[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/221204/b28cd5d0c5bdc800d209a88aaa425466.png[/img]
[img]https://media.tenor.com/9dNdMvmsf0IAAAAC/harris-dickinson-harris.gif[/img]
[sub][color=gray]Location: Nightshade Commons
Mentions: [color=#F72D84]Vincent Truelove[/color]
Interactions: [color=#A63346]Caleb[/color] & [color=#899EB7]Charlie[/color] Valentine [@Danvers][/color][/sub][/center]
[hr][hr]
[indent][color=gray]
Theodore Douglas had realized when he was young, that the look of a vampire was one of poised disinterest. A gentle pout, and an air of nonchalance that could only be achieved by caring far too much about what everyone else thought. He had perfected this performance over the years, a lack of care so casual, it was anything but. He watched Headmaster Lightwood with cold eyes and wondered what secrets he hid. Not the ominous, magical type, but the illicit, scandalous type. He’d always suspected the wizard to have been the kind of man who woke up in a variety of beds when he was younger. 

When they were finally released, Teddy headed straight for the exit, moving through the crowd with a touch of vampiric speed. He’d been at Hawthorne long enough to know that he’d been placed in Nightshade, and the overwhelming scent of witch blood was beginning to give him a headache. 

He breathed a sigh of relief as he freed himself from the crowd, and began making his way towards his dorm. He would never say it out loud, but he had missed the solemn, stone walls of Hawthorne. He’d missed the coppery, electric smell of magic, and the sense that adventures were around any corner. Douglas Keep was old and tired, and filled with ancient vampires who’d grown so very boring in their old age.

If he was being honest with himself, he’d missed Charlie too. Perhaps the most. That troubled him. 

He’d heard of the disappearances over the summer, and his grandmother had warned him to keep an eye out at school. She felt something on the horizon, and she was expecting more reports than usual. The whispers seemed to have invoked a special kind of paranoia, and she expected him to help assuage it. Needless to say, this was not a year where he could afford distractions.

And yet, he found himself distracted.

His mind conjured the memory of his fingers running through dark hair, of lips pressed together in the quiet darkness of an empty classroom. All summer, that moment had lingered on the edges of his mind, never too far from the forefront. He knew why he couldn’t shake it, he was no fool. He couldn’t pursue that fantasy though. His family would never approve, and the school would gossip, and surely, Charlie would grow bored of him quickly. He was certain that anyone who got too close to him would see through the facade, and be disgusted by what they found.

Teddy wrinkled his nose as he walked by Truelove and the acrid smoke he blew out, but he did no more than scowl. He’d learned years ago that the smell of cigarettes was just a fact of life at Hawthorne. The smell had made it into the Commons as well, which meant only one thing: the Valentines had beat him to their room.

He entered the fifth year dorm to see Caleb helping his brother off the ground. He noticed the open window, and the cold breeze, and his suitcases, open and empty on the ground. His eyes darted to Charlie, the usual suspect, and suddenly, he wasn’t sure he’d missed the fucker all that much in the first place. [color=facade]“You can’t be serious,”[/color] Teddy muttered, beelining for the window and leaning out into the rain. Strewn across the rooftops, like very expensive trash, were his clothes, perhaps the only things he valued more than his fangs. Without a second thought, he clambered out onto the roof, moving with supernatural speed to scoop up the now soaking wet pieces of his wardrobe. When he came back through the window, he was dripping water onto the floor, eyes narrowed as he tossed a pile of waterlogged fabric onto the floor. 

[color=facade]“Some of those were irreplaceable, you know. Do you think I built that wardrobe overnight? That was a decade of carefully curated fashion choices that you just drowned, mercilessly, might I add,”[/color] The vampire glared at Charlie, though his anger was somewhat undercut by the fact that he looked like a hitchhiker who’d gotten lost in the rain. He began sifting through the pile, in hopes that there was [i]anything[/i] that had managed to stay dry. There was not. [color=facade]“Some of these aren’t even mine, Valentine!”[/color] Teddy spun around, holding a pair of boxers up, as if either one of the twins had seen beneath his perfectly pleated pants. 

His eyes darted between the twins, finally landing on Charlie. He knew what this was about, it was obvious. It seemed that that moment in the empty classroom had been on Charlie’s mind as well. Teddy struggled for a moment, unsure of what to say. He finally settled on an insult. [color=facade]“You’re a real git, you know that Charlie?”[/color]

This was certainly shaping up to be a year without distractions. Clearly.[/color][/indent]