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Toby was a little relieved when her face lightened but rolled his eyes at her response. Wow, what a shocker. They weren't really each other's therapists after all this time? He didn't actually say, that, though, because they were in a dimly lit corridor and he wasn't dying before summer vacation, damn it. But it was beginning to sink in for him that Ronna actually seemed a bit... nervous. Well, maybe not nervous. Uneasy, though. He stiffened, straightened up his posture, and couldn't help but look around, as if to check no one was eavesdropping before his brown eyed gaze returned to her as she sighed in annoyance. "Taking the night off?" he repeated. Ronna Kiss? Take time off from her duties? Had he stumbled into some sort of alternate universe? Maybe it was one where his life actually went the way he wanted it to. That might be nice, for a change.

At the mention of Gypsy and Jer he audibly groaned and looked upward at the ceiling. "Oh god," he muttered. What had they told her? Besides the "Toby is an idiot, " line, which if he heard one more time he was going to scream. Yes, he was not the sharpest tool in the shed. But for that matter, neither were his friends, he accused defensively in his mind. Still, they hadn't gone and started this whole mess. That was all on him. He wanted to protest that the situation was over and done with and they had nothing more to discuss. But that wasn't exactly true. Yeah, he'd given her the straightest answer he felt he could give, but it hadn't necessarily been a good answer, or one that really settled any of the tension between them. He felt like if he tried to apologize anymore, he'd just sound fake. He waited to see what she was actually getting at.

Toby frowned as she rambled and didn't look at him, then finally opened his mouth. "First of all, I don't fancy getting a: berated or glared at or b: decked because you think I think you're a 'horrible scary person'. If you want to deck me, let's get it over with so the suspense can end," he half joked, half intoned miserably. There was no way this conversation ended with them parting as the best of mates, he could see it now. Sort of like a train. Rushing at him. Full speed ahead. No escape. Just sudden, painful death. He continued to rant dramatically in his head until she stopped talking and he realized he was expected to give an answer of some sort. s**t. "So what do you wanna do?" he blurted out. What she seemed to be saying was that they were going to have to solve this a different way other than trying to make sense of each other through talking. Okay... but how? She had better not want to duel him here and now because he was bloody awful at dueling and he didn't want to go to bed tonight covered in bruises.

Toby was glad she didn't really take offense to anything he'd said. They'd reached that point of understanding between each other, at least. "That's good to know," he commented lightly, determined to keep the mood that way, and then stared at her, completely taken aback, as she put her hands on her hips as if suddenly coming to a decision. She then proceeded to, for what reason he couldn't imagine, take off her heels so she was slightly shorter than him, rather than equal in height or even a tad taller. She explained it as so that she wouldn't be "quite so scary". Okay... what? His nose crinkled as he tried to piece together what she really meant as she talked about making them even, then... giving him an opportunity to punch her?

She couldn't be seriously thinking she was gonna....

Could she?

His eyes widened to the size of saucers as she placed a hand on his shoulder and pecked him on the lips so fast he was almost afraid he imagined it, before she stepped away. Toby stood still as a statue, frozen. The hair on the back of his neck was prickling. It wasn't entirely a bad feeling. She seemed to be expecting him to take a swing at her. Yeah. Like he was going to hit her. Firstly, even though they'd be at least equal in a fist fight, he wasn't going to punch a girl. Jess would remove his fingers one by one. With a sparkly pink nail file. Also, he wasn't a douche bag. And it wasn't as if he'd minded. It'd been sort of nice. When he finally found his voice, he took a tentative step towards her, hands sort of shaky at his sides. "Ronna, I'm not gonna break your nose," he informed her, and then before he could convince himself otherwise pecked her back on the lips, afraid to even let his lips linger on hers before he pulled back. "Even again?" he asked weakly. He'd probably ruined the whole thing... but he liked kissing her more than he was willing to admit and one impulsive action spurred on another... He'd never been doing the logical thing to begin with, so he saw no reason to stop being an irrational idiot now.

