i had to find you at the worst time [Grey]

[Deleted]

Rai had been graduated for two months now and had been training extensively with the Auror program. On one of her very few moments off, she found herself wandering Diagon Alley. She was blessed that the clouds were out today. Normally she loved the sun, welcomed it's heat and shine, but today she just needed something more relaxed. Something gentle, cool and breezy. A cloudy summer day was the perfect fit, and she was grateful for it. 

She didn't go in many shops and when she did she would spend a short amount of time browsing before returning to the fresh air outside. It would be a perfect day to go hiking, and she considered doing just that after spending a little more time in the Alley. She enjoyed the camaraderie there, the seeing of old friends and making new ones. The majority of people seemed just as pleased as she was to be outside on the cool day.

Speaking of seeing old friends, a little down the path she caught sight of the back of someone, someone she was sure was Grey. She squinted and slowly moved toward him. If it wasn't him, well, what she was about to do would be a little embarrassing. Either way, she snuck up and covered his eyes with her hands, pulling him close to her so he couldn't escape. "Guess who, mate?" she said, not even bothering to disguise her voice.

grey xavier slater

(here you go!)

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

Grey felt like he had been at Diagon Alley a lot lately. That wasn’t a bad thing of course, but everything started to get dull there. Boredom always crept up on him eventually, and the shopping district was quickly becoming the same as home; never changing. The positive out of all of his excursions to the alley was that it was better than being cooped up in his house with his parents and sisters. There was always a never-ending amount of chores to do when he was there, and he felt like he had done his due diligence throughout the years. Luckily for Grey, today was a nice sunny day, quite contrary to the typical weather exhibited when he was out and about in the city. The warmth of the sun was always welcoming, and it seemed like it had been ages since he last felt the ferocity of the ball of gas.

Grey had been strolling through Diagon Alley for a few hours now, window shopping mostly, taking quick breaks here and there in prime locations to take the rays in. There would only be a little longer of this before heading back to school. Not that he missed taking classes and being with all of his friends, but some of his friends had graduated the previous year, and their absence would definitely be felt. He assumed it would probably be the same when his year graduated as well, the current sixth years noticing a large gap in the circles. Grey didn’t have a ton of really close friends, the majority of them relegated to Gryffindor, and the few odd ones, like Kyle, in other houses. Whether the lack of friends was on purpose or not, it didn’t seem to affect his day to day life all that much. There were times though, like today for instance, where that was felt. He had tried contacting a few of these people earlier in the day, in case they wanted to do some early shopping before the huge rush at the start of the school year. There were zero takers. So here he was, wandering around on his own like usual.

Walking down the main drag for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, Grey had slowly started to drift into a daze. He had seen the same shops, people, and heard the same noises all day. There wasn’t anything new. Briefly stopping to stifle a yawn, suddenly a pair of hands found their way around his face, the sudden darkness shocked him more than anything. The hands were quickly followed by a female voice asking him to guess who it could be. It would be hard for him to not recognize the voice: it belonged to Rai of course. It was hard to mistake her, especially since the two of them had spent a good chunk of time together when she was still at Hogwarts. It wasn’t often that Grey got excited, usually keeping it in check for the massive adrenaline rush he got from duels and watching Quidditch matches, but today seemed to be an exception. Sure, Grey had pondered the thought about Rai not being at school with him for the upcoming year, maybe he had thought about it more than once or twice, possibly more than that. Either way, he had to come up with a witty answer to her question, or it wouldn’t make their encounter fun. “Your hands are pretty big, so maybe a mountain troll?”

grey xavier slater & @railynn
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At his words, Rai let out a low growl right beside his ear. She tightened her grip on his eyes slightly, "you know, I'd be careful what you say, Slater. I'm the one in the position of power, here," she chuckled, keeping her hands where they were. "You get one more guess," she said, even though she was sure he would know by now, if not the second that she had arrived.

She and Grey had been fairly good friends back at Hogwarts. She often was incredibly hyper and he a little less so, but that didn't stop her from forcing him to do crazy things with her. They were both fairly good duelers, too, so they often practiced in that regard as well. He was the newspaper editor at school but she had a feeling he would be a great Auror if he joined her after graduation. Come to think about it, she had never asked him if that was his plan. Well, once he guessed who she was she would. But for now she would just stand there, hands wrapped around his eyes and shooting funny looks at whatever passerby's decided to question her with their arched brows. Come on, really? If she was actually a villain she wouldn't be standing there with her hands over his eyes! She'd be dragging him to an alley and beating him up, or whatever it was villains did!

