bright eyes | Simon & Claudia *PG-13*

[Deleted]

Spring 2025

Claudia had heard the rumors going around school that Simon had been getting closer with Jessie Meadows and she shrugged them off. They didn’t bother her at all. Not even a little bit. That sick feeling she felt in her chest whenever someone was talking about them, or whenever she saw either of them, was just nerves for the summer of ballet auditions she had coming up. She was anxious about that almost all of the time so it made sense. And she convinced herself that it got worse when she saw them because she knew that Simon was just a distraction and she felt resentful that she had wasted so much of the year letting herself be distracted by him.

She needed to focus on ballet. That was her future. So when she saw him in the courtyard on that rainy spring day, she quickly turned on her heels, head started back the other way.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

The end of the term was so close he could taste it. Simon couldn’t believe his grades were finally sufficient enough to give him extra credit, he was actually looking forward to seeing his end of semester marks to see how well he did. That was a foreign feeling to him. Jessie Meadows as his tutor had been beneficial, however, a bigger surprise to him was the fact that they were getting along. 

Simon was standing in the courtyard with his broom over his shoulder killing time before practice. He was near the fountain, secretly spectating as a young couple fought in the center of the quad for everyone to see. He was in his own little world as he watched. Simon snapped out of it when he saw Claudia, very quickly, turn on her heel and walk the other way. He had a suspicion that she was avoiding him lately, which was just confirmed in this moment. 

Simon wondered what he did wrong to piss her off. He couldn’t recall going out of his way to upset her recently, so he started for her direction. ”YO, Claudia!” he called out, already knowing that chasing after her and drawing attention to them would leave a bad taste in her mouth. ”What’s your problem?” he asked her, not realizing that could be quite the weighted question. 

@claudia

[Deleted]

Claudia felt her blood begin to boil when she heard his voice calling after her. And that made her even madder. Why did she care so much? She knew she liked being around him and was attracted to him, but he didn’t care for him. She didn’t care for anyone. Yet seeing him made her heart pound in her chest, and the fact that it did so upset her even more. He asked what her problem was and she stopped, waiting for him to get to her before she replied. She didn’t want to run away from him now that he had noticed her. That would be childish and suspicious. “I don’t have a problem. And even if i did - I don't owe you any sort of explanation…” he’d see through that. She hated that she already knew he would.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

Claudia stopped, unintentionally allowing him to catch up to her, but her response made his mouth go dry. His head couldn’t help but cock to the side in response, ”Oh really?” he asked unconvinced; he knew damn well there was something wrong by her tone and body language. There hadn’t been a time he could remember when she downright turned the other way after seeing him. It caused a sinking feeling in his stomach. He didn’t like that feeling. The young man clenched his jaw, attempting a more neutral expression, but finding it hard. He didn’t want anyone to see her getting the best of him. “I wasn’t under the impression you owed me shit, Claudia.” he stated harshly, growing frustrated. The fact that Claudia knew what to say to grind his gears bothered him. He didn’t like that she was making it look like he cared more than he did. Okay, maybe he cared more than he wanted to. “What the hell did I do?” He asked her, completely at loss. Simon felt them drifting but he didn’t think he personally did anything to the snake to upset her.

@claudia

[Deleted]

There was no way that she could tell him what she feared was actually bothering her without breaking down all of her walls - and that sure as hell wasn’t going to happen. She would rather force herself to pretend that nothing was wrong than actually tell him the truth: that her feelings had gotten the better of her and she was jealous of all the rumors about him spending time with another girl. She knew she had no room to talk, he hadn’t been the only boy she had snogged all year, but she didn’t give a crap about most of the others: they were just stress relief. “Nothing, Simon. You haven’t done anything.” in a way, he hadn’t. And that was kind of the issue as well. She certainly hadn’t been getting the attention she used to, and the bothered her. “I’m surprised you have time to chat, you should go off and find your little girlfriend.” with that she turned and began walking again, but she didn’t expect she’d get very far.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

When Claudia told him he hadn’t personally done anything, it immediately made him more frustrated. Simon was used to Claudia keeping him on his toes but he wasn’t used to her being cold to him like this. He was already regretting approaching her now but he wasn’t going to run away like a dog with its tail between its legs. What came next felt like a bite to the jugular though, the words “little girlfriend” triggering him the most. Simons mouth snapped open lightly and shut, clenching his jaw, but all he could do was laugh at her. If she was talking about Jessie she couldn’t be more stupid.

Simon could feel the eyes of bystanders on him, but he didn’t really care; he knew Claudia would care more than he did. Then she started to walk away before he could say anything. Simon didn’t like that. He didn’t know how to react because everything was happening so fast. His face tried to keep a more neutral expression, ”What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked her quickly, stepped toward her as she walked away. ”You’re jealous over nothing Claudia.” he told her, preparing for some sort of backlash for calling her out in front of people. If she wanted to be a jerk to him he’d throw the shade right back at her.

