'and no one can ever figure out what you want, and you won't tell them, and you realise the one person in the world who loves you isn't the one you thought it would be, and you don't trust him to love you in a way you would enjoy.' — RICHARD SIKEN
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[ Image description: a collage of things that encapsulate James and Barney's relationship, such as a quote that says 'can't you tell i'm in love with you?', a person writing letters with a quill, the silhouettes of two people with smiley faces drawn on their shadows, an illustration of two people with their arms around each other, a photo of David Bowie and Mick Jagger, a piece of paper saying 'what i learnt: i'm gay' and a photo of an envelope labelled: 'everything i could never tell you'. ]
:—)
BARNEY EVANS HAS LONG SINCE LEARNT how to hide himself away.
According to Julius (so he'll probably take it with just a pinch of salt), Barney is the epitome of middle-child-syndrome. But can you blame him? Lily's a supernova, an explosion of strawberries and laughter and kisses curled round cheekbones. Petunia's all schemes and dreams and giggle-tinged gossip, although she's been laughing less and less recently. Barney's just, well, Barney.
Meaning, he's shy and awkward and, according to Julius, relies on Julius too much. (But there's nothing worse in Barney's head than the thought of having, shudders, more than two friends.) Meaning, he's absolutely fine with hiding in the shadows with a book on dinosaurs, watching from afar as Lily's perfect pretty nose wrinkles with disgust at the arrival of each Dear Evans letter. Meaning, he'll swap speech with nervous smiles and his widest grin only appears when he's slipped into the shadows with the latest ode to love, devouring them obsessively even though he knows they'll never be for him.
Everybody knows about the Dear Evans letters, and none more so than Barney, being Lily's little brother and everything. James Potter's just a little bit notorious for his sheer fascination, his pure love, for Barney's spitfire sister - and if anything, her constant rejections only add fuel to his fire. Like Lily, Barney thinks James is just too loud and too cocky and just too in general. Unlike Lily, Barney thinks James is too beautiful and too perfect and too wonderful for him.
He just can't help falling for him, even if James doesn't even know that he exists (and why would he, anyway? If anything, James'll just know him as the rest of the school does: Lily Evans' weirdo little brother who speaks approximately once a week).
Or at least, James doesn't know Barney exists - that is, until Barney accidentally (promise!) throws up all over James' brand-new Quidditch shoes. (Yeah, he doesn't know how it happens either.) And then, through a series of miscommunications that wouldn't be out of place in a Muggle sitcom, both slowly and all of a sudden, Barney finds James Potter tangling himself up more and more in his life.
