What's Wrong With This Picture? [Open]

Richard didn't like to look into the past all that much. All that laid there was mistakes and deaths. It was times like these that he thoroughly enjoyed walking around with his hands in his pants pockets, numbing himself to the world was the bitter cold nipped at his face and exposed skin. It was freezing outside, how could anyone really be outside in this weather? The ground covered in snow, freshly laid. He tried to smile as he stepped on the flakes that crunched under his feet as he trekked towards the Lake.

He was surprised to see the Lake unfrozen, then again they lived in a magical world where anything was truly possible if you had the imagination for it. He'd ask Bruce to teach him about the spells here when he went back during next break. Of course, he'd probably forget but that was a different story for a different day. Dick raised his face, staring out into the lake. He felt a bit lonely, the only one here in the world. He almost wanted to go home with Bruce. He knew he couldn't and he knew always got like this around Christmas.

His parents would never be with him again for the holiday and he felt every bit of it. The guilt, the blame, the questions. They all nagged at him. Could he have stopped their deaths? The raven haired teen bit his lip as he watched the lake's waters churn. They churned almost as badly as his stomach did when he thought about everything that could have been.

What should have been.

Laura was walking around due to she wasn't really talking to anyone. And she was wondering where Dick was. She wasn't use to not see him around. Which made her kind of worried. Though she was also telling herself it was probably nothing, and that he was just walking around. But she decided she was going to do the same thing, and if she would see him, she'd be sure to make sure he was alright.

Though she was thinking about her brother and her mother and father back home. She had a wonderful time during the break.. But she always ended up missing them more when she had to leave each year. She didn't like being away from her mother all that much. But it helped that Kristopher was one of the teachers here.. She relied on him much more then she showed it herself. Even if he was her brother.. He was more like a father then a brother.

A father she never had.

She sighed as she continued to walk outside of Hogwarts. Her brown eyes gazing the scenery. Though she stopped when she saw Dick, which made her eyes widened a little.. And her heart beat a bit faster. Which made her blush a little. She was staring at her crush. For some reason, Dick was the one of the first friends she made here.. And because of that, she wasn't able to hold onto her grudge against men.. Well.. her grudge was only lifted away from him cause of how nice and kind he was.

But even she knew she had trouble still getting along with men.

Suddenly she got out of her little trance and walked slowly to Dick.

"Hey Dick." She said softly as she smiled. She didn't speak loud due to she had saw he was in deep thought.

Bruce was a nice man. He taught his adopted soon how to hear without making it obvious you heard them. He knew how to defend himself. He could tell even by steps who was near him. It was nice, not really sometimes, being raised by a paranoid rich man. The steps were light, arched a bit. Obviously female and younger so it wasn't a professor. Shoes that were comfortable and light? Definitely a tomboyish girl. He could appreciate that.

"Hey Dick."

The raven haired teen looked behind himself, seeing Laura walking up. He felt a smile, subtle, smile grace his mouth as he waved lightly, shoving his hands quickly back into their pockets when he was done. He turned back, trying to stare back into the Lake. He was at a loss at what to say. What could he said without sounding completely stupid?

"Hey Lu." He whispered. Might as well say hi...? Gah, he was so stupid!

Laura seemed to smile a bit wider when Dick looked at her.

[Only admins are allowed to see this image]

Though she wanted to hurt herself when she realized how big her smile was. She didn't like it when she slipped up like that. It seemed very revealing of her feelings for him. But she made herself think he just saw it as a friendly smile.

Please... don't get to suspicious of this smile.

She walked a bit closer to him, keeping her friendly smile on. She looked down at the water when she was right by him. Though her smile slowly faded when she remembered how Dick looked like before he saw her.

"Everything alright? You seemed like you were in deep thought.." She asked lightly, wanting to know if her friend.. crush was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Richard didn't look at Laura, he couldn't, honestly. He'd just mess up and do something wrong. She'd march off and be upset with him. Wasn't everyone like that to him now in days? No one wanted to speak with him and he felt God awfully alone...

