Saturdays were made for lounging about and reading, in Benji's opinion. Of course, since they had to wake up at the crack of dawn every day and weren't allowed any reading that wasn't strictly educational these days... Well, he'd had to redefine what a perfect Saturday was to him.

Obviously it included Penny. Anything with the word "perfect" in it had to include her by default -- it wouldn't be perfect if she weren't there. Duh.

He was sure Penny had explored just as much of the castle as he had, but he hoped she hadn't been up here to the battlements before. He'd asked her to meet him, hoping they could admire the view together (and maybe hold hands without getting caught, but that was still up in the air). Even if she had been up here before, they hadn't been together, so it could still be special. Right?

Anyway. He straightened his tie and quickly smoothed down his hair with his hand. He was wearing his glasses today -- he needed his mum to send him more contact solution -- and felt a little extra dorky, so he needed to make up for it by looking good in other ways, he guessed.

ACTUALLY come to think of it, he was pretty sure Penny didn't even know he wore contacts... What if she saw him with glasses and thought he was hideous? What if she broke up with her ugly, blind boyfriend right on the spot?? What if she didn't want to be with him anymore because she was worried that their children would have bad eyesight?! (He was busy working himself up over this, or else he would have taken a moment to realize that he was thinking about his future children with Penny and gotten pretty embarrassed.)

Oh, Merlin. Hopefully she would get here soon and interrupt his panicky thoughts. It was amazing how even with constant reassurance that she liked him, he still found a way to doubt that she would continue to like him for much longer. He was always waiting for the moment she would finally realize how much better she was than him and dump him.

Penny was of the same school of thought when it came to Saturdays. They SHOULD be spent lounging around with nothing to do, but seeing as they had found themselves in a military school this term... well... there was no way to do that. So, the brunette had ditched all but one school book and made her way up to the sixth floor where she and Benji had agreed to meet. She had, in fact, been up to the battlements, but she wouldn't tell her boyfriend that. Not when he was so cute and excited about this place and them meeting there.

Tugging on the sleeve of her robes she peeked her head out to find him. And just as always, her heart did a little skipping thing when her eyes landed on him. It never got old, really.

"Hey you," she said softly as she made her way closer to him. And he was wearing glasses! Not that he would know this... but she found glasses very attractive. VERY. Like... WOWZA! This boy was like... perfect. Extremely so.

Digging in her bag she produced a stolen bunch of cookies she had smuggled out of the kitchens on her way past. Offering the napkin covered contraband, she gave him a huge smile. "Brought you some cookies," she said with a shy smile. Because... what if he didn't like cookies?! What if he was gluten free or something?! This could go horribly awry. She was probably the worst girlfriend on the face of the EARTH!!

Benji turned at the sound of his girlfriend's voice, automatically breaking into a huge grin upon seeing her. "Hi, lovely," he returned the greeting, trying out a pet name and immediately becoming embarrassed about having done so. He had never called her anything but "Penny" before. What if she hated it?! Stupid, stupid, stupid! She's an ANGEL and you're a DWEEB so don't take risks like calling her dorky things! he scolded himself internally. "Sorry," he said, shaking his head a little, an embarrassed smile beginning to play at his lips. Yeesh.

BUT on the bright side, she had said nothing about the glasses. So even if she hated them (probable), she wasn't saying it. He could live with that. Aaaaaand on the even brighter side, COOKIES! "Oh, yes!" he exclaimed, unable to stifle the giant grin spreading across his face. "You're the best!" Cookies were Benji's favorite. It did not matter what kind. Not one bit. He even liked oatmeal raisin, and nobody liked oatmeal raisin, so it seemed. He would eat any sort of cookie presented to him. ANY SORT. (Unless it was like a Bertie Bott's thing. No thank you to grass-flavored -- or worse -- cookies.)

He grabbed an offered cookie with his left hand and Penny's free hand with his right, intertwining their fingers and swinging it slightly while munching contentedly. He was currently having a hard time believing that this was real life. Beautiful view, amazing company, and yummy (forbidden) cookies. How much better could it even get?