His breath was harsh and erratic as he exhaled nervously and looked at the floor before looking back up at her. His face was scarlet red, and a small voice was screaming in his head about how she was going to seriously hit him now or laugh in his face and walk away, or tell him how creepy he was... Did he actually have a crush on her? He'd said he didn't like her like that... but he'd been trying to just give her an answer she'd like at the time so he'd sort of assumed "I'm actually sort of find you attractive" wasn't an option. He'd been constantly thinking of her all year, mostly worrying about what she thought, about what other people thought, about what he thought... Ronna wasn't like other girls, he thought wildly. How should he have handled any of this? Was she even interested in him? Maybe? Maybe not? She was dedicated and determined and snappish and he was careless and cocky and took everything like some grand joke life was playing on him... Oh, why was he even trying to apply his own strange brand of reason to any of this? "If you don't want me to ever do that again or even talk to you just tell me and I swear I won't," he said desperately, in case she actually was completely disgusted with him and his bullshit. "But that time wasn't... that wasn't because I was riding some adrenaline high or 'living for the moment', I promise."

Toby supposed the reaction could have been worse. He hadn't been pushed into a wall, she hadn't hit him, kicked him, or hexed him and she wasn't even really yelling, either. So he had that going for him, kind of. "I always sucked at Maths," he said, going cross eyed looking at her accusing finger pointed in his direction, glad it was a finger and not a wand. And hey, she was flustered too and blushing too. He waited for her to start up again, confident this conversation was not nearly over. He gaped at her response and then realized what she actually meant. Well... at least she wasn't telling him to never so much as speak to her again?

"Oh, gee, thanks," he replied dryly. "I wasn't aware I should have snogged you with no warning again. I just thought... did you want me to just go 'yeah, guess we're even now' and leave? Because I only realized what your plan was like a second before you actually went through with it, so... if that was the desired response... whoops, missed that cue." He laughed without humor and looked away for a moment. Here came the interrogation, anyways, and he looked torn while he tried to come up with decent answers to her questions. "That was me kissing you back? Because I liked kissing you both times... except this time I liked kissing you becauseitwasyouandnotbecauseyouwerethere," he announced in one low rushed breath of mortification. Somebody avada kedavra him now, please... He'd always imagined that when telling a girl that he would be a lot more suave and charming. Right now all he could hope for was that she could actually make sense of the mess of words he was currently spewing.

"Leave... us?" he echoed uncertainly. "I- you don't really sound like you liked that at all so I don't wanna jump to any stupid conclusions here... And um, yeah, the best bet with the prefects bathroom is probably to just ignore Gypsy and not engage in conversation at all costs... usually works when I want to avoid Jess, just because then she gets peeved and starts ignoring me... But Gypsy's probably dif'rent in that regard- you could always drown her in the baths if she won't shut up, blimey, I'd help at this point," he offered as an end to his ramble. He noticed she was playing with her rings again, and didn't know if that was something she did when she was mad, or when she was nervous. "Sorry," he muttered. "I don't really know either. Whatever you want to do, I guess," he said dully. "If you want to just pretend this never happened and we can just be... quidditch team rivals again, yea? Or we could-," he cut himself short and stared at the floor for the millionth time, studying his shoes. What he'd wanted to say was "or we could just keep kissing each other whenever we want and tell everyone else to go to hell" but he wasn't so sure how well that might be received. Probably not very well. But... she hadn't told him to never kiss her again, either, and she'd said she'd gotten to the point of "screw logical", so he could hope.

Toby wasn't surprised either. When he had gone to muggle school, his best subject had hands down been English. He'd loved science, but math... not so much. Ronna, on the other hand, had probably been some sort of mathematics genius. She probably did math over the summer. He.... well, she knew what he did over the summer. But he'd gotten a half smile so far, so he was counting that as points to Team Toby. She didn't say anything for a little while, and he got really worried until she finally spoke again.

