Kel was far from a good mood when he pushed the door to his dormitory open with his left shoulder. He had a scowl on his face, and his left hand was gripped around an ice pack that he had on his right hand. Thankfully, you could hardly tell his nose had been broken, but as he passed something reflective, he saw the fading hand mark Jenn had left on his cheek. Lovely.

Reaching his bed, he sat down on it before laying down on his back, staring blankly at the canopy above him.

"Oh."

...

Again. Weird.


Plymouth recognized the little bag from that day. He didn't want it. He didn't. But, he needed money and it didn't look like Copernicus was going to GIVE him any. Maybe he'd just get some from .. Kaziermeriz. He seemed rich. He'd probably loan Plymouth money for.. like... his soul or something.

It'd be worth it.


"Well, maybe. I guess." Plymouth didn't want to look at the bag, think about the bag, or just... nothing. NO RAIN on Evolette parade.

"Im taking her to dinner. To start with. Girls like to eat."

Then KEL came in and this was all just starting to look just like the scene from before. Except this time, Kel was the one that looked ... rough. Plymouth shot him a questioning look.

Oh great. There were people in here. Plymouth...and most likely the other one was Copernicus. Except Plymouth seemed a bit different today then the last time Kel had talked to him...how ironic. Now Kel was the one that felt pacing and moving beds around, and Plymouth looked quite happy.

He sat up and grabbed the hangings around his bed, just as he caught a glance from Plymm. Not sure what to do about it, but feeling that yanking the hangings around his bed closed might seem a bit rude, he just sat back against his headboard silently. He didn't want to interrupt anything that might be going on between the others... and his hand was now throbbing again. Kel groaned as he leaned forward to pick up the ice he'd set down and put it back on his hand.

"What?" Copernicus turned and gave Plymouth a 'you asked for money, now what?' face. "I can change the color. I can change the bag. What's wrong with it?"

He didn't even know how to respond to Plymouth, who didn't want advice. He wanted... what? To gloat? To share? Cope was DONE offering advice to Plymouth about girls. "I've heard that about girls. The eating thing."

He flopped across his bed and looked at Kel. "What's up, mate? Someone roughing you up? I can go have a word with them."

Kel's eyes widened in horror at Cope's offer. He surely did NOT want him to have a word with anyone on Kel's behalf. "Um, no, it's okay." he said, trying not to sound rude. He frowned slightly, leaning his head back against the wall.

"It was my fault, really." he said, lifting his head up and staring at his feet. "Girl trouble." he decided to say. That was part of the problem...but when he looked at it from another point of view, he couldn't see an obvious reason as to why girl trouble could make him have two recently relocated fingers...but the slap mark across his cheek kinda made sense.

"It just reminds me of stuff that I don't want to think about today. Today is a good day. I'll... get money.... from it though. I guess." Plymouth scooted the little bag towards his pillow with his fingers. Hm. He tried to tip it open to see if money really would come out of it...


Plymouth raised his eyebrow at Copernicus. He'd heard that about girls? What? "Errm... right." He wasn't going to ask. Fine. Plymouth wouldn't tell. He crossed his arms and instead gave his attention to Kel.


"You need a hug, mate? Want to rearrange furniture? I owe you one."

Cope... needed a hug. He was back to not saying anything right again. Be nice. Shot down. Say nothing. Be considered a jerk. Nothing worked. He focused on Kel. "Sorry to hear about that. I can... take a look at that nose, if you'd like. It looks really painful." He didn't even bother looking at Plymouth, who wouldn't answer him regardless of what he said.

A hug? BlinkBlink. "I dunno." Kel said truthfully, looking over at Plymm. "And, I kinda feel like moving furniture," he added, a small smile coming to his face. "The only problem is, the bed that I would like as far from mine as possible isn't in this dormitory. So, that won't do any good anyway." He was tempted to ask him to go ask Jenn a question for him, though, but then he realized that was a teeny bit childish, so he'd just wait 'til he wanted to talk to her again.

"I went to the nurse." he told Cope, turning his head to look at the other brother. "She said it was all fixed up." he shrugged one shoulder. "Thanks, though." he added as an afterthought.

"We'll go break in if you need, mate. I understand... You want to push my bed around? You want to talk about it? I can... well, I have troubles, too." Plymouth looked at Copernicus briefly then back to Kel. "Or... you want to throw stuff away for you? I can do that. Need me to crawl under your bed?"

