Tripping Over You PV: Elijah Huang Closed

The Small Hall, he had to admit, wasn't a place that he normally frequented. It wasn't that he avoided the place, necessarily, but he also had no reason to be in there. It wasn't as if he had any particular people he could tolerate more than the average human; no one that he would truly consider to be a friend. There were certainly those few people out there that he considered himself to be acquainted with, but they wouldn't be caught dead in a social setting with someone like him.

He was just an introvert. Was that so hard to understand? He was drained by crowds and people, and preferred solitude to social events. However, sometimes both the common room and the dorm were too much to stand, and the only place by a roaring fire left would be the Small Hall.

Slung over his shoulder was his bag, filled with cardstock, paints and paintbrushes, glue, and a pair of nail scissors. There was some homework in there, too, but it was merely some notes he wanted to look over before going to bed that night. In his hands was a two-inch thick panel of wood, with several stains and marks that suggested old age and continuous use.

He had honestly thought that the girl had seen him. She seemed to be staring right at him as they walked toward each other, yet made no move to dodge when they actually faced each other. Alarmed and rather shocked, Elijah froze up in a rare moment of uncertainty, and the two crashed right into each other. His bag slid off his shoulder and across the floor in a clatter of jars, while the wood panel flew out of his hands. He could hear the sound of the paintings laughing, and mentally cursed himself.

Why on earth did he keep on running into people? It was an experience he was, unfortunately, getting all too well-accustomed to, and he was sure his ancestors would turn over in their graves if they knew how he behaved with the children at this school. Bumping into them? That was no way to treat anyone! And yet, it continued to happen- although, he was happy to admit that it usually wasn't his fault.

The girl apologized profusely, almost to the point of over-apologizing, which he never realized was possible until meeting some of the Hufflepuffs in Hogwarts. Blinking slowly, he got to his feet, his eyes flicking over the girl in front of him. Her clasped hands and turtle-shell-like attitude screamed to be one of those innocent, sweet girls you always saw the jocks in movies taking advantage of. However, while she wore the personality nicely, it would forever look better on Rosie.

"I'm fine," he assured her, bending down to gather her loose papers. Why was it that everyone always carried around small scraps of parchment and carried so much of it, too? When he took notes, at least it was in a singular journal... really, he couldn't understand the British population, sometimes. "I apologize for not noticing you sooner, Miss..." Glancing at the top of the paper, he quickly gleaned her name from it. "Miss Faust. Are you alright?"

She was soon quiet as he said her name, nodding as he asked if she was alright. The paintings continued to snicker at her, one even going as far as to laugh at her, as she looked down towards her feet, feeling the tears brim in her eyes again. She was lucky it was so dim as she could brush them away quickly without feeling self conscious about her movements in the bright light. "P-please... don't apologize... I-I uhh..... ," her voice started to falter as her lapse of bravery from her adrenaline started to seize. She heard one of the paintings continue to laugh at her as she bent down to her knees to begin to pick up her papers, feeling the shame in her stomach.

"T-they're not... laughing at you." she spoke up, as she started to lean down to pick up what was left of her papers, carefully organizing them in her hands. "I-I've been... this silly all week.... unfortunately," her voice wasn't steady as she continued to speak, barely seeing the flash of green on his robes as she felt a twist in her stomach, knowing that this could be the worst possible situation for her. "T-they like to... make fun of the... klutzes... in the school." she had small pauses between each of her little statements, doing her best to keep her good face up in front of this (seemingly older) boy, managing to get her papers together. There were small bits of blood against the neat handwriting of her History notes, but she simply covered them with her hand, not needing... well... another trip to the infirmary.

"I-I'm really sorry for this," her voice was only above a whisper as she put the weight on her knees. She opened up her bag, starting to shuffle her items to the side (that had managed to.. well... stay inside) as she fit the papers back where they belong. Note to self, use a binder clip. Stop bumping into Slytherins. Start keeping to yourself. This is just another silly thing you've done this week. she continued to keep these mental notes as she noticed the nearby cardstock and paintbrushes.

"O-oh.... jeez....," she mumbled to herself as she dropped her bag, standing up to pick up the boy's paintbrushes, pulling a handkerchief out as wrapped it around the handles before picking it up. "I-I'm.... well.... sorry," she was weak in her umpteenth apology, barely audible as she held out the brushes to him her face still flushed enough to hide her freckles. She could feel her other hand shake slightly, an unfortunate side effect of not only meeting new people, but making a fool of herself.

"I-I'm December... b-by the way. N-not... Miss F-Faust," she was glad when she finally felt the weight leave her hand assuming he took the brush as she took the tissue with her, pressing it against her palms to soak up the small droplets. "Y-y... your name?" she had managed to briefly glance up to meet his eyes, her bright blues meeting a hard black as she simply looked back down at her feet, feeling the weight of shame on her shoulders, knowing that this was just... embarrassing.

