all the pretty faces [tag; Gene]

The summer was turning out more eventful than expected and Sebastian loved every second of it. Not only had he had the pleasure of meeting up with some friends from school in Diagon Alley, he had gotten to go all over London to shoot pictures for the magazine his dad worked for. Although it was small catalogue work, it was what he had always wanted; all eyes on him. The shoots were going great too, or at least that’s what the photographer told him whenever they were out. He hoped this would give him enough experience to get a modeling job in the wizarding world when he finished school. Of course, his parents weren’t on the same page, but he felt they really shouldn’t talk; his mom an amature model and his dad a photographer. It was in his genes to do this. Nothing they said were going to make him change his mind. Beside, they really didn’t know enough about the wizarding world to give him advice; being Muggles both of them. They tried to keep up with the wizarding world, but honestly, they would never get it.

Today was a beautiful and warm day; cloudless and bright. They were on the outskirt of London somewhere; he hadn’t actually bothered taking notice to where they were to be honest, he didn’t care about that. They were in front of an old brick wall with artistic colourful spray paintings on it; very urban chic. He was dressed in a light pink plaid suit with vest; apparently plaid was the craze now a days in Muggle fashion, but they had exaggerated the color to give it a more eye catching “wow”-factor. His shirt was plain white and he wore a light pink bowtie. The suit was form fitting to show off his muscular body, they had styled his hair to look like he had just pulled his hand through it and made it fall backwards; his hair being fairly long for the standard male hairdo of the time. He had some makeup on of course; to make his eyes pop a bit and remove blemishes and dark circles around his eyes. The makeup wouldn’t be noticeable unless you looked really close; he often wore make-up even when he didn’t have photoshoots too, so it was nothing new. 

Sebastian was in full “model”-mode; focusing on posing, changing small details of his posing with every click of the camera. It was a long time ago since he had figured out his best sides; he loved standing in front of the mirror practising. He didn’t notice if people walked by or even some who stopped and looked; it wasn’t a very crowded place, but some people were walking past behind the photographer. He worked hard to seem as professional as possible, which meant he couldn't let himself be distracted before the photographer gave him the signal to take a break. Right now the photographer was giving him directions between the clicks of the camera as well.

@Gene Horowitz

His mum was at the greenhouse, his grandparents were going to spend the day marathoning Black Adder, and his dad was working from his study in case one of the grandparents died or the TV broke. And if Gene wasn’t necessary as emergency backup (which he wasn’t) then there was no point in hanging around.

There wasn’t much point in going out, though, either. Most of his friends were busy with visiting grandparents or cousins or babysitting or that new boyfriend that Rose was too good for. The other two wanted to go swimming and Gene didn’t. Which left him to his own devices.

Of course, Gene left to his own devices could do even less than Gene with no choices at all. He could talk himself out of anything. A movie, a fizzy drink, a lame band playing in a cafe, lunch, a cheaper movie. It was a warm, dry, wonderful day, and Gene seemed about to waste it entirely by walking round London unable to justify doing anything. Not that it was a total waste-- the city was a lot of fun. It was comforting to know that he would never be the weirdest person around. (Aside from being a wizard.)

It was a slow day for weirdos, though. Just a woman carrying a tuba improperly, a man with six Great Danes on leashes, a woman in all zebra print, a man in a pink plaid suit.

Plenty of people liked to take photos in front of whatever artsy wall they could find, which Gene always thought was hilarious. Especially in a pink plaid suit.

And, on second glance, he knew that bloke. He’d even shared a room with him a couple years ago. And here was Sebastian now, pink plaid suit, posing in front of a wall. Gene ducked fully into the alleyway to avoid the foot traffic and stood as far behind the photographer as he could, watching as the photoshoot progressed, waiting to be noticed. Chances felt slim-- Sebastian was very professional and very focused on the photoshoot.

