Of Inner Peace and Bloody Noses PV Nico Closed

The event was going better than expected. Nico had chosen to sit a lil bit further away from the center of the entire thing. But close enough to keep an eye out that everything was going smoothly. After all the crap that has been going on, the enthusiasm of the participants, atleast could make her cold heart abit warmer these days.

By herself, she had another look at the many tutorials she put to their disposal. After owling her dad about some examples that could fit every house, he insisted that the Giraffe had to be in there aswell. Why? Her father had adapted to the Muggle life pretty well and he had a secret obsession with strange looking creatures. He hadn't seen much of the wizard world ones, but... he had a fair share of pictures of odd looking creatures. The giraffe was his number one favourite.

Daydreaming about her dad telling all the trivia about the tall savannah creature, it took her longer than expected to notice someone approaching her. A strong scent of iron hitting her nose. 'Gh-!' As if she had to flee for her life, her knee hit the table hard, her hands quickly sliding up to the bruise as she winced softly in pain. Squinting, she looked over to the student. 'I-I.. Yes, that's me.' The boys features were familiar to her. Vaguely. Wasn't this the other boy that she once gave detention to? Oh... Did he came to give her a taste of her own medicine? Took him a long time. Cautiously the redhead nodded, allowing him to sit near her, her hands now back on the table collecting the scattered papers ontop of it. The bruise on her knee was slightly throbbing. That was gonna become a black spot... Another black thing among her scars.

'I-.. Yes. I made this happen. Is there anything I can help-' WAIT A SECOND. WHY IS THIS BOY BLEEDING FROM HIS NOSE? Nico coughed, trying to get the thick red smell out of her system, as her hands started digging in her bag. Swiftly, she pulled out a blood-flavoured lolipop and put it in her mouth. Thank Merlin. The dhampir wasn't really hungry. She ate earlier and enough... But the smell was still quite a trigger. The last thing she wanted was to attack a student in the midst of everyone. Ruka probably didn't know that the candy had a blood flavour. If he'd ask, she would tell him it was strawberry or something...

'E-Ehm... May I ask what happened to your nose? You need help with that? I could walk you to the Hospital Wing, if that makes you feel more comfortable.' Subconsiously, she kept on staring at the napkin that had many red stains in it by now. He'd need to get a fresh napkin soon.

@Nico Shymane

Ruka had expected a lot of reactions out of randomly approaching a girl he'd not really met much while she was clearly busy with something, but the one he hadn't seen coming was the way his presence almost seemed to evoke some kind of flight instinct in her that made her bump her leg against the table with a painful sounding thud.

"Ouch, " he pointed out, though his expression didn't really change into much more than vague amusement. "That didn't sound so good. I didn't mean to startle you." He took a seat opposite her anyway, napkin pressed against his nose, paper dragon perched on the table in front of him. It didn't take long for her to confirm that she was indeed who he was looking for, but she also interrupted herself mid-sentence pretty quickly to instead... Suck on a lollipop?

Ruka watched in slight curiosity, wrinkling his nose under stinging pain at the red colour of it. Cherry maybe? Strawberry? It didn't matter much, really, but the speed with which she had gotten it out without even finishing her sentence first was still quite remarkable. "Hungry?" he asked with raised eyebrows, chuckling lightly. The movement and exhale of breath made his nose sting painfully some more but he had experienced worse before. This was nothing.

So much so, actually, that it almost surprised him when Nico addressed the fact that he was still holding that bloody napkin to his nose. It was getting a bit too dirty, so he reached his free hand out for another clean one and exchanged it swiftly. He balled the bloodstained napkin up in his fist, deciding to throw it away once this conversation was done rather than leave with it now or grossly put it on the table where people were eating. He may not have possessed a lot of social grace, but he wasn't that disgusting.

"It's nothing," he said with a dismissive wave of the hand holding the bloody napkin. "Someone punched me. I deserved it." Not really, actually. He didn't think he'd actually provoked Lydia enough for her to get violent, but he had seen the tension in her muscles very early on in the conversation, and he had expected it to happen. He had just been curious about exactly how many buttons he needed to press to get her to that point.

It had turned on he had barely needed to brush any of them.

