two
it was surprising how quick their last day of summer had gone by, the sun starting to set just as the trio's fun had heightened. their early leave in the morning hadn't gotten many groans from the boys, confusing pamela jacobs on why george and the two others had been so enthusiastic about getting out of the inn early. maybe it was the heightened fear of embarrassment if the boys ran into sapnap.
but that had been hours ago, and now, the globe of light was towering up between the tall buildings, blinding everyone as they walked towards king's cross station. the building looked normal, business people with their fancy work clothes rushing to get to their train, heels clicking as they passed by the more 'relaxed' groups of family and friend. either people from the magic side, or the bad side of the city.
george and his friends were, of course, on the magic part of the two chill sides.
karl's family had been eager to let the three boys deal with the sweaty crowd formed behind platform 9 3/4, the one george had been attending 6 years just like karl: but the two watched quackity with wondering eyes. george didn't understand how calm the boy walked, dragging his luggage right behind his feet. if it had been him, if it had been his last year of attending the train, or maybe walking through the station for the last time by yourself without kids, he would be crying out tears. he really wondered why quackity wasn't.
quackity passed everyone in a hurry, karl's eyes met with george's, both radiating confusion. they didn't have another option then to follow along, after their helpless attempts of calling the boy by his name. quackity walked in such a hurry, that he ended up knocking a luggage onto the floor, he had just groaned and told off the familiar enthusiastic gryffindor boy to "fuck off." tommy hadn't been delighted, shouting bad words behind quackity. and he had even tried to punch the boy lightly in the arm, but had been stopped when it contacted with george instead.
george only whined, a tiny amount of pain suddenly shooting up from his arm. tommy's punch was just playful, however, he watched quackity walk away with big eyes, not even bothering to look towards his way.
"tommy, calm down." george warned him, making an abrupt stop. he didn't know if karl had seen him standing, but he didn't feel a presence around him, except for the tall blonde. tommy knew thankfully about his transition; karl and quackity had told many people as they could in the short time they had spent together.
"sorry george notfound, sir, i am so sorry gogy!" he smirked, maybe a way to hint that he was in fact not sorry. george only rolled his eyes with a smile, it wasn't awful talking to tommy, and he could take a break from all the fast walking. "gogy?"
"i came up with it." maja: tommy's gryffindor friend spoke up. it looked like maja had been talking with tommy's parents from the looks of it, as now the two tall adults were pulled away from their conversation with them, now facing the familiar hufflepuff.
"no you didn't, you're just lying to get gogy's attention, besides i've known him longer..." tommy raised both his voice and eyebrows, switching his eyesight between george and maja, who huffed, pointing a finger at him as if he weren't here.
"well, he is bestfriends with quackity, so i'm guessing he's only heard bad of you!" george's heart warmed. he saw his two newly made friends as his closest friends —along with the three ravenclaw's, of course— and hearing someone refer to him as their bestfriend made him smile. but the warming feeling only let his mind wrap back to the idea of leaving his friends to talk to two year fives. maybe he wasn't the friend that remembered the most.
waving a quick excuse, he let his feet take him towards the big train, the piss colour making him gag a bit as it tired his eyes.
he pushed against the group of families and first years, parents crying out tears, and the children tweaking from embarrassment, even if no one judged. everyone looked excited, beaming with energy, bustling up and down. some people accidentally hit george as some older students came back to the station to say their goodbye's to their younger friends, and after giving them a mean glance, he wondered if that was what quackity would do next year.
george smiled.
a thud and a crash ended with his legs sprawled out on the floor, his suitcase standing still. he was the same height with it after the fall. just as he was about to curse out to whoever ran into him, his brown and blue eyes met yellow ones — probably green, no one had yellow eyes. however, afterwards his strange thoughts, so came another obvious one.
the guy staring down at him was good looking, too good looking for anyones liking. his dark yellow ( ? ) pants weren't too tight on his legs, looking too fancy compared to the worn down dirty black hoodie he had on top. the sleeves were pulled up, showing off his tanned arm, but the holes by the end were still evident to his eyes, just like the white shirt poking from his hoodie.
george knew him, george heard of him, george heard him, george had him talk directly to him.
but it wasn't george who had been in those interactions, and now he got to talk to his best friend's arch enemy as himself. he didn't know what type of nervousness to feel, along with how he was getting a bit pissed for the way he had ended up on the floor, because of him. so overall, his emotions were bubbling, all because of a boy who had just crashed into him.
he looked unbothered, eyes scanning anywhere but his face. his staring eyes led george's gaze down onto his clothes, making him shrink into his shirt. unlike the fancy pants the guy had on, his sweatpants were melting against his own skin. sure, they were comfortable, but they itched his legs annoyingly as the boys stare went down.