Sebastian was good-looking even when he wasn’t dressed up trying to look as attractive as possible. Even though Gene was only waiting around to take the mickey he couldn’t help being impressed; it was difficult to look away. Even with that suit. He tried not to make that obvious, though, schooled his face into casual amusement and shoved his hands in his pockets. Sebastian would notice eventually, but until he did, it wasn’t like Gene had anywhere else to be.

“Break,” The photographer called out to Sebastian and he let his hands fall to his sides and relaxed his body. It was straining to do posing; often the best angels to translate to a picture were angels that weren’t very natural, but luckily he had trained his body through running and sports like football through the years. He was quite proud of the fact that he had achieved a lean muscular body instead of the bulky kind; which he himself believed was rather over the top. He liked skinny men. There was something about boys who were a little awkward and didn’t have what you would call standard masculinity. It was funny how in men he prefered those who were a little more sensitive, but in women he liked it when they were more independent. Could have something to do with the challenge; a confident gay man wasn’t hard to convince and a not so confident woman wasn’t hard to convince either, in the general sense.

He wondered how long they would be out here; the photographer was busy going through the pictures already taken to see how they stood. Sebastian’s gaze drifted lazily to the side of the photographer and his heart raced for a second when his eyes caught something his brain hadn’t completely registered yet. Squinting towards the area, blocking the sun from his eyes, he almost gaped. Gene? No it couldn’t be. Wait! Merlin’s beard, it was Gene. His mask slipped for a second in shock as his eyes focused on him. He looked amused as well.

Jumping to action Sebastian walked towards Gene, telling the photographer he would be right back as he walked past him. His face was neutral, not showing any emotions, as he walked up to Gene. Before the Gryffindor boy could say anything Sebastian took hold of his shoulder, not roughly, and dragged him with him around the corner in the alley. He pushed him, again not roughly, against the wall and stared at him intensely. One hand was pressing against the wall beside Gene’s head; effectively closing off any route of escape. Tilting his head slightly to the side he waited for Gene to actually explain why in Merlin’s beard he was there.

Gene wasn’t his usual type to be honest, but he had a soft spot for the boy after sharing dormitories during their 5th year. They were about the same height and while Gene was more on the bony side they did have similar builds as well. It was a little endearing how utterly a mess he was at times. And maybe the tension he felt between them sometimes was his imagination; he didn’t know if Gene was gay or not, although he did have excellent gaydar. It wasn’t always easy to pick up on it if the person didn’t even know they were in the closet to begin with, or maybe he was just good at hiding it. It wasn’t the first time Sebastian had been wrong about such things, although he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone, least of all himself. Best way to find out was to tease; if only Gene could explain himself first. The fact that Gene had told him he actually lived nearby a long time ago somehow eluded him at the moment.

It was pretty remarkable how subtly but completely Sebastian’s entire demeanor changed once the photographer called break. Sebastian paused, looked around, and then very obviously noticed Gene, standing off to the side.

Gene pulled one hand out of his pocket to give a polite wave, and Sebastian closed in fast. Rather than make a scene in front of the photographer, he allowed himself to be walked into a wall. He wasn’t totally sure what he’d expected out of peeping on a photoshoot.

Not this, though.

My God, he thought, for no reason at all. I am going to die.

It was uncomfortable in all the ways being cornered against a wall was uncomfortable. Even though Sebastian hadn’t been violent at all, it was pretty grim getting pushed. It didn’t seem like a friendly “Come with me!” so much as a threatening “Come.” And Sebastian wasn’t too much taller than Gene, but they both knew he was stronger. Like the final nail in a coffin Sebastian propped one hand on the wall next to Gene’s face. Probably he didn’t mean anything by it, but it was intimidating nonetheless. They both knew Gene wouldn’t win a fight.

I am going to die, he thought again.

Sebastian had to be looking for some specific response to this, but Gene couldn’t think at all when he was cornered like this, so he ducked under Sebastian’s arm and backed off snappish, holding up his hands a little in surrender. “What the hell was that,” he complained. “I was just gonna say hi. What the hell.”

