[saé] escaping time. [léon]

Jaspar desperately tried to relax, but he couldn't help but wonder exactly what message Léon had gotten loud and clear? The Wizard hadn't been trying to make a point; he was; 't trying to be judgemental, oh boy, this whole conversation was quickly sliding into 'please don't hex me' territory, and Jaspar felt it like little hairs rising on the back of his neck. He was used to accidentally putting his foot in his mouth, but never before the bullying started. Wait... did that make him the bully? Had he hurt Léon's feelings? Should he apologize? Jaspar blinked rapidly, his heart racing nervously in his chest, as Léon made another comment, and then the teenager began to shake his head vigorously. "No, no, I didn't mean that at all, I just, I didn't, I'm, Oh, Ugh," He spun out, his words coming to a sputtering bit of nonsense toward the end of the statement, as his eyes darted to the ladies basically begging them to help him out of the hole he had dug.

Everything was sideways; if he hurt Léon's feelings or offended him, Jaspar would feel awful. The entire situation already mortified him, but talking about their families and futures felt like torture. He answered the question about his parents but couldn't shake the feeling like it was a trap. Jaspar completely missed the looks exchanged between Léon and the witches, the warnings they shot at him with their eyes, so he was obviously to the change in tone when Léon continued his line of questions. "Uh, yeah, I guess?" Jaspar pretended not to be fully aware of what his father's job pertained to. He had gone to more than one Take Your Son to Work Days growing up, but somehow, giving a real answer seemed riskier than shrugging it off.

"A dancer, that's cool," He tried to sound more interested than he was in hopes of saving whatever grace he had left with the other wizard. His dad worked in the ministry too? Idly Jaspar wondered if their fathers knew each other, but then he reminded himself that was a silly thought. Rationally Jaspar knew that Beauxbatons was such a closed environment didn't mean the adult world was too. Not everyone knew everyone. He did remember Prosper, though. The teenager felt like everyone knew Prosper in the way that no one knew Jaspar existed. "Yeah, I know of him," He was careful with his words; they hadn't been friends or anything, and nodded. When Léon asked about his siblings, the teenager chewed on the inside of his cheek and considered his answer.

"Yeah, I have a little sister in Papilonlisse," He finally admitted, hoping that telling Léon about his kid sister being in his house wouldn't end up backfiring. "She's a second year," Growing up, Chloe had been the absolute apple of Jaspar's eye, but when she joined him at Beauxbatons, everything had changed. She was smart and spunky, good at Ballet, and fit right in with her classmates, something Jaspar still didn't feel like he had achieved after six and a half years, and so, his sister distanced herself from him. They rarely spoke; he doubted she even told people they were related half the time. "Do you have any other siblings?" He asked, wanting to get the questions off of himself again, as he pulled the next bingo ball from the cage, thankful for the gloves.

"N28,"

Léon wasn’t sure what to make of Jaspar’s sudden succession of strange noises (or words) that he went into as soon as the Papillonlisse made his sly comment about understanding what he meant loud and clear. Obviously, he had been kidding, but he hadn’t been forthcoming with that part of the conversation. Doing this to Jaspar was turning this student services situation into a load of fun even if the old ladies at the senior citizen’s center were also a pleasure to converse with.

“I uh—didn’t quite catch that, Jaspar,” he noted with a smug expression on his face, but one look at the other ladies and it was obvious that they didn’t exactly care for the way he was joking around with him. Léon felt a little guilty but only because this sort of thing happened whenever he read the wrong and realized he was on the wrong side of public opinion. The boy had a strong need to always be the coolest person in the room, that was his problem. “Don’t worry about it,” he relented eventually, shrugging his response off as if he hadn’t cared either way.

“That’s cool?” he asked, “it’s freaking awesome,” he corrected. Then again, Léon was just as enchanted with everything his mother did as he assumed everyone was with the maternal figure in their life. Jaspar seemed weirdly secretive about his family, though, and Léon wondered if it was because he wasn’t as close to his as he was to his own (except his father, Léon didn’t care for the man much) or if it was because he felt embarrassed talking about them. If Jaspar knew Prosper then he probably knew his other two brothers as well but didn’t ask. He didn’t want the attention to shift from himself to them, it already did too many times.

“Oh do you,” he said, his smirk growing at the thought of what Jaspar’s sister was like, but then he said second year and his smile faltered a little. The boy was undeniably a flirt but second year was a little too illegal, even for him. “Two older brothers,” he said. So maybe he did not know about Adrien and Pierce after all, “Three older brothers including Prosper,” he corrected himself.

