Post by Gideon Prewett on Aug 29, 2012 22:48:06 GMT -5
All things considered, Gideon was quite glad that he was getting to know Lyle Malarkey.
It wasn’t exactly, you know, a perfect or easy friendship. Gideon was still a little unsure about how to handle the whole… fact that Lyle was gay (he didn’t want to say ‘the gay thing’, all right?); it wasn’t like he knew any other blokes who liked blokes (well, other than Stefan Capper, but they weren’t exactly friends) and his mum had never taught him about them, so he just… he wasn’t sure if there was a certain… way to act around them. He wasn’t trying to be… what was the word? Prejudiced? He wasn’t trying to be that, but he couldn’t deny that the idea of two blokes getting it on made him a little uncomfortable. Then again, Gideon had always liked girls. He was definitely attracted to them, but it was more than that. He knew that one day he’d marry a nice girl and have a family with her. He supposed it was the same thing with people like Lyle (and Stefan), other than having kids. Unless they could adopt. Could they even get married? He had no idea, and frankly was too shy and awkward about the whole thing to actually ask Lyle.
Then again, it wasn’t so bad with Lyle. He wasn’t like… like how Gideon had expected a… gay… guy to be. What he had expected, he wasn’t too sure; maybe someone with a more feminine walk or mannerisms or something. Lyle wasn’t like that. Lyle liked Quidditch, and Lyle liked boxing, and he talked like a bloke and walked like a bloke and acted like a bloke and he totally was a bloke. He just… was a bloke who happened to like other blokes. In the long run, Gideon figured, there was nothing really wrong with it – whatever made a person happy was what mattered, right? It just… was new to him, and he wasn’t quite sure how… how to process it. Sometimes he wanted to ask Lyle questions, like if it was a choice, or if he just felt it, or how he knew what blokes he liked and what blokes he didn’t, or what would happen if Lyle ever wanted kids, but… well, he didn’t want to accidentally offend him. So he kept it to himself. He supposed that knowing which blokes you were attracted to was just like him knowing what girls he was attracted to and what girls he wasn’t; too much thinking on it all made his head hurt, though, and he actually did stop pondering it so much after a few rounds.
There was also the fact that Lyle had suffered some pretty traumatic stuff lately, and it definitely got into his head. The first time Gideon had shown him how to box, he’d scared the stuffing out of him; the older boy had a full-on panic attack and all Gideon could do was try to calm him down. At first he’d stepped toward him, thinking to put his hands on his shoulders and help him sit down, but after he’d taken a step he wondered if maybe that would only scare him more – Gideon was a big guy, after all, and physical measures might not have been the best idea, no matter how helpful the intention. He even thought about Stunning Lyle, to see if maybe getting knocked out for a few minutes would calm his body down, but decided against that: pulling a wand on someone in a panic probably wasn’t a good idea. And what would happen when he woke up? So Gideon had stood there, slightly behind the bag of sand he was using as a punching bag, hoping he’d look smaller and less threatening if he shielded his body somewhat. And he’d waited for Lyle to come down on his own. It was only afterwards that Gideon learned Lyle had an anti-anxiety potion prescribed to him in his bag; it was definitely information he could have used prior to frightening the wits out of him, but at least he knew for if it ever happened again.
So far, it hadn’t. Instead of starting up again, Gideon encouraged Lyle to give it a try. He showed him the proper stance, offering corrections verbally rather than moving his limbs himself to get everything in the right spot. He’d shown Lyle how to swing and hit with the most power, and he’d shown him how to use less force but more speed – which was Gideon’s personal preference. Fabian was the powerhouse.
In the weeks they’d been at it, Lyle had definitely gotten better at boxing. Gideon was actually impressed with how quick he’d learned. And Gideon was hopeful that he’d gotten better in other aspects of his life too, but he didn’t know him well enough to be able to tell for certain. Gabby seemed positive about it, but she was positive about everything.
He was supposed to be meeting up with him today in the boathouse for another round of boxing. Gideon was already there, and was setting up the bag of sand and pulling out his gloves while he waited for him. Since he only had the one pair, he’d been practicing the Gemini Charm to make another for Lyle. His first attempt had been a disaster, missing three fingers on one hand and the thumb and most of the palm on the other, but he’d been getting better. It wasn’t all bad; it was a NEWT-level spell that he only knew because his mum used it at home sometimes for food and stuff, so the fact that Gideon could do it at all was good enough, he figured. “Geminio,” he cast at his gloves, and a slightly-misshapen and off-colour pair appeared beside them. Slightly better than the pair he’d made the other day, but still not perfect.
The door to the boathouse opened, and Gideon greeted Lyle with a grin as he tossed his gloves to him. “They’re almost perfect. Sorta,” he said, rolling his eyes a bit. “I think once I have it down I can try making another one of these” he patted the makeshift punching bag “so we can both have one. What’d’ya think?”
Gideon thought it was a nice gesture, at least.
LYLE MALARKEY