"are you just gonna stand there or — " before george could continue with whatever his annoyance and excitement had thrown out, the boy ignored his raised hand and stepped beside george, continuing to walk his way.
george's eyes wanted to trail behind the popular boy, but he huffed, rubbing his hands on his black bottoms whilst getting himself back up. he grabbed his luggage again, patting his fingers against the back luckily, from a bit far away, he could spot swinging arms, and a bright blue beanie stood shorter next to the tall male karl.
dusting the pink tint off his cheeks, he hurried up to the two wandering boys. karl was eagerly pulling quackity back each time he tried too escape into the train: his face red. george didn't know if it were either from the beanie that captured his forehead in the warming weather, or having to stand next to a boy who kept on bouncing up and down.
reaching into the pocket of his dark blue hoodie — which was slinging over his bag straps — he pulled out a black and yellow camera. he had bought two disposable camera's over the summer, and the first camera had captured wonderful sightings — along with a few of himself and his friends — but he knew that as his sixth year started, the second 30 pictures would consist of a large amount of goofy pictures, compared to how little good looking photos he would snap.
of course, he also had his phone. explaining this to alex had been very difficult. the boy kept reminding that the app snapchat ( not sapnap, karl and george had difficulty explaining that either — still, alex didn't like the app ) was not the only source to take photos, and that he had admired the disposable machine since a kid: and had become a tradition between him and his best friends. just like him, when george had mentioned his childhood attachment: they had lit up even more at the two words placed against one another.
click.
"fucking finally! where were you georgie?" quackity groaned at the sight of george, furiously running up to the taller. george's ear was grasped by alex, jokingly pulling by. karl laughed at the sight, whilst he just repeatedly let out "ow! ow! ow!"
but eventually, the three pushed their luggages onto where they meant to be put: entering the train with a long sigh coming out of the shortest. "they probably beat us to the carriage, right karl?"
"who?" george asked, interrupting when karl nodded and shrugged. the third looked a bit annoyed in his eyes, but smiled nevertheless. "only our bestest of best friends, mr. ex and mr. popular."
"ah." george nodded, his ears going pink at the reminder of 'mr. popular'. he hoped his friends didn't notice his reddening face, keeping himself busy with moving around. he moved quick under karl's questioning gaze.
"would you guys want to sit with uh, my friends?" the question came out awkward and forced, mostly because quackity had another specific 'enemy' known to george. or even more, but this particular one was george's other best friend, and his room mate for 6 years or so.
"i would rather take techno than them two..."
the three slowly walked, george leading his new found friends to his oldest ones. in all honestly, he didn't know whether he was nervous for his ravenclaw friends to see who he was bringing along, or the fact that he would see him fully as himself.
so, pushing away his growing anxiety in his spine, he led the way.
—
it wasn't... awkward, per se. no loud silence ever echoed through the carriage that fit all 6 students. when he had first entered the coach, his friends hadn't given him questioning glances, nor stared sideways at the two new additions on his side, but just given him a hug and a clap in the back, forcing him to sit down next to the window. the first to ask a question regarding the elephant ( s ) in the carriage had been techno.
it wasn't like he didn't know who the two boys were, he knew them better than most. the many fights he had gotten himself messed up with the 7th grade was absurd, coming from the younger compared to alex. however, there wasn't a tense silence between both, no eyeing eachother with hatred filled in their pupils.
but wilbur did stare at quackity for a bit, his pupils trailing from his worn out shoes to his lazily put together outfit.
"so, what brings you guys here?" the monotone was enough to break the non existing silence, everyones personal conversations turning into one big one. george smiled at techno, he knew that his bestfriend was doing his best, even if it meant putting on a cold personality in front of others.
all eyes turned to karl and quackity: they had both taken their respectful seats at the end of each seat, quackity seated next to wilbur ( who was sitting alongside george ), and karl crossing his legs right next to eret, who had done the same prior, smiling at the same position they were in.
"this man over there, he practically dragged us here..." karl smirked, pointing his finger towards george, who had already started rolling his eyes. the words that had come out of his friends mouth were extremely wrong, but sent eret and alex chuckling. wilbur smiled softly when he had made eye contact. and of course, techno just nodded along.
the forced conversations developed into heated — thankfully sarcastic — arguments. quackity swore endlessly, wilbur having to shush him at some times. karl jumped from one conversation topic to another, techno and eret struggling to keep up with his rants as wilbur, george and quackity listened and added in some jokes. george nudged techno's feet, making sure he was okay sitting in the same coach as one of his arch nemesis. his lips just twitched upwards.
but of course, the rare action was acknowledge by more people than the ones seated on the cushions.
