Athrym shifted the dish in her hands, feeling awkward and slightly humbled as she made her way to the sporting grounds of the school. It was foriegn to her here, an alien world made of medicine balls, running shoes and sweat. Looking around like a lost banderpup, she wondered if Angus would be here.

So far, she'd tried the boys dorm, the library, the lunchroom and the church. It seemed like this was her last port of call before she dumped the whole idea. Apologising was not her forte, but the blonde felt she owed the brunette this. Standing still in front of the running oval, she called out dubiously.

"Mister Worthing?"

Angus was not on the running oval, as he had just finished practising for the day. His time was going down, marginally and he was feeling quite pleased by it. He was just changing back into his uniform when a fellow runner popped his head in the door.

"Angus? There's a... girl... looking for you." He said, looking understably confused. "Outside."

"What does she look like?" He asked, confused, though perhaps less perturbed by the idea.

"Blonde." He replied.

Angus wondered whether he should run away or go outside and face his punishment like a man. He opted to expire with grace.

"I'm going out." He said, standing. "I may be some time."

He walked out with his head held high. His arms were stiff and moving to the beat of his step. He could not imagine any potential meeting going brilliantly well, not after their last one. He felt some serenity in the inevitability of it, so by the time he was in front of Athrym, he felt quite calm.

"Miss Bruthgrave, good evening." Angus said, bowing.

Lifting her head as the boy approached her, Athrym nodded once.

"Mister Worthing. Good evening, yes. Yes its rather good. Um...I came..." Pausing, she bounced the plate on her hand and grimaced uncomfortably, before holding it out.

"I came to apologize. For the other day. You know...anyway...I know you like food. It's roast chicken and vegetables." She waited awkwardly, arms holding out the tray like it was going to explode.

Athrym's response was not one that Angus had been expecting. Luckily, unlike most sensible people, Angus was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. It wasn't the most conventional of apologies but Athrym was not the most conventional of girls, either.

"Thank you, for the apology... and the chicken." Angus said, taking the plate with two hands. He was rather hungry. "I, too, am sorry, if my lack of social restraint caused distress."

He was also sorry that distress had sent him flying into the air. He was aware that it took two people to have a relationship of any sort, whether that be an aquaintance, a lover or the best-friend-to-your-boyfriend. He took a bite of sweet potato from the plate.

"It's tasty." He said, smiling. It looked a bit forced but at least he was trying.

Thankfully handing over the plate, she waved a hand, laughing nervously.

"No, its alright. I should be used to you by now. But...I was just...I was having a clocking bad day. Things are...horrid at the moment." Looking at him, she shrugged.

"You were there at lunch today, you saw it." Taking a deep breath, she laughed again, blinking away the sudden hot sting of tears. Again. Clearing her throat, she gestured to the chicken with a nod.

"Right, well...glad thats sorted. I guess, I'll see you at lunch." Her voice was thick and words quick. Too much had happened in too few days, and it was getting to her. She needed to go, now, before she burst into tears in front of Angus.

Angus actually did not know that things were awful. As far as he knew, they were going well. Engagements had been confirmed, no one was against them, marriage was going to ensue (and that was certainly an institution Angus felt intimidated by). As far as he had known, everything was great until he'd been sent sailing like a football through the kind and slippery air.

It could not be said that Angus particularly liked Athrym. He didn't know her well and their recent interactions hadn't been positive. He didn't dislike her either, he just considered that their relationship was based around mutual knowledge of Nauleth. Admittedly very different kinds of knowledge.

He couldn't bring himself to let her walk away upset.

"Athrym, you don't have to go right away, if you don't want to." He said, feeling quite awkward. "Are you alright?"

The blonde tried hard not to cry, pressing her lips together and looking at her hands, taking a quick breath through her nose and closing her eyes. She wanted to say 'yes, everything is fine thankyou. Goodbye', but she couldn't speak. Opening her mouth, then closing it again, she shook her head suddenly, putting a hand over her face as though shielding her eyes from the sun.

How clocking embarassing, she thought as quite suddenly, the blue eyed galdor found herself in tears. Unwilling to look up again at Angus, she found her voice.

"No, not really." Athrym said in a broken hoarse whisper, trying to break off the crying before it got out of control.

Angus wondered if this was like the hell he'd heard about in fiction. Perhaps an elaborate joke at his expense. Athrym Bruthgrave did not cry. She did not have tear ducts. She did not have any of the basic emotions that regular galdori did because she was a specially trained soldier sent to the school by the government. Angus occasionally wondered if her mother just hadn't been told and that Lord Bruthgrave had organised the entire thing. Nauleth was her only exception because Nauleth was her partner in this venture and they had been made to be equally brilliant, violent and uncuddly.

As a cuddly person, Angus wasn't sure if he should play to his personality or be careful of getting beaten up for trying to hug the hedgehog before him. She looked terribly upset. She looked so upset that it made Angus feel upset. Girls weren't supposed to cry, especially ones that Angus had complicated feelings about to begin with.

Angus' panic swelled and subsided. He was a sportsman. He dealt with unusual circumstances on the field. He was on a field now. This was no different than the time he'd stopped an imminent goal with an aerial spin kick that had torn a ligament in his leg as he'd landed. Only this time, there was no ball. There was Athrym.

