall after realising that they were a good two sizes too big. 
Taking another box of shoes from Jack's hands, he looked up for a moment when the other boy talked about Selim almost strangling another dorm mate of theirs, and he found himself strangely calm at that information. While he couldn't say he really knew Selim, after everything he'd seen of him so far, he couldn't say he was particularly surprised that his clearly fragile state of mind had made him lash out at another student like that.

He had put a sword to Ruka's throat relatively unprovoked before after all. 

In a way it actually made him feel grateful that his last encounter with Selim had ended with something as tame as being slammed against a wall instead of being strangled or stabbed. 
To show his understanding of the situation Jack was describing, Ruka nodded slowly, biting at his bottom lip again upon hearing how Selim had called himself a monster after what had happened with his dorm mate. He remembered the thoughtful expression on Selim's face when Ruka had called him a bad omen, how easily he had accepted the possibility of that being true. 

Letting himself be distracted from his train of thought by Jack moving a bag of coats closer to him, Ruka kept listening to the other boy's story about the map he used to figure out Selim's location, and the Valentine's Card he'd used to try and coax him from his hiding spot, while pulling out a dark green coat that caught his eye, struggling slightly with getting it off its hanger. He kept his eyes on the article of clothing as he stood up to try on the coat, smoothing his hands over the soft fabric in awe. It may have been a little bit too big on him, but he felt like soon enough he would hopefully grow into it, maybe finally gain some weight so he'd be able to fill it out nicely, so he took it off again to fold it up nicely before putting it into the trunk Jack had opened for him to put in his new clothes.

Despite the fact that he'd continued trying on some more clothes - There were three pairs of shoes, two coats, some ties, a pair of festival robes and a new winter cloak in the trunk by the time he sat down again - the groan that escaped Jack's lips didn't escape Ruka's attention, and for a second he thought it may have been a telltale sign of discomfort from whatever injuries he may have had, but after a moment he realised that it must have been frustration at himself for the way he had tried to use that Valentine's Card in order to get Selim out of his hiding spot.

As Ruka sat down again to rummage through another bag of T Shirts, he frowned slightly. It didn't sound to him like there was any harm caused by Jack's actions - Falling in love with Sushi for a day surely couldn't have been the worst thing Selim had ever experienced, especially not after everything he'd told Ruka about his upbringing just a couple of days ago. Physical and emotional abuse sounded far more harrowing than Obsessive love for fish and rice for Twenty Four hours. 

Still, to Selim's already messed up, paranoid mind it seemed to have been a violation of sorts that Ruka couldn't fully understand but also didn't feel he had any right to judge. He couldn't even start to imagine the sorts of things Selim had running through his head on the regular; Maybe if he'd gone through the same things the other Slytherin boy had he would have had an easier time sympathising with him over what appeared to Ruka as nothing but a harmless little prank.

Putting the bag of T-Shirts to the side for a moment, Ruka was about to ask what exactly this story had to do with the past week, but just then Jack gave him an answer to that question by explaining how he had decided to gain back Selim's trust, and it made the Gryffindor drop the bag of dress robes he had just been holding on his knees, eyes wide with building anxiety.

"No," he muttered to himself as Jack finished, eyes roaming the other boy's body from head to toe for a moment as if there was a possible way for him to spot any kinds of scars or marks of barely healed wounds through his clothing. 

Kidnapping, torture, abuse

The words ran down his spine with the exact same chill they had when Selim had first said them to him. He remembered wondering back then what one might be able to do to another person if they had experienced as much pain in their life as Selim had.

Was he about to get an answer to his question?

He fidgeted uncomfortably, straightening his back as he slid himself a little closer to where Jack was sitting. 

I did as he requested.

Ruka could still hear the words in his head like Selim was whispering them into his ear at this very moment, and he could feel goosebumps rising on his arms, his neck tingling uncomfortably as his mind ran wild with harrowing thoughts of what Selim could have possibly done to make sure he could trust Jack again. 

"So he hurt you," he concluded numbly, eyes fixing on a spot somewhere above Jack's left shoulder as if he couldn't bear looking at the other boy for the moment. He thought he would feel more anger directed towards Selim, but instead he just felt a cold emptiness eating away at his insides. "For a whole day." He shook his head at himself, shoulders tensing up the more he played this new information over and over in his head.

Kidnapping, torture, abuse

Whatever Selim had done exactly, Jack hadn't gone to the Hospital Wing with it. Had he had any potions or salves to help him through the injuries he had certainly obtained? Had he just cured everything out the Muggle way?

No wonder it had taken a week for him to show his face around the castle again.

"Didn't he?" It occurred to him in that moment, that Jack hadn't actually told him what exactly Selim had done, but with all the information he had gathered so far it was the only thing that made sense. "You gave him permission to do whatever he wanted to do to you and he decided to hurt you."

And you let him, he added quietly, a rage building inside him as he averted his eyes, head turned to the side for a moment. You stupid idiot.

His hands balled into fists for a moment, a burning hot anger making its way up his oesophagus like bile. In an instant the emptiness inside him was replaced with a variety of emotions ranging from worry and fear to absolute hatred for Selim and whatever it was that he had inflicted on Jack. He could feel his body trembling with it, could hear his breath coming out in ragged pants as he tried to digest everything he had just been able to put together from the fragments of information given by Selim and Jack.

Forcing himself to look back at the Slytherin in front of him, he could feel the hate and anger leaving his body, leaving nothing but worry behind, his expression painfully contorted. 

"Did you heal alright?" he asked, voice shaky with concern, brows furrowed. A part of him wanted to let Jack know exactly how stupid he thought this deal was, but he didn't think it would do any good to patronise the other boy about his decisions like that. 

Not right now.

It made sense now too, Selim's strange use of the word healing. Ruka had thought it unfitting back then, how he would use a word like that to talk about something like a cold, but clearly he had been talking about whatever wounds he had inflicted on Jack's body.

Shaking his head, Ruka carefully reached a hand out to place it atop of Jack's left wrist, hoping not to brush any sore spots. "Was it worth it?" he asked, echoing the Slytherin's question from back when their conversation had still revolved around Ross and how he had caused Ruka's injuries.

For Selim's sake, Ruka really hoped the answer would be yes.