bittersweet symphony. [tag; honey]

He was going to Greece. Honey returned his smile; Greece--getting away at all--would be good for him. And he could get a nice tan, which would be good for her-- she had another bite of cake to keep herself from dwelling on that any longer than she already had.

She should ask about his parents, about his brother and sister, especially now that he was mentioning them all, but this was so tentative still. Honey wanted to be friends with him, thought they could be, but being too interested now, so quickly, would surely just backfire. He moved on to other things by the time she had made up her mind, anyway. He didn’t want to cause a scene, and Honey smirked. “Dunno how successful you’ll be with that.” Somehow she managed to keep her gaze at eye level instead of letting it tral down over him, hinting at what she was really getting at.

He’d had fun at their cookery class, and Honey’s expression shifted toward more of a grin. “Me, too.” She met his eye for a second, long enough to make her wonder what she was doing, bringing that up. She’d just been apologizing to him, no more than ten minutes ago. Her conversations with Will were getting less and less predictable (on his part) and her response couldn’t always be distraction.

She told him not to eat the lemon cake and he took that as his cue to leave. Honey pulled the piece of red velvet she had pushed toward him--to share that one, instead of the offensive lemon one--back toward herself, wondering if there was a less subtle way for Will to excuse himself from their chat. “Aye, right,” she said, taking one last bite of the good piece of cake before she stood up. She looked at him briefly before she headed toward the door, glancing back over her shoulder. “Thanks for the coffee.”

The sidewalk was fairly busy outside the coffee shop (and Honey didn’t want to give him the chance to leave first) so she smiled quickly. “I’ll--” she fidgeted, pulling the sleeves of her jumper down over her hands.”See you.” She thought she meant it, too. It was too soon for a hug, though, so she turned and headed back the direction she’d come from, looking for the best spot to apparate back to Hogsmeade.

[[ out ]]

The bubble of laughter came quickly as he snorted. This was easy - maybe too easy. Faintly embarrassed, the tips of his ears turned pink. He wasn't sure if this was flirting (if it was, he was awful at it) but he smiled again. "You have a very high opinion of the Greek people," he joked as he absently poked his cake with the thines of his fork, looking up at her sharply.

Will did feel guilty. They were having a nice time but he was conscious not to overstay his welcome and chatting about their past seemed to go hand in hand. He nodded, averting his eyes. This happened sometimes, circling back to their relationship. Had he been more naive, he might have suspected Honey was interested again. It only occurred to him once the topic had been dropped that she was simply finding a common ground.

He hadn't touched the proffered cake, simply because red velvet made him queasier than the lemon cake had. But Honey was up and away, leaving him scrambling for his jacket as he shrugged into it clumsily and tripped after her.

"Oh, my pleasure," he said gamely as he lingered on the step of the shop, a hand bracing against the jamb. He felt like he should definitely say something but it completely alluded him. Will slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers, rocking back and forth on the  balls of his feet anxiously, nodding along. He took a half-step towards Honey, ready to give her a hug but she seemed preoccupied.

He smiled again and nodded in agreement. He wasn't sure if that was what she really wanted but today hadn't been terrible. If anything, it had been pretty good - they'd both said what they needed to say to move forward. He just needed to remember her boundaries. "You will," he said cheerily as he raised a large hand to give her a wave as she disappeared into the crowd.

He watched her go with a frown, heaving a heavy sigh once her red hair and disappeared from view. Clearing his throat, he ruffled his hair before stepping out and falling into step with the passer bys as Will turned his collar up against the wind, unsure if he was happy or not that she hadn't looked back.



[done!]