"Well, at least it'd be different rumors," he snorted. "Like... murder conspiracy. And I bet if people thought we were crazy they'd shut up for once," he pointed out. Why hadn't he thought of that before? He could have just pretended to have multiple personalities or something. Definitely would have gotten people off his back. She at long last looked from her rings and he tensed up. "There's always round two," he said more sarcastically than he meant to. "I dunno, maybe some Quidditch prodigy will come sprinting onto the pitch and out fly us all next year. I guess not. And if you were still mad at me, hell yeah there would be rivalry," he commented. "Whether I liked it or not. But I don't really mind competing against you," he told her. "Keeps me from getting too cocky. Until I get a few bones broken," he amended.

She'd crossed her arms and bit her lip and he tried not to stare. "Wait, she told you I-," He bit his own lip, hard, then swore under his breath because it had hurt and looked like he wanted to kick a wall, but the forbidding stones of the nearest wall looked unfriendly to kickers. He was more angry at Gypsy for thinking that this was in any way something she should take it upon herself to fix, but what was he gonna do about it? Jinx her? Jer would murder him. Literally. They'd probably never locate his corpse. "That's not true," he said firmly. "You're likable. Nearly everyone is likable, so long as other people aren't being shallow arses. Yeah, you kind of... piss people off sometimes, but so do I. And just 'cause you're not super girly or whatever bullshit people think makes girls more attractive- that means absolutely nothing. I never even hated you. You just drove me insane once in a while." He hadn't mean to say that much, but he wasn't about to take it back now, and that was the most confident his voice had been this entire time.

He actually laughed at the mention of lumping him and Jess together. "Everyone does it. Jess hates it, so don't ever mention that to her. I'm used to it by now. We were nearly attached by the waist when we were little. It's lucky we're not identical." Obviously, it was clear they were still twins even with the height difference and whatnot... But being fraternal twins sort of made things a bit easier. He blinked, but had relaxed around her some. "Geez. Alright. Okay. I was going to say something like 'or we could just say "screw everyone else" and snog whenever we wanted and not be rational at all' but I didn't really think you'd go for that." He was half joking, half serious. He swallowed hard.

Toby snickered. Did she actually consider jaywalking a crime, or even something bad? 99% of the population of bloody London probably jaywalked. It had to be the most socially accepted criminal offense out there. Well, unless you were a cab driver. He then nodded, and said dryly, "Yes, very." He couldn't work up the nerve to be hurt at her not being very impressed with his probably-could-be-seen-as-backhanded compliments.

Yeah, I'm probably still insane, he wanted to say, for still hanging around here like a hopeful puppy. He could beat a hasty escape now with what was left of his dignity, but he supposed he might as well go all out once again. "The point of that was to explain why I didn't think those traits were necessarily bad things," he said flatly, staring her straight in the eyes, which sort of made his stomach lurch uncomfortably. "But if you'd like to take it all as insulting I can't exactly stop you. And heels and skirts don't make someone overly girly or feminine or however you want to put it. My sister wears jeans and sneakers when she's out of school, and she's practically your opposite. Granted, they tend to be in blindingly bright colors... What you wore or acted like or if you made me mad didn't matter to me in terms of liking you, is what I was trying to get at there." he muttered, taking a step backwards as if wondering whether or not she actually just wanted him to go.

"Thanks," he said awkwardly, unsure of how to take her seeming sincerity in regard to that matter. It wasn't really a big deal to him... but for Jess, that was a whole different story. He knew she had issues with people seeing them as one person "Jess-and-Toby", rather than two entirely different individuals. She didn't excitedly inform people that they were twins anymore, but just kind of said it like she was required to, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Did she wish he wasn't her twin? She'd always lorded the "fifteen minutes older" thing... Maybe she wished she was older by more.

