#wizabel

and then you meet the most frustrating annoying person alive. you dont even know him, he mostly bugs your friend, but you get in a massive argument once because he thinks you think youre hot shit- which you DONT, so HE’S wrong for assuming. you dislike him on instinct. whatever. magic sports exist here too! it’s a sport you really like. you go for tryouts and have so much fun and okay fine maybe you show off a little bit— but it’s because you’re good and you know it. you make the team! so does the worst boy alive that you met and instantly didnt like. he didnt just make the team, he made the position directly tied to yours. you wont just be teammates, you two specifically will be partners. you hate it. you push him into a patch of rotting pumpkins when you get the chance. he fills your shoes with magic slugs. you turn his orange juice into mud. he knocks you off your broom. you throw up on him. this goes on for a long time.

years pass. hes still annoying and rude and freakish. …he’s also pretty alright. he’s not afraid of you like other kids are (because hes convinced hes the scariest thing around. as if, you can totally be scarier than him). hes also scarily loyal and makes you laugh. he helped you sneak your best friend/pet spider out of the castle once, which meant she wouldn’t have been discovered and taken away forever. that meant a lot.

and he also talks like he doesn’t care who you are. which means he calls your grandpa a bitch when you groan about your homelife sometimes. that makes you laugh too. and because hes not scared of you he kind of pushes you in ways nobody else does. which is so annoying! you dont need him to push you, you can totally be better than him on your own— you’ll show him. he has nice hands. what

you walk together after practice. your grandpa doesnt want you doing magic after graduation. you dont even know if you want to continue it yourself, but you hate not having the chance to choose. bitch boy is there for a lot of this and he always listens and gives you the same rough mannered support he gives his friends, which as much as you love your own friends, you don’t get much of from them. you like hanging out together, now. he might be your best friend. he is. you fall asleep studying on the couch together and practice one-on-one together, developing new moves that’ll leave the competition in the dust. you make Captain of your magic sports team. he uses the title to tease you but he means it every. single. time. it makes you feel sick. it makes you feel sweaty and too vulnerable and you want to run.

you make a bad call during a match and bitch boy gets hurt. every time you look at him he has an obnoxious manic grin or an annoyingly bold bravado, he shouldnt be lying there all quiet. it’s your fault. hes your best friend and it’s your fault. you don’t leave the infirmary for two days, you barely sleep, when his friends come to check on him you’re so jumpy that you nearly hex them. sure he’s fine and it’s another little battle scar for him to brag over but now your gut churns with guilt every time you look at him. you never want to see him that quiet again.

you run out of class once when a monster your professor brings in turns into your grandpa and starts ripping into you in front of the entire class. bitch boy is the only one who comes to check on you. he looks at you too softly for your angry outbursts and messy face and his usual brash approach. you know that means he’s trying something new just for you and everything feels too hot. you want to run again. he touches your hand and you cant fucking move. your other best friend also comes to see if youre ok, but he walks in on the two of you kissing which was not exactly in the plan anywhere near the plan whatsoever the plan this was not the plan.

johnny puts himself through the wringer about his feelings, but he gets used to it so quickly because crap. shit. of course isabel’s cool. hes the *last* idiot in the whole school to realize that. but hes also the FIRST idiot in the whole school to see her genuine side too, the side of her that isnt admired from an arms length and a pedestal. johnny sees her at a fists length and a ditch. arguably, his status as The Guy She Keeps Butting Heads With is what lets him get close enough to have that realization in the first place: who else would ambush isabel guerra at 11pm looking to cause trouble!!!! but then they have their Moment and there’s a rug pulled out from under his feet. surprise idiot, now you’re in it for the long haul.

and its a LONG haul. his feelings for her stick around for 4 years. and he spends all of that time simmering and keeping everything held close: wake up, go to class, take the long way through that hallway cause he knows she walks with burger to their ancient runes class, go to practice, throw around bickery insults together and snap at some 2nd years for gawking, homework, bed. liking isabel guerra is just a second part of life. it’s always there but it’s mostly manageable; it’s a bruise that only hurts when you touch it. and no, creepy haunted knights helmet under his bed, he’s not gonna do shit about it. quit monologuing at him about Matters Of The Heart, ollies gonna be here any minute.

