Take a walk, his mother had said, it will clear your mind she’d said. Yeah… except for the part where he actually had to go outside and… walk. He walked plenty during his shifts at the hospital, walking wasn't what he needed, though he did need to meet a certain someone, so the treck down to the lake shore.. yeah, he was counting it. She hadn’t known what was going on with him, aside from a slight hangover but the mom instincts were on point.

Currently he was sitting next to the shore, watching the waves come in and barely miss the tips oh his shoes. The ground was a bit damp and he was close enough that the spray had misted over his face and chest, wetting his hair and the upper part of his shirt, but he wasn’t bothered by it. It actually felt good, helping a bit with his headache. Thank goodness his pants hadn’t been soaked though, that could look rather awkward in public.

He probably looked like a weirdo regardless right about now, but at least he didn’t have anything on him that could get water damaged. Mostly, he was just decompressing. So far the scenery wasn’t doing much for him though. Just rocks, sand, water and a whole lot of bird poop.

The following day was very long, exhausting really.

Samuel worked his extra shift, bags under his eyes from the restless sleep he got the night before. Thankfully, he was on triage-duty which meant serious ailments would be passed onto another Healer. Completing assessments was doable, rote memory making it a simple procedural action for him. So he worked through until the end of his day, skipping his lunch break to avoid an empty moment for him to ponder. Think.

Hogsmeade, lakeside.

The image of his last text lingered in his mind after he got off work. He went to his flat, threw his healer robes off and left without dinner. His stomach grumbled, but he needed to get out to Hogsmeade to meet with Theo at the lakeside. Food could wait.

Sam took a portkey from Muggle London to the Hog's Head Inn, and headed towards the lakeside. There wasn't much information given, so it took him a few minutes to scan the perimeter before he noticed the red head sitting near the bay.

He was afraid to text again to clarify, Theo could change his mind.

Sam approached in work clothes, a green polo with khaki slacks. "Hey Theo..." He gave a half-hearted wave, and took a seat next to him. Pulling his slacks up to his knee, and taking off his shoes and socks, he spread his chocolate legs out and let his feet touch the waves of water. It was so fucking cold, and the shock of the water woke him up, but he didn't know how to approach the conversation. Shiteee.....

Much like a birdwatcher scared to spook the little feathery friends they were observing, Theo didn’t move or say anything for a moment, thinking briefly that Sam might turn tail and run at any given second. Though going back and rereading their text exchange more than once had probably not been the best idea, His mind did tend to run away from him at times.

At the very least, he didn’t seem to be at all off put by his odd choice of location considering the time of year.. it wasn’t exactly sunny swimming weather, but then again, when was it ever, like.. a few weeks maybe? Ok, perhaps he was exaggerating a bit in his mind there but again… hangover.

“Hey.” The single word sounded a bit lame, even to his ears. He had half a mind to tell the other boy he looked a bit like he felt, what with the dark circles at all but they were both healers, so that was really par for the course. He just smirked to himself instead, already feeling better for some unknown reason.

“Nice day, we should have had a picnic..” It was a bit of a dark joke, but it was also funny to him at the moment. Also he didn’t know quite how to begin..

"It's going to be dark soon, maybe another time?" Samuel stretched his legs out and let the cold water give him a second shock. His toes curled and he pulled his legs into his chest. "I mean, if you'd want to..." Samuel took off his circular glasses and set them next to his shoes and socks, tilting his head and squinting at Theo. His vision was terrible, but the lake's mist was making them useless.

Trying to break the awkwardness of the situation, "I could jump into the freezing lake and you could rescue me if that'd help." A case of shock and hypothermia could really liven it up, he thought or at least make him physically feel how he was feeling internally. "Okay, maybe I shouldn't have suggested that." He braved himself, his stomach kind of hurt.