"I can get myself to the Hospital Wing a bit later. It almost stopped bleeding anyway." He shrugged lightly and leaned forward slightly to rest his elbows on the edge of the table. "I came over to ask if there's any more of those origami instructions." An excited glint lit up his green irises, an excited energy buzzing through him to show exactly how fond he had grown at the idea of doing some more paper folding. "It's relaxing and I'm... having a hard time relaxing, mostly." He tilted his head to the side as if questioning his own words but then thought better than to elaborate any more of them.

There was no need for him to spill anything from the inner depths of his emotions to a girl he didn't know.

"Are there more shapes than these? Could I take some of those instructions back to my dorm?" He reached for the instructions of the paper snake, smiling lightly at the simplicity of it. His dragon had surely taken a lot more effort than that. "Are there Fox origami, maybe?" He had someone specific in mind when asking that question, but he kept that to himself as well.

He doubted Nico was all that interested in his motivations anyway.

'Ha..Hah.. Y-Yeah. I-I just rememberd I had these and felt like getting one.' Her fingers held tightly onto the stick of her lolipop, trying to calm down. He doesn't know. He has no idea. And that's good. Most of the Slytherins, which meant not everyone but alot of them, probably knew by now what she was. Some took it well, others seemed to be afraid of her because of it. That idea hurt her but there wasn't much she could do about it. If she remembered correctly, Ruka was a Gryffindor and because of that, had no clue what she was. Which was once again, a good thing.

Asking what happened, the boy casually mentioned he was punched. That wasn't.. nothing. 'P-Punched?By who? W-why?' Even if he did deserve it, that looked like one hell of a punch. His nose looked swollen and red. The way he pressed the napkin against it, Nico could tell by his facial expressions that it hurt alot aswell. Even though this wasn't an extreme emergency, the dhampir was determined to ease his pain (and her fight with the smell). Looking over her shoulder, a House Elf who helped out students with enchanting their paper creation, Nico kindly waved him over. 'Sorry could you bring me an ice pack please?' With a polite nod, he dissapeared out of sight for a moment. She did hear Ruka mention that the bleeding nearly came to a halt, but she'd still go through with it. It would be the best for both of them.

Her hands resting on the pile of tutorial papers, the Prefect was abit overwhelmed by the boys enthusiasm. Again. Honestly, she had never in her wildest dreams expected so many students to join in. Of course, most of them did for the price and rewards, but apparantly there were some true fanatics around. A soft blush rest upon her cheeks before a small humble smile curled on her lips. She understood his struggle. His struggle to truly relax. The dhampir could barely remember when it was the last time she had any decent shut eye. Must've been a few months now...
His words touched her. Even more so when she saw the dedication and detail that went in the dragon she offered them to make. It looked absolutely adorable and so neatly folded.

The House Elf returned with the ice pack she requested. Taking it in her hands, she slightly bowed her head, thanking the House Elf genuinly before handing it over to Ruke. 'Here. For your nose. It'll help.' If one would've told her she'd show kindness to this boy over a year ago, she would've frowned and scoffed. Her first experiences as a Prefect weren't exactly super fun but then again, were her experiences now any fun?

'And.. well sure. I got some more different ones. Let me look for it...' As if in a certain humble bliss, the redhead started to browse her big book of origami. There were alot of tutorials in there that only the ones who were truly dedicated, would get to see. 'I think there's an origami for anything you put your mind to. If... If I may. What's been keeping you up?' She asked it casually. Throwing it in his lap, so to speak. Her gaze however sticked to her book as it scanned the many pictures. Her ears however, were totally focused on the Second Year Gryffindor.

'It's fine if you'd rather... not talk about it, of course..' The last thing she wanted to do, was pry in someone elses personal matters. But the dhampir hoped that maybe, maybe... she could help him out.

@Ruka Tân

@Nico Shymane

Ruka frowned lightly at Nico's quick explanation about why she had suddenly decided to treat herself to a lollipop, something about her seeming almost nervous about him questioning anything beyond that, which was exactly why the Gryffindor felt like he had to.

"What flavour is that?" he asked with a curious head tilt as he dabbed carefully at some dried blood at the edge of his nose with the napkin. There was something about the way she clung to the stick of the lollipop like it was a lifeline that made him question that it was just some ordinary flavour. Maybe there was some kind of potion inside to help with the pain of her knee that she'd slammed against the table? "Is it one of those magic sweets? Like those Fizzing Whizzbees?" He still remembered the effect that one had when he'd stupidly taken one Jack had offered Willow, and the memory made him shudder inwardly. He didn't even want to know the effects half of those sweets had, but Nico's lollipop didn't seem to be having any immediate effects on her on the outside, so maybe it changed something on the inside?

