Key

 
    After laying in his bed for five straight hours, Key decided that babies had it right: the fetal position was vastly underrated. Going into his sixth hour, Key had no intention of moving and instead heaved a deep sigh as he burrowed further into his blankets.
Key had heard, many times in the past, that grief was comprised of five stages. He had worked through denial (Amber is not mad at me) and anger (screw her, what does she even know) and was now firmly set in depression. 
This didn’t go unnoticed.
“What’s going on with you?” asked Jonghyun, sitting down beside Key on his bed.
“This is the Slytherin dormitory,” Key replied sadly. “How did a dumb Hufflepuff like you get in here….”
“That lacked any malice and was completely non-threatening,” Jonghyun replied sympathetically. “I’m concerned.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Key pouted, grabbing an overstuffed toy bear and snuggling into it. Jonghyun immediately yanked it out of his hands. “Rude,” Key whimpered.
“What’s gotten into you?” Jonghyun asked patiently. “It’s Saturday night and you’re not attempting to trick Onew into going into the forbidden section of the library.”
“I do love doing that,” Key muttered. “Last time he went in because I told him that Taemin was trapped in there…”
“Telling. Very telling,” Jonghyun said, rolling his eyes. “I hate seeing you like this, and Krystal said you won’t tell her anything. What gives?”
“Leave me alone,” Key said, rolling over and shoving his face into his pillow.
Jonghyun sighed again. “Don’t make me do this.”
“Do what?” Key replied, though it may have been slightly muffled.
    A moment passed, and before Key could ask for further clarification he felt a short, stocky weight sink into his lower back. Jonghyun was sitting on him. He had officially reached a new low.
    “I will murder you,” Key wheezed.
    “You won’t,” Jonghyun retorted calmly, “and I’m not getting up until you tell me what’s going on. So spill.”
    “Shouldn’t you be somewhere shoving your tongue down Minho’s throat?” Key hissed.
    Key swore he could feel Jonghyun smiling. “There’s that characteristic malice! More of that, please, as well as a bit more truth.”
    Key groaned. “I’m fine, it’s...whatever! Amber was just a the other day and it’s….whatever.”
    Jonghyun tutted; Key couldn’t see but he was sure that Jonghyun had the same patronizing smirk on his face that he’d worn the one time he’d bested Key in Wizard’s Chess.
    (And it really had only been one time!)
    “Still not coming to terms with it?” Jonghyun asked, tone patronizing.
    “Come to terms with what?” Key retorted.
    “Your feelings for Amber.”
    Had Key been able to breathe before, he would’ve stopped in shock. In his present state, Key could only wheeze heavily and tap the mattress as if giving up. Jonghyun rolled off of him.
    “Deep breaths,” he said, rubbing Key’s back soothingly.
    “Your fault,” Key coughed in reply.
    “You just need to talk to her,” Jonghyun said, continuing to rub small circles in Key’s back; Key would be lying if he said that it wasn’t soothing.
    “But…” Key trailed off.
    “But what?”
    Key sighed, then sat up in bed. He felt a chunk of hair sticking up at the back and did nothing to fix it...in his current state, it was just too much to handle. “Look, we got into a fight the other day and it did not end well. It’s never been like this for us. Usually when we fight it’s just...joking, you know? And this wasn’t a joke. This was real, and I have no idea why it happened.”
    Jonghyun tutted again, though not unkindly. “You know what might fix this?”
    “A freaking lobotomy?” Key replied dryly.
    Jonghyun leveled a fairly menacing glare at him (for a Hufflepuff, anyway.) “An actual conversation. Human to human. Amber to Key.”
    “Am I sub-human now?” Key asked.
    “Shut your dumb sass-face. You know what I mean.”
    “What if I just...never talk to her again?” Key asked. “And then she feels so guilty that she’s the one who breaks the silence?”
    “I see you’ve moved onto the bargaining phase,” Jonghyun said. “Just one more to go.”
    “Until what?” Key asked.
    Jonghyun stood, turning to face Key as he straightened his robes. “Acceptance. Talk to her. You guys owe it to each other, and to the legacy of your friendship, to have an honest talk.”
    “Whatever,” Key muttered, as Jonghyun moved towards the door. “You’re a dumb Hufflepuff. Who is dumb.”
    “And yet, here I am. Standing in the sacred Slytherin dormitory,” Jonghyun replied sweetly. “And how do you think that happened?”
------
    “Thanks for letting me in,” Jonghyun whispered to Krystal as he bolted through the Slytherin common room towards the exit.
    “Anytime,” Krystal stage-whispered back, winking as Blaise Zabini leveled a neutral glance at the both of them.
    Jonghyun whimpered, whipped open the door and slammed it shut behind him.