Sensitive, Cries Easily

Well how was that for a kick in the nuts? Ira stared aghast at the taller boy, tentatively blinking the shock away. He knew it wasn’t safe, thank you very much. What did Aurel think his one-time date was doing there? As a matter of fact what was Aurel doing there, too? Obviously he had been the hostage, but why him? After just the one date Ira didn’t know much about the other’s family, maybe they were rich enough to pay a huge ransom or something like that.

Shaking his head, the pint-sized hero took a decisive step towards the civilian. “I know. As I said, I’ve come to help. Can you stand? Are you alright?” He didn’t look hurt, but it was hard to tell. Ira couldn’t exactly do a complete body scan with a blink of his eyes – just like he couldn’t fly, yet. Which begged the question of how to best get away from the danger zone. “We can get out by the back door over there,” he pointed at the farthest wall from the both of them. “I’ll kick it down in no time. Or, I grab you in the least awkward way possible because you’re much taller than me, and we just through the ceiling. Your pick, princess.”

Aurel blinked in confusion, trying to process every word thrown at him before he looked down at his shaking hands. “I’m fine.” He said, standing per Ira’s instructions despite the shock of the environment around him. “The door? The door!” He sent a last glance at the weeds he had been mentally whispering too, still disappointed in his own attempts at escaping before nodding at Ira with a somewhat shaky determination. Should he wait for his father? No. Clearly not. But the fear of finding out a family secret that was not meant for him kept him standing in place. He didn’t want to disappoint again. Even if the first thought was to run. “Princess?”

There wasn’t a thing Ira loved more than kicking bad guys in the nuts. Superman called it crass, but that man wouldn’t know fun if it tried to hit him in the head with a cinder block. Which it currently was, if ‘fun’ looked like one of three villains who had, up until the Super-duo’s arrival, been fighting each other for an obscure reason.

Ira had placed his bet on hostage situation gone wrong. The three had been working together but ended up disagreeing, giving time for the aforementioned hostage to take cover – which worked out great for Ira who had been put on rescue duty.

One punch caught one of the bad guys square in the chin, sending him flying against the wall. The Superboy waited a second to see if the villain was attempting to get back up, only to turn around with a shrug when the guy’s head rolled on his shoulder. Knocked out cold, perfect. A quick glance at Superman showed Krypton’s last son had the other two men handled, and so Ira scanned the extra large, extra dusty warehouse (could villains learn to innovate? Please?) for the innocent soul to save.

It was hands on his hips, smug grin on his lips, sunglasses covering his eyes that Ira, in full Superboy costume (t-shirt printed with the House of El logo, tattered jeans and a leather jacket), called out to the human-shaped silhouette crouched by a small jungle of growing vines: “No worries, dude, Supes and older Supes here to save the day, you’re sa– oh? … Aurel?”

The warehouse Aurel had found himself just earlier in the night tied to a chair in wasn’t physically on fire but it certainly felt that way to the nature inclined boy. His only thoughts were get out and run as far away as he physically manage, then a plane ride, a train, or whatever would get him off the coast and in a totally new place where no one knew his father, his brother or him. 

When the man who tied him to the chair in the first place began monologuing at him, Aurel couldn’t believe it. He did live in a world with vigilantes and super powered humans and maybe he was one himself but his family wasn’t involved in that sort of thing. Why else would he and his brother be specifically instructed to never reveal their own gifts? After seeing his father and twin arrive, every bit as imposing as they were in their business meetings, Aurel was hard pressed to believe the truth. At least it gave him time to breathe and get out of the mediocre binds on his hands and feet. 

Warehouse sometimes had the unfortunate architectural feature of high narrow windows. Why couldn’t this one look more similar to his own converted warehouse loft apartment with scores of natural light? Hearing more crashing behind him, Aurel tried to stop focusing on the woes of the cities many architects and focus on the crop of plants he was willing to grow larger. It wasn’t easy with the patch of weeds that had found it’s way under the brick wall of the building, but it was starting to look like a way out. Only problem was his complete inability to focus and shaking hands, well shaking everything. It wasn’t like he had trained for this. The most he did with his powers now a days was help his own plant kids grow. A voice broke him out of his sad attempts at coxing the weed to grow big and strong and Aurel turned to look at who could possible be talking to him at a time like this. Standing there was the boy he had just met up with at the other day. The boy he had been texting before all of this insanity had started. “Ira? What are you- we have to get out of here!” He didn’t take in the get up, the strange sunglasses at night, or the words spoken to him prior to his name. “It’s not safe!”

Snorting in amusement, Uriel glanced at Aurel’s eyes. From the look of them it was possible his godson was a bit tired, but in his year and with his responsibilities, who wouldn’t be? “I trust you to take good care of yourself, you hear me?” he scolded, but his voice lacked bite. Aurel cared way too much about others, a character trait Uriel wasn’t sure who he had gotten it from. His mother, maybe? Who knew. “Your grades are impeccable, you chose your NEWTs wisely. For how upset I was that I couldn’t get you into Potions, you did the right thing not to pursue it further. Do you have any plans once you graduate?”