For the love of all that was intellectual, would the girl please stop stuttering? He could understand a stutter that couldn't be helped, or even a lisp- but the Slytherin in front of him kept prattling on and on about nothing in particular, and she wasn't stuttering because she couldn't help it. She was stuttering because she was nervous about something, which made absolutely no sense. Unless she had an extreme terror of talking to squirts like himself, she had absolutely nothing to fear. It wasn't like he was much of an intimidating person... right? The thought that he, a short, skinny little Slytherin could be intimidating was absolutely preposterous, unless it was his facial expression, in which case, it was his fault.

Elijah never tried to come off as intimidating. It made people stand out, which he never wanted to do, and it made people afraid of him, which he never wanted. If you wanted to be able to move silently, noiselessly through a crowd of people, they couldn't know that you existed. You had to be invisible- no, beyond that. You couldn't exist. And that couldn't happen with people thought you were intimidating... so hopefully, Miss December Faust was just intimidated by people in general, and it wasn't just him. 

"Don't take notice of the paintings, and they don't take notice of you," he said quietly with a small frown, glancing up at the paintings lining the walls. Indeed, they seemed to be laughing at December and not him, as she was the one who took their actions and words to heart. When people noticed that something they did affected you, they would continue to do it mercilessly, exploiting you. He didn't really mind them, and the most part, the two entities just ignored each other. "Basic predator versus prey effects, you know?" She probably didn't know, but that was fine.

This is fine.

"Stop apologizing- you have nothing to apologize for." He had intended for it to come out nicely, all honey and sugar, but there was the slightest, barest hint of exasperation at the edge of his voice, almost on the edge of being demanding. The late evening was getting to him, and the paintings tittering in the background helped even less. Rubbing his forehead, he sighed quietly, looking at the ground beneath their feet and between them.  People were... difficult to deal with, sometimes, especially when they didn't mesh just right with his personality. He was a puzzle piece, and only very specific people could ever click with him just right. Everyone else just kind of... fell off, or pretended that they jived with him. In reality, he wasn't very good at making friends, and someday, he knew that it would come back to bite him in the butt. But for now, he wouldn't worry about friends- that was a problem for another day.

Taking his paintbrushes from the girl wordlessly, Elijah noticed the way that she held her hand carefully as if she had hurt herself. She didn't wince or say anything about it, which obviously meant that she wanted to cover it up... His first instinct was to inquire after her wellbeing; after all, even if she was strange in her apologies and speech, she was still human. The more insightful part of him, however, insisted that he lay off the topic- she would have brought up her pain if she wanted attention drawn to it.

He nearly turned to go slam his skull into the wall as December introduced herself fully. What kind of parents named their children after the months of the year? Yes, there were names like June and May and April that weren't necessarily all too bad... but December? It sounded pretty- hipster, too, but not the good kind. The kind that tried so hard to be a hipster that they ended up being the exact opposite of a hipster. 

"I'm Elijah," he said curtly, matter-of-factly. Shifting his weight from foot to foot and biting the corner of his bottom lip, he proceeded to look just as uncomfortable as December was. It was a flawless facade, practically perfect in every single way. It was the art of lying that had been honed and perfected over his entire life, and it came in handy in situations like these. "Were you... did you have to go somewhere?"

Perfect. That little stutter of uncertainty, almost as if he were mimicking December, seemed perfect with his attitude and his posture. He would appear to December as almost like a mirror image, but more natural, like this was genuinely how Elijah acted all of the time. Lifting his head, he offered her a soft smile, apologetic and almost a complete one-eighty of how he had acted before. His transformation really was quite astounding- magical, really.

Reducio

For the record, I think December is a really pretty name

There was the moment when she couldn't help but feel her shoulders tighten at Elijah's words, as she closed her eyes. How can I not notice when they're constantly taunting? It seems impossible. She wanted to respond so shortly but instead she found herself still holding back everything she was feeling. It was so hard being a young girl, and even worse when she needed to keep everything together during such a hard transition.

She could feel the weight of the few strands of hair falling in front of her eyes as she kept looking down, eventually brushing them to the side. She managed to catch a few tears on the way, doing her best to stop her lip from quivering as she felt more and more uncomfortable. Not with Elijah but just, herself. This was just beyond terrible, and she couldn't believe she couldn't keep it together long enough to just get the situation together the way she wanted to.

Apologizing is all I can do right today. I'm sorry. She blinked several times as she felt one of her tears roll down too quickly as she cursed, dropping her hands to be able to accommodate the quick change her emotions had decided to take her on. The crying wasn't getting better recently and all it seemed she could do was cry. She wiped her eyes delicately with her fingertips as she simply nodded, not being able to respond. I don't know what you want me to say without making this situation worse. I really don't. I'm doing my best, I promise. The pleading in her head was so desperate but it was all futile. It was all words she couldn't bring herself to say.