"I think we should walk a while." Angus said, looking about to check just how many people were present.

There weren't many but this still wasn't something he thought they should see. He offered his arm to Athrym, holding the plate in his left.

"Everything seems better when you are walking. Helps release endorphins, even if it doesn't solve anything." He continued, his voice lower and kinder than it usually was. He did not sound ebullient today. "A problem shared is halved and all. Come on, I'll walk you through the trees, it will be lovely."

It would be lovely and no one would say a word because a man and a woman on a promenade wasn't scandalous if they both dated men.

Nodding, the blonde sniffed quietly, taking his arm with one hand and wiping her cheeks with the fingertips of the other. She refused to look at him, embarassed at herself, afraid of seeing him smirking in some sort of strange triumph.

Walking quietly, she laughed a little between sniffs.

"This is...different." She said, shaking her head.

Angus nodded, smiling a bit thinly. He was terribly lost. He had no idea how to reply. Women were a mystery to him, especially ones like Athrym. She was a cryptic species and he was a very conspicuous social animal. The monkey to her tawny owl.

"Mmm." He said, wondering what Athrym wanted and why she had come to see him.

Did she want to talk? Was she truly sorry, had she changed at all? Angus didn't know her well enough to intuit her mind. She was like Nauleth but he had no feel for her moods.

He really wanted to take another bit of the food she'd given him but his free hand now belonged to her arm and he didn't want to be so incredibly rude as to take it away.

Thinking as she walked, Athrym finally found her voice.

"There is something going on with Naul. I don't know what, or why, because he won't clocking tell me." Pausing their walk, the blonde shook her head again, then looked at the boy beside her.

"He's hiding something, which he says he can't tell me about. I trust him Angus, I really do. But its clocking eating at me. Ever since we came back from Vienda, since he was interupted in the library by some professor, he's been different. He's tense, and short-tempered." Letting go of Angus' arm, she wiped both cheeks, before crossing her arms.

"More short tempered than usual. His whole field screams there is something wrong, but..." Sighing, she found herself crying again.

"I just can't understand it. I trust that he will tell me when he can, but the strain is showing. How can I talk to him, when I know he's hiding something. Lying, to hide something. I'm finding myself falling back into old habits, for example, the lunch room fiasco."

Angus felt quite lost. He hadn't noticed much of a change in Nauleth at all, in his mind the man was always like that. In the same way that he thought Athrym was just being Athrym. He obviously hadn't thought about it very far. He took the opportunity to shove a piece of pumpkin into his mouth.

"Um, Athrym, that doesn't sound like you do entirely trust what he's doing..." Angus said, plate now in two hands, mouth still munching away in case it was his final meal. "I haven't spoken to him much lately, I guess I had no idea. He gets into moods sometimes."

Angus had indeed noticed the fiasco at the lunchtable but he hadn't thought of it as an isolated incident. As much as he loved Nauleth, and he did, they had been friends for quite a significant part of Angus' young life, Angus wasn't sure how he felt about him anymore. Nostalgia was bright in his memory but he feared that it might tarnish. He didn't like that Athrym was now brushing off what she had done to him as a consequence of Naul's percieved neglect.

"I could talk to him for you..." Angus offered.

Yes, that much he could do.

The blonde gave Angus a hard look for a moment, before wiping her cheeks.

"I don't trust what he's doing Angus, because I don't know what he's doing. If its dangerous, something could happen to him, and I wouldn't even know what! I've already clocking had the 'is there another girl' talk with him, so don't worry, that embarassment has come and gone." She was angry now. Angry at herself for getting upset in front of Angus. Angry for accepting to take a walk with him. Stupid emotions. Wiping away the tears, even as more replaced them, she shook her head.

"No, don't talk to him. He'll think I'm being nosey and that I don't trust him. I trust him, I just dont trust...what he's doing." Running her fingers through her hair, she took a few deep breaths.

"Whatever the case, its something I'll deal with. I'll fit the circle." She mumbled, finding herself falling more and more into her analogy lately. Square pegs just didn't belong in this situation. Offering Angus a half smile, to show him she wasn't going to do something horrid, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

"I hope dinner is better than lunch."

It sounded like Athrym trusted Nauleth as far as she could throw him, without magic anyway. Angus wasn't familiar with what Nauleth was doing but he didn't know why Naul would choose to withold from his fiance. He didn't know what she meant by fitting the circle. He was comfortable socially, he often found it difficult to understand that people like Athrym didn't choose non-conformity, even if she seemed quite attached to her space.

He ate a piece of chicken to remind himself that she'd apologised.

"Yes, it's nice." He said, trying to smile at the joke. He wasn't sure he felt like joking about it yet. "I'm sorry, I don't know what he's doing but I could have told you there's no other girls. You're the first I've... Well."

Angus hadn't seen Nauleth courting before. Maybe drunkenly flirting, maybe. That might have been himself, not Naul.

"I'm sure it'll all work out fine." Angus said, trying to sound reassuring.

He decided he probably should bring it up with Naul, later.