L E T S all try and [GET] A L O N G [LUCAS!]

[CADEN XAVIER WOOD]

cade shook his head as he waled out onto the pitch. he hated this place, with a passion. he hated flying, but he was trying to get over it. even at seventeen he still wanted to make his dad proud, and it seemed to be the only way his father would pay attention to his kids, was if they were on the back of a broom chasing quaffles around a pitch. he ran a hand through his coper blonde hair, it had lightened in the summer months, and was just starting to go darker again as the snow set in and the days were more overcast than sunny. he glanced around, his eyes settling on the gryffindor stands and he raked his hand through his hair, blowing air out between his cheeks as he looked back at the doors which he had wondered out of. wondering when the hell lucas was going to show his face.

he'd pretty much been forced to come here, on pain of death by his best friend. just because she loved this guy, didn't mean cade had to. he'd been in he same classes as lucas all his hogwarts years, he didn't like the guy and he was pretty sure lucas didn't like him, was that so hard for roxy to accept. apparently it was. and then roxy had made it worse by getting his own girlfriend in on the act. one half werewolf girlfriend, was hard enough to get around, with her being so stubborn and what not. top that with her being pregnant and hormonal, well it was what had finally made cade come, one so he could get away from her. he raked his hands through his hair again and he dropped down onto the grass, his legs folding under him and he sat back on his hands and watched the clouds.

he felt the grass itch his fingers and he shifted, the feeling of dread coming over him as he shifted on the grass. the grass was bringing back memories, of his first, and last time on a broom. though he wasn't really sure it was the grass, probably the brooms lined up along the edge of the pitch, obviously left out because a class or someone was about to use them. he closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to keep hi breathing even as he warded off the bad memory, willing the image of him falling, and the remembered of hitting the ground out of his head when he stood up from the grass quick, his hands rubbing and wringing together as e realized that the hell he was doing and he shook his head slightly. "this is bloody ridiculous"

he muttered to himself as he paced along the line of the field, his eyes gazing to the goals at either end of the pitch and all around the stands. the size of this place had always amazed him, after all, it was huge, and when he'd watched the quidditch games, been made to by his father, even watching someone ride a broom made him a bit nervous, and they always looked so small. he ran a hand over his face and decided to stick this out. not wanting to hear about it from roxy, and he certainly wasn't going to take the ridicule he knew would come from lucas if he chickened out. so he kept pacing the line, his eyes glancing at the door when he saw movement and he stopped pacing. stepping toward the figure he gave a nod of greeting. "lucas" he said, the hello and everything stated in the tone of his voice, glancing at the brooms on the ground he reached a hand down to grab one up, trying to hide the fact it was shaking slightly and he gripped it, picking it up and looking back at him. "lets get this over with . . shall we?" cade said, his eyes moving back to the broom.

[LUCAS HARRY SHUNPIKE]

THERE'S NEVER A WISH BETTER THAN THIS

WHEN YOU'VE ONLY GOT A HUNDRED YEARS TO LIVE

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: B8B8B8; border: #550505 solid 4px; width: 400px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] why was he doing this? roxy. yep. that was about the only reason he would mix himself in this situation, or any like it. he was generally a good guy. friendly, easy-going, he didn't even have natural issues with most slytherins despite the instinctive feud and rivalry that existed between their houses. there were few people that he ever disliked. there was one guy, however, that mere mention of could often set lucas' teeth on edge, and again the same reason existed for it as did his current location. roxy was a powerful motivator in many ways for the blonde haired teen. personally lucas thought she was currently using her powers for evil, but he didn't dare argue with her... like a memorable quote in a muggle television show once accurately stated: '...bitches be crazy'. lucas didn't care if it was another normal day for her or her time of the month; a pissed off roxy finnigan was a pissed off roxy finnigan and likely wouldn't be more terrifying even if pregnant. of course, seeing as his motivator for dislike of cade had always been rooted in his feelings for roxy, logic would dictate there to be little reason to dislike cade now. the guy was in neck deep with a girl of his own, and unless he was a sleazy bastard his mind should be as far away from roxy as possible. besides that, roxy was his; lucas' for, well, hopefully a very long time. he had nothing to fear of wood when it came to his girlfriend... which was why, in the end, other than the persistence of his girlfriend, he agreed to this little meeting/teaching session of sorts. after all, if not for roxy there was a chance that he and cade might have been at least decent pals. after all, they had each been sorted into gryffindor... surely that must mean that they had more in common than just their interest in a certain finnigan girl? if they could find some other common ground maybe they could, at least, be cordial to each other. lucas did kind of pity cade. his father was, to lucas at least, a well known hogwarts quidditch player. to have a father so into quidditch back when he was at hogwarts and yet not fly yourself... lucas could only imagine that it sucked. he loved flying in the air, few things made him feel so free, and if cade could only relax a little bit, he was sure the other gryffindor guy could enjoy it. making his way to the pitch, lucas' personal broom slung over his shoulder, it didn't take long for him to spot the other gryffindor on the pitch. the tension in his body was clear to the eye... damn, his unease at flying hadn't been an exaggeration. "dude, relax. being tense is only going to make you make mistakes." he advised, a slight spring in his step as he drew nearer and stopped in front of cade. "when was the last time you tried this?"