"is that, techno? smiling? dream, cmon you've gotta see this!" george's neck snapped at the familiar voice, his eyes trailing between quackity and sapnap, who had abruptly nudged his head through the slight gap of the compartment door.
george wasn't sure if sapnap's eyes had diverted into quackity's sight just yet, but he felt himself question as karl made eye contact with the newly joined boy. their staring continued, only making quackity glance at george with the same confusion glistening in his eyes. of course, the other's didn't capture the moment as their attention was taken by another boy.
"stop eye fucking the hufflepuff, sapnap." his voice brought pink upon george's face — not a similar shade of karl's and sapnap's, though —, reminiscing the recent events he had encountered with the boy. his eyes stayed focused on quackity's yet another confused glance.
"what do you two want?" wilbur stated, talking the many unspoken minds of the kids in the coach. alex and george finally cut their intense eye contact, one staring at dream, and one staring at the pink haired boy infront of him.
"nothing. just thought we could come by and say hello," techno slightly rolled his eyes at dream's statement, sending a side glance quickly — which dream did notice, preferably because of george's small snicker.
"and to congratulate your new friend. honestly wondering, who would join this late, right?" the blonde's eyes crossed, huffing a scoff-like breath out, "is he a replacement for your pretty girlfriend, wilby?"
george fell into silence, once again under an analysing stare by dream. he felt himself slowly sink into his seat, not being able to maintain eye contact with none of the stares his three friends — alex, karl or eret — were giving him. even if concerned for him, george wasn't appreciative of the glances from his friends.
"dream!" sapnap lightly hit dream's arm, wilbur and techno intensely watching the two interact.
"what, just saying that it's very sus of him..."he snickered, raising up his eyebrows. sapnap only muttered to himself, pulling dream away from the carriage. a "sorry george" was heard from him before they both exit from their eyesight.
now, with no two idiotic boys standing in front, the others fell into silence. george staring down at his shoes, no longer felt threatened by the stare, after the exit of the two. he could hear quackity whispering aggressively to karl, who muttered answers back at him softly. george didn't know what it was about, choosing to tune out.
eret pointed out a thumbs up to george, and he only nodded in response back to them. eret sighed, returning back to her book. throughout the years, george had portrayed how he liked to deal with his emotions very well to his friends. he kept it to himself, and they all respected that: they all had their own problems, and however they wanted help — or not — their friendship group all respected it.
wilbur was more alike to eret, in george's eyes at least.
wilbur understood boundaries, but sometimes decided to go against them. he had done it many times, forcing him to do and say stuff he was nervous about. at first, during his confessions, he hadn't been the most graceful, wanting to punch wilbur right there and then. but afterwards, he did enjoy the welcoming — and apologetic — aura that came along with it.
technoblade, was a complete opposite to the two ravenclaws. he tried to avoid a confrontation, or any moment where he would have to be more honest to his friends. george had been lucky a few times, seeing the comforting side of techno. even if his presence by itself calmed george, hearing sweet and assuring words drop from his — awkwardly — smiling mouth had been the best attempt at talking about his feelings.
whenever he needed to rant, he had his monotone bestfriend to talk to. and thinking of the devil himself, techno snickered in a low voice
"it took them 6 years to find our carriage."
—
as soon as they stepped out, sapnap walked furiously. he could hear dream trying to catch up with him, and he stopped to take a breather, running his hands through his hair. "dream! you idiot! fucking hell..."
"what? you're blaming me for being rude? what was all the fuck eyes with karl, huh? and in front of alex, dude that's mes—"
"we weren't eye fucking, jesus christ!" dreams eyes softened under sapnap's loud voice, confusion starting to take over. he already regretted even remotely shouting at dream, knowing what could possibly be the outcome, but he wasn't the best when it came to controlling his emotions, especially anger.
"...now, i wasn't even that rude, what's up with you man?" dream asked, probably realising that getting defensive and arguing back with sapnap wasn't going to help decrease his temper at all. they were bestfriends, after all.
"man, you remember the girl from last year, the one you mentioned? yeah so george is..." sapnap nodded his head, trying to make dream understand, he watched as his furrowed eyebrows softened, raising and falling back immediately. his mouth formed an O, and a groan escaped through it as he cupped his head in his hands.
"and you didn't think to tell me?"
"don't blame it on me! i didn't know you would do!" the two now rested in the empty hallway in silence, trying to calm down their loud voices. sapnap guessed that the carriage they had just left probably heard the whole conversation, considering their shouts."i don't know man, it just didn't come to my mind."