However, the Slytherin Prefect seemed more concerned with Ruka's swollen nose, questioning who had caused his injury and why beyond the fact that he'd already told her that he had deserved it. As a prefect her sense of justice was probably stronger than Ruka's own indifference towards the matter. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything Nico had asked a House elf for an ice pack, which he had to admit he was quite grateful for. Despite the fact that he was happy to just let the stinging pain continue until he had the time to go to the Hospital Wing, some cold would surely numb the discomfort for now. "Uh, this Hufflepuff girl," he said vaguely, waving his hand through the air like he barely remembered her name anymore. "Lydia? Was trying to tell her about how violent one of the friends she keeps is but I must've gone too far. She didn't like that, so..." He chuckled lightly and shrugged his shoulders. "At least I know why those two get along so well now. Birds of a feather, right?" A little laugh escaped him but he stopped it almost immediately as it stretched his swollen skin painfully on the sides of his still lightly bleeding nose.

Grateful to move on from the topic, Ruka offered a small smile to the House elf bringing the ice pack before he took it from Nico with a nod. "Thank you," he said politely, hoping the Slytherin could tell that he was grateful for her consideration. Since he had told her he was fine she could have just moved on without trying to help any further, but she had still made sure to do what she was able to without sending him straight to the Hospital Wing. Ruka could appreciate that.

Peering curiously over at the book Nico was flipping through without actually observing the pages - He knew how much he hated people reading his books over his shoulder - he let his grin grow ever brighter as he gingerly held the ice pack against the part of his nose throbbing the most. If there was an origami for anything he would probably never run out of things to make, could constantly try something new and challenge his own patience and finesse. Additionally he would also grow his own little farm of paper animals; There was no downside to any of that, was there?

"I really appreciate that," he told Nico brightly as she told him she would look for more instructions, a childlike enthusiasm filling him as he fidgeted giddily in his seat. Her casual question about what had been keeping him up did nothing to decrease that excitement, but it did serve to focus his attention a little more rather than letting the giddiness make him forget that there was a reason for why he was asking for more origami instructions to take back to his dorm.

"I've gotten better at sleeping," he said quickly as if to make sure she knew he wasn't staying up all night and spending his days as a walking corpse anymore as he had been a while ago. "I just..." His face fell lightly. There was something about the fact that Nico wasn't looking at him but clearly listening attentively anyway that made him feel like he could talk without much judgment. "It's my head, I just... It won't stop." He pulled a face at his own words, almost rolling his eyes at the lack of eloquence they held. Well that was some useless information he had given her there.

Wanting to make up for that mess of a sentence, Ruka leaned back a little bit, adjusting the ice pack against his nose. "It's been a weird year," he said, shaking his head lightly. "My dad passed away last summer." He was almost impressed with the ease the words held, such a difference to the way he had sounded just a few months ago, brokenly telling Jack I miss him on top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night without being able to even specify who he was talking about at the risk of bursting into tears. The admission that had once been such a pain to release into the open now felt like not much more than a vaguely saddening fact. He still missed his dad, still mourned for him, but his mind had been filled with so many other things in the duration of the past four months or so, that it hardly seemed like the thing he should be focusing on all day long anymore. "And things just haven't been all that great since then, I guess."

'E-ehm... Strawberry...' She lied. Blood. She couldn't just say it had the taste of blood, right? That would be outrageous. Fizzing Whizzbees? Nico hadn't ever experienced the flavour and sensations of one of those. She heard stories of them but never had one herself. 'Uh.. They're not... magical. Not from..' Her eyes darted up and then back at him, making a small sphere with her hands. '... from this world. They're from my world. The Muggle world. I-.. eh.. Are you familiar with regular lolipops?' Do not ever assume things from others. Even if you had a bad experience with them. Well. Atleast if you only had one bad experience with them. If the majority of bad experiences overtook the minority then... definitely assume. No one in particular.