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

Stunts like these never seemed to be out of the realm of possibility when it came to Rai. There were certain people out there who could push Grey to his limits, both good and bad, and Rai was one of them. There was always something interesting happening around her, whether or not she knew it. Sure, he had gotten into plenty of scrabbles here and there throughout his years at Hogwarts, but the majority of the time the trigger had been this girl. Grey had never known what to make of it, and eventually some kind of strange friendship grew out of the whole thing. He had always imagined that the way they got along was almost sibling-like: vastly different from how he acted around his own sisters. Of course Addi acted like the little sister she was, always dragging him around, but Claire had never been like this. So, in a way, Rai had taken the mantle of the important, older (only by a slight bit), female in his life. Maybe his relationship with her is what he had always hoped it would have been like with his sisters. It honestly wasn’t worth worrying about that at this point in time, and he had more pressing matters to deal with.

Rai’s hands tightened over his face more, and she was forcing him to guess again. That was typical. The other typical thing out of this was that he needed to come up with another witty response. Grey was against giving in easily, especially to her. There weren’t many people at school who brought out his semi-competitive nature, but Rai had been there when it came to dueling. And she had won her fair share of them too. “Only one more? That wouldn’t make the game fun anymore. What happens if I lose? Surely you wouldn’t hurt little old me with those trollish hands of yours.”

He was hoping this would buy him enough time to think of an escape plan. Surely he was stronger than her, and prying her hands away from his eyes was simple enough. But he didn’t want to cause a scene out of a simple jest. Plus, Grey was sure that if the two of them started going at it, anyone walking by would get caught up in it. What would normally pass as a silly little duel between friends on school grounds would definitely be seen as an all-out brawl until one of them was on the ground knocked out. Grey had never seen anything wrong with duels like this: they built character and real life experience. Plus it was fun to go all out every once in a while. There weren’t too many instances that presented themselves to try out new combat spells, and the two of them had mutually agreed not to hold back when it came to it. For now, he had to wait for her response or a chance to escape her clutches.

grey xavier slater & @railynn
493
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[Deleted]

Rai didn't expect him to give a real guess, again. She knew him and his snarky ways, ways that she no doubt helped in molding. When his second guess didn't come out and instead about hertrollish hands, she growled, releasing him only to use her hands to shove his back a bit, pushing him forward. "Turn and face me like a man, Grey," she said, lifting her hands into fists, her grin widening as she waited for him to turn. "Or are you afraid my troll hands would beat you senseless?" she wasn't actually going start a brawl with him, no matter how fun that would be. He'd most likely fight back if she did start one, though. Grey wasn't really the type to back down from a challenge and neither was Rai, which is probably why their friendship was often full of battles of stamina, dueling and hand to hand combat. Still, they were out in public and she was an auror in training, so getting arrested for disturbing the peace didn't seem like the best idea.

However, a good wrestling match did sound like something that would be fun. Especially since she had been learning new stuff in the program that she was dying to try out in real life... but it wasn't the time.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

Some mystical force seemed to be on Grey’s side that day, because Rai released her clutches on his head rather quickly; he had almost deemed it appropriate to fight back at that point. He knew that they both wanted to avoid any kind of physical conflict in the middle of a populated area, but the temptation to push those boundaries was still lingering with him. The majority of the summer so far had been spent lying around doing absolutely nothing, and finally he was presented the chance to spar with his dueling partner. One might have believed that this meeting between the two of them was some kind of divine symbol to let loose any pent up frustration or stress, which had been the basis of their relationship over the past few years.

Hesitating to turn around to face Rai, Grey knew that he had to continue his stubborn attitude so that she couldn’t get the best of him. Threats of physical attacks on him were all but uncommon by Rai. He had always thought of it as a little game. “Who’s to say I wouldn’t mind that?” He kind of hoped that she wouldn’t take that seriously, but knowing Rai, that might have been an invitation to wrestle him to the ground at any given moment. Grey had learned to pick up a rather obnoxiously stubborn and sarcastic attitude around his friends because he knew they could handle it. It was a pleasure that they always gave it back to him tenfold, and Rai was no exception to this. If anything, she had encouraged this budding personality trait of his, and that was most likely the cause of others distaste in him without actually knowing who he was.

