I'm watching it shine | Riley & Dom

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Riley had sent Dom an Owl on the first day of the Christmas holidays. He explained that he was staying at Hogwarts for the break and would like if she wanted to meet him for awhile at the Hogsmeade Christmas market. It was truly a sight to behold. Every tree in the village was lit up with twinkling, multicolored lights, there were kids running around with parents, there were students walking arm in arm with their friends or dates, and there were laughs to be heard and smiled to be seen all up and down the lane. It was hard to be sad when everyone around you was so jolly.

He walked on his own from the castle to the village for the market. He was meeting her in the morning, and in a few hours, in the mid afternoon, he was going to meet Kinsey. He was proud of himself for asking her to meet him and spend some time with him. He was trying to be friends with her, he wanted to be around her all of the time, but after the last few times, he wasn’t entirely sure that he trusted himself to just be friends with her, the young man had never felt so conflicted in his life.

Riley stood at the entrance of the village, nearby the ice skating rink, he leaned on the half wall of the rink and watched the skaters go around and around on the ice. He smiled at them as they passed by, mostly seeing small children, he supposed it was too early for most students to want to make the trek out here, or to make their way to the village from their homes via the floo network or apparition. It was there that he waited for his best friend.

@dominique

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Dom honestly couldn't have been happier when she got the owl from Riley. The two hadn't really talked with one another- outside of owls- since Halloween and the young adult missed her best friend. It was still weird not going to school at Hogwarts, and the fact that she still didn't know what to do with her life. At least she had something to keep herself busy at the moment. She worked at Honeydukes as a cashier, which was nice because it meant she ran into lots of people that she knew. Unfortunately, Riley hadn't been one of those people. What, did he not like the candy shop? She'd have to make sure to tell him she worked there so that maybe he would visit her the next time he had a Hogsmeade weekend. 

She apparated to the village and then made her way to the entrance, sure Riley would be waiting somewhere around there for her. There were so many people here for the festival and Dom couldn't help but smile around at them all as she walked around. She loved seeing families and couples having fun. It was one of the things she liked about Honeydukes. She got to see people at their happiest, most of the time. 

It wasn't long before she saw her friend up ahead. Dom grinned and waved at him. "Hey you!" she called, jogging over to where he was. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around Riley in a big hug. "It's been too long since I last saw you. How are you doing?" Dom pulled away from him a little, grinning up at her friend. 

@riley

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Dom greeted him with a hug and asked how he was doing. He smiled as soon as he saw her and hugged her back energetically. He missed her. He missed her even more than he thought that he would miss her, and he thought that he would miss her a lot. It was still weird being in school without her. He didn’t have someone to talk to with her off being an actual adult. He almost resented her for it, but not enough to actually resent her. He opened his mouth to say that he was glad to see her and that he had been fine, but the only words that came out were, “I kissed Kinsey.” and then he closed his mouth, feeling his cheeks turn warm and pink. Where did that come from? Apparently he really needed to talk about it. “So should we get a hot chocolate or something?” he asked awkwardly, almost trying to distract from what he said at first.

@dominique

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Dom was delighted when Riley hugged her back. Good. It meant that he likely missed her as much as she missed him, though even the idea of that was somewhat ridiculous. At least he was still at school with all the other people. Dom had graduated, so all her friends that graduated with her were now going into their chosen vocations while she worked as a cashier. Ugh. Still, at least she was doing something instead of standing around doing nothing. As their hug ended she grinned over at her friend, but the grin quickly slid off her face when he confessed that he kissed Kinsey. "You what?!" she shouted, shaking her head in disbelief, before she realized that her reaction was WAY too loud for this crowded street. She smiled, looking around at all the people who were staring at them and waved before turning to her friend and nodding. "Yeah, hot chocolate sounds great, come on." She looped her hand around his elbow and started pulling him to the three broomsticks. Dom sat him down at a booth. "Stay here," she ordered, pointing a finger at him while she went to get their drinks. When she returned, she sat next to him, handing him the drink before starting. "Okay, tell me everything," Dom said with a serious expression. Riley was engaged! He shouldn't be kissing Kinsey ... but he still loved her. Dom knew that. She still wanted to hear the story. 

@riley

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Riley hung his head a bit when she asked him to repeat himself, or, to clarify, he supposed. “Twice…” he added, just to make sure that she understood the full scope of the situation at hand. He had kissed her twice, Actually, he had kissed her on two separate events, but be had kissed her more than twice. Oh goodness, he was the worst person alive wasn’t he? The Bainbridge siblings thought that he was the scum of the Earth and maybe he really was? All this time saying he was protecting Kinsey but what if he was just stringing her along? He knew he had to get married, though he was becoming less and less fond of the idea by the day.