Copernicus nodded back at the boy before rolling over and racing the wall. Fine. Yeah, Plymouth had SO many problems. He had a date. What was he so cranky about now? Wasn't Copernicus bending over backwards to make things right and being rebuffed at every turn? It was enough to make him want to give up.

Maybe he did give up.

Kel watched as Cope rolled over, about to say something. But then he figured it had nothing to do with him - because not everything revolved around Keltan - so he just dropped the thought and looked at Plymm, and actually laughed.

"You wanna break into the girl's dormitory?" he asked skeptically, shaking his head. "Or maybe the Gryffindor's?" he seriously thought about the offer to push Plymouth's bed around the room, just for something to take his mind off of everything, but took up the offer to talk instead.

"I was being stupid, really." he told Plymm, sitting up and crossing his legs underneath him. "I saw my girlfriend kissing someone else, got upset, and punched him." he said with a sigh.[B] "We got in a fight - me and Gryffindor Wonder Boy - and then Jenn threw up from the site of blood, or something. Oh, and she slapped me. See?"[b] he raised his hand to point to the hand mark that was hopefully faded from his cheek, then continued. I carried her to the hospital wing and I haven't really talked to her since." he shook his head, looking away from Plymouth.

At Plymm's offer to crawl under Kel's bed, Kel remembered something. "Oh, no, I don't have anything under there," he said, taking off his Hogwarts robes and tossing them on the floor at the foot of his bed. "But those," he added, nodding toward the pile of cloth, "Need to be thrown away. I'll do that though." he looked at the things in disgust, pushing back the urge to kick them underneath his bed. He didn't want to forget about them.

....


Awkward.


How was Plymouth supposed to answer and console Keltan and show EMPATHY for his situation -- when the boy that had been smooching Plymouth's own girlfriend (ex) was still there.

"Umm.. yeah. I'll break in with you if that's what you need." Plymouth would, too. He understood the need to just DO SOMETHING to stay busy. He'd tried furniture rearranging, throwing things, and very fast walking. Breaking and entering didn't sound like a bad plan to Plymouth.

He tried to give Keltan looks to say that he understood. He knew how that hurt. He knew exactly how he felt, and then some. At least Plymouth hadn't ever had to see it though. That would have been new levels of ouch.


"I can clean your robes for you. I don't mind. Or we'll dispose them on our way to the Gryffindor Common Room?" Plymouth wasn't breaking into the girls' dorm. He'd be the lookout, he'd distract people so Kel could get in, he'd take the blame for him even - but Plymouth wasn't going in there.

Kel laughed breifly. "I'm sure it would be very hard to break into the Gryffindor common room." he mused, shrugging. "The Fat Lady would surely see the Ravenclaw crests on our robes. Besides, I wouldn't know what bed to move around if we did get in." which was extremely unlikely. But it was nice of Plymm to offer to help, anyway.

He looked back at his robes on the floor at Plymm's next offer. "Nah, thanks. I think I just wanna get rid of them. I can go to Gladrags and get some more, or something." he looked up at the sixth year with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Do you a spell, though?" After a second of thought and the realization that that hadn't come out the way he meant it, he continued. "I mean to get rid of those." he gestured to the robes. "Like...I don't know. Setting them on fire probably wouldn't be the best idea, would it? Do you know anything else?" Although setting fire to them sounded like an almost fun idea, he wasn't sure how well that'd go.

Plymouth nodded in all the appropriate places. Yes. Yes. Okay. "I'll... I mean, I CAN distract the Fat Lady. I'm sure. Don't discard that idea or underestimate my powers to distract." Plymouth looked to Copernicus for him to back him up on this. But.... he probably wouldn't get it. Whatever. Anyway, "No no! We'll burn them!" Plymouth hopped up and plucked the robes off of Kel's bed.

"The hobos used to burn stuff in a barrel - but I bet the garbage bin would work!" Plymouth tossed the robes back on the bed and disappeared into the bathroom to get to the garbage bin. He dumped it out on the floor and rolled it back into the Common Room. "Riiiiight?" Right. Totally would work.

He really needed to get those marshmallows.