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words; 858 tag; cade note; n/a

template made by missickle

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[CADEN XAVIER WOOD]

"dude, relax. being tense is only going to make you make mistakes." relax!? oh that was easier said than done. for cade anyway. he hadnt been faced with a broom since the first year when he'd managed to weasle his way out of flying classes. he had no intrest in flying, he wasnt even sure why the hell he was being made to do this. why did it serve roxy and phe to make lucas and cade friends? the only thing in it was that they ould all probably get to spend a bit of time together, double date kinda thing, which cade really didnt get. you went on a date, you went with someone else, that was it, two people, three made a crowd and four, well heck that turned it into a party almost. and cade wasnt one for parties.

he shook his head slightly, his eyes glancing at lucas with heat blazing behind the brown gaze. he wasnt agry at lucas, not really, well in a way, for agreeing to this yeah, lucas didnt have the excuse of a pregnant half werewolf girlfriend on his back. but then if lucas was anything like cade, and them both being lions had anything to say about them, lucas would probably do just about anything to make roxy happy. he sighed and shook his head again, the heat dying from his eyes as glanced down at the broom, the fear running through him like ice and his already iron like grip tghtened around the brooms handle and he chewed his lower lip, his teeth almost breaking the skin of his mouth before he glanced up again. "easy for you to say right?"

his grip shifed on the broom, loosening it slightly so the smooth wood slipped through his grip a litle and he looked down at it again, his eyes tracing from the seat of the broom to the end of it, he sighed again and forced his fingers to let it go. he watched it drop to the ground before looking up at lucas as he spoke "when was the last time you tried this?"

[/color] cade shrugged his shoulder slightly. he remebered the day, he remebered what had happened, but he couldnt remeber how old he'd been. he thought back and he stepped away from the broom slightly, he'd get back to it in a minute. once he got this out of the way, he planned on jumping on the broom, flying it for about a minute, then getting off it and never speaking of this again.

"it's got to be about . . oh . . eight years . . if not longer" he said, he was seventeen now, and he reckoned it had been about the time he was eight, or just nine, but he honestly, it didnt seem like that long. " my father never understood the fear i have of it . . thought shoving a broom at me everychance he could was going to just fix it . . started that about two days aftr i fell . . " he said, the frown forming on his face. he loved his dad, really he did, but they werent close, for this very reason. he raked a hand through his almost twny colored hair and he bit his lip. "okay . . " he muttered to himself.

he moved to grab the broom again, bending and ignoring the spin in his head that came from fear and he gripped it, pushing through the wall of fear he'd built around himself and he swung his leg over the wood, his hands fighting to grip the wood, his palms werent sweaty but hi shands were shaking. he frowned and just shifted his grip, his mind determined to push through this and he pushed his feet off the ground and the broom flew into the air. his body shifted slightly, his teeth against his lip again as he did, his eyes looking down and they widened slightly, he swallowed and he froze, his eyes stuck on the ground.

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[LUCAS HARRY SHUNPIKE]