"How are you? I didn't think you'd be out here... It's kind of cold. Really cold." Smoothly done, Dick. He berated himself. The young wizard bit his lip as he kept his eyes glued to the Lake.

Laura frowned a bit more when he didn't look at her. Which made her worry a little bit more about him. But not wanting to intrude on his privacy, she kept quiet and only nodded. Though it would not keep her worry away.

She tilted her head as she looked back at the lake when he asked his question.

"I'm warm.. and I find it nicer at night then morning. Call me crazy." She laughed softly. "It also helps if you don't think about it." She said softly, remembering when she use to complain about the cold.. But then her step-father told her how she is cold because she is thinking about it too much.

"Plus it helps that a friend is here."

Richard nodded along with his current crush. She seemed to know a thing or two about making the nights seem a bit... better and less alone. He really liked her for it. Sometimes he just wished she liked him. Sure she went to the ball with him but Dick offhandedly did it. Going to balls meant nothing, he'd done that with so many girls it wasn't even funny.

How did you even get around to telling a girl you like her? Or how did that even work.

"That's true. Dya used to say that when we were traveling... Moras make life worth living." He looked over at Laura, with a half smile. He felt tired and just over all empty but he was happy she was here.

"Mora means friend in Romani."

Laura was confused when Dick suddenly spoke in Romani. She then felt bad when she had to bed told what it meant. She didn't like it when she didn't understand others. Cause sometimes it would hurt the person. Though she was really interested in Romani. Enough to where she wanted to learn the language.

Though she was now debating if she should ask him to teach her or not. It wouldn't be a bad thing. It would be pretty good due to they would probably be able to talk in private when they needed to.

But before she knew it, she spoke.

"I would like to learn Romani. So I can understand more of the words you speak." She suddenly said, before feeling her chest twist.

Why did I just ask that out loud!?

Richard couldn't help the heat that rose to his cheeks. Romani might have been his first language but honestly... he hadn't had practice in such a long time. Did he even say the words correctly anymore? His mother would have called him her little Robin and laugh as his father would recite the words over again.

Dick couldn't help it. His hands tightened in his pockets as he squeezed them shut. He'd love someone besides Bruce to know Romani, have someone converse with him in his natural tongues. But... who he do the language justice? The acrobat opened his eyes and let out a breath. Sometimes... life could be...

"Da, Rakli." The Romani boy spoke, looking back towards the Lake, "It's not written, you cannot write in it. It's purely vocal... If you attempt to write it, most of the words are lost in translation."

((It's true and I'm guessing with some of these words. Romani is a mixture of a lot of languages. You'll come to find that soon enough.))

Laura watched how Dick seemed to tense up when she suddenly asked her question. This made her bite her lip, finding it horrible she suddenly asked that. She didn't want to make him upset. And now she was fearing he would get mad at her now.

She stood there as she waited to hear his response, hoping it wouldn't be too bad of a no. She hated this flaw about her.. She always spoke too fast without thinking. And it bugged her tremendously.

Though relief filled her entire body when he spoke and started to teach her.

"Da, Rakli ..?" She repeated, finding herself not really able to properly say it. Which made her show a expression of disapproval. "May I ask why?" She asked after he spoke about it.. Though she wanted to kick herself. That was probably the most horrible question.

"Da Rakli. Yes, Non-Roma girl." The words felt like lyrics to a song. They belonged in the throat and came out with a slight tone. He couldn't help but have his lips morph into a smile, a nice and honest one. This was... nice. He liked this.

"Because Romani is a spoken language handed down from a group or travelers known as Gypsies. Yeah... I'm a gypsy. I guess you really never saw that coming." Richard chuckled a bit roughly, trying to bubble down the sudden claustrophobia he had after admitting his blood standing was horrible next to a pureblood.

"Therefore... you speak it. You don't write it. It's as simple as that."