"So, I've been thinking," he said, swallowing the last bite of the cookie he had scarfed at near-lightning speed. "I know we've still got some time, but summer is coming up soon, and I want to see you..." He looked up at her a bit shyly. What if she didn't want to see him? What if this was just a school fling and she'd been planning on dumping him as soon as school let out?! Oh, no, Park, you've done it this time. Why do you always have to open your big mouth? He braced himself to hear what Penny would say, which he was sure would be something like, "No thanks, I don't want to see you, and in fact, I think we should break up right now." YEP that was what it was going to be. He was sure of it.

(Man, did this boy swing from one extreme to another in a matter of moments.)

Lovely. HE CALLED HER LOVELY?! Penny's face split into the widest smile of LIFE when he spoke. I mean... had he actually ever seen her? She was far from lovely, but just hearing him say it darn near made her believe it. And when he took her hand she gave his fingers the faintest squeeze. "No need to apologize. I... I like it..." she stammered, cheeks blazing crimson as she did so.

This boy was like... the greatest thing since Ollivander started making wands! Which was to say, he was the coolest, greatest, most wonderful thing EVER! Her brain was practically mush as she watched him devour the stolen cookie she had offered. "Hey... I really like you in spectacles, by the way. Makes you look proper smart." Which he was, by the way... in case he didn't know that.

And knowing Benji Park the way she did, she was sure he didn't know that. Sweet boy.

"Oh! Summer! Yeah! I'd love to see you at the summer, Benji! You think you could come round mine? Or maybe I could come round yours?! My Bruvver will be licensed to apparate then!" Meaning she would MAKE him take her places and such. "And like... maybe... we could go on like... a proper date orsummat. I mean... if ya fancy..." Which... he might not.

What? She liked it?! "Oh," Benji said, smiling shyly. "Okay... Lovely." Still felt weird. Was she sure this was alright?? Ahhh! Judging from the look on her face, she really did like it... But he wasn't entirely sure she believed that he meant it. Better clear that up. "It's true, you know. I'm not just saying it..." he murmured, still feeling a little shy. He just knew Penny underappreciated herself. She was SO GREAT. He just wanted to scream it from the top of Hogwarts. Actually, hmm... they were practically at the top of Hogwarts right now... But no, if he started screaming, someone was bound to come looking, and they would probably get in trouble for holding hands and eating cookies. While he fully believed Penny to be worth the risk, he didn't particularly want their time to be cut short. (Or to lose the cookies, honestly.)

Benji's eyebrows shot up in surprise as Penny complimented his glasses. "What? I mean, really? You think so?" He could feel the tips of his ears turning a bit pink. Nobody had ever told him that he looked smart in them. He grinned practically from ear to ear. "You, Penny Goodman, keep surprising me. In the best ways." It was true!

"Yes! Amazing! Either. All of it. Anywhere. Seriously. I mean... I would spend every single day with you if I could." Just as long as he was with her, they could be anywhere, doing anything, and he would be completely and utterly pleased. He smiled, but a sudden thought came to mind that switched it into a very slight frown. "Oh. There's... Maybe a problem, though. My parents... I haven't said much about them before... They're kind of... I mean, I think I can sneak around them easy enough, they hardly pay attention to me anyway, but I might not be able to get to you very easily... Although I guess I could do the Muggle way and take a bus or something, actually..." he shrugged. He was rambling, he could already tell, and he wasn't totally sure he was making sense, but once he started, the words just kept falling out. "That would probably work. But anyway, they won't notice if I leave, that's almost for certain, but if you come to mine, they might pop in unexpectedly... They do that sometimes. And they sort of... Don't know about us..." Anticipating Penny's reaction, Benji hurriedly added, "Not for any bad reason! Really. Not at all. Has nothing to do with you, not even a little bit. I just... They're not always the most understanding people." That was an understatement. "I don't really like to tell them things... Especially not about things that actually mean something to me." He gave her hand a squeeze, hoping she understood that he meant her. She meant something to him. More than something.

