little talks —— rowan&kiran —— september 1st, 2023. { hogwarts express }
tagging: kiranxkhan
It was fair to say she was confused, at the very least. Baffled was another word she liked but it sounded to soft for what she felt. Baffled was a raised eyebrow on your friend’s face when you tried to sneak around them because of the surprise party you would throw for them in coming future. Flabbergasted was something else in her vocabulary that she was fond of but again, it was too amusing for the situation.
Confusion was what knit Rowan’s brow together when she sent letter after letter only to receive three words back over the summer. At least she knew her boyfriend wasn’t dead. That was something. The rash left on her cheek from Kiran’s stubble had long gone and it had been at least a month and a half since they’d seen each other.
So why the hell was she having to hunt him down?
Her hair was down, an unusual style considering it normally mildly irritated her to have it falling into her face. But she wanted to look pretty — hence the eyeliner and lip gloss. Pretty for him. Pretty enough from him to admit he had, in fact, been a gigantic male reproductive organ. And after he apologised profusely they could go somehow find an empty compartment ( seventh year privileges ) and maybe make out for a while. Just maybe.
He had to have a good excuse. Rowan believed he would. There was a slight fluttering of butterflies in her stomach at the thought of seeing him and as much as she tried to resist, she couldn’t help the smile that crept up her face — from her lips to the crinkling around her eyes — when she saw him in the compartment.
“Why hello stranger.”
One could speculate a countless number of theories over why the infamous brotherhood were not all sitting together in their self-declared ‘Compartment For Kings’, and still fail to deduce the true reasoning behind Kiran’s voluntary solitude. For the uninformed, it was a pitiful sight. The usual scene of the charming characters reuniting after a long Summer had become an attribute of Hogwarts Express that students had taken for granted, it seemed. However, to those that were aware of Kiran Khan’s mistakes, a whole compartment to himself would be considered the greatest fortune.
The Hufflepuff’s vigorously shaking leg betrayed the complete opposite of the demeanour he was so desperately trying to maintain; head buried into the hands that would be unable to count the number of times he had made the mistake that lead to his current state of distress — twelve, by the way. Twelve mistakes.
At her voice, his head propped up and his gaze met hers. Strangely, considering what he had to do, it was calming, and he couldn’t help the faint curling of the lips.
There’s a difference between seeing the world as black and white and only wanting to see the white. When one views life through a narrow scope coupled with a simple mind, it often leads to a sense of ignorance that precisely results in regretting twelve mistakes by prioritising immediate happiness. The entire colour spectrum could be thrown at his face in the form of glitter and glowing stars, but Kiran would only chase after the white that is placed directly in front of him and he’d hold on to that with dear might until a brighter white is presented before him.
And that is Kiran Khan’s existential flaw. He only sees what’s in front of him, and there she is… The brightest white that would no longer be his to hold on to. With Rowan Freyers smiling at him with such warmth, any advice given from Noah, pep talks delivered by Lance, lectures shoved down his throat from his mother dissipated with that one smile.
Oh, how he was screwed…
Apprehensive, Kiran rose from his seat, straightening out his robes in an uncharacteristically restless manner, as his lips stretched into a wider smile to disguise the evidence of dishonesty.
"Hey babe, you alright?" Voice strained, if his utterance didn’t give it away, then the way he hesitated in his method of greeting most definitely did. Hug or no hug? Kiss on the lips or on the cheek? Hand on the waist, hips or no hand at all? He settled to strive for an awkward hug, followed by a kiss on both cheeks. "You know, you’re looking really good right now," he said in a more natural tone than before, a smirk playing on the corners of his lips. "Are you hungry? Because I’m starving, and my mum packed me some food. We could eat, catch up and other things… Because we haven’t really seen or spoken to each other in a while, have we?" He added softly, a little unsure of how she felt about it. "Or, we could go somewhere else? More private?"
