A Start… with @87percentcreativity’s wonderful Emcy!
And the silly doodles that started it all
Why dear Carina ended up kissing Emcy on the cheek to begin with.
Emcy Player had been treated in the hospital wing an intriguing number of times.
Carina had noticed a peculiar pattern after the first time they met. More often than not, whenever Emcy required treatment, she was the one tending to him. Nurse Blainey had even remarked that the boy seemed to have stopped needing care altogether.
When Carina had looked through the treatment ledger herself, she’d found the truth.
He simply only came when she was the healer on duty.
She couldn’t help the quiet sigh that escaped her.
His crush was painfully obvious.
And… admittedly rather endearing.
Especially with the little sweets and treats he always left behind as thanks for fixing him up. She truly enjoyed those. Even if they all seemed determined to go straight to her thighs.
It certainly didn’t help that he was distractingly handsome, toweringly tall, with the most impossible icy-blue eyes she’d ever seen. Every visit to the hospital wing only seemed to deepen the fondness she was trying very hard not to acknowledge. Somewhere along the way, he’d unwittingly become her favorite patient.
It took an embarrassing amount of self-control not to flirt with him while he was seeking treatment.
Lately she’d even caught herself watching him during lessons, only realizing she’d been staring when he glanced her way.
This was becoming a problem.
Like any other evening, Carina sat tucked behind the matron’s desk in the blissfully quiet hospital wing, carefully annotating her alchemy text. Not a single bed was occupied.
She rested her cheek against her hand as she wrote.
She hadn’t realized just how exhausted she was until her eyelids began to grow heavy.
Only now it wasn’t her alchemy text beneath her hand.
Instead, it was one of her own novels, a ridiculous romance she’d purchased solely because the imagery hidden throughout had caught her attention.
That was what she’d told herself, anyway.
She absentmindedly scribbled notes into the margins as warm fingertips brushed the side of her neck before slowly combing through her long white hair.
She did adore having someone play with her hair.
Gentle fingers continued threading through the silky strands, lifting them away from the back of her neck.
Then soft lips pressed a feather-light kiss against her nape.
Heat rushed up her neck, flooding her cheeks.
Before she could even react, a warm arm slipped carefully around her waist, drawing her back against a solid chest.
Who…? She wasn’t seeing anyone.
Flustered, she turned her head, only to meet a pair of familiar icy-blue eyes.
She inhaled sharply, blinking at the familiar sight of the hospital wing, her quill still clutched tightly in her hand.
A dull ache pulsed behind her temples.
She carefully set her quill aside before pressing cool fingertips against her cheeks, willing the blush burning across her face to disappear.
Must they always be that vivid?
These visions that slipped into her dreams always carried an unsettling weight of possibility. This one, however…
This one wasn’t unwelcome.
The ache in her temples, however, was far less appreciated, the unmistakable sign that this hadn’t been some silly dream born of an obvious crush.
She let out another quiet sigh.
Emcy seemed too shy to ever admit how he felt.
Perhaps she ought to make the first move.
The decision settled in her chest with surprising ease.
Carina tucked away her book, intending to return to it later, before making her way toward the Great Hall. Dinner would be ending about now.
She spotted Emcy just as he was stepping away from his friends at one of the House tables.
A mischievous smile tugged at her lips.
He had absolutely no idea what was coming.
Before she could lose her nerve, Carina hurried across the hall, slipped into his path, and, with a little leap to make up the difference in height, wrapped her arms around his neck.
Then she planted a kiss squarely on his left cheek.
His entire body went rigid.
His icy-blue eyes grew impossibly wide.
Then closed again without producing so much as a syllable.
Carina couldn’t stop herself from giggling.
As she dropped back onto her heels, she admired the perfect lipstick print she’d left behind.
She hummed happily, thoroughly pleased with herself.
Without another word, she flashed Emcy one last playful smile before turning on her heel and disappearing back toward the hospital wing, leaving him rooted to the spot in the middle of the Great Hall.
She would explain herself later.
After he’d recovered from the shock.
I promise she isn’t trying to break him!
The repercussions written by @/87percentcreativity here…