"sorry."
the two stood at the moving hallway, concerned on what to do next. it wasn't like they had a place to sit, all carriages had been taken and sapnap had explicitly told dream he didn't want to kick out younger — and smaller — students out of their coaches, especially in their last year.
but they couldn't calm down without a place to rest.
going down the same hallway, they settled upon a nearly empty carriage, two second years talking enthusiastically whilst waving their chocolate frog cards. they hadn't made such a problem, not resembling a tiny bit of fear whilst the hufflepuff's joined another carriage of second years.
both sapnap and dream stayed away from the windowsill, for no particular reason. for every single year they had been in this train, the two sat far from the window: or either in a way where they weren't facing the fastly moving trees outside. the two had agreed upon how they got sick watching objects move fast, and once in a carriage with two others, they had called them silly.
maybe that's why dream and sapnap had become bestfriends with eachother, not with schlatt nor minx.
"last year, huh." he thought out loud, thinking back at his first day had brought a nostalgic smile onto his face.
"yeah. shit, let's make it a good one, right?" sapnap hummed along to dream, making brief eye contact with him. dream gave him a heart-warming smile, glancing down at his shoes. "when should i apologize to uh," dream thought for a second, trying his best to think of the boys name, "george?"
sapnap shrugged. "i would say wait a bit, if you go back into that carriage they'll all eat you alive..." he glanced towards the closed door, keeping his eyes focused for a bit. the moment he had made contact with karl jacobs had still been repeating in his head. dream had been exaggerating the situation, but sapnap couldn't wonder why karl hadn't looked away for the longest time.
"hey. you good?" dream tapped sapnap's foot with his. "is there anything more going on between you and alex?" sapnap tensed back up, staring right back at dream.
"not really... they were at the cauldron yesterday and i, i just..." dream nodded, his body language showing much interest. his legs were crossed, his elbow resting on his knee. "i was talking with george, and just seeing karl again man. i don't know..."
"like i know i'm not meant to like — " his breath cut short, hearing loud voices approaching. even if it had been any voice but quackity and karl's, he wouldn't have continued on with his sentence.
a knock on their closed door had startled both inside the coach. sapnap had been deeply intrigued in their previous conversation but knowing the two — or even more, maybe they had brought george along — was just a door away from him stopped his heart. both dream, and sapnap got ready to be confronted or shouted at, but karl's awkward smile warmed sapnaps heart, just a bit.
"hey, could we sit with you guys?" the question itself confused sapnap, but without even glancing at dream for confirmation, sapnap nodded his head. "would q—alex mind?" he whispered nearly, watching karl shrug. he glanced backwards, waving his hand towards himself.
"no he won't, don't worry," karl turned towards dream, meeting his eyes unlike sapnap's. "and neither will george, just, don't be a dickhead."
"yeah, i won't be."
and soon enough, the two slytherins were joined by three other students. george and karl took their respectful spaces next to the window, and alex had awkwardly squeezed between sapnap and karl. george stayed glued to the window, keeping away from touching dream.
sapnap's mind fuzzed with too many feelings. he was dissapointed after he had to scoot far — exactly a size of alex — away from karl. however then, as his arm had a slight contact with quackity, the familiar touch engulfed his brain maybe a little too much. alex had pulled his arm away softly, only leaving sapnap wondering why he hadn't been more harsh like he usually would.
and far in his eyesight, with whispers, he watched george fiddle with the straps of a dark blue hoodie he had put on, his eyes glancing outside whilst dream stared straight into the ravenclaws face. maybe that's what he had looked like once in a time, trying to get someones attention, someone he had hurt dearly. but as dream's mouth spilled out words of sympathy and apology, george nodded and said he "understood". dream nodded, with a faint smile on both their lips.
sapnaps eyes travelled back to karl, sitting with his legs pulled up t his chest, an arm wrapped around them. he talked softly, louder than dream, even when he joined in with agreeing on karl's rants. maybe it hadn't only been karl and dream talking, maybe he had blurted some random word out, but he knew for a fact, as his eyes contacted with quackity's lips, they never opened to let out any words, only hums maybe.
but his eyes didn't meet his, and only copied the actions sapnap had been doing, ogling karl. he smiled at the friends, watching quackity's lips twitch upwards as he nodded to agree with something george had said or fall back when dream made a snarky comment, the tension in the room still existing in the air, even if they had all quietly but mutually agreed upon ignoring it.
maybe, sapnap could work his problems out. maybe, he could do it with friendships over rivals. just maybe.
—
quackity had smiled at his bestfriend, grateful he hadn't snitched on his original request. maybe, it had been for selfish reasons as he smiled at sapnap's burning stare. or maybe, it had been to watch the hufflepuff smile widely, once again back to his normal state. maybe.
—
and george, maybe he had broken a long going tradition, but as eret had mentioned, they've "got a lot of traditions, no worries in breaking some, once in a lifetime."
—
but karl, maybe he didn't have to go through this year with many doubts, and many redo's, if he kept going natural, just maybe.