Burned Out PV: Jack B. + Ruka Closed

Interacting with: @Ruka Tân & @Willow Anderson

Despite Jack's comment about the room not being a bathroom, Willow didn't seem to hear him. He couldn't blame her; his voice had been soft through the slightly-open door and she was probably too preoccupied with her weeping to have paid him much mind or perhaps to even realize he was there. It was then that Jack felt someone gently take his amr and he looked over to see Ruka at his side. The copper-haired boy appeared distraught and the Slytherin wondered what had happened to have changed his demeanor so. Had it been Willow's reaction to their behavior? That couldn't have been it, could it have?

"This is my fault," the Gryffindor uttered, shaking his head with features reflecting deep regret and guilt. Jack studied him for a moment, brow creasing in confusion as he glanced at the slightly-ajar door. Then he looked back at Ruka and smiled.

"Sure you aren't giving yourself too much credit?" he asked, teasing. Jack put a hand on the other boy's shoulder. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I don't know what happened between you and them, but it seems like this issue between Flash and Willow was bound to come up sooner or later considering what kind of people they both are. Whatever your role was in their little spat, I'm pretty sure you didn't make either one of them do the things they did, so no claiming the blame for that."

By that time, however, Jack realized that Ruka had already fully opened the door to Willow's hideaway. The upset Hufflepuff wasn't taking it too well, either. The Slytherin's expression softened with deeper and deeper concern as he witnessed the girl pressing herself against the wall like a cornered animal. The pleading, pain-painted words he could make out through her shaking sobs and gasping breaths troubled him to the point that he understood that this girl had dealt with some serious trauma regarding this 'Xavier' she thought she was talking to. Fortunately, she wasn't the first fellow student Jack had had to try to talk through a panic attack triggered by past memories.

After acessing the situation, the redheaded first-year decided to enter the room, but stay by the door so as not to heighten Willow's fear by thinking he was coming for her. Next, he sat himself down on the cold, stone floor, his stance casual in an attempt to seem as non-threatening as possible. With Willow at a higher vantage point than Jack, she had the advantage over him if he tried to attack, so he hoped she might find some solace in that fact.

Not that she could tell immediately with her hands up over her head to lessen any expected, oncoming blows. She wasn't looking at him, either, leaking blue eyes closed. Jack took a deep sigh and turned once more to Ruka, as if the sight of him provided some sort of inspiration, motivation, or reassurance, before looking back and opening his mouth to speak.

"Willow," he called to her carefully in as soothing a voice he could muster. It was the same delicate, comforting tone he used with Selim when his dorm mate was frantic and it seemed to have worked with him, at least. There was no telling what Willow would make of it, though, especially since she probably wasn't that familiar with Jack's voice in general.

"Willow, neither of us is going to hurt you," he tried to continue once he thought he might have gotten her attention. "You've been hurt enough. But you need to be strong for me a minute, okay? Just try to calm down and take deep breaths - slowly in, then slowly out. You can do that for me, right? After the amazing performance you put on back there, this is probably nothing for the likes of you." Jack attempted a small, tentative smile.

"While you're taking deep breaths in and out, I just need you to listen to me." He sat up a little straighter from his place on the floor in order to meet her eye. "Remember when I told you that kindness was the most dangerous weapon known to mankind?"

@Jack Burnett @Willow Anderson 

Listening to Jack’s words, Ruka could feel a small weight lifted off him, the gentle tease helping to remind him that he - as a single person - did not have the power to force apart any two people just with his words.
Still, the guilt wouldn't vanish; He couldn't get all those people out of his head - Opeila, Flash, that girl from the Great Hall when Jack had been attacked over breakfast - trying to make him see that Jack didn't care for him, not really.

To Willow, he was what all those people were to him.

The realisation made his heart sting with guilt. At least Jack's hand on his shoulder grounded him enough to be able to shake those thoughts from his head long enough to realise that his self loathing wasn't going to do Willow any good, so he simply offered the other boy a small smile and a nod. "Yeah, you're right," he said quietly, hand pushing the door open as he spoke, to reveal a room that seemed empty to him at first glance.

It was only after a second of checking his surroundings, that Ruka's eyes fell on Willow, pressing herself into a corner like she was hoping for it to swallow her if she could only get close enough to it. Ruka's hands found Jack's wrist again as if to make sure he wouldn't approach the crying girl too quickly, but he should have known that the Slytherin was aware of how to treat someone as obviously in a state of panic as this girl seemed to be, considering he had to deal with Selim in those situations as well.

Releasing Jack's wrist again, Ruka watched as the Slytherin boy sat down on the ground, possibly to avoid making Willow feel as if he was towering over her and therefore seem threatening in any way.

Not that it seemed to matter much, considering the small girl had her hands in front of her face and was just mumbling about something. He could make out a few words even from a distance and muffled by her palms, but he was pretty sure she called one of them Xavier, asking them not to burn her again, and for a second Ruka's breath caught in his throat.

Burn her? Had he ever hurt her with his fire before without realising? No, that couldn't be; The only times he'd seen her so far he hadn't had any fire with him at all, and he didn't think he'd ever accidentally hurt a student before without noticing, so what was she talking about?

His eyes drifted to Jack again, and he gave the other boy an encouraging smile as he saw hazel eyes looking back at him as if to ask for some kind of support.

As Jack was talking, Ruka slowly sat down on the ground as well, eyes focused on the trembling girl in the corner. As gentle as the Slytherin boy was trying to be in his words and tone, it didn't seem like Willow was anywhere near ready to actually look at them or respond in any way that would give them any leverage to make her calm down. She merely continued to mumble, small body rocking back and forth against the wall, as if she was only awaiting the inevitable attack.

Ruka turned his head lightly to look over at Jack, gently shrugging his shoulders to show that he had no idea if what he was about to do was going to work but that he wanted to try anyway.

"Willow," he said quietly, trying to fill his voice with as much warmth as possible. He looked at Jack one more time, trying to remember the way he'd seen him talk to Selim that day in the Hospital Wing, and then he focused his attention back on the crying girl in the corner, slowly crawling across the floor to get a little closer to her. "Willow, you're safe." He stopped when he was about two feet away from Willow, at a safe enough distance to not accidentally touch her, but close enough to make sure she would hear him as he talked.

He took a deep breath as he contemplated what to do next. These situations were incredibly unfamiliar to him, but what he did assume was that his voice was possibly more calming to Willow than Jack's would be, considering how much of a dislike she clearly harboured for the Slytherin. So maybe talking was the best thing he could do? "There's nobody here that wants to harm you," he said gently. "I'm not here to hurt you, okay? I'm gonna come a bit closer to you, so don't be scared."

Everything inside his body was screaming at him to just wrap his arms around this girl and gently rock her as she cried out all this anger and fear and frustration, but a part of him expected it to only make things worse than they already were, so he pulled himself together, took a deep breath and slid a little closer to Willow.
He was crawling along the wall, hopeful that this way the small girl would realise that she still had an escape by dashing forwards should she not be comfortable with their close proximity, rather than approaching her from the front and making her feel cornered.

"It's just me, okay? It's just Ruka, I'm not going to do anything." He bit his lip lightly as he lifted his hand to... To do what exactly? Squeeze her shoulder? Pet her hair?
No, none of those things would be helpful to Willow in this moment, he was sure of that, so what was he going to do with his hand?

