[HEART] Don't you!

THE END?!

Isabelle was notably relieved to see that Adrian came out of the situation alive, it being unlikely that she would forgive herself for such a mistake. The boy seemed to take it in stride though. Well, physically he looked exhausted, but otherwise he acted like everything was fine. She cracked a bit of a smile as she wiped the goo trickling down her lips within the crook of her elbow.

Although, once the man mentioned her boyfriend, hinting at the nerdy kid from earlier, her face contorted to a cringe and her hands wavered to give off the impression that she refuted the very thought. She might have been into some sick stuff, but she wasn’t dating a psychopath. She didn’t know how to communicate the actual situation to Adrian considering that he wasn’t fluent in sign language. As she made the effort though, her phone began to buzz and she swiftly answered it. The voice on the other end wasn’t quite clear, but if either of them were pesky enough to listen in it was something along the lines of:

“Uh, real sorry babe. No one got hurt, right? Look, I know you’re probably mad and probably signing something real bad, but what am I supposed to do? Look, he’s a good guy when he’s not being a tyrannical dictator. He’s just really protective of me, and to an extension, you as well I suppose. Just give it time, he’ll trust you more once he gets to know you better, until then, maybe avoid talking to other men.”

---

Anyways, the miniature chest that was acquired in the shenanigans that transpired opened with a mere flick of Stella’s wrist, thankfully not being any more complex than just that. A shimmer of wonder exploded from the hinges of the box as the prize that the duo (perhaps one more than the other) were anxiously awaiting. On first impression, it looked to be some sort of red fabric, very soft and smooth, clearly being something of high grade material. Once pulled out though, it would be revealed as a set of conjoined gloves, allowing lovers in cold weather to hold hands without the barrier of each other’s gloves getting in the way.

    Breathing turned out to not be that difficult in the end. How bad would it be if he failed to figure that one out? Still, Stella's encroaching aside - which prompted him to shift away in his seat so her hands avoided anything personal - Adrian focused his attention on Isabelle when she made a noticeable gesture. Hard not to notice the remnant goo tracing her lips before she wiped it clean. "So, it was Miss Scarlet in the Dining Room with the... Please tell me that was saliva." An exasperated sigh escaped him as he settled back into his seat, his dismissive expression done away with by a slowly formed grin, "Damn girl. You stole my breath away." Short pause. "As long as you keep your mouth shut, we'll get along great." Broadening grin, "Next time you want to swap saliva, maybe we should talk it out first."

    Clearly enjoying himself, Adrian disliked the interruption by phone, especially given what conversation, if one could call it that, followed. Rather than listen in obnoxiously, he turned his attention to Stella, who had claimed the prize. He felt himself shift out of jovial amusement into a wry sort as his expression shifted to deadpan. "Stella. I nearly died for that. It's mine." Never mind that he had absolutely no idea what the prize was until she held them up. Conjoined gloves. Of all the useless... He glanced to Isabelle again, now that the message had finished playing. One last bit of light hearted teasing couldn't hurt, "On second thought, wearing those, how could anyone tell what I think of them?"
    
    Ah, a decent day, all in all. Relatively certain Isabelle would not be joining him, sabotaged by his own jokes, surely, Adrian gave her a gentle wave and a leading statement, "I'm serious about those sign language lessons, by the way. Not sure who would be able to teach me all that. But you'll have to excuse me, I do have a prior arrangement." Again, he turned his attention to Stella, "So, we won, right? You signed me up for a long morning, you know. Hm, but now I'm hungry. Lunch?"

As Stella opened the box, revealing gloves that were joined together for couples to use when out in the cold - the teenager let out an audible sigh. She had gotten so excited about this prize and a flash of frustration moved across her face as she wonder what else could the school have possibly given her. One part of her wanted to keep the prize just to be hard headed, but as Adrian laid down several pick up lines to the girl that just spat green goo all over his face - the young woman narrowed her eyes at the boy she had dragged along to this event.

What right did he have hitting on another girl in front of her? It wasn't like they were dating or anything, but Stella found herself getting annoyed nonetheless. Finally, Adrian asked for the prize and the woman stayed silent for just a few extra minutes - finally letting her mouth gape a bit as Adrian turned to her to ask her to lunch.

Shaking her head at the boy, Stella tossed the gloves in Adrian's face in a fit of annoyance. Her buttons had clearly been pressed. "Take your stupid prize, I changed my mind on wanting it anyway. I don't even know why I bothered to drag you along to this event. I have other things to do, so enjoy your afternoon." Stella's voice was thick with poison as her eyes moved to Isabelle momentarily before jumping back to Adrian. "See you." With that Stella stormed out of the the dining room, leaving Adrian and the mess they made behind her.

    Adrian about gawked in reply when the fuzzy, ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, unfathomably ridiculous gloves smacked him in the face. Stella ranted and raged and seethed and stormed in her departure, and Adrian watched her leave. Not for the reasons most would expect, "Wow. She does have some self-respect." The idea read foreign to him, but he could hardly say he blamed her for the response. If anything, +1 to Stella.

    Fitting on the conjoined gloves, one side ridiculously smaller than the other, he held up his hands towards Isabelle and wiggled his fingers in their confines, "So, how does this work, then?"

Isabelle pinched the bridge of her nose as she was taking a bombardment of pickup lines through one ear and a series of weak willed excuses from the other. Her temperament with her actual boyfriend was clear on her face as she cringed and looked to be ready to yell at the boy for allowing his friend to continue with his overprotective antics. It was about the third or second time it had happened since they started dating and it was about time that campus security did something about it. It was bad enough that she nearly strangled someone to death because she tried to enact justice on her own.