His thoughts returned to the situation at hand when Ronna scoffed. "No!" he yelped, and then winced because of how young and vulnerable his voice suddenly sounded. He was fifteen, nearly sixteen, not twelve. "I. Like. You. I would not mind snogging you again, not as an excuse or whim, but because we both want to.There. If you don't like me like that at all and want me to leave right now, that's-," he worked at his jaw, trying to get the words that felt sour in his mouth out, before mumbling, "That's fine, okay? But could you just tell me?" Was she avoiding the main point on purpose? It was frustrating, because he still didn't know how she felt- she was much harder to actually read than he'd ever realized before, and now he knew how stupid he'd been. Maybe this was her way of attempting to let him down gently. Well... not gently. More like... carefully punting him across a field, when he could have been drop kicked. At least with the drop kicking you knew the other's persons feelings towards you.

Toby almost choked on his own tongue before admitting, "Yeah, I guess so." With that reasoning, he should be attracted to someone more like him, some wild child type with no cares in the world. But... his parents were nothing alike, at least not at first glance. Sure, they were both in the medical profession, but his dad was that jokey doctor everyone loved and his mum was that super cool and collected healer who struck terror into the hearts of any patient who tried to lie to her about their medical records. And yet they fit together. His dad made his mum laugh and remember to relax when she got home from work and his mum made his dad remember when to actually scold his children and not "accidentally" join in with their troublemaking. And she'd never, ever treated his dad like he was a child or didn't know anything just because he was a muggle and she was a witch. His mum said they didn't have secrets from each other, because that was, as she put it, a "great way to ruin any relationship". And they certainly talked a lot like friends for two old married people.

But enough about his parents, who were still pretty boring compared to their children. He carefully watched Ronna's frown shift to a more neutral look and then she seemed to blink a bit and start putting her heels back on. He rubbed the back of his head self consciously as she stared at the floor, then was startled when she began to talk, still not looking at him. She said that it wasn't the kiss she really minded, rather the circumstances, which he'd already known, though she'd always glossed over her feelings on the actual snogging part of the whole mess before. Then she said that he wasn't... not... her type? So... he was her type? Sort of? And... he was attractive as an individual when separated from the twins equation.

He wanted to grin but he was too nervous to risk it, so he just played at his loose tie while she mentioned that this might explain why she was more attracted to guys not like her personality wise... And he didn't make her feel "freakishly tall". He was still only just nearly 5'9", but that was plenty taller than Jess, for instance, who was barely above five feet. "Stole all my sister's milk?" he chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe. She was always the smallest, even when me and her and Uriel were little." At last, she looked up at him as she stood, before looking away again and finishing what she had to say in a mutter. So... she liked him back. There it was. He had his answer.

Toby's guts stopped writhing some and he let his shoulders slouch a bit in relief. His blush had finally started to fade but she was red as a tomato behind the freckles. "Right. That's- that's awesome. I... um... how do you want to do this, then? We could... I guess we could date-," he wasn't sure he'd ever even taken a girl out on a date, and he didn't really know how to start now, kissing was the only thing that seemed to make sense to him... "I mean, it's not as though we suddenly have to be boyfriend and girlfriend just because we feel the same way," he said hurriedly. "Maybe we should just... take things really slowly and see how it goes?" he offered, feeling as though he had to provide some sort of solution. The idea of liking someone and them liking you back and not doing anything about it seemed ridiculous. But just because she liked kissing him and found him attractive didn't mean she wanted him for a boyfriend, or even to date him. "It's not like we have to 'officially' be anything, anyways," he added, then wondered if he'd said the wrong thing there. For all he knew she could want him to make things official immediately. Otherwise she might feel like he only wanted her around so they could snog. It wasn't as if that was all he liked about her. He was shallow, but not that shallow.

