Lazy Sunday (Ben & Connor)

Guest

Connor was relieved that after a long morning or training, he and his soreness could become a couch potato and watch some muggle telly. It was painful during the off season to get back on the grind before the competition started. It was always achy on his body no matter what he did to stay in shape. So as he pushed the door to the flat open, he closed his eyes hoping nothing would be out of the ordinary.

He had learned very early on that when it came to having Benjamin as a best friend meant dealing with he oddest of things. For example, small explosions in the middle of the night, the foul smell of nightshade at 3:00am, or worse,
twenty cats due to a behavior experiment. His friend was odd in the best way and Connor legitimately felt he ha aged considerably in their fourteen year friendship.

So as he entered he grew suspicious that nothing was out of place. The flat was messy, but no more than usual. Slowly he let the bags and Quidditch gear fall at his feet and thought, briefly, about taking out his wand. Still no real noise. He squinted.

"What did you do?"

Guest

The morning had been an eventful one for Ben. His latest experiment was moving along nicely, and he suspected to complete the research part of his work by the end of the week. Unfortunately....there'd been a few hiccups in his calculations, and now Connor's room looked like a torture chamber.

Not his intention, truly. Sure, the blood was expected, as he was testing the cleaning properties of various breeds of dragon blood. He just hadn't imagined a few of the samples to eat through the bed sheets he's hung on the walls. Straight through to the wallpaper, and then some. Every wall was now covered in different colored and patterned bedding, soaking in different colors of the sticky, smelly substance. A bit of a burning smell was mixed in from the eaten through paper as well. The landlady was not going to be pleased.

At the moment, though, Ben was a bit more concerned for his roommate's reaction. He didn't make it a habit of caring what other people thought. In fact, he made it a personal rule to avoid such nonsense. But Connor had proven, through the years, to be more tolerant of his eccentricities, his late night rantings and week long silences, the toxic ingredients around the flat. Although he would be hard pressed to admit it, Ben owed a great deal to the former Hufflepuff. If not for the Quidditch player, Ben may very well have become a recluse entirely.

It was this knowledge, this morning, which led Ben to move quickly into the livingroom as he heard Connor enter the lower door to their flat. Maybe, if he could persuade the other man to leave again, he would have time to clean up the disaster. Attempting to look busy at his desk, Ben feinted innocence and Connor entered.

"Hmm?" he responded a bit too quickly to the question. "Nothing at all, don't be daft," his words practically spilled forth. "Did you bring the milk and crisps I asked you about? We are completely out." That was a lie. He had neither asked Connor to stop at the shop, nor were they out of the items in question. Ben was banking on his roommate's exhaustion, hoping he'd simply turn and head back out the way he came without question.

Guest

Connor never thought of himself as the brightest kid; from a young age he knew that he was never going to be at the top of his class, for that took long hours on concentration that he was simply incapable of having. But he also knew his strengths and one of them is to know people’s tells when it came to their emotions. Sure that took a lot of , and he hated really having to do it, but if he was honest with himself, it did not take much to read his best friend.

Benjamin was….an oddball, in the best way of course. When they met, Connor was a pudgy first year who was always willing to go out and make friends. His mother always told him to be bright and sunny and that was just who he was always meant to be. In his first week of flying classes he had met Benjamin. The boy was the exact opposite of him; where he had a sunny disposition, his friend was a grey cloud, where he was talkative, Ben kept to a few words and went straight to the point. It took him a lot of pushing but finally he opened up and they became a duo. Ben was there and helped him when Connor began to lose weight. He often times threw biscuit that was once in Connor’s hand for consumption, into whatever potion he was doing to tell him to limit his bad habits. He was also there for his failed attempts at romance and made fun of him in a way that made Connor laugh too.
But at this point and in their mid-twenties, there were very few secrets kept within them. Ben was great at things Connor wasn’t, but he was awful at feigning disinterest or being flighty. Those were not normal qualities and therefore forced.

So as Ben so casually looked at him, Connor saw his eyes shifting around the room and telling him he forgot items that they both knew had never been discussed.

“You twat, what did you do?”

No matter how tired he was, Connor began to look around to what was off about the flat. The kitchen was no less dirtier than before, the sitting room looked adequate, the dining table where the “lab” sat was the main clue of what happened. The phials were too clean…which meant. His head snapped at Ben’s room which had the door slightly ajar, to his own up the stairs that was firmly shut. That was not the norm; he always kept the door open to let the air pass.

“Merlin…my room?” He groaned. “Are you serious? What’s in it? Is it alive? Did you poison something? Did something die in there?” his questions continued frantically.