Having gotten out of sight where anyone could see them Sebastian lowered his shoulders and relaxed. Okay, he had probably overreacted a little, maybe. The whole thing had caught him off guard, but given a few seconds to calm down he realised he probably should have handled the whole thing differently; he knew Gene was easy to intimidate, he shouldn’t have been so brusque with him. When Gene ducked away from him he let his head fall downwards, still leaning his hand against the wall; letting Gene yell at him.

Taking a deep breath he turned on the smile that was so wide it took over his face entirely; he looked over at Gene and let go of the wall, bringing the hand through his hair instead. “Sorry Gene, I…” How was he supposed to explain his actions without making him sound like the most insecure douchebag ever; well there wasn’t really a good way to do that. “Sorry,” he pouted slightly. “You surprised me, that’s all.” He took a step closer to Gene, closing the distance between them. Yes it was his way of throwing people off; getting close enough to make it more intimate, but not close enough that they felt threatened. He kept his hands to himself.

“What are you doing here?” Sebastian asked calmly; trying not to spook the gryffindor boy more than he already had. He completely ignored the fact that he was in fact the one who was in a weird place; as he lived closer to the center of London.

Before he got an answer he heard his name being called and looked around to see the photographer talking to him. “We got it,” the man said. “Need a ride back?” Shaking his head Sebastian told the man to leave, he would find his own way home later.

Turning back to Gene he grinned. Now that he had calmed down and realised the situation he was going to take full advantage of it. He was very curious about how Gene was outside of Hogwarts; it was a golden opportunity that he met him here.

He was gratified to have apparently shocked some shame into Sebastian, and then instantly back on edge as Sebastian reapproached. It always felt like Sebastian deliberately tried to make Gene uncomfortable, getting this close. Gene shuffled backwards defensively, put his hands even deeper into his pockets, kept eye contact but squinted a little, because-- and he didn't know why-- it felt a little more comfortable that way.

You surprised me-- now that was bunk. Sebastian had surprised Gene just now and Gene hadn’t tried pushing him into a wall. Gene got surprised all the time and never did any of this.

“No, it’s fine,” he said, glad that his whiny, accusatory tone had calmed down. Now he’d gotten a handle on himself, he was a little embarrassed that he’d reacted so poorly. “I shouldn’t just’ve stood there staring, it was creepy.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Sebastian.

What was he doing here? He lived here. He remembered distinctly telling Sebastian so two years ago.

“Visiting,” he said, then paused, reevaluated. He and his parents were trying this new thing where he took two seconds to evaluate the truthfulness of his comments. It was going poorly.

“I actually live here,” he corrected himself. “Well-- I live out that way, like a forty minute walk. Stoke Newington.” He pointed vaguely northeast, then explained: “I had a day all to myself-- all my friends were busy, my parents are working-- and I thought I was going to use it and have fun. See a movie or something. And then--” he couldn’t resist poking some fun-- “I saw your suit. And then I saw you.” And then he'd been accosted.

Gene chewed deliberately at his lower lip as Sebastian addressed the photographer again. When he turned back he was smiling again, charming as ever. Gene almost forgot that he’d just got pinned to a wall. Almost: there was still enough sense left in him that he folded his arms protectively in front of himself. Slytherins still made him nervous, a little.

“No I would have done the same thing,” Sebastian chuckled. “I just didn’t expect to see anyone I knew.” Now that the photographer was gone and the alley was pretty much empty he felt more relaxed. He was back in control of the situation, which made him feel much better. He hated surprises more than anything else in life, it wasn’t fun, it wasn’t charming no matter how you looked at it. He firmly believed surprises were cruel jokes.

Knowing Gene had a thing with not telling the truth he didn’t take his comment about visiting to heart, he was ready to ignore or just go along with whatever he said. That’s why he got a pleasant surprise when Gene amended himself. Sebastian sighed and threw his head back slowly. “Oh? We’re so far out?” He looked around him, although that didn’t actually help him in any way because he wasn’t familiar with the neighbourhood really. “I didn't pay attention when we drove out here, had no idea it was so close to your place,” He grinned; scratching the back of his neck a little.

