~ September 10, 2036 ~ Awesome Flat

Will couldn't find his keys. Yes, the ultimate icing on top of his extremely wonderful day. He cursed, searched his pockets again and kicked the door. It didn't budge. It just stood there closed, teasing him in addition now his foot was hurt. An unpleasant string of curses found their way out of his mouth. Determined to overcome the barrier that is the front door, Will took his wand out.

Moments later, the door stood, unable to ever be closed properly ever again and Fitzwilliam Casillas sat fuming on the living room couch.

Lara stumbled through the hallway rather clumsily, tripping slightly from the cosmos she had earlier. She wondered vaguely where her keys were before she arrived at the front of the flat she and Will shared, realizing with a blink of confusion that there wouldn't be a need to find a key.

Curious, she entered the flat, only to find Will, the object of her love and affection sitting on the living room couch looking rather angry.

"Hey, babe." she greeted tentatively as she took off her black trench coat and kicked off the black stilettos she had worn this evening and plopped down on the couch next to him. "What's wrong? Is everything alright?"

Will was awaken from his murderous thoughts. He had just concluded that death by guitar of a certain person would be the best option, not to mention, it added an element of irony. And Will could appreciate irony.

Instead of giving her a quick kiss, as he would have if it was under any other circumstances he moved a space in the opposite direction as Lara sat beside him.

"Where were you today?" He was surprised at how calm his voice sounded. Beating the door absorbed had a lot of his rage. But still it was there, shimmering just under the surface. He felt so hurt. So betrayed. But mostly he felt angry. At Chris, at her, at himself.

Lara blinked in suprise at the tone and question Will tossed to her. Where was she? What kind of question was that? Why was he so angry?

"Umm... at the station doing some recordings for tomorrow... then I hung out with a couple of friends." an eyebrow raised in confusion as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why? What's got you all pissed off?"

He listened to her explanation. Restless because of the dissatisfaction that her answer invoked in him, he stood up.

"Merlin..." His emotions were in such a storm. He didn't even know where to start. It was like a cycle. He felt pain. "At the cafe... I was..."

And anger, "Bloody..."

And jealousy,"Who were you with? That guitarist Chris?"

Lara tilted her head in confusion. "At the cafe, you were...." she wasn't sure where he was going with this. Was he irritated over his food or something?

She stiffened at the mention of Chris. Was that it? Was that why Will was flipping out? Over her hanging out with their mutual friend?

"Yeah, I was. We drank a few down at the bar. What's the matter with that?" she asked as calmly as she could, though with a slight, subtle edge.

She didn't remember! They were supposed to dine together and she didn't remember! He felt a new wave of his emotions. To help him gather his thoughts in a more logical matter, it was a bit difficult, being intoxicated and horribly jealous, he started to pace. He thought when they were out of Hogwarts and them getting their own place, things would be different, for the better. And it was. It was so much better. He had her all to himself. It was the best three months of his life. He couldn't remember ever being happier.

He had thought.... he had foolishy thought that... he and Lara... He felt like such an idiot. But he wasn't about to give it up yet.

"Did anything happen between you two?" He looked at her again.

"Oh, sh!t..." she breathed out when she finally remembered. She was supposed to meet Will for dinner tonight...

"Will, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to forget, I swear!" she replied desperately, feeling more and more guilty by the second.

"Nothing happened, Will. We were just hanging out, having a few drinks."

Her apology didn't sit to well with him. He was too angry for it. He needed another door to punch, the green-eyed monster had his grip on Will and he wasn't letting go.

"I saw you two..." Will said quietly. "I saw you kiss him."

Lara bit her lip nervously out of habit. "Will, it didn't mean anything... We were just messing around." she replied.

Lara was naturally flirtatious, and as a result tended to not see boundaries or know when to stop; A weakness that screwed her over, especially in times like this.

Will knew she was flirtatious but was much too jealous to think logically.

"Messing around - " Will ran his hands through his hair again with frustration. "Why?"

Lara raised in eyebrow in confusion. "Whaddya mean, 'why'?" she asked, maybe a little more harshly than she should have. "What's wrong with messing around with a guy? We're just friends. We don't mean anything by it..."

"Why are you so upset?" she asked, getting a little more annoyed now.

Chris Voss leapt off his broom as he approached the flat belonging to Lara Kaminski and Fitzwilliam Casillas. He was still in costume from the events of the day, though most of the makeup and fake blood had been removed. The whitish-red mask still looked as though it was not going to budge so much as a millimeter from the top portion his face, as per the part of his character of Reddeth Maask: a cohort to Axel Inferius. There was a lower portion of the mask that covered one-half of the lower part of his face, but that portion had been removed. The makeup took forever, but it was well worth it.