He watched on as the women looked on their sheet for the letter before one of them exclaimed Bingo! with excitement. “You’ve prepared a prize for them, right, my friend?”

Jaspar did not like how Léon asked after his sister that it was offputting, but then he saw his face change when he explained her age. Since that was what Jaspar had wanted (for Léon to take zero interest in his family and find no ammunition), Jaspar nodded and let the conversation slip away. He'd much rather listen to Léon tell him about his brothers and family than offer up anything about his own that could be used against him later. Jaspar had learned after sixth and a half brutal years at Beauxbatons to play things as close to the vest as possible. If they didn't know anything about you, they would have less to use against you. Jaspar couldn't wait until graduation.

Bingo! Jaspar jumped at the sudden sound, knocking half the bingo balls they had already pulled off of the table. The magical little psychopathic balls went rolling in every direction, making Nom! Nom! sounds, and biting at the ankles of little old ladies in wheelchairs. "Oops," Jaspar said, watching the disaster unfold and then turning back to Léon with a shrug. "Uh, was I supposed to get them a prize?" His eyes started to get wider, thinking he was supposed to do something and having forgotten to do it was the worst. He hated the guilt that came with it, and he knew it was only a matter of time.

"Wait, uh," He dug into the pockets of his cloak, having nothing literally on him except a piece of gum and a few sickles, and then frowned. "I don't have anything... I'm sorry..." His eyes turned from Léon to the old stained carpet, feeling like the worst person in the whole world, and completely unable to meet the eyes of the Bingo winner.

Léon jumped as the bingo balls fell onto the floor, steering clear from the rolling balls of terror as they sought to latch on to the closest person available. The boy wasn’t sure who thought it was a good idea to insert such terrible little things into a game that was made for old people who’d have a terrible time outrunning them but figured the person who’d done it had a dark sense of humor. At least it made living in a senior citizen’s center that much more exciting, the Papillonlisse figured.

“You’re in charge here, aren’t you? Sounds like you owe our leading lady a kiss,” Léon said with a mischievous smile, crossing his arms across his chest as he waited to see what the frazzled boy would come up with. But before he could enjoy it, the little old ladies were waving it off as if it didn’t matter at all. “Stop, you,” one of them scolded the seventh year, “haven’t you tortured the poor boy enough?” another one pipped in. Well, he hadn’t expected them to take his side so easily, he didn’t like this one bit.

“We’re best mates, I’m just kidding, you know I’m just kidding, right, Travars?” he asked, looking over at the boy as if he expected for him to agree with him and laugh it off. He had just been trying to get a good laugh out of this, not be labelled the villain. So, instead of a apologizing like any normal person would, he sank lower in his chair to sulk a little at no longer being the center of attention.

The winning grandma smiled at Jaspar and said something along the lines of how having the two of them come over to spend time with them was enough of a prize, and Léon looked up at the boy again, wondering it that would be enough to cheer him up again. It hadn’t done much for him but now that he was the villain, he was resigned to being hated by the entire community of old people, or whatever. Even if it did, indeed, hurt his feelings. 

Jaspar's shock was hard to hide when Léon suggested that he kiss the winner. The look on his face, a mix between horror and betrayal, was easy enough to read, but Jaspar felt like he might shut down at any moment. He couldn't possibly do that; it was too weird, and just, well, no. He blinked a few times, looking from Léon to the old witches and then back to the ground. It felt like years went by in a matter of seconds before the ladies rescued him, and Jaspar could finally breathe again. "Heh, uh," He squirmed, barely noticing the bingo ball that doubled back and was closing in on him.

"That's nice of you to-- mother of!" Jaspar squeezed his eyes shut as one of the bingo balls chomped down on his toe, the one that was probably swollen from being run over earlier, and bit his tongue so he wouldn't speak too indecently in front of his elders. "This nursing home is going to be the death of me," He muttered, taking deep breaths and trying to will himself not to cry from the pain. Kicking his foot out so that the stupid little ball would finally let him go, Jaspar made sure to kick it across the room once it was free.

Even though Léon did not actually think he would go through with it, and the nice old ladies had ensured that he wouldn’t have to, the boy thought that Jaspar’s expression was hilarious. If he would have known that this entire ordeal was going to be so much fun, he would have signed up earlier. Sure, Léon had gone into it hoping he would get assigned to a pretty schoolmate he would win over with his undeniable charm and wit, but this was way better anyway. And to think that everyone else probably though Léon lived for female attention. Then again, he was still getting some attention just of the older variety.