One more look at Willow made him realise what he thought might be the best thing to try. It seemed like the girl was caught in some sort of memory maybe, or a scenario unfolding inside her own head, and what could possibly help her out of it, may be to make her see exactly where she was as opposed to where she seemed to think she was.

"Willow, I'm going to touch you now, okay? I'm going to take your hand, it's okay, I'm not hurting you." He gently reached out for her left hand, fingertips barely grazing her skin as he did his best to not startle her in anything he was doing. His mind wandered to the poor injured bunny he had taken care of together with Jake close by the Forbidden Forest, and he felt like Willow was not much different from it in this moment; Scared, confused, frustrated, and clearly so hurt even if her pain seemed to be inside rather than out for the world to see.

"You're okay," he said as he slowly took her left hand in his right, carefully prying it away from her face and holding it in a gentle grasp even as she flinched from his touch. "Hey, it's okay, see, I'm not hurting you." He offered her a small smile but he doubted she would see it since her eyes were still shut in a refusal to look at them.

With a heavy breath, Ruka looked back at where Jack was sitting as if looking for some kind of approval from the other boy. He had no idea what he was doing, and Jack was somewhat of an expert on this matter, so he was sure the Slytherin was going to keep him from anything that could possibly be further damaging to the girl, right?

With a gentle squeeze to Willow's hand, Ruka leaned back against the wall next to her, deciding that patience was probably the best thing to offer in this case. "Take your time, Willow," he said softly, thumb stroking the back of her hand comfortingly. "You can just take your time. Nothing can hurt you in here." He sighed, head leaning back against the wall for a moment as he let his eyes meet Jack's in a silent request for direction.

This definitely wasn't the kind of situation he had imagined to find himself in when first setting foot inside that birthday party.

Interacting with @Jack Burnett @Ruka Tân

The pain still hadn't come. Instead she heard someone speaking to her, it wasn't Xavier, was it? This voice seemed different. Calm and steady, she wanted to sink into the comfort. She wanted to believe that she would be okay. But that's what he would want, that's what he would do. Luring her into a false sense of security was a nasty threat that they had done before, not to mention he was asking her to do an impossible task of breathing. Her lungs couldn't reach full capacity, pushing out the air as soon as she was able to catch some. Her panic felt never ending, this moment felt like it had already lasted hours. She just wanted them to hit her already. Her pleas changed, from begging them not to hurt her, to accepting the inevitable and begging for them to just get it over with already.

But then something was said that attempted to lift her out of the void she was in. Something about kindness as a weapon... who said that? The question of who was quickly pushed out by the feeling of confusion. They were going to beat her up with kindness? None of this made sense. She was getting really irritated by the lack of things making sense. She wanted to be back in a world where things made sense, but maybe this was the beginning of that. The reestablishing of Willow at the bottom where she had always belonged as the nature freak.

There was silence for a moment, nothing to be heard but her own cries which were lessening as she continued to prepare. 'Why aren't they doing anything' Then another voice came, one that was more familiar and definitely wasn't who she thought it was. But she still couldn't place it. Both of the boys kept telling her that she was safe, that no one was going to hurt her but she just couldn't bring herself to believe it. Believing in safety was a danger in it's own, it made someone think they could let their walls down, that there weren't still shadows filled with uncertainty in the place of safety.

The name she heard shocked her. Ruka. Why was Ruka here? Did Ruka know Xavier? No, he couldn't. The illusion began to crack and crumble around her. She was so tired of things diverting from what she knew. She couldn't figure out whether people were bad or good, who was to be trusted, what the game was that she was unwittingly a player in. Everything stopped making sense in the little boxes that she had assigned people throughout her life. The boxes were crushed and she was left sitting, cowering in a room. Much like she was right now.

She had been so lost again in her head that she hadn't heard Ruka's warnings about him going to grab her hand. She felt his hand on hers, on instinct she flinched away from what she expecting to be the first of many hard impacts. It was a soft touch, one of comfort. He said he wasn't going to hurt her, and he seemed to be telling the truth. She focused on his hand on hers, the slight chill of his temperature, then the feeling as he gently rubbed the back of her hand. She slowly started to believe that she was safe, at least for now.

Everything slowed back down over the course of a few minutes, she was able to breathe again, the river from her eyes turned into a small stream, and then almost nothing at all. Her body slowly untangled, moving to rest against the wall by Ruka. the tension releasing from her body that she didn't realize she had tensed up. She pulled her knees to her chest, still wanting to be small and curled up. She was scared to open her eyes for the fear that everything would go back to what she thought was happening. She didn't know what she would rather see right now, the stability of someone beating her down, or the uncertainty of someone caring about her.

She took a deep shaky breath and slowly opened her eyes. She had to blink a few times to readjust and help any remaining tears clear. She took her free hand and wiped her face and attempted to push her hair back. She wished she had her backpack, there was a scrunchie in there that would be incredibly useful in this moment. She slowly followed her arm to see who was holding her hand, and it was really Ruka. Her eyes scanned the room and saw the Slytherin boy sitting on the ground by the door, her defenses would've shot back up if she wasn't so tired of defending. What an unexpected pair to have been the ones to follow her. There was no reason they should've followed her in the first place after everything she said to them. Her eyes returned to her hand being held, her lifeline back into reality and the words came out before she could pull them back, "Please don't let go..."

Her previous words came crashing down on her as she realized how mean she had been to Ruka just minutes prior and now he was helping her. She looked up at him, fear, confusion, and panic still taking up residence in her eyes. "Ruka... I didn't mean it. I'm so sorry, I-I was confused, I didn't know what was happening." She took a deep breath to continue to calm herself as she looked back to the other boy. "W-What were you even trying to achieve? Did you get the answers that you were looking for, because you could've just a-asked instead of doing whatever that was." There was still a bit of burning anger for the stunt that he had pulled in the first place.

Interacting with: @Ruka Tân & @Willow Anderson

When Jack's words didn't quite seem to rouse Willow from her flashback, Ruka cast him a look and shrugged before making his own attempt to speak to the Hufflepuff girl. Jack was grateful to him. Selim had been easier for him to reach with his voice and words due to the snake's familiarity with his dorm mate, but Willow seemed to know Ruka much better than she did Jack. She seemed to have a more positive relationship with him overall, too.

Resting his arms atop his bent knees, he watched and waited quietly while the second-year tried to assure the younger girl that she was safe and that no one wanted to hurt her. He admired the fire-dancer's gentleness and patience, nodding and attempting to give encouraging smiles or gestures whenever Ruka glanced his way. The Gryffindor probably had a better way with people than Jack did, who couldn't help but be tempted to play with upset, irritated, and angry people more than comfort or assure them. Not that he had any urge to do so just then, but he wasn't as familiar with just being outright kind like he imagined Ruka was a natural at.

Eventually, the fire-dancer was able to slowly and steadily make some progress towards Willow, both physically and mentally. As he watched, Jack thought about how Selim was similar and yet different, as was Erin and Ruka. Each person seemed to want to feel safe and cared about and loved, but each of them responded to various conditions in very different ways.