Finally giving in, Grey turned to face his friend. He hadn’t seen her in months, her newly appointed Auror training taking up a lot of her time to do virtually anything. “So how’s being an adult? I honestly never thought you’d make it to this point,” Grey stated wryly. “Figured you’d go down in a stampede of centaurs or have a transfiguration spell backfire and turn you into a three-headed newt. One can only wish.” Shrugging, he took a step towards Rai, hoping that a fist or spell wasn’t about to make contact with his face.

grey xavier slater & @railynn
385
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[Deleted]

He spoke before turning to face her and she narrowed her eyes, waiting. He kept up his stubborn nature and his snarky little comment about possibly not minding her beating him senseless. Ooh, she was so tempted to jump him then and there and prove him right. But she didn't, she slowly lowered her fists, her lips curving into a smirk as she shook her head. "Maybe another day, Slater," she said, taking a step toward him when he finally turned around, but all of the act of getting ready to fight was gone. She had let that go... for the moment.

Then he took a step toward her as he spoke about all the things he thought would happen to her besides becoming an adult. She scoffed, placing her hands firmly on her hips. "Who said I was an adult? Just cause I'm doing adult type things doesn't mean I am one," she said, proud in her 'Peter Pan' pose as she narrow3ed her eyes at him once more, "and if I was turned into a three-headed newt you'd have to be the one to take care of me. My parents can't stand newts," she was joking, of course. She unnarrowed her eyes, chewing on her lip for a moment as she surveyed him. "What about you? How's... oh gosh, are you even doing anything with your life this summer? You look a bit like you've had cabin fever," she chuckled.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

Oh no, he had pushed her stubbornness one step too far. Grey was known to give a little more to Rai than anyone else, but she could give it back double. And here it was. He could tell by the defiant gleam in her eyes. Her answer of not being an adult was exactly what he had expected too. When the two of them got into an argument like this (if you could even call it that), one of them always ended up digressing into something they weren’t, all too prove the other wrong. This was definitely a losing battle on his end. “Well I guess that answers my question,” he said, trying to make it as quiet as possible. A snide comment like that wouldn’t end well with Rai. “Personally don’t like newts either. They make wonderful potions ingredients though.”

Shrugging his shoulders, he listened to Rai’s next question. Of course he wasn’t doing anything. The peace and quiet of home was absolutely blissful, not seeing his friends was the highlight of his summer, and being constantly compared to his sisters like usual was what Grey always looked forward too when he went home. He couldn’t have asked for anything better. If only he could have put those sarcastic thoughts into words. “Seeing you definitely didn’t make it any better.” That wasn’t true, of course. Grey was more than elated to see his friend. He felt like the few months apart had been more like years. Easing up, he crossed his arms, trying to make as combative a look as he could. It was the last stand before Rai completely broke down his wall of stubbornness and sarcasm. “I’ve had plenty of sleep without you around, that’s for sure. The common room was always like a circus when you were there,” he said, remembering a few times where the two of them started tossing anything they could get their hands on in the common room at each other. Grey still boasted a small scar where a quill had hit him on the arm. “You’re lucky I was there to keep you in check, Rai.”

grey xavier slater & @railynn
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The Fastest Way To A Girl's Heart Is Through Her Ribcage by Ice Nine Kills
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[Deleted]

She tilted her head to the side as he made his snide comment, her eyes narrowing. Still, she couldn't help but break a smile at his comment about newts making wonderful potion ingredients. "Well, at least I'll know I was useful," she said with a feigned forlorn sigh and a dramatic drop of her head for a moment.

He said that seeing her didn't make his cabin fever any better and she wasn't sure what to make of that, at first. Then she realized it must have been a compliment, right? She was a reminder of fun and excitement, which he probably didn't have too much of right now. She decided to that that way and smiled broadly. Then he went on to say that he'd had plenty of sleep without her around and she chuckled. "I do love the circus," she chimed in before he mentioned that he was there to keep her in check. She scoffed, "bull! I was there to keep you in check," she said, taking yet another step toward him. She leaned forward slightly but kept her feet planted after that, "or if you don't recall, I'm superior to you in age," she winked and then straightened up, laughing again.