He was sort of surprising himself by opening up this way, but once he started, he found himself wanting to tell Penny everything -- all the fighting intermingled with his parents practically ignoring him, feeling so unbearably lonely sometimes at home, wondering if they even cared about him at all beyond making sure he wasn't making them look bad -- but he wasn't sure now was quite the time. Still, she did probably need to know what he was telling her currently. It was relevant and all. He hoped he wasn't hurting her feelings. Truly, he just wanted to protect her -- to protect them -- from his parents. That's why he hadn't told them anything, and why he said what he did next:

"So I guess what I'm saying is... I would rather you not meet my parents. But not because of you! Because of them. They're sort of..." He shrugged again, leaving an unspoken word in the air for her to guess. "I just don't want them to ruin the best thing I have in my life. And they would." He bit his lower lip, feeling it begin to tremble. He knew if he let it go unchecked, he would probably start crying. And THAT was not what he felt like doing right at the moment. He was very unused to big emotional displays or confessions, and actually, what he felt like doing at the moment was kissing Penny because he knew it would make him feel better, but he knew he should probably wait and let her react to what he'd said before doing anything else.

Still, it felt a little relieving to get that all out there. He just hoped he wouldn't lose Penny over it... And he was a little worried that she was going to take a look at the vast amounts of emotional baggage he'd just unloaded and promptly leave without ever looking back.

She did indeed like it! It made her feel… special. It was odd how often people told her she was just that… special, that is. Not that she particularly believed it when anyone said it to her, though. Hah. But this… him calling her lovely… it felt different. More like he meant it. Which he cleared up right after, causing her smile to grow tenfold. So without thinking about consequence Penny leaned in and kissed his cheek quickly. A way to show her thanks for his being so nice to her all the time. Hehehe. “I dunno if it's true or not, but I like hearing you say it,” the Hufflepuff said, a slight hint of shyness to her voice. He still made her feel all giddy and shy at the same time. It was an odd feeling.

She then noticed the slight hint of pink on his ears when he spoke again, but knew enough not to mention it or point it out. Mainly because it would be hella rude, ya know. But also because she didn't want him to feel self conscious about it. “How do I surprise you?” she asked, head tilted sideways ever so slightly. She wasn't sure anyone had ever told her she was surprising.

And now the smile that had grown so much was starting to wilt just a tad as she listened to her boyfriend talk about his parents. That had to be horrible… Penny gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as she scooted closer to his side. When he finished speaking, Penny squeezed Benji's hand once more. “I understand… I really do. And we will make a way to see one another,” she said softly before leaning her head on his shoulder. “And don't worry about her family being… different to mine. We're poor. And I dunno who me Pa is. So we don't have it together either,” she added, hoping that her openness might make him feel better. Hopefully.

"It's definitely true," Benji said seriously, frowning slightly. Did she not believe it still? He was going to have to find a way to convince her of how fantastic she was!!

"Well..." he said, answering her question about how she was surprising, "you just... Say things to me that nobody has ever said before. And you... ya know... Actually want to kiss me. And whatnot. And that's a very new thing." He tried to shrug casually, like it didn't really matter, but it was obvious that he did, in fact, care a lot about what he was saying. At this point, the blush was spreading to his cheeks. (Why did it seem that for a boy who didn't blush very often, he was often as red as a fire truck around Penny?! He had to get a handle on that. How embarrassing!!!!) "I guess what I mean is that I've never had anyone treat me the way you do, so kind of... Everything is surprising, you know?"

And there she was, doing it again. Surprising him. Once his stuff came around the conveyer belt of the emotional baggage claim, he had expected her to just take the next plane right out of there and leave it all behind, not casually load it up on a trolley next to her own. (Interesting metaphor, he decided, kind of proud of himself for thinking it up.) In his relief at her reaction, he didn't even think twice before he leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips, lingering for a moment before pulling back and opening his eyes slowly. "...Thanks," he said after a beat. "For understanding. And not immediately running away screaming." He smiled. "I guess nobody's family is perfect. Although yours has to be close to it since you turned out so great and all. I can't wait to meet your mum."

A sudden scary thought occurred to him after he said that, though, and he voiced it aloud: "Does she... Know about me? Us, I mean?" Of course Penny's siblings knew, they were here and all. But had any of them told their mother? He'd never thought to ask that before. In fact, he'd never even thought about it before. (Too focused on hiding from his own parents, you know.) Was she going to be mad at him for dating her daughter without permission? Was she going to disapprove of him and tell Penny to dump him and then Penny would suddenly realize how much better she was than him and be like, "Oh, you're right, Mum, BYE FOREVER, BENJI!" OH NO what was the protocol for this?!!! He had no clue!!!! SHE WAS GOING TO HATE HIM RIGHT OFF THE BAT!!!!!!!