Dom dragged Riley into the three broomsticks. He wasn’t sure why she had chosen to ignore the festival hot coco cart, but it made sense when she sat him down and commanded that he stay while she went to go get the drinks. She wanted to make sure he couldn’t get away before he told her everything. He stayed, and when she returned and sat also, she asked him what happened. “Well. The first time we bumped into one another in the common room late at night, and I decided to sit with her and we kissed.” he shrugged. “And the second time… was last week.” he admitted. “I guess some girl came up to flirt with me to make some other guy jealous? I don’t know. Anyway, Kinsey saw it and got upset and I ran after her and kissed her. And then she kissed me. And i told her I loved her.” he sipped his hot chocolate.

@dominique

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Dom's mouth fell open in complete surprise when Riley added that he kissed Kinsey twice. Twice?! So ... did that mean he'd broken off his engagement, or what happened? She knew by the look on his face that he was actually going to tell her what happened and Dom was relieved. This was the kind of relationship she was used to with her best friend. The last time they got together Riley was all hesitant and had his walls up. It had been one of the strangest/most awkward conversations she'd ever had with him. At least he seemed to want to talk with her about it now, though Dom still felt a little hesitant to ask questions like she would have before. She didn't want to make him angry with her again. 

Once they were sitting down at the booth, Riley didn't try to get out of explaining or anything, instead giving her a very short and vague explanation of what happened both times, though he had her speechless by the end. He told Kinsey that he still loved her?! It took Dom a minute to register that and she held her hands up for a second. "Okay, uh ... can we take this a little slower. You're not giving me any time to register what you're saying," she told him with a smile, waiting for a second before continuing. "So ... tell me more about the first time. You sat by her and just kissed her out of the blue, or what was going on? What happened before and after?" If he wanted her help trying to figure out what was going on in Kinsey's mind, she'd need these details and if Riley just needed to get it off his chest ... well then he should still give her details. Obviously, the more juicy story came second, but she'd get to that after they talked about the first time he kissed her. Hopefully Riley actually wanted to talk with her about this stuff today. 

@riley

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Dom slowed him down, asking him to backup and explain the first kiss in more detail. He sighed. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to go into such detail. He wasn’t sure he wanted to remember it all like that, it would probably make him miss it even more. Or, make him feel even more guilty than he already felt about it. “Well it was sometime like 1 am, and I went to the common room to grab my book and she was down there playing with her cat. So i couldn’t explain just walk past her. So we talked and… I’m not even sure how it go to the point of kissing but somehow it did. And then we fell asleep together on the couch there.” he explained in a bit more detail, he wasn’t sure why what happened mattered, the fact of it was, they kissed. And no one knew about it, well except for him and Kinsey… and now Dom.

@dominique

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Dom nodded as Riley started to explain a little bit of what happened. She hadn't expected him to give her a play-by-play or anything, and he didn't, but she felt almost overwhelmingly relieved that he was telling her as much as he was. It was almost like the wall between them was gone! Or shorter or something. The point was, he wasn't angry that she was asking questions and he wasn't refusing to answer them like last time. She smiled as he explained that they kissed and then ended up falling asleep on the couch. That sounded so adorable! A sudden thought occurred to her. "Does anybody know? That you kissed her or fell asleep with her?" The whole situation sounded incredibly romantic, though it was obvious Riley hadn't planned it to be so. 

"So what about the second time? She ... saw you with some girl and got upset so you kissed her and told her you loved her?" Also cute, though Dom was sure there was much more to it than that. She was simply restating what Riley said a few moments earlier. "Are you okay? You're fiance? Did she find out? And Kinsey?" Dom was probably asking too many questions, but she couldn't help it! They were spilling out of her mouth so she covered it with her hands and took a big breath, waiting to hear Riley's answers. 

@riley

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“No, no one saw.” he said when she asked. He began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach, he wasn’t really enjoying recounting the events of the past few weeks, even to his best friend. He trusted Dom and he wasn’t worried that she would tell anyone or anything like that, but he was worried that she would think that these events would change anything. They wouldn’t. He was still engaged. He was still getting married. It didn’t matter what he felt or what he wanted. What mattered was the way that things were. What mattered was safety and security, and by marrying Priscilla, he was securing not just his safety, but Kinsey’s too, by keeping her far away from him. “Yeah, that’s what happened. I don’t know, I’m sure Priscilla knows, the whole school knows, they talk about it all the time. It happened in the corridor.” he scoffed. Again, it would appear that it would matter, but it didn’t. And talking about it as if it did was starting to upset him. Though he didn’t let it show. He kept his composure. It wasn’t Dom’s fault.

@dominique

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Riley confirmed that no one saw him and Kinsey fall asleep together. Dom still thought it sounded so sweet, but there was something to the look on his face that made her not say anything about that. Dom nodded, listening as Riley said that everyone saw the second one and they talked about it a lot. Of course they would, this was Hogwarts they were talking about. Still, something in her tone had her confused. Dom was a little worried that maybe he was putting those walls up again and that Riley would stop wanting to talk to her about it. "Sooooo ... what do you think about all this?" Dom asked. She was trying not to go too personal, but this was Riley! He had to have brought up the fact that he kissed Kinsey for a reason. Did he want to talk to her about it or why? "I mean, you didn't have to tell me all this, sooo is there anything else you want to tell me or do you want my opinion on it or something?" Dom didn't know what to say. She had no idea what Riley expected or wanted from her. All she wanted was to not make him angry or annoyed at her again. She wanted to be there for him.