The rest of the young man’s costume consisted of a slashed long-sleeved shirt of black with red leather straps and buckles, along with various chains and a few dull studs and spikes. Black jeans torn in many places, with boots stained red as if he’d walked through a shin-high puddle of blood comprised the rest of his basic outfit. The last piece of his costume involved a red, tattered cape and mantle with a high collar, looking as if the last owner of this particular garment had hailed from Transylvania.

Arriving at the door, the lead guitarist for the Axel Inferius group couldn’t help but be overcome with concern at finding his friends’ place pretty much door-less. Or at least as door-less as it could feasibly be. There was no way it was going to close properly, after whomever had done whatever to it...

“Lara? Villiam?” called the youth, feeling rather uncomfortable about the atmosphere. “Ist jemand dort?” He would wait to see if he got a reply before fully stepping into his friends’ personal abode.

Will was shaking his head. "What's wrong?" He said in disbelief to himself then anyone else. What's wrong? She was messing around with some guy that's what was wrong! He swallowed all of his emotions as he heard someone approach. His entire body stiffened as he recognized the voice. Wonderful, with Chrisss along they could have a slammin' party now.

What he wanted to do was charge into the guitarist like a spanish bull. Instead, he took a deep breath and looked away from Lara, so she wouldn't see the murderous depths of his icy eyes. "Why don't you go and see want he wants?" Each word was an effort.

Lara stared at Will in absolute confusion and a nagging flicker of pain. "Will, what is your problem?" she demanded in an exasperated, yet pained, tone. Will had known her for longer than anyone else had. He knew perfectly well how she she was like. Why was he suddenly bothered by it now?

She winced as she heard Chris's familiar voice and saw the look in Will's eyes. She bit her lip, hoping Will got most of his anger out when he busted their door. Tentatively, she replied in german. "Ja sind wir hier. Kommen Sie herein."

"Why don't you get a grip on yourself?" she retorted, hurt and bewildered by his attitude.

Talk about adding salt to injury, Will felt like a bucket of cold water fell on him. A cold bucket actually did fall on him once, so he was not exaggerating. He was so stupid. Stupid. So damn stupid.

"Yeah, that's what I need, I grip." Will said sarcastically and headed towards his room before he emulated a volcano.

A masculine mutter, followed by a female voice and a reply in German that it was okay to come in. Chris sighed in relief - he'd been worried something a bit more serious had happened, but they sounded okay. While the band advocated stage violence, the real thing wasn't so cool when it happened to the people you liked and cared about. Heavy biker-type boots thudded as he entered the main room of the flat, just as Will had headed off toward another room.

Chris had just opened his mouth to greet the guy, but upon seeing that Will was retreating rather than coming forward had faltered slightly. That was certainly odd... pretty much the only time Will ever deliberately walked away from him was when he was angry.

"Hi..." he finally managed, addressing them both and heading toward Lara. At the back of his mind he was trying to figure out what had happened, having temporarily forgotten why he stopped by so suddenly. "Erm... there ist something wrong with your door... What happened?"

Emerald eyes narrowed into slits as she watched Will retreat back to his room. Lara Kaminski could handle alot of things, but having people walk away, leaving her was a totally different gig. "What the hell? Will? Will!" she hissed in response, waiting for Will to come back and explain exactly why he was reacting the way he was.

"Hey Chris." she greeted with an attempt at a smile, a complete opposite of how she was mere minutes ago when they were hanging out together when she was at the peaks of euphoria, flirting and laughing to he heart's content.

"Yeah, I know. Some immature jerk decided to blast it open." she replied loudly so Will could hear her, glaring at his direction.

She sighed tiredly as she ran a hand through her pink and blonde hair. "So what's up?" she asked curiously.

Blue eyes glamoured to appear neon purple surveyed his friend, noticing the change in her demeanor between when they’d been hanging out and now. Earlier she’d been laughing, joking, and having a grand time. Now she seemed... well... blah. Perhaps she was just tired from the evening out... or perhaps there was something more beneath the surface he wasn’t quite getting.

Eyebrows a mix of dark brown and black rose at the explanation. And, given the fact that his own older sister tended to drop hints in the same manner, it didn’t take much brainpower at all to put two and two together there. But why Will had seen fit to blast open the door was beyond him. “Ah...” he murmured slightly nervously, not wanting to intrude upon an episode of “trouble in paradise” – a term he often used when his sister went on the warpath regarding her own boyfriend.