“Exactly. Neither do I.” If Aurel wasn’t into staying in the library like some nutjob, maybe they had a cool common point. But that was soon forgotten in the face of how adorable the taller boy was. Was he sunshine wrapped in a human body? If so, would he be unnaturally warm? Without thinking Ira brought a fingertip and applied it against the tip of Aurel’s nose. “Nope,” he said in something louder than a whisper. No unnatural warmth there, but his skin was very smooth. “I’m hungry though, yeah. Could eat a lion”, he joked, grinning big. His index joined forces with his thumb and he flicked Aurel’s jawline, nothing hard enough to hurt. “Do you want to grab a late night snack with me, live a little?”

Any response or attempted reply Aurel had was gone the second he nose was booped. “Nope?” He pulled his face away, placing a hand on the spot that was likely flicked. It hadn’t hurt but a strange warmth had flowed through his body. What were they discussing? Obviously nothing as important as Ira touching him again. “A lion?” Well, that was a strange thing to say. “Yes! I mean, sure. If it means you might stay out of trouble, I could consider it a part of my job. A requirement. Maybe.”

Uriel smiled at Aurel’s apparent appreciation of the meal. He wasn’t too sure what his godson liked or not, so he had simply asked the elves in the kitchens for something tasty that would suit the needs of a growing teenager. “I hope it is to your liking. The looks of it alone aren’t enough. Do make sure you eat vegetables, too.” While he did not exactly wish for children himself, Uriel thought he was rather suited for looking after other people’s kids in his humble opinion. “I’ve been quite fine, thank you.” His plate was half full by then, and he looked over at Aurel’s, to make sure the boy wasn’t holding back. He hadn’t picked a lot of meat, but what mattered was that his plate was full. “How about you? No need to tell me about your grades, I know probably more than you on the matter. How are you friends? Are you getting enough sleep?”

“No, from the common room. What would I be doing in the library?” Alright, maybe he wasn’t ready to lie quite that much. The library required constant silence, something Ira wasn’t too keen on unless it was to stalk his favourite teacher’s pet prefect in the dark hallways of Hogwarts. “Yeah, it’s no fun when someone else catches me. At least you indulge me a little, even if you do your job,” he explained in a low voice, cheeky grin the cherry on top of his debonair shrug.

“...Well, I don’t know?” Despite their years of accidentally running into each other, Aurel didn’t know much about Ira. Though when others spoke of the relaxed boy, Aurel tried to listen. “I...sure!” He didn’t know what to say to that. “It’s my job to make sure every students is happy, I presume. And I, well, you’re not causing any harm if you’re hungry. You are hungry, aren’t you?”

A knock on the door had Uriel looking up from his book in time to see Aurel allow himself in, only to start profusely apologising for being late. At least he had perfect manners, Uriel noted with a smile. “Yes, yes, everything’s alright. Although the beef wellington may be a little lukewarm– there you go.” He waved his wand at the cloche containing their dish before revealing its contents. “Please, help yourself,” he signalled as he dug into a side dish of mashed potatoes. “I only called you here to spend some time with you, so you can relax and stuff yourself.” His godson did look tense, although whether it was purely from his late arrival or not knowing why he had been summoned, Uriel wasn’t sure.

Ira shrugged, his grin not going anywhere – and neither was he, unless Aurel accompanied him. “Sure, you do your duty. Wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.” Besides, he could make up for those house points he lost by helping Gryffindor win the Quidditch cup. No big deal whatsoever; besides, he trusted Aurel not to take away so many points that it would make an obvious difference.

The prefect’s grin should have alerted any living (or dead, such as it were) creature in the area, it was so dazzling. A ray of sunshine or something. Ira wasn’t too good with poetry or anything akin to it, but Aurel’s smiles did make the Gryffindor want to kiss him. He was just that kind of pretty. “I just took some more time to leave, I was finishing a book.” By book he meant manga, but he would make himself sound more dedicated to his studies by all means. “Then I almost got caught by another prefect, so I hid and all. Can’t have anyone but you finding me out, it’s a rule.”

“To leave? Do you mean from the library? A book. Sure.” Aurel never assumed that was where Ira would be. Or that he was reading. He had much grander ideas of pranks and somewhat rude acts that were the reasoning behind the younger student’s constant detentions. “Is it?” Now he had truly confused the blond. Where was that rule? Surely not in the prefect handbook. Where so many things different now that he was head boy? Or was Ira kidding? Aurel laughed politely, still a bit confused by the turn of events. Did Ira not like their routine?

It was lunchtime on a Monday, and Uriel was waiting to see if Aurel, his godson, had any intention of joining the Potions teacher for his meal as he had been invited to do. He should have made it more of a ritual early on, Uriel supposed. Maybe if he had given the boy proper guidance he wouldn’t have ended up that way. Then again Aurelius was a good father and a right example for his children, and since Amulius had turned out all right there had to be something wrong with Aurel.

He wouldn’t put it that way. Not to his godson at least, not out loud. He didn’t want to incriminate or point fingers, he was just… slightly disappointed.

