➪ RED ➪

"I DON'T KNOW."

"Well, say—say it was me, how would you do it?" Loki pressed the question once more, her green eyes barely glancing up from the canvas she had. "You can't really go about asking people on dates if you can't strike up a conversation with them."

"And you would know that how?" Remus queried, finding himself funny.

"Nicolas. You know, for a Hufflepuff with minimal knowledge on the subject, he gives surprisingly good relationship advice." Loki shrugged, pulling her pencil away from the canvas for a moment to inspect her lines before going right back. "I mean, I haven't had anyone to try it on, and it's mainly guy advice, but I still appreciate it."

"Hmm," Remus hummed.

"Do you feel bad for leaving Sirius alone?" Loki leant back, her gaze falling on the male behind her canvas. "Because I feel kind of bad about it."

"Sirius will be fine, Loki, " Remus reassured with a grin. "Hopefully he'll finish his homework.

"Yeah, " Loki nodded. "Hopefully."

"So, anyway," Remus returned to his previous position, "how should I start a conversation with this girl I like?"

"Um, well, is it okay if I ask for a little information on her?" The tone of hesitation in Loki's question was evident. "All you've given me is that she's a she, and she's in our year. Oh, and that I know her. That doesn't narrow it down to what she's like."

"Uh, wh—what would you like to know?" Remus queried. His voice rose a few octaves higher than usual.

"What does she like?" Loki glanced over to him.

"What does she like?" Remus's mouth went dry. He had no idea what to say without giving away the fact that it was her. "She—" he bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to think quickly "—she likes... The arts."

"The arts? That's a vast subject, Remus, " Loki frowned.

"Yep. She likes the arts." Remus chuckled nervously, wringing his hands together. "She does the arts. All the arts."

"Okay, um, we can use me as an example again, then," Loki smiled, trying not to let her newfound knowledge of Remus's crush dampen her mood. "You could mention that you've seen some of her stuff. Say you like it and hope it starts a conversation?"

"That's all you've got, isn't it?" Remus softly laughed. Loki's cheeks flushed, and she was suddenly glad they couldn't see each other's faces. "It's okay. I couldn't think of anything, so you're already doing one better than me."

"Oh." Loki kept her eyes glued to the sketch, hiding the grin spread across her face.

"And what about these people you like? Hmm?" Remus spoke up. "I've told you about my crush." Loki choked.

Code red! CODE RED!

"Wha—what—what do you want to know?" She managed to stutter out.

"I would ask who they were, but I have a feeling you won't tell me." Remus paused, thinking. "What are they like? Are they good people?"

"Yeah," Loki smiled. "Yeah, they're good people. They're nice. They're funny. I mean, they can get into trouble sometimes, but not for super bad things. One of them's more daring than the other, but there's always going to be one like that."

Remus sat quietly, listening to Loki speak. He wondered what kind of face she was making. Perhaps she had a smile, a big grin. Or, and he didn't want to think about it, maybe she was making a sad face. He frowned, wishing he could see what she looked like at that moment.

"I think Sirius was flirting with me the other day," Loki spoke. "I don't know." She bent to the side to gather her palette and paints.

Remus paused, watching her. He didn't know how to respond to such a comment. Loki looked over to him.

"Remus?" She frowned with concern.

He blinked. "Sorry. Um, what did he say to you?"

Loki thought back and flushed red. She recoiled, hiding behind her canvas once more, as her face turned bright red. Remus leant to the side to get a better look at the girl, but she turned away and let her dark hair fall from its place behind her ear, covering her face. She quickly busied herself with putting her oil paints onto the wooden palette.

"Ah, normal Sirius things?" Remus assumed. Loki reached her hand over the top of her easel and canvas, holding out a piece of paper for him to take. Remus took it with a frown and opened it. "Oh."

Are you french? Because Eiffel for you.

"He said that?" Remus was unsure how to react. It was funny, of course, but he couldn't help feeling... odd.

"Yeah," Loki peeked up. "I wasn't uncomfortable. I just was surprised. Does Sirius usually say that to... people?" She inquired.

"No," Remus answered, balling up the note his hand as he turned his attention back to the girl. "No, don't worry about it." Remus watched as Loki nodded and went back to her paints.

"So, was he?" Loki spoke up once more, now hunched over slightly as she began to paint the first area of the face.

"Flirting with you?" Remus queried.

"Yeah."

"I--I think so," Remus stuttered, scratching the back of his neck. He grimaced slightly at the warm, prickly feeling spreading over his skin. It was almost that time of the month again. "Loki, can I ask you a question?"

"Other than that one, sure," she smiled, gently outlining the eye. "Oh, you can move now. I'm pretty sure I've got what I needed."

Remus hopped off his stool and stepped over to the girl, locking his gaze on her canvas as she worked. "I was--," he tried to quickly come up with a way to [hrase his question, "Do you like Sirius? As in like like him?" Remus realised he sounded very much like a young schoolgirl.

Loki went silent. Then, her face slowly turned bright red. Remus's hazel eyes flicked away from her canvas, noticing her lack of movement, to her. Her mouth opened and closed rapidly as a jumble of sentences and excuses ran through her head at lightning speed. She finally managed to move her head enough to nod.

Remus frowned.

"I--I--I mean, I still like this other guy," Loki rushed out. "It's not like I've only got eyes on Sirius! That's not why I hang out with you, Remus! I'm not using you to talk with Sirius, okay, so please don't think about me like that!"

She turned to Remus, frantic. He only nodded and smiled in response.

"It's okay, Loki. I know you're not like that." He cocked his head to the side. His gaze flicked to the painting for a moment, inspecting it, before back to her. "I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me."

Loki averted her gaze and let out a sigh of relief. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, looking back at the boy with a smile.

"Yeah," she replied.

➪ AUTHOR'S NOTE ➪

loki pulling a damn debby ryan/bella cullen at the end yeesh. also, kept forgetting what a damn canvas was called and the amount of times i wrote painting thing before i changed it was too many. ALSO, i wanna thank PineappleQueen224 for the pick up line. you had great ones, but i loved the pun the best.

sorry for lack of updates, i've just been having a little time to myself, but i realise that writing honestly makes me feel a lot better, so i came back. i miss y'all when i leave.

um, how are y'all going? i wanna make sure ur hydrated and getting enough sleep. have a snack, go for a walk (with a mask to stay safe) if you can, and I'll see y'all later! :)