Baking is therapy! (Open RP, canon updating--SPOILERS)

[my_soul_itches]

So here's a thought exercise.

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[rat_bstrd]

He was stopped by the tray of food and the sight of wings. Not so much the food- the last time he helped himself to free food, he ended up turning into a rat, but the wings jogged his memory.

"Hey, you're that girl- my sister knows you. She said you were hurt."

((He might start picking up her feelings.))

[my_soul_itches]

((Good thing she's less of an immediate wreck than last time!))

"Hurt? No, I'm not--" She thought back. The last time she had been at Hogwarts and hurt in any way, it had been after the riots, and she had been wandering the halls, bleeding and half-concussed. Someone had mentioned a brother, hadn't they? She had been scared, hurt, and confused, and her memories of that day were kind of fuzzy in large patches. "Oh. That." She laughed nervously. "I got better. I don't remember if I ever thanked your sister. Sage, right? I hope I'm remembering right, I hit my head right before I met her."

[rat_bstrd]

Rat shuffled his feet. "Sage ran off. Sort of." The occasional sharing of memories with his sister could be helpful. "Do you need help with something?" He indicated the food, asking out of guilt- guilt for his sister's actions.

Some patchy, painful images leaked through to him as well. Shielding wasn't working. Stupid empathy. He made his hands into fists.

[my_soul_itches]

"Oh. Sorry. I don't--I mean, you could help me out by eating some of this, but I'm good. Really. Fine."

Eventually, if she repeated it enough, she would start to believe it, and then it would be almost-true. She could live with almost-true, right? (Apparently she'd been living with it for years, thanks Mum.)

"I mean, are you okay? You don't--I mean--do you want to sit down or something?"

[rat_bstrd]

"I- are you sure this is safe?" He poked at a cookie. "Last time I ate one of the damn things, I turned into something else.

He squinted at her. "Fine? I'm ok. Good enough."
She didn't feel fine.

[my_soul_itches]

"Yeah, I made them all myself. No one else touched them except for the house elves who helped carry them, I promise, and I don't hold with putting things in food. I didn't even accidentally dust any of them, X-man's honor." She held out both hands in front of her. "Megan Gwynn, Gryffindor, so you can track me down if I'm lying."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself, then, you just looked a bit off, is all."

[rat_bstrd]

He was more than a bit off by now, distracted by her earlier pain. It made him look a bit pissed-off to be honest.

He reached out and took one. "Good" he murmered through a mouthful of food. "You and Sage hang out much?" Of course he knew they didn't, but it was something to say.

[my_soul_itches]

Megan caught the pissed-off look and scooted a little away. Just a little.

"Not really. I mean, I only met her the one time, and I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be really friendly. Kind of a bad time, you know?" She laughed weakly. "But it's better now--I'm better now--and look! Surrounded by pastries of all kinds. I think I even managed to not mess up the crepes too badly. I never was good at crepes."

[rat_bstrd]

Crap. Now she was uncomfortable and he was more uncomfortable and even though he loved his sister, that didn't mean he didn't like girls and she was cute. And hopefully he wouldn't start influencing her, making her feel uncomfortable. He bit his lip.

"Nice pastries. It's really good. You two should hang out sometime." He growled the last, then changed his expression to a somewhat strained sheepish grin.

[my_soul_itches]

"Oh. Sorry, I talk a lot," she said, mistaking the cause of his discomfort. Her wings fluttered nervously. "I've been trying to work on that."

She perked up again with the compliment, however minor. "Really? Thanks. And yeah, I'd like that. You know, having friends, making new ones, all of that. And I think she was nice to me last time I came back."

[rat_bstrd]

"Yeah, yeah I think she likes you." Some of the awful pressure in the room went away as the girl perked up. "So, I'm Rat. Or did she tell you?"

[my_soul_itches]

"I think she mentioned you? It's been a while. It's nice to meet you, though." She settled down, picking at some lint on a sleeve. "So I've been away for a little while. A couple of weeks, I think. Have I missed anything big? Another baby sun, maybe?"

[rat_bstrd]

"Nah." He relaxed very slightly. "None of that crap. It's been insanely quiet around here. I haven't done anything except training."

"You were off...doing something?" Something very unpleasant, he suspected.

[my_soul_itches]

"Oh? Training for what? If you don't mind me asking, I mean. I was looking into a lot of Defense Against the Dark Arts stuff before I went back to San Francisco, for all the good it did me."

She tried very hard not to think about it. There was a lot to think about, though, and it didn't work all the way. Her smile went frozen for a second with the effort of shoving it back. "I went to help out some friends. Things got... I needed a break, so I came back here. Anyway, it's nice to bake again."

[rat_bstrd]

"Nothing in particular. Just...training." Rat was paranoid, he didn't need a reason to train.

"Baking's good" he agreed, "I can't bake for shit." But he couldn't help poking at the sore place, even if it hurt. "So, you're from San Francisco? That's cool. I thought you might be from another planet, or something."

[my_soul_itches]

"No, I'm from Wales. I was just kind of in San Francisco for a while. There was this school that I went to before here, and it used to be in New York except we got attacked all the time and after it was blown up we were all sent home, but then we were all called to San Francisco, but we were kicked out and lived on a floating metal asteroid for a while... So not really another planet, really." She leaned her head back. "Though it sounds really insane when I say it all out loud, doesn't it?"