ﾟ･stars were made for falling ﾟ･ (original)

13- the judge's scales

act four- and you were something i was not prepared for, a brand new distraction

It was almost two full weeks until Aldrich contacted them about another nightlight, on November 10th, and during that time, everyone took it somewhat easy. Of course, the day after Casper cut his hair, Liz did freak out, but only a little. In fact, Leo was somewhat proud of how it looked in better lighting- he hadn't completely fucked up Casper's hair, though it could use some work. He didn't try and fix it up, though, out of fear of making it worse. He still reminded Leo of a dandelion, with the way his thick hair just puffed up around his head. If anything, the effect was worse with shorter hair.

Liz only yelled at them for a bit, calming down once Miles pointed out it didn't look half bad. Halley even complimented Casper on it, remarking on her own, self-done, choppy haircut. Truly, that was the only good thing Leo's knife had ever done, he was sure.

Casper, though Leo could tell he appreciated Halley's compliment, didn't really care about Liz's criticism. For the next couple of days, he kept catching Casper running his hands through it, a quietly pleased look on his face.

Something else Leo noticed the next day was the immediate strange looks he garnered from both Halley and Ivan, only making his heart sink to his shoes; so, she'd told him how he'd cracked up at the convent. He just tried to ignore them, knowing he needed to apologize, but not wanting to take any attention away from Casper. He knew slipping away to talk to both of them would be difficult with the way their chores were set up, but he needed to at least talk to Halley. She was someone whose opinion had slowly begun to mean the world to him, and he couldn't stand the idea of her hating him, even if he somewhat deserved it.

He kept his mouth shut for a few days, avoiding both of them like the plague to a degree that Casper finally started to notice it. They were in the greenhouse, watering the plants when he finally turned to Leo, an impatient hand on his hip. "Okay, something's bothering you, I can tell. You wanna talk about it?"

Leo cringed a little as he answered. "...We kinda already did?"

Casper furrowed his brow in thought for a moment, before a sudden wave of clarity washed over him. "Oh. Oh, that . You still haven't talked to her about that?"

Leo shrugged, feeling strangely bashful about the whole thing. "I dunno, she's... hard to talk to. You used to be, but you asserted yourself so much that you stopped. Halley is... I don't know." He suddenly couldn't meet Casper's eyes, staring instead at the plants lined up on a table behind him.

Something in Casper's mood seemed to shift, but it was so slight, Leo could have sworn he imagined it. Maybe it was the way he stood up straighter, or maybe his shoulders dropped just a little bit. His expression became just that much more distant, his eyes just that much more unreadable. Whatever it was, it wasn't lost on Leo- in fact, it only made him feel worse.

"You should go talk to her." Was he imagining the chilly edge in Casper's voice? He could've been, but it was impossible to tell.

Leo still couldn't bring himself to look at him, almost flinching. "God, that bad, huh? I mean, we're doing chores-"

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Casper shrugged as if it didn't matter either way to him, but Leo could tell something about this mattered. Maybe he'd reminded him of Liz by not apologizing? Whatever it was, he was going to try and make up for it as soon as he could, and if that meant running off to go apologize to Halley, he would.

"Okay, if you think so. I'll be right back, I promise." He tried to make his voice as reassuring as possible, but it didn't really have an effect on Casper, who just shrugged again, turning his back nonchalantly on Leo.