Dorian looks past him and tilts his head slightly to the left. "Oh, I think it's about be," he mumbles, and then he smiles. "You've got company incoming."

Rain turns again to follow his line of sight, and he sees Achilles approaching him. His gait is unhurried, but Rain sees the storm brewing in his eyes. He calmly places his goblet back on the table and folds his arms as he waits for him.

Achilles' shadow looms over him, and Rain smells the scent of that expensive Italian cologne his mother likes to buy him. His jaw clenches, deciding to ignore him until he speaks to him. "Rain," comes the call of his name, in a calm and collected manner.

Rain doesn't look at him when he replies. "What?" His voice is completely bland, as if he's already bored by the conversation they're about to have.

"Can I speak to you?" Achilles asks, and Rain resists the urge to scoff, or maybe scream. He doesn't which he's more eager to do.

"Well, you're here now so I suppose you can," he says. Dorian is watching them both intently, and Nicholas suddenly looks like he wants to be anywhere but there with them.

"I meant in private."

Of course, Rain already knew that. He's just being petty and trying to get a rise out of Achilles, so excuse him. He doesn't say a word, but he slowly stands up and turns to walk away from the Great Hall without waiting for Achilles to follow after him. By the entrance, he nearly bumps into his brother as he's entering the hall, but Sage takes a look at him and stops him.

"You alright there?" Sage questions, trying to sound nonchalant. The slight wrinkle in his brow gives away his worry, though.

Rain gives him a once over and ignores the question. "Are you only coming here right now? Where the bloody hell were you for the past hour? Lunch is nearly over."

Sage fixes his crooked blue tie and grins at him smugly. "Snogging someone in the broom cupboard, what else?"

Rain makes a face of disgust and leans away from his brother. "Never say that again when you're anywhere near me. I do not need that picture in my head," he says, and then he shudders. "And since when have you started sneaking away to snog people? You're barely fourteen!"

Sage rolls his eyes and laughs a little. "Merlin help us all. You're starting to sound like mum." He moves past Rain. "Go fix whatever boy trouble you're having. Alright, Achilles?"

Achilles gives him a nod and a slight smile. "Alright. Please stop trying to traumatise your brother," he says.

Sage cackles madly as he heads off to the Ravenclaw table. Rain shakes his head in exasperation and proceeds to exit the hall. The corridor they end up isn't as empty as he'd like it to be for whatever conversation he's about about have, but he supposes its fine.

He crosses his arms and leans against the wall. "So?"

Achilles rubs his forehead with his right hand. "I'll only ask this once, and please be honest with me." Rain might actually scream. "Were you the one who did it?"

Rain eyes him, contemplating his choices. He could play dumb, drag out this conversation and drive Achilles absolutely mad. Or he could be straight to the point and spare them both the trouble.

But then again, being a petty bitch is a specialty of his. You can easily guess which one he chooses.

"Did what? I have no idea what you're talking about," he replies, his voice unwavering with every single word.

Achilles looks like he expected this much, and so he looks at him for a very long time until he finally decides to hold his hand out. "Give me your wand."

Rain smiles sharply, and he anticipated this. He doesn't put up a fight and gives his wand to Achilles, looking at him in the eye the entire yime.

Achilles mutters a revealing spell, and it gives him all the answers he needs. And so he scoffs as he shoves the wand back to Rain.

"Of course it was you. I can't believe I considered thinking otherwise," he spits. Rain's smile doesn't waver, and he twirls his wand lazily between the fingers of his left hand.

"I mean, what did you expect?" He replies with a shrug. "You should honestly be thanking me, Achilles. I had half the mind to do something much worse than spelling your bed to do something so silly."

Achilles looks like he wants to strangle him. "Silly? Rain, I had to sleep on the floor because of your stupid stunt! How is any of that remotely silly?"

Rain laughs, something cold and cutting. He hopes Achilles hears every drop of venom lacing his voice right now. "Well, then. I should ask whether the the floor was to your liking, but I literally could not care less, so if you excuse me," he steps around him. "I have a meal waiting for me."

There's a sharp feeling of satisfaction within him, and while he may feel the tiniest bit of guilt, the experience was cathartic in some way. And anyway, Achilles has fallen victim to many of his revenge plots over the years, so he'll get over it eventually-

"Shit." The sharp curse makes his steps falter, because Achilles sounds furious and guilt ridden all at once. "Rain, wait!"

No. Nope. Absolutely not. This wasn't happening. He thought he was ready, but turns out he's a coward. He breaks out into a quick stride without looking behind. "Fuck off, Achilles," he replies.

"Just wait-wait for a second, alright?" Desperation tinges Achilles' voice, and that exact moment, a hand reaches out to grab his elbow. Rain stops moving.

A couple of younger students move past them, eyeing them weirdly all the while. Rain pays them no mind, because he has other things to worry about. Like the fact he feels like he's seconds away from screaming his lungs out or crying like a child.

He's stopped, but he doesn't turn around to look at Achilles, nor does he shake his hand off. He probably should, but he doesn't. He wishes he knows why he doesn't.