Laura smiled back the moment she saw Dick smiled. She laughed softly, before she listened completely to what he explained to her. Though it really caught her interest when he mentioned Gypsies.

"Gypsies? Really? That's.. cool!" She said as her smile grew a bit more. She said with all honesty. Even her face showed she was more interested in Romani now. "I really like learning about different languages and families." She admitted.

She then nodded to him when he explained how it was purely said and not written. Something she understood quite well. Though now she felt this really excited feeling, a feeling where she really wanted to learn a lot about Gypsies and Romani.

"If it's alright with you.. I will love to learn more." She said with a honest smile.

Dick's sheepish face fault, letting confusion run rampant. She thought that was cool? She wasn't going to scorn him for it? Then her statement about being so excited to learn about them twisted at his heart. He didn't honestly know that muh o his heritage. It was lost with his parents...

"I can't teach you much." Dick admitted, throwing a down casted look at the ground. He didn't want to upset her but...

"My parents died when I was eight... I barely remember how these words sound coming from other speakers. I really don't ren rememeber most of my own culture." The wizard wated to curl into himself, hide and take the blame for his parents deaths. It had been his fault after all. He should have just known better...

"I can give you basics but..." It'll be painfully stupid, "It won't be much. I'm sorry."

Laura's smile went away the moment she saw how Dick's expression changed drastically. Did she say something wrong? Great.. now she probably upsetted him.

This is why I shouldn't just blurt things out. She thought to herself.

She tilted her head a little when he started to speak.

"My parents died when I was eight... I barely remember how these words sound coming from other speakers. I really don't rememeber most of my own culture."

Her eyes widened at what he just told her.. He had never told her this, which made her also feel upset and bad about asking him. And before she could reply, he had talked again, telling her it wouldn't be much.

She bit her lip before she walked a bit closer to him and just hugged him immediately. She didn't know what to say, but she hoped he was getting the message.

It took Dick's mind a moment to catch up to what was happening. Arms around him, holding him tightly. No words were spoken but he understood she was therefor comfort, not to be nosy and mean. The raven haired teen moved his arms around his now hurting crush. He was selfish and stupid, he should have known that would be her reaction. Stupid, stupid Richard...

"I can tell you what I know. That's all... But maybe we could learn together?" The teen whispered into the hug, it wasn't necessarily an invite for something deeper. Richard almost wished he could have made it that. But this wasn't he time and place. He just wanted to make the moment of depressing feelings go away and leave him with a nice and calm way I thinking.

Laura smiled softly when she him hug her back. She really was wishing she hadn't mentioned his family.. But she didn't know that his parents weren't around. Though.. she could understand a part of his pain. Since her real dad was gone. But she really could less now about her dad..

She smiled when she heard him speak again, and ask his question.

"I would like that, and I would like to help you learn more about them." She whispered as she slowly pulled away from him.

"Okay." It was lame but he carried a stupid, sloppy smile that he wore around Laura. He couldn't help it at this point. He tugged his jacket closer to himself as she pulled away, leaving him feeling a bit colder than he'd honestly like to think about.

"How was your break?" He asked, innocently enough. He knew she went home with the Charms professor... Kristopher Bell, was it? He couldn't remember it, he should have though. Charms was one of his favorite courses for obvious (and less obvious) reasons.

[[OOC .... I'm sorry for this horrible late reply!]]

Laura looked back at the lake as a little bit of silence fell. Which left her to her thoughts. Thinking about how she would be able to help him with learning about his family. Would she be able to do it? And would she be able to learn more about him? Something she kind of wanted to do in a long time.

Though she was taken out of her thoughts when he suddenly asked her a question.

"It was good. I always enjoyed spending Christmas with my family. Especially when I am able to their see their smiles when they got something they liked." She said with a little smile. "It snowed, which was exciting." She laughed a little, before looking at him. "Though I wish I were able to send you a letter to wish you a Merry Christmas."