Yaniel Ayala Velez
July 17, 2023 1:52 PM
So, I should maybe do the whole... y'know... Thing (tag Cole) by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Yaniel and Cole had pretty much had a standing hang out since The Horrific Library Conversation after The Incident Yaniel Liked to Pretend Hadn't Happened. They mostly focussed on Quidditch rather than feelings, with the idea that Yaniel might make it back to the team one day and it would be good if he wasn't horribly out of practice. And because Quidditch made him genuinely happy and Cole cared about that as an end result in itself to an extent that made him feel vaguely embrassed if he thought about it too much because he was pretty sure he was not worth the trouble.The meet ups looked set to continue this year. Unsurprisingly. Unsurprising because of Cole's endless font of Teppenpaw patience and goodness, which seemed to be inexhaustible regardless of whether Yaniel deserved it or not.
He made his way to their first session, barely feeling the weight of the bat slung over his shoulder. That weight was safe and familiar, unlike the one in his chest. He guessed they could just carry on as if the letters he'd written over summer hadn't changed anything... But then they were always going to be there, hanging in the air unspoken, ready to knock the wind out of him when he least suspected it.
Yaniel arrived first, giving the room some moving targets for them to practise on as well as other equipment. He began his warm up stretches and had just started hitting some baseballs when Cole walked in.
"Hey. Thanks for answering my letters over summer," he said, forcing himself to blurt it out before he changed his mind. "Not that I think you wouldn't. But they were a bit weird, I know. It was just-" A game? He swallowed the words down, not wanting to disown it, however much easier that would be in the short term. "-good. To have someone else know about it, I mean. That was good."
OOC: Yaniel and Cole's ongoing sessions confirmed with his author
13
Yaniel Ayala Velez
So, I should maybe do the whole... y'know... Thing (tag Cole)
1554
1
5
Cole Pierce
August 04, 2023 9:14 PM
I support you whatever you do or don't do by Cole Pierce
Cole headed out to meet up with Yaniel - Cole was pretty sure he was reading the underlying messages in the letters over the summer correctly, and his friend wanted to be Yaniel now - with a bat over his shoulder, and his broom in hand. He gave a wave to Piper and Lenny in the common room (which was harder than it sounds, with both his hands full of Quidditch gear, but he kind of managed it and didn't even drop anything), and was smarter and just gave verbal greetings to the people he passed in the hall on the rest of the way to the MARS sports room.He'd replied to the letters of course, encouraging the journal, and telling about some things he did with his mom - she was a potioneer, so they went out to collect ingredients sometimes. Sometimes that took the form of hiking out in the wild, taking a shopping trip to the apothocary, or just heading out to their little garden in the community lot. They also did skiing trips, but that included Grandpa and Dad too, so he wasn't sure that counted, but Mom loved those trips, so he'd added it as sort of an aside. There wasn't really a lot they did just him and her. Both his parents brought him to his soccer games, and most of their 'fun' adventures had his dad along, too. She brought him to his boy scout camp by herself, but that was more her being a transportation service than an activity they did together, and dad did the picking up and bringing home, so it was a shared responsiblity. Mom loved dancing, too, so sometimes they danced around the living room, but that was kind of just spontaneous fun, not a formal outing, but he'd mentioned that, too. Soon, he boasted, he'd be tall enough that he could spin her instead of her spinning him. Mom still had an inch on him, but he was hopeful a school term away would solve that by Christmas.
Yar- Yaniel was already there when Cole arrived. "Hey!" he greeted cheerfully. "Your letters were definitely not weird. Trust me, I correspond with Lenny, so . . . those are weird letters." Cole was glad he'd been born to his Pierce branch. Lenny's home life sounded completely mad. "Do you know, he lives in a tent?" Looking at Lenny, Cole certainly wouldn't have guessed that. "But anyway, yeah, I'm glad to have been someone you could talk to about everything you were going through. It was good, hearing how things were going."
He put his bat and broom down on the ground and started stretching before their practice. "Do you want me to call you Yaniel now?" he asked, "When it's just us, or always, or whatever you're comfortable with."
OOC: Wild assumption that Piper and Lenny just hang out in the common room sometimes seemed reasonable to me but can change if necessary.
1
Cole Pierce
I support you whatever you do or don't do
1546
0
5
Yaniel Ayala Velez
August 05, 2023 4:15 AM
Well, I meant the whole telling you thing but you covered that by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Yaniel was not weird compared to Lenny. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It felt like there wasn’t a right response. Being not weird compared to Lenny felt like a low bar, but that wasn’t very kind. Regardless of all Cole’s assurances, Yaniel didn’t want to pile on with the Lenny-disliking in their conversations. And just because Lenny—“Wait, what?” he asked, as Cole revealed that Lenny lived in a tent. In their limited and fifty-percent dramatic interactions, that had not come up. When they’d all hung out pre-bonfire, Lenny had seemed confident and excited about spending the night in a tent but… well, it was Lenny. He was basically confident and excited, often to the point of being slightly obnoxious, about everything. “How does he dress like that in a tent?” Yaniel asked. Okay, Lenny had managed to be just as Lenny at the bonfire as any other time, but that had been a one off, and magical tents. “Magical tent or muggle?” Yaniel clarified, because that would make a lot of difference. Magical tents were basically like houses. They didn’t even have really limited storage (which would have been very incompatible with Lenny… being Lenny). Yaniel had heard that Muggle camping was very different. He’d never done either variety. His family didn’t do a lot of vacations—it was a case of saving every penny to enable semi-regular trips back to Puerto Rico, or to fly Papa’s parents over to see them.
But anyway, on the plus side, Cole wasn’t weirded out and had liked the letters, which was going to make the next part easier—not necessarily easy but they were off to a good start and—then Cole just did it for him.
“Just us!” he said quickly, as Cole put options that were way too big and scary on the table. Which meant he’d… done it. Without realising. He’d been so quick to make sure Cole didn’t do any of the things he didn’t want, that he’d said what he did want. “But… but yeah. That. That would be good. When it’s just us.”
He opened his mouth several times, starting a few different sentences. The therapist that school had made him see had been suggesting trying different things. Cole didn’t think it was weird, right? But he cut off all his ideas before he was more than a few words in. Cole didn’t need a justification. He just got it. He’d already said Yaniel was less weird than Lenny. And not even Lenny’s being Lenny, but Yaniel being Yaniel was less weird than Lenny living in a tent.
Instead of questioning it any further, he beamed. A big relaxed smile that Cole would have last seen… possibly never.
‘So, let’s play ball?” he asked.
13
Yaniel Ayala Velez
Well, I meant the whole telling you thing but you covered that
1554
0
5