Pleasant Interruption PV Ruka Closed

@Willow Anderson

Ruka really hadn't known what to do with himself that day.

So soon after the Talent Show he was still buzzing with excitement from it, and he'd woken up far too early as per usual whenever his nerves were fluttering like this. He'd gone for breakfast early - There had only been a handful of other students around, which at least gave him time to recharge by himself with a plate of baked beans on toast before he headed to the library to check out a couple of random books.

He hadn't had a reason to get a book on water plants and another on Magical Inventions in the 1920s aside from the fact that his mind was too restless to really be able to focus on any one thing he was actually interested in. It had been much easier to just pull out random books and make it his mission to read them whether they were actually interesting or not. Reading - reading whatever, really - should really help in making him feel calmer, so he took his books and made his way back to his dorm room to just relax on his bed for a while.

Only once lunch came around did he put the book on Water plants down to get dressed in his favourite red and green sweater and a pair of ripped jeans he hadn't worn before. With a pair of brown boots on his feet he made his way to lunch, the book on Magical Inventions under his arm the whole time as he plated himself as much food as he could stomach.

Eating as much as he had been recently still felt difficult and he struggled with it more often than not, but with the Talent Show having taken so much of his energy he actually felt hungry. He spent a long time at lunch, mostly keeping to himself as he munched his way through everything that looked even just vaguely appetising.

Once his belly was satisfied with the amount and variety of food it had gotten, Ruka made his way through the Small Hall and out into the Courtyard, deciding to spend the second half of his day in the fresh air instead of locked away in his dorm again. For a second he considered just staying by the fountain to read, but he figured he might as well just visit his favourite tree by the Lake to sit beneath. It was one of the best spots in Hogwarts in his opinion so it would surely help in calming down his excited nerves.

There were a few students around, but most of them had stayed further away from the Lake, probably because temperatures tended to be a bit cooler around large bodies of water and everyone was trying to stay as warm as possible. However, Ruka could see one person he could recognise relatively close to the Lake, looking like she was just... meditating?

Willow's hands were resting palm-up on her knees and from what Ruka could tell, her eyes were shut, her face calm, features twitching here and there as if she was having an intense conversation with herself in her mind.

Curiously Ruka moved closer, grinning slightly as he considered sneaking up from behind and poking her with a branch or tickling her neck with some leafs just to have a laugh, but as he remembered the way she had cried and completely broken down at Opeila's birthday party, talked about how she'd been bullied back home, he decided against pulling a stupid, juvenile little prank like that.
Instead he just moved as close as possible before sitting down across from the Hufflepuff girl, pulling his knees to his chest and steadying his chin on them. He watched her like that for a little while, eyebrows raised in an unvoiced question, but he didn't dare speak in fear of startling her out of whatever kind of trance she seemed to be in in this very moment.

She was going to have to open her eyes again some time, right?

Interacting with @Ruka Tân

The meditation session had been going... as alright as it could be going. The answers from her Gods were always confusing and vague at best, and silent at worst. They had gone eerily silent for her last few questions. Usually this would indicate the end of their Q&A with her, but Willow was stubborn for once and she hadn't talked to them in so long. Didn't they miss her? I mean sure, they had a ton of people probably asking them questions but she liked to believe she was quite the special witch. Willow's eyebrows furrowed together, her eyes squeezing shut even tighter, as if that would bring them back. "Come on..." Of course, at this point a certain Gryffindor had sat himself in front of her though she had no clue. Quite a risky move to just sit yourself in front of someone in deep meditation, but a move he took nonetheless.

With a low growl, she shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. Fine, you're done. I get it." She muttered some closing prayer quickly, which would be hard to decipher if the person listening wasn't familiar with it. After a couple more moments of her eyes being peacefully shut, they fluttered open. A yelp emerged from her throat and as she moved to shuffle back her fist whipped out and made solid contact with Ruka's knees. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!" She started shaking her hand in pain, realizing just a moment after impact who was in front of her.

"What type of Gryffindor crazy do you have to be to just... sit in front of someone that's obviously in the middle of something." She shook her head in confusion. Funnily enough, the boy that was part of her meditative questioning was now sitting in front of her. Suddenly, she wondered how much she had spoken out loud. Generally she couldn't keep track, and she had no idea how long he had even been sitting there for. She decided not to let him in on just how worried she was about how much she had witnessed. Her arms pulled up her own knees to her chest, mimicking how Ruka was sitting in front of her.

@Willow Anderson

As Ruka sat in front of Willow, hugging his knees to his chest, he leaned in probably far too close for comfort to someone who was clearly not currently very aware of their surroundings. Though, was it really such a smart idea to not pay attention to ones surroundings on the Grounds of a magic school, this close to a Lake that housed some sort of murderous Squid and probably various other dangerous creatures?