Toby looked this way and that as if waiting for someone to come and remove his foot from his mouth. "I wasn't sure if you wanted to just jump right into- you know what, I'll just take that as a yes." Right. He should have known she'd want them to be officially... something. And it wasn't as if he didn't want to, either. He did. He just didn't want to be the first one to go "well, I guess we're dating now".

"Friends with benefits." Aside from the obvious implications, the sh*t eating grin he was sure would appear on his sister's face as soon as she got wind of it... Toby mentally shuddered at the possible fallout, and tried to rectify the matter as fast as humanly possible. "Fine," he said quickly, "If you want to be something official, let's date. As long as we're not overtaxing ourselves here," he added just as sarcastically. He frowned at the mention of her mother, not sure what to say to that, but he didn't know nearly enough about the whole situation, anyways, so he said nothing and distractedly messed with the cuffs of his sleeves. until the subject was changed. He figured it was probably safe to say that Ronna had no interest in telling him the whole story about her mother, whatever it might be, anytime soon. And he wasn't about to press.

"Guess I'm lucky you don't happen to have any fruit in hand, then," he commented lightly, while wondering who she'd happened to throw fruit at to begin with. Had this been years ago, or recently? Was it someone at Hogwarts? Anyone he knew? But... it wasn't as if he was jealous or anything. Because how pathetic would that be. Right? Right? He tried not to think about any scenario leading up to Ronna telling another boy she liked him and then chucking an apple at him.

"I didn't mean slow like that," he mumbled, to take his mind off things. "I wasn't gonna suggest we regress to hand-holding or awkward side hugs." He'd seen the hesitant side hugging before, and the clearly nervous hand-holding that went on between some new couples and it honestly looked genuinely painful. If they weren't comfortable even making physical contact with someone, why were they together? Of course, generally a month later those same people were shamelessly snogging in a corner...

Good thing we've already reached that point, he thought, only a little wryly.

"I just didn't want to make you feel pressured to be my girlfriend or 'friend with benefits' or whatever if you weren't okay with it," he defended flatly, then seemed to brighten and smiled crookedly. "Anyways, to really make things clear I'm just going to ask you out now. Ready? Right." He cleared his throat. "Veronica Kiss, would you go out with me?" he said as seriously as was humanly possible for him. To Toby, this seemed like the basic thing to do, and he looked like he was struggling not to break out into a full grin. He didn't want her to think he was just joking or making fun of her. He was extremely serious.

Toby rolled his eyes. "Well yeah." Why did they even have to categorize things, anyways? It seemed like a lot of work. Not that he was complaining if they were dating. He wouldn't exactly mind saying they were boyfriend and girlfriend. "I think it's clear that I have no objections to snogging... anywhere... at any point... ever..." he trailed off, trying not to look terribly smug. Those heels looked dangerous. He didn't want to get stabbed with one. Then he laughed. "Oh sure. Jess and I only make physical contact when we're trying to strangle each other. Alright, not really, but we're not exactly holding hands very often. And the only cousins we really have we never actually see... Anyways." He raised an eyebrow and tried to draw himself up some. "Me? Tobias Philemon Walsh? Break a rule? Whaaaaaaat?"

It wasn't like he had some sort of reputation to keep up with, or anything. Though admittedly he had nothing on that Luke kid and his friends. After all, Toby was only one man, and unless he resorted to blackmail it was kinda hard to convince Jess to join in, especially if she thought she had better things to be doing, like stalking Uriel and his girlfriend or something. Sometimes he worried about her. Honestly. His sister was weird.

He had pretty much expected Ronna to laugh, but he was relieved and glad she had said "of course" all the same, even if it was in between laughs. "It's alright," he waved off her apology. "Come on Ronna, I had to make it official!" he exclaimed between his own snickers. "And I didn't get down on one knee, besides." She was smiling at him, though, even if it was in amusement, and he grinned completely, his whole face lighting up. Everyone said he looked younger when he grinned like that, but he didn't really care. "Nah," he decided. "You're pretty resolute, Miss Kiss."