@claudia

[Deleted]

Simon seemed to understand what she was saying right away and came after her, forcing her to stop again, as she had mostly expected him to. He said that she was jealous over nothing and that nearly made smoke blow out of her ears. “Jealous? You honestly think i’m jealous over Ms. Sunshine and Rainbows the Gryffindor?? I just never would have thought that sort of girl was what you wanted.” she scoffed. She bit her tongue, thinking about whether she should or even wanted to make a comment about how she was surprised that Simon could enjoy such a vanilla relationship. But Claudia wasn’t giving him much of a relationship in the first place, and didn’t really want him to get any ideas. “We just both obviously have better things to do…” she said matter of factly, but let herself trail off a bit at the end.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

For some reason he felt the need to defend his honor when it came to what Claudia thought. Why did he care so much what she thought about when it came to what he was doing? He didn't care about whatever or whoever she was doing. Or...maybe he did more than he realized. Simon swallowed, a sinking feeling at the bottom of his stomach. He didn't want to confess to being academically challenged because he was sure she already knew that.  As Claudia stated they both had 'better things to do', he wasn't willing to accept the fact that she was trying to blow him off. A breath slipped past his lips, a sigh of defeat, "Jessie is helping me so I don't flunk sixth year. She's my tutor. That's all." he revealed to her, blue eyes trying to find hers to reassure her he was being true to his word. "We aren't hanging out by choice. She's really bossy and annoying." he told her quickly, feeling his 'mean' side coming out after the harsh words, undoubtedly an effort to please Claudia. Truthfully, he didn't find Jessie as annoying as he used to. She was definitely bossy though..

@claudia

[Deleted]

Claudia just blinked at him for a moment when he said that Jessie was just his tutor and was helping him not fail sixth year. She wanted to scream. Of course she had made such a big deal over literally nothing. She had listened to all of the rumors and had it all twisted in her head. And that made her even more upset than the idea that he was really seeing someone in a real way. “Great.” she said with no emotion behind it. Just that she was acknowledging what he had told her. Now she felt like an even bigger fool than she had when she was just annoyed that he was seeing someone and hadn’t told her. She sighed and walked over to a bench and sat down; now that she had made a fool of herself, her body felt a lot heavier and she needed to put in more effort to breathe. She knew people were looking at them. She hated it, but overall, she was used to being looked at and being watched. What did she care about what any of these people thought?

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

Simon couldn’t believe Claudia was treating him like this. He was felt like he got kicked in the gut once she said “Great”. It took everything in him to keep a neutral expression - Simon didn’t want Claudia to win the best of him. She didn’t say anything else after that. All she did was make her way to a bench and sit down. Perfect. Simon would attempt to smooth things over because he really did care about Claudia and he liked her a lot. Simon didn’t fear looking like an idiot in front of people, it was something he was used to on a daily basis. He wasn’t easily embarrassed.

”Claudia-” he trailed after her, wanting to grab her arm but knowing that could potentially be a bad idea. He didn’t need her to lash out for touching her when she was mad. Simon settled with sitting next to her as soon as she sat down, lowering his voice, ”You mean more to me then that.” he told her, looking her in the eyes and suddenly feeling flighty. As soon as the words left his mouth he felt his stomach drop. Oops - he wasn’t trying to get sappy on her, but he wanted to prove to her that he cared. He didn’t care about Jessie, other than the fact she was helping him pass.

@claudia

[Deleted]

Claudia was mostly expecting SImon to walk away, she had mostly sat down because she felt so annoyed with herself that she wanted a second to just process how far from her goal she had gotten while she sulked around about Simon and jessie - only to find out there wasn’t even anything going on with them. But then he came and sat next to her and her heart started pounding. He told her that she meant more to him than that and she wondered if her heart just stopped completely. There was a bit of a ringing in her ears. She felt short of breath and a little faint. Crap. “We should not have this conversation in public…” she whispered. It was about all she could get out. She didn’t know what else to say. She cared about him too, and it drove her crazy knowing that he cared for her. She had known that, but now he had actually said the words. It terrified the crap out of her. Claudia wasn’t someone who got attached.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

Simon felt like this was a trainwreck. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just walk away when she started shutting down, when he had the chance, it would have been easier. Simon didn’t like to always take the easy route apparently, and Claudia did mean more to him then that. A part of him hated that he allowed it to slip like that but he wasn’t sure what else to do. She said they should be talking about this here so his expression faltered slightly, ”Okay, well what do you want?” he asked, stupidly, not realizing how harsh the words could sound right now. Simon was caught up in the moment under a lot of pressure.

@claudia

[Deleted]

Simon asked her what she wanted and she sighed. “I don’t know. Just, forget this happened, I guess.” she felt herself starting to fidget and she wasn’t a fidgety person. She stood up and tossed her bag back over her shoulder. “I’ll see you later.” she grumbled a little and then strutted back through the courtyard, feeling like an absolute idiot for letting herself get so worked up about this. But what was she going to do? She wasn’t going to ask him if he was dating someone else straight out, that was embarrassing. It would make it look like she actually liked him and that she cared what he did. Which, she did. But she couldn’t make it look like that to him. Regardless of how she felt or how much she cared for Simon, he was a distraction and she needed to focus.

simon sixten svendsen

[simon sixten svendsen]

Everything was happening so fast, Simon was starting to regret everything he said. He studied her expression before saying anything more. The half vamp knew he said too much! As she told him to forget about it, his stomach dropped. Simon didn’t want to “just forget” about it like that, he felt a roadblock and wanted to do something about it it, but she didn’t seem to want to. That hurt. The young man swallowed, unable to meet her eyes. ”Okay.” he told her, giving in. As she got up this time he didn’t budge, all he could do was watch as she walked away.

Now he needed a smoke.

@claudia

[Deleted]

Claudia didn’t look back as she walked away, but she spent the whole rest of the day feeling like she had a hole in her chest. Outwardly she’d deny it all day, everyday, but she had feelings for Simon. Feelings she had never felt before and feelings that she certainly didn’t sign up for. She skipped the rest of her classes that day and she missed dinner that night. She couldn’t focus on anything, so she tried to force herself to but hunkering down in an empty classroom with a transfigured ballet bar and mirror. That was the best way to fix any problem - ballet. It was something she could control. Fully. Something regular and unchanging.

simon sixten svendsen