Touch was probably more comforting than words for Ruka and Willow because they had probably grown up being shown love by their parents through physical contact like Jack had. Erin and Selim, on the other hand, hadn't seemed to, so touch was still confusing and alien to them while words made much more sense in regards to drawing them back to reality and helping them reason things out. Aside from Willow being more familiar with the older boy, that could have been another reason she had responded better to the Gryffindor's attempt to reach her than the Slytherin's.

Jack winked and gave Ruka a thumbs us when he noticed the green-eyed boy look to him once more. By then, Ruka appeared to have been able to hold Willow's hand without her reacting much more negatively toward him than a small flinch. Jack was impressed, but not surprised by the older student's success. The only thing that surprised him was that Ruka seemed to think he needed Jack's direction or assurance at all - as if, for some reason, he thought Jack somehow knew how to deal with crying, scared, and hurt people better than he did.

Eventually, Willow felt comfortable enough to open her eyes, taking a moment to re-adjust to the sight in front of her in order to process the full understanding of the situation she was actually in. Jack glanced away a bit sheepishly at the first words out of her mouth, knowing full well they weren't really meant for him to hear.

He became very interested in the other contents of the room until Willow seemed to finish speaking to Ruka for the moment and turned to Jack next. Judging by the deep breath she forced herself to take before she spoke to him, the Slytherin imagined she probably wasn't any happier with him than she'd been in the Rehersal Room. Not that he expected her to be. His intentions hadn't been all that obvious, and for good reason, too.

'What was I even trying to achieve', huh? How should I put this... Since he seemed to have overwhelmed her the last time he had tried to explain himself when they'd first met, Jack decided he would have to be more careful and concise with his words this time. This was especially so because Willow seemed to be in a markedly more delicate frame of mind than before.

He shook his head at her comment that he could have just asked about the answers he was looking for. "Asking directly wouldn't have gotten me the information I wanted - not that I was looking for any 'answers' in particular. What I want to know isn’t necessarily what people are willing to tell me directly. Take Flash, for instance – he doesn’t tend to speak his mind but was probably raised to value politeness over honesty.

“However, verbal words are only seven percent of communication while 38 percent is in the tone of voice while 55 percent is in body language. Sure, some people might think they can control their tone fairly easily and keep their body language from betraying too much. But since most people don’t bother to read into those things too much or know how, they also don’t think to try to change or hide their natural behaviors, either."

Jack paused. Whoops; was he talking too much, again? Was Willow following? Maybe that was too much information she wasn’t interested in or sure of how it related to her. She wasn’t here for a lecture. Better get back to the main point. He chuckled awkwardly before continuing. "Bottom line is, in an ideal world where everyone was completely honest and open about themselves and each other, maybe asking directly would work. But in the world we live in, being direct and straightforward doesn’t usually get you what you want. And you can’t usually take how other people act or what they say at face value, either."

He met the Hufflepuff’s gaze. "Some, like Flash and a lot of other Slytherin, know this well. But others, who give people the benefit of the doubt and wear their hearts on their sleeve, tend to everyone else is like them. At least until they get hurt by those who aren’t." Gesturing a hand toward her, he added, "I assume this is the side you know well. Maybe you’ve experienced it in the past with the one you call Xavier. And maybe you think you’re experiencing it now with Flash. But I have to remind you, you’re still only looking on the surface. Things aren’t always what they seem."

Jack spread his arms to gesture at the room they found themselves in. "I saw Flash come in here right before he went into the Rehersal Room for Seilun’s party. I didn’t go in after him because I figured he could use some time alone to gather his thoughts and collect himself. Something had obviously been upsetting him, but I had no idea what. When he came out, I did actually ask him if the was something wrong – as you suggested I do - but he insisted he was fine, so I didn’t press for anything more. When people want to hide things, it’s usually for a reason, so I left it alone. Instead, I observed and noticed he wore two dea –" The redhead cut himself off, clearing his throat before starting again. "Two friendship bracelets – ones that were suspiciously familiar because they looked just like the one that you had worn the first time we met."

Nodding toward the Hufflepuff’s bare wrist, he continued, "When I came in, I saw you and tried to check if you had it on, but you didn’t. You also kept looking at Flash and even while talking to Ruka you seemed distressed somewhat, so something had obviously happened. I wanted to find out more, but I couldn’t be obvious about it, so I placed Ruka and I at your table." Jack sighed and put his palms on his knees. "I wasn’t expecting anything in particular; I just wanted to see how things played out in the hopes of learning more about what had happened between you and Flash. I had actually thought Flash might have been to come over in order to get Ruka and I to stop bothering you or at least to comment on my taking up his name, but he had chosen that moment to go over to Seilun and greet her. I was fully prepared to wait for his return, but instead, you surprised me and played along with astonishing skill and grace."

He gestured a hand toward Willow and nodded in gratitude. "Along with your acting skills, I admired the clever way you indirectly gave me information regarding what you thought of Flash. You had no reason to, but you did anyway. Furthermore, the very act of you deciding to play along told me a lot about your personality and character as a whole. It was not what I thought it was when I first met you and I don’t know if you were always like that without my knowing or it’s because you changed since then. Either way, I apologize for underestimating you." Pushing himself to his feet, Jack put one hand behind him and one in front to perform a proper bow, bending at his waist and dipping his head low.

When he stood back up, he couldn’t help donning a small, crooked smile. "And you know what? I’ll bet Flash underestimated you, too." Jack folded both hands behind his back neatly and turned to look over at the door, as if expecting it to open any minute. Then he sighed.

"I don’t think he’ll be joining us, which was a shame, because I hoped he would. Even if he wouldn’t want to walk in on you crying, I thought Ruka and I could bait him by going after you, but I’m guessing his sense of ‘chivalry’ as a gentleman is too strong. He wouldn’t abandon Opeila on her birthday no matter how much he might want to because that would go against his morals of putting his desires before others. That’s probably a good thing he kept to his morals, too, since three of us walked out to come in here."

Jack looked back at Willow. "You might be against the notion that he has morals because of how you might feel deceived by him, but not all people who deceive do it to harm others and not everyone has the same idea of morals. Flash’s true morals are apparent in everything he does, particularly when he’s irritated or angry, so I know it’s not one of the things he fakes." He tapped looked thoughtful. Was he getting off topic again? So much for making this concise… The boy put his palm to his face and rubbed his temples.

"Look…what I’m trying to say is people are often most honest with who they are around their enemies, strangers, and other people they don’t care about the opinions of. Often the people we care about the most or hold in the highest regard are the people we work the hardest to please, even if we have to be deceptive in order to do that. Even if Flash deceived you, it’s obvious that he cares about you as a person. Yes, you probably see the deception as wrong, but that’s all you see – not the reasoning behind it.

For instance, did it ever occur to you that he tried to keep you from knowing the other parts of who he was because he was trying to protect you? Or maybe because he was ashamed of who he was and didn’t want you to see that part of him? Heck, maybe he was just scared you wouldn’t be able to accept him if you got to know more than just what he showed to you. Maybe he was afraid to let you down." Jack stared at his shoes before realizing he had gone off on another tangent. He really needed to stop doing that…

The Slytherin’s head shot back up and he inhaled deeply, attempting to try doing what he had set out to do one more time. It was becoming a lot harder than he thought it would be and at this point he just wanted to get it over with before his mouth ran away with him any more than it already had.