At some point in her boyfriend’s dialogue, she very adamantly hung up, knowing that the boy wasn’t texting her because he was attempting to keep some sort of communicative high ground and that was really getting under her skin. It didn’t seem like she was the only one as Adrian’s partner in crime stormed off not too long after he attempted to make some sort of lunch plans. She wondered if the boy was that dense considering that he was clearly hitting on her whilst also trying to score with another girl, either that or he was some kind of over achiever.

Isabelle really wanted to refute Adrian’s advances, but as he fitted on the two handed glove, she put a bit more thought into it. If she wanted her current boyfriend to finally grow a pair, she had to show him there was something worth risking. Adrian was the easiest target she could find considering that he had a difficult time keeping his opinions in his pants. She very swiftly pulled out a pen and paper, jotting something down.

As Adrian put his hand into the glove for two, he would notice another small object hidden within. It was very ring-like with what felt like a tag attached to it.

Isabelle squinted her eyes at the boy as he displayed his curiosity about his prize. From her mouth, a frog-like tongue shot at Adrian and wrapped its way around the cleanly knitted abomination of winter accessories, in addition to pulling the boy’s bodice into closer proximity of her own. Once that was complete, the slimy tether zipped back into her mouth as she batted her eyes in an innocent manner. She displayed the paper she wrote down upon to the boy’s face, which had her number, and proceeded to stuff it into the boy’s front pocket considering that his two hands were already occupied.

    Adrian ignored his concern for Stella and any defensive urge to explain himself to Isabelle. Talking about another girl is just bad form. Though, if she had questions he had plenty to talk about. But then, how would she ask? Whatever, he'd just keep his mouth shut on that front.

    So, instead, he tried to engage the one left standing with minor amusement to break the tension. He expected something along the lines of exasperation and her leaving him, too. He would not have been overly surprised. To say the slimy appendage wrapping around his hands caught him off-guard would be an understatement, especially since he had become momentarily distracted by finding something unexpected inside the conjoined gloves. So, yes, surprise showed clear on his face (though he made great effort to hide a flinch of disgust) when he had been yanked to his feet and pulled up against her by an unnaturally long tongue. Normally put-off by such displays, or having any close proximity to them, Adrian's mind went sideways. He could care less about the condition of the gloves when that thought went through his head. Stumbling a half step just to keep his balance, he definitely noticed a flush of embarrassment on his own face. And there he was, face to face with that beguiling sweetness.

    "Uh," He said intelligently, simply watching as Isabelle stuffed the paper into his shirt. What about her boyfriend?  You know what? No. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. His befuddled expression immediately gave way to a wide, shiny grin. "Did you eat, yet?" She clearly had not, he could recall her still-full plate of food when this mess had started, "Let's grab something and take it somewhere..." Glancing around the Dining Hall, he noted some people were still watching their interaction, "...else."

As Isabelle had expected, Adrian easily fell victim to her. To be fair though, it was like attracting a shark with a bucket full of chum, so it’s not like she had to work it any. She shook her head in a very coy manner when he asked her if she had eaten yet, which probably was a rhetorical question anyway. Either way, it was a better idea to make the boy believe that he was in control of the situation.

He suggested to eat elsewhere, which was probably a better tactic considering how much attention was still on them. Honestly, it felt like these students who were staring at them still had nothing else going on in their life, it was kind of weird. Even to her it sometimes felt that only a select group of students in the school did anything of note. Anyways, Isabelle agreed to the boy’s date, though was somewhat cautious about the ‘elsewhere’ that they were going to eat and kind of hoped that it was some place other than his room. Given his constant attempts at trying to get her to fiddle his joystick, she wouldn’t be surprised if that was the destination. She would still follow him though.

As for the ring within the conjoined mitts, if Adrian bothered to reveal the jewelry he would find a little tag attached to it, which read as ‘this ring is infused with a power negating enchantment, it is a one use deal, but it will allow the user to share an intimate moment for a short period of time if they have an intrusive power.’

    "You know," voiced Adrian conversationally, "I expected the 'keep your mouth shut' bit to be over the line, but it's good you don't take things too seriously. Cecilia gets all uppity when I tease her about her eyes. Builds character." The reference hardly seemed to concern Adrian, for all his effort to avoid talking about Stella (not much effort at all, in fact), since Cecilia registered more on the scale of tiny feral creature than potential female competition. He in no way viewed her as anything close to a younger sister figure, to be sure.

    "Hey, neat." Discarding the gloves on someone else's table had unveiled the ring with its attached note. For a brief moment he gave the small prize his full attention, a realization quickly swimming up on him. "Ah. Candlelit dinner?" He implored, simultaneously making effort to gather some food for himself and his date. Fresh food that had not been sitting neglected on a table for half an hour already. Here was an opportunity to enjoy a rare and singular moment with someone. A bit over-the-top romantic for his taste, and certainly for this level of their not-quite-relationship, but it hardly seemed right to save it for an emergency. As practical as that sounded.

    Excitement stole over his expression suddenly, "Ah! I've got it." He gave ample time for his date to dish up her own plate, but took to carrying both their trays on the way out of the Dining Hall. Not that it made much difference since he could hardly understand her anyway, but it did not make much sense to occupy her hands while having a conversation. The ring, with its tag, ended up on his own tray so that he did not accidentally, prematurely put it to use in simple mental absence. "I couldn't go to any dances last time around because they had this whole candle chandelier thing going on. Be my date?" He gave her a charming grin as they made their way into the open hall, pausing to receive a response.




    "Now," Adrian glanced both ways down the hall, "Do you have a favorite spot on campus, or should we just picnic in the courtyard?"