Well, to each their own, he figured, and if Willow felt safe and comfortable out here under his favourite tree, who was he to blame her for that?

He tilted his head to the side questioningly as she started talking to seemingly nobody because - judging by the fact that she still seemed blissfully unaware of his presence - she certainly wasn't talking to him. Her words seemed to him like he was only getting one side of a conversation, and for a second he wondered if she was talking to one of the Hogwarts Ghosts and he just couldn't see it for some reason. Well, ghosts were kind of transparent, so maybe he just hadn't been attentive enough, but as he let his gaze drift from one direction to the other he still couldn't spot anybody Willow could possibly be talking to.

The conversation seemed to end quickly, however, with Willow muttering some words that sounded English from what Ruka could pick up, but he wasn't able to make much sense of them, probably wouldn't have understood any better even if he had been able to hear all of them. Only a few seconds later he could see Willow's eyelids fluttering as she slowly blinked them open again, and a wide grin spread on his face once he thought she had returned enough to acknowledge his presence.

Until she hit him.

Again.

Rather than hitting his face, her fist collided with his knees this time as she seemed to want to scramble away from the close proximity. While the punch to his cheek had not exactly been the most painful, this one was a barely there feeling, his knee caps only emitting a dull sense of pain for less than a second as Willow's knuckles made their impact.

The Hufflepuff girl, however, seemed to have gotten more pain than that out of her own punch, and Ruka couldn't help but press out an amused chuckle at her frantic words. "I didn't want to interrupt," he said with a little shrug, watching as she slowly shuffled into a position that mirrored his own. "Personally, I thought I was being very considerate, but if you want to call it crazy..." He took on a mock offended expression before letting it shift back to an amused smile again.

"What were you doing there?" he asked, a spark of curiosity lighting up his irises. "Just talking to yourself? Or do you have some kind of imaginary friend?"

Interacting with @Ruka Tân

A pout was prominently fixed on her face at the pain of the punch, she really had to learn how to do it right because every time she did it, it just hurt. Granted, 'every time' meant just Ruka and Jack. Funnily enough, they were friends so it made sense that both of them ended up with a punch from her. As he spoke her right hand idly spent to playing with the grass, not pulling it out or anything, just kind of running her fingers through it and into the dirt. It was a comforting feeling to her, one that she really didn't even realize that she was doing unless someone were to verbally point it out. The dirt was warm, and mostly dry. Which actually made her think that they could use some rain soon to nourish the Earth.

His laugh made her pout more, she could never come off as an intimidating angry. She was always just kind of... cute. Apparently. It was one of her least favorite qualities. "Ah yes, the first lesson in being considerate. Getting really close to someone when their eyes are closed. You've got it mastered if that's the case." Her small quip produced a small smirk on her face. Her words couldn't quite match his prowess, they hadn't since the first time they had explosively met. But she would take what she counted as a win wherever she could.

She was hesitant to reveal what she was actually doing, it felt embarrassing. A small blush came over her cheeks and her ears heated up a bit. Not that she was ashamed of her faith or beliefs, but revealing something so personal felt a bit weird. She had just shared it with Flash and Ross, and the whole time she had been incredibly protective over the whole process. But, at the same time she felt no need to hide from Ruka because of the last time he saw her besides him watching her paint at the Talent Show. He had seen sides of her that she usually hid away, so what was the point in hiding even more information.

Hesitantly, she began to speak. Making a point not to make eye contact with the lion boy. "I was praying... to my Goddess and God. I haven't talked to them in awhile... and I felt bad. But I asked too many questions about things and they just kind of disappeared. It's my fault. I didn't bring them an offering or anything because I don't have anything to give them. So I'm lucky they even talked to me in the first place." Willow leaned her head back against the tree and looked up towards the sky. "I've been real lazy with praying." A small sigh, and a sad look in her eyes. Just as quickly as the sadness appeared, she blinked and suddenly her eyes were lit back up. Just a bit dimmer this time. "What brings you to the lake anyway? I don't see many people make the trip all the way down here." Hopefully since she had shared a bit, he would to. If there was even anything to share.

@Willow Anderson

Willow's expression should have probably made him feel slightly guilty for his actions, but instead it only caused him to let out more laughter, eyes squinting with the amusement he felt. Nothing about the Hufflepuff girl was particularly intimidating, so Ruka could do nothing but lightly shrug his shoulders when she tried to lecture him about consideration.

