(Untitled)

[rippeditup]

What ho, St Jude's! There's a tall young man in a neatly pressed uniform with no sign of ties around his head or blazer inside out. Shocking! He looks like the kind who will inevitably succumb to a life of wearing tweed, peering over his glasses and living in libraries. Surely this cannot be the Rupert Giles you all met before summer? Except it

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[thisiswhen]

...Ethan, in contrast, is artfully rumpled because he's pretty sure he can get away with that for a few more years, and actually, he makes a good contrast to young Rupert Giles in a number of ways, but maybe let's not get into that too quickly.

"Fuck the what."

Or, uh, let's.

[rippeditup]

Rupert was hoping to do that thing where he pretended he couldn't see you so you, in turn, couldn't whatever at him. It's hard to know Ethan's reactions sometimes.

"Hello Ethan." Well, he managed that without any old passive aggressive tendencies or punches to the face. Ten house points for will power.

[thisiswhen]

As Ethan aims to be difficult to predict at all times, this is somehow not very surprising. Currently, he's patting himself down like he thinks he's lost something. "I could've sworn I didn't actually swipe your balls-"

[rippeditup]

Rupert is an adult about these things. Well, now. "Insert witty reference to your questionable sexuality here. So, how was your summer?" Oh, Rupert. Subject changes never work.

[thisiswhen]

"I have no questions about my sexuality," Ethan asserts, a statement that from someone else would sound defensive and from Ethan sounds nonspecifically unsettling, with perhaps an edge of '>:3' for flavor. "And there's my summer for you! I know it's October, Rupes, but you're getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren't you?"

[rippeditup]

Rupert just gives him a look. Yes, over his glasses, what of it? "I'd re-think that line of thought, if I were you." It's slightly dangerous territory.

[thisiswhen]

The look he gets in response is nothing so much as impudent. "Is that a threat?"

...go to class, both of you.

[rippeditup]

"It's advice." And he actually manages to make it sound like he's not spitting teeth.

[thisiswhen]

"Oh, well. You've never steered me wrong before." Reasons why Ethan shouldn't provoke Rupert number in the thousands, and there is only one reason worth acknowledging for doing it anyway: he feels like it.

[rippeditup]

"Well, except that one time. Never been great with automatics." He gives a little cough and shrugs it off. "Better get to class."

[thisiswhen]

Ethan scrutinizes him, skeptical and displeased, and definitely not amused by the literal response. (At all! ...okay, maybe a little.) "Daddy'd hate for his little lord to fall behind, probably," he says, brightly, which not even an idiot is going to mistake for goodwill. "See you, then."

[rippeditup]

There is some definite teeth clenching. This is something of a moral dilemma. Well, not moral. More, "should I risk getting caught or is this against my new way of life?" And, "I'm not going to even go for a your Mum joke or January will show up on my door one day." Option three: ignoring him.

"Yes, yes, Ethan." It even gets a casual shoo-shoo movement. Oh snap. "See you."

[thisiswhen]

January is a terrifying woman and Rupert is right to be wary of getting on the wrong side of her. She'll know. Ethan narrows his eyes, slightly, and makes a mental note to pester his new and superior best friend about the fact Rupert has clearly lost his mind over the summer and may need an immediate intervention of alcohol, weed, and/or a sound beating by her scary Argentine boyfriend.

"That's me told," he says tartly, instead, and saunters past - pausing only to say over his shoulder, "I'll be keeping the jacket, then."

...scamper scamper scamper.