Victor and Jehan Callahan
September 24, 2018 10:15 AM
Checking in by Victor and Jehan Callahan
Jehan was walking along the corridor, heading for the library, when a hand reached out for his shoulder and pulled him to a stop.“How goes, little bro?” Victor grinned down at his little brother. The two didn’t interact much at Sonora, both staying with their own friends most of the time, but Victor always kept an eye on his brother, and Jehan was always happy to spend time with Victor.
Jehan shrugged and sighed, not wanting to bother Victor with all his problems but also unable to lie and pretend everything was fine.
Victor’s smile disappeared, and was replaced by a look of concern as he cracked his knuckles in a faux-menacing style. “Right, who do I beat up?”
Despite himself, this made Jehan chuckle slightly, as Victor had intended. “No one, I just had a…misunderstanding with Dorian and now things are weird.”
This confused Victor. He thought his brother and Dorian Montoir were as thick as thieves, understanding each other in a way no one else did. Sure, he was slightly jealous of sharing Jehan’s affections, but he didn’t really mind. Montoir was from a decent family, something which Victor was rather relieved about, given Jehan’s propensity towards being silly about such things. However, the knowledge that Montoir was to blame for Jehan’s unhappiness made Dorian go down somewhat in Victor’s estimation.
“What sort of misunderstanding? I thought you two were basically the same person?”
Jehan winced slightly, for some reason not liking that phrasing. Yes, he’d considered the idea of Dorian being his soulmate, but they were still individuals, individuals who apparently didn’t understand each other as well as they’d assumed they did.
“We just…something happened, and I thought he was ashamed of me, and he thought I wasn’t speaking to him, and apparently neither of those were true and now we’re trying to be normal but I don’t even know if I can hug him and, Vito, do you have a time turner I can borrow?”
Victor ignored the use of the childhood nickname (he was too old for such a name, but Jehan was upset), and forced himself not to think about how cool it would be to have a time turner (imagine all the things he could do, maybe his father had one in his study, that could be worth investigating during the Christmas holidays…). He didn’t get what the ‘something’ was, but there were a few pointers he could give Jehan.
“I would say you should talk to him, but we all know that’s not my style. I reckon fake it ‘til you make it is probably the best approach but, Jehan, you’re a bit past the hugging stage, aren’t you? You’re 14 now, after all. You don’t see me going around hugging my friends, Merlin knows I’d just get hexed if I tried anything like that.”
Jehan gave his brother an exasperated look. Victor could be quite dense sometimes.
“Hugs are nice, Victor, and they’re not something you should want to grow out of. I hug you and you don’t mind, anyway.”
“Yeah, well, at home’s fine, but I’ve got a reputation to maintain here. Come on, Jehan, you know what I mean. You do you and all that, but if you and all your friends are touchy-feely, keep it on the low down. Maybe that’s what this argument with Montoir’s about. He might feel awkward about saying he too old for hugs now or something.”
Unbeknownst to him, Victor’s analysis of the mystery situation wasn’t a million miles off Jehan’s own thoughts. He was fairly sure that Dorian hadn’t meant to almost-kiss him, and he knew Dorian cared about what his parents thought. Maybe Dorian would agree with Victor when it came to public hugging and the like? Perhaps the current awkwardness was because the almost-kiss had been a wake-up call to Dorian, who had now decided that they couldn’t be as close? It would definitely explain some of the confusing signals he was getting from Dorian. Jehan knew by now that he shouldn’t just assume things about Dorian, but this possibility did give an explanation as to why things still felt awkward between them. Jehan sighed. Why did life have to be so complicated?
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Victor and Jehan Callahan
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Victor and Jehan Callahan
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