Léon burst out into laughter when the ball got a hold of Jaspar’s toe, finally standing up and figuring it was probably a good time to help collect the supplies. “Another round?” he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows at Jaspar as if to make fun of him before shaking his head. “Sorry ladies, we’ll have to do this again soon, our time’s about up,” he added, smiling although the older women were quick to protest to what was being said. He would definitely be back to the senior citizen center especially if Jaspar would come along with him.

“You uh, wanna collect the cards? I can finagle with the bingo balls,” he offered, having more or less figured out how to catch him without letting them wreak havoc on his bare fingers. Then again, there were the gloves, too, which for whatever reason Jaspar had not been using. Léon figured he wanted to prove how tough he was, or whatever. Léon liked to pretend he was tough, too, but not at the expense of his beauty.

As much as Jaspar enjoyed community service (when it wasn't trying to kill, humiliate, or horrify him), the wizard was glad it was nearly over for the day. He wasn't sure how much more he could take. The teenager felt exhausted, exasperated, and, most of all, uncomfortable. He just wanted to retreat to the Belle common room for a while. "Another time," He said stiffly, completely out of his element, and for a second thankful that Léon was there because he was a lot better at deflecting the little ladies pleas for another game. Jaspar saw the witch who had brought them to the game room approaching them, and he nodded quickly.

"Be careful," He said, not that Léon needed any advice from the likes of Jaspar and then shrugged again, this time mostly to himself. He felt awkward, but the closer they got to being done, the better he would feel. After she had finished threatening Lester's tapioca pudding, the employee reached them if he didn't give the remote back to another old geezer and faked a smile. "So, who won?" She asked, but Jaspar was fairly certain she didn't care. Still, he pointed to the witch who had claimed victory, half hoping the nurse would have some prize in mind. Jaspar returned to packing up the cards and getting things ready to place back on the shelf.

The nurse held out two timesheets toward the students, and Jaspar folded it up before placing it in his robes' pockets nervously. He looked to Léon, silently, and waited to figure out what he should do next.

“I’ve got it,” he reassured Jaspar as he bent over to get the last of the balls before putting them back in the case. As soon as they were in, the balls settled down, breathing easily as if they had fallen asleep as soon as their little heads (whatever part of the ball that was) had hit the figurative velvet pillow. “Léon figured that he might have been agitated and extremely upset if someone took him from his bed, put him in a cage, and shuffled him around to entertain some old people so he could empathize with the poor little creatures.

But, looking over at Jaspar, he realized that he also sympathized with the boy that had taken much of the abuse. He looked over at the winning grandma and gave her a wink and his most charming smile, “We’ll be back Dolores, with double the prize, too,” he promised to which she smiled and gave him a wink in return. Taking the timesheet he smiled at the woman, “Thanks,” he offered, another gracious smile in her direction which she returned twofold. Léon figured that there probably weren’t many handsome young boys jumping at the chance to work with the senior citizens.

“That was fun,” he offered to Jaspar, nodding his head towards the door as if he was encouraging him to walk with him, “wanna head back or you’ve got plans?”

Léon managed to tuck all of the vicious bingo balls back into their box, and Jaspar breathed a sigh of relief. Timesheet in his pocket and Dolores seemingly accepting the Papilonlisse's offer, Jaspar felt like today was back on the rails again. At least he wasn't going to be bitten anymore, but he still had to watch out for rogue grannies in their wheelchairs, he suspected. The nurse dismissed them, and Jaspar gave the bingo ladies a quick wave before heading out of the room behind Léon.

"That was.... a nightmare," Jaspar breathed when they were finally free of the room. The teenager was as charitable as the next guy, but he hadn't realized he agreed to be the entertainment when he signed up to entertain the seniors. He sighed, sucking on the most recently chomped finger, and half shrugged half nodded at Léon.

"No, we can head back," The idea that Jaspar had anything social going on after his student service was nearly laughable. The boy had friends, but he was far from popular. He was surprised that Léon didn't have anything else going on. "Might have been safer signing up stable service, at this rate," He stated as they left the center and headed back into the cold. Luckily the walk back to Beauxbatons wasn't too long. Jaspar pulled his gloves from his pocket and slipped them over his hands, and began rubbing them together almost as soon as they got outside.