"I just-" Achilles starts to say, but then cuts himself off to inhale shakily. "I can't be- I don't know to-"

Rain nearly laughs at the thought that the ever eloquent Achilles Kane is having trouble with his words right now. He probably would have if circumstances were different.

"I know I've been awful to you lately-" Rain scoffs quietly. "I know, okay? And I'm sorry. I just-I just don't know how to get around this without ruining everything."

Rain whips around to glare at him. "Are you joking?" He finds the strength to pull himself away from his grasp. "You already are, you idiot!"

Achilles draws back and looks at Rain like he's just been slapped across the face. "Did you seriously think that acting the way you are was the better alternative?"

Achilles closes his eyes, looking like whatever he's about to say next pains him. "Yes," he whispers.

Rain is too shaken to manage anything more than a weak, "Why?"

"Because you'd hate me if I told you," Achilles says. Rain wants to curse him out of existence, because that is genuinely the stupidest thing he's heard.

He sighs tiredly and holds his forehead. "How did you even come about that conclusion?" He says. "I just-Why would you think that? What gave you the impression that I'd ever hate you?"

Achilles draws back even further. "I can't tell you."

He starts to walk away, but Rain is the one who catches his arm this time. "You can't just start saying shit like this out of nowhere and not make me wonder just what kind of unforgivable thing my best friend thinks I would hate him for, Achilles!"

Rain is getting desperate, because they were getting so close, so, so close. Perhaps he's foolish, but he hopes that they can solve this issue right here and now so they can go back to their normal because for all his anger at Achilles, he still misses his best friend, damn it.

Achilles tries to pull himself free, but Rain won't let go. "Now I'm realising I shouldn't have said anything!" Rain makes a frustrated sound at the back of his throat, and Achilles puts his hand above the one holding his arm, trying to pull it off. "Listen to me. You can't know about this."

Rain pulls him closer. "How do you know that?" He asks quietly. He feels at a loss here. "How do you know that? Since when did you start making decisions on what I should and shouldn't know? That's not fair."

"I know you, and I know you'd hate me for this-"

"You don't know that! Stop making that decision for me, you arsehole! You can't- you can't just assume that I'd hate you if you won't even tell me why-!"

"Just leave it, Rain. Please. For both our sakes, leave this alone."

"You can't ask me to do that."

"I can and I am-"

"I don't care!" Rain cries. "I don't care, Achilles. You say that you're afraid of ruining everything between us because of whatever is going on, and you fail to realise that everything is probably already ruined because you refuse to talk to me like a normal person would."

"We don't have to talk about it! Let's just forget about this and move on with our lives. That much can't kill us."

"Why are you so afraid of this? The worst thing you could ever do to me is suddenly deciding that ou hate me, but I'm not stupid enough to think that's what this is about-"

"Rain, stop. Just listen to me for once."

"Don't tell me to listen to you when you're not listening to me-"

"Rain-"

"What are you so afraid of? Come on then, tell me! Tell me why you can't just tell me what the fuck your problem is-!"

"It's because I'm in love with you!"

The shock that settles in Rain after that explosion is what allows Achilles to pull himself free, and he exhales sharply as he puts his hands over his ears in clear distress. He looks angry, so angry with himself and sad and afraid all at once and Rain wants to say something but he can't find it in himself to speak.

Achilles sighs and drags his hands down his face. "I'm in love with you, alright? And it's really fucking hard to be, because you've never noticed, which is fine, I can't force you to, now can I? But you're so obsessed with Sirius Black like you're halfway in love with him instead and hearing you talk about him constantly just made me so angry with you, with him, with myself so I tried distancing myself from you to see these stupid feelings fade or whatever but clearly, that didn't do shit."

Rain's mouth is dry, and he suddenly feels very woozy because he's just had two very life changing bombshells dropped on him in under ten seconds. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out of it.

"Don't deny it, Rain. You and I both know it's true. I couldn't just be around you anymore without getting the urge to act like a jealous prick any time you spoke of him, without having my heart stomped on when you made me realise over and over again that I'd be nothing more than your best friend. The worst part is that you weren't even aware of what you were doing. And I can't even blame you for that."

In the near future, Rain will look back on this day and feel the urge to slap himself because of how useless he's being right now. Something at the back of his mind is screaming at him to do something, say something but the only thing he manages manages say is a weak and pathetic, "No."

It's impressive how quickly Achilles' face shutters. "No?" He repeats just as quietly.

Rain shakes his head and takes two steps backwards. "No. You can't-" He swallows harshly. "You can't be serious. You're joking. Please tell me you're joking."

Achilles bites the inside of his cheek briefly. "Right. As if I'd joke about this." He shakes his head like he's in disbelief. "Now you know why I've been such a prat. Hope you're happy."

And then he turns around and just...leaves. Like he isn't crushing whatever bond there was between them under his foot.

The worst thing is, Rain just stands there and let's it happen.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

yikes
that's all I have to say about this

also I have a love-hate relationship with this chapter, which has been extra long today so y'all better thank me (jkjk)

see you guys next time!!