He made no attempt to run to his room just yet, scared to go without a firm answer.

Guest

Ben's face initially attempted shock. Years in close proximity and he still attempted to act....human? Whatever term people used for those silly little niceties and habits they seemed so attached to. If asked, he really didn't know why he bothered at all. Stupid sentiment, he supposed, for the only person who would put up with him.

It was for naught however, when he saw Connor's eyes start roaming the flat. Initially as imbecilic as the rest of the world, through the years (and extensive training), Ben felt rather proud of how keen the other man's mind had become. A pride similar to that of a puppy. Or maybe a gerbil. Should really get one of those. Loads of experiments I could use it for. He made a mental note to ask Connor how to procure one later. Muggle animal and all.

Only moments passed before he was found out. Standing swiftly and making his way over to his flatmate, he attempted to make light of the situation. "Come now, science does require certain...sacrifices." His hands were tucked behind him, a not-so-frequent habit when he knew he'd overstepped some sort of boundary. "Besides, it's all fixable. You," he emphasized, trying to shift blame, "simply came home early."

Passing by, he moved quickly towards the kitchen. It was daft, really, to care this much for another individuals state of mind, but... He would normally make tea, but the oddity that was his friend liked carbonated beverages better. Maybe something to do with the sugar and such used up through physical assertion. At least that was what Ben assumed. He grabbed for whatever was in their fridge, pushing aside a few phials of less-than-edible specimens.

"Here," he said without preamble, practically shoving it at the boy in way of a peace treaty.

Guest

There were many people that would say that he never got angry and while Connor tended to agree, the one exception was Ben. His best friend and often times brother, had a tendency to really push his limit. This was one of those moments. Ben was a piece of work, he really was, especially as he stood there smiling pretending he did nothing wrong. He really tried to keep his cool and took a deep breath hoping to calm down.

"You're a twat" Connor spat out.

He pretended not to be angry, and glared even more as he was blamed over coming home early. Typical Ben, blaming him for the things that he had no actions over. Shaking his head he followed his roommate reluctantly as he was served his favorite fizzy drink. Taking the drink he sighed as he leaned against the counter.

"Do I even want to go in there?" he asked huffing.

Still he hated to admit that the fizzy drink worked just as well as it did when he was thirteen.

Guest

A barely visible smirk twisted the corner of Ben's lips for a moment. At least if Connor was talking, he couldn't be that mad. And the harsh words really meant nothing between the two of them. Yes, he was a twat. But a brilliant one, and that was all that mattered.

At the question, he frowned. "I would give it another hour or so, for the blood to finish it's process. I'll clean everything up once it's done." Cleaning was NOT one of his strong suits. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he was bothered to clean anything. Actually, it was another such incident with some exploding component that blew apart his mug, he remembered. It was really only in terms of the other man that he made even the slightest of efforts.

Putting on a kettle to boil for himself, he crossed his arms to wait out the storm that was O'Donaghue. "I couldn't very well use my own room. The light coming in through the window could have compromised the integrity of the entire thing. No use doing something when you know it's going to fail, now is there." He'd argued this point with himself all of two seconds before invading his flatmate's space. Really, it wasn't even "invading" at this point. He knew every inch of their shared space by memory, and updated such knowledge every month or so.

As his tea was in the works, he opted for conversation. "So, how was....practice?" To be fair, he hardly made it his business to know Connor's comings and goings.

Guest

He knew he was falling for Ben's stupid logic. No matter how angry he got the man in front of him was good at manipulating him to not be as mad as he should be. Especially the more he sipped his favorite drink, damn him.

"I would give it another hour or so, for the blood to finish it's process. I'll clean everything up once it's done."

"Are you actually cleaning it? Or are you getting someone to do it? I don't want the smell to be there damn it." he sighed and groaned realizing something. "Connie was supposed to come over!"

Connie was the blonde reporter that he met after a game. She was a sweet girl, bubbly and overall a nice girl. Sure she was nothing special, but hey a man needed to have some company, and he found it harder and harder to fid company with having Ben in his life. It was odd being friends with him; there was never once where his friend showed interest in...well anyone. Not girls, not even guys, and he wasn't going to judge in whatever way he acted.

Even now as he made some bullshit explanation as to why it wasn't his room Connor thought that if he had some stress relief he wouldn't be wasting his time doing it. His friend was brilliant but...had little sense for propriety.

"So, how was....practice?"

"Well...I just want to say that I know you're doing this to distract me. It's not going to work...."he paused. "But practice went fine, I stink, but I am scared to go to the loo. Anything weird happen there? Did you have the decency of taking out some clothes for me?"