Nightmare, seemed a bit of a stretch in the Papillonlisse’s opinion but he assumed that had he been in Jaspar’s position he might have felt the same thing. Had Léon been in the same position, he would have been most positively upset had it happened to him but it was much easier to make fun of Jaspar’s situation. Though all of the nonexistent glory that had come with making fun of the Bellefeuille had sort of worn off and now that they were alone again, Léon had a difficult time reconciling his feel for how he ought to treat him. They weren’t best friends but at the same time, Jaspar was not entirely bad company. If anything, he was a very good sport. “Guess it could’ve been better,” he said finally.

“Oh, the stable service,” he made a face, Léon didn’t like the feeling of being surrounded by horse manure but only because he thought that a space that was aesthetically pleasing yielded better work from him. “No way, I’d never do it,” he added. “The beautification one is pretty good though,” he offered, he’d done that one a couple of times, it always worked out because girls tended to be drawn to flowers but lately the same girls rotated that area and he had gotten bored. He’d wanted to try something new but he figured cute girls were not as drawn to old people as they were to flowers. That was a shame.

Léon tucked into his scarf, finding warmth in his pockets as he had forgotten his gloves. He didn’t look good in them so he barely wore them, “You normally do the student services with your pals or just throw caution to the wind and go for it?” he asked. Normally, Léon coordinated with his friends but often being in their company sort of turned him into a negative person and he didn’t want to do that at the nursing home. Regardless, she’d ended up doing it anyway.

Jaspar nodded when Léon brought up the beautification service instead of the stables. Truth be told, the Bellefeuille would never do the stable service. He was terrified of horses and basically anything bigger than he was. Which, in Jaspar's opinion, was completely logical. If it could stomp on him, why would he not fear it? Jaspar nodded again because it was easier than inserting any of his own opinions into the conversation when Léon asked if he normally did the services with his friends. He supposed that he did, but they had signed up for other things this year, and it was Jaspar who had been thrown to the wind.

"Normally yeah," He finally offered, shrugging a bit as he stuck his gloved hands into his pockets. "But they are doing their own things this term," Jaspar chewed on the inside of his cheek. Léon was friendly, which was either a really cool thing or the beginning of a trap, but Jaspar wanted to believe in the first thing. And so, with more enthusiasm than he had probably shown all afternoon, he bounced a little on the pads of his feet. "And I got kicked off the beautification committee in my second year... and I'm terrified of horses... and I may or may not have been involved in the flood in the library the last term..." He chuckled, taking one hand out of his pocket to run it through his long blond hair, the front sticking up in that awkward way that it always did.

So yeah, there was a real good reason why Jaspar was on the Chatoiel circuit this year.

 â€œHm,” Léon had sort of been expecting a lengthier answer about who he spent time with and what they did but he hadn’t exactly asked for all of that information, so it made no sense for him to be confused by the amount of information he was given. Either way, the more he explained, the more of a confused look Léon was starting to give him. It had almost seemed like leaving the senior citizens had completely transformed his personality as he suddenly seemed more…confident? Had the old people really been that scary? Interesting. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked, wondering if he’d either stepped into an alternative universe or maybe Jaspar wasn’t as much of a goody two shoes as he initially imagined?

“Had I know you were moonlighting as a juvenile delinquent I might’ve not teased you as much,” he joked, Léon talked a lot for someone whose words essentially amounted to nothing. That same big mouth of his had gotten him punched in the face the previous year, the last thing he needed was to get punched in the face again by yet another boy his age. “But that’s pretty cool,” he said after a moment, Léon would probably not have the guts to do any of that stuff but it did seem fun.

“But yeah I guess horses are pretty scary,” he admitted. Léon had no problem with the things as much as he did with the environment they lived in but he’d also never really spent much time with them to begin with. “So science isn’t really your thing…it’s…destroying stuff?” he said slowly.

Jaspar did feel more energetic the further they got from the senior citizens center and the intellectual in him sort of understood why. It was a dark reason, but being around so many elders, so close to their ends, had certainly made him feel odd. Being away from there reminded him of his vitality, and maybe it was a selfish thing to think, but he was glad to be outside again despite how cold it was. And the fact that Léon was no longer teasing him but rather talking to him like an equal was more than well-received by the Jaspar. He shrugged, a tiny smile folding onto his chapped lips, and then nodded again. He was still shy, but Jaspar was also entirely away from the fact that he was a walking disaster, so when Léon put it that way, he couldn't do anything but laugh.