"I can’t say for sure that I know Flash all that well, but thanks to his dislike of me, I think I may know him better than most. I only assume that because I doubt he really thinks much of me or my opinion of him, so he doesn’t have much reason to put on a front with me. Also, for all our differences in how we behave, we’re actually alike in a lot of ways regarding how we perceive the world, so I wanted to explain how I think he sees you through his eyes."

So saying, Jack began to walk toward Willow and Ruka, his hands still solemnly folded behind his back. "I imagine…that Flash is just as impressed with you as I am. Granted, he must have realized what an impressive person you are much sooner than I did, but it doesn’t change the reason. You, Willow, have obviously suffered in pain and torment at the hands of others, but you haven’t let that stop you on your…"

The boy stopped, looking as if he were having a hard time speaking his next words. "Your…quest for friendship, or whatever you want to call it. You still try to give people the benefit of the doubt and think the best of them despite the fact that you’ve been hurt before and know first hand exactly what kind of nasty people are in this world. Not everyone has the strength to do that. Flash and I certainly don’t."

He hesitated. "Well, okay, so he still tries to make friends, but from what I’ve seen, he only thinks he can by putting on a façade. As Ruka here knows well, that’s not who he really is, so any friends he’s made wearing the mask and playing the role he’s given himself aren’t real friends. They’re just people who appreciate the act he’s putting on for them, whether they know he’s acting or not." Jack spread his arms, shrugging.

"I deal with my weaknesses a different way, but the point is that our fears are the same. We want to from bonds with people to make them acknowledge our existence, but we’re afraid of revealing our true selves because of how vulnerable it makes us and how easily we can be hurt when it’s exposed."

He cocked his head at Willow, taking a step closer as he continued. "You’re stronger than either of us, though. You persist in trying to reach out to others with openness and honesty despite the risk of getting hurt. You, who know those risks better than anyone because you’ve suffered the consequences before. I mean, getting burned? Most people would probably never want to go near another person again, let alone try to befriend them. That takes a lot of strength mentally and emotionally. And maybe that’s why you became so important to Flash – because you inspired him. Kind of like how Ruka inspired me." The first-year boy smirked at the fire-dancer out the corner of his eye.

Stopping in front of Willow and Ruka, Jack put up a hand. "Now, I want you to know I’m not trying to defend him. I’m still largely ignorant of what he might actually have said or done to you or what you might know. I don’t even know for certain that what I’m saying is what he thinks; it’s simply a hunch. But you should at least it’s what I think." His gaze regarded Willow’s wet eyes that shone like blue jewels in her tear-stained face.

Reaching into his pocket, Jack pulled out the open bag of Fizzing Whizzbees and offered one to Willow along with a playful smile. "So, after all that, you tell me...what do you think I was trying to achieve?"

@Willow Anderson @Jack Burnett

Under the constant reassurance from Jack's side, Ruka felt a sort of accomplishment wash through him as he sat there, against the wall, with Willow's hand in his own, which was definitely a big step from the way the girl had been frantically rocking herself back and forth just mere moments ago.

He fixed his glance on Jack for a long while, just mustering the Slytherin boy for a moment as if the sight of him inspired some kind of social grace he didn't usually possess. Ruka wasn't bad with people, he just didn't want to deal with them most of the time, but Jack sought out company - no matter how negative, no matter how twisted - all the time, and a part of Ruka was almost jealous of the way Jack so easily made an impact on people, even if that impact was only a feeling of intense hatred and frustration.

In this case, however, frustration and hatred were clearly the last things Willow needed to add onto the pile of negative emotions she was clearly dealing with already, so it was barely a surprise that she had responded to Ruka's approach more positively than she had to Jack's. The Fire Dancer gave the Slytherin a weak smile; The mere act of trying to be as gentle with Willow as he possibly could, to take everything she was feeling into consideration as he had talked to her and gotten closer had exhausted him already.

At least he could say for certain now that he was never going to be some kind of Magical Psychologist after finishing his time at Hogwarts.

After a little moment of Willow making herself aware of her surroundings and the company she had attracted, the girl finally seemed to be back in the real world with them, her first words immediately directed at Ruka in a plea he wasn't expecting.

"I won't," he promised with a firm nod as he gave her hand another little squeeze, thumb resting across her knuckles as he simply held her hand for as long as she was going to be comfortable with it. He hadn't intended of letting go of her unless she was going to push him away first, but hearing her fragile voice craving the grounding touch like this made his chest hurt for her.

Who could have possibly hurt a sweet, gentle girl like this so much?

Her next words were rushed, like she needed to get them out before something she felt was chasing her could catch up, and Ruka merely shook his head to show that he didn't need her apologies. "You're fine," he told her gently and for a second he wanted to lift his free hand to brush her damp hair away from her tear stained face, but decided against it once he realised that too much physical contact could possibly just unsettle her again.

Either way, before he could do or say anything else, she had directed her attention to Jack, tone immediately changing from apologetic to accusing, and Ruka couldn't exactly blame her. As much as he was sure the Slytherin wasn't hoping for a reaction like this, his interaction with Willow hadn't exactly been the most innocent. For someone in a state as fragile as this girl seemed to be in, Jack could be a lot to handle.

It made him even more impressed by how well she had kept it together back at Opeila's party.

Taking a deep breath, Ruka pressed himself further back against the wall as Willow questioned Jack's intentions, mentally preparing himself for the monologue that was undoubtedly about to follow.
If there was one thing Ruka probably admired most about Jack, it was the way he talked like his words were the best weapon he could possibly ask for; he was sharp minded and witty and always seemed to have an opinion on everything. It was intriguing and infuriating at the same time if you were someone who didn't enjoy lengthy arguments and mentally challenging conversational topics.

Ruka smirked lightly in Jack's direction as the other boy started talking about the different aspects of communication - Tone and Body Language being the two Ruka knew the Slytherin valued more than anything a person could actually verbally convey to him. He didn't think Willow was really all that interested in understanding the scientific facts behind Jack's methods, however, and he was about to gently interrupt the Slytherin when he seemed to realise that he was drifting dreadfully off topic himself.

Gently brushing his thumb across Willow's knuckles to try and keep her grounded while Jack continued talking, probably using far too many words for the other girl only to try and explain that he was simply trying to gauge a natural, instinctual and therefore honest reaction from her, rather than giving her the time to carefully mull over her words in response.

People were the most honest when unsettled in any way; Ruka had made that experience with Flash. The more frustrated Flash had become with Ruka's unwillingness to fall for his thinly veiled manipulation tactics, the more his masks had started to shatter, the more he had revealed of himself. 

”Ruka, if I didn’t act like this no one would like me. No one at all."

He could still hear Flash's voice in his mind when he'd said it; some of the only truly honest words the Slytherin had said to him during their two rather unpleasant meetings, and they had only come after Ruka had prodded a clearly sensitive spot a little too much. 

People wore so many masks on a daily basis, and Jack's way of seeing what was underneath involved not giving them enough time to put any on in the first place.