Ruka gratefully accepted her ice pack and gently pressed it against his nose. It put a humble warm smile on her lips, and her cheeks flushed into a soft pink. Whenever her kind gestures were appreciated, it made her feel worthwile and ... appreciated. 'A... violent friend?' It wasn't only because she was a Prefect that these words worried her, any other person would be curious about any person who'd be up for fighting and making trouble. 'Who's this friend?' Beside her, she took a blank piece of paper putting a quill beside it to write down the name. It wouldn't hurt to know, right? Her kind eyes grew colder than usual for a moment. The glint of warmth that usually lingered in her eyes flicked off for a brief second. Troublemakers were the worst.

'This Lydia sounds like... an interesting girl aswell.' The Hufflepuffs name would already be written down. 'Not very... usual for a Hufflepuff to become violent. Except... Nah. House doesn't really matter. We all have fighter types. The only difference is that some are smart and others are not.' She didn't make eyecontact with Ruka. He wasn't who she was referring to. It was a general thing that happened in this school and through experiences she had, she knew that stereotypes didn't always stick to tradition.

Her hands stopped turning pages and her fingers slid onto the picture of a origami fox. It looked adorable and elegant. Almost like a cat. Slim and cunning. Except it was made out of paper. Her eyes were on the picture, but her ears had put their focus on Rukas words. Sleeping sucked.

"My dad passed away last summer."

W-wh... Shocked, her eyes grew wide, still staring at the orange paper infront of her. His dad... died? It hit her harder than she had expected. Slowely, she looked up at him, a few red drops appearing in the corner of her ice blue hues.

"And things just haven't been all that great since then, I guess."

Nico wasn't sure what overcame her. It might've been the combination of lack of sleep, the strange relationship she endured with her peers and missing home... But the dhampir got on her feet and ran to one end of the table, to then return on his side of the same table. With her thin arms, she embraced him. His father had passed away and he still had the ability to smile. To be here and do things he loved. To... even speak of his own father without showing a single tear. Of course, he probably already cried for months since, but... It was impressive to the dhampir. This boy, was strong.

After a few seconds, Nico realised what she had done and quickly set a few steps back, rubbing away the tears in her eyes. 'I-I'm sorry. I don't know what overcame me... I- I just had to...' Her hand rubbed her forhead gently, as one of her eyes closed, embarassed. 'Im... sorry..'

@Nico Shymane

It had been a very simple question in Ruka's eyes but Nico still seemed to stumble over her answer like he had put multiple hurdles in her path, which was... Strange, to say the least.

"Strawberry," he repeated with raised eyebrows. "Are you sure about that? You don't sound so convinced." A small chuckle escaped him that he quickly hid behind his head so she wouldn't take offence to his reaction. He just couldn't help it, he had never seen anybody react quite like that over being asked what they were eating. The little mix up of possessive pronouns wasn't lost on him either and only furthered his suspicions that the Slytherin Prefect was potentially hiding something.

Something to do with the lollipop she had such trouble talking about.

"Your world," Ruka said, a little drawn out but it was difficult to determine whether he was trying to tease the words or if he was simply having a hard time enunciating due to his bleeding nose. "If it's from the Muggle World then that's my world too. I may never have had one before but I'm familiar enough with them to know that what flavour is it isn't a question that's supposed to make you this nervous." He dismissively waved a hand through the air, a spark of amusement lighting up his eyes. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to but please don't lie to me. I'm not fond of liars." A small smile on his face was supposed to communicate that he didn't begrudge her the lie, but a little nod underlined his words. Nico seemed like a nice enough girl, it would have been a shame for her to ruin his perception of her because of a silly lie about a silly topic.

Pressing the ice pack lightly against the bridge of his nose, Ruka lifted his shoulders in a shrug as if to tell Nico that the topic of this violent friend really wasn't all that important, but he had brought it up so the least he was able to do was to answer her questions. "Do you know Rafael D'Spacito?" He asked. With Rafa's violent tendencies Ruka wouldn't have been surprised if he had had multiple run-ins with various Prefects already. "He's a Gryffindor like me, but not necessarily the kind of person I'd like to represent my House. Or any House, really. He's quite... Brawn over Brains oriented, so to say." A nervous chuckle accompanied the words as his mind drifted back to almost being drowned in the fountain a good month ago, eyes darting to the side as he shook the thought off with a shiver.