Gene mentioning his outfit made him look down on himself and realise that yes he was wearing a completely ridiculous Muggle suit and now that the shoot was over it felt a little awkward. He pulled off the jacket and vest; removing his tie as well and opened the 3 top buttons on the white shirt. It was pretty warm out so he took the time and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and pulled the shirt out of his pants, exposing a little muscled abs as he did; not completely by accident. He liked provoking people. He took his hand and pulled it through his hair; shaking it to make his hair fall a little more rumpled on his head and not perfectly smooth backwards. Looking around he found his gym bag not far away; leaning against the wall right around the corner of the alley. He bent down and stuffed his jacket, vest and bowtie into it, grabbed his wand after looking around so no one would see and stuffed that into the hem of his pants in the back, under the shirt (his pants fit him well enough that the wand could stay there without falling out or down his pants).  He was still wearing pink pants, but now it didn’t look that dramatic.

As he got back up he picked up the bag and walked back over to Gene. The bag landed at his feet as he mimicked Gene and crossed his arms; straining the fabric of the shirt against his muscled upper arms. “That’s better,” he grinned; refusing to let Gene see that his comment had affected him.  “So apparently I’m a free agent for the rest of the day, why don’t you show me around?” He couldn’t help but make it sound a little as a challenge. He stepped a small step closer to Gene again as he asked him; the way the Gryffindor boy crossed his arms in a protective way, just made him more curious as to why he felt he needed to protect himself. Was Sebastian making him nervous? If so that was something he could work with/have fun with.

Sebastian was being effusively decent, chuckling along, grinning, small talking, and his relaxed attitude set Gene more at ease. He could small-talk all day. He'd grown up around the elderly and the academic and, sometimes, elderly academics. "More Greater London than London," he agreed, before he tried quickly to explain why he was hanging around alone.

When he mentioned the suit, though, it was like Sebastian had forgotten what he was wearing, and he almost immediately stripped off his vest and tie, unbuttoned his shirt. Once he'd flipped out his shirttails Gene cleared his throat and looked politely away until Sebastian had planted himself back in his line of sight, arms folded as if to mirror Gene. Gene met his gaze again without even trying to hide his amusement-- it had been an entirely unnecessary performance. If Gene had been making fun of it, it'd be one thing, but he'd said one thing. Hadn't even made the "That suit is wearing you, mate" joke he'd wanted to make. It was funny, was all.

"So apparently I'm a free agent for the rest of the day," said Sebastian. "Why don't you show me around?"

When Gene crossed his arms it always felt sullen and weedy. In contrast, when Sebastian crossed his arms, it made him look muscular and tough. Gene straightened as much as he could without drawing attention to it, and as Sebastian took a step closer again he took another instinctive step back.

Yeah, Sebastian was definitely trying to make him uncomfortable. Gene tried quickly to think of a good excuse, but the only ones he had were obvious lies. He'd already said his parents were working and his friends were busy. He supposed one of his grandparents could die or break the TV, but that wasn't likely enough to make a good excuse.

"Sure, yeah," he said, when he'd finally run through his useless excuses. He hunched his shoulders uncomfortably. Hiding it behind his other elbow, he used one fingernail to rub at the side of his thumb. If the rest of the day went the same way the last five minutes had, he'd have a blister there by dinnertime.

But whatever-- if he was being honest then it cancelled out whatever damage he did to his thumb. He could still have a successful day.

He ran through his friends' days again: the grandparents and cousins would keep most of his friends busy past dinnertime, the babysitting would take until eight, Rose's boyfriend she was too good for was going to eat up probably the next month of her free time before she wised up. Chances were they weren't going to see him with Sebastian, which he was fine with. Especially when Sebastian was still wearing pink trousers. And, please don't let Sebastian ask to see Gene's neighborhood. At least it was a long enough walk away that Gene could make that a shoddy excuse.