Straightening up a little at Jack's words about how Flash had chosen this very room to hide out in before coming to the party, Ruka tilted his head to the side as he looked at the other boy with more and more realisation dawning on his face. He had assumed that Flash was genuinely distressed by whatever was going on between him and Willow when he had seen the two friendship bracelets on his arm, but he hadn't really thought Flash to be that upset by the situation.

Slowly Ruka looked over at Willow again, a small frown on his face as he looked at her. The more pieces he got of this puzzle, the more he felt like he knew exactly what it was like to be in this girl's shoes when it came to her relationship to Flash.

Shaking the thought for the moment, Ruka turned his attention back to Jack as he listened to all the little things that had made the Slytherin aware of the disconnect between Willow and Flash, thoughtfully gnawing on his bottom lip as he did so, a small chuckle escaping him when Jack commented on the crying girl's acting skill when it had come to Jack's little stunt back in the Rehearsal Room.

Ruka had expected Jack to have been impressed with Willow's reaction, but he thought that hearing it out loud might have been satisfying to hear for the girl next to him as well. After all, surprising and impressing Jack was definitely not a feat most people achieved easily. 

Ruka grinned as he watched Jack taking a bow in Willow's reaction, and he gave the girl's hand another squeeze to still any confusion the gesture might fuel inside her. 

Going on about how Jack had hoped Flash might follow them as well, Ruka thought back on the way Flash had watched them closely as if to observe what they were doing and where they were going. What had he concluded? Was he trusting Jack and Ruka to not cause Willow any further emotional harm?

Ruka could agree that the other Slytherin boy was unlikely to follow them given the situation he was in and his need for social appreciation and admiration. It would not have looked good for him to simply tear himself away from the birthday girl to storm after three other party deserters, no matter what his relationship with Opeila was.
Assuming that maybe Flash was actually close to the birthday girl as well, it had to be a tough decision, but if Flash trusted Willow to take care of herself, and for Jack and Ruka to not have any malicious intention, then staying at the party was definitely the most sensible option for him.

Jack's words about the intention behind Flash's deception, at least towards Willow, made Ruka squirm a little where he sat.

"No one at all," he heard Flash's voice ring inside his head again, and he glanced over at the girl next to him. He didn't actually know much of the dynamics between Flash and Willow, but he assumed it was very likely for Flash to have tried to keep some of his masks hidden away from Willow to make sure she wouldn't judge him on them and leave him for it.

Until Ruka had made her aware of those masks in the first place.

No, he wasn't going to let himself think that way again. His words may have planted some doubt inside her, but whatever she had heard or seen or found out about Flash that had made her actually cut ties with him had nothing to do with the rant Ruka had gone on in the Great Hall.
Jack was right, with the kind of people Flash and Willow were, this kind of hitch in their friendship had probably been inevitable. 

His attention was drawn back to Jack, a sad smile forming on his face as he listened to the Slytherin talk about this fear of making yourself vulnerable to other people by opening up to them that he thought he shared with Flash, and Ruka thought this was the first time he had actually heard Jack voice this - as he called it - weakness out loud. It wasn't like Ruka hadn't seen it written all over his face, read it in everything he'd said that first time they had met each other right there in that Rehearsal Room they had just escaped from, but to actually hear a verbal confirmation of it...

Part of him wanted to get up to pull Jack into a hug, but this wasn't about him. Either of them. This was about Flash and Willow, and the other boy had already talked his way around the entire castle twice, so Ruka wasn't going to get him off topic even more than that.

Instead he just nodded along with Jack's words about how much strength Willow had to possess to still reach out to the rest of the world, to still try and form positive bonds with people, despite all the bad things she seemed to have experienced in her life already. It was true; he couldn't really imagine being as open with other people as Willow was presenting herself to be. 

While he hadn't completely closed himself off from people after all the things he'd experienced growing up, or after his father's death, he had still largely chosen to stay away from them and avoid forming any kind of deep connection with anybody. He had no idea how Willow was able to bring this much positivity out into the world when there was clearly such a darkness inside her, but it ignited an awe inside him that made his eyes sparkle.

His eyes focused on Jack again as the other boy smirked at him when mentioning that Ruka had inspired him. Smiling lightly at the Slytherin, Ruka leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes for a second. 

This conversation was exhausting and he was barely even a part of it.

As Jack's voice died down, Ruka opened his eyes again, gazing curiously at the bag of what were probably some kind of sweets that Jack was holding out to Willow. Instinctively he squeezed the girl's hand again as he realised one thing he thought might not be the most reassuring to her.

"Jack," he said quietly, nodding towards the floor in a silent request for the Slytherin to sit down with them rather than looming over Willow who was already good deal shorter than Jack even when standing up. 

Probably slightly confused and overwhelmed by all the things Jack had just said, Ruka assumed that Willow didn't need there to be any threatening aspect in her surroundings for her to answer the other boy's question on what she thought he was trying to achieve after all the information he had just given her. 

Ruka had his own assumption on what it was that Jack was trying to do, and it definitely wasn't the mere satisfaction of creating chaos in his path, but the question wasn't directed at him, so he simply pulled his knees close to his chest and rested his chin on them as he waited for Willow to respond.

Interacting with @Jack Burnett @Ruka Tân
Permission to lightly godmod Ruka given

Willow zeroed in on the feeling of Ruka’s hand on hers as he promised not to let her hand go. The fear that as soon as he let go that she would be plunged into darkness again was ever present. People always let go. The idea that it could be different this time was hard for her to wrap her head around. Everything was becoming different, and she couldn’t catch up. She felt like she had shown up to a race that everyone had already completed and she hadn’t even warmed up yet. As the Slytherin boy began talking, she turned her head to look at the motion of Ruka’s thumb across the back of her hand. She needed the visual on her hand just to make sure the feeling was real, that she was now in reality and she was truly safe.

Jack was throwing a lecture at her about how people communicate and her misgivings about honesty and what that means. She was so tired, she just wanted to curl up on this cold floor and fall asleep. Forgetting about everything that had just happened, forgetting that two people that she had decided were out to get her were now comforting her in her darkest moments in Hogwarts. She always expected Flash to be the one that would be there for her if this were to come up. Obviously that was a dream that wouldn’t be achieved just yet. Her head lazily turned back to Jack as he mentioned Flash again, mildly flinching back at the mention of Xavier. She wished she hadn’t said that name, that they didn’t know who that was. It was a power they now forever had over her, and she wished she could take it away.

Her head perked up when he started speaking about how Flash was dealing with their separation, out of the corner of her eye she could see Ruka had the same reaction. She didn’t realize Flash had been so broken up about what had happened, she assumed that he wouldn’t. Just because he lost a pawn didn’t mean that he lost the game. But maybe she wasn’t a pawn in his game at all. She had continually questioned whether or not she had made the right decision about Flash and this seemed to continue to solidify her concerns which only made her more frustrated and confused. She shouldn’t have stormed off that night, she should’ve just talked to him about what happened. But it was too late for that, and maybe the breakdown was a continuation of the play he was putting on for her.

It wasn’t lost on her that the boy was still set on calling them death sentences, but appreciated the effort to call them what they were to her. The hand that Ruka was holding was the one with the bare wrist now, and it now felt especially empty with two people noticing and commenting on it. She wondered just how many people noticed that it was absent from her, how many people noticed that her and Flash weren’t speaking. She didn’t want people to know but maybe it was inevitable from how close they were and how much time they spent together to dropping to no time at all.