and then, like, in comparison. with isabel. isabel has a category 5 internal meltdown. her ass does not know what is happening. shes like, shes having heart palpitations. johnny’s unconches for 2 minutes and shes sits in the infirmary bouncing her leg at 500mph. shes paces that room for 3 hours. ollie has to restrain stephen and rj from doing the same thing because wait just hold on boys, lookit em. this could be what theyve been waiting for. isabel tears herself away from his infirmary bed for an afternoon because the team has practice, and every other sentence she keeps biting her tongue because johnny’s not there. and she’s thinking, did she seriously talk to him that much????? shit, shes not focusing. she needs to hit the next bludger to the back for their offense maneuver, wheres johnn- oh. right.

then things go back to normal! and finally everything’s fine! shes FINE! she was WORRIED ABOUT A TEAMMATE. they have. a COWORKER RELATIONSHIP. right? it’s normal. it’s NORMAL. everyone feels like this. she’s NOT caught off guard by his usual postgame punches on the shoulder. shes NOT hyperaware of where legs are during late night couch study sessions. WHY would she EVER be any of those things. when she stumbles awake at 6am, it’s NOT because johnny wakes up early to do his dumb hair and cause morning trouble before anyone else is awake. now, if johnny thinks he’s running late, and it makes her smile a little to see him panic before he realizes she pranked him, well. the two are unrelated. and she DOESNT start noticing how casually frequently touchy the jang is in comparison to the activity club. and. and she doesn’t wonder…. what it might be like…….. for someone to hug her that tight, instead of her doing all the hugging all the time. she DOESNT think that. HER? WHY WOULD- SHE WOULD NEVER THINK THAT. PLEASE . ITS NORMAL. SHE CAN HANDLE THIS. johnny is FINE now, and hes ANNOYING AS REGULAR, and if hes late to practice her heart spikes BUT THEN ITS FINE! and theyve always had their little rival thing, and its FUN, and shes NOT RUINING THAT, and,

eightfold is a giant spider isabel sneaks into the library when theyre first years but by second year shes gotten too big to keep hiding. isabel tries sneaking out to help her escape but johnny catches her in the act so he gets roped in and it turns into a whole heist sneaks to get eightfold out of the wizard castle unnoticed without getting caught. at midnight. saying bye is bittersweet but on the walk back they start bickering as usual and they hate each other so much but oops oh no wait this is fun. they’re having fun actually. haha get back here. and they get back 2 dorms safe and giggling and shoving each other and its nice and isabel opens up a little bit and says thanks for being there that was super annoying but cough uh. ended up being really nice and shes glad he was there. it was nice not being alone while saying bye to her best friend. so she GUESSES maybe he isnt SO bad or whatever. and then puts the bravado back on and is grinning wide and laughing again and haha oh man did he see that ghost in the corridor with the- but johnny is NOT listening. he is still stuck on ‘i had a nice time being around you’ (<- he is unused to positive reinforcement. he is accustomed to the norm of ‘(i think) people (my friends) like me because im good at exerting myself over others in a way that makes them feel bad but makes us feel good’ and not ‘i enjoyed being around you just for you’) and is not taking it well. also very jarred and offput by the new side of his wizard sport partner, very thrown off kilter. thrown off his groove. they NEVER have good times together. like they dont have BAD times but this has never been like A Thing before but she just said it so now it IS and. okay. maybe he had fun. maybe he DID have fun. and maybe shes good to push against cause she pushes back and maybe he can admire or at least respect the tenacity it takes to do that with him. and maybe it feels cool when that look get in her eye and he knows hes in for a good duel or like shes not looking like that now but this is fine too yknow. like the warm smiling and goofy laughing and dorm fireplace lighting and the tired soft look hes never seen her with before is fine no biggie he doesnt mind. but yes he does hes freaked out. so he bolts and thinks ‘surely that isn’t something i gotta worry about’ and then worries about for the next 6 years

