FCA: farrago

two

"Harry?"

September 1.

Week 1: Thursday.

Hearing the muffled sound of his best friend's voice, Harry rose from under the water of his bathtub, taking in a gasp of air. He looked over at the wall clock, confused-what time was it? Seven fifteen in the morning? How weird... that was later than usual.

"Let me guess." He said flatly, without taking his eyes off the clock. "You stayed up late playing Last of Us again."

As per expected, his best friend stood at the doorway, leaning against it with his arms crossed. Harry saw him immediately. Wearing a clean cut uniform and a gentle smile on his face: Markus Thornton. Tall, green eyed, strong, with light brown hair styled in a way that looked almost as if he had just gotten out of bed and decided he was good to go. He shrugged and laughed softly, smiling from ear to ear. "You know me so well. Did you have a nice sleep?"

With a shake of his head, Harry grabbed a towel from the nearby rack and rose from the bathtub. Markus looked away as he wrapped the towel around himself, but honestly, Harry probably wouldn't have minded. He didn't really care much about anything at all, actually. It was Markus who did, perhaps an awful lot more than needed.

"Oh no, of course not." the dark haired Harry replied, rolling his eyes. "In fact, I hated it so much that I decided I'd start the day off with a bath, because that's not relaxing at all, is it?" Harry shrugged. "So thank you for coming in to ruin it, like you ruin everything."

Markus just shrugged off Harry's blatant sarcasm with a smile. "I can't help it, Harry. We're gonna be late if you don't get up now."

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. Markus was nagging-as usual. The brunette put his hands on his hips and shook his head, staring at him as though he were a lost cause. (Which, maybe, he was, or so Harry so often told himself.)

"Then do us all a favor and move aside." Harry patted Markus' shoulder, and walked out of the bathroom. Just as the brunette turned around, Harry grabbed his uniform from the closet and put it on quickly (however, notably taking his time with the buttons).

Markus couldn't help but smile. Harry never changed.

————————————————————————————-

The sun was shining bright that morning, making the nearby waters glisten and practically sparkle. Even Harry, who didn't really like anything save for art and some other things unrelated to it, like swimming and videogames, loved watching the water each morning before going to school. He was lucky to have lived so close to something so beautiful, he figured.

Harry and Markus' footsteps slowly paced forward on the pavement. It seemed like they still had some idle time left before school started, which, of course, greatly annoyed Harry, because if they could have five minutes to talk on the way, that meant he could have spent five precious minutes in the tub after all. But then again, it wasn't as though Markus would ever allow that. He cared too much to let that happen.

Harry sometimes worried that his best friend cared too much. That it had come to the point where he allowed others, especially his friends, to trample on him as though he were a doormat. His care, Harry often thought to himself, would be the end of him. One day it would run dry, and if he kept pushing himself like this, there would soon be none of it left.

But Harry preferred not to think that way.

Markus was good.

And speaking of Markus...