Hoping to get it over with quickly he gestured vaguely around them-- "This place is just like, shops and stuff. There's not a lot to do. Movies that way. Coffee. Books. Garden accessories."

Sebastian had the feeling that if he kept on teasing Gene he would go running for the hills so he stepped back a little and let his arms fall to his side; although grinning a little as he did think it was amusing how easily Gene got faced by things. Honestly, he knew the other boy wasn’t too good with Sebastian’s own way of interacting with people; but he did have a mean streak at times and it was fun to have someone react strongly to your presence and actions, even if that reaction was sort of negative. Sebastian had a small hope that repeated pushing would make Gene a little more used to it and not freak out. Oh well, it wasn’t happening anytime soon he could guess, you never know though.

Deciding to be up front and honest instead; Sebastian held his hands up in front of himself. “Sorry, I’ll stop teasing,” he grinned. “Come on, I have the entire afternoon free, we can find something fun to do!” He pushed his hands in his pockets and studied Gene. The comment about garden accessories made him laugh loud. “Often go out shopping for garden accessories?” He arched an eyebrow playfully. “Just tell me what you want to do, you said you wanted to have fun earlier, right?”

He picked up his bag and slung it across his shoulders so it hang against the side of his hip and a little more towards his back. “If you want to shop for garden gnomes, I don’t mind,” He grinned widely. “This is your territory, I haven’t been here before, so unless you want to come with me, back to my place, then you need to show the way!”

“I don’t mind going back to my place either,” he added with a mischievous grin; he couldn’t help himself, he had to poke a little. He turned and put his left arm out as to encourage Gene to go ahead and show the way.

Gene had long considered himself reasonably nice, and automatically assuming that other people were trying deliberately to make him nervous didn’t feel reasonable or nice-- unless he was right, which he evidently was. Sebastian’s promise to stop teasing didn’t fool him, though: so long as Sebastian thought purposeful intimidation was “teasing” it would continue. He waved the apology away, though: even though he knew Sebastian could tell when he was uncomfortable, he didn’t want to admit it.

Gene had long considered himself easygoing and fun, too, but as Sebastian continued finding the conversation far funnier than Gene did he started to doubt this. “I’ve never gone shopping for garden accessories,” he said.

“Just tell me what you want to do,” said Sebastian. “You said you wanted to have fun earlier, right?” He punctuated this by swinging his bag onto his back; Gene squinted his eyes again. His thumb was already starting to hurt.

“Just ‘cause I wanted to have fun doesn’t mean I was going to,” he clarified, grinning a little. “Means I was going to walk around not doing anything until I got tired and went home. It’s summer.”

He wouldn’t actually mind buying a garden gnome. They were grotesque but hilarious, and his dad got a kick out of them. Not that he’d tell Sebastian Berg that.

“I don’t mind going back to my place either.”

God, that was so unnecessarily seductive. Especially since Gene had spent two years trying to cultivate a reputation as a eunuch. It might be summer but there was still a such thing as decency and shame.

In fifth year if Sebastian had said something like that, Gene would have died on the spot and then dragged his lifeless body into the ocean. Now, though, he’d come to the understanding that Sebastian flirted with a lot of people, and it didn’t necessarily mean he thought they were gay. (Although Gene was kind of dying to know if Sebastian thought he was gay.) Even so, Gene glanced just a little away, uncomfortably.

“How would you even get there?” he said instead, more bellicose than he needed to be. “You don’t even know your way around out here, you just said so.”

If anything they’d end up closer to Gene’s place-- he’d been out for hours already and didn’t fancy needing a full hour to walk home. He mapped the area as quickly as he could in his head, tried to think of the most entertaining things that were a half-hour from his house. No way was Sebastian meeting his parents. Or any of his friends. But if he wanted to go look at garden gnomes, who was Gene to refuse?