“What’s... oh!” he said, about to question what she meant and then remembering in a rush why he’d dropped in even though they’d left each other’s company not that long ago. Immediately he patted down his pockets, reaching into one seconds after and retrieving a necklace. “You forgot your necklace...” Chris explained and held out the piece of jewelry for her to take.

“I also have the latest single from Axel – Jason only had enough time to burn a copy before something came up. Something about publicity and all that good s***. And if you’re looking for something totally different to play on your show, I’ve a single from the side project ‘Pit’ and I are working on,” he added, smiling. ‘Pit’ was short for ‘Pitter’, or Peter to keep it simple, and was the name of the drummer for Axel Inferius.

“Erm... Was ist mit ihm falsch?” Chris asked, gesturing towards the door Will had just used. A nervous laugh separated the first question from a second: “Oder sollte ich nicht bitten?”

"What the hell? Will? Will!"

Will ignored her, and he ignored Chris too. Really, right now, he was the last person Will wanted to see. He headed, mutely but not noiselessly, towards his room. He was silent to the point of being dejected, but he radiated anger.

"Yeah, I know. Some immature jerk decided to blast it open." He heard her say.

To this, he closed his door. Not slammed. Just closed. He was now in an odd calm he saw and heard things, but they all seemed unreal. Will was the type of person who did not usually commit acts of violence because of his temper. The front door had just been a fluke, a slur of the moment kind of thing. Something that happened just because of the cauldron full of emotions that were bubbling inside of him.

He sat on his bed stiffly. He couldn't get comfortable. To get comfortable, as was today's lesson of the day, was dangerous. He merely sat, staring at the back of his door. There was a scarlet motorcycle poster on it. A poster he saw very rarely now as he rarely closed his door. In fact, further mediation on the subject supplied the fact that, since he and Lara moved into the flat, he had never saw the poster since he pinned it on the back of his door that very first day of moving in.

Will's room was right across Lara's and that had been Will's favourite feature in the flat. He never had to close his room door, and he never had wanted to. The scarlet motorcycle poster staring reminded him of that fact and he decided to lay back and stare at his blank black ceiling. Fitting really, that's how he imagined his soul to be like right now. Blank and black.

Sure, Lara and him weren't exactly what one would call 'official' but Will was confident their relationship had changed for the better since they'd moved in together. Or maybe he was wrong. Maybe he had just wanted her so bad that he had mistakenly over-analyzed every word they exchanged to each other, every kiss they shared, every night they sent together and drawn the wrong conclusion.

It was all his fault. He knew exactly who she was what her habits were, her tendencies. He thought things would have been different. But he wanted her so bad that he had lulled himself into a false sense of security.

But was it so wrong to want her all for himself? Was that so bad? Was it wrong to assume that since they were with each other on a normal basis that they would be for each other alone?

He was foolish to think that she'd be different with him. She'd done this to other guys before. He would know, he was always her guy - just like she was his girl. But never in a million years would he have imagined that she would do the same to him as those others. Maybe he just didn't want to face the facts. It was supposed to be different because it was him. Him! He been with no one else since they moved into their flat and he that expected her to do the same. He had thought she'd done the same. Now he wasn't so sure. Apparently, he was just some other guy to her. He was a fool indeed.

No! He wouldn't accept that, he couldn't. They were Lara and Will. Will and Lara. He wasn't just some guy to her. He was... he was... he was her friend. But that wasn't enough for him anymore! He wanted her! He wanted her all for his own! He wanted her as a girlfriend, and maybe even more.

Will broke his glaze in the ceiling to crawl to his drawer just beside his bed. He opened it, and with a little bit of shuffling, something he deemed odd, he remembered he didn't put it that far into the drawer, but finally he was able to pull a little blue velvet box out. He opened it carefully and examined it's contents. Inside laid a ring [[[[imagine it green ya?]]]. Sure they were young, but he hadn't been sure of anything else in his life as he was of this. He wanted her. He wanted her since Hogwarts. He wanted her. She was beautiful, smart, fun - but more than that, she was his friend too, his best friend, no one knew him like she did. There wasn't one major thing that Will liked about her. It was the subtle things. How she laughed, how she knew how to read him (on most days anyway), how she looked when she was sleeping, how she looked when she was awake, how with one look they could tell what the other was thinking, how on some nights they'd be carving the same food, how all of these things build up Lara, his best friend, the woman he was in love with since four years of age.

He couldn't be just her friend anymore. He was in love with her. He would do anything for her. He would do anything to be with her. The past few months had been fun, no it had been wonderful - but they were playing it safe. Maybe it was time to get out of the safetly zone.