She listened to Elijah, raising her head to briefly look at him as the light caught her tear-brimmed eyes. She blinked a few more times, doing her best to clear her vision as she noticed his discomfort, and then a smile. It seemed so, well, slight. She wasn't the brightest when it came to her posture but she had met enough people who had caused her discomfort and this was no exception. She heard the slight stutter and felt herself tighten, her eyes lowering as she felt another tear fall down her cheek. She was almost sure she hadn't heard him stutter before. Maybe this was his way of making fun of her.

This is just a joke to him. He's making fun of you. He's obviously mocking your stutter. You're a joke. She sniffed softly as she carefully brushed the stray strands behind her ears, taking a deep breath as she did her best to get her composure together. "H-h... h-hos..." she barely managed out the words, starting confident but slowly losing the volume in her voice, as she saw her vision water once again.

This is the most disgusting display of trying to be a functioning person. You know how to talk. Out with it.

"Hospital," she had barely managed the word out after a quick pause, barely able to keep her head up as she realized she had no idea how to get there from here. She would have to ask. She felt the tightness in her stomach as she knew she would need to ask, using the edge of her robe to wipe her eyes before looking at him. "D-do ... you know... where," she had barely managed out the words as the paintings behind them giggled, some of the openly copying her words in a higher pitch as she felt the shame weigh on her shoulders.

This was not how this day was supposed to go. It's not his fault. It's probably not yours. You're doing your best. Get through this, do your best.

Reducio

Thank you for understanding my absence! I finally got through finals, finished all my classes (and passed) as well as settled down for the holidays so I'm finally good!

Also I literally love Elijah what an amazing character. Seriously! He's so well done.

Crap. No, no, no, no, no.... Elijah groaned internally as he saw the tears glistening on her face, suddenly flying into panic mode. Crap! What did he say this time? Surely, he wasn't that scary. He had never had anyone cry because of him. It could only be his fault, though, there wouldn't be anything else that could make someone start crying. He mentally cursed himself for bringing this situation upon himself, he should've just left when he had the chance to... 

Crying people, especially crying females, made him incredibly uncomfortable. All that water leaking out of your eyes, your nose and cheeks getting so flushed... it was just a messy ordeal, overall. To his knowledge, the only time he had ever cried in front of someone else was when his dog, Lia, had died all that time ago, and that had been in front of his sister. He couldn't imagine possibly being strong enough to let down your defenses in front of someone else, although with the female population, it was an entirely different matter. They seemed to be set off crying even by happy events, which he would never even begin to understand. How could someone cry when they were happy? 

But clearly, December wasn't crying because she was happy. It would've had to have been something he said, something he did, but he had absolutely no idea what the trigger could've been. Why did they always have to do this? Humans, with their silly little emotions? Biting the very corner of his lip once more, although this time it wasn't an act, he set his stuff down on the floor in preparation to do the absolute most uncharacteristic thing he had ever done to this day. Taking a deep breath and mentally pushing away all of the warning voices in his head, he stepped forward slowly.

Elijah Huang, the boy of no emotions, proceeded to wrap his arms around the smaller girl and gave her a hug.

He was a little bit taller than the redhead, and he couldn't help but think of his little cousins. They were always crying, crying because they were hungry, crying because their brothers and sisters wouldn't take care of them, crying because there was a dog on the streets that growled at them. She just seemed so small and... and fragile, like she could crumble at any moment. He didn't pity her, not at all, but he also really, really wanted her to stop crying. Perhaps he had already mentioned how much he disliked tears? It certainly couldn't hurt to mention it again.

Maybe the hug was uncomfortable for her? He stepped back wordlessly, peering into her eyes, concern as clear as day. "The Hospital Wing?" he echoed, frowning slightly. What on earth would she have to go to the hospital wing for, and this late in the evening? Well, her hand was hurt, that much was already established. Picking up his things from the ground, he tried for a kind smile as she managed to stutter out where. Deciding to ditch his act, and his previous acts, for one that was slightly more like himself, the smile slipped from his face as his expression settled into an entirely neutral one. 

"Come on, then. I'll take you."

Gently, but firmly grabbing her by the elbow, he steered her toward the doors of the Small Hall, clear that he wouldn't take no for an answer. The chivalrous side of him, the one that had been bred quite finely by his parents, insisted that he take this poor girl to the Hospital Wing before she had a mental breakdown in the corridors in front of the paintings. What kind of decent human would he be if he couldn't spare five minutes to make sure December got to the Hospital Wing safely? He'd be more monstrous than he originally thought himself to be.