No one had ever called him cool before, and the idea that his misdeeds could somehow earn him the respect of a peer was a shock to Jaspar. Had he known being a menace on every cauldron he'd ever owned would somehow earn him the social status, he might have been more forthcoming about where he hid all the half-melted ones these last sixth and a half years. "Thanks, I think?" He said softly, almost second-guessing himself, but then Léon spoke again, and Jaspar chuckled a bit louder.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that," He scratched his head, shrugging again, and laughed once more. "I didn't mean to set the hydrangea's on fire, but things just tend to... go boom around me, I guess...." Jaspar had always been better at science than he was at magic, but that hadn't kept him any safer. "But it's more than that, I guess," He thought about it for a minute, looking ahead and then back to Léon with a pensive expression. "I don't really fit in anywhere at school, I'm the least outdoorsy Bellefeuille you will ever meet, but I'm not motivated enough to be in Ombrelune." Jaspar had spent the better part of his underclassmen years wishing he had made it into the intellectual house. Almost all of his friends were Ombrelunes, it only made sense, but eventually, he started to get it.

"I guess the only place I fit in is where science and magic meet," He shrugged again, "And like any volatile pairing, explosions are inevitable," The nerd laughed at his own sciency joke like it was the most relatable thing in the world, and stuck his hands back in his pockets. 

“It’s a compliment,” Léon reassured him, making sure that the boy did not think he was finding a way to insult him because really, he was not. He had that thing about him, the quality that most of his friends tended to hate, where he was not entirely himself around others, tended to say stupid things and put others in the spotlight when he felt uncomfortable because he did not like being the center of attention unless he was in complete control of it. And he never entirely felt in control of it.

“Does that include people, too?” he joked, chuckling at his own ridiculous question as he took a few steps away from him and gave him a side glance, “Just kidding, just kidding,” he added, coming back in to walk in step with him but not before bumping his shoulder into his in a gesture of camaraderie.

“Yeah, I don’t like the outdoor stuff either, does terrible things to my complexion,” he joked again before shaking his head, “I’m pretty obviously Papillonlisse, I love art and music and pretty things…girls,” he corrected himself but there was much more to it. There was obviously his interest in aestheticism, the way he saw things were often romanticized, much softer than they truly were. He had no interest in anything outside of what was creative and that often caused him issues elsewhere.

“Science is kinda weird to me, like Potions and stuff, I don’t like when things only have one answer, that doesn’t make much sense to me,” he explained. “So I guess I got pretty pissed off when you were picking up all the old ladies with your science knowledge,” he half-joked, “sorry about that, I was just kidding around, you know,” he explained, his gaze focusing on the ground as his hands went even deeper in his pockets. “Tell me more about that science school, you really are gonna go?”

Jaspar felt more comfortable than before by leaps and bounds. He didn't feel so on the spot, and he didn't feel like he was on an opposing team from Léon. It was refreshing, really, and even when the other wizard mocked his knack for blowing things up, Jaspar didn't feel like he was poking fun. The shoulder bump solidified his idea that maybe this was a cool thing, maybe they were cool, maybe they might even be friends now.

"Your complexion?" Jaspar asked, raising an eyebrow; the teenager had zero clues when it came to things like treating the skin on his face differently than the rest of his body. Jaspar's idea of a 'skincare regime' was hoping the explosions didn't burn off his eyebrows too much. "Oh, heh, yeah," He laughed nervously, pretending like he knew what Léon was talking about, or at the very least, like he wasn't judging him for caring about his complexion. Jaspar didn't really like the outdoors either, so that was another thing they had in common, and that was pretty neat.

"It must be nice to just know where you belong," He offered, but Jaspar didn't want to sound too envious. He wasn't artistic at all, so at the very least, the wizard had always known he one hundred percent was not a Papilonlisse. "I can understand that," Jaspar disagreed, but he could see how only one answer might be frustrating to someone creative like Léon. In Jaspar's world, science's strictness was a comfort, but in Léon's, it was probably a prison.

"Yeah, that's okay, I get it," Jaspar gave Léon a kind smile, but there was something about his shrugged that said more. He didn't understand why he was always the butt of people's jokes, but he really meant that he was just used to it when he said he got it. Jaspar wasn't the sort to fight back, but that was another thing he loved about science. It didn't pick on him for any reason. "The science school is going to be really cool; I'm very excited," Jaspar said in an attempt to feel less sorry for himself and return to being energetic.

"They are building a particle accelerator, should be finished by the time I get there next year," He held up his gloved hands, "Fingers crossed," And then chuckled. "It's kind of like a giant ring that forces particles to go as fast as possible, like almost the speed of light fast, which is faster than any broom they could ever make." Jaspar hadn't entirely figured out how magic and science worked together on the experiment, but the geek didn't need to. It was cool either way! "Tell me more about your art stuff?"