fractionallyfoxTitle: Taking Chances
Rating: G
Pairing/s: (Pre) Gwaine/Leon
Character/s: Gwaine, Leon
Summary: Gwaine's plans to spend time alone with Leon are ruined by Arthur.
Warnings: Hogwarts AU
Word Count: 500
Prompt: #278: Word Limit Month: 500
Author's Notes: Just a good old fashioned Hogwarts AU.
Gwaine trailed behind the group, mentally kicking himself as he kicked the dirty snow.
This was meant to be his chance.
He’d been saving his pocket money for weeks, skipping out on Quidditch bets and card games. He’d sold off the last of the Muggle pens he smuggled in for the school year. He’d even volunteered to test the younger students’ potions for a few Sickles – that’d been a rough week.
He did all of that just to have his day ruined by Arthur Pendragon.
The Princess had turned up with the rest of the Quidditch team in tow on a weekend where he was supposed to have gone home. He’d complained about it for weeks, whinged that there was no way he was not visiting his father, and then he just turned up with that stupid grin to ruin Gwaine’s day.
Gwaine thrust his hands into his coat pockets, groaning internally at the unfairness of it all.
The group stopped outside of Spintwitches Sporting Needs for Arthur to hold court, telling everyone, again, about the brilliance of his new broom. Gwaine let his mind and eyes wander to the quill shop next door, wondering if he needed a quill now that he’d sold all of his pens.
He certainly had some extra money now since he didn’t have lunch with Leon.
“Are you okay?”
Gwaine turned wide-eyed towards Leon, spooked by the coincidence of his thoughts and Leon’s appearance.
“Yeah,” he answered with a shrug. “Why?”
“It’s just... You’ve been quiet.”
“I thought people liked it when I shut up.”
Leon rolled his eyes, his smile softening the action. “You know what I mean. You look like there’s something on your mind.”
A missed meal, an afternoon of lost potential, a fleeting hope that had been dashed under Arthur’s feet.
Gwaine shook away the thought, instead tugging on the barely meeting sides of his coat.
“It’s too bloody cold out here to think,” he said, dropping his gaze when he realized his mistake. It was bad enough that his clothes only fit every other year but he’d gone and invited Leon to take notice of it. “My scarf had a tear in it and my mum said she’d send it back by now but she’s still not really comfortable with the owls and…”
“Oh. Why didn’t you say so?”
Before Gwaine could finish his rambling thought he felt warm wool being wrapped snugly around his neck. He looked up to see Leon tucking the ends of the scarf into his coat, a measure of care that Gwaine rarely took with himself. It was soft and it smelled like Leon and Gwaine suddenly forgot that Arthur even existed, yet alone was still talking.
“Better?” Leon asked, considerate to a fault.
“Much better,” Gwaine said, feeling himself grin. “You want to go get some Butterbeer? I doubt the Princess will even notice we’re gone.”
Leon smiled, warming Gwaine from the inside out.
“I’d like that.”
Maybe there was still a chance.