An eyebrow raised as he laid out his expectations for the interaction and how she had defied them. She didn’t see the point in fighting against him, in their first meeting she had tried to fight and ultimately lost. There was only one way to figure out what his goal was, and she just went with her gut. The apology came as an additional surprise for underestimating her. She could be quite hot-headed so that’s the side of her that he got that day. He hadn’t received the one that was tired of fighting and decided to finally give in.

Instinctually she moved closer to Ruka as Jack stood up, he was gaining the high ground again. But quickly felt a squeeze on her hand and was reminded that Ruka was here, and she was inclined to believe that he would protect her. Even though it was against everything that she had taught herself, she truly wanted to believe that someone would protect her. She thought Flash would, but ultimately he hurt her in the end and she had lost that protection. She was quickly falling back into her habit of taking a small amount of kindness and running with it, and she hoped that this time with Ruka it didn’t backfire.

He bowed. Who was this guy?

An anger flashed across her eyes as the snake revealed that he had hoped Flash would follow, she didn’t want him to follow. Who was he to decide to try and merge them back together? She didn’t need Flash as a white knight to save her from whatever was happening, she was still unsure exactly as to what was going on. For all she cared he could stay in that party and she would happily not return. Having to fake niceties with someone that had been doing it with their entire relationship wasn’t exactly her idea of a fun party. The anger only continued when he talked about the idea that Flash cared about her, and that he was trying to protect her. He was poking holes in her judgement of him, which was already questionable, but she didn’t need him to be the one to tell her. She was figuring it out on her own but he seemed to want to accelerate her realization of mistakes. Coming from any other person she’d be grateful, but coming from him it felt like a sour cough drop.

She tried to move further away from Jack as he walked towards them, he still had the high ground and she could be in the situation she had envisioned from the beginning. She was already as close to Ruka as she could get, and even then she felt like she was infringing on his personal space. Slowly she felt an arm wrap around her, and a sense of safety returned. She leaned into him. She glanced over at Ruka for reassurance of the situation, but was caught off guard and her attention quickly returned to the boy approaching. Commenting on her now obvious past that the two boys got the front row seats to witness. Her blue eyes softened as Jack described exactly who she saw herself as, someone who kept trying even in the face of constant pain and disappointment. It was part of who she is, essential to her living even if the pain that came with it made her feel as if she was dying.

The confusion was only growing as he kept speaking. He loves the sound of his own voice, doesn’t he. Revealing something about himself that he didn’t need to, that he had the same fears as her. He took another step, but this time she didn’t flinch. She had Ruka next to her, and she was starting to believe that even the Slytherin didn’t want to hurt her either. She didn’t find strength in the fact that she continued to try and make connections, she found it stupid of her. A dumb routine that she couldn’t let go of because she was used to the pain of being found and used for whatever torture the boys had thought of that week. It was hard to believe that Flash was inspired because he didn’t even know any of this, she was hiding just as much as he was. For fear of disappointing him.

Eyes intensely tracked his hand as he reached into his pocket and pulled out candy. He then passed the question onto her, and honestly? She still didn’t know, or rather care. Her head fell to lay on Ruka’s shoulder. She was so tired.

Then a name came, a name she had been desperately searching for every time she met this boy. “Jack.” She let the name slowly roll out of her mouth, the first thing she had said since he went on a rant, her voice cracking at first. “He was one of them too.” She paused, wondering how far she should and was willing to go. She wanted to tell someone so badly, wanted someone to know what she was hiding. She was so tired of hiding her fears and her pain. The words started coming, unfiltered. She couldn’t put the energy to filter her thoughts, she didn’t want to fight against Jack anymore. She didn’t feel that she had to fight Ruka.

“They had one condition. If I could hide well enough in the forest they wouldn’t hurt me. But they always found me. I never found a good enough spot.” She paused and took a shaky breath, despite sounding like she could cry the tears wouldn’t come. She felt numb, the numbness always felt better than pain. “Once we found out about the witch trials in school, that's when they started to burn me. I live in a family of muggle witches, and they knew. They would hold me down and hold matches over my skin, burning me for hours until they ran out. They wanted to burn the witch. Then they’d just leave me in the forest to fix myself up and go home. My parents still don’t know it ever happened.” She wanted to stop, but the words wouldn’t stop coming. It felt so good to talk about it. To let it all out. “I’m not stronger than anyone. I’m the weakest one, always being found. Always letting people in even though they’ll hurt me.”

Her eyes traveled up to meet Jack’s hazel eyes again. “I just got tired of hiding. I might as well run straight into the pain if it’s inevitable. I’m sure one or both of you will use this against me in the future, it always happens. I just am so tired of running and hiding.” Her breath caught in her throat as she spoke her next words, “I’m tired of being alone. I thought that Flash was finally the one I didn’t have to run from. He didn’t hurt me, not yet. But he’s already hurt others, preying on their insecurities and vulnerabilities. I can’t be his next victim, not when I have the warning. In this case it’s easier to run away, when I still have time.” Her eyes slowly shut, focusing on the contact that she had with Ruka. His shoulders gently rising and falling as he breathed, the warmth of his arm around her.

She could almost fall asleep, but she didn’t have that much trust for either of them still. She opened her eyes back up. “Maybe friendships are more like death sentences then I’d like to allow myself to believe. But is it really too much for me to ask to have one friend. After everything, is it too much for me to want to not be alone anymore.” Her body hurt so much, her heart hurt, her head hurt. Everything she had built up was screaming at her for giving them that much information. She had no more fight left in her. Her body was limp against Ruka’s, barely able to hold herself up.

Her eyes traveled to the candy he had pulled out, the smallest tease she could muster coming out “What, do you want to feed me again?” Even in her darkest moments, she couldn’t exist without that tiny bit of light of a joke. Normally she was the punchline, but this time it felt different.

Every ounce of everything she had spent so long fighting against was gone.

Interacting with: @Ruka Tân & @Willow Anderson

"Jack."

Ruka's voice caused the first-year to glance over curiously, noticing the Gryffindor nod toward the floor before realizing his mistake. He grinned sheepishly and quickly sat down where he stood, grateful to his upperclassman for making him aware of his actions. Well, that was embarrassing.

"Jack."

Then Willow was saying his name, too, throwing the Slytherin off for a moment since she had never before addressed him by name.

"He was one of them too."

One of...'them'? Oh...did she mean her tormentors? Not that Jack could help that he had a common name. Probably a good thing she hadn't known he shared it up until that point, though, or Willow probably would have associated a lot more negative feelings with Jack than he deserved whether she conciously meant to or not. Choosing not to comment on such thoughts, however, he lowered the hand offering the candy as he folded his legs under him and settled in to listen to Willow's story.

As Willow and Ruka had offered him their attention, he willingly gave his to the Hufflepuff's, hanging on her every word and allowing them to sink in one by one. Jack wasn't sure how any such behaviors had gone unnoticed, much less unpunished by Willow's school, but none of them were perfect, he supposed; especially muggle school systems. He wasn't about to question why Willow hadn't told anyone; her reasons were her own and the past was the past. What mattered was the here and now; how she let her past affect or not affect her.