@riley

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What did he think about all of this? He wasn’t sure what she wanted him to say. No, he knew what she wanted him to say. She wanted him to say that he was in love with Kinsey and was going to end his engagement to Priscilla, but she didn’t understand what was at stake if the marriage didn’t work out. She didn’t understand the things about his family that Riley understood. Her family loved and was open and accepting of all people. His family, maybe they loved him, and maybe they did want what was best for him. But, what they thought was best for him wasn’t what he would ever have thought was best for himself. But that didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one with the power in the situation. “It doesn’t really make a difference what i think about it. It is what it is. These things happened, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m engaged and getting married to a perfect, pureblood girl like I’m supposed to. That’s life, we can’t always get what we want.” he shrugged.

@kinsey

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There they were, the doors. Riley was closing himself off again, which was exactly what Dom didn't want. The problem was that she didn't know exactly what he wanted her to say. How did he want her to react to him telling her that he kissed Kinsey. She wasn't sure what to do. He started to say that what he thought didn't matter, that things like this happened but it didn't change anything. Was this why he wanted to talk about it with her? She nodded, knowing that if she argued with him in any way she would chase him away in a second. "I'm sorry. Kinsey knows, right? That it doesn't change anything?" Dom didn't want to push anything, but she felt like Riley needed to think about that at least. If he hadn't talked about it with Kinsey ... maybe he should. She smiled, "So, do you want me to do something crazy to distract you?" Dom asked hopefully. She wanted to help, even though she knew there wasn't really anything she could do to help. 

@riley

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Dom asked if Kinsey knew that it didn’t change anything. “Yeah of course she does. She knows I’m engaged and getting married. What do you think I’m telling her one thing and telling my fiancee another? I’m not manipulative.” And even if he was, Kinsey would know the truth. Whatever the truth was, even if he didn’t know the truth. Or, she would at least know how he felt. He loved being around Kinsey. He loved her. He loved to kiss her and touch her and spend time with her and talk to her. But That was all there could be. There would be no future for them. As much as he wanted one. It couldn’t happen. It wouldn’t happen. It was pointless to dwell on it. “Even so, she’s got another guy now so it doesn’t matter.” he added. “No, I’m fine. I don’t need distracting, Dom. I just… I don’t know. I don’t know why I even said anything. I guess I just wanted to tell you, I guess. I wanted you to know.” he shrugged. “How are you? How’s your life?”

@dominique

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He definitely took what she said the wrong way. "No! No, sorry Riley, that's definitely not what I meant," she exclaimed, holding up her hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, I just ... I'm sorry." There was no way she was even going to try and explain what she was thinking. It didn't matter, especially if it made Riley mad at her. That wasn't what Dom was going for. She looked down at her cup for a few seconds before taking a drink of her hot chocolate. She didn't want to talk anymore. Her eyebrows furrowed when Riley said that Kinsey had another guy now. "What, who?" How hadn't she heard anything about this before? And why would Kinsey be kissing Riley if she had another guy. She looked back down at her cup when he said he didn't need to be distracted and then said he didn't know why he told her any of this. "Thanks for telling me, Riley," she told him softly. "I'm sorry if I'm making it awkward or saying all the wrong things," which was exactly what she felt like she was doing. Once again, she was making him mad at her again. Dom gave a small smile when he asked about her. "I'm fine. Just working at Honeydukes, you know." Then she smiled, "I got invited to a New Year's Eve party." Dom was pretty excited about that. She'd never been to New York before and she was sure that she'd have a good time with Joe Fontaine. 

@riley

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“I know that’s not what you meant. I’m not mad at you. You didn’t do anything wrong.” he said, shaking his head. He didn’t like when Dom got defensive, though he supposed that she probably got defensive because he got defensive, even if he hadn’t mean to get defensive. He knew that she didn’t think that he was manipulative or trying to pull anyone along. She seemed to be interested when Riley said that Kinsey had a new boy. He wasn’t even sure that they were dating. He felt like Kinsey would tell him if they were, but, they sure did spend a lot of time together, regardless. “I don’t know, some Slytherin guy, Fontaine or something like that. He’s an American guy that came over for the year.” he rolled his eyes. He couldn’t care less about the boy. He didn’t much like him, but he also didn’t think much about him. In a way, he was still glad Kinsey had someone, especially since she seemed to be fighting with Toby. Dom explained that she was fine and just working, he nodded, he was glad that she seemed to be enjoying her job. “You did? Are you going to go?” he asked. He thought that she should go. He wanted her to have fun.

@dominique