Quote:
Originally Posted by
sweetpinkpixie 
While he had expected it, the astronomer was still pleased that the Hufflepuff was more than willing to go along with the gesture. He was even more pleased with himself that all this hand holding was not causing his insides to somersault and knot as well. He had always said that seventh years could be a mild exception to the standards he set on professor-student relationships, within reason, so he was still working within that framework. Especially meaningful as he had taught Mr. Toby since he was a first year struggling to remove the hose of a vacuum from his face.
Watching the Hufflepuff's movements, Airey lifted his free hand towards Mr. Toby's and waited for instructions...that apparently were not coming. But a SPACE reference sounded STELLAR!
Creative impulses firing on all cylinders - VERY welcomed distraction from all the 'woe is he' he had been feeling in recent days - he eyed their hands for a few moments until he had one of those light bulb moments. "COMBUSTION!" he suddenly erupted. "Our fingers can represent the flames that burn the fuel that generates the huge amount of thrust necessary for a rocket to escape the Earth's gravity. Our HANDS can serve as the rockets...therefore..." he explained as he began to wiggle his fingers excitedly against the seventh year's. "3...2...1...SCHOOOOOOM!"
Airey pulled his hand that had had its fingers wiggling back high over his head and swung his arm around slowly like a windmill.
Airey seemed to have suddenly perked right up at the prospect of creating a secret handshake, and so Toby was quite happy to let him take the reins with it; creativity had never really been one of his own strengths, despite the wild imagination. He'd also stared at their hands for a good few moments in thought, thinking of a next step, so the professor's sudden exclamation made him jump.
Merlin. That never really got old, did it? Toby grinned again as Airey totally nerded out about rockets and space and stuff. It made him happy, okay? To see the guy getting enthusiastic given the circumstances with the missing Pebbles and all. Toby nodded along eagerly at the explanation, and copied the Starman's movements.
WIGGLY FINGERS. WIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLE.
He even made a noise that was close to what he thought a rocket getting ready to launch sounded like, barely realising what he was doing. A kind of... low 'wssssshhhssschhhhhhhh...'. And lift-off. Toby chimed in a second after Airey's lead, copying his, uh... windmilling? Okay. Yeah. Copying that, too.
"SCHOOOOOOOM!" Still grinning, Toby bounced juuuuust a little on his toes and looked at the hands they still hand in handshake-position.
"How about this? You ever heard of Thumb War?" he asked, manoeuvring their hands into the start position for that and just randomly dancing his thumb around for a few moments. Not a real GAME, but Y'KNOW.
"And..." he looked at their other hands.
"A high five? Fist bump?"
Ah yes. Nice and complicated. Toby didn't care, though, 'cause it was fun. He'd worry about remembering it later. The more complicated, the better the SECRET. 'Cause secret handshake.