Kel grinned inspite of himself as he watched Plymouth exit the room, most likely going for a bin. Alright...burning his robes in a garbage bin didn't sound to bad. "Right." he agreed, hopping off his bed and walking over to the garbage bin.

The thought of burning his robes gave him a weird, possibly pathetic, sense of excitement. Partly because he knew that his parents would disapprove, and disobeying his parents meant an adrenaline rush for Kel, and partly because he'd never burned anything hobo-style before.

He dropped the robes into the bin, and pulled out his wand. Then he realized he didn't know the spell. What kind of teenage boy didn't know a spell to set things on fire? "Um..." he said, looking over to Plymm, "What do I say?"

"You can't burn them," Copernicus sighed, rolling off the bed. SIGH. Honestly, didn't anyone use their brains?

"Not inside at least. The smoke will be too thick and noxious. You could take them outside, or you could shred them to feel all destructive and then we can just banish them. That wouldn't leave a mess at all."

"Ughhh, Copernicus. We're burning them. Use your books to come up with a way to get rid of the smoke. Or... open a window, how bout it?" Meanwhile, Plymouth rubbed his temples and tried to remember a fire-starting spell. Clearly, Copernicus hadn't ever felt the burning need to DO SOMETHING over a girl.


"In.... cense... cen.... d....cend... Incendio! It's incendio. Light that fire, my man!"

Kel frowned, looking over to Copernicus. Of course. He reached into the bin to take out the robes just as Plymouth started talking, defying Cope. Of course. Kel thought Copernicus seemed to be the good, always-follow-the-rules brother (the one that kinda reminded Kel of himself, except Cope was obviously more cooler) and Plymm kinda did whatever he wanted.

Kel went over to the window closest to his best and threw it open. It was a good-sized window, big enough to get the smoke out of the room. And...there was probably a spell somewhere to get rid of it anyway. As he returned to standing beside the bin.

"Incendio." he repeated, staring at the fabric piled into the bin. He picked his wand off of where he'd set it on his bed, and pointed it at the robes. He glanced at Copernicus, wondering if he was going to freak out, and then cast the spell. His eyes widened as the robes caught fire, but he relaxed, seeing that the fire was contained to the garbage bin, just as he expected they would.

"We can banish the ashes." he muttered, his gaze firmly on the fire.

"Good luck banishing the smoke," Copernicus sent a gust of air, pushing the wind out the window. If they got in trouble for starting a fire in the dormitory... well... Plymouth was on his own. Kel too, actually, because he was NOT wrong in worrying about a fire in an enclosed room.

Ugh.

"HE HE!!!!" Plymouth was giddy on behalf of Kel. Burning robes after an incident like that - HAD to feel good. It sure beat his fast walking solution. Sure, the place was getting a little smokey, but Plymouth didn't mind the smell. Reminded him of camping and Kayla.


And he liked camping and Kayla.



"BURNNNN baby burrrrn! I wish I had stuff to burn!"

Kel felt a smile threatening to come onto his face, but he held it back. He shouldn't be enjoying this so much he was smiling. He got out of the line of the smoke, and sent a gust of wind to shoo the smoke out the window. See? It wasn't that hard.

He glanced up at Plymouth when the older boy started...singing, or something. Kel didn't feel like singing. But...getting rid of his robes in this way was much better than just throwing them away, and destruction he was doing to one of the objects of his wardrobe brought a smile to his face - one he couldn't push back.

Hey, boys are weird.

"You can burn something." He offered, shrugging. He didn't know what Plymouth would want to burn...but oh well, the offer was out there.

Plymouth danced around the smoking bin. "Hehe!" Boy ole boy was burning stuff in a bin FUN. "How does that feel, Kel? Good right? I don't need to burn anything. I'm getting better." And he was.

BUT HEHEHE FIRE! "HOooooo!" Plymouth huffed and puffed and pretended that his blowing was helping to direct the smoke out of the window.

"Feels good." Kel answered, actually laughing as Plymouth blew the smoke toward the window. He side-stepped, getting away from the all the smoke. He breathed out his breath in a huff, although he knew it would do no good to help the smoke. Sending another gust of wind out of his wand, he mentally thanked Cope for reminding him that he could do that.

He watched as he fire died down, realizing that his robes must be nearly all gone. He frowned, and blew a deep breath at the fire. "Well that was fun." he said cheerfully, looking at the dwindling fire intently.