isabel has a tendency to keep even her closest friends a little at bay but unfortunately thats very hard to do when you share a wizard commonroom with a loudmouthed fire hazard who is also your wizard sport partner. so they end up spending a lot of time together thanks to proximity. proximity after about 3 years turns to tentative friendship. tentative friendship after 4 years turns to ‘at the point of late night study sessions draped across each other on the couch because we have shit to do and im not letting you fail because if you do you wont be able to play in the next match and if we lose cause of it im kicking your ass’ (<- ‘i like hanging out with you’). the others come over often but theres only so much time you can spend with someone who is not in your wizard school group versus someone who is and is around you 24/7. so theyre not bffs yes but they might as well be. so one day theyre learning about some idk wizard beast and oops forgot to bow or whatever, johnny gets owned and so ollie&isabel take him 2 the nurse. the catalyst here is isabel knows by now that this is someone she cares about and considers a friend but shes REALLY caught off guard at just how MUCH this is stressing her out. not wizard game related. not in a bickery play way. she doesnt know when she started caring so much, but now she IS and hes someone important to her. and hes hurt. and shes going to stay in this god damn infirmary pacing and foot tapping and doing jumping jacks to get out the energy while her brain goes 100000 miles per second. and she does that for about 4 hours. anyway johnnys fine but even after hes fine isabel is still stuck with the ‘why was That my reaction’ realization. and the answer is she li

6th year max gets his ass thrown in the trio sorcerer championship and literally all his suffering is secondary because this is an izjo au. both their feelings are still there both of them still have no idea what to do with them or how to get them out in normal ass ways. so first night back to school johnny dares everyone to sneak into the woods after curfew and see who lasts longer. hes not 12 anymore but he is 16 which arguably is worse. the bullying has lessened the scoundrelism has amplified. everyone gets terrified. scatters. haha oh its you (record scratch) guess we’re walking around the spooky woods trying to find our friends! gee the atmosphere and flustered skittishness i get around you that makes me uncomfortable because i dont know how to deal with it SURE IS amplified right now! better fall back on familiar tactics and scenarios: friendly frustrated bickering and mild threats of violence. they get in a verbal fight and have a ‘would you shut up’ ‘why dont you make me’ ‘And Then They Kiss’ moment while the emotions are super heightened and isabel, who initiated it, isabel kissed him first, then proceeds to realize what she did and loses her god damn mind freaking out and apologizing while johnny stands there totally frozen and maybe for the first time ever shocked into total speechlessness. and then max falls out of a tree and ollie finds them and ed and rj are with them and sos stephen so theyre like HAHA OKAY GANG ! GREAT DARE ! LETS HEAD BACK NOW ! and johnny lays awake in bed that night kicking his feet in the air

wizard prom in december. they dont go together because theyre idiots and not at that point where asking someone (each other) to wizard prom is something they can do. but they both break away from the crowd at similar times and end up hanging out most of the night, which jsabel gets in trouble with her grandpa for, but before then she has a lot more fun. they ditch the wizard prom hall and go romp around campus and the sports pitch and they Dont Talk About What Happened In September. they dont. its unspoken. if you bring it back up that means its real. oh hey wait hold on whats that. what is that. is that- oh damn its that one plant. with the- yeah its the winter holiday kiss tradition plant. where like if its over you you gotta kiss. yeah like on the mouth. wow that’s crazy. ahahahah damn well yknow it IS the rules so they should probably- cause yknow like, so they, yknow, yeah. yeah like with lips and stuff. man thats sooooo lame and sucky too bad the plant rules say we gotta :/ shoot that sure blows :/ crazy how this world works. cringe. anyway so about that ki- and then max walks in .2 seconds beforehand and ruins the moment and its funny because i like torturing him. max tells ksabel Hey Uh We Gotta Do The Closing Dance Okay Bye. spells broken though and she leaves they do not kiss. but theyre both left with the knowledge that the other person WANTED to enough that they were willing to exploit a cliche social tradition just to find an excuse for it.