"Yeah," he just said, voice still laced with laughter no matter how much he tried to swallow it down. "Master of consideration, that's me. I'm glad we're seeing eye to eye on that." Despite the fact that he tried to contain it, more chuckles fell from his lips and for a moment he lifted a hand to hide his amusement behind it. He thought himself to be ridiculously funny in that moment, hilarious even. After all, there hadn't been any lasting damage, no severe consequences for his actions, had there? So he was going to see the fun side of it. His mood was too happy and excited to let anything bring it down.

Slowly calming down again, Ruka placed a hand on the book he had put down next to him, shuffling around until he was in a more comfortable position, legs stretched out to his left. "Your Goddess and God?" he asked, all laughter gone from his voice for the moment as he realised the way Willow seemed to be avoiding eye contact with him. This was clearly not a joking matter, and while Ruka was not the most sensitive person around, he wasn't going to make her feel mocked for something that seemed to be important to her. "They talk to you? Who are they?" Was that even a sensible question?

Ruka had no real clue about religion, knew some Greek Gods, some Roman Gods, some Norse Gods, all from the stories his father used to tell him about, but the finer intricacies were lost to him. He'd never thought of finding any comfort in prayer out on the streets; The only thing he was really willing to put his faith in was himself.

"Bring them an offering?" he continued his questions, genuine curiosity smoothing out his expression, eyebrows only slightly raised as if to beg for answers. "What kind of offering? We're not talking human sacrifice here, right, because I know you and I have some troubled history, but I don't think I'd deserve to be sacrificed anyway." His words were meant as a joke and he actually managed to accompany them with a wink so he hoped Willow would pick up on the fact that he was merely trying to make fun of his own ignorance on the matter.

"What kind of questions were you asking?" he added to the things he was curious about, tilting his head to the side as he shuffled minimally closer as if that would make it easier for him to hear Willow's response.

Watching as the Hufflepuff leaned her head back before smiling sadly, Ruka hummed tonelessly as if lost in thought. The quick change in emotion and the new dimness in Willow's eyes were not lost on him but he thought it better not to comment on it at the moment. Instead he shrugged his response to her question before picking up his book on Magical Inventions and waving it through the air between them. "I was gonna do some reading," he said brightly, setting the book down on the ground again with a little sigh. "Thought it might calm me down a bit. I've been real jittery since the Talent Show so I figured some time by the lake, under my favourite tree..." He gesticulated towards the tree Willow was leaning against, poking his tongue out at her playfully. "Might do me some good. That's alright though." He chuckled, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Getting punched again kind of helped focus my mind a bit too."

Interacting with @Ruka Burnett-Tân

Ruka's laugh was an almost foreign sound to her. In the times that they had met it wasn't something she had been able to hear from him. But now it seemed to be there in plenty. Someone's laugh was one of her favorite sounds, even if it came out of teasing and jest between them. A small smile couldn't help but replace the smirk on her face as she lowered her defenses once more. Her legs dropped to have her sit criss cross rather than guarding her entire body with her legs. She rolled her eyes at his agreement of being the master of being considerate. "Oh great one, you just have to teach me your ways someday. Apparently the Hufflepuffs have it all wrong, for I thought we were the masters in that subject." Her eyes shifted to one of fake pleading, her hands folding together to truly sell the begging. Her own laugh bubbled up before she leaned back against the tree once more.

A small hum of thought came up as she thought about how to explain who exactly her God and Goddess were. It was hard to... personify them. "I mean, kind of? I think they talk to me. As a smaller kid I used to just think that them talking to me was just my own thoughts responding back to the questions I asked. But my parents told me that maybe it was, or maybe it was them guiding my own voice to the answers I already knew. It's all about belief. Believing that they are communicating with me, or that they're here. Without it they wouldn't exist at all. It's hard to explain... But in Wicca our God is the sun, and our Goddess is the moon. There's like a whole story with them in the seasons, but I won't bore you with it." She knew a lot of people were adverse to discussions about religion or the idea that there were things of a higher power. It was something that she had struggled with as a kid, and sometimes even struggled with now.

It only surprised her when Ruka was asking her more questions. An eyebrow raised at his suggestion of him being a human sacrifice. "Yeah, honestly I was hoping for someone else to come along for that but..." She shrugged halfheartedly. "Sometimes, a sacrifice is a sacrifice." She couldn't help but giggle before shaking her head. "Uh, no an offering of like... um, cheese, my parents use wine but I don't exactly have access to that. Maybe a specific herb that has to do with what you're looking to get answered, stuff like that. We offer it to them before we pray, then after we return it to the earth by burying it, pouring it out. Stuff like that. Basically returning what we've taken to the Earth back to it. To let them know that we appreciate their time in helping us and listening to us."