The blank black wall stared back at him.

Lara closed her eyes as Will shut the door, albeit calmly. Her mind spun with thoughts over what was happening. Maybe moving in with Will was a mistake, after all... By moving in together, she knew how other's might interpret that "special step" in their relationship, but... Lara had, once again pulled a ditz moment, and thought of it as nothing more than an economical way for two best friends with -ahem- benefits, to hang out and have a blast, celebrating their recent-grad life. She never knew he was looking for something more...

While she loved Will and had done so since she was about four years old, she wasn't really ready for a serious commitment. Not yet and, to be honest, she wasn't sure she would ever be ready for a buckled down, concrete relationship, forever. Especially all the added jazz that usually came with the idea of marriage: screaming mini versions of her and Will, the house with a white picket fence, etc. That wasn't the life Lara wanted for herself. She wanted fame, glory, immortality. She wasn't ready to throw all her dreams away just yet to settle down and start popping out kids.

Unfortunately, Will seemed to be thinking the opposite...

On another outing with a mutual friend of theirs she had been told of the once in a lifetime career opportunity Will had blown off for her sake. Apparently the job was in Australia, and despite it being his dream career, he refused it all because of her. There weren't any words in English, German, Russian, or Parseltongue that she could adequately use to describe how guilty she had felt when she heard how he had ditched his dreams just to be with her. Her she was, trying to live out her own dreams, and Will was pushing his away just so he could be with her, even when her entire dedication wasn't in the relationship he so desperately wanted between them.

She loved him, yes, more than anything, but she wasn't ready for a serious relationship. Especially marriage, which she knew, judging by the ring she had found in Will's room while she was looking for her favorite top, that he was thinking about.

All these feelings of guilt over not being enough for Will were ultimately what had caused her to hang out with Chris. He was always a cool guy with a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh that always had her echoing her own. She needed a bit of cheering up, and since Chris was always one of her best mates and never failed to do so, she had headed off with him. They had a few drinks, started messing around, and that was that. No strings attached. It was all for fun. She knew that, and Chris knew that, but apparently Will didn't.

The witch couldn't be sure what hurt the most: the fact that Will didn't know she was just messing around, like she'd done with every other guy, especially the ones she'd cheated on with him, or the fact that she didn't know she was going to hurt him by being herself, especially when she even knew how serious he felt and wanted their relationship to be.

Remembering that she wasn't alone, Lara quickly ended her thoughts and turned her attention to Chris. "Oh, thanks." Lara replied with a smile of gratitude as she took the necklace he had taken the time to return. The necklace was particularly special to her and had been given to her as a gift, definately not someting she wanted to lose.

"Rad!" she managed to smile with a 'rock on' gesture as she took the offered cd. "I'll totally give it a listen before playing. I've been looking forward to this baby for a while. Though I gotta say, considering how ****ing awesome your last cd was, I'm not so sure you could top it." she replied with a wink.

Green orbs sparkled with interest at the mention of a new project Chris and the drummer, also a cool guy, were working on. "Sweet! Can't wait to hear it!" she beamed, knowing that considering how talented both of them, and the band, were, it was guaranteed to be amazing, like all their stuff was. "It's not rap, is it?" she teased with a snicker. While she had a wide range of interests and an overall respect for various styles of music, rap wasn't one of them. She was a rather firm believer in 'Candy was like music. For it to be good, one had to remove the wrappers.'

She sighed softly as she looked at their broken door, unsure exactly what to tell Chris. While he was one of her best friends, she didn't want to make the guy uncomfortable by blurting out instantly that Will broke it in a fit of anger.

"Er könnte seine Taste nicht finden?" she offered a bit nervously, still not entirely sure what to tell Chris.

"Will, babe, please come out!" she pleaded, looking towards the direction of Will's door. "C'mon, can't we at least talk about this?"

A smile spread across Chris’s lips at Lara’s own, glad to see her former cheerfulness resurface even for a little while. “No problem,” he answered congenially. The guitarist wasn’t sure what significance it held for her, but had a feeling she had not left it behind on purpose. While the character of Reddeth Maask would have likely kept it, Chris did not follow such policies. Besides, Lara meant quite a bit to the whole band: she played some of their more controversial stuff other wizarding radio networks wouldn’t play... or at least not on particular days; not to mention she was a cool chick to be around in general. Anything of hers they found would always be returned to her unless it was given as a gift.

And Chris was the designated Lost and Found guy, by self-appointment of course.

