"So I'm not seeing things, right, the hiccup is in fact that my crush is not entirely unreciprocated?" Whoops that was too much again wasn't it. "I, I mean, it's fine if not of course, just, apparently the uh power thing seemed to be a big sticking point somewhere and I'm gonna stop talking now."

"I... no, that is what's going on. I just. Don't really know what to do about it."

You kiss me it seems that the Pevensie boys are not the kind to kiss first and date later.

"The standard thing to do when two people have acknowledged they are into each other is a date." Aaaaand now there's a part of him that wants to wait for Peter to be the one to ask him out and he's not sure if this is some kind of gender role thing of how he's playing a girl here or what uh. He's. Well, if Peter doesn't ask him out after that he will, how about that?

"Maybe?? But - it feels like if I go out somewhere with you it could - turn into something - not that I'm completely opposed to turning into -"

He takes a drink of water.

"I'm not really good at this part, either?"

"Is this the kind of situation where you want to—talk it out, figure out what you do and don't want, see where we go from there, or—is it the kind of situation where you want to just do a thing and see what happens?"

"I don't know," he says. "I don't want to talk about it. I certainly don't want to do anything without thinking about it. Also, I don't want to think about it. I would like to hide in a blanket until my feelings make sense with no input on my end."

"If it helps any that makes me want to kiss you. I can't imagine it does but it felt like the kind of thing that you might wish to know.

"It seems like maybe playing it by ear might in fact be the way to go? Like, you know, maybe you'll find out you're really annoyed by the way I laugh or something. We don't need to figure anything out today, especially not right now, our acquaintance is one day old, we have time."

"...it doesn't help, but it doesn't hurt, exactly. And I've heard you laugh. But - yeah, let's be friends before we go anywhere too exciting. Thanks."

"Excellent. Oh, also, do let me know what Susan will tease you with later, even if it's just a knowing look."

"Oh, she's got nothing on me, I've behaved exactly like myself the whole time. Ed she'll likely tease viciously."

"Delightful, I look forward to it."

The drawback of this "taking their time" strategy, however, is that he feels even more tempted to kiss Peter when he's adorable than he was before because of how the tantalizing possibility is just out of reach.

Even when he is not being constantly interrupted by revelations or Tom Riddle, Peter turns out to eat extremely slowly. He apologizes for this not less than twice during the meal, which stretches on long enough that by its conclusion it's very nearly time to head out for morning assembly.

That's okay, Peter continues to be endlessly charming and Pete is not going to complain about getting to spend time with him.

"Now I need to figure out where class is, though. Or, uh, morning assembly I guess?"

"Assembly, yes! It's in the amphitheater, same one as the entrance speech - or, were you here for that, it seemed like you might have come in later?"

"Oh I came in just in time for that, cool, I know where it is. Does everyone go?"

"Yeah, gets us all in one place so we can all hear whatever there is to say at the same time." General movement towards amphitheater?

Sure, general movement towards amphitheater. What could there possibly be to say to everyone, though, that wasn't said yesterday. Is this a boarding school thing. Is this a UK thing. Is this a both thing. He guesses he'll find out!

Students are filing in. Some are shoving each other and joking; others shamble along, zombielike due to the early hour.

One of them looks like he could very easily be performing cartwheels and is refraining solely out of respect for his schoolmates.

He waves to Tintin to let him know he is not being ignored but look at Peter and says, "It seems my presence is requested. I'll see you later?"

"I'm hardly going to stop you!"

He grins but in lieu of saying anything to that, on an impulse, he climbs onto his tiptoes so that he can kiss Peter on the cheek then immediately whirl around and run over to Tintin.

bfxwhuh?!!?

"Congratulations, I think! But I thought they were meant to be seven mysteries, did they grow so much in the retelling?"