As if they weren't close enough, Ruka got even closer. She didn't exactly peg him for someone that like close contact, but if that's what floated his boat. She was up against a tree so it wasn't exactly like she could move away from him, but she didn't feel the need to really. Well, until he asked what she was asking her God and Goddess about. Was he trying to corner her into revealing all about her issues or did he actually care and want to know? She wanted to believe that he had good intentions, especially after him helping with her panic attack not too long ago.

"Um, well. I mean, I was asking them about how my parents are doing at home... because... I'm worried about them dealing with my grandma dying..." A deep sigh laced with uncomfortable and cautious feelings. "About Flash, and if I made the right decisions." Another pause, then quickly under her breath. "AboutifyouandJackshouldbetrusted." She coughed, obviously not needing to. "Then just about Hogwarts and stuff in general." This boy could be a Ravenclaw with how many questions he was asking, and she knew by revealing all she had only begged for him to ask her more.

She looked behind her at the tree she was leaning up against, and patted the side of it a couple times. "It's a good tree to be your favourite. Nice and sturdy, provides good shade. Not exactly as protective as a whomping willow though." She winked at him playfully. "I hope my punches always provide you an opportunity to clear your mind, they're magical in that way. Nothing says we can't share the tree though. It is big enough for two people to sit under it, unless you have something against sharing a tree." Ruka seemed like the kind of kid that would refuse to share his toys on the playground despite not even playing with them. Maybe he had some... special connection with the tree. Which honestly? She couldn't even judge. Trees were pretty great to connect to.

@Willow Anderson

It took a while, but eventually Willow's defensive posture shifted into something more at ease, her face lighting up with a little smile that made Ruka straighten up with heightened spirits. "Fear not," he told her, tilting his chin up as if he was a vastly superior being. "I see you and I have mercy. I shall bestow upon you the gift of Consideration." Before he could really finish his sentence he joined her laughter, fondly shaking his head at her fake pleading. It was nice to have a more lighthearted encounter with her, after their past ones hadn't exactly been the most fun imaginable.

When Willow started to answer his questions, Ruka hugged his knees close to his chest and rested his chin on them, listening attentively while she talked. None of what she was telling him about was something he could really relate to, had never really thought about that kind of belief before. Your own voice being guided to the answers you already knew... It sounded to him like it was mostly about believing in yourself and trusting that deep down you knew right from wrong. He didn't say that, however. It sounded like Willow was fully aware of the fact that there was a chance her God and Goddess were only her own thoughts responding back to her. If she wanted to hold onto a bigger belief than that, who was Ruka to try and take that from her?

"You wouldn't bore me," he told her honestly, eyes glistening with intrigue. "I enjoy stories. And learning about things I don't know about." With a little nod of encouragement, he straightened up again, letting go of his knees to instead mirror her own position with his legs criss-crossed. Whether she decided to tell him the story or not, Ruka would keep his eyes focused on her, filled with sparkling intrigue.

It seemed like she was surprised, somehow, that he was actually interested in everything she was saying about her beliefs and the things she was practicing, but she went along with his little sacrifice joke with nothing but a giggle to show she wasn't being serious, making him bubble up a laugh of his own before his expression turned darker again a little too abruptly.

"You bury things like cheese?" he asked quietly, averting his eyes for a moment, thoughts drifting beyond Hogwarts. "Wouldn't..." He shook his head to himself before he could bring himself to lock eyes with Willow again. "Wouldn't your God and Goddess prefer for those things to go to people who... who really need it? People who are..." He swallowed heavily and let out a weak chuckle. "People who are starving on the street, for example?" He bit his lip thoughtfully, tapping a quick One, Two, Three against his thigh before shrugging his shoulders as if it wasn't really that important.

Shaking his head off the thought, he instead listened intently to the questions Willow was asking her God and Goddess, and he instinctively reached out to place a hand on top of her's for just a second when she mentioned her grandma dying, but she continued talking before he could say anything about it. What was there to say anyway, when someone passed away? Ruka had yet to encounter someone who was actually able to say anything comforting about a situation like that.

The rest of her questions were a little more lighthearted, even made him laugh a bit when she mentioned him and Jack and whether they could be trusted under the disguise of an obviously fake cough.

"Did they give you any answers?" he asked curiously. "Before they disappeared, I mean." He smiled lightly before he started to shift as a result of her invitation to share the tree. Shuffling across the grass, Ruka eventually pressed his back against the rough bark of the tree, his left shoulder nudging Willow's right gently. "Were you close with your grandma?" he asked quietly, gaze drifting across the surface of the lake as if searching it for some long forgotten memory. "Do you miss her?”