daydream ' james potter

05 - praise

05

James ends quidditch practice with bouts of praise towards his teammates. Usually, they mouth off and get distracted, but today they were surprisingly focused. James assumes it's because they only have one more change to advance towards the cup, and it's against Slytherin. Millie and her team certainly won't go easy on them. According to Sirius, she's been extra secretive about their plans, but she's sure that Gryffindor stands no chance against them.

Once everyone leaves the field — Sirius is first, running towards the grounds for a date with his girlfriend — James packs up the trunk, strapping the quaffle and bludgers down. Cold sweat makes his shirt stick to his back, and despite the warmer weather, he's feeling quite chilly. Thinking of the common room fireplace and a warm mug of cocoa, James hurriedly places the trunk in the changing room. He rushes out, just fast enough to run straight into Mickey.

That's right, James thinks to himself. He hangs out here a lot.

"Alright, Jimbo?" Mickey isn't holding a spliff between his fingers this time, which makes James feel a bit better. He doesn't like addictive properties, and especially not when his friends use them.

Not that Mickey and James are friends, per se, but they are, at the least, acquaintances. James kind of likes the smaller boy when he isn't talking smack. "Call me James," he says.

Mickey is wearing a light pink sweater. The sleeves are just long enough to hang over his knuckles, and James thinks his hands look kind of pretty like that. He wonders if he would look that soft in a sweater. Probably not. "What are you doing today?"

Mickey shrugs before pulling a sketchbook out of his bag. "I was just going to trace leaves or something. I can't really draw."

"I can," James says. "I can give you some pointers, if you want?"

"You paint," Mickey laughs. He reaches forward and flicks a fleck red paint off of James' robe. "Isn't that different?"

"I do both, actually." James watches Mickey get settled on the grass before he brightens up. He sits beside Mickey and scoots close to him until their knees are brushing. "My paints are in the changing room. Can I go get it? Then you can trace the leaves and I can paint them?"

"Why?"

James huffs. "All my friends are leaving me for their dates and I am left to wallow alone unless you become my friend and let me paint with you."

Mickey snorts, slowly moving away from the boy. "I bet I know why your friends like spending time away from you."

"Rude," James mumbles, getting up. He brushes grass off the back of his pants and gives Mickey a lopsided smile. "There will come a day when you absolutely adore me, Mickey."

-

Mickey's hands are covered in charcoal as he continues to run the stick back and forth over the paper. Eventually, the lines and veins of a maple leaf appears, and Mickey smiles at the page, satisfied.

James takes it and begins to paint over the more prominent lines. "Mickey, have you ever had a boyfriend?"

Mickey gives James a pointed stare. "What do you think?"

"I dunno, that's why I'm asking."

Mickey goes back to tracing his leaf. His voice is monotone. "My dad and brother would kill him before he could get in the house."

"Right." James clears his throat. He stretches his legs out and knocks his shoe against Mickey's knee. "Your brother is a real piece of work."

Mickey places his palm flat on the paper and spreads his fingers. He uses his pencil to draw an outline of his hand. "Try living with the guy."

"You know, I could beat him up for you," James offers, jokingly punching the air.

"But you're so tiny," Mickey retorts, giggling into his hand. Which, to James, makes him look like the tiny one.

"I'm not!" James points to Mickey's hand. "You're smaller than I am."

Mickey lifts his palm and gestures for James to do the same. James places his calloused palm against Mickey's and Mickey snorts at the fact that they're both exactly the same size. "They're the same, Jimbo."

James brings his fingers down to hold Mickey's hand. He does it with Sirius all the time, and so long as Mickey doesn't mind, he thinks he'll do it with him too. "But I'm taller."

"By like, two inches." Mickey rolls his eyes, but there's a small smile on his face. "I guess if we tag-teamed, we could beat him up."

James laughs and ducks his head so quickly that his glasses slip down the slope of his nose. "Oops," he giggles and pushes them up towards the bridge of his nose.

Mickey's heart stutters in his chest as he watches James laugh. It's kind of annoying, really, because he's seen James Potter laugh before. But he supposes he's never personally made James laugh, so it has a bit of a different feeling to it. He likes the grainy feeling of charcoal between their palms and the way James squeezes his hand when he talks.

He feels sort of stupid for even thinking about a straight boy in any sense past friendship. Not that he's thinking of James as more than a friend, but when a cute boy holds his hand, it's not hard for his mind to wander.

He shouldn't let his mind wander. He slides his hand out of James' grip and returns to his notepad. "Anyway, if your friends are all out on dates, isn't this the perfect time to ask Lily out?"

James leans back on his palms and glances towards the sky. "Nah. I wanna ask Lily out in a super special way. Besides, she's kind of annoyed with me right now."

"That's nothing new, is it?"

James passes Mickey a wolfish grin. "That's the old Lily and James, Mickey. Now we get along quite nicely. Except, now she's mad because me and Anita keep fighting over her."

Mickey whistles lowly. "I'd be mad too, if two people who claimed to have a crush on me weren't respecting my choices. If they were fighting over me as if I were some kind of object."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Mickey grabs his notebook and charcoals. "I'll see you around, Jimbo."

-

am i back for good? who knows!
does anyone read this story lol

if you do please tell me what you liked/didn't like about this chapter!!