THERE'S NEVER A WISH BETTER THAN THIS

WHEN YOU'VE ONLY GOT A HUNDRED YEARS TO LIVE

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: B8B8B8; border: #550505 solid 4px; width: 400px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] "yeah, it is easy for me to say," lucas replied with a shrug. he'd been around brooms since he was a little boy. flying came as natural as breathing, or pranks. just as enjoyable, too. he couldn't really understand how someone could be afraid of it, though he realized it was a common fear for many students within the school. normally because of one bad experience that the kid hadn't been able to gather the courage to get over... if you were young and something hurt you you usually didn't have the courage to try it once more, fearing the same result, and by the time you were old enough to realize that 'hey, maybe next time would have been different' the paranoia was already ingrained within you, impossible to chase off easily. "but i've been flying for ten years with no serious injuries... if i can do it, you can, too. after all, i'm not exactly the world's most graceful guy." "it's got to be about . . oh . . eight years . . if not longer" so nearly as long as lucas had been very comfortable on a broom. " my father never understood the fear i have of it . . thought shoving a broom at me everychance he could was going to just fix it . . started that about two days aftr i fell . . " lucas' father had been nearly the opposite, never pressuring his son into anything. lucas had had to beg his parents to get him a broom, even a little one that only rose a few feet off of the air, though once they realized how much their son enjoyed it they gave in to more expensive broom demands easily. the joys of being an only child were quite awesome. "okay . . " "look, you don't even have to go that high if you don't want to," lucas encouraged. it was pretty clear that cade had a huge fear, so any little increase in height would be a huge feat. "stay where you're comfortable." he had a feeling, though, that where cade was comfortable was about 0.00 feet above ground level, which just didn't fly. ...literally. so it would be pretty awesome if the other gryffindor boy would push his limits a bit farther than a few inches. but cade seemed to be taking initiative, even as lucas spoke he was lifting into the air, though his terror was obvious in his eyes. perhaps he wasn't as much of a pansy as lucas was thinking originally... he barely needed any encouragement, well none really, to lift off into the air. but he was still clearly freaked out... and as soon as an idea popped in lucas' head, the idea was too good to resist. he mounted his own broom and easily glided up in the air near the other gryffindor, wand gripped in his hand. just a little scare, that's all he needed. one jolt to make him hang on extra tight to his broom, and once he realized how hard it was to fall off he'd be good, right? even just a tremor on the broom would do... "see, this isn't so bad, is it wood?" lucas chuckled, a moment later pointing his wand towards the other teenager, out of cade's view, and quietly muttering an incantation meant to just give the broom a bit of a shake.

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[CADEN XAVIER WOOD]

"see, this isn't so bad, is it wood?" cade heard his chuckle and he shook his head. no, it wasnt so bad, it was bloody worse. he had no idea what the hell had possesed him to do this. honestly, why did roxy have a hold ove rhim still! he'd been bloody mental to agree to this and all he wanted to do was touch his feet back on the ground, his hands shaking slightly as he swallowed with a gulp and he shook his head. "it's w-worse . . " he managed to say, his throat going dry and he shook his head, his hair falling over his forehead as he did and he tried to breathe. he couldnt remeber ever feeling this scared. not when phe had told him she was pregnant, he'd faced things in class that should have been more scary than flying a broom . . and yet, here was was, unable to help the dry mouth and sweaty palms fear her had.

he could have sworn he heard something behind him, the wind humming in just the right direction to hear lucas mutter something and he whipped his head around. . . "l-lu--" his words were cut off as the broom shot forward quickly, he couldn't help but panic. all sense of reason and sensible thinking went out of his head and he did the first thing that popped into his head, he pulled the handle of the broom up. which turned out to e a mistake, he gripped the broom tight as it shot straight up, he leaned in toward the broom, unknowingly making the broom go faster. he had no idea how to control this thing. his fingers wouldn't let go of the broom, he couldn't move, something, was going to go horribly wrong, he knew it. he shifted slightly, his instinct he guessed kicked in for a second because he unfroze, his eyes opening and suddenly the broom arched in the air and was suddenly hurtingling for the stands. naturally, they had to be slytherins didn't they! which, in a way, kinda ironic, the gryffindor going to die by slytherin stands.

he couldn't help the outcry that escaped from his mouth, the sound terrified as he closed his eyes again, his grip slipping now he was facing headfirst toward the ground and his grip slipped, his fingers letting go of the broom and his body falling away from the one thing that probably could have helped him. he tries to grip for the broom but he couldn't get any grip and he found himself falling, careening to the stands below. he shut his eyes, he couldn't think, his mind was blank, though one thought did pop into his mind. WAND! he felt for his pocket, still falling and his eyes widened when he couldn't feel it, it must have slipped out when h's fallen. he shifted his head in time to see the stands closer, and then he hit them, his body breaking the wooden benches as he crashed through them, he felt the wood digging into him, his bones breaking as it hit and as he slammed into the bottom of the stands, he was dragged under by a darkness that he welcomed.

