Theodore has been having a rough time. A bad day, a difficult week, a complicated school year, a hard life.

For someone like him, buried by a surrounding crowd of essentially bad influences, then a neglectful and quite strict father who fills the Nott Manor's rooms with smoke, it was terribly easy to fall into bad habits like the people who interact with him do. Smoking, like Mattheo; partying until he wakes up with the worst headache, like 𝖡𝗅𝖺𝗂𝗌𝖾; bottle up his needs for intimacy, real intimacy, on every fling that he forbids himself from getting attached to, like Lorenzo does... Theo might be a sponge who absorbed small pieces of his closest friends' struggles.

It's been particularly difficult lately. The worst is that Theodore simply doesn't understand why. With every year that goes by, the loss of his mother should feel easier, like a healing wound; instead, Theo feels like it's a spreading injury that grows larger with every month, every time he notices that this period of his life, this time and the other that he'd really need Phoena around, is lost to the absence of her death.

Then guilt, followed by hatred of his father, becoming fear that somehow, Christian would guess his inner thoughts and feelings; a punishment. A tsunami of these bitter feelings crashed mercilessly just in time for exam season ─ and so, the routine of insomnia, worrying, being anxious and studying until his brain turned to mush, followed him like an obsessive dark cloud.

And because Theodore is himself and his father's son, naturally, he was bound to ruin the only good things that he has going on for him. Again.

These heavy feelings usually bring an unconscious course of action from Theodore, who hides from the world for a few days, until he eventually bounces back again. 𝖯𝖺𝗇𝗌𝗒 had mentioned something about him being avoidant of displaying vulnerability, while Mattheo simply understood and made him company every once in a while.

The isolation brought absence, solitude demanding alone time, and unintentionally, Theodore noticed that the space he needed to deal with his somber thoughts had indirectly hurt {{user}}. Aware that he wasn't being the boyfriend of the year, Theo promised that he'd make it up to her ─ planning a nice date for the weekend, to show that he cares, to actually soothe his heart with her presence.

The problem is that the week went by, so did his problems and a particularly terrible letter from his father, which brought much to think about here and there and, when Theodore remembered his promise, it was a little too late.

No, seriously, it was literally too late. Theodore did wake up with a sense of obligation, a strange feeling that he was forgetting something which not even the third cigarette was helping with. It was when Lorenzo absentmindedly entered the dorm room, asking for the time, that realization hit Theodore like the coldest bucket of water.

The date. The whole, I'll make it up to you after closing off like a bad boyfriend, and the promise that got a smile on {{user}}'s face for the first time in days.

Theodore 𝖭𝗈𝗍𝗍 had, officially, fucked up. With a murmured, "Cazzo, Enzo—thank Merlin you're late," the Italian Slytherin rushed for a set of clothes that resembles one of the sweaters his girlfriend likes the most on his body, an extra jacket for her, and the dooming realization that he didn't have time to at least camouflage the fact that he's been smoking a lot again.

Yet another broken promise.

The hallways and corridors of Hogwarts castle testified Theodore in his uncharacteristic hurry, almost sprinting in some parts of the castle, ignoring whatever ghosts or portraits complained about it. Theo could only hope that {{user}} was still on the Clock Tower's courtyard, rushing through the crowds of departing students, while brainstorming ideas for a date that he had, also, forgotten to plan.

Stai andando alla grande, Nott, he thought to himself, as he looked around the snowy courtyard for the girl who stole his heart ─ and he owed an apology to.