#**ooc commentary**

Desmond would treat Pablo like his pal kid??? Like how him and Olive are close because it’s start off with Pablo walking into the coffee spoon where he now works alongside Matt because let’s face it that’s such a cute thing- and Pabs does his shouting. Des isn’t even off put and shouts back until he gets to the counter, leaning in and sliding Pablo a twenty as he whispers

“I don’t really want coffee gimme a hot coco, bro bro. Had to shout that so I can keep that adult rep.” And tells him to keep the change. He hasn’t been there often but Olive goes there everyday after her jog and he decides to stop in more often.

Des being who he is ends up bringing Pablo extra snacks- cupcakes, cookies, brownies and the such. He even asks Pablo if he wants to be his outside taste tester.

It’s hi’s and hello’s and just chill talk with sweets until hotter wheather comes and Pablo spots Des in his old rock band tees. The conversation picks up and Des admits he was in a band in high school and still has his guitar full of signatures. For the next few weeks it’s Pabs and him babbling about music and sharing laughs over his ‘let’s get this crystal queer shirt’.

They both go too far with experimenting with things like coffees and smoothies i.e

“Dude what is that?”

“It’s a.....fruit?”

“Yeah put that in there. It’s a fruit it’s healthy right?”

“Sure?”

“And like twelve more peppermint sticks.”

“...... want chocolate chips?”

“BROOOOO HELLA YEAH”

It’s not off the bat- it takes a few months even a year or two to really start relating and talking. About year three- they start having serious talks about emotions and shit because Des has seen Pablo frown and boy that just wont do. It’s awkward because ‘gross sad feelings??? I’m always happy!’ And it’s something I just see them having in common- staying strong for those around them even though most the time they’re so beaten down and sad- along with sharing a blunt, reckless ass stories and doing more dumb shit probably by mistake

I think about Desmond celebrating every anniversary even though sometimes it was by himself. The fear everytime Patricia was called back to base. The budding boredom of his home life that made him hate himself more. Oh but the bright smiles when his sons were born- when Olive lost her first tooth. He never stopped loving the kids- he just really never saw them as him. Maybe that’s why he loves them so much.

He never drunk. That’s a fact- he never fell back into drinking. Cheating on the other hand...

Desmond is a loyal fuck. Too much to go and hurt someone he was in love with for no good reason. Maybe he wanted to prove how bad of a person he was to her....even to himself. Hell, even to the kids. I often think about what ate at Desmond for him to destroy his marriage.

I constantly believe it’s something he’s trying to make up for- like a repentance. Or maybe now he just has an excuse in his book to really hate himself for everything. Maybe this all started at the orphanage step where he was left. Maybe it bloomed in high school.

Desmond’s life is filled with maybes. I often think about how much he aches to find better in all these maybes.

I often think about how he cries in the basement far from his children’s ears and questions why he’s still given good things; friends, his brother and sisters, his kids- as if all the good is just God rubbing salt in his wounds.

What I think about most is the preachers son Desmond who crawled down alters to follow his father’s footsteps from the day he was born to his father’s death. The faithful boy who burned out too early. Somewhere underneath rocks and melted wax and the sins of the unspoken, there’s a young boy holding the word of God, asking why.

Half dead professor Welsh always disheveled always a mess and looks like he hasn’t slept in days but always smiling and know all his students by name, not house. He does his best to tutor and help and sometimes he doesn’t even know why he’s allowed is such a wonderful place full of bright minds because he isnt one of them he’s not smart enough not courageous enough.

But he trots through the halls in the early morning when no one but the ghosts are drifting by and he spends it with them; listening to the stories and laughters and those before him and then his students. All of the children growing and embracing themselves-And then his own kids;

Sweet tender Austin fluttering around trying to help other students. He’s the scrawniest kid in Hufflepuff but it’s never stopped him from staying after classes to help teachers run errands or stop his exploration around secret tunnels or the music room. He eats lunch by himself; it’s best, he thinks, watching the trees and tending to the patches of field outside the walls.

Olive roaming around and barely going through a day without a fight. It’s self defense, she argues, because no one seems to care about whom she is, only the colors she wears. Truth be told, she couldn’t care less. She’s carefree and dangerously intelligent- that intelligence being used for pranks and working alongside those who wish to strive for the better. She is cunning and mischievous despite being kind and as helpful as her nature will let her but she is no sheep to fate; she is a leader and Slytherin would do well to keep her strength in mind.

Olive- @popeyes-worst-nightmare

Austin- @freckles-n-flowers