student_of_impossibility | [OOM: Academy (A. Imp)] Ehren

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[OOM: Academy (A. Imp)] Ehren

It started out in mathematics, of course. They had been working a problem, and a suggestion made by someone was utterly wrong. Tavi could see what to do, but he was several steps ahead. He had no idea what the actual answer was--but he could see how to find the rest of it at a glance.

Another hand went up, several desks away. A glance took in a boy just about his own size, sort of mousy. He started filling in the details--and when they got to the next step, Tavi supplied the method.

(Next to him, he suspected Max was paying little to no attention--but then, there was a particularly pretty classmate of theirs a few seats away. It hadn't taken more than a couple days to figure that out about the Antillan. It was amusingly exasperating to Max's far more studious roommate.)

The rest of that class was much the same way, really--Tavi seeing the method and generalization of the approach, the other boy (Ehren, he remembered noting) supplying the details and specific answers. It was a natural rhythm, in its way, and between them they didn't miss a beat. Tavi had flashed him a quick smile as the class ended, but both of their small sizes meant he lost track in the crowd leaving.

*

Once outside, Tavi stops and starts scanning the crowd. "Max, wait up a minute. There's someone I want to talk to--maybe he'll want to come to lunch."

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Max starts to grin right up until Tavi got to the 'he' part. For just a second Max thought Tavi might not be hopeless.

He sighs. "Fine, fine." He settles against the wall. After all, the cute girl (Effy, he thinks her name is) has another class after this one, and he's not in it, so...

Tavi rolls his eyes at the almost-grin. Honestly, there are other things than girls. And girls are way, way too much trouble. He thinks of a girl who asked him for flowers, and another girl who cut his cheek open, deep enough to scar.

After a couple moments of searching, he growls a little.

"Can you see that guy from math class? The one who was answering all those questions?" The ones that Tavi wasn't answering, anyway.

There are days Tavi hates being short. He hopes he'll get a little taller, though he knows he probably won't ever be as tall as Max will.

"Ehren?" Max asks. Then he realizes that knowing the kid's name indicates that he was paying way too much attention in class. Too late to cover that now, though.

"Short kid? Your height?" Maybe Tavi would just forget.

Tavi snorts. "You'd better hope someone gives you lessons in subterfuge if you want to keep that up," he informs Max.

Not that they won't get plenty of that soon enough.

"Yes, him. I, uh, can't see him." Tavi is very faintly pink for a moment.

"And you mock me, then ask my help?" Max snorts in amusement, but he does look around for the kid in question.

"It's hardly my fault you have a natural talent for inviting it," Tavi retorts, rolling his eyes again with a grin.

This whole having a friend his age business is really quite refreshing.

"I am totally dignified." Not even Max believes that.

Tavi just gives him a flat, incredulous look, and goes back to trying to scan the crowd again.

For a moment, he thinks he sees Ehren, and points in his direction. "Think that's him, over that direction?"

Max glances over that way. "That's him."

Wait, paying too much attention again.

"Maybe."

That gets a laugh out of Tavi, quiet and sardonic. "Really need that training," he says wryly.

Tavi nods and starts off briskly. He glances back over his shoulder after a moment and tilts an eyebrow up. It's not quite imperious--he's too young and cheerful for that.

One day, though, it'll look it.

"Well, come on," he says with good-natured impatience, gesturing for Max to follow before trotting back off in Ehren's direction.

"Why can't you pick pretty girls to introduce yourself to?" Max huffs good-naturedly as he follows along.

Tavi snorts. "Girls are not worth the trouble," he grumbles.

When he reaches Ehren, he grins at the other boy and holds out a hand. "It's Ehren, right? I'm Tavi. You were pretty good at that."

Ehren blinks at him for a moment before smiling a little as well. "Yes. Ehren Patronus Villiers. I wouldn't have been able to do most of that if you hadn't figured out what angle to approach it from."

Tavi just laughs. "Yes, but you caught all the details I glossed over. Oh, right--the oaf there's my roommate Max. He's not as dumb as he looks," he adds.

Max rolls his eyes. "Yes, yes, we get it. You're both so smart. Smart enough, apparently, to be missing lunch as we speak." Not that Max was especially hungry, but... there was this girl...

Tavi rolls his eyes. "Which is it, food or company?" he asks with some asperity.

Ehren gives him a sidelong look. "Company?"

"You'll find out," Tavi assures him. "Anyway, we came to ask you if you wanted to come sit with us."

If Tavi's noticed that Ehren sits alone most of the time--well, that's just coincidental, right? As is the way he casually issues the invitation on behalf of both himself and his roommate.

Ehren, however, does glance to Max uncertainly for a moment. Max is big, after all.

Max rolls his eyes right back. "What? Who says I can't have both?"

He doesn't do Ehren the disservice of giving him a gentle grin, but he does shrug his massive shoulders in a mostly-nonthreatening manner as if to say 'sure, what's one more?'

With a mock-disgruntled face, Tavi tells him, "Max, I don't want to know."

Ehren, while starting to smile a little, is also hiding half-alarmed amusement. "Has it ever occurred to either of you that you might be a little insane?"

Tavi blinks at him, owlishly. "...I'm really not, no matter what he tells you," waving at Max. "I'm very logical."

It's the first of many such conversations in their lives.

It's not really a surprise that a man as big as Max has a truly rumbling sotto vocce. "We try not to rub it in his face," he stage-whispers to Ehren.

Tavi gives Max an oblique look, but says nothing.

Ehren, however, eyes Max for a moment before asking in a stage-whisper of his own, "Does it take a lot of effort to keep him from giving himself away?"

Tavi throws up his hands in exasperation. "If it helps any," he tells Ehren, "he's much crazier than I am." There is, however, a great deal of happiness underlying the expression, mostly visible in the way his green eyes are crinkled at the corners.

Ehren, however, is giving Tavi an amused look.

"I've almost given up hope completely," Max tells Ehren in return. "Despite my excellent example."

Tavi rolls his eyes, suppressing a grin as best he can. (It's not that well.)

"If you're quite finished discussing my fictional mental instability," he mock-gripes, "I have to go run some messages after lunch before my next class." He turns and starts walking towards the mess hall, not quite stalking. He's certainly trying to look like he is.

Ehren smiles a little. "Delusions of sanity," he says gravely. "If we intend to keep an eye on him, we may want to take shifts."

"I'm right here, you know."

"You can have the day shift," Max says immediately. He's got... stuff to do at night.

"Done," Ehren grins at him. "After all, he and I are in more classes together--and you're roommates."

Tavi snorts, with a faint smirk. He knows how effective that would be.

Max grins. "Excellent." That leaves him days to flirt, and then at night Tavi can look after his own sanity.

It's a perfect plan.

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[OOM: Academy (A. Imp)] Ehren

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