Blueprint

P5 - Wet

Week 5 of internship

I was consistently underestimated. Because I rarely spoke of things that mattered, of things valued by others, and even personal to myself. It was consistent with my lack of confidence. Fragile, I appeared, having no stance on any situation, when really, I've had the answers locked tightly behind my unmoving, doubtful lips. The gears in my brain were oiled and functioning at the optimal setting, and yet...I'm sitting in a small courtroom, listening to the man of my sex dreams establish his arguments, tight-lipped and tired, my unfinished physics troubleshoot essay at the back of my mind.

Time is supposedly linear, and so how might singularities violate --

"Athena."

Harry's hoarse voice pricks the surface of my attention, wide hazel eyes snapping in his direction instantly. He'd fallen ill from the roaming cold of the past few weeks, and surely no simple cold would keep a workaholic such as himself in bed. But his voice somehow grew raspier, deeper, more gruff, and more threatening to my -- what now appears to be -- fragile sanity. His pale green eyes had fallen more serious, his unshaved face more stoic, his moods more depressed. Earlier when he had leaned over to ask for my pen, I caught whiff of the multiple cherry cough drops he took that morning as well as the deeper tint of pink against his dewey heart lips.

If I wasn't so scared of failing and absolutely humiliating myself past any repairable point, I would have accidentally moaned.

"We can head out for food, if you'd like," he suggests as he packs his things into his leather bag, having finished a conversation with his client, Mr. Arrodi. Standing by him, in my hands the black blazer accompanying his sleek black dress pants, I simply nod and glance around the strangely medieval, antique era of the decor and architect in the courtroom. "My business with Mr. Arrodi is finished, here. And I think we've both skipped a good breakfast for this win, no?"

Again, I nod. In the back of my head, while worrying about my physics essay, I also withheld a lot of my opinions and conclusions of the case. Though I was convinced Harry didn't care to hear of them, and I also had no caloric intake so far in the day, so the conversation was not worth having. Harry's eyes, saturated with expectancy and narrowed as he had been looking down at the binder he'd shoved into his bag, now watch me carefully. Seeing me absentmindedly gaze around the courtroom, noting my sudden lack of responsiveness.

I'm forced to look at him eventually. He's halted all of his movements, just staring at me, and my face naturally begins to flush. My dark eyebrows lower, drawing closer until my lips turn a little downward, too, experiencing not only confusion, but slight discomfort. Not because of the staring, but because of how he stares.

"You're quiet," he finally concludes in a gruff mutter, blinking and resuming his packing. I reach out to hand him his blazer, which he takes from me silently. Cunningly, I reach into my pocket and while adjusting the strap of my bag with one hand, the other extends to offer him another cough drop.

"You're losing your voice," I point out to him, the sweet hard mint still neatly wrapped in the paper. Harry adjusts his blazer, ringed hands working the collar and then the sleeves, gazing back from the mint to my face, raising one of his dark eyebrows. I watch him through narrowed eyes, our playfulness rising from the ashes of the previously burned out energy. A very faint smirk curves up the left corner of his lips, the beauty mark there grabbing my attention faintly before he takes the hard candy from me, our fingertips touching for a fraction of a second.

"Thank you," he says softly, quickly popping the cherry candy into his mouth before taking the blazer in my arms, draping it across his shoulders and properly putting it on. The rest of our movements are quick, a contrast to the very slowed and sensual tension from seconds ago. He shakes the hands of a few people, bidding them goodbye, sharing a quick inside joke, and then leading me outside where the rain had died down to a faint drizzling.