"They say bravery is walking into a situation you know you're going to lose," Jack told Willow once she was finished. "I never thought that was very smart, but according to some, it requires a lot of nerve and thus is something to be commended." He shrugged. "I suppose even I have to admit it takes more guts than someone who charges into a situation they think they can win. So in that sense, you are stronger. Flash and I wouldn't bother trying to play a game or win a battle that we thought we had no chance of winning - unlike you. That takes a certain kind of mental fortitude."

Jack sighed. "I've always preferred physical pain to emotional pain myself. That's why I prefer to antagonize people and get them to want to attack me directly instead of tempting them to mess with me a less direct way. That's also why I don't offer people friendship like you do. I wouldn't dare give anyone the chance to stab me in the back."

He rolled his eyes at Willow's claim that either he, Ruka, or both would use information against her in the future. "Oh, please. I'm not so desperate or uncreative as to have to resort to using information freely given and trusted to me against the very person who offered it in the first place. I'm betting Ruka wouldn't, either. That's just pathetic. I have some dignity, you know." Jack shook his head. "Besides, there's definitely no point in kicking someone while they're down. Especially when they're capable of the things you are. I keep away from Hufflepuffs for a reason."

His mouth twisted as Willow mentioned Flash again and he propped his elbow on his knee once more, resting his cheek in his palm. "I still think you're judging Flash more than you have any right to. I doubt you're seeing the big picture." Jack thoughtfully looked one of the Whizzbees over as he continued speaking.

"I was in the classroom and listening nearby when he blackmailed that kid, Ross Stephens. Flash was just helping out the kid at first because Stephens definitely did not know what he was doing. He kept pestering Flash until Flash finally just offered to write his notes for him...and then found out the book he had been given to write in was full of Stephens' private thoughts. So who would you say was at fault, there? Flash, or Stephens?" He cast Willow a dry smile. "And you know what else? He could have asked Stephens for any number of things in exchange for his diary back. But guess what he asked for?"

Jack popped the Whizzbee in his mouth. "He told Stephens he had to get an 'O' in Potions that quarter. Now...I'm no expert on these sorts of things, but...would you call that request something that's most likely to benefit Flash in the long run, or Stephens...?"

Ooh...tingly. Interesting flavor. Jack thought he could really get used to these things. But he had to focus; back to the matter at hand.

"If you can handle friendship, then no, I wouldn't say it's too much to ask for a friend. But in order to deserve that friend, you need to be one as well. And that requires you to try to understand them; to see things from their point of view and give them the benefit of the doubt. Because unlike you, Anderson, not everyone is as straightforward as they seem. What might look like a mean or cruel act on the surface can simply be kindness in disguise. It just takes an open mind and a willingness to try to view things from other perspectives to recognize it for what it is.

"And if you were so willing to risk taking the pain from those boys at your old school, why not from Flash, who hasn't personally given you any direct reason to doubt him? You may be certain he's going to hurt you...but there's always the chance he could surprise you. You just have to have some faith in him."

He smirked as Willow commented on him feeding her and chuckled lightly. "It'd be more fun if it was in front of Flash," he shamelessly admitted. "Care to try?"

@Jack Burnett @Willow Anderson

As Jack continued his maybe, possibly well-intentioned verbal assault on Willow, Ruka could feel the girl next to him pressing closer against his side to a point where it almost hurt to be holding her hand at the angle that he currently was. Adjusting his position a little bit, he slowly eased his hand out of Willow's grip to instead give her his left one to hold and squeeze as she needed.

With his right arm free to move this way, he carefully put it around Willow's shoulders to show her that she was safe and protected; There was probably no use in trying to make her see that there was nothing here she would need protection from, not in the state she currently found herself in. So instead, Ruka let her curl up against him as much as she needed to, kept squeezing her hand whenever he felt her tense up, and gently rubbed her shoulder at random intervals as if to remind her that he was still there, no matter how caught up in her head she got.

As Jack finally finished his monologue with a question and an offer of candy in Willow's direction, Ruka could feel the girl's head coming to a rest on his shoulder, and his eyes darted a little nervously in the Slytherin's direction as if to ask what he was supposed to do in his position. Dealing with people was already a bit difficult for him under perfectly happy circumstances, but with Willow as shaken up as she was, he had absolutely no idea what she might have needed him to do.

In all honesty, he just wanted her to finally take the candy Jack had been offering her twice already by now.

She didn't.

Quite on the contrary, she seemed like she barely saw Jack as he sat down again, following Ruka's silent request with an expression that told the Gryffindor that he hadn't been aware of his mistake before. It only took a moment before Willow repeated Jack's name, and for a second Ruka thought she had something to say to the Slytherin, but it didn't seem like she was actually addressing the Jack in the room with them.

No, it became quite clear within seconds that she was telling them about a scenario that had occurred far away from the room they were finding themselves in now. A chill travelled down Ruka's spine as he quietly listened to Willow's story of her own torment, of the boys that would burn her skin because they had found the thought of Witch Trials far too entertaining.

It was harrowing, and it made Ruka feel even worse for the way he had treated Willow back in the Great Hall, how he had raised his voice at her, even just the slightest bit, had stood up from his seat, had leaned close, clasped her wrist in his hand as tightly as Selim had held his own against a corridor wall just a few days ago. To someone who was as used to people holding them down to mutilate them whichever way they saw fit as Willow was, it must have seemed threatening to the core.

No wonder she had punched him.

He looked up with a thoughtful expression when Willow pointed out that Flash hadn't hurt her yet, that she had just thought it was better to run from him before he could. How ironic, he thought to himself, that it was Jack trying to make her see Flash from a different side, when he was the first one to run from the mere possibility of someone getting close enough to him to be able to flick a paper ball at his back, much less stab it. 

To Ruka, however, this was curious information that made him regard the girl next to him with something like disappointment on his face. He had thought Flash had done something that made her turn her back at him, but instead she had just run from him in fear of being the victim of whatever it was that Flash was capable of doing to other people. 
Of course he had wanted to warn her about the masks Flash liked to put on for other people to fall for, but he hadn't thought she would just abandon someone she had so boldly called her best friend and defended with tooth and nail only about a week ago out of fear.

Maybe she and Jack weren't actually as different as they appeared to be on the outside.

Ruka's eyes drifted back to the Slytherin as he started talking again, commending Willow's bravery which was... strange, really.
Not that he would have said it out loud, not with Willow as fragile as she currently was, but the fact that the girl actually had a family - parents that seemed to care for her - and yet she had decided to never mention this insistent bullying, this torture she had gone through at the hands of people she had to see at school every day? He couldn't help but think of it as absurdly stupid.

Maybe her parents wouldn't have been able to actually stop the bullies, but they could have at least taken care of her wounds, could have maybe sent someone to take her to school and pick her up again so that the boys would have been unable to even get her alone at all.
For Jack, who was preaching self-preservation on a daily basis to everyone who would offer him even just half an ear, to praise her bravery in that situation seemed ridiculous at best.

Not wanting to upset Willow by pointing out how badly he thought she had been handling her situation - which frankly he didn't even have enough information on to really judge her for it anyways - he decided to stay quiet and squeeze her hand again in a reassuring gesture. 