"I hope you can forgive me for my antics," she started, folding her arms across her chest, "it's just that there's no one quite like you out here in the big old world and I'm afraid I've been having withdrawals," she reached out then and took his hand in an attempt to pull him toward her, "come on!" she said, not saying where she was leading him because, well, she hadn't decided yet!

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

“You have a point there,” Grey stated, indicating Rai’s comment about being older than him. “You’re starting to get up there in years. I think you’re starting to get wrinkles on your face.” How had their banter devolved to who was older than the other? Age meant nothing nowadays, and everything was based on mental capacity or the wits that someone had, proven by the highly intellectual and very snappy, sarcastic students that now inhabited Hogwarts on a regular basis. The two of them happened to be a part of the latter group. Grey had attributed this to the simple fact that students similar to him and Rai had to come up with some way to combat the snarky attitudes of their more intelligent classmates. Plus they were Gryffindors, and who need to be book smart when you can get things done with words and actions. Maybe that was why everyone seemed to think the two of them were psychopaths when they’d tear throughout the castle battling in any form they found fit.

“Maybe I can forgive you just this once. Don’t want you to get used to me giving up or anything,” he said, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his pants and slightly looking off to the side. Grey wasn’t one to give in to others, but he figured their “fighting” was coming to a close and decided to subtly forfeit the match. He kind of hoped Rai would catch onto that. “You missed me? Grey Slater? The one you took time out of your daily routine to go after for seven years?” That statement had surprised him. He knew Rai well enough that this was different than her normal sarcastic, joking comments she made towards him. Suddenly Rai reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him after her. Grey hadn’t exactly planned on going anywhere else that day, but he wasn’t exactly opposed to following her around for a while. It couldn’t hurt to spend time with Rai right? The two of them hadn’t see each other in a few months. “So where are we going princess? Taking me to a back alley to beat me up and steal my lunch money again? You haven’t done that to me since fourth year.”

grey xavier slater & @railynn
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[Deleted]

When he spoke of the 'wrinkles' on her face, Rai made them stand out by scrunching her face up and narrowing her eyes at him. Her smile never left her face, though. She was a good actress when she wanted to be, but it was also hard to wipe a smile off her face. Unless she was about to get into a fight, then she got serious really fast. After a few moments of giving him that scrunched up glare she relaxed her face, moving on with the conversation.

Rai shook her head and offered an eye roll as he said he didn't want her to get used to him giving up or anything. It was a rather pronounced shove of his hands into his pockets and that caused her to raise an eyebrow. He then went on to call her out on her missing him and she nodded, "sure, why not?" was her answer before she started puling him away. He asked where they were going, and at the 'princess' comment she tightened her grip on his arm momentarily. "No, I'm not going to steal your lunch money" she rolled her eyes, "and don't exaggerate. I never beat you up for lunch money," she turned to face him, "I simply forced you to have lunch with me. Totally different," she finally released his arm and stopped. "I hadn't decided where I'm taking you. But wherever it is you're going to enjoy it," she said before continuing down the streets of Diagon Alley. What was something fun they could do today? Just while they had a little time?

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

Wait, so Rai had missed him? Grey was sure he was taking the whole interaction completely out of context, bending it towards his liking when it was more than likely the complete opposite. For whatever reason, he had this strange feeling of hope that he was right though. That was surely a new sensation for him. Caught up in his own mental battle over what Rai actually meant, he was completely oblivious to the fact that her grip on his arm had tightened as she reacted to his smart-ass statement about her mugging him for money. She was right, of course, it was more that she had forced him to hang around her a lot during meals, and he quite enjoyed the company of her crew. Those early years of Hogwarts for Grey had been rather rough, for both his studies and with making friends. Kyle had always been there, but being in separate houses made it rather difficult to hang out, and the only other friends he had aside from the ones in his year were Rai and the much older friends of his sister.