[LUCAS HARRY SHUNPIKE]

THERE'S NEVER A WISH BETTER THAN THIS

WHEN YOU'VE ONLY GOT A HUNDRED YEARS TO LIVE

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: B8B8B8; border: #550505 solid 4px; width: 400px; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] when things went wrong, they went wrong fast. lucas' intentions had been entirely innocent. a bit of a prank, something to give cade a bit of a fright. no, he didn't want the guy to end up terrified of this entire little 'lesson', that was the opposite of what lucas wanted. he needed cade to realize that panicking over every little thing in the air was worthless. things weren't as bad as they seemed when your body and mind were full of tension. one minor little scare would prove to cade that he could relax, the slightest motion was not about to kill him. at least... that was the beater's intention. he wanted to help cade, honest, he did. the spell he muttered was a simple one, done a thousand times before in a thousand different scenarios. this scenario just happened to be the one that went terribly, terribly wrong. maybe he'd muttered the spell a bit too strongly, causing the spell to increase in its strength as well. maybe cade's panic helped fuel the fire of the spell, or the way he jerked his body countered the broom in just the right (or wrong) way to make the effect go to such extremes. whatever happened, lucas didn't even have time to react before the prefect's broom shot away, and by the time lucas was able to react and try to follow his fellow gryffindor things were already very out of control. every move cade made seemed to be the wrong one, and lucas' shouts of what to do and how to react were useless, lost in the wind even if cade hadn't been probably too lost in his own panic to pay attention to what lucas was shouting. lucas normally thought himself a tough guy, but he couldn't help the instinctive cringe that wracked his body at the sound of the breaking wood, which thankfully disguised the sound of the breaking body from this distance. the noise had been so loud, so intense, that the silence afterwards was numbing in comparison. a moment later the beater was hovering over the bleachers, jumping down to what he hoped was a stable part of the structure near the impact. "shit!" he hissed, looking down at the painful image of the other gryffindor, lying motionless among the wreckage of the bleacher. "cade? ...c'mon dude, open your eyes. groan. do something." he hadn't meant to hurt the guy! he'd never meant to hurt anyone in his life! but cade didn't look good. he looked terrible. lucas should go get help... and yet, he stuck around for a few seconds, needing to know that he didn't have a death on his hands before he got the prefect the help he very much needed.

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[CADEN XAVIER WOOD]

STEALING COMES WITH PRACTICE, LYING COMES WITH EASE
but neither one is faster than falling to your knees
- - - - - - - - - - - -

he was floating, looking down on the scene below him. he saw lucas, saw his own body. he couldn't feel anything which he guessed as a good thing. he could only imagine the pain he'd be in if he was still conscious. he saw phe flash across his mind, his attention taken off what was happening below. he didn't like the thought that he might be leaving them, though he was having a hard time figuring out how to wake up, or snap back to his own body. he wondered if this is what dying was like, feeling nothing. though he had to admit, he wasn't scared, just upset, if he did, he'd never see his son grow up. in the time it had taken him to think about all this, just floating there, they'd managed to get his body to the hospital wing, looking down again he saw it had changed, his body on a bed, people hurrying around, working on helping him.

he still dreamed once they'd settled him in a bed. brought him out of the woods, fixed his broken bones, repaired the damage done on the inside and managed to keep him stable. but he'd stayed unconscious, dreaming of phe, their child. one dream he kept coming back to. he was playing outside with their son, he'd have been about four. his son had been smiling, giggling, the sound had been the best thing his ears had ever heard, and during it he'd felt warm, safe. it was a dream he wanted to wake up for and make reality. every time he'd started to stir from the pain, it would suddenly vanish, and he'd settle back into the darkness again, which is where he was happy to be at this point. if it hurt that much in his subconscious . . he was afraid to know how much it would hurt if he was awake. though, as much as he wanted too, he couldn't stay under forever.

it had been two days, since the accident and it was two days later when he finally woke up, wasn't dragged back under when he started to stir. slowly, things came into focus as he forced his eyes open, his eye lids felt like they were lead, his head was pounding at the back, his throat was burning and his mouth was dry. he opened his mouth and closed it again, his eyes shutting as he shifted slightly and hissed in a breath, so moving still caused his bones to ache a bit. it wasn't sharp, excruciating as it had been, but it was there, and enough to make him wince. he opened his eyes again, this time finding it easier to keep them open as he shifted his head and glanced around. his neck had the same dull ache, he wondered if he'd broken it too, he had no idea what had actually happened to him, some sort of accident? his memory was fuzzy as he glanced around, spotted a figure he knew and coughed slightly as he drew a deeper breathe. "l-lu-cas?" he mumbled, not recognising his own voice as it rasped out his dry mouth. he knew who it was, was remembering what had happened.

"w-water?" he mumbled again, he needed it. he was thirsty, so thirsty as his eyes closed again. he shifted, testing, moving each of his legs in turn making sure they were still there, then his arms. it was warm too, making his arms work, though they felt like they were made of iron like his lids, he managed to lift his hand and push at the blankets weakly. he imagined this was only because of the after effects of the potion that had kept him under, not because of what had happened, or he hoped so. opening his eyes again he glanced to the other side, searching for the thing he wanted most. "p-phoenix?" he said, his eyes glancing around for her, his energy levels dropping as he did.