“It is summer!” Sebastian agreed more enthusiastically. “Summer is supposed to be fun. While I love walking around aimlessly just as much as the next bloke; why not do something you’ve never done before or at least humour a friend. Worst thing that can happen is that you actually enjoy yourself,” he grinned.

“Maybe I should buy some jeans,” He mumbled looking down on his pink pants. “I might stand out too much in these...”

Looking back up at Gene he focused back on the conversation. “You do realise that London has cabs, buses and other means of transportation,” he pointed out when Gene asked how he would get to his parents flat. Well, he noticed the ‘you’ in there too; not ‘we’. He hadn’t exactly expected Gene to want to go. Besides, his mother was always home now a days and that would be super awkward. She was a little eccentric and Sebastian cringed thinking about people actually meeting her.  She would probably assume they were dating and not stop talking about it in her heavily Norwegian accented english. “It was a joke, we are NOT going there…” Sebastian tried to shake the scene he imagined out of his head. What a nightmare.

Scanning the immediate area he didn’t actually see anything interesting. “You know if you don’t point the way I’ll just start walking in a direction. Don’t know where we’ll end up then,” he chuckled as he faced Gene again. Sebastian hoped to god he wouldn’t have to meet any parents; siblings were fine, but parents usually didn’t like him much and it was usually mutual.

“I could go for some food,” he said thoughtfully. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast, hard to eat when you know someone is going to take pictures of you.” He knew he was sort of rambling on all over the place at this point, but he preferred thinking out loud to figure out what to do. Honestly, he needed some company and he hoped Gene would be a litt accommodating for once and not leave him hanging. Although he had gotten to know Gene sharing dorms their first year; there was still a lot he didn’t know about him, and he was curious. Since he didn’t have any other plans that day it was preferable to hang out with Gene than go home to his ‘crazy’ muggle mother.

Gene grinned a little more, unfolded his arms, rubbed at the sore spot he’d worried into his thumb. Sebastian was so optimistic it was difficult not to be similarly excited. Even so-- “Enjoying myself is, by far, not the worst thing that could happen,” he said. Of course, saying so made him want to sit down and brainstorm the actual worst things that could happen-- his parents could run into them and insist on buying Sebastian dinner and driving him home, or his parents could run into them and then try to talk Gene into explaining later on, or his friends could see them and ask tomorrow who was the pink plaid bloke, or he could fall into wet paint or spill a drink on himself.

“Y’know,” he added, “Usually I do have fun over the summer and all. It’s just a slow day ‘cause all my friends are busy.” For whatever reason he still needed Sebastian to know he did have friends.

By Sebastian’s reaction it was obvious he didn’t want Gene going to his place either, so it rankled a bit that he’d clearly suggested it only to make Gene nervous. Even though he was dead curious now, though, he wouldn’t pry as long as Sebastian didn’t. “You know if you don’t point the way I’ll just start walking in a direction. Don’t know where we’ll end up then,” said Sebastian helpfully, and Gene remembered belatedly he was supposed to show Sebastian around.

“There’s the garden accessories,” he said lamely, pointing down the street. He didn’t know what there was to do around here, either-- he and his friends only ever went to movies or played poker or argued in public parks or drove into the city to have fun.

Luckily Sebastian gave a more feasible suggestion: “I could go for some food, I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Hard to eat when you know someone is going to take pictures of you.”

Gene didn’t know how Sebastian’s brain worked. “It truly isn’t,” he said. Then again, he wasn’t a model. In most of the photos he was in, he was making a grotesque and corny face. Like a grimace met a TV infomercial satisfied customer.

Even so: “There are restaurants around,” he said. “We can get--” he ran through the cheaper options in his head-- “you know, normal lunch things, pub food, there’s a lot of Turkish food. Or Italian.”

“Not anymore,” he grinned at Gene’s slow day comment. He studied Gene a little, wondering what he was thinking. They were very different people, but that’s what made it so interesting to Sebastian. If he could tear down Gene’s walls then that would be a notch on his belt. And he was curious about Gene’s sexuality; he hadn’t seen him really hang out with girls in a romantic way, but neither had he seen him with boys that way. It made him wonder what was going on in his head. Sebastian could not fathom the existence of a-sexual people.