The wizard grinned at the gesture, returning it once she took the cd. “Great; and thanks. We think the fans’ll like it... solos were a ***ch on the fingers at first, but it’s wicked awesome – I personally guarantee it!” he replied with a good-natured laugh. “And being on top is the name of the game, after all...” Chris added, winking in return, kidding around.

He laughed at her teasing inquiry about rap. “Nein, nein – no rap.,” Chris replied as mirth radiated from his entire albeit still-masked form. Like Lara, he enjoyed listening to a variety of musical styles and formats, but rap wasn’t one of them. To him, there was simply no art to it, and the theme always seemed to be the same. When Chris first heard Lara’s music and candy metaphor, he had laughed his head off. But after he thought about it the youth was henceforth enlightened by the wisdom within such a statement. Not just once did he encourage Lara to design a t-shirt with that nugget of wisdom on it, in his own words: ‘just for sh**s and giggles’.

“More like Neue Deutsche Härte – German Rock incorporated with Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. I do vocals and guitar in the project,” he explained. His voice wasn’t naturally deep enough for the genre, just slightly off, but he could alter it sufficiently as he’d done in a few of the backup vocals for other songs. “There are German and English versions. Perhaps if it’s not too much of a hassle you could do us a little favor and see which one goes over better with listeners?”

Chris shrugged and nodded simultaneously at the suggestion regarding Will’s curious behavior. “Möglicherweise…” he said, not quite sure how not finding one’s key fit into a temper tantrum. Then again, maybe that wasn’t the whole gig. “Er gewinnt zurück.

“Better not show it to ‘Lilyth’: she’d likely want to get Vill into a door-smashing contest,” he joked, though there was a slight seriousness in his eyes. The female vocalist plus frustration plus ‘that time of the month’ usually meant nothing good for someone in the band, and he was fairly certain he had a scar or two to prove it.

As Lara called to Will, and asked for a moment to talk about something, the guitarist sort of felt like he was intruding on their personal lives. He wasn’t quite sure what that was, but knew from this evening that Lara most definitely hadn’t changed a bit. Personally he thought it was great the pair were living together, for he still lived at home with his parents when he wasn’t out on the road with the band, or crashing with one of the band members at their homes. It was like the muggle idea of carpooling... only with houses.

“Möglicherweise sollte ich gehen…” Chris muttered quietly. “It’s getting late, and I promised Mrs. Levinthal that I wouldn’t pop in hours after they’d all gone to bed to crash. Apparently six times in a row is seven times too many,” he elaborated with a laugh.

“Wissen Sie, wo ich bin an, wenn Sie alles benötigen,” the German youth offered in an even quieter tone, in case for some reason Will was mad at him for some odd reason.

Will had heard Lara call out to him through the door, though he didn't do anything that would indicate that this was so.

He put the ring back in its place, hidden in the drawer and laid back on the bed. Will realized that he hadn't eaten dinner yet, but oddly enough, he wasn't hungry at all.

"Rad!" Lara beamed, nodding in agreement. She could already tell that their new project was going to be a hit. After all, had Chris and the Band ever came up with anything less? "Sure thing. I'm sure the listeners will love it as much as I will." she added enthusiastically with a nod.

"Ja. Haben Sie Recht." Lara replied with a nod as she pulled her want out and repaired the door. Unlike her relationship with Will, the door was easily fixed. And easily replace.

She smiled, albeit a bit sadly at Chris's comment about the band's female vocalist. "Wonder who would win between them..." she offered, looking down slightly in sadness. She had a strong feeling that considering how upset Will seemed to be at her, he would most likely be the victor in that competition.

"Sind Sie sicher? Kann ich Sie erhalten den etwas zu essen oder zuerst zu trinken?" she replied in response to Chris. While things were rather tense with Will at the moment, Lara didn't want to be entirely rude to her friend. Especially when he returned all this way to drop of a neckklace she had left behind.

A light laugh escaped her at the mention of Mrs. Levinthal. She knew of the band's system of crashing, for occassionally she joined in and had some of the guys -and chick, in Lilyth's case- crash at the flat whenever they wanted. "Ebenso. Danken Ihnen wieder, Chris." she replied, giving the guy a hug good-bye."Fühlen Sie frei, hier zu jeder Zeit zu bleiben."

"Will!" she called over her shoulder as she hugged Chris. "Are you going to be a complete jerk to both me and Chris or are you at least going to come out and say good-bye?"

As an answer, Will turned his radio on. He really didn't want to see Chris at the moment. Actually, if the first time in his life - he didn't want to see Lara either. He turned up the volume and let the heat of the beat surround him.

It was childish. And a little sad, but hey - he felt like crap at the moment and he was still a little drunk, so he figured what the hell.