As Jack continued talking about preferring physical pain to the emotional kind, Ruka pursed his lips in displeasure, eyes focused on the Slytherin with a small flicker inside them. He'd experienced Jack taking physical pain like it really wasn't a big deal first hand before, and there were quite a lot of things that made him certain in his assumption that that was not the only instance of the other boy chasing physical pain in order to run from emotional pain. 
His teeth found the inside of his bottom lip as the Slytherin continued on about how he didn't offer his friendship to people to save his own back that way. If Ruka had had a free hand, he would have reached into his cloak to curl the friendship bracelet he was carrying around with him around his fingers as if to remind himself that he didn't need Jack to think of him as a friend. 

Needy, Selim's voice echoed inside his head, making him tap a gentle One, two, three against Willow's shoulder, which the girl would hopefully just mistake as a nervous twitch of his fingers.

He internally shook the petty need for Jack to acknowledge him as someone who was closer to him than any mere acquaintance had any right to be, and instead looked down at his knees for a moment, deciding that it was easier to just listen to spoken words than to also look at the people speaking them. 

Not commenting on the fact that Willow believed that either he or Jack would use the information she had given them against her at some point - what kind of people did she take them for? - nor on the way Jack was telling Willow that she was judging Flash too harshly, Ruka only looked back up when the Slytherin talked about what had happened between Flash and a certain Ross Stephens. The name tickled his memory, and he thought about it for a moment until he realised who it was; the weird kid he had met in the Rehearsal Room. The one who had made him drop his flaming torches right onto his bare feet.

Interest perked a little, Ruka listened to what had happened between Flash and Ross, frowning a bit at the request Flash had apparently had for Ross in this whole blackmailing scenario. Jack was right, of course, that the arrangement seemed to be rather for Ross' benefit than Flash's own, but then again, was it really any way to get someone to work on their grades through blackmail? What if Ross simply didn't have a talent for the subject? What if he was going to end up concentrating on his Potions grade so much that he ended up neglecting all his other subjects? 

What were the consequences for failure in this game Flash had set up for Ross?

Things were rarely black and white, and while Flash's intentions had possibly not necessarily been bad, that didn't mean his actions had been good.

However, Ruka didn't think it would do anybody any good for him to comment on this matter either, since this was the first time he'd even heard about Flash blackmailing Ross.
Suppressing a little yawn that was threatening to escape him due to having spent what felt like hours in a dim space full of heavy emotions, he simply listened to the rest of the conversation, until Willow's voice rang through the room again to ask Jack if he was planning on feeding her again.

His head tilted to the side a little as he looked at the bag of sweets in Jack's hand, then at Willow who was still curled up against him like he was some sort of life line to her.

It was the third time already that Jack was trying to make her take one of the candies, and Ruka could feel something inside him finally losing the patience to keep watching the scenario repeat itself over and over again. "For the love of -," he started as he slowly removed his arm from around Willow's shoulders to instead reach for the bag in Jack's hand. "I'll try one." He rolled his eyes as his fingers curled around one of the candies in the bag, and he pulled it out with a challenging glare in Jack's direction. "I've been thinking how rude it was of you to not offer me any candy considering you usually try to fatten me up at any other given opportunity."

Popping the candy into his mouth, his face contorted for a moment at the unexpected sourness, but just a moment later he relaxed again and placed his arm back around Willow's shoulders to get back into a comfortable position.

However, the candy seemed to have more properties than just being sour, as only a moment after he had started to suck on the candy, he could feel his legs slowly separating from the floor, his body uncharacteristically unbalanced as he started to float just a couple of inches above the floor. "Never mind, I regret that," he said around the candy with a deadpan expression on his face, hand squeezing Willow's lightly, this time to steady himself from tilting forward or to his left where nothing would be in his way of toppling forward and landing face first on the ground. 

At least, he found himself thinking as he tried to finish the candy in his mouth as quickly as possible, he was hopefully providing Willow with something to laugh at, now that they had gotten through all the dark and gritty parts of this conversation.

Interacting with @Ruka Tân @Jack Burnett

The more they talked the more she really didn't want to be there. As she continued to sober up to the situation, she realized just how weird it was. Jack was someone that she fought viciously against verbally and then again physically later on. All revolving around friendship bracelets which was a little ridiculous looking back on it. Then there was Ruka, again someone she fought in the Great Hall with about Flash and she had punched him. She had punched both of these boys, yet they were... still here?

Not only that but Jack continued to reassure her about her own bravery and strength. If she didn't know that she was fully in reality thanks to Ruka's surprising grounding abilities she would still think she's caught in a dream. There was suddenly an ache for Flash to be there instead of the two boys, for Ruka to be replaced with Flash as he held and comforted her but that was a continual reality that she had to smash with her own lowered expectations as time went out.

When Jack mentioned that he preferred physical to emotion pain she lifted her head off of Ruka's shoulder. What did she even prefer? She almost preferred the emotion pain, it was less scarring and required less immediate damage control. That could be sealed up and pushed away easily. The tiny scars that littered her body, including the one that was forever hidden on her back was harder to repress and hide since she had to face them whenever she looked into a mirror. Emotional pain could be fixed with a wiping of the eyes and cold water splashed on the face, physical pain took weeks of hiding and dedicated healing. Something that she was quickly losing the steam for. Suddenly she felt a gentle tapping on her shoulder, another method of grounding. She wondered how Ruka knew that was something that worked for her, but that was a question for another time.

She seemed to be making wrong judgments all around by Jack's account. About himself and Ruka, about Flash, about the story that she had gotten from Ross. About who she was in general. There still was a party to return to after all this. Her mind was swirling with confusing thoughts that only seemed to continue to swirl. She wished she could run home to her parents for once and tell them everything, get their help on where to go from here. How to carry on. Everything was slowly mounting up against her with all of the wrong calls she had made, everything was shattering around her like and earthquake ripping through an antique store. It was inevitable, and the destruction was all around her. Jack had made too many good points for her to ignore any of them. She could almost hate him for it.

Slowly the small boy moved next to her to grab candy for himself. Perhaps she had been rude in the refusal and had offended Ruka in some way. After a couple moments of silence with Ruka returning to his previous position, the warmth of his touch quickly returning, he started to float. A small giggle bubbled out of her as Ruka tightened his grip on her hand slightly to help steady him. Her laugh was small and light, rounded out with a relief. Maybe they could move on from this conversation and rejoin the party. As Ruka returned back to the ground she finally spoke again.

"I definitely have some things to think about after this party for sure." She shifted out of Ruka's hands, starting a routine of clearing her face that seemed mechanical and automatic to her. Wiping her eyes, fixing her hair, attempting to clear the tear streaks that ran down her face. It was something she was an expert at. If she didn't leave a trace of sadness than no one would be suspect. Except for the people that witnessed it in the first place. "I suppose a... thank you is an order. Without you two I probably would've been trapped here for hours. We should probably head back soon... I'm sure people noticed that we left in the first place. I'm sure people will notice when we all come back in..." The last part came as a mumble under her breath. If she had had interactions that were as tumultuous as they were with Jack and Ruka, she was sure others had similar experiences and it might look interesting for them to walk back in together.