Ruka could see the quill and paper Nico had prepared, clearly to take note of the name he was giving her, and for a second the Gryffindor felt a speck of guilt at putting Rafa in a Prefect's bad books. Then again, the other Lion had quite a reputation, especially after the Ball, so was there really anything Ruka could say to put him even more on a Watch-List than he was already on?

With a little sigh Ruka nodded in agreement to Nico's words about Houses not really mattering in determining who was most likely to get aggressive or not. "Everyone can get violent if they have the right - or wrong - buttons pushed," he pointed out with a shrug. "I don't blame her for punching me, really. Probably shocked herself more than she shocked me." After all, he had seen it coming minutes in advance already, had purposely provoked her with his words, even if they shouldn't have that much of an effect on someone with a sound mind. At least he had made her aware of the anger inside her. Now that she knew of it, maybe she'd be able to work on how to challenge it.

As Ruka told Nico about his dad and the rough school year he had had, his eyes followed her fingers to a picture in her book, a little smile tugging at the corners of his lips. She had found the instructions for a fox origami, a beautiful, graceful little paper creature that Ruka was already looking forward to recreating in his dorm room once he got there.

He was so preoccupied by that thought that he almost missed the little drops of red appearing in the corners of her eyes, like coloured tears. He wanted to ask about them, wanted to point it out just in case it was case for concern, but before he could she was just gone. Where she had been opposite him mere seconds ago there was now nothing but air, though it didn't take very long for her to show up again, on his side of the table this time. The embrace was light but made him tense slightly anyway, an awkward chuckle escaping him as he let himself be hugged for a moment, face flushing a bright red once she let go again. It was a good thing the bleeding had stilled because he assumed it would have only gotten worse with all the blood that had suddenly rushed to his face.

"T-that's alright," he said, smiling lightly at her, eyes focused on a spot to the left of her head. He wasn't quite used to physical affection, had always had a complicated relationship with touch, but he couldn't help feeling appreciative of Nico's comfort anyway. The speed with which she had delivered it made it seem genuine, and Ruka had always liked honest, unashamed reactions. "No need to apologise, it was just... unexpected." Offering her another smile he lightly patted the free space to his left as if to beckon her closer. "Come sit with me again, no need for you to just stand there. You didn't do anything wrong."

Tilting his head to the side, Ruka took a moment before deciding on commenting on the obvious despite the interruption of Nico's impromptu hug. "Uh," he started, lifting a hand to sheepishly rub the back of his neck. "Are you... aware that your... I assume they're tears, uhm... Are you aware they are red? That could be something serious, should you go to the Hospital Wing about that?"

Embarassed yet relieved, Nico answered his flustered reaction with a warm smile, rubbing away the remaining drops of red. As elegant as she could, the dhampir sat herself down next to Ruka, her hands turning the book of origami around to face her. Happy, that her sign of... sudden affection, didn't scare him too much. This didn't happen alot to her. But it did. Just now.
Imagening that her father would no longer be around kinda scared her. It only seemed natural to her that one would like some comforting, having experienced such loss.

Her hand gently turned a page to check the steps that needed to be taken to make the little fox and this next question had taken her by surprise. Right. She had been very emotional. Not realising that her tears had once more welled up as she had runned up to the Gryffindor.

'O-Oh... That. Well.' What now? Should she just tell him? But what if he hates her for it? What if he's scared of ... beings like her? Unless... He wouldn't be. But how could she be sure? It happened before. Others would watch her in shock and step away.
Then again, Ruka did say he didn't like to be lied to. The redhead gently tapped her finger on the small fox, carefully thinking what her next move should be. Swallowing hard, sitting up, her back straight. 'Well, you see. I'm... actually. A... dhampir.' She couldn't meet him eye to eye, her hands had slid down to the edge of the table, her fingers to only parts resting on it. Her ice blue eyes gazing down at them. 'It's... normal for dhampirs to cry blood, you see? It's pretty rough since, I cry quite alot.' She chuckled. It sounded genuine yet painfully embarassed aswell. Not sure what to do with herself, the Prefect stood up and stepped from behind the bench, hesitantly facing the Gryffindor. 'If I make you uncomfortable by being so, I can leave the book here. The steps are pretty easy to follow.' She smiled. Or she tried to atleast. There was a sad furrow in her eyebrows.

@Ruka Burnett-Tân