"I...owe you an apology, Theo." His eyes were half closed as he squinted at the blurry figure sitting next to him. "At Alohomocha. I was really nervous." His ears were burning red, "I just wanted to not be me for a little while, but you knew who I was. And when I realized you knew I worked at St. Mungos, too, that just brought up a lot of my own baggage." He stammered, "My baggage isn't your fault."

"I wanted to try a date as...what did I call myself? Aaron? James?" He'd forgotten, "But I'm not those people." He kept going, "I'm just struggling with people seeing me as an openly gay man." Samuel admitted, burying his head into his knees. His close friends all knew. He supposed his family actually knew... "And I like you," His voice cracked. But Ligeia had made a good point, there were a lot of unknown variables and this was just a temporary transgression. He had time to find a wife later. "Do you still like me?" He squeaked. He hoped Theo would say no, then they could both go on their way and pretend this never happened. His curiosity got the best of him though.

"I don't know if I'm ready is all." He admitted. Sam scooched up the bank and laid down on the cold smooth rocks. Bird shit stuck to his clothes, and looking up he saw the sunset, pinkish-purple hues dancing together.

Sam’s comment threw him a bit. He wasn’t sure if it was rhetorical or not but it wasn’t as dismissive as some of their prior texts. Granted, he’d been pushing hard for friendship.. but perhaps that was the key. Befriend the guy and hope that he’d start to want more.

The thought had him taking in a breath. Theo was getting way ahead of himself. He wasn’t ‘in-love’ with the guy. Not yet anyway, it was too soon but he did like him, he was certainly attracted to him.. but he reeeealy liked the chase.

“Yeah, another time.” He glanced out over the misty water and breathed hard. Not exactly a sigh, but the wet air was helping him think. Perhaps the same way a cold shower worked to help you think more rationally, anyway.. It wasn’t until Sam made his next comment that he really got out of his head and back to their conversation. He turned his head sharply and smirked a bit. “It would certainly be an interesting thing to see, though I’d probably have to levitate you out. Wouldn’t be much help if we were both going through hypothermia together.” There was something there on the tip of his tongue about using body heat but given the circumstances, he felt it inappropriate.

Amazing how much more reserved he could become when not intoxicated…

Glancing Sam’s was as he spoke, he listened silently, nodding along slightly. When he came right out and said he was gay, well.. he couldn’t help but feel his eyebrows raise in surprise. The next statement wasn’t so much a surprise, given their brief history but it felt damn good to hear regardless. When Sam was through, he sighed softly, trying to gather his thoughts. True, he knew who he was as a person and he seemed to have more bravado than most but he’d historically always been unlucky in love so it wasn’t as if he had tons of relationship experience to go on here..

Even though he felt like Sam was being more open all of the sudden, he was still sort of going in circles. Not that he could blame the guy if he wasn’t ready.

“Well first off, you don’t have to apologize..  We all have our own demons to face at some time or another. And I do like you or I wouldn’t be here. But.. if we need to backpedal, start again as friends, I’m willing to do that.” He glanced over at Sam then, who was looking towards the sunset.

"You have a good point there, Theo." Sam smiled in response. The imagery of Theo pulling him out of the water, of them having to figure out how to warm him up...frightening! Though knowing Theo was a healer-in-training comforted the young man. At least there was a higher chan-- why was he actually entertaining this idea? He shook his head before admitting a vulnerability about himself.

Sam's stomach churrned, Theo was giving him what he'd been asking for. He set a boundary out and Theo was respecting it and Sam felt...wistful. Was this what he really wanted?

"Thanks for understanding, Theo." He looked up at the sky, the sun starting to dip below the horizon line. The cold wind coming off the breeze making Sam shiver a little against the rocks. He sat back up and dusted off some of bird poop off his clothes. "Have you had anything to eat yet?" Sam asked. There was no time for him to eat before he made it here, and the Hogs Head Inn was a short walk away from where they were sitting. "Not as a date." Sam clarified still wondering what the heck he was doing, "But I can get it. I still feel bad about all of this and it's the least I can do."