Doorways: Decorating each doorway is a sprig of fresh mistletoe. Rumor has it that it’s a Chalphy tradition for two people to share a kiss if they are caught under it together. You wouldn’t deny the tradition of your hosts, would you?
The girl reminds her of herself, meek and withdrawn. She would never survive Rigel’s harsh winters. A voice in her head echoes and maybe that is why Rinea chooses to take pity on the girl. An act of kindness. As you once did.
Footsteps sweep the floor towards her nearly soundless. “...Hello,” she greets, unsure of what else to say now that she is before her. Glassy eyes scan her features, conventionally attractive, but nothing that might paint her as exceptional or odd in Rinea’s own case. For a moment, she feels a twinge of envy stir in her stomach, to be able to slip in and out of crowds with ease. Though her footsteps are light, there is hardly anything that could conceal her from the disparaging gaze she has always found herself under.
Eyes gaze upward toward the holly branch that she is now aware of, then back to the girl’s own. “You may find yourself in trouble standing underneath this.”
Rinea takes the other’s wrist and removes her flower clips with the other hand, pausing. She presses a brief kiss to her knuckles and pins the flower in the side of her hair instead.
“...Here. You may keep it, you’ll find yourself more… confident with your hair out of your eyes. Though,” the barest of smiles tugs at the corner of her lips, “you seem to have enough of that already if you are standing here.”
She’d finally caught a moment alone, lingering in a doorway near the exit of the building. The company of the night had been wonderful, and truly lifted her spirits, but the tactician cannot recall a time she’d ever spoken that much in one night. Now, she leans against the doorframe, fighting the urge to lift her hood. Instead, as her gaze travels down, her bangs settle in her eyes. Her smile drops, despite the warm feeling in her chest, and her hand finds its way back to the end of her belt to play with it.
A soft greeting, mirroring her own voice, calls to Mark, and her eyes dart up to study the stranger. Her breath catches for a moment, at the woman’s beauty in front of her, but there’s something… off about her, that she can’t quite place.
Her gaze follows the stranger’s up, to the - oh. Mistletoe.
“I- didn’t see it…” Her eyes dart back down to the stranger’s. “I… we don’t have to kiss, if you don’t want to…”
But the woman reaches to take her hand, and delicately unpins a flower shaped clip from her hair. She gently kisses Mark’s hand, then pins her bangs out of her eyes with the hairclip. The thought of her feeling… pretty flushes her cheeks.
“Are you sure I can keep these?” Her hand - not the one the woman had kissed, but the other - reaches up to brush them. Her lips mirror the woman’s smile, and she tilts her head to let the clip catch the dim light. “I think I should move away from this door, before I get caught by someone else.” She gives a small bow. “Thank you!”