“Maybe I exaggerated the lunch thing a little too much.” He shrugged his shoulders, averting Rai’s gaze once again. “But I wasn’t the one kidnapping someone just to have company while eating.” All this talk about eating was starting to make Grey hungry. He had stopped by an eatery right when he had arrived in Diagon Alley that morning, but had neglected to put any nourishment in his body since. He was a relatively low-energy functioning person as it was, so his body didn’t require too much food throughout the day. Thinking about it more, his stomach let out an extremely loud grumble. “Think we could grab a bite then? My stomach will love you forever and ever.” Grey said, clutching his stomach with both arms and doing his best puppy-dog eye plead. Plus this would give the two of them to wind down from their fight modes and actually catch up on life. That might actually be a first for them.

grey xavier slater & @railynn
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[Deleted]

He was averting her gaze a lot this afternoon, but Rai barely even noticed. She was too wrapped up in her own excited emotions and her own need to make Grey feel something other than complacency. He was always so cavalier about things and she wanted to slap him upside the head for it. The only times she could get more out of him was if it was an escalated situation, like a duel. She rolled her eyes, "I didn't need you to keep me company, Grey. I wanted you too," she said this like it was an obvious fact, that he should have known it all this time. Rai often did things for other people more than for herself, but when it came to who she wanted to spend time with she was rather picky about getting the best people. At least, the people she thought were the best. The people who made her the most happy and the people who seemed to need her in one capacity or another. Even with that, though, she always gave people more chances then they deserved. Luckily, Grey was always deserving in her eyes. Even when he was being a snarky little bleeder.

She was glad that he made a suggestion as to what they would do together and nodded happily, turning back to face him again. He didn't need the puppy dog look to convince her, but it was a plus! An adorable one, she noticed. "Ooh, good idea! Let's go to a muggle place, though. That way you can't pull your wand on me and start a magical food fight," she laughed, slipping into the cauldron and sneaking through until they were on the streets of London on the other side. "Come on, there's a great Chinese place this way," she didn't turn to check if he was following as she started down the street. Though, she did pause at the traffic light where she had to wait for the crossing sign a little ways down. She turned and raised an eyebrow at him, "that is, if you like Chinese food?"

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

The Monsters

walk among us

It wasn’t like Grey had been particularly against eating meals with Rai, if he had, than he would have just gotten up and left. After the first year of being somewhat forced to eat with her, and that was a very hesitant force since Rai had basically coaxed him along with food, it was natural for him to just give in to her demands and join her. The few times he tried to dodge her calls in the Great Hall always resulted in her hunting him down and yelling at him in some fashion. Liking his peace and quiet outside of their duels, Grey opted for the much quieter route, and never gave Rai the chance to go at him during her last few years. “Honestly, any kind of food is fine with me. I don’t have enough of that greasy, fattening muggle grub. Hogwarts treats us too well with their food.” The endless possibilities of food while at school had always perplexed Grey, as he assumed it did for every student the first time they stepped into the Great Hall. Outside of the castle walls though, they were subjected to normal food and muggle things. He had a tendency to skip the family dinner from time to time and go to the local fast-food place, always regretting it later on.

He followed Rai through Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, and out into the streets of London that inhabited the muggle folks. Grey was quite knowledgeable about the area around Diagon Alley, having visited the magical district numerous times over the years, exploring every inch both inside and outside of it. He was unaware of the supposed Chinese restaurant that Rai mentioned though. “I love Chinese food.” Grinning, he picked up his pace to walk evenly with Rai as they made it to a street light. “Although, it doesn’t exactly like me. Guess I’ll be testing my luck today.” Even imagining the destruction that the Chinese food was about to do to his internal organs sent a shiver down his spine. There was that one time where his food had been unknowingly hexed, and well, that was a time that was best not to be remembered. As the street light clicked over for the pedestrians to walk, he skipped slightly ahead of Rai. “Where is this place anyways?”

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Rai wasn't surprised that he was okay with any kind of food. So was she, generally. Once he grinned at her mention of Chinese food, though, then she knew she had made the right choice. She grinned back at him as they waited for the light to change and chuckled as he said that the food didn't always agree with him. "If there's any food worth trying your luck with, it's Chinese," she mused, but really she thought all food was worth it!

The light changed ad they began to walk, him moving slightly in front of her as he asked where it was. "Not far. Look," pointed up ahead of them, just a ways up the street. The sign was clear, hanging out a few feet in front of the place, the Chinese symbols standing out in black paint. She turned to him with a smile, "been here with my mum several times," she said as they made it across the street and were on the sidewalk once more. "She likes staying up to date on muggle things in town, as do I. I'm better off for it," she explained, quickening her pace a little so he was no longer walking in front of her anymore. Whether she noticed it or not, her competitive nature came out in day to day scenarios as well.

grey xavier slater