“Well, when you don’t want to look bloated. I mean if I somehow didn’t fit into the suit they picked out it would be a disaster,” Sebastian explained with a shrug. It probably was a stupid thing to worry about, like he wouldn’t put on weight by eating breakfast, it was just a psychological problem. Sebastian never ate right before a shoot, maybe an apple or something, but nothing that could mess up with his stomach or something like that.

“Pub food is fine, we can get a drink too,” He nodded with a grin. It was late enough in the day to get a beer, right? He caught himself wondering if Gene drank beer, studying the boy as he wondered. Both Muggle culture in Britain and Norway was pretty heavy on drinking at a young age, so Sebastian thought it was a natural thing; but you never knew, sometimes you would meet people who were too good for their own best.

“Show the way,” He winked at Gene as he waited to follow him to wherever the pub was located.

“Not anymore,” Sebastian said, and Gene gave him a friendly grimace and tried to decide whether he meant Gene’s day wasn’t slow anymore, or Gene’s friends weren’t all busy anymore. He hoped the first. He didn’t really think Sebastian was his friend, and hoped Sebastian didn’t think so either.

“I guess,” he said.

He really didn’t know enough about modelling to have much of an opinion on it, so he just nodded along as Sebastian talked. A part of him was relieved to find that Sebastian hadn’t picked the suit out himself, but he couldn’t help finding that just as funny. He’d still worn the suit, after all. Henry was going to die when he found out.

“Pub food is fine,” said Sebastian. “We can get a drink too.”

“We’re seventeen,” said Gene, baffled. “I meant pub food from a restaurant with a bar, not a pub.”

He wasn’t like, a goody-goody sort of guy. That was Henry’s domain. But they weren’t allowed to drink in Muggle London, they were still underage. And, also, it was early in the day. And, also, Gene didn’t have a fake ID. And, also, he knew better.

But he could show Sebastian the way easily enough. He shrugged, tilted his head, gestured vaguely down the same street with the garden accessories. “It’s out that way,” he said. Next to Sebastian in his nice shirt and bright trousers he was self-conscious of his shorts and polo, which he’d put on this morning with the blissful assumption he wouldn’t run into anybody he knew. He’d started rubbing his thumb again; it was officially painful now. He put his hands in his pocket so Sebastian couldn’t see and headed down the street, assuming Sebastian would follow (hopefully at a decent and respectful distance.)

Sebastian rolled his eyes slightly. It wasn’t that big of a deal, really, he was 17 and only a few months away from being 18. Most places didn’t even bother to card him, it was always about confidence; look like you belong there and no one will question your age. It helped that Sebastian looked old for his age too. Drinking wasn’t a big deal where he came from; as long as you were responsible and didn’t go on a binge. Well, he guessed Gene had to have had a different upbringing than him, they did live in different parts of London and Sebastian’s parents weren’t really the hovering kind.

Taking a few long steps he caught up to Gene and walked beside him. “You’re embarrassed of being seen with me?” Sebastian grinned. He found it funny that it seemed to bother Gene a lot. And if he wasn’t allowed to drink or do aaaanything else that was fun, he might as well point out stuff most people just let go because they didn’t like confrontation. At this point he felt he was having some issues with getting Gene to talk to him; usually the talkative guy back in school Sebastian felt Gene was really closed up right now. Maybe it was just seeing each other outside of Hogwarts.

 “What are your plans after we graduate?” He asked as he pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Obviously you saw what I plan to do; only I hope to get a modeling contract with a wizarding magazine and not a Muggle one,” He explained looking at the road in front of him, a little bounce in his step. He was looking forward to being done with school and get to realize his dreams no matter what it took. “Really don’t want to end up working with my parents,” he grimaced and kicked a pebble softly as they continued walking.