(Untitled)

[halfscarlet]

Billy had rarely been the kind of kid who stared about of the classroom window all morning wishing he could get out. Even after joining the Young Avengers, he'd resisted the urge to go day dreaming, saving that for after school, when he could visit any part of the world he wanted. Having that sort of freedom made staying in school easier to bear,

Comments

[seek_to_end]

In any normal set of circumstances, Harry wouldn't have taken so well to another guy shoving flowers into his face. But with the island the way it was -- the brilliant way it was -- Harry did not hesitate.

"Have you tried the grass?" he asked eagerly, trading the bloke a handful of orange for a handful of green. "It's fantastic."

[halfscarlet]

Taking the grass without question was a good cover up for the sudden shock of recognition. It wasn't every day a guy got to offer Harry Potter flowers, after all.

Billy covered up as quickly as he could, hoping he would just look like the awkward seventeen year old boy he was. "I've tried almost everything around," he said, but couldn't resist popping a few blades in his mouth anyway. "So far, anyway. I haven't reached the beach yet."

[seek_to_end]

Harry peeled off a flower petal and popped it into his mouth, grinning as it melted on his tongue. Almost as good as Honeydukes.

"I hadn't even thought about the beach," Harry admitted, though now it seemed like the perfect place to head next. "I wonder if the tide pools have salt water taffy in them."

[halfscarlet]

That sounded way more appetizing than it should have after all the candied fauna Billy had eaten. "Maybe the sand is edible, too. It's probably like...pure sugar, or something."

[seek_to_end]

The idea lit up Harry's face, but only for a moment before it fell into something more uncertain. "Hopefully not too many people or things have walked on it. At least with the grass you can tell." At least Harry had avoided anything that looked trampled or visited by an animal.

"Do you want to go check it out?" Harry didn't know him at all, but just then he didn't care, too high off sugar and eager to ignore the fact that his best friends were otherwise occupied. Besides, he liked candy; he couldn't have been that bad.

[halfscarlet]

"Good point," Billy said, and he wasn't going to admit that he hadn't been doing the same. Hopefully his sub-conscious had been looking out for him on that front.

"I'm all for going to check it out." He moved the flowers to his left hand, and gave his right a hard wipe on his shorts, which didn't do much to clean off the sticky residue from handling all sorts of candied things for the last hour. "I'm Billy Kaplan."

[seek_to_end]

Harry tried to dust off his hands as well, and grinned helplessly when it didn't do a great deal of good but offered a hand anyway. "Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."

[halfscarlet]

Billy couldn't help it; he grinned when Harry admitted he was Harry Potter. He was probably used to being recognized (Probably? Billy'd read the books and seen the movies, he knew that was so), but Billy decided to leave it at that. Because being recognized as Harry Potter, fictional character, was a hell of a lot different than being recognized as the Boy Who Lived.

"Nice to meet you too, Harry. Now, the only question is which beach to head to. We're closest to the one with Serenity on it."

[seek_to_end]

Harry, for his part, took it as just a normal grin a person makes when meeting someone new. It was just easier to always believe that rather than getting suspicious for no reason.

"..with serenity?" Harry repeated, frowning in confusion. It was an odd turn of phrase, but he supposed the beaches were serene. "Closer's better, I guess. Unless you can think of something really fantastic that would show up on one beach and not the other."

[halfscarlet]

"The spaceship," Billy clarified, as if everyone should know that it was the Serenity, and not just a random spaceship on the beach. "That's her name. And I can't think of anything the other beaches might have that would outdo a spaceship."

[seek_to_end]

"Oh, that thing!" Harry said, understanding now. He took a shuffling step backwards, towards the beach in question but waiting for Billy to set the pace. "I.. didn't even think about what it was called. I've only been here two months," he explained with a shrug. "Still getting used to.. everything."

[halfscarlet]

"Still kinda new, huh?" He remembered what it was like two months in; on some level, it'd been better in those early months, just because Kate had still been around. "I don't know if that new feeling ever goes away," he said, starting down the boardwalk. "I just passed my one year mark a few days ago, and it still feels strange."

[seek_to_end]

"Really?" Harry wasn't sure if that made him feel relieved or more unsettled. He wanted to believe he could one day be settled here, for his own sake and the sake of his friends, but a part of him was still always thinking of home. He would still take out the Marauder's Map every so often, even though he knew that unfolding it would only reveal a blank page, no matter how many times he swore he was up to no good. "I can't imagine. Two months seem to have taken forever and not all at once. But I guess things'll always feel pretty strange on an island where everything can turn into candy overnight."

[halfscarlet]

"It's the whole never knowing what your day's gonna end up being like. One day you're in Candy Land, another day you're hoping you won't die..." Billy shrugged, feeling it was a little too much like life back home, which was probably why he'd taken to the island easily enough.

[seek_to_end]

"Keeps you on your toes," he said with a faint, mostly humorless grin. "Though the hoping you won't die part can get tiring after a while. But that doesn't seem to happen every day." Harry looked at Billy curiously. "Which happens more often? This sort of stuff or giant space stations falling out of the sky?"

[halfscarlet]

"I would like to say this place is nicer than it is mean," Billy said, sighing. "There are magic parties, and we obviously get cool gifts. But from what I can tell, the nice stuff's just to make up for all the other crappy stuff that happens."