Waiting in his office, cups of tea at the ready, he drummed on the arms of his seat hoping Aurel would turn up soon. Maybe he could help the boy plan a secure future for himself, one that wouldn’t bring too much shame on the Aquinos’ reputation. There had to be something he could do about it. There had to.

After helping one lost first year and confiscating one bubble machine from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Aurel was officially late for lunch with Uriel. He knocked on his godfather’s office door lightly before opening the door. In any other social situation, Aurel would wait for a response but the guilt of possibly making his Godfather wait longer was too imposing.

“Which is exactly why I am,” Ira immediately retorted with a widening grin of his own, not missing a beat. Sure, navigating the moving staircases at night could get pretty risky, but other than that he couldn’t see any reasonable explanation as to why night strolls weren’t allowed; thus he disobeyed that particular rule as often as he felt like.

Cocking his head innocently, the Gryffindor went as far as jutting out his lower lip in a pout, knowing full well the very limited effect it was likely to have on Aurel. He didn’t mean to take the prefect for a fool, which Aurel was aware of – at least Ira hoped he was. “I’ll go once I’ve got something to snack on. Can’t go to bed on a half-empty stomach, can I?”

“I’m sure you could, Ira.” Aurel really didn’t have it in him to argue. Now or ever. He found the whole process distasteful, especially when his brunette friend wasn’t going to listen to him. “I am going to have to take away some house points.” He did so out of duty rather than want. Was one point enough to reprimand someone who really wasn’t up to anything other than a stroll? Aurel hoped so. 

He began making his way to the kitchen, shooting the shorter boy a dazzling grin. “What were you up to tonight if you haven’t made your way to the kitchens yet? Was it quite devious and dangerous and likely to get you in all kinds of trouble?”

@realcherub — AUREL

How many dirty jokes had Ira heard about Aurel, agreeing silently in his head, nodding minutely to himself only to toss whatever object was available at the offender’s head? That had earned him the nickname ‘tosser’, which was as accurate as it was unfortunate. It was on about the same level as ‘giving head to that boy’ was when talking about, inevitably, the head boy. Both puns were pretty true behind the crass or rude meaning, as Ira was reminded when he turned a corner only to spot a familiar silhouette some distance away.

Oh, well. He had gotten caught so many times taking a stroll in the corridors after hours, one more or one less didn’t worry him. “Hey,” he spoke in a low tone; just because he didn’t mind Aurel lecturing him didn’t mean he was about to alert every on-duty prefect to his presence. “Where are you heading next? Let me drop by the kitchens before you send me back to my dorm?”

It shouldn’t come as surprise that nearly every time he was on duty Ira was wandering the corridors after hours. It had been perhaps the only constant his rounds had. Though a small part of Aurel did hope the younger boy would one day learn the consequences of being out after bedtime, it would make his own nights dull. 

“You’re not supposed to be out.” Aurel stated, despite the wide grin on his face. He never expected to befriend a Gryffindor but here was one standing in front of him. One that apparently knew his route. “I was headed there...you really should go to bed, Ira. Or at least back to your common room.” 

The one thing Ira had learned fast with Aurel was the importance of aesthetics, most specifically colour schemes. The shorter man had always tried to stick to the shades he was sure of, but that hadn’t kept him from making the huge mistake of baking an all-orange cake once. Clothes weren’t the only area to which the aesthetic rules applied. “I’m glad you like it,” he said finally, only to snort as he linked his pinkie with Aurel’s. “Sure thing, I’ll nap with you. But don’t absorb all my life force while I’m out of it.”

Aurel quickly squeezed Ira’s pinkie before pulling his smaller boyfriend down onto his bed. Ira’s size was incredibly convenient though sometimes Aurel wished he could fit in his pocket and be together all day long. Clothes came off lackadaisically in Aurel’s case, his arms leaving Ira after a kiss to the smaller boy’s forehead. “How would I do that? I’ll be asleep.” Was that a sex code? “Is that a sex code? I thought we were really napping.” By this time, he was settled under the covers with a small pout. The lights were still on and there was little to no way he was leaving his blanket cocoon to fix that. 

“I never said you couldn’t come with.” Although he wouldn’t be as carefree, if one could even call it that, if he had to make sure his friend was alright. Was it too much to ask to trust a small crowd, just once? It was only thanks to Aurel’s hand working at his nerves that Eden realised how tense he had been. Maybe going out wasn’t such a good idea after all. Until his next impulsive decision. Sighing quietly, he rolled over to his side so he could take a better look at the blond. “I dunno.” Slowly he picked up the hand that hadn’t been resting on his back previously, holding it in his own, fingers linked together. “Fatigue’s crashing down, I don’t even have the energy to fall asleep, you know the feeling? I’m gonna float here and see what happens.”

Aurel frowned but allowed Eden to drag his hand away. If he had use of both, the massage would have been even better. He only wanted the absolute best for his roommate! “But you’re not floating.” Aurel gave Eden’s shoulder one last light squeeze before inching closer to the other boy. He rested his own head on Eden’s chest and stared up at him. “We could listen to some ocean sounds or I could give you a better massage! I could get some milk or tea or tell you a story! Maybe you should get under the covers.”